Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 8

NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
edited June 2017 in Art Studio

Welcome to Thread 8 !

This thread is for all forums members to help showcase the products, and the past 7 threads have 445,057 views/posts as of January 2017.
Edit: March 2017: 462,017. (+16,960 That means the other threads, not including this one of 13,691, got 3,269 views. That makes me happy that the product reviews are being seen. )

If you're new to buying from Daz or just want to see different images and opinions from those who have bought the products, take some time (lol, well, a LOT of time, they're monster threads) and surf back through! 

Here are the thread locations:

Thread 1 is HERE      Thread 2 is HERE      Thread 3 is HERE
Thread 4 is HERE      Thread 5 is HERE      Thread 6 is HERE.    Thread 7 is HERE

The thread showcases products both old and new. We're all surprised by the great oldies that evoke feelings of "Where'd that come from? I don't remember seeing that in the store..." or "Oh yeah, I have that!" If you need motivation to dig into your Runtime, this is the thread to motivate you. If you don't want to spend money...well... stop now. Here's where you'll find family friendly and sexy- but sexy is in good taste. Surf the previous threads to get an idea.) 

So how can you help others determine what to buy? Showcase the products you like, the ones you needed to tweak, and ask for help and give tips. If you showcase a product, please ensure the details are shown- ultra dark scenes don't show the product and isn't helpful. No works in progress. Follow the established structure please- put the name of the product and link it (simply highlight the text, go up to that chain link above the text area and click on it, that's the html link tool. Please click on the second tab too which is "Target" and choose New Window so people stay on the thread.)

******************************************************************************************************************

NEW!!! Your Monthly Top 3 - 5 Picks

This thread starts the "Your (month) Top 3 - 5 Picks"  The first three months there will be a random drawing for $5 Gift Card, based on the guidelines below. What were your favorite DAZ products used in renders that you did during the current month?  (not what you BOUGHT this month, what you RENDERED)  You must pick a minimum of three, a maximum of five products. 

Now onto May.
Post your May renders/favorite products from June 6 through June 13th. (Sorry, I got busy doing other things so we're running a tad late.)  

Guidelines:   (and sample post- click here.) 

1. You will link to the products and your renders, IN ONE POST,  using the product titles as the links. After that, put either "Render" or "Example" and link to your render. You can link to more than one. (Example, if you rendered the Daz Cat twice, you put "Example 1"  and "Example 2"  (without the quotes) and link to each render.

 Your render links can be to Daz forums, galleries, or other equivalent major 3d website galleries. (DA, Renderosity, etc)  No private website links. NOTE: Any renders that are in the Platinum Club forum should be put in your gallery and linked from there, as renders must be accessible to everyone. Thanks!) 

If it is a link that goes off the Daz site, put the site in (   ) after the link or in the description. Also, if it is not family friendly (ultra sexy or nudity) please post "nudity" or "not family friendly" by the link.

PLEASE CHECK YOUR LINKS. If you don't have at least 3 working links, you can't be entered into the gift card drawing. You have until the cutoff time to fix them. If I find non-working links, I will post it in this thread, I don't PM. (You are supposed to check them after you post them.

Please title your post:  (NAME's) Top 3  For (Month)  such as Novica's Top 3 For January

2. The top three do not have to be in any certain order. These are Daz products only, and may include freebies offered by Daz. 

3. You must USE the product for it to be a favorite, and show us a render. The product does not have to be released or bought that month. Oldies are goodies! YOU JUST HAVE TO RENDER IT THAT MONTH.

4. You can NOT REPEAT a product as one of your Top 3's. (So keep track!) 

5. As usual, no WIPs please. (Works in progress.)

6.  Renders should clearly show the product which is featured. To be eligible for the Gift Card drawing: 

Only one product can be selected as a favorite per render. (If you use five products in a render, you can only pick ONE thing from that render. )
You must select a minimum of three products and have a separate render for each of them. You can do up to 5 products as your favorites, again, each product must have its own render.

7. a. Vendors can participate but can not list their own products. (If yours isn't your favorite, hmmm....) 
b. Disclaimer- at least 5 people must participate for there to be a drawing
c. No person shall win MORE THAN twice in a row. We're obviously doing this for fun, not the vast wealth I am offering (sarcasm) but I would like multiple winners for the time period. (I will post my Top 3 but not participate in the drawing.) 

