NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6
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Rating: Recommend Char Hair (Gen2F), Bath Wear, Ballerina Outfit (Gen2F), Ballet Poses for Josie and Genesis 2 Females. Notes: lengthen robe appears not to be an option.* Robe has nice open/close adjustments for the chest.
The bathrobe is first shown with Soft shader.
This is Kahina (Renderosity) wearing Char Hair and Bath Wear (Genesis 2 Females) from Dumor. First render is not the Bath Wear, it's another robe. The third render has "increase fluffiness" and I diffused the color from white to a light gray so it would hold more details. *I did NOT see a way to lengthen the robe, in Scene, the hip/thigh/ etc only has Scale, which does all of it, not just vertically. No Parameters adjustments/morphs for the length. Anyone find a way to lengthen it, let us know please. Slosh's UHT shader applied to hair for Iray.
Then Kahina is shown wearing Ballerina Outfit and Textures. The textures are not on the outfit page as a recommended product. If vendors don't check these things, they're missing out on sales. As a vendor, I'd also put it in the store search and if it didn't come up, raise a ruckus. The web team CAN easily fix that. (I had an online business/store eight years.) This one came up in the search. These are the ballet pose. (Josie and G2F)
SkySystem and the backgrounds have wonderful background images (other than the one Ron's background, they are used behind Kahina) so consider grabbing those. They are interesting products too, if you haven't seen that type of setup. Showcased quite awhile ago.
Gallerie Bastion Spacious Interior is in Fast Grab, it makes a good gallery, but also a museum, corporate offices, and conventions. I bet it could even be used for stores! Hmm, with architectural/etc shaders, it could be made to match the Secured Access Hallway... then you'd have a doozy of a corporation setup.
Rating: Recommend! (Obviously.)
So what fun! I found a couple props that might come in handy for you in scenes, a spiral staircase and some bubbles. They are BOTH in the same product. Can you guess which one? Glass shaders (Iray) were applied so don't let the color throw you, they are both white/gray. Scroll down for the answer. (And that's my background, go back and download those if you haven't and like it.)
Did you guess?
Pinups N Props For The Girl 6 Since Girl 7 is on the way (she was listed in one of the recent releases as one of the supported figures) I thought a Girl product would be timely. Don't you think she'd be an appropriate Valentine's Day release? Anyway, the bubbles are for the martini, but you can scale and have a blast. There are two separate bubble material groups. And the spiral staircase will come in handy wherever you put it. Again, it's a modern color, whitish-gray, and shaders can turn it into grungy, metal, etc. Keep an eye out for the Pinups N Props for Girl 6 in case they put the Girl 6 stuff on sale when Girl 7 is released. (They usually do that with related figures.) Go look at all the props in it.
Invited guest Contributer
Today's review is DTG Studios' Jayne for G3F by DTHUREGRIF from rendo. This character uses and requires: DAZ's Genesis 3 Female Head & Body Morphs sold in the DAZ store.
Jayne is a very interesting figure designed primarily for Iray. One thing I really like about her is her skin tone. It is more rosy than typical gen 3 females. I also really like the angular face, smaller eyes, and oddly enough, she has great and well-defined knees which are really nice looking.
She comes as a shape you inject to gen 3 female by script. There is no character to load. One thing you might want to adjust is the belly button. By default it is... Somewhat overwhelming in size. I have left it as it is so you can see whether you like it.She comes with a tattoo option, and multiple makeup options. Her eyebrows are rather thin but I think they suit her.
If you like the character, she has a really nice expression set which I bought since I really prefer subtle facial expressions.
Skin textures are optimized for iray, but look okay in 3delight.
Overall, I like this character. She has an edgy action-star fee, and I particularly like her shape minus the navel.
The ballerina outfit looks nice. I like how the lace looks on the crinoline.
Well, we certainly know what television show she is based on, hellllooo Blindspot. I like the show, it's different. I do not care for that belly button, it's a bit large for my personal tastes. She definitely has a well toned midriff and looks like she could hold her own with your Sarge character. The tats are quite interesting! I agree about the expressions, they look very fluid, not stiff.
Okay, anyone have Santo, Ashley, Tyrese? And I think SereneNight did one for Nathen a year ago, am I right? I don't have Zaid, either. Anyone have him? Edit: Hmm, or Klaus. Don't remember him either.
Ratings:
Recommend Sporty Braid and DM's Blox 'n Poses.
