Novica, Serene Night, & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 3
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Just checked- all lights in that render were white to whitish BLUE. This dude has some serious red problems.
Without hair, 86% in 8 minutes.
Am going to play with diffuse, etc and some settings I don't have a clue about, lol. Am going to do the same postwork settings as the one above. Just keep checking this post, I will put them here. Took his shirt off so you can see more skin.
Hmmm. I rarely use purely white light for the main illumination (usually anything in the warm color range from whitish-yellow to whitish-red).
Blue I only use for the ambient or "fill" light. Unless I want the image to look cold, like a snow scene.
Depends on the character's skin mats :) EDIT: And it wasn't pure white. The point I was trying to make was, it sure as heck wasn''t reddish!
Sorry, don't want to monopolize your thread, so I'll be quiet after this post.
Non SSS textures, 3 light set up, all pure white.
1 UE2 Intensity 40
1 Distant Light, Diffuse only, Intensity 60
1 Distant Light, Specular only, Intensity 100
Using the Default blue DS background color.
ETA: Sorry just realized you were talking about the skin specular settings, not the lights. I've had a very bad cold for about 5 or 6 days now. That is my excuse. :)
You're not. Feel free.
I am tweaking the Specular Glossy to 10%, Noise Density to 10%, Subsurface Strength to 25% and will post shortly. Then I'm done with experimenting. Seems to be working. Color 76 / 134 / 143 Specular. Will post here in about 8 minutes.
EDIT: Previous one was better I think.
Voila, I got it. Rendering now, will be an hour at least because putting hair and clothes back on. He looks good.
EDIT: I did a closeup so it will be at least four hours the way it is going. I don't even know if this will turn out, I added a spotlight from behind and just guessed based on my experience. It could wash out the arms in front if it hits them. Oh well :)
Getting some sleep- I put a heating pad in the box/blankets I have on the front porch for a feral cat, but the heating pad shuts off every 2 hours for safety sake (so people don't get burned.) So I've got to get some sleep but wake up in a couple of hours to reset the heating pad. Real feel is 20 degrees. Kitty is not- pettable but I feed every night and provide a really warm bed/safe haven. Vet was ultra sweet and gave me a wormer (not supposed to unless they see the cat) so he gained weight and is a happy kitty. Sometimes comes during the day as I leave dry food out. He was skin and bones - definitely abandoned / feral.
SSS textures that came with Gabe, 4 light portrait set up
1 UE2 (fill-light) Intensity 40, whitish-blue color
1 Distant Light (sun), Diffuse only, Intensity 60, whitish red color
1 Distant Light, Specular only, Intensity 100, pure white
1 Distant Light (back-light), Specular only,
Invited Guest Contributor
I just want to share my love for a very good set that has some unique features that I missed when I bought it that really makes it stand out.
The set is Lady Worthington.
One thing I have not just a small problem with is that almost every female outfit has high heels, even those being fantasy or medieval. So does Lady Worthington. But, here is the fabulous twist, the boots have a low heels morph, and the other garments have interesting morphs too, which makes this outfit so much more useful and worth the money.
The two images attached here show very different looking outfits, but the difference is only achieved by using the morphs and the UV set changers, which changes the UV sets to compensate for the different morphs, which really take this set far beyond "normal".
Hat off for ~esha~ for creating this very versatile and useful set.
Here's my last one of Gabe. G'nite all.
It's interesting what you were able to do with the pants, you're right about the morphs!
Yeah, it's downright hard to get away from the heels. Difficult to find something between heels and not-perfectly-flats.
Gabriel (DAZ 3D, Countess, Silver)
http://www.daz3d.com/gabriel
Day By Day For Genesis 2 Male(s) (DAZ 3D, Mada, Sarsa)
http://www.daz3d.com/day-by-day-for-genesis-2-male-s
NOTE: also available: http://www.daz3d.com/day-by-day-for-genesis-2-male-s-textures
Brit Hair For Genesis 2 Male(s) (DAZ 3D, Goldtassel )
http://www.daz3d.com/brit-hair-for-genesis-2-male-s
CHANGE YOUR SPECULAR TO: 76 / 134 / 143
6 spotlights, make sure one of them is 222/ 210/ 147 at 54% from the front. THIS IS THE DEAL BREAKER.
The other spot lights are a whitish blue, between 35-60% with one at 14%
Scatter distant lights and keep them whitish blue
I like mine better than the promo. I'd buy mine, lol!
CLICK TO ENLARGE AND CLICK AGAIN. Lots of detail!
(I couldn't go to bed when I saw this coming in. Was very happy about the way it was coming in.)
Done!
