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

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  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    standfast said:
    I have spent hours, literally, on this simple WIP and it is still full of things I am frustrated beyond patience with.
    Slow deep breaths, and repeat this over and over. "It's only 3D and does not have to be perfect."

    Once your okay, jump back in and BEAT that render into the one you want, I got many I need to go beat for awhile.
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited December 1969

    Well, Sarge would look bad in the fantasy fighter outfit. =-) So I chose one of the base packages for the hairs I don't have that came free with it. =-)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight, check your email please.

    SIGH, another mini skirt/ or top. Fantasy Fighter- um, no. It REALLLLY makes you wonder about trying for the mystery prize at the end. They're going to have a major uprising if it isn't FANTASTIC because these other things are not worthwhile to go for tier 2. I could BUY the minidress for what I spent getting to tier 2, but again, I'm only getting what I can USE.

    That said, the coupon codes stack- Stonemason's store is on sale 30% so you can use the code.Haven't checked the other stores yet.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2013

    The AntFarm
    The AntFarm IS ON SALE and the coupons stack. OMG, the "Never" series is 50% and you get 40% off THAT!!! I LOVE THAT SERIES!!!
    Lots of good nooks and crannies for closeups, nice props. Here's one so you can hop to the store quickly.
    http://www.daz3d.com/nevertime

    Space Apes is .99,
    So I got it for .55. I'll get the Millennium Gorilla (required) when it is more than 40% off (you can get one DO for 40% off, not wasting my money for 40%, plus I don't NEED these little apes. But for .55, why not?

    I picked up Knid and got 40% off the 9.48 (which was 18.95 and already 50% off.)
    http://www.daz3d.com/knid

    Also got Skull Rock, was 19.95 at 50% was 9.98 then got 40% off that
    http://www.daz3d.com/skull-rock

    So far, Space Apes, Knid, and Skull Rock are 20.45 minus 9.00 so 11.45
    THERE ARE A FEW MORE IN THE STORE AT 50%.

    AAKO
    Also can get additional 40%: From Aako's store- 50% off: http://www.daz3d.com/old-cemetery

    More coming, will add here. I am surfing and posting as I find it. NOT SURFING EVERY PAGE, these may be SOME of the items-

    Flipmode's Inquisition, Shackles, Suspicious Cellar http://www.daz3d.com/flipmode
    http://www.daz3d.com/jgreenlees All of it!
    http://www.daz3d.com/outoftouch Hair, Outfits, V4 Hero Pack
    http://www.daz3d.com/sickleyield Towels, horse stuff, clothes, boots, breast fixes
    http://www.daz3d.com/thorne A lot of characters
    http://www.daz3d.com/aprilysh Hair (Udane, Reinoa, Paxton, Gabriel, etc) Photo Realism Bundle, other bundles(Hiro 4 Pro Bundle.)
    http://www.daz3d.com/raiya Characters (I use Azumi for Aiko and Keira For Stephanie 5 quite a bit.)
    http://www.daz3d.com/silver Scoop up Nyssa! Also, more clothes (Be Pacific, XDress) and characters
    http://www.daz3d.com/feralfey Poses
    http://www.daz3d.com/handspan-studios Both of the Young Teens, Taiga For Genesis, a few characters
    http://www.daz3d.com/lauries Entire Store (I think) A lot of clothes, Dogs and The Ultimate Canine Bundle in particular
    http://www.daz3d.com/ravnheart-1 Almost entire store. Dragon armor, clothes, vehicles, wide variety. Textures for outfits.
    http://www.daz3d.com/stonemason Store is 30%

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

    The background I used a few renders ago is in Stonemason's store at 30% off. If you are tier 2, you get 40% off that!
    http://www.daz3d.com/jungle-ruins

    and also the http://www.daz3d.com/jungle-ruins-2

    And also Cambot that SereneNight and I adore. It's FIFTY PERCENT OFF AND YOU'D GET FORTY PERCENT OFF THAT (Just did it, you get another $3.79 off!) So $7.48 minus $3.79 is a steal!
    http://www.daz3d.com/cambot

    Dark Places Bundle is SEVENTY percent off- plus that 40% (even without it, a great deal)
    http://www.daz3d.com/dark-places-bundle

