by Norse Graphics » Sat, 10Sep04 08:32
koill, the tips you've received will help you a long way to get what you want. And I hope some of my own personal advice in rendering techniques will help you through the process in getting some good pictures versus the 'just so' you can find on the internet.
First you need a scene. Why? You need something to reflect onto the glossy parts, like windows, mirrors and the like. Making indoor scenes are renderingwise much easier on the machine. To help your machine in outdoor scenes, you should use a skydome to limit the length were the light rays will travel. This will save you time.
Second, characters. You should try to make the various characters as versatile as possible. That is, to not make them look to much like each other. The Morphs++ package will help you a long way. Another way is the texture-sets you will use; this includes:
-The diffuse texture (what we call base texture)
-The specular texture (for the glossy/wet parts)
-The bump maps (to show the wrinkles and faking realistic skin)
-Displacement maps (veins, scars etc.)
You do NOT want to make the skin reflective, it looks unatural.
Third, you need the characters to have hair. Most people are not bald. The hair should preferably have movement morphs, so you can pose your character, and make the hair look natural. The longer the hair, the more difficult the posing will be. And if you can, try to avoid specular maps on hair. Many vendors supply their hair with spec maps. My opinion (and I might be wrong!) is that hair should never have spec maps, because lighting conditions will vary, and the light itself will take care of the 'bright' parts of the hair.
Fourth, you need clothes. There are both paid-for and free clothes. I urge you to get the free ones and get your experience using them. No need to pay for clothes early and not have the ability to use them wisely. Pay later when you need something, and beware that you can get stuff on the Fastgrab or for a greatly reduced price.
Light and camera are your main tools in telling the story. To make the render less CGI-like, you should see if you can use DOF (Depth of Field) on the camera to blur out the far-away background while focusing on the face (or other parts) of your character. And light does always carry a shadow. That is, turn the shadow ON, and adjust the shadow softness. I preferably use a precentage of shadow softness between 2.5%-5.5% depending on what scene I want to create. You can of course increase the softness if you need it to be very soft. Bright daylight create sharper shadows than evening light, so adjust the shadow softness according to what time it is (not to mention the angle the sun(moon is positioned in your scene).
That is a short tut that might be helpful. If you need pointers and help, don't be afraid to ask!