Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 8

15681011101

Comments

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Ah sorry Novica I totally missed your question.  Thanks for answering DarwinsMishaps!  I use LIE to change eyes using 2d eyes quite a bit. You can do a lot with LIE and layers

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Novica, thank you for that my husband and I are seriously considering cutting out the satellite TV, we already have Amazon Prime and Netflix.  We don't do movie channels anyway.  I just didn't even know where to start looking.  This will help a lot.

    If you decide to get an antenna, be sure and look at the roku Ultra and Leaf 50 antenna bundle. Right now, I am watching ABC in ultra definition, using the antenna. So neat! The Playstation Vue gets you the channels you get on Fling, but if I recall, you're not paying the extra $10 for a sports package, or it may be CBS included without having to pay for CBS access. I haven't gotten the PlayOn synced up yet (to do DVR recording) so can't answer that, but you get a trial period.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Awesome.  We don't particularly care about the sports channels so that's not much of a consideration, I doubt we would notice if we didn't have them lol.

  • I don't watch any television anymore.  It's just there to hook the game systems up to.  We use Netflix, Hulu and I have Amazon Prime.  We can get it all through the Wii U the boys have.  If I watch anything it's usually on my PC.  I have watched a few things on my Amazon Fire, but I don't really like watching things on such a small screen.  The cable just has the base channels so I can watch the local news if needed for weather purposes.  We use it mostly for the internet and phone.  

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    The LIE settings are in the Surfaces Editor; you need a base map, such as the diffuse, to start with.  Say you want eyeliner.  You open the Surfaces Tab, then click the down arrow at the left side of the figure you are working with.  Once the surfaces are open, select the face.   At the right side of the menu, you can select any dial that has a base map already in place, such as the Base Color.  Left click on the Base Color where the map image is and the pop up menu will open.  Below Browse, None, and Image Editor, there will be the Layered Image Editor (LIE).  Select that (it takes a few seconds to open the pop up window) and you can add layers, masks, choose which to add from your own files, overlay settings, etc.

    Oh jeez- I'm going to tackle that another day, I keep getting sidetracked and have to get on zbrush to finish up a toon character. Thanks for the explanation, I know who to pester with questions when I get stuck. And I KNOW I'll get stuck. Looking forward to your  product(s) coming out, as always!

  • jakibluejakiblue Posts: 7,281

    Cable adn streaming companies are in short supply in Australia. Once upon a time, a VPN worked with aussie netflix where you could get the american version of netflix which is WAY better. Unfortunately, Netflix did something in the latter half of last year and VPN will no longer work. So now we are stuck with Aussie netflix only and it falls very much short of the american catalogue. Still, it's much better than free to air tv which we don't watch at all. So we have aussie Netflix at $11.99 per month and also Stan, which is an aussie based streaming company at $10 a month. The only 'cable' company in Australia is Foxtel and there's no way in hell we are paying their inflated prices for what amounts to shows that continually repeat. However Foxtel snapped up the rights to Game of Thrones here in Australia - you can't even buy the current episodes on iTunes until the season if finished thanks to Foxtel. And that is what gave Australia the dubious reputation as the biggest pirates in teh world. LOL. People were so angry at Foxtel they refused to buy their packages. If you get the channels YOU wanted and only pay for certain channels, there would be much more people buying in it. But you can't. And you can't even buy teh one channel GoT was on - you had to purchase a certain package costing roughly $50 or so a month. So yeah. I've had foxtel in the past over the years, and I don't think it's worth the price they charge. 

    And that's it in Australia for cable or streaming. frown

     

  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,184

    Hey all, I am seeing a lot of people posting reviews from new items for review. I am trying to work on a couple of projects that are G2 based Can I share them here as well or are you mainly looking for the reviews on newer items? 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    Hey all, I am seeing a lot of people posting reviews from new items for review. I am trying to work on a couple of projects that are G2 based Can I share them here as well or are you mainly looking for the reviews on newer items? 

    Oh no problem, we showcase all Daz products (and even some Rendo, but no links to those.) Have a blast! 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,184
    Novica said:

    Hey all, I am seeing a lot of people posting reviews from new items for review. I am trying to work on a couple of projects that are G2 based Can I share them here as well or are you mainly looking for the reviews on newer items? 