8. The cutoff to post your Top 3 /  be in the drawing for the gift certificate is Midnight Daz time, the last day of the stated time period.

9. You can list your Top 5 if you wish (no more than 5 please) but we're officially doing Top 3. Some months it may be impossible for you to narrow it down, completely understandable!

I'll do one post at the end of the month with links to everyone's Top 3 posts- and put the twelve links, one for each month, here. Easy surfing!  
For the participants/ anyone interested- here's the list of the participants and their choices. (Does NOT include links to the products. That is in the monthly links, below.) Because we can only select a product ONCE, this helps us month to month in picking new things to render.

List of products picked by each person:  CLICK HERE

January 2017 Top Picks          Random $5 Gift Card drawing winners: RGcincy, Llynara, Isidorn
February 2017 Top Picks        Gift Card Winner: Ice Dragon Art
March 2017 Top Picks             Gift Card Winner: Dreamfarmer
April 2017 Top Picks              Gift Card Winner: RGcincy
May 2017 Top Picks

 

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Comments

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited May 2017

    This is the References post that is added to frequently. I always identify the new ones for you. These are primarily from Thread 7 and posts on the other forum threads made during my Thread 5, 6, 7 that I thought would help you.

     

    The most used other thread I started is Free Backgrounds. Head over and grab a few, contribute a few, and enjoy!

    **********References / Of Interest**********

    Books, Digital:     RScotJohns (Author) helped us with ebook (did a chat one evening) 

    Characters:   I also showcased Odelle, a wonderful older character from another site (that Daz rejected!) and thanks to jakiblue telling the vendor about this thread, they posted a sneak preview of the next character for us.

    Expressions:  Here's some with sliders that are really fluid and usable. And Poses (be sure to scroll for both of these, numerous posts)  

    Hair:  One of the funniest things showcased-  vendor's names in hair! 

    HDRIs:   Fishtales  showing you some HRDI's

    Free  Infinity Cove 3 sets

    Mountain Valley:  Take a tour of this product as we drive around town! 

    See Nath's Elegant Swan- the ACTUAL PHOTOS from the museum, and the render. This car spewed steam and pooped yogurt, and was banned from the streets due to being a nuisance. (Ya think?)  This is no longer available here, it's at HiveWire.

    Special Honor: Rabbicus fun with RGcincy.  It all started with a cactus on a shelf and I said it looked like a rabbit. 

    ********** Programs **********

    Infinito:     Infinito Experiments:  If you have questions about Infinito, ask them here

    iClone:  iClone6   (I'll have to get back to it)   Here's a nice video by Bigh and Bigh's thread on Iclone  and Reallusions Thread The Path To iClone

    Mixamo  How To Use  (by Firewarden)  New April 2017

    Motion Capture in general:  Motion Capture products/ discussion linked from the Octane FaceShift question

    Senosoft:  Convert .rsr file types to pngs (P3DO Explorer)    New  April 2017

    ShapeMagic 2    ShapeMagic 2  By our very own RGcincy

    Silo:    Silo Modeling

    Zbrush For Beginners: Zbrush for Beginners

    Livebrush Pro (FREE)    Livebrush Pro-  link, it's now free

     

    ********** TIPS **********

    Tip: Bloom Filter- Settings

    Tip: Characters- Where To Load From     Loading Characters- does it matter if you load it from icons, the Genesis figure + Character List, or the Figure (Aiko 7, Girl 7, etc) + the Character List? YES IT DOES.

    Tip: Charlotte Hair Tweaks- Turn fluffy into sleek and modern!  New May 2017

    Tip: Custom Categories for Sets  Here's some suggestions and additions    

    Tip: Delete Items in Scene: Grouped items giving you fits? How to delete those polygons! 

    Tip:  DIM download problems? Try this.

    Tip:  DIM downloading product to use with products from other sites

    Tip: Dreamland Models in DS  Learn how to work with Dreamland Models (Poser) in DS

    Tip: Doors and windows that open, flat roof to add, pane of glass, good kit bashing items

    Tip: Dome Orientation Results  My experiments/settings for rotating the dome by changing the XYZ Dome Orientation. All settings given/ shown.

