The Art of Poser and Photoshop- P4 pptx

With the light controls you can add a light, delete a light, access the light properties, change the light intensity, and change the light color.. Figure 1.141 shows a view of the Light

Basic Poser Lighting Techniques

The lighting panel is as intuitive as the modeling tools With the light controls you can

add a light, delete a light, access the light properties, change the light intensity, and

change the light color Figure 1.141 shows a view of the Light Controls panel

Figure 1.141

View of the Light Controls panel

By default, you have three light sources, which are designated as Light 1 thru 3 (see

Figure 1.142) For the best effect, use Light 1 as the main light, Light 2 as the rim light,

and Light 3 as the fill light The main light serves as the primary light source for your

scene The fill light provides illumination to the shaded side of your model so that the

shadows will render with some detail instead of being solid black The rim light adds a

nice light source that highlights the edge of your model, and is also used by

photogra-phers to highlight the hair in a portrait

For any light source you will have two tabs labeled Parameters and Properties—see

Figure 1.143 The Properties controls allow you to change the characteristics of the light

and determine whether it will be seen in the final render This is also where you can

specify whether the light will resemble a spot, infinite, point or diffuse IBL (image-based

lighting) light source As a quick note, the IBL is a light source that comes directly from

an image that you import in the program

Click on the Parameters tab to see the options listed there Under Other, you can make

adjustments to how much of a shadow should be cast on your actors using the Shadow

wheel If you use an image as your light source, use the map size to determine how it

is displayed The next three wheels adjust the three colors representative of white

light Varying the intensity using the Red, Green, and Blue color dials allows you to

color-balance the light source and your scene Once you set your color, you can alter

the light intensity as a unit using the Intensity dial

From the Transform menu, you can scale as well as reposition the light source through

its rotation Finally, you can use the Scale option to increase the size of the light source

This may be handy when you’re creating a cityscape or a scene with a large expanse

You also have the ability to preview any shader node that is applied to the light source

as a special effect (Shaders are presets that allow you to add particular effects without

needing extensive rendering.)

Various Helpful Poser Presets

Poser has a variety of presets that will help you pose figures, add lighting, position

cam-eras, and apply props This section covers the more helpful ones Use them as a starting

point and then modify them as needed

Poser Lighting Presets

You will see a variety of lighting styles displayed as small square thumbnails—these

thumbnails are visual representations of how the lighting will appear on your model

To apply any one of these presets, you simply double-click on it; that particular

light-ing style will then be automatically applied to your model Figure 1.144 shows an

exam-ple of the Lit from Above preset

Figure 1.144

Example of the Lit from Above preset

In addition, you have image-based lighting (IBL) presets, where the light source of yourscene is based on a digital image that you import into the lighting environment Figure1.145 shows an example of a character being lit by the Jungle Shaded preset Becauseyou have not applied any type of surface properties to this character, like specularity orreflection, you are going to see a more matte-like look on the surface of the model.

Figure 1.145

Image-based

lighting (IBL)

preset applied

Although Poser Pro provides images for you within these presets, you can use your own

as well You can import any digital image that you would like to use to light your scene.You can even use images shot with your digital camera as source material To do this,

go to the Light Control options and select IBL, as shown in Figure 1.146 This will tellPoser to show you the properties for the IBL lighting environment

Now go to your IBL properties Note that Diffuse IBL is already selected, which tellsyou that Poser recognizes the preset that is currently applied Click the AdvancedMaterials Properties button to open an editor, which allows you to make changes to theimage map that you want to use for your image-based lighting See Figure 1.147 Simplyclick on the image that sits to the right of your Material preview Now you can navigate

to additional images on your hard drive It’s that simple

Figure 1.146

Access based lighting (IBL) options through the lighting controls

image-Figure 1.147

View of the Advanced IBL options

IBL is important because it will assist you in applying a light source that matches the

ambient light quality of the background environment that your 3D geometry will be

placed in So, your geometry will be lit as if it were shot with a single digital camera

Poser Camera Presets

Consistent with the Lighting presets, the Camera presets can assist you in setting uppredefined camera positions for different types of storytelling Just like the Lighting pre-sets, the Camera presets have thumbnails to give you an overall picture as to where thecamera will be positioned Figure 1.148 shows the Encore Portrait 3 applied to this par-ticular scene This preset automatically places you in the Face camera mode and elevatesthe camera to the right of the figure at a 45-degree upward angle As you can see, thereare a variety of styles listed here to give you a variety of filming types

