Novica & Serene Night’s Renders, Tips, Tutorials & Product Reviews PART 2

1293032343550

Comments

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    I picked up the facial and body morphs sets for genesis male, and so far, those are quite nice. One thing I noticed is Michael 6 doesn't appear to have the hero shape which I confess I liked from version 5. (If I'm missing something let me know). I'm sad it is gone, because I liked to add a little to buff out my figures. =-)

    I've worked with the figure some, and do think Michael's face reminds me a lot of D5. his overall face seems thin to me. Base head so far isn't my favorite face on the planet.

    I do find his hands are improved as are his arms and shoulders. He has a nice bod. Default skins are a bit high in SSS for my tastes, (I admit a little SSS goes a long way with me), but there are adjustments included including a remove SSS From the mouth which is cool and reduces the mouth over the flashlight effect.

    Hair for Michael 6 did not appeal to me and some reminded me a lot of existing hairs I own., but it is still early days and I've seen some interesting hair in the previews forum.

    Looking forward to trying out the remaining M6 content. I'm glad to see others are enjoying their purchases! =-)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Can you explain this a little bit? I've seen SSS used a couple different ways, as in subsurface scatter / shading- I am not "in the know." I know it deals with the translucency of the skin- but where do you find the settings to know what they are?

    "Default skins are a bit high in SSS for my tastes, (I admit a little SSS goes a long way with me), but there are adjustments included including a remove SSS From the mouth"

  • KharmaKharma Posts: 3,214
    edited December 1969

    Novica check your PM

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Oh heck. I lost my whole post. I get this problem a lot when I try to attach screenshots and the internet explorer opens the attachment window behind my browser and then won't let me attach anything seizing up my machine. =-) GRR.

    This explains the effect quite well:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/26072/

    In general this has to do with how a scene is lit and the type of lighting use and how it reacts to the skin and the mouth With certain skins like Belle and M6, you get a light bulb red face look where the light is translucent in the skin.

    Jaderail says this can be remedied by using light with raytraced shadows.

    In general you can adjust the level of SSS producing different effects on your chosen character.

    1. Image 1 shows how to turn off these effects using the M6 default skin, including the no sss mouth
    2. Image 2 shows my favorite light giving M6 a nice overly lit face
    3. Image 3 has the mouth sss off
    4. Image 4 has sss reduced overall.

    You can see the effects here of sss on this character and this skin.

    This is the limits of my understanding of this.=-) I admit I am not an expert lighter…. Sort of the short order cook of lighting. =-)

    4m6-headshot-jason-lights25%.jpg
    710 x 710 - 142K
    3m6-headshot-jason-lights-mouthless.jpg
    710 x 710 - 147K
    2m6-headshot-jason-lights.jpg
    710 x 710 - 152K
    image1.jpg
    1398 x 1080 - 186K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Between you and Kharma, I'm gettin' ed-u-cated. Thanks so much!
    I've got the head and body morphs bundle in my cart- you guys did see the bundle, right? Didn't buy them separately?

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    I got the bundle and I'm thinking about the M4 conversion script thing. I find loading the skin and saving it as a preset wearisome,and I have a lot of m4 skins including my most favorite ones. So I'm considering it but don't want to put out 10.00 right now.

    Sadly, I'm finding many of my m5 skins aren't applying to m6 either. Probably m4 skins in disguise.

    Fortunately my beloved Axel and Ryuu work nicely. Male-M3dia takes care to convert these to DSON.

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,136
    edited December 1969

    I got the bundle and I'm thinking about the M4 conversion script thing. I find loading the skin and saving it as a preset wearisome,and I have a lot of m4 skins including my most favorite ones. So I'm considering it but don't want to put out 10.00 right now.

    Sadly, I'm finding many of my m5 skins aren't applying to m6 either. Probably m4 skins in disguise.

    Fortunately my beloved Axel and Ryuu work nicely. Male-M3dia takes care to convert these to DSON.


    The skins have to be .duf. Some are .dsa and won't work until you convert them (just like G2F).
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Today’s review is: Casual T-Shirt and Pants for Genesis 2 Males
    http://www.daz3d.com/casual-t-shirt-and-pants-for-genesis-2-male-s

    By Trendy Renders

    I’m always on the prowl for normal everyday men’s clothing and Casual T-shirt and men, and this set really works. The drape of these trousers and the fit of the shirt in particular is really nice. It bends well with gen2 male and in my brief test I encountered no clipping. It looks great on Gen 2 male, and I think the neckline and shirt would be nice for portrait renders. What can I say? Nice job.

