The Reality 3 Webinar for Poser

Just recently Paolo Ciccone at Preta3D released Reality 3, which is a pathway to allow folk who model in Poser to use the LuxRender engine, rather than the Firefly engine, which comes with the program. There was a presentation on the program in the very useful Poser Expo hosted by 3D Art Live, but this really only introduced the technology. Now Paolo has, through the same agency, released a Masterclass on Reality. Although the Webinar was held back in July the recorded version became available last Friday, and it was packed with very useful information for neophytes such as myself, presented in a simple way that was easy to follow and learn from as you will see, from a couple of examples.

In the introductory part of the class Paolo pointed out that the role of lighting is not to illuminate and make things visible, but is an artistic choice as the light is painted into the scene to create the art. Then in the main body of the course he spent the first twenty minutes showing how to create moonlight and the illusion of a lamp burning to illuminate a doorway. I took that lesson and applied the easy steps that he outlined to created an updated version of The Witchtaker.

Figure 1. The Witchtaker on a cold night.

(Angus on Michael 4 (with morphs), wearing the Witch Hunter garb, and carrying a flintlock pistol. He is standing outside the Courtyard tower near some dead bushes. The lighting is with two Mesh Lights from Reality, one simulating moonlight, and the second strengthening the light from the cresset (burning wood), which has, itself, been made into a light. Rendering by LuxRender. (The slightly odd pattern of light on the wall comes from the shadows of the boards burning in the cresset – took me hours to realize that.)

UPDATE: An additional figure has been added.

The scene was used in an earlier post when it looked like this, before the lighting was changed.

Figure 2. Original illustration.

Both scenes are meant to be at night, but the more recent is more reflective of what it should likely be (i.e. reality). You may note that the texture of the shirt changed – well that was part of my mods to the original textures, but Paolo spent the remaining 40 minutes in the Webinar on changing material properties and textures, particularly leather, and so it is going to take some time to work through how to make those alterations. At some time in the future, no doubt, I will show how they incrementally improve the picture.

The second twenty minutes of the Webinar dealt with Portrait Photography, and just to prove that I can follow the step-by-step instructions that covered this topic, herewith is my rendition of Dublin, the original cover girl for Reality, with no post-work. (Only the hair has been changed from the Webinar version, out of curiosity to see if it made a difference). It took less time to make this than Paolo took to spell out the steps to do so.

Figure 3. Dublin in Reality

( Dublin from the Metropolitan on Victoria 4.2, with Sissy Le Beaux Hair style, two mesh lights and a gold reflector).

In short the Webinar was definitely worth the time, and cost and will help considerably in moving me down the road to where I can produce something that others might consider art.

UPDATE: One of the recommendations that Paolo has was to look to Portrait Photography books for ideas, and now having read some dozen of these I did adopt the initial pose based on Neil van Niekirk's book "Direction and Quality of Light." He uses the Short lighting pose, which I rather like, and so here is Dublin using that position (and re-arranged key light and reflector).

Figure 4. A preferred posing for Dublin.

So what is Art and who is an Artist?

Digital Artist Magazine has just started publishing and in the Preview edition Al Sterner wrote an editorial that said, in part:

If you take something that was made by someone else, put all the pieces together and output an image of the compiled items, it does not make you an artist. You are a composer, and nothing more. Certainly I will concede, the way these parts are positioned and lit require a good eye, it still only makes one a composer. . . . . . With the exception of a few, the 'hobby artists' are posers. Note the lower case p was intentional. If you create something from scratch, you are an artist and deserve the recognition that goes with that title. Otherwise, you are a composer.

I have just changed the descriptive paragraphs on what this site is about, and since I mentioned my hobby of working with Poser, I will comment, in the future, on how that experience goes. But for today, let me tackle the above paragraphs.

As background, I have been building a library of Poser figures, clothing etc. for a number of years as a resource to keep me amused in my retirement. That time having come, I am now starting to learn/relearn the features of the program and the supporting programs that are needed to make best use of it. I just upgraded to Poser Pro 2014, with Reality 3 that allows use of Lux Render, as well as other programs that I will mention as the need for them comes up. So have I the ambition to be an artist, or must I accept the definition that I am merely a “poser”?

