Non-photorealistic Renders (NPR)

Knittingmommy

head wax said:

Thanks for labelling these filters. That really helps.  I liked the middle image the best. 

 

 

Knittingmommy said:

I was doing an experiment in Iray and tone mapping.  I liked the results I got.  What surprised me was what it looked like after I was done with a couple of Filter Forge filters.  I really how they turned out.  I was surprised that I could still get some bold colors since I started out with a heavily desaturated image.

Original:
 

Mixed Media Illustrator:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks.  I try to remember to name the filters just in case anyone likes what they see wants to go hunt them down.  I'm glad you liked it.

I like your skeleton image.  The relections in the water look great with that Fresnel thing.

@Bunyip02  I like the last one.  Looks very nice.

I played with Cookie a bit this evening using the Sketchy Iray Shaders.

philebus

head wax said:

Here's a derivative of an image I made for the presnt Carrara challenge. It makes heavy use of a Fresnel effect to get a little glow. Without the fresnel everything blended into one even more.

The Fresnel is an add on by shoestring shaders

 

Wow! Again, this is fantastic work - and not just the use of shaders. Like the previous picture, your composition is what makes them work. There are some great touches here, such as the skull in the water with its reflection and altogether it is genuinely eerie. This could be a illustration plate from an old collection of ghost stories.

philebus

Finished one more last night. I'm raiding some older bits of my runtime since finding the chariot and found David 3 with a nice bard's outfit. The sparrow comes from a Songbird Remix pack.

Knittingmommy

@philebus  I really like all of the tarot cards you've been doing.  They look great.  I used to love doing tarot readings.  I still have my old deck.  I think you've inspired me to possibly try making my own deck soon.  Did you create your own template for the card and frame or is that one you downloaded from somewhere?

philebus

Knittingmommy said:

@philebus  I really like all of the tarot cards you've been doing.  They look great.  I used to love doing tarot readings.  I still have my old deck.  I think you've inspired me to possibly try making my own deck soon.  Did you create your own template for the card and frame or is that one you downloaded from somewhere?

Hi,

The frame is something I made (though I added a black boarder for this post only to show the shape of the card) over a template provided at the Make Playing Cards website for their printing service. There are lots of ways to go about making a frame though. You could either use a vector program, such as Inkscape, or or draw shapes in GIMP/PhotoShop to use as a layer mask. It's probably a good idea to to at least a rough version of the frame early in the project, so that you can plan to fit your images - at least I felt this was important in my case as I wanted corner indeces for game play (I started by checking to see what the longest text I would need - both as titles and Roman Numerals - and ensuring that the indeces had enough space for them)..

Knittingmommy

philebus said:

Knittingmommy said:

@philebus  I really like all of the tarot cards you've been doing.  They look great.  I used to love doing tarot readings.  I still have my old deck.  I think you've inspired me to possibly try making my own deck soon.  Did you create your own template for the card and frame or is that one you downloaded from somewhere?

Hi,

The frame is something I made (though I added a black boarder for this post only to show the shape of the card) over a template provided at the Make Playing Cards website for their printing service. There are lots of ways to go about making a frame though. You could either use a vector program, such as Inkscape, or or draw shapes in GIMP/PhotoShop to use as a layer mask. It's probably a good idea to to at least a rough version of the frame early in the project, so that you can plan to fit your images - at least I felt this was important in my case as I wanted corner indeces for game play (I started by checking to see what the longest text I would need - both as titles and Roman Numerals - and ensuring that the indeces had enough space for them)..

Thanks for the tips.  I'll keep that in mind.  I took a look at the card site and I was surprised at how low their prices are.  It's an interesting site, thanks for the link.  :)

Headwax

Wow! Again, this is fantastic work - and not just the use of shaders. Like the previous picture, your composition is what makes them work. There are some great touches here, such as the skull in the water with its reflection and altogether it is genuinely eerie. This could be a illustration plate from an old collection of ghost stories.

@Knittingmommy Thanks and Happy Easter :)

@philebus Thanks again , that's very kind. Yes I have some dark illustrations stuck in my head from when I was a little kid I think.

The water colour effect on your cards is very convincing. It's a big job doing the Tarot deck - it's good to see you doing justice.

It will be interesting to see if your style changes subtley over the whole deck. 

 

Headwax

Today's Carrara effort after looking at NC Wyeth's work and Howard Pyle's as well.

Not happy with the right leg and the fact that his teeth are too many and too clean.

Used Topaz's filters amongst other things.

Thanks for the heads up on the Topaz stuff and the discount.

 

Artini

Greeble City Blocks 3 DS iray render with Topaz Clean applied.

https://www.daz3d.com/greeble-city-blocks-03

philebus

head wax said:

Today's Carrara effort after looking at NC Wyeth's work and Howard Pyle's as well.

