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Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 8

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  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,396

    By the way, that morph set in Barbult's competition (https://www.daz3d.com/ultragenesis-faces-of-g) is really cheap today if you are buying a couple of new releases....

  • nattaruknattaruk Posts: 535
    firewarden said:

    What favorite vendors do y'all have for unique characters?

    Chevybabe25 does really distinct characters; I particulary like Aibell, Draupadi and Vincenzina,

  • luci45luci45 Posts: 2,762
    barbult said:
    donovancolbert said:

    But seriously... appropriate clothes and hair for mature characters seems to be just about as difficult to find as appropriate clothes and hair for younger models. 

    And getting the clothes to fit the sagging boobs of characters like Tha Hag or Opal is another challenge.

    To fix sagging boobs or make appearance of wearing a bra under clothes (like most of us women do wink) I turn off limits on breast undercurve or heavy breast (can't remember the exact names) and dial the opposite way for some lift. It helps with some clothes; makes others lumpy. Someone should make some bra morphs, but then maybe they wouldn't sell too many.

    A fun contest, barbult. I spent a long time looking for her. I never saw it in my search and the muture morphs were not in the main promo window so I would have missed them. I think I will buy this one as I like mature characters and don't always feel like fiddling with the aging morph dials. 

     

  • NathNath Posts: 2,809

    Hmmm. I own

    37.4 % of Generation 4
    45.8 % of Genesis
    29 % of Genesis 2
    20 % of Genesis 3

    And perhaps as significantly:

    Generation 4 is 43.36 % of what I have
    Genesis is 18.43 % of what I have
    Genesis 2 is 21.94 % of what I have
    Genesis 3 is 16.27 % of what I have

    Is it possible to have too many toys?

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited March 2017
    nattaruk said:
    firewarden said:

    What favorite vendors do y'all have for unique characters?

    Chevybabe25 does really distinct characters; I particulary like Aibell, Draupadi and Vincenzina,

    +1. That's who came to mind for me too (one of them.)  Raiya was another, has a great variety.
    If I were looking at my character images (when you click on characters under a generation, but the ones in the list won't show) the unusual ones I have are:

    Genesis 3 Females:  Aibell    Ceridwen   Brooklyn HD (very fine eyebrows, different. PERFECT for a child)    Monika (somewhat older, not old)    Opal   Vincenzina

    I always remember Morris for a few of the other generations. Sulaiman for Michael 6     M4 Ethanique: Nathen   I never bought the Lazarus one due to the vein, although the Poser version looks like it isn't there. Has anyone rendered him? 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • firewardenfirewarden Posts: 1,482

    I haven't forgotten the Mixamo info I was going to post. However, I had to finish a small art project (done, yay!) and have to fix a website problem before I can stop and double-check one step. I will get to it hopefully within the next few days. Just have to get a stupid website working (I had to buy a new incarnation of the professional theme I use and now I have to fix stuff where the custom CSS stuff didn't transfer, and the new theme is quite a bit different. Google for the win, I guess... Excuse me while I bang my head on the wall. Sigh...)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    Nath said:

    Hmmm. I own

    37.4 % of Generation 4
    45.8 % of Genesis
    29 % of Genesis 2
    20 % of Genesis 3

     

    Ah!  So you have Genesis as the most too!  

  • isidornisidorn Posts: 1,601
    Nath said:

    Is it possible to have too many toys?

     

    Never! laugh

    My numbers:

    Generation 4: 377 of 5106, or 7%

    Genesis: 215 of 1773, or 12%

    G2: 649 of 3328, or 19,5%

    G3: 1134 of 3492, or 32%

    Not really surprising numbers, as G3F was already out when I started with DS. Btw, I do believe those numbers for total products should be taken with a grain of salt. For example. The Freak 4 isn't on that list to select and products covering several generations show up for all of them.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,809
    Novica said:
    Nath said:

    Hmmm. I own

    37.4 % of Generation 4
    45.8 % of Genesis
    29 % of Genesis 2
    20 % of Genesis 3

     

    Ah!  So you have Genesis as the most too!  

    Going by 'percentage owned of', yes, but of the items I own, Generation 4 makes up almost 50%

  • FrankTheTankFrankTheTank Posts: 1,131
    edited March 2017
    Novica said:

    Oh heavens. I'm really rocking it with Genesis and Genesis 2. The Genesis surprised me. You really do need to do the percents, not the number owned, to get a real feel of it.

    I have SEVENTY TWO PERCENT of Genesis! Yikes.  (1,288 of 1773)  
    Genesis 2 was second (not giving that total, but there was a drop in percentage.)  So I need to concentrate on using more of that clothing and getting those folks GenX'd up to Genesis 3. The Generation 4 and Genesis 3 then dropped down from Genesis 2 by 20 and 22% respectively.

