Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9
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I already PMd most of the thread posters about another find, if you're a lurker you can PM me and if I am online I'll reply. It's 70% off and nothing required to buy to get that discount, I am running errands off and on today, so not ignoring you, may not be home. I'm going through my wishlist (deleting stuff) and as I find things I'll let you know.
Spooky Plots has a casket $1.99 (89% off) you can easily UberBase or apply shaders to. I like that it's an old fashioned, simple casket. Good for Westerns.
Amethyst Outfit I don't know why I think this is so cute- but probably because it is. That short jacket is adorable. Here's what I noticed- it has a "shorter" morph- which to me, means you can undo the limits make it longer. Or shorten it and make it a shirt/top instead of a dress, and then pair it with pants or leggings. Or pair with leggings and shader it all. It's 65% off at $6.82
Fantasy Creature Bundle I wonder what they would look like with shaders. Or using something else's maps.Testing- I can get them down to $7.49 (85% off) (with one of the Fantasy items in the cart. Then you should really check out the Fantasy Fast Grabs) It's easy to create material zones. I bought Tawhak long ago, and yep, the bridle and saddle are included. So for that price, if you don't have any of them, it's 93 cents each. Here's a gallery entry, but the dude is way back in the background. I'm not buying it, as it was either it or Amethyst, and the outfit is more practical for me so far as usage. I'd love to see some of these critters with shaders though.
The Mask and Multitask toolbox is 3Delight only. I know Snowsultan did a video tutorial on how to use it with postworking. I think it's a thread somewhere in the Commons Area.
I have never tried using it with lights and never with LAMH either.
Okay, so that's what canvases are/do...
I own the tool box and no longer use it. Now that I know the canvas technique I prefer that. Or just render as png and save with transparent background. I also found the interface unintuitive.
I didn't buy the lamh item. I havent had good luck with lamh. So don't know about that one.
I have that product. It was written for 3Delight. Even after Iray was released, DraagonStorm did not update it so that the masks work with Iray. Probably due to limitations from Iray, in my opinion. The mask support for LAMH is referring to the fur generated in 3Delight. I imagine, though, if you use LAMH to create Fiber Mesh hair, (or even the free player to create an obj,) this product will be able to mask it; they use 3Delight shaders by default. I still use this for masking, occassionlly, but have to convert the items to 3Delight to get a true black and white mask. If the item(s) I need a mask for are not partially hidden, I just turn off the lighting and Draw Dome, if it's on, hide everything else and render a silhouette.
Mask and Multipass Toolbox will not work with the Catalyst for a couple of reasons. 1) The Catalyst is for Iray, and as mentioned, the Toolbox was written for 3Delight. 2) The Catalyst replaces your Render button, if I understand Alessandro correctly. I bought it, but still have to download it. You set up your scene, including one of the supported animals, and then render using the Catalyst. I can be more specific once I've tested.
If you haven't been following the commercial thread for the Catalyst, please note: The Catalyst does not work with native LAMH presets. Alessandro had to put a lot of work into converting his presets to work with the Catalyst. This is an attempt to make it easier and faster to use his animals in Iray. Iray, (or at least Iray as implemented by DAZ,) does not support the technology used by LAMH or Garibaldi Hair. I'm not up on the technology, but I keep seeing "curves" mentioned when talking about this issue.
Thanks everyone. Going to obviously skip it. I tend to keep things extremely simplistic so delving into more technical stuff and trying to remember it, or find time to do it, just bogs me down. I've got all those products to GenX2 up (hundreds) so ugh.
I have in my cart the Dragon Tamer Outfit because it's for Gen8F and it's family friendly- plus it's 51% so I can accept that. I like the long shirt, can be used for everyday wear (I think.) I then get the Fantasy Fast Grabs at 85% off and the Monster Skulls have nice display stands, plus if you have the museum or art gallery they can go in those. For $2.24 can't beat it. Would also be fun for Halloween renders, sci-fi scenes of prehistoric graveyards, etc. Then the one that makes getting Dragon Tamer Outfit so logical, is to get wings, tail, and horns for Gen3M at 85% off- ($6 instead of $19.98 right now, full price $39.95) And that is Dark Fantasy Add-Ons. The lowest it's been is $27.97 (but of course, there may have been things which trigger further discounts, Ati's app only shows you the price it's listed, not what it can be whacked down to.)
