Novica & Serene Night’s Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews PART 2
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Thanks! And everyone check out Kharma's Korner Art Studio thread- you'll love the render of the cat!
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/30296/
Redoing one of The Phoenix, but here's this cutie. I fell in love the minute I saw it, I've had Eleonora Cockatoos, Umbrella Cockatoos, Goffin Cockatoos, a Severe Macaw, A Yellow Nape Amazon, Jenday, Sun Conure, Quaker, Cockatiels, the list goes on. This is what I recall, but I looked up some images to support my explanation. (And bird owners- if you'd like to post images of your cuties in flight, would love to have them so folks can see how they land when flying in to a person or cage.)
Typically when birds land, their feet are AHEAD of their body. They don't come in straight down, think of a plane on an approach pattern. I've seen some renders recently that were literally almost impossible- the bird would overshoot the landing. There are split seconds when the legs may be straight down in a photo, but the legs are in motion to get to the front. Here are two photos though that show you the bent legs, and notice the toes are spread out and ready to grip. Their "ankle" bends as the feet flex and toes spread.
The birds don't always look where their feet are going either- they are as good as we are at knowing where their feet are. You don't watch your feet every time when you go up steps. My cockatoos could land like helicopters, swooshing in then fluttering at the last minute for a perfect landing. (with those HUGE feet and claws.)
So far as The Phoenix goes, I added light grey specks to the beak to get it to stand out more. This is actually another test render, and due to the color of the chest, I wanted to see how that dark beak and dark chest would work under lights that would almost wash Josie out. This dude could be a challenge unless you strategically place a background behind him that is light colored, and move the camera so the extended legs and chest have a clearly seen line. The last photo will show you how dark he is. A spotlight or additional distant lights are needed. I'm doing the render now that places pieces of Jungle Ruins behind him.
I do want to include another test render so you can see where he is, and where I think he should be. The red is where the legs should be, with the abdomen a bit straighter so he is more upright. He's too far behind. He'd have to grip too hard to land and stay put.The red line shows where he should be, the blue is where he's at so far as the line of the leg and body.
Other bird owners, weigh in- it's been a few years since I've had my birds. :)
I wanted to point this out- as it's a Daz item and you can use your monthly code for it if you're in the PC Club, or for the tier code. (If you get tier two for this week, you get 40% off a DAZ item) SereneNight pointed these out in our first thread:
http://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-environment-shaders-2
And in that thread, remember what she did with it? Really neat!
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19756/P1485/#423877
Okay, so far as the Phoenix, his head needed to come forward and down more too, so I stopped the render and fixed that. I also moved the head so the feathers from the wings wouldn't be near the face (the darker purple ones) since the beak is dark. This fella is fairly easy to pose, it is one you may do better with click and drag. The render will be done later today, it's 4am and I am headed off to slumberland. :)
I saw a picture in the bio tank that just got released. His shoulders looks strange to me. But maybe just the pose! I'm still stoked regardless. =-)
Here's the improved pose. One tip for the feet- in postwork, use the eyedropper tool and get the color from that gold wing section, the part that holds the feathers (it runs horizontal) The best way to describe that is look on YOUR left- see the tip of the wing sticking out like the point of a spear? That's it. Otherwise, the feet may seem a bit drab.
I also added a slight curved line on the bottom of his black eye so it gleams, added gray to the beak and an uneven gray line on the bottom of his beak to accentuate that dark mouth opening. Remember contrast is what defines sections, more so than lines. You don't need to draw something in starkly, just increase the difference in color or brightness between the sections.
The Phoenix is now swooping in with his head where it should be, intent on landing instead of "oops, missed that approach. Be back in a minute."
EDIT: As promised, also note how the head doesn't have the wing's feathers coming through the mouth in the background. You'll have to watch that because those feathers are dark purple and the beak is dark gray/black. It ruins the opening of the mouth/ outline of the mouth if the feathers are present.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, the toes are also curled down more, ready to start the grip. The bird was moved forward a bit, so the action had to be more advanced too.
CLICK TO ENLARGE, CLICK AGAIN, look at the eye (for the highlights) and beak (for the gray)
The phoenix sure is lovely. Particularly those feathers. Great work rendering that!
I've been messing around with Age of Armour's new light sets. I must say they work great, and I love the effects you can achieve when used in conjunction with Atmospheric effects camera's volume camera.
I'm just playing around, but here we have Sarge down in the alien tunnel with Volume camera and using Age of Armour's new spotlights. .