    Tip: Fern Lake Instances and Water    Instances in Fern Lake and Through The Woods And clearer water tip for it. My example.

    Tip: Finding products in these threads, using Google   NEW April 2017

    Tip:  Focal Length

    Tip: Furries:  How To Find Files and Pose (Llynara)  And Capsces posted this for a few tips.

    Tip: Gemology Shaders for Iray: Settings for best results, by vendor  

    Tip: Generation Tools: List of products which help you cross generations

    Tip: Greek Houses: Fixing the water, landscape, and stone edge materials. All settings provided! 

    Tip: Growing Up: Making Chest look good    

    Tip: Hair: Different Settings To Increase Shine  Also here

    Tip: Harpsburg Night Lights   Best way to apply them  

    Tip: Iray Organized References  This thread links to the threads, but also categorized some of the topics within the thread so you can look things up quicker.

    Tip: Iray Section Plane       TabascoJack shows you how to use the Iray Section Plane

    Tip: Madelyn Ears- How to remove those elf ears.

    Tip: Manual Downloads in Product Library  How to find them ultra-quick

    Tip:/Info:  Materials and Shaders:  Difference in Materials and Shaders (from Commons)   

    Tip:  Mermaid Top    Family friendly suggestion.

    Tip: Millenium Cat- Free Persian Head 

    Tip: Free Mocap Animations Here  (Mixamo)

    Tip:  OOT Hair  Steps   New April 2017

    Tip: Photoshop Postwork    Postwork Photoshop Tips (Laticis) and my example

    Tip: Photoshop Plugins From Thread 6:  Examples

    Tip: Pose Converter (Genesis 2 to Genesis 3)  Where to find files (Scroll for discussion)

    Tip: Combining Poses by locking body parts   

    Tip:  Postwork   The Postwork thread has a lot of good information!

    Tip: Rigging    How to import OBJ and rig in Daz Studio   

    Tip: Rigging  Basic Rigging Preparation  then Adding Bones for Rigging 

    Tip: Section Planes   How To Use  (by TabascoJack)

    Tip: So Wet Bundle   Examples

    Tip: Skies of iRadiance  Which are for high / low altitudes? Answer

    Tip: Spectural Rendering tests for the studio    

    Tip: SubD:   How To Add It  (Darwins Mishap)

    Tip: The Briefing Room    Lighting with Iray  (V3Digitimes)

    Tip:  Ultragenesis: Faces of G  has a variety of older faces.

    Tip:  Weight Maps:  How To Remove or Change  (Thomas Windar)

    Tip:  White Point  Changing it- Examples

     

    Tip: Walls- Sets Which Are Easier To Use- or Not.   Sets that don't have separate walls and handy notes on a few sets

     

    ********** TUTORIALS**********

    Tutorial:  Bus, Noggins- Converting from Bryce to Daz Studio   (RGcincy)   Here

    Tutorial:  Breast Gone-  In Hexagon  (Smoothing Zev0s Grow Up product even more)  

    Tutorial: Clothing, Making in Blender SickleYield's tutorial on Deviant Art.

    Tutorial: Create Categories     Using Gen2F, I showed how to Create Categories and Export to save your custom categories. (Here's WHY you may want to do that with your characters.) 

    Tutorial: Custom Actions In Toolbar     How to Create Custom Actions In Toolbar

    Tutorial: D Former     D Former Tutorial           D Former tutorial and links 

    Tutorial: Depth of Field         Flipmode provides a good depth of field tutorial for you.

    Tutorial: Fisty's Shaders & Getting Rid of Gooey Lips     This one shows you Fisty's shaders. One of my favorites is how to get rid of the overly gooey lips. 

    Tutorial: Fur Brushes Download and Video (Kathryn Loch)

    Tutorial: Garibaldi Hair     Doing a cat with Garibaldi Hair- Tutorial

    Tutorial:  GenX links on "how to use." 

    Tutorial: Generation 4 Materials on Genesis 2     This one put Generation 4 materials on Genesis 2 using Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female.

