The Skull Collector by theSea

DAZ|Studio • Fantasy • posted on Sep 27, 2008

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Description

Now it can be posted.... "The Skull Collector" was my entry in Blues Dragon's Frank Frazetta contest over at DAZ. I'm pleased beyond words as to how well it did. My goal with this piece was to do my own thing in a Frazetta-ish way and to try to execute my very best work from a technical and aestetic standpoint. DAZ Studio render - ~36 hour render time, mostly due to the raytraced shadows and the transmapped hair. Note that all test renders up to finals were done with 'cast shadows' turned off on the hair prop or with the shadow samples turned waaaay down to 2 or 4. Some postwork in Photoshop. Production credits: DAZ Victoria 4.2 with DM's "Nanette" textures and Omnifreaker's "'Elite' human skin shader." Hair is "Wild Hair" from RDNA and Pendragon's hair shader. Environment is "White Room" available from the Dreamlight Member's club and the the skulls are from DM's "Lost Land." Plants are from some DAZ and RNDA sets and the knife is a freebie from Questor over at DAZ. The outfit is Aery_Soul's "Classic Fantasy" with some materials work by yours truely. The gold and rubys were made up in DAZ studio and the leather uses AS's textures with surface settings tweaked with PwSurface. Ground texture is a seamless rock texture I got from somewhere with bump and specular maps. The actual ground prop is an MG heightfield prop, which lets you create geometry based on a displacement map. I made the map in Photoshop to give a bump up over the floor of the White Room prop. This image was inspired by some of Frank Frazetta's paintings where there is a white or simple background. The girl was 'created' by spinning Victoria's morph dials to give an iconically Frazetta-ish appearance. The largish hips and smaller bust are important, but so is the face, with its almost Anime big eyes, wide forhead, small mouth and chin and the pert nose. I also liked the dynamic look I was able to get with the 'Wild Hair.' Post work consisted of using a white mask of the background to even out the whitespace in the image and a LOT of color, saturation and hue adjustment in Photoshop. I tinkered with the colors a lot to get this to look a bit more illustrative and a little less CG, but the end result is still (I believe) very much in theSea's style with some Frazetta overtones. I did a little painting on the left foot to bring in some ambient occlusion that I felt was lacking in the final render as well. One of the very last things I did before final rendering was to turn the skulls so that they were all facing in the direction of the girl. This is a bit of a cheap compositional stunt - but it helps to pull the the lines in the image together and guide your eye around the image in the little journey I'm hoping you take when you look at it. My sincere thanks: to Frank Frazetta Jr, both for the time he spent judging the contast and his appreciation of my work, to BluesDragon for putting the whole thing together and to everyone who has taken the time to post comments here and at AZ on my work. It still amazes me to think that 31 months ago I'd never even heard of DAZ Studio and now; here we are. As always your comments and critique are very much appreciated.

Comments (49)

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scooby37

2:15PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Great work and well done in the contest.

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arcas

2:19PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Congrats on your win. Definitely one of the more skilled works in the winners' circle.

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alltheoriginalnames

2:30PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Love the pose and that expression especialy, shes got tons of attitude. Nice lighting and very crisp clean render. Very well done

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geirla

2:56PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Congratulations! Excellent job and thanks for all the explanation.

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AdamWright

3:17PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Wow! Awesome render!

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722

3:21PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

awesom work

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PapaSkip

3:47PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Excellent work! Great look to this!

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ontar1

3:50PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Wow, fantastic scene and character, very Frazetta like, excellent work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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kobaltkween

4:11PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

very clean and simple. it didn't actually make me think of Frazetta's work, but i can see all the elements. so it's a good balance of your work and his. very nice use of Wild Hair, but it's going through her left breast and seems to have no shadow. gorgeous materials, all of them. the ground especially has an interesting and appealing texture. her left arm has the problem i often encounter in similar poses. i'm not sure what to do about it, but the geometry definitely looks as if it intersects the body and bikini top. the asymmetry of her outfit is another of the compositional techniques you've wisely and skillfully employed. the touch of greenery contrasts well with the warm tones of her body and the tan of the skulls. the skin shader works well, though i think your own use of pwSurface might handle shadows better. i see in this a touch of the difficulties i always had with pwSurface in the shadows (too flat and grey), that i've always noticed your use of it avoided. great metal, and very good eyes. the shape of her hair is just perfect. very, very strong work.

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Timesurfer

4:45PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

this looks great!!!

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jmillz13

4:55PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

sexy!!! enough said!!

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LemyD

5:27PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Fantastic picture! Greetings Lemy

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dreamlord08

5:48PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Excellent work! 5+

dshield

6:20PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Great render! Well done in the contest. D

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DAVER2112

7:01PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Awesome!!!

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anitalee

7:27PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Excellent

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grafikeer

7:37PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Congrats...an excellent render and character...very much a Frazetta girl,with a contemporary spin...amazing detail and realism!

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dbrv6

8:08PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Congrats! Awsome work and extremly deserved. I definetly do not think turning the skulls is cheap its one of those small details that can really make an image.

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Shiroyama

8:30PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

beautiful work. a nice homage where your own style is still evident, fantastic textures and details. congratulations, it's well-deserved.

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Seaview123

9:07PM | Sat, 27 September 2008

Very sharp looking work, and you are a patient man... 36 hour render time! It's a great looking image, though, and Frank would have loved it. Very well done!

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