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Exyle-Studios In reply to MCV-Azarias [2013-07-16 12:57:30 +0000 UTC]

Thanks bro, appreciate that

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MCV-Azarias In reply to Exyle-Studios [2013-07-16 17:07:20 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome.

And thx for the Llama and the watch.

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Exyle-Studios In reply to PJFriel [2012-04-14 22:54:00 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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Exyle-Studios In reply to lisemily [2012-03-10 00:17:32 +0000 UTC]

Thanks...as always How goes your endeavor with the book idea?

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lisemily In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-10 01:22:37 +0000 UTC]

It's coming together...slowly. I was kinda mobbed by school-related things, so I don't have the introduction quite written yet. I'll be able to start moving forward more aggressively after the deadline for initial interest, which is the 31st.

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Exyle-Studios In reply to zosco [2012-03-07 07:09:44 +0000 UTC]

Poser 9

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zosco In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-07 07:16:54 +0000 UTC]

Amazing! every time i have tried to render in poser 2012 they come out very poor due to my lack of knowledge in the rendering side of things. Must go and watch some tuts

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Exyle-Studios In reply to zosco [2012-03-07 15:02:46 +0000 UTC]

I've been working with Poser since version 4 Pro pack and version 5 were around. That's what I got my start on, learning in a demo version. By the time I made up my mind to throw down the cash and buy it version 6 had just hit the shelves so that's the first version I bought, and I have upgraded to every successive version since. So I've had about 6 1/2 - 7 years experience with it, if I'm remembering correctly...and I'm still learning new things in it, lol. But, that being said, all that time using it has taught me how to squeeze the most out of the program for my particular rendering style. The thing I find the funniest, is that the best lighting models in this program are the simplest. I almost always start with a simple 3 light setup. 1 front, 1 left, 1 right. Depending on if I want a darker more shadowed scene, I turn the left/right ones off or make them black in color. And I almost always just keep them pure white lights unless I'm trying to match some kind of environmental lighting effect. I always turn the ambient occlusion option on for each light (which is ESSENTIAL for a good render, as leaving it off will result in poor quality...the difference is staggering most of the time). Also these days I often throw in a single extra specular-only light if there are a lot of metallic or shiny/reflective objects in the scene. I usually do a compare test...with and without the specular, cuz sometimes it's too much...makes things look overly shiny and fake....trial and error on that. i recommend buying IDL Studio at RDNA as it has these simple light presets in it. Those are almost always what I use today, though I admit I don't use the dome or backdrop or even turn indirect lighting on for that matter as it takes forever and a day to render and the difference (in my opinion) is negligable.

It goes without saying also that you want to have the quality meter jacked all the way to the right in render settings, lol...that's not too difficult. And lastly there is the materials themselves. In my experience the two main keys to getting good renders in Poser, or any program for that matter, are: Proper lighting, & proper material settings. Easier said than done. For Poser, sometimes you just get lucky when you buy a character pack from a vendor who really knows their stuff and has optimized the crap out of the skin or clothing material or whatever. But understanding the shader system is essential to squeezing that extra juice out of the render. For Poser it's the Material Room. For Daz Studio it's the Surface Editor...and so on. Understanding how to add or change settings such as specularity, glossiness, ambient color/map, sub surface scattering, etc. makes the flat and ordinary come to life...and that really comes with a lot of experimentation.

Hope I didn't ramble on too much there, lol. It looks like you have your hands in a lot of different programs. If you have questions specific to Poser, I can definitely help you out there...also DS4 pro to a degree. I'm kind of new to it, but I have been tearing that thing apart for the last month trying to understand how it ticks in comparison to Poser, so I've got a pretty good handle on it now. I think Genesis and Autofit are fantastic tools and that they one upped Poser with those, but in the end I still prefer Poser's render engine and ease of use over DS4.

Talk at ya soon.

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Exyle-Studios In reply to zosco [2012-03-07 01:12:28 +0000 UTC]

Thank you, Luke. I am very honored that you approve of my take on the character

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zosco In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-07 07:12:31 +0000 UTC]

My pleasure man it was awesome work!

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Exyle-Studios In reply to deviney [2012-03-06 05:57:26 +0000 UTC]

Thanks brother. Your tools make the ordinary extraordinary

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Exyle-Studios In reply to BloodTalonHero [2012-03-05 22:20:33 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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BloodTalonHero In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-07 15:09:31 +0000 UTC]

No problem and welcome to

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Exyle-Studios In reply to zosco [2012-03-05 16:05:32 +0000 UTC]

Thanks very much It was a good learning experience. Think I want to try and tackle Daken next. Guess I have an affinity for the Wolverine extended family, lol.

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zosco In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-06 06:08:21 +0000 UTC]

Lol well it's awesome work man. I have made a few attempts at her but now i must really give it a go. And just finished daken but he kinda looks dodgy but I'll post to see what your thoughts are and I'm going to credit you for the influence as the background works perfectly. Making my own though inspired by yours. Go easy on the claws though in mine as I tried to make them but don't think they worked will post soon.

