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I'm still playing with these HDRs. This is the one of the first really successful attempts I've had with them. I always have a problem with the ground not being where it should be. This pack I used this time actually managed to put the ground where it should be and the bike isn't floating which is what I usually end up with so I count that as an improvement. :)
I will try this! I'm not quite sure where that is, but I'll look. I vaguely remember seeing something about shadows there, but I didn't mess with the settings.
Yeah, I know I've been very bad about following through with those here lately. Just way too much stuff going on! I will get those up as soon as things calm down. :)
Ah, so I havn't been the only one struggeling with those but I admit that in this case I had not the determination to go on with it as I very rarely like the results I see with HDRs even when they are done well. This one of yours was where I really felt it worked out nicely with the lights fitting the environment etc.
Yeah, I really struggle with those HDRs so you aren't the only one. I have to admit that I didn't have any external lights with this set. All lighting for this actually came from the HDR which might be why it seems to fit so well. For this, is it was more a matter of getting the tone mapping correct than anything else. Thanks for the nice comments. :)
Camp NaNo update: I actually managed to write over 4700 words yesterday! Yay! I'm still behind in my word count so I'll be trying to hit 5000 words today. Only 5 days left!
I like the tests with Horse 2. I don't care if it's an 'old' model, it's still a really good one and one I just picked up recently. For the hooves... I've been trying to see about working on those as well, since they just don't strike me as 'right'. Keep bringing on those tests!
I like using HDRI but I've found that when using DoF, the entire HDRI will be blurred, even the ground the character/item in focus is standing on. I suppose that makes sense as it's not really there. I don't know if there's any way to avoid that, other than doing things in post work.
@DarwinsMishap Yeah, I like the Horse 2, too. I think it's still a good figure. The textures just need a little bit of love for Iray. It's on the back burner until I finish Camp NaNo, only a couple of days left. Once I'm done, I will get back to testing. I'd love to have some good settings that I can save as a shader preset or, at the vary least, a material preset.
As for the hooves, they need to be glossier. Most of the horses I've ever seen have polished hooves and they shine really well. My initial tests have a serious lack of gloss and are way too rough. I haven't seen many wild horses, but I don't think even their hooves are quite as rough as my initial surface tests. Having a couple of different glossy settings it what I'm aiming for. From just barely there to highly polished.
@Isidorn I'll get back to playing with it. I'm still not comfortable with these types of HDRIs. You've had a lot more good images with them than I have. This was the best that I've managed so far and there are definitely things I need to work on. I'll play with it some more in the future. I'd like to get to the point where I can use them effectively because there are a couple more on my wishlist that I'd like to get, but I'm not buying until I can figure out how to use the darn things.
KM, Google "horse hooves pics". There is quite a difference in most. I grew up with ponys and horses... they tend to lean towards the dull side of what I would consider glossy. Depends on how well the horse taken care of... along with where it spends most of it's life. I don't expect that much attention was paid to the glossiness in the 1800's - mid+ 1900's. But then there are those horses for show or perhaps high court, parades etc. that would require the entire horse to look it's best. Guess it matters if the horse is simply a work horse, ridden seldom or a horse like my Uncle's Palomino which he used to ride in the County Fair.
BTW: I don't have Horse 2 yet... waiting for the bundle to go on sale when I'm not busy buying other content.
Doh! What a dummy I am... just went to grab Horse 2 bundle in sale and dicovered I already own it. Gonna have to load it in Carrara and see what I can come up with.
Ha that's more money for something else.
I had Horse 2 starter bundle in my wishlist... forgot to delete it when I bought the Pro bundle. I've overspent this month so will have to wait for my PC+ coupons in May.
Can't you return it?
Of course I could but why?? I didn't grab what I already had. AFAIK you can always return anything for any reason at all.
Oh, that wasn't clear that you didn't get stuff double:)
Within 30 days, yes
Righto... 30 days
Wish it would update when we buy something lol.
For anyone following my thread who is wondering, Did she or Didn't she? Well, I came close, but I didn't quite meet my 50,000-word goal. I fell short by about 5000 words. I do plan to spend this next week finishing up my draft so I'm not quite ready to get back into the swing of things, yet, with my thread or rendering in DS again. I'd like to finish this draft completely. Of course, then comes the revisions which haven't gone as well with my first book. It will definitely be a struggle, but I plan to finish both books. It will be a toss up to see which one gets published first since I now three books in various stages of completion. I'm determined, though, to get them done and get them published.
I think, when I'm ready to start rendering again, I'm going to concentrate on doing scenes from this current book and working on a possible cover as I haven't rendered anything for this book other than the two I've done for my heroine, Mellie. I think I'll keep her picture on my avatar for awhile longer to motivate me. I have absolutely fallen in love with this character and my hero whose name is Havoc.
