HOME | DD

Description

Throughout the time we all spend creating tweaking and rendering our work, we all learn a few things.

I am far from the best 3D artist, by a long shot, The fact is I am still learning. But if I can provide some information to someone

who is still learning like myself, then this journal entry is not for naught.

So here are some of the things I've learnt;

Eyes;

          You have to pay attention to these, otherwise if you are not careful they look like a deer caught in headlights.

        I found that closing the eyelids top and bottom a little relaxes the eyes and they no longer have that stunned look.

        I also realized that if you use the close eyes slider in Daz, one eye always seems to look weird.

        So, I now always lift the lower eyelids and lower the upper to meet just below halfway, they don't look quite so weird.

Smiles;

        I have a personal hate for the smile sliders. Daz seems to have real issues with making a character smile.

        I've tried to make models smile a lot and most of the time I think OMG Sheldon Coopers forced smile.

        so now I use a combination of open mouth smile simple smile and open mouth smile sliders to get it as

          right as I can.

Hands;

        My issue with hands was always how far apart the number one bones were from each other. This is something I've

        seen in few other peoples work, so either they haven't noticed, or, they are not as concerned about it as I am.

        So, when I create my pieces now I try to remember to close the metacarpals up so that the fingers are more

          side by side, instead of having a canyon between them.

        Using the hands to hold things. Find something similar in the real world and hold it, and if you need to, take a photo

        showing how your hand looks holding it, then duplicate it as best you can.

        Get vein morphs so that the veins stand up a little on the hands for realism.

Feet;

        I used to have real problems being happy with what the feet look like, and to be honest, I still have issues.

          It's probably no surprise to most of you that I like feet, so this feature is important for me to try and get right.

        This won't mean that you will see updates of my old work. I feel it is important for viewers to see the progression

          of my work, and how I feel it has improved, since I started. So if you don't have the morphs to make a foot look like

          it is flat on the floor spread the toes out a little till the feet look as if they are bearing the weight of their owner.

        Also, like the hands, veins add for realism.

Shoes;

        It goes without saying that as I like feet, I also like shoes as well. Looking through the galleries of artists I've

          come across an issue that I think some artists are overlooking.

        High heels: I'm sure the majority of us have put a pair of high heeled shoes on our feet at some stage or another.

        whether it is because you like to wear them, or for a dare or to see whether you can walk in them, or for fancy dress,

        or in my case a 21st Birthday where the daughter says, I would like a Rocky Horror themed party, Oh Dad, you are

        going to be Frank n Furter.

        So, have you ever tried to point your toes while wearing high heels? it's impossible. There are a surprising amount of

        images coming through where this has been overlooked, and the feet have been allowed to have pointed toes, which

          in turn has straightened the toes of the shoes out. for about 3 weeks I was practicing drawing and without realizing

        Until I really looked at my work, to decide whether or not to put it up on DA, when I came the issue. Needless to say

        I make sure that the toes and toes of the shoes look right.

Hovering;

        I found a little shortcut (ctrl+D). until I found that I either have hovering characters/props, where they shouldn't have

          been hovering, or I would spend ages with the Y Translate slider moving the characters/props until they appears to be

          on the ground. But then I noticed that even when the character was on the ground, after rendering, they often

        appeared to hover ever-so-slightly above. so I decided that sometimes you need to lower then into the ground slightly.

        This cleared that issue for me. But, even when using the shortcut mentioned, which drops the selected item to the ground,

        I still needed to lower them slightly into the ground surface.

Meshlights;

        Thank you Renderfem , for informing me about Meshlights. I love them, the light is so much better than what I was using

          which was a combination of spotlights, point lights and distant lights. If you are doing portrait work, find the 'Ring'

          meshlight and scale it down, then move it to just behind the lens of the camera you are using and make sure it is facing

        your subject. then increase the intensity of the luminance to about 2000, maybe 3000 but no more, (at least that's what

          I have found), and when you render you get that lovely ring in the eye of your subject.

        You can put meshlights as close to you model as you like then just turn them off in the render. they still produce

          the light you want but can't be seen.

HDRI;

        Thank you to all of you that told me to start using HDRI backgrounds. An excellent way of lighting your subject all by itself.

        If you don't use them yet, I strongly recommend you start. A good source for free ones is hdrihaven.com/

        There are other free sources out there, as well as pay for.



I know most of you will know this already. But if I only help one person, then that's Okay by me.

Thanks for taking the time to read this journal.

Tell us about the things you found helped you create your pieces.

Waffle over.

