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tomalee In reply to vulcanknight [2020-01-08 19:28:22 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much !

You're right, Gillian and Deborah miss limbs exactly the same way, but Gillian prefers safety over speed, and Deborah ... doesn't care much about safety !

Gillian is of the quiet type, thinking before acting, whereas Deborah is impulsive, reckless and likes to show off, and it shows in their ways of moving around. They miss limbs the same way, but they have different personnalities, as it is with two persons having the same usual amount of limbs.

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vulcanknight In reply to tomalee [2020-01-09 01:13:54 +0000 UTC]

I like a lot that difference between their personalities. I'm more fond of Gillian's way of being (very similar to me), but I like the energy and impulse of Deborah to behave in her daily life.

Both of them are incredible.

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tomalee In reply to jerek-uk [2019-12-30 22:01:10 +0000 UTC]

Thanks !

Yes, absolutely, no longer improbable ! I was indeed very happy when I saw that video and realised he was running (almost) exactly as Deborah would.


I'm really happy with the integration but the lighting is not exactly right. But it can't be since the render engine works with an almost empty environnment, not taking the picture into account since it's just a 2D picture I put behind. I had to change the material of the socket and the bar joining it to the blade since the original ones were very reflective and ... there is nothing to reflect besides the light. But oddly enough the material of the blade (carbon fiber) worked perfectly as it was. I tried to apply it to the socket, but no success. I suppose it's a problem of orientation.

For the shadow I used a plane with a shadow catcher material. I don't know who invented this technique but it's brilliant. You just have to put a plane in the 3D environnment and align it with the ground on the picture and the shadow appears to be on the picture ! I've known this technique for quite some time but never really used it. I shall certainly do more !

Something else I want to try in the future is 360° HDRI pictures. It seems it's possible to tell the render engine to use it for the lighting as well as the background, so the lighting is a lot better than with a simple background picture.


You're right about Deborah, at first she was not really a character, but only a test subject. She didn't even have a name ! But now she undoubtedly is one. What's funny is that she has the exact same lack of limbs as Gillian, but in my head she's a completely different person ... as it should be, as any fully limbed person is different from another (as Gillian pointed out to Rebecca here ). And this is thanks to you. You were right to encourage me to make more of her.


I am already thinking about doing more pictures of her. So far I just imagined a scene in a street. Or trying an animation (the Genesis 2 character has much more torso movement capabilities than the v3 I used in "Showing off"), but making realisting movements takes a considerable amount of time, and I can't afford that now. Besides, the hair is not dynamic so that would be a problem too.

The ballroom dancing is a beautiful idea. I've always loved this picture of yours. But I don't think Deborah would fit nicely in a ballroom. As I see it, the dances there are rather slow, with gliding steps. Deborah's dance style would be far too energetic !

I'll think about the gym (I imagine her hopping on a treadmill with others looking at her completely shocked) .

And I love you idea of the night club ! Her dance style would fit perfectly there . Not easy (lots of people, the lighting) but very interesting. Colours and multiple lights and reflections in a dark room... No promise, but I'll definitely try !

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jerek-uk In reply to tomalee [2019-12-31 11:24:01 +0000 UTC]

I use a very similar technique to that 'shadowcatcher' one on my illustrations now, although I make use of the Poser 'Firefly' renderer's built-in 'shadows only' setting. That means I get a render where all the shadows are there on everything in the scene. When I'm going to be integrating figures into a photo I have to add a 'fake' ground plane or primitive props for any other objects to match anything in the photo that will have a shadow cast on it. That render is grey-scale. So in Photoshop I can overlay it on top of everything, tweak it as needed, and then set the layer mode to 'multiply', which turns it into a beautiful set of greyscale shadows on top of the figure(s) and photo. Those can then be adjusted for strength as needed.

I really like that Gillian and Deborah have identical disabilities but are dealing with them in their own separate and individual ways; it makes them very believable.

Hmmm. I think you're probably right about the ballroom dancing. Love the treadmill image!! If you're inspired by the nightclub idea, though, you might be interested in this:

www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/ni…

I bought it a while ago with the plan of doing a picture of Karen out with her friends. But it's on offer at the moment for a very good price! And comes with all the lights you'd need!

Happy new year!

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tomalee In reply to jerek-uk [2019-12-31 20:24:05 +0000 UTC]

Thanks for the link.

Happy New Year !

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tomalee In reply to zephyronze [2019-12-30 22:14:28 +0000 UTC]

She has to ! She has developped techniques to avoid hurting herself too much in case she falls but ... it still hurts.

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