Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 12
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What's up with the FG Barn showing no exterior shots? One main concern- that hay loft doesn't appear to have a wide door. It's better to have a large door on the exterior to put hay through. You don't haul it up a ladder to the loft- are you nuts? I've owned a farm before, with my own barn, and been in literally seventy or more barns- all have outside access to the loft if it's meant for cattle or horses. This barn has stalls, so my assumption is for livestock to be in the barn. Usually there's a hoist anchored in the ceiling by the loft door, and hay is loaded that way, or even from the truck when it is stacked high. (Guys also stack the hay and step on it to hand other bales up, it's very sturdy and easy to work off of when the hay is tightly bound. Loose flakes, not so much! So anyone get the barn that can check / show the exterior? Otherwise, it's got some different features that are really appealling.
For insurance reasons, many times there are restrictions as to where the hay is located, and how much is in the barn, so the lofts aren't always for hay. But no one in their right mind buys a barn without that option, due to resale. So tell me that little tiny door on the loft isn't the only one! Just a few examples
https://www.costco.com/Barn-Pros-Engineered-Building-Packages.product.100041299.html
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Best-Barns-Roanoke-16-ft-x-32-ft-Wood-Storage-Building-roanoke1632/206007242
https://www.thebarnyardstore.com/post-and-beam-barns/saratoga-horse-barn/
OK, I'll have to consider that for my next set of reviews as I have the Crazy Chef Bundle, New York Stores, New York Brownstones, New York City Street Props, New York City Traffic Signs, and 3 Colm Jackson iRay Studio Version 2.0 PA Festival purchases to review.
I will be a while before I do my next review. I will edit my posts though to add the links. I included images already though.
Sorry: actually I had included those thumbnails with links to the gallery because the specific reason I don't visit some Art Studio threads i(and there are quite a few nice ones) s because they have the full sized images linked and on my internet connection an entire page of posts with full sized images takes eons to load especially when the image is uploaded directly to the post & then edited to be in a scaled link in the post.
That doesn't look like a door in the loft, looks more like an air vent.
I think your right
Also from the pictures, the loft doesn't sit against the end wall where a door would be for bringing in hay or bags of
feed
I also noticed that all the luck's going to run out of those horseshoes that are hanging on the wall and posts like good luck charm decorations
@nonesuch00 Thanks! I wasn't going to ask you to do that (the links in what you already posted) as that's a lot of work.
For images, I've requested since Day 1 that they be no bigger than 600 high or wide IN THE POST, as that's the optimal maximum for people to get the image without having to scroll. For phones, well, that varies :) I hate huge renders where I can't see the entire thing. I usually only do my portrait / character showcases at 900 px for the originals though, to avoid that loading time. Good point!
I loaded the barn and those are air vents
The doors open inwards but less than 90 degrees
Here's a quickie with a Ford RedBelly tractor ( a small model tractor that Ford used to make) in the doorway
Sorry but that's just awful for a barn. VERY disappointed on the exterior and loft. Obviously, the exterior is just "there" and not meant to be a selling feature.
On sale, the interior would be worth a look perhaps. Thanks Robert. Are you keeping it for the interior?
Yeah I can make use of it as an interior
OK, well I did have the max size for the scaled full images because i had read Chohole had said that 800 was the max size without scrolling possible. It only took a minute to change those to 600 though & I'll use 600 in the future. I personally never read forums or websites on phones or tablets except for FB (via their app) or the New York Post (I should see if they have an app) so I don't see those problems.
We, the Forum Mod Team, recommend that images are posted to the forum no wider than 800 pixels to avoid the width squshing that happens when people are uploading to or reading the foruns on certain devices.
If the image is wider than 800 pixels as displayed then the forum will reduce the width to 800 pixels, but will not chnage the height - as a result images set to display at a larger size will be distorted. Using the image properties to chnage the size, with the padlock on, will keep the proportions and then people can click to view at full size.
Ah, thanks folk. I will scale then to max width 600 pixels & in cases where the height is longer than width adjust it to 600 pixels instead & get both birds in hand at the same time.
