The Triceratops Rider - Collaborating with Miss Cacci, Part 1

Triceratops Rider

Some time ago, Miss Cacci and I had our second Cavewoman genre photo session. This time we mixed it up a little. We shot mostly new stuff, but we also went through some of my old 3D scenes, and decided to recreate part of my Kyla series of photos.

Kyla Rising, Digital Painting version

Kyla Rising is based on an earlier version that was done all in 3D. When I did the original, it wasn't my intention to use it as a storyboard, but I am very glad we did.

Over and over again, I find that working with a live, real person, who brings her own experiences, personal preferences, opinions, and style, brings immense value to the whole experience.

Kyla Rising, Photo Composite version

I mean that quite literally. For example, ever since I began doing photo composites, I have struggled with a number of things, not the least of which is perspective.

When you are creating a new image out of two or more source images, matching perspective can be a real challenge.

Working with Miss Cacci helped me develop a new technique for matching the perspectives of a 2D photo with a 3D scene. It is a simple technique, but I have never seen it described in a book, video, or blog post before.

I'll describe the technique in more detail later in the shooting with Miss Cacci series of blog posts.

Until next time:

Be seeing you!

Jackie O'Lantern: Come a Little Closer

Jackie O'Lantern: Come a Little Closer. Cropped version.

I was a little late with my Halloween picture, but I choose to consider myself very early with my 2020 Halloween picture instead.

I came up with the idea for Jackie O'Lantern partially because I studied Halloween pictures at ArtStation, and partially because I wanted to do a Halloween picture with some cross culture connections. In this case, Halloween -Voodoo. The Voodoo influence is not nearly as strong in the finished picture as it was when I started. Well, maybe next time around.

Jackie O'Lantern: Come a Bit Closer. Uncropped version.

Here is the full, uncropped version. This version wont be on Facebook, because if you look closely, you may spot a werewolf nipple. Because it is a female werewolf, Mark Zuckerberg, and presumably a large number of Facebook users, would go bananas if they spotted it.

I built the basic scene in Daz Studio, as I often do. You probably aren't interested in what the image produced by Daz looked like, but I'll show you anyway.

Image rendered by Daz.

As you can see, the original looks quite different.

I am an amateur photographer, not a 3D artist, so I do not build 3D models from scratch. On the other hand, I do a fair amount of kit bashing.

For example, look at the throne Jackie sits in.

The original throne is from Mort Augur, A commercially available 3D scene. I combined the original throne with a new stone texture, then layered three algae and moss textures, added vines, a rock, and a couple of skulls.

The throne has skulls carved from stone in the armrests, but I wanted more detail, and more control over the textures.

Just adding the skulls actually looked fairly good, but I wanted a bit more.

I added a layer of blood, and then a layer of moss on top of that.

When I render a scen in Daz, it usually comes off as looking a little too clean, a little too perfect.

Rendered 3D images often look a little too clean.

After compositing the image in Affinity Photo, where I also added the fire to the pumpkin head, I saved the image.

Then, I used Dynamic Auto-Painter to turn it into a painting.

Image painted with Dynamic Auto-Painter.

I like the painted version a lot. Sometimes, I like the painted version more than I like the more photorealistic end result.

In this case though, I added the painted version as a layer on top of the photo realistic version in Affinity Photo, and blended them together.

Final image, with painted image blended in.

That is it, for now. Be seeing you!