So since Dragon Tamer Outfit is $10.76, I'm saving 7.48 (price) - 2.24 (paying)= 5.24 saved on the Monster Skulls, and for the Add-Ons 19.98 (price) -6.00 (paying)= $13.98 so saving $19.22 off both those, which makes getting the 10.76 item more than worth it.
The cart with all those, plus Spooky Plots, plus Amethyst Outfit was 75% off the overall cart and came to $27.80 for the 4 major things and one PC one (Spooky Plots.) It was $112.75- 84.95 so I'm pleased. I did take a lot out of my cart as I wasn't going to spend more than $30.
What did you folks scoop up?
I got the catalyzer to install, but it's still unstable for me. And the figures I most need it for haven't been updated yet.
I'm holding off getting it as I don't need it right now, there were a lot of updates in DIM for the animals. I haven't seen a list anywhere of which ones have and have not been updated.
Alessandro has one in the commercial thread. Here it is:
I got the updates for Wolf 2, the Eastern Hemi Squirrels, and Raccoon via DIM yesterday. I think those are the only animals I have in his list.
I got the updates to Wolf 2 and Kangaroo. I bought Catalyzer as well as the Foxes and Wolly Mammoth, which are updated as well. I didn't see an update for Big Fur yet.
Edit: Real Fur is updated too. Just in a different spot in Content Library
I realy like the LAMH 2 Iray Catalyzer. I had a scene from some time ago using Wolf 2.0 by AM that I could never get to look right but it turned out really well with Catalyzer. Only 3.5 minutes to render (although it takes a couple minutes more for Catalyzer to prep the scene). The landscape is one I had made with another AM product INFINITO with an Iray snow shell from DA Let it Snow. Sky is the Eternal White Skydome and HDRI.
"There's a Smell in the Air"
And I've had nothing but trouble with the Catalyzer, trying to use it with the Eastern Hemisphere Squirrels. I've detailed the issues in the Catalyzer thread, to hopefully help Alessandro improve either the squirrel or Catalyzer, or both. I've not done much with either Wolf 2 or Raccoon, the only other catalyzer compliant animals I own. But they both rendered easily in the quick tests I did with them. It may just be an issue with the squirrels...
I will be doing more tests. I have an old render with the Daz dog in it, I think I will try to substitute the wolf for testing, so I don't have to start a new scene. Maybe try the raccoon in the same scene. lol
Lots of people are getting good results, so I'm not ready to give up yet.
I've had my fair share of crashes but I've been able to save intermediate scenes so recovery has been quick. No consistency to what causes a crash, so something is probably overwriting memory somewhere.
I'm not really keen on having to buy new stuff to get other stuff to work properly personally.
That wolf and the INFINITO look amazing Rich! What a clever combination of using the snow products and INFINITO.
On first starting a render with the squirrel i had an instant crash. After a restart I rendered the squirrel fine and then tried the Beaver which also rendered fine.
Actually, my system seems more unstable in general now, not just with the LAMH projects. So that might be something else.
Looked back at the things that aren't working.... All the LAMH products I use are made by RawArt, not AM, and this only fixes AM's stuff. I might be returning the Catalyzer unless RawArt catches up fast.
Thanks Novica.
Here's another one, same setting but closeup and with Foxes by AM instead of the wolf. Had a few crashes as before, but after I got it to render, I could do multiple takes without issue. 14 minutes for this one. Hope the issue with crashes gets worked out but I'm very happy with this product from a result standpoint.
"New Kid in the Neighborhood"
RGcincy's Top 2 for July
SInce I was out of town 3 out of 4 weeks, my output was quite small. Here's two products I liked:
1. Wild Arums - A wild flower bundle for Daz Studio render I love landscapes, so having good quality plants for renders is a must have for me
2. Heavy Rain for 3Delight and Iray render There are several rain products for DS. This is one that gives good results and is easy to setup
At first I thought these two were similar: Pin Up Captain and Vintage SwimSuit (G3F) But when I looked again, they're very different. I personally like the PIC because 1. the hat could be useful elsewhere 2. I can easily make material zones and stripe it 3. Look closely at the first Vintage thumbnail with the hat- then look at the chest. I don't like the way the cup connects to the cloth from the side. More like a wire bra, only instead of being that way on the underneath, it's on the top. That's what it's apparently supposed to do as the top cups are more pronounced.
