Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9
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That looks good, love the intricate detailing on it.
I just noticed that my simple way, using the Alpha channel, causes the whole image to be see through. that is all right at a distance but not close up. I made a black and white image for the cut out and that works much better. How I did it was to take the .png into Photoshop, use the selection tool and select the transparent background, inverse the selection, go to the menu and select New Fill Layer and use white, that should fill the character, tree or whatever with white, now save it as a .jpg making sure Black is the background colour. Use that in the Cutout Channel.
You're welcome.
I wasn't too specific about the layer mask, as I didn't know you had Photoshop, and I know next to nothing about how to do things in Gimp.
In photoshop:
I hope this helps.
Yes. But I recommend the plugin for convenience. With the plugin, you don't need to manually move the Billboard Nodes, they automatically rotate to face whichever camera you are rendering with.
Without the plugin, you have to rotate your planes to face the camera. That may not be a problem if you are only using a single plane, and/or a single camera. But for a crowd, or a lot of vegetation in the background, the plugin will save you a lot of time and frustration.
I just finished asking for a refund for Simon Casual Hair for Genesis 3 Male(s). I've wanted this hair since it came out in January, and finally picked it up with a fair bit of discount the day before the PA sale started. Wow, was I ever disappointed. I have another hair by Neftis3D, Valentina Hair, that does the same thing, but I didn't try to use it before the 30 days was up. So this time I checked right away. I held onto Simon Hair long enough to get the attached renders.
Here's the problem: The skull cap does not fit against the skull. This hair is made for G3M but doesn't even come close on the sides of the face! All the attached images are at 1000px square. The G3M has only a light blue color, so it's obvious where the skin shows through the hair, (though not a problem in iteself; people often have their scalp show through in spots.) With just the Skull cap, I made the G3M emissive and had to remove the maps and set the cap Cutout Opacity to 50% to really show the issue. Here is one image, showing how the cap is pushed away from the head to simulate fullness in the hair.
For the front and back views, I hid the ears so the distance between the cap and the sides of the head would show.
I've never seen this on any hair from any other vendor. And I have other hair from this vendor where the skull cap fits as I've come to expect. Is this an acceptable way to model hair? Am I being too picky?
ETA: This is the default load on G3M. No morphs applied.
@Barbult gorgeous renders of the growing up teen and the Reflections set. Thanks for showing those!
@knittingmommy Love your render of VYK Dolly. She really looks cool.
@Cismic Very interesting surreal render you have going on there!
I wasn't really sold on the new Josie, but I liked the Goth Outfit enough to use my last $5 in store credit on it. Though with my PC coupon I only paid about $3, so score one for me. I rarely render ladies and purchased this with full intent of slapping it on the male figure, so I tried it on Quinton for M8 and I like how it fits. It looks good, except for the boots, I had to hide his feet and turn the smoothing off on them so there wouldn't be any weird lumpiness. And I used the Expand All morph at around 5% to aliveate a bit of poke through on the shoulders. So I am quite happy with my purchase and do recommend it.
fullsize in my gallery
@zombietaggerung That render is so energetic! Love the colors and lighting, particularly how the front of the thighs disappear into the darkness. Really makes the guitar stand out.
@ladair I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a better fit, thanks for showing that. I had it wishlisted and took it off. Even in the promos, I may be able to see the offset away from the head. And thanks for the Photoshop Billboard tutorial. I'll try to add it to the References post later tonight.
@Novica Thank you! I was kind of worried that it might be too dark, but I wanted it to look like he was on stage under spotlights. I'm glad you like it.
Thanks, @Llynara. :)
A lot of men's hairs don't fit that well particularly over the ears but in the scalp area and forehead as well. I long for a better fit but creators continuously make hair for women's heads and scalp line and sell it for men.. Simon hair always looked a bit stringy and thin in the front to me. Most of the latest by that pa have been disappointing. Not everyone has the gift for fiber hair, and I loved all the previous stysle she used to make.
I bought Jose for the "VYK Dolly for Teen Josie 8" clown like appearance. Did a render with Jose. In something I call get me out of this multi dimentionality! Just experimenting.
I'll add to this as well. @Llynara! I love to experiment with all the different items we have to choose from. Thanks for all the tips I find on the threads and in this forum.
Some "Home Made" billboard test renders.
1) Using the Alpha Channel. Notice the figures are see through. All right at a distance but no use close up.
2) Added one of the supplied Billboards. I find it is too bright for normal renders. Might be fine on a beach or in the desert at noon :)
3) Toned down the supplied billboard so it looked a bit better. My billboard in the background is the new one using the black and white image in the Cutout Channel.
4) The Black and White image for the Cutout Channel.
I came across a problem with the Billboards supplied with the Plugin. because the Nodes turn to face the camera the light has to be behind the camera for them to look right.
In this image my billboard is the one at the back which doesn't point at the camera and both are being lit by the light from behind the camera. You will also notice that there is a double shadow under the supplied Billboard, the one at the rear, because there is a shadow burned into the image, this will not be easy to fix.
In this image I moved the camera and now the Plugin Billboard has turned to face the camera but is no longer being lit by the light and the shadow isn't right. This is easy to fix by selecting the billboard, changing it to point at nothing and then turning it so the light is shining on the face. That wont be easy if there are a lot of separate billboards.
Thanks for showing us @fishtales
When I masked my figure, I didn't include the shadows and in the temple one, I just looked at where the shadows were for the pillars and did a few almost transparent shadows to "ground" the figure. In my case, the shadows go to the side (our left, if you look closely)
If the foot is raised (say the heel) there would be a shadow from the ball of the foot, backward, if the sun is coming from the front. (You can see it in yours)
@Fishtales is highlighting the biggest problems with billboards - they have a fixed light and shadow based on the light position and intensity when they were made. You'll see this in tree and other type of billboards as well. The effect is less noticed when the billboards are a lesser part of the scene or are in the distance.