    Oh no problem, we showcase all Daz products (and even some Rendo, but no links to those.) Have a blast! 

    LOL Yeah of site links BAD! I appreciate it, I am trying to work on a few custom texture sets and would love input from everyone. 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    I picked up Ancient Temple Courtyard and it's rather neat- it has a real long hallway that you can add things to, I'm shooting from the end of it toward the pool. The render setting options are nice, this one is the default, but I increased the burn highlights and lowered the crush blacks (in Tone Mapping) because of the shade, and increased the Film ISO to (will look it up)

    Will add back here- but to let you know about render times- 2 minutes was 21 percent.  45 seconds later it was 32 percent. 

    7 minutes 72%. Renders quickly.  9 minutes 83%, now slowing down. It's having a thought or two about the pesky shadows (which is a large chunk of my scene.)    10 minutes 86%      11 minutes 90%   Done in 13:48

    ancient temple courtyard1.png
    975 x 900 - 2M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
    Novica said:

    I picked up Ancient Temple Courtyard and it's rather neat- it has a real long hallway that you can add things to, I'm shooting from the end of it toward the pool. The render setting options are nice, this one is the default, but I increased the burn highlights and lowered the crush blacks (in Tone Mapping) because of the shade, and increased the Film ISO to (will look it up)

    Will add back here- but to let you know about render times- 2 minutes was 21 percent.  45 seconds later it was 32 percent. 

    7 minutes 72%. Renders quickly.  9 minutes 83%, now slowing down. It's having a thought or two about the pesky shadows (which is a large chunk of my scene.)    10 minutes 86%      11 minutes 90%

    That looks like it's a really cool product! I love the fact that it comes with an environment! I'm definitely going to get it - I have it in my wish list now. :)

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    Diva, put the Pro Bundle in your cart. Check the price-everyone is getting different ones right now-  then put the temple in, you get an additional discount (30%) when you get the Pro Bundle. Edit- I just saw your post over in the sales thread- you're getting a different price than what I'm seeing, I don't know what they're doing. As someone said, maybe an orange banner will explain it around 9am (4 hours from now, when they normally occur.) 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,184
    Novica said:

    I picked up Ancient Temple Courtyard and it's rather neat- it has a real long hallway that you can add things to, I'm shooting from the end of it toward the pool. The render setting options are nice, this one is the default, but I increased the burn highlights and lowered the crush blacks (in Tone Mapping) because of the shade, and increased the Film ISO to (will look it up)

    Will add back here- but to let you know about render times- 2 minutes was 21 percent.  45 seconds later it was 32 percent. 

    7 minutes 72%. Renders quickly.  9 minutes 83%, now slowing down. It's having a thought or two about the pesky shadows (which is a large chunk of my scene.)    10 minutes 86%      11 minutes 90%   Done in 13:48

    That looks really good, gonna have to look at that more closely. The water looks a little to blue but a different shader or tweaking the one in the set would fix that

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    The water has slight ripples, doing a render now to show it.

    Have a question on focal length- the preset on the first one was 20. If I up it to 32, does that make columns curve a bit? I know 90-125 is for portraits, but 20 seems so low. Here's the focal length 32 render. 

    And I would definitely make the diffuse base color darker (a light gray, if it's white- I didn't check.) That way the bricks aren't bleached out in the sunlight. That's a doorway and a hall on that back wall. 

    ancient temple courtyard2.png
    975 x 900 - 2M
    ancient temple courtyard3.png
    975 x 900 - 2M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    This is the Modern Bathroom, out of the box. It's 90% at 18 minutes, so I'd say this one moves along at a good speed too.  

    Wow this sucker is misleading. Out in the viewport the hallway looks pitch black, very little detail, then when viewed in Iray or rendered, you get a masterpiece. Never ceases to amaze me, the difference in the view and the render, but this one really is hard to setup without Iray being on in the viewport.

    This one is a bit slower, with the hallway added.  It was only 48% at 13 minutes.  65% at 16 minutes   92% at 25 minutes and done around 29 minutes. So a slower render. With both the temple and this one, I left the entire scene loaded, even for things which were out of view.

