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Novica, Serene Night, & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 3

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    @Luci45

    Agreed about M6. Sadly disappointing. Especially in the chest and face. I also agree there need to be more men. We've been on a female landslide since valentine's day, and mostly similar stuff. I

    Good news... Male-M3dia has hinted though he is going to release something soon (possibly this week). I can only hope.

    I'm not a fan of the the trend of large lips and big eyes on females either, especially so rounded. Seems like the stock characters are being made that way. To me it just doesn't look realistic. But I guess there are lots of people who like that style and it sells. So more is produced.

    I like the way stephanie renders. Such lovely dark skin. I haven't bought any of the characters though. I might buy Keshi for her skin as well, but agree again about the lips.

    I was all set to review something, but decided I am going to return it. (Wish I'd decided that hours ago). I'm afraid I'm not thrilled with the skin shininess and was disappointed the skin can't be used with gen 6. I will find something else to render for tonight or tomorrow.

  • starionwolfstarionwolf Posts: 3,670
    edited December 1969

    I have an observation: I notice that some characters that Thorn makes have big eyes. Characters with big eyes are available for Victoria 4 and Genesis.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    oh, it is certainly a popular look. It isn't my taste, but people seem to like it, and you are correct, I see it a lot on v4 figures. I just need to go to rendo to be completely swamped with characters who have that similar appearence. =-0

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,149
    edited December 1969

    "Waif-ish" look. Popular in fairy, pixie and elf characters in the store.
    Child-like faces, big eyes, etc.
    And some real-life people past and present have that look. :)

    http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/audrey-hepburn.jpg

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Starionwolf- I believe the lighting started as Chablis lights-
    http://www.daz3d.com/chablis-for-genesis-v4

    then more added. But if you have Chablis, try those lights and see what you think.

    What puzzled me is if it is my calibration/computer monitor, I would be getting the same results when viewing the image whether it was in my graphics program or on a webpage- and the color is definitely changing in the forums. You know how renders look darker if you post a large image and it's compressed until you click? Well, these are going greener.

    Go back and take a peek at the eyebrow area between the eyes- seemed splotchy. (This was on .20 shading rate, all settings excellent.) But in the one with hair and different lighting, seemed fine. Agree with the lips, that was just "out of the box" as usual.

    Tip: the background is a draped column from I think a product just called portrait studio props, used Fabricator and scaled the drapery to be huge. I like the folds.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited February 2014

    tjohn said:
    "Waif-ish" look. Popular in fairy, pixie and elf characters in the store.
    Child-like faces, big eyes, etc.
    And some real-life people past and present have that look. :)

    http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/audrey-hepburn.jpg

    Good definition. I think you have hit the nail on the head.

    I think of it as manga fusion. It is quite stylized.

    Everyone likes different stuff. My tastes are clearly NOT very popular in the store, otherwise there would be more men, practical clothing, and women with smaller cleavage, and some older folks too, and far fewer sexy sales. =-) Clearly DAZ and PA's would go broke.

    I've bought a few with larger lips thoguh, (Dawn by Raiya), is one I can think of, and I liked her. But she doesn't look so childlike to me. don't like the characters to look too toony or childish.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Tip: the background is a draped column from I think a product just called portrait studio props, used Fabricator and scaled the drapery to be huge. I like the folds.

    Excellent trip. It looks mighty good.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Today’s review is:
    Gunfight Poses
    http://www.daz3d.com/gunfight-poses (Porsimo)

    Included products:
    Cyberpunk M4 (ElorOncedark) (Gladius Firearm, used by Steph 6) (Falcion Firearm, used by M6)
    Cyberpunk M4 Expansion (ElorOncedark) (Longbow MkII)
    Duarte Hair (3d Dream, Mairy)
    Fancy Hair (Worn by Stephanie 6) (Daz 3d)
    Stephanie 6 (Daz 3d)
    Michael 6 (Daz 3d)
    Flexx Bodysuit for Gen2 Males (Xurge3d) (Worn by M6)
    Larva MK11 for Gen 2 females (Xurge3d) (Worn by Stephanie6)
    Rogue SciFi suit for V6 (Stonemason) (Worn by Alien Male) *Used many times in previous renders
    K64 Cargo Hold (TheAntFarm)

    http://www.daz3d.com/cyberpunk-for-m4
    http://www.daz3d.com/cyberpunk-m4-expansion
    http://www.daz3d.com/duarte-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/fancy-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/k64-cargohold


    Gunfight poses is a set of great action-orientated gunfight poses designed for M5 and V5 supermodel. The poses however, apply great to gen 2 figures with slight adjustments, as I’ve done here. (I prefer using gen2 figures these days).