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Exyle-Studios In reply to zosco [2012-03-06 09:05:21 +0000 UTC]

Lol, no need to ask me to go easy bro I by NO means consider myself a critic. In fact I really dislike the whole concept of "art critics" in general. Many people don't know how to critique something "constructively"...they just end up using the it as an opportunity to stroke their own ego by pointing out supposed flaws in other people's work, lol I take a more simplified approach towards "art appreciation". When I look at a piece, I'm looking for what qualities I admire in it...for the artist's unique style...and even sometimes what he or she was trying to convey with the piece (if there was a message intended to be heard there). I'm not about telling someone that their technique is inferior or some such garbage. Way I see it, no two artists in the world are alike, and on top of that we are all at different stages of development in our own respective journeys. I look at every piece I do as a chance to learn and grow as an artist, and I just assume that it's the same for everyone else. In short, it will be a strange day indeed when you hear unkind words from me, lol I'm just here to share my art, be inspired by others, and make some friends along the way.

That being said, tackling Daken is no easy task to be sure. If you choose to go the un-suited route like I am, you got all kinds of little challenges. The mohawk...the complicated body tattoo...and then there's that weird third claw protruding from the wrist area, which as you pointed out, is not something readily available in the Poser/Daz world. So I expect it to be a handful myself, and would certainly have nothing but respect for anyone else attempting the task I think I chose him over some potential others simply BECAUSE he presents such a challenge for me. I could do some other characters without having to work so hard, but then I won't have to force myself to adapt and overcome, or learn any new techniques.

So, I do certainly look forward to seeing your interpretation of him On the note of "interpretations", I was pleasantly surprised / relieved that the marvel community was so accepting of my X-23 interpretation. I was fearing that there might be some "purists" out there that would not like me taking artistic license with the characters look/outfit. I tried to keep it true to the original design/spirit, but I do like to put my own little spin on things...that's half the fun for me I'm glad it got a positive response.

By the way, keep me updated if you make any changes to that Iron Man battle image like you were mentioning. That thing was lookin' DOPE!

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zosco In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-06 15:41:32 +0000 UTC]

Lol Great answer man. I also think that critiquing someone's work is impossible as unless your in the mind of the artist you will never truely understand the meaning of it. And tis be true i am sure i will never hear a bad comment come from you which now day's is a rare quality as there are always "why" people out there and not enough "why not" people. Thank you for being a why not person and admiring others work not matter what stage of learning they are at. As for Daken i have just finished him and thought i'd use a background influenced by yourself as it worked so well. I hope you approve. The claws oh god the claws how they bugged me but i think i kinda pulled it off had i spent another couple of days on it i think i would have hime to my 100% liking but i'm still pretty happy with it. The eye's though you may notice that they are looking way to far up and thats because they are slight mishap on the eporting part made a change didnt notice but hey its all learning. I did go for the shirtless shot with the mohawk and although there is a mohawk i just wish i had or could make a better one and as for the tattoo's ohh boy did they give me grief so i ended up just trying what i had .

The x-23 piece you did was fantastic and being a huge comic book Fan (hence making a comic) i must say that your take on her was perfect it captured the spirit of x-23.

I'll revisit the ironman battle over the next couple of days to make improvements and adjustments that i wanted to make when i started as i kinda got lost in the process.

Thanks again for all the kind words and inspiring artwork.
Keep up the amazing work!

Luke (p.s sorry for all the bad spelling

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Exyle-Studios In reply to d2rainman [2012-03-05 16:05:41 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

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Exyle-Studios In reply to 3doutlaw [2012-03-05 16:05:53 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much

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Exyle-Studios In reply to Hellspider-101 [2012-03-05 16:06:56 +0000 UTC]

That she is, lol. And thank you!

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Hellspider-101 In reply to Exyle-Studios [2012-03-05 16:39:25 +0000 UTC]

You are very welcome. Great pic.

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BloodTalonHero In reply to Knight22179 [2012-03-05 21:45:59 +0000 UTC]

It counts.

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Exyle-Studios In reply to Knight22179 [2012-03-05 05:55:57 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, not sure about the claw thing myself...maybe something to do with the female chromosome or some such junk, LOL And then I come to find out the other day that Wolverine sired himself a son apparently...Daken, the mohawked / tattood even-less-nice version of Wolverine who served with the Dark X-Men for a time...and from the images I've seen, he's got yet another mutation going on with the claws...2 on top of the hands like X-23, and then some kine of weird spike looking think coming out around the wrist area underneath his hand. I can't keep up with all these story lines, LOL. I think I'm going to attempt making an image of him next, but that will require more effort than X-23 in order to get it right...not that she was easy, lol.

Also, thank you very much for the kind words. I'm just plugging away every day at the art thing, trying to learn as much as I can and to be as well rounded as I can. I'm mostly a 3D and image manipulation guy but I'm currently trying to learn the fine (and frustrating) art of digital painting. I don't see myself doing a ton of it in the future, but it's one of those things I feel I need to have in my skill set in order to take my work to the next level. There's a lot of occasions where you just don't have a suitable object model or texture for a given situation and it would be nice to just paint the d! thing and forget about it, LOL.

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