Markdoc Posted May 29, 2005 Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art And another RQ character - a sword sage from Lhankor Mhy. This guy was a sort of "shared PC". He started out as an NPC, but when one of the players was unable to participate because their character was too badly wounded to go off adventuring - and they didn't have a backup, due to a nasty incident involving a chaos beastie in a previous adventure - they played this guy. Eventually he became the "fill-in". Whenever someone couldn't play their regular character/backup because they were off training or recovering from wounds or visiting their family, or in jail, or something, then they could play the Sword Sage, who was always hanging about looking for excuses to dig up lost knowledge and/or kill things. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted May 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art OK...so I just got to go on a long road trip to a show, as a passenger for once, and I did a lot of product sketches while riding. I inked one to try and play around with coloring it in photoshop to get an idea of how it would look out of the various leathers. This isn't all that pretty... I have a lot to learn about photoshop coloring... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted May 31, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Dagnabbit... I had no idea that file was so large... my scanner defaulted to 300 dpi without my noticing. Can anybody explain why I can't scroll over to the right side of the page on oversized images? I can't get to the edit button to replace the attachment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art One of the nice things about rendered art is the possibility (depending on your modelling ability) to put your characters in a setting: here's Whitehair - her somewhat feline features are not an accident, but a clue to her weretiger-ness. Cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scifi_Toughguy Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Boots!! I need to see what kind of boots the sage wears. Please? The robe to the floor just doesn't do it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Boots!! I need to see what kind of boots the sage wears. Please? The robe to the floor just doesn't do it for me. Hey be thankful - it's hot in Pavis, so he's naked under the robe Just kidding. Cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archamus Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art And I find myself cursing the day I ever even considered trying to draw on graph paper. One of my all time favorite pics is on Blue line graph paper' date=' and I don't have the photoshop skillz to clean her up. Heres the raw scan...any of you geniuses out in Herodom able to save her?[/quote'] If you know of a place with a really nice copy machine(Kinkos has them, but I'm not sure where you're from), you should be able to make a copy that will cut out the blue lines, but keep the rest at a decent resolution. I haven't tried it before, but that shade of blue looks about the same as non-reproducing blue pencil, which is what that function on the copiers is for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archamus Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Some of mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archamus Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archamus Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archamus Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barwickian Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art I have to say, I'm impressed by the quality of all the artwork posted so far. I'm particularly jealous of those who can draw - I got into 3D work because of my poor pencil skills. Here's another one of my urban arcana pics: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art I have to say, I'm impressed by the quality of all the artwork posted so far. I'm particularly jealous of those who can draw - I got into 3D work because of my poor pencil skills. Yep, me too. Only to find that mastering 3D art is not as easy as it seems... I am making some progress though. Right now, I'm working on my Mad Photoshop Skillz. These are not characters, but a picture I did last Sunday entitled "Lancelot's Rose". Cheers,Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barwickian Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Snap, Markdoc! Your picture - excellent, by the way - remins me of something I'm working on. Note the image below is a work in progress; I haven't quite finished placing all the models I want, and a couple of objects need tweaking. But it's close enough in mood and theme to yours that I'm posting a draft render... Tentative title is "Love's Labour's Lost". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Oh, very nice. Although my male character seems to be getting a better response... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warp9 Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art Nice work Archamus! Although there is a bunch of nice stuff on this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warp9 Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art I got into 3D art in 1999. Originally thinking it would be an 'easy way' to do illustrations' date=' rather than the drawings I'd been doing. Turned out 3D work is harder, and not at all like I expected it to be. But it's a lot of fun so I keep at it. There are things you can do in 3D that you just can't pull off in other mediums. Eventuallly I'll figure out how to do some of them... [/quote'] I'd be interested to hear more about how you'd compare and contrast more traditional work with the 3D stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art I'm neither a painter nor a 3-d guy, but I do try to get my hand in. Here's a few samples... The first is a paladin vs. a demon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art One of my personal favorites, a White Elf... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art This is the first time I used multiple shots in a single pic. It seems to have come out OK. (Do these count as fantasy art? I've more I can post if y'all like...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art The differences? It's possible to make recognisable pictures with relatively little skill using 3D art. Things come more pre-packaged. So you could say the starting threshold is lower for 3d computer art. However to move beyond basic, fairly static-looking pictures requires a degree of skill. The only way to acquire that is simply by working at things. You have to either spend time requiring the computer skills for basic modelling, or cough up the cash to use someone else's modeling skills. This is another difference from hand-drawn art - and here I include "hand-drawn" with pencil and brush together with "hand drawn in photoshop". By that I mean drawn/painted as opposed to rendered. You can, to some extent compensate for your own weaknesses with other people's products using 3d rendering. However to reach basic competency, you also need to learn the limitations and tricks of the software you use and no amount of cash will help here. Just practice. I don't see that as any different between learning to manipulate a brush or pencil. It's technical skill, and in a lot of cases a certain manual dexterity is still a useful trait, because you end up "painting on the screen", very often. You also have to acquire basic skills in anatomy so that figures are posed correctly (the human eye is very good at