    I used weapons from the M4 Cyberpunk set and expansion rather than traditional firearms, and as you can see, they look particularly nice. While I had previously used M4 Cyberpunk clothing and cybernetic limbs, I have never messed with the firearms until now. I think they look pretty awesome. Particularly the handguns from the M4 base set. I can see I’ll have to play some more with these!

    Applying the poses works fine. If you are using gen2, you’ll need to use Handy Dandy to fix the hands. The feet are all fine converted to gen 2. With any set involving firearms and characters of different shapes, hand position will need to be adjusted to fit the firearm and the trigger position.

    The set has a nice combo of wounded in action, as well as shooting poses. Sometimes a pose or two ended up being rotated away from the camera, and may require adjustment.

    Overall, this is a fine set. It works well with large arms as well.

    Images: 1 & 2 M6
    Images: 3 & 4 Steph6
    Images: 5: Testing the limits with a really, really big gun.

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    1.jpg
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  • Tramp GraphicsTramp Graphics Posts: 2,412
    edited December 1969

    Luci45 said:
    Hi. Sorry I haven't been around in a while, am engrossed in RRRR. But I'll be back. :)

    I haven't bought much lately, all ladies with bad (by my standards) clothes. I haven't even bought new Stephanie 6 or Olympia. Ameterasu and Keshi are attractive, great skin, but the lower lips are kind of large, like a bee sting. I guess swolen lips are supposed to look erotic. The greenish skin to me does look more Mediterrranean, as in Italian and much of middle east. They don't have a pinky tone to their skin. But maybe it's too green - DAZ likes to exagerate sometimes. I am glad Stephanie is a bit darker, but don't like the strong jaw so much. S5 had it too, but not S4. So much for "iconic."

    Where are the men? Not that I like Freak so much. We could use a couple more Genesis 2 Male guys, especially since M6 is kind of a dud. %-P

    Thanks for the reviews, SereneNight, Novica et al. (I especially like seeing the SciFi stuff, SereneNight!) :cheese:

    Asians too tend to have a slight greenish tint to their skin so I really don't have a problem with it.
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    That is one BIG gun! I love the bullet casings too. Those poses look really natural and fluid.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Yeah, the gun is insanely big, when I loaded it I was sort of dismayed, and then i decided to see what I could render with it. . I recolored it silver since not only is it big, but also sort of plastic looking. When I messed around with the gun last night, I was pleased it had lots of movable parts. So it can be made smaller, the stock and trigger can move etc. Quite a well designed weapon.

    The casings were part of Killzones: the apartment. They really go more with the first gun.

    I'd love a casings product to be parented with the appropriate firearm. I did succeed in using th KZ ones for a render, just erasing the ones I didn't use post work.

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,420
    edited February 2014

    Invited Guest Contributor

    I've been taking a look at a couple of new Jewellery Sets I picked up recently.

    First up is Jewels of the Orient by Fisty, which is still in an Intro promotion (look at the "Hot Promotions" tab on the main store page).
    I didn't pick up the bundle which included the Keshi character, so my model here is Nidale by DAZ3D/Countess/Silver (though her nails come from somewhere else) with Xylia Double French Braids 2 by AprilYSH. She's wearing the Callidora Outfit by DAZ3D/DemonicaEvilius/Silver, but I've retextured it here with fabric shader presets from the Totally Bazaar Bundle by Teresa Tyllo/Marieah to give it more of an Indian Bride vibe. The background is href="http://www.daz3d.com/aslan-court-3">Aslan Court 3 by Jack Tomalin (the recent PC item). The lights are a mix of AprilYSH's promo lights for Micah hair and Advanced Spotlight.
    The Jewels of the Orient set contains the items shown in the two pictures plus two kinds of nose ring. The first picture uses one of the colour presets provided (the red one, as you can see) but the shaders can also be mixed and matched, which I've done in the second picture.
    The earrings and matching Tikka (head ornament) have movement morphs to rotate and swing in various directions. The five rings have one fit morph each (to adjust the lower part of the band) - I only needed to change the one on her left pinky which loaded a little too big, the others were fine I think. The armlets can be adjusted for thicker or thinner arms (not necessary here) and have one morph to make the beads dangle away from the arm for non-upright poses. The bangles are props with a set of three for each arm (I've used one of each style here). They load more-or-less centered on the forearms, but you can use the translation/rotation tools as I did to fit the pose. Most of the head-based jewellery items have adjustment morphs to fit better on particular head shapes, but I didn't need to change any here - I just left the settings they auto-loaded with.