    Getting off the computer- 6:15am. Gotta get some sleep.

    modern bathroom.png
    975 x 900 - 2M
    modern bathroom2.png
    975 x 900 - 2M
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    FWSA Seth HD for Elijah 7

    Not sure how this worked, I guess he's on Genesis 3 Male because Elijah isn't in the DIM yet. And that's Construction Worker Outfit (Gen2/Gen3 Male)

    seth on Gen3.png
    731 x 900 - 990K
    Post edited by Novica on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    There is now an orange banner regarding Elijah so that solves the confusion on the different prices. It showed up around 6:45am. 

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,805
    edited February 2017
    Novica said:

    Have a question on focal length- the preset on the first one was 20. If I up it to 32, does that make columns curve a bit? I know 90-125 is for portraits, but 20 seems so low. Here's the focal length 32 render. 

    On a conventional camera, 30 mm is considered wide-angle. It's commonly used to shoot big landscapes as it will allow more into the shot but you will get tilting of vertical objects like trees, columns, etc. How much tilt depends upon the camera angle and orientation.

    20 mm is a super-wide angle. Realtors use 16-24 mm to photograph a house for sale as they can stand in a corner and showcase the whole room. It tends to make a small space look much bigger but it can easily distort reality. Tilting can be quite obvious.

    Most DSLR's come with a 50-55 mm lens as a compromise between wide angle and telephoto. 65-110 mm are good for portraits. Telephoto lens start around 100+, commonly 100-300 in the old days, now many cameras like super-zooms go up to 1000+. These bring distant objects in close but have a narrow width of view. 

    Post edited by RGcincy on
  • RGcincy said:
    Novica said:

    Have a question on focal length- the preset on the first one was 20. If I up it to 32, does that make columns curve a bit? I know 90-125 is for portraits, but 20 seems so low. Here's the focal length 32 render. 

    On a convectional camera, 30 mm is considered wide-angle. It's commonly used to shoot big landscapes as it will allow more into the shot but you will get tilting of vertical objects like trees, columns, etc. How much tilt depends upon the camera angle and orientation.

    20 mm is a super-wide angle. Realtors use 16-24 mm to photograph a house for sale as they can stand in a corner and showcase the whole room. It tends to make a small space look much bigger but it can easily distort reality. Tilting can be quite obvious.

    Most DSLR's come with a 50-55 mm lens as a compromise between wide angle and telephoto. 65-110 mm are good for portraits. Telephoto lens start around 100+, commonly 100-300 in the old days, now many cameras like super-zooms go up to 1000+. These bring distant objects in close but have a narrow width of view. 

    If you find yourself dropping the focal length way way down in order to get the scene from a given camera location, you can try using the Iray section plane to cut away the wall and move the camera back.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I picked up the ancient temple courtyard along with Elijah today - mostly because with the PA coupon and the banner it was a ridiculous price for him.  With my PA coupon I couldn't pass it up.  Your render shows some nooks and angles that I did not notice in the promos and convinced me it was worth picking up.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    This is kind of a twofer.  This is the Robbus Goblin by Josh Crocket with DarwinsMishaps LIE make up applied in three layers.

    The goblin is awesome - a darn good representation of what I see in my head when I think goblin and the make up ramps it up even more.  The make up will help make for a nice diverse goblin horde as well.  If you do fantasy monsters, I highly recommend this goblin.

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,805

    This is kind of a twofer.  This is the Robbus Goblin by Josh Crocket with DarwinsMishaps LIE make up applied in three layers.

    The goblin is awesome - a darn good representation of what I see in my head when I think goblin and the make up ramps it up even more.  The make up will help make for a nice diverse goblin horde as well.  If you do fantasy monsters, I highly recommend this goblin.

    Looks great! Very gobliney

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    RGcincy said:

    This is kind of a twofer.  This is the Robbus Goblin by Josh Crocket with DarwinsMishaps LIE make up applied in three layers.

    The goblin is awesome - a darn good representation of what I see in my head when I think goblin and the make up ramps it up even more.  The make up will help make for a nice diverse goblin horde as well.  If you do fantasy monsters, I highly recommend this goblin.