There are several products with petals -- EvilInnocence has one on clearance at renderosity. I did some digging, and this one is actually a freebie, available for download from Japanese artist Sannzi:https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=D4BD64505C41989D&id=D4BD64505C41989D!114 For some reason, a link directly to the skydrive isn't working. I had to copy and paste the address to a new tab in my browser to make it work. (Had a devil of a time finding it -- had to translate the blog pages from Japanese! Thank you Google Translate!) It's the "Cherry Petal 3HI" zip. It used to be a PoserWorld download, I believe.
Gah. I had decided that I didn't have any interest in the Jayden/Josie bundles... but DAZ just threw a pop-up coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase. I know it will be months before the price is this low again. I'm very torn!! And I have to make up my mind fast!!
Wait -- nevermind! Doesn't apply to new releases. Shew!!
Karibous- the hairs in the Jayden bundle are really, really nice IMO, I just used the second one.The outfit I used (Day To Day) had nice details, and I think the poses (not the funky extreme one with the hand gestures, the first one in the Pro pack) are going to be useful for day to day stuff. I got the splotchy out of Gabriel and shared how to do it, so that makes that character more useful if you like that end result. It just boils down to if you like the hair, the characters, what you'd pay individually if you wanted poses too. A lot of the Genesis poses work on Gen 2, with a touch of tweaking.
Also, getting the bundle pays off because the textures for all the clothes are under $4 so you clean up if you have the clothes- you get a lot more variety with the texture sets which are cheap. (You can always buy the textures and sit it out. I do that with fast grab, if I don't have something but the texture is on sale, I scoop it up and wait it out.)
Coming up- hair tutorials. I'm going to discuss the postwork (like I did for the dog eye) on the Gabriel hair below (later tonight, headed out the door) And I think this could be fun...
If you'd like some help, just dig and find a closeup (like the Gabriel I posted or closer) of a character whose hair lost detail due to lighting. Using Corel Photo Paint, I'll add back SOME of the pizazz and show you how to do it. (You can do this in Photoshop or any graphics program.) Tell me what you're challenge is, and I'll see if I can assist (as will the other members of the team if they'd like to do so. But you have to SHOW them, using their render, not just tell them.)
I am going to post images here, we'll discuss them later- but see if you can find all the postwork on the hair. I KEPT THIS AT A FAIRLY SIMPLE LEVEL. (It might look difficult if you don't draw, but just trust me.) A lot more can be done but then some of you might want to throw in the towel (plus I have too many other things to do besides spending an hour on this dude's hair frankly.)
First is the original, then the postwork, then a second postwork option. (It takes the second one and darkens one large area.)
EDIT: Adding the "group" so you can see side by side. Same order.
Just a reminder, thread 1 has the light reviews where I tested quite a few products on the same figure to show you what they do. It's linked form the first post. Have you used these products for some really nice lights? We covered the first one on this thread I think, but it was already way back on thread 1 :)
BRC Empathy
Garden Escape Well
Jordan Hair
Helena for V4
Royal Stairs
Gabi for V5
And many, many more. I'm on page 70 now (thread 1) of the links for the product reviews (yep, I work on those constantly. You'll see the links grow on the first page of this thread.)
The title of the thread was changed to recognize the hard work of our contributors. SereneNight and I appreciate your efforts very much.
I have Helena but I haven't loaded her texture often. She looks nice when I render with my lights. Thanks for reminding me about Helena for V4.
Weird you should mention THAT one- it's the one I just loaded to test! EDIT: to clarify-not testing on Helena, looking through to see who to test it on. (Probably Anais with the Dark Matter makeup that I showcased before. Want to see how the lights do on that kind of makeup)
A couple things I am noting from thread one- I am having a blast going back through that. So many fun renders buried (from several folks.)
https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/22131881-Beginning-Help-with-UberEnvironment-2
Tip from Barbult: To reduce the lag while posing and arranging things, use smooth shading instead of texture shading.
Tip from Barbult for when you have walls that are in the way and you can't set opacity to zero to hide them- changing the camera settings to get a more wide angle view: Select the camera in the scene tab. Click on Camera in the parameters tab. Change the focal length (mm) to a smaller number.You will see a dramatic difference.
Speaking of water- the light set with Roman Bath and the pool from that product may help you with water settings.
Helena For V4 Lights
This shows you the 01 light, 02 light, the 02 lights using those from below on a stronger strength. This is out of the box, and they are gorgeous when tweaked. (This is Anais who I showcased previously, I picked her due to the amount of skin showing. This was kitbashed if you'll recall with AssaSin Boots, Kenzi Skirt, and Adventure Girl Essentials: Huntress Vest.
So I was playing with another scene where I put 13 distant lights and 9 spotlights so I could at any time have a set to turn stuff off and on and see if I liked it. The last render is playing around to get a darker, dramatic look. This is NOT part of the Helena light set.
