Tag: techniques

Using 3D to make comic books part 4

Using 3D to make comic books, as I’ve said, is quite the challenge. There’s a lot to take into consideration and I’ve only scratched the surface so far with these little postings. It’s definitely recommended you read parts 1, 2 and 3 before this one.

Okay, you’ve rendered awesome scenes, put them together in Comic Life and made them into a cool book. Now what? Well, this is actually the hardest part: getting it to sell. See, 3D is more widely used for porn comics, which makes it tougher to sell to other people. Add in the common complaints about it that I’ve read about and you’re going to find a lot of very harsh critics that won’t even give you a fair chance.

What are those common complaints? One is “stiff, lifeless figures.” Well, this one is harsh on rookies with the medium. Unless you are a fast learner especially with lights, cameras and textures, figures are going to look awkward while you’re learning. The same can be said of hand drawn characters, too though!

Ask for comments to learn from and ignore the ones that are blatant put-downs. You’ll probably be asked if you modeled the characters yourself. Odds are, you didn’t but don’t let that bother you! You’re still learning! So am I! So is anyone that can call themselves an artist. If they claim to be a master and don’t think there’s anything left to learn, they’re never going to grow as an artist and their work will go stale.

Another complaint is stiff clothes. On this one, I’m willing to agree, but only to a point. If you’re like me, your computer’s limits are where you have to draw the line. Realistic cloth simulation is possible and looks incredible, but uses an unbelievable amount of power from the computer!

Using 3D to make comic books part 2

Using 3D to make comic books, for a beginner, DAZ Studio is a good one. It’s free, it’s not too difficult to handle until you start getting into the more advanced features, but for setting up and lighting a scene, it’s excellent for learning. Personally, I dove in with Poser 7.

Poser’s good, but I found myself often having trouble using it despite having a book to guide me. Other programs offer more heavy-duty features for making props, clothing, hair and other things, but as they get fancier, they get more expensive.

A leading complaint against using 3D I’ve often mentioned is that 3D figures and clothes look stiff and lifeless. You’ll be confronted by this, so be ready for it. I’ve begun to counteract it by making things more dynamic. Dynamic meaning realistic simulation of cloth in particular.

The other half of that complaint likely has to do with the lighting of the actor and its textures. That would mean it’s wise to pay close attention to the lighting of the scene when you do renders.

Just like pencil and paper, you need to pay close attention to even the smallest details in your renders as these are actually more noticeable in 3D unless you use depth of field to blur out the boo-boos in the background. What about the boo-boos of the character?

Some don’t like to be posed certain ways and can even poke through their clothes despite fixes. Well, post work is useful if you just can’t get the 3D to behave the way you want it to. The GIMP is an excellent freebie image editor that’s lightweight and easy on the computer.

One thing that’s been extremely handy for me is the ability to render scenes even on my little 2-in-1 Windows 10 tablet. Taking my library on the go and setting up characters, or even scenes has been a heavy-duty time saver, but it just doesn’t have the power of the computer.

That means I need programs that aren’t resource intense. DAZ and GIMP are a spectacular combination for this. Unless I setup a heavily complicated scene, my little tablet can render it. If I do setup a heavily complicated scene, I can save it to render on the computer.

 

 

Using 3D to make comic books Part 1

Using 3D to make comic books is a challenge in many ways, but don’t let that discourage you. If you love 3D and love the idea of making comic books, nothing should deter you from it.

Let’s look at some harsh realities to be sure you’re determined to follow this path. First of all, the comic book market is cut throat. These fans in general are hard core about how comics are written and drawn. Plenty of them just aren’t ready to accept comics rendered using 3D software.

If you’re like me, your hand drawings aren’t bad, but just not up to industry standards for some reason or another. My shortcomings include proportion and shading along with perspective and foreshortening. My drawings are good, but not impressive in the comic book world, yet I love making them. The solution to my problem became using 3D software to make up the artistic difference. This led to a whole new set of problems, though.

While characters, props and sets are consistent and look good, new problems arose. These included lighting, camera angle and composition like in the two images above. How then, to solve this problem? Study, practice, constantly scrounge around for tutorials to learn as much as possible. That’s still pretty much fumbling along in the dark, isn’t it? I’ve found that a good many movies have special features on the DVDs and frequently include featurettes talking about how the movie was made.

Using 3D is similar enough to making a movie that these lessons have been extremely valuable to me. They discuss lighting, camera angles and movement, ways to setup a scene for dramatic actions and all sorts of other related things.
Okay, it doesn’t have to worry about sewing costumes or anything along those lines, but making props, making up the actors, dressing actors, setting up a scene, placing the lights and cameras for the best effect and things like that? Definitely!

