Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 13
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Just a reminder, as I often almost forget- if it says OVER 200.00 to get X percent off, make sure the gift card is 201.00 or more.
I haven't been buying hardly at all during the PA sale, but I'm amazed at Polish's Honeymoon Resort and Sweet Street by Ansiko. Now we're talking great products! They go to 50% off when both are bought, and I think $29.98 for ALL that in the Honeymoon Resort bundle is so reasonable! There's 5 things, so only $6 apiece, one of those being the entire building/complex outside. And Sweet Street is loaded with FORTY props which can be used elsewhere (food items, plants, furniture, even pastry wallhangings for other stores.) It goes to $11.47 and I just love the look. Plus, it's Ansiko, can't go wrong.
I'm passing on all the bundles, because I simply don't need them. Sticking to my guns on prioritizing sets. That's the benefit of categorizing/examining everything you own. You REALLY get the "don't need this" bug that needles you everytime you see a character or a bundle. I did read over in Commons about the whopping number of material zones in those Marvelous Bodysuits. If' you're only going to get a few things from the bundles, those are worth a look. Edit- Mada is actually on the thread, open to suggestions.
EDIT- so I got the gift card (201.00) which got me $40 (approx) off, then I bought the Male and Female Marvelous Bodysuits for male, female, and the textures for both, at 65% off and about 28.00 total. So got them "for free" since I essentially got 40.00 "free" with the 19% gift card discount, and still have 12.00 left over. Warped logic, eh? I would have had to spend about $100 to get the three bundles IIRC with only $20 store credit (and one required two additional items to drop the price further) so glad I went this route and got the 40.00 off.
I haven't purchased much in the sale, either. None of the character bundles interested me. I bought the Primavera Hair bundle, though. The list of product used is in my Gallery.
Wouldn't you just LOVE to have to wash and brush all that hair?!!!! Not to mention trying to sleep without getting tangled up in it. Hard "Pass!" But it's gorgeous. Reminds me of Disney hair in their cartoon heroines. (Aka, "Brave")
My thoughts exactly! It is gorgeous, but I can't really see it in realistic scenes. But I might buy it anyway, y'know, just because its absolutely stunning.
You would have the strongest neck muscles carrying that mass around all the time. Can you imagine how heavy that hair is when wet?
It's very tempting to get the bundle. I love Linday hairs, but I've noticed those that use dForce, (not dForce Hair—which I like to call dHair,) can take a very long time to simulate; And that's using my GTX 1080. I noticed the "Compatible Products" lists "dForce Hair, so I'm wondering how fast this hair drapes compared to their long hair "with dForce" products. If it's faster, that could tip the scales for me.
Beautiful render!
I haven't purchased anything since the 2nd because the offers haven't really appealed to me. I like Sukai 8, but not the superhero themed products, (personal preference, no disrespect to the PAs.) And while there has been one or two items I like, there hasn't been sufficient incentive for me to get them right now. Unless something I've been waiting for is released, (like Ultrascenery Addons, for example,) or the incentive is really good, I prefer to wait until the last catch up, and then load up on the products I want the most, constrained by my budget.
I haven't purchased anything since the 2nd, until today.
I just picked up Kio HD and Hair for Genesis 8 Male in Fast Grab. There are several Vyusur products in FG right now, but I think this one is best value. You get a G8M character and a versatile short hair for only $5.69. And with a minor bit of fiddling, that hair will work on G3 males. With a bit more fiddling, it will work on G8 and G3 females. It's actually cold this morning, so I may turn on The Beast for a while and tinker. Won't be for long, though; It's supposed to hit the low to mid-90s today, and we don't have air conditioning!
This took 10 minutes to simulate on a GTX 980ti.
I made this one with the Primavera Romance addon. I'm not really sure what the difference is. Maybe the curls are looser??
Same the one I did took about 10-12 minutes to simulate. @Barbult yes the romance addon has looser curls. I also turned off the to geoshells to make it not quite as full.
Great picture, barbult and, wow, that hair looks awesome!
