We have just completed an in-depth tutorial on Creating Line Art for Graphic Novels, Comics or Storyboards for on the Daz Studio Line Render 9000 plugin.
We were lucky enough to speak, at length, with the creator of Line Render 9000’s Jonathan aka djigneo.
For those of you unaware, Liner Render 9000 is an incredibly powerful and flexible tool for creating Line Art from a 3D scene. It uses a unique setting called ColorID which is a non-destructive parameter that is used to assign particular colours to the materials in the scene in order for the application to understand where lines should be drawn.
Because it is and ADDITIONAL parameter, it means that you can render the scene for 2D and then turn around and re-render the scene for 3D results without changing the material parameters.
There are six cameras that come standard with LR9K
- Main Camera
- Toon 2-Tone Camera
- Toon Camera
- Fresnel Reflected V Camera
- Edge Blend Camera
- Shadow Opacity Camera
Each of these cameras looks at the model and it’s underlying geometry and colours in a slightly different way in order to decipher where to draw the lines and each of these six cameras will create two renders. The a gray scale or B&W layer based on what it interprets and how you’ve changed the settings and the second, the lines, based on the first. So in effect, the artist has 12 different layers in one render to combine in limitless possibilities and you can always add more cameras.
When you’re trying to decide what setting to tweak for a camera, multiple passes of the same camera may be added to the scene and the settings all different for each camera giving the artist incredible power over zoning in on the right settings for the scene. It is not a tweak/render/look product, however that’s how this tutorial is presented in order to give the customer a clear understanding of what’s going on. It is a set up your probably tweaks, render, review and get rid of the ones that didn’t work and hone in on the ones that did.
These tutorials total have over 5 hours of content and are available individually or as a bundle AND as a bonus, Jonathan has provided three new scripts to automatically assign the color IDs so the laborious manual part of it has been removed!
Session 1
Part 1 Setting the Stage with LR9K
We take a hard model, in this case Futuristic Laboratory, and run through the various setting of LR9K. At each stage, Jonathan clearly explains what the cameras are doing and how to tweak them. It keeps the process simple and clear.
Part 2 Refining the Lines
We stick with the Futuristic Laboratory and continue demonstrating how you can refine the lines, even to the point of bringing out details that aren’t clearly visible in a 3D render. This two parts of Session 1 is intended to give the artist a solid grounding in how Jonathan intended LR9K to work and how best to use it’s incredible strengths.
Session 2
Part 1 Line Art from People
We switch to a character here, in this case Victoria 7 to demonstrate what LR9K can do without making any modifications to the transparency maps of the hair… the nemesis of any applications trying to determine where the hair is and where it is not and LR9K performs spectacularly!
Part 2 Teasing Out the Hair and Shadows
Is just that. Sticking with our Victoria 7 Jonathan demonstrates how simple it is to create a simplified transparency map for the hair and add it to the character. Once done, the lines of the hair become much more clear. He also demonstrates how to add lights to your scene and start using the Shadow Opacity Camera to create stunning shadows. Once this technique is understood, every artist will be able to take advantage of shadows to set the mood in their comics or graphic novels!
As a bonus to this part, we’ve also included how Jonathan demonstrated shadows on a hard model, in this case a boxing ring, how to use shadows to create mood as well as bring out details that until now, had remained hidden.
Session 3
Part 1 Adding Colour to Our World
Sticking with Victoria 7, Jonathan now demonstrates, using the Toon Camera and the Toon 2-Tone Camera, how to get color your artwork as if it were cell shaded. Here the strengths of LR9K become very apparent, and you could still render in 3D. The only change to your character up to this point is hair transparency map which is easy enough to change back. Also, although not demonstrated, LR9K is perfect for creating a cel-style animation using 3D characters and sets.
Part 2 It’s All in the Details
Delves into creating a truly cel-shaded toon. At this point texture maps are edited and the ability to render 3D scenes is not longer as easy as clicking the render button. But, every artist knows that the changes could be saved out so, all is not lost. Jonathan demonstrates how to use geoshells to add a beauty mark to the skin, although it could be anything on the skin… tattoo, scratch, etc.
To Sum Up
If you’re a artist that needs to tease 2D artwork from your 3D scene, than this tutorial of the Daz Studio plugin Line Render 9000 is for you! Over 5 hours of content BY THE CREATOR of Line Render 9000, it is a must watch tutorial.
Available now on Daz Studio here and are being sold individually or as a bundle.
For a very short idea of what contained in there, here the teaser we put together for it. Enjoy!