Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9

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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Okay, in the users guide this is what it says about positioning items inside the skydome.

    The most difficult part about Skydomes, is getting skilled at “positioning” you object within the skydome environment---because it’s not that intuitive at first. Since this skydome does not have a floor (but simulates a floor by producing shadows), it will move around unintuitively as you move your camera.
    So the easiest way to begin playing, I have found, is to leave my object at 0,0 world center, and move my camera around instead. Moving the camera “positions” your object relative to the skydome. This can save a lot of work (note, you may have to raise or lower your object to produce the shadows you need).

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    Thanks. I didn't get much chance to play with it but I have an aversion to complexity. If it is to complicated I won't use it.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited July 2017

    Thanks. I didn't get much chance to play with it but I have an aversion to complexity. If it is to complicated I won't use it.

    Its pretty easy and quick, once you figure out how to move the camera around its pretty much drop and go.  My work flow is to keep my main character at 0 where it loads, and then move everything around it.  Its just a matter of dropping stuff in and then moving the camera in most cases with these. 

    Post edited by IceDragonArt on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited July 2017

    Sorry, haven't posted here in a bit. Been in and out a lot lately and not caught up on all my usual threads. I forgot to do a top 5 for June. I'll look and see what I rendered. I know I rendered a ton of stuff but can't remember for the life of me what I did because it's not on my art thread, LOL. I need that to stay organized, so I'm posting there again. Controversial topics (like dynamic clothing) will be posted elsewhere. 

    Playing with the new Crystal Dragon today. Here he is with the blue skin and white crystal options (no postwork, just a test render.) Look at that crocodile smile. He's up to something. I think he's wishing he was at the horse birthday party! 

    I picked up a few new characters in the recent Rendo and Hivewire sales too. Need to render more and shop less. Easier said than done! 

    Crystal Dragon studio3.png
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    Post edited by Llynara on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Thanks for posting folks. I've been gone since this morning, came home to put the dogs out, and have to head back. Still packing up the apartment and all those trinkets, wall pictures, etc- very fragile and time consuming. So will be back in four or five hours probably. (LATE)  Good luck with the skydome, and love the dragon!  

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    Thanks. I didn't get much chance to play with it but I have an aversion to complexity. If it is to complicated I won't use it.

    Its pretty easy and quick, once you figure out how to move the camera around its pretty much drop and go.  My work flow is to keep my main character at 0 where it loads, and then move everything around it.  Its just a matter of dropping stuff in and then moving the camera in most cases with these. 

    I think I may return it. I'm not enamored with tweaking sets. I want to render stuff with my character a zero. I'll try your method, but otherwise, back it goes! Got enough sets really that work out of the box.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,247
    edited July 2017

    I bought Linday's MA-1 Flight Jacket for G3F on Flash Sale today. I really like it. It is top quality and very realistic looking. It has lots of morphs and lots of textures. As of now, it is still on 60% off flash sale. I have the American icon jackets, too and they are also good.

    Here I autofit the MA-1 jacket to G8F.

    (The HDRI used here is from hdrihaven.com. It is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license.)

     

    G8F Monique 7 50% Opal 50% Linday Jacket Roses.jpg
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    G8F Linday Jacket Tan.jpg
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    Post edited by barbult on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    I think the flight jacket looks really good. I got it with the hopes ot use it for a pilot jacket on men and women but it sucks to autofit to a guy which was a pain since it looks so good. Those renders are beatuiful. So realistic and natural looking.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,247
    edited July 2017

    I tried it with Cross Figure and it messed up the zipper and lost the zipper pulls, but the rest of it looks pretty good.

    Edit: I goofed when saving the cross figure result. That is why I lost the zipper pulls.

    Gwenbleiz Linday Flight jacket G3F Cross Figure.jpg
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    Post edited by barbult on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,247
    edited July 2017

    Autofit is kind of a mess. It kept the zipper pulls, but they were in the wrong place and I had to move them back. The chest sides are really a bad fit. I wonder why it did so poorly? I wonder if I made a mistake?

    Autofit

    Gwenbleiz Linday Flight jacket G3F Autofit.jpg
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    Post edited by barbult on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    No, I couldn't get it to fit to the male figure. I tried. It looks like a great unisex kind of jacket, but it just didn't work. I ended up returning it, since I wanted it for pilots of both genders.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,247

    No, I couldn't get it to fit to the male figure. I tried. It looks like a great unisex kind of jacket, but it just didn't work. I ended up returning it, since I wanted it for pilots of both genders.

    I figured out that I saved the Cross Figure asset incorrectly and that is why I lost the zipper pulls. I was supposed to save morph and not asset. It helps to reread the documentation. wink So I redid it. I am going to see how well I can fix the zipper distortion in Blender. I'm no blender expert.

  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,762
    barbult said:

    Here I autofit the MA-1 jacket to G8F.

     

    (The HDRI used here is from hdrihaven.com. It is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license.)

     

    Really nicely done image.  Great details!

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,247
    barbult said:

    Here I autofit the MA-1 jacket to G8F.

     

    (The HDRI used here is from hdrihaven.com. It is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license.)

     

    Really nicely done image.  Great details!

    Thanks. 99% of the credit goes to Linday for the great modeling and texturing of that jacket. smiley

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,387
    edited July 2017

    Love those jacket renders, barbult - I wish I'd picked that up in Fastgrab now! Maybe next time...

