Michael and Friends Appreciation Association [Lots of images, please.]
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Nice bunch of renders!
I like doing renders of men so I will post some here. Thank you, L"Adair, for starting this thread.
Michael 7 with Genesis 3 Male Morphs - "Face Holder HD" @ 100%.
This one is Genesis 2 Male with Yago for M4 Texture and Master Chen morph (mostly.)
Here is another new render of my for a New Year!
Great renders! I'm noticing that there is still an increase in male renders showing up in the gallery even though the contest is over. I hope the trend continues. I have a WIP with Darius going at the moment. I think he's looking pretty good. I'll upload soon to show off.
I have a question for those of you posting renders of scantily clad men...
Is this only because you like the male form, or does the relative lack of male clothing influence your renders?
It's a serious question. I did a render of G3F on DAZ Horse some months back. She was nude because at the time, I didn't have anything for her to wear! And all this attention to the men did come out of community frustration over the disproportionate number of male items, compared to those for the females.
I usually have a mix of renders with some scantily clad and others where they are clothed from head to toe. I do enjoy the male form and I appreciate well done renders of the male body much more than I do the women. But, then, I realize that I'm in the minority in that respect. However, I'm a romance writer (not published yet) who is interested in creating book covers for that genre. Scantily clad, muscular men are an expected part of those covers so I need to improve my rendering techniques where skin is the one of the biggest downfalls to a good render. I think I'm getting better. Having Iray as a rendering engine certainly helps. My rendering scantily clad men also has the added benefit of embarrassing my oldest son (15), too. That is a hard thing to give up. My other two boys just ignore my 'art'. They all think that mom is a little touched in the head.
My current WIP. I still have a lot to do, but it is shaping up, so to speak.
Time for me to go to bed. It is way too late where I am.
Hello, L'Adair - I think you raise a good question. Personally, I like a naked man given a choice, but, seriously, there's a real disparity in the caliber, styles and execution of male clothing and accessories relative to the female offerings. This is sort of a thing for me, it sort of mirrors the disparate ways men and women are predominantly depicted. (In American culture at least, if not others) Example: CLIP ART-- women, even secretaries making photocopies, in clip art depictions are always more overtly made attractive, sexualized, and more realistic, where men in clip art are more apt to be markedly more cartoonish, unattractive and rarely sexualized. Flip through any clip art book or thumb through image thumbnails of a clip art collection that comes with photo editor products or with word processors like Microsft Word etc and you'll see what I mean. Just one example.
Clothing models for the males too often are shapeless, ill-fitting, unattractive and remarkably "unsexy". I'm not suggesting male clothes should all be overtly "sexualized" in a literal sense, rather that male clothing can be stylish, engaging and compelling, rather than insipid and generic appearing. Also, the attention to the details (beyond good, realistic fit and drape) such as seams, cuff, pockets on pants, buckles or whatever; on male items this stuff is all too often done rather poorly or not at all. Even inexpensive female clothes often look better modeled and more life-like than the male items. So many, many pants for males that look like those inflatable vinyl figures that flap in the wind in front of businesses to attract attention, blobby and shapeless pipes that just look like criminal indifference to making a good product.
So-- once I have managed lighting and a scene with a character that looks really good, often there is, for me at least, that moment when I have to keep searching my products to find the outfit that will work aesthetically that isn't embarassingly bad, or figure how to pose and frame to minimize the worst aspects of the clothes, or often, simply say: ahfuggedabouit, no clothes for him! Which I don't hate :) but which does instantly limit where you can even show the picture, given so much hostility to nudity.
I do try to reward vendors when they realease a well-executed, compelling outfit for men by buying that product. I'd love to be able to buy more really interesting and well-done outfits for males, especially things that try to move beyond the same-old-same-old outfits that start to look like all the rest, but they seem few and far between. I really hate to buy the male outfits which are just not well-done or just boringly same-old-same-old (jeans and a shirt or hoodie, for example) just to support people making male items if they're just "phoning it in" and turning out blah product, but I get that this kind of thinking maybe justs gets translated to: "Male items don't sell" when what I actually mean is "I will buy all the GOOD male items anybody will make." Don't even get me started on how insultingly bad the male genitalia are and have always been, and how, clearly, Daz doesn't want to make any real improvements there (I base this observation on the fact that we're at Michael version 7 and the "Poser unit" between his legs is as unconvincing and insulting a lick & a promise job as it was in version 1, unlike every other aspect of the figure)
I love that you're bringing attention to these issues and trying to raise the visibility of the male products. (Are you a modeler/vendor yourself? )
Question for you, and anyone else who will chime in: Do you think that if we could rate products, that it would help vendors recognize that good male products do sell, and that the male items that don't sell are not selling because they're not attractive, good products, rather than because they're male products?
Simple one I did a few days ago of Michael 7 using the new Public Indoor pool I purchased. This render was done with 3 delight.
http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/100834/
Mod Edit Added image to the post for you
Links to image from the gallery (or other galleries) can be added as in line images using the image tool
I can't take credit for bringing attention to these issues, Genaris. This thread is really a companion to and follow up on other threads beginning with the first "It's Not Raining Men" started back in late October and ending with the "It's Raining Men" challenge that just ended last month. This thread just made sense to me to keep the interest going. And no, I'm not a modeler/vendor. I couldn't model my way out of a wet paper bag!
