Still working around the same kind of theme ... putting square kilometers of expression into characters with expression in face and body. These renders are actually not bad, but a couple of them had to be heavily airbrushed in the post work to get the mottled grain out of the skin tones.
Right now I'm playing around in the render settings, looking for some way to adjust the software to just ... not put catastrophic grain into the renders the instant I turn on the shadows! And you bet, I tried raytracing ... and nope, sad to say, this was not the solution.
So, in a bit of frustration I wound up surfing around on Google, looking at Render Engines, and I stumbled into the Octane Render galleries. Whooooooo. Check these out:
Makes all the difference in the world, dunnit? Now, Octane (unlike DaZ's own Reality) will run on a 32 bit system ... and my radar swiveled around at that. The price as a couple of hundred bucks, which is out of my league at this time. (Medical bills. Don't ask.)
But yes, eventually (inevitably) I'll be getting something like this -- and it might even be Octane itself. The more I look at it, the more I like it. It's simple, and it's powerful beyond your wildest imaginings. If you're interested, have a look at their galleries -- there's about 100 renders, from which I borrowed these as a sample of the work done on their machine:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/gallery.html
I shouldn't think Refractive Software will be cross with me for borrowing a couple of their gallery shots, because I'm using them to tout their product. You can't sell sponge cake without giving people a bite to try it.
So, I really do think I'm at about the limit of what can be done with the 3DLite render engine, and I'm at the point where I'm drooling over the work of other artists. I know all the techniques involved. All of 'em. But I'm not going to get those results until I can take the next step. In the meantime, there's plenty still to learn about other facets of 3D work -- particle effects, for a start. That's my next assignment. Particle effects. Like water and fire...
Jade, 6 November
