Novica, Serene Night, & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 3
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BTW, I am working on something with GENESIS 2 that is using VICTORIA 3 stuff. It's amazing, went on like a dream. So be sure and test your stuff. Can't reveal it yet, is for the RRRR. But I just loaded up on V3 stuff that is working.
HATE these forums. CloudFare again. I'm on Firefox. Anyway, before THAT goes down, here's a tip-
If you have Bianca, she comes with TEN DISTANT LIGHTS. Wow. Haven't checked to see if shadows are raytraced or deep shadow map (switch those over to avoid those precious glittery boxes) but you can turn these off and on, one by one, and get some great lighting. Add a spotlight or two, and pizazz.
http://www.daz3d.com/lr-s-bianca-for-v4
Headed out to take the leg wraps off the horse. The rest of you stay out of the SNOW and cold. It's now 39 here real feel, 43 degrees. (at 2:20pm, amazing for Florida.)
Oh, yes! I love the new big cat -- now we just need a little one! Speaking of which... has anyone done a review of the Big Cat? Because I haven't played with him yet. I didn't see it on the list of product reviews...
I did In one of my renders here with the little african girl
Sorry for my lack of reviews, but I have some issues with my runtime and reinstalling everything ><<br /> Tomorrow I'll be posting a new review ^^
Try Bianca lights 4,9, 10, 11 with no tweaks. Subdued, great rim lighting. Then try one of the front fill lights (those are #1, #2 (bright), 3 is dim) Try one, not all.
Very cute too! Perhaps she's thinking as a main writeup type thing. Anyway, we can always use more. I think I did three of the toon chicken, lol. Poor Jaderail was feeling deprived as he had some, so I made them and he named them. BTW Jaderail, where's YOUR chickens? Didn't you buy the toons, or am I just dreamin'? Thought you picked them up in a sale.
Ivited Guest Contributor
DAZ Big Cat 2
http://www.daz3d.com/daz-big-cat-2
Love this cat, unfortunately the male Mane gives a few problems with luxes
Just a quick buzz. :)
I wanted to apologize for not commenting here, I've got lots of stuff on my head lately and little time to render, I just hope that I will finish my RRRR entry in time. :/ I hope you will forgive me for giving replies to some older posts as well, just had to show my appreciation for all who that contribute to this thread.
@Novica
Tears hair looks great, it's nice that there are so many great hairstyles in the PC. The Songstress I've been eyeing for quite some time now. It's a great looking fantasy outfit with boots on flat soles which is something I would love to see in more fantasy clothing sets for females. I very much dislike thos high-heeled ones, they look so unpractical and I suppose are useful almost exclusively for pin-up's only.
Unfortunately I do not own the Jet Bike so I cannot help you with it. I guess you can always redraw. I'm really curious to see the continuation of your story. : )
@tjohn
Great image (the one with abandoned car), I bought Let it Snow Shader during one of the recent sales but have not used it yet, it looks great in your image. I just have to come up with an idea for an image to finally try it out, so far I've done only simple test renders with it and had no strength to master it...
Wow, that is one scary lady. O_o Extreme morphs are certainly a lot of fun! ; P
@SereneNight
Tech Soldier-Special Forces: Cool looking outfit and nice thorough review as always. Looks like a perfect set for kit-bashing, ron's brushes add that little something to the image and I think you are getting better and better at using them.
Let It Snow Shader: Great winter scene, you are right that there is something wrong with that front step. It looks to me as if the plain ffom th eMoongate was causing that problem, I might be wrong though. I have to finally use that awesome shader, you used it in such a lovely way...