Why I like the Captain? The PIC has interesting wrinkles, showing the pull of the material, that I like. Look at the second thumb, green top. Seems much softer, more comfy. So it just depends on if you want the more definted top of the Vintage, or the softer Captain. In favor of the Captain is the hem around the bottoms, it is more pronounced and adds nice detail. And of course, all the materials, they're quite nice. I don't however, particularly care for the hat, but if you do, you get that plus a bracelet.
There seems to be some sort of core issue with the squirrel. Almost everyone who has posted has said the squirrel crashes. I haven't had time to do anything the last couple of days and won't get to work on anything until much later tonight. I have the wolves, big cats, woolly mammoth, the squirrel, the thylacene and a couple others I can't think of right off hand. Going camping tomorrow late afternoon, no electric so won't get to do anything on the computer until Sunday night. Might be able to squeeze and hour or two in, tomorrow morning lol. How sad is it that I feel slightly anxious because I won't be able to do any renders all weekend? lol.
Oh woot. I just started experimenting but I found a swimsuit for $3.83 (And I haven't checked adding the previous days scrolling item categories to the cart. Doing that now.)
LOL, didn't you say it was a lot of work to go camping- and I got the idea you weren't too keen on going again? BTW if you get a Leaf50 antenna, you can pick up tv stations that are 50 miles or less from your campsite.
And did you note that one of Freja's gals is in Fast Grab? Edit- and if you are GenX2ing Victoria 4 gals up, the makeup on Vyla (cartoon, goth combination) is interesting.
Okay, this is IMPORTANT.
I've mentioned this before, but here it is again. I told you in another thread, using those filters on the sales pages will give you different results depending on how you enter a page. We went through examples. Some artists DO NOT SHOW UP THAT ARE IN SALES.
It needs to be said again- If you are relying on the Artist dropdown to find vendors who are in the scrolling banner FORGET IT. IT IS NOT CONSISTENT. The good deals I am finding at 75% are an artist who is NOT listed in the Artist dropdown, (I have a new release from today in the cart, the boat.) And there's more than enough room to have them in the list.
Nah I love to go camping. It is a lot of work but honestly, since we don't tent camp anymore, its really not terrible. It would be nice if we could manage to go for a week instead of a couple of days though. Same amount of work lol. Usually the first trip is the most work and the last, because you have to take all your stuff there and back. The inbetween trips are much better.
Ugh camping. My husband is an avid camper. Done it all his life. His idea of camping is throwing his swag in the back of the ute and heading off somewhere isolated where he can fish. The toilet is a shovel to dig a hole in the ground. He's quite happy with the swag on the ground and digging his latrine hole LOL. But he knows that if I'm going with him, it's the tent, the shower and portable toilet and "ablution" tent, camp beds and the gas stove. Not that I go too often - my idea of "roughing it" is when the tv in the motel room is black & white. I'm not a camper. LOL. He likes to head up to a place near Cooktown near the sea, while I sit at home terrified this is the time he'll come face to face with a saltie. Ergh.
Lol, I've been camping my entire life as well. My parents were very much outdoor people and we grew up camping, fishing, hiking etc. But we no longer rough it, its just too uncomfortable to sleep on the ground, even with an air matress. We finally bought a camper, which has a full bathroom and a queen size bed (nothing fancy, its an older camper and not giant, we can pull it behind the truck) We can watch tv and listen to the radio provided we have electric hook up (we won't this weekend but we will still have hot water and be able to use the stove.) We haven't hooked the tv up in the 3 years we have owned it lol but I am going to see about getting the antenna Novica mentioned (thank you!) for when it rains. We spent months trying to find one that had a queen size bed, most of them in our price range have bunks or full sized one, and we gave up bunks in the back for a full (although tiny) bathroom. We can still sleep 5 or 6 people with the stuff that folds down. Its a 2004 but it had one owner and they took very good care of it. Its not fancy but it suits us and allows us to go away many more weekends than if we stayed in a hotel. Its generally $25 a night or $35 with electric or a full hook up. So $70 for a three day, 2 night stay is very doable especially as we bring all our food and don't eat out lol. And the dog can come.
I like the theory of camping but even when younger I found it uncomfortable and cold. I don't like to be cold. My ideal camping trip would be a well insulated cabin with a comfortable bed and hot shower and no open fire. Unfortunately for me I have asthma so wood burning smoke aggravates my condition and camping grounds have ton of BBQ going down
Yes, it can get very smoky expecially if there are a lot of people. We have heat, and air (although, the air isn't working at the moment, pretty sure we need to refill something lol). I'm not a fan of the cold either so its been a nice change from tent camping. Although, I love cozy cabins too.