Anyway, I decided to  do three book covers just to give myself some ideas of the cover art and what the titles should look like and I'd like your opinion.

This is the first cover version.

I like #3. It keeps the title from distracting from the scene.

I have more than a few tweaks to make on the art work. When I wlittle I used to read these books that had illustrations of some scenes in them. I'm thinking of going that route too.

Quote - I have more than a few tweaks to make on the art work. When I wlittle I used to read these books that had illustrations of some scenes in them. I'm thinking of going that route too.

I remeber those books and have had thoughts of doing a similar thing for a few years now but it is something I have never found the time to do, maybe a future project.

With the tools at at peoples disposal these days I am surprised so few books have illustrations of any sort. 

In this instance maybe Bryce was not the best choice. The composition is up to you but the images are obviously CGI, and we do not want that in cover art. The main problems are that there a lack of atmospheric regression and the volume of the lower part of the dress and the poor detail on the female hair. Work on those and you have a winner.

For the artwork it's looking a bit Poser-ish, I agree with the comment about her hair.  The lighting in the backround image looks pretty interesting, slanting down through the trees like that, but the light on the characters is really flat. Why not use the death-ray thing as the main light source, so the fronts of the characters are lit up and their backs are dark? I think that would add to the drama.

I hope you don't mind, I fiddled with your image in photoshop a bit, it's a bit extreme perhaps (and the guy on the right is disappearing), but I think you get the idea.

I think it is worth taking some pointers from the masters: google "frazetta" and take a look at his paintings, he always pulls your eye into the action, using things like strong contrast and detail, and then he flattens out the detail elsewhere so you don't get distracted by it.

Honestly, I don't care much for any of them.  They all say "Hey look! There's a Poser render on this cover!"  If you can't tell it's a Poser render, it'll look a million times better.

Maybe postworking it to death would help.  OBM's suggestions are all good.  I'd also consider a different font, or at least a different colour for the title.  The red looks, quite honestly, manky.  It's that horrible pinky/purply/reddish thing that can't quite make up its mind what colour it is.  It may not work but I'd at least try some kind of shiny black marble effect with a fairly obvious bevel.  Yes, it's hackneyed but then, it's a fantasy story, so...  

It's extremely difficult to reproduce a painting with Poser, but I think a lot can be done with some careful postwork before you add the text.

It needs awesome lighting and Frazetta poses.

Quote - It needs awesome lighting and Frazetta poses.

Yeah, I didn't take too much time with it. But the point was that if you took the time, it could be done.

No.  I mean EClark's.  And yes, I do judge books by their covers.  :)

Quote - No.  I mean EClark's.  And yes, I do judge books by their covers.  :)

Silly me....

the daylight version needs some shadows where the bloke is standing and his feet meet the ground ie shadows on the ground.

I agree about everyone elses comments.  I've taken to postworking wrinkle's and folds.  I like kurt lundquist's artwork - would make excellent covers.  he does lots of postwork and sometimes no poser at all, but the poser ones with postwork would be more what we would all do I would think.

checkouthis gallery though.

Love eshte

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/full.php?image_id=2440352

I myself dislike 3d renders for Covers. It needs to be really well done or stylized in order to work. And that font used is no good. Also eliminate the stroke on the words. Typography can say alot about a book. It is just as important as the image used. Sometimes a plain font can even work, but it must be the right one.

To me the font looks like a comic book.(this is for eclarks cover)

I'm looking more at the last 2 because the first one looks squished to me and I don't want to comment on something that is only there because of the distortion

The poses look very calm. I'm assuming this is suposed to be a fight, or an attack, but man with the cape is just standing still there doesn't seem to be any threat  or responce from him. The other 2 also lack drama. They need more movement.The swordsman looks almost like he's playing baseball.

The shine on her hair isn't right. It looks plastic.

The guy being attacked is too hidden by the spell. I'm not even 100% sure if it is a man though his waist and clothes do seem to be. Maybe that's intentional? Don't want to give away who it is too soon?

Also both men are cut off but there is a big empty space in the middle. Seeing more of the swordsman might help the pose look better.

But it's not all bad.

