Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 4
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Invited Guest Contributor
Novica's post about FW Julianna made me think I should perhaps add a couple of renders of another FWArt girl I picked up in the 80% Sale today: FW Yasmin. On the left is the henna tattoo skin option and one of the henna-ed makeups. On the right is the plain skin with another eye and lip option.
Her hair is Marielle Hair by 3Dream/Mairy. She's wearing the T-Shirt Dress for Genesis given free by Aave Nainen in December, which I textured with some Indian fabrics from the Totally Bazaar Bundle by Teresa Tyllo/Marieah, rings from Jeweled Finery by Fisty and bangles from Flower Power by Marieah/SickleYield (reshadered to match the ring metals better).
I used the light set from Chablis for Genesis for these renders, with a background from one of the Photo Studio sets by Inaneglory.
Invited Guest Contributor
Oh I also picked up FW Julianna today, so I might as well add my first render of her. On the left is the adult character with one of the makeups. On the right is the teen character (without makeup). This isn't as large hence not as detailed as Novica's renders, but I thought I'd throw it in while I was here :)
Adult Julianna has Orion Hair by 3Dream/Mairy, Teen Julianna has Pure Hair: Sweet by DAZ3D/Valea. They are both wearing Mall Girl for Genesis clothing.
As before, I used the light set from Chablis for Genesis, with a background from one of the Photo Studio sets by Inaneglory.
Thanks Melanie! Both are looking good- and I like those outfits too.
I had one of Yasmin rendering, but stopped it because the lights were throwing eyelash shadows too badly on the cheek so I stopped it. I went for a different hair-tried exotic.
http://www.daz3d.com/regina-malorum-hair
I'll turn her around and see if that corrects the shadow, if not, I may just post it anyway. It's a closeup showing the skin materials. I like the different eyeshadows and henna patterns. I also used the goldish eyes- wow, do they pop. They go good with the rust/gold makeup option.
The render is coming in now and it's okay, so will post in about twenty minutes or so. I do like that the Regina M. hair renders at a good pace and looks good up close.
So what else did everyone buy in the past few days?
FW Yasmin (FWArt)
Regina Malorum Hair (IgnisSerpentus)
http://www.daz3d.com/fw-yasmin
http://www.daz3d.com/regina-malorum-hair
She renders quickly, as does the hair. Took about 20 minutes on excellent settings. Her eye options are really nice!
And I was wondering about lighting the two gals together, it's not that hard. I'd tweak this further, but it's not a nightmare to have these two different skin materials in the same scene. I did not tweak the lights at all.
Okay, headed to the barn. It's going on 7pm and sunny, about 73 degrees. A perfect end of the day for the horses- carrots! :)
Working on the Silo tutorial, (also in Art Studio) I will be showing some box modeling for the giraffe. Not saying I am going to finish making one, but showing how to use what has been discussed and how I would approach it. Anyone else starting from scratch with Silo?
I haven't shopped that one yet, GREAT find on the briefcase goodies :)
I like Gina agent briefcase. some nice stuff in there, I did a render of it a while back with the briefcase stuff all falling out. =-)
Invited Guest Contributor
We seem to be having fun with the 80% off sale. I keep finding new things. Today I bought 3D Universe's Teen Ashley outfit. I like pants - they are loose, have big cargo pants pockets, and fat belt loops. The top is cute too, has good morphs, especailly the one to fit over pants - it raises slightly ove the belt loops in front. Old-stlye high-top tennis shoes too, and sunglasses, bracelet and necklace. Autofits well to G2F. I think it was $2.51.
V4 Teen Ashley Clothing http://www.daz3d.com/v4-teen-ashley-clothing
Sugar and Spice for Genesis 2 Female(s) http://www.daz3d.com/sugar-and-spice-for-genesis-2-female-s
Georgina Hair for Genesis http://www.daz3d.com/georgina-hair-for-genesis
Luci- thanks for showing those! I have never rendered those pants even though I have them- I really like the fit too.
I have them too and never used them, thanks for showing them off and reminding me that I need to start trying some of the stuff I purchased long ago. For the last 3 days I have had my head buried in Silo, learning the keyboard shortcuts and what every option does and how it compares to the few tools I already know in Hexagon. Some things I just don't get tho...like why are triangles in the mesh bad? but that's a topic for the Silo thread ... :)
Some things I just don't get tho...like why are triangles in the mesh bad? but that's a topic for the Silo thread ... :)
Not a problem, can answer that from what I know, I think this is right- it's because you don't want more than 4 vertices coming in to a vertex, and triangles tend to create "poles" when you subdivide. That's because it invites too many vertices coming together at one place. Think of a raised long pole. When you hit C repeatedly to subdivide, you'll see if there are poles or bad seams.
