Attached Link: My latest image.

I been doing Vue since my July 4th vacation ( desiring it Since seeing "Dead City" images ) and I curious what am I doing wrong.

I thought when I was creating my latest image with Dino.. that it was going really well - maybe Dino's are too dark.
Maybe I need more detail.

Maybe my images are not too detail, or just too plain..

Any suggestions for improving my images would be great. I really like Vue and Vue 5 is suppose to be on my door step tommorrow.. Feel OK to critized the picture and my techniques on this forum thread. It will help me learn to improve my techniques.

Message edited on: 10/25/2004 18:19

In addition to sunlight, you need to use spotlights with a wide spread on the dinos to illuminate them... You use several spotlights that will allow us to see the dinos clearly and look natural at the same time... Lighting is a critical issue of 3D art and there's a couple of good lighting tutorials in the backroom.. but for the immediate, try using spots on the dinos with a wide spread and raise the strength of the lights until you can see things... And keep them far away enough so that they don't look like spotlights... :)

I think you have very good composition. I especially like the placement of the rocks on the right side. Tradivoro is correct about the use of lights. Even though the light is coming from behind the figures, you need to light them from the front side, so they can be seen. Of course, that's not realistic, but has to be done for the 'eye' of the viewer. My suggestion is to delete the lens flares. Personally, I don't use them, because they suggest that the picture is taken with a camera, since flares are reflections. Plus for me, they just make the final picture too busy. Hope that helps some. Good job with your image! Denny

Here's an example of what I mean this picture is dark, and lit from behind with sunlight, like yours.. Not a great picture, but you really can't tell detail on the tree or plant...

Now, using 2 spotlights, you can see all the detail in the tree and plant... One from the side to create the illusino of the sun from behind and one in front to light the tree up... This is also not magnificent lighting, but just to illustrate the principle that with a couple of spotlights, you can create your own lighting, and it doesn't have to look like a spotlight... Now you can see the details on the subjects..

I agree that the lighting seems to be a big part of it, I'm not sure a sunset would be appropriate if you want to see the detail in the dinosaurs, it's usually only a good idea if you're highlighting the shape of the objects rather than the details. Also, definately get rid of the camera flare, I never use it because it ends up just being annoying most of the time.

For the lighting I would suggest either changing it to a daylight scene and / or adding some softness to the sunlight (I usually use 50%), and bump the ambient level to about 85-90% toward sunlight. Also, if you're looking for ways of filling in dead space you can use cherry trees and maple trees and lower them down to the ground so the trunks don't show, this easily simulates bushes.

On to textures, I'm seeing quite a bit of tiling on the hills in the back, try to use multiple terrains to form the terrains around the dinosaurs and use different scales on the textures (for example, the terrains closest to the camera should have a smaller scaled texture than the mountains in the background) Also try mixing textures on the terrains and experimenting with the procedural terrains a little more to get more variation in the textures, photo textures are nice but are especially susceptible to tiling.

The last thing I would suggest is not to overdo any spot or point lights you do add, you risk making the whole image flat and uninteresting, use them sparingly and don't make them too bright unless they're source is supposed to be the sun object itself.

So, that's my two cents (and them some) good luck, you've got a nice start (the rock terrains on either side are great!) that with a few minor tweaks should look much better.

Message edited on: 10/25/2004 20:12

First of all, thank you for the helpfull comments..

Some of my attempts in this picture were done after exploring what I felt was done in some of sample scenes provided with Vue. I was looking for a good scene that shows good detail. Because that is what I feel like I am missing.

I actually have about 5 lights on the dino's but they are not that bright.. I did not want to make it seam too artifical. Maybe the textures included with dino's from Daz are just too dark.

One the photo textures, I took efforts in photoshop to make them seamless. I use techniques decribe by DVD's that are purchase specifically on texture. Mostly dealing with offsetting images and using cloning. I did blend multiple textures which may be bad thing which may have cause tiling.

I will make some small adjust on same scene and post them here. It still maybe better to create an entirely new scene.

Stewart

Message edited on: 10/25/2004 20:33

This picture quick lower resolution, lower detail render which changing for Lighting. Sun brightness is signficantly turn up and also may changes for ambient level to 80%. This lighting is not what I intended, I desired a dark enviroment for the image. The images does show that the textures of the dino's are two dark. I have notice with some daz characters hair that they not correctly right color - unless I change color mask. I am curious if anybody else has notice something similar. Anyway I think I will think about another image and try again.. it the only way to learn.

One thing with Poser textures, make sure you change the highlight color from black to white, this might be what is making them darker but I'm not sure, I haven't had any trouble with too dark Poser textures so I'm not sure what's going on with that. A note on the textures, even making them seamless doesn't mean that you won't notice the tileing, your eye will naturally pick up on the repetitious nature of the textures and realize that it's the same texture repeated. Sorry I couldn't be more help, it's hard to give advice on how to improve an image, especially when you don't know what the artist is going for as far as mood and feel, which are entirely subjective for most people.

I will give this a try tonight, I actually received my Vue 5 today and currently installed. Plan to load a Dragon in a scene with HDRi tonight. Let see how successfull I will be.