Avonlea - Paladin - Stand Off

Every now and then, I go on a tear picking out interesting stock and reference photos. Unfortunately, I rarely get to play with the images that catch my eye. I like to experiment with photomanipulation, but have very few pure photomanip illustrations. Since I've started doing 3D illustration, I've mostly worked with modeled sets or HDRE backgrounds, so I had not faced the challenges of integrating a 3D character into a 2D background--until now. The inspiration for this image came from my most recent stock search. When I saw this premade background by Vampiric-Stock, this scene jumped into my head. I started with Avonlea in her Paladin guise, and quickly matched the lighting, but that shiny armor presented a bigger challenge. I had to build a mockup of the stock scenery to get accurate reflections--unfortunately, the model did not produce the right lighting, so I had to work with multiple renders, making this as much a photomanip as a 3D render project. In building the set, I referred to the original stock by EveLivesey and nomuh. Once I had the full composition, it ended up looking a bit flat and washed out, so I went one step further with the photomanip and applied some photopainting techniques to acheive the final look.

Made with...
DAZ Horse 2 Pro Bundle
DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro
Audrina Hair
Knightly Barding
Battle Armour for Genesis
Creature Creator for Genesis 2 Male(s)

Stock Source:
Premade 4 - free
Collonade PNG
STOCK Foggy forest