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Kurgen  
#1 Posted : Saturday, March 30, 2019 2:42:18 PM(UTC)
Kurgen

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I have this problem...


 


Now every so often I create a picture or character for said picture that takes on a life of its own, it demands MORE, claws at my head creating fanciful story arcs and in general demands all of my limited daz time. The latest one of these seems relentless she just cant be exercised and seems hell bent on getting herself into no end of trouble. 



SO...I give up, time to exercise the beast, time to try my hand at a comic. ;Thanks to Shadowman and others in another thread by the way for the Comic life recommendation, wonderful software :)


Anyway on to the real purpose of this post...


For all you comic craters out there,


For for the love of all things Daz what resolution / size are you rendering your images in for inclusion in your works and where do you find the balance between quality and render time?


Are you using lower resolution and render sizes for smaller cells?


What size are you creating your actual comic A4, A3, portrait, landscape...basically what works the best?


 


Appreciate any and all input.


 


Cheers 


 


Thunder-3D  
#2 Posted : Saturday, March 30, 2019 4:40:35 PM(UTC)
Thunder-3D

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I'm betting you get a lot of 2k and 4k responses, but I'd base the image size you're going for on 2 factors.


 


1. Will it be stories based on full page image sets, or pages built from smaller renders more like a traditional comic? If it's built out of smaller 200x200 or 300x300 renders you save a LOT of time on the individual renders, but render more images.


2 If it's full page images, how beefy is your render rig? When I started using iRay, I grabbed a $145 1050ti, which is cheap and fits the minimum specs for a hobbyist but takes a LONG time to get a good image. It was a great card and served me well, but couldn't fit much on it without a LOT of work reducing textures. Upgrading my ram and card to 1080ti made a HUGE difference, and mostly all I render is promos. The most serious artists use 2 or more top-of-the-line cards depending on the render engine they're using.


 


Basically, when you're rendering as a hobby, you're having fun with it and time isn't an issue. When you decide to go professional, you NEED to be able to render fast because time=money. The larger the render, the longer the render.


 


1080p is adequate, and with a mid-range card renders fairly fast.


2k is optimal resolution vs render time on a single high-end card.


4k looks amazing on a big screen/monitor but you had better have a monster render rig if you want to keep a reasonable schedule of releases.


 


Just my 2 cents, hope that helps :)


 


Kurgen  
#3 Posted : Saturday, March 30, 2019 5:27:11 PM(UTC)
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Appreciate the response Thunder


Although I am really in the begging stages here I am thinking I will be looking a combination of single page and multi cell pages although I cant quite see going over 4 or 5 cells, much like many modern graphic novels I think; Sunstone comes to mind.


I'm running an I7 8700, 64 GB ram with a 1080ti


 


Awesome poses by the way keep up the excellent work 

Edited by user Saturday, March 30, 2019 5:32:05 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Thunder-3D  
#4 Posted : Saturday, March 30, 2019 6:44:03 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Kurgen Go to Quoted Post


 


Appreciate the response Thunder


Although I am really in the begging stages here I am thinking I will be looking a combination of single page and multi cell pages although I cant quite see going over 4 or 5 cells, much like many modern graphic novels I think; Sunstone comes to mind.


I'm running an I7 8700, 64 GB ram with a 1080ti


 


Awesome poses by the way keep up the excellent work 



 


With 64gb and a 1080ti you'll be fine.


First I'd say time yourself setting up what you feel will be a standard scene in your renders.


Then render it 4 times, once in 300x300, once in 1080p, once in 2k and once in 4k. Now you have a baseline for estimating how long it will take to do your comics. Keep in mind once you have several scenes created, it gets faster because you will re-use scenes by relighting, changing props, recoloring etc.


When you start making money from it, don't forget to reinvest some of that money in either a second 1080ti or maybe even a second render rig. Anything that speeds up the process = money, as well as a more enjoyable time spent working.


Cheers!


mjw  
#5 Posted : Sunday, March 31, 2019 10:26:34 AM(UTC)
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@Thunder: "Basically, when you're rendering as a hobby, you're having fun with it and time isn't an issue"
I can honestly say that is not the case! I am beginning to be depressed by the slow rendering, but even more so by the delay in refresh when using iray. I can speed up with normal texturing, but then I can't see the effects of changes.
I can't begin to guess how expensive I7 8700, 64 GB ram with a 1080t (what size) must cost.
Thunder-3D  
#6 Posted : Sunday, March 31, 2019 11:07:16 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: mjw Go to Quoted Post
@Thunder: "Basically, when you're rendering as a hobby, you're having fun with it and time isn't an issue"
I can honestly say that is not the case! I am beginning to be depressed by the slow rendering, but even more so by the delay in refresh when using iray. I can speed up with normal texturing, but then I can't see the effects of changes.
I can't begin to guess how expensive I7 8700, 64 GB ram with a 1080t (what size) must cost.


Honestly, his system specs are very high, far above a casual hobby render machine. I'm doing fine on i5-6500 3.20 GHz, 16gb ram, 1080ti 11gb, which I'd consider slightly above hobby render machine (remember, I mostly just render promos, not vast comics or massive 4k renders for sale). I could save a minute or two of loading time on complex scenes by doubliing my RAM, but I'd rather put that money toward a second render machine later this year.


For render times in iRay the video card is just about all that matters, but even a 1080ti takes time.


