Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium.
Physically Based Rendering (PBR) is the latest rage in the Poser & DAZ Studio universe ever since the Reality for DAZ Studio plug-in was introduce by Pret-a-3D. I, myself, enjoy the challenge of getting a render as close to reality as possible.
Naturally, attempting PBR renders using the naked human body is very popular. One of the problems that I see with many who attempt those types of renders is that they seem to pose their figures (whether leaning against a wall or sitting) without taking into account what those actions do to the human body. In real life the parts of the body that are pressed against an object tend to deform, or squish, due to the pressure exerted by the body’s weight.
I am not really bothered by what I see as most of these renders are done by hobbyists like me. We want instant gratification. This is just an observation that I write about here because providing constructive criticism on someone else’s masterpiece is fraught with peril. In many cases where I have attempted it “I have been put in my place” or even unfriended on Facebook. You get the picture. I just want to point out this flaw to those who might care enough to attempt a more realistic image.
What prompted me to write this piece was a recent image I saw on Deviant Art, it is a beautiful, well lit and composed, female figure with long hair, but what killed the experience for me was that her butt was floating on the stool she is sitting on.
I decided to compose and render a scene of my own but taking care of displacing (squishing) her butt. In my rendered scene you can see and feel the weight being displaced as she poses on the stool. No floating butts here.
There are several ways to get a figure’s body part to squish; one is by using D-Formers. I have used these plenty of times even on a Medusa’s snake tail to mimic the weight of her body on her tail. Sadly, many don’t even know these exist or even have the patience to try and learn to use them.
There is an easier way and that is to use a product designed to solve such issues. Like i13 SQUISH Soft Body Effect Morphs for the Genesis 3 Female(s). You can find these products for Victoria 4 all the way to Victoria 7 (the Genesis 3 base figure, the latest as of this post).
These products are great but they will not work outside the target base figure’s body, as was the case with the Medusa’s snake tail I used as an example, in such cases it pays to learn how to use D-Formers.
D-Formers can, also, come in handy when displacing a sofa’s seat cushion around the area where your figure is sitting on it. It makes for extra realism.
Some products used in this render:
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