Attached Link: Warning: Nudity, Homliness, & Beer - The Vitner's Daughter.01

I'm in need of an experienced observer's opinion.  Up to now, all my renders were done in P4-Pro Pack, so this is my VERY forst render in my brand new Poser 5 from e-f and CP, and I'd like an experts opinion on what I could do to improve it.  I've just learned finished reading Dr. Geep's tutorial on the Material's Room, so I've experimented a bit with displacement maps, and specular color, but other than that, the advanced aspects of P5 (bucket size, f-stops etc.) is still Terra Incognita.  While I understand that Firefly does things that the P4 render engine does not, such issues as raytracing, et al are unknown to me (except that raytracing seems to leave big black blobs in the middle of a picture). I've yet to find a tutorial on these aspects, so therefore, I'm 'begging' for comments, critiques and advise. David P.. Hoadley

Quote - I'm in need of an experienced observer's opinion.

Dang, well that leaves me out of the comment box!

   > Quote - (except that raytracing seems to leave big black blobs in the middle of a picture).

I actually have started to look forward to my Big Black Blobs! It's like coming home and having to dog meet you at the door... I just expect them. Besides, what else would I fill me time with besides re-rendering?  hehe.

While totally not an experienced observer, I just wanted to point to Stewer's FAQ, it's gotten me out of a mess or two before with the FF engine.  http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/firefaq.html

David, I love the pose, very life-like. Here are some things that were pointed out to me recently regarding my pics. Try not to have your subject in the centre of your picture, shadows are a pain in the arse, I would add some postwork shadows between the fingers of both hands to add to realism, and around the base of the RH beer bottle, maybe put the hair on her left onto her sholder than above it, the background picture needs some bluring as you have done but I think it's pixilated because its been enlaged too much. For backgrounds I go to Google images search, these's a shit-load of every sized pictures of everything imaginable, just do a search and take 'em. Maybe the bigest problem people will have with your picture is that she's fugly, this is no problem for me and you but just take a look at the galleries.I like her the way she looks and if your doing this for yourself and not for popularity, leave her alone. I feel somewhat impudent trying to give you advise David, as I haven't been doing this stuff very long as you know, but you asked for an opinion and I've given you one (or some).

Shalom David.

Thank you befuzled, I've downloaded the webpage and added it to my growing list of Tutorials.
David P. Hoadley ; - )

As crazy as people are about copyright, I'd be wary of snagging pictures from Google image's. Just cuz they're on the web doesn't mean you are supposed to use them. There's plenty of free non-copyright protected images out there. Just FYI.

David. I do agree about the shadows. There's some on her body, but there should be some under her hand on the fence at least. If you use PSP, duplicate the picture and burn a shadow on the bottom layer, then adjust the transparency on the top layer until it looks good, then merge. Otherwise, check my gallery, and if you like my stuff I'll send you some settings to make good use of your newfound Poser 5 renderer :-)

Sarah

ashley9803, thank you very much for your comments.  I'm thinking of substituting a different background for her, one with real vinyards in it.  When I first came to Israel, I lived for two years in a small farming community in the south, near Ashkelon.  While they didn't grow grapes commercially, every famehouse had grapevines growing around it as a hedge.  One of the resasons I made this render is that I have a great fondness for the memories of those days.
I have no intention of beautifyig the character, the more I gaze upon her face, the more I like it.  She may not be all that pretty, but she has a certain homely sensuousness about her that I find exciting. 
Again, thank you for your advise, and I intend to act upon it soon.
Yours truly,
David P. Hoadley

dphoadley -

When using ray-tracing and the whole other ambient IBLs and what-not settings for Firefly, there seesm to be a need for a lot of fiddling around with the parameter settings for each light. 

But I am speaking from a Poser 6 perspective, so I don't know if in Poser 5, the light settings play as big a role in determining final render effectiveness.
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I like the image... so much better than what most people seem to be shooting for with Poser. It does seem to need some subtle shadows added, a very common situation with Poser lighting.

Lighting and shadows are really tough in Poser; personally, I find the lights kind of difficult to work with. This isn't Poser-specific, but you might like to look at 3D Render. I've learned a lot about 3D lighting in general here. I bought the guy's book, and I've found it to be a really helpful tool.

If you're looking for photo backgrounds, Image After and Stock Xchng both have free-for-use, royalty free images for just that purpose. I think photographic backgrounds work really well with Poser.

Captain Jack

You're right elzoejam about copyright. However, if they want to arrest me for snaging someone's hoilday snap of a valley in Europe, for non-commercial renders, they can come and get me. Believe me, it won't be worth the their trouble. I'm very careful not to use anything identified as commercial or copyrighted in my works. In fact I would feel honoured if someone was to use one of my vacation pictures to make an artwork for non-commercial purposes.

Not sure how things operate in the US, but ambulance chasers are not looked on too fondly over here.

Quote - Not sure how things operate in the US, but ambulance chasers are not looked on too fondly over here.

LOL!!!! You didn't know??? This is what America is about. Its God is money and its temple is the court house. Everything from petty squabbles to elections are decided in a court. Sue, sue, sue that's how things are settled. Keep your hands off my stack as Pink Floyd would say. It's all about the money and all about ME!  Any real good done in this country is squashed under the weight of corruption.