Security Guard: I wanted to get Security Guard but what put me off were actually trousers which look far too doughy to me. I really hate this feature in clothes. Your renders do look cool though and I like them better than the promos. This set looks very useful and versatile. I like Sickleyield's products because she always includes so many options with them and great morphs that make the outfits easy to use. I would love to see more vendors do that. I especially like her Mermaid Tails. However some of the clothes she models look too doughy to me, but than most genesis clothes look too doughy to me. There is also the boob cling issue. Which seems to apply to G2M as well. It's visible on the resent DOs. They also cling to the back, I wonder how difficult would it be for PA's to fix this issue. It really spoils many, otherwise good looking, outfits...
@Luci45
Lovely render, I also like the Unshaven Beard Product, very useful.
@KaribousBoutique
Thank you for sharing your workflow in the Archer image, very useful.
You have a talent for making the problematic looking hair look good in your renders. ; ) Ariadne looks great in your image.
@Kharma
I've been eyeing traveler props pack for a long time now but the textures looked very simplistic and I wasn't sure if the add-on texture pack would make this old item worth the extra expense. You've cleared my doubts, it looks very nice in your renders, I might get it sometime in the future.
@Sasje
Afriacan Girl Render: That's such a lovely render, Zena looks lovely and her kitty looks adorable. : )
DAZ Big Cat 2: Looks good, I like the colours in this one, though the shadows look a little too jagged to me.
@Scott-Livingston
Nice review, Royal Court Bundle is in my wishlist, it's just waiting for the right time. ARTCollaborations certainly make incredibly detailed sets full of useful props.
@Jaderail
I'm curious to see your tutorial on soft lighting. I had real trouble getting rid of harsh shadows when showcasing Caleb and in the end I used an area light preset.
Have any of you by any chance bought Zyanya V4 by gypsyangel? Her skin looks nice (I'm usually tempted by darker skinned characters and she is currently at 65% off for PC) and she has some interesting make-ups but I wonder how she would look like on G2F since I do not use fourth generation figures... I do not know why but I like the texture on her hands especially, they look really good in the promos... ^^
@ Tarina Kivi
Zyana v4 looks interesting. I admit, I didn't pick it up because I just find I don't use gen 4 that much these days, I'm in love with genesis and gen 2 But agreed, she looks wonderful and nice midtone skin.
@Tjohn: Lol. That is one astounding mutant. I confess the combination of human and fly or preying mantis just ups the shock factor.
I did purchase with the sole purpose of using the textures and morphs on Genesis and G2 it but haven't had a chance to try it out yet,sorry. I have had no issues so far with any I have transferred so I see no real issues with this one either. If I have a chance later today I will test it for you but at that price its worth snagging now :)
That's my reason for not picking her up as well. For a moment I considered using my monthly coupon on it but in the end I decided against it. I never even tried gen 4 so anything that cannot be used on genesis or genesis 2 is useless to me. It also seems that she doesn't use AoA SSS, still she looks nice - that's why I asked about her. Since the promos for her are very artistic it's also hard to tell how well she would look in my renders with my limited knowledge of DS. ; )
Thank you Kharma, I appreciate it. Hopefully the price won't change for a while still.
@Tarina: The skin will probably work on genesis, but I tend to find non-native skins just don't look as good as I want on gen 6.
@Anyone: does anyone know of a posterior smoothing morph for gen 6" Particularly for men, but also for ladies? You know, to give the illusion of something being worn underneath to smooth out the butt area?
@Novica: I checked. Don't have jetbike. I'd try reimporting its metadata, then checking manually in the daz folder to see where it is. Sorry.
I quickly threw this together, this is Zyanya on G2 worked great! I used the old surfaces for new script and the hair is PH Cool for Genesis Male. sorry for no lighting but I wanted to get this up so you could decide...I am happy that I snagged it now that I see it on G2. Hope this is useful for you
Here is one more close up with an added advanced ambient light and I upped the render settings a bit
Whoopsy... I got 100% sidetracked with a render project and Forgot about the Light tutorial. TG I still have all the screen caps. And you hit the nail on the head. This is a Area light panel light. They have been used and even SOLD as pro light rig's. I'll finish this up tonight.
