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Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 4

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  • ShaneWSmithShaneWSmith Posts: 636
    edited May 2014

    Novica said:
    http://www.daz3d.com/war-hammer

    Look at what you get with that one! I've wishlisted Commander (a spaceship) for when Kibaretto has a good sale- but even without it, tons of poses for M4/V4 and weapons props. For $2.65!

    War Hammer comes with 77 male poses, 75 female poses, and 23 couple poses split between all Commander station and includes medical, wounded and firefight poses for V3, V4, A4, the Girl 4, M3, M4, and H4.

    Those poses are pretty good too, though by default, they shift the characters to a far-off location - obviously designed to work with Commander.

    So many amazing deals. I really like the AFC set, too. Looks great in cartoon preview mode.

    Post edited by ShaneWSmith on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Hey everyone, pop in and chat with Kafryne about the renders- they're SO good and it's a new thread. I listed the translator in case you want to put yours in French.
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/41709/

    And good to know I'll have to hold down CNTRL when loading the poses- thanks Canberra_boy! I just can't pass these up at that price.

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,106
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    They'll never be this cheap again for awhile, so while the skeleton, organs, and muscles are on sale, thought it might be fun to brainstorm how they can be used as some folks may be thinking, "I'm not doing zombies." Any other ideas?

    1. zombies
    2. people coming or going- like when I did Gunner misting away into a book. You could show the muscle groups and some of the skeleton.
    3. injuries
    4. monster parts
    5. to re-texture and create new monsters (think green crystals on those muscle layers- cool!)


    6. Visible Man and Woman. :)
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Oh my goodness, never heard of them! How WEIRD. Were they from the 60's?

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Scott-Livingston said:
    Luka Hair is in the V4 sale (even though it's also a Genesis product) so it's ridiculously cheap right now. It's by SWAM whose products have gotten some attention in this thread recently. It's a versatile style with quite a few morphs and colors (and could look good on guys too) and highly realistic.

    I like Luka Hair, used it a few times. I light your lighting too, particularly the glow on the upturned heel. Would that be UE2?
    Thank you...actually I didn't use UE2 at all in that render. I've got two Advanced Ambient Lights and five Advanced Spotlights. One of the spotlights was added just to make sure the heel looked right, so I'm glad you noticed that area! :)

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,106
    edited May 2014

    Novica said:
    Oh my goodness, never heard of them! How WEIRD. Were they from the 60's?


    Early '60's. I had the Visible Man. :)
    They were educational toys designed to teach children basic anatomy. And yes, they didn't leave your 4-legged friends out. :)
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    Post edited by TJohn on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,649
    edited December 1969

    At my doctors office they had all of these and I think body parts too like arm chest etc.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Check it out, and enjoy :)
    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/41748/

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited May 2014

    Well, I'm doing something different. I spending $62.45 and picking my own products, rather than $61.23 for the Pro bundle for the dragon. The pro bundle has way too many poses, which I can do myself frankly, and the great texture sets are NOT in the Pro bundle. So I plucked the morph packages out and bought them individually.

    Here's something to ponder for a similar price, depending if you want morphs and materials (my picks for $62.45) or morphs but focusing on poses/saddles/armor for $61.23:

    http://www.daz3d.com/hellborn-dragon-hd-for-daz-dragon-3 $12.23 and 51% off
    http://www.daz3d.com/da-terrorsaur $13.97 and 30%
    http://www.daz3d.com/daz-dragon-3 $19.58 and 51%
    http://www.daz3d.com/dragon-trainers-toolbox $6.84 and 51%
    http://www.daz3d.com/daz-dragon-3-morphs $12.23 and 51%

    Only the last three are in the Pro Bundle. You can't get that lava texture (Hellborn) or the Terrorsaur in the pro bundle. You get 2 sets of poses, and 2 sets of armor, 2 sets of saddles (one made of chain. Doesn't seem like a big bargain to me IMO) If you're not on a budget of course you can buy all of it. (Not this gal!)