Thank you elzoejam for the advise about shadowing the hand on the fence.  I'm thinking of doing a seris with this figure.  The face actually started out as Duane Moody's french peasant Monalee, for Posette.  But when I dialed the morph to  1.000, it so distorted Neja's eyebrows, that I ended up using it in a negative value instead.  I also used NEA's fat face MT, and the jaw young and a few others. 
What started me on this figure was finding XTrinityX's Heike M3 texture.  I took one look at it, and its abundance of body hair, and I said to myself: 'This would be great on a realistic, natural type peasant girl figure.' (And yes, while I can appreciate sleek, seal-like, women, I tend togravitate towards those  that are naturally hairy -just call me wierd if you want). ; - D
David P. Hoadley

Would like to think things are not that bad Sealtm2.

Attached Link: Vintner's Daughter.02

I've uploaded a remake of my first version of the Vintner's Daughter, this one executed in accordance to all your most generous advise.  Again I thank you, and of course, comments and criticisms will be welcomed. Yours truly, David P. Hoadley

Great object lesson on the evils of drink David. "Would like to think things are not that bad Sealtm2." I'm afraid so. I just read about a school district banning children from playing tag - fearful that they'd be sued if one of the kiddies scratched a knee or something. Hitting a big lawsuit payday is right up there with winning the lottery as the great American fantasy.

Quote - Great object lesson on the evils of drink David. "Would like to think things are not that bad Sealtm2." I'm afraid so. I just read about a school district banning children from playing tag - fearful that they'd be sued if one of the kiddies scratched a knee or something. Hitting a big lawsuit payday is right up there with winning the lottery as the great American fantasy.

All too true, ...but what did you think of my girls???
; - ) David P. Hoadley

"Great object lesson on the evils of drink David."

lmckenzie, you'd prefer that she be a Baptist teetotaller?  Have you forgotten the old saw: 'Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker!'  ; - D
DPH

She looks kinda like one of the biker girls supposedly called 'reverse gear' from the function they performed for the riders of certain old Harleys that lacked a mechanical one. Of course, to complete the package, you need a tee shirt that says "If you can read this, the bitch fell off." Seriously though, one of your best works.

Hi, David:-)

I like that image! (Especially the 2nd one).

The girl's face vaguely reminds me of Janis Joplin, not quite sure why, but it does.. It's probably my memory at fault. None-the-less, it's the sort of face that "grows" on you. (Mind you, had that been Janice she would have been offering bottles of whiskey, not beer..)

I think that this is not just one of the best images you have done, but the best so far. But that's just my personal, subjective opinion.

I have two remaining criticisms (ie. areas for possible improvement)..

1. The blue flowers/leaves. What are they? They are surrounding the character, supported by some sort of twig structure, and 'cos I can't fit them into my own reference set, I keep looking back at them and wondering....distracts me..

2. The fence. Too sharp-edged. Those knife-edges are a dead give-away - "a couple or three stretched cubes with a texture slapped on"..:-)) Also, no grunge where the horizontals meet the verticals. (There should at least be a small shadow area where the cross-bars meet the uprights, in wooden fences of that nature, the fit is never perfect).
   But that is mostly nit-picking, and could probably be easiest remedied using post-work.

Well done, and welcome to the wonderful/frustrating world of post-PoserPro..:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

Attached Link: Vintner's Daughter.02

**diolma**, I've done some more revisions to Vintner's Daughter.02, especially in light of your suggestions, so please tell me what you think. David P. Hoadley PS: The blueflowers are suposed to be lavenders.  Anyway, they're a free prop by Gerald Day.

Hi, David

Yup, the gap between the fence rails and the posts seems to stand out better much now:-)) - more realistic.

Further suggestions: (as if I were qualified to speak - I wish)..

1. Maybe reduce (if you can) the brightness of the yellow on the bottle labels. They seem too bright, too attention-demanding  Depending on how the texture is set up, this could be easy or complex. As a trial, scale down the diffuse value for the texture map (using the advanced part of the Materials Room). If that also adversely affects the texture on the bottles, then another approach will be required..

2. See the above link. There are 3 applications there, two of which can produce vegetation effects. They are "Grass" (which produces, errrmmm.. grass), and "Twig", which produces, well, twigs, with leafs/flowers/fruit (select one) attached...
   "Scatter" (IIRC) reduplicates some simple objects (like rocks) in (controlable) 3d ways.
   All three are free, and are well worth looking at and learning. Alas the original author (geese?) of these apps has gone AWOL from the web, but at least there's a legacy...

IM/PM me if you require further help with the P5 Mat-Room. I'm no expert, but having used P5 for over 2 years, I know a little more than just the basics..:-)

Plus I've got the manual (and have already RTFM)...

Cheers,
Diolma

Attached Link: Vintner's Daughter.03

Dear Diolma; Thank you for your commens and suggestions, I'll try to act on thoase that I/m able. I've no posted a new render, and comments and suggestion as to its improvement will be most welcome. Yours truly, David P. Hoadley