The Dragon in the Courtyard by theSea
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Description
Hi, thanks for stopping in.
It seems that the short break from other matters which enabled this brief burst of creativity in Vue is coming to an end. I hope you've enjoyed the ride as much as I have. I've certianly learned a lot and made some neat images.
Hopefully, I'll have time in the short term for some personal work, but not at anywhere near the pace of the last two weeks.
I'll leave you with a project that's been bubbling on the back burner for some time... "The Dragon in the Courtyard." This image really _wants_ global radiosity lighting and I think, thanks to the Quadspinner tutorials, that I finally have the chops to pull it off.
Production credits:
Mil Dragon 2 with default textures (those so called 'bump maps' are really showing their age!), Matt and Vicky 3 (reduced resolution) with clothing, and Trinity Atrium all from DAZ. Boy's hair is Rievel Hair and woman's is Osean Hair, both by AprilYSH - available at DAZ.
All of the Ivy was created with Thomas Luft's Ivy Generator - an awesome little piece of freeware.
The scene was composed in DAZ Studio - I even created a little cube where I put the camera, for reference. The scene was exported as seperate .obj objects for the boy, the woman, the dragon, the atrium and each of the ivy plants. I then imported these items into Vue, except the Dragon, who has some additional work done on his wing drape in Modo prior to being brought into Vue.
Materials on all of the objects were adjusted in Vue, with appropriate backlighting properties applied to the dragon wing and crest membranes and ivy leaves.
The project sat at this point for the better part of a year because I could not get the lighting to work for me. Following my recent efforts with the Quadspinner "Capturing the Brilliance Light" tutorial I felt confident enough to resume the project.
Rendering:
Lighting is full on Global Radiosity with the slider at 96% sunlight vs ambient and 100% from the sky. I kicked up the Global Radiosity gain +1 and the Skydome Lighting gain +4. The sky and atmosphere quality settings were +4 and the scene rendered at 1238x1600 with broadcast quality settings.
Render time was 19 hours with some quick stop and saves for resume render capability during thunder storms. I saved the image as a 16bit tif file so that I could have some exposure and gamma latitude in Photoshop.
Postwork:
I increased the gamma and exposure a bit to lighten the shadows. Next I spent some time with the cloning tool fixing a nasty problem with Mil Dragon 2 where the horn meets (or rather fails to meet) the head.
I added two additional layers and painted in some smoke using Ron's Smoke 2 brushes - 1 layer for the right nostril, with some erasing for the snout coverage, and one layer for the left. I blurred both smoke layers a bit and added some noise. A little hue and saturation adjustment to color match the white smoke into the scene a bit better and then I dropped th opacity until I was confortable with the effect.
Next, I added a medium gray layer, filled that with monochome noise and applied that in soft light mode. I dropped the opacity to around 5%. This served to blend the postwork into the scene a bit more.
Finally, I added borders and titles for the completed image.
As always, my thanks to all who have commented on my work. Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement are MOST welcome!
Comments (34)
ragouc
Very good light and scene.
Franckyss
I love it! This is a great work and the render. Bravo, the dragon look very good!
Seaview123
That's quite a pet they've got there. Hope hes housebroken! Great looking image!
Star4mation
Outstanding image!!!!! Superb lighting :)
Lyndseyh
WOW - I love the lighting
Rainastorm
This is a VERY cool composition here...awesome POV, lighting....very well done!
DarkStormCrow
Excellent work and lighting, well done...
LemyD
This is simply a wonderful and magical image. I love it! :) Greetings Lemy
callad
Impressive all around! From scene, POV, textures to most fabulous lighting!
arcas
Wow, and I though it was cool having BEARS in my backyard...
Tracesl
fantastic, excellent scene
Katanas
WOW! Totally awesome and almost has a realistic air about it. Love it..
scooby37
Now that's what I call a pet lizard :) Who gets to clear up after him ? A knight or two can leave a big pile of ........ Great render and well worth the time spent and the planning.
kftate
Fantastic image! Great lighting and POV. Dragons are always a big hit with me. Superb work!!
Flint_Hawk
A marvelous idea & stunning image!
dshield
Fantastic scene Michael, love the lighting. D
Amethst25
I just love this scene and your explaination of how you created it! It is one of my favorites!!
thefixer
Excellent, nice one!
geirla
Excellent! The lighting came out great. And thanks for the explanation of how you put it together.
gillbrooks
Super scene !
buju93
Très belle composition et magnifique rendu.(excellent image).
LadyLight
Very well done.. inspires a story all on it's own
anitalee
Awesome!
jakiblue
As soon as the picture loaded, my eye was immediately drawn to the dragon's head - yowza! It looks so realistic (if a dragon can be termed "realistic"..heh) I also really like the boy and his mother together - holding mum's hand and pointing and even from this distance you can see the look on his face. A small piece maybe, but it really adds to whole picture.
phil01
excellent render
Krid
great fantasy scene and a perfect clear render
PhilW
This is wonderful work! It's the lighting that first strikes me, but the attention to detail is apparent both in the image itself and also your commentary. Great concept and excellently done!
RO2005
Great! :D
jclP
good scene
timspfd
Beautiful job