Llynara's Loony Bin (WIP Thread)

1343537394046

Comments

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    I couldn't resist doing some more lamé! This is a V4 body suit and fits a little strangely (smoothing was a nightmare!) but the character is odd too. Fun though! The lamé definitely shows any issues in the modeling of the cloth. Fabiana's dress in my last image came out great because it's modeled so smoothly.

    The skin here is Gluttony with Famke for V7's morphs. Bodysuit is Dark Raven Reloaded. Olenna Hair with PhilW's Hair Lustre Shaders in Candy Stripe.

    Sweet Assassin

    Move over, Joker and Harley Quinn! There's a new girl in town! And she's sad. She has to kill you now because you made fun of her thighs!

    Famke_hairtut2.jpg
    1408 x 1433 - 266K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    So excited! The first part of my Beautiful Hair tutorial is finally up for my Level 2 patrons:We're covering all aspects of making hair look gorgeous- before, during and after the render. Hair shaders, postwork and walkthroughs will be included in this five part series. So far I'm up to 34 pages filled with lots of screenshots, tips, and examples, with more to come. And I thought writing a book was challenging! This was fun though and combined my love of digital art and my geeky obsession with documenting stuff with screenshots (A career in I.T. does that to you!)

    I even added a section on Will's wonderful new Iridescent Shaders: 

    Come learn digital art along with me on Patreon.

    Tut Preview2.JPG
    1580 x 928 - 160K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Playing around with the updated DAZ beta and dForce today. I actually got a dress to *not* blow up! This the Dynamic Purity Dress for Poser by LilFlame (Rendo.) I used Will's Iridescent Shaders (Red Satin) on this, later tweaking the main color and setting metallicity to .50. I put the textures back in the bump, normal and cutout opacity channels.

    First try (no postwork:)

    Second try: I tried to render longer to get a better drape on the bottom but then it blew up, probably because I forgot to turn smoothing back off, but even turning it off, I had problems.

    Tried again later, didn't like the bottom drape, but the top came out well. I turned up subD as well. Here's a closeup with some postwork for color, tone, etc. . 

    Dforce Zari2.png
    2000 x 2000 - 2M
    dforce mess- smoothing was on.JPG
    678 x 724 - 60K
    Dforce-Zari6.jpg
    1862 x 1437 - 535K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Here's Opal for G3F in Aave Nainan's Romance dress. I wanted to drape it on someone with a less than perfect figure. I followed Aave's directions from the dForce thread

    Just a tip for the adventurous souls out there.  Most of my existing store content will work with dForce with a bit of adjusting in Surface settings,  if you want to give it a try, as a first step turn Bend Stiffness down to  .15 - .30 after adding dForce modifier to the garment.  Set upper garment surfaces for instance: bodice,sleeves,collar to Dynamics Strength 0 to avoid excess stretch in those areas and give it a go!

    Originally I forgot to adjust the pose to keep the hands from the body and got this: 

    With pose adjusted: 

    Finished render with postwork:  

    The bottom still needs some more smoothing. I tried adding more frames but that didn't help. I just want to take my hand, reach in and tug it down. Not sure how to fix that. In VWD and in Optitex, you can drape an already draped pose to get a better look. When I try in dForce, no matter which method I use, it takes me back to T-pose.

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • Luv LeeLuv Lee Posts: 229
    Llynara said:

    Here's Opal for G3F in Aave Nainan's Romance dress. I wanted to drape it on someone with a less than perfect figure. I followed Aave's directions from the dForce thread

    Just a tip for the adventurous souls out there.  Most of my existing store content will work with dForce with a bit of adjusting in Surface settings,  if you want to give it a try, as a first step turn Bend Stiffness down to  .15 - .30 after adding dForce modifier to the garment.  Set upper garment surfaces for instance: bodice,sleeves,collar to Dynamics Strength 0 to avoid excess stretch in those areas and give it a go!

    Originally I forgot to adjust the pose to keep the hands from the body and got this: 

    With pose adjusted: 

    Finished render with postwork:  

    The bottom still needs some more smoothing. I tried adding more frames but that didn't help. I just want to take my hand, reach in and tug it down. Not sure how to fix that. In VWD and in Optitex, you can drape an already draped pose to get a better look. When I try in dForce, no matter which method I use, it takes me back to T-pose.

    Nice though--very beautiful work

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, Luv Lee! Ha- love your username! heart

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Playing with V4 today. She's still got it! This is the beautiful Sheherazade from Trifid (Rendo.) I also use Xameva's V4 Perfect Body fixes on her. Really great set.

