Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 13

13132343637100

Comments

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    I have been confused by that fog option myself. But, having lived in the San Franciso Bay Area and watched boats/ships on the bay in the fog, I have seen occasions where bits of the boats/ships poke through, where the fog is moving around the boat/ships. Wouldn't that be more real? Unless of course you are trying to show a heavy fog bank that extends toward the viewer?

    That would be fine and I have seen that myself but what I am seeing is square cuts not misty gradients.

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    I see what you mean. Will Mesh Grabber work on it? Could you use one of the 'Fog' products?

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119

    I see what you mean. Will Mesh Grabber work on it? Could you use one of the 'Fog' products?

    I'm beginning to think it is one of the panels in the Terradome set. I will go back into it sometime and try moving them about to see if it is.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @Novica, I saw a link to your thread Part 7, for https://www.daz3d.com/traveler-s-naturals-tropical-coral-vol-2 after you bought it. I was wondering how you handled the .mt5 files for the materials? All that I am able to see in my Content Library are the four props. If I have to, I can use a shader on it, since I probably would have to, since it is 3DL. All it shows now are purple coral.

    Thanks,

    Mary

    I don't think I ever rendered them, that post was just a list of tropical products. I don't have a folder in my Renders named after that product, so pretty sure I haven't done it. 

  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 6,881
    Novica said:

    Wow, that looks better than the promos! Gorgeous! Waiting for a good sale on the Darcy 8 bundle because I missed it for some reason.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Fishtales said:
    L'Adair said:
    Fishtales said:

     

    I tired it & I think it's for the whole 'render dome'.

    Thanks for looking, that is what I thought. I'm beginning to wonder if it is one of the planes from Terradome 3, which is the environment, that is doing it? 

    I've no clue how they are doing it, but Matte Fog is a function native to Iray:

    https://raytracing-docs.nvidia.com/iray/manual/index.html#rendering#matte-fog

    I meant the poke through of the sails. I was wondering if it was one of them that the sails were cutting through and not the fog smiley

    Okay. I didn't quite catch that, did I? LOL

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Anzhelika HD  (G8F)          dForce Shadow Hive Outfit (G8F)      

    Anzhelika has smudged / horror makeups, in addition to normal ones. I hate the brows which come with her, I tried many different lights and they just don't look good. Although I have her frowning, other brows don't look like these. So I put Kala 8 brows on her just to see, and they did better. I didn't show it, but Anzhelika does come with painted brows which are medium thickness and I prefer those. 

     

    I don't like these.

    Here's Kala 8 brows in comparison. TIP: If you go to Anatomy in your Genesis 8 Female, you'll see brows listed. Look for the one with the additional subfolders as those will have different colors. Easy to find ginger!

     

    Anzhelika 3 Kala 8 Eyebrows.png
    700 x 1000 - 920K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Apollonia HD (G8F)        dForce Camo Chic (G8F)       Nesena Hair (G3F / G8F) 

    The outfit is gray, I added a green to the base color for both the pants and top. I reduced Apollonia's bust as that shirt was so tight she looked like she would burst out of it. She is priced weird so is in one of the cheapie promos. She's worth a look!

    Apollonia.png
    700 x 1000 - 1M
    Apollonia 2.png
    500 x 1000 - 440K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

     

    Wow, that looks better than the promos! Gorgeous! Waiting for a good sale on the Darcy 8 bundle because I missed it for some reason.

    Thank you so much :) 

    Have a gal for folks to check on. Working on AprilRose and I can not get the eyelashes to take the red materials. I tried it with AprilRose selected, and then with the Genesis 8 Lashes selected (in Scene)  I tried it with the Surface tool (on the eyelashes) with AprilRose selected, and with the Genesis 8 Lashes selected. Even though it's marked materials, that also checked the Shader route. Will someone who has her load her up and see if they can get the lashes to go red?  I did click the AprilRose lashes option first, try it WITHOUT clicking those first and see if the lashes will go red. Maybe that lash option is screwing with it. No other set of lashes load when I click to add AprilRose lashes BTW. I checked under Head in Scene and in Scene. 

