Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 12

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Comments

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    What do you think of the Tied Up 3?  I think that top rope going around the person's chest is so loose! On the promo with the woman beside the man, and the ghoul/zombie. Doesn't seem well fitting, unless each segment of the rope can be tightened. 

  • chris-2599934chris-2599934 Posts: 1,775

    I wishlisted it.

    What I like is that she appears to have done what I hoped she'd do - include conforming rope bracelets and anklets for tying wrists and ankles.

    Previous iterations have included a single prop which you parent to one wrist (say) and pose the other wrist to go through the relevant hole. It's really tricky to get it right if you want to use a non-standard pose, and/or you're not using the base figure. What I've done instead - and it'll be a lot easier with a conforming prop - is coil a posable rope around each wrist (actually I coil the rope round one wrist, then make an instance of it for the other one) and then touch the wrists together. Sure, the rope doesn't actually go round both wrists, but it looks like it does from most angles - and that's what's important.

  • cismiccismic Posts: 629
    edited March 2020
    Novica said:

    @cismic   It flashes through several things, my computer slowed down (I was doing a render) and it showed what was flashing through as "waiting for daz" was coming up.

     

    Oki dokie. I took a look at the soure behind the page and found this statement 

     
     

    window.PersosaBetaFeatures = true;

    And they are also using goodle analytics.  

     

    Edit: and this web site https://www.persosa.com/

    Post edited by cismic on
  • HylasHylas Posts: 4,771
    edited March 2020
    Novica said:

    Daz is using perosa edn. If you click on a shopping page, look at the bottom left corner and you will see it come up. And here's what I found: 

    Persosa's flexible Experience Management System® allows you to target visitors as narrowly (or broadly) as you like. Once segmented, visitors are placed into the most appropriate experience, which you control and prioritize.   I don't mind that it's used to track views- but it's PRIMARILY TO TRACK A USER. 

    Install tracking code

    How to install the Persosa tracking code to begin showing targeted content to your website visitors.

    The Persosa tracking code is what tracks visitors on your website across multiple sessions. It keeps track of pageviews, events, properties, and anything else you tell it. In order to show targeted content on your website, the tracking code must exist on every page.

    Good to know. I blocked the function on uMatrix, it was enabled by default.

    Post edited by Hylas on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 3,742
    edited March 2020

    I wanted to share my second conversion from G2F to G8F, my favorite character from G2, by gypsyangel, https://www.daz3d.com/destiny-for-olympia-6. I converted Olympia 6 first. I had tried to dForce the outfit and it kinda twisted and shredded, so I worked with it. She has https://www.daz3d.com/aryn-for-genesis-8-female skin. So she is 'Coming from the Past'. 

    I also used KindredArts' https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit-3 to add some atmosphere. 

    Mary

    Coming From the Past II.png
    800 x 1294 - 2M
    Post edited by memcneil70 on
  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130

    I wanted to share my second conversion from G2F to G8F, my favorite character from G2, by gypsyangel, https://www.daz3d.com/destiny-for-olympia-6. I converted Olympia 6 first. I had tried to dForce the outfit and it kinda twisted and shredded, so I worked with it. She has https://www.daz3d.com/aryn-for-genesis-8-female skin. So she is 'Coming from the Past'. 

    I also used KindredArts' https://www.daz3d.com/iray-ghost-light-kit-3 to add some atmosphere. 

    Mary

    Very nice everything!

    She is a really nice character, I already have her wishlisted :). I like the conversion result. A question about that: did you use the converter from RSSY or another method?

    The only way I could think of that this render could be better, in my humble opinion, would be if you could somehow make her look like she struggles a little to get out of the wall, not passing through it, like a ghost. Maybe, turn on her left hand like she is pushing on the wall or something else that signifies that struggle.