Have to ask this- Spotlights are basic tools, nothing difficult. Is this product like the other light preset products that just do the placement and intensity for you?
You'd like it since you are very good with lights. It isn't really a light preset product. is more advanced. While the basic concept is the same as a typical spot, it has more controls, and features and gobu gel lights to create different effects
The interesting thing to me is how it interacts well with the atmospheric effect Volume camera, which is something that I've found problematic at best.... Those durn godrays.... LOL.
It is a lot of fun, and does some cool stuff. I think you should check it out since you are the lighting Queen.
EDIT: The spots are included with this bundle Advanced Ambient Lights Bundle which includes both light sets:
http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/advanced-daz-studio-light-bundle
Individually spots are here: http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/advanced-spotlight
Advanced ambient Lights: http://www.daz3d.com/advanced-ambient-light
Oh heavens. I'm just the Lighting Bulldog- I'll stick to it until I get what I want. It might not be what everyone ELSE wants to see though. :) Spotlights, Point Lights, and Distant Lights and a pre-made UE2 setup that I can totally tweak and destroy the original to put with them, I'm trying to really practice with. The rest of the stuff I've simply GOT to start diving into. I'll check out that product. Mind going back and putting a link to it so others surfing the thread can check it out?
Heh. I still think you are quite detail orientated and have a flair for lights. I'll be free to admit, I cannot stand lighting. =-) I do it, but I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy other aspects of rendering..
Miss Fisher's Wardrobe Fabulous Dress (For Genesis)
http://www.daz3d.com/miss-fishers-wardrobe-fabulous-dress
Well, right now I'm enjoying Miss Fisher's Wardrobe Fabulous Dress on Genesis. Cassini never looked so good in a long dress :)
The video that I referenced before shows you how to do it, basically you have a pose (this was Dance 04) and then you find the morph for it, move the slider bar, and you're done. IT'S AMAZING FOLKS!!!!
When you see the $29.95 pricetag, I admit that's quite an investment. But wow, the time you will save. And there are so many material zones, you can create your own outfits like crazy. I will be posting the Dance 04 from all angles.This would have been almost impossible to get the dress to bend and shift and pull up (most morphs take the ends of the dress straight back, like a stiff box) but these curl around the legs and are simply amazing. This vendor is in the promo this week, and let me also say her store is NOT one of those with discounts very often. So you can get the Genesis and Genesis 2 versions using your tier discounts (I was tier 2) and you'll ALWAYS be comparing every other dress with these once you do!
So, here comes Dancing 04. As they finish rendering, will add here- so CHECK BACK. THE NEXT ONE WILL BE DONE IN ABOUT TEN MINUTES, This is the lightset (mine) from the barn scene I did with Cassini leaning against the ladder. No adjustments.
I did not tweak the shoulder straps at all- her ReadMe says for these types of dresses, change the scale of the dress to 99% or 98%. This is out of the box (as usual.) You'll see the gap in the upcoming second render.
Nice! That looks very realistic Novica. And such a lovely shade of green!
Thanks, it's quite fun to choose a pose, do a slider, and voila! Those renders are all quite large (2000 pixels) and I'll do a few more but do smaller renders. One thing which confuses me though- the "Materials" section is where I got the moss dress materials, yet it stayed white like a SHADER (which there is a shader subcategory, and that' NOT where I got it from) until it rendered. Anyone else who has this (helllloooo Kharma!) have that happen when you chose Style 002 Moss.duf under MATERIALS?
BTW SereneNight, the lighting on Sarge in the tunnel looked good- the glint in his eye was well done. What weapon is he holding?
Ballroom 02
Well, this one was more of a challenge. That's why I picked it. So if you have Miss Fisher's (the Fabulous Dress, Genesis) here's your formula if you have poke through on that back leg and her right side:
It wasn't an easy slide the slider. If you have a leg going back, keep in mind the Bell Skirt 01 (11.1%) and the Bell Skirt 02 (7.8%) under Miss Fisher Morph Fun with the dress selected in Parameters. It's under Actor. Still under Actor, I used Genesis Poses and Contraposto 01 at 3% to get the dress fitted like this on the back leg. Ballroom 01 was at 10.4% and the Ballroom 02 (the actual pose) was at 102.4%.
Then Dance 02: 4.3%, Dance 03: 13.4%, Dance 04 -17.1%
Swooning 01 at 6.8% lowered the end of the dress by that back leg, but you'll have to tweak the Ballroom 02 or the side gets poke through.
