Novica, Serene Night, & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 3
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Drool ladies. Why the rest of you let me have Angelo....well, your loss LOL. THIS IS OUT OF THE BOX, I didn't dial him up at all.
Angelo is a good natured man, and notices Tayisha is not dressed to go in the pool so he makes a sweet offer regarding Tayisha's puppy.
Adorable!
This uses Chablis lighting plus the two distant lights I used with Tayisha and Chablis- then I dropped a point light in front of Tayisha's face and a spotlight from the front on both of them. More tweaking with the water- TIP: Turn down the opacity of the BOTTOM of the pool.
"Want Me To Take Him For A Swim?"
One other thing- again, go look at the puppy eye (it was TOTALLY dark, like a black blob this time) but also the nose and mouth. I added white on the top of the nose and inside the nostril. For the mouth, look for the small silver strip that defines the flowing line of the mouth. That was barely noticeable in the original. Gives the puppy expression.
Tarina- those comparison shots with Andrei and the rest of the figures really show a nice perspective- and what a difference in the default skin materials vs the other one. Default is definitely a lot of sheen/specular. He looks good as a teen! I'm surprised at the lack of eye colors, I guess we are just very used to having a wide array of choices. Well written review- thanks so much for helping with Morris!
If you used those codes (a few posts up) you should be getting a popup that says get $3 off $10 (only excludes gift cards) and $5 off $12 Daz Originals. SWEET on the first one!
One I didn't notice before, because I thought,"I've got enough jogging/sports outfits." But go through the thumbnails and look at the realistic folds and gathers of materials! (Jaderail, I know you were looking at this type of clothing when SereneNight and I were discussing it, you came onto the thread and mentioned you liked this type of clothing. So thought I'd point it out.)
It will qualify for that coupon too, if you're participating. (Ends up being 50% of the original price.)
http://www.daz3d.com/street-casual-outfit-for-genesis-2-male-s
http://www.daz3d.com/all-together-pose-set
If you haven't seen this one, it's FIFTY poses and you can mix and match, use by themselves, etc. Great for the Generation 4 renders- will come in handy if you are doing the code thing at the moment, as it's over $10.00
Thanks Novica! I'm glad you liked the comparison shots. I for one like it when people post comparison shots. When viewed side by side it's easier for me to spot the differences on the figures so I thought it was a good idea to include them in Andrei's case. The teen was an interesting experiment in dial-spinning and I'm happy you liked the result (I love what Zev0's morphs can do!). Rendering Andrei was fun so no need to thank me for doing it.^^ I'm learning a lot while trying to update these older skin sets to AoA SSS and improve my lighting - posting here is a very rewarding experience for me. I agree that the lack of options for Andrei is a little weird, especially considering the steep pricing ($19.95). Maybe it's because he's a DO. The prices of DOs often seem higher to me than those of other products compered to their value (possibly to account for the 30% PC discount and other more frequent, steeper discounts thrown our way); which actually makes me feel a bit cheated. ; P Of course the possibility of getting DOs at 70% off (if you are willing to wait long enough) makes up for this weirdness in pricing. Sorry for my speculations. They just sort of happened. Most DO's are of very high quality so please do understand that I'm not complaining (but just trying to figure it out).
I really liked what you've done with the pool water, it looks so much better now! Those milky materials looked very uninviting. The pup and Tayisha again look lovely. Postwork is unnoticeable (by which I mean that you wouldn't know that the image was postworked, it's so subtle) which is cool, it looks as if the pup was meant to look that way (mighty cute and quite realistic ; ). Angelo looks good too. Castelo looks like a nice set but those textures don't hold up well on close-up shots - too blurry. I'm awaiting your next pool render eagerly. ; )
@MelanieL: Thank you for your help earlier. I do not know if I would have remembered to check the displacement settings if you haven't pointed it out to me in the first place. : ) Your comparison shots looked great and quite funny. I'm also eagerly awaiting the GenX2 - I do not have the previous version (I've never used Gen4 figures). Since I prefer to use G2 now I cannot wait for it to come out.
