Hello hello!
A little about me:
I first learned about Poser many many years ago, but just wasn't able to get into it. A friend at work had Poser ver 4, and IÂ was able to try it, but it was a paradox for me:Â I was fascinated by being able to work with digital models since my own drawing skills amounted to stick men. The two big drawbacks were IÂ really disliked P4's interface, as well as the price of the program. But yet it stirred a spark and fire within me. Many years passed, as IÂ admired 3d artwork made by others on the net, and coming across the odd freebie model or prop that i'd archive until a day perhaps a an alternative to Poser came around. Finally almost a year ago I discovered Daz Studio... It was like a re-introduction to this fascinating world of 3d art.
It was kind of a face palm moment when IÂ dug out the freebies stuff i saved and extracted them. Alot were not models but materials for existing packages. But not all was lost, There still was some good stuff I could start dabbling with, such as the free stuff at Vanishing Point, Mr.Sparky's and JCHoagland's various sci-fi stuff. Those renders were like a baby's first steps, very limited, very basic single renders as I stumbled through getting familiar with the program. IÂ never bothered to save any of those renders, and my runtime was a mess. Everything was dumped into a single runtime, and most of it useless. That was educational in itself, going back to square one.
That was just the tip of the iceberg. Daz Studio had that little forest diorama, usable only with certain camera angles. There was only so much one could do with that, and trying background photos lacked character shadows when rendering. Well, it was time to buy stuff, which started a catalyst that couldn't be stopped. Everyone here probably knows that - once you start, its impossible to stop. I don't smoke but I guess IÂ finally knew what smokers said about having an addiction, and how hard it is to quit.
During the Daz sales I picked up Carrara 3d Express, and IÂ was hooked anew. Same or similar Daz Studio interface - the on-character realtime joint movement controls - the 3axis arrows and 3 axis rotation sphere. Having access to live sky and terrain generation had sold me. The following month IÂ upgraded to the full 6.0 while it was still onsale. And there the adventure had begun and continues to this day. The adventure was learning - how to start making good looking renders. And Carrara's manual was cryptic, non-informative, and it was largely trial by error and discovery. Something thats still an ongoing process even today. I'd like to say i've come a great ways, and I still have a long ways to go.
Other Hobbies:
Roleplaying Games.
Call me an oldschool gamer, I've been playing since before 2001. It first started with BioWare's Bauldur's Gate, and only progressed from the computer game style to the more traditional pen & paper style, as well as post-by-play and play-by-email incarnations of P&P. Almost always, I first begin with a character concept before anything else. To me, thats the most important - what sort of character type and role will he/she in the group. Next step starts with the character details like name, gender, species (if applicable), visual looks, attitude, behavoir, of course these details aren't concrete yet. Next part of the details are stuff like family, homeland / homeworld, friends, and often this begins to form a written character backstory. As I begin to gather details, the story starts to write itself, filling in further gaps and information as IÂ go, sometimes adjusting a detail or few. And slowly the character becomes alive. All this can be a page or several pages, even a miniature fan fiction story. The more thats written, the more lifelike, vivid and fleshed out the character is that IÂ can play. Only after this process, do IÂ tackle the stats. More often than not its a multi-class character build, but the stats are made to represent the character concept as best as the dice system will allow.
I love Star Wars, but also sci-fi and fantasy in general. Be it books, movies, games, rpg's. Crossovers are always fun too!
Comments (7)
LadyDeryni
Very cool! The background details really make it real.
