My first SFM poster (made for a friend)

[FishtheFish]

http://i.imgur.com/PDYaUUu.jpg?1

Constructive criticism?
Was there a blur in upper left because I did not use another light?
(I'll check back on this post next morning, PST).

[!каблам]

The effect is pixelated and the spy's head shouldn't be blurred out, though not bad for a first sfm

[SpongieTNT]

Hey! Thats a good poster, but there are some flaws as well!

1) The unusual effect: You probably aready noticed, its extremely blocky. Theres an easy fix for it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oox0jsZ0dB0

2) FOV: Your picture looks distorted, you can change the FOV in the animation set editor, just simply add an animation set for your camera and turn down the FOV until there's only a line left.

3) Focal distane and aperture: I think your head is out of focus, thats why its so blurry. Go into the animationset for your camera and move the slider for the focal distance until the plane on your camera is in his face. Aperture is good.

4) Lighning: Try to position a light between his back and his side, and another light to balance out the first one. Dont be afraid to experiment with lights!

 

I cant think of any other tips right now, but I hope these help you!

[Grizzly]

As far as first posters go, it's pretty impressive. You know how to use AO and the Depth of Field samples to prevent grainy shadowing, which is more than I can say I could on my first poster. The problem with the blur is that your focal distance is too short, and only touches the spy's hand/body. To make it focus more on the face, create an animation set for the camera and slide the focal distance up until the purple plane that appears clips into the spy's head. This won't do anything alone though; all it does is set the plane. What you need to do to get the blur, which I'm assuming you know because you've done it here, is slide the aperture up. I usually make it max, but it's personal preference. Also, like Spongie said, lighting is key to making a good poster. I've explained this in a different post, so I'm just going to copy it from there.

 

"Lighting: There are usually 3 different lights to a scene from my experience. I have no idea of their names so I'm gonna make them up.

 

-The overlight: A volumetric light that mostly covers the whole screen, used to set the mood. Example: Clicky The purple light gives the image a mysterious mood.

-The outline: A normal white light that is positioned somewhere between the back and side of the character. This is used to separate the character from the background, which can also be done using focal distance/aperture, but I'll get to that later.

-The balance light: This is used in correlation with the outline, in that it makes sure there isn't too steep of a gradient between the outline and the rest of the character."

 

That's it I guess. Everything looks fairly decent, but your next step is to work on custom poses instead of using sequences. This is quite a huge learning curve, as it involves analyzing body language, but with enough practice you should be able to do it ^^

[FishtheFish]

Thanks everyone! It's awesome that you're all willing to help me! I've looked into these and I hope my second SFM will be better!