With that in mind & because it's the last weekend of the PA Festival sale I decided I should go ahead and review 3 Colm Jackson lighting products I've bought this past Saturday.
This particular review is for only the Render Studio 2.0 - Volumetric Plus product now on sale. It is a somewhat comprehensive IRay studio lighting collection.
You can see right off that this is a very dramatically lit scene. What you can't know is that Colm Jackson's product let me set that up in 3 clicks. Now I've been using DAZ Studio 3 years now, 4 years next February and although I've tried to learn how to build lighting like this myself I never got to this level of dramatic lighting. Of the lighting products I've bought and i've bought a few, this one is easily the most comprehensive, dramatic, flexible, and easy to use. Although ease of use is still problematic for me sometimes with lighting this one is less so.
You'll notice in this render I didn't use any volumetrics. That is because I wanted to emphasize the dramatic contrast in the lighting setups made available by this product. I'll review the volumetrics with a companion product in the next post.
There is also a well written, illustrated, and clear PDF tutorial on how to use this product included.
I will not review the other products in this render because I've already reviewed them.
If you want to see the list of products in a neater more concise format click on the thumbnail above to view the render in the DAZ Gallery.
This product gets an easy Grade A+ in my book.
OK, 2nd of the 3 Colm Jackson lighting products i've bought is up to bat.
This product is called Render Studio 2.0 - Production Scenes and requires the Render Studio 2.0 - Volumetric Plus product however the Render Studio 2.0 - Volumetric plus product does not require the Render Studio 2.0 - Production Scenes product, just to be clear if your budget is limited.
Well you can see right off that this scene is a modification of the scene I created to review the main Render Studio 2.0 product. All I did was change the clothing of Ezra (not a part of either product) and merge the scene 4 example production scene provided with the Render Studio 2.0 - Production Scenes product into my original scene that I reviewed in my prior post. You can see the production scene I merged into my old scene merged in a light projection source that creates the star burst effect and a sphere obj that was modified by the PA product author serve as a volumetric atmosphere that creates the 'misty atmosphere' you see.
What else did I do? I used the DAZ Studio "point at" functionality to point the light rig that is projecting that yellow start burst you see at the head rig bone of the Ezra model, turned off a right source of light to the right of the render (artistic choice, not a light technical / volumetric choice), deleted the 2nd ground plane that got merged in, and hid the model placement indicator and then rendered.
That's it. It would take hours, days, and weeks of reading, learning, experimenting in DAZ Studio, and rendering to arrive at such a flexible and quick way for you to make dramatic lighting in DAZ Studio.
While the main product Render Studio 2.0 - Volumetric Plus gets an easy Grade A+ this product Render Studio 2.0 - Production Scenes only gets a Grade B in my book because I feel 2 or 3 times the number of unique example production lighting scenes could have been included for the price. I'd still buy it anyway so don't let a Grade B deter you.
SY dForce Roman Clothing Pack Genesis 8 Male - that's the clothing Ezra is wearing, I called him Apollo because of the sun start burst behind his head which made me think of SickleYield's Roman Clothing packs I had bought. They are nicely done, dForce drape well & quickly (considering the age of my computer), and have a lot of nice color and trim options. The product gets a Grade A in my book.
I post these today because it's the last day to get them on sale for a while.
OKey Dokey, the last of my reviews for a while and the 3rd of the 3 Colm Jackson lighting products I bought yesterday.
I created a DAZ 3D product review gallery in the DAZ Gallery even though I ultimately don't plan on doing many reviews. It is a good way for me to practice retaking command of good English. I'm definitely writing English much quicker than I used to but I need to reign in the tendency for run-on sentences. I will just copy my review from there.
This is a render made using the Cinematic Light FX plus Atmosphere by Colm Jackson in the DAZ 3D Store.
Setup wise the various parts were built similar to the parts in the Render Studio 2.0 - Volumetric Plus product.
This product is a big simplification of that product I think, not being an expert though I'm not sure. There are masks and gels that get projected through but not an infinity cove and no special masks to create bokeh and other effects as the other product has. This product is also much cheaper.
