Test Market NPR Entourage site

[Susan]

If you are interested in NPR Entourage, please visit my test market site. There are 11 free samples available for download.

The launch of the full site will be in the fall of 2004.

Your feedback would be much appreciated.

http://www.entouragearts.com>

[Jeff Mottle]

Hey Susan,

 

Do you want me to plug this on the home page?

[Susan]

Sure, what would you like from me?

[Jeff Mottle]

Nothing, I will just link to your website. You have an email link on there, so people will be able to contact you for more info and express interest.

[Susan]

Jeff,

 

 

Thank you very much. I didn't want to presume that you'd do this both for my test market site and for the real launch. Much appreciated.

[Iain Denby]

Susan

 

I've had a look at your new venture. My gut feeling is that your entourage images will only look confortable on an image with a very similar style and technique. But you are pitching this at architects and illustrators who will render basic models from 3D Programs. Even though, I'm sure your alpha masks are excellent, I fear that they will always look 'stuck on'.

[Susan]

Thanks Dibbers,

 

You'll have to try it and see. They are feathered. It would be up to each individual to decide if the style matches their own work. Many people put their work through various Photoshop filters, simple 3d or not. Also, ultimately, I will be providing 3 different levels of detail in a Watercolour style and fairly loose ones in a Marker style and and Ink style.

 

I'm definitely taking a gamble, but I'm sure there is a niche somewhere. One cannot be all things to all people.

 

Thanks for taking an interest and your thoughts. I appreciate the input.

[TheAllusionisst]

Susan,

Good luck with this, I had the same idea, a line of different styled traditional entourage for use with traditional renderings as post work enhancements. I think there could be a market for it, I wish you luck, but darn you for beating me to the punch Look forward to seeing your product line grow.

[Susan]

Russel,

 

 

Thank you for the good wishes and sorry if I unwittingly stepped on some toes.

 

Iain, actually brings up some points that I'd like to address further. I'd like to share the evolution of this idea. Having done many a rendering myself, bleary eyed, late in the wee hours, I found myself searching for NPR entourage. I was willing to pay, just so I could get some sleep. All I found were huge packages of Photorealistic images which, in my opinion, are the ones that always look "pasted on" in simple graphic work. I've played with all the filters and that get's some interesting effects but almost always ends up blurring or affecting clarity. I used the "Buzz" plug in to Potoshop most often and found it to be very successful on vegetation but not so good with people. The other option was the 3d models of people, and while some of them are really very good, they still look stiff and like automotons. Not at all homey and human. The vegetation is often less convincing and all in all it adds a lot of overhead to the model.

 

At first I "Buzzed" everything, from people, to vegetation to isolated surfaces of pattern and texture. The people were so bad though, that I started painting my own. I still buzzed the vegetation, but the people were painted, scanned, masked and dropped in. In the example attached, all the people were done this way. The model was done in SkectchUP from a 2D ACAD file and the post production was done in Piranesi. I usually like to paint in all sorts of nuances in Piranesi, just as though I were doing it by hand, but this time I had no time at all. I needed to get 5 of these done in 2 weeks and there was a lot of modelling to do. What you see is pretty much what came out of SKetchUp with a few fades in Piranesi added for good measure. I didn't have time for more. In my opion the people blend seamlessly and it is the "Buzzed" vegetation that looks pasted on. This is a long large image so I've included some detail insets.

[Ernest Burden III]

sorry if I unwittingly stepped on some toes.

 

...the people were painted, scanned, masked and dropped in.

 

I also had discussed producing a line of NPR entourage items a year or two ago with a collegue, but decided against it. I'm glad you did. I haven't had a moment to look at your site or samples, but will, soon.

 

Most of the time when I put people in renderings, especially the plague of restaurants that I did in the last year, they were drawn, painted, scanned and matted. Frankly, it's very hard to use 'stock' for some interiors that involve a lot of seated figures. There are several threads about that from a year ago.

 

Good luck with this!

[Susan]

Hi Ernest,

 

 

If you look closely at the image above you may recognize some figures that were outlines in your Dad's book.

 

I know seated figures are difficult but I have had some luck in chopping them up and placing them in pieces. Sometimes I'll take 2 or 3 copies of the same figure and chop them in different places to allow for some overlap when I place them. I don't mean to plug Piranesi all the time, but in some ways this is easier in Piranesi. Because it has a depth Channel, you don't have to be too careful where you chop. You can place the top half of a body and have it scoot "behind" a table and then place the legs and bottom half over the chair but behind the table.