Comic Style

I took the new laptop for a test drive last night. Poser 11 has a much better comic style than previous versions so after testing how long a decent sized render would take on my new Asus ROG I decided to play around with a comic book look. In the mood for scifi I slapped a few generic models into a scene and loaded my favorite scifi character and began playing with the settings. I was quite happy with the way I got the green lighting to bounce off her and the floor. I actually do have a story in my head that uses this character. I've yet to really outline it as I've never done that before. Writing isn't something that comes easy to me but I'm working on it. Currently I'm working on a piece of fan fiction. I'm a huge Stargate Atlantis fan and I read a lot of fan fics so I though, what the hell, I'll test my writing skills on something where I can work with established characters and settings. It's about halfway finished. Maybe I'll have the guts to post it here when it's finished.

Maybe.

Mother of Dragons

My latest render is Mother of Dragons. I've been really into Game of Thrones lately and we've been catching up on the entire season over the last month or so. I didn't have HBO when it first came out so I tried not to care that I was missing out but now... OMG! Best show next to Outlander! And that's saying something for someone who watches Stargate Atlantis damned near every day. I know everyone is carrying the banner for Jon Snow but I think Peter Dinklage's character, Tyrion, is my favorite.

As for the image, it's not exact, obviously. The dragon is slightly different as is the coloring but I just wanted to be creative and wasn't going for exact. I didn't feel like taking the time to re-do a whole new dragon texture or alter the existing one that came with this dragon model. I used to hate rending stuff right out of the box (so to speak). I felt that for it to even be considered "art" that I had to contribute more than just composing the image, textures, poses, lighting and render settings. I would create textures and model small elements to add credibility to what I saw was the right to call it "art". Even though I postwork all my images in Photoshop, adding shadows, etc. I felt that anyone with the same program could do the same. I don't believe that to be true anymore. While Poser is not Maya, Truespace or Max, and tends to be looked down on by serious 3D artists who do this for a living, I've seen people who can absolutely make the program sing with their final renders. It's like taking photos with a point and shoot vs a DSLR. Yes, a DSLR has more bells and whistles and possibilities but it won't turn anyone into a photographer if you don't have the eye.

Everyone enjoy Fathers Day! I'm off to lunch and shopping with my husband and dad. :)

Getting back in the swing of things

I don't know what it is about the onset of summer but I definitely come out of hibernation around this time. I want to get things done, spring cleaning, re-organizing, get more creative, etc. This year, with my last kid having left the nest it's a bit different. There's a bit of a culture shock now that there isn't a kid in the house that needs attention, money, rides, to borrow the car, etc. Now I'm looking down this long path where it's just me and my husband on a regular basis with parent/child interaction changed from one on one ("go clean that room", "who left this out", "what time will you be home"...) to phone calls, text messages and Facebook.

It's daunting.

Part of me is looking forward to this and part of me keeps wanting to look back.

But while my typical M.O is to initially react emotionally, I tend to think logically fairly quickly and so I'm choosing to see this as my time. More time to myself (within the confines of my job of course) more things I want to do.

More time for creativity, golf... maybe upgrade my computer... learn more about 3D modeling... try something new.