Todays Review:
That’s Amore
By: Muscleman
http://www.daz3d.com/thats-amore
and
Some other content used
Rena (gypsyangel) (Skin on v4)
Generic Sci-Fi Cooridoor (Stonemason, DAZ3d)
Post Apocalyptic for Cyber m4 (Morris)
Zane M4 (gypsyangel) Skin, and some morphs (Sold at Rendo)
Hypersuit V4 (Xurge3d)
Mats for Daz Studio Hypersuit by Adam001 (With gratitude)
Melody Hair (Daz3d)
http://www.daz3d.com/rena-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/generic-sci-fi-corridor
http://www.daz3d.com/post-apocalyptic-for-cyberpunk
http://www.daz3d.com/melody-hair
I’m a fan of Muscleman’s poses, and couple’s poses in general and since it is Valentine’s month decided to render a few renders celebrating love for you. I really think this is a great set for gen 4 characters. As you can see, they turned out well. With modifications you can make it work with genesis and gen 6, especially if you use handy dandy to fix feet and hands.
One thing I like is there are a great variety of poses here. Not just couples cuddling in romance-novel fashion standing up, but some sitting down, talking, flirting or being affectionate.
To make the set work properly, you will have to perform minor adjustments, much like other pose sets. There are no expressions, and eyes will need to be pointed at the opposite character to look realistic, feet might need to be raised or lowered, depending on footwear, character height etc. In one case head needed to be tilted slightly. These are all minor and to be expected when using a couple’s pose set, but just something to note. Some (not all), poses will work on opposite gender characters as well, so you can add some variety or swap character poses if you like.
Thoughts:
The outfit I chose here is v4 hypersuit. With Mats provided here on for DAZ by Adam001.They look great don't they? I am reminded as I see how well clothing works on gen 4 figures just how much genesis has a way to go, as gen 4 clothing looks a lot better to me in some ways than content made for gen 5 or 6.
I really like Rena’s skintone. While I didn’t use the full character, I like her darker skin with more reddish tones in contrast with m4’s fairer tone.
In hindsight if I’d thought about it, I likely would not have used Melody hair. I wasn’t able to entirely get it to work with the high collar of the V4 hypersuit, necessitating two renders in scenes where there was clipping. One of her bald, so I could photoshop the pokethrough out.
I really like that’s amore. I hope Muscleman makes more sets like this- especially for gen 6 characters as I certainly will be a customer!
@Tarina: Thanks for showing Andrei. I confess his pale skin is slightly intimidating, I always have trouble with ultra-fair skin. I like how he looks in that executioner outfit. Those pants and shirt really look well. I like how you varied it from figure to figure. Nice tough. I would never have thought of putting Andrei on a female figure but it works. =-)
@barbult: I'm wondering if they scanned image of real shorts, and somehow reversed the images. In any case the placement of the burning logs seems odd to me.
@Novica: Your angelo vignette looks great! I think that is your best one yet, and the water is great. I really like Tayisha and the dog too.
I confess these middle of the day coupon offers are hard for me to utilize. I don't have a lot of low dollar items left in my wishlist to make those valuable. I think the most value will come if you use them to buy small dollar items like the 1.99 pc club items, otherwise 1 or 2 dollars off a big priced item, just doesn't knock enough off. I'm going to wait for the percentage off sales.
Most of the new releases aren't that interesting to me, or seem kind of high-priced.
I had trouble even finding something to use my PC club coupie on. And then I lost a bit of money, because it was the candy currently in fastgrab, and I couldn't find anything else I wanted that was sufficiently discounted to make up the difference. Too bad I didn't wait until the afternoon, and I could've used these codes! That's always my luck with these afternoon offers. =-)
I'm glad you liked my renders, I have trouble rendering pale skinned characters as well. Applying AoA SSS didn't help, it just made the skin pink so it's still a WIP. I haven't put his skin on a female figure (he has a visible stubble and no option to remove it). In the last comparison shot Freak 5 has his default materials, Andrei and "teen" Andrei have Andrei materials and M6 and V6 both have their default materials applied. Sorry if I have confused you. ; ) Was it the description?
Edit: I like your latest renders. The poses do look useful and interesting, they look like there is a story behind them. I agree that the v4 hypersuit looks very good. There are some vendors who provide similar or higher quality of clothing for genesis figures but it's true that in general they look more doughy than the gen4 ones. I guess the only solution to this problem is wider availability of dynamic clothing or lots of adjustment morphs (which seem to make outfits very expensive).
Shanghai Style is a bargain now. It is alread 65% off with the Canary3D sale and PC discount. Add the tier 3 30% off and it is really cheap.
I just replaced the other Angelo with the new one. The point light from Tayisha was making the hand glow a bit much and I wasn't happy with the postwork. I moved the hand down just a tad and so that solved it without postwork.
