Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 10
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Penny 8 Starlette Hair (Gen3F/Gen8F)
I'm showing you the before and after of the Starlette Hair, with about 10 minutes postwork on the hair to fill in where the transparency didn't play well with the lights I used. If I were doing a render for a book I'd be spending about half an hour or so on it, so this is just a quickie to show you how easily the hair can be tweaked, it could still use more blending on our right.
TIP: to help strands merge at the part in the hair, darken them slightly. Put darker hair colors down first, add a lighter color, then go back over with the darker again to blend.
What I did on the hair: to our right, filled it in by the face/eye, filled in the outer layers which were jagged triangles. Put dark in the part. Filled in on our bottom left. Some tips on our left looked dull from the lighting- not the vendor's fault- so I colored those in. Open both images and click back and forth.
Doing the Lauren Hair (Gen3F/Gen8F) on Penny, using the same lighting as the Starlette Hair, and this hair looks more oily in comparison and the strands more segregated. It just depends on what you like I suppose. I like the Starlette Hair better, you'd just have to experiment with different lights with this one.
Vivi for Penny 8 Jocelyn Hair (Gen3F/Gen8F)
So used the exact same lighting for Jocelyn Hair.
Going to give you a FUN tip.
Tip: For characters with smaller mouths, that may be more difficult to "smile broadly"....
Go to Visemes (in Parameters in Pose Controls>Head>Visemes) and click the cog for "W" and undo the limits so you can do negative numbers. Most small mouths do wonders with -44 in combination with the other mouth sliders, such as Smile Simple, Open Mouth, etc. Also go up to the beginning of the mouth sliders (you're in Parameters>Head>Mouth) and pull the corners of the mouth back to embed it more in the face. Voila. You get a Vivi smile! (If you don't believe this makes a HUGE difference, if you have Vivi or another smaller mouthed gal, try it! You get a relaxed, wide smile that the NEGATIVE W viseme can do.)
When vendors do posing products, it would be nice if they would load as shown in the thumbnails, and they need to be facing FRONT if it's a front pose.This figure sharply turns away from the front and that doesn't even make sense. To match the thumb the camera had to be Y Rotated to -70.75, not a small detail!
I've been passing on many of the female 8 bundles as I don't want, (nor can I afford,) to invest heavily in yet another generation of figures. There are some (pro) bundles I wouldn't mind having, but weren't discounted enough to justify the purchase, for me. But what I've seen of the figure and the hair in the bundle, Penny 8 Pro will have to be free for me to get her, and even then I may pass her by for another, as by the time she is free, I'll have already purchased the items in the bundle that do interest me.
Thank you, @Novica, for your enlightening renders of Penny and her hair. (I know it's not your goal—wink, wink—but you just saved me some money!)
I wanted to want Penny. Sadly, the bundle does not have many items that I would use on a regular basis at all, and I just can't justiry her. I am happy though to see something with a more defined theme and if I was into that era I would have bought her. But even with a free pro bundle, there isn't enough there that I will use.
And as others have mentioned, if you own a lot of the Pro Bundles, there isn't much incentive. While some folks are saying we should be given another options, I keep in mind that owning those other bundles often give you a discount at some time or another. It just isn't right now. (Example, AIko 6 Pro Bundle owners get discount on Aiko 7, etc. Or as during MM, owning a Pro Bundle gets 10% more.) I only lacked two Pro Bundles and owned 75-90% of them, so while I got them today for free, it was MM (Major Meh.) (Couldn't resist, and suprised someone who didn't like March Madness didn't come up with that LOL. Maybe we'll see that expression next March...)
@ladair Yeah, I try to be tactful and let people know it could be my renders and the lighting. (Because it could...that's why I want to show the same type of products in the exact same lighting so people can make up their own minds.)
No, it's not your renders, they look this way in the promos. Lighting differently is not going to make the transparency maps magically better or fix the part geometry or make the Lauren hair bangs behave like real bangs. I was super disappointed there was no AprilYSH hair here, this era is something she is particularly good at.
Thanks for showing the hair. Like a couple of others, I'm not sure I want to get the Penny 8 Bundle - I quite like a couple of the outfits but the character doesn't look in any way unique and the hair is ... not a must have. ***
I'm with you on the poses turning the figure inexplicably too - I hate that! And recently I've noticed quite a few poses doing that. For group poses: yes, rotate them to fit together, of course. But if I want to see the back of a single figure I'd rather just rotate it myself.
ETA: *** Unless of course I see some really superb renders of Penny and the included characters and change my mind
With Mac OS High Sierra?
@agentunawares Agreed about AprilYSH's hair- Jocelyn Hair, several posts above, is one of hers. (I assume AprilYSH is a gal?)
@divamakeup had a very nice render of Penny in the Penny thread. I do wish, like others, that she had some realistic wrinkles under the eye and elsewhere on the face. Botox at it's best? (As someone said, "Ready for my closeup...")