@Kharma
Thank you for the renders! She does look good on G2F. A pity there are no duf files though. Now I will have to decide if I want to spend my monthly coupon on her... I'm certainly tempted to do it, but maybe I shoud wait for a new g2m character to come a long... Don't know why I'm always so indecisive... : / Thank you for your help, you should make a review of her. Might help more people decide while she is still on sale. : )
Invited Guest Contributor
So, while we wait for a detailed tutorial on soft light from Jaderail, and since Novica liked one render in particular from my Caleb review, I thought I would repost it and share with you my settings for the lights I used for it.
Hopefully someone will find this information useful. This light set-up worked for me pretty well.
Items used:
Skin: Caleb for M4 and Genesis M5 by Phoenix1966
Hair: Caleb Hair by DAZ 3D, AprilYSH
Clothing: The Executioner for Genesis by Age of Armour
Pose: "Stand 03" from the Manly Poses for Michael 6 that came with Michael 6 by DAZ 3D
Background: blurred and re-coloured arid rock texture from cgtextures added in postwork
Lights: Advanced Ambient Light by Age of Armour and Shadow Play DAZ Studio Lights by DAZ 3D, ForbiddenWhispers (PC item)
Light Settings:
1st Distant Light:
Shadow: Raytraced; Shadow Softness: 100%; Shadow Bias: 1
Light: Illumination: On; Color: 48.98.121; Intensity: 200%
Position: X Rotate: -12.61; Y Rotate: 55.37
2nd Distant Light:
Shadow: Shadow Type: None
Light: Illumination: Specular Only; Color: 255.255.255; Intensity: 35%
Position: In my render it is at default coordinates but I would recommend to copy the position of the first Distant Light for it.
Area Light - Rim Light: I used a Tube Light Emitter Preset number T16 from the Shadow Play DAZ Studio Lights . You can create your own cylinder primitive, rescale it so that it is long and thin, position it behind the figure and apply the omUberAreaLight shader to it.
T16's values: Image #2
AoA Advanced Ambient Light:
Light: Image #3
Occlusion: I used the default settings.
Lighting Control: I flagged surfaces with 99% Diffuse Strength not to be illuminated and changed diffuse on the Eye Reflection to 99%. The eyes are illuminated by the Specular Only Lght, AoA AAL makes highly reflective surfaces like the eyes appear grey. You can add another AoA AAL to your scene if you want to use primitive hitmode settings for some props (for eg. hair), you would have to flag them properly as well.
I haven't seen any products like this one for Generation 6 yet:
http://www.daz3d.com/clothing-cleavage-modifier
However, some clothing items for Gen 6 have morphs/adjustments built into them for smoother cleavage.
Kharma, that looks so nice- she has a bit of a glow about her.
I am exploring all my V4 characters and I have a lot of African American/ethnic folks that I am going to use before I dive in to anymore. She is a deal at half price though, and with the DAZ coupon, she'd be dirt cheap!
Tarina- WOW, that's some writeup! I'm wading through the darned underwater cameras, etc- totally lost before I even start- so I am reading up on all that then will have to jump into what you did.
Jaderail- no problem- you are super busy with what you have to do in the forums- we understand :)
@TJohn:
Thanks TJohn. As I was checking out the supersuit for Gen2 Male, I realize the outfit really does need a smooth morph for the posterior. Novica's comment about the new bot having quite an evident hinder parts reminded me that the superhero outfit kind of needs smooth morph. For me, it is less of an issue with supersuit, since its not designed to be smexy, just clingy, but nevertheless, a smooth/suit morph is needed.
If I were a superhero, I certainly would wear undies. =)
A real bra and underwear morph is sorely needed for gen2 female and a shorts/underwear for males. Something that adds the proper bumps and straps underneath clothing where it collides with the bod. I've seen vendors add these shapes to outfits, so I know this is possible, but it would be awesome to have these morphs for genesis/gen2
I was reminded of this as I saw the slew of daz originals with really strange-looking breasts, how badly a support morph is needed. Just looks really off to me.