I am going to render some of Castel without DOF so we can all see what the patio stones and building look like.
SereneNight- love those poses- the last two, in particular. I will put some of Muscleman's poses in Castel for some of the remaining figures. Any of the Morris you have, do feel free to render. I'll take a look at the list of what you said you found you had, and avoid those just in case you want to do them.
The pool really changed when I adjusted the bottom of the pool, it's amazing what that did.
FYI: I am starting on Gem For V5 (Morris) within the next day or so.
Also doing Muscleman's Noi Due Poses.
http://www.daz3d.com/noi-due-poses
What happened to the MuscleMan thing? Did it get buried in all theses posts? This thread grows so fast and jumps from one thing to the next so fast I'm never sure what its about most times. I get its about showing off content that never got very much render love so that others might take a second look at them, but often it just seems to become a love fest of one figure or texture set or New item that was covered very well at its release. I'm fine with knowing things go on sale, I'm fine with showing users just how good some content is, but I'm starting to miss the point of the thread I believe. I'm a Admin who's job is to check posts against the TOS so I read 99% of everything posted. It just seems that the thread losses focus every time a cool new item is released or a old item gets bought. When users are asked to do one thing and the next 5 or more pages turn out to be about something 100% different how is anyone supposed to follow along?
Or maybe I'm just missing the point.
EDIT: And there we go... I found the NEW MM stuff after I gave up reading the other stuff... NM.
The point of the thread(s) has always been to showcase what I (and SereneNight, and the other ICG's) use/own and to give folks our unbiased opinions. My focus this weekend was on Morris, I don't care if the products are new or old, on sale or not- I wanted an organized way to approach what products I am exploring. Others were invited to participate if they had Morris. Not required. This thread moved fast this weekend (1068 views/activity just yesterday) so yes, if you are trying to keep up and with the entire forum system, I can empathize. Morris is prevalent in most of the posts since late Friday nite.
I wanted to ensure the ICG's weren't pressured to doing Morris, and to expand the selection a bit, so we are also doing Muscleman and Zev0- however, nothing else has changed. The ICG's (and myself and SereneNight) post other renders of products we are playing around with. I am not going to restrict renders to what is on sale, what has or has not been covered, or the Render The Vendor, as that defeats the purpose of sharing what the contributors really like and want to share.
We discuss sales, particularly if we own some of the products, and because the information is timely we may post renders to show the current sale items- and that may include old content. Again, the thread is going to be fluid and flexible, not locked in to just sale items, just new items, just whatever. It's NEVER been that way. I'm okay with the thread evolving based on the day's activities- it would be quite stale to say post only this or that. I know that's not what you're saying, but you ask how people are supposed to follow along- well, just have a sense of humor and surf in knowing you're going to get a variety but know that if I state I'm covering something, then I am. The other ICG's have been good as gold to assist.
One thing we might change though is just sticking to one vendor a weekend. This way the PA in question could have the showcased products on that weekend. If I have broken the pattern by posting muscleman early, I apologize.
I never said anything was wrong with the method, I even ended my post with Never Mind (NM) once I found the topic that I was hunting. I just expected that topic to be much farther up in the thread and HAD thought it was forgotten as a topic or not covered yet. I have been following these threads from day one, I have been linked to as a resource more than once and have even posted from time to time as my time allows. But if even I get confused from time to time because it seemed to say ONE thing and suddenly go a different way I'm pretty sure other users than just I might feel the same way. If my pointing that out is not allowed then I'll not ask a stupid question again before I read the FULL thread again when I'm wondering about one topic. I'll just scroll past the other posts from this point forward until the topic is covered.
Am testing the Noi Due Poses on Gem (Morris) and Angelo (Morris) even though the Noi Due are for V6 and M6. Thought it might be interesting to see how they would do. I chose a laying down pose and a simple floor/backdrop, nothing complicated, so I could tip the ground plane and see how the figures did.
The figures alternate between going through the ground plane and not touching it, Angelo's elbow went through the floor, while Gem's legs were floating above it. Her back arm supporting her weight came down right in the middle of Angelo, but a simple forearm bend solved that. It took less than 5 minutes to tweak, so I'm finding the Gen 6 poses are doing pretty well on the Generation 5 (Gem) and Generation 4 (Angelo) figures.
