Llynara's Loony Bin (WIP Thread)

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  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Was messing around with Ron's Bokeh brushes. I like this effect on the foreground. I'm thinking the background may have been made with the same brushes or something similar. Matching a background effect with a foreground overlay can create some really neat depth.

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  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Sal the Highland Centaur

    This was an attempt at draping the Highlander outfit on a centaur. It didn't quite turn out right, but hey, I actually got it to drape without exploding. I tried to fix it in post, but the lines in the plaid make it really challenging to fix without repainting the entire thing. So I played with it and turned it into a painting instead. 

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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    He looks good as a centaur! 

    Most of the dragons don't have an Iray texture, only the newer ones, or ones where a specific Iray add on texture was added later.  However, you can use Anagennesis on them using the free Other part of the script.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Thanks! I like him as a centaur too. They are fun! I guess Dragon 3 must've come out before Iray. 

    Toga Sal

    Here's Sal again, in the Optitex Dynamic Toga and Skirt for M4 and Freak 4. I went with Freak 4 because it's bigger and has more space to contract. Defaults work pretty well with it. I added a little extra Bend Stiffness to the belt area. Too much other fiddling and it explodes. Because it's an Optitex model, there aren't any morphs to help adjust things after draping. I tried fitting it on an ogre, but without those adjustments, it's hard to get it to look right on someone so big. It turned out pretty good on Sal.

    The set here is really old. It's the Meditteranean Balcony that I got in last year's BYOB. It's really too low res to do much with, so I retextured it with marble shaders, but it still looks kind of rough. Oh well, it was 39 cents! 

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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    Just make this one taller, add a transparent girl in the background, and you have a romance novel book cover.
  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Ha ha, good idea, dracorn!

    dforce Fiona Dress

    Kind of nice to play with something that's supposed to work. This is the dForce Fiona dress. I managed to blow it up once when I forgot to turn off the hair for the simulation. I did actually try to drape Perrin Hair. It went through the simulation, but stuck to her body crazily. I even tried draping just the hair without the body. Kind of weird results on that. There are enough morphs to make it look somewhat like it's falling backwards. 

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  • Love Santa Sal!!! That dress turned out nice.  I did get that one but haven't played with it yet. Trying to drape hair sounds very brave. Mine would probably explode.  :)

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks. I do love Santa Sal. I think there's more to be done with him! devil

    Yes, I've exploded so many things at this point it could be a new art form. The successes are great, the failures- wow! They're pretty spectacular, LOL.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    FREE ON AMAZON, OCT 29-NOV 2

    Come celebrate Halloween with the Supers! Unlucky Charm, the prequel to Black Kat, is free over the next few days. It's a dark romantic series with superheroes, for ages 18 and up. Please share with anyone you know who may need a good laugh. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4G83ZG

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    Llynara said:

    Thanks! I like him as a centaur too. They are fun! I guess Dragon 3 must've come out before Iray. 

    Toga Sal

    Here's Sal again, in the Optitex Dynamic Toga and Skirt for M4 and Freak 4. I went with Freak 4 because it's bigger and has more space to contract. Defaults work pretty well with it. I added a little extra Bend Stiffness to the belt area. Too much other fiddling and it explodes. Because it's an Optitex model, there aren't any morphs to help adjust things after draping. I tried fitting it on an ogre, but without those adjustments, it's hard to get it to look right on someone so big. It turned out pretty good on Sal.

    The set here is really old. It's the Meditteranean Balcony that I got in last year's BYOB. It's really too low res to do much with, so I retextured it with marble shaders, but it still looks kind of rough. Oh well, it was 39 cents! 

    I was thinking about the balcony - try fiddling with the displacement settings. Does the marble shader have a normal map? If not, you can make one in Photoshop if you have it and make it high contrast. Or use a displacement preset from one of you shader packages. Roughen it up enough and that will reduce the low poly edges.
  • He looks very comfortable in that toga.  XD Never thought to do that to him, either!  lol

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Good suggestions, Dracorn! 

    Thanks, Darwin, can't wait to play with him some more. He might have to be a hot pirate. Not sure yet! devil

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    I finally managed to get my first Black Kat newsletter out today! I'm pretty technically inclined, but Mail Chimp was weird to navigate through. All of the images were made with DAZ and Photoshop. You can see it here. Feel free to sign up, there's more to come! 

    This one turned out to be my favorite: 

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  • Looks pretty good! I haven't needed to brave Mailchimp yet. The newsletter looks very nice. I loved reading the newsletter in Hugh's voice. :)

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, KnittingMommy. He can be quite a sassy fellow when he wants to be! Hugh also loves to write book reviews on Amazon. laugh

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    And OMG, so excited! Unlucky broke the Top 100 free books in the entire Amazon store! Currently at #94!

