Novica & Serene Night’s Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews PART 2

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Comments

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    I like that idea of using black backdrop to blend the peek through- cool! The glasses look really modern and sophisticated, and there are a lot of different styles in the pack. Who is your female based from? Nice eyebrows (among other things.) .

    The character is Chablis. http://www.daz3d.com/chablis-for-genesis-v4

    She renders quite well, and has a beautiful mid-tone skin which I like.

    Yeah without a black backdrop behind the bricks, there are unsightly light places where the light shines through- not the look I am going for.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2013

    Daphne and Ariadne look really good. I would be hard pressed to select which lighting I like the best, but I think number three.
    I also bought that morphing Genesis product but who knows when I'll get to it. This current sale reminded me of all the lights I have that I haven't tested or used, and I'm going to also start converting using V4 and M4 Shapes for Genesis, Genesis Generation X. Hope I can figure out how to do that once I dive in. Tonight I am installing some more of the V4 characters and will show them as their original forms before I tackle the other changeovers. Then I'll compare if I'm successful (or if Life doesn't happen, which is has this past week. I should be headed out the door right now to run errands!)

    EDIT: I checked, I have Chablis, but haven't used her yet. I really like what you did with her.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2013

    Grace For V4
    Beautiful Black HairStyles
    V4 Morphing Fantasy Dress
    Alicia

    http://www.daz3d.com/grace-for-v4
    http://www.daz3d.com/beautiful-black-hairstyles
    http://www.daz3d.com/v4-morphing-fantasy-dress
    http://www.daz3d.com/alicia

    Well, this is interesting. The Morphing Fantasy Dress in the Smart Content says just that, but over in the Scenes Tab says "Unified Fantasy Dress." Have no idea where "Unified" comes from, it's Alicia

    This is "out of the box" without any morphs.
    the sclera of Grace's' eye HAS to be toned down, it is glaring white. But doing that defied all previous experiences. I grayed the sclera,
    the eye covering, the diffuse, the ambient, the specular, reflection, you name it, and it didn't make the same difference that it did on all the other models I've ever done, even when I upped the percents. Everything had to be put at a dark gray (except the iris and pupil.)

    The Beautiful Black HairStyles is very sharp cornered, I did not change any settings. So be careful with extreme closeups. (as shown.)

    Do you like the backdrop? Do you know what that is? (Yes, it's Creative Cathie again.) GUESS! (You won't.)

    grace6.jpg
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    grace5.jpg
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    grace4.jpg
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    grace3.jpg
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    grace2.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    La Dolce Vita Restaurant
    http://www.daz3d.com/la-dolce-vita-restaurant

    It's a painting. And La Dolce Vita Restaurant has 14 of them.

    You can also use Depth of Field and Atmospheric Effects Cameras For Daz Studio and actually turn paintings into background scenery. Just scroll through your paintings and look at the skies, you'll have some really good backgrounds for portraits! Be prepared to really scale them up- and you'll need to put them far away if you're using spotlights unless you want them lit. (That makes it interesting though.) You can also use other lights with falloff settings.

    grace7.jpg
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  • mori_mannmori_mann Posts: 1,152
    edited December 1969

    Awww, she's hanging there all lost ;)

    Great idea for a backdrop, though!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Lighting on Grace looks nice! The hair doesn't look that bad up close, although it does lack a certain softness. Am I missing something?

    I use grace a lot. She comes with a nice set of earrings and few makeup options. I wish she would be converted to DSON. I'd use her more on v6.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    The last time I changed the interpolation to soft (aka soft corners and edges) I got a skullcap- remember the V5 ponytail I tried on V6? And a couple other folks said it really thins the hair and they got similar results, aka skullcaps or almost bald. So haven't really tweaked around with that.