    For Genesis 3, it's due to changes in styles, repeating of materials, and lots of clones. Less variety in my opinion. But I was surprised to see my V4, M4 etc was more the current generation! And waaaaaay below Genesis, and 22% less than Genesis 2. 

    So mine went:
    1. MOST: Genesis 72%
    2. Genesis 2  (dropped down quite a bit from Genesis) 
    3. Generation 4 (dropped 20% from Genesis 2)
    4. LEAST: Genesis 3  (dropped 22% from Genesis 2) 

     

    Holy Cow, you have a lot of stuff. I've only been here a litte over a year, but still have bought a lot in that time frame, IMO... I try not to buy repeat items, as I want a library of stuff that I can build and tweak to tell my own stories wherever they may lead, so buying characters or even props that are too similar to one another is just a waste to me. Plus I like tweaking everything and making it "my own" anyway. I never use anything off the shelf.

    Gen4: 137 items = 3%

    Genesis = 128 items = 7%

    Genesis 2 = 239 items = 7 %

    Genesis 3 = 69 items = 2%

    I've been very slow to move to Genesis 3 figures. Genesis 2 is still the load carrier for me. And I still love Genesis for all the unique creature characters and cross compatibility, especially Raw Art stuff. I just need to get one of the products to make the older skins look better. But I've also learned that lighting and small tweaks can make a lot of those older skins look great.

    Still trying to decided between the 2 major ones, ICS and Anagenessis 2..

    And I finally decided to just build my own damn library after not finding one that exactly fit my taste, picked up the Treasury of books the other day, but not the vaulted hall bundle, and said hey, I can do this myself. So far its coming along pretty good, and this is only 3 hours in... Using lots of old stuff, which renders surprisingly well, the study looks amazing in iray with no tweaks to materials, and I think I picked that up for less than a dollar suring the PC sale last fall. I'll probably just need to do something about the windows, I'll turn them into real stained glass and let some cool lighting/shadows in. 

     

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,249

    I joined about the time Genesis was released. Soon after I joined, Daz gave me a $2 off coupon good on anything in the store. I discovered by accident that it was multi use, so I bought a whole bunch of $1.99 PC items essentially for free. That is how I got so many Generation 4 items. It was probably an unintended behavior of the coupon. I was too new to even know about glitches, etc. But I guess Daz got their money's worth out of me later anyway, because it addicted me. Hmmmm. Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't unintended behavior after all...

    Mine are : 

    1. MOST (Highest Percent): Genesis 390 of 1773 = 22% 
    2. Genesis 2 472 of 3328 =14.2% 
    3. Generation 4 625 of 5106 = 12.2%
    4. Genesis 3 = 392 of 3492 = 11.2% 

    The decreasing percentages may reflect the fact that we have so much stuff now, we shop more carefully. (We can hope, can't we?)

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    barbult said:
    Wonderland said:
    barbult said:
    Wonderland said:

    So I started a render that I thought would go overnight but I forgot to reset it and it ended early at 2 hours, still grainy on my CPU only computer so had fun playing with it in iPad apps. Akiko for Mei Lin 7 again with a bit of youth morphs and Anime Kitten Hair, not sure if that was displayed here yet, it's for Keiko 6 and I iRayed it and added in blue tones. One thing I noticed is that vendors never show their characters with their mouth open or using expressions. They just stare blankly ahead which is fine to show the plain morph but it would be nice to see how well they take expressions. I think Akiko takes them pretty well... The only problem I'm having with her is that her palms look too white compared to her skin. (Discovered from an earlier render)

    Forgot to mention I used different eyelashes and eyes, so those are not Akiko and I made the iris bigger. And the youth morphs...

    Nice character, Wonderland. You are right about promos not showing open mouths and expressions very often. I've had to write several help requests about characters with messed up teeth because the vendor didn't zero out the Mouth Realism HD before creating their character. You would think that a PA would at least look at their character's teeth. After all, they make textures for them. And I am doubly disappointed that Daz QA didn't even check the mouth.

    Yes, and some you just can't make smile at all, the face just distorts weirdly like FWSA Pepper for Genevieve looks horrible with a smile.

    Did you return it and tell them why?

    No, it's OK to have an occasional brooding character LOL

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    barbult said:
    Wonderland said:
    barbult said:
    Wonderland said:

     

    firewarden said:

    Speaking of clone characters from vendors, I LOVE that Saiyaness has fantastically unique characters. There are a few vendors that consistently have characters that don't look like clones of each other or simply a touch-up of a too-recognizable base character. Saiyaness, Darwins Mishap(s), and RawArt are ones that I think of off the bat. (My brain is stuttering trying to think of others; need more coffee.)

    What favorite vendors do y'all have for unique characters?

