Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 7

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Comments

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    What I'm looking at, believe it or not, is the Dumpster. Think how much action revolves around getting rid of things (or ugh, people) in dumpsters in stories. Or if you need a realistic behind a business in the alley prop.  I also like Sheridan Hair for a retro look, or even for little kids all dressed up. Amaya reminds me of a Disney Princess.  These three things come to $9.11 after the $30 discount. If I apply a $6 code, only $3.11.

    Edit: so tested all the above- the cart would be 120.65 then with $6 discount too- minus 84.09 and total is $36.56 for 7 items, comes to $5.22 each (and that's FOUR NEW RELEASES INCLUDED.)

     

    Post edited by Novica on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited May 2016

    I didn't like Sheridan Hair at all when I saw the promos. It looked plastic and goofy. I got it recently during a good sale, though, and it is great. I was surprises by how much I liked it. Here are a couple renders. I was playing around with black and white rendering. The yellow faded one was postworked in Photoshop. The black and white one is a straight render with the saturation set to 0 in Tone Mapping. Sheridan Hair has the feature of allowing you to turn off those rolls/buns on the top of the head for a more modern look. There are lots of adjustment and movement morphs, too.

    Clicking on the images should take you to my gallery, where you can see the full list of (linked) products used in the scenes.

    Sheridan Hair

     

    Sheridan Hair no rolls

    Post edited by barbult on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,805
    barbult said:

    Sheridan Hair

    Wow! I really like the look of this one. Looks like a vintage photograph.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited May 2016
    RGcincy said:
    barbult said:

    Sheridan Hair

    Wow! I really like the look of this one. Looks like a vintage photograph.

    Thanks, I titled the image in my gallery "Faded Snapshot". I used a filter from the free Nik set that Google is giving away.

    Edited to add: I like the way you reduced the size of the image in the quote of your reply. I didn't know that could be done.

    Post edited by barbult on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,805
    edited May 2016
    barbult said:

    Edited to add: I like the way you reduced the size of the image in the quote of your reply. I didn't know that could be done.

    I didn't either until I tried it tonight. I usually strip out the images in a quote as otherwise the thread gets cluttered. But tonight I double-clicked on the image, changed the size, and it took. 

    And thanks for the link to the Nik set. Just downloaded it.

    Post edited by RGcincy on
  • Marley99Marley99 Posts: 40
    Linwelly said:

    Here is Jazmine for V7 http://www.daz3d.com/jazmine-hd-for-victoria-7 sitting in the contemporary vignette 3 http://www.daz3d.com/collective3d-portrait-vignettes-contemporary-3 with a very basic light setup (Front, Back; UE and a spot all in pure white) rendered in 3Delight. Setting for the skin is on high resolution, no changes on the skin other than change to 3delight . No expressions for the start here. Rendering took pretty long I guess because of the high resolution skin, and for the Portrait I had to readjust the opacity on the fingernail which was shining bright white back at me with the original settings.

    I really like her skin, it is very well made and reacts nice to the light, her profile though I'm not ver fond of. The face looks a little pushed in and besides a little african touch to the lips the features are more or less caucasian / white which I am a bit diappointed about. Other than that, after putting her into that environment with that Hair (Armani from g3m starter pack) andgetup, I'd like to hand her a Saxophone to jam a little.

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/e4/389d0d18a08eb96470eed0120c6805.jpghttp://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/27/78869436e628dd4dc4374562c8c7b2.jpg

     

    I don't know what your are trying to say here. This character doesn't look caucasian at all. Not even close. What exactly is your idea of what an African or African American woman should look like?

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016
    RGcincy said:
    barbult said:

    Edited to add: I like the way you reduced the size of the image in the quote of your reply. I didn't know that could be done.

    I didn't either until I tried it tonight. I usually strip out the images in a quote as otherwise the thread gets cluttered. But tonight I double-clicked on the image, changed the size, and it took. 

    And thanks for the link to the Nik set. Just downloaded it.

    And thank you for doing that. It would be nice if everyone would keep it in mind and not repost the huge images.  I didn't know you could resize them, so that's even better than removing them in the replies. Kudos Rich! (DUH, why haven't we tried that before now?)  Edit: Amarley- not picking on you, I hadn't scrolled down to your post when I replied! Many people repost the entire post with the huge photos, and it is cluttering IMO too. Nice to have you on the thread- welcome! 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Yeah, I saw that about the collection in a Commons thread about a month ago. Your render looks so amazing, and yes, definitely like a real photo. Great work! Thanks for showing the Sheridan Hair, glad I got it.  EDIT: Reminds me about Ron's link brushes, I haven't tried those yet. Bet lint and scratches would be fun to play with too.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • Marley99Marley99 Posts: 40
    Novica said:
    RGcincy said:
    barbult said:

    Edited to add: I like the way you reduced the size of the image in the quote of your reply. I didn't know that could be done.

    I didn't either until I tried it tonight. I usually strip out the images in a quote as otherwise the thread gets cluttered. But tonight I double-clicked on the image, changed the size, and it took. 

