Novica & Serene Night’s Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews PART 2
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If your daz content management service running? If smart content is missing you may have that stopped.
I checked that too and it said it was running in Task manager....I even restarted it just to be sure. It ws all good before I started categorizing again, had issues when I tried to do that before too
Man, well, it was a a long shot, but hoped it might help. so sorry to hear this. I love the category feature. I don't know why this is causing people so much trouble, or why this bug can't be fixed.
EDITED To add: You might try increasing the priority of this service by making it high.
Oh Kharma, what a PAIN. And like SereneNight said, the CMS may be stopped even if you have started it. Mine keeps shutting off. I forget, are you Windows 7, 64 bit? That's mine. SereneNight, what is yours?
Beo-Ripper
ON SALE 50% off!
http://www.daz3d.com/beo-ripper
http://www.daz3d.com/beo-ripper-expansion-pack-1
The Expansion Pack looks awesome, you even get animation. If you're looking for mechanical wings, these can also be used for Genesis figures by parenting to the chest and scaling. I love the tail- reminds me of our snake friend! (Hey, there's an idea, embed the snake head in the Beo Rippers body... instant tail!)
Okay, let's talk about composition. Do you have enough in your scene? Do you have too little? Is your horizon above or below the middle of the page? Makes it more interesting. You don't have to do the rule of thirds every time, that's a guide. That's like saying you should never have people centered in the scene-never say never. If you want your characters pulled in two different ways with decisions/temptations, having two items on opposite sides with the characters in the middle would make perfect sense. However, with the rule of thirds it can make a lot of sense with horizons. Horizons in the exact middle of the page can overpower the scene if you have a lot of ground. you always need to ask yourself...
How much of the ground do you need? It anchors the props and characters and establishes depth, there can be a lot of action on the ground or it can establish tranquility (ivy, flowers, etc.) but too much gets the main characters/emphasis lost. Which is the first thing you should decide- what is the emphasis of your scene? Why are you doing it? What do you need to show to accomplish your emphasis?
Photo 1: A couple nights ago, with the release of that new grass product, SereneNight and I were talking about the problems of using grass in renders- the shoots coming through the feet. Beo Ripper shows that easily so I wanted to do the Tiki Island ground with grass (it comes with Tiki Island.)
Second, I wanted to show you what a "too high" ground does. It's not at the exact middle, but you can see there's too much ground- it really doesn't add anything to the scene. Both Beo Ripper and Cassini would show up fine without it, due to the orange sky.
Now, look at the characters. These questions are easy- and we'll assume Beo Ripper is male. Answer yes, no, maybe on your FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
Is his intention to harm Cassini?
Is Cassini afraid of Beo Ripper?
Do they know each other?
My Answers:
Is his intention to harm Cassini?
No. He has his claws out to the side so as not to accidentally claw / hurt her. He is leaning down (not trying to be imposing or tower over her) and he is taking the time to listen to her.
Is Cassini afraid of Beo Ripper?
Heavens no. She has her hand resting on his chest! Her other arm is very relaxed and her gesture is OPEN PALMED, with her fingers also relaxed. It is about waist high, which shows confidence. She is in a comfortable stance, the back foot is lightly resting on the ground.
Do they know each other?
Maybe- and most likely. Cassini could just be a confident person. As we don't know the role of Beo Ripper-he could be futuristic law enforcement and she might be asking for help. (And due to his size, she has to get close.) Odds are though, she knows him- HER HAND IS ON HIM. She is not in a "sign of respect for authority" mode with that hand on the chest.
So you get the relationship quickly with the body poses. Even if you didn't have ANY facial expressions (and you can't see Beo Rippers) you can tell by the posing that these two aren't getting ready to engage in a "winner takes all" confrontation. You know they are at ease with each other and Beo is being thoughtful.
So far as the grass, if you don't need it, or don't have the time to tweak it, use a different ground plane. I love DMs Courage Realm ground, it's my #1 go-to. You'll see it, coming up.