    Next comes Princess Collection 2 by PandyGirl. (I don't have Collection 1 which apparently exists but is sold elsewhere, not at DAZ).
    My models for these pictures are FW Ashley for Teen Josie 6 by DAZ3D/FWArt and Precious for Teen Josie by DAZ3D. They are both wearing the Afternoon Heat Outfit by DAZ3D/Betomelo/Bobbie25/Sarsa.
    I wanted to try the tiaras on some different hairstyles. In the picture Ashley has Toulouse hair (from the G2F Starter Essentials) and Precious has Jewell Hair by DAZ3D/SWAM. (More on this below...)
    These jewellery pieces are a little different in that they load with default materials which are just a different diffuse colour for each matzone and have no presets mats to apply. Instead there are a fairly large number of metal, bead and gemstone shader presets to apply to the component parts to build your own look, which is nice for people who like to design-it-themselves, but more work than the Jewels of the Orient with its base presets. I've shown a selection of shader settings here.
    Fitting the earrings and necklaces was quite straightforward - appplying Josie morphs then using the various adjustments to get them snugly fitting. Getting the tiaras over the hair realistically was rather more fiddly - I expect this is inevitable without using "Hat Hair" type deformers, which I don't have (and I've not yet managed to deform anything successfully myself - time to look at the Tutorials I think :red: ) On Toulouse hair this wasn't too difficult, but I originally tried and failed to use End of Summer Hair - it's just too big and bouffant to get the tiara into anything like a sensible position without more hair poking through than going round it! Rather than tear my own hair out, I changed my plan and used the Jewell Hair instead, which was a little more accomodating.

    Just a question to anyone out there: any ideas on how to get the shoulder straps of the Afternoon Heat Outfit to fit snugly to the shoulders rather than sticking up as if it's been wired?

    Princesses.jpg
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    Nidale-Jewels-1.jpg
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    Post edited by MelanieL on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Lovely renders, and the jewelry looks great Melanie. =-) Not sure about the shoulder straps. I assume you checked to see if there were any morphs... You may try turning off smoothing, but I've had problems with that too.... Seems odd, the straps can't fit properly.

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,149
    edited December 1969

    One way to fit that top (there may be others).
    1. Select the top and in Parameters turn Smoothing On, and raise iterations to 6.
    2. In the Scene pane, open the Top hierarchy until you see the Right and Left Collar. Select both.
    3. In Parameters, change the scale to 89 %.

    There should be adj morphs in the garment to accomplish this, but this works.
    John

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited February 2014

    Melanie, those are beautiful renders! Love the richness of the skin tones. (Edit: had to check- but Nidale is the one I used with the plants pack awhile back. She renders beautifully- love what you did with her!) I know what you mean about the frustration of putting things in the hair- pesky poke through strands and a lot of postwork usually :)

    Thanks for helping out with the straps tjohn.

    Wanted to remind everyone to use your Platinum Club discount today, it's the end of the month. I bought Cassia for $2.31

    I blew my monthly budget a bit (hadn't bought anything in a week, just not interested in Fiends although the render thread for those over in Commons has some delightful renders. I just don't have any need for them anytime soon.) However, FINALLY we have some sci-fi and men so I got the 50% and that was fine for me (wish for 60% up but heh..and for March Madness new items may or may not be included.)

    Did you see the new vendor? Love the Sci Fi Passage! Scooped it up for 7.48 Also got

    Veins HD for Genesis 2 Male(s) $6.47
    M3D Men 03 HD for Michael 6 $9.47
    My Man for Michael 6 $4.97
    Wishlisted for so long, finally got it. WHAT DETAIL!! CyberMech 4.1 $14.97
    Cassia for Olympia $2.31 (took off the $6, it's 8.31 otherwise, 50%)

    No time to render any of these unfortunately, we're painting the house and have to get it done before Saturday afternoon (new furniture arriving.)

    Just wanted to be sure you used your monthly plat coupon!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Just answered a PM and thought I'd share the info with other brand new users- you can right click and refresh Products in Content Library, and your newly installed items from DIM will show up. If you are downloading using DIM and aren't using any of those products in your current render, you can uncheck the "install" in DIM so it won't be interacting with your studio while it's open. (I've never had a problem with that, and doing refresh loads all the newly installed DIM products.)

    You do not have to close the studio and come back in to get your newly installed products. :)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    I loaded up the Sci-Fi Passage and the cyberMech 4.1 in a scene with the lights from the passage and am rendering it for you. Don't expect great composition or posing, I just want to see what the lights look like so I plopped the AI (artificial intelligence) in without much ado. It's rendering now.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Men and sci-fi together as a sale? Good sales tactic! I say.