    Here are some examples of what I mean, in case I didn't explain it good enough: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NrhYUrp3Y4k/W4GhnZkUbAI/AAAAAAAAAiQ/V55F0Gz0TLAUo_km_N9n6ACgCZy-L_XQQCEwYBhgL/s1600/matteo%2Bpugliese%2Bman1.jpg , https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4f/37/0e/4f370e26fa42d285197e5e4ba5975f4b.jpghttps://www.arturbanstatue.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Matteo-Pugliese-7.jpg .

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited March 2020

    Very nice everything!

    She is a really nice character, I already have her wishlisted :). I like the conversion result. A question about that: did you use the converter from RSSY or another method?

    The only way I could think of that this render could be better, in my humble opinion, would be if you could somehow make her look like she struggles a little to get out of the wall, not passing through it, like a ghost. Maybe, turn on her left hand like she is pushing on the wall or something else that signifies that struggle.

    Here are some examples of what I mean, in case I didn't explain it good enough: 

    @alex86fire   Mary's render is her vision of what she wanted the scene to be, she's a very accomplished artist (obviously), the products are showcased beautifully, and a reminder again this is not a thread of critiques. Thanks in advance. 

    Post edited by Novica on
  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,043
    edited March 2020

    Another oldie using the Uber shader and some tweaking.

    African Elephant

    Sun and Sky

    2020-03-09 20:11:36.467 Total Rendering Time: 16.65 seconds

    Click on image for full size.

    Dome and scene with a HDRI

    2020-03-09 20:19:19.530 Total Rendering Time: 19.87 seconds

    Click on image for full size.

     

    african-elephant-copyright-001.jpg
    1000 x 1333 - 668K
    african-elephant-copyright-002.jpg
    1000 x 1333 - 842K
    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited March 2020

    @fishtales  Wow, he looks really good whether he's an oldie or a new one! I particularly like the eye, it looks very real.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130
    Novica said:

    Very nice everything!

    She is a really nice character, I already have her wishlisted :). I like the conversion result. A question about that: did you use the converter from RSSY or another method?

    The only way I could think of that this render could be better, in my humble opinion, would be if you could somehow make her look like she struggles a little to get out of the wall, not passing through it, like a ghost. Maybe, turn on her left hand like she is pushing on the wall or something else that signifies that struggle.

    Here are some examples of what I mean, in case I didn't explain it good enough: 

    @alex86fire   Mary's render is her vision of what she wanted the scene to be, she's a very accomplished artist (obviously), the products are showcased beautifully, and a reminder again this is not a thread of critiques. Thanks in advance. 

    This really isn't a critique as I stated I already believe her render looks amazing. I just liked the idea behind it so much that I thought I'll give her my idea, in the hopes that she likes it enough to give it a try. 

    I did not know how else I could convey my idea and I would really love to see a version of that render with the mentioned struggle.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,043
    edited March 2020
    Novica said:

    @fishtales  Wow, he looks really good whether he's an oldie or a new one! I particularly like the eye, it looks very real.

    If I remember correctly there was nothing to make the cornea bulge you would expect from an eye so I selected it and scaled it out to make it look like that, the rest was just changing the surface settings :)

    If anybody wants it I have attached the Material duf file and the icon for it.

    duf
    duf
    african-elephant-001.duf
    2M
    african-elephant-001.duf.png
    91 x 91 - 7K
    Post edited by Fishtales on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited March 2020

    I'm just going to repost this again. I'd already covered critiques, advice, and suggestions.  Thank you for focusing on the products in any future posts. 

    "I'm going to take this opportunity to discuss what could be a sensitive matter, but I feel it's important. I know some of you will disagree with me, some will agree. Please be patient and understand this relates to my vision about MY threads. It hasn't been discussed in quite awhile, and new members to the forums wouldn't have insight as to the particulars of my 12 threads, and it also doesn't hurt for "food for thought" about the forums in general. (Weigh in, your thoughts?) 

