Fine I guess I'll make the TEEN KOLA 8.1 thread
arks0ng
Posts: 273
Surprised no one's talked about 'em yet. Maybe because the bundle is pretty small; character, expressions/poses, hair, only 1 outfit? (helmet's pretty cool tho) and then both a vehicle and an environment. To the bundle's credit though, it all fits together pretty darn well thematically, unlike some older bundles of the past. On the other hand a $134 base price does seem a bit, well...
So, we've now got two teen ninja-esque boyos in the 8.1 family, just from different time periods (does scrapyard sci-fi count as a time period? Actually, does magical ninja warriors?) It is at least a change from gen8's 3 or 4 teen females and... wait, were there any teen dudes? Or just tween Ryan?
I do like Kola's shape, though I'm not wild on his skin, it seems a little... flat? But perhaps it's the promo lighting. The tech emissives are interesting I suppose, but they also just seem a little chucked on randomly, and don't extend to the body. Instead we get a strange blue hue on the neck and shoulders, which I assume is from the emissives, but just looks like he accidentally spray-painted himself while giving his bike a sick new paintjob.
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Comments
Ergh, got a cloudfare message when I posted. Mods, can u remove one of these? <3
Nice character! Too bad I have no use for him, I literally never render teens (or younger) of any gender.
I really like his head morph!
His skin is very much in line with the other black 8.1 core characters we've gotten so far.
I don't dislike it, but I'm still not convinced it's a step forward from some of the better Uber skins.
His body morph doesn't look very special to me, it looks kind of "undersculpted"...
by which I don't mean that he's not muscular enough, to be clear. Even skinny characters can have more carefully sculpted bodies (like Elijah 7).
but maybe this is how teens look? I don't even know.
I'm a little confused though... his body looks quite different in the last promo picture (portrait from the waist up, shirtless, with glowy stuff on his face.)
If additional morphs are used in the promos it really should be made clear, otherwise it's kind of false advertising.
As for the rest of the bundle... the African town looks nice, not sure yet if I'll find use for it. Afro3D is a new PA... looking forward to more black-centered content!
I *really* dislike the skin. Which is annoying, It's already way too hard to find a male skin without proto-stubble. This one doesn't have that, which would be very welcome, but it looks like plastic. The emissives are just tiresome, but at least you can do without them. The HD add-on appears to be primarily just for those, because there is only the slightest bit of anything else in it.
I don't dislike anything in the bundle. But of course it's pricy so that will defintiely make me think a lot longer than usual about whethr or not to get it. Some of the promos show him in outfits that I don't recognize. They could be from some other store, but there could be another bundle pending.
I'd really like to see what he looks like converted to 3DL.
Good shape, but the skin looks toony imo.
... And then there is the cost. $22 after discount - dream on Daz.
This guy looks great, comes with HD, and costs $10; there is quite simply: no comparrison!
https://www.daz3d.com/akabe-hd-for-genesis-81-male
I quite like having teen morphs on hand so I can dial 'em in a bit to age down characters, say from mid 20s to late teens. I'm saying this compeltely aware that I probably have *enough* teens by this point to do just that for eternity, but, well, Daz breeds a certain kind of desire to hoard I guess.
The core character and the village are the only things I particularly want from the bundle (the rest is well made, just not things I need), but yeah, there's probably another bundle coming out tomorrow/soon so we'll see.
I'm getting $65.64. Is there a banner discount/other thingo I've missed? (I haven't spent more than $12 in the last several months lol, so i got kicked out of the golden buyers club, and it's awfully expensive to get back in)
Seems somewhat ordinary, and another dForce pair of cargo shorts and sandals. We have several sets just like that now. I may get the flip flops. I like them.
I might like the village but it's not particularly helpful that we're getting just 2 promo pics of the whole thing.
The price you are using is for the bundle, the $22 is for the character alone.
I also thought the village looked the most interesting part of the bundle, and yes the number of promo shots is pretty poor in order to see what you are buying.
It could fit as a shanty town from a number of countries, particularly with those open drains you see a lot in poorer neighbourhoods. I have no idea why it is waiting for a meteorite strike!, but then some of the stuff written in the descriptions in this store are pretty bizzare.
So true, some of the descriptions are just plain hilarious!
I'm a little torn on him. I like that he's both a male teen and a non-white teen, because one of those we haven't had in quite a while, and one we've never had. His skin definitely looks bland, his face is a little toonier than I'd prefer, and I could do without the cybernetics.
I need more characters like this but in a more toon style so I like a lot that I can buy the Metamixer head for this character and not the whole character or whole bundle. It's a good trade off.
Seems like they couldn't decide whether to make this character a toon or not. An extremely light bundle at full price.
The Village for Young Kola has 3 promo pics. THREE. Are you kidding me?
Kola's head shape is ok, but that skin, my god. I would never ever use that skin on anyone.
I broke down and bought the bundle and the HD Add-on. I like the shanty town and yes, I can see it on many continents.