    Tutorial: Geometry Shells     How to do Geometry Shells  (video tutorial the3dwizard) and doing makeup for different characters

    Tutorial: Hair Shaders (Slosh, his product)     If you use Slosh's hair shaders, you can always come back here to find his post explaining how to use them.

    Tutorial: Iclone   Iclone videos

    Tutorial: Images- How To Put Them In Forum Posts     Here's  Putting Images in Posts

    Tutorial:  Instances: Using Ultrascatter  (by RGcincy)  

    Iray Canvases- How To Do Lighting   

    Iray Ghost Lights 2:  Portrait Setup in 13 Steps, All Settings Given

    Tutorial: Iray Light Manager Pro  Step by step screenshots

    Tutorial: Iray For Beginners- Do A Scene Step By Step     The Wanna Render? Iray tutorial walks you through Iray lighting for total newbies- including Crush Blacks, Burn Highlights, how the sliders work together and why in Tone Mapping, and Environment Intensity.

    Tutorial: Iray Lighting- A Night Lantern     Doing a night time  lantern with Emissive Lighting.

    Tutorial: Iray- Portrait Light Setup With Point Lights     Portrait Lights: 3 Point Lights and a Spotlight- Settings Provided

    Tutorial: Iray Skydome Super Pak     The Explanation on how to use it.

    Tutorial: Maps for Iray and 3DL / Albedo Explanation       Texture Maps:  (Saba Taru)   ALBEDO explanation, and where to put the maps for Iray and 3DL

    Tutorial: Metadata- How To Make It   Video Here (Slosh)  and Here  (3D Almanc)    

    Tutorial: Rigging Static Doors So They Open  (RGcincy)  How To Rig A Prop

    Tutorial: Shaders- Mec4D's PBR Shaders       Mec4D's PBR shaders: How to use

    Tutorial: Teeth, Getting Realistic Shapes      Getting realistic teeth shapes was here and slight tweaks here.

    Tutorial: Texturing      Texturing With DestinysGarden  is a good thread- let a pro show you how!

    Tutorial: UltraScatter Advanced Instancing       UltraScatter Advanced Instancing:   RGcincy's handy notes, how-to.

    Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female:  How to use the product.

    Tutorial: Weight Mapping:  How To Smooth All Face Groups At Once  (By SickleYield)

    Tutorial: Windows, Making Them From Planes And Cubes Realistically       Making Windows using planes and cubes, with glass panes and images!

    Fun / Interesting Threads

    Photoshop Playtime!    Where we showed you some really neat plug-ins to get cartoon, oil, watercolor effects.

    Scripts:   A one click solution to put things on your ground plane, under things, etc

     

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    We were talking tropical at the end of the Thread 7, here's a link to some of the tropical products I posted.

    Here's a render showing Odessa Hair and Divinity Outfit.  Look at how that outfit changes when using shaders!  This was DG Iray Sequins and Scales, which if you only go by the title, you may miss out on some great shimmery outfits that don't resemble the typical sequin look.

    The character is Shayla, not sold here. I had fun with her toying with her hair, I had a friend that used to do that all the time and it drove me nuts. But it looks good on Shayla. I think she could do anything and look good!

    Let's talk lighting. If you are just starting out with Iray lighting, an easy one to use is the Skies of iRadiance, used in these renders. If you can only afford one (I linked the bundle) I suggest the sunny skies, because you can twiddle and get dusk and twilight looking renders.

     I like to do Y Orientation from 230 to 260, to get good side lighting. Here's the settings for these:
    Dome Orientation X: 300      Dome Orientation Y: 260
    Tone Mapping: Film ISO  202.95 and Exposure Value 13.28.

    Burn Highlights: .31 and Crush Blacks .44  (More detail for the sand)

    Remember to move the ISO first, as that moves the Exposure Value slider. THEN input the Exposure Value, as that moves the Shutter speed- and you don't really need to mess with it for basic lighting. It's important to know the third slider (ISO) moves the first one (Exposure Value) and the first one moves the second one. UGH.

    Large render. Click to enlarge, click again. (And don't faint from shock that I actually rendered a scene for you. Yes, I can actually do one, but I will still be doing primarily quickies to show you things on sale without setting up an actual scene. I'm SO pleased with this depth of field, things go in and out of it as I rotated it at an angle.)