Poser Prop Presets

In working with Poser, you’ll often need to create props to go with your dynamic

char-acters These props can be anything from clothing, interior spaces, and hand-held items,

to additional content to fill the interior spaces Figure 1.150 shows an example of a pair

of slacks being applied to a 3D figure

Notice that the pants do not conform to the figure automatically When this happens,

use the Conform To command (choose Figure > Conform To) Make sure that you select

the name of the figure from the dialog box that appears (in this case, James G2) After

you click OK in the dialog box, the pants will flow with the structure of the model, as

shown in Figure 1.151

Poser Hair and Facial Expressions Presets

Poser also has a library for hair Once you determine the style of hair that you want, you

can use the parameters and the dials to customize and shape the hair See Figure 1.152

In addition to hair, Poser has a series of preset facial expressions, as shown in Figure

1.153 You can apply them to a single pose or as part of an animation where the face

can be morphed from one expression to another You learn about facial expressions

in-depth in Chapter 2

Figure 1.149

Create a new camera preset with this plus button

Figure 1.152

Hair applied to figure

Figure 1.153

Facial sion applied using a preset

expres-Body Morphs in Poser Pro

One of the more entertaining features in Poser Pro is the ability to morph the body intovarious body styles To activate this feature, make sure that the entire body is selectedand not just one of the individual body parts In the Parameters dial you will see a sub-heading titled FBM You will see four different types of body morphs: ectomorph, endo-morph, mesomorph, and feet natural

Each of these settings will alter the standard figure into one of the three body styles.Let’s have some fun with them Figure 1.154 shows the natural looking body type

The endomorph body style is a more overweight body shape, as shown in Figure 1.156

This model includes an oversized buttocks, belly, and arms Turning the dial to the right

will accentuate the weight in the form of bulges and overlaying skin that shifts toward

the ground plane

Mesomorph

The mesomorph body shape is a muscular body type, as shown in Figure 1.157 Your

model can take on more of a natural muscular look or you can take it to the extreme,

for a character that looks like it’s taking steroids

Feet Natural Setting

Feet natural is fairly self-explanatory After applying different morphs, oftentimes the

feet can become slightly distorted, so this setting allows you to relax or enlarge the soles

of the feet, as shown in Figures 1.158 and 1.159

Figure 1.155

Example of an ectomorph body type

Figure 1.158

Example of flat feet

Figure 1.159

Example of feet natural applied

What You Have Learned

This chapter covered the following topics:

■There are three locations on the Photoshop interface to access all of your

commands

■The Poser figure is referred to as an actor

■You can morph or animate individual body parts

■Inverse kinematics assists you in getting a realistic pose quickly

■Forward kinematics involves animating each body part separately

■You can use camera views that focus on a particular region such as the face tohelp you pose more effectively

■You have four types of lighting styles in Poser Pro: spot, infinite, point, and diffuse IBL

■IBL stands for image-based lighting

■There are presets for lights, posing, cameras, and facial expressions

■The 3D tools are much more refined in CS4

■How to add and navigate lights in CS4

■With the new 3D palette, you can view the meshes, lights, and textures

independently

You now have a basic overview of the Photoshop and a Poser interfaces, as well as ofbasic character development Let’s move to the next chapter and explore how you cancreatively apply these two programs so that you can work more like an artist with thesetools

This chapter covers the following topics:

■ How to apply the morph tools in Poser Pro

■ How to paint contour onto a Poser Pro model

■ How to export a 3D format that Photoshop CS4 will understand

■ How to create composites using photographic imagery

■ How to custom-create a paintbrush to get the texture and contour for the scene

■ How to apply contour to paint strokes using layer styles

Creating a Profile

Carved in Stone

In this chapter you’re going to create a fantasy scene of a portrait carved into a coastallandscape Poser Pro lends itself wonderfully to creating fantasy and illustrative con-cepts The base scene will be centered on the towering hills that the portrait is carvedout of To allow the portrait to effectively reflect the landscape that it is protruding from,you’ll composite the stony texture from the surrounding hills onto the face of the 3Dobject With the power of Photoshop CS4, you’ll use compositing and painting tech-niques to integrate the surrounding scene with the 3D object exported from Poser Prointo Photoshop’s 3D layers The addition of 3D layers in Photoshop is a huge advance-ment because it can import and render 3D files more accurately than the previous build.Most designers are used to working with the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) axes; nowAdobe has added the Z axis (depth) that can be interpreted only in 3D layers so thatyou can work in a three-dimensional environment But in order to work in this envi-ronment, you will use a 3D model from a third-party program (Poser Pro of course).