EDIT:
If anyone else wants to post renders of Miss Fishers Wardrobe, feel free :)
Nova For Victoria 6
http://www.daz3d.com/nova-for-victoria-6
Will be doing Nova For Victoria 6 with Stalker Girl Hair. Will post her sometime in the next day or so, otherwise, going to take a break from the computer and enjoy the warm sunny weather for a couple days and get caught up on other aspects of Life. :) Goodnight!
Today's review is UltruMarine Ocean by Marshian
http://www.daz3d.com/ultrumarine-ocean
Ultrumarine Ocean is just what the doctor ordered and something I‘ve wanted for some time.. It is a large scale ocean environment, with a sandy bottom prop, several cameras, and several different locations that you can use to create underwater renders. To spruce your underwater scene up you can add props like those from Gardens of Poseidon http://www.daz3d.com/gardens-of-poseidon-super-bundle
Posing is simple, and default lighting is simple and useful. The default cameras move you automatically to different locations for a different style of render.
In renders 1-3 you can see Ultrumarine Ocean as it is straight out of the box from different angles provided by the cameras.
Render 4 I added props from Garden of Poseidon, Sarge, and several different fish, and the underwater scooter. I found the default lighting didn’t work for me in this scene so I added lights from Underwater Ambiance (number 5), and a second spot in Sarges’ face in light aqua. I lowered the water plane a bit to add some surface texture, and took it into Photoshop and added some godrays using Ron’s Light and Shadow, some bubbles.
Sarge needs some hair. He looks kind of bare.=-)
Overall, I love this set. It works great, is simple and easy to use, and plays nicely with other underwater content.
I do hope there is an expansion, because I’d like to see the ability to have a character half-in-half out of the water with the sky in the top and the ocean below. (if there is a way to do this with this product, and anyone has figured it out, let me know). Secondly, I’d love an ocean with some distant blurry THINGS underwater. It can look a bit bare with no distant props there. A second water option which included some sunken items, and underwater reef would be cool.
I like that set! I was so mad, I had it in my cart, forgot to check out, price went up the next day, so I am waiting. They usually have an end of the sale redo, so I am hoping. Otherwise, I'll wait.
Hey folks, go vote. IT ENDS TODAY. I know the forums are big, I don't surf every section or time eludes me, and am assuming you may have missed this too-
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/30627/
These people put a LOT of time into this- please support them :)
Well it was rather interesting to see a character with the same name as my horse Nova.
http://www.daz3d.com/nova-for-victoria-6
I use Stalker Girl Hair. She is wearing Miss Fisher’s Wardrobe Fabulous Dress.
(Yes, my lighting.)
Miss Fisher's Wardrove Fabulous Dress For Genesis 2 Females
http://www.daz3d.com/miss-fisher-s-wardrobe-fabulous-dress-for-genesis-2-female-s
We do product reviews. We have our opinions, and we are aware that sometimes what we write may not be to a vendor's advantage, but we try to be fair. If I am disappointed in certain aspects of a product, I will clearly tell you why. It always is based on what I expected when I bought a product. I may be way off in my expectations. It might or might not be what YOU expect, and the product may be fine for you. This states what my expectations were, what I got, and if I am happy with the product.
EDIT: SEE THE LINK TO THE THREAD WHERE THE VENDOR EXPLAINS WHAT IS INCLUDED:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31356/#470596
The promo states 40 new pose morphs. Not 40 new poses, note that.
So here's what I found.
There are only 2 new poses. Both sitting. The promo needs to clearly state this product is for two additional sitting poses. This was NOT what I expected. And go look at the main promo image, that is misleading. Sitting is ONE of the poses.
So let's look at morphing the dress for those:
The seated morph works like a DREAM. Worth the money. 96.3% on the slider and then the dress is gorgeous.
When I purchased the Genesis 2 version of Miss Fisher's Wardrobe Fabulous Dress, I expected those poses from Genesis could be easily applied to the figure (they are) and the dress morphs would be the same easy sliding system- whereas you have the pose and the corresponding morph. (they aren't.)
Well, I can do the poses, having Genesis 2 selected in Scene and using the Genesis/Miss Fishers poses, but when you select the dress for your Gen2, in the morphs section the same morphs exist- there are V6 1-20 and just a regular set 1-20. The specific poses (such as Swoon, Dancing 1, etc) are not there, just numbers 1-20. So I can’t easily morph the dress for poses from the Genesis pack- I am supposed to use numbers 1-20 and tweak. Not a happy camper regarding that with this product.
