Well, working on one right now myself.

Inspired by The Eagles song "Life in the Fast Lane" I started doing a render that can also show off my new product coming out soon this summer.

Just hoping it comes out as good as it looks in the preview.  Have the post work to do afterward too, or I'm trying to decide if I should use actual lighting for the Police Car's headlights/rooflights.  That's not coming out with the product, but part of a set for the product later on. 

Ahhh, what the hell, might as well go all out for it since it is also a promo for the product after all. 

So, after all this, what inspires all your works?  Movies?  Music like me sometimes?  Sometimes I have to make custom content for it first, but its worth it. (for me anyway).

Well, have a good one all, and stay cool to all my North Eastern U.S. friends here on the forums!

I get more inspired by other artwork, believe it or not. I look thru art archives a lot just to see what's been done and how the artist approaced it. Sometimes I like the way an artist paints a flower petal, the colors they used, the choice of pattern, the layout etc. It all adds up to inspire me in little ways :).

As for the heat...we hurried and put an extra AC in the kitchen window. It's keeping it cool just enough to be quite bearable ;). It helps that my PC is right in front of an ac and I have all that glorious cold air blowing right on me...lol

Laurie

In writing, they have a saying 'Feed your muse' and it's so very wise.  Inspiration for me comes from movies, music and stories, even stories I have in my head that I want to illustrate in some way.

It also comes from looking at good artwork from other sources, reading magazines like Imagine FX and trying to put some of that magic into 3D works.  

Quote - I get more inspired by other artwork, believe it or not. I look thru art archives a lot just to see what's been done and how the artist approaced it. Sometimes I like the way an artist paints a flower petal, the colors they used, the choice of pattern, the layout etc. It all adds up to inspire me in little ways :).

As for the heat...we hurried and put an extra AC in the kitchen window. It's keeping it cool just enough to be quite bearable ;). It helps that my PC is right in front of an ac and I have all that glorious cold air blowing right on me...lol

Laurie

Oh, that sounds like a good idea with the air conditioner.  

I agree, I love to look at other people's artwork!

Delaney

Like many people, I get my inspiration from a variety of things.  Look through my gallery and you'll see emotion, comedy, music, personal events and anything that seemed like a good idea at the time.  There are also one or two I did just to see if I could.  Pretty much the same as where I get my ideas for songs.  :)

I don't post so much now, since most of my creativity is taken up with modelling and playing guitar.  Another factor is I'm pretty much hamstrung by the kit I'm using and anything remotely complex takes forever to set up and render.  Hopefully I'll get more renders made when I eventually upgrade.  So you lot had better buy my stuff when I start selling, because that's how I'll be raising the cash.  :) 

Cool -- seems like we all do similar things.

Doing a test render right now, and its coming out very good for my work I've been doing since last night on the render.  Still have to tweak some lighting to match the background.

For my piece I'm doing right now, thinking a lot is being used in the way of lights, so might go with my alternate lighting means, just put some red/blue lights coming from behind on the figures in the foreground.

I have the A/C blaring, and also the pedestal fan helping to blow it towards my PC's.  Don't need anything to happen to them before the new one gets here.....

Original work, such as it is, typically comes from music, but usually not just one song - as a writing exercise, I take whole albums as "sound tracks" and write the "movie" so the songs not only appear in their published sequence, but the specifics of each song directly relates to that scene in the film.  The "trick," if any, is to find a common thread other than a documentary on the band.

As for Poser art, I look through the Gallery here and try to duplicate the masters.  There is one in particular that seems to have gone missing from My Favorites, but it was the first artwork that made me decide to actually try to reproduce it.

(It is from about 2003, with a single female figure, a grandfather clock, and lit with green.)

Sounds very cool! I love to play with different light set ups.

Funny, I had just mentioned on another post, that this just inspired me to do another animation.  The last one I did came out well, but it took so long, that I got burned out, but this makes it look so easy, I am going to give it another go!

Answer = Other peoples creations, driving me to improve!

