Learning Dark Arts

Come learn the art of 3D computer generated art and animation. This blog deals with the lessons learned and the art created by Robert G. Male using DazStudio from Daz3D. Also covered are the ancillary software, tools, techniques, and processes needed both before and after rending in the 3D software.

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August 23, 2010

The Other Side of the Mirror

I've talked about reflections recently. I covered lighting conditions on either side of the mirror in the figurative sense. Recently I went into detail about postproduction using two different renders. These work for reflections created by the render engine as well as the two-camera method--the other looking out from the reflective surface into the scene from the other direction. Another method briefly mentioned was recreating the scene, but turned 180 degrees, and put on the other side of the mirror. The Killing Time - Horror E-Rag Issue 1-1 back cover (and consequently 1-2 front cover) illustrates this double mirrored scene. There is a twist in this image of course. The mirror figure is not identical because it is a doppelganger in a mirror dimension. I decided to talk about this image to illustrate a couple other factors necessary, or possible, in creating such scenes.

First up is how do you create what is essentially a window to be the mirror through which the reflection is seen? It's a sad fact that this is not as easy as it sounds. The textures for walls in settings and scenes are created as a large image map and different parts of the map are fitted to their respective surfaces. I could have created a transparency map using the texture map to make part of the wall transparent. Instead I used four plane primitives to create the wall with an opening. I applied a section of the texture map to those planes, which runs into scaling factor. The texture has to be the right size visually and the planes large enough at the same time. That done a fifth plane becomes the mirror. It is plain white and requires no external transparency map, just an amount of transparency. This actually removes some of the lighting needs to make the other side look like a reflection.

Music: Over And Out by Mourning Widows.

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August 9, 2010

Postproduction and the Lighting Wish

I do not know about anyone else creating art with Daz3D and other similar programs, but I do a lot of post-production work in my images. There are things I see even while putting together the initial parts of the image that I know I will want to change after the fact. Most of them cannot be changed in the render, and others are just easier to tweak later. A lot of the time I will use PaintShop's clone brush, or cut and paste, to replace bits of clothes or figures with parts of the background. Even more frequently than that I render scenes twice: once with some parts invisible. What may be not visible in one version could be clothes so I make items or body parts transparent so that clothes fit without rescaling or bulging them--but parts of the limb need to extend past the clothes. Other times lights are turned off so that different parts have different amounts or colours of lights.

When creating covers, some of the issues with a render can be hidden behind titles or other graphics layered over the image. This can make the post-production work a lot easier, but it requires thinking about where those overlays will be and angling your camera to put the part to be hidden behind them.

One of the functions I would love to see in DazStudio is a switch to turn off lights affecting an object. This would work just like turning shadows on or off. When rendering the scene the software would essentially render two different ways, parts with the lights on as usual, and other parts with the specified objects rendered as if the default lighting scheme/unlighted scheme was in effect--like it renders before you add lights. I can meld images such as overlaying a foreground over a background to work with two lighting schemes, but making the transparency/cut-out overlay is a tonne of work when there are a lot of scattered differences.

Music: Broken by Bruce Dickinson.

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Robert G. Male

Name: Robert G. Male
Location: Ontario, Canada

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Suggested Reading:

This scary book

available at Battered Spleen Productions™.


Suggested Listening:

This free scary audio book

available at Battered Spleen Productions™.



Learning Dark Arts is a presentation of

Battered Spleen Productions™