    Hair-fits-V4-Shehezade.jpg
    2000 x 1910 - 722K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • I haven't had very much luck with the dForce thing yet.  It is nice to see when people manage to get something pretty good with it.  I do have high hopes that all of the issues will get fixed.  Right now, it just hates my computer, I think.  I'll try playing with it again after the next update.  

    I really like how that one with Opal turned out for the most part.  It's unfortunate that you weren't able to completely get rid of that wrinkle down the middle of the skirt.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, KnittingMommy. I think I need to read the documentation because I'm sure I'm missing something but I don't know what I don't know, LOL. I'll probably play with it again next weekend unless a new update comes out.So much other stuff to do right now.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Lucas 8 

    Here's Lucas 8, with defaults out of the box (I'm guessing translucency is medium here.) He's wearing the Cool Style Outfit and Classic Side Part Hair. The pose and expression are from the Pro pack. Lighting is Sveva's Intensity 2.0 from Rendo. There are 4 rim lights on him and 1 front spot, adjusted for the pose. Two white, two light blue, 1 gray. He looks tan, but I don't think he looks too orange. Maybe borderline? Could always adjust like we did for Josie.

    Render quality 3, stopped at 85%, so a little grainy. No postwork. (Click for larger pic.)

    Lucas comes with 4 eye colors. No tattoos or makeup options, no fiber mesh hair of any kind, though you can turn the brow on or off to use someone else's. He's shorter- 5'9" according to the product page. From the promos, he looks like he mixes well with other character morphs. 

    I had Elijah 7 Pro, so I got a very good deal on him, plus picked up David 5 Pro and the Brodie bundle for free. There's a lot of content in those. And I can always use more male content! 

    More renders to come with him in different scenarios, clothes, hair, lighting. He looks pretty versatile.

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Here's another render of Lucas 8 base in the Dark Prince Outfit. I used a GI Dome Iray HDR, which is white, so we could get a better feel for the skin color.  Skin translucency here is on high. Green eyes, though you can't really tell from the expression. (He's mad at me because I forgot to dial in a male bulge! laugh )

    I stopped this render at 90% done, so a little grainy. No postwork. (Click for larger pic.)

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Here's one more of Lucas 8, no morph adjustments, that's all him. With Sebastian Hair, he really does look a lot like FW Sebastian HD, one of my favorite G2M's. Both have fantastic faces, in my opinion. Just a little fiddling with morphs and I think Lucas would be a dead ringer for Sebastian.

    I used Redz's Supernatural Brows on him. The LIE makeup is from DarwinsMishap's Ren for G3M and G8M, who comes with a ton of LIE makeups. The tattoos are from Darwin's LIE Tattoo set. Outfit is Hellion for G3M from the Damien Bundle. The barbwire necklace was difficult to adjust to the pose (oops, forgot to fix that!)  Lights are Marshian's Rim Light Rig Iray. Set is After the War by Stonemason.

    I gave him the full postwork treatment on this one, I think he earned it. angel

     I think I'm in love. Brings back happy memories of my teenage years with Billy Idol plastered all over my bedroom walls. heart Putting this on my desktop wallpaper for a while! laugh

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    I just posted my review of Lucas 8 on the public area of my Patreon blog for anyone who would like to read it.

  • I love that last one.  Fantastic postwork. He looks great.

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Great work on that last one. 

    and I really really like what you did with the V4 one.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, ladies! I really like Billy Idol Lucas, lol. I was surprised how well the stone textures rendered in that set. That's Stonemason's After the War. Definitely going to have to use the ground again. DM's Medieval Courtyard in the image above it rendered very nicely. I need to force myself to use sets more often. Sometimes I don't want to stop and mess with them. Other times I just can't find them all! LOL

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    The Trouble with Curses

    Now that the cover is finally revealed, I can reveal it here too! Denise Lewis is a dear friend of mine, and her first paranormal romance should be out early next year. I've read the beta and it's hilarious! I was honored to do the cover. Almost everything here was created in DAZ, except the moon background (which is from Sveva.) And of course, plenty of Photoshop!

    I learned a lot doing the hair on this cover and will be documenting it step by step in Part 5 of my Beautiful Hair tutorial for patrons on my Patreon. Parts 1 & 2 are already up (35 pages!)

    Trouble-with-Curses_Final_800.jpg
    800 x 1200 - 219K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • That's a very cool cover.  Nice!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    Great job on the cover!