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Free today, just came in email.

    http://www.daz3d.com/rigid-plate-armor-textures (even if you don't buy the armor today, scoop this up and wait.)
    http://www.daz3d.com/lune-portail
    http://www.daz3d.com/shelter

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited May 2014

    Playing with the dragon, going to have to adjust the lights but it's 7am and going to get some sleep. This renders slow as it's high definition.
    Studio was hanging up and I'm still getting an error message, but at least it renders. So this would be an "in progress."
    EDIT: replaced with a slightly better one.

    dragon4.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited May 2014

    I think it is not only slow because of HD - it looks to me as if the wings are semitransparent ... looks beautiful!

    Post edited by Kerya on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited May 2014

    Thank you- not bad for no spot rendering, lol.
    I've read here and there about transparency maps- so they render more slowly?

    Here's the head for you. NOW I am getting some sleep. I was too curious as to how a closeup would do. I adjusted the lights a bit more.
    (Click to enlarge. It's not a 2000 pixel one, but it will go a bit bigger.)

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    Well - in this case maybe no transparency map, but reduced opacity?
    At least it looks like that in your lighting.

    And yes, every kind of transparency takes longer to render.
    Imagine the computer sitting there, trying to do the math for this special pixel.
    Opaque - no problem, take the texture or the shader of the thing that is in front and just calculate the lights, bump, displacement.
    Transparent - oooooh! Look, I have to ignore the textures of the thing in front where the transmap is, and then - oops, there is something behind to be seen - compute the texture and lights of something behind that thing in front and then for computing the shadows on something else it has to look whether the transmap is black, so compute no shadow, or the transmap is white, so compute shadow.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,649
    edited December 1969

    Is the dragon HD? Did I miss something. I usually don't buy HD models or characters.... =-)

  • John SimsJohn Sims Posts: 360
    edited December 1969

    I pondered Dragon 3 (especially after your kind link to my dragon related images) but thought it was pretty expensive. Also, considering it didn't seem to achieve anything more than I can do with my original dragon (Millennium LE) I couldn't justify the cost. I actually prefer the look of my original Dragon as well. Dragon 3, in base form, looks a bit naked without horns and things - almost a skinned dragon.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited May 2014

    This rendered while I was asleep. LOVE IT!!!
    I saw HD under one of the products names, maybe it was the lava one. But if this isn't HD, it looks like it :)

    Lighting: UE2 on 33.2% intensity, intensity scale 45.9%
    Spotlight top on 24% (blue, 255/255/255) and same for distant light, underneath and distant left and low
    Spotlight right same color but 60%
    Spotlight face white 20%, shoot from his right and front
    Distant light right is more white and 20%

    CLICK TO ENLARGE, its a big one. Click again. Look at the detail of the wing skin.

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,649
    edited December 1969

    I kind of like the base Dragon. He is more lizardy than the other dragons. I do notice scale distortion which looks kind of off in certain areas.

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    80% select products by Raiya and RawArt:
    http://www.daz3d.com/pa-v4-and-m4-sale

    Anybody have a particular favorite from among these products? Personally I have gotten a lot of use out of Naoki; she's a great character. I found a couple of renders I did when I was experimenting with using her skin and head morph (mixed with other morphs) on a male character...works pretty well, actually!

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,649
    edited December 1969

    Scott-Livingston said:
    80% select products by Raiya and RawArt:
    http://www.daz3d.com/pa-v4-and-m4-sale

    Anybody have a particular favorite from among these products? Personally I have gotten a lot of use out of Naoki; she's a great character. I found a couple of renders I did when I was experimenting with using her skin and head morph (mixed with other morphs) on a male character...works pretty well, actually!

    Nice one Scott!

    I admit of these I use Gabriel a lot. Just love his head shape. It isn't all ridgey like M6. In fact when I got gen x, Gabriel and James were some of the first heads I brought over.

    http://www.daz3d.com/pa-v4-and-m4-sale/gabriel-for-michael-4-and-michael-5

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,106
    edited December 1969

    Invited Guest Contributor

    I finally got a chance to render Dragon 3.
    I bought the Bundle so you can see some of the Morph Pack and Texture Pack at work here.
    My only disappointment? I couldn't find any Displacement maps and the scales looked a bit flat without them, so...
    I loaded the Skin Wings, Skin Head, and Skin Bump maps into the appropriate Displacement Strengths and after experimenting found that I got good results with the Strength sliders at 100%, Maximum at 2, Minimum at -2.
    This test render is 1666X2000, and took only 4 min and 31 sec.

