The Big Picture October 2024 "Abandoned City"

[SofaCitizen]

Oh wow! You definitely have the artisinal blood running through your family then. Certainly sounds like you have the right skills to create some awesome 3D models with your woodworking expertise. I really haven't tried much complicated modelling at all - just a little bit for my 3D logo and also a unique shelving/display unit that I needed to replicate from a photo for a render.

It's obviously quite different than working with your hands on an actual object and the tools would be so different but I think there would be quite a bit of transferrable skills there - and certainly working in a 3D modeller is infinitely safer!

For me, I have mainly admin & driving as family work history which is a bit of a mixed bag. Can perhaps pull "attention to detail" from that but otherwise not very applicable to inherant artistic skills. Probably why my own work history lead to me me an "IT Generalist" - basically able to pick up the basics in many things to get to a decent level very quicky but not really able to make the leap to being good at anything in particular. That's perfect for my current day job since that is just what I need to be; But it does mean I am so used to there always being someone much better than me at everything.

I am not really someone who wants or needs loads of likes/stars/comments or whatever - in fact I would probably freak out and hide if I ever got too much! However, I think it's natural to get a bit disapointed if you post something and no-one reacts at all. After posting the previous message I did go and check out the image I was thinking about on the Daz Gallery and it actually did fine there. I guess my feelings about it were based on posting it on DeviantArt and it got only a tenth of the reaction of similar works by others. I know there is more to it than just the quality of the image alone - correct tagging and how much of a following the artist has etc.

I think the issue stemmed from wanting to have all my images available somehere - however, the various galleries mentioned are probably not the right place. I started rebuilding my own personal site back when Daz went through their phase of shoving adverts all over the gallery. When I finish that up I can use that as the place to make all images available - and then be more selective about which other galleries I post images to.

I fully agree with your comments on troubles posting critiques, I think I would go through the same process before hitting the post button. In fact I have a tough enough time posting positive comments since I am naturally adverse to offering my opinion when it hasn't been explicitly asked for. Hence most of my comments on the Daz forum usually revolve around trying to help people with facts.

I think I will give it a go tho. It looks like there is a quiet little area here where such a topic would fit.

NOTE: I had to remove the rest of the last paragraph since it kept crashing the page (Internal Server Error). No idea why :(

[SofaCitizen]

Gonna try the last paragraph again, just incase it works in a new post:

Perhaps will dial back the "critique" part for the new thread and try and focus on requests for how something could have been better maybe. Obviously there is little substitute for "Practice, Practice, Practice" but some assistance from others mixed in can also be very advantageous too! :)

NOTE: Seems that worked.

[Agent0013]

I suppose you could call me an artisan. With the way I always work to make my jobs enjoyable, by thinking up artistic ways to improve what I do.
The cool thing is we have wound up at the same site, able to discuss what we do, and the atmosphere of helpfulness is great. Without supporting people on our side, we are diminished, so we can be sure that here we won't be.
Have y ever wondered what "PFD" in the site name stand for? "Poser For Dummies". It's not meant to be derogatory. When the site was begun, years before I joined, it was built to allow people with knowledge of how to use different 3D art apps to provide support and help learning about those same apps. Poser was the prominent app being discussed and Blender and DAZ Studio got included to expand the help and support one could get here. Now there are several apps that get discussed, and we also love sharing our art here. Without the art being shared for all members to see, we would not really know if what we help others with was doing any good. Plus we love seeing the art and commenting on it. This is why I am still here.
I too still need help on many aspects of the apps I use. I don't know all there is to know about any of them, so getting tips about certain aspects of an app really helps.
Don't give up on this endeavor. From what I have seen of your art, you do have a fair amount of talent. I think I can speak for all of us here when I say, we love your art! Stick with it, and learn as you go. Don't be afraid to experiment with certain tools you haven't used yet. You won't break the app, and even mistakes will teach you things you did not yet know. As for Wings3D, I might be the most knowledgeable member of this site. I have experimented many times in Wings3D, just to see what new things I can do with it. So if you want to know about it, you can ask me. If I don't know something about what you are asking about, I will let you know that, and if possible, either try finding the info you need, or experiment with it to see what I can learn about it. This will benefit both you and me with new knowledge.

