Take Heed - The Shadows Listen by DustRider
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Description
After a longs day's journey on their quest for the treasure of Olbre, Queen Daenestra and Tryamon find refuge for the night in the Red Crow Inn. While eagerly planning the route through the treacherous Wallheim Peaks they failed to notice the watchful figure hidden in the shadows. Their wise old friend Ruehnar warned them as they left the village of Nya Alari "There are those who don't want you to succeed. The shadows will hear your plans and try to slow, or even stop, your progress.". Hopefully the figure in the darkness is not the shadows Ruehnar warned of.
This image is an entry for the Sword and Sorcery Fantasy Contest at DAZ3D (#MadeWithDaz, @insta_daz3d). I actually had a really good idea what I wanted for the final image before starting to work on it, so my work flow was a bit different (usually the process is rather organic where I have a character, outfit, or environment I want to us, and the image is built around that). For this image, I new I wanted to use the Red Crow Inn as the setting for this story, so I created the two main characters by themselves first.
The general process was to first make the character. I loaded the base character(s) I wanted to use, then add morphs to make it into the character I really wanted. Then I added the clothing (as usual, a bit of kit bashing going on with the outfits). The figure on the right was based on Daenestra from DAZ3D, the figure on the left is a combination of Tillie and Topsy 8 also from DAZ3D (with several other morphs), and the figure in the shadows is Mabel 8 (without any mods - didn't need to do much except find/fix clothing for her since she is in the faded background). I created the two main figures individually in their own scene, then merged them into the scene with the Red Crow Inn (moved the environment scene to where the location I wanted to use was in the center of the scene to make adding things in the camera view easier).
The lighting is based primarily on the lighting provided with the environment with modifications to intensity, some location changes (the candles) and 2 spotlights added. One spotlight was added to enhance/brighten the light on the two main characters, the second is a rim light for the center figure. To give the smoke/haze effect I added a fog prop turned upside down (opacity reduced and scaling modified).
Post work was pretty simple (GIMP). I adjusted levels to improve light and contrast a bit. Added an unsharp mask layer, and used a very slight lighting filter with G'MIC, and of course added the signature.
The contest was a great excuse to take a bit of time out from RL and make a more complex scene. I'd love to win one of the prizes, but the reality is I'm probably not quite up to par with other entries. But that's OK, because I really enjoyed putting this together. I'm quite happy with how it came out, and the only way to improve is to challenge yourself!!
As usual, please zoom to full resolution to see the details. Thanks for stopping by!!! :D
Comments (25)
mifdesign
Just a most unbelievable outstanding fabulous brilliant awesome render, magnificent Masterpiece of Finest Arts. Only.
miwi
This is really a magnificent piece of art,excellent done,love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!5*
JoeJarrah
Truly marvellous illustration, great looking characters and replete with a wealth of engaging detail. Masterfully rendered too.
water
Super fantasy !
Tracesl
great fantasy scene - excellent
buffalosoldier
magnificent detail
paul_gormley
not sure if you won, but this image gets my vote; it brought a smile as soon as I saw it with the warm firelight and deep shadows, very magical, the kind of image one would like to see in a good children's book instead of the scribbles they put out, 5+
Krid
..beautiful fantasy scene and excellent details, lightning and postwork
Saby55
Just great ! more words are not needed 👍🙋♂️
mtdana
Great back story and interesting description of your process - and the scene Wow very impressive!!! Excellent work!!!
gaius
If I was the jury you'd be voted #1...this is the most amazing image I've seen for a very long time. Time consuming, OK, but so superb.
Kordouane
What an exceptional work both in terms of image and text. I completely agree with Gaius.
PhilW
A brilliant image - you've really pulled the stops out for this one!
DustRider
Thanks so much Phil!!
eekdog
such perfect mood and lighting. all the elements are super.
RodS
Really fantastic work on this scene. The lighting is superb, and really gives this a perfect feel. Hopefully the figure in the shadows is on the level of an Aragorn, and not a Gollum....
jancas
Awesome work
x7
Beautiful and realistic Render.
mich40ish
Astonishing image. Thanks for outlining your process. I found it interesting and enlightening.
daggerwilldo
Really a wonderfully done entry. It has it all. Great Characters - Great Lighting - Quality BG !!! Best of luck. A definite FAV and LIKE.
VEDES
Superb art work!!!!!Bravo!!!!fav!!
ItWasNotAvailable
I can't say that I venture down DAZ gallery land at all but this should be amongst the top ten for sure (maybe it is). It is really well done and I love the accompanying story a lot! Fingers crossed it will do well for you!
UteBigSmile
Love your newest image which looks simply awesome!
adorety
Awesome render and lighting is excellent. Really sets the space and mood.
Jinjarkas
Hi, I like your Art. I noticed you entered a Sword & Sorcery contest at Daz. I reckon yours is much more S&S than some of the 'winning' entries I've seen. (One mans sword and sorcery is another mans Harry Potter perhaps!) Cheers to you.
AuckArt1024
Crikey! This one blew me away! Excellent render and postwork!