3D rendered art using DAZ Studio

[Michael K. Eidson]

I've been in the 3D rendering hobby since the mid-80s. I may finally be getting halfway decent. Here's my latest render. I'm sure a real artist could tell me what needs changing, but as I said, it's only a hobby for me. When I attempt a piece of art I'm serious about using to some purpose or submitting to a contest, I always have to ask others for advice. My wife helps with that, since she's the real artist in the family. This piece of art is all my own.

 

[FifthView]

She really pops out great! I like the lighting on her especially.

I use Daz Studio to create character models, mostly for plugging into my character folders in Scrivener, and sometimes mock-ups of scenes. I've been working with Daz for only a couple or so years, strictly a hobbyist, although I find it to be addictive sometimes.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

This looks awesome. I do wonder how cold she is given the landscape and lack of sunlight. The hair hanging down in front of her face is an excellent touch. When add to the eyes gives her a loo of very reflective thought.

 

[ascanius]

Some thoughts. The background made me think she was on Mars at night, or space. Upon closer inspection I noticed that there is a lake behind her. The very sharp contrast between the night sky and the rocks makes it seem that there is no atmosphere, there needs to be a gradual change. Two the lighting doesn't make sense, you have the moon in the background bring lot from the bottom right, she is being lit from the front and the rocks are lit from above...Left? There is no focus is another problem. How does your eye move around the picture? For me it moves all over the place without any clear intention. Usually the eyes are the focal point.

The big problem that holds this back is composition, your render and materials are very nice but the foundation to really make this powerful is missing. You did a great job with the emotional expression on her face, she seems to be faced with a perturbing decision. That needs to be what draws the viewers eye, don't hide it!

One other thing, you have a lot of cool colors with very little balance of warm, try lighting her with a light red to pull her from the background

Check out three point lighting and understand how key, fill, and rim lights work.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Thanks for the comments, all.

I usually only do character portraits with plain or abstract backgrounds. I occasionally go outside my comfort zone, as I did here. I do know about three-point lighting, and seven-point lighting, and one-point lighting, and HDRI lighting, and try to mix it up rather than going with one method every time. I don't always go for realism, as that's not who I am. I like the strange.

In the DAZ scene for this image, I tried adding haze for atmosphere. But I also kept the shutter open longer than usual, which helped pop the character but also penetrated the haze and created the stark contrast with the night sky. When I made the haze stronger, it blocked sight of the moon and stars completely. I couldn't find a middle ground. I might have kept trying different things, but my time limit was up.

I restrict all my 3D rendering projects to a single night, so whatever state it's in when I'm heading for bed, that's as far as I go with it, unless I'm entering a contest or doing something else important. When it's just for fun, I do whatever I do, I usually post it (somewhere) for people to see, and some will like it, some won't, but I'm sharing, and I learn from reading the comments. I appreciate all feedback.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

The below image is more typical of the type of images I usually render with DAZ Studio, except that I usually include clothing. This image struck me as one in which clothing seemed to detract, so I left them off.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

The below image is more typical of the type of images I usually render with DAZ Studio, except that I usually include clothing. This image struck me as one in which clothing seemed to detract, so I left them off.

Very cool! She could do with some bracelets of turquoise beads just the first thing I thought of

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

^^^ Jewelry probably would have enhanced this image, I agree. I don't always think about jewelry. Thanks for the pointer. It will help me to think about it next time.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Need to think about the current scene in my WIP, so I rendered some art in the meantime. I picked some models at random and threw them into a scene. Here's the result:

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Another one...

 

[Writer]

Very professional and life like. You do this as a service as well or only as a hobby?

 

[neodoering]

This is an accomplished piece of art. I don't know the professional terminology for 3D artwork, but the girl's face is quite lifelike. Her torso could use some work; she just sort of disappears from the boobs down, and I think some colorful clothing on her midriff would be a nice break from the rather somber colors of the overall composition. Just my two cents.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Very professional and life like. You do this as a service as well or only as a hobby?

Thanks for the compliment, @Writer. My art is only done as a hobby currently. I'm practicing for when I might want to do cover art for any books I might self-publish in the future. Since I'm not a professional artist, I'm not able to recreate a scene like I've seen some artists do, but I might be able to create something that would strike the right mood for a cover. I'm game to try. Pm me if you want to discuss possibilities.

I have the ability to add lettering to artwork if a piece were used as cover art. In the last piece I posted, you can see that I left a large area of the image relatively blank. That was because I envisioned this as a cover, even though I don't (yet) have the story to go with it. I practiced placing a title, byline, and tag line on the image, but opted not to post any of the images with said lettering. I might actually write the book that this piece of artwork would make a perfect cover for...

This is an accomplished piece of art. I don't know the professional terminology for 3D artwork, but the girl's face is quite lifelike. Her torso could use some work; she just sort of disappears from the boobs down, and I think some colorful clothing on her midriff would be a nice break from the rather somber colors of the overall composition. Just my two cents.

Thank you, @neodoering, for both the compliment and the feedback. As I mentioned above, I'm not a professional artist. Everything I've learned about art was learned the same way in which I learned about writing: Reading about the craft and practicing it. No classes from an accredited school on either subject. So I pick up things from comments people like you give me and I try out those that appeal to me in subsequent works. There's so much involved in trying to put together a scene in a 3D modeling program, with the biggest thing being the lighting. It's easy to overlook a detail here and there.

Also, if the artwork were to be used as cover art, I think that making the character from the torso down not stand out would help any lettering to stand out that is placed over her there.

Thanks again to both of you for your comments!

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

I've been wanting to do a piece of art like this for a while, with the picture in picture in picture. Finally did it.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Haven't posted any new artwork here in months, so I'm overdue. Here's my latest artistic endeavor, rendered using DAZ Studio. Hope you like it. I call this image "Eleanor, Daughter of Bast."

 

[Demesnedenoir]

As someone without the patience for Daz 3d (but who spent years fiddling on a world map with photshop, LOL) I like them. Good work.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

As someone without the patience for Daz 3d (but who spent years fiddling on a world map with photshop, LOL) I like them. Good work.

Thanks, Demesnedenoir. It has certainly taken a few years for me to reach this point, where I can produce something deserving to be called "art." I find the process of creating art sparks my creativity for writing, and vice versa. I enjoy both processes enough, I can't envision the day I'd ever want to give up either of them. If/when I produce art or fiction that others enjoy, that's a plus for me.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

Another new render. This one has a little dragon.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

A render of Locket, the heroine of my debut fantasy novel, in progress. Making this my new avatar for now.