Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 8

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  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    oh what an amazingly good idea! Honestly, if anyone doesn't have that add on, they are missing out on so much!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881

    LOL, that would be interesting to see the long list of references for hair- we use them so much!

    Mom will be leaving the hospital tomorrow. Headed there now, going to be MIA tonight.

    Are you keeping an eye on Fast Grab? It has been changing off and on again. This week I bought Ascension Headwear and Classy Hoops. For other items, I picked up the Create A Room Pack 3, Crystal Light Catchers and Shader Presets, Eco Building, LY Fantasy Races HD Faces and Bodies, and Rialto Glasswork Shaders and Props.  

    Not buying any older content as I have 4 years worth already, but it's nice to see folks getting good deals .

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    edited May 2017

    There is a LOT of DM's stuff on sale today.  Like for a buck or two.  Keep in mind that his(her?) sets not only come with the scene but all of the props as well as a ton of poses. If you don't have these, you should go grab them.  I literally picked up about 15 sets for less than $10.  And the textures hold up very well in Iray as well.  Think of these as fantasy vignettes.  Super super useful and I highly recommend them!

    Edited to add that lots of weapons are included in these as well.

    Post edited by IceDragonArt on
  • FistyFisty Posts: 3,416

    I have some free hoop earrings over at sharecg too if you want some really big ones.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    Fisty said:

    I have some free hoop earrings over at sharecg too if you want some really big ones.

    Those are gorgeous!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881
    Fisty said:

    I have some free hoop earrings over at sharecg too if you want some really big ones.

    Thank you SO much- love those and grabbed them. Also marked as a favorite.

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    ...their....

    :D :D Danie & Marforno. 

    I nabbed four of their sets - the funny thing is, I had purchased them originally at rendo before those sets moved over here. But at under a buck each, (i got a Pc new release also), I don't care - it's worth it to have them in daz account and installed via Smart Content. :)

    There is a LOT of DM's stuff on sale today.  Like for a buck or two.  Keep in mind that his(her?) sets not only come with the scene but all of the props as well as a ton of poses. If you don't have these, you should go grab them.  I literally picked up about 15 sets for less than $10.  And the textures hold up very well in Iray as well.  Think of these as fantasy vignettes.  Super super useful and I highly recommend them!

    Edited to add that lots of weapons are included in these as well.

     

  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421
    edited May 2017

    ​Ok... If I post a picture in the main gallery, what is the best way to share that in a message here? 

    I kept playing around with TerraDome3 with Roads N Rails... it is slow going working with TerraDome 3 on a mid-grade system... but if you're patient and you really utilize a bunch of tricks, you can get some pretty decent results out of it. Tofusan has a replication script on ShareCG that helped, and I relied heavily on node instances. I also used the Texture resizing script from the Freebie Forum here. 

    I used layers with opacity to create the atmospheric haze in front of the planet. That wasn't working great in the render, and after messing with it for a while, I decided that postwork was the easiest away to make the planet seem behind the clouds. It still isn't perfect. 

    LeavingLasVegas5PostWork.jpg
    1860 x 921 - 1M
    Post edited by donovancolbert on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,621

    I've been buying more at Rendo lately. Their mother's day sale was pretty good and was store wide.

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,351
    edited May 2017

    I believe the Auto-Converter will convert and apply a single V4 material preset (in various formats) to a G2F figure, whereas the Batch-Converter will read all the V4 material presets in a given library (maybe sub-libs too?) and save them as new presets for G2F in the location of your choice, so they are all saved for future use - it wouldn't apply any of them immediately.

    ETA: I don't actually have either product, this is just from memory of the forum discussions when they were originally released. I have the full V4 figure so I converted all my V4 materials by the laborious method of loading to V4 then saving as .duf meterial preset, which can then be loaded onto Genesis or G2F (or indeed G3F using Cayman's geograft product).

    Post edited by MelanieL on
  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421

    So... The "auto convert"... 

    I just load a character, load the maps, save it as a material preset, then load that preset on a G2 character. 

    The auto-convert automates THAT process?


    I mean... man... maybe that is why I can't get my head around that one. I understand why you would want to batch convert, especially when you've got a ton of different options for eyes, nails, makeup, etc...  But I can't understand what the auto-convert does that is that much different from just loading and saving a material preset yourself. 



     

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,351
    edited May 2017

    Wel if someone doesn't have V4 figure to save from, they would need to read the .pz2 or .ds file and copy all the settings from each V4 surface name to the (different) G2F one. Hence the "carpal tunnel" comment on the product page!