I followed the directions but using the camera angle I used to do this render I could not get any noticeable FX showing up in the render as I could with the other product. However the lighting is nice and the colors I choose for the light are apparent.
I would have liked a product like this to teach is if I have an atmosphere supplied as with this product, and a camera viewing at angle X at distance Y at location Z, then adding light rigs from this product at distance a and angle b will cause atmospheric scattering along line c. Why? Because my guesses are mostly fruitless and I don't have a computer with an nVidia video card that would simply allow me to drag light rigs all over the viewport until I detect atmospheric scattering occuring. So being taught that knowledge is very practical to me.
So doubtless the FX would work if I knew the right locations, angles, and distances to put all the components I need a better way to use a product such as this other than guessing.
For this shortcoming, I give this product Cinematic Light FX plus Atmosphere a Grade B.
Except for the Sci-Fi Ninja Outfit for Genesis 8 Male(s) all other components of this render I've reviewed. I love this outfit & that's even though I'm not really into Sci-Fi. The color contrast is good. The fabric textures are good. The LED light embellishments are good. The fit is good. The accessories are good. This is a great Sci-Fi / Superhero / Supervillain suit. I liked this suit so much it almost got me to start collecting similar Sci-Fi / Superhero suits from the DAZ 3D Store but luckily I resisted. I render here only the pants and the belt so the extra reflected light should show the texture design and colors better than had he worn the entire suit. It is part of the Toon Dwayne 8 Pro Bundle (which is tied with two or three other pro bundles in the Genesis 8 cycle for being the cheapest on sale - I paid $26 and change for the pro bundle including my PC+ coupon that gave me an extra $6 off). I give this product a Grade A.
If you want to see the full product listing for this render though feel free to follow the thumbnail link above,. Ha, but keep in mind products you buy come of of your bank account not mine
(no I don't work in sales at DAZ 3D or have affiliate sites for ad impressions, likes or such things).
Oh! The PA Festival Sale is now over! Sorry. I'd still buy all three of these Colm Jackson lighting products even though I'm now broke and can afford any of the PC+ Sale goodies!
The PhotoMirage Tutorial, Tips, Tricks thread is now active. Take a peek at how easy it is to use. I haven't posted a completed one, I accidentally exited the program without saving so I'm starting over. It's fast and easy, but unfortunately I'm also engaged in doing other things at the moment (errands.) I've done a lot of screenshots for you. Feel free to post questions or your work. I do have a question- what kind of animated images can be posted and work on the forum?
I sent PMs so if you didn't get one and are surfing, pop me a pm and I'll point out a good deal. Pretty sure it is not a glitch but I'm not going to be "that guy" just in case.
https://www.daz3d.com/inaneglory-s-photo-studio-point-and-shoot-iray Okay, I've been told the price is right so I'm posting it. It's in the Platinum Club for a Day discounts. So with the code for that lighting section it goes 93% off to 1.39 code is GOTTA-WEAR-SHADES
https://www.daz3d.com/tonal-rage-tone-mapping-toolkit-for-iray has the exact same deal.
Are we allowed to actually post honest reviews here? Not that I'm going to bash anybody's product, but there are some that turned out to be somewhat disappointing or less than expected. Everybody posts positive reviews but the rest of the stuff - well, it's hard to find out what it's like and I don't always get to try things out within a 30 day window.
Yes, we point out shortcomings as well as what we like. We've noted paper thin skirts due to dForce, architectural flaws, character mapping errors, etc. Just be specific and perhaps offer what you'd like to see/ what could be done differently. It's not bashing if done in a civil manner. If it is something that isn't actually wrong with the product, just state it as an opinion. ("I'd like to see.... instead of..." ) Just recently I gave my opinion that I don't like built-in blush on characters. It's not actually a flaw of the product, but it does limit those of us who don't want blush, or want to use it and morph the character down to a child.
+1
I prefer the flexibility of being able to decide if I would want the character to have blush. I don't purchase characters that have it built in.
So here's a short review of Rex for Genesis 8 Male.
I was excited when Rex showed up in Fast Grab a few days ago! I've been meaning to beef my library up with a few more characters and he's been on my wish list for a while now. And of course I'm happy to support Gypsy Angel given the circumstances. It's unfortunate then that this is going to be a mixed review rather than an entirely positive one. But what's the point of reviews if they aren't honest?
