One thing that
can make or break the book you have been writing for so long is the
cover. You can see what can happen if you go to: ‘Evolution of a
Book Cover’ page. One advantage of Partnership or Self Publishing
is you have input on the design of your cover, something you do not
have if you go the conventional route.
The down side is the artwork either has to be royalty free or you commission an artist to do it for you as I did for my first book Guardian.
So why not produce your own book cover? Even if you are not an artist it is possible to produce a good cover with only a few hours work (how long did it take you to write your book?).
The down side is the artwork either has to be royalty free or you commission an artist to do it for you as I did for my first book Guardian.
So why not produce your own book cover? Even if you are not an artist it is possible to produce a good cover with only a few hours work (how long did it take you to write your book?).
DAZ Studio Start
Screen
Poser Start
Screen
Below are
examples of how a picture of a female fantasy character is built
up. Once you have a character you are happy with you just place the
required scenery around it. The first picture is the basic starter
figure
Below is after I
have added the detail body rendering, face makeup and eye detail.
(The body is anatomically correct hence the black blobs which I
added using photoshop!)
Picture three I
am starting to add the clothes
The clothes are
slowly built up and conformed to the figure. If you don't conform
them they stay where they are when you do the posing. (As happened
to her knickers. I forgot to conform them to her and when I put her
into a pose they were left behind hanging in mid air
;-)
The fitting of
clothing is complete and I have added the hair. You can see an
error with the hair it pokes through the helmet!
Next I have
added some colour to the clothing and put her into a pose, which is
just a simple selection process. Note the light angle, which is
also adjustable. (Hair is still wrong).
Below is the
face detail. You can change and move everything. Notice I have
fixed the hair, which is all done using simple sliders on the
control panel
So what is
stopping you? I cannot draw for a toffee but I can produce pictures
like this very quickly.
If you want to see some alien and character art I have produced please go to www.guardianscifi.com
If you want to see some alien and character art I have produced please go to www.guardianscifi.com
There are
several types of 3D rendering software available such as DAZ 3D or
Poser. The one I have used is Poser 7 which costs around £150
($200). DAZ Studio is FREE and is very similar if not as elegant.
They both use the same 3D models so it really does not matter which
one you go for. I use Poser because I had purchased it before I
found out about DAZ Studio.
The actual artwork has already been done for you. You can buy or find free clothing, props, backgrounds and manikins of every shape or form (some examples). Whatever genres you write for (In my case I needed Fantasy art work and Science Fiction Art work) there will be something you can use. The most important thing is the picture you end up with is yours to use as you see fit!
The software looks a little daunting when you first open it. What you need to remember is for the purpose of building a book cover or character for your cover only a few of the available features are used.
The actual artwork has already been done for you. You can buy or find free clothing, props, backgrounds and manikins of every shape or form (some examples). Whatever genres you write for (In my case I needed Fantasy art work and Science Fiction Art work) there will be something you can use. The most important thing is the picture you end up with is yours to use as you see fit!
The software looks a little daunting when you first open it. What you need to remember is for the purpose of building a book cover or character for your cover only a few of the available features are used.
This is the
cover for my next book. You must agree it is quite acceptable and I
am no artist!