The background really looks good. I like the rays of light in the trees.

I do see folds in the skirt which do seem natural on a heavy cloth.

The swordsman's hair looks very good, lifelike.

A handy guide for anyone making renders, taking pictures, video taping, illustration:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

I am operating under the assumption that these were just quick renders to get some ideas flowing.

Quote - Anyway, I decided to  do three book covers just to give myself some ideas of the cover art and what the titles should look like and I'd like your opinion.

With that in mind, I humbly submit this for your consideration. It was a couple hours work and I used 4 different programs to arrive at the final image.

Since I don't have the characters or props that you have, I used Sydney, Ryan, the midieval clothing for Ryan, a gown I made for Sydney, and Dryjack's cottage ruins. The woods behind are just a background image. The titles and other text were added in Microsoft Office Powerpoint.

Oh yeah... postwork done in GIMP for the spell casting effects. And I forgot to mention the scythe was from Merlin (?)...

You need to make your name bigger and more obvious.  This is particularly important for e-books. In general, simpler is better.  Best of luck to you, sir!

“With the tools at peoples disposal these days I am surprised so few books have illustrations of any sort.”

I’m pretty sure that production costs have been a factor, don’t know how much they would be with digital stuff today. Also, there’s a lot to be said for leaving things to the reader’s imagination. Imagining how the characters, settings etc. look is part of the fun of reading IMO.. If I were going to illustrate, I’d limit it to perhaps one image to introduce each chapter and maybe a two page centerpiece. I might also limit portraying the characters and too much detail of the main elements, leaving those to the reader to create their own and stick more to broad illustrations of the environment etc.

I do think that a Poser (or any 3D) cover may tend to ‘cheapen’ things a bit unless it’s really top notch. I would perhaps look for a decent 2D artist who could do something nice, maybe just/mainly for the exposure. I’s probably just individual taste but I think I would generally view a painted cover more favorably. The alternative, as has been mentioned, is a lot of judicious postwork to tone down the 3D look. One great advantage of digital publishing ( I assume) is that it can put the self-published author on more of an equal footing with more established authors. I’d want my cover to look as professional as possible. How much that affects sales I don’t know and tastes may be changing as well.

As Rokket assumed, the artwork so far was just to give me some idea  of what it would look like. It's far from a finished piece.

That said, I will take your points into consideration and give you another look soon.

Maybe I'm just not a big Frazetta fan. I mean, looks like some of DM's stuff would work for that look, but I'm not sure that's the kind of look I want.

EClark, hire someone to do the covers for you - http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?username=isikol

Quote - EClark, hire someone to do the covers for you - [ http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?username=isikol/quote] Wow!!! I would love to learn how he does it. He is a true Poser artist. I know there is a ton of post work done on those images, but even before all that, you have to get the lighting and composition right. Amazing stuff there.

Quote - > Quote - EClark, hire someone to do the covers for you - [ http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?username=isikol/quote] Wow!!! I would love to learn how he does it. He is a true Poser artist. I know there is a ton of post work done on those images, but even before all that, you have to get the lighting and composition right. Amazing stuff there.

 

Considering he does not rely on Poser alone, I would not call him a poser artist anymore then I would a PS artist.  But I will without a doubt call him a really good artist.

A good example of this is my cover for "Ceremonies and Celebrations." The text is beautiful in a full-sized book, but I sell 100 e-books for every paperback copy. If you want people to notice, the title of the book and your name must be prominent.

I'll post the e-book version in the next message. Please notice the difference between the two images. The e-book version is zoomed in, the text is larger and done in a contrasting color. This is REALLY important if you want to get noticed.

I'd have to second Mattymanx. Poser does, in theory, allow everyone to have access to the tools they need to do their own illustrations, but you need a certain gift and skillset in order to be able to do so at a professional level. If I saw any of these covers in a bookstore, I'd probably look because I'm a Poser user and I'd be morbidly fascinated, but to most people it just looks like really cheap CG (which it sorta is).

I think concept is important as well. Oftentimes, a cover doesn't necessarily depic a literal scene from the story. It may be a single element or stylized theme. It may be somewhat of a specialized art.

