Image Umbrella: Realistic Images

[barbieq25]

Celtic Shield

Freedom

[Possum Roadkill]

Barbieq those are just beautiful !

[oma]

as Possum said lovely images barbie

my favourite flower is a "Carnation"

100% paint.net.

tried out the liquidfy plugin and used smudge and gradiant shapes. probably should have checked the shadows a bit more before I flattened. but think it came out not too shabby for about 15 mins work.

ciao OMA

[Axle]

oma, i think that there should be a little more shadow on the stem where it meets the pettles

[barbieq25]

Thanks Possum & Oma

I agree with Axle bit I must say that is a lovely carnation. I adore the colours & the stems & leaves are great too. Fantastic use of the plugin!

[oma]

thanks Axel yes I think you are absolutley correct. I did this one up in just a real short time as a quick test of a method to see if doing the multiple petals would work.

Usually I like to draw from a photograph image or better yet an actual flower, but in this case I was drawing from memory. If I had a carnation to check where the color values and shades should rightly fall it would have been more accurate. I still have the PDN so will be spending a bit more time today on this flower to try and get the shading more accurate.

I also actually think the color of the greenery is slightly off as well. Seems to me carnations have a bit more grey/blueish cast in the greenery. Will have to locate a good reference image thru google to check, (stores are closed today so I can't even treat myself to a bouquet...LOL!)

thanks for leaving a constructive comment.

EDIT: thanks Barbie you must have been typing same time as I was. LOL! see above I wrote to Axel. It may have more work on this PDN or I just might start another carnation to test out some further ideas. Now I'm off to look for a great inspiration picture of a carnation.

ciao OMA

Edited January 1, 2011 by oma

[barbieq25]

Yes, I think you are right too about the green. I forgot the colour but I know the shapes of the leaves are pretty right but theyhave a bit of a bump where they join the stem. Another good reason to work from a reference image.

[oma]

thanks barbie.

my first piece for realism for 2011

all 100% paint.net no renders no photos just straight paint.net it is possible.

[olav.k.m]

simply incredible!

[barbieq25]

Beautiful work Oma. You've not only created wonderful carnations but also a beautiful vase to keep them in. Well done!

[chrisco97]

Oma, that is incredible! Read my comment on DA.

Olav, love the sword. The shine is incredible.

Possum, love the texture.

Kemaru, the planet texture is great.

And Barbieq, your work is amazing as always.

Edited January 3, 2011 by chrisco97

[mountnman]

after the carnations i feel very small- OMG they are amazing

will be years before i can even attempt something like that-

in the meantime, feedback is a lifeline

[barbieq25]

I love the wings & the soft colour. Very nice work!

[Possum Roadkill]

@ Oma that is simply amazing. You have set the bar for this year very high ! This is really so inspiring.

@ MountNman Very very nice. The colors are very soft and smoothly transitioned. The design is really wonderful. I really love this piece.

[mountnman]

thanks guys, it started out as a headpeice for an anime a friend was doing, but she went with something more modern/techno, anyway....

[KoryLGriffin]

I am new to this graphic thang. Thanks for sharing and I got some great ideas from here so far. Cheers

[Possum Roadkill]

I am new to this graphic thang. Thanks for sharing and I got some great ideas from here so far. Cheers

Good to hear it. Stop in and look at some of the individual galleries when you have the time. There is so much to see, it takes a few days to take it all in. I'll be looking forward to seeing some of your art when you are ready to post it on here. Welcome to the forum !

[AmadeusX]

Hidden Content:

My 4th spacescape still not very realistic but closer....

P.s.

71 layers in this one =)

"My 4th spacescape still not very realistic but closer"

I can not agree on that one mate. Looks awesome!!!

But would be more awesome in 1920 * 1080

And 71 layers. booya. that's a lot.

Usually i stick with max. 7 layers.

Anyway, Awesome picture! For being honest: Is the best picture I ever seen on this forum!

Next time draw Mona Lisa?

[punkmama]

PsychoHarmonic:I agree with AmadeusX absolutely stunning.

This is my first 100% PDN render. I guess it's not too bad for my first planet. I followed a PS tutorial, man was it a pain trying to come up with the same effects with PDN

[pdnnoob]

really great work on the planet there, punk!

I do have just a couple of suggestions (as usual when I'm commenting on space scenes)...

1. The most obvious thing to improve is the stars in the back. What I like to do when it comes to stars is to make 3 layers filled in with black and set to lighten.

On the top layer, I make the brightest stars (like your big ones in your image). You might have too many, but they are otherwise perfect.

