Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 11
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Are you able to just replace the shadow color? That would be interesting.
I was taught to avoid black, avoid white, and mix in streaks of random color very lightly and gently to make, eg a pastel drawing, more vibrant.
I indend on adopting a parrot of some type in november after my house interior DIY is done. Can't afford a dog or cat although I've always liked German Shepherds.
I seldom do any post work on renders. I have White Point set at 100; Crush Blacks at 0.20; Burn Highlights at 0.96; Saturation at 1.20; Gamma at 2.20; Film ISO at 200; Firefly Filter on; Nominal Luminance 1500.00; Noise Degrain Filtering at 2.00; Noise Degrain Radius at 2.0; Max Path Length at 10, these are my start setting and normally the only things changed are the Tone Mapping Settings.
This is my latest render. A close-up of Genesis 8 because I was doing some experimenting on eyes and hair. All the settings are as above and using two lights and Environment turned off. The Background is set to Black under Environment/Background; one Spotlight set to Disc, 1000 Lumens and Temperature 6500 above, front and to the left; a 1 Metre plane primitive, Temperature 6500, Luminance 5.00 cd/cm^2 above slightly, to the back on the right.
What are your thoughts about the shadows and contrast?
2018-08-19 03:27:51.532 Total Rendering Time: 5 hours 34 minutes 44.37 seconds
@fishtales I like the level of highlights because I can still see the wrinkled details under her eyes, and the shadows are also nicely done. The lines of her lips are easy to see and not overdone. Good details!
I've owned Eleonora Cockatoos, Umbrella Cockatoos, Goffin Cockatoos, Military Macaws, Blue Winged Macaw, Sun and Jenday Conures, Dusky Conures, Half Moon Conures, Green Cheeked Conures, Cockatiels, Lineolated Parakeets (currently), Parakeets, Yellow Nape Amazons, Pyonus, African Gray, Eclectus, and more. :) Edit- Senegal Parrot and Mexican Red-Headed parrot.
I had a Military Macaw once. She was too damned smart! Her cage had heavy sliding bolts on the doors to keep them closed. She figured out how to slide the bolt and get the cage open. We discovered this when she came into the living room one evening and said hello to us. We had to put padlocks on the doors to keep her from getting out when we weren't home. That bird was cool, but she could be very mean too. I still have a scar on my leg from her biting me because she was jealous of the attention I was getting from the ex-boyfriend! Yes, she got off her cage, walked around the couch, past him and bit me! He was HER man, not mine, LOL!
Wow! i don't know what type i'm getting one of whatever they have up for adoption although I kind of want one of the types that can talk clearly I had 2 budgies and a cockatiel as a boy and they were very funny even though I didn't teach them to talk or whistle. It took a few weeks work to tame them though as I bought them as untamed adults.
Half moon conures are worth the money if you want a loveable, able-to-talk bird. They're very pretty with the orange "half moon" on their forehead and a perfect size. They were about $350 in pet stores years ago, but see if you can find one in rescue and take a look. Mine used to open the cage door every morning to let the cat in the cage so they could sleep together! I'd clean the cage first thing in the morning, shut the cage door, and ten minutes later she'd open it. She never did that until I cleaned the cage for the cat! Her name was Serape. (Sir-ah-pay)
Had a cinnamon cockatiel that would chase the cat out of his room and down the hallway
It was something to see the cat running down the hall and the bird hissing at him as he chased him all the way to the front room
My cocktiel & parakeets would wait till I got home from school, open their cages, and fly to meet me when I opened the door. The cockatield would somehow manage to turn on the kitchen tap despite it's size.
I appreaciate the suggestion. I was considering a jenaday conure because the are very similar to a type of parakeet that went extinct in USA called the Carolina Parakeet. The Half-Moon also looks similar. I did search on YouTube to listen to Jenadays talking and they aren't a lot more able to enunciate better than budgies. What I did like hearing though was how good cockatiels can whistle! I will listen on YouTube at the Half-Moons & Lovebirds still yet but what's up for adoption is up for adoption & it they try to charge me retail prices for adoption I'll just tell them no as that calls into a doubt the entire mission of the bird rescue center if they are making profits even bigger than a pet store seeing as their stock was completely free of charge to them.
I'm sure you folks have seen this but if not, a great gift card sale! You don't need to purchase anything!
They might have prices due to how long they must keep and feed and house the birds, plus a higher price makes sure that the adopter is serious and not just looking for a cheap bird they can turn around and sell or not take serious care of.
Well yeah, but of course that's my concern too. I mean it's they that have too many birds, I have none. Anybody can create a non-profit, advertise for free birds, and then turn around and sell them for pet store prices and higher as i've found some do. Of course i'm not going to support such a business model.