Todays Review:
SciFi Renegade
http://www.daz3d.com/scifi-renegade
by: DAZ 3D, Sarsa, Bobbie25
and
Duarte Hair
http://www.daz3d.com/duarte-hair
by: 3d Dream, Mairy
Some other content used
Aftermath (The DigiVault)
Digital Photography Indoor Backdrop Backgrounds Muslin Photo Studio Green Screen (ABUNIVERSALLLC) (Sold Elsewhere)
FW Dan Megapack (Skin only) (EmmaAndJordi, Fisty, FWArt)
FW Diana (Skin Only) (Daz 3d, FwArt)
M6 Intimates (Shirt) (Outoftouch)
http://www.daz3d.com/aftermath
http://www.daz3d.com/fw-dan-megapack
http://www.daz3d.com/fw-diana
http://www.daz3d.com/m6-intimates
I’ve had my eye on the SciFi renegade outfit for a while now, But I wasn’t sure about it. After seeing in the promo art it could also be used on men I decided to give it a whirl. I’m quite glad I did, because it is a versatile set that lends itself well to layers and kitbashing as well, and I really like the materials up close, and those boots.
You get a swimsuit style bodysuit, a shoulder piece (sleeves, top and arms), pants, and boots in this set and one texture. Yes, the swimsuit -style leotard gives the outfit a sexy look, but really in actuality not much different than a typical swimsuit, just with pants over it. If you don’t like the look, you can replace the swimsuit entirely with a t-shirt like I did with M6 in these renders for a more modest look. There is also a texture expansion if you are interested in more textures.
When I looked at the promo art I thought the shirt texture was camo. But it turns out it is actually a really shiny type of silver material which I love!
Thoughts: I found auto-fitting the set to gen 6 figures you have to turn off smoothing or the autofit goes insane and turns parts of the outfit to giant cubes. If you encounter this, turn off smoothing on the clothing article. It will remove the deformed looking pixels.
Second thought- belts and thigh decorations are a bit problematic and stretchy looking. This is not uncommon on genesis clothing, but keep an eye on those and adjust your character to minimize that look.
Overall. I love this outfit. I thought it rendered well, and would be useful outfit for your Sci-fi characters. I'm glad I bought it. =-)
Second thing I bought was Duarte hair. I love the hair! It is incredibly versatile with lots of textures (50) and an incredible shiny fine feel. It applies nicely to both genders and is a believable stylish haircut. You get 3 hairline styles and 20 hairstyles so you can change the look and feel of the style.
Just for comparison shots, both characters are wearing the same hairstyle, and the same clothes except M6 is wearing a male t-shirt instead of the female leotard .
Image 1: A couples shot wearing the outfit
Image 2: Olympia Solo
Image 3: Full length
@Novica: Nice work on those lights. I've added that character to my wishlist! =-)
Fun experimenting with them again. When I did all those lights on Chiara (character) I found some goodies. Going back through thread 1 was refreshing. :) The other lights I noted were:
Lantios Lights 2-02, 2-04, and and 2-10 would be a ghostly glow
Mood Lights number 8 is a darker scene choice with a bit of a glow
Merlin's Crossing Skydome 2 has a blue tone and 3 is the warmer tone, but those Skydomes are very good
Daz Dimension Lights 1 the 06 has a nice warm glow and 13 would be a good moon render.
I didn't jot down the first four or five pages of reviews, so there are quite a few more neat ones. Remember long ago when we were doing all the stuff on that thread? :)
I was waiting to see your Duarte Hair, knew you had it in the pipeline when you were talking about how much you liked it. You kept me in suspense. Good to see the Dan skin too.
Intro prices appear to be broken for new releases. Daz store is aware...Hopefully that'll get fixed soon! Looking forward to Male-M3dia's nice new release!
I believe this is now fixed :)
I believe this is now fixed :)
YEAH! Can't wait to try out the new Male-M3dia shapes. Sadly, won't probably get to play until late tonight due to life, but can't wait.
Invited Guest Contributor
M3DHero HD Shapes for Michael 6 http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases/m3dhero-hd-shapes-for-michael-6
Male-M3dia
He is large, towering over M6. He comes with a muscular base morph, an HD body morph, 2 head morphs and 3 more body morphs which can be mixed to slim him down, chunk him up, or just reduce the muscle mass. I really like this because he can look like a real person, instead of a freak. The head morphs are nice because they are so different from M6, with a straighter nose and big jaw. They mix well with M6, compensating for his pointy nose. LOL. On sale at half price right now and well worth $10!
Texture is Axel International M5. http://www.daz3d.com/axel-for-m5
(He also has private parts which are quite "heroic." ;-) )
I'm liking what I see of him already! His brows look better too. Great work! I like the bod, and the morphs as well. And I love the spandex morph option. I'm going to play right now!