StrangeFate's stuff: Duskbound Slave Gear Promo!
Hi,
New here, and some WIP weapons etc... beta testers ? As the title says, working currently on some small things, just to figure out how DAZ works. Been doing a lot of reading over the past few weeks.
So far basic materials seem to be pretty straightforward and didn't need much tweaking to have them looking like I wanted them. Displacement maps also seem to work surprisingly well.
The goal would be eventually to add everything to the store as part of whatever sets make sense... and do environments and characters too I figure out more things.
I'll be going at it slow until July, but then I'll be dedicating more time to this and would love to find some people willing to beta test what I do too, not sure if this is the right place to ask for that.
Also, if someone is willing to do cool renders with the items once they're ready that could be used for the store, I'd be very thankful for that too and hopefully it would be fun for someone.
The themes for what I'll be doing will be fantasy at first, but I'd love to do some SciFi and Superhero'ish stuff down the road.
These are the textured test props so far:
I'll do a few more heavy weapons to round up a set, and then will probably try my hands at a simple figure/clothing/gear.
Edited to add subject to body of post
Comments
Oh I really like these! Will be looking forward to seeing what else you come up with! Those weapons would be awsome for a troll or a giant....and the details on the helmets are fabulous. and yes this is the right place to ask for beta testers. Would be happy to try them out for you and anything else you do in the future but I will be gone for two weeks in June so not sure how that would work for you. I can do basic testing, as in, what an average user would do with them anyway. If you need someone with more technical knowledge that would not be me lol.
If you're still looking, I'd like to help test. 3Delight or iRay? I'm not used to light setups with the latter.
These are looking well made! will be interesting to see more of them.
These look great, strangefate_asdf!
- Greg
I love those props and would love to beta test them for you and any others you come up with in the future!!!
Thanks guys, glad you like them.
I'll keep updating the thread as I go, it will probably be a few weeks before I have things ready to test, still want to add 1-2 more weapons to the set. Once I'm ready, I'll send some PMs out to the people interested in testing.
The goal would be to have materials for both, iRay and 3Delight, so seeing how they look in both renderers helps... and like said, I'd be thankful for any cool images anyone does with the items that I could also use for the store.
These look interesting. I'd love a chance to test them out, too. I'm mostly strictly Iray when it comes to images, though, as there is still a lot I need to learn about 3Delight to get anything useable in there. I like the look of the battle axe and the horns on the helmets! I, also, like what you did with the grips!
That copper/bronze material on the helmet on the right looks very good... Sorry, I've just spent two days painting stuff in real life, that exact shade... Sometimes I don't know which is harder, mixing, painting or spraying colors or making good shaders. But once you get a color or effect right, you do end up wishing it was a shader, so at least throughout the rest of the project it would be consistent. The models themselves look great too, sorry to fixate on the material.
Thanks Knittingmommy!
McGyver - I don't think anything's too difficult if you're McGyver :)
Shaders are easier than mixing paint I'd say, you can undo anything. With paint, a bit too much of this ir that and it often ruins the mix.
Finished another weapon. Some sort of 2 handed cleaver. 1 more to go and I think it should be enough for a first pack.
Very nice work! I like the detail you are putting in your work like those cord wraps around the wood (which again has nice detail)
I agree fantastic detail that should stand up very well to close ups yet is not so small it will be that difficult to see a bit further off
Thanks :)
Didn't have much time these last few days, so I just tweaked the materials until they looked good in DAZ's iRay. This weekend I should have the time needed to do the last weapon of the set.
The screenshot is just iRay with the enviro lighting it... I tried adding some lights but they don't seem to work in iRay... I'll have to read up on that.
FInished the last weapon last night and started tweaking the remaining materials for iRay, axe mesh is a bit broken in the renders... forgot to do something when I exported the mesh, will fix on next export.
Also, after watching some (bad) 80s fantasy movies lately, I decided to do a second texture for each weapon, in a shiny, corny style.
These really are amazing....
