Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9

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Comments

  • firewardenfirewarden Posts: 1,482

    If you're good at using Tonal Rage you don't need the Cinematic Render Kit. If Tonal Rage confuses and, er, enrages you, it might make your illustration production move much faster.

     

    I'm trying to convince myself it's okay to spend some of my specially saved PC+ sale budget on the makeup sets in Chevybabe's store.

    Thanks! :)  I actually don't know, as I'm just about to start using it. Not that I buy stuff when it's on sale, rather than when I actually need it. ;)  I found a free book on the use of color in films, which might apply. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/e-books/how-to-use-color-in-film-free-ebook/.

    Pondering buying it and trying both over the next few days. I can't find a user's guide for Tonal Rage, and I'm still a DAZ newbie. I tend to use it by spurts.

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834
    edited October 2017

    In early September I posted a review covering Easy Shape Master - Age Control and Body Tuning for Genesis 3 Female.  One thing I noted was how the thighs of the younger models (preteen, young teen, and to some extent teen) were too big compared to real girls. Others pointed this out as well and the PA has issued an update (good for him/her!) that adds some custom morphs to make them thinner. One new morph is a hip volume reducer, found under Actor/Hip/Real World/Shape Master. The other new morphs adjust upper and lower leg volume and leg smoothing and are found under Actor/Legs/Real World/Shape Master. These are not applied by the age preset so they require an additional step if you want thinner legs and smaller hips.

    Attached is a comparison of the Young teen preset showing the change when you add in the new morphs:

    • A is the default G3F scaled down (85%) to the same height.
    • B is Growing Up for G3F Youth morphs
    • C is ESM Young Teen preset applied (no leg or hip thinning)
    • D is ESM Young Teen preset with hip and leg volume applied full strength

    If you compare B, C and D, you'll see that D has lost the wide thighs of C and has a hip/leg size slightly smaller than B. Just what wsa needed.

    I didn't compare Easy Shape Master to Growing Up in my original review. You might wonder if it's worth having both. One advantage of ESM is that like GU, you have a slider to adjust age (Youth Morph in GU, Younger Shape in ESM) but unlike GU where all the related body changes are hidden, with ESM you can see all the changes in all the body morphs. This allows you to understand what changed to get the youth effect and you can then tweak the applied morphs giving you a bit more control over the final look if you want. The other advantage of ESM is it also has age (up to elderly), muscular and chubbiness all in one product. I get GU for every generation and will be doing the same for ESM.

    ESM G3F Update Young Teen labeled.jpg
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    Post edited by RGcincy on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    I bought a still new release (PC+ cheapie) and Aave Nainan's Free Spirit Hair plus morph packs for a great price. I didn't really like this hair in the promos, but using the DAZ Deals Plug In to see the gallery pics was really helpful. Some of our artists here have done some amazing things with that hair, especially on the males (Chanteur's images are amazing, check this one out.) Most of Aave's products are on my wishlist. It's nice to have a few more of them!  

     

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • firewardenfirewarden Posts: 1,482

    Thanks! :)  I actually don't know, as I'm just about to start using it. Not that I buy stuff when it's on sale, rather than when I actually need it. ;)  I found a free book on the use of color in films, which might apply. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/e-books/how-to-use-color-in-film-free-ebook/.

    Pondering buying it and trying both over the next few days. I can't find a user's guide for Tonal Rage, and I'm still a DAZ newbie. I tend to use it by spurts.

    Messing about with Tonal Rage for a few minutes makes it look pretty easy. Very cool. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2017

    @rgcincy  Does that product let you change the chubbiness for separate areas or is it all or nothing? Like adding weight to underarms so they sag? (and wow, thank you. Nice review, a lot of work went into that!) 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • SF-DesignSF-Design Posts: 986
    edited October 2017
    Novica said:

    @rgcincy  Does that product let you change the chubbiness for separate areas or is it all or nothing? Like adding weight to underarms so they sag? (and wow, thank you. Nice review, a lot of work went into that!) 

    @rgincy

    thank you very much for the update of your review mentioning my update. 
    A very throurough product review :) Great work

     

    @Novica
    as to your question, it does not at the moment. Chubiness or muscles are for the whole body since the PBMs are combined. 
    But you can of course still adjust the DO morphs that are combined and utilized to further adjust the shape. 

    But it is a good idea for a possible another update to have dials for the body parts like legs, arms etc. 

    But for chubbiness in particular I do not have anything unfortunately at the moment. 
     

    Post edited by SF-Design on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834
    Novica said:

    @rgcincy  Does that product let you change the chubbiness for separate areas or is it all or nothing? Like adding weight to underarms so they sag? (and wow, thank you. Nice review, a lot of work went into that!) 

    The shape is achieved by varying Body Size, Heavy, Weight, Height, Pear Figure, and Voluptuous plus some finger, feet, hand, breast and face parameters. The Obese Shape slider moves all of them varying amounts. You can look at what's been applied and make your own adjustments to specific sliders if you wanted. Nothing specifically for underarms or legs other than what the body type morphs apply.