The number one selling point of Rex is in my opinion his facial morph. That's one handsome fella! Especially since there aren't that many black men to choose from. He's a real dreamboat.
There are a few things that I don't love but that are relatively minor. I think his lashes are too feminine and his body morph is a bit off - his mid section is a little too bulky and his legs a little too spindly. Needless to say, all this is very subjective... and easily adjusted.
The one aspect where I find Rex a bit disappointing is his skin. Which is really unfortunate because the skin is such a major part of any character!
Rex comes with 3Delight materials, IRAY materials, and "Anagenessis" materials. I don't own any of the Anagenessis products.
He also comes with three facial hair options - clean shaven, slight goatee, and full on goatee. All three look pretty good! The goatees are not overlays and therefore can't be used on other character's skins.
There are also several eye options, which are fine but nothing to write home about.
Here's Rex out of the box with IRAY materials. This just doesn't look very good to me; I almost feel like his skin is covered with a thin film of white powder or something.
(I don't think it's the fault of the HDRI; all characters I've worked with so far look good in this light.)
Here's Rex with Anagenessis materials (but without the Anagenessis product). I also gave him more masculine lashes and applied one of the darker eye options.
I don't love how his skin now has a yellow/green tinge but otherwise this looks better to me than the standard IRAY skin.
Here's Rex with Anagenessis materials again, with the translucency turned up to 0.90. I also gave him a goatee, whitened his sclera a little, and tweaked his body shape.
I feel now I'm getting somewhere. Even so, it's just not the most exciting skin in my opinion.
And just as a reference, here's Rex with a tweaked G8M base skin.
It's a bummer that Rex' skin just doesn't excite me. But he's still a very handsome character and I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with him. I'm currently rendering my first "proper" render with him, will post it here as soon as it's done.
If anybody has suggestions about how to give Rex' skin more depth, I'm all ears!
@Hylas, I just wanted to point out you don't need to own the Anagenessis product to use the Anagenessis materials. The product is a merchant resource.
I admit, I wasn't terribly happy with the Iray materials for Rex. It wasn't until I applied the Anagenessis materials that I started seeing skin like that in the promos. (I really should try applying Diva's Altern8 system to Rex.) Anyway, you may recall the "promo" image of Rex I posted in here a few months back. Both variations of the figure are using the Anagenessis materials. And because it was a promo style, I didn't tweak any of the materials that came with Rex.
(The figures were rendered separately with a transparent background, and composited in Photoshop. For lighting, I used the LY Leonine Pro HDR Lighting Vol.2 set.)
Ok, that explaines that. Thanks!
Gallery link
Voilà! Anagenessis skin option with translucency at 0.90.
Freebie links:
Pose by Serene Night: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/sn-my-man-poses/79832
Hair by zoro_d: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/everyday-hair-style-for-genesis-8-male-s-/80194
Room by OneSix: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/contemporary-loft/77790
HDRI by CGAxis: https://free.cgaxis.com/product/morning-island-hdri/
Aaaand months of restraint fly out the window! Heh. Decided anniversary sale best time to start spending money I don't have again. :) Also, I've been away so long without doing any art at all, that I've totally forgotten how to do EVERYTHING so I'll probably be asking lots of dumb questions. Anything interesting happen while I was gone? Daz fix the store yet? *hysterical laughter* :)
Welcome back!
Well, of course you have the answer to your question. Anytime a sale launches, there's a good possibility something is messed up, and a possibility it'll go smoothly. One thing I've noticed lately is how cluttered the sale pages are, with so many things to wade through in the PA sale page, I gave up on a lot of them. Too many different offers, and not always clear which section they were talking about.