    And thanks for the link to the Nik set. Just downloaded it.

    And thank you for doing that. It would be nice if everyone would keep it in mind and not repost the huge images.  I didn't know you could resize them, so that's even better than removing them in the replies. Kudos Rich! (DUH, why haven't we tried that before now?)  Edit: Amarley- not picking on you, I hadn't scrolled down to your post when I replied! Many people repost the entire post with the huge photos, and it is cluttering IMO too. Nice to have you on the thread- welcome! 

     

    No problem. I'll remember next time.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Amaya has some kind of nonsense on her leg. To me, it looks like print. This isn't a new release, hasnt someone noticed this before now???? It's got a big "S" like in Silver.  I'm doing a closeup of it now, but if you have her, her right leg below the knee is awful. A white circle, a white S, and other gobblegook. 

    And Small Whimsical Pool has no ReadMe? A new product. Can't find it anywhere. Not in architecture, props, or even listed in Products, unless my studio is messing up bigtime. Anyone who has it, where is it? And why as a new product, isn't there a ReadMe???????

    First is without doing anything, regular lighting. Didn't even bother tweaking the lighting. The second is with the skin darkened so you can see it better. The third is same, only the three areas circled. The far right appears to be more print. Shown below is the third.

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Amaya with Galene Hair and the Summer Haze outfit. (which doesn't include sandals or shoes but is a cute outfit.)  Again, I darkened the white top to a gray so it wouldn't be washed out because of lighting the darker skin more than caucasian skin. I changed her skin in Surfaces, it is quite a bit darker than shown.

     Fairy Nook is the setting. It's got nice plants and a good rock, keep it in mind even if you're not doing fairies.

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854

    Check the legs and see if there is maybe a wrong map in spec or something. That looks like a PA logo perhaps.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    I'm rendering the Small Whimsical Pool at the moment, but then I'll see if I can spot it. That's what I thought when I saw the "S" (for Siver.) 

    For some reason, my DIM didn't install the SWPool and I only had Lilflame, not Lilflame Sveva in Environments. There is no ReadMe, which should be required for new products, but I'm thinking maybe the vendors did one and Daz messed up or hasn't posted it yet.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Small Whimsical Pool has a plant coming through the rock, it can also be seen in the promos. The ferns on the left of it seem too flat so shorten those up a bit too.

    The water is nice and crisp and the lotus blossoms in the pool are cute. Rocks have nice detail. I'm going to combine the SWPool and Fairy Nook to see what happens. (tomorrow.) 

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

     

    Khory said:

    Check the legs and see if there is maybe a wrong map in spec or something. That looks like a PA logo perhaps.

    Need a bit of help here. I went to Content>Runtime>Textures>Devious Dolls>Amaya and looked at four jpg images showing the maps, and I'm not seeing any print on the legs. The legs S_1003 does have the dots and the S though, not ON the textures but the map is labelled. I don't know much about maps, but it's the black and white one, so that would be the bump?  How did that print get onto the skin part?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    So here are the two sets combined. Small Whimsical Pool and Fairy Nook.

    I would photoshop/tweak the waterline with the plants so there's some uneven areas instead of a straight line going across.

    amayaTwoSets.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,091
    Novica said:

     

    Khory said:

    Check the legs and see if there is maybe a wrong map in spec or something. That looks like a PA logo perhaps.

    Need a bit of help here. I went to Content>Runtime>Textures>Devious Dolls>Amaya and looked at four jpg images showing the maps, and I'm not seeing any print on the legs. The legs S_1003 does have the dots and the S though, not ON the textures but the map is labelled. I don't know much about maps, but it's the black and white one, so that would be the bump?  How did that print get onto the skin part?

    I don't have Amaya but I have several other characters by the same artists. In "Amandla" for example, the legs S_1003 is in the Glossy Layered Weight slot (I think that's the  Iray equivalent of 3Delight's specular). Maybe the texture is somehow being offset so it's not lining up properly with the UV Map?

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,552

    I don't have the chracter to check. I do like your render with the whimsical pool though. very cute.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    edited May 2016
    Novica said:

     

    Khory said:

    Check the legs and see if there is maybe a wrong map in spec or something. That looks like a PA logo perhaps.

    Need a bit of help here. I went to Content>Runtime>Textures>Devious Dolls>Amaya and looked at four jpg images showing the maps, and I'm not seeing any print on the legs. The legs S_1003 does have the dots and the S though, not ON the textures but the map is labelled. I don't know much about maps, but it's the black and white one, so that would be the bump?  How did that print get onto the skin part?

    I don't have the character either, so I can't check.

    Select the character in the Scene pane. Open the Surfaces pane Editor tab and select the Legs surface. Scroll through and see if one of the channels is using something other than the Legs map (maybe arms or face) for the image map. My guess would be Glossy Layered Weight, Translucency Color, or Top Coat Weight. Here's an example of where to look.

    Look for Wrong Map.png
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    Post edited by barbult on
  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,780
    edited May 2016
    AMarley said:
    Linwelly said:
    Edit by me: this is AMarly's comment, somehow moved to the wrong level

    I don't know what your are trying to say here. This character doesn't look caucasian at all. Not even close. What exactly is your idea of what an African or African American woman should look like?