    Although they are all "beauty" models, I love Freja's characters. The promos are great and you can really tell what you're getting and the skins look good on other characters too. I'm quickly collecting all of them, grabbed two more in recent FastGrab, already had the third. And I'm wondering why that other vendor always uses the exact same hair! Maybe if some were blonde or red head at least. And the skin looks exactly the same too which maybe they could get away with if different hair was used in the promos, but the skin and eyebrows almost have to go with brunette hair, but for gods sake, at least use a different brunette hair model in the promos! 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    DvoraszeniaStudios said:

    Holy Cow, you have a lot of stuff. 

    Barbult hit the nail on the head about the great sales they had years ago. There were indeed products and glitches where it wasn't unusual for prices to go down to a dollar that were normally 19.95 with a glitch, and some of their sales pages didn't go off and the discounts stacked- but many of us weren't quite sure what was happening. Just like all the vendor store pages right now, if you surfed into one, you'd have to have memorized which stores were on sale, at many times it was fifteen to twenty or MORE in the sales.

    So sometimes when we were on a page, we didn't know the behavior causing the prices. (Nothing has changed much, eh? You have to stop and figure it out.)  So it was a mess, with old sale pages still up and interacting with new sales, and people getting different prices depending on what was in their cart (as some of the old sales had trigger items.)  Newbies were totally confused, to put it mildly. I can't imagine how shoppers  who weren't on the forums were wading through the site and trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

    I'm rather curious, I'm going to go back to an order and see the total, and the number of items, and give you a blast from the past. Back in a few. Going back to 2012 during one of the glitches.

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    Serene Night said:

    Merchants reusing the same merchant resource is a common problem with male figures particularly. Some vendors add some new eyebrows, diffuse out the skin with a different shade of tan/brown and voila, a new character. I think too because so few male characters have real life details like body hair, or anything else added this must be a strong temptation. Donnie and Jaque for example have the exact same hand texture. Comparing the knockles and texture will show you. Obviously, I know there are only so may hand and skin resources which can be used. But I'm almost at this point, where I wish they would sell a skin tone pack for various skin resources, and call it a day as I don't want to buy the same skin thinking it is a new character, only to see it is mostly something I already own.

    As far as resources, why don't they take photos of their own hands, faces and body parts and those of their friends! You can make your own resources with an iPhone camera and good lighting! I think I'm going to start doing that LOL. I almost asked a perfect stranger if I could take photos of her because she had the most amazing freckles but I was too embarrassed to ask. I does sound a little nuts to ask a stranger LOL. But my friends know what I do, I could probably ask them.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited March 2017

    One order had 23 things and several bundles, the cost averaged out to 3.27 per item. There were large sets in addition to the bundles. The rest was characters, no hair. Another order had 15 things and averaged 2.89 and it was mostly Genesis and K4 (keep in mind this was years ago, they were the figures in use.)  Funny to see all the Unimesh products, I had forgotten about those.

    So this has been discussed elsewhere, but I'm curious. What was in your first order? Actually, your first three?

    Leaving out the common ones like Decimator, Hexagon, Bryce, etc that were free at the time, here's mine:

    The first order was:  (Please give date, this is fun!  Sept 10, 2012)
    Aiko 3 Base  Anime Girl
    EmotiGuy
    Millennium Dog
    Millennium Horse
    Millennium Cat

    Second order:
    The Medieval series- the Tavern, Market, Shop, Docks
    LeVillage
    Predatron trees galore. I got all the Pred Packs.
    And one of my favorite sets of all time Opus Magnum. 
    Willow Spring
    Ancient Prophecies

    Third order:
    Victoria 5 Pro Bundle
    Full and Feathered Hair for Genesis
    Pharoahs of the Sun for Genesis Female
    Classic Rolled Hair for Genesis
    Astral for GIS
    Pajamas for Genesis
    and more hair/outfits- all Genesis.  

    So what are the highlights of your first three orders?

     

    Post edited by Novica on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891

    I don't have time to do my percentages now but I'm sure V4 beats them all in a landslide but not from this store. I was a Poser only user until last March and that's when I first started learning or trying to learn DS, and I still have TONS of content from the other store for V4. Daz stopped making new V4 content when Genesis came along so I had several years of just buying from other stores. But what I've acquired here in just one year is insane and has to stop! I'm pretty sure as far as Genesis, I have the most G3, and maybe G2 and G1 are tied. Just a guess. But the amount of V4 I have from the other store is staggering and I think I'm going to start rendering more in Poser again until I can get an external box that holds an NVIDIA card for my Mac. I love IRay, it's the only reason I started with DS, well that, and the ability to use Genesis stuff more easily, but without GPU, it's torturous!

