So, after some 700 practice renders and a lot of experimenting, I finally took on a bit of feedback as a challenge and tried to put together a cohesive scene. I’m not unhappy with it. There’s some part of me, I think, that isn’t willing to invest a lot in composition at the moment, and I’m not sure this is a healthy attitude towards 3D rendering. I should be bolder, but there’s a part of me that’s like, “Nah. I’m saving the good stuff for when I finally know what the hell I’m doing.”
This piece went through a bunch of iterations before I finally took everything away except the three characters depicted. Then I got down to the brass tacks and started working on the volumetric lighting or “god rays” as they’re called. It isn’t much. I used cone shaped primitives and fussed with them until they were pointing the same direction as the shadows. It was a bit difficult because the only time I can see said shadows in Daz Studio is when it’s in Iray preview. Oof. And on my laptop with the slower video card, that’s a lot of guess work.
It’s a little difficult to pick subjects and composition when just starting out. It’s not a cheap hobby by any stretch of the imagination, and I feel until I get lighting figured out, anything dynamic I attempt is just going to fizzle.
I have enjoyed the learning process, though.