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

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  • Tarina KiviTarina Kivi Posts: 488
    edited December 1969

    Totte said:

    Those morphs are at 100% (the slider goes to 300% without removing the limits)

    Thanks for the info. I really like the look of Tatiana hair, morphed and not morphed. : ) I would like to use Garibaldi for hair but it seems to me that many of the more complicated hairstyles can't be recreated with it... Like the nice curls on Tatiana hair for example (though I probably just lack the skills to create them.)
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,369
    edited December 1969

    Another great thing about the Xenia and Marja hairs (and Tatiana, too, according to the store promos) is that they come with hair poses that make for easy one-click settings without fiddling with individual sliders. Each hair pose has an icon, so you know what you will get.

  • Tarina KiviTarina Kivi Posts: 488
    edited December 1969

    barbult said:
    Another great thing about the Xenia and Marja hairs (and Tatiana, too, according to the store promos) is that they come with hair poses that make for easy one-click settings without fiddling with individual sliders. Each hair pose has an icon, so you know what you will get.

    Thanks for the info barbult, I like the idea of one-click presets, they are useful for quick renders or as a starting point for more tweaking.
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,369
    edited December 1969

    I just discovered this in another thread. It is a fantastically entertaining and well done animation. I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,149
    edited December 1969

    (You will need both the head and body morphs for Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 female to do the following:)
    Just wanted to add that for the female G1 and G2 "Growing Up" children, in Genesis 1: You can:
    1. Load your character (I used Aiko 5)
    2. Go to the shaping tab. Click on Actor. Type in "aiko" into the filter tab.
    3. You should now see the Aiko 5 slider. set this to zero. Now you should see the basic neutral Genesis shape.
    4. Click on Head under Actor. If you're still filtering by "aiko" you should see a slider for the Aiko 5 head. Set this to 100. (some characters have a Maximum of 1)
    5. Now your character can be run through the Growing Up for Genesis presets. I used the five year old. There's Little Aiko 5! :)
    (ps I did the steps in a slightly different order for Aiko, looking at the illustrations below. I went 1,5,2,3,4; but I thought the order I wrote the steps in might make more sense for workflow.)

    in Genesis 2 Female: You can:
    1. Load your character (I used Girl 6 - another toon type character)
    2. Go to the shaping tab. Click on Actor. Type in "girl" into the filter tab.
    3. You should now see the Girl 6 slider. set this to zero. Now you should see the basic Genesis 2 Female shape.
    4. Click on Head under Actor. If you're still filtering by "girl" you should see a slider for the Girl 6 head. Set this to 100. (some characters have a Maximum of 1) Now we still have the chest to contend with. Click on Full Body and filter by "androgynous". Set the slider to 100.
    5. Now your character can be run through the Growing Up for Genesis 2 Female presets. I used the five year old. There's Little Girl 6! :)
    I hope you'll find this helpful in changing your big girls into little girls. :)

    Girl_6_demo.jpg
    1260 x 1000 - 241K
    Aiko_5_demo.jpg
    1216 x 1000 - 240K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Totte said:
    Thanks Tarina, I'm very glad you liked it.I might come back and make some more (if Novica let me).
    I almost always try to tell a story with my renders, that's the basic reason for me to make one. I can appreciate a pure pinup or portrait but I very seldom make one myself.

    LET you? Are you nuts? :)
    Once asked, the Invited Guest Contributors post anytime on the weekends with their reviews (and of course can jump in anytime anyway when we're discussing something or if they have something they want to share.)

    One thing that fascinated me about the Executioner- the way his hand is LIGHTLY resting on the hair, I was left with the uncertainty as to whether he was consoling or going to follow through with it. Really liked that.

    I'd like to do more scenes, totally agree that's where the real satisfaction is when it all comes together. I do a lot of portraits to show products and do more than if I try to do renders of scenes. I mix it up sometimes. I'm just slower than molasses-I've found a kin spirit with Kyoto Kid, you'll never see us whizzing into the RRRR at the beginning, lol- but Kyoto puts so many things into the scene (in a spectacular way) that it's a wonder they ever render!

    The lighting on all of these is just sigh-ful. Wow. I like that expression! SIGH- wish I had done it!

    Loving these reviews- I knew I asked the right people!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 2013

    Scott-L- Is that the Shades of Life-Nature product? I started reading the pdf on that yesterday. Haven't tried it yet. I'm TRYING to jump in to things that require some thought. Took me forever just to be brave enough for Easy Shadows. (Okay folks, stop laughing. I'm being honest here!)

    EDIT: And thanks for doing the renders Totte- I've added all those hairs to the hair/water list with a link to your examples.