Barbult has been posting experiments using UltraScenery, especially creating your own ecologies. She posted a desert scene with cacti the other day. Since I've been meaning to give her technique a try for some time, her desert images inspired me to take the plunge. So here's an ecology using Rabbicus, photographed on the day Novica was visiting.
Wow, that's amazing!
Good likeness! I am going to try cactus pear for the 1st time this month and maybe I'll grow them in my house to eat if they are good.
I speared my big toe just below the big toenail on a spanish bayonet (cactus like plant that looks like a joshua tree but isn't) once jumping a fence and it took 3 - 4 years for my big toe nail to grow enough to get the last of the spanish bayonet of of my toenail!
That's a great image to showcase the hair.
Oh that's TOO funny! I've missed Rabbicus. Looks like he's been busy doing what rabbits do best...
...what rabbits do best... You are too funny!!!!!
Jeff Masters had moved to Yale Climate Connections (from Weather Underground, they cut budet and stupidly eliminated his Category 6 blog) and has Eye on the Storm blog (bookmark it, if hurricanes affect you this season.) Well, in the comment section below the blog,some PhD meteorologists and folks studying it / doing it for a hobby post info too. (They've been doing it for years, really proficient at it.) From the comments today, I found this neat site- Windy.com which shows you the wind currents and the future GFS / ECMWF tracks.
You simply click on one of those at the bottom, and there's a scroll bar (or hit the sideways triangle on the far left of the scrollbar) to animate the model. It goes out to Sept 17th at the moment, and the models ares showing a huge storm going to the east coast but near the end of the track curving out and away. Thank goodness if this holds true. HOWEVER, watch that storm Dr Masters discusses in the video blog- it does get to the Caribbean. The run ends before showing if/when it starts curving north, west, northwest, etc. toward Gulf or other US areas. As of the 17th it was approaching the island and no sign of curvature. That's nine days out and of course can change, but models and ensembles are consistent on it at least for now.
Shout out to @zanolan for their first product, the dForce ZO Female Scrub Set. I really like the realistic flow of the material and the folds. It seems quite comfortable for the wearer, not stiff, and the length of the garments are spot-on. Looking forward to seeing more clothing from this new vendor.
I'm just not feeling the love for that Summer Hill Outfit (not going to link, I don't want people referencing this comment via the plug-in, as it's just my opinion.) with the jacket. However, the dress itself has nice patterns and colors; I wouldn't hesitate to buy it on sale to get the outfit and hide the jacket. I'd just have to see the jacket in different light, it does seem to vary in its appeal based on the lighting. What was your reaction to the ensemble?
Again, just my opinion- the Celtic Crannog, the flames are identical and don't look very real IMO. I found them distracting. However, the set is a fun concept and note the really weathered edges on the entry building's thatched roof. Nice touch. To me, the other thatches seem too uniform and sleek in comparison. With Photoshop tools, you could cut and paste/clone some of that rough edging to the other huts. (Don't ask me, I'd simply hand paint some disturbances in there.) But you Photoshop experts, confirm there's a clone tool that would do that? So what's your opinion on this set?
The scrub outfit is in my cart, and the set. I looked at that dress and its texture. I don't have a need for it, but I found it curious that there were more textures in the main product than in the texture add-on. Like you, if it comes on sale in the future, I might get it. I liked the dForce Regina Hair. It is one of the few that actually looks like normal hair (ie non-fluffy).
I have the new utility by V3Digitimes in my cart, and I went to add more items from her store and found issues with the percentages. I reported it in the 'sales error' thread but no response. If you check out her commercial thread, she wrote that she is recovering from surgery. So I wanted to focus on her products.
Update on our weather: Rain right now, temps in the 30s, but windchill, in the teens. Snow is expected to move into the Denver area proper at any time. Took me a bit last night to find my ski hat, gloves, and other fuzzy stuff. Then, as I went outside of the complex with Bugsy this morning, I was so busy putting everything on, I forgot to put the gate keys in my pocket. At least this time it wasn't -3F and I now have the code for the other gate.