    And as has been discussed many times, wish there were more hairstyles for African Americans and other ethnic groups.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Wood Witch
    http://www.daz3d.com/wood-witch

    I was trying to get a render done for you because The AntFarm is one of the featured vendors. I won't be able to until late tonight or possibly even tomorrow, as the lighting on this thing is a real doozy. So let me just say that if you haven't gotten this, it is a really cool character. Mine is friendly. You can do a lot with these Wood Witches :)

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Can't wait to see your woodwitch. I don't have that character. Always like to see what you come up with Novica. =-)

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited September 2013

    Today's review is K-nicky Hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/k-nicky-hair-for-genesis

    This is a actually one of my favorite male hairs for genesis. It comes with several base colors, blonde and different shades of brown, including a reddish color. The expansion has 8 more hair colors including white (which in my opinion is sorely needed). There are several adjustments available for this hair, mostly to do with the center curl and volume, but a few to adjust the sides. The curl adjustment works well to move the curl, and increase the volume of the forelock. I found a couple of adjustments do not work as well for me such as the volumizing one which I found tended to pull the hair out too far leaving space between skin and scalp. I think perhaps if I try it again, I might layer the hair with a second hair or a scalp cap to give the illusion of roots. Sometimes I have a bit of difficulty with the sideburns, looking quite the way I like, but they are easy to touch up postwork as I did in the completed picture, Just things to be aware of.

    Fortunately default K-nicky hair looks awesome, so using the default genesis fit, it looks pretty decent on Michael 5 right of the box.

    Here I modeled K-nicky Hair, on Hugh, who is a fanart character. Hugh's hair is brown and short. All lights on the portraits are DIY Portrait lights for DAZ Studio 4. Final is Lantios nightime lights 8 or nine with two points one on the left in yellow and another on the right as a rim light in light blue.


    1 K-Nicky- Side-view- slightly older
    2 K-Nicky-Default Hugh
    3 Hugh in a scene

    5.jpg
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    3-_Hugh-final.jpg
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    2-_Hugh_Side.jpg
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    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited September 2013

    Off Topic but fun I hope: The big bad blue k'nife totting Drow is now the proud owner of a huge collection of Toons. Including Cluck & Cackle my fav chicky chicks. As I neber gotz k'no more piktures of dem punny fowls I'll do some me self.

    I fell in love with all things Toon long ago but the sale was just too good. Keep up the good work Ladies.

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    Off Topic but fun I hope: The big bad blue k'nife totting Drow is now the proud owner of a huge collection of Toons. Including Cluck & Cackle my fav chicky chicks. As I neber gotz k'no more piktures of dem punny fowls I'll do some me self.

    I fell in love with all things Toon long ago but the sale was just too good. Keep up the good work Ladies.

    Ah! Now you're going to have to show us some renders of your new loot! =-)

  • mori_mannmori_mann Posts: 1,152
    edited December 1969

    I like k-nicky hair! I used it to replace the Wildmane on one of my characters, when the render times that model caused started to get annoying. I made my own black texture for it, I didn't get the extra colours yet :)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2013

    Just so you know, it's going on 3am and I just got home, won't be online tomorrow (well, today.) Jaderail, glad you got the chickens, I am expecting great things from you. And I too love the K Nicky hair. I have it but haven't rendered any guys yet. Sheesh.

    I am posting the latest test of the Wood Witch scene, I don't know when I'll be able to finish it so this is a WIP with the lighting. I used DMs Tunnel (whatever it's called) and the Wood Witch nest (scaled way up) as an alien transport. Works great together.
    Gotta get some sleep as I will only get about 3 hours.

    Title: "HEY! What About ME?"

    scotlyn5USE.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    adorable baby wood witch! how cute is that! Nice job Novica. Yeah K-nicky hair is awesome. Wish we had more practical men's hairstyles in the PC club! =-)

  • mori_mannmori_mann Posts: 1,152
    edited December 1969

    adorable baby wood witch! how cute is that! Nice job Novica. Yeah K-nicky hair is awesome. Wish we had more practical men's hairstyles in the PC club! =-)

    That Elf/Elven hair isn't all that impractical, really. It's nice and messy :D

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    mori_mann said:
    adorable baby wood witch! how cute is that! Nice job Novica. Yeah K-nicky hair is awesome. Wish we had more practical men's hairstyles in the PC club! =-)

    That Elf/Elven hair isn't all that impractical, really. It's nice and messy :D

    Thanks for the reminder. I'll have to look at that one again. Can't remember why I didn't use it.. Will look at it again. =-)

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Kuril

    http://www.daz3d.com/kuril

    The AntFarm

    Kuril is an awesome aquatic figure by Antfarm for genesis. He has two skins, a gray one and a nice spotted gray one and a number of different eye colors and quill attachments and several different options for quills. Lighting the figure is remarkably easy. He lights up well, especially with a spot or two on his skin but I liked Garbage Pile Daytime lights.. Normal genesis expressions and poses especially those for M5 work well with this figure.

