NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6

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  • Novica said:

    Oh how much fun. Back to the Future Day is today- October 21st, 2015. It was the day in the movie and was the Cubs winning the World Series against Miami. Marty McFly traveled to today in the movie!

    Yep, and them hover boards do still sound like lots of fun. And the cool silver shades, hmmm.

     

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    I LOVE the morphing python! I use him a lot. :D 

    If you're interested, Devon has a few tricks on getting the python to look awesome in DS on his album of the new promos he did for it. 

    https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.870949486333130.1073741950.449228501838566&type=3

    Btw, his page is absolutely brilliant for picking up tips and tricks for DS. I'm forever poring over his promos trying to learn what he does, and he is VERY helpful with telling his secrets. :D

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834
    edited October 2015

    Since FirstBastion is supporting Novica's Because I Said So contest, I thought I'd highlight one of his sets I got during the PA sale.

    The set is 1stBastion's Wilderness: Two Creeks. The promos that are shown on the product page are a good reflection of how it renders in 3DL right out of the box. I really like that it has great ground and rock textures, a varied and believable terrain, with exposed rocks, two streams, lots of plants, good lights, and many cameras that let you quickly pick a good view for your render. I highly recommend it as I am finding it very versatile for a number of different themes.

    This past summer I happened to travel through Maryland and Virginia, visiting several civil war battlefields, so during the PA sale I also picked up an older set  for Genesis called Shenandoah for Genesis. This is a set of clothing, dirty textures, props, and poses for civil war soldiers, both Union and Confederate. I combined it with David 5 and Boris Hair for Genesis 2 Male(s). Although the hair is made for G2M, it works well with D5. I chose this hair as it's short with a relatively rough cut which seems to fit the time period. It also better accommodates the soldier caps which sit relatively high on the head and fuller hair sticks out in many places. Even with Boris hair there is considerable hair sticking out around the brim of the caps but I was able to use Hat and Hair Helper Genesis 2 to remove it. 

    The 3DL render show a brief skirmish near a creek as the light is fading. The poses come from the Shenandoah set and the camera is one of the presets from the Two Creeks set.

    Skirmish at the Creek.jpg
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    Post edited by RGcincy on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Very, very nice!  And your water looks good too. I have Hat and Hair Helper but forgot about it-  glad you reminded me!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    This is the second render of Monica and the python. The first is out of the box, and the second is brightened/contrast, midtones tweaked.

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834
    Novica said:

    This is the second render of Monica and the python. 

    Now that's scary. I wouldn't want a big snake like that staring at me! I like the second render with the tweaks.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    A head's up, I'm sure you would check but I almost didn't- that Selina Bundle has THREE products, not two. It's the character, hair, and outfit. The hair isn't shown in the main promo. If you only wanted the hair and character, it's still cheaper to get the bundle btw. ($17.74 compared to $18.20 IF you have another item in the cart, like the pantyhose.)  

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    FWSA Jade HD for Teen Josie 7 (Genesis 3) is wearing Flashy Hair  (Genesis 3) and FWSA Indigo HD For (Victoria 7)  (Genesis 3) is wearing Pixie Hair  (Genesis 2 & 3 and Victoria 4)  and both are wearing Vintage Bikini.   Both are posed using  i13Sexy Model Poses for Victoria 7.  Note that I tweaked the color hue a bit and added some blue so they aren't quite as yellow as "out of the box."  One thing- with the Vintage Bikini I really had to expand the straps and each breast, there was a lot of poke through. It didn't show up until I rendered it. (What a pain.) 

    Yes, Indigo is taller than Jade, but the pose she is in does have her on her tiptoes so that has a slight influence on the height. She is also a bit in the background. Now, to compare the expression, I did a custom one and used the same one on both women. Here's what I used, and you can compare their smiles:

    Pleased 36.1     Happy 29.7     Flirting 53.8

    For newbies who aren't sure how to compose an expression, it's in Parameters tab, (make sure you have the character selected in Scene) then in Actor, go down to Pose Control > Head> Expressions.

     

     

     

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  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    Novica said:

    ... One thing- with the Vintage Bikini I really had to expand the straps and each breast, there was a lot of poke through. It didn't show up until I rendered it. (What a pain.) 

    The reason for that are possibly the displacement settings on the characters skin - a look at the store pages tells me they are using normal maps, which is used for Iray displacement - and only shows up when rendered.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Gotcha. Thanks!