Here's an example that shows some tree billboards - the light is coming from the front but the trees show the sun coming from the upper right. But the trees are small enough in the scene the difference might not register with the viewer (this comes from a post that talks about using the mCasual orientation script).
Here's an example of billboards in the background - the light and shadows on them really don't matter so much.
This has billboard in the back (trees) and in the front (the bushes). The bushes show another problem with billboards - the flat line where they join the grass since they are a plane and not a 3D object.
Billboards can be useful but do have their limitation.
I'm picking up the Ophelia 7 Pro Bundle as there's 6 things I don't have and with my PC+ discount, it's only $17.61 and 87% off. (New Debut in cart.) Don't forget to use your PC+ coupons for those $6 offs. Anyone else pick up a Pro Bundle or two? (Or more?)
I don't have the Audrey Hair, Absolute Basics Poses, Ophelia 7, Manic Monday Outfit, Z Heroine Spirit Poses, or Brenna, and all those come down to only $2.93 apiece!
I ended up returning all the G8 stuff I picked up on the first day of the sale and I'm replacing it with Sunny Pro and 200 Plus Morphs for G3M.
What, you had vouchers left? I'd spent mine by September 2nd!
I'm picking up Sunny 7 Pro too, I either have the other Genesis 3 Pro bundles or at least I have the only parts I liked from them. I hope the figures themselves (there are 16 I don't have but that includes anime characters that I'm not really interested in) will turn up nice and cheap in the PC+ Anniversary sale.
@melaniel Believe it or not, I had BOTH vouchers left. I knew I'd be buying here and there, and would appreciate the additional discounts more at the end of the month LOL I think you have a great strategy, the PC+ Anniversary Sale usually has some really good discounts too.
I only have the daz original one left. I find it tough to use. The deals right now aren't great on DAZ originals so I'm waiting for one I want to go on sale.
LOL... I used my Sept. PlatClub coupon on Aug 31st! The PA coupon went on Sept 1. I always use them on the first qualifying cart of the month. That way I don't spend (waste!) any time trying to find something so I don't lose the coupons. As the saying goes, been there, done that.
There weren't any 7 pro bundles I wanted. Of the 20 items showing, I have all the individual characters and items from the bundles I want. (The only "7" figures I don't have are the two demons, which do not appeal to me. I might pick them up for free, then again, I might not.) I did very well with Mindvision G.D.S. in the Mega Fast Grab, though. I highly recommend y'all take a look, if you're a PC+ member. (wink, wink.)
I picked up the Ophelia 7 bundle for less than $16 with the coupon. I passed on her when she came out with great regret and now I am glad I waited. I had nothing that was in the bundle either and I actually like every single thing in it but then I love the fantasy and medieval stuff. My platinum club membership expires today so HAD to use it. The other one is long gone lol. I am going to try and wait for the pc+ membership to go on sale, hopefully this month before the pc+ sale. If not I will pick up a 3 month til I can catch a good sale.
I haven't got any coupons left - I used them pretty early in the month I think. There's a couple fo the G3 pro bundles I'd like to get, but alas alack, no money. LOL. Ah well, there's always another sale so I can catch them again another time.
I still want Ophelia and maybe the Ivan pro (even though I have the base), but I am trying SO hard to stay on budget and I bet deals like these on G3 Pro will come around again.
I never seem to see the special deals for some reason. I've given up mostly on the DAZ super fast grab. I did buy the new eyebrow product forG8M, the hair product, and Smart Phone poses for G8M.
I did a street scene using the supplied billboards. I used City Streets, Luxury Car 1950 and Millenium Dog LE which aren't billboards. I also used Grime-inizer on the street and pavement/sidewalk.
I lost a hard drive yesterday and this creation was so new it hadn't been backed up. So sadly she is gone forever, I think. I hold out a less than 1% chance of rescuing her. The BIOS doesn't even recognize the drive and it doesn't spin up. If only I hadn't been rendering something else at the time so I could have recorded her formula for you! Oh well, I'll just have to create new teens. It will take be several days to get everything that was backed up restored.
Man, you're the second person in a few days to have lost their hard drive or external hard drive! Glad you had some things backed up.
@fishtales Wow, that's a busy scene with the billboards! Looks well integrated. I got a giggle at the dog- he looks like HE is totally in charge, chilling, while all the people are wasting energy scurrying about. He's thinking, "What's the rush?" That, or he's looking down the street for the ice cream truck that always gives the dog a freebie.
@ladair Just got on at 3:30am and the MindVision G.D.S. is still interesting. As mentioned in the sale thread, they are all marked as D.O so discounting to 75% without having to buy anything else. (I'm mentioning it because it already has been.)
The thumbnails on the eyebrow product look decent, but I didn't really care for that main promo The entire bottom horizontally is so much darker and runs in a definite line across. There's just no blending into the top, which fades out. It's just the lighting, but I would definitely have used another lighting setup! Would love to see anyone's renders with it. I don't like some of the newer releases of men whose eyebrows look more penciled in, this product has nice, distinct hairs.
Love Darwins Mishap(s) men with the different brow shapes and colors! If you want men with options, keep those in mind. Also love the no brow option.
Yep, there's been days where the Mega FastGrab hasn't interested me, too much older stuff, and I have quite an overload of that already that I never use. But there have been days with a nice variety throughout the generations, plus IIRC a few sets.
Something interesting- the Carlton House Desk has a "secret" drawer, and another one with a false bottom drawer so if you do scenes where things need to be discovered or hidden this is a good desk for you! Can't beat the price ($3.48)