    The setting is Easy Environments Mountain Trail
    http://www.daz3d.com/easy-environments-mountain-trail

    and uses the lights that comes with that.

    Red_Dragon.jpg
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Scott-Livingston said:
    80% select products by Raiya and RawArt:
    http://www.daz3d.com/pa-v4-and-m4-sale

    Anybody have a particular favorite from among these products? Personally I have gotten a lot of use out of Naoki; she's a great character. I found a couple of renders I did when I was experimenting with using her skin and head morph (mixed with other morphs) on a male character...works pretty well, actually!

    Wow, that's quite a mixture! And it looks really good, no one would ever guess that was the combination. I'll have to look through my stuff and see what I would recommend, headed out the door for about an hour to run errands. :)

  • Tarina KiviTarina Kivi Posts: 488
    edited May 2014

    Scott-Livingston said:
    80% select products by Raiya and RawArt:
    http://www.daz3d.com/pa-v4-and-m4-sale

    Anybody have a particular favorite from among these products? Personally I have gotten a lot of use out of Naoki; she's a great character. I found a couple of renders I did when I was experimenting with using her skin and head morph (mixed with other morphs) on a male character...works pretty well, actually!


    I really like http://www.daz3d.com/pa-v4-and-m4-sale/anwyn-for-v4-genesis Because the included textures are brow-less I've often used the silver preset for alien skin. There is also a white eye preset included which goes well with it. The silver texture takes diffuse well so it's possible to get different skin colours. I'm attaching an old render of three genesis figures which besides Anwyn use Zev0's Growing Up for Genesis and Shape Shift for Genesis and DarioFish's HFS Shapes for Genesis.
    Post edited by Tarina Kivi on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,649
    edited December 1969

    Nice job Tarina. I like your aliens. Very cool.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    tjohn- I like the dragon's angle of the neck, with the head really out front. Really adds to motion.
    Tarina- funny you should mention that one, I picked her up this morning when the sale first started. One of the few I didn't have.

    Scott-L- The one I've used several times that I really like is Josh.
    http://www.daz3d.com/summer-edition-josh

    I'll have to see if I have him installed (since I started over from scratch, dont know if I've done M4s yet.) and render one.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,649
    edited December 1969

    Hmmm. Just noticed the third alien in your picture Tarina. Good job hiding him/her. Also good use for that jumpsuit. Only used that set once.... =)

    I splurged and bought the hivewire horse. He is a magnificent animal.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Here's Summer Edition Josh. I didn't perfect the lighting, but it's good enough to show his skin materials. :)

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Summer Edition Josh (Raiya)
    Summer Edition Noah (Raiya    )

    http://www.daz3d.com/summer-edition-josh
    http://www.daz3d.com/summer-edition-noah

    Josh is in the front, Noah is in the back. Josh is my favorite of the two for rugged, Noah seems more sophisticated.

    joshSummerEditionNoah.jpg
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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    Hmmm. Just noticed the third alien in your picture Tarina. Good job hiding him/her. Also good use for that jumpsuit. Only used that set once.... =)

    I splurged and bought the hivewire horse. He is a magnificent animal.

    Have fun with the horse :)

  • Tarina KiviTarina Kivi Posts: 488
    edited December 1969

    SereneNight said:
    Hmmm. Just noticed the third alien in your picture Tarina. Good job hiding him/her. Also good use for that jumpsuit. Only used that set once.... =)

    I splurged and bought the hivewire horse. He is a magnificent animal.


    Thank you SereneNight! They were meant to be three alien sisters. I should make a render with a human beside them, they don't look like it but they are really high compared to humans. ; ) As to the jumpsuit I've used it only once as well, in that very render. ^^

    When you render the horse please share it with us! I'm really curious what you'll think about him after you've played with it. There are lots of different species being built off his base, so it seems like he is very versatile. In the future they will probably release some alien creatures for him too. : )

This discussion has been closed.