Llynara's Loony Bin (WIP Thread)

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  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Ah, I love that term! "Upcycling" is a lot of fun!

    That said, I spent WAYYYY too much time bargain shopping today. Time to start shopping in my runtime (though I'll probably get lost in there too, lol.) I have more stuff than I could ever render in a lifetime. I picked up some really neat things in the blowouts lately that I can't wait to upcycle! So stay tuned for more oldies but goodies! 

  • SerumSerum Posts: 256
    Llynara said:

    Ah, I love that term! "Upcycling" is a lot of fun!

    That said, I spent WAYYYY too much time bargain shopping today. Time to start shopping in my runtime (though I'll probably get lost in there too, lol.) I have more stuff than I could ever render in a lifetime. I picked up some really neat things in the blowouts lately that I can't wait to upcycle! So stay tuned for more oldies but goodies! 

    Cant wait
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited May 2017

    Maharani for V3

    I've been waiting for a long time to catch this incredible outfit on sale. This is Renapd's Maharani for V3 set (Rendo) and it's huge. There are free expansions and bonuses that come with it that include many pieces and textures. Even some Indian backgrounds.

    Here it is on CynderBlu's gorgeous Imani for G3F (click for much larger pic): 

    The textures and most of the meshes for the clothing render very well. I used smoothers and Sub D on it. They looked good before hand, and amazing afterward. I stopped this render early, as there are a few issues with it. The neck and head jewels are very flat. I tried adjusting the bump and just about every other trick I know, but there's no way to fix that. They're textures applied to a flat surface. I checked the original pictures and they're flat in there too. So I'll find some other jewerly for the final and fix her hair. 

    The dancing veil is very cool, but you can't really morph it. I tried applying its beautiful texture to an Optitex bedsheet and draping that, but I didn't get the results I wanted. For now, the work around is to pose around the issues so it doesn't look like one. All in all, the colors and set is stunning and converts well to Iray. I'll fix the issues and do a wallpaper soon.

    Maharani Imani1.jpg
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    Post edited by Llynara on
  • DarwinsMishapDarwinsMishap Posts: 4,087

    Other than the issues you mentioned, such vibrant colors.  Nice conversion!

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,345
    I agree. Lovely colors.
  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    Yep, I love those colors, too.  That's a shame about the jewelry.  Other than that, it looks pretty good.

  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,152

    Very vibrant colors. Well done. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, all! I'm loving those colors and textures. Imani for G3F is a knockout too. Lighting her is a bit challenging. I'm finding that golden light works really well on some of the darker skins. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Adding a few items I posted on the Wear Them All thread, so I don't lose track of them: 

    Gypsies and Genies for V1, V2 and SP3: 

    Here's a quick one, just a straight render (a little grainy, gotta go out in a few minutes.) It's Gypsies and Genies for V1, V2 and SP3. (Click and zoom in for much more detail.)

    I wasn't sure I could use Wear Them All on it, but since it's got the SP3, I took a chance. It actually fits better if you tell the program it's for V3. Then use smoothing to get it fitting right. I turned up SubD on this, threw some Uber on it and set metallicity to .80 on the gold parts. I'm surprised at how good it looks. It's on sale today for .60, along with many texture sets. This is the default texture, and I'm picking up the others today, will post a render soon. A surprising amount of the old stuff renders well, but you can't always tell from the promos. This outfit has good lines and plenty of material zones, so you could have fun retexturing with DG's Bling It! and some of the other beautiful Iray shaders out there (Fabiana's shader plans would look great.)

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Victoria's Historic Gowns for V1 and V2

    Another quickie before I get going, if I ever do. I'm just too excited to be fitting V1 and V2 clothes on a V7! I didn't think that was possible! Woohoo! 

    Here's the Historic Gowns for V1 and V2. I believe it's one of the oldest sets in the store. Yes, the textures are extremely low res, but you could easily reshade this, which I will later. I loaded this using the V3 template and turned smoothing on. Sub D is on too, but isn't going to help a texture this low res. I'll retexture and play more later. Just wanted to show it since it's on sale for $2 (less if you have a new item in your cart.) I stopped this one at 80% so it's grainy. Not sure why it's dark, DAZ is acting up.

    Here are two of the textures from the Historic Map Pak 2. The ideas behind these textures are very nice. They give different looks to the gowns, but they are very old and low res. I'm not sure there's a way to rescue them but could do something similar with retexturing. The lines are classic, and there are enough material zones to work with.