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In short, EliasWindrider wanted a male human mercenary, in a body suit with some powered armor pieces similar to the female version he posted via image link. While I couldn't provide the exact suit he was asking for, I was able to provide a similar outfit, mix and matching with a second set. Same deal with the Carbine. The pose however I was able to match close enough. The background and scene was left open to the artist. So, I had an elevator / bridge / landing platform I was able to use, and modified it show as having multiple ports. Then I chose a nice open ocean for a landscape with a bit of early morning haze / mist on the horizon. While I provided some initial lighting setup sample renders, what really helped was getting Elias online in yim chat, as we were able to spend a couple evenings custom tailoring the scene to his preferences. I was able to toss up multiple test renders and screencaps of the scene within the 3d app, until Elias was satisfied. From there on, I finished up the scene adding a few extra sets and models I had on hand, an AA-9 Civilian transport (as scene in SW II, Anakin and Padme boarding for Naboo ala low profile after Jango's failed assassination attempt). And a freebie offshore UofS type platform by Chris Muir @ ShareCG which only needed an extra passenger boarding bridge to connect to the AA-9 transport. The triple platform and ships are distanced around 4km - 8km behind the character, with some camera depth of field added in the render settings. I would've liked to add more little details and props, but Carrara had begun crashing midway through the final good quality render, so it was a bit trial and error finding out the culprit. Unfortunately, it took longer than I expected, having been busy with seasonal outdoor cleanup. I had to go back and tweak a few minor details and re-render a good quality version, thus a little extra delay. =============== Original Request =============== This request is for an rpg character I'm looking to play. He was a mercenary who fought for the separtists during the clone wars. He was severely injured in an explosion but was too stubborn to die. As a result, he has 2 cybernetic prosthetic arms (no finger prints). Due to his brain injuries, the separatist docs needed to make him a chip-head to get him conscious again, as long as they were doing that they made it a combat implant, which gives him the ability to use absolutely any weapon proficiently. Most of his skills are more or less intact but he's missing a good deal of his memories... "Jacen Baurne" is just an identity he's using because he doesn't know his own name. He even doesn't recognize the face in the mirror as his own but he believes this to be because the reconstructive surgery gave him a new/different face. What he recalls of his past before waking up in the hospital is mostly vague fleeting images of people and places. He knows he was an elite mercenary and his brothers in arms were either completely or almost completely wiped out. He was just starting rehab when the clone wars ended and the docs tried to kill him to cover up their involvement with the separatists. He escaped by killing, and stealing the scrubs of, the orderly who attempted to give him the lethal injection. Since then he worked as a blaster for hire of some variety or another, frequently a bounty hunter. He's a "secretly paranoid" SOB, and that paranoia has kept him alive and free on more than one occasion. He knows he has enemies; he found that out the hard way by approaching individuals whose faces, but not names, he remembered. The claimed to be old friends, but something just wasn't right. Acting on his suspicions, he caught his "old friends" haggling with an imperial officer over the price for which they would betray him to the empire. To cover his tracks, he killed them and the imperial officer. The empire is now hunting for a name unknown member of his former mercenary company, which as I said was wiped out almost to a man. The only person specific information they have on Jacen are the finger prints of his former right hand (no picture, no DNA). They don't know that the name unknown mercenary has lost either of his hands. Since then he's been trying to discover his past without alerting the empire to who he is, what he looks like now. He's bitter against the corrupt republic turned empire who killed his brother's in arms, and is completely convinced of the justness of separatists war against the empire, a war he was very willing to profit from. He believes the Jedi were blind fools who only learned the error of their ways when their precious republic turned on them. He's found that a great place to hide is in plain sight, working as a bounty hunter who is willing to collect imperial bounties. He tends to go after murderers, slavers, and other galactic scum. He's pretty much just in it for the credits, but on occasion he's turned a bounty or two loose after seeing the nobleness of their actions and realizing the empire gave them a bad rap. Jacen's appearance is pretty average and unremarkable in most respects, average height, brown hair, average face, no visible scars or other distinguising marks. He muscular in a compact wirey sort of way that is easily hidden under loose clothing. He's about 5 foot 8 inches tall (173 cm), and looks A LOT like the guy in this picture link The picture I'd like of him has him wearing a suit that looks a lot like a male version of the one she's wearing link in that it's form fitting black with a lot of hardware on the arms/shoulders and utility belt. The hardware on his left forearm is a bracer computer, the hardware on his right is a wrist rocket launcher with 2 rockets on it. His suit's helmet looks like the one I photo-shopped into the lower left corner of the picture. He should be holding the helmet trapped between his left arm and torso/waist/upper-thigh with the visor facing forward and his left fingers gripping (wrapped inside) the left chin/jaw of the helmet. I'd like him to be holding this carbine link in his right hand (hand on the grip, finger on the trigger), and have a pistol strapped to his right thigh in a gunslinger low position. The basic body positioning I'm thinking of is vaguely similar to this quarren link/a> but feel free to change it up if you like. I don't care to much what you do with the scenery, but it should be thematically appropriate for him to be standing around without a helmet on. You may want to put 2-3 droids that look like this link hovering around him, but you don't have to if you'd rather not.
NoelCan
Wow.!! this guy really does look ready to Rrumble.. Dont stop him for idle conversation right now. He just might take a swing at you with His helmet (or pistol) Great posing and light..!
SIGMAWORLD
Excellent sci fi!
Biffowitz
Cool scene and character, impressive skin texures and lighting. Love the full size view, nice work on this!
brickart
stunning render and details and light!!
flavia49
wonderful