Not happy with the right leg and the fact that his teeth are too many and too clean.

Used Topaz's filters amongst other things.

Thanks for the heads up on the Topaz stuff and the discount.

I really love the results you're getting with Carrara. I think that I may have some of the shaders from way back but haven't used the program for far too long - I'd really like to try and give it another go now though. I remember having a number of buggy problems with Version 8 and haven't used it since but did recently pick up 8.5, so all being well, those bugs may have been solved in that.

philebus

Two more cards. I had to fight to get VI to work though - somehow, it just didn't seem to want to come together. In anycase, I suspect the reference might be a little obscure but it amused me, so I think I will keep with if I redo the card later.

Artini

PS-SYRi rendered in DS and Topaz Simplify applied afterwards. https://www.daz3d.com/ps-syri-for-v4

Headwax

Artini said:

Greeble City Blocks 3 DS iray render with Topaz Clean applied.

https://www.daz3d.com/greeble-city-blocks-03

LOve how clean this is. I bought Topaz Simplify and Impression - I better read the directions i guess. :)

 

Headwax

philebus said:

head wax said:

Today's Carrara effort after looking at NC Wyeth's work and Howard Pyle's as well.

Not happy with the right leg and the fact that his teeth are too many and too clean.

Used Topaz's filters amongst other things.

Thanks for the heads up on the Topaz stuff and the discount.

I really love the results you're getting with Carrara. I think that I may have some of the shaders from way back but haven't used the program for far too long - I'd really like to try and give it another go now though. I remember having a number of buggy problems with Version 8 and haven't used it since but did recently pick up 8.5, so all being well, those bugs may have been solved in that.

 

Hya thanks! :) I just moved on from 8.1 to 8.5 - the 8.1 I was using was pretty bug free, but I think it's whatever 8.1 version you have

The big advantage of Carrara is that you can render all those differnt passes - so it's a postworkers' paradise.

Also for this work you can mostly use simple lighting - so it's very quick.

 

Headwax

philebus said:

Two more cards. I had to fight to get VI to work though - somehow, it just didn't seem to want to come together. In anycase, I suspect the reference might be a little obscure but it amused me, so I think I will keep with if I redo the card later.

 

this one is close to my favourite so far. The pose and composition is so well balanced. Plus it looks very painterly, but no too painterly A hard balance to achieve.

 

Headwax

Here's another Carrara job after studying NC Wyeth a bit more. Still a long way to go byt getting there perhaps?

The clouds are photographs of clouds jammed together then put through a few bits of software to get that 'look'.

There's a halo around him which is an accident - result of trying to blur his edges.

 

 

 

mmitchell_houston

head wax said:

Here's another Carrara job after studying NC Wyeth a bit more. Still a long way to go byt getting there perhaps?

The clouds are photographs of clouds jammed together then put through a few bits of software to get that 'look'.

There's a halo around him which is an accident - result of trying to blur his edges.

I'm a fan of NC Wyeth, and I've been meaning to talk about your work for a few days (but got busy on my own stuff). I am very impressed with what you have accomplished so far, and I definitely think you are getting closer, but I think you need more visible brush strokes to nail the look completely.  I would also suggest just a tad more expression to the body language. Wyeth's figures were a bit stiff sometimes, but there's a little more energy in his work than I'm seeing here. But don't be discouraged -- these are definitely on the right track (especially after you fix that halo).

mmitchell_houston

head wax said:

Today's Carrara effort after looking at NC Wyeth's work and Howard Pyle's as well.

Not happy with the right leg and the fact that his teeth are too many and too clean.

Used Topaz's filters amongst other things.

Thanks for the heads up on the Topaz stuff and the discount.

 

I definitely like what you're doing here. Very strong, and definitely has a painterly feel to it. I like the expression and pose, and really like the dark, blurry "ground" beneath him. The only thing I don't like is the cape – it just doesn't look right the way it's hemline follows the line of his right arm so closely. To better "see" the image, the edge of the cloak should be up higher or down lower. Right now, it's creating an odd color-blocking effect that I don't really like. Of course, this is just my opinion; your work is very solid, so I'm digging deep trying to find suggestions that might prove helpful. Keep up the good work – you're almost there.

mmitchell_houston

Any thoughts on a favorite version of this character sketch (he's for an upcoming project, and yes, it will print in b&w, so I'm not going to add any pops of color to this one). As usual, this is a modified M4 figure in Poser 11 created by layering different renders created with the Live Comic Book Preview. Post work in PS and Manga Studio 5.

< 1. Simple Line Tone < 2. Lines + Wash
 

< 3. Sketchy + Wash < 4. Double Wash

Headwax

mmitchell_houston said:

head wax said:

Today's Carrara effort after looking at NC Wyeth's work and Howard Pyle's as well.