Next, some composition tweaks. This one (with the horizon changed) would give you overall feel of how big Beo Ripper is, and how he is showing consideration, but can we do that with zoomed in shots? And how much of the scene should we show? (And that's up to the artist.)
EDIT: Same lights I used in Tiki scenes, still no adjustments. Also, notice in the posing that you can see her hand on him, her face does NOT overlap with his body, her hand does not cup her chest (tilted the camera angle) and there is space between key body parts. HIS CLAW BEHIND HER BACK IS NOT TOUCHING HER. That arm being held out is SO deliberate!!!! Emphasize it!
Composition Tweaks- what doesn't work for this scene-
OF COURSE DAZ FORUMS ARE SCREWING UP THE PICTURES AGAIN. BLAME DAZ, NOT ME. So these are out of order, tried twice, giving up.
Photo 3
If you were to emphasize his pointed head armor (like antennae) then you've got the wrong emphasis. It's too top heavy. And again, back to emphasis- those pointy things don't add much to the "trust" factor of the characters! The lower ground is much more efficient, it grounds the characters but doesn't overwhelm the scene.
Photo 1
Well we're getting there. The spiky antennae clearly keep going, out of the scene. Beo Ripper appears balanced- both arms showing. But I want the emphasis on the arm by Cassini- to emphasize it is held out, not coming toward her, with a clear intention of "I'm not going to hurt her." So let's get the arms UNBALANCED.
Photo2: The Best One
This is my choice. I don't need all of the arm on the left (as we look at it.) I do want to show that it is relaxed, not moving toward Cassini- it adds to the overall relationship of being "at ease." But it adds visual interest to NOT show all of it. The attention shifts to your right, to Cassini, because the composition is "off centered." Having that full arm on the other side DETRACTS from the emphasis- that Beo Ripper is holding his arm away from Cassini very protectively.
It also shows more of his HEIGHT just by getting a tad bit more of the leg- and shows her stance better- relaxed. So that really helped the scene. (Compare to the photo above, where it cuts off too much of the legs.) Notice the antennae/spikes- by showing the bend of that one, you get a better feel of the shape of the spike. And yes, that it keeps going!
Tip: See if taking something OUT of your scene by cropping it and showing only a part of it- can increase the emphasis on what you KEEP.
Here's a different view- shows her arm and hand on Beo Ripper much better, shows full stance of both characters, and you get an even better feeling of how relaxed they are with each other. This one would leave no doubt that they knew each other. So have fun if you get Beo Ripper- he's a real gem- looks very fierce when looking up. I think I'll do one for you (start the render while I head back outside.) And he's 50% off right now (as is the expansion.) GREAT colors- black, red, red and black, etc. I used orange to go with this sky. Remember, these are the Tiki lights and my lights, I gave you the settings.
The $10 off $40 coupon was still working earlier today, if anyone has a big order coming up.
Man, well, it was a a long shot, but hoped it might help. so sorry to hear this. I love the category feature. I don't know why this is causing people so much trouble, or why this bug can't be fixed.
EDITED To add: You might try increasing the priority of this service by making it high.
I finally got it working. Once I discovered how to show hidden files, I found the program data folder and inside the Daz folder is the databases folder, in there I deleted the contentDB.ind file, first I stopped and removed the CMS, then reinstalled a fresh version, deleted the DB file, restarted DS and all my categories and products were back as before. Guess the database got corrupt somehow, but all is well now.
Novica did you try these steps to create a new database?
Where exactly did you find that this was a recommended way to do it? Sounds like some serious messing around with files- and I'd rather see how it works for you first, lol. Anyway, I've pretty much decided to just load the rest of my content into my external hard drive and load up stuff when I want to use it. Only takes a minute or two, and as Serene Night found out (we were chatting) if you have a lot of morphs it can slow your studio down. Maybe she can explain it better?
