3D-Daz Daz3d Art - Show Us Your DazSkill

5.00 star(s) 12 Votes

Techn0magier

Well-Known Member
Jul 2, 2017
1,190
4,216
So, quick question. On another forum, a poster said that my last character had something of the uncanny valley about her. I'm not too pushed about what they said, but it did get me wondering what I can do to make her and other characters look a little more unique. While sliders are the obvious choice, I was wondering if there's something else (and I've already tried the Auto Face Enhancer....hoo boy, now that belonged in the bottom of the valley!)

View attachment 973828
Okay. First thing first. Give her Eyelashes. Probably the reason for Uncanny Valley comment.
Asymmetric facial features are the key here. For a good example, look at Gal Gadot, she has some of the more visible kind, like a lower set right eye. Look at actual portrait photos all have the face tilted to level the eyes of the subject, or have one eye closer to the camera to even the sizes between both eyes. Same goes for lip corners, cheek dimples, a tilt of the nose, level of the ears etc. This way you can create a chocolate side*.



* is this a thing in the English language? In german we say "Schokoladenseite"
 

Techn0magier

Well-Known Member
Jul 2, 2017
1,190
4,216
Well a New Year, and time to start some work. I'd be happy to hear thoughts on this render, and would really appreciate any feedback on this. I'm trying to make some more improvements to my work and obviously this is a lot easier with feedback. Thanks, and Happy New Year.

View attachment 973952
- The tears are probably the most obvious one, while they maybe start to flow in the visible direction, when she lays on her bed for herself, the probably change their direction when she tilts her head towards the camera. Then there is the dried up makeup within the tears, thanks to the til of her head the paths should be more spread out.
- The Hair and their point of contact with the teddy. I'm not sure if that is clipping or just an unhappy camera angle.
- The crop of her head looks weird, given how much space the image gives her on the left side.
- I love the lighting:love:
- While you have the lovely micro compression between her arm and the mattress, I'm missing the same on the teddy.
- Sweet usage of DoF, but only as a personal preference I would make it a little bit more shallow, to move the bright vase even further in the background and enhance the focus on her.
- most of the other stuff I have in mind would be also more on personal preferences, and wouldn't help you in any way, I guess.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BravoMDB and GNVE

Empiric

Throbbing Member
Respected User
Game Developer
Jan 13, 2020
2,272
31,177
So, quick question. On another forum, a poster said that my last character had something of the uncanny valley about her. I'm not too pushed about what they said, but it did get me wondering what I can do to make her and other characters look a little more unique. While sliders are the obvious choice, I was wondering if there's something else (and I've already tried the Auto Face Enhancer....hoo boy, now that belonged in the bottom of the valley!)

View attachment 973828
Okay. First thing first. Give her Eyelashes. Probably the reason for Uncanny Valley comment.
Asymmetric facial features are the key here. For a good example, look at Gal Gadot, she has some of the more visible kind, like a lower set right eye. Look at actual portrait photos all have the face tilted to level the eyes of the subject, or have one eye closer to the camera to even the sizes between both eyes. Same goes for lip corners, cheek dimples, a tilt of the nose, level of the ears etc. This way you can create a chocolate side*.



* is this a thing in the English language? In german we say "Schokoladenseite"

I'd say it's more about the flatness of the face rather than lack of asymmetry. I made the same mistake with my first characters as well. I'd recommend to first add some depth to the face - deeper eyes, bring out lips, chin, eyebrows, tilt the forehead and such. Some creases here and there, no face is completely smooth.
I recently remade one of my earliest models. I used the first one as a base and just shortened the face and brought out lips, nose and chin, gave a bit of definition to everything, so it's not so rounded and it made her look way better.
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
There are plenty of morphs for that, but if you are not satisfied as I'm often not, you can export the head morph and do slight changes in some modeling program. I use blender, because it's free and someone recommended it to me when I was starting out. I'm very bad in it, I can only use few sculpting tools properly, but it's the best way to give your models a bit of uniqueness and fix some minor imperfections you get when mixing morphs in daz.
 

W3NTZ

Newbie
May 25, 2020
22
170
thank you :)

I use it sometimes already , but occasionally have the feeling it somehow brings nothing
Maybe there are some bugs. sometimes it does nothing to some props also.. But mainly in reduces render times rapidly. Together with clever hiding of props, that are not visible in scene.
 
  • Like
Reactions: OutOfAshes

GNVE

Active Member
Jul 20, 2018
687
1,152
I love it! The light direction is a little bit strange in relation to her eyes. The hard rectangular light is meant to imitate an open door, which would mean somebody is standing in that doorway (likely), but her eyes are not towards the direction of the light/door, nor is there a shadow from a person standing in the doorway. I think changing the light direction to match where she's looking and adding the shadow of a person in the doorway would really elevate this.
To me the light looked to come from a skylight so I don't mind the harshness as it's about as direct sunlight one can get in a house and that the girl is ignoring it (as there is 'nothing' there).
 
  • Like
Reactions: W3NTZ

Mengal

Member
Sep 11, 2018
132
2,317
Ahh, dope. Thanks!

I haven't played with layering renders yet, but it makes sense how the light is so even across all the models.


A good tutorial to start with, helped me out alot
 
  • Like
Reactions: xer.0

zOh

Member
May 4, 2020
319
9,761
To me the light looked to come from a skylight so I don't mind the harshness as it's about as direct sunlight one can get in a house and that the girl is ignoring it (as there is 'nothing' there).
Hmm yeah it could be an angled skylight. I just thought the intended scene was a girl looking back at somebody who entered her room.

I never said anything about whether it needs to be more harsh or less harsh though. I was just saying the light didn't match what I presumed was the intended scene. But now that you mention it, I agree that it is more likely a skylight and that my initial assessment was wrong.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GNVE

xer.0

Member
Feb 7, 2018
250
2,072


A good tutorial to start with, helped me out alot
Awesome. I’ve had a render going for about 11 hours and am going to run it through the night but just noticed I forgot a hair tie... gonna need this tut, haha.
 

xer.0

Member
Feb 7, 2018
250
2,072
Just been practicing with Mesh Smoothers and adjusting clothing for a more natural feel while setting up the placeholder images for my game. Not finished yet (background and more 'life' in them needed still)
View attachment 974507 View attachment 974508 View attachment 974509 View attachment 974510 View attachment 974511
View attachment 974512
The clothes are looking great! What smoothers are you using? Any tips?

A few of the renders look a bit over exposed. And as for the color, the light on the models is incredibly warm while the sky is a regular “cool” white. Did you adjust the warmth on the main light? Maybe try and get the exposure and then doing the warmth in post or the render settings.

Looking good! What’s the game? I’m excited.
 
5.00 star(s) 12 Votes