  • SF-DesignSF-Design Posts: 986
    Novica said:

     

    RGcincy said:
    Novica said:

    @rgcincy  Does that product let you change the chubbiness for separate areas or is it all or nothing? Like adding weight to underarms so they sag? (and wow, thank you. Nice review, a lot of work went into that!) 

    The shape is achieved by varying Body Size, Heavy, Weight, Height, Pear Figure, and Voluptuous plus some finger, feet, hand, breast and face parameters. The Obese Shape slider moves all of them varying amounts. You can look at what's been applied and make your own adjustments to specific sliders if you wanted. Nothing specifically for underarms or legs other than what the body type morphs apply.

    correct :)

    as to muscles, I only have the EASY FLEX product line that can be used to morps different muscles of the body

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834

    Also wanted to thank you SF-Design for adding the hip updated morphs. I always appreciate vendors who are responsive like you have been.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    I hear Tell You Been Lookin' Fer Me

    I hear Tell You Been Lookin' Fer Me, by L'Adair


    I showed a close up of Redz brow product a few pages back. The above is the final image. The image and the title both link to the gallery page, where you can see the full-size image if you want to see the face close up. The final image is 2700x2000. The saloon is a combination of two of the Old West vignettes from Collective3D, with liberal use of the geometry tool.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @ladair  OMGosh that guy hiding behind the bar is just delightful!!!  I laughed out loud! Like the man going out the door too. Lots of little details, nicely done! The smoke curling up on the table (and love the lighting on that.) is a nice touch.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Novica said:

    @ladair  OMGosh that guy hiding behind the bar is just delightful!!!  I laughed out loud! Like the man going out the door too. Lots of little details, nicely done! The smoke curling up on the table (and love the lighting on that.) is a nice touch.

    Thank you. The smoke is one of Ron's Detail Smoke brushes added on a new layer and distorted. Opacity is about 20%.

    Archie asked the bartender to stay, so the guy hid, but curiosity got the better of him and he just had to look!
    laugh

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2017

    Architectural Iray Shaders

    This is in a featured store.

    It's quite fun to play around with the tiling (the middle vase is 60 horizontal and 20 vertical, my own mix) to change the stone (marble) into actual patterns on vases. And I really like the rust. The table shows tiles and weathered wood legs. I didn't customize either setting, used the utility presets that came with the product. In addition to new, sleek things, you can make some really old-looking stuff lol. 

    architectural Iray .png
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    architectural Iray 2.png
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    architectural Iray 3.png
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    architectural Iray table 2.png
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    architectural Iray table3.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834

    @ladair excellent image, took me a while to see the "companion"

    @novica interesting result. Does that spiraling of the textures come from the way the vase's UV is mapped? It looks really good but usually a cylindrical mapping would keep it all horizontal. Or is it from the shader itself?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

     

    RGcincy said:

    @ladair excellent image, took me a while to see the "companion"

    @novica interesting result. Does that spiraling of the textures come from the way the vase's UV is mapped? It looks really good but usually a cylindrical mapping would keep it all horizontal. Or is it from the shader itself?

    The vase UV. Didn't have that with the table. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    It's not showing but as Jakiblue mentioned in the sale thread in Commons, there's an orange banner for owners of other Stephanie bundles.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    And be careful, the cart checkout is messed up royally. There's a thread in commons about the cart- if you click it more than once, some people are getting charged more than once. For me, it hangs and won't do anything. 

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    AH!!! that happened to me just before. I was checking out JUST before the change over and before Steph arrived, using my last bit of store credit to pick up SY's new G8 templates...and the cart didn't move at all after I hit check out. However, I doubled checked my "orders" in my account to see if it went through as I did NOT receive the email confirmation and it had, plus the items were in my Smart  Content for downloading. So it IS working and checking out, but it's NOT reflecting that it has gone through on the check out page.  

    Novica said:

    And be careful, the cart checkout is messed up royally. There's a thread in commons about the cart- if you click it more than once, some people are getting charged more than once. For me, it hangs and won't do anything. 

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Nope, it's not budging on mine. The order didn't process, not in Product Library or DIM, no email with order confirmation. I am using a credit card- well, TRYING to. This site is really starting to tick me off. 

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    Every day, Novica, EVERY day. We're still not used to it. :sigh: 

    Novica said:

    Nope, it's not budging on mine. The order didn't process, not in Product Library or DIM, no email with order confirmation. I am using a credit card- well, TRYING to. This site is really starting to tick me off. 

     

  • firewardenfirewarden Posts: 1,482

    I couldn't check out yesterday no matter how many times I clicked the button, but I closed the browser, then started the checkout again and it worked. I had thought it was just me, but sounds as if that problem is still around.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Yeah, but it's usually the sales, and for me, not cart trouble.  I haven't ever had it say "processing" then the word just disappear and nothing happen. I did file a ticket, and did an extra window with my cart in both, because they will honor my cart if prices change so I want an extra one just in case something funky goes down when I try this later. Going to get some sleep.  