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

    The Whispering Wall is being discontinued and Stonemason announced it on another thread. Price significantly dropped ($4.95) and it's on sale $3.46 then take 40% off that- they are practically giving it away. Get the Amplified too.
    http://www.daz3d.com/the-whispering-wall
    http://www.daz3d.com/whispering-wall-amplified

    EDIT: Here's the thread which lists the other items going bye-bye. Get them during this sale with fantastic discounts :)
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/30628/

    The City Ruins Bundle is $24.97 at 30% off, I finally bought it because it's an additional $10.76 off with the 40% discount. So you get both 1 and 2 for $14.21 (Just building 1 at 30% off is $17.46)

    If you are shooting for the tier 2's then this makes it worth a second look. DAZ is being nice and having stores on sale and letting coupons stack. Yes, I am a cheerleader (at least for today.) This makes up for only getting 1 point for bundles!

    EDIT: http://www.daz3d.com/city-ruins-vehicles
    Again, it pays to read the product descriptions- if you are looking for a good police car, although this is ruins, as a bonus you get a perfectly fine, not crushed police car! Again, it is Stonemason so is 30% plus the 40% for tier 2. (Or just wishlist it for future references if you want that police car and ruins.)

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited December 1969

    Sorry, I've been out today due to a power outage. So wow. Look at the sales. :Goes to check them out now:

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2013

    Someone else mentioned being out of power all day- my goodness.

    Lycaon the Werewolf, that SereneNight reviewed (thread below) is 50% off and in those stores where you can get the 40% off if you were tier 2. Normally $12.95, on sale $6.47, then 40% off that.

    http://www.daz3d.com/lycaon-the-werewolf
    www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28138/P375/#450988

    I'm grabbing this funky little thing- it's only $3.98 and I'll get 40% off that. Look at the thumbnails.
    http://www.daz3d.com/tea-house-spirit

    You can get both of these for $5.86 (save $4.60) if you are tier 2. I'm loving this!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited October 2013

    Okay, here's a fun tip I just discovered whiled rendering the ferris wheel . =-) If you want to do balloons in your render you can pickup midway fun. http://www.daz3d.com/midway-fun (now a steal at .99 cents if you are in the pc club).

    They are a bit primary colored but they look great re-textured with the Gummy Subsurface shaders.
    http://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-gummy-plastic-shaders

    EDIT:

    Screenshots:

    1. Before picture. This is just a balloon clump with a sky backdrop and lights from Predatron's DS light set #4
    2. Here is the same shot using the gummy shaders to change the balloon texture.

    predslights-6.jpg
    787 x 787 - 219K
    predslights-4.jpg
    787 x 787 - 227K
    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • anikadanikad Posts: 1,919
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for pointing these out. Stonemason is off sale but I picked up a bunch of The AntFarm's stuff. Now I just need to start rendering...

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited December 1969

    Today's Review is Dragonfly Nrh by Serrge and DAZ

    http://www.daz3d.com/dragonfly-nrh

    I picked up this cool little vehicle in the .99 cent science fiction sale and think it's pretty cool. It is single pilot small helicopter with 2 main guns, turbo jets, with included poses for a single pilot.

    It is easy to setup and render. It has a number of morphs available- for example you can spin the rotor parts, start the engine fire the guns, and jets. The guns and parts can move so it is easy to set up a nice aerial combat scene.

    One thing I discovered- since Standfast was talking about retexturing stuff earlier in a digital military pattern, thanks for the idea! =-) is that the cloth textures from the MachPack http://www.daz3d.com/machpack sold here at DAZ has 2 camo shaders, and I think the one I tried looks great on the exterior of the vehicle as as helicopter camo.

    Lights here are from Jordan hair.


    1. front view
    2. rear view
    3. re-texture with machpack and added a little motion blur in photoshop

    mach-pack-blur.jpg
    932 x 799 - 346K
    dragonfly-jordanlights-rearfinal.jpg
    932 x 799 - 270K
    dragonfly-jordanlights.jpg
    932 x 799 - 276K
  • KharmaKharma Posts: 3,214
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight love the balloons, i have those and the gummy shaders so gonna try it out later today, and the camo shader on the heli....haven't played too much with shaders yet, been on some kinda crazy shopping spree for the last two months...lol

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited December 1969

    Thanks! =-) I really liked how those gummy shaders worked on the balloons. It gave them a nice pastel quality. I haven't used the shaders much before, but this was a nice thing to play with them on.

