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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Last week talking about the cover for Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™ Issue 1-1 I mentioned about the lamp in the picture. This lamp and much of the positioning of furniture was borrowed from a previous image that I was working on. The lamp has three lights in it in DazStudio. There is a point light to light up the interior of the lamp and acts like the light at the centre of the light bulb. There is a spot light pointing down which casts the shadow of the lower part of the lamp and lights up part of the floor beneath the lamp and cabinet it sits upon. What is not apparent in the Killing Time cover is that there is a third lamp pointing up from the lamp to cast light upon the wall. That third upward pointing light is the most difficult light to fix in the scene and I had yet to place it correctly.
When a lamp sits next to a wall the light falls on the wall above the lamp much brighter than beside the lamp. Due of the closeness of the opening in the top of the lamp to the wall the light on the wall is even brighter than that cast upon the cabinet. The light coming up out of the lamp hits the wall slightly above the lamp, centred on and as wide as the opening. To create the light emanating from this lamp with three Daz lights centred on the same spot, the spot where the light bulb would be in the lamp, should be the way to go. This is not the case however. From different angles the light changes in an unnatural way. As previously discussed in this blog verisimilitude is your friend here, not real world accuracy. This means changing the lights depending on where you point the camera.
The choice of image for the cover of Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™ Issue 1-1 was an easy one for me to make. I knew there was a story that mentions a woman in a devil costume for Halloween. I knew I had parts to create this woman and her outfit. I will admit this might not have been the first choice for the cover--there is also a story about a woman casting a spell that I already have created most of the image for, but it contains both disturbing imagery and nudity so it ended up falling by the wayside. Still, as can be noted from a quick look at the cover image I did create, there is still a risqué element to the picture. That is a line that I intentionally walk to tantalise without giving too much, both to whet the appetite and to avoid controversy to which I might have to concede.
There is something funny about the creation of this cover and what it displays that might rankle some viewers of the cover. The skirt that the figure is wearing does not properly conform to the figure. After much manipulating and fiddling it was apparent the skirt would not cover the thighs without showing a lot more of the panties and looking like the skirt was flipped up like a piece of cardboard. On a different note, one of the measures I took in composing this image was zooming in the camera to a certain closeness to best display the figure and then moving other items around to fit what would be the final size of the image used within the cover. One of the benefits of this was removing the need to affect how the light from lamp falls upon the wall above the lamp. I'll get into more about that next time.
Music: One Tin Soldier by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
This is the first blog entry about my magazine Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™. The natural place to start talking about the experience of creating art for the magazine is with the covers. It starts in DazStudio with the figure, the background, and the poses of each. There are two kinds of posing. One is obvious with the positioning of the limbs of the figure. The other is not quite so readily apparent, and is more about the composition of the shot, if we can look at the render as being an equivalent to a photograph that I have taken as opposed to being set designer, director, and lighting technician. This process is not different than creating any other rendered image, or photograph. What is different, or can be at any rate, is the focus of the image and the constraints involved.
Since this was the cover of a magazine other elements would be added to the image that otherwise would not exist there. Such elements include the header block with the magazine's title. There is also the UPC block for the ISBN and the issue number/information. Lastly are the article titles, which are there both to indicate what is included in the issue but also as a teaser to that content. Finally and less obtrusively, but just importantly, is the company logo at the bottom. These additional elements take up space on the cover and block parts of the image. These have to be compensated for during the composition of the image. It requires a bit of forethought. At the same time I did not layout the text elements to see where I could not place certain parts in the image.
As I said last week first I wanted to take a look back at 2009 and then take a look forward at what I hope to talk about in 2010. There are some ideas that I already plan to discuss this year. There are surely countless others that may come up this year and on into the future, but I won't know them until they come to me or I find the art, ideas, etc that elicit me to write. That is the nature of creativity and the nature of covering it. As usual sometimes I will write about something I want to do yet, sometimes it will be about what I've already done, and yet sometimes during the writing of one topic I will stumble upon something else I want to write about and create a piece of art based upon as well. I also hope to branch out a little bit this year and get into new and different ideas and medias.
Early on this year I intend to run a series of entries here revolving around the art I have created for my magazine. Some of it is creating covers, some of it interior art pieces, and some of it text art. I'd like to give insights into how to go from text to image in the sense of bringing story scenes to visual life, which is also a part of the magazine work. To buy issues or see the cover images go to the Battered Spleen Productions Store. Later on I want to talk about some videos that I made. Both of them involve DazStudio animations as well as static scenes--in the form of information screens that are almost like silent movie placards. I have also made the first steps in a little video tutorial about using bits of different renders of the same scene with different conditions involved.
This is the first time in the new year and new decade that I am posting here. Happy New Year. I thought that I would start off all of the blogs that I write with two special entries. The first is a look back at 2009. The second is a look forward at what I would like to cover in 2010. There was a fair bit of time off in 2009 on this blog leading to only a few topics that were covered. This number was lessened even more by some of them taking multiple parts while others were a series on a particular topic. There were a few that posed as simple heads ups that there would not be new entries. There was even an attempt at having guest bloggers. Of course that did not go over so well since I know a limited number of artists, at least ones that I was daring enough to approach with the idea.
The earliest entries took a look at creating custom eye maps using what I'd previously learned from mapping spheres into planets. The eyes led back to planets as I explored a way to create planetary revolutions and paths in space by connecting them to a human figure. Next were a couple weeks about photo stitching, which was furnished by Windows Live Gallery. Then I got into designing creatures and going from form to biological function and back. That led to revisiting role-playing game artists with some new faces. Then, out of the blue I popped out a rusted metal mesh tutorial. From there were discussions about strength in simplicity and strength in complexity. The year finished off with an interesting look at negative intensity lights to create darkness in a scene.
It was quite a ride. Next week I'll let you in on what's next to come.
Previously on Learning Dark Arts there was a discussion about inverted shadows in Daz3D titled "Come Over to the Light Side". To briefly re-iterate it involved the following steps. Set a distant light and scroll down through the light's parameters. Double click the word Intensity and on the menu that pops up click Respect Limits so that it reads No and click accept. The Intensity bar changes from 0 to 100% with a slider to a bar full of graduations. Roll the dial and select a negative intensity. In that previous entry this technique was used to create bright white shadows. This time the intention is to use it as a dark light that saps away the brightness from the scene. This can be used on any of the style of lights for different effects. Just remember if you turn on shadows it makes white ones.
This negative intensity light, that I call a dark light, also has a negative colour so it is best to leave it white. I have created the images "By the Christmas Lights Comparison" and "By the Christmas Lights" to illustrate the effect. The Comparison shot is the original render of the scene before adding the negative intensity light. It's quite bright and some of the coloured light is lost on the figure. With the addition of the dark light the room takes on the appearance of a dark room lit by smaller lights. In other words a dark light is good for turning down the lights on a scene when you want to mix coloured lights without excessive brightness. If you've ever wanted to add multiple lights to get a specific effect or colours, but the scene is bright and the colours are washed out then this is your solution.
This will be the last entry in this blog for the year. I wish you happy holidays whatever you celebrate (or don't). Take care and stay safe. I will see you again in 2010. Thank you for reading.
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