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

    Tjohn, that Girl is adorable as a youngster! Thanks for sharing the "how-tos" and review!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 2013

    I am doing a hairstyle for you that would look good on teens/young kids, although I just plopped it on Nova, as that's who I am working on at the moment for RRRR. Look out SeaNautica, the second Sea Sorceress- Oceana- is coming onto the scene, and she HATES bullies!
    (This isn't Oceana, this is straight 100% Nova, and I'm not using this hairstyle.)

    I did not use any smoothing or collision modifiers, as usual, this is out of the box. Render is coming in and a touch of smoothing would help with the sharp angles, which show up with this lighting on the left as you look at it. On the other hand, the strands are really crisp. Is rendering at .20 shading rate and excellent settings, so check back in about 45 minutes. (I haven't tested the lights, so hope I don't have to redo them. I'm using my set that I created and am pretty sure it will look okay.)

    Will add to this post, so if you are subscribed to the thread you won't know it is here.

    REMINDER: Remember, you might be subscribed to thread TWO. This thread is a different number. If you are not subscribed to the thread, we'd love to have you surf in. You'll miss a lot if you don't remember to pop in, and also have a lot of stuff to catch up on. Our threads are humorously referred to as "monster threads." They're 1,500 posts.

    (Render is coming in- lighting is fine. So will be about 30 minutes. Again, if you don't have NOVA, she was number 1 for me on my top 10 list. Lights beautifully every time if you're halfway decent with lights )

    EDIT: Actually, since it is a hair review, I'll make a new post.

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

    Two products that just caught my eye- as surfing vendors that aren't on sale very often (still trying to help you with your Snowball discount choices) These trees have branches that BEND- not static props- and they are not full trees so that will help with your render times. Cool idea! These will be wonderful for DOF (depth of field) shots, where you can build SO much depth into your scenes with the placement of the branches. I am psyched- love this idea.

    Another thing- look at the material zones (the vendor thoughtfully displayed an example) so you can change so many sections!

    Nature Design Elements 1 & 2
    http://www.daz3d.com/nature-design-elements-1
    http://www.daz3d.com/nature-design-elements-2

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Now's the time to spend $50. Get 22% off- stacks (I assume.)
    If you're not at the next snowball level, this would be a good time to bump up if there's anything you like. My question is, are they doing 23% for the next day, etc?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Um, I double checked and did screenshots- it does not say it excludes previous purchases for the 22% over $50.00 so I submitted my tickets on all my orders that were over $50.00 in the past few days. I would recommend you do screenshots of both the Snowball page and the banner (New Releases) with this 22% discount blurb and file your tickets to get the 22% off your previous purchases. They may change it so file those now.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    The cart is not right. My total is off (to my benefit) $2.30
    Not sure, but the free items may also be contributing to the 50.00 mark. Don't know if it is adding that to the discounts or not, or the 50.00 totals. Be sure and test it, I don't have time, I have to get through my entire wishlist and prioritize. Will share some as I go.

    Here's what I am looking at from my wishlist. UM, stop. I added Cerella to my cart, a 14.95 item and now owe a dollar LESS than before. I was already over the 50.00 mark. Test the cart!

    http://www.daz3d.com/cerella-for-genesis

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    I then added a 14.95 item and while it said the correct amount in PRODUCT, it added the wrong amount to the total. What a mess. I don't have time to do screenshots and help DAZ figure out their mess, I'm busy calculating and making sure the orders are right. It's easy to check though, when you have the total for the order before you add one, then add one and it says something like 5.00 on the Product line, and adds 10.00 to your total! (Just an example. I'm just showing you I don't have to calculate to see how WRONG this is behaving.)

  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,013
    edited December 2013

    Novica said:
    I then added a 14.95 item and while it said the correct amount in PRODUCT, it added the wrong amount to the total. What a mess. I don't have time to do screenshots and help DAZ figure out their mess, I'm busy calculating and making sure the orders are right. It's easy to check though, when you have the total for the order before you add one, then add one and it says something like 5.00 on the Product line, and adds 10.00 to your total! (Just an example. I'm just showing you I don't have to calculate to see how WRONG this is behaving.)

    I stuffed it with items if a value of $95.70 and payed $23.73, but I got full snowballrack (50%) and some items already had some percentage but it felt like I robbed Santas Sledge ;-)

    Post edited by Totte on
  • TotteTotte Posts: 14,013
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:

    One thing that fascinated me about the Executioner- the way his hand is LIGHTLY resting on the hair, I was left with the uncertainty as to whether he was consoling or going to follow through with it. Really liked that.

    I wanted to have that subtle notion of him thinking, or maybe even whispering: - "You are a very pretty girl, what can you offer me in return?"

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 2013

    Since you admitted it, I will too- I have been at 50% for awhile :) I figured they were going to do something like have one or two other stacking things. Having a new figure released was gravy.