So, will it someday be accepted by the comic book industry? Probably. I’ve got a couple how to draw comics books that already discuss using these programs for background elements. I’ve seen others on the market and at the local library that use it for the cover or a photograph, even. It’s a slow transition so far and for 3D artists, it’s not going to be easy. Still want to make your own comics using these programs?

 

Using 3D to make comic books part 4

Using 3D to make comic books, as I’ve said, is quite the challenge. There’s a lot to take into consideration and I’ve only scratched the surface so far with these little postings. It’s definitely recommended you read parts 1, 2 and 3 before this one.

Okay, you’ve rendered awesome scenes, put them together in Comic Life and made them into a cool book. Now what? Well, this is actually the hardest part: getting it to sell. See, 3D is more widely used for porn comics, which makes it tougher to sell to other people. Add in the common complaints about it that I’ve read about and you’re going to find a lot of very harsh critics that won’t even give you a fair chance.

What are those common complaints? One is “stiff, lifeless figures.” Well, this one is harsh on rookies with the medium. Unless you are a fast learner especially with lights, cameras and textures, figures are going to look awkward while you’re learning. The same can be said of hand drawn characters, too though!

Ask for comments to learn from and ignore the ones that are blatant put-downs. You’ll probably be asked if you modeled the characters yourself. Odds are, you didn’t but don’t let that bother you! You’re still learning! So am I! So is anyone that can call themselves an artist. If they claim to be a master and don’t think there’s anything left to learn, they’re never going to grow as an artist and their work will go stale.

Another complaint is stiff clothes. On this one, I’m willing to agree, but only to a point. If you’re like me, your computer’s limits are where you have to draw the line. Realistic cloth simulation is possible and looks incredible, but uses an unbelievable amount of power from the computer!

Using 3D to make comic books part 2

Using 3D to make comic books, for a beginner, DAZ Studio is a good one. It’s free, it’s not too difficult to handle until you start getting into the more advanced features, but for setting up and lighting a scene, it’s excellent for learning. Personally, I dove in with Poser 7.

Poser’s good, but I found myself often having trouble using it despite having a book to guide me. Other programs offer more heavy-duty features for making props, clothing, hair and other things, but as they get fancier, they get more expensive.

A leading complaint against using 3D I’ve often mentioned is that 3D figures and clothes look stiff and lifeless. You’ll be confronted by this, so be ready for it. I’ve begun to counteract it by making things more dynamic. Dynamic meaning realistic simulation of cloth in particular.

The other half of that complaint likely has to do with the lighting of the actor and its textures. That would mean it’s wise to pay close attention to the lighting of the scene when you do renders.

Just like pencil and paper, you need to pay close attention to even the smallest details in your renders as these are actually more noticeable in 3D unless you use depth of field to blur out the boo-boos in the background. What about the boo-boos of the character?

Some don’t like to be posed certain ways and can even poke through their clothes despite fixes. Well, post work is useful if you just can’t get the 3D to behave the way you want it to. The GIMP is an excellent freebie image editor that’s lightweight and easy on the computer.

One thing that’s been extremely handy for me is the ability to render scenes even on my little 2-in-1 Windows 10 tablet. Taking my library on the go and setting up characters, or even scenes has been a heavy-duty time saver, but it just doesn’t have the power of the computer.

That means I need programs that aren’t resource intense. DAZ and GIMP are a spectacular combination for this. Unless I setup a heavily complicated scene, my little tablet can render it. If I do setup a heavily complicated scene, I can save it to render on the computer.

 

 

Using 3D to make comic books Part 1

Using 3D to make comic books is a challenge in many ways, but don’t let that discourage you. If you love 3D and love the idea of making comic books, nothing should deter you from it.

Let’s look at some harsh realities to be sure you’re determined to follow this path. First of all, the comic book market is cut throat. These fans in general are hard core about how comics are written and drawn. Plenty of them just aren’t ready to accept comics rendered using 3D software.

If you’re like me, your hand drawings aren’t bad, but just not up to industry standards for some reason or another. My shortcomings include proportion and shading along with perspective and foreshortening. My drawings are good, but not impressive in the comic book world, yet I love making them. The solution to my problem became using 3D software to make up the artistic difference. This led to a whole new set of problems, though.

While characters, props and sets are consistent and look good, new problems arose. These included lighting, camera angle and composition like in the two images above. How then, to solve this problem? Study, practice, constantly scrounge around for tutorials to learn as much as possible. That’s still pretty much fumbling along in the dark, isn’t it? I’ve found that a good many movies have special features on the DVDs and frequently include featurettes talking about how the movie was made.

Using 3D is similar enough to making a movie that these lessons have been extremely valuable to me. They discuss lighting, camera angles and movement, ways to setup a scene for dramatic actions and all sorts of other related things.
Okay, it doesn’t have to worry about sewing costumes or anything along those lines, but making props, making up the actors, dressing actors, setting up a scene, placing the lights and cameras for the best effect and things like that? Definitely!

