Tag Archives: frozen

Generic Man

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As you already know, my previous attempt to make the perfect social media avatar didn’t work out too well.  Facebook was the biggest problem because sometimes their avatars are really, really tiny and the “man with no face” concept didn’t read.  Also, shortly after I started using the side-view no-face avatar every single social media site changed their avatars from a square to a circle.  Twitter, facebook, instagram, artstation, flicker… Everywhere.  Aaaaarrrrrrgggggg!

OK, I needed something new, something simpler to understand and centered so it would look good in a circle.  Enter Generic Man:

Man ConcentratedI kept things as simple as possible, centered face, no color, plain background.  Getting the light right took time.  Usually I like to set my own lights but this time I tried lighting exclusively with an HDRI dome.  I tried many different light patterns until I got the glossy highlights and the deep set eye shadows just right.  I didn’t want the light to be too flat but I also didn’t want it to be too shadowy either. This particular light pattern worked the best.

Man Concentrated BTS light dome

I also had to spend quite some time working on the white porcelain “skin” material too, especially since the neck of the original model was a different material.  Finally I dialed in a slight asymmetrical facial expression just to give it a little something.

When I first rendered it out I kept the contrast very low.  I liked the way it emphasized the eyes but it didn’t read well online at smaller sizes so I upped the contrast in Lightroom.  This is the original render.

Man ConcentratedI’ve been using this avatar for several months now.  It seems to work well at all sizes, even really small.  It works in a square or a circle too.  On Halloween I made an alternate and posted it for a day on facebook.

Man FrightBHere’s a few screenshot examples on social media.  Facebook (so tiny!):

Man Concentrated facebookTwitter:

Man Concentrated twitter

Deviant Art:

Man Concentrated DA2

Tumblr:

Man Concentrated tumblrIt looks good in a square or circle, even very teeny-tiny on facebook.  I think this one is going to last me for quite awhile.

Man ConcentratedCreated in DAZ Studio 4.9
Rendered with Iray
Color Correction in Lightroom

Figures used:
HP Prototype YC-7 for Genesis 3 Male
iRadiance – Studio HDRIs for Iray

Frozen In the Life I’ve Chosen

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Frozen In the Life I've Chosen 10KI was testing out special snow shaders I purchased and decided to make an image of frozen pants.  Why?  Well, a fellow discreet logic – D/Vision editor from back in the day, Tom Grotting,  started a trend in Minnesota.  He freezes jeans and stands them up all over town.  It’s caught on in other places this winter.  Check it out.

In my image, special shaders called Let It Snow created the snow on the pants and the tops of the mountains.  It took a bit of fiddling but in the end it looks quite good, at least from a distance.  The shaders are added to an invisible shell around the object and if you look very close, especially along the edges, you can see the shell and the snow hovering above the object.  You can shrink the shell but that changes how the snow looks across the surface so it might be a bit of a compromise to get the right look.  I set the mountains in the background a bit out of focus which helps.  All in all though, the shaders work quite well.  What do you think?

Created in DAZ Studio 4.8
Rendered with 3Delight
Color Correction in Lightroom

Figures used:
Urban Survivors HD for Genesis 2 (pants)
Winter Terrains For DAZ Studio