@memcneil70 This is just incredible weather for you :) So glad you didn't get locked out!!!
V3Digitimes is a real angel, we've PMd quite a bit in the past and she is always so willing to help. Very down to earth and cares about the customers. I'll go find her commercial thread and read up. Thanks for pointing that out.
Has anyone seen specifics on the new store? Rawb mentioned a different shopping cart, and what I'm wondering is if the store pages will also change? I'm focusing on getting images for all my folders (1 per product) as I am concerned store pages may change, possibly reduce the number of images? (and that is pure worry and conjecture, no reason at all to think that will happen. I worse case things and am prepared that way.)
Always expect the worse and hope for the best that way your not disappointed or surprised
I am discouraged. No acknowledgement of my issue on the sales issue thread after almost four hours, no change in percentages to match what is posted to be off and Daz is supposed to have been on duty for at least an hour and forty-five minutes. But I have a loaf of Morning Apple Bread out of the oven, and a loaf of Crusty French Bread proofing to go in, and three chapters of a book edited.
That bread sounds good
Both are. I modified the apple bread from a recipe on AllRecipes for high elevations then started to add to it. The French bread is from The New York Times Recipe collection. Super simple. Great base for Avocado Toast, which my hospital put me on to.
As I go through my products, thought I'd point out some interesting aspects.
Damaged Tunnel Entrance isn't just a tunnel entrance, inside there's a homeless residence.
Thanks Novica. I don't think I ever looked at the pictures that far in. Wishlisted for now!
@memcneil70 You're welcome :) I don't think it looks like a damaged tunnel entrance, I think it should have been named "deserted."
A bit of off-topic rambling… Summers here in Eugene, Oregon are generally mild enough that central air conditioning is more of a luxury than a necessity. (Although there was the summer of 2015 that broke all kinds of heat records.) We've been especially fortunate this year, with overnight lows in the mid-60s or lower, allowing us to use fans to bring in the cooler air overnight, keeping the house quite comfortable in spite of temps in the upper 80s and lower 90s late in the day.
We're smack dab in the middle of an atypical heat wave, for this time of year, with high winds coming from the northeast. Meteorologists say these NE winds this time of year, especially this strong, only happen a few times in a century. The forecast for tomorrow is still 99-100ºF, depending on what tv station you watch.
The problem is, there are wild fires to the east of us, including one that just started yesterday only about 75 miles to the east. There's also one in Washington, about half way between Seattle and Spokane. (Not that air quality here is much of an issue, compared to the losses from the fires. I understand a small town in WA has been completely destroyed, and the fire to the east of us has detroyed at least 100 structures.)
I usually close the house up during the heat of the day, opening windows and doors in the evening to start bringing in the cooler air. But not last night. I went to the front door and it looked like we were socked in with fog. But when I opened the door, I was hit with the smell of smoke. No clouds; just smoke, thick and low. I could see the trees across the street, but I couldn't see the top of the trees on the other side of my neighbor's house.
Things are bit better today. The wind is not as strong here as it was last night and the smoke is higher, though according to Google on my phone, visibility is now at 2 miles. We've been told to stay inside if we can, and definitely avoid outdoor activities like running or bicycling. But I couldn't resist the temptation to take my DSLR out and try to get some photos in manual mode, (so I could work with the camera raw files.) It was as if I were looking through a yellow filter at everything.
Here are a few images to show the ash. (Images link to larger versions and open in a new window/tab.)
Our cars, (links to full 3888 x 2592 pixel image, to show details):
Early morning view out the window in my front door, (no ash. Oops):
Ash on the leaves of Foxglove, in our front yard:
And finally, a plastic Adirondack Chair just in front of the house, (which is off-white, NOT yellow!)
All those white speckles on the leaves and the chair are ash. Based on the debris on the cars, I'd say most of the brown, dusty stuff is too.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the people who are losing everything in these fires.
Mother Nature has not been kind to human beings this year.