    It makes it easy to calculate and see what is wrong. Taking half of something then applying the 22% off is easy. I also saw when the cart kicked in- the items were 5.97 with the 50%, then when it crossed the 50.00 mark, it dropped to 4.66. It literally went 1.00 cheaper when I added that other item, and the 22% had already kicked in. I was at the 80.00 mark (not what I was paying) when it happened.

    Totte- do you mind sharing some of the goodies you liked? I'm going to start a list here of some things I'm getting.

    Going to start with this one- since we were doing underwater:
    http://www.daz3d.com/brushes-effects/gnbd-underwater-brushes
    Remember you can turn down the opacity and have these items barely visible in the background.

    Will post links of stuff I'm looking at:
    http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-for-genesis-2-female (definitely getting)
    http://www.daz3d.com/meru-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/m4-h4-humble-poses (this is a reminder, you all loved Serene Night's examples. I already have it)
    http://www.daz3d.com/katya for a fun genie scenario. Be my luck I'll draw it for RRRR!

    http://www.daz3d.com/five-pairs-of-sling-back-pumps (required for next item)
    http://www.daz3d.com/magical-shoes

    http://www.daz3d.com/kleo-dread-falls FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN THIS MIGHT WORK VERY NICELY
    http://www.daz3d.com/surreal-kleo

    http://www.daz3d.com/deeta-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/deeta-textures

    http://www.daz3d.com/serendipity-dress-for-genesis HIGHLY RECOMMEND BASED ON PROMO- a family friendly classy dress!
    http://www.daz3d.com/jepes-body-jewels-2 Cant wait to try this out! Using opacity, you can do cool stuff with it I bet!
    http://www.daz3d.com/jepe-s-body-jewels-3 Same!

    More coming.

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

    Totte said:
    Novica said:

    One thing that fascinated me about the Executioner- the way his hand is LIGHTLY resting on the hair, I was left with the uncertainty as to whether he was consoling or going to follow through with it. Really liked that.

    I wanted to have that subtle notion of him thinking, or maybe even whispering: - "You are a very pretty girl, what can you offer me in return?"

    I could sense that. Extremely well done. It came across.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Continuing on- as I surfed I made separate windows so I could cruise through for you. Man, do I have windows.
    Reminder folks- in the U.S. there is a big storm coming through. Shop before you lose power if you don't have a generator! (I do.) The wind is starting to howl down here.

    http://www.daz3d.com/corrected-v4-uv-for-genesis
    http://www.daz3d.com/i-will-protect-you Another one you folks loved that Serene Night showed you.
    http://www.daz3d.com/elfin-for-v4 (there is a bundle too, I already have Thorne's character.) For you fantasy lovers in case you missed it.

    http://www.daz3d.com/the-royal-princess MY NUMBER ONE "HAVE WAITED FOREVER FOR THIS" stacking item. Gorgeous!
    http://www.daz3d.com/royal-styles-for-royal-princess SIGH-ful. I'm so happy!

    For a challenge. I want to see if I can turn it into a swimsuit- look at the next one. The white one would be gorgeous. These have better necklines than the ones out there, and I think taking off the frilly lace by the v at the legs would do it. What do you think?
    http://www.daz3d.com/end-of-innocence-teddy
    http://www.daz3d.com/pure-seduction

    http://www.daz3d.com/despoina-hair Just because I don't have anything this...well, whacky. The curls don't see too real to me. Fairytale.
    http://www.daz3d.com/duarte-hair How did I miss this? Well, the promo isn't the best shot. Look at the thumbnails!!!!
    http://www.daz3d.com/stefania-hair

    Still going through wishlist. SIGH. I need to clean that out as I have so much of it and it didn't "exit." They need a new wishlist feature that would do that.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,988
    edited December 2013

    Novica said:

    http://www.daz3d.com/jepes-body-jewels-2 Cant wait to try this out! Using opacity, you can do cool stuff with it I bet!
    http://www.daz3d.com/jepes-body-jewels-3 Same!

    More coming.


    And don't forget that with those (and similar items you can load them onto a geometry shell and adjust the UV back to V/M4 as needed to permit their use on any Genesis or G2M/F figure using whatever texture you like :)

    Oh and link to BJ3 is wrong, should be: http://www.daz3d.com/jepe-s-body-jewels-3

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

    For underwater:
    http://www.daz3d.com/kione-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/coloration-kione

    http://www.daz3d.com/nele just because I like her. For V4. Would look cute in that outfit I just mentioned in previous post.

    http://www.daz3d.com/brijitte for makeup options
    http://www.daz3d.com/fr-zaraii skin looks good
    http://www.daz3d.com/fr-imogen different- look at the skin.

    http://www.daz3d.com/winona-windhair Note: will add this to underwater list.
    http://www.daz3d.com/shoxolor-for-winona-hair featured store- 30% off

    Cart is still messing up- to your benefit. The more you add, the more it's off.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    SimonJM said:

    Oh and link to BJ3 is wrong, should be: http://www.daz3d.com/jepe-s-body-jewels-3

    Thanks will go and fix.
    Is the cart working right for you?