My ambition is to ultimately make what kind friends might call “art.” But that would be my definition, not that of the editorial writer, Al Sterner, and so let me explain.

I find it clearer, when I give talks, to speak to an example, so let me begin with a piece that I composed while learning about lighting (a future topic or several).

Figure 1. Angus the Witchtaker.

For those curious it is composed as follows: Angus on Michael 4 (with morphs), wearing the Witch Hunter garb, and carrying a flintlock pistol. He is standing outside the Courtyard tower near some dead bushes. The lighting is with a Mesh Light from Reality, and a small fill. It is rendered via Reality.

Now any composition, whether a painting, a photograph or a render has to have a beginning. And so almost all artistic creators are going to begin with a concept. (Apart, that is, from the lucky photographer). In this particular case I figure I might as well learn from a master, and so this is roughly based on N. C. Wyeth’s “Man with a Pistol”, which he created in 1903, when, at the age of 21, he was a student of Howard Pyle.

Figure 2. Man with a Pistol – N.C. Wyeth 1903

Now, having been in N.C. Wyeth’s studio, I know that he drew using models of the various pieces that are represented in his paintings.

He worked with models (and in his last painting of Washington he worked from a bust). So that, other than in the conception, he was rendering a composed integration of the image of existing items, that he did not create, onto canvas. In the same way photographers that create art compose a picture that projects an image of a scene, using models, landscape or other things they did not create. This becomes art through the composition and lighting and manipulation, by the artist, of the image.

Ansel Adams did not create Yosemite, N.C. Wyeth did not create the hat and clothes he painted. Why then the complaint because I did not create the parts of the above figure?

The answer comes, I think, in the difference between, for example, a catalog photograph of a model, and the artist who makes the image more than just a simple picture of a man in a coat. And that involves the lighting, and the composition. And that is no different to the rendering of an image.

What makes it art, rather than a composition, lies more in the eye of the beholder. And if, in creation of the render, I tweaked the pose of the figure, adjusted the expression, changed the hat (once) and the gun (twice) in order to make something I liked better, then that is part of creation. I also didn’t like the color of the vest/shirt, and so (using Sveva’s Texturing and Stitching tutorials) changed the color and added a bump.

And yet, in my own mind, I don’t see what I am doing at the moment as creating art, yet. But where the line is drawn as to how much originality must go into the components of a piece before it can be judged as art is, in itself, a judgment call.

Some of my future work will look at how Native Americans looked in the times around the 17th Century. The image base will, as far as I can, come from contemporary illustrations. However, as Karen Ordahl Kupperman noted in “Indians and English – Facing Off in Early America,” John White’s original sketches of the Wabenaki were made to look more European by Theodor de Bry’s artists to become more acceptable art to their clientele. And with 95% of Native Americans in the North East population dying around 1620 there are few good images to work from. Yet if I use Blackthorn’s models with the faces of the Men and Women of the different tribes, defined as Cahokia, does that preclude a piece from being considered as art? Not even if I age the face, and change the expression? And that before we even consider clothing (or face paint).

Figure 3. My version of Blackthorn’s Full Moon of the Assiniboine. (from Women in Cahokia)(Warm'NSoul Lights and Raytracing) (Native American clothing, Amber Hair)

No, my answer as to what I consider art is something that Al Sterner discounts. The mark of a good artist lies in the “eye”. It is in the ability to conceive and create an image that successfully conveys something (emotion – information . . .) to the viewer. The source of the material is less important than the composition. And the judgment of artistic merit lies in the eye of the beholder.

Poser Pro 2014 comes out, and I get distracted

It turns out that Poser Pro 2014 was released early this morning.



I did not load everything quite the way that I should, and one or two files got misplaced (try the entire Content Library) so that I had to find where it had gone and set it to rights.

Be that as it may,it turns out that I finally got most things in place, and apart from a wee problem that I still have with lighting, and some poor choice of textures, it seems to be working well. If I can get the Lux Render to work right (it was and I seem to have erred there again) I will add that below the fold.

But this is why today's post will appear tomorrow. The picture is all composed from the work of others - not that much time for creativity. It is Raining Bird of the Cree (courtesy of the Cahokia Men series) wearing Shaman warpaint, leaping Merlin's Country Wall, with my own Iroquois village background. Enjoy!


Hopefully this will be rendered by dawn.