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Description
There are parts of iRay I will akin to an 'instant win' button for 3d art. Some of the hair conversion sets for iRay are just too beautiful and solve plastic and funky hair-set issues, even on older sets. I am also loving some of the skin converters several artists have made, you cannot rely on the artist-shipped materials to develop a personal style - you must either use a converter or build one yourself that unifies your shaders and vision across many characters. This is especially true if you do any sort of story work, as different artists will use different looks for characters, and putting them together in a scene will make one not look like the other.

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Mature Content

This was one where I relied on the individual characters (all done by different artists), and every character looks different. It goes left-to-right from waxy, plain, good, and blown-out. Since then, I have created a style around a replicatable procedure that keeps differences in skin, but the things that should have a similar look have similar looks (like oiled or wet skin). It took me a while and a lot of attempts, but I found a procedure I liked (and tweaked from there).

Still, one of the challenges in iRay I feel is making things look different and unique. There are times I feel the look is too unified, so the challenge for the iRay artist is coming up with a signature style which one can refine along viewer and artist taste. Out of the box is very easy. Tweaking and building a unique look and methodology is tough, since there are so many variables and options.

'Winning' in iRay means you are where everyone else is in terms of quality. It is your job to push the limits beyond that point with a style and look.

Description
There are parts of iRay I will akin to an 'instant win' button for 3d art. Some of the hair conversion sets for iRay are just too beautiful and solve plastic and funky hair-set issues, even on older sets. I am also loving some of the skin converters several artists have made, you cannot rely on the artist-shipped materials to develop a personal style - you must either use a converter or build one yourself that unifies your shaders and vision across many characters. This is especially true if you do any sort of story work, as different artists will use different looks for characters, and putting them together in a scene will make one not look like the other.


Mature Content

This was one where I relied on the individual characters (all done by different artists), and every character looks different. It goes left-to-right from waxy, plain, good, and blown-out. Since then, I have created a style around a replicatable procedure that keeps differences in skin, but the things that should have a similar look have similar looks (like oiled or wet skin). It took me a while and a lot of attempts, but I found a procedure I liked (and tweaked from there).

Still, one of the challenges in iRay I feel is making things look different and unique. There are times I feel the look is too unified, so the challenge for the iRay artist is coming up with a signature style which one can refine along viewer and artist taste. Out of the box is very easy. Tweaking and building a unique look and methodology is tough, since there are so many variables and options.

'Winning' in iRay means you are where everyone else is in terms of quality. It is your job to push the limits beyond that point with a style and look.