Also, Scene Optimiser on the DAZ store is a life saver for smaller systems, if you use it you'll get MUCH faster render times.

smanimation  
#7 Posted : Sunday, March 31, 2019 11:29:01 AM(UTC)
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Looking back it's funny, but things are still slow. Back in the 80's and 90's I had a room full of computers working away 24-7 grinding out animations that had to many quality trade offs for me to be happy with them. Jezzz single images that took a couple hours and needing at least 15 frames for each second. Things are getting much faster, but 640x480 hasn't been a reasonable frame size for a long time and no one wants the cartoonish images of the past with flatish texturing. Same old advise, use as small a size image as you can to get what you need to work with, then do the big renders for finals. Then there is always faster hardware. Doesn't matter, the day you get new hardware something else will come out that is faster. None of it is ever fast enough. Work on stuff at a size your computer handles fast enough, then do a higher rez image when ever you need to see the details or just zoom into that area.


shadoman  
#8 Posted : Sunday, March 31, 2019 4:45:34 PM(UTC)
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Congrats on biting the bullet


I have no sense of anything daz related and of course for your first comic you want to make a good impression on your readers.  


with some 100+ publications behind me and several reviews, you have to find the fine line of quality verses production.  High end renders will set you back and may frustrate you with your desire to egt the images completed so you can get over to comic life and start dropping the images into the panels  and adding the text boxes and speech bubbles.


In poser I work at 120 to 200 dpi and render in PNG. I find this the best format for comic after I fix flaws in Photoshop and adjust brightness and contrast where needed and then off to comic creator. I no longer worry about adding additional sharpness and Comic life has a control for that and that is another reason why my more recent comics have a crisper look to them.  PS  Never render to Jpeg use PNG or PSD formats  .


No doubt using daz and the finer quality of the base figures will be a plus, but ypu need to find the productivity level you will feel comfortable with so you not get those "gawd! will I ever finish this Story" feelings


Find that happy medium and then get your butt in gear and don't give up till you have that final panel of your comic saved abd ready to publish


Lastly  make sure you get someone other than you to edit your work,  I'm so luck my spouse is so supportive of my hobby and her AD in English helps me get my products to the sites I contribute to,


Best of luck


Shadoman  (no W ) 


 



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thanks 2 users thanked shadoman for this useful post.
Thunder-3D on 3/31/2019(UTC), banditcameraman on 4/1/2019(UTC)
Thunder-3D  
#9 Posted : Sunday, March 31, 2019 7:49:12 PM(UTC)
Thunder-3D

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Originally Posted by: shadoman Go to Quoted Post


No doubt using daz and the finer quality of the base figures will be a plus, but ypu need to find the productivity level you will feel comfortable with so you not get those "gawd! will I ever finish this Story" feelings



 


I cannot stress just how TRUE this is. Even though I mostly just render promo images, very often it comes down to "How many of these do I want to render in 2-4k for the gallery vs. how much time do I want to spend before getting my product to market?"


The art should always come first and you want to make the best images you can, but not at the expense of being productive (if you're going to be a professional), otherwise you can quickly find yourself dragging out a project for weeks or months that should have taken 7-10 days.


Well said shado!


shadoman  
#10 Posted : Sunday, March 31, 2019 9:54:50 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Thunder-3D Go to Quoted Post


Originally Posted by: shadoman Go to Quoted Post


No doubt using daz and the finer quality of the base figures will be a plus, but ypu need to find the productivity level you will feel comfortable with so you not get those "gawd! will I ever finish this Story" feelings



 


I cannot stress just how TRUE this is. Even though I mostly just render promo images, very often it comes down to "How many of these do I want to render in 2-4k for the gallery vs. how much time do I want to spend before getting my product to market?"


The art should always come first and you want to make the best images you can, but not at the expense of being productive (if you're going to be a professional), otherwise you can quickly find yourself dragging out a project for weeks or months that should have taken 7-10 days.


Well said shado!



 


Well not quite 7-10 days for me, but 3-4 weeks used to be the norm for me,  At age 69, I've slowed down a bit, and being more selective with my projects. It might be a while before One see's another work from me at Renderotica as I am two projects behind for another site and to be more frank, I am making more money there.  Not giving up on BDSM, but I feel that for now  my work seems repetitive and the last thing I want is for something to look like the same old stuff.  I've covered almost every fantasy here, from hard bondage to comics for first time couples who want to explore BDSM as a fantasy and foreplay..  I've done sci fi and Pony-girl comics along with my running series Terri Steele. 


So when it does come time to post here, I want my story to be something I can be proud of.


With that said.  For the new comic artist. Set a time line and have a script that you can use as a guide line, Jot down thoughts you might have for improvement, so you do not forget them.  Lord knows I have had several ideals that I forgot about simply because I did not take a minute to jot it down.


 


Make you comic an extension of yourself and something you can be proud to put your name on and for gawds sake,  put your pen name on every page.


and every twenty or so pages place a disclaimer that says  do not repost with express permission.  Make it hard for someone who wants to steel your work by having to crop your name off of every single page of your comic.


Ask for advice when you can because the only bad question is one you do not ask.


Have fun and do not let your ego go off half cocked when someone gives you a bad review. Take the good comments with the bad as it will only help you get better


Regards  Shadoman


Never let the fact that they are doing it wrong, keep you from doing it right


Who knows what lurks in the hearts of perverted artist....
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