    I put the outfit on M6 (seen here with Axel skin), and rendered nicely from every angle. Yes,some textures(particularly the belt) looked a bit flat- but, you can easily touch it up with shaders, and you know what? The shirt and pants have a number of mat zones so you can really go to town with customizing your own outfit .

    I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a texture expansion… I can see some interesting things done with this outfit. The set includes belt, shirt and pants with a number of morphs included.

    This is a nice men’s basic and I would definitely pick it up. This is a PA to watch. =-)

    pose-4.jpg
    710 x 994 - 109K
    pose-3.jpg
    710 x 994 - 118K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    That is the ONE thing I did not buy yesterday, because the pockets in back look flat. Can you render that in a quickie? (just a booty shot, lol)

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited November 2013

    Novica said:
    That is the ONE thing I did not buy yesterday, because the pockets in back look flat. Can you render that in a quickie? (just a booty shot, lol)

    Yep.

    Here it is. Yes, the pockets do appear to be decorative. The pockets are a separate mat zone and opacity can be adjusted to hide the decorative edge.

    m6-back-view.jpg
    710 x 994 - 84K
    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    tjohn said:

    The skins have to be .duf. Some are .dsa and won't work until you convert them (just like G2F).

    Thanks for the reminder. Lots of people may not know that=-) Yeah, I have go through apply them to M4 and convert. I just have a lot. I've been thinking of using the script for sale here this time. My m4 library is extensive.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Thanks! Good to know about the pockets.
    In my cart, I've got 12 things for about $70 so that averaged out to about $5.80 an item. I'm buying now because of the tier 2 discount, getting it out of the way. I am not buying that smile product, the smiles are barely different from each other IMO. I love the billboard one- you can use that to do special messages for birthdays- what fun!

    I'm waiting to see if there is going to be a $5 off $30 orders again- you folks might want to wait as your tier discounts are good through Dec 3rd. How long are these new releases on for 30% off?

    Regarding the RRRR contest- it's meant to be a whacky contest. People use a spreadsheet and a random number selector site (provided in the description of the contest) and it pulls 4 numbers for you. You use your spreadsheet to see what products those are and must put them all together in one render. OR, if you are like me, you know there are 40 items per page in your Product Library so you just use that.

    For example, if I draw item 625, I divide 625 by 40.
    That is 15.625 (so I know it will be page 15)
    Take that page number (15) and multiply by 40. This will tell you how many you need to count down on page 15.
    15 x 40 products on the page= 600. I need 625, so I count down 25 and that's my product.

    Doing it this way, you don't have to keep up with a spread sheet every time you buy new products. It's fast and easy.

    I'm doing the ruffle bikini, dragonfish, Morgan, and a sci-fi outfit (think it's epsilon, I'd have to look) in a scene that is going to be really funny.

    It's not too late to participate- and the fun thing is, you do another scene and must use ONE of the previous items (your choice) and pull three new items to go with it. I hope I get more than one done- I have had to CREATE a prop and that has taken me a week and a half, from a rake and a coiled rope. Can't reveal it yet.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/31615/ is the thread for that. Come have some goofy fun and maybe win a prize. But having fun is what this one is really all about.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    This is not on sale, but I wanted to point out this vendor. These gym poses are quite nice- and if you take a look and think out of the box, may be usable as a good start for some fight scenes. That's right, fight scenes. Crouching, rolling, diving- think ninja. Might want to wishlist :) And welcome to the vendor- Roudneff- I hadn't spotted them before.

    http://www.daz3d.com/gym-poses-for-v4

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    It is always good to wait for a coupie. S I think I want every m6 item presently in the store so I'm kind of waiting to see what I can afford this month. I'll pick up the rest over the next few months. I love all the Michael 6 pose sets. I think I've seen more male pose sets released in the last day or so than have been released in months. I will certainly be buying them all.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Today’s review is M6 Xpressions
    http://www.daz3d.com/m6-xpressions
    by Cake One

    Anyone who has been using 3d for a while, will know that the expression sets for men are hard to come by. While you can usually apply female expressions to men, sometimes the facial expression might not look the way you want or will require adjustment.

    I was quite surprised and pleased by the new Xpressions set. The set includes 21 basic poses and 3 reset poses to give your M6 character different facial expression. The expressions are actually poses so you can click to add them to your character quite easily, and there is a handy thumbnail to show what the pose looks like. Expressions aren’t named, so the expressions are somewhat left to interpretation.