Here's another pose for Cassini and Beo Ripper so you can see that gorgeous (lol) face on Beo Ripper. I also added a 20% blue fill light to Cassini's face, as I turned it more away from the light. It also catches her hand.
I did leave the Depth of Field on (her hand is out of focus) as it doesn't really matter to me. Not a render for "keeps." (Although they make a cute couple. Will save it and maybe use later.)
I really like the BEO renders Novica. Especially with Cassini. They are a cool couple, and I love the sci-fi flare. I also like his metallic shading and yellow color. Very cool.
In particular I like the closeup renders, because the facial interaction between the two is so nice. It is almost worth a closeup.
I like the colors of the BEO. I have a BEO2K10- but haven't used it much because he was tough to pose. He seemed really stiff to me. I noticed muscleman has some poses for it, and I may eventually pick those up.
Yes, I do have Windows 7 64 Bit.
RE: Morphs. I was having major lag on opening files (I complained about in the previous thread). My passion is characters and morphs for genesis, and I have oodles. Many of which I don't use because they aren't to my taste. (For example, some figures install 8 heads and 8 bodies).
I was told it was Morphs for genesis which are the problem. It isn't other content... Like buildings, and such... It is the character morphs and morph expansion packs.
This proved to be entirely true at least so far. The morphs were killing my load time. Daz recommends you uinstall the full morph pack or character
I admit, while I did uninstall 30 unused packages, I also deleted the excess and unused morphs from my data file deep while keeping some morphs that I used. (For example manly men heads while deleting the bodies).
My load time has gone to 2.0 seconds to startup. .
For newbies it is probably advisable not to do that, especially for characters because of file interdependencies- however for me, it was do this or stop using daz. It was killing my complex files with extremely long load times and save times. I had many hundreds of morphs, the majority of which I don't use.
I hope there is a morph management utility or a way to manage morphs a bit better in future versions of daz. I want to be able to buy characters without the uninstall reinstall thing. I like being able to dial a bit of this and that.
So that is what Novica was speaking of.
I'm bummed. I love buying new characters, but I'm now wary of doing that. I don't want that file lag I had before.
So You Want Scared Poses?
Just GOTTA share- I laughed so hard I got tears in my eyes. If you want to see folks who are frightened so you can get some great poses- here you go! The second link will show you even more photos.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/tech/social-media/apparently-this-matters-haunted-house/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightmaresfearfactory/with/9844450103/
Those are great! Great Fear Reference-!
I noticed in the commons forum that the gift cards are on discount now for 2 hours if people want to buy 'em.
Gave me a laugh, thanks for sharing Novica!
That's a very stretchy 2 hours, SereneNight. Not complaining or anything... stretchy is good. :)
It's DAZ hours of course. LOL. Like dog years, but different!
Today's review is Quilt and Calico shaders, a shader pack made by: Zigaphix
http://www.daz3d.com/quilts-and-calicos
I love shaders, and I love to quilt, so what is not to like? The shader set is comprehensive, and includes a number of different pieced quilt patterns, quilt stitching, and lofts (which is the type of batting/filling inside the quilted sandwich).
You can apply the shaders the usual way- point and click. Options include: shading, stitching and loft to achieve different looks. Reducing the tiling can make the quilt pattern larger and smaller.
Unfortunately, Category view sort of mangles the proper order of application. To get around this you can manually navigate to the shaders folder within daz to see things in a more organized way. To do this goto: Daz Studio Formats>My Library>Shaders>Quilts and Calicos. Create a product of that so you don't have to go there again.
If you go to your shader directory that way, you see all lofts in one folder, all calicos in another all coordinating solids etc. Far easier than just trying to sort it out in product view.
Here I've shown a couple different Quilted patterns by re-coloring the surfaces of the various cloth fabrics on the bed and pillows. I'm not trying for beauty, here, just to show some various options.
Image 1 is just the default.