     

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    FWSA Yulia HD for Victoria 7       Bella Donna Dress (Gen3F)      Bella Donna Poses, Chaise, & Shaders

    Kara Hair (Gen3F)      Anjou Hair

    Because vendors like to see their products in action, when I remember, I'll let them know
    @AprilYSH   @propschick   @elliandra  @pandygirl  @fredwinklerart   @sabby

    Don't be fooled by Kara Hair, it has some nice morphs to flatten the sides and top so it's not quite so poofy.  Anjou Hair is so elegant- one of my favorites.  Yulia is elegant and goes well with this wonderful dress, and the chaise with the poses are easy to use with the long dress. Yes! Saves so much time! 

    Showing you different materials on the dress, these all come with it, no outside resources used.

     

     

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    Go ahead and post, thread is up and running! 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    Why not return it and say why? Maybe if enough people return badly made outfits, they may start looking at them more.  

    Novica said:

    Well you people have more patience than I do. I'm simply going to use the outfit in a crowd and in the background, or take out some of the clothing to kitbash. This is ridiculous. And totally agree with SereneNight, if you make men's clothes with stiff crotches, built in crotches that look ridiculous, sprayed on pants, barely any morphs, poke-through, bad uv's- the list goes on- then don't blame us for not buying it. 

     

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 23,018

    Traveler outfit actually has quite a few morphs. The pants have some HD Wrinkles and morphs to fit over the boots or tuck into the boots. It must be tough to make layered clothing. Remember that suit a few years ago with such rounded shoulders and puffiness it looked ridiculous? Sadly, I have no skills to make this stuff myself.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    barbult said:

     Sadly, I have no skills to make this stuff myself.

    Which is why I'm keeping it for now at least. I haven't even rendered it to test it myself. I know I can use parts of it, and for that price it's worth the pieces I can use (I think.) I am doing modeling and it isn't easy (for me. I'm a turtle at learning this stuff. Zbrush is VERY complicated, but fun for the most part.)  But I agree, complaints should be made and if rendered and buggy or just pathetically made, I'd contact Customer Support. (They know me well. Jaime and Britney are darlings.)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858

    This is FWSA Liam HD (M7)  with Mathew Hair (Gen2M/Gen3M)  wearing the Nomad pants and shirt, with BB3D Fashions: After 5 (Gen3M). (On  your left)

     FWSA Robert HD (M7) (no link)  has Jonas Hair  (Gen3M) and wearing H & C Casual A (Gen3M)   We were discussing good men's pants over in Commons and these two have nice details. We're tired of spray on pants, pants without seams or details, no depth to the waistband, etc. Luthbellina and IH Kang are two vendors to keep an eye on for good, flowing pants that have wrinkles and details.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858

    Ah, forgot a great book set, when we were chatting about books on Thread 7. These are really nice- Widdershins Old Books. Then there's also  HLA Book and Mage Tower Accessory Pack 3.  These are part of the discounted items today.

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,804
    edited January 2017
    Novica said:

    Then there's also  HLA Book and Mage Tower Accessory Pack 3.  

    I have those! I really need to figure out what all I have. So far I've also discovered I have books in: i13 BookedGentlemen's Game Room, DM's Secret Chamber, art books, magazines and other books in Home One Living-Room and an open, upside down book in Home One Bedroom, art books in The Artist's Nook and Urban Art StudioThe BazaarMini Haven Interior VignetteA Curious Tea, schoolbooks in Interiors The Classroom, and a "special" book in Set of Liqueur (image below), 

     

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858

    That's too funny, I have that last one too, and again, thinking, "I don't have that...oops, I do." I seriously  have started bookmarking and researching before I buy things that I have a TON of. 

  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,184

    Congrats on Thread #8 Novica! 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    Congrats on Thread #8 Novica! 

    Thank you!  I still can't post renders for that one post, which is frustrating. I'm going to close the computer down tonight and maybe with a complete reboot I can put the product renders in! (Edit- got it figured out. I put a & symbol in the name.) 

    I just finished doing some Ghost Light renders but headed to get some sleep. Will post tomorrow, showing an outdoor scene using portrait lights and Ghost lights. (Yep, portrait.) 

