Just thought I’d share this test image of a character I’m working on for a story I’m writing. Her name is Aibreán (Abbey) …
I’m working on the character model in Daz Studio right now, but I’ll move to Maya for the final composition and rendering. The image was rendered using IRay in about 3.5 hours.
A fellow writer (although my writing essentially is advanced shitposting). Huzzah!
She is very slim an I think you have her proportions done very well, except for her chin which is extremely pointy with a very small jaw. This gives her face a mouse like appearance.
I love the wings they are done very well. Perhaps some embellishments on her dress? Something to break the white a bit.
I see what you’re saying, but there’s a reason for that: her chin is relatively small to convey her youth (she is supposed to appear to be around 18-20 years old). I think it might be that her chin looks a little more pointed in the image than it really is because of the lighting creating a lot of shadows on the left side of her face.
Absolutely agree – I’ve been trying out lots of looks for her clothes, but I haven’t found one that I love yet. The white does indeed look way too plain and bright.
I’m working this weekend, but I’m going to try to find time to work on her some more. If I make any progress, I’ll set up a render before I go to sleep and post the image in the morning.
Thanks so much for the comments!!!
why no Legs? Loving that detail in the wings~! and those freckles~! almost photographic~!
I’m just a little conflicted about the colour scheme. There’s clearly more light coming from the right side of the wings, indicated by the white tips and less light from the left side, BUT the face is opposite… you rendered more light from the left and less on the right.
The Body again is different, it’s like the light is coming from straight on top angle. with no difference from left and right.
About the youth part I get that but right now the only thing that makes her look mature is the bossom, her face is 16-17 rather than 18-20.
For the dress I would add runes or stars in either silver or gold which are hidden in the dress.
A border on the neckline would work wonders too.
I have a suit which looks plain but is actually made up out of a very intricate pattern.
A collar medallion or jewellery could also complement the dress.
On the pointy chin. This is a pointy chin too but she doesn’t have the same issue:
https://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/miscellaneous/fantasy/40371_fantasy_angel_female_angel.jpg
She doesn’t have any bottoms on at the moment. 
I find freckles and red hair very attractive, so naturally, Abbey has them. 
I’m a portrait photographer (serious hobby for nearly my whole life), so I’m definitely going for photorealism with my 3D images as well.
Yeah, the lighting is kind of off at the moment – I literally dumped my “studio” scene into the file and started rendering. It was meant to be just a test, but I liked the image and thought I’d share it.
One major issue is I forgot to turn off the front light (originating from the view camera). Another is I didn’t render using a photographic camera, so there’s no depth of field. 
So Do I. It’s a secret. SHHHHHHhhh… there’s something about red hair and freckles.
it’s got much potential~! keep it up~! thanks for sharing~! update us when you get a chance to work on it more 
So I snapshotted her face and darkened it. Whenever I changed the colour I saw this very white light on one side. This cuts her face and makes it very angular and sharp looking.
I drew around it which doesn’t do it any justice but it gets the point across. Her jawline becomes invisible due to the light. The left side is gorgeous!
Here’s my render from last night – I was working on posing, so the image I’ve posted here was created by adding a background in Photoshop after the render was complete. (I was too tired after work to do much else, so the light setup is the default one in the software, and I rendered the scene without a backdrop.)
Her face looks like my niece when she was 15.
Much much improved.
For what are you writing a story? Short story? Background for a game character? An attempt at a book?
Whether it’s going to end up as a short story or a novel, I’m not quite sure yet.
what made you decide to make a model of her ? my stories usually have pictures first…
At the rate you are going you could even make it an animated story. Or a chose your own adventure. Those are very popular especially when it looks this good.
Portraiture is my favorite kind of photography, and my drawing skills leave much to be desired. I’ve been dabbling with 3D for a few years now, so when I wanted to visualize the characters in my story, rather than search the net for reference images, I decided to create my own.
I don’t know that I have the skills to do that, but I am considering making animated images for the story (think the moving “wizard photographs” in the Harry Potter books). I think that would be fairly amazing, and it’d give me a chance to learn the more advanced parts of Maya (Bifröst, XGen, nCloth, etc.).
Hello Abbey, your second rendering is stunning
I think that you have enough connections to pull that of.
The scripting for an interactive novel is basic Python. Not that hard for someone with your talents…
Hazel have you considered a 3D print of a finalized Abby?
I love the cling of that Blade! It has a claymore feel to it.
Nice work on the braid too.