So, will it someday be accepted by the comic book industry? Probably. I’ve got a couple how to draw comics books that already discuss using these programs for background elements. I’ve seen others on the market and at the local library that use it for the cover or a photograph, even. It’s a slow transition so far and for 3D artists, it’s not going to be easy. Still want to make your own comics using these programs?

 

Techwarrior #7 soon to be released!

Hey, Techwarrior fans!

You’ll be happy to know Techwarrior #7 is soon to be released! Okay, so no date has been set yet, but rendering has finished and after some post production, it’ll be able to join the already large list of books available!

Think about it, there’s 25 books in the Dream Angel series and 6 for Techwarrior already available. That’s 31 books! Not counting the new editions of Dream Angel #1 or any of the collection books. An impressive roster, wouldn’t you agree?

Now, I’ll agree it seems like making these books is so easy they can be made over night, but that’s far from the case. Matter of fact, there’s a very long process involved. Writing being among the hardest parts at times. Sure, almost anyone can write a story, but how good is that story? By good I mean does it keep a reader’s attention?

So, we have writing and editing, both very time consuming alone. When the script is finally settled, figuring out paneling and even layouts can be rough. Now, I’m not affiliated with it at all, but I use ComicLife for layouts. The plus for me is the fact that I can just drag and drop my final renders for each panel into that panel. Since it also has the script in a drag and drop setup for dialogue and narration, I’m able to adjust those to suit the layouts. Again, no images yet!

Well, what about all those awesome renders in the books? Surely, they took hours to draw, right? It would take a far more skilled artist than I am to hand draw those renders! Sure, I’m a skilled artist, but hand art isn’t my strong suit.

Technically, the computer draws the art, but I have to tell it what to draw and how. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Not by a long shot! Just like hand art, telling the computer what to draw in 3D takes a lot of time, study and practice! I’ve been at it about 10 years now and I still haven’t quite gotten all the basics figured out!

How then, do I make these fantastic images? Keep in mind I’m self-taught and this is a very steep learning curve. Add in constant improvements to the programs being released meaning new features need to be studied and learned. Makes it a lot more complicated than a simple pencil and paper. For those willing to take the time to study and practice, it can be a lot of fun and very rewarding, though.

Get the books from the store and you’ll see very quickly where updates to programs or a new skill had a direct impact on the art of the books.

Dream Angel #25 coming soon!

Dream Angel #25 coming soon! If you’ve kept up with the news in the Facebook group, you know the computer usually used for rendering, affectionately known as “Big Baby,” is suffering because of the latest Windows updates being incompatible.

A problem that happened to its smaller 2-in-1 counterpart known as “Pinkie.” Fixing the problem on Pinkie turned out to be much easier than the much older Big Baby. Instead of being able to easily fix it, it’s throwing a tantrum, refusing to work the way it ought to and barely being able to load Windows.

Well, with Big Baby down, rendering Dream Angel #25 came to a screeching halt because Pinkie can’t use DAZ Studio’s Iray (photo realistic) render engine. The upside is it can use Carrara, which is basically DAZ’s big sister program. Much more heavy-duty on the system for the most part, but Pinkie has been handling it well.

Luckily, Carrara can re-create the characters needed. This means the final renders for Dream Angel #25 can be done using Pinkie and Carrara! While a release date hasn’t been picked yet, just the fact that the book can be completed is wonderful news, don’t you think?

Scenes like this done using DAZ’s 3Delight render engine wouldn’t quite have the same impact, particularly with the lighting and that’s what render engine would have to be used if Pinkie couldn’t handle Carrara.

Okay, going on about it might be silly, but you have to admit, it’s worth being excited about, right?

These are wonderful, fun and funny books. Playful scenes like this:

Are always a delightful way to over dramatize a scene in a very funny way. Compared to the photo-realistic style, these scenes stand out in such a hilarious way that they help endear the books to readers. Compare this one to the one above and you’ll see the fun contrast.

In the meantime, while you wait for Dream Angel #25 to have a release date picked, you can visit the shop and pick up the first 24 books. Sounds like a daunting number, doesn’t it? Well, that’s where collection books come in handy. Mind you, the collection books aren’t available in print, but they are a good deal compared to buying each book individually, even digitally. A quick way to catch up is the 10 book collections: 1-10 and 11-20. From there, you’d simply need 21, 22, 23, and 24 to be completely caught up.

Well, if you’re looking forward to Dream Angel #25, it’s a good idea to grab those first 24 before the release date’s picked!

Techwarrior #6 coming soon!

Techwarrior #6 is coming soon! It’s more than half done and fans of this series will find this long-awaited book worth the wait. With 11 renders to go (as of the writing of this article) a release date isn’t formally set, but a safe bet could be later this month!