    Looks great! Very gobliney

    Thank you!  I need to put him in a proper setting with some dramatic lights....

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Reminder- today at midnight ends the time frame to submit your Top 3 (up to 5) list of your favorite products for January, selecting from those you actually used and rendered. They don't have to be bought in January, just rendered. The guidelines are in the first post of the thread, as well as a link to the current participants' choices. Some great renders and suggestions! 

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Fast Grab note- if you have the Heavy Motorcycle Road Cruiser then grab the Biker Bandit Poses  Even if you don't have that motorcycle, these should work for others. And only $4.79

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    Someone pointed this out in the sales thread- Fisty and Darc (FWSA) is part of Fred's (one of the discounted stores in Elijah today), and so if you get Elijah Pro Bundle, and Build Your Own Flash sale (3 things) the prices really drop. (About $3.50 - $3.85 for characters.) I recently showed you Monika, that bundle with the dress goes down to $9.78, FW Sushmita for example is $3.91    I know most of us have already shopped the  Build Your Flash Sale, already made the decision on Elijah, but passing this along because if it's within 30 days, you can do a different combination, get a better price- and get store credit. I already have so many of FWSA it isn't worth it for me personally. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,805
    edited February 2017

    A couple of renders of 1stBastions Mid Forest Vale.This new set reminds me a lot of 1stBastion's Wilderness: Two Creeks which I also have and use a lot. One big difference between the sets is the greater amount of foliage in Mid Forest Vale.

    The set comes with 3DL and Iray materials. Below is a 3DL render using the lights and Camera 1 that come with the set. 

     

    I was disappointed with the skydome as the clouds were not well defined. I usually like 1stBastion's 3DL skydomes so used one from his 1950's Era Motel. Here it is in use

    :

     

    Next up is an Iray render using the Iray materials. Same camera and view.

     

    I found the out-of-the-box render is too dark. I modified tone mapping and environment map settings to brighten the scene but found the sky washed out. So I added one large ghost light at 1000K and set it in the mid-distance to brighten the scene. Typically ghost lights speed up rendering but in this case I found it slowed it down, but was still an acceptable time.

     

    I have a lot of exploration left to do, but my first impression is that it's another good product from one of my favorite PA's.

    Mid Forest Vale cam 1 3DL.png
    1200 x 1200 - 3M
    Mid Forest Vale cam 1 3DL new skydome.png
    1200 x 1200 - 3M
    Mid Forest Vale cam 1 Iray.png
    800 x 800 - 1M
    Mid Forest Vale cam 1 Iray ghost.png
    800 x 800 - 1M
    Post edited by RGcincy on
  • OdaaOdaa Posts: 1,548
    Novica said:

    Someone pointed this out in the sales thread- Fisty and Darc (FWSA) is part of Fred's (one of the discounted stores in Elijah today), and so if you get Elijah Pro Bundle, and Build Your Own Flash sale (3 things) the prices really drop. (About $3.50 - $3.85 for characters.) I recently showed you Monika, that bundle with the dress goes down to $9.78, FW Sushmita for example is $3.91    I know most of us have already shopped the  Build Your Flash Sale, already made the decision on Elijah, but passing this along because if it's within 30 days, you can do a different combination, get a better price- and get store credit. I already have so many of FWSA it isn't worth it for me personally. 

    If you manage to find something you like in the new Mars items, you can (or could earlier) get another stacking discount on FWSA items because they were part of the associated PA sale. The Monika bundle was down to like $4.19 when I checked out.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited February 2017

    When I put a Mars item in the cart to test that (when you posted it, thanks so much for mentioning it in the other thread!) then the Elijah Pro Bundle, three things from Fisty/Darc's store in the Build Your Own Flash sale- the Monika bundle won't go down past 9.79. That's why I didn't mention the Mars item. Anyone find it works to get the Monika bundle price down to $4.19?  If so, what did you put in the cart?

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

    Fast Grab note- if you have the Heavy Motorcycle Road Cruiser then grab the Biker Bandit Poses  Even if you don't have that motorcycle, these should work for others. And only $4.79

    OK, you got me to spend more money again!

This discussion has been closed.