It's nice to see that the thread kind of limped along without me. :)
@wgdjohn I've gotten several reference photos for hooves in various states of glossiness from highly polished show horses to just slightly glossy with a light layer of dust. It's harder finding good pictures of wild horses, however, I did finally find some decent pictures of hooves on wild mustangs on a couple of rescue sites. The hooves are definitely rougher, though, not as rough as my current horse 2 hooves so I still have some work to do there.
@Novica I do love that picture of the girl and the horse 2. I did that back when I was first learning how to use 3DL and Iray hadn't come out yet. I was starting to get some good images for a beginner. At some point, I'd like to redo that scene (not an exact copy, but similar) with what I know now about 3DL and render it again just to see what kind of improvements I could make on it and compare the two. We'll see. It's way down on my ever growing list of things I want to do.
I think I can speak for everybody following your thread - 45,000 words is very impressive! Looking forward to the books. Meanwhile, get working on more LAMH tutorials! (just kidding about that last part).
EDIT: Not really kidding, would appreciate tutorials when you get more hours in your days. LAMH, Gimp, Iray, whatever.
KM, speaking of tutorials... just wanted to let you know that I'm up and running in Filter Forge since upgrading to 6.0. Just messed around and saved a few texture maps... will have to play with making a filter of my own later. So... just wanted to let you know that I'm no longer lost in FF.
I think you did fantastic. I sort of disappeared, we have been and are still having a bit of a family crises and that cut way into my time. It came between being able to do art or writing and I choose art. Besides I am too stressed to write... :D
Thanks, guys! Yes, that's a lot of words so I'm very happy with it. Now, I just have to finish the darn things. :) Today, I'm playing with the SimTenero Randomizer trying to come up with a character to test out Zev0's Skin Builder 3. I haven't had a chance to play with Skin Builder 3 since I was a little busy when it came out. I just bought it day one and downloaded it so it was ready when I was. That was such an instant buy for me. It couldn't jump in the cart fast enough.
It has been a while since I have used the Randomizer and I had to play with it for a little bit to refresh my memory. I have the morphs all saved as a .rsp that I want to use so now, I'm just clicking through trying to find a figure that appeals to my artistic sensibilities. I hope to get it finished today and might even have a render soon. Seems strange that I haven't rendered much this past month.
I will be working on some tutorials next week so I hope to have something uploaded soon. I'm just kind of giving my brain a rest this week. Although I do plan to still get some writing in this week, I don't plan to try to do the massive daily word counts that NaNo usually needs.
Glad to hear that FF is getting easier to use. It really just depends on what you are doing with it. Some things are harder than others. Still, I'll have to look into working on a FF tutorial once I'm caught up with the tutorials I already have in the works. That way anyone new who pops in will have a tutorial handy. We'll see. Nothing planned in the near future yet.
Wow-that is impressive, congrats! I tried that once.....I got one chapter in. lol
@DarwinsMishap Even though I've been writing for years, I've been doing serious writing for the last two years while working on my books. I've found that the more I concentrate on writing and write everyday, the easier it is to get the words on the paper or computer screen in my case. That doesn't necessarily mean they are great, but at least they give me something to work with that I can edit later and make great. I'm learning that a first draft is just that, a first draft. When I still considered myself an amateur, I struggled with every single word and had this idea that each word I put down had to be perfect. While some writers can do that and spin a lot of words, I find that it's kind of liberating to just write and then go back and edit and make fixes later. I'm also finding that some of the stuff I've written is actually better than when I struggled and attempted to write the perfect sentence before committing it to my writing program.
I use Scrivener now which has been very liberating. I used to use a regular word processing program, but with Scrivener, I can write anything and everything that comes to mind and it is so easy to move things around and temporarily throw sections of words out that don't work and still get them back to move somewhere else that I might find that portion of words fits in better. I love how relaxing and intuitive it has made my writing. I'm also learning that while I've been a pantser for most of my life, I actually write better when I've taken the time to outline and make lots of notes before I start writing. So, I guess I'm starting to turn into a plotter. I've found that it is actually more freeing to know where the story is heading than just winging it. At least, for me. I resisted for a lot of years, but I'm starting to embrace the whole idea of actually having an outline before I start writing and mapping out scenes with all of the elements that I want to have in a scene before I even put words to page.
I now have three books partially done and one first draft that I'm struggling to edit and revise that is giving me headaches. What I don't have, yet, is a completed manuscript ready for an editor which is my goal so I can actually publish. At my age, I need to hurry up and get to it. This is my time and I want to prove to myself that I can actually do this. Luckily, I've got a very supportive husband who only occasionally grumbles if he can't find clean underwear because I've been wrapped up in writing solid for a whole month. :) I do, desperately, need to get caught up on laundry.
gosh there such a brave girl and the she gots to do the laundry... kepps getting me as well every time. Only difference I would never dare to write that many words, its kind of a horrible imagination. I do some scripting for the pen abd Paper adventures i master but the telling only happens in the moment ( often have to make notes on stuff I altered while telling to get the connections right the next evening.
Closest thing to actually tell a written story is with my King Aeric as a support for the renders I do.
