[Freddy]

Playing some more with render settings and natural lighting.  This is similar to that one I did using Daz Studio, same model too.  I think Poser 8 has the edge and this is an early attempt from me, there's much more to learn.

[Bragi]

That's rather impressive. Did you draw the girl yourself?

[Art]

One does not draw characters in Poser as it is a 3D based program. One uses various character bases or base figures then positions them, applies textures to the geometry (skin coated), adds props and various lighting. A final render is then made of the character(s).

For more:
http://poser.smithmicro.com/poser.html

[Freddy]

Yes as Art says the figure itself is already made.  I have trouble drawing a stick man when it comes to anatomy, although I like to think I do have some artistic skills.  Poser is perfect for people who are not great at drawing but want to still have a go at creating something artistic.  Although having said that there is a completely new skill set required if you want to try and get close to photorealism which is occupying me at the moment.  You can of course forget about that too and be happy without photorealism.

So far I have found a lot of the skill in this comes from understanding how render settings (the way the image is constructed in terms of light, shadow and texture etc) work and how best to use them to create the image you want.  Lighting is very tricky sometimes and it can take a long time for me to be fairly satisfied.

There are some more traditional artistic skills too though, like the texture work (sometimes computed, sometimes from an image map of say human skin or materials) and composition and framing is important too for a nice end result.

For me at the moment it has been all about the lighting, I will try to get more artistic at a later stage !

I think my best interpretation of things like this is that it falls somewhere between photography and traditional painting.

One day I hope we can use these kinds of characters to make an avatar for some AI program, but the trouble at the moment is that this type of things takes a lot of time.  For example I think that image above took about 20 minutes to render.  So if you want 30 fps animations we need a big leap in processing power 

[GT40]

Really nice result with this girl, Freddy. I hope we will have the rest soon.

I like this girl from Daz3D too:

http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/popup/swf?item=4783&num=2&h=675&_m=d

Oh yes, maybe because she costs $0.00.

[Duskrider]

Like the skin tones.
Like matie background too, gives nice contrast.   

[Maviarab]

Very nice Freddy,

Started a new work today for a friend....so will post the finished article once its done, it will be heavily marked though, as its a one off for somone special

[Freddy]

Thanks folks, it's always nice to know when I am going in the right direction 

Mav, not sure what you mean by 'heavily marked' but would love to see it

GT40 said : Oh yes, maybe because she costs $0.00.

Absolutely, you can do a lot of things for free, but I have found I needed to invest in a few things to do some of the work I am doing.  It doesn't need to be an expensive hobby by any means though, which is nice

[Art]

Freddy,

While offering an explanation to bragi I neglected to comment on your latest work. Nicely done so far and I hope to encourage you in continuing your efforts and experiments in lighting.

Some purists from my old days of 3D used to comment on how many lights they would use to render a scene (and their number was surprising). Some used a minimum of 6 with a lot using more than 12 individual lights in a scene. Some with different color as well as intensity / brightness.

As for the 30 fps rendering, there are lots of "Rendering Farms" that use multiple paralleled computers to handle an individual rendering task. The output is all compiled for a finished product. I think of the Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children. Even though the movie was made several years ago the graphics were still pretty good for 3D character rendering.

With the future of computer graphics we will most likely see 3D characters that will be indistinguishable from real people. It's sure to save money on demanding, egotistical actors as well! 

So keep up the good work Freddy...it will get better with each render!!

 

[Freddy]

Thanks Art

Yes I am learning a lot about lights.  When I was using Daz Studio I also had any number of lights in the scene.  Originally I had obtained pre made light sets, but in no time I found myself tweaking them to how I like.  Daz also had a nice feature called UberEnvironment that would give a render a more realistic look.

With Poser 8 they have introduced IDL (Indirect lighting) and sometimes you don't even need a light.  I've been using things called GI Domes (Global Illumination) and all the light rays (as far as I have learnt) are generated by the dome - which can be pure white, coloured or even an image of a sky.  With skies I found I did need to include extra lights as they don't light the scene as brightly as a pure white dome.

You can still get some nice effects with regular lighting though, for example studio type shots and I have been experimenting with them too.  So much to learn !

I have read about people using render farms, one person I came across had three 64 bit and two 32 bit machines working for them.  I just don't have that kind of money to invest, but I am toying with upgrading to Poser Pro 2010 to get full 64 bit rendering.  I don't know though, I kind of think I can wait the extra minutes, but at the same time to get the kind of image like above it's twenty minutes and thats for a simple scene with not a lot in it.  Hmmm decisions, decisions...

I will keep up the work, no problem  

[Bragi]

One does not draw characters in Poser as it is a 3D based program. One uses various character bases or base figures then positions them, applies textures to the geometry (skin coated), adds props and various lighting. A final render is then made of the character(s).

My bad, perhaps 'design' was a better word. It think you already tried to explain this to me once.
Anyway, I think it's a pretty cool application, given the results.  Maybe one day, we can simply tell a story to the pc and presto, a film comes out. Now that would be cool, and a bit more in tune with my level of skill

[Freddy]

Yeah I think design might be closer...  I have tried to design my own models from scratch but I was not happy with the results.  With this particular figure you can apply a set of morphs that cover the entire body, so you can generate any number of unique looking characters if you have the patience.  That's something for me to try later..

[Art]

Freddy,

The beauty of the Render Farms is that you don't own all the needed computers...you rent the time or project rendering time on them.

Some of these "farms" might have 30, 50, 100 or more computers and each one will render a portion of your production then it will be put together for a final.

One could compare it to a crew of 6 men working on building a wooden form.

One man works at building it all day = 8 man hours.
6 man crew works all day = 48 man hours (and form is completed).

Now imagine your 20 minute render on one computer, then on 100. Soon you'd have enough for a short or pilot film.

I also think the farms have become more competitive in pricing, especially for larger projects.

The strength really is in the numbers.

[Freddy]

Ahhh Thanks for the explanation Art 

[Maviarab]

Snippet from my latest....

Until she gives me the go ahead to post the full thing this is all ya getting