I took a little break from writing for a few days to revisit another favorite hobby of mine, which could have some bearing on my self-publishing efforts.
Back in the 80s I fiddled with Bryce 3D and Poser 3. More recently I tinkered with Poser 8. Yesterday I downloaded DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro and tried my hand at a quick 3D render with it. I’ve posted the resulting image here. I call it “The Sentinel.” Click the image to see a larger version.
You can do a lot of the same things with both DAZ Studio and Poser. I don’t know what improvements have been made to the more recent versions of Poser, but even they would have a lot of the same basic functionality. If you are comfortable with any 3D rendering program you can probably figure out the others.
If you haven’t used a 3D rendering program before, the thought of trying might feel intimidating. The good news, however, is that as of this writing you can download DAZ Studio Pro 4.5 for free from the DAZ 3D home page. They also have documentation and video tutorials. If you’re interested in 3D rendering at all, download the DAZ Studio software now while it’s free, even if you don’t have time to learn how to use it yet.
My plan is to use DAZ Studio and/or Poser 8 to create book cover art. I’ll need more objects than what comes with DAZ Studio for free, but their content catalog is large and they have several partners who also supply content. Selling content to use in DAZ Studio is where they make their money, I suppose. I get their newsletter, and they are always coming out with new content.
If I put some thought into exactly what I want for my book cover artwork, I think it can be cost effective to buy the needed objects to render, especially since those objects can be used in multiple projects.
It’s typical to use a background image as a backdrop for a 3D rendered scene. I have a paid subscription to clipart.com, which obviously has more than just clip art available from their site. In the rendered image above, the background of the trees and the setting sun are from an image licensed through clipart.com. You can probably find some public domain or inexpensively licensed artwork for backdrops.
The image I used for the backdrop didn’t come in a high enough resolution for me to use it for a larger image, and especially not for use as book cover art. But it looks nice at the 400×400 size and smaller. When it comes time to create an image for use on a book cover, I’ll have to find a higher-resolution image for the backdrop, or fill the view with rendered objects. I’ll make the decision what to do when the time comes.
Another idea about backdrops is to create them as 3D renders with Bryce 7 Pro, though as of this writing that software is not free.
For the sake of comparison, here’s an image I rendered using Poser 8. I call it “Kate and the Raptor of Flame.” I actually used the same clipart.com image as a backdrop in this rendering too, though it’s barely visible through the door. This image is a bit darker than The Sentinel, but if you click on it you can see a larger version that might show more details. I wanted the image to be dark, but maybe it’s too dark. It is certainly too dark to be used as book cover art. What I should emphasize is that it’s not a fault of the Poser software that the image is dark. It rendered the image according to the settings I chose.
So what do you think? If you have used 3D rendering software, which one do you think is best, especially for creating book cover art? If you’re a self-published author, do you create your own book cover artwork? If you do, how do you go about it and about how much does it cost you in time and money? If you don’t create your own book cover artwork, how much do you pay for cover art? Would you ever consider trying to use 3D rendering software to create suitable cover art?
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Have you ever tried Blender or Maya?
No, I haven’t. If you have experience with them, I’d love to hear what you think of them.
Maya is what Hollywood/pros use for 3D modeling. It’s expensive, but I’ve messed around with it on campus. Blender is an open source (GNU) program. It’s pretty nice and fairly flexible.
I use Blender and it seems to work nicely for input into Hexagon. Hexagon needs to be the channel between Blender and DAZ Studio but it does work. I am upgrading my computer to use Maya for the animation. I know people who have used it and they rave about it.
Thanks for your comment, fasigwrites! I have the installation file for Hexagon, but haven’t had a chance to figure out exactly what it’s for. I also have the installation files for Bryce 7, and I might use it to generate backdrops. So far I’m satisfied with what I can do in DAZ Studio and Poser, though I do see their limitations. At some point, as the need arises for more varied pieces for book cover art, I may have to look into what some of these other tools bring to the table. I don’t know if I’ll get brave enough to try to do a book trailer video, but we’ll see. Animation would be important then. I might rather hire someone to do that. A still image rendered for a book cover is one thing. Animation is quite another.
I used Blender before, but not Bryce 7 Pro. Thanks for the info.
I have used blender before. I thought the learning curve was not that bad for some like myself.