If the cover is any hint, you can also bet the art inside is knockout quality with an impressive story to match as the quality of both has only improved with each book.

So, with this book on the verge of release, which series gets the next in line? Usually, Dream Angel has the next book in line and this one would be #25. Yet, it takes longer in production for its 24 page count. Techwarrior has 12 pages and takes less time. So, perhaps Techwarrior #7 could be next in line? Let’s explore the art more in depth to explore why it takes so long.

Taking a good look at how the art is created, you’ll find that characters look like you could reach out and touch them. This is largely because of the render engine called “Iray.” With the right materials applied to the surfaces in the scene, it renders in a photo realistic way. This makes it appear as if someone really is in the scene with a camera. So that reach out and touch feeling adds to the engrossing reading experience.

You’ll also notice the lighting in the cover scene for Techwarrior #6. It uses what’s called “light emitting surfaces.” While these tend to slow down rendering speeds, they provide breathtaking light that adds very impressive effects to the scene. Look carefully at that cover.

You’ll see that’s Sensei attacking the girl (I can’t say who she is without spoiling the story for those who haven’t read it!) and his attack casts a subtle light on her face. It’s a light emitting surface. You’ll see things like this that help add to the quality and beauty of the books found on this site.

You’ll also notice as you look through the shop and see the different book covers, not all of them seem to share this quality. Well, that comes from learning over time. There’s an artistic evolution to be seen with all the books with the latest one always having the top of the line skill being put to the best use possible at the time.

No, not knocking the older books. Just noting that at the time of their creation and release, they were top of the artistic skill line and more has been learned since. That said, you’ll get greater enjoyment out of these books – artistically – by enjoying the evolution.

So, which series do you think should get the next book in line? Dream Angel #25? Techwarrior #7? Cast your vote in the comments below!

The ups and downs of HDRI

The ups and downs of HDRI might as well be a roller coaster. Permit me to share a story.

For the longest time, I thought I couldn’t use the fancy new render engine DAZ rolled out with 4.8: Iray. I longed to play with the photo realistic render engine, but having an AMD video card instead of the NVidia the specs called for, I thought I couldn’t.

Fast forward to just before Christmas 2016 and DAZ 4.9. I made a curious discovery about the list of installed stuff in the install manager: a public beta build of DAZ 4.9. So, I tracked it down among my programs and opened it. Played with it some and got curious about the render settings. What should my curiosity behold, but that NVidia Iray was available to play with!

So, I explored, dabbled and started tracking down tutorials. Fast forward again to about mid March 2017. After multiple not-so-good attempts at making my own HDRIs with Carrara. I still have trouble with the lighting in that one. I was exploring a favorite group for 3D artists on Facebook and stumbled across an image that could be rotated 360 degrees. To go with it, a youtube tutorial video on how the trick was done!

Well, again, I dabbled and played. Made a neat city 360 followed by a scene from Techwarrior #5 and put them on Facebook to a very receptive reaction. I realized I could convert that city 360 to an HDRI and use it as a background for renders. Well, you won’t catch me using 3Delight anymore! Scenes with an HDRI background render very quickly even on my older computer and they look amazing!

HDRIs are wonderful as both light and background, but – and this is the downside – they take a long time to render! Smaller size and resolution just won’t work with these bad boys. The ratio suggested in that tutorial was 2 to 1 with a size of about 4000 by 2000 pixels. Be ready for a long wait unless you’re able to despeckle and sharpen effectively in Photoshop. Here’s what I mean:

Not the greatest picture I’ll admit, but this one’s been at it 14 hours and it’s still pretty grainy.

Personally, I set the render time to 24 hours so it would have plenty of time to render as cleanly as possible. Know how many seconds that is? 86,400 seconds! Now, as I’ve pointed out on Facebook, once this is rendered, it can be used time and again as a background and light source without bogging down the scene I’m trying to render. So, when it comes down to brass tacks, the occasional 24 hour render like this isn’t too horrible, right?

The trick is a simple one, but only available in Iray. Setup a scene with lights but without characters if you want it to be a background HDRI – the one in that picture is a dungeon lit only by fire – and add a camera in the center of it. Go into the camera’s parameters and pick on the lens type. Set it to spherical. Then go into render settings and set the size ratio to 2 to 1 and the pixels to 4000 by 2000. For my 4-year-old laptop, there’s no acceleration from the video card, so I setup the render time at 24 hours or the 86,400 seconds I mentioned before. From there, hit render and walk away for the duration of the render.

It’ll take its time rendering considering the size and and how complicated the scene is, but when it’s done finally, it can be converted to an HDRI and used as a background/light source without being so slow with characters. So, it balances out, wouldn’t you say?