Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 13
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Wow! So cute!!!!
Nice! And thank you for the reminder. I need to go grab some stuff!
This is my second entry in the contest.
Still Life
I wanted to do something a little different, so I used Mesh Grabber to position the Daylilies from a clump into the vase. (Among other things.) I have to say, I really like the effect Khory's ceramic shader made on the floor vase. And the only lighting for the scene is the Sun Dial!
@firewarden Thank you.
@L'Adair, That is very lovely. Your composition is so simple and real, like I just walked into the room.
@Daventaki So nice!
@L'Adair Beautiful composition and amazing work! It could be a photo.
EJ Makenna (Gen8F) MRL dForce Curly Bun (G8F) dForce H&C Housewear Outfit (Gen8F) Chichi Poses (Charlotte/ Gen8F)
Chichi poses have a nice variety and are relaxed, take a peek at those. No excessive pinup models. (Looks like they were $2.79 on May 11th, so they must go on sale quite a bit.)
This is the Amira Shy Smile 36.7
Is it just me, or does Makenna's face look thinner than in the promos? (I like this one.)
When selecting the pants for a shader preset, that is the "Housewear Outfit" in Scene. It's a bit strange the top is labeled separately but the pants aren't. I have to be honest, I really like this set for a loose, lounge around outfit, but the set is very limited in colors. A white was included, which is GREAT for creating your own color in the Surface pane, but there are NO patterns or prints, so that's a big yawn. Which got me looking at shaders.
So I was testing my shaders from Rendo, these are the Tropical Heat shaders and thought you might like to see them. I didn't do any postwork like I normally do, aka midtones, shadows, highlights, sharpen- so keep in mind these will look even better when you do postwork. Most of them have the default tiling, if not, it's noted. The closeup of the top was shown if it had a bit more detail or texturing. Tropical Heat has solid colors to go with the patterns, and some of the solid colors have really pretty textures and patterns which match the bolder patterns. Great set. You can choose either a horizontal or vertical pattern on almost all the patterns.
These do NOT enlarge. So which one is your favorite? I like the hot pink flower or grapefruit?/ black striped pants one but the red top and black and white polka dotted pants is cute too.
I tiled to 10 (default is 3) to get thinner stripes, which I personally like better.
Increased the pant tiling to 13, to get smaller dots. The huge ones are cute too (not shown.)
Continued
Love the beautiful pattern in the top. Subtle, sophisticated, elegant.
This one, thought I'd show you the pattern, switched from the top down to the pants. Again, note the subtle texturing on the plain colored item.
This set also has a lot of stripes and dots to choose from. I love they included a star pattern for a USA opportunity!
Continued
This first one is very sophisticated to me. I like the warm tones.
In stark contrast, bold and funky!
And again, you can choose horizontal or vertical stripes, mix or match the top and bottom directions.
And a face closeup for you. I do think the face is thinner than the promos.
That is beautiful. I still haven't used Mesh Grabber yet! The lighting is really nice, the addition of shadows on the vase really makes it more realistic.
Face does look thinner also the chin doesn't look quite as square and the jawline looks let angular, at least to me.
Love those textures will have to check those out. I like the Blue and the Blue green in the first image.
And these were only some of them :) There's such a variety of colors! They do take one pattern and repeat it in different colors, which I like, but there's a lot of different patterns too. Some of the plain colors are exactly that, while others have a subtle pattern (some match the bold ones, some don't.)
memcneil70, xmasrose, and Novica,
Thank you, ladies.
If you do a search in the Render Settings > Presets tab, you can find the Sun Dial node. I've added it to my Custom Actions, because DS does not make it easy to find. This little gizmo loads in World Center, and you can change the height, (Angle,) and location/rotation, (Azimuth) by selecting the Sun Chain, (I think. It's one of those bones closer to the "Sun".)
I just moved those two around until I liked the way the light played with the flowers. The only light is from the sun. There are multiple windows in that set, so it allowed light in, I assume, from windows not in frame. It wasn't necessary to add any ghost lights to supplement the existing light in the room. (That doesn't happen all that often.)