    Well faces all over the world have a great variety for sure and everybodies perception of what feels "typical" this or that is very individual. And there certainly is no way anybody "should " look like this or that, so please don't take offence from my comment. Additionally there are a lot of people all over the world with darker skin that are not or partly of African descent.

     

    Just for the fun of it I gave the V7 skin to Jazmina on the left side and altered her facial morphs on the right side. Everybody can take their own conclusions from that.

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/21/6926014581109e459000333be7dc58.jpg

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/11/2671af72244ee065ef7f751d46b06b.jpg

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

    I think underlying issue is that most Americans of African decent can be traced back to West Africa, and most of them to a fairly small section of West Africa.  So our (people from the USA) general view of what black features are is very small compaired to the reality. The difference between West and East African features is as pronounced as the difference between someone from Sweden vs someone from Italy.  And it really doesn't have anything to do with race, but perception.. being from the USA (regardless of your decent) unless you grow up in an area that has a good representation of imigrants and their offspring from other parts of the world your conditioned ideas are of "black" looking West African, and you have to pruposefully force yourelf to think beyond that.

  • LinwellyLinwelly Posts: 5,780
    Fisty said:

    I think underlying issue is that most Americans of African decent can be traced back to West Africa, and most of them to a fairly small section of West Africa.  So our (people from the USA) general view of what black features are is very small compaired to the reality. The difference between West and East African features is as pronounced as the difference between someone from Sweden vs someone from Italy.  And it really doesn't have anything to do with race, but perception.. being from the USA (regardless of your decent) unless you grow up in an area that has a good representation of imigrants and their offspring from other parts of the world your conditioned ideas are of "black" looking West African, and you have to pruposefully force yourelf to think beyond that.

    Interesting point, I know about the diversity of Aficans but as I spent several month in Tanzania I certainly have a biased perception towards east African / Bantu people.

  • Matz21Matz21 Posts: 19
    Renomista said:
    jakiblue said:

     

    and the "American Indian" one also looks nice

    http://www.daz3d.com/p3d-dewi

     

    For a "Native American" she is quite white and delightsome.

     

    NDN Barbie.

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Yep, it's the Top Coat Weight. They put the arms in there. So they need to fix it.  (Yeah, I filed a Bug Report.)

    What an experience. I buy a product, A NEW PRODUCT- there's no ReadMe, so I had to look for it.  And of course, there's no standard approach. Some are by product, some are by vendor name. Thank goodness for DIM file paths. Then I then put a character in the scene and her maps are wrong. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    Novica said:

    Yep, it's the Top Coat Weight. They put the arms in there. So they need to fix it.  (Yeah, I filed a Bug Report.)

    What an experience. I buy a product, A NEW PRODUCT- there's no ReadMe, so I had to look for it.  And of course, there's no standard approach. Some are by product, some are by vendor name. Thank goodness for DIM file paths. Then I then put a character in the scene and her maps are wrong. 

    I feel your frustration. You can correct it for your own use while waiting for the bug report to get addressed. Just load the correct legs map in the the Top Coat Weight for the Legs surface and save a new Materials preset for yourself so you have it handy to apply the next time you use the character. You could even save a new Character preset, too, if you really wanted to. Or you could even return the product if you bought it recently and are fed up with incomplete (no readme) and incorrect products. Goodness knows you have enough others to choose from. winklaugh But we do appreciate you trying products and reporting your experience with them.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Yeah, I was also just in a bad mood. I'm watching ZBrush tutorials (having to start ALL over again because I forget everything) and the tutorials didn't match the user interface. Then to take a break, I decided to do the fiasco of that last render where I couldn't find the product, then the maps were wrong. So grumpy me said forget everything and off I went to watch golf. Love Jason Day who won The Players today. (And Spieth, and Fowler, and of course, Bubba Watson who is from here.) 

    Anyway, one that WILL make everyone smile, Toy Dog. On my computer, renders in three minutes. These materials are a few that come with it. Imagine what you can do with other shaders! I may try a few.

    EDIT: That's one of Ron's Backgrounds. TIP: On the dog, he loads with eyes closed. If you go to Parameters>Postures>Neutral Relax that will open his eyes and mouth. Much faster than using Scene and going to the eyes. 

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,049
    Cute as button.
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited May 2016

    Oh wow- Ceramics for Iray shaders!

    Image 1  Use Raku Pastel 3 for the face, it has three or four colors and it just so happens to fit the contour perfectly where the colors change! (no tiling needed) 

    Image Two: The crackle. (Go ahead, say "Awwww!") It's a shame he'd break so easily!

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,552

    I really like the dog. The eyes make it slightly more toony than I like since they look more cartoon than the rest of the body- but super cute.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Yes, I think lowering the eyelids help (which is easy to do. Dog has up/down for eyes, side eyes, and lids go up and down.) The Toy Dog is easy to pose too, with many bends.

This discussion has been closed.