    It's not the installing, as the brows change colors. I wouldn't think some of it would work (materials) and not the other, but who knows. I'll have to check back in tomorrow as signing off tonight, but appreciate anyone who can check on this. AprilRose is found in your Content Library under Belladona for the different material options. In the Content Library Genesis 8 Female character avatars she's under AprilRose. I've got to move along so I will render her with the dark brows and dark lashes. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • HylasHylas Posts: 4,988
     

    Wow, that looks better than the promos! Gorgeous! Waiting for a good sale on the Darcy 8 bundle because I missed it for some reason.

    Darcy herself is great and I would go as far as saying that Aniyah is one of the strongest characters of the entire generation. Absolutely love her!

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,119
    Fishtales said:

    I see what you mean. Will Mesh Grabber work on it? Could you use one of the 'Fog' products?

    I'm beginning to think it is one of the panels in the Terradome set. I will go back into it sometime and try moving them about to see if it is.

    I went back and had a look at the scene and found out two things. One, it isn't Terradome but Worldbase I used blush, and Two it was Xtr-rings that was casing the cutout. I moved the rings closer to the camera and the cutout disappeared smiley

  • 3Ddreamer3Ddreamer Posts: 1,300
    Novica said:

    @Novica, I saw a link to your thread Part 7, for https://www.daz3d.com/traveler-s-naturals-tropical-coral-vol-2 after you bought it. I was wondering how you handled the .mt5 files for the materials? All that I am able to see in my Content Library are the four props. If I have to, I can use a shader on it, since I probably would have to, since it is 3DL. All it shows now are purple coral.

    Thanks,

    Mary

    I don't think I ever rendered them, that post was just a list of tropical products. I don't have a folder in my Renders named after that product, so pretty sure I haven't done it. 

    You can convert *'mt5 files with a free script, managed to track down a link to it - I use it to convert all the my *.mt5 and some *.mt6 (DS can read them) to *.pz2

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/123841/idl-studio-converting-mt5

    You can manually edit them as well but this is much easier.

  • BradCarstenBradCarsten Posts: 856
    mori_mann said:

    Yep, the grafitti made it a no for me, too. Too bad. It looks nice otherwise.

    I also have a few animal images in my gallery, helpfully put into a sub gallery named 'Beasties' :) Mostly horses and cats of varying sizes, but there should be some dragons, a moose and a squirrel too.

    I really hope they add a plain texture. The graffiti ruins a really nice set. 

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115
    edited June 2020

    @3Ddreamer, thank you very much.

    @Novica, I have AprilRose and checked out the lashes. I used Smart Content icons, and at first I didn't think it worked, until I moved the camera really close to her eye and looked as I changed it back and forth. It does change, the red is very subtle. It would need careful lighting to highlight the color, but I think would be pretty much lost in a distance shot. I am attaching two snips of the screen while I was in Iray preview.

    On a side note, I noticed that while loading, two items failed during the metadata update.

    Mary

    April's Black Lash Mat.PNG
    1066 x 763 - 1M
    April's Red Lash Mat.PNG
    1046 x 829 - 1M
    Post edited by memcneil70 on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115
    edited June 2020

    Since I had AprilRose up on my screen, and I was curious how she would age down, I used Growing Up on her to a young teen. The Heidi top deformed badly on her, so after removing it, reducing her breasts further, I put a tee shirt on from Rendo and not so bad. Other than the lip color options I didn't use her makeup, not appropriate for a 12 to 13 year old in my mind. Somehow I loss the freckle option though. Sigh. 
     

    AprilRose Young Teen.png
    1200 x 1440 - 2M
    Post edited by memcneil70 on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    3Ddreamer said:
    <

    You can convert *'mt5 files with a free script, managed to track down a link to it - I use it to convert all the my *.mt5 and some *.mt6 (DS can read them) to *.pz2

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/123841/idl-studio-converting-mt5

    You can manually edit them as well but this is much easier.

    @3Ddreamer  Thanks so much, I put it in the References on the first page of the thread, under tips (in the M's for Mt5) 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Since I had AprilRose up on my screen, and I was curious how she would age down, I used Growing Up on her to a young teen. The Heidi top deformed badly on her, so after removing it, reducing her breasts further, I put a tee shirt on from Rendo and not so bad. Other than the lip color options I didn't use her makeup, not appropriate for a 12 to 13 year old in my mind. Somehow I loss the freckle option though. Sigh. 
     

