Hero by theSea
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Description
This one is for my two brothers in the Fire Service. You guys *are* my hero's!
DAZ|Studio Render with postwork in Photoshop. Original render size 2048x1638, downsized to 1200x960 to post here.
Character texture is "Sol Elite" for M4 from DAZ. For morphs used shapes from Morphs++, Elite, Aged and Morphus for M4.
Outfit is "M4 Fire Fighters Set" available from DAZ. I did not like the texture on the turnout coat at all, so I ended up dropping the bump map into the diffuse channel and then coloring it by sampling a photo of a turnout coat. I used a canvas bump map I made in Photoshop to get a more proper feel to the coat.
I also made new text for the helmet badge in Photoshop. Background is a plane with a concrete texture I made using Ron's Concrete brushes. I use it a lot.
Skin was worked up with the aforementioned "Sol Elite" textures and pwSurface2 using my typical setting for DAZ Studio.
Lighting is the Dreamlight "Basic Studio Light" set Warm to cool with the uberSpotlights and some added tweaking. I set the fill and bounce lights to 'diffuse only' and rendered separate passes for the fill&bounce(together), the Key and the back lights. I also ran a volumetric pass with the bounce light and an uberVolume cone to get some smoke into the scene. Finally I rendered a separate ambient occlusion pass.
I composited all of these in Photoshop by layering the lighting passes one on top of the other in 'screen' mode, then adding the AO pass in multiply to give some more grit.
I also painted some grunge over the turnout coat and lightened up the seam edges to give a worn effect. Next I used the blur tool and a soft brush to clean up some of the hard edges and shadows on the eyes.
I made a merged new copy out of these layers and did some levels and hue/saturation adjustments to make things look more to my taste. Then I made a copy of this layer and adjusted the brightness down and contrast up to pull out the highlights. I dropped the saturation 25% or so on this new layer and then applied a 10 pixel Gaussian blur to it. I also gave a 0.5 pixel Gaussian blur to the main image to soften tings a bit. I applied the blurred highlight image over the main image in screen mode and dropped the opacity to around 25%. This gave a nice soft feel to the render. I added a layer of gray noise over the top of the image just to pull things together a bit and reduced the opacity of the noise to 50%.
Added title, frame and copyright notice to complete the image.
As always, constructive critique is appreciated and will taken to heart. If you want to take a second and keep those who run *towards* the danger in our communities close to your heart, I'd appreciate that too.
Peace,
--michael
Comments (34)
scifibabe
Excellent work. I like his expression. Really nice lighting too. Thanks for the info on how you created this. Most enlightening and interesting. Well done!
bonni56
This is awesome!
YourSunshineGirl
Wonderful image, as usual. Thanks for posting this one.
Iraya
Very beautiful image, excellent render. Have a nice day.
necrophage
cool character portrait - great textures and lighting!
JCD
Gorgeous portrait... that lighting is as usual, spot on!
texboy
yep, I thank God for these guys and gals every day, along with the PD and the military .... good work!
vidyashakti
OUTSTANDING piece of work, Michael. Well rendered.
Erestorfan
Yes, these guys are heros! True, they may hang around the station house and read, watch TV, what ever...but when that bell sounds, they are there for us, ready to risk their lives to save ours. Excellent render!!!
PhilW
Wonderfully done with great character and textures - and yes, these guys are heroes the world over!
Believable3D
Awesome. Glad you posted, Sea! It's very good work.
dragonmuse
Superb portrait :)
jakiblue
holy wow! i love this! the hat and the badge look absolutley incredible. In the full view, the letters and number on that badge just stand out beautifully. Face morph is great - bit rugged, and VERY handsome.
Tholian
All that effort has produced a superb and almost photographic result. An excellent tribute to the guys (and gals) who fight one of mans oldest friend/enemy. There is a volunteer firehouse just a couple of houses down the road from me and I'm glad they are there.
Amethst25
This a wonderfultribute! This outstanding and you should be very proud of how it turned out. Instant fave!
BadKittehCo
Amazing work you do, just amazing! XOXO
Kattey
Very nice image, theSea! The only thing that I would do is to diminish the shine on the left metal thingie (on the helm) - it draws the attention from the face, due to high specularity, which isn't that good for portraits presentation.
pwilkin
Awesome render! Why didn't you post the larger size? ROS allows up to 4000 square pixels. I like rendering big pics too. :)
fullquiver
Excellent. I thought it was a photo until I saw the label saying DAZ. Very nice!
GrandmaPaula
Perfect. Just an awesome image all around.
Seaview123
Good looking picture. A very nice tribute.
cipher_X
Super realistic...the stubble and texturing around the eyes is amazing work.
Cimaira
Stunning work! And a fitting tribute to those who put their lives on the line for the rest of us.
Tugpsx
You are an inspiration to us all. You bring out the best in Daz Studio and I am honored to be learning for you tutorials. Thanks and keep up the exceptional work. Images like these definately spark a lot of interest in Daz3d Studio and show what can be achieved.
aufgebauer
GREAT WORK !
callad
A most stunning portrait and wonderful dedication! Those men and women have my deepest respect!
drifterlee
This is awesome!
kobaltkween
this is a great portrait, and made me reconsider my choice not to get this clothing set. not because i want to copy you, but because it reminds me that i need to honor such heroes in my own community. this is a beautiful tribute. i really like the character. it has just the right balance of youth and experience, determined hardness and weathered softness. and a really nice use of textures. i love the lighting. it shows great control of light and shadow. i think i find the contrast a little low. reading over your postwork notes, it seems intentional, but it distracted me a bit in the "full-size view." the only other issue i saw was M4's eyelid/eyelash issue, for which i know no cure short of incredible painting skill. and only people like me who focus on eyes would notice. i absolutely love what you've done with the coat. it sounds like you put a lot of work into it, and it really paid off. your skin shader is still excellent, and i think it shows that pwSurface is still a contender to the Elite Human Surface Shader. great work!
dshield
Exemplary work Michael. D
Miss B
Wonderful render Michael, and thanks for the "back of the envelope" instructions on what you did to create it. :-D