Ah, so it begins. We're going to have Arthur, first tropical named storm of 2020. Never a good sign to have one two weeks before the season even starts.
BTW, this stupid Five Mile Swamp Fire just refuses to call Uncle. It's 97% contained, and caused three vehicles to crash in the wee hours of the morning this morning. Yep, Saturday, a WEEK after I brought Stetson home. Last Saturday the fire was only 50% contained, but way north was the area which wasn't under control. What is happening is called "reburn." Let me educate you in case you're ever in this situation- reburn is NOT the fire moving back over burnt areas, it's the DAMAGED trees (not the burnt to a crisp) dropping their leaves and needles about four days to a week after the fire.
Those needles and leaves fall on hot spots, and away we go again. The reburn areas can be small or grow into something really smoky. Aka our fire this morning. Can't believe Interstate 10 was shut down AGAIN from 2am-5am, three hours, while at 97% contained. SO ready for this fire to be squashed completely.
Some fun news- Ci Pwff went to the barn day before yesterday, he didn't meet Stetson; as there was a bunch of kids around the area where Stetson's pasture was, and I didn't want to distract them from their riding lessons. So today he met him through the fence, and it was a low growl, then muffled "WOOF!" stating he wasn't sure he liked this situation. Two minutes later, they're totally ignoring each other and Stets trotted off. But today walking around, Ci Pwff had his big fluffy tail curled over his back, instead of down and unsure. This is his second time to the barn, first was day before yesterday and he stayed in the truck most of the time while I unloaded Elaine's tack/household stuff. So Pwff is perking up when I ask if he wants to go to the barn and he prances to the door. :)
Yikes, the first tropical storm and not even hurricane season yet. It looks like I will get it Monday here on the Outer Banks of North Carolina:
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/212653.shtml?cone#contents
@charliejudge BOOM, it goes to a storm right away. Wish we had the rain though.
Speaking of that- Elaine had put a $300 sprinkler in Stetson's pasture, and brought him in. Some idiot barn worker put Stetson BACK in the pasture, and Stetson broke the sprinkler. Elaine had quite the discussion with the worker, as Stetson could have been hurt, leg cut severely. Fortunately (FOR HER) he is fine. Not to mention, Elaine did lose a $300 sprinkler.
L’Adair, that’s just beautiful!
Thank you, @spuffy.
Did you know that last year's Kentucky Derby winner, Country House, will be the longest reigning derby winner in history?
People get upset about broken sprinklers. I remember when I was stationed at Fort Gordon I was being punished for oversleeping enough to be 5 seconds late to formation so I was made to mow the grass on the COs office building. Well, I made a big mistake and picked up their sprinkler by the sprinkler and not by the hose and broke the sprinkler. So, knowing I would get in more trouble I decided to sneak off base to the Augusta Mall and buy a new sprinkler. Well I was so pleased the plan seemed to have worked to perfection and I got back to base with a $20 sprinkler, even though $20 was a huge amount of money for me then, it was just short of a miracle I had $20 really.
Well the plan failed because somehow I got caught and was punished again this time though I was made to mow the football field. Personally I don't know who caught me I was never told, I couldn't imagine that anyone actually noticed what the sprinkler I broke looked like compared to the new one I bought. For the record they looked identical as technology and style was the same except the plastic on the old one was white and on the new one was light green. Actually I think I know who told now. This unknown to me sergeant that saw me giving money to a bum in the mall parking lot told on me. I like a dummy went to the mall in my BDUs and this sergeant was driving by just at that time and told me never give money to bums and he must of reported me to my CO. I had forgot all about that. I didn't expect to get in so much trouble trying to avoid trouble!
I would personally like to see in the DAZ 3D store, Florida style dresses that my sister & her friends called "sun dresses" in the late 70s. I can't imagine they've went out of style as they were classy, reserved, pretty and cheap. I think they were some sort of derivative of Latina dress style. They were worn most commonly by teen girls and had bare shoulders with spaghetti straps often, if I remember right, had much pleating sewed into the torso part of the dress with the skirt part being sewn more light the drape on typical curtains. Being called sun dresses they often were in colors yellows, oranges, reds, and whites in floral and other sorts of pretty printed patterns although I can only remember floral patterns really.