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, Knittingmomy and IceDragon! I'm pretty happy with how that one turned out. Learned a lot doing it. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Adobe Photoshop CC 2018

    Adobe just released some HUGE updates for the Creative Cloud, including the latest Photoshop, as well as Lightroom, Illustrator and InDesign. There are some really cool new features in all of them. Of particular note for artists: 

    • New brush presets- you can literally save any brush, including ones you make, with every setting you can imagine- blending mode, color, opacity, etc.
    • The ability to organize your brushes into folders- finally! You can even have folders within folders, a lot like like layer groups.
    • Paint Brush Smoothing- stabilize jittery strokes from 0 to 100% in multiple ways to get some very cool drawing and line effects. 
    • Symmetry Tool- very cool way to paint or draw with a mirror image, lots of configurations
    • The ability to copy and paste layers, even between images (using standard shortcuts- Ctrl C and Ctrl V)
    • Edit and paint directly on 360 degree panoramas.
    • Variable Fonts, which are really cool, changeable fonts on the fly. Great for promos and book covers! 

    This video explains them all very well: 

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Adobe Dimension (formerly Project Felix) 

    Another really interesting one for 2D and 3D artists is the program formerly known at Project Felix. It's been renamed and updated to Adobe Dimension, and merges 2D and 3D art in some really interesting ways. Very handy for anyone developing brands, logos, and any kind of marketing, but also some interesting implications for digital art. 

  • Silas3DSilas3D Posts: 553
    Llynara said:

    As I'm waiting an eternity for DAZ Studio 4.10 Beta to download over my slow satellite internet connection, I went ahead and tried making Ren into a merman. I don't know much about geoshells, but this was a fail. The program tries to autofit the tail and bra onto him and I got this: 

    I even put the G3F UVs on him. And it was a whole lotta nope. Not sure how to use a geoshell on a model it's not intended for. Further research needed. 

     

    Hi Llynara, it's defintely possible to do this as I did the exact same thing for this render:

    You'll need the cross-figure resource kit or some other Genesis 3 Female clone for Genesis 3 Male, so that the polygon boundaries will match for geografting. Highly recommend Josh Darling's youtube channel for tips and tricks on which there is a very useful geografting tutorial.

    Good thing is once you've done it once you can save to your library as a wearable and it will load like other content :)

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    @Silas3D Wow! That's a stunning image! He's the best-looking merman I've ever seen. It's great to see that this can be done, and done so well! yes

    Thank you very much for the tips, I will check out that YouTube channel too. 

  • Silas3DSilas3D Posts: 553

    No problem, and thanks! :o)

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    FYI- Topaz has a coupon code out for 25% off their plugins through the end of the month: FALL25. You can also get $20 for signing up for a new account. You can combine them to get some pretty good deals. I use Glow, Impressionist and Star Effects a lot in my postwork. I really love Topaz filters! 

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Working this week on Parts 3 & 4 of the Beautiful Hair tutorial and getting my Black Kat promos ready for Halloween. Hoping to use some of those wonderful pumpkins Orestes came out with, but hard pressed to find a really good black cat. ​Unlucky Charm will be free on Amazon from Oct 29-Nov 2. I'm still working on the next book, Kat & Mouse, which should be out this winter. 

     

    Unlucky Charm Final Full3_500X800.jpg
    500 x 800 - 394K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Updating promo art, still need to make my pumpkin/fall one. I used the old Hugh here. I'd like to use Kieron and started to work on him, but got overwhelmed by Rarestone's 350 Face Morphs. OMG, there are so many options. So my G8 Hugh isn't quite where I want him yet. I'll stick with good ol' Sebastian till I'm happy with the tweaked Kieron. Hopefully I'll have him done soon and a cover ready for Kat & Mouse, which is taking an eternity to finish. 

    As usual, everything is done in DAZ, Photoshop and Topaz.

    Kat-Patreon2.jpg
    2000 x 2000 - 511K
    Hugh_Promo_fb-cover3.jpg
    1806 x 852 - 131K
    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Salvatore for G3M and G8M

    Darwin's scrumptious Sal came out yesterday! Haven't had a chance to play with him as much as I like, but managed to squeeze a couple of renders in. DAZ has crashed on me a lot lately. I think I'm pushing the limits on my older computer with some of my more memory hogging scenes. The dragon scene below took me several tries and a lot of reduced textures to finally get it on my card. 

    Taming the Beast- Sal G8M and Hellborn Dragon HD for Dragon 3. Strangely, Hellborn has no Iray textures. I put on Uber and added emission to the eyes and skin.

    Toon Hitman- Sal G3M mixed in with Morpheus 7

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Ooh, lookie! An early Christmas! It's Santa Sal! I draped the coat with dForce and then tweaked the pose a bit. I tried draping the pants, but they...blew up. surprise Oopsies!

    Santa-Sal1.jpg
    1702 x 2000 - 311K
    Post edited by Llynara on
Sign In or Register to comment.