I'm only mentioning this one once...

...because it's a secret, but I'm splitting off my showcase of characters I've created to a separate blog: The Mighty M4!!

Why "The Mighty M4!!"?
a) For "Mighty Man and Monster Maker"! Poser and DAZ Studio are like the 21st Century versions of that famous toy. Plus if I learn zBrush like I hope to, I can make more mighty men and monsters! But we'll see how that goes...
b) I wanted a separate place to show my characters. I didn't really want to throw a whole bunch of these pictures up on deviantArt or any of the other sites.
c) For now I want to use this here blog as a catch-all for all sorts of weird and fun stuff, and I was afraid my characters would get lost in the mix.

Anyway, head on over and check it out. No more shall be said about this...

Comic Shading

Found a neat article here which discusses the unique look of the Champions MMO.

I thought this quote was kind of telling:

Colin: What can you tell me about comic shading and how it differs from cell shading?

Jim: We’re trying to go for the look you get in a comic book. But comics don’t transfer directly to real time 3D very well. Cell shading often looks really bland and has very little detail in it so we have decided on a more realistic lighting model.

If something is bumpy you’ll see the bumps and you’ll get highlights and shadows and that kind of stuff. But on top of that we have an art style that’s similar to comic books with bright colors and things that aren’t necessarily realistic. And then also we have an outline effect that outlines things that are near to the camera and adds to that comic-book feel.

We wanted to make this distinction because cell shading has taken on an almost negative connotation within the industry of looking boring. Artists get upset about being labeled with this generic term. It implies similarity to games that really aren’t similar at all.

It's something I've noticed in reactions to my own Poser work. People seem really enamored with some 3D work which shows all of the figure's textured pores as if somehow the wall between reality and 3D illusion has finally been broken. I've always felt it was a road not really worth following. I think the reality gap is just too wide. That's why I tend to prefer a cel-shaded look to most of my own work. Recently I jumped from trying to emulate the flat lighting in comics and older cartoons to embracing more complex 3D lighting in my renders and I really like the results. I just found it interesting to see an MMO's creative direction mirror my own.

Captain America WIP

For some reason, Renderosity won't let me post my image, so lemme post it here!

I'm really enamored by the James Johnson figure for Poser and I've started creating various Poser figures based on Golden Age heroes. I started with Namor and the Golden Age Blue Beetle, and now here's Captain America. I'm still wrestling with parts of it (like the pants poking thru the boots) but the general look is pretty good. Not crazy about the shield, but maybe I can find a better version. Also, since I started this in DS3, I wasn't able to pwToon like I normally would have since it hasn't been updated for DS3 yet. Only a matter of time...

It's just such a funny thing tho'... Years of using Poser and DAZ Studio and I always used it for creating my own characters, many of which I haven't even posted anywhere just for copyright protection purposes. Now all of a sudden I've got this figure and all I want to do is make figures of Namor and Cap and a bunch of others. It's just funny, that's all...

Supreme Power!!

A little something I've been working on for a contest on the DAZ Forums.

Sssssshhhhhhh!!!

Don't tell DAZ that I put this up here. I posted it up on my Renderosity gallery and was asked to pull it down by the Renderosity Gallery Cops. It's just that I posted it on the "Members Only" Forum at DAZ and no one said a word about it. Everyone was too busy wondering what cup sizes could be made with the upcoming Girl4 figure. I can understand why that might be important 'cause the original Girl figure was just a bit too cartoony and out there to stand alongside some of the other DAZ figures. I think I did a nice job toning down some of the extreme-ness of Girl4 for this character.

But, you know, a little feedback would have been nice.

Shall we team up?

The kind people at DAZ have allowed me to test their brand new Girl4 figure coming out soon. This is the first part of something I had cooking but which didn't come together. That Hiro4 figure got screwed up somewhere nine ways to Sunday so I had to destroy him. (I think there were some morph conflicts somewhere and they caused his eyes and face to do creepy things.) I rebuilt him but this is the image I got before the disaster.

Is it still "Poser fun" if I don't use Poser?

I don't use Poser much any more. Too slow on my steam-powered PC. I use DAZ Studio for most of my work. It's usually pretty fast on my PC and does some nice stuff. Sometimes even I make nice stuff with it.

This image is just a test. The textures on the helmet and hair are all wrong and the swirly bits of flash on her arms and legs aren't quite the look I wanted. Plus that elven face is kinda too cute for a creepy Drow. But it's getting there.

Something I was working on...

Just testing out some lighting settings. Still needs a bit of work...

But now that I know how to post images, I'll prolly be putting more things up here to show off before they end up in my deviantArt or ArtZone galleries.