Sharrukin's Palace

Further progress toward an image I can build into a book cover for The Curse of Steel. Lots of small posing and rendering techniques acquired for this one: creating a floor with a plane primitive and a materials shader, mixing upper-body and lower-body poses, and so on.

I think I may be getting within striking distance of an image I can use.

Here’s a first image (well, aside from sketches and scraps) of a second character from The Curse of Steel. This is Drothan the Silent, younger son of a clan chieftain of the Tremara people, and eventually Krava’s primary love interest. Not that the two of them are going to have an easy time of it, getting their relationship started.

As with the images I’ve been producing of Krava, this one started with me selecting a Daz Studio character model and tweaking its parameters – in this case, scaling the character model up by about 8% and ratcheting up the “bodybuilder” settings to get a guy who’s big and muscular. The selection of hair and clothing went a lot faster this time since I already had some of the assets I wanted in my personal catalog. I seem to be climbing the learning curve with respect to using Daz Studio effectively.

At this point, I think I’m just about ready to start setting up the render that’s going to provide the cover image for the novel. A few more days of work and this part of the project will be finished.

First experiment with altering the color and textures of an existing Daz Studio model, using Photoshop. I’d say it was entirely successful and surprisingly easy to boot. Turning Krava’s tunic forest green took maybe fifteen minutes of work, once I reminded myself how to apply the appropriate editing tools.

Also added a few accessories – bracers and a bit of jewelry. I have to say, this portrayal of Krava is starting to grow on me.

A little more work to produce a sword that matches the one in the novel, and then I’m going to start working on a model for another character, Krava’s long-term love interest. Hopefully, that process will go smoothly, and then it will be on to a combined render that can form the basis for the book cover.

Okay, now I think I’m making progress. After several days of experimentation, I’ve found a set of clothing models that work for Krava. Something within striking distance of clothes that an Iron Age “barbarian” warrior might actually wear. Leather trousers and boots, and a cloth tunic with very short sleeves or no sleeves, that’s more or less what I had in mind. This ensemble very nearly qualifies.

I think the next step is going to involve tinkering with the textures for the tunic – I’m going to see if I can produce materials maps that more closely match something I describe in the draft novel. Meanwhile, I may also try to add a few small accessories, such as a torc and maybe an arm-band for jewelry.

Okay, this is kind of promising even if I still don’t think it quite fits.

The boots and trousers are still working, and the jacket at least seems plausible and looks good on Krava. The ensemble doesn’t exactly suggest “Iron Age barbarian,” though. More like “high fantasy elf.” It might be the kind of outfit Krava wears much later in her story, after she comes into contact with some more civilized folk.

Still, as an experiment, it’s not bad. Still looking for a top that more closely matches what I have in my head – something a bit looser, with much shorter sleeves, and not looking quite so machine-stitched.

Okay, now that Krava has some clothes on, I can start posting my experiments here.

For the record, it is a royal pain in the nether regions finding clothing models for pre-modern characters that are at all realistic. Look for “female warrior” outfits and you’re likely to get something that’s all keyholes where it isn’t shiny black leather. With stiletto heels. The above isn’t terrible in comparison to some, but it’s still not very close to what I have in my head. I might end up keeping the trousers, boots, and belt here, but that’s about it.

Honestly, if I’m serious about the Celtic inspiration for Krava’s people, their warriors are more likely to look like this:

Light woolen tunics and trousers, not a lot of leather, maybe a metal helmet, and lots of bright colors and patterns.

Getting there is probably going to mean a lot more digging through the catalogs, and probably some kit-bashing with texture files and whatnot. More experiments to come.

Here’s my first attempt to generate imagery for The Curse of Steel:

This young woman is my protagonist, Kráva the Swift, close to the beginning of her story.

I’m pleased with how her face, body, hairstyle, and coloring all came out; I was able to make her look almost exactly like the image I had in my head. Clothing and gear, not so much. It’s very difficult to find precisely the look I want for those, among the digital assets that are available for DAZ Studio. Her gear is supposed to suggest a pseudo-Celtic culture, but at the moment she looks kind of generic. This isn’t a bad first approximation, though. Later I’ll try to get her hauberk to look more authentic, improve the sword a bit, add a cloak, a scabbard, and the bow and arrows she also carries, and so on.

Here’s a link to the DeviantArt page where this image was also posted. You should be able to get higher resolution there, and some technical notes that I left out here.