Battle Elf by ghid:

http://youtu.be/cS-Jq_yYPnQ

here's an example from me

the music - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LniY0pDQGaE

the renders in progress

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2060/2366367131_da876a8d70_b.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3123/2733592352_e661b97841_b.jpg

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3253/2787865423_1b05b19d83_b.jpg

a project thats been going on for years... and I probably will still be working on when I'm 90...

also

the Music - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1EF3C276EF8DAD42

the Model

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7111/6851440102_7aa41c4f44_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/6997564379_9e354a1181_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7252/6997564651_2168a4ef99_b.jpg

(actual poser render, 2 lights, IBL / AO, BB Sphere)

What inspires me?  It depends.

Songs will sometimes create an image in my head.
Unforgiven II - Metallica

Themes such as Vampyres:
Marcioness
Marquis of Night

Movies:
The Last Ship - Elrond's Doom

Spiritual Feelings and Emotions/Moods:
Life and Love
Blue Angel

Eras (1920's)/Burlesque and book covers:
Flapper
Tess - Think Pink
Burlesque
All That Jazz!
Leather and Feathers

The kid in me:
Mystical Dreams
Dueling Divas

Cute Models/Characters:
Blending In
Too Sexy!
Play Time!
Private Dancer

Lately one of my favourite thing to do is look through book sites at book covers and the titles.  Lots of times I find a book title where the cover seems completely wrong to me.  So I do an image that I feel is more fitting of the title.  Tons and tons of inspiration there.

I also get inspired by gifts given to me.

I'm not one to just be able to sit down at the computer and "create!"  If I'm not inspired by something, no matter how hard I try, my brain won't produce anything artsy,   LOL

Quote - also

the Music - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1EF3C276EF8DAD42

 

the Model

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7111/6851440102_7aa41c4f44_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/6997564379_9e354a1181_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7252/6997564651_2168a4ef99_b.jpg

 

(actual poser render, 2 lights, IBL / AO, BB Sphere)

I love your models, quite steamish!  I"m learning to model, so this is quite inspiring.  The detail is so delightful!

H. R. Geiger and his biomechanoids at the moment :)

Everything and anything inspires me. Both technically and artistically. Like with my latest projects... Got bored during a flight delay recently, started sketching and I'm now slowly making a model airport. All this 'be happy it's the olympics' stuff got me into making very silly spoof robot freebies. Even being asked to implement some new hardware at a musuem lead me into creating poser holograms, working xray machines and other fun stuff.

For the most part it is songs and stories that inspire me, if that is the right word.  For example the most recent addition to my gallery came from hearing "Wish you could be here" from the Seekers, a tune from long ago which I enjoyed at the time and had forgotten.  The render has a Sci-Fi theme but the motivation came from way in the past.

More recently stories have also been part of it as I have rediscovered reading, now I find I have the time, as I work part time.  Often I will read a chapter and a vivid picture will suddenly appear in my thoughts and sometimes stick.  I then find I have to attempt to bring it to life in a render, on rare occasions I do finish up with something I actually like.

I also look at the galleries, both 3d and photographic, here and while I do not attempt to re-create them I sometimes take the grain of an idea from two or three and see if I can come up with something different.

Quote - As for Poser art, I look through the Gallery here and try to duplicate the masters.  There is one in particular that seems to have gone missing from My Favorites, but it was the first artwork that made me decide to actually try to reproduce it. (It is from about 2003, with a single female figure, a grandfather clock, and lit with green.)

Just finished going through 636 pages from the Gallery archives and did not find it.  Will look some more later. :-

I'm an avid roleplayer, so most of my images are of my RP characters and their stories.  Sometimes it's an image to memorialize a particularly noteworthy scene, sometimes just an image showing a snapshot of their life to help give a sense of their character, and sometimes just portraits for use in forum avatars and signatures.

I do try to pull from other sources of inspiration such as music and story characters whenever I can just to shake things up.  Sadly my last few attempts ended up tossed on the "I'm too frustrated to work on this anymore" pile and haven't left it.

There is an image I've been dying to try but I think it would be fun if we all did it (maybe). I'm inspired by an old english ballad from the 15th century called The Daemon Lover. The pdf with the ballad is here on page 6. The pdf is from Rutger's University and is free to download. The ballad itself is long in the public domain.

My original inspiration was a song by Superwolf of the same name. Same story ;).

Lemme know what ya think.