    ETA: I mean the G8F ones! That zipper problem looks crazy - I've never experienced that with Cross Figure, but maybe I've just been lucky, I guess it varies from garment to garment.

    Post edited by MelanieL on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Hi folks- long day, just online for a minute then gotta get some sleep (2:25am here)  Still packing up mom's apartment. I took the concrete bird bath from her porch over to her new room's patio and had to laugh- I did that at 12:45am last night/this morning and thought, "I hope Security doesn't see me doing this right now!" because it was concrete and I was hunched over like someone trying to get away with something in a sneaky manner. You know, like the cartoon animations of the shoulders hunched up and sneaking forward? Well, that was me. Fortunately, no Security folks making their rounds by that lawn last night at that moment. 

    If you participated in the Top 3-5 for June, I sent a PM with your number and will ask SereneNight to draw a number. I'll be leaving in the morning for the day, so will probably send the gift card tomorrow night. She'll post the winning number so at least you'll know you won. 

    So remember to render some products that are your favorite so you can participate for July, we're almost halfway through the month already!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    The winning number is 36!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    36 is Ice Dragon Art!  Thanks for drawing, SereneNight. Will get this issued before I leave this morning.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,247

    Congrats, Ice Dragon Art!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited July 2017

    Hmm, I was just looking at Kiara HD. That cutoff line from light to dark on the feet and hands looks too sharp to me, aka, there is no gradient. I just Googled to compare African American hands, and even with sharp lighting, most of the hands have a blending area. Curious if anyone rendered her, with different results?

    Edit- For example- look at the last thumbnail, where she is standing, and look at the hand on your left, the index finger. Then go to the image before that, and look at the feet. The first one on the second row, that light area comes up way too high on the soles, to the sides/top of the foot! (It's up on part of the back of the foot too in that image.) 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • xmasrosexmasrose Posts: 1,403

    Congratulations, Ice Dragon Art!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Congratulations, Ice Dragon Art!

    Thanks for participating this time, it was nice to get your input!

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Congratulations, Ice Dragon Art!

    Yay, Sonja!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Thank you very much!  I will most certainly put it to good use!

  • sueyasueya Posts: 832
    edited July 2017

    This is FW-Monie- a G2F character - she is currently free!

    She has 12 make ups and 10 nail varnish options. This image shows her tattoos.

    MoniewithTattoo.jpg
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    Post edited by sueya on
  • isidornisidorn Posts: 1,601

    Has anyone seen a lost set of two weeks laying around somewhere, and if so, could you please return them to me?

    I can't believe it's gone two weeks of July already! I've barely been to the forum or gallery here at DAZ and haven't even loaded up DS at all. And it seems I missed doing a top list for June, which is typical as it was my most productive render month so far this year. Though, I suppose, at least half of them couldn't be shown here anyway...

    But now I'm caught up. At least with this thread and the gallery. Perhaps it's time to render something too, before I forget how to?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    isidorn said:

    Has anyone seen a lost set of two weeks laying around somewhere, and if so, could you please return them to me?

    But now I'm caught up. At least with this thread and the gallery. Perhaps it's time to render something too, before I forget how to?

    We missed you smiley   But I'm not on here much this past week or beginning of next week, not home at all right now.  We'll both have to render next week.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,808

    Glad it's not just me then - I've been away for a week, and am slowly catching up on the forums and the store (mostly going 'meh, whatever' at the offerings tbh), but rendering...? Not just yet somehow.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited July 2017

    Here is a couple I did about a week ago, while testing my Rendo content to see if the package assist had indeed moved all the files.  My sister got the huge rental van loaded this morning so all of Mom's apartment is packed, except for things we have to go through to throw away / give away. They have a basement in the other building for donations, for the other residents to buy- it's a neat concept. I've only got a few minutes here before heading out, so here's one character. The character, hair, and outfit are all Rendo because that way I can test the items in one render for missing files. You can sure tell the difference in the way V4 poses out of the box, compared to Genesis 2 or 3. 

    This is P3D Christine (V4)  with Ocean Wave Hair and wearing Mermaid for V4 The cutout around the legs is too sharp, but it will do for distant shots (or softer material can be used.)  This is shown on V4 with V3Digitimes Iray Converter for Generation 4.  I didn't play around with it more than 5 minutes, you can really do great things if you take the time. It still looks better than the default skin IMO. Right away, i added more sheen to the skin, and took out a touch of red.

    ChristineRendoMermaidOceanbreezeHrRendo.png
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    ChristineRendoMermaidOceanWaveHr Rendo.png
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421
    edited July 2017

    This is very rough, but I just want to share it. I'm having trouble figuring out why I would want to invest in V8/G8F.

    ​This is G3F. She is wearing her default map, but is morphed into G1M David 5 with GenX. Putting his skin map on her would be simple. With Wear It All she is wearing the Wizard Robes and Beard for M4.

    ​With V8/G8F I'd have to buy all the utilities to make this possible, again - and there isn't any kind of loyalty discount or upgrade price. I'm starting all over.

    ​It seems like a self defeating business model, when I don't see that V8 offers a lot that G3F doesn't already have.

    Am I nuts? I keep asking - and no one answers. Are we all thinking this?



     

    wizard.jpg
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    Post edited by donovancolbert on
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