Roman ship

bobbystahr · September 03, 2014, 06:27:11 PM

I keep forgetting that the time is the past but what they were wearing was in fact shiny new then....ooops

Dune · September 06, 2014, 12:41:57 PM

A new group of soldiers. A little painting post will get rid of nasty stuff. The horse will hopefully be replaced by a 'real horse'. Clothing is horribly hard in DAZ. And draping it in LW can be done after the posing, but takes a lot of time, so I hope I can get away with this. PS will do 'wonders'

choronr · September 06, 2014, 03:03:50 PM

Amazing! Maybe a tad of light dust surrounding the soldier group; and, some light tracks behind the small cart?

Kadri · September 06, 2014, 03:24:54 PM

The composition is nice.
You have Lightwave Ulco.Rendering the guys in Lightwave and comping might be better probably.

bobbystahr · September 06, 2014, 04:23:35 PM

Uh, did they wax their legs back then, seems they should be more hirsute don't it? Great scene..agree a bit "clean" though...

masonspappy · September 06, 2014, 08:03:55 PM

Quote from: bobbystahr on September 06, 2014, 04:23:35 PM
seems they should be more hirsute don't it?

And they should be more hairy, too....

@ Ulco - did you model the horse yourself? if so may I ask what software you used?

Dune · September 07, 2014, 03:14:22 AM

Rendering in LW is something I've never attempted (so far). But, mind you, the settings on this were very low for testing it; detail 0.4 and AA 4, I think. So they may loose their hairy legs

Or did you mean they should have hair on their scalps? I think soldiers didn't have too much hair, even in those days... someone might grab you by it. They didn't have real beards either!
I found the horse on the web, a couple of years back I think, but I had to work on it in Lightwave and Mudbox, and texture it again. Also made a saddle and stuff for it. It's not very good, but a replacement is probably due.

I'll do some dust and dirt and extra tracks in post, was also thinking of their legs and sandals on that sandy road.

Thanks guys.

Dune · September 08, 2014, 02:52:57 AM

I'm diverting a bit, but wanted to show you guys some quality results. Actually there's not even thát much difference (there is a difference of course) in rendering at detail 0.3 and AA 3 versus detail 0.5 and AA 6. Not as much as I expected. At least not in the daz objects. The detail 0.5 AA6 crop also has soft shadows and that makes a huge difference.
The veggie crop looks not too bad, IMHO. Also detail 0.3 and AA3.

choronr · September 08, 2014, 10:15:41 AM

The slight difference with a wee bit more of shadow is apparent and noticeable ...very good! The vegetation is very dense and packed with details ...well done.

j meyer · September 08, 2014, 10:52:49 AM

The veggie pic is very convincing,nice distribution and lighting,
the slightly hazier background is the cherry on top.
Personally I could do without the dark green leaves of the yellow
foreground plants and the somewhat flat white blossoms,though.

dorianvan · September 08, 2014, 11:00:54 AM

Hi Ulco,
The people look great at a distance, but up close, not so good, unless you change the lighting/atmosphere to accommodate. For what it's worth, I would change up the lighting some, maybe back-lighting or something like the previous shot with the single garrison and soldier, which was brilliant by the way.

zaxxon · September 08, 2014, 11:17:47 AM

The vegetation is wonderfully dense and varied, very nice! I suspect that TG's renderer may not cope with skin coloration all that well, but for illustration purposes it may serve. You are creating a nice library of artifacts and people; maybe "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" is coming to TG soon?

Hannes · September 08, 2014, 11:34:32 AM

The vegetation is indeed fantastic!!!
But I have to say that I don't really like the DAZ (or Poser-) humans. It's a matter of taste I know, but to me they look kind of dead. Anyway it's an easy way to fill a scene with people when the camera isn't too near.
The skin shader looks quite convincing. Almost like SSS (...and I don't mean the simple shape shader!) The armor shaders could use some more attention. The helmets for example don't really look like metal.
I hope you don't mind me nagging!!!!!

Dune · September 08, 2014, 12:41:38 PM

No please, nag on! I really appreciate your crits. The things I agree with, I'm more than willing to improve. In this case the lighting e.g. needs to be like this, as this will be comped in with a frame of Roman pillars in the same light. I'd prefer backlighting and people further away. I agree with the 'flatness' of these guys, but hey, I just got into modeling, and am quite happy already with the fact that I can now quite easily pose some people. With extra effort their skins and suits might be made better (I could load them in Mudbox and wrinkle their skins a little), but there's a limit on the time I can spend also.

I might do this for myself with different lighting though.

For the helmets I used an additional (after the texture file) RT reflective shader, refraction @3 or 4, followed by a merge shader, multiplying the then turned stainless steel color by a redbrown and orangy PF to make it bronze again. But that last bit wasn't yet on this helmet. Any ideas how to improve more?

TheBadger · September 08, 2014, 08:17:51 PM

I have to agree with the Daz crit. And I really don't think its TG's fault at all. I think mostly DAZ figures look terrible in every context I have seen them... All of them. From the lack of naturalism in the poses to the textures. To the details of the clothing and all. Sorry.
I do think Daz can be a useful time saver. But DAZ is pretty worthless when used "out of the box". poser seems to be a bit better for skin textures, but not really very much better in most cases (again, that I have seen).

Even so, I really love seeing figures in TG scenes. So I don't want to be so negative as I am. I guess just keep working until you find the way to make it all look good together. I think it is worth it. Figures really add just sooo much when they look good.