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I think the biggest thing I love about G8 is the expressions you can create with Powerpose now. Body-wise? I think either one is good. Since @angstyg is just rendering bodies right now and swapping in realistic heads, I'm not sure there is really a difference between using one or the other. I think the major difference is going to what skins would work better for the current project.
I think you'd be happier with the bodies of g8 to be honest. Particularly the area where the arm meets the torso can look odd on gen 7.
Found another helpful use for daz with this job! I bought Keres Outfit and textures specifically for this one. I knew the instant I saw that outfit that I wanted it for this cover. Both me and the author really loved the chest armor and how it looked like feathers/scales. The other clothes were just stuff I had on hand from freebies over the Thansgiving weekend and the default stuff included with Daz, just turned black.
Here are all the photos used for the character manip:
And the final product!
This was the last cover in a long'ish series of books, so I'm really happy that outfit jumped out at me. It was perfect!
Thanks for the links on converting G3 outfits to G8, too! Those were pretty vital since all this clothing was G3.
Wow, much lovelier use of it than the original ad copy.
Okay, I have to admit to not doing zombies so I pretty much ignored that whole bundle. I don't think I barely even looked at that dress. First, I have to say that's some mighty fine kitbashing for a newbie! Second, I really want to learn how to do photomanipulation like you do because that cover is outstanding. I love that you showed all three parts of the before to compare to the cover. Great job. I love it and I would never have thought that wasn't one image to start with. You did that seamlessly Call me thoroughly impressed.
Looks really great.
Lol! Ikr? I think using the zombies for the promos were a really bad marketing idea. I skimmed right over them too, until I saw it on Arden. I get the feeling the Arden promo probably sells more copies for Keres Outfit than the actual ad. But it is a really great outfit!
Wow, thanks so much! This was a pretty easy manip because I could pose and light the body however I needed to match the head the author preferred. That's such a huge help. Otherwise I would have had to settle for a body we were only lukewarm about. But the head was just cut off right at the neck. I guess the hard part of this one was the hair. It's always finicky. I keep trying to get better at painting hair, but it's slow going. That's always been my weak point. If we were on an earlier cover and could have gotten more mileage out of it than a single comp, I would have bought a good hair set. But this author is like one of three I ever do female characters for, lol.
I'd say since you're well versed in CGI and probably have a good feel for lighting, poses, and camera orientation as a result of that, anyone here could pick it up wayyyy easier than your average graphic designer.
Okay so I have a kind of weird question. Say you bought something kinda pricey a few days ago and now it's on sale for super cheap. Do you just sob over a pint over mint chocolate chip ice cream, or do you return the product and re-buy it for the sale price? Or is that against rules? I know if it's a product on some of my other sites, I'd just get in contact and they'd refund the difference if the purchase was made within the week. But I'm not sure about Daz.
Oh, Michael 8 baby. What is you doing to me.
You can put In a service request asking for a refund of the difference or you can rebuy at the lower price and return the other higher priced item.
Oh my that dress... totally went by me on that zomby thing... now I saw it her it went in my wishlist pretty fast...
That cover is very nicely done! I I learn a lot from looking at your parts and hwo you combine them, thanks for showing!
@angstyg Like Serene says, just put in a ticket.
Daz3d has a pretty good return policy. It's 30 days. If you buy something and want to return it for any reason, you can do so within 30 days, no questions asked. If you find that you've bought something and it's cheaper at any time within that 30 day period, you can get a refund for the difference. I like taking a screenshot of the item in the cart with the lower price and attach that to my ticket. It helps customer service if you do the math and include the exact amount that your refund should be that you expect.
To open a ticket, just go to the top of the browser and choose Help. You'll find customer support there and you can open a ticket there.
I like that cover. What were they thinking with the Keres dress marketing? If I were looking for a zombie outfit, that is the last outfit I'd pick. Actually, I'd probably just grunge up and tear some of my clothing assets for whatever time period/genre I was working in.
Out of curiousity, have you done any W/W book covers?
