Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9
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Agree, it's a very nice set. I don't particularly care for the orangish-brown shutters on one of the buildings (they stick out color-wise to me, it's just personal preference) but shaders will change that. As usual there's a lot of "wandering around town" options with the many streets. I'm having to wait on it also. I'm focusing on getting more things at 75% off rather than one huge thing.
A lot of bang for your buck- get 10 morphs for Genesis 3 with the Shimuzu's Genesis 3 Male Elite Head Morphs It's $4.71 and for some reason 78% off. (instead of 75) in the Mega FastGrab. And Pix Raelyn-Raeku has two characters and a swimsuit. $5.17 and 77% (So it must be that particular store is doing 77-78%) Pix Merana has some interesting materials (also in that store) for $4.49. I like that she's not a typical "beauty" and has smaller eyes and a bigger nose. Even if you don't like that, the price is right for the materials!
DAZ got me good today! I picked up the Shimuzu head morphs. The main promo is perfect for one of my characters and I've been waiting for them to go on sale again. So excited! I purchased Layla and am working on some renders to post. She has TEN eyebrow options, including a no-brow. Lots of lash, makeup and lip options too. You can get many looks from her, which I like.
I also grabbed Ghost of MacBeth's Lord of the Bears (just the human, I wishlisted the bear add-on.) I'll render him soon too. There are some great deals on animals, creatures, and Soulless Empathy's beautiful sets. I got a couple of the TOA outfits also.
Here's Layla as a G8F human redhead:
And here she is as a G8F elf:
I got Layla also- not really liking the mouth's extended thin lines, but those can be morphed into fuller areas. I was impressed with all the options. You did a great job of picking up the intricate details in the dress, not always easy to do with white. And your background goes beautifully with the warm hair tone.
Thanks. I had fun with the vintage filters on that one. I still need to do the Lord of the Bears guy. Might not get to him till later tonight.
Llynara, that image of Layla/human is lovely, the color palette is really effective with the figure and overall colortone has a nice painterly sense. Also, there's a timelessness to this image that adds a little mystery. Nice!
-Gen
Thought I'd do a quick test render of Layla as well - G3F Human with the Classic Side Part Hair for Genesis 3.
I did swap out her skin texture, because I was wanting to try her with a more olive tone.
I'm not super happy with the TOA Amblyn outfit's look - I might fiddle with the texture another time.
Title: The Good Mage Layla is tired of your crap
I was thinking the female 'Old Chap' would be called 'Old Dame'. I hope it appears, although gender swapping also seems to work really well. I am out of budget for the month but I'm guessing the next weekend will be another (maybe final) catch-up sale and maybe I can grab that and the side-part hair then... and Haven park.... or talk myself into waiting for 60% off, I GUESS. Ugh I need to sell more books so I can get more toys.
@quadchroma Too funny- I am rendering Layla in that exact same scene! I bought Mystic Spells today. I love your caption! The olive skin works well.
That is such a serene setting, love it! She really looks like she belongs.
Layla for Genesis 3-8 Females Mystic Spells Dragon Tamer Outfit for Genesis 8 Females Happenstance Hair for Genesis 8 Females
I hid one of the belts for Dragon Tamer because I couldn't find a bone to move it (there is a front mover and back mover for the flap that hangs down, but went into abdomen, both upper and lower, and didn't find a belt.) Also, that stickpin doll in her hand doesn't have bones to move those legs, which is disappointing.
I didn't turn down the luminance of any of the glowing objects so you could see this at default. The Film ISO is 488.36 and Exposure Value is 14.40, using the default Iray Environment with Environment Intensity at 1.34 instead of 1.0
I would recommend using depth of field to blur the background because it's so busy, but I wanted to show you the set. @Quadchroma did an excellent job of showing you the darker results of dimmer lighting.
Layla for Genesis 3-8 Females Mystic Spells Dragon Tamer Outfit for Genesis 8 Females Happenstance Hair for Genesis 8 Females
Yeah, the glowing spell bottles are a bit much at default. I went and turned them way down in the next render I did, but not off. I'm going to be using it for a modern non-magical 'magic junk shop".
I didn't check out the stickpin doll at all. It would be nice if it had some bones admittedly.
Thanks, I wanted to try giving it a dim lit ambience first before I started fiddling with DOF.
My studio just crashed (I'm really ticked!) I turned those bottle lumens down from 400 to 60 and they were still ultra bright, and had darkened the base color- didn't make hardly any difference. Was testing when it all shut down. Not going to re-do it, but just be aware those glowing bottles REALLY glow. It will take more than the base color being darkened. If you get them dark/dimmed, would love to have that posted so others can short-cut the process.
Thanks, Gen. I think I'm going to call it "The Last Song of Summer"
Thanks, Novica. These were fun. I think I'd like to try one with dark hair next. She's quite versatile. Maybe she can be hanging out with the Bear Guy. LOL
Wow, that is an awesome character! I didn't know you could do that. I just now looked and found the G8F clones in "hidden." Fun.
I am glad to see you here in the DAZ Store, Redz. I just bought some of your hair and brows for G3M on Rendo. Great stuff!
I just turned down the emission on the liquid in the bottle - that seemed to work fairly well. From 400 / 300 watts to 30. I did about half the bottles.
Edit: Never mind - I just realized only the liquid is emissive.
Pix Merana (G3F) Dax Hair (Gen 3 M / F) SwimWear 2 (Gen3F)
The SwimWear 2 has some cute materials.