It was too much of "if this than that, and that gives you those or these..." Boggled my simple mind. I became pretty intolerant to having to put SO much work into trying to figure out what category they were referring to, (and judging by the sales thread comments, I definitely wasn't alone) and things being included in sales that were wrong and pulled, yada yada. (One day was a pretty big removal, I went to bed and most the things in my cart were no-nos when I got up)
I do commend Daz for trying to offer a variety of things so more people can be appeased, but those sale pages were just mind boggling clutter at times to me. I think the PAs did a bang up job of offering a variety, and there's been a lot of nice products. I've bought quite a few, I just don't have time to test/render them. I really should do that within the 30 days, but does anyone else have a problem with rendering so late you can't remember what sale purchases were required to get the price you got? Aka, if it takes two things to get 50% off, and you return one thing, you don't want your other items jumping off the charts! You'd have to write down each cart and how you got the prices. YUCK.
Okay folks, have any of you bought shoes, a new release, and checked out? There's no banner popping up yet, but the price in the cart and the Paypal price isn't the same. And the Paypal price held during processing too, and I checked my email and the price indeed went through as shown in Paypal, not the cart.
There's nothing in my exclusive messages either. Whatever is going on, please be sure you aren't paying MORE in Paypal than what the cart says. At the moment, it's working to your advantage but I have to think there's some banner that is being applied that isn't popping up anywhere yet. This isn't a store glitch, the prices in the cart are 70% off for the shoes, as advertised, with a new release. The total goes wonky and just in case it starts charging you MORE I feel this needs to be addressed straightforward.
I wanted to make a Halloween themed Avatar and in doing so used some products that others might of wanted reviewed, especially for autumn themed renders, because they are useful, so I will make a new review.
a) Fantasy Scene and Lights - Ever need a prelit scene with pretty backdrops and interesting character pedestals? This is your product then. It includes a variety of backdrops and the pedestal is configurable for a lot of different outdoor looks. Hey, and if you don't like any of those plants you can hide or retexture them and use plants from another product like I did in my Halloween scene. When I'm feeling lazy but want small footprint and easy to use environment this is the product I use. It's a 3DL era product so you'll need to select the photometric button in the Lights tab to make it iRay compatible, Since it's a DAZ Original it's often on sale, it is now at $5.39 USD but regularly at $19.95. The product gets an Grade A when it's on sale for less than $10 USD but a Grade C at full price. A Grade C is not bad, something has to be average and functional products with limited scope are average in the DAZ Store.
Truthfully, more of my reviews should be handling out Cs but it's hard to separate artistically iking a product with it's technical and economic qualities. With that consideration you can consider at full price every product I've ever reviewed drops 2 letter grades while on sales of 50% off or more then earn the letter grade I gave them originally.
b) Props Pack - Harvest Fruits - This is an old RuntimeDNA freebie product I got as a freebie almost 10 years ago but never actually used until today. They are now DAZ Originals at $5 USD full price but often on sale for $3 USD or less. Includes Indian Corn, 2 Apples, 2 Pears, Pumpkin. The cornucopia is another product included in Props Pack - Cornucopias, perfect for those autumn and Thanksgiving scenes. These are 3DL era props so you'll need to convert the Uberiray Iray converter preset to them and if you don't like store waxed fruit you'll need to adjust the glossiness to get rid of the grocery store shine. You can introduce a bit of variety by editing the surfaces colors and the model sizes by scaling. At full price these get a Grade C- and on sale for 50% off or more they get a Grade A-.
c) Pumpkin Jack's Pumpkin Patch - Here in this render I use only the scarecrow & Jack-O'Lantern but the full product includes a mini-environment of a typical New England style front yard with a picket fence and a couple of small trees/shrubs. Surprisingly it includes only a Jack O'Lantern and no pumpkins. The Jack O'Lantern can have the candle turned on or off though and has a variety of texture colors. It's a cute nostalgic type Halloween scene. This product as a PC+ product of $1.99 USD gets an A- but at $16.95 USD for non-PC+ members a C-.
d) Toon Boy and Boyish dForce Outfit for Genesis 8 Male - This is great product for those that want a professional big screen CGI toon boy when morph is dialed in at 100% At less then 100% it will turn your 3D characters based on Genesis 8 into Toon character caricatures in that 'Big Screen' CGI Toon style (or adults if you are careful to put children in stereotypical children's clothing doing children's activities and the adults in adult clothing doing adult activities). It comes with one set of typical boy's clothing. On sale for 50% off or more I give the product a Grade A+ but even at full price of $19.95 USD I have trouble faulting it or claiming it's not worth $19.95 when it is, so I give it a Grade A at full price. Feel free to grade it on your own scale but I can't really fault the value it gives for what it claims to be at full price.
