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Description
Just a very quick test of a somewhat Disney-esque 3D character, but I realized some interesting things while using this in other tests. Lengthy rambling below, but it might be of some interest to other 3D artists.

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A big problem that many 3D artists have, but especially those who use DAZ Studio and other what some call "non-professional" or "hobbyist" software like myself is that we often have photorealistic human figures or interiors, but not so photorealistic...everything else. It's fairly rare to see an image outside of Artstation's most elite or the featured bar on Zbrush Central that successfully combines an extremely realistic human, environment, hair, and clothing, and when it does, all of the elements were likely hand-made by the creator for that specific render. When we use elements from different sources, we're going to to have differences in quality, and that's what I believe makes realism in DAZ Studio so elusive.

The amazing Fantasy Home by Strangefate and Roguey is a good example. By itself, it looks like something out of a movie, with incredible detail and realistic lighting presets. As soon as you add a figure though, the whole scene starts looking like a typical 3D render, and you can even see this in the product's own promo images. If anything in the scene doesn't look photo-realistic, we often begin seeing everything else as being flawed as well. However, if it's made clear from the beginning that the scene is not supposed to be photo-realistic, we usually overlook these issues. I think this is why we can watch a movie like Frozen 2, which had astounding CG, and not really be distracted by how unusually stylized the characters are.

I'm thinking a bit of trying my own Fae and Flaeme characters in a similar style as well to avoid similar problems. This figure would not look out of place in an entirely CG movie or TV show, but if I used this clothing and hair on a realistic figure, I would be way too worried about the hair not flowing completely correctly, the normals on the outfit not being prominent enough, or that there aren't more stitching details on the gloves or belt. I want to try and make more characters based on real people, and they could still be recognizable without needing to be quite as physically accurate if I were making them in this sort of style. There are a lot of environments, props, and other items that I might use if I didn't feel like I needed to work on them for hours in Substance Painter (which I don't even have access to now) to try and get them to look as realistic as figure textures.

Maybe this is the middle ground I was looking for between 3D and 2D, I don't know yet. It just seems like this sort of 'toony-realistic' style might avoid a lot of the headaches that continue to make art frustrating for me. Still have a lot of tests to do, but I'd like to hear what you think. I don't intend to make Sahmika's father look like Mr. Incredible or anything drastic, but a little more stylization might allow a little more creativity too.

Thanks for reading.

Description
Just a very quick test of a somewhat Disney-esque 3D character, but I realized some interesting things while using this in other tests. Lengthy rambling below, but it might be of some interest to other 3D artists.

--------------------------------

A big problem that many 3D artists have, but especially those who use DAZ Studio and other what some call "non-professional" or "hobbyist" software like myself is that we often have photorealistic human figures or interiors, but not so photorealistic...everything else. It's fairly rare to see an image outside of Artstation's most elite or the featured bar on Zbrush Central that successfully combines an extremely realistic human, environment, hair, and clothing, and when it does, all of the elements were likely hand-made by the creator for that specific render. When we use elements from different sources, we're going to to have differences in quality, and that's what I believe makes realism in DAZ Studio so elusive.

The amazing Fantasy Home by Strangefate and Roguey is a good example. By itself, it looks like something out of a movie, with incredible detail and realistic lighting presets. As soon as you add a figure though, the whole scene starts looking like a typical 3D render, and you can even see this in the product's own promo images. If anything in the scene doesn't look photo-realistic, we often begin seeing everything else as being flawed as well. However, if it's made clear from the beginning that the scene is not supposed to be photo-realistic, we usually overlook these issues. I think this is why we can watch a movie like Frozen 2, which had astounding CG, and not really be distracted by how unusually stylized the characters are.

I'm thinking a bit of trying my own Fae and Flaeme characters in a similar style as well to avoid similar problems. This figure would not look out of place in an entirely CG movie or TV show, but if I used this clothing and hair on a realistic figure, I would be way too worried about the hair not flowing completely correctly, the normals on the outfit not being prominent enough, or that there aren't more stitching details on the gloves or belt. I want to try and make more characters based on real people, and they could still be recognizable without needing to be quite as physically accurate if I were making them in this sort of style. There are a lot of environments, props, and other items that I might use if I didn't feel like I needed to work on them for hours in Substance Painter (which I don't even have access to now) to try and get them to look as realistic as figure textures.

Maybe this is the middle ground I was looking for between 3D and 2D, I don't know yet. It just seems like this sort of 'toony-realistic' style might avoid a lot of the headaches that continue to make art frustrating for me. Still have a lot of tests to do, but I'd like to hear what you think. I don't intend to make Sahmika's father look like Mr. Incredible or anything drastic, but a little more stylization might allow a little more creativity too.

Thanks for reading.