Okay, being nit-picky but it was something that distracted me for a few minutes, trying to adjust/fix and I wasn't able to. So thought I'd mention it. Merana's forehead is very slightly indented on the sides, I tried working with the forehead and brow areas (there's no such thing as temples, which would be a nice addition to the morph sliders. It's all in the brows.) So I got it the best I could, but even in the second render, which is my gal after playing with morphs, you can still see a slight indentation. (Again, nit-picky.)
And guess what? This vendor uses metallicity! (I still changed things up a lot since it was a beachy/sweaty scenario with the swimsuit.) But kudos to the vendor for putting in that little touch of glistening to the skin. So obviously, this isn't the default skin. I am showing you things this month that are in the sale, as they will probably be repeated in the Catchup. This is Shadownet's store from yesterday. Swimwear and Swimwear 2 were from the previous day or so. Layla and Mystic Spells were from yesterday.
Original
My character after using morphs. I like Pixeluna's bigger noses, they're not "beauty queen" noses. I added a teeny bit of "Greek" nose, flared the nostrils up a bit, etc, but only pinched slightly so the nose would stay normal/larger. Added more slope too. For the eyes, I increased the size, narrowed the face/cheeks (too fleshy for my preferences) and left the body alone except for flattening the chest (which I do on most females.)
Ooh, loving all the pictures! Keep them coming!
And now for an interracial romance of a different kind! This is Layla with dark hair in her G3F elf form, who is spending some time with The Lord of the Bears. He has four different sizes, this is his biggest. She's pretty tall too (though maybe taller as a G8.)
Enchanted
Can an elf find love with a bear shifter? Will hibernation take its toll on their love life come winter? Tune in for the next exciting episode of "As the Forest Turns!"
Wow, he is a large dude! What a cute render. That woods setting is really nice too.
The one thing I don't care for with Layla is the ultra thin fingers. The next time I render her I'm going to scale those to be a bit thicker (never done that before, I am assuming fingers can be plumped up.)
I'm not buying anything today, if anyone gets Ravyn would love to have her showcased. (Plus anything else from today.)
Thanks, Novica. Today was an expensive day for me. I did not pick up Ravyn but I did get FW Kieron HD for G8M , who looks freaking amazing. He just might go on my next Black Kat book cover as my main character, Hugh. He comes with all kinds of facial hair and makeup options too. I've been using FW Sebastian for G2M, who is still fantastic, but I think Kieron is closer to what I imagined and will look way better in Iray.
I also picked up some great deals on AprilYSH hairs, Wild Designs historical gowns, Borgia's Opulent Hall and HinkyPunk! Her "7 Deadly Sins" bundle is just $12 with all the discounts. That's 7 amazing characters for less than $2 each. They have some of the most gorgeous makeups. Also, Forbidden Whisper's Millicent is just $8, has 4 skin tones and an entire LIE makeup system for G8F. I'll try to squeeze some renders in soon.
Great!
I had eyeballed Millicent when she first came out, I'd be interested to see how those large nose pores render. I also looked at Kieron but leaning more toward Cameron due to the eyebrows-Kieron's are glossy, may just be the lighting, and I prefer the more unruly look of Camerons. BTW @llynara Did you use a PC discount to get the Deadly Sins Bundle down to $12? It's only going $15.98 and 60% off for me with qualifying items in the cart.
Okay, never mind. The Spotlights don't trigger the extra discounts on the catalogs, which is where I assume the bundle is coming from. Aarrgh. I long for simple sales. So just ignore me. (When I'm starting from the top of the sale page and working my way down, I have a set pattern of doing it. I jumped in from llynara's reference link so took me a bit to figure out what is causing what.)
Don't forget Kieron includes no-brow options and fiber mesh brows from Laticis Imagery. (Not to mention the beard and chest hair...!) You can easily tone down the gloss, if you need to.
I've been judicious in my purchases this month but I couldn't resist the Old Chap for Genesis 3 and 8 Male since I've been one of many who say we need more age diversity. I've seen Old Chap as himself and mixed in with a variety of other characters and as a G3F clone, but not used interracially, so I thought I'd see how he works with Darius 7. All of these renders have a blend of Darius 7 head at 90% with Old Chap at 30, 60 and 100%. Not as noticeably wrinkled when mixed in with Darius but still obviously older (some of the less wrinkled look comes from the dark skin color and some from not using the Old Chap skin, because if I replace the skin with a young skin, you lose some of the wrinkles too).
90+30
90+60
90+100
To more easily see the changes, open them in a separate tab then switch between them.
They got me today, I couldn't resist FW Kieron HD and Kieron Hair. I'm very glad that the hair is for both G3 and G8 males. That hair is what really sold me on the lot. It kind of reminds me of the way my favorite boy wears his hair.
But anyhoo! I like the character, he renders nicely and is so purty and the hair is gorgeous, with lots of movement. And the beard adds that roguish touch. I love him!
Yeah, I've spent this entire time reading product descriptions and also trying to whittle down my cart. It takes two NEW DEBUT to get that extra 20% off the stores, so I had him and the hair in my cart.
I get so confused with these percent off stacks. It makes no difference in my cart whether I have 2 debut new, or one debut new and one still new. In either case, the featured PA items show at 68%. Should I see a bigger discount with two debut new? Sorry if I sound greedy, just the way they word it is confusing, and hey, I like bargains :)
You're not greedy, and not the only one that goes "Say what?"
To me, the promo page is really messed up. In one place it says you must buy two New Debut to get the extra 20% off the artists' stores, and in other places it says you only need one. So I don't know if that's an additional 20% on the 20% or not. I see you asked it on the sale thread, I'll go take a look at a cart and see if I can figure it out. (Or anyone else who is shopping and can explain it. That page is WHACKO.)