    Depending on where you are in the world, and time zone, right now you can see Venus and Jupiter lumped together very brightly, with Mars below them (and it was over to the left in Florida) and Mercury is coming up on the horizon right now. It was soooooooo cool to see 4 planets on my stargazing app and to actually see three of them coming over my house, and very visible! (at 5:50am)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    Here's a few more of Indigo, she's wearing Eclipse (showcased many times previously) in the SupercomicPoses for Karen 7  and with Friday Hair  (Genesis 3 Females)

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834
    edited October 2015

    Thought I'd post another render using 1stBastion's Wilderness: Two Creeks. This 3DL render shows off an area with reeds. The ground, rocks, water, sky, lights, and camera angle are all just as they come out of the box. I added the Jolly Boat and oars, Ryze wearing Work Clothes for Genesis 2 Male(s) with textures from Work Clothes Add-on, and Eagle 2.0. The pose is a preset from Jolly Boat. I scaled down the boat, man and eagle to make the reeds look taller.

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

    I have that boat and haven't used it yet- glad you showed it! I love rickety, used props. They add so much character! 

    I will be showcasing some Genesis 3 and possibly Genesis 2 characters for the weekend. Anyone feel free to show what you've done.  I have FWSA Hannah, Kathy, and LY Ashlyn already in the pipeline for later today/tomorrow. Gonna go get some sleep (6am) so ttyl.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    Kathy (Genesis 3 Females)  is wearing Study Time (note Genesis 2) with Toulouse Hair. Take a look at that hair, you can really change the strands in front to go longer, where it swings, lengthen the sides, etc. (Part of the Essentials that comes with the studio)  Study Time has a really nice "sit" morph which makes it easy to swing the skirt for standing poses and leg poses that stride upwards.  I also use the 100 Hands for Genesis 3  in combination with BFF Poses for Rayn and Skyler Genesis 2 Female. Love those poses, very energetic!

    Compare Kathy with the other two ladies coming soon. She is out of the box more ruddy, the others are a bit more golden. (Hannah and Ashlyn) The lights are all going to be the same.

    And also, thinking about the folks down in Mexico who are about to be hit with 200 mph winds (may drop to 150 mph) from the hurricane. The storm rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to Cat 5 in less than 24 hours so it's bad as many people were caught off guard. Hoping for the best in Puerto Vallarta. You folks in Texas are going to get more rain!

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

    A tip for you- want new backgrounds? Go into your Daz>Content>Runtime>Textures and check out what you have.Take a look at this countertop- it's the background for Kathy and the others which are upcoming! There's also a wonderful cork texture.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Okay, I need help with Infinito. It's not installing. Details here and appreciate any input. I'm not good with files but I did everything logically, comparing where things are installed to, etc.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    I like Indigo a lot and Kathy is very pretty. Nicely done. :-)

  • luci45luci45 Posts: 2,762
    edited October 2015

    Selena Hair for Genesis 3 Female(s) is only new thing I've gotten for the PC Anniversary so far, except for PC stuff. It is very beautiful messy hair. I love the way the light affects it in Iray. It throws shadows on the top part of the face so in this render I used a strong HDR, Iradiance Light Probe, along with Painter's Lights. From many angles one eye or both will be hidden or partly hidden, so posing is kind of tricky but beautiful too. The model is Eva 7, my favorite G3F so far.

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Stunning!  I don't know why I thought Painter's Lights were 3DL. This is a beautiful combination and totally agree the hair is quite lovely.

    I imagine you're having the same experience that I am with the bundles from PC- I have everything already! (Remember when the prices were lower? Not so long ago...and easy to stock up.) 

  • luci45luci45 Posts: 2,762
    Novica said:

    Stunning!  I don't know why I thought Painter's Lights were 3DL. This is a beautiful combination and totally agree the hair is quite lovely.

    I imagine you're having the same experience that I am with the bundles from PC- I have everything already! (Remember when the prices were lower? Not so long ago...and easy to stock up.) 

    Thanks. I love Painter's Lights. I also love Dimension Theory's iRadiance - Light Probe HDR Lighting for Iray. 

    I have most of the PC stuff I want and the bundles only have a few things I don't have so I haven't bought any. I'm just waiting for M7! 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    As are we all wink

    I think he'll be November since they're spacing out the characters/main figures and we had Arabella this month. I have been buying new stuff during the sale, but none of the old PC products. I remember back in 2012 when I first started, and loaded up on all those. (And have used...well, no comment.) 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    Like many other characters, FWSA Hannah HD for Victoria 7 can look really different, depending on the hair and outfit. Shown is with Sora Hair, (Genesis 2)  then Regina Malorum Hair.  (Genesis 2) That band in the hair goes GREAT with this outfit. I did have to color in the scalp a bit on the forehead, the cap had a bit of a noticeable line with Iray lighting.

    The Ma Belle Poses for Monique 6 have a nice variety of sitting and standing. 