    Hey folks, don't forget to use your PC+ coupons, getting toward the end of the month.

    And this week we are going to post our top 3 products we used or bought for the month of January. Be thinking on it and post when you have your answer. Remember to link to the renders (doesn't have to be in my threads, link to your gallery or Art Studio/whatever renders. Have fun! I'll post mine sometime tomorrow. (Well, today, it's 4:15am. G'nite!) 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    This is seriously STUPID. That one post won't let me attach any images. The guys with pants was uploaded out in Commons so I'm checking to see if something's gone whacko. (Found it, put a "&" in the titles. It's fixed and images are there now.)

    This is Shayla from Rendo, featured back at the beginning of the thread. Don't know if everyone saw the island renders as it was part of the "reserved" posts, if not, scroll back to the second post. I like her eyebrows, she has individual hairs where the brows start, and she has nice teeth. I changed the mouth up a bit, the lips were larger.

    I'm going to try and rename the pictures, post in a different posts, etc to see if I can get the images to post. Edit-  Got it- click here.

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  • luci45luci45 Posts: 2,641
    edited January 2017

    This is Dawin's Mishap(s)' Iain. Not one I thought of buying, won him as HM prize in It's Raining Men. He is a really nice looking guy while still looking real and unique.

    Iain for Michael 7 
    European Clothes for Genesis 3 Male(s) 
    Buzzed Hair for Genesis, Genesis 2, and Genesis 3  
    iRadiance - Light Probe HDR Lighting for Iray - Expansion 2  

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858

    @luci45  He looks really good. DarwinsMishap(s) always has really nice details in the skin- and hey, congrats on the HM! I'm sure the competition was tough and that's quite a nice achievement to be recognized. Was it strange not to combine a bunch of weird things to do RRRR?   cheeky (Resist the urge, resist the urge...)  Really like your lighting on those too. 

     

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    FWSA Xin-Qian HD (V7)       Kylan Hair (Gen3M/F)       Fun Saturday Outfit (Gen3F)     Brady Hair (Gen3F)

    Different lighting gives her different skin tones, and your brightness will really change her up too. Look at how different she appears in each one. She's a cutie as a child. The first hair she is wearing is Anjou Hair, which we've already recently linked.

    So the second one, I desaturated a bit, took out the red and added blue tones, increased the lighting, and reduced the midtones.

    This one, added a touch a yellow/green and took out the reds.

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  • luci45luci45 Posts: 2,641
    Novica said:

    @luci45  He looks really good. DarwinsMishap(s) always has really nice details in the skin- and hey, congrats on the HM! I'm sure the competition was tough and that's quite a nice achievement to be recognized. Was it strange not to combine a bunch of weird things to do RRRR?   cheeky (Resist the urge, resist the urge...)  Really like your lighting on those too. 

     

    Hehe, thanks. I have to do something between RRRRs. .cheeky​ Portraits are fun for me also..

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    This is showing you the effective lighting with ONE ghost light (to your left, above, and I scaled so it did not light the hip and towards the back. That keeps the fill realistic and darker back there.) The Ghost Light is used with the Pro -Studio HDR Lighting System which ties as my favorite with Ghost Lights for lighting- so I used both together again. 

    The gal is Magda from Rendo and her outfit is two which are kitbashed- Quinn Outfit (from Sonny bundle)  provides the armbands, gloves, and scarf. Eternal Desert Warrior took over the pants, top, the belt, the forearm, and the boots. You can't see the pants clearly, but look at the promos, they have nice wrinkles and the bottom hem is fluid, not stiff. The hair is Vidra Hair (Gen3F/M)    I used a background image and Gaussian Blur in Corel Photo Paint.

    How to change the brightness using Ghost Lights- there are presets, but I like selecting the light in Scene, then using the Surface Tool and going into Surfaces to change the Luminance manually. That way you can get the specific numbers listed below.

    So the Ghost Light was IGLK 7000 light blue, and used Daylight. You can pick at which stage in Luminance you'd prefer, I'm showing you a range. I personally like the 180 although 125 is intriguing, being darker. Then changed the intensities as follows:  

    First, what you'd get and have to deal with if you only used the portrait lights. 