One approach would be to also ask the local avian vet. They'll know who is reputable. Any local zoo would use the avian vet and can tell you who they are. With birds, it's mostly respiratory, so if there's a clean, reputable facility for rescue that vet should know about it. :)
I always went the route of a bird nursery pet store, we were lucky to have a really, really nice couple who had the nursery on site. They charged an arm and a leg for their birds, but they wanted people to see their babies from the time they were born, help raise them and interact with them, and really make them a part of the family. BTW, the cockatoo that I helped raise from the minute of hatching from an egg went to George Foreman. He fell in love with her, and the bird really did prefer men. (Many birds have a preference.) I had also raised the clutch mate who adored ME so it was a good deal for everyone. Everytime I see the George Foreman grill I wonder how that bird is doing. (Probably pampered to the max!)
I'm trying a new approach with shopping. For a couple months, I was buying the best deals- and not getting around to rendering most of them because of time constraints and other priorities. So I decided today to start buying things I actually am very interested in, and buy less stuff. Yep, there's great deals with the toon bundle- if you haven't put things in the cart and tested the different categories on the sale page, it's worth a look. Then I thought about the scores of items I have that I never touch, (all those unicorn bits and bobs, anything Star) and good deal or not, I'll never use them.
So I took a look at how much the Pro Bundle, add-ons, etc were, and substituted in sets and a character. I am buying (at only 30% off)
FG Art Studio PW Snorkel Island and AI HD (Gen8F) (at 50%) These 3 things are about $10 more than the toon bundle and add-ons, $44.23 compared to $34.65 or so, depending on what you put in the cart) but OMG have you looked at the Snorkel Island cottage? When I first breezed past it, I didn't really think about the INSIDE of the cottage being fully furnished. Yep, it's only 30% off but I looked at the starting price and at under $19, I know the time that went into that and decided to support it instead of getting toons. The FG Art Studio was of course immediately apparent as to the props and variety, it stayed on my mind. So I went with my gut feeling and got two sets I really want, and a Mousson character, for $10 more than a toon pro bundle I'm "meh" about. Nothing I need compared to excellent sets.
So I got a discount on a gift card and also applied those savings, and that made me a happy camper.
Those look like good buys. I may pick up the Dwayne base at some point, but the bundle isn't that interesting to me.
I also got a gift card, but it's my budget for the rest of the year, so I'm kinda glad Dwayne wasn't an instabuy
And I'm actually doing renders (most of them just test runs, but still: renders) of the stuff I already have:)
I'm taking the same pickier approach but since I like toon style I will be buying Toon Dwayne 8, Toon Brandon, and a couple of items from earlier releases: the Morningstar Wings and the Loincloth collection but no Pro Bundle and no Starter Bundle.
So all of that saves me $20 - $50. I spent about $100 on the Girl 8 Pro Bundle & it's addons because it was so good top to bottom and likewise the Edie 8 Pro Bundle but for Ollie 8 and Toon Dwayne 8 will it wasn't so nice from top to bottom for I can pick & choose. I expect the same situation with Guy 8 unless Dwayne 8 was Guy 8's replacement; which I don't think, I think Dwayne 8 was stickly for the folk making video games. That low polygon style has been popular for a few years in video games.
The trouble with the male bundles if they often come with the metal and bone spiked leather football padding biker sort of superhero outfits but no video game I want to make will involve such outfits so I don't need that stuff although I've wound up with more than I need already through purchase of past Pro and Starter bundles.
Well, I realized I hadn't used my PC+ coupon for DOs, so that pushed me into getting Dwayne Pro Bundle. At 80% off (27.06) I'll find something to use. For the required 4 toon items to get the further discount: My very first render used the toon dragon and I have a soft spot for it, so I picked up the Poke-E-Dots and the Rags textures for it. Hadn't seen those before. Those were both $1.00 Then I got the Toon Animal Wolf and the Tiger. (Each $1.60) And Petey Panda for Harley ($1.30) These will make great toys for a children's room.
And I'm still getting that extra 20% off by using my gift card so this makes it all really reasonable. Although I'm about to hit that point now of the discount being gone that I paid for the card. (Aka, if I saved $X I've spent $X and now what's left on it, I paid dollar for dollar.) So for me, all this stuff has been "free" as I haven't dipped into the "dollar for dollar" part but will shortly after today.
What should the discount on the Dwayne bundle be? It's price doesn't seem to change. It's $33 and change no matter what I put in the cart.
The lowest i can get it is $27-ish with 4 of the cheapest toon things and my PC+ coupon.
Right. It's $27.06 with the four toon items and the PC+ coupon. I did NOT put any of the add-ons (texture sets) in the cart so the entire $6 was taken off the Pro Bundle. Those texture sets are okay but I have tons of material shaders to change up outfits. I wanted the most "bang for the buck" to have the $6 come off one thing- the Pro Bundle.
I don’t care for Dwayne base at all but the content in the pro bundle is worth the 30 bucks. I also like one character which Dwayne is required for. I still hope they make Guy 8 since we still need a counterpart for girl who is stylistically similar.