[Agent0013]

Lost Cavern Ruins Found


I was exploring the many passages in the interconnected carverns that lead to other worlds. I had to find something I was told about by an alien being on a planet I had found. when things consistently looked like what the alien being described, I was almost sure I had chanced upon the location of what the being told me about. So, remembering the clues related to me, I decided to see if they would bring me to the described place.
Coming around the last bend in the passages, the bioluminescence became a good bit brighter, illuminating a very large complex of carvern chambers, with openings to other chambers all around. Easily discernable in this vast area of the caverns, there were obvious artificial structures; architecture built by extraterrestrial hands, yet quite similar to human built structures. I suppose I should say these structures were carved into the very rock the caverns were made of, and that they were not apart from the cavern walls, floors, and ceilings. Upon seeing these structures, I became so excited, I was overwhelmed to the point of having to kneel; steadying myself.
Once I was calmed down from my elation, I decided to enter as many of the structures as I could, and explore them. There was no life here, other than the bioluminescent plants and microbes.
My air analyzer finally finished its analysis of the atmosphere. Surprisingly it was safe to breathe, so I removed my helmet. There was a kind of minty odor in the air, caused by what, I didn't know. It was actually much better than the stale air from my oxygen tanks.
The interiors of these structures were fully furnished with weird furnishings, that had to be made for nonhumanoid beings. Finding a place to sit and rest was difficult inside those structures, so I had to usually exit the one I was in, and sit on an outcropping of stone. I had known that this might be the case, because the being that told me of this place was a nonhumanoid also, being more like an octopus. It could rest on just about anything, no matter the shape of it.
I had learned that humanoid species were a small part of the vast number of intelligent species in the Universe. Cephalopods, Insectoids, Worms, Avians, Aquatics, and one species of disconnected cells that could join together to become whatever they needed for specific endeavors. There are many more intelligent species of nonhumanoid form.
A camera built into my pressure suit was recording everything, and soon all of that would be studied by my team back on Earth. My suit also had sample taking technology built in, and was taking samples of the whole environment; storing those samples in small sealed pockets. My lab back on Earth would be analyzing those samples soon.
By the description of the alien being, I was at first thinking the place was small, but when I was just a small way into exploring it, I noticed that it was at least twenty or thirty times the size I could see from any vantage point in the caverns I found it in. In fact, the size of this place rivaled that of certain large cities on Earth. The mist hanging in the air hid distant features until I got closer to them. In the initial chamber, one part of the area I was in stretched more than a mile from my own position. When I had walked that mile, I could see that it stretched much further, and continuing to walk in that direction took me about 5 more miles. All along that passage were carven structures of the same type. Seeing how big this place was, I knew I would have to lead a team of my colleagues back here for more extensive exploration.


Credits:
Environment is a 3D style backdrop generated by the DeviantArt AI.
My only additions are the character and the lighting I set up to match the lighting in the backdrop.
Short Story written by me; Agent 0013.

[SofaCitizen]

Mmmm! Minty-fresh air sounds nice :)

Quite the mystery as to why the city is now abandoned - perhaps the analysis will shed some answers. Perhaps they all just moved on or perhaps they are in hiding from the strange bipedal alien that has been wandering around their home.

Great work combining the figure and 2D image. That's also something on my todo list as it would certainly help me to speed up doing more renders to get in all that practice!

[Agent0013]

SofaCitizen, if you are interested in grabbing some backdrops for use in your art. I have a lot of them in my gallery at DeviantArt. They are all free to download and use any way you wish, plus, I'm working on getting them offered for the October Giveaway that is going on right now for members of PFDLives, and The Fantasy Attic. Just have to send the promo image, and readme to DarkAngel. It will provide a link to the gallery where the images are available. I've got a large collection of AI generated cave backdrops, plus quite a few I made myself; not all cave backdrops, but several other types as well. I'm increasing the collection there all the time, using DeviantArt's AI Engine. It gives me images that are 1344px X 768px images that are 600 dots per inch. The Backdrop I used for the recently posted image in this thread is one of the ones that are available. At that many dots per inch, the images can be enlarged to about 1800px on the wide sides; big enough for the Big Picture threads. These images will be available all the time for free. I just ask that the user credits me as the one who made them, or had them generated by AI.