    Second, Luminance 30

    Luminance 60

    Luminance 90

    Luminance 125

    Luminance 150

    Luminance 180

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • KindredArtsKindredArts Posts: 1,217
    Novica said:

    This is showing you the effective lighting with ONE ghost light (to your left, above, scaled so it did not reach from the hip going back- to keep the fill realistic and darker back there where shadows were) along with the Pro -Studio HDR Lighting System which ties with Ghost Lights for lighting- so I used both together again. 

    The gal is Magda from Rendo and her outfit is two which are kitbashed- Quinn Outfit (from Sonny bundle)  provides the armbands, gloves, and scarf. Eternal Desert Warrior took over the pants, top, the belt, the forearm, and the boots. You can't see the pants clearly, but look at the promos, they have nice wrinkles and the bottom hem is fluid, not stiff. The hair is Vidra Hair (Gen3F/M)    I used a background image and Gaussian Blur in Corel Photo Paint.

    How to change intensitites using Ghost Lights- there are presets, but I like selecting the light in Scene, then using the Surface Tool and going into Surfaces to change the Luminance manually. That way you can get the specific numbers listed below.

    So the Ghost Light was IGLK 7000 light blue, and used Daylight. You can pick at which stage in Luminance you'd prefer, I'm showing you a range. I personally like the 180 although 125 is intriguing, being darker. Then changed the intensities as follows:  

    First, what you'd get and have to deal with if you only used the portrait lights. 

    Second, Luminance 30

    Luminance 60

    Luminance 90

    Luminance 125

    Luminance 150

    Luminance 180

    Oh great experiment here Novica! You said you used a light blue (around 7k), is that right? The result looks quite warm to me, but it could be light bouncing off the rock.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858

    Yep, it was your IGLK 7000 but I don't recall what the Pro lighting was. Some have blue, some are more yellow, there's quite a variety. It works so well with all other lighting, but I really love the render times with your Ghost lights. 

  • Nice to see thread 8 up and running!  Good stuff so far.  I have that traveler outfit, but haven't not tried it out yet.  I'll have to see what kind of trouble I can get into with it.

    Great use of those Ghost Lights.  I love seeing all of the experiments with them.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    Nice to see thread 8 up and running!  Good stuff so far.  I have that traveler outfit, but haven't not tried it out yet.  I'll have to see what kind of trouble I can get into with it.

    Great use of those Ghost Lights.  I love seeing all of the experiments with them.

    Thanks so much! Speaking of pants...Has everyone popped in to the pants thread over in Commons? Barbult did a great job of featuring a lot of them. It is interesting to see what's lacking and what's better when comparing them. Hers start here. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    She did a fantastic job of showing a lot of pants! That thread really pointed out to me that I have three excellent pairs of pants for G3M and will no longer need to buy more (unless we get a new pair of streetwear jeans). It also shows how incredibly massive the difference in quality of a lot of pants products in the store. From the excellent to the really really how-on-earth-did-this-make-it-to-the-store quality.  

    Novica said:

    Nice to see thread 8 up and running!  Good stuff so far.  I have that traveler outfit, but haven't not tried it out yet.  I'll have to see what kind of trouble I can get into with it.

    Great use of those Ghost Lights.  I love seeing all of the experiments with them.

    Has everyone popped in to the pants thread over in Commons? Barbult did a great job of featuring a lot of them. It is interesting to see what's lacking and what's better when comparing them. Hers start here. 

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    FWSA Whitley HD (V7)          Jolina Hair       Sand Serpent Outfit (Gen3F) 

    Jolina Hair has 135 morphs and would be really fun to play with for windy days or movement. I don't like Whitley's eyebrows (of course, too thin) but otherwise I like the features. Sand Serpent is such a neat name for an outfit- and it really fits. Love the color, one of several.

    I'm still wading through what I bought during December. Sheesh. 

     

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    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    So how do you shop? Let's give you two scenarios and you decide what appeals to you. This is called Novica's Marketing Test lol. We're going to look at how you would spend $110.00 today if you are using the Featured Stores- or not. 

