Postwork: Before and after

GlitchGirl · Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2005 8:41 am Post subject: Postwork: Before and after

In another thread on another board, the topic semi-drifted towards postworking rendered images and I thought it was kind of an interesting topic to elaborate on- both the how and the why.

The way I figure it, if you got the tools, you might as well use 'em. My main arsenal is Poser 5 and Photoshop (Vue and I are still on tenuous terms but getting better slowly) When I make a poser image, I try to get as close to the final product as possible, but keeping in mind the limits. I want to animate someday, but until I win the lottery, quit my job and have days at a time that are free, I'm going to primarily stick with stills.

My big three postworked things (besides my sig):
1)Soft halos/glows - Poser 5 can't do 'em, not without resorting to lotsa flats which don't always look right. I generally try to light around them and add the glow later. I like my glows and atmospherics.

2) Depth of field/motion blur - Something P5 can do, but frankly, I like my hair and have little desire to pull it all out.

I have had very little luck with Firefly (other than choking it a lot) so I stick with the P4 renderer a lot which limits some of the effects I can do. Postworked blurs give me far more control over the environment and I tend to be more satisfied with the results.

3) Touchup/additions - I try to avoid touchups as much as possible but there are times it can't be helped. I tend to touch up hairlines if they seem to straight and soften crinkled bend joints and any poke through I may have missed the first bazillion times I rendered (hey it happens

) There have been a few rare times where I lacked a strap or fastener prop or figure, and ended up painting it in later.

Some examples (more to be added later when I get home)

Imperium Electric:
Before
After
Post: ALL the lightning of course, and the glows on the character and buildings. Some fuzzing on the buildings for DOF. Added some clouds and sky from a stock photo. As I was working I decided I didn't like some of the hilights on the trim so I toned a few of them down as well.

Defender:
Before
After
Post: Upon reflection, I went WAY too blur crazy on this one. I was trying to make everything feel in motion, and ended up with too much fuzz. Ah well... I was also trying for a straight magic effect in Poser, but wasn't happy with the results so I punched them up a lot. Not one of my favorite pics by any stretch, but one of a few I do have both the Pre and Post images online and at the ready.

POJ page 2:
Help thread
Kinda cool in that you get to see the pic develop while I was getting help. The last two are probably the ones you're most interested in though. I knew I was going to blow out the background on this for a while since I couldn't get the lighting between the inside and the outside to be as drastically different as I wanted. Most of the post here is DOF and lights, though I did paint in a brick in the upper right corner to close up the walls a little more.

So what about you guys?
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Mizrael · Forum Member Joined: Jan 18, 2004 Posts: 258

Unfortunately Postwork isn't much of an option as I have no hand eye coordination for painting, even less now a days due to arthritus. I do the best I can in Poser and if it's not good enough, that's just the way it is. I like seeing what can be done. Just don't ask me to do it. I still learn new things about Poser daily and that keeps me busy enough. :wink:

GlitchGirl · Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:31 am Post subject:

Actually Mizrael, a really cool post trick you can do for Poser that's really easy is simple Depth of Field.

1) Render your image normally. Save it.

2) Now, render it again, this time with anything that might be considered a background element (set pieces, background people, etc.) Save as a TIF file.

3) Open both images in your graphics program of choice (I use Photoshop, but this should work with Paint Shop Pro or GIMP).

4) Copy the mask/alpha channel from the second render into the first. You can now use this mask/alpha channel to select only the foreground or background elements.

5) Using your selection, apply a guasian blur to the background elements, sometimes no more than .6 will do it, you don't need much to make your characters pop out a little more.

Voila!
_________________
"Flash, quit heckling the supervillain!" - Green Lantern
The Ether Forge: http://www.stkp.com/POSER/

Ratteler · Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2002 Posts: 548 Location: NYC

I respect those who paint digitally. But as some one who struggles toward animation everything I can do without resorting to paint is just better for me. Paining every frame in an animation is just not feasible.

Sharby · Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2005 6:37 am Post subject: Re: Postwork: Before and after

Personally I try to do as little postwork as I have to, I'll try to get to the desired look I want first within poser (lighting, shadows etc.) for basically one reason...I'm already spending "X" amount of hours in one program the last thing I want to do is spend another "X or XX" in another (I try not to do XXX :wink:

)

Now granted somethings you might have to..especially atmospheric effects to get what you want, airbrush out a calf punching out of a boot, or to generally adjust the color some since Poser in my opinion renders kinda flat.

Plus my attention span is pretty short...so the longer I work on a pic the less excited I am by it....downfall of being an Aquarious I guess