Not a problem, can answer that from what I know, I think this is right- it's because you don't want more than 4 vertices coming in to a vertex, and triangles tend to create "poles" when you subdivide. That's because it invites too many vertices coming together at one place. Think of a raised long pole. When you hit C repeatedly to subdivide, you'll see if there are poles or bad seams. Actually you danced all over it and even said it in a round about way. It all comes down to Sub Division. Quads will hold a smooth line on a mesh, think a curve here, Tri's will do it as well but the smooth is dependent on mesh size, where quads of any size divide evenly each time thus smoothly.
Thanks Jaderail :)
BTW, to quickly get to Surreality's sale items, go to the store.
http://www.daz3d.com/surreality
The link right now in the banner just takes you to everyone in the 80%.
I LOVE this store- I have so much stuff from there. Echo is a favorite, Paloma, and you've seen all my Tamesis (and Scott-L loves that one too. Get the Otherworldly Wonders one- makeup options ROCK! I've also done Tanwen before I think. We'll have to render Surreality today (it's 2:30am though and I am Silo-ing at the moment. Stopping to shop.)
Novica said it, but this looks like a nice bundle to get. Dress AND Character.
http://www.daz3d.com/modern-muses-bastienne-character-and-clothing-bundle
Something I'm working on...thought it was a relevant time and place to post due to the surreality sale.
You've probably noticed that a bunch of characters in the store, mostly older ones, have Poser materials only (the product page may say something like "materials may need adjustment in DAZ Studio"). The same is true of characters in other stores (sometimes you'll see: "not tested in DAZ Studio"). A number of surreality's characters fall into this category, for example.
Here's a quick-fix way to convert a Poser-only character's materials for use in DAZ Studio, by borrowing the surface settings of a "donor" character:
1. Load the character, with the Poser materials. If there are options for different versions of Poser, choose P6 or PP if available. Load a light preset of your choice. Do a test render. In most cases the textures will go on fine, and will probably render OK...but you can do better! And it's actually pretty easy.
2. Find another character you own, ideally one that's by the same PA and/or has a similar skin tone, who comes with DAZ Studio materials. Pick one that renders really well. This character will be the "donor" (we're borrowing his or her surface settings, but not the textures themselves, to use with the Poser character).
3. Hold down CTRL (I think that's the command key on a Mac) and double-click the icon to load the DS materials for the second character. A window will pop up and you'll be given the choice to replace or ignore texture maps. Choose IGNORE (important).
4. Do another test render and compare to your previous one. Better? If yes, you're done (or at least ready to enter the stage of manually tinkering with the surface settings). If not, start over, choosing a different"donor" character in Step 2.
Notes and tips:
- Results vary. The more similar the Poser character and the donor character are, the better the end result is likely to be.
- The advantages of this method are that it's really fast and easy. Here are some more more detailed (and probably better, overall) methods for converting or tinkering with Poser mats:
-- AdamR001's method (thank you Novica for archiving this, as it appears the forumarchive has indeed gone "poof!"
-- Slimer_J_Spud's method
-- tutorial by Calida3D
- When I do this, Tamesis is my go-to girl for donor settings, especially when converting other surreality characters
- Another thing you can try...instead of using a store-bought character as the donor, use a material preset you've made yourself for use with another character. This is a nice shortcut if you have a lot of characters you want to convert to the Age of Armour Subsurface Shader, for instance.
Unfortunately, I don't recall who gave me the idea for this, but whoever it was, thank you! :) I've used the method a few times, but haven't really fully tested all of the above, so if you have anything to add, or if you disagree with anything, please let me know!
If I can, I'll show some render examples later. My cart is full to bursting with spring cleaning items that I'm trying to decide among. (It's so full, in fact, that I think I may need to buy another cart). ;-)
@Luci45 - thanks for showing the Teen Ashley clothing - I've been pondering that one since it appeared in the 80% sale, looks like it's well worth getting.
@Scott-Livingston - thanks for the hints on converting Poser mats to DS - I've picked up a couple of "Poser only" items in the 80%/86% sales and was wondering the best way to go about converting (I was expecting to have to use a lot of trial and error)
PS: Has anyone picked up that new cart? How easily does it fit the DAZ 2 Horse and how easy is it to manipulate the reins, etc? (The original carts for Horse 2 were very much lacking in that department)
Thanks for the information Scott-L! If anyone wants to find that reference, I put it in the Reference Section (you can always find the link to that in the first post. It will be under the P section- "Poser Materials: How To Convert to DS"
I'm still deciding which surreality characters to buy...so for the time being, here are some examples using one of hers from Renderosity, Modern Muses Gabrie.
First render is with the Poser mats, out-of-the-box in DS. Note the weird highlights that look almost like scars.
Second render, I've manually added the specular and displacement maps (they didn't load by default). The weird highlights are still there, but less obvious.