     

    It could probably be reapplied? Anyway, she makes a good teen. Thanks for checking the lashes, that isn't even worth doing as it certainly doesn't show up. I was thinking, "Here I go again with another product that is funky." Good to know it wasn't my studio AGAIN. :)  I'm trying to render the rest of the A's and just don't have time to get bogged down as I'm sorting/eliminating gals that I don't want to use 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    I downloaded the zip file from ShareCG and after my normal confusion on file structure, it went great. I luckily had DIM open and was able to locate the .mt5 files and was good to go. Then I checked the others out in that area under '!Travelers Naturals' and found two other products to do. Very easy. Now if I had a way to locate all the other .mt5 files in my runtime easily. But I guess, unless I stumble upon them, I don't need to worry.

  • 3Ddreamer3Ddreamer Posts: 1,300

    I downloaded the zip file from ShareCG and after my normal confusion on file structure, it went great. I luckily had DIM open and was able to locate the .mt5 files and was good to go. Then I checked the others out in that area under '!Travelers Naturals' and found two other products to do. Very easy. Now if I had a way to locate all the other .mt5 files in my runtime easily. But I guess, unless I stumble upon them, I don't need to worry.

    I just do a search of my content folder for *.mt5 in File Explorer and find all there is. Then I go into Conversion binge. They don't show up in DS Content Library so you wont see them as materials to notice they are 'missing' from inside Studio. You can delete the *.mt5 files once they are converted to save space.

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    Thank you 3Ddreamer, that is a great tip. 

    Mary

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    AprilRose HD (G8F)        Linda Ponytail Hair (G3F / G8F) 

    The first thing I intensely dislike is when a vendor does FIVE shades of blue, blue-gray, and FIVE shades of green and blue-green- AND NO BROWN EYES AT ALL. Seriously?  There's dark chocolate brown, there's reddish brown, there's golden brown. So not impressed on the eye colors. (Guess what color my eyes are?) 

    I won't be using AprilRose as I found her mouth stiff for expressions compared to the previous gals I have rendered this week. Note in the promos there are none of her smiling, so I'm not sure this is just my experience or if the mouth is a bit more restrained.  I perhaps didn't find the right combination, but I manually did the Smile Simple, Mouth Open, Amira Smile, the ones I did on all the other characters right before this one, and you can see the difference in results. I had to bring down the smile level because it looked really pained. There's probably a good combination and I just didn't get to it.

    Her brows are better than the previous gal I tested. 

    TIP: That lip color is custom, I used lip color #3 then in Surfaces added color 255 / 203 / 203

    DIdn't link the dForce Hip Hop Style Street Outfit because I'm not messing with it. She was in a sitting position, the shirt exploded using the default setting, and I am not focusing on outfit reviews, I have to move along and get my characters rendered. But what do you do when dForce explodes? What should you change first? (Basics, please.) 

     

    AprilRose2.png
    792 x 931 - 1M
    AprilRoseLindaPonytail HipHopStreet.png
    800 x 1000 - 1M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • jardinejardine Posts: 1,202

    i'm no dforce expert.  but i've found that turning off self-collide in the dforce surface settings can help damp down clothing explosions.  adjusting collison layer order and offset can help, too.

    that is a tenative/baffled smile you managed to give april rose...cute, even if her mouth is a little stiff.  :)

    and thanks for spotlighting the dforce hip hop outfit.  i think that's the coziest-looking flannel shirt i've seen in studio, and i love flannel shirts.  wishlisted!

     

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    I back up the timeline to see where the explosion starts, to determine if the pose is at fault. Older poses sometimes move body parts through the character, causing issues. Newer pose sets, especially by some really good PAs, take into account simulation requirements and avoid this. If it is a minor body issue, I will use Power Pose to adjust the problem body part, and run the simulation again. But, if I have tried too many times, my desktop can crash, or I will get fed-up, clear simulation data; pick a new pose or a new outfit. 

    Recently had one where I found the arm was intersecting the back of the character. For the life of me, I could not see a reason for it to do that. So changed the pose and simulation worked just fine after that.

