Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 4
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Any news about the new forums by chance Jaderail?
Nope... nothing that we have been told so far. Just that we will get them but no info beyond that.
I've decided against LAMH. I think I'd rather spend my time making funny pictures for RRRR. I can spend the $ on other things.
I think that's wise frankly. :) It will be on sale some other time.
Galactic Corps Defender (DAZ 3D / Bobbie25 / Sarsa)
http://www.daz3d.com/galactic-corps-defender
Shown on David 5, without any body adjustments. The foot could perhaps use some tweaking, but NO pokethrough whatsoever, which I love! I used a pose with a lot of bends to see if the sleeves would behave, they did. I used a Teen Angst pose. (Those work well on the adult Genesis figures, btw. Don't let "Teen" fool you.)
As Barbult mentioned in another thread, there are limited morphs so if you tweak your character's physique, you can only scale to get things to fit. Not an optimal solution, but if you just need figures to fill a scene and aren't customizing figures, this is a fun choice for your MM rewards or monthly PC discount IF the item is on sale. Otherwise, it's too costly. For example, the pants only has left out, right out. Pretty poor.
I mixed the textures- (which is another product, also a DAZ) and put the blue with the crimson.
These are clickable to enlarge. :)
I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that there were at least a couple morphs. I don't think the product page listed any. Is there an optional material setting to see his face through the helmet?
I'll go back in and check the Surface settings.
Here's your answer :) This was my first guess, and can be adjusted, but it shows you can do the visor separately.
Opacity 27%
Diffuse 78%
Glossiness 68%
Wow, don't know how my settings got so messed up, but that was rendered with a shading rate of 1.0 and the pixel samples, etc weren't on high quality either. I'm redoing it and also checking a few other things. Back in a bit.
Okay, you folks who normally do sci-fi (hint hint SereneNight) how do you normally do glass/visors? Do you turn on reflection? I put it on 13.5%
So if you like this, here's the settings.
For this one, max ray trace depth was 1, pixel samples 13, shadow samples 16, shading rate .20, pixel filter width 10.89
Diffuse was 74.4, glossiness 66
Opacity 35.3
Didnt mess with specular or ambient.
I put the spotlight right over the visor entry, shooting down, and I can't get rid of that bottom half shadow. Am going to try and remove one of the frontal spotlights to see if it is casting it.
EDIT: Yes, it is a spotlight that is casting the bottom half shadow. :)
Okay, so what did everyone buy during MM? Barbult and I are cleaning up with a vacuum cleaner :) Here's two characters and a hair I picked up. Haven't rendered, so can't recommend one way or the other, except of course if you know the vendor, you know if they're a good buy.
Here's a Morris- and you can do the figure without the injuries. Anyone rendered him?
http://www.daz3d.com/ovidius-for-m4
(Morris / JoshuasART)
http://www.daz3d.com/alexandre-for-m4-h4
SWAM
http://www.daz3d.com/lanny-hair
Look at the first thumbnail which is split into 4 images, at the makeup option in the lower right corner. Interesting :)
http://www.daz3d.com/rm-nyx
I think Sirano would be interesting to pair with Nyx. I don't have him, but take a peek.
http://www.daz3d.com/sirano-m5
I've decided against LAMH. I think I'd rather spend my time making funny pictures for RRRR. I can spend the $ on other things.
:lol: :-) ;-) I couldn't agree more. I have a couple of RawArt things that use LAMH and they are just too slow to render. They look OK, but I don't want to bother with it.
Speaking of hair, I bought the Cody hair because I wanted short hair. OMG! It is more awful than it looks in the the promos if that is possible. I returned it immediately and sent them feedback about it. I have a fairly fast computer but it would not render at all with ambient light. When I used just the DAZ default light it did, but looked crappy. The skull cap part of the hair is bad, very transparent at the edges and those sideburns are hideous! The hair itself is very dense fiber mesh with transparency map on top of that. No wonder it won't render! I love the older Neftis hair, have lots of it. Except for the Beautiful Black Hair, the Neftis fiber mesh stuff hasn't worked for me render-wise, so I returned a couple others too, last year.
Novica, the Galactic Corps Defender renders look good and the reflection amount looks good. You must have the additional textures, all grays and blacks. The one that came with it is kind of gaudy. I haven't used mine because the helmet isn't closed in the back. Maybe it Is not meant for unbreathable atmospheres. Odd for a Sci Fi suit.
