My first attempt at painting in some blood. This is just a test on a 600x render, the final will be a MUCH larger render. Anyway...I'm not sure if it looks real enough to me. What do you guys think? Any suggestions to make it look better? (PS 5.5 btw) Thanks, -Kage

Nice job, your techneque is perfect. One thing though you should keep in mind is that blood (For lack of beter word) is a 3D object, and is effected by lighting and light and shadows in the same way as the armor and figure is. it is also somewhat transparant when it is thin. Take what you have, and varry the shades of red to make some areas lighter than others and also add slight highlights. You want to do this while keeping the direction of the primary light in mind. once again though you technique is fantastic. If I were you I would paint it right on to the texture map and create a bumpmap to bring it out a little. Hope that helps. Regards -Gabe-

Blood running down the arm wouldn't hurt either. -Gabe-

Um, I thought there wasn't much blood until you pulled out the arrow (dagger, spear, whatever)? Blood is only bright red for a few minutes while it is runneling fresh. Then it goes rather rusty thanks to the reaction of iron and oxygen. Carolly

Get Eyecandy 4000 for Photoshop. It has a really slick drip filter with a lot of different settings, and if you use this texture for that drip, youll find that (with a little help) it can come out really badass. But filters and plug-ins aside, you really should get that blood darker. I dont care if its in front of a spotlight at the Oscars, florescent lighting, or just a MagLight with its batteries on the way out the door and not coming back anytime soon. Blood is dark. Hell, blood from a human liver alone is all but black. A color example of that would be #1B0202 (that says "#1B0202"; for all of you with bad eyes or monitors :-). As you can see I'd like to give a Pepsi challenge and see how many people say its not black. Normal blood color on the other hand is usually in the range of #600303 and #840505, though there are always variances. Stay tuned for other worthless pieces of information from yours truly...

I like it. By the way... what reflection map are you using? That's spiffy!

Hum Wow im stund ,hehehe,Nice pic kage ,ah nice curves and the valley is done real well,Greaat job Kage

Beautiful. Like stepping back into the old days of Hollywood. Just gorgeous Kage! I love the hair and eyes. Again, your lighting is fantastic! =)

IMHO the blood looks good. I agree it should be darker and normally you do not get a lot of bleeding while the object is still stuck in the wound as Carolly pointed out. Also, where the wound is through armour, most of the bleeding will occur underneath and will trail out at the joints and seems etc. However, never let reality stand in the way of good art. I have posed figures taken from pictures of people and animals caught in motion - the pose in the render is identical to the pose in the real life photo and I have had folks tell me the pose looks fake and that animals/people do not move that way, etc. Truth is sometime the hardest thing about Art (and Photography) I think is making the natural look natural. Rob

It's just beautiful Kage. But she looks so sad. Like she's been crying. Your images in this project are so fascinating, in how she looks, poses, and what she is thinking. This one truly looks like she has been weeping, and now, has come to terms with whatever made her cry. Just beautiful! =)

well still would do more myself but you can see it comming together