Laurie

Quote - Everything and anything inspires me. Both technically and artistically. Like with my latest projects... Got bored during a flight delay recently, started sketching and I'm now slowly making a model airport. All this 'be happy it's the olympics' stuff got me into making very silly spoof robot freebies. Even being asked to implement some new hardware at a musuem lead me into creating poser holograms, working xray machines and other fun stuff.

Wow Mr. Sparky.. that's some sale you guys have going.  counts the hours until she gets paid

Quote - I'm an avid roleplayer, so most of my images are of my RP characters and their stories.  Sometimes it's an image to memorialize a particularly noteworthy scene, sometimes just an image showing a snapshot of their life to help give a sense of their character, and sometimes just portraits for use in forum avatars and signatures.

I do try to pull from other sources of inspiration such as music and story characters whenever I can just to shake things up.  Sadly my last few attempts ended up tossed on the "I'm too frustrated to work on this anymore" pile and haven't left it.

I'm a gamer/rper too, but I haven't had a game to play in awhile.  Kinda looking forward to Guild Wars 2 though, the art in that game is astounding.

Wow Mr. Sparky.. that's some sale you guys have going. counts the hours until she gets paid If you mean the Jubilee one, that's now over and theres a just a me running things now. But theres still some great deals there and over the next few weeks I'll be adding some new bundles. Though when depends on when I finish off more stuff on the big project detailed on the art installations pages. Doing that means learning skills, as well as combining existing ones, so it's been really inspiring. Especially all the possiblitys and new ways to use and display poser stuff. One of those rare jobs that inspires, is enjoyable and pays :)

Quote - Wow Mr. Sparky.. that's some sale you guys have going. counts the hours until she gets paid If you mean the Jubilee one, that's now over and theres a just a me running things now. But theres still some great deals there and over the next few weeks I'll be adding some new bundles. Though when depends on when I finish off more stuff on the big project detailed on the art installations pages. Doing that means learning skills, as well as combining existing ones, so it's been really inspiring. Especially all the possiblitys and new ways to use and display poser stuff. One of those rare jobs that inspires, is enjoyable and pays :)

So the 10 for $10 bucks isn't going?  It's still advertised on the site and just started on the 20th?  Was it a one day deal?

So the 10 for $10 bucks isn't going? It's still advertised on the site and just started on the 20th? Was it a one day deal? Don't worry thats ones still there and will be for some time.

Quote - So the 10 for $10 bucks isn't going? It's still advertised on the site and just started on the 20th? Was it a one day deal? Don't worry thats ones still there and will be for some time.

Oh, fantastic.. some quite different stuff there.. the evil looking forge is entirely inspiring, to me!

Life the universe and everything.

I write books.  Nearly all of my renders derive from scenes I've written.  This was the reason I started using Poser 3, all those years ago . . .

This is my latest inspired render from "Life in the Fast Lane" By the Eagles.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2341630

Hope you all like it!  Shows my soon to be released add-on for the Veepster with police packages.  (Shameless Plug )   Still working out the lighting effects, but getting better for the cruisers. 

music (an ancient render):

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=104543

igor amelkovich:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2287724

hobbies:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2248042

the rest is all pinups. i dont really consider myself an artist, i just make stuff :)

Maybe I'm strange, but I started with Poser making dragon renderings for a company logo and product packaging.

Later it became a hobby, and I enjoy supplementing my RPGs with images.

I also write and illustrate some of it with renders.

It could be said that seeking external inspiration suggests there's not much inside oneself to do the job.

I'm coming to think the only real art comes from the 6 year olds in my class with crayons and colour pencils who produce works they can explain to me in minute detail, and something that's intimately and significantly meaningful in their lives. I'd like to see some try to explain the meaningless shite they put in the galleries they call art, and others give them 50 favourites for. Only adults need external inspiration (the ideas of others) , and that's a sad state of affairs.

When music creates images in my head they usually end up in an animation.

And sometimes models and objects just jump out of the Library when I walk it through again and ask to be placed together in a scene, so they end up in a still. I like the Roger Rabbit way: toons in a real looking world, or real looking chars in a toon world.

Anyway, I'm still learning techniques so every now and then I pick a photo and try to recreate it, using Poser, Vue or what.