@Tarina Kivi ..your welcome, it was kinda a quick throw together, I would like to do a review of her and a few other V4 characters I have as soon as time permits. Really like your caleb the skin looks awesome, I just can't like that hair even tho I purchased it myself hoping to use it on some ethnic characters. Great info on your lights, thanks for posting the settings
@Novica.. I have been gathering gen4 textures that have something more distinct about them as I find so many are kinda looking like cookie cutter characters that I can convert over to genesis and g2. what I don't know is how to save them all to reuse later as they are not duf files and some have several different makeups, I assumed to save as a material file but I get an error referring to a triax weight mapped figure which I know nil about. When I figure it out will include the info in my reviews :)
Both Super Hero Suits do have morphs for smoothing the Glutes and Chest.
Ah, I have complained about something that exists. . thanks for pointing it out, I'm so happy to be proven wrong. Complaint retracted. =-)
Ah, I have missed that. thanks for pointing it out. Complaint retracted. =-)
The SH Suits are wonderfully weird; they look like a plague of poke-through in the Preview pane (say that 3 times real fast, lol), but look perfect when rendered. If you add a smoothing modifier, they look good in preview, but the smoothing morphs won't work. :)
It's my bad for not checking before I get ranty. =-) Never leap to conclusions Serene. =-)
I do think that glute smooth morph and breast smooth morph is quite nice. Thanks for posting those comparative render shots. I'd actually love it if there were morphs for the figure similar to those.
@KharmaThanks for showing this character. She has a nice even tone skin.
@Tarina: Very nice work on your rendering of Caleb. Perfect and unusual lighting! Great review. =-)
Today’s review is:
Skyjet (Kibaretto)
http://www.daz3d.com/skyjet
Skyjet (Kibaretto)
Other:
Forest Prince (DAZ 3D Mada Thorne Sarsa) (skin only)
Greeble City Blocks 2 (Stonemason)
Nye Hair (AprilYSH)
Core Lighting 1 (Lantios)
http://www.daz3d.com/skyjet
http://www.daz3d.com/forest-prince
http://www.daz3d.com/greeble-city-blocks-2
http://www.daz3d.com/core-lighting-1
http://www.daz3d.com/nye-hair
What can I say? This is a cool little vehicle which renders well, and has a detailed and lovely flight screen. Similar in mechanics to a jet ski, it has fits for m4, v4, and genesis. It is easy to pose characters piloting it. There are arm and feet grips that are recessed, so you can fit the feet and hands in the holes. Parent the character to the ship and you are ready to go.
The mechanics of the vehicle are quite interesting. You can leave the seat down for a jet ski like position or raise the seat if your character is tired of hanging of his/her ride. In the default position the character is basically hanging off the bike with his/her arms and feet clamped in, so doing much but steering would be awkward. I think raising the seat to say… Take a pot shot at enemies makes sense. (if you don't want to use the vehicle's guns), and whoa nelly, better use the seat if you have a passenger on board, otherwise lets hope the pilot has strong arms!
The set comes with a number of color options, and a helmet, and several adjustment morphs for steering and little radials for the helmet. It renders quickly and looks awesome. =-)
Image 1- Closeup of Screen
Image 2- Retractable seat up. Long view
Image 3- Complete image
the lighting on that last one makes it look very real- I know you've said in the past about some of the kibarreto stuff being a bit, um- not sure of the right word, toony comes to mind- lacking a bit of gritty realism perhaps?- but you've made these look very approachable as real- life sci-fi. I had to laugh at where the pilot puts their feet- looks like a mini torture setup!
Don't mention skyjets or jet bikes to me- going on day 3 trying to locate that stupid thing for the RRRR. I'm almost to the point of substitution with a similar item. Maybe I'll steal your skyjet, lol