Using Poser Software For Illustrations

[crich70]

I don't know about poser but with other programs like Daz Studio they offer things for free for a limited time as well. So even if an item is set at such and such price normally there are always times where that model or another similar is offered free for a day or so.

[wraylewis]

Exactly. And it's not just the DAZ and Poser sites. Sites like Renderosity and Runtimedna have free items as well as regular sales for excellent content that works in both Poser and DAZ.

[sbroome]

I spend years learning anatomy via studying anatomy books and taking countless anatomy classes, then apply what I learn. The software method is vastly inferior and the finished works look awful.

[MicheleA]

I use the software method, as you call it, because I have no innate drawing ability. There are indeed limitations to lower end 3D programs like DAZ Studio and Poser. If you do a lot of nudes, the bending and musculature is stiff and fake-looking. Poses and expressions are often stiff and fake-looking. Faces aren't asymmetrical, like real people. Then there's the Uncanny Valley thing. It can take some time to learn how to work with, or around, those limitations as well as a few others.

If someone wants absolute realism in cover images but can't draw, their choices are either hiring an artist (might be out of the price range of some) or buying stock photos and dealing with limitations that come with them.

I've seen images combining renders and illustration techniques that don't look awful at all. But I admit I've seen a few covers using 3D characters that were pretty bad...I remember one that had people with no hair.

wraylewis, I got your message and will respond a little later.

[sbroome]

Everyone has plenty of excuses why they would rather use free hackish software as a shortcut, rather than paying someone who's actually good at what they do. It's just disappointing when writers do it because I always assume they appreciate craftsmen.

[Penforhire]

Writers seem to be no different than any other artist. For example, anecdotal but supported by many other photogs, most artists don't understand the craftsmanship required to make a high quality photographic image of their own art.

[wraylewis]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Writers seem to be no different than any other artist. For example, anecdotal but supported by many other photogs, most artists don't understand the craftsmanship required to make a high quality photographic image of their own art.

True, but there are things writers can learn about visual art, just as they learned about writing. And that people in other crafts can learn from writing (music and visual art often needs to tell a story).

Pacing in writing, rhythm in music, repetition in visual art are similar.

Asymmetry (rule of thirds/golden mean) works in visual art, music and writing as well.

Light and shadow add texture and drama to visual art, tonal light and shadow to music, light and shadow in characterization and scene setting in writing.

Understanding these things won't make you a great artist/musician/writer, but they can help you shape and focus your work if you do have artistic potential in any of these areas.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by sbroome

Everyone has plenty of excuses why they would rather use free hackish software as a shortcut, rather than paying someone who's actually good at what they do. It's just disappointing when writers do it because I always assume they appreciate craftsmen.

Not everyone has the budget in time or money to pay an artist, and artists have their own eccentricities. But even then, you don't always have a lizard skull on hand to photograph on a chroma-keyed backdrop (which I do have), much less the right setting to CSO it on, so sometimes you take what public domain images you can and do what you can with them.

Course, Poser and Daz Studio can also get expensive. I think I've spent about $500 between Aiko, Hiro, and The Girl (all version 3), clothes, and stuff like that. Sure it takes practice to get even halfway decent results- lighting is the hardest part- but you can always go back and do a new cover later on when you get more money.

[VydorScope]

Not to mention its real artist that make the models, the clothes, and etc. Its not like the artists are cut out, they are just doing a different job then you envision.

[VydorScope]

So Daz runs MUCH better on my work machine. Takes like 2 seconds to apply hair to a model for example. More like a minute on my home machine... so if I ever upgrade it looks like these tools will work for me.

[sbroome]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Not to mention its real artist that make the models, the clothes, and etc. Its not like the artists are cut out, they are just doing a different job then you envision.

Yes, let's throw art in as part of the automated 'Player Piano' future. Congrats on using clip art.

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by sbroome

Yes, let's throw art in as part of the automated 'Player Piano' future. Congrats on using clip art.

Just because you lack respect for someone's hard work in creating models, clothing, hair, and the like does not make it less of an art. It is a different medium is all. I am happy to support the artists who make these models using a different medium then you might prefer, and I also pay artists that use paint brushes and canvas. Thankfully the modern world gives us options so that we can work with what fits best with the resources we have to work with.

[sbroome]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Just because you lack respect for someone's hard work in creating models, clothing, hair, and the like does not make it less of an art. It is a different medium is all. I am happy to support the artists who make these models using a different medium then you might prefer, and I also pay artists that use paint brushes and canvas. Thankfully the modern world gives us options so that we can work with what fits best with the resources we have to work with.

If you're taking someone else's model and putting it together like a puppet and posing it with no idea what you're doing, it's not the original 3d modeler whose art I lack respect for.

[VydorScope]

I'm sorry this is obviously a sensitive topic for you that I appear to have poked. I will let it drop.

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by sbroome

If you're taking someone else's model and putting it together like a puppet and posing it with no idea what you're doing, it's not the original 3d modeler whose art I lack respect for.

Do you cut your own quills, mix your own inks etc.? We all use tools/inspiration/materials made by someone else.

Andrew