Okay, I had a hell of a time with this. Because I am stupid it took me 4 hours to do this...well 4 1/2 if you count the PSP time it took to fix the hair because it rendered really really bad. Im new at this and this is really my first render that has two people in it. Like I said, took forever and Im sure it isnt as good as some other stuff.

Anyways.

The hair is Koz, heaven armor, some of it, winterqueen wings, the background is mine created by me with my PSP brushes and the weeds, I dont know whose they are, I got them from some 3d place for bryce, just imported them into poser. What do you think? Does it suck bad?

If everything you say is true, I will be very excited to see your work in a few months! I like this image. I have spent way more time on images, and ended up with way less. If I were to change anything, I would figure out a way to add more depth to the mountains, as they appear somewhat flat. But in all honesty, I would not change anything if I ever achieved such an image!

I would love to change the mountains, however, this is just a standard background I made in PSP (I have it in a bunch of different colors) so It was already done, I just added some plants and the poser people... Im so glad you like it, I like the way the people turned out, just have to work on doing backgrounds in Poser now I think.

Don't beat the shit out of yourself, man -- we all start somewhere. It's definitely a good start. My main suggestion would be to work a little harder at matching the lighting between your figures and your background. And don't be too concerned with doing everything, background and all, in Poser. I rarely do everything in one shot -- I like being able to layer things in Photoshop to get exactly the right look rather than trying to fix up a single render.

It's lovely! The perspective shadow of the people is off though given the direction of the sun behind them; the shadow should be more in front. Also the mountains should be darker at the base to give more depth, but other than that, I like the image very much.

One word: Awesome!

Okay, you inspired me, found a way to fix the mountains, I think....Added a sunburst from the lightening to maybe fix the shadows, cant do it any other way, is this a little better?

Personally, I think you may be trying to include too much in here...making it a very busy image and the eye just doesn't know where to focus. We tend to go to the bright portions of an image and you've got a few here. Matching the lighting from composited images is important too-- your main light source comes from the 'back' of the picture, yet the shadows cast by your characters are off to the right instead of in front of them. Also, because of your even lighting on the landscape, you leave out clues that suggest depth. Of course I have no works of art hanging in any museums, but I offer my opinion for what it's worth.

Hmmm, I don't peronally like the sunburst. I liked the depth of what was there on the left in the first image. Is it possible to remove that sunburst and take the image into a graphic program and do some painting in of some various degrees of darkness, using a paint brush, smudge, soften, burn etc, to the tallest of the mountains on the right? Maybe do a search on the net for some landscape paintings and examine how the artists have used light and shadow in mountainscapes. The mountain on the right is starting to look better. The base of the mountain and the land in front of it would be considerably darker than the middle or top because the mountain is blocking the sun from that area. The lighting in the top image would be bang on if the sun was not in the background, and was off to the left, and off the image.

its not a sun, its the moon at night during the beginning of a storm. I have tried numerous times to change the direction of the shadows in poser and I can't without blacking out my poser people, so I give up...

Ahhh, if it's a moon, then that's easy to fix :)

Moons don't illuminate that much light, so all you need to do is darken up the background to make it more "nightime-like". Right now it's so bright that it looks like a sun, not a moon.

Don't give up :) You don't realize it, but you are learning things working on that image. It's a great image. I love the background and I love the look of the figures in it. But the 2 together aren't in harmony...yet. Keep at it. Take a break from it if you have to and come back to it. A great masterpiece isn't made in a day :)

Lighting, shadows and perspective are hard things to accomplish. But you'll get it. I'm confident in that.

Message edited on: 04/09/2005 21:10

Thanks Acadia, for all the tips, I think Im just getting tired, been working on this now, for....geez, hours. LOL..

this is my last attempt for the night...probably not any better, but meh, Im done with it.

That's looking loads better!

Izy, your image is beautiful. I am not good at placing shadows at all but I know how to do it in PSP so I can tell you that at least. You can use a filter like Eye Candy or Lokas Software 3D Shadow but if you don't have those filters and you want the shadow to appear in front of your model, duplicate the layer where your model is then apply the shadow (cast in front) to the bottom layer. France

Omigosh!!! I loved the first one, was iffy about the second and then you came up with this killer third!! You are Too Darn Good!! Number one: I been doing this for years and I couldn't have done the first render and post in 4 hours-- no way! Of course, I fiddle everything to death, but that's beside the point. Your first render would have felt like a masterpiece to me. Then, that "Day for Night" change you made in the last one. Ok, I personally would like a tutorial on how you did it. I have some ideas, but am not sure. Especially the Moon which is fabulous. I can tell you easily how to get the background to look further away. Select your main figures and maybe the foreground, maybe not-- invert the selection and apply a small amount of gaussian blur. Take that down so it just fuzzes a bit, like our eyes do with things in the distance-- instant depth of field. You can do that with closeup as well to guide the eyes where the meat of the picture is-- usually the face and hands. First render with two people!!??!! I agree with rwilliams, I want to see your work a couple of months from now-- you'll blow us all away. That looks like James in the render, is that Jesse in his arms? If so, you've also made two figures not thought highly of, very very attractive and effective in a beautifully dramatic render. Put it in the Poser gallery, I'll give you an Excellent rating. And for the record, shadows give me horrors in Poser, so don't feel too bad about those. Everybody rags on me about em too-- I don't care, too much work for too little effect.;)) But you fixed them anyway!! Emily

Attached Link: http://www.greenleafladysworld.com

Yes Emily thats Jessie and James. The hair was Bliss but it didnt render in 6 very good, so I created layers and layers then added some of my own hair over top to create the look.

The background, I created, and yeah, it was flat, but after the first post, I went back, free hand selected some of the mountain and added a fill with patter, then added some of my own brushes to make the trees a little bit ... filled in more?

That gaussian, dang, should have thought of that. The moon and mountain was actually a picture...to create it from light to dark, I duplicated the image, erased everything but the dark stuff from the clouds, then smudged it over the light. Added a few black cloud brushes of mine over the moon to darken it.

The shadows, drive me insane, I dont quite understand those yet..LOL...The whole program gives me a head ache and Im just getting into the hair stuff. Used to paint it on.

I've only been using Jasc PSP for about a year. Im much better at flat wallpapers than 3d, but I will get there, that is if I dont pull my hair out.

Thank you for the tips. I didnt really think this was worthy to go into a gallery and perhaps I will add it now. Its wonderful to get such great feedback and encouragement, so thank you all very much!

If you want to see my sites and other stuff I do, go here

and here.
for PSP brushes and over 200 textures that I use to make my walls.
http://www.greenleafladysworld.com/Razzle.html