Image 2-3 With shaders.
There you are. Hopefully you'll enjoy.
I like those shaders- I remember seeing you had a LOT of choices with those. What set are you using, is it a DAZ product? Looks country rustic / western.
The set is Fantasy Hovel:
http://www.daz3d.com/fantasy-hovel
It is a very well-done set.
I added the plant and moved the painting so it was above the bed!
Today’s Review is Brontotherium and Hazai Kiroi
Brontotherium
http://www.daz3d.com/brontotherium
Hazai Kiroi
http://www.daz3d.com/hazai-kiroi
I purchased Brontotherium to get the Hazai Kiroi model because I thought it looked cool from the screenshots included in the Hazai bundle. Hazai Kiroi is not a stand alone figure, so you need to buy Brontotherium to use it. I must say, though I really like the look of the Brontotherium model. Brontotherium is a type of ancient rhinoceros and ancestor to the modern horse. It has a y-shaped horn, and comes with a single hairless skin and several poses. These critters were nicknamed “Thunder Horses” by the Sioux because they believed these creatures produced rainstorms by running over the clouds.
By default it doesn't appear to have daz mats applies, so you need to use the studio cf skins to make the texture render correctly. Because the model has no hair, there is no unrealistic painted on hair. I found it easy to pose, and I chose to pose it in picture 1 in thunder river, with a slight atmospheric fog. Lights are Predatron’s DS lights.
Kiroi has several textures and the mod which alters the horn slightly and gives a second hump to the figure. The product page didn't have more than one promo image so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The figure has painted on hair, but it is subtle and renders well. There are several poses included with the figure, but you can also use the ones from Brontotherium making 12 total . I chose to pose Hazai Kiroi using Skies of economy as a backdrop with the atmospheric haze camera fog with some of Greeble City blocks, Predatron’s grass and Rocky flats rocks to make landscape. Starship Stingray is in the sky above.
Overall, I really like Brontotherium- especially the original model. If had a hair modeling program, I might try hairifying the Hazai Kiroi model. I would love it if there was a Brontotherium calf. It looks a bit odd to only have adults with big horns running around with no infant Bronto's to make a family unit..
Brontotherium is owned by daz, so is eligible for the PC club coupon. I got it yesterday for 6 dollars and some change, but looks like it is now 30% off, hey I thought stuff was still supposed to be 50% off? EDITED: YEah, weird, despite letting me login and post, I wasn't logged in. Odd, it now shows 50% off.
1. Brontotherium
2. Hazai Kiroi
3. Two Hazai Kiroi
LOL- the first one, it looks like it has a pool ball in it's mouth! (My husband and sons played pool a few nights ago, I think I have it on the brain!)
I like the tones of the renders- very soothing- African-Serengeti type colors. The openness of the set is perfect, I don't think I'd like it as much if it was in a crowded environment.
LOL. Didn't notice the rock behind Brontotherium. It does look like he's holding a ball in his mouth. =-)
Well, that free mega pack is good for people who are just joining- and people should take DAZ up on that. I only lack ONE item so I am not getting it- I don't want that other stuff to clutter up my Product Library and mess up my "by order number" system I have in my external hard drive folders. You get a product a second time, it bumps and replaces the first order number in the Product Library. It's filed alphabetically there so it's not a problem. But if you're storing by order number elsewhere and use the Product Library to see the order number, you're totally out of luck.
I'm doodling a bit with the Garbage Pile but not home much this week. I'll see if I can render it before I head out the door.