Third render is with the donor settings from Tamesis. The weird highlights are gone and the skin looks more natural, but rather too rough (especially the lips). And the eyes actually look worse than before (in part this is due to the lighting I've used, which makes skin look great but can do weird things with eyes).
Fourth render, I've made the following changes:
- On lips, changed minimum displacement from -0.050 to -0.010, and positive displacement from 0.050 to 0.010
- On face and neck, changed bump strength to 50%
- Used donor eye settings from Elite Lana
- On sclera, turned Ambient off
I think the skin is looking much better, and the eyes at least somewhat better
Your tweaks look good.
I've bought a lot of them due to the price, and wouldn't have bought them otherwise just because I won't use them right away and not quite my preference for style. I did twiddle with one this morning (don't even remember which one) but I was having to do the specular settings, the color, and my lights weren't working well.
This was useful Scott. Just Purchased a skin I liked quite well that was poser only. I've been tweaking the texture manually, but this is a fast and easy texture to emulate.
Image 1. Is just the skin default. Rather waxy.
Image 2. I copied M4 default mat settings for an improved look.
You put Scott's info to good use :)
I agree with people's frustrations about the sci-fi sale, there are so many PC items that you really eliminate a lot of the items as they can't be under $3. I had a $5 off due to the promo purchases (bought 6 things, really low amount for me during a promo sale usually) so I went with
Liquid Halo On Sky 16 for Genesis for $2.83 (It was already discounted to $7.83)
http://www.daz3d.com/liquid-halo-on-sky-16-for-genesis
If you don't know what to do with your discount and don't have that one, here's what's included. (And so far as the outfit, think kit-bashing. A lot of pieces) There's quite a few poses, some nice guns, belt items look good, sunglasses, gloves- so for $2.83 I said, "Oh, why not."
14 Piece Clothing Set for Genesis (.DSF)
Belt
Boots
Cap
Glove
Gumi
Gummi Pack
Holster
Jacket
Shades
Suit
Blaster
Holster Blaster
Left Hand Blaster
Right Hand Blaster
2 Hand Poses (.DSF)
Left Hand
Right Hand
17 Poses (.DSF)
10 Gumi Poses
7 Victoria 5 Poses
At the moment, I am not finding this advertised anywhere. Not in the rotating banner for store sales, nor on the first page, etc. Is there a sale I am not seeing?
RebelMommy has many products for 86% off. I happened to see one in the side menu then went to the vendor.
http://www.daz3d.com/rebelmommy
I can see 80% - and those may be in the DazOriginals V4/M4 sale.
Oops, typo.
Is that sale is still going on? It's not in the rotating banner. The sci-fi sale is going, but I'm not seeing a V4 sale for anything other than the banner advertised stores. (I'm not buying anything else today anyway, but just curious.)
http://www.daz3d.com/daz-victoria-4-sale
http://www.daz3d.com/daz-michael-4-sale
No typo. Those are 86%. At least they are for me :) I didnt think I was going crazy. (Well, not in that respect anyway.)
Now they are 86% for me too ... it is the store, it is the store, it is NOT us.
I am (quite) sure.
LOL
Dulce for V4.1 (DAZ 3D Stephaniebt)
Holly Hair for V4 (Lady Littlefox)
Dye For Me Holly Hair (Lady Littlefox)
MyLin V4 (DAZ3D / Rebelmommy)
http://www.daz3d.com/dulce-for-v4-1
http://www.daz3d.com/holly-hair-for-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/dye-for-me-holly-hair
http://www.daz3d.com/mylin-v4
The Holly Hair doesn't go on sale very often but you could have picked it up recently during a 60% sale May 10th for $7.98. So if you like it, wishlist. Goes on very nicely, the shine is pretty, very glamorous.
The character is Dulce, but her eyes aren't. I could not get the pupils black, they stayed white even when changing the diffuse and specular to black, and I think ambient already was black. So these are MyLin eyes (keep those in mind, very nice options), Dulce character and materials, with Holly hair. Dulce did say for V4.1 but it required the V.2 morphs++.
One thing about Dulce- I do NOT like it when the eye makeup is tied to the lipstick- I want to be able to do my own makeup choices. I had to accept really dark lips to get the eye color I wanted unless I did a lot of tweaking. That said, some very nice eye makeup options (six I think)
Click to enlarge/click again- large render. You can see details of the MyLin skin.
Forgot to mention, the hair renders fast. At .30 shading rate, it was 70% at 10 minutes. UE2 not used though, just spot lights and distant lights. Now 75% at 12 minutes, 77% at 14 minutes. 83% at 15 minutes. So you get the gist of it- and this is a large render.
Done 16 minutes 40 seconds. 1088 x 1400 pixels.
I like her skin tone! She even appears to have arm pit hair. That's different. =-)