I haven't used the Cody Hair yet...great. Were you able to return it as it's a MM item? Or was it that you could return it as long as you hadn't redeemed your punches? Yuck- I guess I'll have to do postwork. I am surprised at that, Neftis is usually fine for me. Thanks for the heads up.
BTW.... I enjoyed how you incorporated me into your last RRRR, I've somewhat returned the compliment with you, MelanieL, and Scott-L. Just a small detail to make it fun (you're not actually IN the competition.) It's still in progress, incorporating three sets is, well, a big render scene to put it mildly. I have worked on this sucker every day for hours. It's making me giggle, I have to admit I am loving the buffalo sports, skating on cars, etc over in the RRRR thread.
Am working on lighting now, so it will be awhile.
I returned the Cody Hair right after I bought it on Sunday and said I hoped they could process it soon as it was punchable. Monday morning I got a reply and the punch was removed from my total. Pretty nice of them!
It was fun do the RRRR render of you. Are you referring to last month or the cowboy pole vaulting? So you really do that, huh? %-P I look forward to your render, especially since you are giggling.
barbult, I forgot to mention that I love what you did with those glitter shaders. I couldn't tell from the promos that they really do glitter. I thought about buying them then and decided not as I wouldn't use them. But great fun!
I bought some crazy infrared shaders when they were in fast grab a few weeks ago. Really strange and fun. I will try to remember to do some renders and review them.
Good for you! DAZ needs to know when a product isn't up to expected standards. I figure if we keep buying without complaining, we'll see more of the same. I don't return much, because most things have some redeeming value to me, but I write one or two bug reports a week. About half get fixed.
Neftis's last two male hairs haven't looked good to me. There is another one released before Cody hair which looks like a helmet. I passed on both.
I like your renders of galactic corps defender. I bought that, used it in a few renders but found the belt and plasticity looking clothing looked weird to me. It looks good in black though.
Luci- the "Day in the Life of." And yes, I voted for everyone who roasted me :) 'cause I thought the renders were excellent, in addition to the stellar subject matter. LOL.
Something funny about Stetson, my current horse- although I don't use him for pole vaulting, he can do a teeter totter! I thought that was amazing- it's a horse training teeter totter, but my goodness, whoever trained him gets a big KUDOS- he will walk up one side and not bolt when he gets to the middle and it slams down on the other side, then he calmly walks down and off it. You'd think that would be a Whacky Sport, but it's a real event!
Don't remember seeing the infrared shaders, looking forward to seeing those. My machine is currently rendering, it takes forever to test these lights in that large scene. I was going to do a composite but I love a challenge. :)
Try Fabricator....
Just kiddin'
Heh. I do use fabricator lot, but I'm funny in that I want clothing to look good out of the box.
Too much of genesis clothing doesn't look like fabric. I know I can doctor it to look good, if there are extra mat zones, but that's extra work. It should l
I have to say I like the galactic cops defender undershirt. It looks really cool
Some brief comments on my March Madness purchases...
Got a few new sets (environments) that I really like, especially Viking Village Bundle and The Enchanted Glade. Via Serena Bundle I haven't tested yet, but for the price I thought it was a great buy.
I recommend getting Khory's Introduction to Skin Surface Settings tutorial if you want to expand your knowledge of the SubSurface Shader or skin settings in general. I learned some new things (there is some great advice on eyes, nails, and lips) and deepened my knowledge and comfort level with some topics I was already familiar with.
I'm excited to try the Dynamic Medieval clothes (and they're compatible with Genesis, G2F, and G2M, which was a major selling pont). When I do I'll post some reactions...it'll be the first time I've used dynamic clothing.
The Domina character is awesome but needs some Surface Pane tweaks to look her best (at least when rendered with 3Delight). I don't have Reality and haven't tested her in Luxus yet.
Picked up some older stuff from my wishlist too: Sadie and Sam, Stolz, Bryce Vegetation, and Gen5 Legacy Shapes for G2M (hesitated on this last one because I'm trying to learn the DIY method, but it seemed well worth the cost during the sale).
I did also pick up Cody Hair which has been the subject of some discussion here...I haven't tried it yet but would be happy to take a look if anyone has questions about it. For the price it seemed to be a good deal, especially with the reward.