    Downside: I found that when applying the quills I found Daz gave me a duplicate id error. It didn't seem to matter which quill set I used. It did apply the quill though- just protesting every time I tried. Bummer. When Loading a saved file with this figure I also received the same error duplicate id error. This made load times longer.. I submitted a trouble-ticket for this issue, so hopefully it is something they will fix.

    Nevertheless, this is a remarkable cool figure, useful in a sci-fi environment, or your aquatic renders.

    Kuril:

    1-3 Just different poses with Kuril.
    4. Kurll in thunder river rescuing a child. Lights are Garbage Pile with the two spots removed (they made the water too bright).

    4.jpg
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    3.jpg
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    2.jpg
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    1.jpg
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  • mori_mannmori_mann Posts: 1,152
    edited December 1969

    Shiny!

    Someone made a script for that duplicate ID error message. It pops up with certain clothing sets, too. I lost the link, but it's kicking around on these fine forums somewhere.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    I've got that figure and haven't used it yet. I love what you did with the posing, but of course the one with the child is my favorite. Can you explain what exactly is a duplicate id? I haven't encountered that yet. Does it mean something like double files? And how exactly did you get "past" it?

  • mori_mannmori_mann Posts: 1,152
    edited December 1969

    Did a little search for the fix, I believe this is the thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/740/

    Some items give a messages saying 'Duplicate ID"s were found', apart from it being annoying and popping up whenever you re-load the scene (unless you use the script), I haven't noticed a lot of bad effects from it, though.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2013

    Oh, I don't THINK so. In other words, you've got to be kidding.
    Let's see- you can get a tail for Genesis (note, doesn't even include Genesis 2) for half price at $8.47
    http://www.daz3d.com/easytail-for-genesis

    And at half price, you're expected to pay ANOTHER $8.47 to get the skin materials? Um, what's wrong with this picture? And there's no bundle. Forget it.
    http://www.daz3d.com/easytail-human-textures

    I did just get the $5 off coupon in the email (said 3:30am but just arrived at 7:20am) so check yours before you check out. EDIT: They posted the code on the promo page. They need to do that for ALL sales and codes. Perhaps the backlash from that one thread got them to get their act together. (Everyone getting different discounts, SO not cool.)

    Have to spend 30.00 and mine came to 31.92. I am going to plunge in to modeling eventually and learning Bryce, so here is what I got that came to 31.92

    While I like the Frankenstein of RawArt, I have no immediate need and from now on, I said unless it was something like hair that can be used on more than one figure, or something that teaches me something, or just a theme/ unique that I can see myself using, I am waiting for the next 50%- 70% off. The Platinum Club stuff is really good and I have thousands (yes, about 4800) DAZ products I haven't used so these below are my additions: (and will get you over the $30.) the last two will teach you how to use Bryce while learning modeling. I like that! Anyone else game to learn Bryce from scratch?

    Genesis 2 Female Morph Resource Kit II $5.98
    Genesis Aiko 5 Head Morph Resource Kit $5.98
    Classic Bikini (Hexagon and DAZ Studio 4 Pro Video Tutorial) $9.98
    Genesis Starter Kit $9.98

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2013

    Scotlyn for V4
    Hampton Hair
    Wood Witch

    http://www.daz3d.com/scotlyn-for-v4
    http://www.daz3d.com/hampton-hair
    http://www.daz3d.com/wood-witch

    I didn't give you all the details on the Wood Witch as I was in the middle of several Life things, she is beautiful Scotlyn for V4 by Thorne.
    http://www.daz3d.com/scotlyn-for-v4 She is 50% today at $6.48 This is shown without any morphing on the face, I shortened the fingernails as they are extensive. Hampton Hair makes her look younger.