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  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    That's awesome!  Its a very good book!  I just posted it on my Facebook too so maybe it will move up a bit more as well.  This is a book I will read again, and am really looking forward to book 2

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Thank you so much, Sonja. It really means a lot. We often create in a vacuum and it's great to get positive feedback from other readers and writers (and artists!) I am hoping to FINALLY have book 2 done and to the editor by the end of NaNoWriMo. It's been a loooong year.

    Post edited by Llynara on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548

    I enjoyed the newsletter  as well, nicely done!

  • Yay!!! That's awesome! When I went to check it out, it had moved up.  It's now number 82! Really awesome!

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks! I'm shocked to hit the Top 100 this fast. This is day 1 of a 5-day promo! I was in FreeBooksy today. Tomorrow is Reign of Reads. That one usually does pretty well too. 

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,548
    Llynara said:

    Thank you so much, Sonja. It really means a lot. We often create in a vacuum and it's great to get positive feedback from other readers and writers (and artists!) I am hoping to FINALLY have book 2 done and to the editor by the end of NaNoWriMo. It's been a loooong year.

    Anytime!  I'm always willing to give a shout out on Facebook.  I think I might start a blog on my website as well, to do some reviews of whatever happens to interest me. Which will include at least 3D stuff, Photoshop stuff and books to start with.

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333

    I did an Amazon search for Unlucky Charm and it showed up as the second selection.  There were several Unlucky Charms books that also displayed.

    I have to say again that I absolutely love that cover you did for this book.  It's so professional and is very eye-catching. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770

    Thanks, Dracorn! I'm glad you love it as much as I do. It was a happy accident, one I have to replicate for the next book (scary!) 

    Today wasn't quite as spectacular rank wise on Amazon, but Unlucky is still sitting at #170 overall in the store, and at the top of several categories. I'm happy! 

    @Icedragonart - Go for it! A blog is a great way to connect with your readers. 

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Faery Tales for V3

    I haven't done a V3 in a while. This one is for Part 3 of my Beautiful Hair tutorial, in which I'm talking about fitting and posing hair, as well as draping it (when possible.) I really love bringing the older characters into Iray, giving them some newer hair and freshening up their clothes a bit. They often come out pretty good! Faery Tales is for V3 and Laura, and has 2 full sets of morphs and textures. This one is the "Enchanting" character. As you can see, she wears Ulani Hair just fine! 

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  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333

    You're right, she does look good.  Very nice use of bokeh and post work, by the way.  I love the way the DOF softens the columns in the background - you made a simple architecture set (from the V4 days?) look very good.

  • LlynaraLlynara Posts: 4,770
    edited October 2017

    Thanks, Dracorn. That set surprised me. It's Fantasy Courtyard, which is supposed to have Iray materials, but it looked incredibly low res. I double checked and made sure I had the Iray ones loaded, I tried applying subD and it wouldn't take. So I used DOF and bokeh to hide how bad it looked. Maybe I need to uninstall and reinstall it.

    Cista Santorium

    Here's one that surprised me in a good way: Jack's Cista Santorum Iray texture add-on. This is the preload preset. Wow, the lighting is awesome! I only had to add a glow helper to her face (from Fabiana's AlterGlow set.) This is another render for my Beautiful Hair Tutorial on Patreon. That's @DarwinsMishap 's Keri for V8. She looks like a pissed Swiss Miss. (Maybe somebody stole her hot chocolate!)

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  • Llynara said:

    FREE ON AMAZON, OCT 29-NOV 2

    Come celebrate Halloween with the Supers! Unlucky Charm, the prequel to Black Kat, is free over the next few days. It's a dark romantic series with superheroes, for ages 18 and up. Please share with anyone you know who may need a good laugh. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4G83ZG

    Thank you for the free book! I've been curious about your Black Kat series for awhile. 

    Trish

  • Llynara said:

    I finally managed to get my first Black Kat newsletter out today! I'm pretty technically inclined, but Mail Chimp was weird to navigate through. All of the images were made with DAZ and Photoshop. You can see it here. Feel free to sign up, there's more to come! 

    This one turned out to be my favorite: 

    I really like the lighting in this render. 

    Trish

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    Llynara said:

    Thanks, Dracorn. That set surprised me. It's Fantasy Courtyard, which is supposed to have Iray materials, but it looked incredibly low res. I double checked and made sure I had the Iray ones loaded, I tried applying subD and it wouldn't take. So I used DOF and bokeh to hide how bad it looked. Maybe I need to uninstall and reinstall it.

    Cista Santorium

    Here's one that surprised me in a good way: Jack's Cista Santorum Iray texture add-on. This is the preload preset. Wow, the lighting is awesome! I only had to add a glow helper to her face (from Fabiana's AlterGlow set.) This is another render for my Beautiful Hair Tutorial on Patreon. That's @DarwinsMishap 's Keri for V8. She looks like a pissed Swiss Miss. (Maybe somebody stole her hot chocolate!)

    Oooh, great render!  The background looks great, her hair (I have that one) looks fabulous.  Pose is great, detail is wonderful and the colors are fantastic.  Another good one!

    I picked up your book on Amazon - thanks!  I just started it. 

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