Good input Scott-L, would love to see the Cody Hair. Was also wondering about that tutorial as there's so much to learn about Studio. So many hidden aspects. I just found out what Power Pose was, for pete's sake! The tutorial about how to expand it was more than I wanted to do, I found I use it to quickly get to the body part then I use Parameters to bend/twist etc.
Gorgeous day, headed out to see the horsie. :) Back later this evening.
I think my favorite things I bought during March madness are these:
Boudoir studio expansion
Generation x2
Starship crew uniforms
Natural petite breast morph
I13 hunk poses
Yes, I like the look of the Hunk poses. I recommend the poses in the Fast Grab, I use those a lot. (Masters of Fantasy 2.) I have all those poses/other sets too.
And stupid me, I never checked the Frankie Bundle before because I assumed she would have that stupid slashed area on the neck. SHE COMES WITHOUT IT TOO. Duh. The bundle is 70% right now.
FYI- Everyone be sure and check your messages in My Account, you might have a code, depending on how much you spent. Sometimes my popups dont show up as the mini banners but are in Messages.
Cody Hair for M6 by Neftis3D and DAZ 3D
Unshaven Beard for Genesis by Mec4D and DAZ 3D
Logan by Countess, Silver, and DAZ 3D
DM's Secret Chamber by Danie, marforno, and DAZ 3D
The Enchanted Glade by ARTCollaborations
Via Serena Bundle by bitwelder (sky)
light preset by AprilYSH (it comes with several of her products...presumably designed specifically to show off hair, so I often use it for that purpose)
I think the Cody Hair came out really nicely...but man, did it take a long time to render! I didn't record exactly how long...call it "several hours" (keep in mind that my current computer is pretty fast, rendering at roughly 20 times the speed of the dinosaur system I used to use). And that was with the hair converted to UberSurface and occlusion and raytracing turned off. I used the Unshaven Beard to help with the sideburns, which look kind of odd on Cody Hair. The two work really well together though--it's almost impossible to tell where the one ends and the other begins. Of course the Unshaven Beard is a Genesis product, and the figure is G2M...AutoFit did a good job except right on the chin...see that bald area there? And I think there may be some hair on the lip itself, though it's not too obvious. Maybe I'll try the Transfer Utility later to see if that works better. It's party a function of the style too...had the chin hair been longer, or if I had kept the whole chin area bald, it would have looked fine.
AutoFit issues aside, the Unshaven Beard is pretty awesome. I just got it (used my last Madness coupon) and this is the first chance I've had to play with it. It's got so many morphs...you can create pretty much anything you'd want in terms of style and length. No color options, but you can manually adjust the surface settings if you need a different color.
Actual Eyes 4 has been fixed. Here is an "After Fix" image.
Glad to hear about actual eyes. Did we ever find out what was wrong with it? Inquiring minds want to know
No, the only reply to my help request was "This product has been updated."
Well it is good it was updated, but I admit I am curious. I got the same response that coalition katana had been updated, and my ticket was closed as well.
Yup, they do that. They just close it without any feedback from you as to whether YOU think it is fixed. They do send a message where you can respond Good you are satisfied or Bad you are not satisfied, though. Usually "Good" is my response, but there have been a few "Bad".
By the way, I'm half way into my fourth page of support tickets already (30 per page). And that doesn't count the dozens filed under the old Mantis system that now seem to be ignored. I am a squeaky wheel. :) If I pay money, I expect it to work properly.
I think products should work properly within anticipated parameters when sold. I do sometimes wonder how stuff is tested, since there do seem to be some obvious issues with products getting released with problematic parts.
Heh. That is funny about the tickets. I did submit a lot in Mantis, and some were never dealt with. My new policy is to return items with flaws I can't tolerate. I am not clear if there will ever be a fix, and if it is a flaw is bad enough I won't use it, then I'll return it, wait for the product to be fixed and go on sale.
One thing I liked about mantis was that I could see and track the results ofall tickets, and follow up on ones submitted by other people. The new system doesn't seem as easy or versatile.
In my personal universe, each product item, would have its own problem type, so, when customers submit flaws for that item, it would be queued to that particular product item number. People could query the queue by item number to see if a report had been submitted already,.
It is possible they do this behind the scenes, but having worked with queues and trouble tickets for years, it seems that they do not request the item number as a required field for content- and I think it should be. May be easier to track the item's reports that way.
In general it is a good idea to follow up with customers and update status reports on work requests periodically, to gauge customer's expectations.If this was done, it might prevent people from returning items thinking they had been abandoned.