I was really pleased with the way that 3came out. I wanted to keep the ball rolling and jump straight into another one. I wanted the next one to be more elaborate than the first. The first image I did was more of a proof of concept. I used it to familiarize myself with the software and techniques. This time I wanted to have a go at creating the background in DAZ Studio as well; instead of just filling the negative space with smoke.

This took a couple of days, but I think it came out pretty sweet. One of the sample models DAZ Studio gives you is a dragon. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to go for a sort of sorceress-riding-a-dragon kind of thing.



I started out with a Genesis 2 model and positioned her on the dragon casting a spell.



I tried some cool costumes that I found and finally settled on the Dark Winds outfit. I then played around with some facial expressions.



As far as the background, I added various components from the Curator Aquarium and added The Folly texture.



Somewhere in the mix, I added a staff and the Mitsu hair.



More background elements, more lighting.



I thew in a few background images just to see what it might look like in the end. I added some blue flowers too just to help drop some color into the background.



Too much sky! It needs more cowbell! I mean castle. I added some higher walls and some more tress.



Much better.



I then switched up the lighting to help illuminate the fountain. A little light on the background structures will help bring them out and give the image some depth.



It’s looking good, but the more I played with it, the more I realized that the red outfit just wasn't going to work with the blue lights. I switched it to black.



That looks awesome, but it’s hard to see her right arm against the darkness behind her. Easy fix: lose the right sleeve.



Finally, I added another foreground light. Basically, I want the back to be mostly dark, but a pretty strong light "off camera" shining on her to suggest something "big" is happening off in the distance.



With the 3D render complete, it was time to take it into Pixelmator for post.

I added some stars, nebulas, and mountains to the background.



There’s a slight shimmer of light on the edge of her right arm and her hip. Where’s that light coming from?



I needed to add a source of light or the illumination on her arm and hip wouldn’t make sense. I guess you could assume something in the background off camera is casting some light, but it’s way too dark back there to suggest there’s a fire burning somewhere.

I added the moon as the source of light.



Some subtle blue light beams coming from the left help out too.



And now to provide the "magic”!

Ice ripple effect? No. Not bold enough.



She has to be casting some kind of spell or something powerful enough to radiate the amount of light that you can see reflecting off her. So it has to be a pretty epic explosion of some kind.

I drew tons of light effects and blasts, etc, but nothing felt right. It all seemed to kill the background, be too dominant, or too colorful.



Then it hit me. It doesn’t need to go “off” with a bang”. It needs to “end” with a bang! It has to look like something that’s “growing”. This way you can image that somewhere off in the distance this “thing” is huge.

What if she was to spawn a universe or some kind of “power of the cosmos” thing?

This a bunch of layers using a textured brush. I wanted it to look sort of like a universe being spawned; like nebulas.



I added some little swirly light things. Little galaxies maybe?



I then topped it off with a bunch of star lights and twinkles. I think that should do it. Looks like a universe to me!



The finished piece.



I think this came out great. I’m sure the DAZ graybeards will tear it apart, but it’s not bad for being my second image ever!