Merlin 8.1
Rod Wise Driggo
Posts: 2,149
in The Commons
Thought that finally a new Pro Bundle should deserve its own thread.
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Comments
I was pretty surprised myself, and I might pick it up.
Nothing interesting for me here (the alchemist workshop maybe, might pick it up later), but I'm really glad to see the bits and pieces are no longer shown as parts of the bundles.
Think I might get the Raker short hair.
Trying to work out if I get him when I have Ebeneezer.
if the book closed I might have bought this but by looks it does not
https://www.daz3d.com/the-young-wizard-outfit-props-for-genesis-8-and-81-males
nice handbag and those scrolls could be repurposed as napkins in rings
I quite like the bundle, I'm into cool medieval fantasy stuff and I looooovee the Young Wizard outfit, but there just isn't much point buying the bundle *now* as opposed to later. As someone else pointed out in another thread, it doesn't offer much in the way of dicounting other items (especially considering a lot of the items it would discount were significantly cheaper a couple days ago), and indeed one of the categories needs two seperate new releases so amazingly, the $75 (more like $100 Aus) bundle doesn't even activate those. As with a lot of things atm, I'll just wishlist and happily wait
For me, he looks a little bit off.
He's meant to be looking aged, but somehow he looks off.
I think primarly the body is not matching to the head, age wise.
I used to get most of the pro bundles, but even with a banner, $74.95 is quite steep. I shall have to think about it.
Which isn't necessarily a great sales strategy.
And there's a lot of 15% offers, but you only get one: is that right?
I like the return to this bundle structure.
I think the new character is underwhelming and is like several recent previous older guys.
I would have purchased the pro bundle today (for most stuff except Merlin) but there are zero perks. Not one of the offers that purchasing the pro bundle triggers is good and there is nothing I can do to bring the price down so I would just be checking out with the pro bundle alone. So I may as well wait.
This is very nice looking bundle to me. It's ironic that after drinking two XBang Energy drink I got overloaded on caffine and took a 4 hour dive into this Medieval Fantasy themed composition aftering seeing an amazing BellDark wizard image. Working with the older Wise Wizard, I realised what an amazing character THAT is and now this morning, Merlin 8.1 drops.
What's a guy to do? Totally on the fence witht his one, but a good looking bundle does always interest me. Too much great stuff. Tool ittle time to render!
I actually quite like him, especially his hands. Gerster might have a point about the mismatch between face and body, but I feel like there's more surface texture variation across the body compared to the younger 8.1 guys. Nice hands. Will need tweaks for close-ups if I use him in future, but that's a problem for future sid and Blender.
Some samples with no HD or material adjustments, Hans eyebrows (he only comes with painted on ones and a no-brow option), and nipple shaping I borrowed from somewhere and forgot to turn off.
(Imgur hosted).
I don't think we've had any older core 8.1 ladies, so here with my current favourite gal, Jinx Jones.
Hell yes they do. :D I could totally see him as either a crime boss or junkie. He's seen some business, that's for sure.
Might of picked it up if it wasn't a .x character.
The character does nothing for me, but the Young Wizard Outfit could have potential for kit bashing. But like...look at the shoulders. How is wonk like that even acceptable? Am I really just that anal that I'm the only one bothered by broken shoulders on so many outfits?
I might sometime have some use for the character and hairs, but it's in no way an urgent necessity for me. I'm more into utopian-style sci-fi than into fantasy, so the rest of the bundles isn't for me, but it does look fairly useful for those who are into fantasy renders.
For some reason, Merlin looks a bit feminine to me. Not sure what triggers that idea, but he does.
I'm not mad at this. Needs more time, but the Young Wizard Outfit is kinda awesome as are the hair and the beard. Kind of a drag the beard only comes with the Starter Bundle and requires a separate purchase apart from the Pro Bundle. Doesn't the pro version usually have all of the content of the Starter Bundles and then some generally speaking? The freakin Black Eyeball effect strikes again.
I know you want it to close right off the shelf, but depending on the topology, rigging it to close in studio or making a closing morph in your modeler of choice might not be too hard.
When I first found the Poser community 15 or 20 years ago, it was through the superhero rendering side of things, and none of the superhero stuff anyone needed was ever available to buy anywhere back then, so the people who wanted to render their favorite comic characters had to learn how to make the content they needed.
I'm lucky it was that way.
I was a highschool literature teacher for 13 years. The school I taught at reopened right away after the initial three month COVID closing. My son's school didn't reopen for a whole other year. I returned to my classroom in August of 2020. Went on leave October of 2020 to take care of my son and tend to his education and resigned in January 2021. I could do that because, by that last year of teaching, my Daz income from my hobby was 3/4 of my teaching income. Now I do Daz content full time and make more than I did in the classroom with a lot fewer hours and endlessly less drama.
So to summarize, I'm sorry the product doesn't do what you want. Learning things is good.
We have sent a query on the Pro Bundle contents as theer seem to be several oddities. I would be very surprised if the beard is not meant to be included.
I find the weird beige oversized lacings on that jerkin to be distracting.
His promos sort of remind me of Wolfgang.
I think Merlin's feminity is because of the lack of any facial hair pores or stubble. This skin could probably be used on an old lady. So I think he at least needs some stubble if the beard isn't being used. I love the look of the rest of the Pro bundle though - just hanging around to see the other offers between now and 22nd when the 15% extra ends.
Good point re: stubble. Personally, I prefer the ability to add it as needed.
And hey, that means the skin could serve for actual old ladies... I should try that, hmm.
I definitely could rig it
was not disparaging it, just giving my reasons it is less tempting, still may buy it yet.
assuming you made it?
suggested improvement not criticism 
bag does not open either
edit
I too model stuff (not as well as you) but if I model something myself I don't need to buy it do I
I buy stuff better than I can model myself
In some variants of the legend, Merlin was the son of the Devil. And he was always a fairly ambiguous character, to say the least. Remember, this was the guy who cast a spell that made Uther Pendragon look like Gorlois, so that Uther could trick Gorlois's wife Igraine into having sex with him. Which is, uh, more than just a little sleazy, no? Also, Merlin had a documented history of chasing after very much younger women, including Morgan Le Fay and, ultimately, Nimue/Niniane/Viviane. And look where that got him.
T.H. White's "The Once and Future King" makes Merlin entirely sympathetic and benign, but the traditional Merlin was a much darker character. Sure, he was super-helpful and handy to have around, but there's a real sense that Merlin was someone very dark and very powerful and you would be unwise to take him for granted or trust him too much. If Merlin doesn't make you uneasy, you're not paying attention.
It's not mine.
What I like most about the outfit is the leather collar and cape...I'm thinking that can be chopped out of the rest of the outfit for kitbashing.
If you bought the Pro Bundle, the Wizard's Beard and Brows has shown up in my Download tab of DIM. So if you downloaded already, open DIM and see if you have it now.