I was wondering if anyone here had advice for producing renders from Vue Infinite 6 that have a children's illustrated book look. What settings or approaches might work. And will I need to postwork in Photoshop. If so, what do I do there? Any help or advice appreciated.

hi regaltwo,

Hopefully someone will be able to answer if its possible to get that look right outta vue...

if you look through my gallery, you'll find some examples of where i turned my renders, either from vue or poser, into an illustrated style - all via photoshop and post-working.

i can only give you a basic guideline, and you'll find that not all images will work with this..

1. correct your levels/brightness contrast/etc
2. do any "healing" or "cloning" or whatever, to make your image look as good as you can get it, do any postwork, etc.
3. now comes the fun part - when the image is everything you want (except illustrated), its time to utilize the power of your layer pallet.  assuming you know how to use layers... create a new empty layer.  (shortcut - Control-Alt-Shift-N), then you want to "stamp visible" onto that layer.  The only way i can remember how to do that particular step is the keyboard shortcut - Control-Alt-Shift-E
4. Duplicate that layer and name it "Copy" (to keep track)
   Make sure "copy" is on top, go to image-adjustments-desaturate, or Shift-Control-U - this will remove the color.
5. Filter - Stylize - Find Edges (you will not find this one in the filter window that pops up, look in the filter menu at the top of photoshop for it LOL)  This will turn it into a white background with a bunch of gray and black edges. (i usually duplicate this layer and make the original invis for the next step, in case i mess something up LOL)
6. Filter-Blur-Guassian Blur - a VERY small amount, just enough to soften the lines - usually no more than 3 or 4 pixels, depending on the size of your image.
7. on your layers pallet, at the top is a drop-down clickable box that typically reads "normal" - click on it.  I try out a variety of these layer blending styles to get what I want, adjusting opacity as needed as well.  My usual ones are "darken", "Multiply", and "Overlay" for the illustrated appearance.
8. Now, do another new layer on top, then stamp visible (control-shift-alt-e), or duplicate the layer you just used the blending mode on, and then change the mode/opacity whatever to suit.  You can leave it at this if you like, or you can softly blur this one as well, and do another of the layer blending styles.  Sometimes, this will create even more vivid and rich colors - other times, it ends up a disaster, so just delete the layer if you dont like it.

Anyways, thats the basics of how i do it...  as i said, it's not 100% foolproof, but with practice, you'll figure out the best way to achieve your goal with any image.  Or at least i keep telling myself that ;)

You can also look up tutorials online on turning "normal" images into "illustrated" ones using photoshop.  I'd also suggest reading up on the layer blending modes - they are a very powerful tool. =D

Best of luck, and hope this helps some!
~Meli

Thanks. Appreciate the tips. I'll give it a shot.

as Meilikia so expertly says! ;)
or you can use "actions" (some in Rendo marketplace I use), or plugins.

here's my tutorial on "cartooning" images
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/17.html
and I have several on postwork
:)

LOl, silver - yeah, can use actions or plugins... but i'm what's known as a micromanager... i love to control every littttle detail... cant do that with plugins and actions ;)  (although, if photoshop 64bit worked with plugins... i'd be all over some of them out there)

my method isn't foolproof by any means... there's some images i've yet to be able to turn into a good-looking illustration-style, although i keep trying.  the technique is also a WIP... and just a general guideline... there's a ton of things you can do to get that look, and i've used a variety of means to achieve it, some of them simple and to the point, others took many many hours and lots of experimenting.  Its like any guide on postworking techniques will tell you - EVERY image is different... so "your miles may vary" lol.

Regaltwo - i do suggest reading through Silver's tutorials... they're great =D

thats why I have shortcuts ot 32 and 64 bit Photoshop..it installs both, so I normally use 32 bit with me plguins!! ;)

Once I accidentlaly created a relaly nice look, it was done in paint shop pro iirc, but sure photoshop cna do same as there's little PS has that PSP doesn't
was experimenting and can't reclal how I did this, sigh

from THIS

using levels, and other functions (not a plugin, just straight functions inside PSP)
I got THIS

And thanks! :)