On the second layer, I make the stars of medium brightness: add noise with intensity at 100, color at 5, and coverage at 1; then run the clouds plugin (not the built in one) with density 3/4 of the way to the right and everything else at default.

On the bottom layer, I run noise the same way as the second, but set brightness (using brightness/contrast adjustment) to -100

At the moment, I can see your eraser marks and a large percentage of the stars are white pixels (not even shades of gray)

2. I can't complain much about your planet because it looks so cool. All I might suggest is using the lens tool rather than shape 3D, but I don't know if that's what you did...actually, forget what I just said. Just run basic antialias on the planet and it will be absolutely flawless.

[punkmama]

Thanks PDNNOOB for the suggestions. It's kinda cool to be told by an expert on the subject that my first planet is almost flawless. (Yes I did use 3d render...good eye)I will try lens next time.

I know the starfeild sucks, it was actually a small part of a bigger starfield I did (my first), but it sucked, the clone tool did some weird lines and it didn't show up until I merged the layers, so I cropped it all out and used it to show off my planet. can be seen here

I will try your suggestions on the starfield. What I did was made a black background, started a new layer, made it black, created noise, then adjusted brightness and contrast to thin out the stars, set layer mode to screen. Duplicated the layer,then adjusted brightness and contrast again, and played with levels, then rotated the layer 180, set layer to screen, and then erased here and there on both layers. I then flattened the layers and cloned some areas. I also added another layer and I think I did, render sparkles.

Since I posted my planet I have made a new starfield, I'm fairly happy with the results but being new to the whole spacescape thing I would like some expert critique on it.....be brutal.

[PeaceHeather]

PsychoHarmonic:I agree with AmadeusX absolutely stunning.

This is my first 100% PDN render. I guess it's not too bad for my first planet. I followed a PS tutorial, man was it a pain trying to come up with the same effects with PDN

Gorgeous. And I know what you mean about tutorials, I'm over on Cartographer's Guild and most of their stuff is for Photoshop, GIMP, and who knows what all else, but not PDN. So I occasionally publish translations.

[pdnnoob]

Thanks PDNNOOB for the suggestions...

...long quote...

...Since I posted my planet I have made a new starfield, I'm fairly happy with the results but being new to the whole spacescape thing I would like some expert critique on it.....be brutal.

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n209/punkmama1/starfield2.png

First off, I'm no expert, but thanks for the compliment XD

The reason I prefer lens to the 3D render is that the 3D tends to turn out looking like a smooth sphere, even with the settings set properly. The lens effect is just a basic tool that gives less of a template (meaning more flexibility) when you make your object. There is more work involved (like cutting out your sphere, smoothing the edges with antialias, and adding shadow), but I typically find it worth the trouble.

I see what you're talking about with the lines. I usually just run AA's Assistant when I come across those issues.

My mini tutorial is just a quick way to get some basic stars in the background when I want to show off some space scenes I make. All it does is give the "add noise" effect some variation

I do recognize what you were trying to do, though...is this familiar to you at all? It seems, in that new starfield you want me to be brutal on, you followed the tutorial pretty well.

Just to find something(s) to be brutal about...

1. A whole lot of bright little stars with only a few dim ones. I would try reducing the coverage setting on the noise (when you are adding brighter noise) and adding another layer just for the dim stars so they don't end up being overpowered and left out.

2. Use up some more of your space. You filled in the top and right nicely, but the bottom left corner seems a bit monotonously empty. It doesn't have to be something significant that takes away from the focus of the picture. Just something to add a bit of variation to that corner besides the one bright star there. Making the change I mentioned in the first point might fix it, but play with it and see what you like best!

[punkmama]

Thank you very much PeaceHeather

Thanks for the advice PDNNOOB, yes I did use Greg Martin's tutorial along with reading many others (which didn't really vary from Greg's) I left the left corner kinda bare because I didn't want the overall spacescape to feel too cluttered, it is just a background after all. I was thinking of a nebula there but haven't found any techniques that I'm happy with...any suggestions?

Your right about 3D render but playing with embossing and adding a planetary glow help a lot with that smoothness, but I haven't had a chance yet to mess around with lens....I've been trying for 8 hours straight to make a nebula

AA's Assistant looks extremely helpful, DLing now.

[pdnnoob]

nebulae can be difficult...well...they are difficult. I stopped trying when I started using a program called Apophosis. It's a fractal rendering program, but some fractals look pretty close to nebulae. ex: my current sig.

It still takes some work (going through loads of random batches...) and a LOT of time (waiting for the thing to render at a reasonable quality) but it makes cool creations like this one (with some editing involved)