    I picked up 12 things. A lot of M6 stuff on my wishlist got cleared as well today.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited February 2014

    I think they all got together and said, "Let's have a SereneNight sale." :)

    This is rendering REALLY slowly. I did a 2000 x 2000 but still...it's crawling along. Will be HOURS.

    EDIT: 13% at 1 hour 15 minutes. LOOKS GORGEOUS.
    17% at 1 hour 35 minutes
    21% at 2 hours
    35% at 3 hours
    73% at 6 hours 20 minutes

    Post edited by Novica on
  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,420
    edited December 1969

    Thanks to those who've tried to help with my Afternoon Heat top strap problems:
    @SereneNight - no, no morphs anywhere. The top loads with a Smoothing Modifier but with Enable Smoothing set to "off".
    @tjohn - I tried your suggestion and it does looks better from the front, but from the back the fabric of the undertop then pokes through the lace of the overtop (don't know why). I tried fiddling with smoothing iterations and collision iterations more - even turning smoothing up to 25 (!) and down to 1 didn't cure this. Still, it gives a better front view, so that's something. :)

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,149
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:

    Wanted to remind everyone to use your Platinum Club discount today, it's the end of the month. I bought Cassia for $2.31

    In case anyone is wondering what the deal is with Cassia and her makeup options, I think I figured it out. :)
    http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=elizabeth+taylor+as+cleopatra&qpvt=elizabeth+taylor+as+cleopatra
  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,149
    edited February 2014

    Invited Guest Contributor
    Just a little "Monkeying Around". :)
    http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/view/id/22398/

    Products used:
    Monkey Business by 3D Universe
    http://www.daz3d.com/catalog/product/view/id/15581
    Grenade Bundle by DAZ 3D, Valandar (currently free)
    http://www.daz3d.com/catalog/product/view/id/17207

    John

    Post edited by TJohn on
  • TrishTrish Posts: 2,625
    edited December 1969

    Well you almost have 100 pages again.....seemed really fast....
    TJohn: love the latest monkey render......Trish

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited February 2014

    @ TJohn: Your monkey picture is cute. Been trying to decide what I Was going to do with those grenades. Sarge seems the obvious choice. I will have to dredge him up.

    I noted the resemblance to Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra instantaneously. I kind of wish for a no makeup option. I didn't buy her, as I tend to avoid using too much makeup on ladies. But it looks good, for Fantasy/Egyptian stuff.

    @Novica: I am bummed the passage takes that long to render. I will have to test that out. I admit, slow rendering is not a good thing on my system.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited February 2014

    73% at 6 hours 20 minutes
    92% at 8 hours (UPDATE)

    I will have to check the settings once it's done- but it's anywhere from .20 to .40 shading rate and 2000 x 2000 size. The robot is way down on the screen and it is set to come in horizontally so the robot wasn't what slowed it down. It looks really good, I must say- nice to have the light set looking so good without having to do anything to it. Will still be a couple hours though!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited February 2014

    Okay, been having some fun doing test renders with Male-M3dia's new male morph set, which is quite well done, as expected of course!

    http://www.daz3d.com/m3d-men-03-hd-for-michael-6

    One thing that I really like already is the way he has sculpted the pecs. A definite improvement over M6's pecs. They are higher and look nicer. The heads are great as well. =-)

    Here are some test renders. I have tweaked nothing else on the body so you can see what it looks like.

    Images :

    1. M6 base
    2. Body type 01
    3. Body type 02
    4. Body type 03
    5. Body type 03- with maximum skinniness, just to show that you can mix and max pre-existing shapes to create new ones.

    Backdrop is Portrait Artist's Background by (Diane)
    http://www.daz3d.com/portrait-artists-backgrounds

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    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • Male-M3diaMale-M3dia Posts: 3,581
    edited December 1969

    Hmmm, no one mentioned the HD gens morphs this time around.. ;)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited February 2014

    Kiddo, I'm stuck on this one render for 8+ hours, lol!
    I did get your M3D Men 03 HD for Michael 6 but my robot is hogging my studio at the moment.

    http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/m3d-men-03-hd-for-michael-6

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Male-M3dia said:
    Hmmm, no one mentioned the HD gens morphs this time around.. ;)

    Hah hah. My poor M6 has no gens! =-( I didn't get the pro pack... So he's missing The.. Whole package. Poor Michael!

    I do have the lovely heads all rendered! I can't decide which head I like the best: Probably Grayson and James and Anthony.

    1 Anthony
    2. Dean
    3. Grayson
    4. James
    5. Jorge

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited February 2014

    I can't wait to see your sci-fi passage Novica!

    Post edited by Serene Night on
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