Don't apologize, you did what you were asked to do and it's fine. Having only one limits what the IGC's might already have rendered/ can start on. They don't have to render them at that time, it just helps a lot with planning purposes. If you suggest a pose set for instance, then I know I can use that with my character, instead of just picking a random pose. We won't even launch any more vendors until these are caught up, because as mentioned when I started this, it's only one way of discussing the products everyone owns.
Here's another for the Muscleman list I did in a previous thread: Kid & Dog.http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/28138/P15/#422137
I think now, I could touch up the Dog's "little orphan Annie eyes", with your new technique. =-) Ah... but I let my old stuff remain as it is.
I realize that I have quite a few of Muscleman's products. I like the diversity and topics he chooses to turn into pose sets.
I added it to the Muscleman post. I did four pages of thread one yesterday, adding them to the front page post with the list of products we've used, and haven't come across any Morris or Muscleman so far that weren't already noted. I'll add them as I go. Busy the next few days but trying to do 1-2 pages a day from the old threads and working forward.
The Noi Due Poses don't have the right "bend" or fluidity on these other generations but I'm going to finish the render and let folks see how they do. They are usable, but think maybe more for closeups rather than entire figure.
Gem For V5 (Morris)
http://www.daz3d.com/gem-for-v5
Angelo For M4
http://www.daz3d.com/angelo-for-m4
Noi Due Poses (Muscleman)
http://www.daz3d.com/noi-due-poses
Love Me Hair For Genesis (DAZ 3D / Goldtassel)
http://www.daz3d.com/love-me-hair-for-genesis
As previously stated, the Noi Due Poses are not for either of these generations. Gem is Gen 5 and Angelo is Gen 4. Noi Due are Gen 6. It took more tweaking than five minutes after the test render- the poses are a bit stiff and don't quite connect to the ground. But they are workable in under 10 minutes and that will save you a lot of time rather than starting from scratch. And if they're this good on two other generations, the Generation 6 should be awesome.
The Love Me Hair is really stiff, the strands look just like the promo. However, it doesn't take too much to touch up. My postwork was kept to a minimum and it was about 5 minutes. (More could be done.) You'll have the typical ganged up bunches by the bangs, and the back had a few strands so sharp they could be fishing hooks. I left smoothing on 2 and collision on 3, which was the default. But it does come with smoothing which is nice, as you don't have to create the modifier.
Gem lights easily, her eyebrows are too thin for my tastes, so a hair like this works well if you want to hide thinner eyebrows. I did significant chest reduction, she is very busty.
Ethnique: Alexis S4 V4 (Morris)
Meru Hair (SWAM)
Hawthorne Hair (DAZ3D, Goldtassel)
Daiquiri Dress For V4 (DAZ3D, Ravenhair)
Parkside Point and Interiors Poses (DAZ3D, Digiport)
Backdrops esp. 2: Eras of Interiors (Blondie9999)
http://www.daz3d.com/ethnique-alexis-s4-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/meru-hair
http://www.daz3d.com/hawthorn-hair
http://www.daz3d.com/daiquiri-dress-for-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/parkside-point-and-interior-poses
http://www.daz3d.com/backdrops-exp-2-eras-of-interiors
I wanted to test Meru Hair, because for me, it seems like an aging type of hair. Meaning, people wearing it will appear older. That, or put them in the 50's or 60's time period. So I am comparing Meru Hair on Alexis with Hawthorn Hair. Also, the difference with and without makeup. Not an apples to apples comparison as with makeup she looks so different, but I did a small test render with Meru Hair and makeup and the Meru Hair still seemed to age Alexis. Meru took awhile to render, it was 24% at 34 minutes, but a fairly large render. However only the backdrop in the scene with the exception of character, hair, and dress.
The Parkside Point and Interiors Poses has "64 exploring poses" and I love the hand details. Only $1.99 for PC Members.
EDIT: Side by side, don't you think they look more like mother and daughter, rather than the same person?
Invited Guest Contributor
"Old Friends"
This is a finished piece I've been working on and thought I'd share it here. The list of products used is extensive, so I hope that it is okay to give a link to it in the gallery, where the product list is already available.
http://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/20296
Inspiration here is the loss of my dog, Jack, who died in August last year.
