For your ears only updated 10/3

Hi, Here’s my latest work, I’ve been reading a fair amount of fantasy novels of late and wanted to create something in that vein.

http://www.jayelproductions.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/Lydjika.png

At the moment I have not bothered with high rendering samples and I plan to fake DOF on the wooden object in the foreground.

If you would tell me how apparent the lighting on the right hand side of the face is I would appreciate it (the part in shadow), all other comments welcome.

Thanks for dropping by.
http://www.jayelproductions.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Lidjika.png

Just fantastic. Five stars.

Edit: Damn, I thought this was finished products. In that case, there’s just something about her eyelid that seems off.

It’s good, but the shadows are far too black. You need to fake some SSS or get an ambient light in there to bring it up from solid, sterile, CG blackness.

Quoted for agreement. She seems very artificial. SSS, while a neat feature of some $$$ apps, is not really needed, and the lack of SSS in Blender beyond a few tricks and plugins should not be an excuse for poor lighting. Three stars.

You can fake it, and it’s still good for skin. It lends a certain glow to surfaces which–though it can be faked in stills–is hard to fake very well in animation. Anyway, I just meant even a spot-buffer trick or something to give it a little edge, and I originally meant because shadows in skin will often take on a slight hue as the light passed through the flesh gets tinted.

Anyway, the purpose of good skin lighting in blender is to fake SSS–or achieve that look, anyway–so the point is moot.

The eyeballs need veins and the skin needs to be softer/add some SSS.
Great ‘large person’ model, I wish I could do that. The ‘little person’ model
needs to show more stress in the muscles.

rggh…
I feel stupid, but what is SSS?

btw, the hair could be a bit thicker, it looks like purple grass right now.

SSS is Subsurface Scattering, an effect that you get on your skin when light passes through it.

Firstly thanks for the great crits.

The problem I’ve been having is with my dual monitor setup, although both are calibrated, one shows the shadows darker than the other, now I know which one to go by.

Working on faking SSS now

Nice work!

The cloth looks like wood or stone. Try using a normal colorramp to give a backlit effect to
the material, if you know what I mean. It tends to look a little more cloth-like that way. Also,
the Minnaert shader seems to have some qualities that work better for clothing, I think.
Maybe also use a bump-map of some real woven cloth instead of just clouds/noise.

Hope you find any of this useful.
//Mathias

Thanks for the complement M.p.h.e.

I was going for a kind of fleecy look so what I used was a greyscale version of felt as the bump map, I will try as you suggested though and thanks for the shader tip.

1 Like

it’s fantastic!

apart from what has already been said - I don’t think she isn’t showing any emotion
it doesn’t look like she is listening
you have a couple a subtle skin creases on her neck which are great but the skin on her face is too perfect.

Maybe she needs to smile, like if the little elf is telling her a secret…
Anyway great image, good work.

Hi, here’s the update, hopefully I’m getting there, looking forward to your comments

http://jayelproductions.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/LydjikaMk2.png

Big improvement, much more natural, but now the edge of the mouth is very pinched, smiles are dificult to get right i always find.

Thanks TheANIMAL, that pinching is caused by the bump map, I’ll have to work on that a bit more…I’ll see how it goes :slight_smile:

i like the pinch because it flows with and accentuates her ear shape, actually making her look more elvish/elfish/elvilan/whatever…of elf descent. (have to be soooo politically correct around these elves). Her face is too long or her eyes are too high, but that also could be her true elviishisness coming out. I also bet that is her natural hair color; she’s a magenta elf, ish’t she?

Nobody: This is coming along nicely! I have some suggestions that you might consider as you begin to finalize this piece, all of which are summarized in the image I’m attaching to this message.

I think this piece could benefit greatly from more directional lighting (left to right) to guide the viewer and focus the composition in a way that accentuates the character at left talking to the elf at right. I’ve simulated the kind of lighting in the attached image.

I think in terms of saturation there are some potential gains, but that comes down to personal preference, so you are the best judge of that I think.

If you plan to do some nodes or post-pro on the hair, a slight softening filter or blur node could help make the hair more believable and less CG-ish. The whites of the elf’s eyes could be a little lighter (perhaps a slight boost in Emit).

Also, depending on what she is hearing, her expression might be a little more "surprised’/engaged/heightened-interest looking, perhaps with a corner of her smile and/or eyebrow raised, left eyelid slightly more open or closed.

In any event I look forward to seeing this finished. Keep up the great work!

RobertT

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It looks really good so far. Just a few comments to make. I think her smile does look slightly odd - her lips sort of look like they’ve been puffed up or something. And I think that the skin really does need to be softened up. Everything that RobertT said is absolutely true. I don’t know how you managed to think of those things, RobertT, but you’re brilliant!

Anyway, very nice picture!

It’s coming along really well Nobody, have you thought about doing anything more in the background over the girl’s shoulder, nothing major just something to break up the grey a little. The skin texture on the girl is looking much better, I think the little sprite guy could do with a little more work on his skin at the moment as it seems to me to be a little putty like. Overall though, very good.