    One thing I forgot to mention about the helicopter is there is a blur motion on jet intake? The blades have a cool motion effect that gives the look that they are spinning that you can turn on and off. I love it when PA's add nice details like that.

    It is a great little vehicle. =-)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    anikad said:
    Thanks for pointing these out. Stonemason is off sale but I picked up a bunch of The AntFarm's stuff. Now I just need to start rendering...

    Feel free to post your renders that you're having fun with :) and do a product review on them, what you like/would like to see different.

    SereneNight- those balloons ARE cute. I haven't done those shaders yet either- you're a good reminder. So you're working on a Ferris Wheel scene too? The Dragonfly Nrh is quite a deal, and the sky fits it perfectly. Can't beat .99!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    anikad said:
    Thanks for pointing these out. Stonemason is off sale but I picked up a bunch of The AntFarm's stuff. Now I just need to start rendering...

    Feel free to post your renders that you're having fun with :) and do a product review on them, what you like/would like to see different.

    SereneNight- those balloons ARE cute. I haven't done those shaders yet either- you're a good reminder. So you're working on a Ferris Wheel scene too? The Dragonfly Nrh is quite a deal, and the sky fits it perfectly. Can't beat .99!

    Yeah, my ferris wheel is going to be my first 'spot the changes puzzle render.' So I'm putting a lot of extra detail into it so I don't have to work so hard making the differences. It looks really good I think...Biggest issue is imagining how the wind will work on a moving vehicle going round and round. Will thngs blow back, or up, or whatever? plus adding people...I have 5 so far, but need one more in the back car. LOL. Sadly not a lot of hair morphs that really can make those kinds of movements, so I'm doing what I can.

    I am having fun adding props. Wish I could find a 'popcorn' food prop. I will suggest it in product suggestions. Little bits of popcorn flying out of a container on a ferris wheel would be awesome.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2013

    Village Courtyard
    Enchanted Forest

    http://www.daz3d.com/village-courtyard
    http://www.daz3d.com/the-enchanted-forest

    TIP: Village Courtyard has a wonderful trellis with potted plants (separate material zones so you can hide the pots and plants) and a great pool with benches next to them- as great stand alone props. They go great together. Rotate the fences to get a dilapidated look.

    TIP: Even small details in clothing can add to your message. What kind of shoes is Chiara wearing? Would she be wearing those to a place like that? I originally had her in tennis shoes, then realized sandals would be totally inappropriate so I changed her over to those.

    Decided to have some fun, and mix two scenes that wouldn't go together. A city and the jungle. Throw in a teenager who is at that "I know everything you don't have to tell me" stage, and I had some real fun with this. Big sister Chiara (my Genesis 2 character) drove Josie (Teen Josie 6) to a party. Well, she TRIED. The lighting on this took three days. Leaving it fairly dark as that adds to the "we're NOT supposed to be here" mood. I'd dim down the spotlight if I wanted to work it further, but actually like the highlighted areas.

    The rest of the scene is even funnier, with logs in the pool, but getting all that in would detract from the facial expressions, you can't see them at all due to the distance. Keeping this set for future fun though.

    Note the line in the Josie shirt- I left that in so you can test that shirt and see if it appears for you. It was straight out of the box and not changed in any way. That line by the armpit on OUR left shouldn't be there.

    EDIT: Don't tell me the pool slab isn't even- that's the point of this deserted place. You can see the shifted dirt on the large vase Chiara is sitting on! I did a shadow to increase the separation of the dirt and the blue tiled slab to emphasize that aspect.

    chiaraJosieJungleFINALCaption.jpg
    2000 x 1555 - 2M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited December 1969

    Great render. Love Chiara's new hair, and her expression

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited December 1969

    That t shirt line is weird, it looks like it carries onto the neck band as well.

