After Thoughts: NPR study

This my experiment with non-photoreal rendering, lighting and compositing. I am still not quite satisfied with the result, but I will probably not spend much more time on this. For some reason it still looks like it lacks some final touches. If some experienced NPR wizards out there could help me out, I would be really thankful!

No texture painting or baking used. Vertex paint used only for face. Hair made using Geometry nodes and new curve grooming tools for finer strands.


No post process / over-paint


Clay


Viewport

Thumbnail

Thanks for viewing!

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Very good job, especially with the hair!

For constructive criticism, I’d say the placement of the shoulder looks a bit odd to me, and the back sticks out a bit. That being said, the focus was on shading, so it’s not too big a deal.

Nice work!

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Now that you say it, the hair looks as if it is floating over the back :grin:. It would make sense to extend the hair nearer to the shoulders. I will also turn torso a bit so the collar bone silhouette is not visible. Right now the shoulder looks a bit disjointed.

Thank you very much for the useful and honest remarks!

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I think the background is too bright

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I featured you on BlenderNation, have a great weekend!

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Thanks, I will try darkening it. I opened the picture on my phone and the colors looked completely off. I should start learning more about color management.

While I can’t be sure how close you got to the effect you were aiming for, I think it’s definitely good enough to be a final result. Getting good NPR results on a human figure especially can be a challenge, but you’ve pretty successfully captured an illustrated work without any obvious telltale signs.

That hair though… Wow… Those are some VERY nice hair cards, absolutely gorgeous curls. Any chance you could go into a little more detail about your node setup for these?

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You’re on the #featured row! :+1:

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WOW! Well Done! I think the girl is perfect! :heart_eyes:

Hair made using Geometry nodes and new curve grooming tools for finer strands.

Tutorial or YouTube video about it, please.

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So pretty isn’t it? Even the strips in a clay render make for wonderful curls.

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I for one LOVE the light.

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so beautiful !

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Thank you! I wasn’t going for any particular effect in particular, I think it can still be more polished. Though I think you can argue all artworks are balance between time and polish.

I will probably do a text tutorial. But for the time being I am participating in Clint’s render challenge, so sadly that will mostly likely be after the end of this month. I will surely let both you know.

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No detailed tutorial needed, I’m just wondering which version of blender it supports, and a link to the documentation, and possibly a similar YouTube video. Please :pray:t2:

Keep good work…

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I would love a text tutorial, whenever you have time. (And I likely wouldn’t be able to use it until next month anyway.)

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I don’t think there are any tutorials about making hairs with Geometry nodes, but at the same time I am not too knowledgeable in that area. For toon shading I would recommend you check out Lance Phan.

I love then way you create the hair. Amazing! Nice Work!

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whoah… that’s epic. any plans to animate?

It woudn’t be too hard to animate the hair as its just GN. But rendering would probably take days :sweat_smile:

Hi everyone,

Here is the “Behind the Scenes” article of this magnificent artwork!

Do check this article written by the artist himself. It describes the process of making the artwork step by step with an insight on the toon shader in Blender

Thanks,
Alina Khan
Editor at Blender Nation

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