Somewhat Recommend: Afternoon Heat for the materials, they're lovely- and the satin trim on the hem is very pretty. Overall fit is good, no pokethrough. It does have a Smoothing modifier, but wasn't needed. Can't give it a total recommendation because Afternoon Heat has no strap morphs, it is up to the user to go into Scene, break it down to right collar and left collar, and bend, twist, forward, backward, and tweak. Many other shirts provide morphs for shoulder straps (as they should IMO) and the shoulder area. There were no morphs in Parameter>Actor. I'm going to save you time when trying to get a starting point on those straps, if your figure is reaching up in this position, try this for Twist/Front-Back/Bend/Scale: -9.60/-6.69/2.04/98%
The closeup shows the floating straps (and that is after tweaking though) and the entire figure shows the straps lowered and looking good. The pants went on without any problems and fit very nicely.
This is Suzanne (Sabby, Rendo) materials on Alessa, (can't go wrong with a Sabby/Silver/Countess combo, not sure if Silver or Countess does the figure morphs?) wearing Sporty Braid and DM's Blox 'n Poses. She is wearing Afternoon Heat. If you are rendering in Iray, increase the positive (0.54 or more) and negative (-0.79) bump and Bump Strength (82.5) in Surfaces, on the OUTER top. Otherwise it looks kinda flat in Iray. Background is another of Ron's.
Oh heads up on Marco. I narrowed down any M4's to Faber, as I've rendered his before and like them. Did you know Marco not only has a bloody mat (I don't need) but an OLDER man version too? I'd sketch in the eyebrows a tad, but woot, found another older person material!
Little bit of inside baseball, a fellow PA asked that she needed a shopping mall to showcase her clothing products, and knowing what was involved in making something of that scale I hesitated after doing some initial sketches, and then one day I saw this promo for "Day at the Mall" using Bastion Spacious Interior and figured it might be something people could use. And that's how the Mall got built. (plus a hundred hours or so)
Oooh, cool. And of course I have both the mall and gallerie...and the tunnel, and the security hallway
Great stuff! Have you or other PAs thought about doing stores for the mall? I put the Pizzaria in one and it looked good, but clothing stores are rather lacking. The shirts I've seen are all folded up squares without any wrinkles, things hanging stiffly on hangers (almost like cardboard) and overall not realistic. I do already have mannequins. Not sure what the exact term is for doing manufactured backgrounds on planes- is that instances?- but having some of that to put on background walls would also be neat for use with DOF.
I can only imagine the time it takes to build these sets!
I really like First Bastion stuff. Particulalry the sci-fi stuff of course. =-)
I enjoyed hearing about what inspired you. I too have a number of your sets and will be adding to them over time.
Here's a render of one of my most recent purchases - The Streets of Tuscany. Very nice set with good textures and plenty of spots to setup scenes. There's two versions - one with 3DL and one with Iray materials. For this scene, I added Giselle with Southern Peach Sundress Outfit. The pose was a combination pose made using Aave Nainen Vanilla Poses for Genesis 2 Female (which comes as part of MeriMay for Genesis 2 Females) and arms and head partial poses from i13 Alluring Charm Mega Organized Pose Collection. This kneeling pose was really more than this dress was made for, as it has very few adjustment morphs. Fortunately, it's a distant view so not very noticeable. I used a sky from Iray World Skydome. I like the variety of stone and faded stone textures plus the vines and various flower pots scattered about. No cameras come with the set, so you you have to explore on your own but the viewport is very responsive even with textures turned on, so easy to move about. It was very slow to render in Iray (for my computer at least) - this scene took 1 hour 40 minutes for 1200x960px.
The second render is also Iray. This one went faster, not sure why. Giselle with MeriMay dress.
For some better examples of this set in use, you should check out Mec4D's images posted on a thread in the Commons.
(click on images for larger version)
Rich, have you done the water with this set? Your buildings looked good. I fiddled a little with it when I first got it but had too much filing to do to play much. EDIT: And LOVE your camera angle pointing up. Extremely effective!
I sharpened this a bit, it really makes the stone texture stand out. One thing about those posts- I don't recall ever seeing posts go down the side of the curb they're embedded in. I thought posts just anchor / embed in it.
No, I haven't tried the water yet. But Mec4D has some posted here. She also posted about some tweeaks she did to the Iray materials here.
The sharpening helps! I'll need to give that a try.
Good eyes! Looks to me like the posts are offset a bit too much to the right and it looks like there is enough space to move them to the left so they would be centered. I checked another area with posts and they are centered in the flat top of the stone. The posts are selectable and can be moved, but the set you highlight (if I found the same set), is attached to the railings on the other side of the steps and the overlap can't be fully corrected unless you add a bit of z-scale to them.
Omgosh, Rabbicus / Rabbicac as an avatar. LOVE IT. LOL, I can just see you explaining that to other people.