John
Products used:
Horatio for M4 and Genesis
http://www.daz3d.com/horatio-for-m4-and-genesis
Millennium Dog Bundle
http://www.daz3d.com/millennium-dog-bundle
Town and Country for Genesis
http://www.daz3d.com/town-and-country-for-genesis
Aging Morphs For Genesis
http://www.daz3d.com/aging-morphs-for-genesis
TJohn: aw... That is a beautiful work TJOHN. I love the dog, and the pose. =-)
Aspen for Gia
Morris, Daz3d
http://www.daz3d.com/aspen-for-gia
This is another figure for your Morris File. Aspen is a gia figure with a pale Nordic beauty. She comes with a lot of strong makeup options, quite a few goth/tribal makeups, a basemat with and without tats, and a pose. She doesn't have her own lights unlike the other sets I have by Morris I own.
She is extremely buxom, and I did not adjust this. In fact I had trouble finding tops that fit her. I went through 3 or 4 before choosing this top. I like her 'no makeup option' the best. This is a matter of taste, but her makeups seemed far too dark and the eyeliner quite heavy for such a fair-skinned character. Her skin darkens nicely with a pale gray diffuse. if you don't like her pale.
She is wearing the Persian Beauty top which comes with starter essentials.
Tjohn- that is definitely a feel-good render- the relaxation of the dog and man, and the bond between them is very apparent. Sorry to hear about Jack's passing, hope you had many good years. I like the background- it's got a lot but doesn't detract from the main characters. What kind of dog was he? Looks like a retriever of some sort?
If you don't mind, please copy/paste three or four of your products and put them in your post. Two reasons- I don't want people to have to leave the thread to get information, and second, the galleries are very slow for me. It sits and spins for two or three minutes- very frustrating. If folks want to see every product, they can surf in to the gallery, just put your main set and characters for here. I'd also encourage people to surf in over there and leave comments :)
SereneNight- Aspen really needs eyebrows, doesn't she? Most of Morris' characters could use a bit of that in the female characters. And all the ones I have done have been busty. Good to know about the top! Agreed about the heavy eye liner, it doesn't go with pale. Did you add gray? Because I like the skin tone. If you did, was it diffuse only and how much?
These renders are her default color, however I used a gray rim light.
My goto gray shade 192/192/192
Here is Aspen with a gray diffuse added to her lips and skin. She takes a diffuse pretty well.
Ethnique: Kerry-Ann S4 / V4 (Morris)
Parkside Point and Interiors Poses (DAZ3D, Digiport)
Evan Hair (AprilYSH)
The Songstress (DAZ 3D / Anna Benjamin / Sarsa / Bobbie25 /Umblefugly)
http://www.daz3d.com/ethnique-kerry-ann-s4-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/parkside-point-and-interior-poses
http://www.daz3d.com/evan-hair
http://www.daz3d.com/the-songstress
Well, thicker eyebrows, and a couple makeup options. The Songstress fit really easily, and I have to say I was totally disappointed in several other products which did not go on well at all. (Adventure Girl Essentials.) The entire bust was bare, etc. This is a Stephanie 4 product, and Stephanie is quite petite compared to V4, so you would think the clothes would be more than ample.
Wish the Evan Hair hairline could go down further, I did lower it but this was about as good as it got. A lot of nice tweaks for the hairline so far as the sides go, and the thickness of the hair, the crown, etc.
Kerry Ann lights easily, and again, the Parkside Point poses are quite good for casual action.
Click to enlarge- is a large render.
Invited Guest Contributor
I never got around to posting my Top Ten for 2013. DAZ made it easy for me today by putting the 2013 top sellers on a 40% off sale.
So, of the top sellers, here are my top 10 (11 actually.) I buy a lot of stuff that I don't use, but all of these I have used often.
Atmospheric Effects Cameras for DAZ Studio http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/atmospheric-effects-cameras-for-daz-studio
Opus Magnum http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/opus-magnum
Urban Future 4 :Street Level http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/urban-future-4-street-level
Urban Sprawl 2 The Big City http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/urban-sprawl-2-the-big-city
Aging Morphs For Genesis http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/aging-morphs-for-genesis
Handy Dandy http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/handy-dandy
220 Emotions for Genesis http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/220-emotions-for-genesis
StreetWear : Jeans For Genesis http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/streetwear-jeans-for-genesis
Advanced Ambient Light http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/advanced-ambient-light
Super Dress and Leggings for Genesis 2 Female(s) http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/super-dress-and-leggings-for-genesis-2-female-s
Michael 4 for Genesis 2 Male http://www.daz3d.com/2013-top-sellers/michael-4-for-genesis-2-male