I simply pull an imaginary line, perpendicular to his face, at eye level, but you're right 😊

If I do this again, it would be from James' point of view more, so that her in the air like that would look majestic. And I would use a wind generator to make her clothing fan out from her, like they did with Sigourney Weaver in Ghost Busters. This was kind of the same concept, but a little more subdued.

I might try to create a blank around her to give off an aura. Seachnasaigh taught me how to do that.

primorge posted at 2:52 PM Sun, 25 September 2022 - #4445250

As a conversational aside, knowing that you use Wings mostly, I just downloaded the latest version and it performs way better than whatever version I was using. Maybe I accidentally installed the 32 bit version last time because this installation is like night and day above what I had installed. Very nice. The forced drag docking of the UV editor was driving me crazy, solved in this version. Plus graphically much prettier. I was a bit worried about Wings for a minute there, I mean it's getting buried by Blender but for some things it's just much faster.

Anyway.

When I said "compose" earlier I meant putting the landscapes together. Not making them. So for instance you could take a few smaller grassy rocks and such and combine them together so that the textures aren't so obviously pixelated. See what I'm saying?

I downloaded the latest version and I will install it as a separate program in case I don't like it, and will go back to 2.1.5 after I mess with it.

I tried to just do a render with the ground plane hidden and using the ezdome. The only other thing in the render is V4 and a throw away prop dress I made trying out the latest version of Wings 3D

I will work on better textures for the dress and maybe use it as the final angel in the dark scene I have been messing with.

So i noticed that there are a lot more "photo realistic" images showing up on DA. But every one of them has the same issue. Most people have body hair. Sometimes it's very hard to see, but it's there. These images are lacking that. Most are made by DAZ artists. And they look pretty good at a quick glance. A second look and you can tell it's 3D art and not a real person. And closer examination, especially in full nude shots where the sun would reveal the body hair... nada.

So while trying to do a sunlight shining through hair thing, I decided not to put her costume on her, but then changed my mind and did it in post.

The results were kind of thought provoking...

But in reality, I want to know if this is a convincing sunshine through the hair render, or do I have to revisit this?

I hope someone is still following this thread. There hasn't been a response in days...

The problem is that outfit does not have any texture and it is misaligned.  But then you did say it was post work.

Not sure where the sun is in relation to her. Obviously, it's behind her. At the moment, it seems to be closer to the horizon, maybe level with her shoulders. If that's the case, it looks good. If it's higher, you need more light shining on the upper portion of her head.

Yeah, I am going to add a spot light behind her. Maybe it's the hair figure too. It might not be made to have light shine through it like real hair would. I wonder if strand based hair would work better?

The problem is that outfit does not have any texture and it is misaligned.  But then you did say it was post work.

I threw the fake costume on her just to cover her up and focus the attention on the hair...

Messing with a concept. I might have overdone it a bit...

I will keep trying different approaches until I find one that I like. Then I will do the Supergirl scene with that.

Nice scenario.  I'm interested in how it will play out.

I have been experimenting with a different type of HDRI that renders more like an IDL.  This came about when I was searching the internet and came across a download offering that turned out to be a dead-link.  The process involves converting an HDRI into a diffuse or specular convoluted HDR that illuminates the environment with radiance lighting.  Below is your typical background HDR with SASHA-19, and SSS skin textures.  The render is sub-optimal because subsurface scatter interacts very severely with the HDR which is 4k, BTW.

This next image has the same HDR diffuse convoluted in HDRShop (this can also be done in Picturenaut) and is rendered under the same conditions, nothing else has changed in the scene.  The lighting is even throughout the scene.  Notice no fireflies.  Graininess resulting from HDR lighting; just need more pixel sampling.

The last image in this series was rendered with an HDR Specular Convoluted image, again nothing else was changed with exception of the background image based on the original.  The skin is reflecting more light than the second render but is softer.  

There are benefits to using these convoluted HDR-based lighting, IDL-type, soft-light rendering that can be applied to a studio setting or an environment that does not show any background with the exception of objects or structures.  You can embellish the scene with your own lights, as well.

Cool stuff. I may have to look into that.