The weapons look fantastic! If you want someone to help test 'em, please feel free to count me in. :D
Truely awwesome weapons here @strangefate_asdf
Yes, I would like to test too and maybe do promo work...
Thanks everybody, glad you like them. Things should be ready soon.
Wonderland, some promo work would be great if you find the time.
Got the cleaver into Daz today... not very sophisticated but it does split skulls from a safe distance.
And I should have the last weapon imported soon...
Doing a few poses to go along with the weapons. They're fun to do but DAZ's viewport navigation and some issues with joints jumping around a little and not maintaining their rotations once you reclick them, make posing a bit painful... no idea how some can do 80+ poses on the store
I'll do 2-3 more, tweak some things so they work with all 4 weapons and... done.
Like the models & textures, the poses look great, strangefate_asdf!
- Greg
Those poses are very well done! Nice balance and in movement situations. Two little nitpicks: The back slope of the spine in the Gxfemale tends towars a hollow back (unhealth with a heavy weight hammer), depending on which firgure you are using there are different options to work against that. Most proinent is the probelm in pose 2, 3 and 8. And in pose 8 I would expect the right hand to be placed higher on the hilt for a better balance. And don't worry the guys who put out 80 poses don't come up with nice stylish weapons at the same time. I'd rather have a few well fitting pose to the weapon than some mass done sloppy.
You're too kind Greg, thanks :)
Linwelly - I have been trying to remove the hollow back in some poses yes, even if you try to arch the back it still persists... I'll give it another look.
The hilt thing... There's a number of poses where I'd like the right hand to be in a different spot, but it's the default designated spot you get when you parent the hammer to the hand. So if I move the hand, the hammer will go with it.
I'm not familiar with what DAZ users expect from things, whether they count on having to fudge things a little to get perfection or if they expect to click on something and be done... should the pose renders be exactly what they get when they set things up and click, or are they okay with simple things like having to slide or rotate the hammer along its axis to match the pose image exactly ?
So far I've been trying to make the poses look good with the 'default' settings, so that they can parent the hammer, axe or sword to the right hand, click on the pose and be done.
For the hollow back one way to overcome is if you own the youth morph from Zev0 to dial in the youth pose, however that requires to own the youth morphs from the customers as well. What I use for the g2f is to rotate the hip, that however is not a pose but a morph again. So no easy solution I fear. But then I guess I'm one of the few to even notice. If applied to high heeled heroine the whole thing is obsolete anyway.
As for the exactness of the poses, I believe there are both kind of customers. I know a lot of very versed posers that will adjust every pose to their exact need, who enjoy a well made preset but don't rely on it but looking through the galleries you will find a lot of renders with poses applied as they come. My estimation would be the better the poses come the more happy will be the ones to use it. I hope that helped somehow...
I'm one of those who tweaks every pose anyway so I apply the pose that is closest to what I am going for and then adjust as needed.
J. cade, a PA/frequent Forumite has an 'unbreak the spine' set for the Genesis 3 female...it's labeled 'unrestricted use'...
http://www.sharecg.com/v/82308/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/Unbreak-Spine-Posture-Corrector-for-Genesis-3
If nothing else, it should give you some pointers on how to approach the whole mess.
It helped Linwelly, thanks.
I imagine 'unbreak the spine' is a morph too, or otherwise still something people need to have, to see the difference ?
Made a few more poses, I think that's enough for a first set. Need to get the last weapon into Daz, make sure at least most poses work for it too, then read up again on where the files are required to be and how they have to be packaged aaaand things should be good to go.
One thing I think you did well is making valid action poses instead of only pinup weapon poses.
+5
I fully agree with that!
Well, now that you mention pin up poses... hadn't even thought about that hmm...
I made morphs for the hammer, axe and cleaver that scale and shift some parts around to make them smaller and shorter. The result is passable 1 handed versions of them, you can just load the default 2 hander and use the morph at 100% to make it into a 1 hander! I'll probably do 2-3 poses for 1 handers and I have to finish assembling the 3Delight versions of the materials and that should be all.
Also bought the Troll and a few other things today to see how files are structured etc... and ended up goofing around...