  • SF-DesignSF-Design Posts: 986
    RGcincy said:

    Also wanted to thank you SF-Design for adding the hip updated morphs. I always appreciate vendors who are responsive like you have been.

    you are very welcome :)
    This was a very good suggestion to improve the product and make it interesting for more people I think

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    I'm looking at this G3F character in megafastgrab: https://www.daz3d.com/blanca-for-victoria-7 The promos look wonderful, but not sure whether that's due to the undoubted skill of the vendor or whether she really looks like that. Also, it's bugging me that she reminds me of an actress that I can't place. Anyone have her and can give some thoughts?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2017

    Extreme Closeup: High Fashion Makeup for Genesis 3 Females          FWSA Cadence for Victoria 7

    Showing the default Cadence, then the makeups. I don't like the hairline of the hair, was wondering if the makeup LIE was doing it but as you can see from the original, it's not. Since I was testing the makeups for myself, I just left the hair alone. Then I thought you might like to see these, so just ignore the hairline.  I did change the lips on one of them, they were a bright pink. I'll note the color I used for you.

    What I'm going to do- I will do Stephanie 8 in this EXACT SAME LIGHT SETUP and we'll see about the color of her skin. I'll be off and on the thread all day today, showing some things for you in between doing errands. I know there's concern about her skin color and level of detail, so we'll check that out using lighting that has been established on another character. I'll try some of the various Pro-Studio lights since that's my mainstay and you're used to see those lights/ what they can do.

    The first is the default, the second is eyeshadow 17, blush 2, lips 4.

    The third is FF01 and fourth is FF06 and put this color in Surfaces pane, in the base color  122  130  134

    The fifth one is FF07 and last one is FF08

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    cadenceES17BL2Li04.png
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    cadenceFF01.png
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    cadenceFF06 122 130 134.png
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    cadenceFF07.png
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    cadenceFF08.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2017

    @chevybabe25    FYI, when I use the FF08 makeup I get a popup that there is a file missing and it may not work as planned. 

    runtime/textures/fwchevy/glitterextraoptions/fw-exglitter-options19_bmp.png

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Stephanie's arm is not right, when bent, it leaves a line. Doing a render now. 

  • chevybabe25chevybabe25 Posts: 1,256

    Novica - Im gonna pass this on to qc and get this taken care of!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2017

    My first thoughts on Stephanie 8: 

    Eyes- Edit:  Doing a closeup render now.  I like more of the flecks-type eyes so it's just personal preference. Colors are very light. Very few options, most are glaringly bright. 

    Makeup- Totally poor options- where's just eyeliner? Just eyeshadow? You're STUCK with the entire face-take-it-or-leave-it options. She does have the light lips, so adding a dark color in Surfaces is easy to do, but seriously? No lip options, no eyeliner options, no eyeshadow options, no blush options- this is just a bare-bones get her to market approach and not taking time to do individual options. Hate it!   

    MOST of the makeups are exaggerated. Hot pinks, blue all the way around the eye top to bottom, caked on. There are no natural colors such as olives, browns, cream. Great if you are going for 100% fantasy. Makeup 02 is fine with the dark eyeliner and dark red lips, but the rest are way out there IMO. Example, 04 looks like zombie makeup, with smudges of charcoal extending all the way around. The "Bonus" LIE makeups are meant to be exaggerated (LONG cateyes eyeliner extending out to the temples) so no natural looks there either. TOTAL FAIL ON MAKEUP THAT IS NATURAL.  There is one for nightlife (02) but otherwise it's exaggerated in my opinion. (still usable, fantasy, sci-fi, or if you want characters that stand out) 

    Sure, the full face makeups come brow / no brow, but if vendors want buyers, that needs to be included. What good is the no brow/brow option if the rest of the face is one big makeup option? 

    Teeth-  From what I can see, quite natural. Not too white either. Definitely thumbs up on those.

    Skin- She's not going orange with Pro-Studio, she's definitely more ruddy than cool colored, but if you don't like the skin just add a faint touch of blue in Surfaces. She's not chalky, which I like- her skin has a nice sheen. Her lips might use a little more bump, but they seem natural looking (albeit too small for her face IMO, need more width.)

    Eyebrows- Going to surprise you on this one. Although I'd prefer them thicker (I know, no suprise) they are NOT glossy or look painted on with the Pro-Studio lighting. You can actually see irregularities in the hair strokes, with skin showing through to look more natural. 

    You can see the white band in her upper arm. In the viewport, there is a definite crease where the arm bends. Anyone else getting this? It's just a basic pose (one of the Stephanie ones, I might add.) 

    I did not do any postwork as promised, this is the same lights as Cadence. I would add a bit of blue and tweak midtones, saturation, etc. But I think you can see her skin is reasonable, not orange.

     

    stephanie8.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2017

     

    Novica - Im gonna pass this on to qc and get this taken care of!

    @chevybabe25  Thanks!  I don't know what it's supposed to look like, but I thought it looked good anyway! Lovely product and wanted to show people the great options. (And all not shown)  I'll have to use the natural colored ones on Stephanie 8, LOL. 

    Post edited by Novica on
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