I've always been passionate about writing and creating scenes with words. I just took a long break and made up stories for the boys when they were little. Now, I'm writing more grownup stories again for me. :) As for your King Aeric story, you could always turn it into a graphic novel. It's still writing. :) I'm a firm believer that one should do what they feel comfortable doing. Everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to things like writing.
Yesterday, I played around with SimTenero's Randomizer and got a character that I liked. I wanted someone more natural and not the bombshells that are all over the place in my library. Then, I took Skin Builder 3 for a test run. While I managed to totally muck the whole thing up, I did actually manage to get a fairly decent skin out of it. I keep getting errors everytime I load my figure up and I have to track down the folder so I'm not sure what I did wrong there. I'll figure it out. Anyway, my major problem to solve when working on a render for this girl was getting anything to fit! I kind of forgot when I created her that natural shaped boobs just don't work well with most of the clothing. I tried using the Dynamic Clothing plugin with my dress after it was converted to something the DC could work with all night last night with mixed results. I managed to get something good while zero pose, but not in the pose I wanted for my figure. I may play with that some more to see if I can keep the dress pinned to the shoulders. I'll have to go hunt up the Dynamic Clothing thread to refresh my memory of using the plugin.
In the meantime, I broke down and picked up the VWD script while it was on sale. I watched @Sickleyield's tutorial video and a few others and I was absolutely shocked at how easy this thing was to use. Within about 5 minutes, I had the dress draped in something that I could really live with. I'll still need to play with it more so I can get some decent wrinkles, but I like the drape I managed with the script and the plugin for DS is actually not that difficult to understand once you've done it a couple of times. As like most things, it will take some practice and experimentation.
So, here is my first effort with both Skin Builder 3 and VWD:
Marion
edit: forgot to put her name up as the title.
Looks great. I think once we really figure it out its going to be spectacular
Nice image immediately above.
" I actually write better when I've taken the time to outline and make lots of notes before I start writing. So, I guess I'm starting to turn into a plotter. I've found that it is actually more freeing to know where the story is heading than just winging it. At least, for me. I resisted for a lot of years, but I'm starting to embrace the whole idea of actually having an outline before I start writing and mapping out scenes with all of the elements that I want to have in a scene before I even put words to page."
I do exactly this when I write. Except for songs. I usually start with a title and weave it into the lyrics, and try for a twist at the end. I used to demand perfect rhymes of myself. But now if the line is really good, I go with a close rhyme and not exact.
Setting up a story structure, planning out inciting incidents, plot points and turning points, is hugely beneficial in the process of writing. These are techniques to keep moving the story forward.
@FirstBastion & @KevinH I was a pantser for a lot of years, just winging it. I would have a rough idea of what my big scenes were going to be, but the characters always surprised me and I would muddle along and eventually have a story at the end that was fairly good. I had all of the elements there that made a good story. It just took forever. Some pantsers can write a lot faster and have great stories that have a great plot and a cohesive flow to the story. I'm finding that, if I want to be the type of writer that I want to be, I can't do that anymore. It just takes too long and it frustrates me. If I want to writer better stories faster, I really need to outline and figure out where my story is going before I start writing and not while I'm in the middle of the story like I've always done.
I had tried outlining when I was younger and I always felt constricted. I realize now that I was approaching the whole outlining in the wrong way. I was trying to approach outlining the way one would outline a nonfictional piece and that's why I always felt constricted. Those types of outlines have nothing to do with fiction and everything to do with strangling a writer. I'm learning to outline as a fiction writer. It's certainly taken me long enough to get there. Now, I can sit and figure out the end, the beginning and all of the turning points and I know where a story is going. Add in a character arc or GMCs (Goal, Motivation, and Conflict). Thanks, @Llynara for pointing me to that helpful bit. And, yet, I can do outline now and still know I have the freedom to completely change it, modify it, or completely throw it out and find something else that works. I have better skills as an outliner for a fiction writer.
I'm also learning how to write rough drafts better. I used to agonize over every word that went on the page thinking it had to be perfect and I wouldn't get more than 200 or 300 words on a page during a writing session. I'm learning to let go a little and just get it on the page. It doesn't have to be perfect. That isn't what rough draft is all about. I can make it perfect during editing, but I have to get the words on the page to edit first. I think that was one of the single most important things I have learned in the last year that has helped my writing. I don't stress as much now about what I write in a first draft. I just write everything down and I know I can fix it later when I do rewrites and edits. The good thing is that my writing is getting faster every day that I put my butt in the seat and write. My max words in one session last month was a little over 6000 words, I think. I'd have to go back and check my stats in Scrivener. That's huge for a girl who usually only managed about 200 words.
Sonja, I tried doing a hair tonight, but kept getting memory errors. I think part of the problem is that I don't know what I'm doing. The other part is that I need to choose some lower poly hairs. I'll have to go through my library and figure out the best hairs to experiment with until I know what I'm doing.
That sounds like you've made a lot of progress on your writing, KM! Though I'm a mere dabbler in fanfic myself, I can more than appreciate that. Good going:-)