    ETA: I looked for a Commercial thread but couldn't find one, however this one was active when the Batch Convertor came out and may have some useful remarks: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/62336/draagonstorm-s-v4-skins-batch-converter-to-genesis-2

    NB: Just fixed that link - I put in the wrong one!

    Post edited by MelanieL on
  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421
    MelanieL said:

    Wel if someone doesn't have V4 figure to save from, they would need to read the .pz2 or .ds file and copy all the settings from each V4 surface name to the (different) G2F one. Hence the "carpal tunnel" comment on the product page!

    ETA: I looked for a Commercial thread but couldn't find one, however this one was active when the Batch Convertor came out and may have some useful remarks: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/47711/converting-skins-from-v4-to-g2

    Ah! That makes more sense. Thanks for walking me through this and being patient while I was catching up! Honestly. 

    :D 

     

     

  • FrankTheTankFrankTheTank Posts: 1,131

    Does anyone know if shiny sheetz for g2f have bones or just morphs? I'm wondering if it's possible to make more poses with the sheets by dragging them manually or are you stuck with the included morphs?

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    The new DeathStalker by Herschel Hoffmeyer.  Quite versatile as far as posing etc.  Has three different materials presets as well, black striped, white striped and brown.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881

    If you have the Daz Deals app, it will show you forum posts- there's several from my thread. One was this one. (on the batch converter.) I haven't messed with those for ages, so you'd just have to read the threads. This was one of my posts showing what I did with it. Wish I could help, just been too long ago to try and remember.  :) 

  • DarwinsMishapDarwinsMishap Posts: 4,087
    DSDT said:

    Does anyone know if shiny sheetz for g2f have bones or just morphs? I'm wondering if it's possible to make more poses with the sheets by dragging them manually or are you stuck with the included morphs?

    I have them for G3M, and they are the base sheet model with morph dials or apply presets.

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,351
    edited May 2017

    I've snagged quite a few old clothing sets in the recent Blow Out Sales, hoping to refit to Genesis 3. Here are a couple I've tried already and been quite pleased with.

    Skadi for V4 - refit to Rune 7 using Wear Them All. This is an Iray render but using one of the default mats from the set (it has DS mats) with just a minor "bumping" of the bump. The hair is Twilight Hair (PC+ item). The backdrop is one of my own made in Photoshop with various of Ron's brushes, the lighting is from Painter's Lights (which I love) with the basic DS HDR at a 25% intensity to lighten the shadows a little.

    La Plume - a texture set for The Dress for V3. This was a two-part conversion: first to Genesis (using the clone V3 Shape) then refit from Genesis to G3F using Wear Them All. La Plume only has Poser mats, but all I did was increase the bump settings for this (Iray) render. The figure is Uma for Gia 7, lit with Painter's Lights again.

    Uma-La-Plume.jpg
    768 x 1024 - 624K
    Post edited by MelanieL on
  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421

    I do love it when people take old content and breath new life into it with shaders and cross generation utilities. 

    ​Right now I'm busy converting all my V4 to G2 using the Batch convert utility. It is something I had been doing by hand, creating a material preset... but I knew eventually I'd want to do it this way. 

    ​I'm a little disappointed. I set it up to just do the Runtime\libraries\pose directory and all sub directories, and the script can't handle that... so I'm having to go through and do each sub-directory individually. But my content library is pretty big, so this isn't really the script's fault. More time consuming than I wanted, but less time consuming than doing a different material preset for every possible eye, nail, makeup, tattoo, whatever skin map combination possible. 

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881
    edited May 2017

    Island House     Hooded Beach Chair

    The Hooded Beach Chairs were scaled down a bit, and they come in quite a few colors, including more natural ones. I used red so they would stand out. They're also by the same vendor! (I've rendered them before, but it's not linked on the product page from the Daz Deal addon. So that seems to be hit or miss.) 

    Note the trees blowing in the wind, which is correct. I lived on the tip of an island and it is always quite breezy. Be sure your characters' hair is blowing! 

