Following along in the same vein as our article on storyboarding this article covers using Renderosity assets to create posters. From movies to music, you can create and send them off to be printed or sell your creations. In today's ever-expensive world, it never hurts to have another income stream. And, as many of us already know, creating posters can be great fun and even therapeutic. It can also scratch that creative itch that seems to always be there.
Back in the infancy of the internet, when online printing services came on the scene it eliminated the need to have a large poster printer. I had an HP inkjet, a monster of a printer both in size and the amount of ink it could go through. Creating posters back then was a side business that spawned from creating movie posters. The trouble was, not being my main mode of work, the printer would sometimes sit there unused for a few months… just enough to dry out the ink left in the cartridges.
Living in the middle of nowhere, getting ink for the large printer was problematic, to say the least. As I had to order online, I always kept extra ink around. I finally got to the point that I would just print posters I made using ink instead of letting it dry up. This was not a good solution, too many posters and too few places to put them.
Online, on-demand printing services changed all that and made it possible for anyone to print posters for themselves or others. It also allowed for printed posters to be ordered as prototypes for a critical eye to see what they looked like hanging on the wall, framed or unframed. While posters look great in Photoshop or the graphic engine of your choice, it was difficult to tell how they would look when displayed.
Plus, making posters is just plain fun and, if you are going to buy wall-hanging art, why not your own?
Back in the infancy of the internet, when online printing services came on the scene it eliminated the need to have a large poster printer. I had an HP inkjet, a monster of a printer both in size and the amount of ink it could go through. Creating posters back then was a side business that spawned from creating movie posters. The trouble was, not being my main mode of work, the printer would sometimes sit there unused for a few months… just enough to dry out the ink left in the cartridges.
Living in the middle of nowhere, getting ink for the large printer was problematic, to say the least. As I had to order online, I always kept extra ink around. I finally got to the point that I would just print posters I made using ink instead of letting it dry up. This was not a good solution, too many posters and too few places to put them.
Online, on-demand printing services changed all that and made it possible for anyone to print posters for themselves or others. It also allowed for printed posters to be ordered as prototypes for a critical eye to see what they looked like hanging on the wall, framed or unframed. While posters look great in Photoshop or the graphic engine of your choice, it was difficult to tell how they would look when displayed.
Plus, making posters is just plain fun and, if you are going to buy wall-hanging art, why not your own?
I realize to all you longtime Rendo’ers out there compositing an image is nothing new but there are still plenty of new digital artists, either aspiring pros or home hobbyists that need practice and confidence. Making a poster can provide both while exposing that new artist to what is required to make a decent poster.
The first thing I do if the urge or need to create a poster pops up is look for a template of the type of movie or poster it is going to be. In this case, I got a free movie-type template in dark and light themes from StudioBinder. It’s basically white text on dark or black text on white and has the format that most would expect from this type of poster. This is where I usually insert my standard “why to reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to?” attitude. I want this to be fun… not tedious.
I grabbed another favorite of mine, DarioFish’s Space Rover for Genesis Females. It’s another product that proves what a good investment Rendo products are in that they still hold their value today. I ran it through the free AccuRIG app from Reallusion for use in iClone as the compositing tool. I also customized its colors while iClone.
I grabbed a free rock formation from the iClone inventory to use as the foreground terrain, but the final lighting almost made that mute as it is barely visible. I created several 2:3 aspect ratio images in Microsoft Image Creator and chose one as the background and general color scheme of the poster. I dumped that image into the iClone workspace as the static background.
From there I added the character, posed it, and lit the scene. I also added several Lens Flares from iClone such as the red tower lights, the upper light, and the flare over the top of the character's helmet. These really added a lot of pop to the image. The red lights were virtually indistinguishable from the background image which is exactly what you want when mixing 2D and 3D.
I then placed a point light inside the helmet to highlight just enough face to tell there is one and overlayed a low opacity but colorful image on the helmet visor. I also added a blood smear to the character’s face.
Not all posters have to be movie based but this gives you an idea of how just one Renderosity vendor product combined with a generated background image, lighting, and a good template can produce a poster in combination with an image tool like Photoshop.
The first thing I do if the urge or need to create a poster pops up is look for a template of the type of movie or poster it is going to be. In this case, I got a free movie-type template in dark and light themes from StudioBinder. It’s basically white text on dark or black text on white and has the format that most would expect from this type of poster. This is where I usually insert my standard “why to reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to?” attitude. I want this to be fun… not tedious.
I grabbed another favorite of mine, DarioFish’s Space Rover for Genesis Females. It’s another product that proves what a good investment Rendo products are in that they still hold their value today. I ran it through the free AccuRIG app from Reallusion for use in iClone as the compositing tool. I also customized its colors while iClone.
I grabbed a free rock formation from the iClone inventory to use as the foreground terrain, but the final lighting almost made that mute as it is barely visible. I created several 2:3 aspect ratio images in Microsoft Image Creator and chose one as the background and general color scheme of the poster. I dumped that image into the iClone workspace as the static background.
From there I added the character, posed it, and lit the scene. I also added several Lens Flares from iClone such as the red tower lights, the upper light, and the flare over the top of the character's helmet. These really added a lot of pop to the image. The red lights were virtually indistinguishable from the background image which is exactly what you want when mixing 2D and 3D.
I then placed a point light inside the helmet to highlight just enough face to tell there is one and overlayed a low opacity but colorful image on the helmet visor. I also added a blood smear to the character’s face.
Not all posters have to be movie based but this gives you an idea of how just one Renderosity vendor product combined with a generated background image, lighting, and a good template can produce a poster in combination with an image tool like Photoshop.
M.D. McCallum, aka WarLord, is an international award-winning commercial graphics artist, 3D animator, published author, project director, and webmaster with a freelance career that spans over 20 years. Now retired, M.D. is currently working part-time on writing and select character development projects. You can learn more about MD on his website. 
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