     BTW, if anyone wants to test it, Charlie Hair would not autofit to Hannah. I didn't test on other characters, but I tried twice on Hannah. 

    The outfit is Elven Grove Out (Genesis 2), and if you don't want to use the high heel boots, the Fayre (Genesis 2)  shoes work really well. You can't see the shoes from the promo art, so this will show you really well.  Cute straps!

    Expression for the first one:

    Satisfied .061     Smiling .091     Subtle Smile 0.41     Thrilled 0.045     Triump 4.5

    The angry one then had these added:

    Contempt 55.3     Disgust 11.4

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Valerie looks like Melissa Sue Anderson from Little House on the Prairie in the second thumbnail.

  • ZarconDeeGrissomZarconDeeGrissom Posts: 5,412
    edited October 2015
    Novica said:

    Valerie looks like Melissa Sue Anderson from Little House on the Prairie in the second thumbnail.

    Yea, I do see the resemblance, lol.

    Also, it's nice to see Valerie's eyebrows are not 'over-plucked' like some other figures I'm seen in the past.

    (EDIT) Nice renders of Hanna by the way. I have yet to peal off the 'new' stickers from her in my runtime.

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

    Breaking: Afghanistan, Pakistan Rocked by 7.5-Magnitude Earthquake; At Least 43 Deaths Reported.  158 miles away from Kabul. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    EJ Atsuko for Genesis 3 Female(s) is wearing Bold Swimsuit for Genesis 3 Female(s)   and I tested shaders from Elegant Fabric Iray Shaders. The first render is from the Bold Swimsuit, the other two are the Elegant Fabric Iray Shaders. Use "Utility" to change the tiling. I used 10 x 10 on the second one and 7 x 7 on the third.

    Third render: The Lend Her Grace Poses (Genesis 3) have a crystal bowl and ball for props. They load with the hands and look good.

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  • FirstBastionFirstBastion Posts: 7,762
    RGcincy said:

    Since FirstBastion is supporting Novica's Because I Said So contest, I thought I'd highlight one of his sets I got during the PA sale.

    The set is 1stBastion's Wilderness: Two Creeks. The promos that are shown on the product page are a good reflection of how it renders in 3DL right out of the box. I really like that it has great ground and rock textures, a varied and believable terrain, with exposed rocks, two streams, lots of plants, good lights, and many cameras that let you quickly pick a good view for your render. I highly recommend it as I am finding it very versatile for a number of different themes.

    This past summer I happened to travel through Maryland and Virginia, visiting several civil war battlefields, so during the PA sale I also picked up an older set  for Genesis called Shenandoah for Genesis. This is a set of clothing, dirty textures, props, and poses for civil war soldiers, both Union and Confederate. I combined it with David 5 and Boris Hair for Genesis 2 Male(s). Although the hair is made for G2M, it works well with D5. I chose this hair as it's short with a relatively rough cut which seems to fit the time period. It also better accommodates the soldier caps which sit relatively high on the head and fuller hair sticks out in many places. Even with Boris hair there is considerable hair sticking out around the brim of the caps but I was able to use Hat and Hair Helper Genesis 2 to remove it. 

    The 3DL render show a brief skirmish near a creek as the light is fading. The poses come from the Shenandoah set and the camera is one of the presets from the Two Creeks set.

    Thanks for the images RGCincy!  It's nice to see the creeks being put to good use.

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834

    Glad to show it off FirstBastion. It's a very versatile set with lots of spots to setup scenes. I also find I use the lights with a lot of other sets.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2015

    Speaking of neat FirstBastion products, look at Last Chance Gas Station! This is using the 3DL lights (yes, hold your heart, I did a 3DL)  with the included light set. I changed the lights to a very slight light blue, changed one light to have raytraced shadows, increased the shadow percentage quite a bit (I like fuzzy shadows) and changed the shadow bias to .20.  You wouldn't have a chance with Valoria (for Arabella 7) tracking you- she's stopped in to terrorize the customers. This is on Genesis 3 Female as I don't own Arabella. 

    The hair is (will have to put it here later, can't check, doing a closeup render for you that will take hours) and the outfit is Post Apocalyptic Outfit (Genesis 3 Females) Be sure and check the belt before you render- I had to start over as it wasn't "expanded" enough and went into the tummy (and she's pretty thin!) 

    Poses that go well with zombies are the Pitfall Poses (for Victoria 7)  Lots of good ones for a victim and for the zombie.

    If you're new to lighting, or want a great 3DL lightset, consider getting  Last Chance Gas Station. It's a gem with the lights and the props. He did wonderful groupings, every little thing is separated out for you- quite a bit of thought went into that. 

     

     

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651

    Nicely done! I lke it. I like your 3delight renders. =-)

This discussion has been closed.