detecting something that "not quite right" even if you can't identify what that something is - and it often ruins the image), some understanding of light and shadow so that figures and backgrounds don't seem odd (or seem odd in the right way, if that's what you want). You need to learn how to visualise how something will look when rotated or bent, or moved in relation to other things (in short, you need to understand perspective). That is also the same for learning to use traditional media. The Camelot image I posted above is a case in point - I did the picture as an exercise in learning how to do rays of sunlight. It's not there yet, but I did learn something (like - use a gradient next time, fool!) So the figures were in many ways an after-thought. The hallway and the windows and the sunlight were what I was initially aiming for. The last stage - to move to WOW! images - is identical in rendered, 3d art and traditional media. That's the artist's eye. I'm beginning to sadly conclude that that can't be acquired by practice, and it's notable that many of the artists I know who have it, work in both traditional and computer media. This is the ability to design an image in your head and translate it into an image that isn't mundane. Sounds simple, but isn't. There's thousands of people posting rendered art to the web, of whom only a handful are any good. But the good people are consistently, reliably good. They have the eye. No amount of money or computer firepower can provide that. Finally, there are two other differences between all forms of computer art and hand drawn art on paper/canvas/artboard. The first is that computer art has an "undo" function and in rendered art you can change one part without messing with the rest of an image. You can work on a scene and if you don't like an element, you can change it out with little trouble. Don't like the lighting? Change it. Decide the secondary figure is superfluous? Click delete and it's gone. Conventional art does let you make changes, of course: you can redraw, paint over or just start again, but it's not as easy. The move of many artists to painting in Photoshop comes in part from the ability to undo things easily. Secondly, - for 3d rendering, you rely on models. If you have models that suit your needs ("a knight", for example) then you can put it together, set up your model and voila! Not only can you play around with how the figure is posed, lighting and so on, but you can save it for later reuse/alteration. That makes it easy to do (for example) a series of images using the same characters. But this is also a weakness - if you DON'T have the model you want, then you either have to learn how to make it (a time-consuming art and quite different from making images - imagine if painters could only paint things they had sculpted...) or scrap the idea. In contrast, once you have mastered basic drawing/painting skills, your imagination is only limited by your technical skills, not what you have in your toolbox. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barwickian Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art This is the first time I used multiple shots in a single pic. It seems to have come out OK. (Do these count as fantasy art? I've more I can post if y'all like...) They count as far as I'm concerned, and I really like them. Post away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barwickian Posted June 9, 2005 Report Share Posted June 9, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art I agree with everything Markdoc said about the differences between traditional artwork and 3D work, but I'll add my own two pennorth. There's no doubt that acuiring the software and the models is going to cost you plenty of bucks. Poser is the most common budget programme for character art. I bought Poser 5 sometime last autumn for just over $100; version 6 is out now, and it's somewhat more expensive. The basic Poser software comes with a limited selection of figures and accessories, so most people buy more. I favour Poser models from Daz 3D, but the costs can rack up pretty quickly. Base model, textures for the model, hair, clothing, accessories are all sold separately, at prices ranging from $2 to $50+ per item. I'm not a skilled modeller; I'm only just starting to learn the techniques. My artwork is a classic case of what you can do with little skill if you're prepared to throw money around. I'm starting to learn modelling, though, because there are models I want that nobody's created; also, I figure I've thrown enough money at 3D and it's time I stopped (or at least started saving up the thousands I'll need for 3DS Studio Max 7). There are ways of doing it cheaper. Daz are now giving away the basic models of their two most popular characters (Victoria 3 and Michael 3), and they also have their own posing/rendering software (Daz Studio) which is currently in open beta and is free. It's not as versatile as Poser, but it is free. If you'er really intersted in finding out something of what's involved, I'd pootle along to Daz's website and get a copy of Daz Studio and the Michael 3 and Victoria 3 models and try it for yourself. Daz also have a range of free models you can download (hunt for "Free products" in the drop-down menus - think it's under "New to Daz"). Daz's website is www.daz3d.com. Once you've learned the basic skills of posing, lighting and psotiioning your figures (and your camera!), a major difference between traditional and 3D art is the speed you can work. The first image I posted, the modern swordsman, took about half an hour to create from scratch to render. A further five minute's post-processing (putting the figure on the parchment background) in PaintShop Pro, and it's done - full colour character portrait. The biker girl took longer - more models, which slows down the computer, and I didn't like the first couple of renders so started tinkering with lights, camera angle and such. All in all, about four hours. The romantic scene, I've currently invested about 12 hours in, and I expect about eight more. I'm using it as a learning tool as well, though, as I've never attempted anything quite so complex before. My next project is to model a Norman-style spangenhelm. I expect it's going to take me a long time, because I don't have the modelling skills yet. Once it's done, though, I can use it time and time again - squad of Norman soldiers? No problem. Traditional art? Well, if you have the skills, what you produce is limited only by your imagination. You don't need to fret about whether you have the models - you just draw what you want. The difference between what makes people go "wow" and what doesn't is often the time spent on the piece - good artists spend a lot of time getting the shading right, filling in the details and so on. But the minimum materials needed are very cheap - a pencil and a piece of paper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantriped Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art This is my first time on the Hero boards, but I thought I'd throw this little snippet up, this was done a year or two ago before I really started practicing a lot, I'll put on some of my more recent work if I get enough feed back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted June 10, 2005 Report Share Posted June 10, 2005 Re: Herophile Fantasy art I do ink as well as 3D stuff... This is Dyson Voog. He's one of the campaign's bad-asses. 1300 pts if he's 1... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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