    If doing water isn't your thing (in other words, having to tweak it a lot) then Island House will be a good one to add to your wishlist. I did absolutely nothing with this and am showing you with the default Iray HDRI. Film ISO at 137.91  and Exposure Value  13.84 , and that's it. Render time: for large render of 1100 x 900 pixels:

    34% at 3 minutes       55% at 3:45        66% at 4:19          75% at 4:45   581 iterations   (quite zippy!)     
    5:40  80%   663 iterations          6:30  87%  774 iterations            7:00    89%   881 iterations       8:00    92%    970  iterations
    8:45 / 95% / 1073        9:10 / 96% / 1125     9:30 / 97% / 1162       9:45 / 98 / 1208       10:35 / 99 / 1267 

    DONE: 10:42 / 1292 iterations. So under 11 minutes, and it's a jammed packed scene. Uses instances. 

    island house hooded chairs.png
    1100 x 900 - 2M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881
    edited May 2017

    Here's another one of Island House. I do think postwork is needed around the edge of the beach, it reminds me of a uneven pancake.Not trying to be mean, it's just IMO the edge is a bit harsh. Some beaches do have sharp cutoffs, but I like more of a gradually easing into the water. The edge on our left seems too high and stark. (When I get done with other renders, I am going to reload the Island House again to be sure it's not an error.) 

    Ron has some great water brushes for postwork, other artists have water products, or you can use a D-Former.  EDIT: Tried a couple D Formers, I wouldn't recommend those. The waves are also painted on the sand and even a smaller tweak looks a bit distorted. Also, it doesn't really get rid of the pancake edges (for lack of a better term.)  Edit: I tried mixing with Alsace water and the wave action is too different, and the amount it  has to be lowered to blend means the edges won't be resolved to the way I personally want them to be.

    island house.png
    800 x 655 - 832K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881
    edited May 2017

    Island House and substituting in DA Palm Island for the water and island (and the mangrove bushes.)  The tall palm trees and house are the Island House set.

    island house Palm Island land.png
    800 x 655 - 817K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • donovancolbertdonovancolbert Posts: 1,421

    Yup, the last one looks the best, by a wide margin. 

    It can be a little frustrating when you have to kit-bash different set props, backgrounds, settings, effects or whatever into a scene to get things to look right. I mean, it is rewarding, too... when you get it to all come together in a unique way. 
     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Now I want to go to the beach lol.

    I've converted my entire Genesis library to G2F and am working on converting all of my V4 stuff to G2F.  I'm autofitting to Genesis then using Sickleyields Dress Rig to move them to G2F and saving them as a file assets so I keep all of the morphs.  Once everything is converted to G2f I will move them up to G3F.  I use both G2f and G3f regularly so I should have a huge library of clothing when I'm done lol

  • greymouser69greymouser69 Posts: 501

    Wow Sonja that's a lot of work but when you finish I'm sure it will be amazing!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,621

    In my opinion water in 3d rarely looks good. The tech is just not there yet but those island shots look better than any I've seen. Though I suspect given the size of that island any construction would not survive 5 minutes.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881
    edited May 2017

    Island House with the  Iray Ghost Light Kit 2     SS Janya for Mei Lin 7     Casual Summer for Genesis 3 Females

    Dove Hair for Genesis 3 Females

    I like Dove Hair, I hadn't used that in quite awhile. Short and spunky haircut. 

    With three ceiling lights from the Iray Ghost Light Kit 2, Janya is enjoying her Island House bedroom. Read here for a description, and to see two other light lumen tests. You can decide which you like best, I liked the third one, which is shown below.  Below is before Ghost Lights, and with them. No other changes in lighting/ settings.

    With only Ghost Lights added.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881

    In my opinion water in 3d rarely looks good. The tech is just not there yet but those island shots look better than any I've seen. Though I suspect given the size of that island any construction would not survive 5 minutes.

    LOL. High tide = DISASTER.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,881
    MelanieL said:

    I've snagged quite a few old clothing sets in the recent Blow Out Sales, hoping to refit to Genesis 3. Here are a couple I've tried already and been quite pleased with.

    Skadi for V4 - refit to Rune 7 using Wear Them All. This is an Iray render but using one of the default mats from the set (it has DS mats) with just a minor "bumping" of the bump. The hair is Twilight Hair (PC+ item). The backdrop is one of my own made in Photoshop with various of Ron's brushes, the lighting is from Painter's Lights (which I love) with the basic DS HDR at a 25% intensity to lighten the shadows a little.

    La Plume - a texture set for The Dress for V3. This was a two-part conversion: first to Genesis (using the clone V3 Shape) then refit from Genesis to G3F using Wear Them All. La Plume only has Poser mats, but all I did was increase the bump settings for this (Iray) render. The figure is Uma for Gia 7, lit with Painter's Lights again.

    @MelanieL    Those are very nice- the sleeve detail is interesting. That's amazing what you did with La Plume!!!

    I also like what you did with the background, particularly the trees.

This discussion has been closed.