Kola 8.1 has a lovely smile and I got that by trying out the expression pack (which I found under G8M expressions, not G8.1M expressions btw) and I thought I was mixing something close to an angry scream/yell, but turned out to be a great smile. I am really bad at lighting and his skin is an opportunity to get better. But at one point when I moved a light close I did saw some variation in the skin color on the cheek.
I don't really get a 'Toon' feeling off of him, but more of a young, still growing from a child to youth to teen, so maybe 'soft' on edges? Kind of like how I remember my brother when he was 15, went from little boy to a deep-voiced teen, with muscles and taller than me in the space of two months.
The outfit, yes it does repeat many other offerings, but it simulated like a dream in an action pose. I didn't have to fuss with the layers in any way. And I simply love the textures.
The hair by M3D is like many by the PA which I do have, but gave me no fits and again, no problems.
I am hoping the two outfits that were in the promos for Kola showup tomorrow. (But if they have been released, does anyone know what they are?) Also hope the young lady on his bike in that one promo is going to be released.
I have been wanting Afrofuturism and thank you DAZ.
i blew over the bindle but like the sandals. Will have to check out the village.
I bought only the MetaMixer Addon. It is only $4.88 and gives you the whole head shape as well as the individual facial detail morphs that you wouldn't even get in the bundle. The skin and body shape seem like nothing special to me. I have other teen body shape morphs and other skins to use, so I don't see a need to buy the full character, let alone the bundle.
The skin put me off immediately. I think, in most cases (but not all as there are a few exceptions), the 8.1 line has been a step backward in realism. I know not everyone wants realism, but I do, so most of them haven't been for me ;).
Seems we get some more Kola today.
The Banner/Coupon was updated and offers now 10% on Teen Kola bundle and Kola Bundle plus 15% on the Mega Kola bundle.
Have the Kola bundle in my cart right now but guess will opt out as it is $80 after the extra 10%. More in it than in the Teen Kola bundle but also higher price.
I used to buy stuff, but the current pricing is testing things. No banners (for me), no gift card, so no sale. I might look again in the future, or if there's something better today. But easy miss, at the moment.
Well prices are out of my league now. $60 for Teen Kola, $80 for Kola or $145 for the Mega Bundle with HDs and MetaMixer. And those prices are with 10/15% banner.
Really torn on the skin of those characters. It's looks really bad and plastic-like in the promos, but DAZ often uses really terrible promos for their characters. So it may just be incompetence.
I'm also not sure if those are actually different skin textures or if they're just selling us the same thing twice.
I'm almost certain that they screwed up on the images for Adult Kola's HD. The comparison images -- his hands and feet, for example -- look like they've used the same image twice.
If they haven't, then his HD does, quite literally, just about nothing at all.
EDIT: Looking at the images again, there is a difference in the comparison images ... just not a lot. And the lack of detail added to his hands and feet by the HD is kind of shocking, since that's one area where it was usually VERY obvious.
Nice morph. Awful skin. I'd probably use skin from Darius, Leroy, or Silas depending on how old I wanted him. Those at least come with a 3DL preset.
As for the rest, Like the architecture. We don't have a lot of African urban architecture. ButI don't do SciFi renders so could do without the blatantly futuristic stuff. Some of it may just be very contemporary, though. Needs more promos on the villages. The streetscape from the mega bundle at least shows the individual buildings.
Not interested in any of the chothes this time. The bodysuit is a maybe, but I have more than enough bodysuits and am unlikely to ever use them.The rest is all SciFi. I might be intersted in the hair, but it's all Iray and I don't like any of it to put the effort into trying to convert it.
I'll consider the character ad the architecture. but the rest is a pass. And none of it is urgently needed. The individual items seem to be 50% off with the DAZ+ discount added i. Not tragic, but not at all compelling either.
Guess this thread should just be called "Kola 8.1" now--actually, I totally dig the whole teen and adult version of a character. From Daz's point of view, it would cut down on reasources to use a similar morph and texture on both to produce two characters (even if they're, uh, maybe a little *too* similar) and ideally, from a consumer point of view, it could provide moprhs good for a family at a good price (even if they're both full price here).
I feel like this was a really wierd way to do it. I know the bundle won't charge you again for what you don't own, it just feels strange to have already bought a bundle that is immediately then released in another bundle. One with yet another motorbike and village. I'm personally not into metamixer either, and as @vwrangler pointed out, there isn't a whole lot added by the HD, so it's a pretty easy miss for me.
Also 70% old poses and 60% off featured artists doesn't really sweeten any deals either. I do miss the 'good discounts of old'--even the Coral mega bundle had some fab discounts that convinced my to pickup the bundle on just that alone.
Are the architecture pure background fluff once again or are there things that behave like in real life, with doors/windows opening for example?
Could someone please upload some renders of the 'Young Kola' village, so we can see what' actually included and how big it is? That would be very helpful, thanks!
I don't know if the skin was suppose to be a synthetic skin or real. I would hope those images are of a synthetic one but also includes a normal skin.