    I'm testing the cart, and basically, if you're buying 4 new releases and getting the deal today, it's 50% off for the total order (NOT including gift cards, didn't add one yet)  IF YOU USE THE FEATURED STORES FOR TODAY. And several are discounting more than what the offer gives you. What I did:

    I'd typed up what I got, but am removing it before posting, because several are discounting more than 36%. (Take the discounted price of the item and multiply by 64%  (or .64) as it says ADDITIONAL 36% discount if you buy 4 new releases.)  None of the items were Daz Originals as co-vendor. I've figured out what is discounting more, but not posting it until I see if it's a legit reason for it to stack. 

    So is this worth it?  Let's see. THIS IS OPTION A:
    Five items from the store, (1 is a bundle of 3) costing $23.31 which is only $4.66 each. THIS INCLUDES A SET. Saved $18.60
    Now add 4 new releases for $45.38  (I got practical, such as the breast helper, hands for G3M, grunge collection (love that vendor, great textures) and one set, the Breezeway/Balcony.) 

    Let's add a gift card of $50. Your discount will be $9 so it's 41.00 

    Or Option B:

    You could just buy the 4 new releases for 45.38 then subtract from 109.00 for about 63.00 for gift card, which would be around 78.00 store credit (you are getting 18% off, so multiply 78 x .82 and it's 63.96) 

    So, Your decision would be

    A. 9 items, 5 are almost new and 3 you had wishlisted- plus 4 new releases, 3 of which are practical. You also get $50 store credit. (Those items are $4.66 each, not calculating the gift card into the mix)  
    OR: 
    B. those 4 new releases and 78.00 store credit

    Whatcha gonna do? (other than borrow money.)

    EDIT:  I'm Option A. Scooping up relatively new items, including sets, for $4.66- pounce on it!

     

    Post edited by Novica on
  • KharmaKharma Posts: 3,214

    Just curious, can you use any new releases to count towards the gift card or only those on the gift card grab bag page, as you listed grunge collection and hands for g3m which aren't on that page? I wanted the BOSS lights and breast helpers, but not needing anything else on that page right now to make up 4 new releases so it would be good to be able to use any new releases to make up the 4 to maximize savings on GC.

     

    Kharma

  • I wish I had that $110.  I think I would go with option B to give me store credit for new stuff coming up soon.  A lot of it would depend on how much I really wanted the extra stuff that option A gave me.  That's a tough decision.  As it is, I'm buying one thing today and one thing only and that's the BOSS Lights. 

    Quite frankly, it's really about the only thing I saw that made think I can't wait until it's not new to try it out so I'm getting it.  The other stuff, while some of it looked good, I can wait until I have more money to spend and it isn't new anymore.  If I didn't already have Fit Control which I absolutely love using, I probably would also get SY's Breast Helper product.  The new outfit for G3M looks interesting, but I've learned to wait to see how others manage to work with them.  I've never bought from that vendor yet and while the outfit looks promising, there are a few things I saw in the promos that make me stop and think I'd like to see it in a few real world test renders before I buy.  If I had more to spend today, I'd definitely get the Faith Hair Bundle, though.  That looks like a great hair and I love that it's the same hair in three different resolutions.  I was talking to @Isidorn about it last night when the store changed over.  He made the comment something like every hair you need from Toon to real life.  Cracked me up, but very true.  

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017
    Kharma said:

    Just curious, can you use any new releases to count towards the gift card or only those on the gift card grab bag page, as you listed grunge collection and hands for g3m which aren't on that page? I wanted the BOSS lights and breast helpers, but not needing anything else on that page right now to make up 4 new releases so it would be good to be able to use any new releases to make up the 4 to maximize savings on GC.

     

    Kharma

    ANY new release, but I think PC items are excluded. Didn't test them but if I read the ** correctly, those don't count. Anyone test them?

    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,858
    edited January 2017

    I wish I had that $110.  

    Me too! I just got in the mood to test, to see how this really plays out marketing-wise. Most of the time I see deals and ask, "What's the bottom line?" and figure it out, but I don't post it. Today I'm taking a break from Zbrush for an hour so thought I'd share my calculations.  My first thought was buy FOUR new things?? but if you look at the gift card discount plus the featured stores discount, it makes more sense. And there's other tiers.

    Post edited by Novica on
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