The image I did above is for the Supergirl vs Kara scene I have been putting together. I am trying out different elements before I commit to the actual project. This scene is homage to Superman 3 and the fight between Superman and Clark Kent, which ends with Clark opening his shirt to reveal the cleaner, brighter version of the suit.

Can you share how to even start converting to this format you mention please? 

Unfortunately, HDRShop is no longer available, if you can manage to find it from a 3rd party site, grab it.  I recommend Picturenaut 3, it's a lightweight HDRShop app with some great features.  In addition, pick up Bany's Toolkit plugins, which contain the necessary filter for Diffuse Convolution.  The website you want to go to is HDRLabs.com and both are available for free.  I will continue demonstrations later, I am rushed to eat and get the grandchild to Karate.

Thanks sir, I shall look tonight, I got family stuff too, kid just got home from cooking club.

Once you install Picturenaut 3 onto your system (download from HDRLabs.com) and added the Banty's Toolkit plugins to the appropriate folder (download the same place), open the program and either open an HDRI or drag & drop the image into the view window.  As illustrated below, navigate to the Filter tab on the toolbar above, open the contextual menu, and select HDR Shop and scroll down to Diffuse Sh SSE.  

That is a very gorgeous soft light indeed; just running a tester with a converted convoluted diffuse image, no other lights. Will play with different HDRIs...thank you for sharing!

The following description window will pop up; click OK.

Now I'm running into a little problem trying to get Picturenaut to convert the image, it flags an error and refuses to proceed with the calculations.  It's frustrating because it works in HDRShop.

Hm, it worked fine for me. 

Cool.  Could you screencap your results?

Never mind, got it to work.

I am at work atm, but can post some stuff in the evening. Glad you managed to get it to work. 

I downloaded Picturenaut. I haven't tried it yet.

But I did manage to get this render done. Another concept. There are no lights in this scene and I had to tone down the EzDome lights because this particular HDRI was whiting out the scene.

Where did you get this HDR?  If it's royalty-free, I can download it and take a look.  It's easier to make suggestions if I have something to examine.

hborre posted at 11:23 AM Fri, 30 September 2022 - #4445570

Where did you get this HDR?  If it's royalty-free, I can download it and take a look.  It's easier to make suggestions if I have something to examine.

I will check out my scene and see if I can get the name of the HDR, so you can get it.

Work in progress on what will be the final Supergirl costume and I am going to use Sydney because I found her so much easier to work with. Mainly because she already has conforming clothing that I can tweak to work and don't have to model anything. See the above render.

The nice thing about this is that I can lose the skirt and make the cape and boots to make her New 52, but I don't think I will. She is wearing a singlet under that skirt which would easily adopt to the New 52 suit with a new texture map and some good bump maps and masks.

So she has a cape. Of course I will be posing her with wind generators and the whole thing, so it will look better than it does. It actually drapes really nicely.

Beefy-looking thighs.  Well-developed for a superhero.

Yeah, who knew that Sydney's FBM's were pretty decent. I also have a set of morphs for her that were gifted to me. I added one to beef her up a bit, as well as adjust her breasts. I will be working on the boots today. I am not sure which route I will take with those. Probably something similar to what Melissa Benoist's Supergirl wore until they switched to the body suit. That way, I will have the option of making them fit for New 52 if I go that route.

I will post a nude image so you can see what her body looks like without the suit covering up the details.

Ok, so she isn't completely nude. She has the Kara Danvers glasses on...

Here is the final versions:

Here is?

Grammar...

Anyway, I did a test. I think I am going to run the cloth sim on the cape again. I don't like it. Thoughts?

Have you tried the Wind fan?

I agree, add a wind fan. Or try one of the modifiers like a wave.

I did use the wind generator. But I didn't set it up properly.

I redid the pose and redid the cape sim:

It looks pretty good.  Is that strand hair you're using for the scene?

It looks pretty good.  Is that strand hair you're using for the scene?

I will just adjust her expression and then I'll be happy with it.

Finally got it to where I want it. I even managed to get a decent sun through the hair thing. So I guess I can start modeling the breakaway wall. I have to figure out the best way to do it with WIngs. I have a tutorial on how to do something in blender, but I can't model with blender yet.

This is definitely shaping up.