     

    Next up are the V2 and M2 fantasy outfits, which also have many texture packs, all on sale today.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Victoria's Changing Fantasy Suit & Olympian Conforming Clothing

    Here are two more outfits for V1 and V2 that fit fine on Genesis 3: 

    There are quite a few textures for them too. V7 has the Boudicea Blue set on. It really doesn't look too bad. These are full body suits and supposedly there's a dial where you can change out the parts on the Fantasy outfit, but I havn't found it yet. There are something like 36 parts. There are two suits- one for clothing, one for accessories. The accessories one has a helmet that does fit, but the shield crumples badly. Not sure that's fixable but you can turn it off by setting cutout opacity to 0. The feet in the clothing suit don't fit, needs tweaking. Overall though, not bad. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Michael's Changing Fantasy Suit & Olympian Conforming Clothing

    I've had a lot more luck with the women than the men. Not sure why. I would've expected the men to be easier to fit. Oh well. I can get the main parts of these outfits to fit, but not the arms and feet. The fantasy suit is a mess. I'm not sure it's worth trying to fix. The cuffs are not easily moved over. They're divided in weird places. The Olympian looks pretty good, but the cuffs and sandals don't fit there either. That's not a deal breaker on that one, since it's a simpler outfit. I'll probably use it somewhere, but I'm not even touching the fantasy suit for now. Too many issues, unfortunately, and I never did find those dials. They might get lost in the conversion or only be available in Poser.

    @darwinsmishap Dmitri makes a sexeh Olympian! 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    tj_1ca9500b -  I'm glad that's helpful :) I've never seen it done, so thought I'd give it a whirl. 

    Inkubo said:

    Thank you all for this thread. Because the store doesn't do reviews and I've felt burned by a handful of relatively more expensive products I bought, I've stopped buying plugins, scripts, and things whose descriptions seem to indicate they work as if by magic. Wear Them All was on my Wishlist, but I missed a recent sale because I didn't trust it. When the time came to decide whether I'd buy it at any discount, I just nuked it from my list. But now after reading this thread, I've added it back.

    The product page for the male version says it comes with a Genesis clone and a Genesis 2 Female clone. That's just a typo, right?

    You're welcome! Glad it helps. I use Wear Them All every day. It's probably the most useful add on I have. 

    The male version already has G2M clones. Those are in the autofit feature that's built in to DAZ (same for G3F having the G2F clones.) Wear Them All for G3M  has all the clones for M4, V4, Genesis and G2F. So your characters can wear a dress or some kick butt outfit that comes only for the other gender. Here's M7 in the Arthurian Dress for G2F (from the Nineve Pro bundle). Dmitri isn't too sure about Michael's fashion choices. 

    I don't have any smoothers on or the Iray materials, so it's a bit of a rough render. Just for fun.

    Valzheimer has some backwards options too. G3F for G2F and G3M for G2M. These work perfectly and allow me to get lots of clothing on my rather stubborn illusionist who prefers to be a G2M. He happens to also like M4 clothing and occasionally G3M stuff. Picky story people! SickleYield also has some clones, which are great for more fitting options and also for taking things backwards to Genesis 1.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,804

    Wow, that looks so good!

    You could perhaps try if parenting rather than conforming sorts out the cuffs on the Michael Fantasy Suit?

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited June 2017

    That's a good idea, Nath. I might keep the first suit on and turn cutout opacity to zero on the troublesome parts, then load a second version and try parenting it to get the other parts to fit (using zeroed cutout opacity on the parts that are conformed.) Where there's a will, there's a way! 

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Some of those definitely look like they are worth retexturing!   I know once I am done moving all my stuff up through Gen2F and Gen3F, I will be retexturing a lot of it as well.  Nice to have so many options too!

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited June 2017

    FYI- If you missed the Xurge 50% off sale, it looks like the pricing hasn't been changed yet. You may still be able to get in on some good deals.

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited June 2017

    *removed*

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited July 2017

    Future posts and notes will now be posted in the free public section of my Patreon page and my Deviant Art page.

    Correction: Future posts and notes about controversial topics such as dynamic clothing and other things will now be posted in the free public section of my Patreon page and my Deviant Art page.

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited June 2017

    Your Friendly Neighborhood I.T. Reminder: Downloads and Backups

    Make sure you download and back up your purchases from time to time, then back them up again away from your computer. I had a close call recently where I thought I'd lost a bunch of stuff that's no longer available. As a result, I've been going through ALL the various 3D stores I shop at (including DAZ) and making sure I've downloaded and backed up EVERYTHING. It's a daunting task, but along the way, I've rediscovered lots of items I don't recall buying. They were probably part of a blowout or special deal. It's kind of like Christmas all over again. 

    @Taozen has some nice utilities that help you remember what you ordered here. I like them for offline viewing. I have metered satellite internet, so sometimes internet speeds are painfully slow here. Nice to be able to look at my Product Library offline. DAZ rarely goes offline, but it's nice to have stuff backed up in case there's a glitch.