So, let’s start with creating the head in Poser Pro

Creating the 3D Head in Poser

One of the most convenient features of Poser Pro is that it comes standard with a library

of predesigned 3D objects and shapes This only makes sense because Poser Pro is not

a modeler in that you custom-create your 3D objects from scratch; instead, you use fabricated objects or imported objects from other programs

pre-In this tutorial, you will use a 3D head from the library and export it into PhotoshopCS4 You will use the head as the basis for the profile carved from the stone

Note

There are several formats that Photoshop CS4 will recognize natively out of the box.These formats are 3DS (3D Studio Max), OBJ (Alias Wavefront), DAE (Collada), KMZ(Google Earth), and U3D There are other companies with 3D packages that have cre-ated plug-ins for CS4 and they will allow Photoshop to accept their formats into

Photoshop’s 3D layers as well A couple of these companies include Cinema 4D andNewtek’s Lightwave 3D So, make sure that you go online or contact the company thatmakes your particular 3D software to find out if they have created such a plug-in

for CS4

1 From the Poser library, select Figures and double-click on the Simon G2 option (seeFigure 2.1).

to use hands, thumbs, and fingers to make further modifications to accentuate theshape by pushing and pulling the soft clay surface

4 The Morphing tool (see Figure 2.4) has two sets of options One set is called Create

and the other is called Combine The Create preferences allow you to use your

mouse like a paintbrush and paint your modifications directly onto the model In

essence, you’re using morph maps to make modifications to localized areas All Poser

Pro models can be altered in terms of body shapes and types When you are

look-ing at any Poser model, you are not just looklook-ing at one body style Embedded in

each body style is the ability to use several body types These body styles can reflect

overweight (endomorph), skinny (ectomorph), or muscular (mesomorph) body styles.

You can apply any one of these or all in combination, thereby creating your own

unique body type In this example, you are going to use the paintbrush style action

to accentuate the surface of the head

In Figure 2.5, the Pull option button is selected This means that as you apply sure to your pen, the shape will bulge outward, creating peaks If you would like topush the shapes inward, as if you are creating valleys, you simply select the Pushoption button As you can see, the shape and size of the area that is being altered isdesignated within the large green circular pattern Note the small reddish areawithin the shape of a brush This is the center of the brush and is where the strongesteffect begins The effect decreases radially toward the green areas, where it has less

pres-of an effect So, this is Poser’s way pres-of showing the brush’s fallpres-off, or feather

Tip

If you have a Wacom tablet (www.wacom.com), it is a good idea to use it for this part ofthe tutorial You can apply the pressure sensitivity to create the modifications of yourchoice As you push down on your Wacom pen, the effect is applied to a greater degree Ifyou press lightly, the effect is subtly applied The version of Wacom tablet that was used

to create this book is the Cintiq 21UX Wacom has a variety of solutions for you to

choose from; we will discuss this tablet more later on

Figure 2.5

Apply the

Morphing

brush

5 Continue working with the model until you get something like Figure 2.6 Apply

some drastic contour to get a dramatic appeal On the bottom of your Morphing

options you’ll see a Mirror button Click this button and select –x to +x This option

applies the effects that you make on one side of the face to the other as well so that

you are creating symmetry The “x” designation simply means that the effects are

applied on a left-to-right horizontal pattern, or on the X axis

Figure 2.6

Example of sculpting symmetrically

6 Now let’s take a look at the Combine tab in the Morphing tool’s option panel This

tab allows you to apply facial expressions to your character Poser Pro provides a

wonderful way of going about this You simply place your mouse on various

loca-tions of the face Wherever the green dot appears becomes a handle for a certain

morph in that location of the face In Figure 2.7, the green dot in the upper-left

corner of the lip will open the mouth Simply click and hold the dot and move your

mouse left to right to apply the morph Figure 2.8 displays the settings that were

used to create the facial expressions