I think Oskarsson did some pretty good clothing items in Dream Closet that could be perhaps used in the store scenario
http://www.daz3d.com/dream-closet
I do have plans to do some store interiors just haven't gotten around to it yet.
edit to add
and some signage
Hey, you're absolutely right, and I do have that product. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
BTW, I got stuck in that stupid sign in and sign out loop for over EIGHT MINUTES. Nothing worked. I tried clicking on a forum section quickly and did get to it but then it'd sign me out again before I could click a thread. Then I got faster and clicked a thread, it would go there and within a second sign me out again. (I like a challenge, what can I say?) I had refreshed the cache, entered from going to the store first, entered straight to the forum without going to the store (from the frontpage) and nothing worked. I tried putting a product in my cart, that didn't work either. I took the product out of my cart. Then I entered from (of all things) Fast Grab and I got in first try. They may have tweaked the problem but if you get stuck, try going to the store and through Fast Grab, and/or put a product in your cart and then go to Fast Grab and try the forum link from there. Couldn't hurt.
Okay, I rarely do scenes (pretty picky) but I was doing two outfits for you to show they are very compatible, and I got the giggles when I put the characters in the scene. They were originally going to be on the "same team" but I had already posed her and when he was placed in the scene, I thought, "What if..."
So I went to look at the statements for the Because I Said So! and wanted to tackle the Mad Libs (the harder ones, with multiple blanks) and this is what I came up with. I hope you like it, it really made me smile. Go gals! I'll talk more about the products and some tips on the render in the next post.
Title: "Oh, you don't say..." (Madlibs- the bold is the fill in the blank, there were a specific number of words you could use, making it harder.)
"But I've always wanted to capture ninjas in a forest... and it's criminal, it's so easy."
Could also use this:
"My dream "Couples Competition Weekend" definitely included losing her really quickly!"
Dragontech Ninja
Muelsfell Hagswood
Ragnar Gianni 7 wearing Adam Hair (Gen 3 M)
HFS Wraith Suit for Genesis 2 and 3 Males
FWSA Brayden HD for Leo 7 wearing Fraser Hair
oh i love that!
I have that Hagswood too but I've never been able to get it looking as good as what you did there :)
Ratings on all those products: Recommend. Really surprised by Dragontech Ninja and Muelsfell Hagswood.
Dragontech Ninja is sleek and sassy, and frankly not at all what I expected based on the promo. THESE WERE NOT IRAY MATERIALS AND I DID NOT DO ANYTHING TO THEM! Wow factor! Go look at the promos (which remind me of alien guts all over it) now look at mine. Wishlist it if you don't have it, it's a super outfit!!!! Comes with the mask, I didn't use it.
If you want a good companion suit to that, the HFS Wraith Suit (Gen 2, 3 Males) goes very nicely with it. To match the color of black though, put the base color at a blue gray .37 / .46 / .48 and I can't remember if I changed Glossy Color but that is a gray at .54's across the board. I changed the color of the other Wraith Suit by putting in blues where there were whites in the Surfaces, to show he wasn't part of the "couples team." No tweaks were made to the materials, looks so good in Iray! (Edit: has Iray materials, the Dragontech Ninja does NOT. Look at both together- that's why I wanted folks to know they make a great male/female set in Iray!)
EDIT: Regarding the hair (I added links, above) the Fraser Hair has a fun combination- the blue/black. If I recall (did this yesterday) the black wasn't very dark. I did NOT add Slosh's shader to any of the hair products. The girl is not listed as she is not Daz, (discussed in a post below) but she is wearing Terri Hair. I love that hair, great for windblown, casual, pulled back hairstyles.
Muelsfell Hagswood- I turned off the mushrooms, and it's nice to be able to turn things off. Some things are in large groups however, so you can't turn just one or two off. The mushrooms are in two large groups. This vendor really- REALLY went the extra mile to give you options to move things independently, aka, the rock debris is a separate item from the big rocks. This is a GREAT woods because you can turn the hag trees around and they become average trees. The trees in the foreground (the bigger ones) are all the Hagswood trees. Which brings me to...
If you don't have the Multiplane Cycloramas, or forgot about them, they are SO useful! They did fine with Iray, see next paragraph. The woods in the background are a cyclorama. Here's some of them:
Heart of the Sea which you saw with my mermaid (wow, I really can type in Google: Novica daz (product name) and usually get the immediate link to my previous thread posts and the invited guest contributer reviews. Try it next time you want to see if we've covered a product.)