I like the realism of the hair, can I ask which hair product?
Captivating HD Faces and Bodies for Genesis 8 Male
I did things a little differently than Novica. I used the BOSS Pro Light Set for Portraits & Promos with the default setup, and separate cameras for the front and profile views. The hair is Shaved Hair for Genesis 3 Male(s) with the soft hairline option. Links for the image open the full-size image in a new window/tab, and I recommend as Novica did that you open them all, and then cycle through them quickly to see how much they vary. The full-size images are 1600 by 800 pixels
This is the base male for comparison
Brody
Cary
Parr
Stewart
Hoffman
Here I chose Parr and rendered three variations using skin materials from other characters, as well as different hair for each. The expression, an Elvis-style lopsided grin, is the same on all three. The image below links to the full-size image, which is 2040 by 800 pixels.
@firstbastion Sure! Linda Ponytail. If I don't list it, check the attached image as I usually name it by character, then hair, then outfit. So this was VivienneLindaPonytail. If we've featured the hair quite a few times, sometimes I don't link it but I should have listed it. Sorry 'bout that! And it was straight out of the box. It's quite lovely.
Wow, that is the best render I've seen of her! She reminds me of Nicole Kidman in Bewitched there.
@ladair That is so cool to see the side profiles, nicely done! I like Brody's side profile the best, the nose has character, and his chin is firm. Appreciate your time, I know how long those take, even on a fast computer.
@wonderland Thanks! I have to admit I like the Starlette Hair. Wasn't expecting to after all the dissing comments about the hair(s) in the bundle, but this one is unique and easily tweaked with a bit of postwork.
I really hated everything about Penny 8 until I saw this render. Good to know she CAN look good with the right expression. I'm still in no rush to get her though and there's nothing in the bundle that appeals to me and no free bundles to be had. The hair is a cute retro style but when you see what PAs like OOT are doing, it just looks amateurish to me...
Here we go with file naming consistency again. FWSA has their characters in the Character list in the FWSA folder (Genesis 8) But no, Vivian is out there all by herself, in the Character list down in the V's. (She does have an avatar when you click on Characters, you don't HAVE to go into the folder unless you want to change the eyes, mouth, makeup, etc.)
FWSA Vivian HD for Penny 8 IN PROGRESS
Has anyone tried these shaders? I hate when they don't show the shaders actually ON something.... https://www.daz3d.com/strange-and-unusual-iray-shaders
I have these. They are definitely strange and unusual but a lot of fun. give me a bit and I will do some examples for you on cubes.
FWSA Vivian HD for Penny 8 MRL Amara Braids (Gen3F / Gen8F) dForce Audacious Outfit (Gen8F)
I know some of you are currently shopping, so I will give you a heads up that Vivian is adorable. She has a slight sprinkling of freckles and the lips have a nice bump/details. Coming up in about half an hour, posting it here.
This outfit is a LOT of fun, you can mix and match the colors / stripes and belt. For the shoes, there aren't any red, so pick the white/silver and use the Surface to change the base color. Shown here is 178 / 30 / 0 which I think is a good match.
I dislike both bundle hair products. They seem like something from 5 years ago, I miss AprilYSH in the bundles, although I am happy to see other character artists getting into the bundles, instead of FW every time.
I wonder how they determine which PAs get in the bundles? Anyone?
Great job fixing the transluscent part of the hair, Novica. I sometimes just render hair alone, to add over the full render, if needed. Your solution is faster.
I know you're rendering Vivian. Would you mind rendering her without penny as well? It doesn't have to be a full render, just good enough to see her contours and if she comes out as cute.
@worldsedge
Sure! It'll take about half an hour. I'll start fresh with a new Genesis 8 Female.
@worldsedge
Here Vivian is on Genesis 8 Female, the lighting may be slightly different because in postwork I lightened her a bit and didn't write down the brightness setting. This is 85% rendered.
Straight out of the box not tiling or anything. This is not all of them either but a fair sampling. Fun to play with and will make really good special effects, planets, etc etc. by JG so really well done as well.
Thanks Novica. I think they are very similar, but on G8 without Penny, the figure loses some of the sharp features which I really like (more delicate and pointed nose and chin) and would miss.
(Sorry - I forgot how to make the posted picture appear smaller in a reply.)
Just click on the picture and when the outline appears drag the corner in.
@worldsedge
Side view.
@icedragonart SERIOUSLY. I've been clicking on the image, going back up into the image editor, and making sure the lock was locked so both dimensions change at the same time, then TYPING IN 600 for the height. Arrrrggggh. We want a manual for Daz Studio- AND the forums LOL. Edit- how are you doing that? When I click on it when the post is open, just turns blue and I can't select the corner.
Yes Seriously lol. Once I hit quote I just click {left click) on the picture once and it outlines it with a line with points on the corners and the middle of the sides {using the corner makes sure it stays in ration and doesn't distort}. Check if the lines around the edge shows when its blue, if hte lines and points are there it should work.