    These set apply to other genesis 6 male characters (I didn't try v6, she has enough poses of her own!) but be aware some poses (such as the tongue stick out pose), will need adjustment as the different facial construction might mean some clipping. I think this will only really be a problem with the poses with the tongue since changing the mouth and jaw will mean the tongue will need to be moved.

    Here I posed the expressions on a M6 with a splash of M4 and some facial changes made. In all cases but one- The tongue stick out pose, I noticed no problems with clipping, this worked fine on default M6, so this is my fault for using a pure M6 character.

    This is a great set, and I must say I was really impressed with how well M6 can really look. One pose I didn’t see was a grief pose or any poses with eyes shut. Perhaps if this set is popular there will be an expansion?

    Anyway, really like it. Check out the collage attached to see what the set can do.

    Attached: Collage of expressions

    smaller.jpg
    1545 x 2000 - 522K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    I think they look good. I have them in my cart but again, waiting on a coupon. Same question- how long is the 30% in effect for a new product? The tier discount is through Dec 3rd so trying to wait a day or so.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    I don't know about the discount. Some items seem to remain discounted a while, others seem to go off quickly.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    FYI, for those who surf in, a little behind the scenes info for you. If you've submitted a help request just be patient. I requested a credit on that 77.00 order that I redid and broke into $30 groups to get $5 off each group, remember? NOT a refund, as you recall you could not return products used to get to the tiers. Well, it had been a week so because they had recently encountered a breakdown in the tickets (but fixed) I wanted to be sure I wasn't a casualty of a new breakdown. So I contacted Britney via the open tickets and she confirmed she had over SIX HUNDRED support tickets regarding things she had to fix.

    So, be patient. That gal is trying really hard as usual to get to you. DAZ is SO lucky to have her.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Poor thing. It will be awhile until she can get to us I'm sure. I bet some of those requests are quite complicated too.

  • Cake OneCake One Posts: 381
    edited December 1969

    Today’s review is M6 Xpressions
    http://www.daz3d.com/m6-xpressions
    by Cake One

    Anyone who has been using 3d for a while, will know that the expression sets for men are hard to come by. While you can usually apply female expressions to men, sometimes the facial expression might not look the way you want or will require adjustment.

    I was quite surprised and pleased by the new Xpressions set. The set includes 21 basic poses and 3 reset poses to give your M6 character different facial expression. The expressions are actually poses so you can click to add them to your character quite easily, and there is a handy thumbnail to show what the pose looks like. Expressions aren’t named, so the expressions are somewhat left to interpretation.

    These set apply to other genesis 6 male characters (I didn't try v6, she has enough poses of her own!) but be aware some poses (such as the tongue stick out pose), will need adjustment as the different facial construction might mean some clipping. I think this will only really be a problem with the poses with the tongue since changing the mouth and jaw will mean the tongue will need to be moved.

    Here I posed the expressions on a M6 with a splash of M4 and some facial changes made. In all cases but one- The tongue stick out pose, I noticed no problems with clipping, this worked fine on default M6, so this is my fault for using a pure M6 character.

    This is a great set, and I must say I was really impressed with how well M6 can really look. One pose I didn’t see was a grief pose or any poses with eyes shut. Perhaps if this set is popular there will be an expansion?

    Anyway, really like it. Check out the collage attached to see what the set can do.

    Attached: Collage of expressions


    Hi there

    I found your thread based on a search i made on the forum based on my product name (trying to see if there were questions or feedback).
    I didn't know there were tests and review on products ( something i wish existed for more than a decade) so thank you so much for doing so. I'll take some time to read your previous reviews :)

    As for this particular one, i'm happy you liked it, and thank you for the "expansion" idea...

    I can also say that with minor tweaking (sometime without), most of the poses will work surprisingly well on V6 and other gen2 females. I found it out when testing different textures on a female character, where i needed to see gums and teeth.. so enjoy...i might make an Xpression pose set for female one day (of course differents poses than this one) , but meanwhile, this one will work quite ok .

    I have to go.
    Thank you for your work here, and once again, happy the product pass your test :)

    Cake

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,136
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Nice work tjohn!
    BTW, I went to your gallery and never got the images up. Of course, I'm having trouble with anything that has to do with the galleries being slower than molasses, but I refreshed twice in ten minutes and all I could see was you had three sections. Images wouldn't come up. Out of curiousity- how large are your files? I've had to drop my dpi down to 115-125 and resample to 800 pixels either way, to get a faster loading time.

    I've got the little images showing up now. Apparently you can only sort your galleries by most recent for them to show for now. Oh, and I put the Eric Draven painting up.
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Will go look :)
    With that spend $30 and get $6 off I am loading up on all my 1.99's that I don't have to have, that put me over the $30 mark (if you haven't used that strategy before, don't always jump on new PC items, wishlist them and use them later to reach a dollar amount.)

