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DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
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© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
You are so kind, inquire! I'm truly enjoying the use of Benji as a base figure for AME/ASE. While the differences between my (current) 2 variants of Benji aren't wildly dissimilar, using moderation with all the parameters has given him one physique that reminds me of a dude who plays football with his buddies on the weekends and grabs a beer with them afterwards. The other, more dialed up physique looks like he's been hitting the gym a couple of times a week -- and then going out with his buddies for a beer.
Without our awesome vendors and artists who create wonderful products and inspire us with fantastic imagery, I wouldn't be doing any of this. I just spin some dials and hit render. I tend to spend a lot of time trying to get a character looking just right before showing him off. And I've made more than my fair share of dubious parameter/stylistic choices along the way. Always learning, though!! Mistakes and all. LOL!
Thank you for the encouragement to keep pursuing my hobby!
Lee
AME and ASE are invaluable to my DAZ workflow. As mentioned above, I've been having fun tinkering around with the Benji figure. Here are 3 variations on Benji using AME/ASE and a variety of other morphs/figures added to the mix.
Lee
Looking great lee!
Well back onto G8M, not overly impressed with 8.1 to date. Also seems I just don't like characters without some AME in them, and my limited porting onto G8F just doesn't seem quite right, so I went back to the drawing board again on my ERC's with other products to get the look I was after. Here are the current results.
Lee, I like your exploration into not so ripped figures, I have also been experimenting with aging figures, but nothing I want to post yet. TD
Nice work, TD. I was really hoping that 8.1 would have some way to enhance/sharpen up the effect of muscle morphs and related products. It's about time that G8F got a decent split bicep without good folks like you bending over backwards to try to replicate it on a male platform.
Incidentally, I happened to notice that D_Master was apparently here in early February. Hopefully he's doing well.
Thanks RenderPretender, I jump back and forth quite a bit, get inspired by some little nugget, then experiment, and ultimately not be satisfied. Oh well, keeps me digging and learning more about all the tools allready in DAZ.
That is encouraging news about D.Master!
TD
Experimenting with adding some age or maturity to some characters, turns out it is not simple! So below is a former body builder, and the second is Michael 8.1 with some mature elements added. Seems lots of folks didn't like the college age look of him, so tried giving him a little more weathered look.
Those look great, Terry! I've been messing about with a few characters and tend to experiment with older/younger variations to see how they look.
Not sure if I posted a render of my "final" version of the Mature Muscle Man, so forgive me if this is a repeat.
Older and muscular with (I think) the HD details of Ollie and Floyd (maybe others) dialed in. Probably some body/skin sag from an aging package thrown in for good measure. I was hoping to make this character look aged and slightly worn down, but with a great physique. Whether or not I achieved that, I do like how he turned out. :)
Lee
Great work all! If I ever get to have more than a couple of hours home some weekend, I hope to work on some that approach this calibre.
Thanks guys, these older and "weathered" characters end up taking some extra time and are forcing me into the higher resolution modes for rendering to get at the details. My poor gaming laptop is starting to struggle.
Lee still impressed by your ability to light and show off your characters to such dramatic effect.
Sigurd, can't wait to see what you cook up next.
TD
Thank you Sigurd and Terry!!
I've been sort of skipping around between characters, evolving one and then taking what I've learned and working on another one. Round and round. :)
At the moment, I have Calvin loaded with my usual Swole setting dialed to 0%, kept AME in the 25-ish% range, ASE pretty much 100%, and dialed back some details to give him a softer/less defined, yet muscular physique. I keep coming back to that body type and reference my memories of a college roommate as a guide. The rib cage area needs some smoothing and I think I'm getting close to my vision of the character now. I'll post a render when/if I get something worthy. :)
For my empty scene, I've been using a flat plane for the floor with a gradiant circular opacity map applied to smoothly feather in transparency at the outer edges. I've been using various HDRI maps for the environment dome set to low intensity. Main lighting comes from 2 ghost lights that are set to point at a null object at neck/head height for a standard character. The 2 ghost lights are roughly opposite each other with the primary fill light being in front and the (usually) weaker rim light located in back. I can rotate the null object to rotate the 2 lights in unison in order to spin them around the figure. This gives the highlighting/shadowing that brings out the body contours quite nicely. I do rotate the null object mostly on the y-axis, but also on the x-axis to direct more main lighting from above, but also send some highlights from the 2nd light upward. I typically don't use very much x-axis rotation -- a little goes a long way. :)
Thanks again for the kind comments and especially the great examples of everyone's work!!
Lee
Alrighty, here are a couple of Calvin renders. He's mostly Calvin with small amounts of The Brute and Maxx dialed in. One of the renders has no HD Details dialed in. The other one uses The Brute HD Details at 100%. Both have additional little muscular shaping tweaks dialed in and Cartoonized at a low value to give the head a little bit more rounded structure and a trim waistline (which I go back and widen up again - LOL!) AME Body is 25% and ASE is 100% except for the Neck at 25%.