May have to do with camera focal settings though it mostly shows with face close-ups I think.
I thought of that, as we had a discussion on the thread years ago- but in that discussion, the nose gets really large as that's what protrudes most toward the camera. I don't recall seeing a discussion on thinning cheeks (and the nose didn't seem that different to me, either thinner or enlarged.) But yeah, definitely agree, it's the closeup one I noticed the most. But the other ones also seemed different to me. Anyway, if folks like the thinner version of the face, that's the default gal. I didn't do anything to her.
I was decidedly not impressed with the male African Tribal Warrior Outfit offered today. If you look at this tribeoutfit photo, you'll see many folds in the material. There's more depth IMO. In the store, the belt doesn't seem that great, maybe like plastic welded on. No closeups to really tell (which is a red flag for me, when buying) Look at the promo where he's running (the orange one) and the (what do you call this- shorts? Skirt? Skorts?) whatever it is, is razor thin on the edges, looks sharp, not like material. Just disappointing. My other main complaint- Note there are no closeups showing you the materials of the outfit, canteen, etc. If anyone buys the outfit, would like to see closeups. (I'm obviously not buying.)
And these African Safari Outfit promo images- what's with the total burnout on several of the white outfit renders? Really needed some burning of midtones, but even that wouldn't have helped total elimination of details due to blazing light. While that glaring white happens in real life, zero details in a promo shot supposedly showing the DETAILS of the outfit is not a good choice for a promo. Look at the one where he's in white, with his arm outstretched and hand up. That render is just not helping the vendor at all. To be fair, there ARE other ones in white, which are better-- but those other shots should never have been approved by QA. The better renders which are darker, show more details.
That's the same rock behind him (with possible polygonal edges outlined) which is also behind the cheetah and cub in Expedition African Environment. If anyone got this, I'd love to see the rock from different angles, and the huts, in case the promos just aren't doing them justice. They appear better in some renders than others in the promos.
But in one render, the hut roofs look like the hay bales we were complaining about- flat, like a photo was just pasted on the plane. The edges seem to me like when you are masking something out, and the edges left behind were obviously traced around by the brush. Hope that makes sense, but if you've ever masked around hair, you know what I mean. Small details like hair sticking out have to be drawn back in. The hut thatched roof just seems to have fluid edges, no details. Click on the third row, third image thumbnail. And that mud (?) doesn't look very detailed either.
So sad, using Daz's search (A BIG JOKE) for Africa, African, Africa Huts, this came up. Songs of Africa And read the description- it references Traditional Village Huts, which isn't in the store any longer. I do have Tribal Village Huts. Check to see if you have it. Those thatched roofs look a lot better in my opinion. It also mentions the Millennium Environment Serengeti which will do the job for a background too.
The Land Adventurer SUV has doors which open, and a good amount of seats. To me, all the textures seem a flat (look at the luggage) and too glossy, and the print on the P R N D etc driving label is excessively large, and I've never seen what appears to be a heartbeat screen (for lack of better term) for a radio dashboard screen. I've not been in one of these vehicles, so what do you think of the realism? Seats are a bit solid/hard looking, but this is a utility vehicle, so I think that's to be expected. I do like the vendor including so many varieties of luggage, and a luggage rack which is has a cover of sorts, and the dirty option.
I'm going to stop looking, as need to mention there's a new flash sale in the rotating banner. Take a peek.And would love your thoughts on any of the above. As usual, it's just my opinion, and you may like the products. I can only go by these renders, that's why anyone who gets the product and likes it, please share your opinion and renders. Sadly, promo renders will keep us from buying something (rightly so) and the vendors deserve a fair shake if the product is actually worthwhile. Many times on this thread, contributors have shown a product to be more likeable than what was initially shown. (Which is natural, the more folks who render, the more is known.)
I thought the promo renders looked a bit cartoony and didn't look as if they were done in Iray. I wasn't impressed by the look of the clothes either, everything looked old generation rather than new items as if they were from a few years ago. I also think the shaders are very flat looking.