    Chiara looks good, the scene is nice, but Teen Josey just isn't working for me, sorry :(. Just something about her forehead, brow, etc that isn't your fault.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    Great render. Love Chiara's new hair, and her expression

    Thanks. I'm trying to find the pose product (and of course my studio is messed up, selecting Gen2 and poses, or poses, in Content Library, nothing comes up, the arrows have again disappeared to continue clicking through- GRRR!) It had something to do with chairs. BTW, when you go to your Product Library and type in "Poses" how many pages of poses do you have? I have five full pages and two items on the sixth page- wow!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    standfast said:
    That t shirt line is weird, it looks like it carries onto the neck band as well.

    Chiara looks good, the scene is nice, but Teen Josey just isn't working for me, sorry :(. Just something about her forehead, brow, etc that isn't your fault.

    I TOTALLY agree- Josie isn't my favorite. I figure I can use her morphs to mix. There's no way that I found to shrink the forehead, it's an entire head scale thing. I changed the curve as much as I could to try to reduce the "OMG what a forehead" aspect but Josie is stuck with a rather large one. I wish there was a forehead scale.

    What I wanted to test was her skin materials under other lighting. Then I'm pretty much done with Josie for awhile except for her morphs. I do like the clothing that came with the Pro Bundle, and the hair. The flower hair really has very nice morphs and is easy to pose. That's what is on Chiara.

    If anyone has used that shirt and didn't get a strange line, let us know.

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited October 2013

    Look at the shirt in wire. Since the line passes what I would assume is a material zone it might be an offset or squashed line of polies in the mesh. I've seen that in other kinds of mesh objects.

    Oh and I did love the concept, what would happen if you postworked a line of dirt/pond scummish junk on the pool wall along the water edge? (thinking about how horse tanks get in the summer)

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

    standfast said:
    Look at the shirt in wire. Since the line passes what I would assume is a material zone it might be an offset or squashed line of polies in the mesh. I've seen that in other kinds of mesh objects.

    I already had done that, couldn't see it that well but in wire shaded there is a dark line. I'll just have to watch for it and shoot from a different angle when using the shirt I guess.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    standfast said:
    Look at the shirt in wire. Since the line passes what I would assume is a material zone it might be an offset or squashed line of polies in the mesh. I've seen that in other kinds of mesh objects.

    Oh and I did love the concept, what would happen if you postworked a line of dirt/pond scummish junk on the pool wall along the water edge?

    Yeah, if I ever come back to it will soften the lighting and make it more natural on Josie (use filtered lights/cell lighting) and grunge it a bit. The pool water default is a really pretty blue, I greened it up but that's all I did this go-around. I'd also add some brown leaves to it and junk in general. This started out as a simple "show the trellis and pool" quickie.

  • TeofaTeofa Posts: 823
    edited October 2013

    Yeah, angles, Too bad, cause that is a shirt I would use a lot, particularly on today's tummie teens.

    On the other hand, its not that glaring. It's like noticing a tiny blemish on your cheek and having it grow to Mt Vesuvius in your mind.

    Post edited by Teofa on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,245
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    Okay, here's a fun tip I just discovered whiled rendering the ferris wheel . =-) If you want to do balloons in your render you can pickup midway fun. http://www.daz3d.com/midway-fun (now a steal at .99 cents if you are in the pc club).

    They are a bit primary colored but they look great re-textured with the Gummy Subsurface shaders.
    http://www.daz3d.com/subsurface-gummy-plastic-shaders

    EDIT:

    Screenshots:

    1. Before picture. This is just a balloon clump with a sky backdrop and lights from Predatron's DS light set #4
    2. Here is the same shot using the gummy shaders to change the balloon texture.


    You did a fantastic job on those balloons!!!!
    Thank you both for pointing out some good bargains in the store right now. I'm only tier 1, though, so I don't get quite as good a deal.
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited October 2013

    You're welcome :)
    I've found that it's worth it to get to tier 2 just for buying from the stores with the stacked discounts. But as we saw, gotta get them fast, Stonemason's store was ONE DAY at 30%, stacked with the EDIT: 44%. I keep saying 40%, and it's 44.

    So for those wondering, if something was 10.00...
    A store at 30% off would be 3.00 off, or $7 price.
    Then 44% off that $7 (I think I kept saying 40%, it's 44%) would be 3.08 off.
    So $7-$3.08= $3.92 final price. So $10 items were $3.92.