So that's the right price. Obviously I'm confused by the logical matrix, lol.
Same here.
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I was on the fence, but decided to get the Dwayne pro bundle. I like the hair products, and would be willing to buy them separatly, but getting four toon items, (including Cookie, which I've been waiting for months to get cheaply, not really needing her…,) and bringing the price down to $33 and change madie it worth the cost. (I got three Toonimals, as well, including the Mod Squad bundle.)
I'm not thrilled with the Dwayne 8 Base figure. Those Popeye arms make the body shape less versatile. It's great that FWHP provided a morph with Boris to adjust the proportions, (even if it needs fixing,) but such a morph should have been included with Dwayne. I am happy, however, to get three more toon materials sets. And with a bit of finagling, I can use those materials on G3M as well.
I don't really need any of the clothing sets, but I see lots of kitbashing potential. Except for the Elvis jumpsuit, but I suspect I'll have a lot of fun with that one, regardless!
I really don’t like the height being baked into the body morph. They haven’t done that since Leo 7. Body morphs should not include scaling. The big crab arms are odd but Brandon looks good. Brandon should’ve been the base I think.
I only bought the entire bundle because it was so cheap & I did actually want both Toon Dwayne 8 & Brandon. As it turns out I'm really liking everything, including the sci-fi & spiky armour I usually don't like at all.
I think the ad copy in the DAZ Store has tremendously improved in the last 2 years. Of the products in the Toon Dwayne Pro Bundle I liked the ad copy for the Brandon character best, probably cause I've been waiting for the Guy 8 Pro Bundle since Girl 8 came out and that one was most like that.
Given that the ad copy is so good I thought I'd show what the products look like when rendered by someone more ham-handed like myself Here are a 3 renders showing 3 outfits, Boris, Dwayne, and Brandon, although one of the outfits I changed a bit to look more like a version of modern sci-fi prison clothing.
All in all, I like the pro bundle much better than I though I would. The Ninja Armour is my favorite though and I don't even like sci-fi that much but that is some good work.
@nonesuch Thanks for showing those. I can see why you like the Ninja outfit.
It's going to be awhile before I render anything. I've been working on the Not So Fast! render ever since the contest ended. (I'm not entering, it's just for fun since I played.)
The Grape Xscape Chess Bar (Technical Aspects)
Here's a few behind the scenes tips. This is using the DA Palm Island, Fancy A Game of Chess sets combined, with the Scrappy the Robot, Grapevines, Multi Letters (X) props and Sakura as the character. This was the Not So Fast! Contest combination I rendered.
TIP: When creating a stone/natural floor in the sand, use dFormers to bring sand onto the stone. You are not going to have a nice straight line where the stone meets the sand. You could also do a layer of raised stone as a border- but you STILL have to have irregularities where the sand meets the stone. The wind doesn't always create straight line sand. You can see the dformers in front, by the sign, and behind Scrappy The Robot.
TIP: When you create a morph from the dFormer, DO NOT CHOOSE THE OPTION TO DELETE IT. After you name the morph, you can move the dFormer to another location and create another morph.
TIP: Create your own signs by creating a primitive plane and using the Beach Cafe Outdoor Furniture sign.
TIP: Tie in what's on the sign by using the same image on an employee's shirt, menu, poster, etc. (In Surfaces.)
TIP: Mask and lighten areas. Use the Magic Wand Tool then add/correct areas with the brush. Old Hagred was too dark so she was masked, then ONLY she was lightened. Next I did her chair, which otherwise would have been totally dark crimson. You can now see the top of the chair, it's a lighter color. Scrappy the Robot was masked and sharpened, love the crisp detail of his face. The chess box was also lightened, it was really dark. You can now see hints of chess pieces in the box.
TIP: Use a Ghost Light for under-umbrella scenes. Those gals were a LOT darker than the surrounding area. There's just one Ghost Light at 100 luminance. Not a lot, but made a nice difference.
TIP: Use the planters from Ancient Temple Courtyard and Y translate to flatten them. They make great tropical/natural serving bowls as they're terra cotta. Look on the counter by Sakura.
TIP: My favorite tip: Embed items in umbrella poles to make tables/ drink holders. I embedded the horse chess piece trophy as the base was square and stuck out, and that's what IceDragonArt's drink is sitting on. (Now if we could just get Old Hagred's pet spider off the horse...)
And of course, the usual tips. Make sure your characters' heads are clearly shown- note Old Hagred's face has a background of white sand, there's no grapevines directly behind her head, etc. The frog in the drink is between Scrappy's legs.
I did a lot of straw thatch postwork- it had weird horizontal lines running through it, like material zones that weren't right. The thatch roof on your left took about an hour.
Enjoy! :)
Wow is that a preview of your entry? Good thing you can't win because that is funny & awesome.