Darkjedi

I put this together over the last few months. I'd like to submit it for consideration for the Scoop.

LoneSTAR Lineup

Thank you

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...And BTW "sexy" doesn't mean "there's a vulva in it". Think erotica, not porn. All the "I can't post it"s are a cop out.

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It's not a cop out, but rather a good-faith effort to follow the rules of the forum. We have a pretty good community in the Art area, and we don't want gain negative attention from the mods.

Here is the rule in question;

"...4. You may not post or link to any sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive imagery or content..."

Feel free to post sexy art (because I enjoy it too =), but I will personally refrain because I don't want to get mod-smacked.

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The sexiest art I've seen I can't post

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Same here.

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Amazing stuff!

I'd love to know what you did in post-production to clean up and clarify the lighting, making the figures look very professional.

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In the case of this piece, I did very little post-production other than smoothing out a few shadows and correcting some clipping issues with models and thier props. The light is right out of the render engine.

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That's amazing work!

/em goes back into the woodwork



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Thanks Ghost. And good to have the honor of your first post =)

/salute

Doh! double post...

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Hey DJ got a fast question for you

On Power Aide gloves I noticed he has the Justice style plate on top of what appears to regualr gloves? Is that just artistic design or do his gloves actually look like that in game?

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It seems he has Justice Gloves. I guess I overlooked that detail =)

Here he is in game;

POWER AIDE - Reference shot

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Kotaku picked up the WIRED story, Doug--it's over there, now, too.

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LOL, did you see thier comment about 'leaving my style at the door'? I guess they didn't know I've been re-inventing my style for years =)

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I know it was all CG, but the piece has a very... Alex Ross feel to it.

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Wired thinks so too.

Awesome work, DJ!

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Oh wow... I'm completely blown away that the poster has gone that far! Now I just need it to get to DC and Marvel.

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To say I rarely post here is understatement. So I just wanted to say terrific job Doug and I can't thank you enough for taking your valuable time to do this for all of us. I hope it's a turning point in your life and helps lead you into something more lucrative and enjoyable.

HF

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Sure thing, Hotfoot. Thanks for posing =)

Heeeyy... a calendar!

*get a good idea for a project*

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1) What kind of paper do you use? What is that blue-ish paper for drawing I see?

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I always use 2-ply bristol, smooth finish. For comic work, I use the Blue-Line pre-printed art boards because they're already measured to the correct proportions for a comic page. Agailable HERE , but several companies make them.

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2) Pencil?

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I only use a .5 mm mechanical pencil. For everything. From lose comps to tight finishes. I prefer mechanical pencils so I never need to use a sharpener.

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3) Any stencils or rulers?

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Naw. Unless I really need a straight line. I usually prefer organic lines, even on machinery.

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4) What should I practice on? Movement, body, etc?

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Practice on everything! Anatomy is key, but what good is a drawing of a person if you can't do wrinkles, or coffee mugs, or notebooks, or chairs...?

If you want guidance, there's a set of books I picked up called "How To Draw". There are 4 of them (I think), and of all the art books I've encountered in my many years, these are the ABSOLUTE BEST for anyone wanting to get into comics. I have hundreds of reference books, and these are my favorite... for any skill level.

Here's an Amazon link. Samples are included there somewhere...

HOW TO DRAW books

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Very nice. You are hereby the topic of the day at Kill Ten Rats.

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Hehe, cool. I poked about but couldn't find the discussion.

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I was looking at the costumes of all the heroes depicted in the poster and I was able to identify what each costume piece etc was except for one! And that's the yellow/red/green/blue girl up in front! It looks like the blend pattern, but the only ones I could find were Blend and Diamond Blend, but neither fits >.>

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Heh, you got all of them except my own character, Light-Speed! Here's a screenshot for what she looks like in game;

LIGHT-SPEED - In-game Reference

Wow. I am completely humbled by the life this thread has generated, and all the awesome support everyone has. It makes all the long hours and late nights worth it, and drives me forward to jump into my next piece.

Thanks to you all for visiting this thread for a few moments, and enjoying the art presented.

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Dude. how the hell do you make art that looks like that? Is that computer stuff or freehand paints or what? And how did you nail all the costume parts? Unreal.

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I have a short overview of how I work on my website. Check out this tutorial of a piece I did for Brandon McKinney; ---> LINK

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I *knew* there was a reason his name rang a bell! I loved that book....

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That's awesome! I drew the Zodiac characters to show my skill to Hero Games, but they didn't want anything to do with them unless there was a module written to go with the art... so I wrote them a module. I still have all those original hero drawings.

I'm honestly blown away that people still remember (and use) those characters =)

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Very nice, Doug. I have always been a fan of your work.

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Wow! Nice to see Positron himself popping in here! Thanks for the comment =)

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Out of curiosity, Darkjedi, are you using DAZ Studio, Poser, or some other rendering app?

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I use Vue Infinite. Daz/Poser rendered just don't cut it for me - I'm not a fan of shadow mapping. I prefer actual ray-tracing and not simulations. The downside is that Vue renders incredibly slow (some of these characters required 7 hours to render).

Wow... 3 Red Names! It's gonna be a good day today, I tell ya! =)

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Wow, that's a great piece! Even on my widescreen monitor, it's hard to do it justice with so much to see in the image!

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Thanks, Lighthouse!

It's always good luck when a Red Name posts in your threads... like having a lucky Cricket.

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Yet another incredible image.

Just out of curiosity, if printed out, how big would the full team pic be?

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Oops, sorry I missed that info. Printed out, it comes to just over 31" tall and about 61" wide... so about 3' x 5'. I'm gonna get a large printout this afternoon and wallpaper my game room.

Thanks all. I'm glad people are enjoying the piece. It was no small task.

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What? Everyday Doug is King, long live the KING!!! If we lived closer together I would stalk you brother for art lessons...

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LOL, you mean a collaboration?

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That is completely amazing and incredible DJ. Thank you for all your hard work. It is much appreciated by all of us in Lone STAR!

Instant desktop image!

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Thank goodness for widescreen monitors! Haha

I started this project back in October, when I got my hands on one of the new figures by Vexiphine. It's a new model for Victoria 4 and looked perfect for my very own Light-Speed. I modelled her up, and the new figure was SO awesome to use, I modelled another SG member... and then another.

After a few weeks, I'd modelled over half my SG (LoneSTAR, located on Victory), so I kept going and ended up making 3D models of all 41 members.

I spent the last week putting together a setting for the characters, placing them in the all-too-familiar Atlas Park.

This is the final piece in small size. The actual image is 31" tall and 60" wide, as 200 dpi.

LONESTAR Poster - Full shot

Here's a detail shot so you can see the full resolution;

LONESTAR Poster - Detail

And finally, I used the source images to make online sigs for every person in my SG. Didn't take long since I already had the core renders done;

Sample SIG - Texas Titan

Sample SIG - Power Aide

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Started watching for the video, stayed for the song...

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Heh, I was the opposite - muted the song, stayed for the video.

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My question is, why does everyone think he eats brains? ...

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THIS page might help clarify. Or further confuse =)

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Thats an idea... I guess I could have Liberty tackle Turbo or something and start making out O_o Anyhow here's another one because they're cheap and quick to do http://drunkfu.deviantart.com/art/He...ic-13-75789935

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Must... resist... moving to... Virtue...