Re: LOUSY COVERS: 3D modelers like any tool take creativity & skill & work to turn out good results. Those are always in short supply. But the 3D modelers I’ve used (as a Boeing engineer who creates, recommends commercial products, and teaches the use of 3D tools) can render an image so well even an expert like myself might have a hard time telling if it’s painted or a photo.
I use DAZ3D. Here’s an example book cover.
The software is free, but they make their money off their models created by independent artists.
For instance, you buy a human figure, Genesis, and give it specific looks by buying another model. You buy the figure once for perhaps $40, then maybe for $15 buy an elf, or a Japanese warrior, or a Chinese fashion model. Along with the specific look comes parameters which you can use to change his/her sex or age or both, make them more or less muscular, make her tits bigger or smaller, more or less pendulous, the nipples more or less prominent, etc.
Then for $10 you might buy a safari outfit, or a red-carpet evening gown, or SCUBA outfit etc. Then for $15 a Maserati sports car or space ship for them to ride in. You can also buy for $20 an environment: forest glade, mansion, aircraft hangar, etc. I no longer do that & content myself with a ballet studio with a floor and a barre on one side as a reference guide.
Once you have the person looking the way you want, clothe them, and place them somewhere you then pose them. You can do this by moving each limb down to finger joints individually, but this gets expensive in time and patience. So you can buy a set of body poses for maybe $15 such as special ops, sword fighter, fashion shoot, disco dance. Often the poses can be further parameterized, so you can get a very specific look.
You can then light the scene with free lights, including ambient, spots, pinpoints, etc. That done you’re ready to render it. A simple scene might take 15 seconds, a complex one two minutes or so. That done, you write it to a JPG file.
So the costs can add up, but if you’re frugal or your needs small the total cost over several months may be small also.
I then import that to Photoshop Elements, an inexpensive consumer version with most of the important parts of full Ps. I then add a background from my photos or public domain pics. Add text atop the result, save the final to JPG, and I’m done.