    I am testing the surfaces as her skin mats are too light. I don't hardly have any lights and you can see from the previous (first) post how light she is compared to everyone else. When I find a good color for the diffuse I will let you know. It was white. EDIT: (This had postwork to change the hue a bit. I am going for a color somewhat like this. What I am currently getting is too red, I had to add yellow to get this.)

    woodwitchtest2.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited September 2013

    mori_mann said:
    Shiny!

    Someone made a script for that duplicate ID error message. It pops up with certain clothing sets, too. I lost the link, but it's kicking around on these fine forums somewhere.


    Too shiny? =-) He is less shiny with non-default lights the first 3 are just default spot. You can make him matt too, I suppose but didn't try it. thanks for the reminder. I didn't find it helpful in the past but who knows. =-)

    In general my philosophy is I would prefer daz fix it. I think the content should work without errors out of the box.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    I've got that figure and haven't used it yet. I love what you did with the posing, but of course the one with the child is my favorite. Can you explain what exactly is a duplicate id? I haven't encountered that yet. Does it mean something like double files? And how exactly did you get "past" it?

    Some content throws this error. I find it annoying. It basically means it loads for you but gives an error 'duplicate id found in file x.' Whenever you use the product or apply the part.

    It seems fairly harmless but annoying bug. It has something to do with the script I believe but I am not an expert and that is just my guess. A vendor could probably say more.

    I don't like it, because it slows my computer down. Whenever I load a file with this content, it will want me to reassure it it is okay to open because a duplicate id was found. I think this is something that could be discovered easily during beta testing.

    I am hoping just my quilled friend is throwing the error, and not everyone has had this error, since this content isn't a new product.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited September 2013

    if your Scotlyn glows too bright: Try this for Scotlyn in the Diffuse: 254 / 252 / 201 (or 210)
    It has more yellow and depending on your lights, should work nicely. My lights are almost white or have a bit a blue. I tried different colors though and this Diffuse kept pretty true to color. I didn't mess with the other settings as Specular and Ambient are both almost pitch black or black and 100%, so go for the Diffuse to darken the material surface.

    EDIT: ATTACHED PHOTO. Sorry, I went off to cook for my family (a RARE event) and forgot to add the render.

    woodwitchtest4.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    LR's Bianca For V4
    Trixy Hair

    http://www.daz3d.com/lr-s-bianca-for-v4
    http://www.daz3d.com/trixy-hair

    The 6 eye colors are very pretty, the eyelashes are super thick, thick, thin, and the makeup options are default, natural, dark (shown) and dark with red lips. She looks very pretty in her "natural" state too. Trixy Hair takes quite a bit of time to render, has very nice morphs. You can adjust the curl size which is nice, and how far the front curls extend, etc.

    Bianca2a.jpg
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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited September 2013

    I really like Trixy hair. One of the few really curly styles in the store.

    Edited to correct name. Sometimes my handheld thinks it knows better how to spell stuff than me! =-)

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    I'm looking right now and under the Adjust morph, there are 10 things there and they are: (all of these are Adjust (whatever)
    sideburns out, forehead out, neck back out, neck sides out, temples out, hairline low.

    The curls section (yes, it's nicely divided into several morph sections, not all lumped together) are
    curls front big, curls front small, curls long back, curls ALL tight, curls ALL volume.

    The ears section (gotta love this- a section just for the ears) are
    ears high / loose high / and wide.

    Another morph (highwire) moves the curls in the front lower.
    This hair looks good from all angles too.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,648
    edited December 1969

    Did anyone buy anything today that they liked and want to show?

    I admit I'm curious about: http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/no-suit-for-genesis-2-female-s

    It has a bodysuit breast morph. I'm wondering how it looks on Gen 2 Female. If you own it, let me know. There is a definite need for a no cleavage morph.

    I also wishlisted: http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/dark-passage

    That looks like a blast.

    The tail is also neat. Wonder if it would work with Raw's cat people!

This discussion has been closed.