     

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,152

    Hi Lynara. If you have only bought from daz via install manager is there a reason to back up or can you always reinstall using dim at anytime?  In other words is backing up only necessary if you have purchases from other stores?  

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Hi Lynara. If you have only bought from daz via install manager is there a reason to back up or can you always reinstall using dim at anytime?  In other words is backing up only necessary if you have purchases from other stores?  

    I don't know if you were online at the time, but the Daz site went "down" for several days and people couldn't get to their content. You own the content and should always rely on yourself to have what you own. If it's not in your possession, you're relying on someone else to keep your stuff- never a good thing. The site could get hacked, or their downloading policies change at any time. It used to be 3 downloads of an item, then you had to ask permission. (nice of them, but a pain.)  Bottom line, get it in your possession, then you've got it. 

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,583

    Hi Lynara. If you have only bought from daz via install manager is there a reason to back up or can you always reinstall using dim at anytime?  In other words is backing up only necessary if you have purchases from other stores?  

    If you use software other than the latest version of DS you might want to back up Daz items anyway, in case something is updated and no longer works with older versions.  I backup everything out of habit, in case I need something when I'm offline.

  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,152

    Thanks all, I understand now.  I download everything right after I buy it so I thought if something went wrong on my end, after computer repairs, I could just go back to the DIM.  Now I see how there could be other issues.  have been thinking about getting acronis back up so maybe this is the push I needed. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited June 2017

    Hi Lynara. If you have only bought from daz via install manager is there a reason to back up or can you always reinstall using dim at anytime?  In other words is backing up only necessary if you have purchases from other stores?  

    You can reinstall via DIM, but it's a good habit to have backups of all your purchases anyhow. Think in terms of disaster recovery. Not just Daz's but your own too. Internet service outages are even more common than site outages. And computers can and do blow up or fail (so do hard drives!)

    Ask yourself: How long can you go without your content?

    Having it in the cloud is nice and convenient, but you should have local backups too. Plus backups of those backups. We have power fluxes here that are hard on electronics, plus I'm on satellite internet in the middle of tornado alley. Storms knock out our online access pretty regularly. I can still get onto the forums on my phone, but I'm not even going to think about downloading 3D content on it. DIM works well offline, and Taozen's account manager and product browser do a nice job of showing you what you ordered and what's in the product once you set it up.

    It's definitely worth the time to download and back up your content, no matter where you buy it from.

    EDIT: Everything here is on a power strip with surge protection, but I also just got two UPS's (uninterruptable power supplies) for my main computer and our server here. I also have off site backups at my Dad's house, because we're both slightly paranoid geeks, LOL.

     

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    You can get a external drive to back up all your content and tuck it away somewhere.  They are not that expensive ( I think I paid around $100 for 4 TB) and they are super easy to use.  Plug it in, load it up, unplug it and you are done. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited July 2017

    Having fun with some recent Black Kat promo mockups. 

    Kat as a G8, I like everything except the wispiness of the hair. Might have to use the healing brush to tame it: 

    Hugh still refuses to be anything but a G2M that wears M4 clothes. Will probably have to "iron" his clothes with postwork or drape them to get rid of the weird wrinkles.

    My original render of Jacob in 3Delight. Still can't replicate this in Iray. I have a different model I want to use, but I think this looks good enough to just go with for now.

    Kat-promo.jpg
    1844 x 1600 - 243K
    Fall-2017-full.jpg
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    Jacob-Jackson.jpg
    918 x 881 - 160K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,527

    Those are great, Llynara! My favorite is the Jacob one. I can't believe that's 3Delight! Awesome work!

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited July 2017

    Thanks, Diva! I need the visuals as I'm writing the second book in the series right now.

    The Jacob image uses @Marshian 's wonderful Rim Light Rig for 3Delight. The backlight hairshaders are included. It's such an awesome product, but I haven't found anything that comes close in Iray. The energy effects are one of Ron's brush sets (I'll have to check which one, can't remember off the top of my head.)

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited July 2017

    Test render of Valdez. The model is one of my favorite M4s, GypsyAngel's Zane (Rendo.) The uniform is ancient. Would love to get the new one that just came out, but that means moving him to G3M or doing something really funky to get that outfit on him. I've moved an M4 before using GenX2, but can't remember for the life of me what I did. Seems like it was a lot of finagling. Sometimes it's easier to leave them as they are. I love Generation 4. Sometimes finding things and fighting with the clothes is a hassle, but the models are still beautiful and convert well to Iray.

    Valdez.jpg
    982 x 879 - 112K
    Post edited by Llynara on
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