Quote - It could be said that seeking external inspiration suggests there's not much inside oneself to do the job.

seeking, perhaps.  ie: "i want to make something... hmm.. let me go look at what others are making for inspiration".

but unless you live in a bubble and cut yourself completely off from media/society, youre inevitably going to be inspired by something or other.

Quote - > Quote - It could be said that seeking external inspiration suggests there's not much inside oneself to do the job.

seeking, perhaps.  ie: "i want to make something... hmm.. let me go look at what others are making for inspiration".

but unless you live in a bubble and cut yourself completely off from media/society, youre inevitably going to be inspired by something or other.

This.  Even wild birds have their songs influenced and modified by other bird calls.

In the case of children painting things that are of great importance to them, well isn't that exactly what inspiration is?  They may be able to summarize their work in seconds, most likely because they haven't enough life experience to draw on.  The more we know, the more we consider things and the more influences we acquire.  It's just a difference of degree, not type.

Okay... so talking art and inspiration... I can do that

A lot of the same sort of symbolism and mythology is inspiring my Poser renders as used to inspire my oil painting... I'm also inspired by the human body and, in particular, how that juxtaposes with the rest of the natural, animal world... and also, with the artificial, architectural and electro-mechanical world we've built around ourselves.

But with Poser, and just with age, I'm less reserved about using stuff that might be considered less "high-art" or isn't so abstracted from popular culture... and I'm taking inspiration from the Sci-fi and fantasy I have always, previously, been into more on the side of my artwork... and it's therefore a lot more fun really... and I'm getting far more into developing some sort of underlying suggestion of narrative too

Yeah... I definitely take a lot of inspiration from the work of others.

A habit I picked up from art college... apparently all the "great" artists did it, to varying extents

Also, yeah, Laurie... I'd be up for trying something on that "Daemon Lover" theme in due course...

I'd like to see some try to explain the meaningless shite they put in the galleries they call art, Well that all depends on your defination of art. Take a NVITWAS as an example, some consider that art, others call it dress up fantasy barbie. Or even that the artists "talent" depends on how much someone can afford to spend on stuff from RNDA. ..apparently all the "great" artists did it, to varying extents Yep and a lot of great artists didn't paint their own paintings either. Especially in the renaissance, where nipping out for a bit of quick hedonism often badly affected the workflow, so they had assistants for that. Shame poser art ain't like that :) but unless you live in a bubble and cut yourself completely off from media/society, youre inevitably going to be inspired by something or other. Yep and it's often the blending of different things, even techologys, that leads to new ideas. Like recently just using projectors and media players (rather than monitors) has inspired me into getting into totally different areas. Even simple things, such how a colour such as black can change when projected, has lead to new ways of working.

Quote - It could be said that seeking external inspiration suggests there's not much inside oneself to do the job.

I'm coming to think the only real art comes from the 6 year olds in my class with crayons and colour pencils who produce works they can explain to me in minute detail, and something that's intimately and significantly meaningful in their lives. I'd like to see some try to explain the meaningless shite they put in the galleries they call art, and others give them 50 favourites for. Only adults need external inspiration (the ideas of others) , and that's a sad state of affairs.

Kids are influenced by other kids.  When I was in elementary school (about age 7 or 8), all the children in my class painted the sky as a single blue stripe at the top of the page.  They mocked me because I came from another country where we painted the sky blue all the way to the horizon. They also painted teeth as perfectly white grids, and houses with the perspective incorrect -- and all painted them incorrectly in precisely the same way.

Social pressure to conform and bullying extends to art, and kids are far from excluded.  This is why the public posts of adults are so unoriginal and repetitive, and why real art (if I may dare use the term) requires a degree of stubborness and rebellion that would no doubt be "treated" with medication today.

Quote - Social pressure to conform and bullying extends to art, and kids are far from excluded.  This is why the public posts of adults are so unoriginal and repetitive, and why real art (if I may dare use the term) requires a degree of stubborness and rebellion that would no doubt be "treated" with medication today.

I was just thinking yesterday that AstraZenica sounds like an alien planet, its inhabitants, or something they have or do. :)

I get a lot of inspiration from the forest, from my days past in the land of text-based RPG. And sometimes, I'm nt really sure where the stuff comes from.