I think creating a cover for self published work in poser can work just fine. Have you explored options with some filters in the 2D programs for postwork? If you gave a little bit of a 3D element to the font and used a more subdued font color it might match the scene a little better.

Quote - I'd have to second Mattymanx. Poser does, in theory, allow everyone to have access to the tools they need to do their own illustrations, but you need a certain gift and skillset in order to be able to do so at a professional level. If I saw any of these covers in a bookstore, I'd probably look because I'm a Poser user and I'd be morbidly fascinated, but to most people it just looks like really cheap CG (which it sorta is).

If you want to see a professional cover artist who uses Poser and DS in their art, check out Kurt Miller (http://www.kmistudio.com). If you look at the cover art he's done the covers for "Claws That Catch", "Tau Ceti Agenda", "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" and a bunch of the others in his gallery have some very recognizable items for anyone who has been around Poser for a while.

I redid the cover a bit here.

Certainly looks a lot better.  The female figure is a definite improvement, although the fingers on the right hand look weird.  The male figure needs some heavy postwork on the clothes to give 'em some realistic wrinkles and folds.

I agree with one of the earlier posts about losing the stroke on the text, though.  Or, at least, lose it on the "by Earl Clark" bits and reduce it on the "Book One".  

Quote - The female figure is a definite improvement, although the fingers on the right hand look weird.

Using symetry and forgetting the mirror morphs. I do that ALL the time...

BTW, nice work Earl. Big improvement. I know by the time your book is released, you'll have it down.

I took a look at that Kurt Miller art work, and the one thing that I see prominent in his art that is missing in most of ours is perspective. His images have depth to them, which is missing in a lot of Poser renders. I am inclined to believe there is a lot of post work done with layers in PS or GIMP.

oh I like that pic so much better!! I agree you could just get the light and dark brush and maybe the smudge tool and make a few little wrinkles and folds on the clothes.  I don't agree that you have to do it heavily.  just one spot would draw the eye to it.

Ditto on tremendous improvement. Like Sam, I'd cut back on the text effect. Just my take, I might reduce the intensity of the spell effect on the right side, make it a bit more translucent. As it stands, it looks almost like a split screen to my eye.

The spell effect is actually part of a Particles Sampler I got from DAZ years ago, but you can tweak it a bit more.

The fingers was basically just an oversight on my part.

And the dress is the Morphing Fantasy Dress from DAZ. So I was using the morphs already included, but I thing I might give it a try in the Cloth room and see what happens.

I'll give the text another looksee too.

don't change the fingers too much as I quite like them.

Fixed the fingers on the female figure.

Evened out the spell effect around the girl.

And took his tunic and her dress into the cloth room.

Definitely getting better and better.  

The guy's tunic doesn't have enough creases and wrinkles, though.  In around the elbow and armpit where the fabric gets folded up and pulled about, there should be quite a bit more.

The word "Emissary" looks too fussy with the effect you have, for the size of the font.  

"The word "Emissary" looks too fussy with the effect you have, for the size of the font."

Agree on that - maybe one text effect to many. Rather than going for the gray, I'd try picking up some of the color of the spell effect and remove or tone down the embossed effect. The red outline really makes the title pop, maybe do that on the author part as well. As it stands, you have (4) white/red outline, white/black outline, gray embossed and grayish it looks like on Book One(?). Very nice overall though! * *

I would arrange the title differently. If I understand you, this is book one, about the female character, whom is referrred to as the Emissary.

To me, your book title should read like this:

Spellcaster

Book One

Emissary

Written the way you have it, this is book one of Spellcaster Emissary the way I read it. But maybe I am the only one to see it that way, and it's late at night and I should be asleep and .......

Other than the aforementioned wrinkles on the male clothing, and the effects on the word emissary, you have a very catchy book cover.

The text is more clear this way. I still think your name needs to be bigger, but kudos to you for persisting with this.

Quote - The text is more clear this way. I still think your name needs to be bigger, but kudos to you for persisting with this.

Okay, is that "bigger" as in larger, or as in more prominent, such as a different color so it doesn't get lost in the background?