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    edited March 2017
    Novica said:

    One order had 23 things and several bundles, the cost averaged out to 3.27 per item. There were large sets in addition to the bundles. The rest was characters, no hair. Another order had 15 things and averaged 2.89 and it was mostly Genesis and K4 (keep in mind this was years ago, they were the figures in use.)  Funny to see all the Unimesh products, I had forgotten about those.

    So this has been discussed elsewhere, but I'm curious. What was in your first order? Actually, your first three?

    Leaving out the common ones like Decimator, Hexagon, Bryce, etc that were free at the time, here's mine:

    The first order was:  (Please give date, this is fun!  Sept 10, 2012)
    Aiko 3 Base  Anime Girl
    EmotiGuy
    Millennium Dog
    Millennium Horse
    Millennium Cat

    Second order:
    The Medieval series- the Tavern, Market, Shop, Docks
    LeVillage
    Predatron trees galore. I got all the Pred Packs.
    And one of my favorite sets of all time Opus Magnum. 
    Willow Spring
    Ancient Prophecies

    Third order:
    Victoria 5 Pro Bundle
    Full and Feathered Hair for Genesis
    Pharoahs of the Sun for Genesis Female
    Classic Rolled Hair for Genesis
    Astral for GIS
    Pajamas for Genesis
    and more hair/outfits- all Genesis.  

    So what are the highlights of your first three orders?

     

    OMG, November 2004! And I remember I actually paid a lot for those Millenium Girl, I asked my mother for money for them as part of an early Christmas gift LOL. And I did have to pay for Bryce which is not even usable on a Mac anymore, Hexagon was cheap, like $4.00, and still have not used it, and Decimator was not free and I still don't have it.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Well you got a great deal on that first order, $87 off!  KUDOS!

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    Novica said:

    Well you got a great deal on that first order, $87 off!  KUDOS!

    I think they were PC items, can't remember.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I don't know if anyone is interested but Filter Forge 5.0 is free today.  Let me know if you want the link

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891

    Does anyone have Merlin's Crossing, Secret Garden or Tree Bundle now in Fast Grab? They are old and cheap, and wondering how good they look.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,809

    First order (March 13, 2005) Didn't get any spectacular deals unfortunately blush
    Millennium Dragon Textures
    Multi-Sword Pack
    M3 High Fantasy Character & Clothing Bundle
    V3 High Fantasy Character & Clothing Bundle
    Millennium Horse Bundle
    Feline Discovery Poses
    Michael 3.0 Base
    Victoria 3.0 Head & Body Morphs
    Millennium Dragon
    V3 Morphing Fantasy Dress
    Millennium Horse Unicorn
    Millennium Dragon Poses
    Dragon Skeleton (Articulate Vertebrae)
    Michael 3.0 Head & Body Morphs
    Victoria 3.0 Base

    Second order:
    Millennium Cat Bundle

    Third order:
    Unicorn Horns
    Millennium Dragon 2.0 Upgrade
    Millennium Dragon 2 Textures

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    Ice Dragon Art said:

    I don't know if anyone is interested but Filter Forge 5.0 is free today.  Let me know if you want the link

    Sure! I have Filter Forge 3 installed. My kids made off with my 5.0

  • firewardenfirewarden Posts: 1,482
    Ice Dragon Art said:

    I don't know if anyone is interested but Filter Forge 5.0 is free today.  Let me know if you want the link

    I'd like the link, please.   Maybe it'll work better with Adobe CC now. Artificer (?) is a cool filter.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    Wonderland said:

    Does anyone have Merlin's Crossing, Secret Garden or Tree Bundle now in Fast Grab? They are old and cheap, and wondering how good they look.

    Anything Merlin is good! I use the Secret Garden all the time for the backdrop and the plants. Lots of nice props in those, you can't go wrong.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited March 2017

    Filter Forge 6.0 is 80% off ($400 down to $80) Says expires soon. Professional edition.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,891
    Novica said:
    Wonderland said:

    Does anyone have Merlin's Crossing, Secret Garden or Tree Bundle now in Fast Grab? They are old and cheap, and wondering how good they look.

    Anything Merlin is good! I use the Secret Garden all the time for the backdrop and the plants. Lots of nice props in those, you can't go wrong.

    Okay, thanks, so now half my gift card is going to FastGrab... Except for like 3 days, the best deals are still FastGrab. 

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604

    The best deals to be had in years gone by were in October 2002   When the PC was inaugurated.   We were coming over here to shop and then going back and boasting about how many hundreds of dollars we had saved.   And if we joined the PC in I think it was the first week, we got the membership at $50 off as well

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    Chohole said:

    The best deals to be had in years gone by were in October 2002   When the PC was inaugurated.   We were coming over here to shop and then going back and boasting about how many hundreds of dollars we had saved.   And if we joined the PC in I think it was the first week, we got the membership at $50 off as well

    Do you remember what the membership price was at the time? That sounds neat!

This discussion has been closed.