Not happy with the right leg and the fact that his teeth are too many and too clean.

Used Topaz's filters amongst other things.

Thanks for the heads up on the Topaz stuff and the discount.

 

I definitely like what you're doing here. Very strong, and definitely has a painterly feel to it. I like the expression and pose, and really like the dark, blurry "ground" beneath him. The only thing I don't like is the cape – it just doesn't look right the way it's hemline follows the line of his right arm so closely. To better "see" the image, the edge of the cloak should be up higher or down lower. Right now, it's creating an odd color-blocking effect that I don't really like. Of course, this is just my opinion; your work is very solid, so I'm digging deep trying to find suggestions that might prove helpful. Keep up the good work – you're almost there.

 

Thanks for that :) Ah I havent seen a real Wyeth yet, but yes I was reading about his brushtrokes. Thanks for pointing that out! I have no idea how to emulate them though - unless I do it in Artrage or Corel Painter. There's a new version of Rebelle coming out which has depth in the strokes as well.

Forr your work I am leaning towards the 2: Lines and Wash. I think it gives a little bit more dimension while keeping the cartoon look? Poser is a good program. I wish I had  time to learn it !

 

Artini

head wax said:

Artini said:

Greeble City Blocks 3 DS iray render with Topaz Clean applied.

https://www.daz3d.com/greeble-city-blocks-03

...

LOve how clean this is. I bought Topaz Simplify and Impression - I better read the directions i guess. :)

 

Thanks. I really like the look after applying Topaz Clean - will have to experiment more.

 

philebus

mmitchell_houston said:

Any thoughts on a favorite version of this character sketch (he's for an upcoming project, and yes, it will print in b&w, so I'm not going to add any pops of color to this one). As usual, this is a modified M4 figure in Poser 11 created by layering different renders created with the Live Comic Book Preview. Post work in PS and Manga Studio 5.

< 1. Simple Line Tone < 2. Lines + Wash
 

< 3. Sketchy + Wash < 4. Double Wash

Tricky. I probably waver toward Sketchy + Wash but I think I'm going to go with Simple Line Tone, as it gells a little better with the font to my eye.

3dOutlaw

Artini said:

head wax said:

Artini said:

Greeble City Blocks 3 DS iray render with Topaz Clean applied.

https://www.daz3d.com/greeble-city-blocks-03

LOve how clean this is. I bought Topaz Simplify and Impression - I better read the directions i guess. :)

Thanks. I really like the look after applying Topaz Clean - will have to experiment more.

I agree, I like how this looks!  Added to my things to try 

On a side note, I found that Topaz Filters seem to work fine (I run Simplify) using Paint.Net (free image editor) using the 8bf Plugin.  It is not listed on the Topaz Labs site list of supported host editors, but it works for me without issue.

Also, as a reminder for anyone considering buying one, make sure to PM any of us who already have them, as they have a program:  "Each friend you invite gets $20 free credit.  You get $20 credit the first time a friend buys"

mmitchell_houston

philebus said:

mmitchell_houston said:

Any thoughts on a favorite version of this character sketch (he's for an upcoming project, and yes, it will print in b&w, so I'm not going to add any pops of color to this one). As usual, this is a modified M4 figure in Poser 11 created by layering different renders created with the Live Comic Book Preview. Post work in PS and Manga Studio 5.

< 1. Simple Line Tone < 2. Lines + Wash   < 3. Sketchy + Wash < 4. Double Wash

Tricky. I probably waver toward Sketchy + Wash but I think I'm going to go with Simple Line Tone, as it gells a little better with the font to my eye.

Thanks VERY much! I'm also leaning toward Sketchy + Wash, but I might give it another shot because I'm not loving the sketched lines at this moment. I may need to make a few sequential art pages to see what I think in the long run.

david_macrae

@mmitchell_houston definitely Sketchy wash. It has a nice inked feel which I think will look good in print.

mmitchell_houston

david_macrae said:

@mmitchell_houston definitely Sketchy wash. It has a nice inked feel which I think will look good in print.

Thanks! I'm going to take another stab at the Sketchy technique and see what I can do with another pose on the same character.

Headwax

Another Carrara job. Wendy and Peter Pan.  There's a more complete Peter Pan here and also Captain Hook - don't want to clog up this thread https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/2348381/#Comment_2348381

 

Artini

Kheiron centaur render with Topaz Clean applied in post.

https://www.daz3d.com/fwsa-kheiron-hd-for-genesis-3-male

Artini

The render with Kheiron centaur as above oil auto painted in Corel Painter Essentials 5

Artini

One more variation from Corel Painter Essentials - Colored pencil