And yes, I'm goofing around with yet another HDRI Environment map. It's the same one in both renders, just from a different camera position.
Lee
Your work is gorgeous! Nice blend of surrealistic and realistic. Hard balance to find, so nice job!
Out of curiosity, what HDRI Environment Maps are you using? The blue one from your earlier work is amazing!
Thank you so much, Write Idea!
My goal has been to create stylized characters with a realistic flavor. I'm glad that I've begun to accomplish that. :)
If you're referring to the environment I'm using in the attached render, it's from this product: https://www.daz3d.com/perfect-portrait-lights
I simply dropped the "Oceansoft.hdr" file into the Environment Map slot in Render settings and adjusted the map settings as shown in the attached screen capture.
Also, I'm using a flat plane for the floor. It has a circular gradiant opacity map applied and a mirror shader to give the reflective floor. There are 2 ghost lights pointing at a null object that I've placed in the head/neck area. They are also parented to the null object so I can rotate the null object and have the lights spin around the figure. They provide the bulk of the lighting for the scene.
I hope that helps!
Lee
This one is in my gallery. He's about 65% Calvin, 25% Maxx and Brute, 25% Cartoonized, 25% AME Body, 30% AME Veins, and mostly 100% ASE. Plus a fair amount of muscle group and shaping morphs. The outfit is from the BoneBreaker set and is awesome.
I like the overall physique of this one.
Lee
Love the look of him, Lee. He, too, reminds me of a certain actor.
Thank you, inquire!! I wasn't trying to make him resemble anyone in particular, just going for a pleasing look. Unless I subconciously made him turn out this way. :)
Lee
It did help out, thank you, Lee! Gonna have to buy the Perfect Portrait Lights; I can't believe those are PC. Great quality stuff!
Your work is just fantastic! Great job and keep up the wonderful work!
You are very welcome, Write Idea! So glad I could help. :)
I'm always on the lookout for some portrait studio style HDRI environment maps. And the ones in the Perfect Portrait Lights set are so nice.
Thank you again for the very kind words on my images. Very much appreciated!!
Lee
Awesome job lee. I will often look to your characters for motivation when I cannot seem to get some detail right.
Keep it up!
Thank you, Sigurd! You create awesome characters and have inspired me to experiment with AME and other products to get characters in the spirit of yours.
Looking forward to seeing more of your renders once your job settles down!
Lee
Thanks! I am looking forward to a break. This working out of state Monday - Friday every week is getting old. But I am enjoying the paychecks :) I am going to download Daz3D to my laptop and see if it can handle it.
I feel for you, Sigurd! There was a time in my career when I was temporarily located out of state (New Mexico and Nevada) to work on a couple of related special projects. Exciting work, but I didn't like being away from home for a few months. Home never felt so good when I got back. Then I changed jobs and moved again. LOL
Stay well and enjoy the work and pay!!
Lee
Another Kitty Pryde with battle costume on. I replaced/updated all the textures, and also replaced the main costume and boots. While not technically AME (this is G8F), there is ASE, AFE, and AME inspired body morphing. Additionally my own custom bicep d-morphs (the baseline G8F has anemic biceps IMO), and plenty of ERC's to go around! I really love how the costume turned out.
Thought about this all day at work, Sigurd and Leemoon inspired version of Logan, comic book not movie based. (5'3" and 300 lbs!). 65% AME, 100% Flex, tuned ASE, 20% Musculature HD with 20% Flex, my own ERC's, and a host of other sliders! Also some Mesh Grabbing to reduce the hair poke thru the tank top, and extend the incisors. Actually quite fun! So comic book style, that the claws are as long as the forearm. TD
I really like your Logan.
Terry, both your new renders are awesome. You continue to amaze us with what you do. I'm with inquire, your version of Logan is terrific!
Thank you for continuing to share your images and process with us!!
Lee
Great work on both Terry. Kitty is inspired and Logan was spot on. Did it bother anyone else that the actor that they picked to play him in the movies (Hugh Jackman) was so tall? His height, or lack thereof, seemed like such a huge part of his character in the comics.
My .02
It initially bothered me, but I got over it, as Hugh embodied what I believed the character should be. We will wait on the next installment on what the MCU has in store, I am excited, because Spiderman was much closer to what I envisioned!,
Thanks all, as I have been pondering this character for awhile. May update in the classic costume, if it fits well, as it is based off of the G3M platform, sometimes things don't transfer well.
Update: Here is Logan in the G3M costume, only took a few tweaks. TD
I really like Logan with the G3M outfit, Terry! The classic look is perfect. :)
Lee