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GLBPostwork tips and tricks (CLOSED)
129
Heya, I thought to start a discussion on postwork in daz art. Do you prefer to go all the way painterly style-the kind of Isikol does -or do you prefer minimal amount of it. Maybe none at all? If you have any tips and tricks on how to make a raw render more fetching to the viewer leave it here. I know that many new users to 3D who see promos and art that have gone through post production would have appreciate this. I certainly would back when I started.
I can start by offering my own simple workflow.
You double the layers. On first copy you go desaturate, tweak brightness and contrast to your desired outcome. Then you put the layer mode to overlay or softlight at 75. Second copy is where you put gassian blur to it, put the mode to screen 100%. If you want to add a little extra to the render you add a gradiant map to your liking. I use orange/blue one for most of my art and tweak it so it's minimum.
I used to be one of those who really went with the mind to bend the image until it looks nothing at all like the original render (as evident by memories). Now I try to postwork the render, so it has the feel of the original.
Also, how likely are you to buy promos of the products that are heavily postworked?
I can start by offering my own simple workflow.
You double the layers. On first copy you go desaturate, tweak brightness and contrast to your desired outcome. Then you put the layer mode to overlay or softlight at 75. Second copy is where you put gassian blur to it, put the mode to screen 100%. If you want to add a little extra to the render you add a gradiant map to your liking. I use orange/blue one for most of my art and tweak it so it's minimum.
I used to be one of those who really went with the mind to bend the image until it looks nothing at all like the original render (as evident by memories). Now I try to postwork the render, so it has the feel of the original.
Also, how likely are you to buy promos of the products that are heavily postworked?
! REPORT
For me it overall depends on the purpose of the art. Does the art showcase a product? Is it a more of a storytelling piece? Generally if it requires to show people the nature of a product I don't do postwork outside of pokethroughs and other minor things. But if it's artistic... Well I kinda avoid the postwork. Maybe colourgrading, a bit of retouching but that's about it.
! REPORT
Sometimes it is easier and faster to use a photo of a cloudy sky, for example, in the background behind a rendering of a house to make a realistic image.
I also happened to use a photo of a landscape, the work in Daz was just a character on a bicycle for example.
I think it's part of the postwork but has nothing to do with retouching work which is also postwork.
My contribution is just to remind you that it is sometimes good to redefine the concept behind a word.
I also happened to use a photo of a landscape, the work in Daz was just a character on a bicycle for example.
I think it's part of the postwork but has nothing to do with retouching work which is also postwork.
My contribution is just to remind you that it is sometimes good to redefine the concept behind a word.
! REPORT
I am one of those daz artists who wants to know about postwork. I get frustrated when I see heavily postworked renders and no one mentions a single method to make the renders pop. I aim for pre-raphaelite type of renders myself
This is a good thread. I hope it mods will direct people to it. It has a lot of potential. I'll be sure to take into consideration what others have said and also try out the method you described. Should have more artists sharing their postwork mindsets and methods. I get it they are all guarding their secrets, but sharing is caring.
This is a good thread. I hope it mods will direct people to it. It has a lot of potential. I'll be sure to take into consideration what others have said and also try out the method you described. Should have more artists sharing their postwork mindsets and methods. I get it they are all guarding their secrets, but sharing is caring.
! REPORT
Pinspotter
Karma: 5,496
Tue, Aug 15, 2023But honestly, there are so many styles, and so many postwork "tricks" that there isn't a "one size fits all" to make your particular image "pop". You have to start with the overall look you want to achieve.
For instance, in my work you're going to see a few effects used here and there, or "filters" for lack of a better term. I approach my postwork in a similar way that I would if I were taking real pictures in a studio. Because...... I want my style to resemble taking pictures of dolls. To go farther, I'm not looking for realism. I want something that is a bridge between hyper-realism (which is all the rage in the 3D world right now) and something out of Team Fortress (example: the extreme rim lighting you can sometimes see on my characters). And really, I don't do much postwork at all. I have a specific lighting setup I load straight away, and adjust once I know how I want a particular scene to look. Saturation, contrast, sometimes color temp corrections are what I go for. Sometimes I add simple vignettes. Other times I add a DoF effect selectively using alpha channels. And lately I have passed on the soft glow filter for a "new" light bloom filter I recently found in GIMP.