Quote - Yep and a lot of great artists didn't paint their own paintings either. Especially in the renaissance, where nipping out for a bit of quick hedonism often badly affected the workflow, so they had assistants for that. Shame poser art ain't like that :)

Well, I'd never get very far in the limited time I have without the assistance of Bagginsbill, Snarlygribbly and many others on the shader front...

...and a whole lot more folk, your good self included, in terms of all the "ready-made" meshes, morphs, textures and poses I use as the basis of my Poser artwork

Well, I'd never get very far in the limited time I have... Yep and thats the rub with CG - with painting and sketching it takes seconds to create something. With photography, a click of a button. But with CG even a simple shape - like a smiley mouth - can take hours to get right. So I think using premade objects on that alone, rather than creating from scratch, is more than valid. Moreso if the artistic message is in the image not the meduim as (for example as often within sculpture). CG is democratic as well, it allows those without technical skills to create art. So they can concentrate on stuff like composistion and form. Even for those who can draw/paint, it allows to you work around your limitations, like I'm crap at drawing feet. I also like how quick and easy it is to combine with other media and technnology. Though where it lies though can be tricker to answer. My view is it's like photography - but where you define all the elements, but what does everyone else think?

When I used to make oil paintings, the bigger, more conceptual works were composed based on collages of magazine cuttings... not unlike the techniques used by the more famous American artist, David Salle.

So the figures, their poses... often sub-compositions of elements within the overall composition, were a form of ready-made.

Hence I kind of see a direct lineage between my former painting based artwork and what I'm now starting out doing in Poser.

Dada and surrealist artists of course touted the notion of making art from ready-mades... and the idea of artistic bricolage (DIY)... all sorts of notions around that emanate from those movements I guess.

But then I suppose many of the renaissance period artists, and onwards, tended to borrow hugely from classical compositions, sculpture, etc...

I would argue that what matters, in art, is communicating an idea... and that could be anything... art, as I see it, can be for the sake of telling a story, communicating a more abstract concept or emotion or indeed for the sake of presenting a groundbreaking technique. Or it could be political or religious... etc.

So the question is maybe not so much for me what does constitute art, but rather what doesn't... of course there's plenty that I'd say isn't art... but I'd fine it almost impossible to categorically define how I make that judgement I reckon :unsure:

Two things generally inspire me:

1.  Random thoughts.

2.  My love of boobies.

lol, boobies

for me these days it's curiosity.  trying something to see how it will come out.  enamored of 20 bounces, luving to see difference it might make.

Quote - Two things generally inspire me:  Thoughts of random boobies.

Fixed it for you. :)

Quote - My view is it's like photography - but where you define all the elements, but what does everyone else think?

Yes, I think CG art is more like photography than anything else -- even down to the App Wars, which remind me a bit of Nikon vs Canon.  If I want to do some still life, I can go to a garden that someone else planted and photograph there in more or less natural light, or I can buy some flowers from a florist (maybe re-arrange them, maybe not), use a DIY lightbox, or buy a pre-made one, take a few hundred shots, from different angles, with different lights, adding elements such as other plants, fruit, whatever.

The magic (I won't say art) -- that is to say, whatever it is that separates one really crappy shot of precisely the same elements from an outstanding one -- is in a whole series of choices, some minuscule.

Than again, an oil painting is also a whole series of choices made with stuff (paints, canvas, brushes) that someone else (probably) created.  I can paint with oil, but the result won't be very noteworthy because I don't have the experience, learning, or skill to make a satisfying combination of choices.

And artists using traditional media commonly use reference photos.

I think the differnce is that to gain a modest degree of skill takes a lot less time in both photography and CG.  You can make pictures that looks recognizable without really knowing what you're doing, and a lot of the result will be dependant on the quality of the tools you use.  There's a lower barrier to entry.

Drawing something even moderately well takes a helluva lot more practice -- at least, it did for me -- and if you don't continue to practice, like speaking a foreign language, the skill can vanish over time.

Quote - And artists using traditional media commonly use reference photos.

I have a couple dozen books in the "How to Draw Manga" series I bought just for the sample poses and suggested clothing with the intent of using same as source material for Poser.