“I realise one of my major weak points is postwork. I’ve been making art for a while and no matter how good (or not good) my renders turn out, when I put them into Photoshop, I seem to ruin it, losing quality in the render. I basically have no idea what I am doing”

At some point, working to enhance a raw render by using postwork is inevitable. Much effort can be put into a render to help make it “pop” by adjusting and re-rendering – ending up with too many iterations and a high cost in time for your efforts.

Have you experienced hours waiting for a render, only to discover render artefacts? The frustration is palpable (I’ve felt this many times) and your intuition tells you that there are ways to fix it…but how?

What about the large heap of renders that you’ve cast upon the “discarded” pile? You may have artwork that’s too dark (or too light), or lacked a certain impact. What if you could add elements to that render, even if you no longer had the original scene?

What if you learned a complete set of techniques that solved all of these challenges and gave you a “go-to” toolkit that enriched your art. Imagine rescuing most of those renders that you would normally abandon.

What if you were able to get a deep knowledge of postwork that saved you hours of time in your workflow and tripled your productivity, where some of this is understanding when to stop tinkering with a 3D scene and use postwork instead to finish the job.

How about finding artwork pieces in your folders that could serve as foundations for creating new styles and new directions by using more advanced postwork techniques?

How about learning together in a group of artists on an eight week mission to deeply explore postwork? You would end up with your own invaluable postwork toolkit for a more efficient workflow.

Imagine getting daily support and feedback in a trusted environment, with artists just like you.

That’s why we’ve created this new extensive course on “DEEP Postwork”, led by Drew Spence.

Before

After

This coaching group is specifically for :-

1) Artists using any 3D software that need a comprehensive toolkit to fix problematic renders
2) Artists that need to know how to speed up their workflow
3) Artists that want to explore styling and overpainting.
4) Artists that want to utilise older renders to the max.

We’ll be using Photoshop in the main, but will look at the equivalent actions in GIMP or other editing software depending on the make up of the group.

This is a trusted and safe place for you to get support, feedback, accountability, camaraderie and new perspectives from people you can trust and who have similar creative aspirations to you.

We promise to support you in every way we can by sharing knowledge, techniques, resources and mindsets to realise your creative goals.

Proven Experience

Drew Spence : Trainer

Drew Spence has logged hundreds of hours using DAZ Studio to illustrate volumes of comics, including “Force Six The Annihilators“. Drew is a graduate of Stony Brook University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art and holds various certificates – from graphic arts to web design. Drew Spence was the CEO and Editor-in-chief of Producer’s Edge magazine, a quarterly publication dedicated to all aspects of music production. He currently lives on Long Island, New York and produces his work from the aptly named Fallout Shelter Studios, where he crafts crafty and clever comics using CGI and photorealistic image manipulation.

In this coaching group, Drew provides his insights and the experience of his own learning journey in overcoming your pain points for postwork. Save time and money by utilising a more efficient workflow and getting more out of your renders.

Paul Bussey : Group Host and Facilitator

I have been inspiring, promoting, educating and connecting digital artists since 2010. I’ve published over 125 issues of our magazines 3D Art Direct, Digital Art Live and VISNews, with in-depth interviews of fantastic artists that inspire others with their work.

I’ve hosted and organised over 200 live events to educate digital artists. Our webinars provide an interactive, informative and fun experience for our community.

Here’s what some of our students say about our coaching programs:-

“The DAZ Studio Mastery Group run by Paul and Drew is a great experience. The group is dynamic and interactive. The content is vast and covers a diverse area of the program. I learned a lot in a few short weeks. I have greatly enjoyed the experience and would highly recommend it for any artist who wishes to take their art to the next level or learn more about DAZ. The experience and knowledge I have gained from this group has improved my workflow and techniques. I learned things I didn’t even know existed in DAZ. Paul runs high quality groups worth every penny!” 

Jessica Beaubien

“I am finding the classes thoroughly fun and engaging, even though I was sure the first couple weeks I was a dreadful noob with nothing useful at all to offer. I love that  you are able to uplift everyone’s work and offer encouragement and instil a sense of pride in what each of us has accomplished.”

Karen Williams

Areas of Artistic Growth

With 8 weeks of learning, we’ll look at the following:-

Phase One : The Fixing

Learn to fix artefacts and imperfections that you may have missed in your original render. Overcome the pain of too much or too little lighting in your scene.

Learning this stage will be a powerful increase of your productivity; no need to wait for additional renders. No need to tweak or re-tweak a scene hoping that the next render won’t include the original artefacts.

Typical challenges to solve in this phase:

• Lighting – under-exposed or over-exposed
• Composition/posing/framing/cropping
• Poke through or intersections
• Zap the fireflies or other render artefacts

Phase Two : The Enhancing

Discover how to build upon the most important scene elements and make them stronger. Make a character standout; highlight the face or eyes, provide richer skin and improve the hair. Add powerful lighting effects that efficiently supplement the scene. Gain Drew’s top recommendations of which filters and Photoshop actions will enrich your renders.

Typical challenges to solve in this phase:

• Hair and Skin : blemishes, sheen and skin tone
• Lighting and Light Effects: flares, glints, rays, shadows
• Colour and effects, improve the tonal balance and accurately set the mood.
• Top recommended software filters and Photoshop actions
• Particle effects using brushes and additional software.

Phase Three : The Additions

Master adding elements to your creation that were never included in the original vision. Supplement your artwork with atmospheric and natural effects to deepen the impact.

Challenges to solve in this phase:-

• Weather and atmospheric conditions, such as fog, mist, smog, haze and dust.
• Insert skies, space, clouds, real images as backgrounds and elements
• Utilise acts of nature, lightning, electricity, storms, tornados, floods, earthquakes
• Use pyrotechnics. explosions, fire and flames to increase the energy in your stories.

Phase Four : The Remixing and Overpainting

Using your work as the foundation for other mediums and styles. Dust off older renders to generate new permutations and styles of artwork.
Challenges to solve in this phase:-

• New painterly looks, including oil, acrylic, watercolor and sketched styles
• Go abstract with pixilated and sprite effects
• Focus on filters to create cartoon, sketch and hand drawn effects.
• Combine renders and photos to create composite art and collages

Before

After

 

Here’s How it Works

A Carefully Selected Coaching Group

I review applications before artists are given an offer to join the group so you can rest assured that this will be a dedicated and creative set of people for you to grow with.

8 weeks of Support and Training

The group will run from around mid March on each Saturday to mid May.

Each week we’ll have a Zoom webinar meeting (up to 1.5 hours) composed of training , coaching and follow up.

Classes will begin at 16:00 BST (London time) and last for 1.5 hour

The topics of these training sessions will be based on the above, but we’ll pay special attention to coaching you through your sticking points. 

This is where everyone will share wins, goals, and challenges to get support, accountability, and feedback from the group and guidance from us.
You’ll have opportunities to get a focus just on you and have Drew and I as well as the rest of the group look over one of your goal or challenges to help help you leap forward in your creativity.

Private online group area to interact between Zoom calls

Any time you need some input or encouragement, you can turn to the private group on a daily basis to connect with other group members.

We’ve found that theprivate group work area is a powerful connecting tool to keep the conversation going between the weekly meetings.

This extends the benefits of the coaching group beyond the mastermind and workshop calls.

VIP Add-On

If you would like additional resources, there’s a VIP add-on option that gives you the following in addition to everything above:-

• Searchable and subtitled videos from the training sessions
• Two additional video tutorials (4 hours) on postwork by Drew Spence
• Postwork element packs from Drew Spence