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

    Totte said:
    Guest writer

    I had planned to do this yesterday but someone ate all my time, I think it was the Christmas monster Rudolf the mutated Reindeer. I also was unsure on what to do, if I should take an action scene or a scene from RRRR or something between that, but I finally settled for Let him live.

    Thanks for showing this! And lovely render. I love the sense of action and emotion in this piece

    (You will need both the head and body morphs for Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 female to do the following:)
    Just wanted to add that for the female G1 and G2 "Growing Up" children, in Genesis 1: You can:
    :)

    Thanks for the tips on showing us how to morph other characters. I don't have this product for gen 1 but it looks quite useful!

    @ Everyone the cart does seem funky, but for me, Not sure why.... Strange these things seem to happen. I still admit the carts calucations are a mystery to me. =-(

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Well, I've now tested over 150 things (put my wishlist in, and taken things out of course!) and the toon plane is the only one not behaving so far as the product price goes- but the total is still wrong. BTW, it doesn't matter when you do it, if you do the 22% first, or your snowball discount. You'll get the same price.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,988
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    SimonJM said:

    Oh and link to BJ3 is wrong, should be: http://www.daz3d.com/jepe-s-body-jewels-3

    Thanks will go and fix.
    Is the cart working right for you?

    Possibly! I've read a couple of your posts and paid a bit of attention to last couple of purchases and ... what with X% off for this reason for this type of item and Y% off for that rationale and ... I'm confused! The one I am really not sure about is when I grabbed the outfit required for a snowball item, the outfit did not seem to attract the ''full' discount for snowball and 22% off - mainly, I suspect, as the item in question was, I think, a snowball item.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Hmm, my first order I only did the four new releases for snowball. Let me go check what that did- I got the snowball and 22% correctly (or even more) I think.

    BTW folks- this looks interesting. Don't ask me how I found this, I have clicked on so many things I'm lost. Anyone have this?
    http://www.daz3d.com/animalistic

    I'll go check the snowballs order Simon. Back in a few minutes.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    The snowball items are behaving the same as any other store items that are discounted to 30%. So it being a snowball shouldn't matter.

    I'm cleaning up over at 3D's store. I got all the toon generations and the seaside village. My sister is a teacher and I'm going to do an ebook for her, using the toons in the village. I'm getting toon sam, toon sadie, toon gramps, etc. That toons bundle is on sale 25% off, then you get 22% off, then your snowball discount.

    Curious- what is everyone else getting, so we won't miss any great products? I'm going through the VENDORS section. There was one with a video camera like TV crews use, I am going back to get it.

  • IvyIvy Posts: 7,165
    edited December 1969

    : Guest Contributor
    This is the new Merlins Oak model i just picked up I can seea lot of using from this set.


    Thor's Oak
    Rendered in Daz Studio Pro no post work
    Merlin's Oak http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/merlin-s-oak-plants-and-props-set

    Nerds Flame and Smoke tool http://www.daz3d.com/smoke-and-flames-tool

    Custom lighting using HDR environment sphere

    1.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 294K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Nice work Ivy! Now, where is that hunk Thor?

    Tip: Check out Diane's store if you're getting some good discounts- she has David Expressions which are for Generation 5, and the toon poses work for Genesis too. (Kimberly, etc)

    http://www.daz3d.com/kimberly-poses
    http://www.daz3d.com/david-5-expressions
    http://www.daz3d.com/kimberly-expressions

    Heads up- the Rocks n Drops that I've been using is in that store (just now realized it) and it has a bundle that includes the second one. If you have the first, here's the second. Just click on Diane's name to get to her store and see the bundle. LOVE these backgrounds. Remember, I gave you the settings for the bump and displacement to make those stones look really good!

    http://www.daz3d.com/rocks-n-drops-2-texture-add-on-set

    This is like Handy Dandy, only for V4. Don't know how I missed this one before!
    http://www.daz3d.com/v4-hand-poses

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Okay, darn it I can't find the post where I asked this before. I am confused as to what light products now come with the studio, and what doesn't. Some of the product pages were out of date. Is this something we need to buy as it's not in the studio? If so, is it worth it? I have more light products than I'll ever buy. I am getting area base mixed up with area this and that....just like the ubers!

    omAreaLight Light Shader for DAZ Studio

This discussion has been closed.