Fantasy Contest Submission - Cadwynn and Erylise

DAZ had a "Sword and Sorcery" contest themed around fantasy scenes. So my idea for a scene was to have two of my D&D characters, Cadwynn and Erylise, battling some monsters in the woods. This one took me a good deal of time to get right the way I wanted it. The lighting was tricky because I set the scene at night, so trying to get the characters to be illuminated enough that they could be seen was tough. I used a lot of different effects here to get the lighting where I needed it to be. Obviously, the fire was helpful in creating some light in the background and since Erylise is a sorceress, I knew I would have her using a spell that would glow and create light. But I wasn't sure what to do for Cadwynn at first. Since he's a Ranger, most of the spells he can do don't necessarily have any kind of glowing effect. So I took some creative liberties with the "Hail of Thorns" spell and had magic arrows appear near his bow as he prepared to fire the spell with his real arrow. Those arrows also helped illuminate the orc that is charging at them as well.

The area itself isn't too out of the ordinary for me. I've done lots of scenes in forest settings similar to this. I added in some ruins because I thought it made it look more interesting. Like maybe this was the camp for the orc and goblins. Or maybe it was a spot where Cadwynn and Erylise were going to take a rest on their adventures when they were ambushed by the monsters. I had to mess with the camera angle a lot to get this scene to fit everything I wanted in it. It took a lot of experimenting with that to get it right since I don't mess with that too much usually but I needed to use a wide angle to see everything.

I also used a new design for Erylise based on some plans I have for her in future games of mine. She is older and has more runes that have become begun to form more noticeable shapes and patterns on her as she has become more skilled with her magic. She also has a new outfit, though I did try to keep the color scheme similar to her previous appearance and I kept the arm wraps because I just really like them. Cadwynn's design remains the same as before though I did add the quiver to his back for the arrows.

This scene is the first scene I've ever had to render with so many characters in it at once. Normally I only have one or two characters in a scene at a time because more than that tends to drastically increase the render time. However, this scene seemed to render relatively quickly compared to my expectations, so that was nice. 

In the end, I'm really happy with the final result for this one. I like the action and the camera angle. I think it looks really dynamic.