I am a photographer and an author. And I started playing with DS to come up with my own, unique book covers. Of course, I got sucked in and haven't published another book since I started tinkering with 3D. Oops.
I don't think a rating system is the answer. Ratings are too easy to manipulate/exploit.
I do think the forums offer a great opportunity to praise products and their vendors, as well as decry products that don't live up to reasonable expectations.
You can do that in this thread, posting an image and explaining both the good and the bad of the male items you used. And of course, you can start a thread about a specific product.
And for the record, I don't mind looking at renders of scantily clad men. I may be married, and I may be a grandma, but I ain't dead yet! However, it's sad when we end up doing a render of a nearly naked man simply because we couldn't find any decent clothing for the model and the scene we were trying to create.
Oh, that's nice. I especially like the shadows and the reflections.
While it might be nice to consider, I'm not sure that is really a viable answer. I know that the other 3D vendors all seem to have system where one can 'like' a product and actually leave reviews. While I see a lot of good reviews for products, the little thumbs up or 'like' icon doesn't usually have very many ticks. I think being able to leave a review for a product would be nice idea, but we already do that here in the forums. I know one of the first things I do when I spy a product I'm considering is head to the forums to see what users have had to say about it. Sometimes, others will spot something about a product I hadn't considered. So, we do sort of have a place where we can rate products. It just isn't as visible as being on the product page. I have no idea what the best answer would be. Even if DAZ came up with one, it doesn't mean people would use it or use it wisely.
L'Adair Can you share your pen name? I always like looking for my next good read. What genre?
+1
We must go up, a new year is beginning!
Galley: http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/images/100664/
My pen name is Lorraine Adair. I have one published book which is a Thriller. I'm working on a prequel, but health issues and DS have slowed me down a lot. I also have a Romance series in the works. Book 1 is about half written. And if that weren't enough, I'm partnering with another author to come out with a Cozy Mystery series. My first book is available on Amazon, Barne's & Noble, and Google Play. I'm thinking of keeping all my books exclusive to Amazon, though, as sales elsewhere are non-existent. Of course, having only one book published isn't helping, either! lol
Not to get too far afield, here is a side-by-side comparison of the renders I had planned on using for the prequel cover. I ended up going with something else, something that did a better job of saying "thriller," but my protaganist sure looks good in 3D. I'm sure I'll find a use for the Iray version somewhere. Probably on my website.
Looking forward...
Galley: http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/100879/
Roberto! So good to see your renders here. You already know I think the first one is awesome, so let me add, the second image is excellent as well.
Thank you very much L'Adair!
I'm reading now this forum thread, so I think it's a very good idea! Michael is an immortal great character and I love rendering him in many scenes
Both of your renders are awesome!!! I really like the morphs on this one. Your lighting is outstanding!
Thank you Knittingmommy, so do I prefer this one, he has a strange expression
Great Renders :-)
This is me playing with IG's great Christmas Iray shaders.
On the subject on rendering naked men - I tend to do it because I enjoy it. ;-) I live by Autofit, but the lack of G3M clothes makes me tend to go back to G2M more and more. My New Years resolution is to only buy good quality, well made, fitting, male clothes, even if it leads to the cry of 'male clothes doesn't sell' - I've already ignored a few releases because they are shrink-wrapped or tube trousers.
Is this Gianni?
As for buying male clothes, I know what you mean. I saw one promo of a guy in shorts, sitting, and the "tube" of the shorts leg was above his leg, at least an inch if it were real life. Clothes don't fit that way. The fabric should have been laying against his leg. Now if Aave Nainen would do male clothing for G3M, I think we could count on them fitting right and looking really good. Hopefully the new poses for G3M means there is a clothing product in the works.
But I do agree. I don't want to spend my limited budget on poorly made, ill-fitting clothing just because it's for the guys. When my budget improves, I have some items in my wishlist that will be snapped up, good-looking clothes made by PAs who've proven, to me at least, their male clothing is top quality.
Oh, and I feel the same way about hair for the guys!
Issue I have is the currently horrendous exchange rate for the Australian $, so I try not to buy too much until on sale or free. Quite often, as the promo pics make the item look a lot better than it really is, I'd rather not take the risk of disappointment and happily do without. What would be nice, although probably not possible, is a "demo" version of the item.
I might also add, I quite enjoy doing nude or scantily clad images, as it invariably turns a mundane scene of daily life into something oddly ridiculous. While I'm at it, here's Leo 7 wearing nothing but his hat.
Thanks to Chohole for showing how to add images to the post, too :)
That's a fantastic image!
I really like this image!
Thankyou and thankyou
Believe it or not. I'm still not sure if I actually like the picture or not lol
What I like best about it, is the dirty look you managed to get on his skin. It looks like he was on his horse all day. The other thing I like is how you managed to get it to look sort of like an old photograph. Was this in 3Delight or Iray? Looks a little like Iray, but I couldn't tell for certain. He also has a good expression that fits the overal look of the render.
Expression is a lot of "squinting" - I turned the limits off. As for the effects, it's a mixture of various Nik Tools filters in photoshop. As it is, to me, Leo has the sort of skin that looks "lived in" and doesn't really need that much work, to make him look real.
Forgot to add, it's rendered in Octane.
Ah, I don't have Octane so no experience there. Nothing wrong with postwork. I would use it more if I was better at it. I still have a lot of skills to learn with postwork. Leo does have a really nice skin. I've been impressed with it in my renders using it. I'll have to try the squinting with limits off.