    If you go back to page 2, the SkyBike, SkyDock etc are all still 50% off.
    http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases?p=2

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Hello Cake One!
    Yep, this is our second thread (first one had about 30,000 views) so word is getting out more and more. We've had quite a few vendors post, feel free at any time to pop in, ask our surfers what they'd like to see. SereneNight and I have over 7,000 of DAZ products so we showcase them and ask others' experiences too.

    You're not alone in not knowing we are here. It is VERY frustrating that the galleries get a big link and the Art Studio isn't even in the dropdown when you put your mouse on Forums. A lot of work goes into maintaining a thread here.

    What I'd like to see is more variety in teeth without having monster teeth. All the figures look like they are wearing dentures. The teeth packs that are out don't change the teeth enough, there's maybe one tooth at an angle and then a gap between front teeth. If you're chatting with the other PA's would you pass that along? The canine teeth, teeth next to those, and front teeth- those are the teeth that really need some options. Bottom teeth too of course, but those are secondary to being noticed. I've got the dental products and not really thrilled with what they don't do.

    We appreciate you PA's very much!
    Cathie

  • TJohnTJohn Posts: 11,136
    edited December 1969

    Novica said:
    Will go look :)
    With that spend $30 and get $6 off I am loading up on all my 1.99's that I don't have to have, that put me over the $30 mark (if you haven't used that strategy before, don't always jump on new PC items, wishlist them and use them later to reach a dollar amount.)

    If you go back to page 2, the SkyBike, SkyDock etc are all still 50% off.
    http://www.daz3d.com/new-releases?p=2



    That's a great approach, and a good time to stock up on $1.99 Environments. I tend to have more characters, clothes and hair in my Runtime, but no place for them to sit or stand. :)
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Cake One said:
    Thank you for your work here, and once again, happy the product pass your test :)

    Cake

    Happy to oblige! I'm not around during the day too much, but I always check in here at night, and your post was very nice to see.

    Your set really is quite wonderful, and really very needed. I can see I will get a lot of use out of it. Thanks for making it!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Well, thanks to Novica, I have been making good use of the 6.00 off coupon. I just hope I have funds left when Male-M3dia's stuff hits the store. =-)

    I've been wanting Coalition Claymore armor, and it is on sale right now for 50% off. I reviewed the Infantry version earlier- the Rapier, but Claymore the even more heavy armor version is 50% off right now, and is an awesome suit of heavy armor, which renders really well. I can't wait to play with that!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited December 1969

    Today’s Review

    Michael 6 Attitude poses
    http://www.daz3d.com/m6-attitude

    By DAZ & Cake One

    This is a small but fun little set of 15 great poses for Michael 6, which right now is available at a neat discount especially if you are a pc club member so if you need something to round out your cart for your 6 dollars off 30 discount, you might consider this.

    There is a nice variety of sitting, reclining, standing and gesturing sets included. I like the touch of whimsy in the hand gestures, which includes “Face Palm” and “Handgun Hands” poses. There is also a good combat running pose.

    This is a nice small little set, worth a gander, and I think Cake One has a talent for doing M6 poses, so they render pretty well.

    I look forward to seeing more poses from this PA.

    Here are 2 poses on Ruin, my custom M6 character I've been working on Porting from M5. The Glove fit for the cybernetic arm is not perfect- But, I heard somewhere a PA was making a product to address any crinkling that might occur.. =-) Until then, Ruin may get his arm replaced by a bot arm like Poor Sarge when I get a chance.

    Image 1: strike a pose
    Image 2: Running forward

    attitude2.jpg
    816 x 933 - 79K
    attitude.jpg
    816 x 933 - 85K
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,895
    edited December 1969

    Those poses look very natural, very fluid. He wont be running like that when wearing the Coalition Claymore, lol!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,654
    edited November 2013

    Novica said:
    Those poses look very natural, very fluid. He wont be running like that when wearing the Coalition Claymore, lol!

    LOL. No, you don't run in that unless you are Sarge.

    I wanted to state that the right hand of the cybernetic arm may look a bit imperfect in the first render. This is because its an m4 prop. It is likely NOT the way the fingers would look with the pose because the gloves added thickness. Tried to use Handy Dandy to normalize it but may not be as fluid as the rest of that particular pose. ==)

    I am pleased by the new Capsces poses. Just picked those up. Capsces always produces nice quality poses!

    Post edited by Serene Night on
This discussion has been closed.