Go to this one (product) for quite a few links to other cyclorama products (In Required)
To use the M.Cyclorama with the Iray lights, the panels, as you are looking at the scene, are in the back and curve to your right. My light came in from the left. TIP: To get realistic forest lighting, I made sure to put more of the Hagswood trees to my left (out of view) so the light would filter through. There are NO spotlights on his face or on her, it was how the light fell coming through the trees. Tip: To use the Cyclorama like that (with it in back and to your right) put your Dome Orientation Y to 240.
Tip: Remember you don't have to just tweak the lights. Her complexion is very pale compared to Ragnar's so I simply put a darker Diffuse color for her skin. (Go to Surfaces.) The color I used (which comes in handy) is 211/201/201 for scenes with other ruddy characters. It's a light mauve/pink.
Tip: If she is not kneeling on a surface, be sure to put your camera angle so there is space showing between her knee and the surface. Look at where her knee is in this render- hovering ABOVE the rock. I did the camera angle based on that as one of the main priorities. She had to look like she had just landed and was ready to spring. Resting her weight on her knee based on the camera angle would really make that energy go "poof."
Next post- the render that started it all lol.
well i definitely have to start trying out more of these props/scenes in iray. I tend to gloss over the non-iray stuf cos I'm too lazy to play with the surfaces to get them looking good in iray.
The Cyclorama thingy...I did a post in the pc forum ages ago where I went through and searched and tried to find ALL the add ons for it, cos we no longer have that link on product pages where you used to be able to find all add ons for something. I'll see if i can find it again as it may be a help to someone.
One other thing for newbies, or if you haven't done Multiplane Cyclorama renders- to make your props and background work together nicely with depth of field, (and frankly make it easier to set up) move your props (trees) BACK and scale them larger to compensate for being moved. They're easier to get out of focus and really blend in nicely!
BTW I am going back and adding the hair links to the list of used products (in this thread, not the contest thread.)
While I'm on a roll here, to tweak fingers and get them to go over a curved surface, start with joint 1 on the finger and use the Bend feature. Raise it a bit, then go to joint 2. You may not even need to use joint 3. Joint two is really the one to establish a nice arch- if you don't use that one, your fingers are fairly straight. If the fingers are pulled taunt and flat, they will embed in the surface if it's rounded. Take a close look at her fingers- they are comfortable because there is a slight arch. (Zoom in. Click and click again. Those suckers took me twenty minutes, going around to every angle. Speaking of which, remember to go UNDER and look up to see if there's any space between the surface and fingers.)
That would be great! I had forgotten there was a beach background. I hadn't played with any of these in Iray so it was a pleasant surprise to see the results.
Found it!
It was a list of all the ones I could find for Multiplane Cyclorama, Woodland Realm and the Millenium Environment backdrops.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/48344/woodland-realm-playset-multiplane-cyclorama-millennium-environment-add-ons
Most of them were converted to .duf files too, as mentioned by Jen in the thread. I doubt very much whether they even need converting to iray materials, as they are really just backdrops with the occassional prop (tree, bush etc) thrown in.
Oh my goodness, I'd forgotten there were so many! Forsaken Vale looks like a great woodsy background too! This should be a sticky, you sure put a lot of work into that. Hey Daz, we want a Cyclorama sale! (I have all of them, not saying that for me.) Thanks so much Jakiblue!
Rating: Recommend BWC Fight Poses, Aminata Hair, Dragontech Ninja.
Okay, here's what started all this. I am converting my Rendo characters (V4) to Genesis 2 Females, and doing the materials first. (Then will GenX2 the morphs later.) The girl is Naisa (Rendo) using Destiny for Olympia morphs. Wanted to show you Sci-Fi folks an interesting material set, and also a fun use of Aminata Hair- using two settings (14 and 15) together. So I added the Z striping and mohawk rows together. (Be sure you buy the hair, not the character, which is simply called Aminata.) Interesting! The Naisa character also has fun rainbow makeups where that cutout section goes, keeping the cracked surfaces.
In case you like the pose, it's BWC Fight Poses for Aiko 6 and Genesis 2 Females, this was number 3. So if you need some ninja poses and good all around stances/fight poses, check those out, there's a nice variety. HEADS UP IT'S SIXTY PERCENT OFF RIGHT NOW!
Edit: And this is what it looked like without the cyclorama!
As for free Cyclorama textures ... http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=hobobo&division_id=11
Thanks Kerya! How exactly do those work? Is it putting an image on the plane? Any special photography required, aka, high definition? I could contribute some cool backgrounds if I knew what I had to do and if it wasn't really time consuming. (a riding arena, a really nice barn interior, bamboo against a fence, etc) There's even old Spanish fort ruins here in Pensacola.