So basically this product is for two poses, sitting, and the dresses look beautiful.
Now consider this- those sliders really do have a lot of variety. You can always get the dress to look good from your camera angle, you don't HAVE to get it perfect from all angles. And material flings and flies out in many different ways, so you can be creative in how you want the dress to be.
Second, I used the 1-20 (for Genesis) on the Genesis 2 figure and got some additional nice tweaks.
Summary: If you use sitting figures (Genesis 2 and Genesis) a lot, you'll really like the product. If you are expecting to have specific sliders to use for Genesis 2 using the Genesis poses, you will have to adjust your expectations. THIS PRODUCT OFFERS TWO SEATED POSES AND GENERAL DIALS TO ADJUST THE GENESIS POSES WITH THE DRESS. You will not get the same labels on the sliders as "swooning" etc. You do get the 40 plus sliders. (20 ea, Genesis 2 and Genesis)
Am I keeping the product? A definite yes. Those seated poses are well worth the money, they go on with a mere flick of a slider.
Am rendering the sitting pose now.
EDIT: I am going to try again and see if the 01 goes to the 01 pose in the Genesis pack, it didn't work too well the first time but I will test and see if 02 etc work or see if it was user error. Have to wait until the render is done.
EDIT: NOV 2nd: Again, reminder: Go to this link to read Aave's explanation of what is included. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31356/#470596
Still using Nova for V6, Stalker Hair (removed the ponytail so it would render faster) and I left the sash white, you can do it striped.
I must say your lighting in your Nova render is very nice. The closeup looks quite a lovely in particular. I say you have a future in promo art!
I like the stalker girl ponytail. It is less bouffant than other hairs and has a slick realism.
Thanks. Here's Yunko Hair with my Nova V6, I morphed everything about the face in some regard. From another angle, I almost had a Cameron Diaz! (I was like, "Ooops, don't want that.")
TIP:
If you want to get the bangs out of the face, the bangs options won't do it.
Go to Parameters, select the hair, break it down into the submenu options until you get to HEAD. Then under General you can bend the hair back, (-7.20 for Genesis 2) and scale to 104.3% Or reduce the scale and use a Y translation of about .50
Then select just the hair (still Parameters) and go to Actor>Style and there's the bangs. They're easy now to get out of the eyes!
TROUBLE WITH HAIR COMING THROUGH THE HEADBAND: use Actor>Style
Top Style 03 at -18.4%
Top Style 04 at -37.4%
Top Style 05 at -78.9%
LOL- I liked that you moved that fish. Yes, I noticed. It stands out better now. (Now everyone is going to go look and think, "Where was that sucker?"
BTW, your fans want some more puzzles.
Yeah I saw the fish needed to be moved because it was clipping that reef but was too tired to mess with it and it was more of an experimental render... But it bugged me so I rerendered. =) I also applied handy dandy to the claws... er sarge's fingers. I still think sarge needs a very slight bit of downy hair up there but perhaps being a cyborg and all he has none.... hmmm... I have fans? Cool.... =) I like doing the puzzles what subject do you want to see?
Sea is good- go for it :)
Here's the second Yunko Hair using my Nova figure (gotta rename her, that bugs me. And I always rename my characters anyway.) Wanted to show the headband- if you use gray you can use Diffuse and match your outfits. That is another of Miss Fisher's materials.
I like what you've done with the hair. I like the reduced bangs. It gives the hair a more realistic feel. I was hesitant to buy the hair before since the bangs looked rather exaggerated but it looks great on nova!
I'm rendering the exact same figure, everything the same- except I just did UE2 (UberEnvironment 2) so we'll compare- unless I really blew it. I've dragged the render window up by my Corel Photo Paint image and so far they look about the same. The face is coming in now.
The Yunko Hair can really be flattened at the top too, or you can curl it toward you. If it's ever on sale, would be a possible sci-fi hair. Wonder how it would look on a fiend? THAT could be funny. Or my buddy the Wood Witch.
EDIT: No discernible difference with UE2. Lightened arm a tad, but not enough to oooh and ahhh over.
So here's Nova with the UberEnvironment2 lighting. Same render, but with the UE2. It's a light blue, slightly over 20% My new character is Seymour, who is Seychelle's twin sister.
Coming up tomorrow: Seymour visits The Ruins Of Angkor Wat. (and the temple)
http://www.daz3d.com/the-ruins-of-angkor-wat