Sneak preview: a small followup project

[Watercolorheart]

FYI, I still have no idea how to achieve a cel-shading effect, or how to make 2D pics out of my 3D models.

I can help you with the making a 2d pic part... though it can be time-consuming.

Just use the still pic of your 3d model as a guide layer in photoshop .

Nah, you can do it in Poser itself waaaaay easier. There's a cartoon-shade option, and free shaders that you can download for this sort of thing.

I remember I used to have a set that worked pretty well, but I lost it when my hard-drive wiped ...

The hardest part is getting the lines right, that's all.

I think that the look without lines is the best, but that's just my two cents ...

[Taleweaver]

_Where_ is that cartoon-shade option?

[Watercolorheart]

_Where_ is that cartoon-shade option?

You know those little balls on the lower left-hand corner? Click on them. It will change the shading options. One, for example, is realistic, wireframe, cartoon-shading: one with lines, and one without.



It's the ones under "Document Display Style"

[Taleweaver]

That's the _Preview_ style. As soon as I render everything, it's gone for good, or rather rendered in the original (more detailed) manner.

[mikey]

Well, I dropped out of Poser a long time ago, but Kathryn always
just took a screenshot of the preview - isn't that enough? I mean,
just make the grayness behind the figure transparent, no? How
different would it turn out "rendered"? You'd still need a still
picture, right? Why not just printscreen it? Worked for us...

(yes, those large pictures forced me to write in paragraphs...
some people who are not digital artists can have very inconvenient
resolutions... such as 1024x765... )

[Watercolorheart]

Ah, for preview, you can use "export movie, frame 1" and set style to "Preview" and render in any size you like. Eh?

I did it all the time ...

Shaders are a good solution too. Try Renderosity for free toon shaders, maybe?

Here, someone else posted excellent directions on another forum.

----

1. Set the display style to wireframe, or another style you want.
2. Go to Animation > Make movie
3. Choose Sequence Type >Image files
4. Set the desired resolution (height and width; remember the image will be at 72dpi)
5. Choose Quality > Currrent Display Setting
6. Choose "Use this frame rate:" enter "1"

Total number of Frames should read, "Frames: 1"
7. Click "OK"

[Taleweaver]

OK, bad news, everybody: I'm putting this latest project on hold indefinitely. Recently, my time is scarce, and I want to devote all the energy I've left on the big followup project EsperKnight and I are working at. Foxtaile is alive and kicking; the music we're getting from our new composer is nothing short of fantastic, and we're basically only waiting for the final pieces of art from Rio to piece it all together. If everything works out well, Foxtaile will have a December release.

[mikey]

OK, bad news, everybody: I'm putting this latest project on hold indefinitely. Recently, my time is scarce, and I want to devote all the energy I've left on the big followup project EsperKnight and I are working at. Foxtaile is alive and kicking; the music we're getting from our new composer is nothing short of fantastic, and we're basically only waiting for the final pieces of art from Rio to piece it all together. If everything works out well, Foxtaile will have a December release.

Working or overseeing 3 projects at a time... problems always come.

So, active projects are Foxtaile and this, right?

Well, I hope you can finish Foxtaile until December, the devil is in the
detail, and most of the energy is always spent on editing and tweaking, just
when you think it's done, it actually isn't. Nevertheless, I'm really looking
forward, and *evil grin* taking your word for it, I want my fluffy Christmas
present! ^_^

All of this may of course also mean that Blind Love can be released before
Foxtaile... Or is BL on hold BECAUSE of Foxtaile... The world may never
know. One way or the other, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your
release. It's been a while since MB.

[Taleweaver]

Yup, that's the other project I'm devoting my time to now. My experience with Poser isn't wasted; the character art will now be 100% CGI. I'm offering a first look at the design of our heroine here; design may be subject to change.

[DaFool]

So this girl here will be in that other not-so-supersecret game for commercial release?

Going to CGI is a good decision for commercial release, since a lot rides on technical quality.

However I sort of feel as though something will be missed with regarding to the original hand-drawn character designs.

You see I am sort of going in the opposite direction. Since getting hooked on anime the first software suite I used was 3D (Animation Master). Then up to 1-2 years ago I've been using vector heavily(Flash), then concentrating purely on raster (Photoshop). Recently I did all my linework / inking on paper. I just figured that 10 years down the road, people will still be playing good old 2D games and rereading good old visual novels, and a hand-drawn 2D look will never grow old.

However, given the circumstances here, 3D cgi does save time and gives polish effortlessly. Just be aware that the time to market may be limited before a new even more photorealistic look may become the standard.