And let's not get started on sometimes having to paint over your renders. That is postwork as well. There are times where I have to paint in certain details regarding shadow, repair clipping issues, or layer in renders of say.... three different skirts to get a particular look without having to model a specific skirt in MD and spend hours sewing, topology, texturing and animating poses so I can drop it into Studio for a single render. "Postwork" means many, many things. Postworking a single image might just mean that I have to paint in my own hair strands to fill out an issue with clipping in a scene.
Here's how I started out. First and most important, I figured out what kind of overall "look" I wanted. Then I learned all the little effects I needed to help me achieve that look. I'm willing to teach anyone everything I know, for free, but y'all gotta be specific. If you want your render to look like it was captured on physical film, there are ways to get that look. If you are looking for chromatic aberration, that's pretty easy as well, but I have to know that is what you want. If you want your renders to "pop", we gotta know what you mean by "pop". You mention "pre-raphaelite" so my suggestion would be to study the style (which looks rather loose to me) and then seek out how to make filters that you can combine to help you get somewhere in the realm of that style. Since the human details look very loose, you may have to settle on a similar painting style and dial that into the look you want. And your lighting is going to have to reflect that, so start with that first.
Seriously, everything I have learned has been through search engines and Youtube. The information is out there. Again, if you're looking for help you have to be specific.
For instance, in my work you're going to see a few effects used here and there, or "filters" for lack of a better term. I approach my postwork in a similar way that I would if I were taking real pictures in a studio. Because...... I want my style to resemble taking pictures of dolls. To go farther, I'm not looking for realism. I want something that is a bridge between hyper-realism (which is all the rage in the 3D world right now) and something out of Team Fortress (example: the extreme rim lighting you can sometimes see on my characters). And really, I don't do much postwork at all. I have a specific lighting setup I load straight away, and adjust once I know how I want a particular scene to look. Saturation, contrast, sometimes color temp corrections are what I go for. Sometimes I add simple vignettes. Other times I add a DoF effect selectively using alpha channels. And lately I have passed on the soft glow filter for a "new" light bloom filter I recently found in GIMP.
And let's not get started on sometimes having to paint over your renders. That is postwork as well. There are times where I have to paint in certain details regarding shadow, repair clipping issues, or layer in renders of say.... three different skirts to get a particular look without having to model a specific skirt in MD and spend hours sewing, topology, texturing and animating poses so I can drop it into Studio for a single render. "Postwork" means many, many things. Postworking a single image might just mean that I have to paint in my own hair strands to fill out an issue with clipping in a scene.
Here's how I started out. First and most important, I figured out what kind of overall "look" I wanted. Then I learned all the little effects I needed to help me achieve that look. I'm willing to teach anyone everything I know, for free, but y'all gotta be specific. If you want your render to look like it was captured on physical film, there are ways to get that look. If you are looking for chromatic aberration, that's pretty easy as well, but I have to know that is what you want. If you want your renders to "pop", we gotta know what you mean by "pop". You mention "pre-raphaelite" so my suggestion would be to study the style (which looks rather loose to me) and then seek out how to make filters that you can combine to help you get somewhere in the realm of that style. Since the human details look very loose, you may have to settle on a similar painting style and dial that into the look you want. And your lighting is going to have to reflect that, so start with that first.
Seriously, everything I have learned has been through search engines and Youtube. The information is out there. Again, if you're looking for help you have to be specific.
Chaos20
Karma: 355
Tue, Aug 15, 2023Just on the lookout for overall methods to try out. What I want strikes me as something one can achieve only through a lot of fiddling with post production software and painting on the daz render. Thank you for the extensive reply. It's much appreciated.
Hyp-St
Karma: 13,359
Tue, Aug 15, 2023I can recommend Nik Tools. I think Laticis imagery used it a lot in his art over the years. I had the fortune to try out the plugin. The results were very satisfying. For pre-raphaelite type of daz, me thinks you can manage it, but you would have to study the masters.