I've done a few FF books, but the market is a lot different from MM. In MM, we generally want to see guys on covers being sexualized. For FF, that's not so much the case. I guess it makes sense, since the social baggae is a lot different. I find the FF market doesn't hold visibly lesbian imagery to the same amount of value the MM market places on visibly gay imagery. They're generally fine with seeing two individual, dressed women on a cover, or even just a single character. So my specilized skills just aren't very valuable there. Of course, they come back into play with any kind of menage stuff, lol.
Totally agree about the outfit, too!
Well, I had a super productive week with Daz! It's really becoming a valuable part of my work!
This was my second full cover attempt with the Daz figures. It's not my best and I already feel like I know enough to make it better, but ehh, it's solid enough for a second try so I'm happy with it.
I had a bit of a laugh with my Facebook followers on absurd satirical book titles for my premades, and that's sort of become 'a thing', so most of these are going to look ridiculous, lol. I've been assured that the "fluffy gay situation" series would have a devoted following, however.
This next one got a HUGE response from my Facebook following. Tons of likes and shares. Literally five people wanted to buy it on the spot. I ended up giving the couple to one author while promising the overall cover (with a new couple) to another author. So I was really able to maximize my Daz work with this one. This single cover put me back in the black with everything I'd bought for Daz over the last couple weeks. Hooray!
This one is pretty minor in comparison, but I needed a hand and arm to hold the rat in this cover. I'm so in the habit of doing it that I pulled up my regular stock website and starting to hunt for the right arm. Then I thought to myself, "Oh wait, I don't need to do that anymore!" Amazing. Had the exact arm I needed in 5 minutes.
(This was actually a publisher-comissioned cover, so I've removed the title and author name, since it's not out yet. Don't wanna spoil any cover reveals!)
I'm feeling a little braver, so I want to give menage stuff a shot. This is my first try. I didn't replace any heads here. Not sure how much I like it, but I know I don't hate it :D
there's definitely some photoshop mastery at work here.
wow, you're one busybody. But this is kind of an eyeopener to me the way you combine the stuff.. actually its kind of kreeping thinking of all the book titles I've seen looking similar
Lol! There really is a formula for typography in most romance genres (probably other genres too, I'm just not as experienced with them). Like paranormal romance is good for glowy text, while contemporary erotic-romance is all about that brush script + thin weight sans-serif with a foil over something. Urban fantasy is good for gradients, serifs, and also a little electric glow. Drama is good for those condensed sans, too.
Fantasy and Sci-Fi kind of torture me, because I never know how far to go with the font's look. There are SUPER sci-fi-looking fonts, but at a certain point it's diminishing returns and just turns out looking campy. I'm not well versed enough in those genres to know where that line is, but it's still fun to try! Also a good excuse to buy more fonts, which I totally need, even though I already have 4,000. VITAL.
The character my pal and I cooked up for her upcoming superhero series! I just love her. I am going to end up using Charlotte instead (this is V7 here), but Im so into this hair (Liv) and outfit (Peacemaker on Renderosity). Can't wait to make some awesome covers with her!
Reminds me a bit of the Black Canary
That's exactly what she gave me for reference, lol! Good to know I hit the mark :D
Same girl, but with Charlotte now, and all dressed up for promotional material alongside her superdudes. Hype!
looks good
Looks great! I love the lighting.
So, I came across your post while searching for something else and I thought I'd drop in a comment. I am an MM author with over 200 published books. I'm not sure how aware you are of the cover/publishing world, but there is a HUGE lack of good MM covers. HUGE! When there are covers, nine times out of ten, it's either a single guy or two guys kind of blended together. Very few times are the guys touching (holding hands, gazing into each other's eyes, hugging, etc.). Your covers are good. I'd put them on my books, especially that last one you did "This Poor Dude". It was very good. If you have an interest in that area, I'd say keep with it. I will also add that paranormal is very big in the MM world, wolves, vampires, cats, dragons, etc. At least, as a writer that seems to be what sells better for me.
Good luck :)