Set: Barn Yard
http://www.daz3d.com/barn-yard
Props: Garbage Cans
http://www.daz3d.com/garbage-cans
Pred Pack: Tall Weeds
http://www.daz3d.com/pred-pack-tall-weeds
Medieval Market
http://www.daz3d.com/medieval-market
Lightset & Set: The Garbage Pile
http://www.daz3d.com/the-garbage-pile
Lightset: Easy Environments: The Rock
http://www.daz3d.com/easy-environments-the-rock
TIP: For Lights, combine the Easy Environments: The Rock, with AOIBL Garbage Pile (daylight.) Turn down the intensities on UberEnvironment2 to 73% and a medium blue, not dark gray- and a few others to get this effect. Change the lights to blue, peach, gold- vary them- they are all set to white and were boring. Ambient light 1 went light blue and 10%, the Ambient 2 and 3 went 38% with a very light whitish peach.
The Medieval Market contributed the upside down wooden cart and wheel. (The Medieval Barn has lots of goodies too, but didn't use that this time.) The Garbage Can contributed the unbent one- and lower it into the ground and get some nice dirt in there. I'll do other closeup renders later and you'll see broken glass bottle IN the can, and outside the can in the dirt. Ties in the fact that the can blew over and had the bottles originally.
TIP: Rotate your items and bury them partially in the dirt to increase the impression that the items have been there awhile. Lay items on top of one another (check from all angles!) instead of scattering separately. Turn them at different angles for contrast.
TIP: Combine grounds. This has the Garbage Pile ground mixed with The Barnyard. Love it!
This was my 600 pixel test render. I'll try to do a bigger one later but this took too long to render and I have to get out the door.
Great reviews, thanks for continuing to post them. You bring my attention to things I wouldn't otherwise have come across or didn't see the potential in.
I love these tips too. I agree, that ground looks great and wouldn't have know it was two of them combined!
Jindi, it's called a "happy accident" so far as the grounds go, lol :)
The larger version is rendering now, not even half done, and it will be later tonight before it's done. I'll also show you from different views. The ground looks really good up close. Thanks for noticing.
Cathie
The old stable looks good, I like how you use products from different groups in your renders. I have such a hard time thinking outside the box, but I'm working on it lol
I actually go through the products using Content Library and start clicking to see what they have in them- when I saw the old fashioned wheelbarrow I thought "Hmm, wood is always in use around barns and in the country." If you have any of the medieval village / medieval stuff, look through the prop lists. The market one has all kinds of food and baskets, for example.
The other weeds in this are from Lisa's Botanicals, but they aren't sold here anymore. So if you're looking for weeds, stick with the Pred one. The dark brown splotchy ones and the tan ones are from that pack (and there's a lighter silver too.) Remember you can always use the Surfaces tab and change the color of the weeds too. (change Diffuse.)
Here's the closeup, click to enlarge and then again, this one is big. I'm changing the angle and doing more renders for you. Note the wagon wheel which is almost completely buried. This will show you those two grounds together.
I plopped one of the Medieval buildings back there because my studio has been acting up and neither the Smart Content or the Products list will come up. I wanted to put a different environment in there but I can't find the products because the studio is so glitchy, and it's a hassle. Therefore, you get a medieval building!
I particularly like that one novica! Garbage pile is a great set. You can really add those props to different sets to create clutter in streets and alleyways too.
Thanks. Sadly, that one big dead bush by the garbage can (which is from the Garbage Can product) is one of Lisa's and no longer available here at DAZ. That's why if there is something I want that can be used in multiple ways, I usually get it. (Such as plants, lights, scenery.) I'm not getting any more characters, I have enough of those, so even if a Genesis 2 male comes out, I'm not buying. I figure Christmas will have really good sales, and most of these bundles I don't use right away anyway. Can you believe we're already in October????? November has great sales too.
We're all watching that darned tropical thingie that is going to enter the Gulf and hit here Saturday. The models are showing Alabama/Florida line (less than an hour away which puts us on the East side) or even Pensacola area. So far, they are just saying rain with 30-45 mph winds. That's like a minor annoyance to us- our thunderstorms pack that kind of wallop! About 9 days ago we got 6" of rain in some places.
So, are you going to get the Genesis 2 male when he makes an appearance? You do more guys than I do (Poor Dylan is all by himself, lol)