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    Novica, 

    I had G8F on the screen after doing clothing conversions, so I decided to test the Hip Hop Outfit. I used a sitting pose from Those Things that I know work extremely well, ASP Pose 008, the kitchen chair and then started. 
    My first attempt, somehow the pose timeline got messed up and it totally exploded immediately. The body was intersecting the chair. I had moved it back but it ended back in the legs. Cleared simulation data. Start again. I made sure the body was in the A pose in the starting position, chair well out of the way.
    I closed the eye on the flannel and then the pants to make sure the body was in place, then the pants turned back on. That is when I needed power pose to move the left arm up, and the right just a nudge. The body also had to raise a bit off the seat. I also made sure the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes were turned off on the screen, and that the tube and shoes were set as 'static'. Pants simulated first. Save, freeze simulation. Turn on shirt. Check for issues. Simulate. Freeze. Nudged left arm back onto knee a bit. Pointed toes to floor. 

    I had forgotton about this outfit, because it was such a pain to simulate. Love the flannel shirt. 

     

    G8F in Hip Hop Outfit.png
    1000 x 1000 - 696K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Ara For Kala 8         Dolly Changeable Hair  (G8F)        dForce Summer Frills (G8F)     Wet And Tanned Skins (G8F) 

    The Wet and Tanned Skins has a pdf, I tended to go into Surfaces and just tweak and play. One thing I did was Diffused Overlay Color to a green, to get rid of orange. LOL don't judge that product on the results you see here, there wasn't a long time to play with it.

    You can see how flexible her mouth is, she's very easy to pose. I don't think she looks much like her promo image, she's quite lovely. Her teeth look very natural too.

    Oh and yeah, LOTS of brown eye options.  devil

    One thing to watch out for, in the Dolly Hair, one part you deal with materials, (bun)  then the hair switches over to shaders. I was like, "Why isn't this working?" 

    Ara For Kala 8 SummerFrillsDollyBun.png
    800 x 1000 - 1M
    Ara wet.png
    800 x 1000 - 1M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Novica, 

    I had G8F on the screen after doing clothing conversions, so I decided to test the Hip Hop Outfit. I used a sitting pose from Those Things that I know work extremely well, ASP Pose 008, the kitchen chair and then started. 
    .......

    I had forgotton about this outfit, because it was such a pain to simulate. Love the flannel shirt. 

     

    Man, you did GREAT!!!

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Arti for Kala 8           Bambino Range Boots and Jeans (G8F)       dForce Beauty and the Beach (G8F)  (Top)       Vicky Hair (G8F) 

    Arti comes with so many options, you just need to look at the product page!  I did not find an avatar for her in Content Library (Under Characters). I had to load Kala 8 then apply the materials and shape from the file.  I LOVE these jeans- they sit at the upper waist, while so many are hip huggers. I used DenkiGaka's Iray Magic Metallic Foil Fabric Shaders to shader the shirt.

    For her lips, note the Silver Glitter option is merely the metallicity. I changed the size to .020  and the weight to .30  when I selected the Flesh colored lips and made the basic color 184 / 150 / 133 in Surfaces. 

     

    Arti For Kala 8 VickiHr.png
    800 x 1000 - 810K
    Arti For Kala 8 VickiHr 3.png
    800 x 1000 - 661K
    Arti For Kala 8 VickiHr 2.png
    460 x 1000 - 386K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Arti for Kala 8     

        

    Arti For Kala 8 VickiHr 4.png
    800 x 1000 - 829K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • HylasHylas Posts: 4,988
    edited June 2020

     

    z2cpGEgT_400x400.jpeg
    400 x 400 - 31K
    Post edited by Hylas on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited June 2020

    Lancy Hair (G8F)

    I did a quickie render (not 100% done)  so you could see this hair. I'm just imagining hundreds of people loading up this hair, and everyone having to try and tweak it. And good luck. You can't move that clump that has the other clump going through it. I'm also not liking those two straight strands coming down into that intersecting clump. Whether it can be fixed by smoothing or changing settings, why not have it ready for everyone to load up from the get-go?  So I'm doing Ascelin right now, but NOT with this hair.  You can look at the promos and see these results too. (I got her on sale, for the character, not the hair.)  I also don't particularly care for the part of her hair either. 

    Has anyone used this hair and liked it? There's a dForce version with this product, which may be better but I'm personally just not interested.

    Oh, and about that- the dForce hair materials are labeled as such, but the regular hair, the color is labeled as "Ribbon Color"   :( 

    hair.png
    800 x 1000 - 1M
    Post edited by Novica on
This discussion has been closed.