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GLBHer Shadow Is a Watercolor - Fine, one more entry (CLOSED)
127Thread Activity
protosyntheticTue, May 14, 2024
protosyntheticTue, May 14, 2024
drjivagoTue, May 14, 2024
protosyntheticTue, May 14, 2024
protosyntheticTue, May 14, 2024
protosyntheticTue, May 14, 2024
Accidentally posted in general discussion first. Oops.
I was messing around with some environments that I haven't used quite enough, and dug out "Ikuinen." I love those sets, not just because they're named in Finnish (this one means "eternal"), but because it's Nordic style mixed with brutalism, and what's not to like?
One forum discussion I remember reading, I don't remember whether it was here or at the Daz forums, was that Daz is not as good as lighting, and that's where AI's strength lays. Which, in cases like this, is absolute BS. Also, in my streaming feed recently I saw a short where someone used RGB light and divided the shadows into cyan, magenta, and yellow. It made me curious, what would all six do? I don't have the right stuff to replicate it in reality, and I sure as hell can't replicate that in AI... so off to Daz we go.
I set up all six colors on the hanging sculpture, like so:
It looked kind of cool with the measuring stick in the center of the floor, so I knew I was onto something, so I stuck in a dancer, CNB Mia with the flowiest outfit I could find, in a ballet pose.
Frankly, I spent more time wrestling with dforce for this than I did anything else. It rendered relatively fast, however. I caught it from two angles, one with the dancer in the center, the other with the shadow, to see which one I liked best. I honestly could not pick, but the result was exactly how I imagined it, no black shadow under the dancer, instead an entire spectrum of watercolor.
Before I go to the renders, I'll give the customary wireframe (though I didn't set a camera at either angle and do it in the moment, because I didn't know whether I'd submit it or not)
I was messing around with some environments that I haven't used quite enough, and dug out "Ikuinen." I love those sets, not just because they're named in Finnish (this one means "eternal"), but because it's Nordic style mixed with brutalism, and what's not to like?
One forum discussion I remember reading, I don't remember whether it was here or at the Daz forums, was that Daz is not as good as lighting, and that's where AI's strength lays. Which, in cases like this, is absolute BS. Also, in my streaming feed recently I saw a short where someone used RGB light and divided the shadows into cyan, magenta, and yellow. It made me curious, what would all six do? I don't have the right stuff to replicate it in reality, and I sure as hell can't replicate that in AI... so off to Daz we go.
I set up all six colors on the hanging sculpture, like so:
It looked kind of cool with the measuring stick in the center of the floor, so I knew I was onto something, so I stuck in a dancer, CNB Mia with the flowiest outfit I could find, in a ballet pose.
Frankly, I spent more time wrestling with dforce for this than I did anything else. It rendered relatively fast, however. I caught it from two angles, one with the dancer in the center, the other with the shadow, to see which one I liked best. I honestly could not pick, but the result was exactly how I imagined it, no black shadow under the dancer, instead an entire spectrum of watercolor.
Before I go to the renders, I'll give the customary wireframe (though I didn't set a camera at either angle and do it in the moment, because I didn't know whether I'd submit it or not)
! REPORT
So basically, I revisited the image. Colorful shadows are cool, but they're all clumped together. So I did a little extra math and spread them out a bit. Nice, huh? So I started tinkering with some other ideas, like changing the room texture to a basic matte texture, then suddenly it begged for a second layer of lights. So I did some more math, created another ring of the same colors in the same sequence, but rotated 180 degrees so it would be complimentary colors hitting from both directions, at a lower, sharper angle. The result is frying my GPU right now.
! REPORT
protosynthetic
Karma: 2,137
Mon, May 13, 2024This is also resulting in a truer white in the center, which I LOVE.
Looks like you tried every shadow reflection and light reflection in this one, starting off with the one watercolor RGB light idea 
The last one looks a way more natural as you can clearly see the figure without distracting watercolor RGB light effect on her dress imho. Might as well try the one before the last picture (the one with six of her shadows falling on the ground) without watercolor RGB light effect, like the last one, and see how it turns out. Since you tried every possible alternative, it seems
The last one looks a way more natural as you can clearly see the figure without distracting watercolor RGB light effect on her dress imho. Might as well try the one before the last picture (the one with six of her shadows falling on the ground) without watercolor RGB light effect, like the last one, and see how it turns out. Since you tried every possible alternative, it seems
! REPORT
drjivago
Karma: 12,246
Mon, May 13, 2024Well, at least RGB colors wouldn't be used much on the dress, more like your last picture.
Luckily this particular piece of architecture textures the bottom separately from everything else, so I was able to make the rest transparent so I could look at this in macro, and also, top down.
....and now that I've posted this here and looked at the picture in tiny scale, I know why some of those lights are putting in shadows from the stairs while others aren't. I meant to align all of the lower lights with the edge of the fourth step, but some of them are aligned with the fifth. Well, right back to the drawing board.
! REPORT
protosynthetic
Karma: 2,137
Tue, May 14, 2024But note here what I meant about complimentary colors coming from each side. Red, for example, is teamed up with cyan. 255,0,0 and 0,255,255. Likewise green (0,255,0) with magenta (255,0,255) and so on. So there is a full spectrum from every side, just hitting from different angles.
protosynthetic
Karma: 2,137
Tue, May 14, 2024The intent was, as drjivago pointed out, to lessen the hard RGB coloration on the figure.
Digressing for a moment, this is what it does with rippled water. Flat water does some entirely other stuff, all depending on the refraction of the water texture you're using, and it's fascinating but not what I want here. Still, it was a fun distraction, and gives me a bit of inspiration for some future projects.
! REPORT
All that said, I'm glad I "popped the top" of the building in addition to all the new stuff, because as good as this is:
I am in love with this angle more.
I am in love with this angle more.
! REPORT
So I take both of these into Luminar Neo and save a copy each with the Razor and Standtplatz filters applied. Then to Gimp, where I take both of those filtered images and use G'mic Qt to apply comic filters to them.
Then I drop them both down to 25% transparency over the original image, and it gives is a more authentic watercolor look.
Then I drop them both down to 25% transparency over the original image, and it gives is a more authentic watercolor look.
! REPORT
And now that I've done a bit of soul-searching, I think my original angle is still best. You can actually "tell what's happening" as my wife said when I asked her opinion as well. Implicit is great for galleries with walls, but this has more universal appeal. So THIS is my contest entry. Thank you all for being so patient with me through this verbose entry.
! REPORT
Hey did you notice the latest shadows in your latest additions, giving you the impression as is if she's dancing in the middle of a giant clock, her shadows making the roman numerals in her perimeter, on the ground Looks like you caught something there. Maybe making faint numerals may give this some other meaning as well. Nice work of fine progress.
Maybe this would be another entry :
''She dances around the clock all through the day,
Every night and day.
She dances around the clock all through the year,
Every spring and fall.
For which her watercolors never fade away,
Because they're the true colors of her dress and her heart''.
Looks like you caught something there. Maybe making faint numerals may give this some other meaning as well. Nice work of fine progress.Maybe this would be another entry :
''She dances around the clock all through the day,
Every night and day.
She dances around the clock all through the year,
Every spring and fall.
For which her watercolors never fade away,
Because they're the true colors of her dress and her heart''.
! REPORT
protosynthetic
Karma: 2,137
Tue, May 14, 2024I did, though in order for it to really get the right angles, I'd have to rotate one of the rows of lights 30 degrees.
Final tweak. Rotated the top lights 30 degrees so the two layers fill the space better. No post. Just leaving it as is and never tweaking this again.
! REPORT