e) Tousled Hair for Genesis 3 and 8 - Tousled Hair for Genesis 3 and 8 is a very nice product and comparatively cheap compared to some other hair products. It comes with multiple morphs for longer messy styles to short neat styles like you'd see on children and young adults that keep their childhood hair styles. It's a very popular product; one need only browse the DAZ Gallery and see how much it and the even more popular Classic Side Part Hair for Genesis 3 and 8 are used in hobbyist renders. I guess that popularity is because those are the only two products that have a realistic look to probably the most 3 or 4 popular hair styles on males. Are they perfect? No. They can look straw like. The color can look dyed instead of natural. There are ways around that by using multiple instances but you need a better computer than I got to do that. And those work-around methods aren't included as presets. The product could of stood to have mirror images. These are DAZ Originals so they often go on sale. At full price they get a Grade C at 50% off or more they get an A even though they are better than 90% of the other male hair products available to you they are still average in value.
f) Knickerbockers for Genesis 8 Male(s) - I like the PA Oskarsson's DAZ 3D catalogue as they are one of the few that consistently make good efforts at making authentic historical period clothing. I've not managed it yet but I plan on buying all of this PA's clothing catalogue. With this product you'll see a style made famous in old movies, comic books, advertising art and so on. Did you ever wonder why baseball clothing (I hate the new George Hedrick long legged pant style, which most MLB teams are now unwisely allowing, as it is actually increasing the chance of baseball player injury but whatever) was made like it is? You can thank the Knickerbocker style. Anyway back to the product review. The drape is great, the material sets are great, the fit is great (no poke through that I saw even in a comically proportioned character as in my render) and the full price is very reasonable for this product. I give this product a Grade A at full price and a Grade A+ on sale at 50% or more off.
g) Corn Stalks and Fields - Uh, I need to make my reviews more concise and to the point. Here is a product I really wanted to like but am disappointed by because the included corn stalk bundles are not very realistically bundled. These bundles of corn stalks and other bundles of agricultural plants have a special name but I'll be darned if I can remember what that word is. I guess I shouldn't complain because at least the PA attempted to do that, which isn't easy. The corn patch and shape of the corn stalks themselves is good and both green and brown materials are supplied for the models which is nice for summer and autumn scenes. Expecting a scene preset with a nice field of corn and corn stalk bundles? Not included. At full price I give a Grade C- and on sale at 50% off or more I give a B-.
h) Wild Flower Plants vol 4 - Wheatfields - I had been wanting wheatfields for a while and so bought this product on sale. Much to my surprise and disappointment no presets for a wheatfield scene were included. The product is more accurately titled Wild Flower Plants vol 4 - Wheat Plants. Also disappointing was no really brown material sets where included. A couple of groups of instanced wheat stalks were included. No bundle of wheat stalks was included. The actual modeling of the wheat was done well though. Although I'm not returning this product I was disappointed. At full price it's not a good value. At sale price of 50% off or more it is an average value. So a Grade D at full price and a Grade C at sale prices of 50% off or more.
i) DAZ House Cat with dForce Hair - The cat modeling is good but not great. The paws are off. The face seems to be a compromise between a female house cat and a male house cat when what is needed is a male morph and a female morph. The dForce fur is great in many style presets but I wouldn't bother actually dForce simulating it unless you want to simulate a wet cat. It comes with a small set of useful poses, one of which I used in my Halloween avatar. At full price the product gets a grade C- while on sale for 50% off or more it gets a Grade B-.
So that's it for the review. Quite a lot of products were used in this render, some of which I've reviewed before. For a full listing of products used follow the thumbnail to my DAZ Gallery.
That cat looks a lot like a female I had, remember the one that got out the door and I never found? Eevie? November 17 will be two years :(
I really like the corn stalks and the "Indian Corn" as we used to call it.