    So you'd get $6.08 off, which is 60%! (I love using $10 as an example because it's so easy to see how it works.) I had to sit there and calculate it when shopping yesterday, because I was like, "Duh, how much am I actually saving- what percent?" For stores that had items more than 30% off, it was a steal!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Tramp GraphicsTramp Graphics Posts: 2,411
    edited December 1969

    One of you two (or anyone) might be able to help me with a slight issue I'm having with the Dragon Princess Dress. I'm getting clipping between the outer dress top's trim and the "Top Border" piece. The latter is poking through the former no matter what adjustment morphs I add or what Smoothing Adjustments I make. The only thing that "works", if you can call it that, is turning the opacity of the Top Border to 0 and thus hiding it completely. Unfortunately, the dress really doesn't look right without it. (I have the opacity for it set to 50% in the attached image) The circled areas of the linked image below show what I'm talking about.

    Dragon-Princess-Dress-Clipping-issue.jpg
    1540 x 878 - 451K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    So out of curiosity and to help you decide if you want to go for tier 2 due to shopping: If I have this right, the stores that are going to be offered in the tiers for Week 3 should be the vendors participating in Week 3 with their products. If there are two vendors on one product, I am assuming both stores must be in the promo-aka, there is one by Esha and Swam, etc.

    Hmmm- some are DAZ3d, do they offer that deal on DAZ Originals?

    Sedor http://www.daz3d.com/sedor
    Renderwelten http://www.daz3d.com/danmoria
    Surreality http://www.daz3d.com/surreality
    Artemis3d http://www.daz3d.com/artemis3d
    Mada http://www.daz3d.com/mada
    Ravenhair http://www.daz3d.com/ravenhair
    RingoMonfort http://www.daz3d.com/ringomonfort
    JGreenlees http://www.daz3d.com/jgreenlees
    Shifting Images http://www.daz3d.com/shifting-images
    Moyra http://www.daz3d.com/moyra
    ForbiddenWhispers (If PC item vendors are included) http://www.daz3d.com/forbiddenwhispers
    Xena http://www.daz3d.com/xena
    Sarsa http://www.daz3d.com/sarsa
    Andrey Pestryakov http://www.daz3d.com/andrey-pestryakov
    Esha http://www.daz3d.com/--esha--
    Swam http://www.daz3d.com/swam
    Ravenhair (If PC item vendors are included) http://www.daz3d.com/ravenhair
    Powerage http://www.daz3d.com/powerage
    Muze http://www.daz3d.com/muze
    Ravnheart http://www.daz3d.com/ravnheart-1
    Zev0 http://www.daz3d.com/zev0
    Lilflame http://www.daz3d.com/lilflame
    Countess http://www.daz3d.com/countess
    Silver http://www.daz3d.com/silver
    Sickleyield http://www.daz3d.com/sickleyield
    Fuseling http://www.daz3d.com/fuseling
    Khory http://www.daz3d.com/khory

    The above list was for products offered through October 19th.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Tramp Graphics said:
    One of you two (or anyone) might be able to help me with a slight issue I'm having with the Dragon Princess Dress. I'm getting clipping between the outer dress top's trim and the "Top Border" piece. The latter is poking through the former no matter what adjustment morphs I add or what Smoothing Adjustments I make.

    Not quite sure what I'm seeing- but can you change the displacement or the bump in one of the material zones to raise the part up that you want to dominate? If you can't get the one part down, (pokethrough) then get the other part UP.

  • Tramp GraphicsTramp Graphics Posts: 2,411
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Tramp Graphics said:
    One of you two (or anyone) might be able to help me with a slight issue I'm having with the Dragon Princess Dress. I'm getting clipping between the outer dress top's trim and the "Top Border" piece. The latter is poking through the former no matter what adjustment morphs I add or what Smoothing Adjustments I make.

    Not quite sure what I'm seeing- but can you change the displacement or the bump in one of the material zones to raise the part up that you want to dominate? If you can't get the one part down, (pokethrough) then get the other part UP.Tried that too. It doesn't have a Displacement map, and adjusting the bump settings on the outer dress top just didn't look right with the textures. The big problem with it is that the different "parts" of the dress are just material zones, not actual separate components (though, this should be a good thing).

This discussion has been closed.