Steve

AKA Steves-3D

:) (Smile) — Description

Throughout the time we all spend creating tweaking and rendering our work, we all learn a few things.

I am far from the best 3D artist, by a long shot, The fact is I am still learning. But if I can provide some information to someone

who is still learning like myself, then this journal entry is not for naught.

So here are some of the things I've learnt;

Eyes;

          You have to pay attention to these, otherwise if you are not careful they look like a deer caught in headlights.

        I found that closing the eyelids top and bottom a little relaxes the eyes and they no longer have that stunned look.

        I also realized that if you use the close eyes slider in Daz, one eye always seems to look weird.

        So, I now always lift the lower eyelids and lower the upper to meet just below halfway, they don't look quite so weird.

Smiles;

        I have a personal hate for the smile sliders. Daz seems to have real issues with making a character smile.

        I've tried to make models smile a lot and most of the time I think OMG Sheldon Coopers forced smile.

        so now I use a combination of open mouth smile simple smile and open mouth smile sliders to get it as

          right as I can.

Hands;

        My issue with hands was always how far apart the number one bones were from each other. This is something I've

        seen in few other peoples work, so either they haven't noticed, or, they are not as concerned about it as I am.

        So, when I create my pieces now I try to remember to close the metacarpals up so that the fingers are more

          side by side, instead of having a canyon between them.

        Using the hands to hold things. Find something similar in the real world and hold it, and if you need to, take a photo

        showing how your hand looks holding it, then duplicate it as best you can.

        Get vein morphs so that the veins stand up a little on the hands for realism.

Feet;

        I used to have real problems being happy with what the feet look like, and to be honest, I still have issues.

          It's probably no surprise to most of you that I like feet, so this feature is important for me to try and get right.

        This won't mean that you will see updates of my old work. I feel it is important for viewers to see the progression

          of my work, and how I feel it has improved, since I started. So if you don't have the morphs to make a foot look like

          it is flat on the floor spread the toes out a little till the feet look as if they are bearing the weight of their owner.

        Also, like the hands, veins add for realism.

Shoes;

        It goes without saying that as I like feet, I also like shoes as well. Looking through the galleries of artists I've

          come across an issue that I think some artists are overlooking.

        High heels: I'm sure the majority of us have put a pair of high heeled shoes on our feet at some stage or another.

        whether it is because you like to wear them, or for a dare or to see whether you can walk in them, or for fancy dress,

        or in my case a 21st Birthday where the daughter says, I would like a Rocky Horror themed party, Oh Dad, you are

        going to be Frank n Furter.

        So, have you ever tried to point your toes while wearing high heels? it's impossible. There are a surprising amount of

        images coming through where this has been overlooked, and the feet have been allowed to have pointed toes, which

          in turn has straightened the toes of the shoes out. for about 3 weeks I was practicing drawing and without realizing

        Until I really looked at my work, to decide whether or not to put it up on DA, when I came the issue. Needless to say

        I make sure that the toes and toes of the shoes look right.

Hovering;

        I found a little shortcut (ctrl+D). until I found that I either have hovering characters/props, where they shouldn't have

          been hovering, or I would spend ages with the Y Translate slider moving the characters/props until they appears to be

          on the ground. But then I noticed that even when the character was on the ground, after rendering, they often

        appeared to hover ever-so-slightly above. so I decided that sometimes you need to lower then into the ground slightly.

        This cleared that issue for me. But, even when using the shortcut mentioned, which drops the selected item to the ground,

        I still needed to lower them slightly into the ground surface.

Meshlights;

        Thank you Renderfem , for informing me about Meshlights. I love them, the light is so much better than what I was using

          which was a combination of spotlights, point lights and distant lights. If you are doing portrait work, find the 'Ring'

          meshlight and scale it down, then move it to just behind the lens of the camera you are using and make sure it is facing

        your subject. then increase the intensity of the luminance to about 2000, maybe 3000 but no more, (at least that's what

          I have found), and when you render you get that lovely ring in the eye of your subject.

        You can put meshlights as close to you model as you like then just turn them off in the render. they still produce

          the light you want but can't be seen.

HDRI;

        Thank you to all of you that told me to start using HDRI backgrounds. An excellent way of lighting your subject all by itself.

        If you don't use them yet, I strongly recommend you start. A good source for free ones is hdrihaven.com/

        There are other free sources out there, as well as pay for.



I know most of you will know this already. But if I only help one person, then that's Okay by me.

Thanks for taking the time to read this journal.

Tell us about the things you found helped you create your pieces.

Waffle over.

Steve

AKA Steves-3D