Here's what I did with the flash sale. First, look to see if anything in Fast Grab appeals to you, as those things CAN be included in the additional 50% off (I got the WW2 Pilots Uniform for gals) So you'll notice that's waaaaay discounted. I'll finish typing/linking these, but in case some of you are buying right now- here's what I did-
I used the Woods Are Lovely, Dark, and Deep sale and tested buying two things, so the stores would go 60%, then get the 50% flash sale on top of it. It made getting that fantastic bundle worth paying the only 30% off price. The bundle, if you calculated it, gives you a free product anyway compared to if the three were bought individually. I'll support fantastic work at 30% off if I get a lot of it back in savings.
Anyway, the way I did it, I compared getting ONE of the Woods new products vs getting two, and getting two, if I got a cheapie like the Yeti poses, I got that almost free based on the savings. About $1.60 increase in the cart when I added those, as the other products increased in savings so the price dropped a LOT on those. (To over 80%)
The Africa conversation got me looking at foreign wearables, so I went with MeshItUp which is one of the featured vendors. LOVE these clothes! We want unique, and they delivered. So here's the cart and what did what- (the flash sale limits you to FIVE OLD items but you can have more than five things in the cart if the other items are new items. That way you can use other promos to drop the old item prices (by buying new things, getting more discounts in the old items in featured stores.)
Pilots Uniform of WWII $2.99 was 19.95 down 70% in Fast Grab to 5.99, got it down to 2.99. Great deal!
dForce Desert Robe Outfit for Genesis 8 Female(s) $3.99 was 30% 13.97
dForce Moroccan Blue Man Outfit for Genesis 8 Male(s) $4.39 was 30% 15.37
dForce Middle Eastern Outfit for Genesis 8 Female(s) $3.99 was 30% 15.37
dForce Kaftan for Genesis 8 Male(s) $3.79 was 30% $13.27
These are the two Woods Dark And Deep which dropped the cart prices (any will do it. One product gets you X discount, but two will get you more.)
UltraScenery - Ecologies and Features Bundle 1 $34.97 30% NEW
CDI Poses for Yeti HD and Genesis 8 Male $7.82 51% NEW
So anyway, with the bundle being 3 things, I got 9 things total, this all broke down to paying about $6.88 per item so those Howie Farks / Tango Alpha items in the bundle would be A GREAT DEAL, not 30% if you look at the overall total price.
Subtotal$166.65
Discount-$43.42
Grand Total $61.94 so that's about 63% off overall, including 4 brand new items, 3 of which are in the landscape bundle.
I'm afraid that looks pretty terrible. However much does that spear weigh? The shaft must be three or four inches in diameter, and the spear head is bigger than his head. What is that shield made of? Where do African tribesmen find all those flourescent dyes for their outfits? The two palm prints on his chest are some kind of conforming figure (the description calls them "decals" but I don't think they're iray decals). Might be kinda fun to try fitting them to a female figure...
There's a thread about the development of that bundle here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/393631/expedition-africa-commercial . I think the vehicles look pretty good, and it's good to see a PA inviting and responding to feedback in that thread. But his clothes need more work.
Glad you mentioned that thread. Someone mentioned AM's African Village, so there's that one too. Of course, didn't come up when I typed AFRICAN in the search bar. Piece of garbage search. Sometimes I type in the exact same word and get different results, just a minute later. Google is your friend.
Hey what jeans outfit is that in the first row, first thumbnail? Top and jeans look awesome. Nice and relaxed fabric, great details.
I did search for it, but did not find the Sun Dial node in the Render Settings/Presets. Could it be a part of a product you own?
I'm not sure it is a 3D outfit, or rather, I think it migt be an actual 3 dimensional outfit worn by a real person, The first two pictures look to me like Kaftan man has been inserted into two real world photographs.
Yes, look at the resolution difference between the kaftan man and the rest of the image.
Here's an interesting Sun Dial thread with some good tips, particularly on the camera being the SS Sun node. Haven't looked to find the Sun Dial yet- where is it then?