     All my threads, starting seven years ago, are family friendly,  and  comments on renders are complimentary in nature. That makes it a safe haven for others to help showcase the products. Evaluation and unsolicited advice by other artists is sometimes done in other threads, with mixed reception- there's been posts throughout the years about it, and there's just too many artists who don't appreciate unsolicited advice, for me personally to do it (unless I slip up, but I try to be careful), or have it on my threads. There's a difference in commenting about the issues with a product, vs perceived issues with someone else's art.

    "THE ONLY WAY I COULD THINK OF THAT THIS RENDER COULD BE BETTER..."  is offering unsolicited advice about the artwork.

    Artists have their own vision and many come to the forums for support on what they've done right in their journey to explore what's possible. Some like suggestions, some see it as criticism and some- it can dampen their enthusiasm"Thought I'd give her my idea" is a suggestion.  For that reason, years ago when I opened my threads for everyone to help feature products and share their renders, it was made clear my threads are a "safe haven" for people to post their renders and we are focusing on the products, with the products well represented in the renders. My contributors are wonderful!

    Artists on other threads will ask for input when they want it, my personal rule of thumb is comment on what I really like about the render and comment only IF someone asks for what can be improved. Because this thread focuses on the products,  we primarily discuss what we like and don't like, what issues we may be having, ask for help, etc- and I want that to remain the focus.  There's a reason that is the thread title. 

    Again, to be clear- newer forum users (surfing various threads)  wouldn't know the culture of this thread, and I hope no offense is taken. As many of you know, these threads are my babies (with the benefit of not having to change diapers, thank goodness!) and I value everyone's participation. I feel the best way to do that is how I've done it for six, going on seven years. Let's chat about the products, give tips, ask for help when needed or if you're just curious about something- but no render critiques, even when obviously they are meant to be insightful / helpful."

     

     

    Post edited by Novica on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 3,742

    @Fishtales, I love what you have been doing with the older products and the Elephant, wow. I am going to be looking for the guy in the store now. 

    @Alex86fire, I used the https://www.daz3d.com/character-converter-from-genesis-2-female-to-genesis-8-female-, first moving Olympia 6 since Destiny's morphs are based on her and then Destiny herself. The outfit is PC+ https://www.daz3d.com/shieldmaiden-for-genesis-2-female and there are Genesis and Genesis 2 versions. I converted it up to Genesis 8 a while back, as the whole series is one I highly admire. I tried poses with the lhttps://www.daz3d.com/the-legend-for-genesis-3-and-8-female-s, but the outfit just looked wrong. Deleted the sword, found a walking pose and I took a chance and tried dForce. When it got to three notches below completion, it exploded. So I moved it back, and kept the pose as it was. And stared at it. Added the PC+ https://www.daz3d.com/celtic-great-hall and put the Legend sword back in her hand, then moved her back into the wall. My idea is she is immaterial at this point, like the X-men Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat. I do want to try the outfit again, with some attention to weight-mapping the bottom edges or something. 

    I am just happy that I was successful at the conversion of this wonderful character and being able to use all the upgrades that Gen8F has for her. Between RiversoftArt and Sickleyield, they have made so many dreams possible. 

    Now if they could find a way to improve my eyesight so I can see my monitor screens better so I am not at an hour and forty minutes when I finally see a problem and have to kill a render and fix it and start a new render. Sigh.

    Mary

  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130

     

    Now if they could find a way to improve my eyesight so I can see my monitor screens better so I am not at an hour and forty minutes when I finally see a problem and have to kill a render and fix it and start a new render. Sigh.

    Mary

    That happens to me all the time :)). It's crazy how I cannot spot a problem until I already spent so much time. And sometimes is a silly problem like a pillow floating, which I could and should have easily spot a long time before.

    I wish there was a feature where we could spot render something and overwrite it in the already rendered piece. That would be awesome. I know that I could probably do it myself and combined the finished result in photoshop but I always fear that I would not manage to match it perfectly. A feature  that would do it for me would be welcomed either from Daz directly or as a tool from a PA.

  • I spot render (spot render to a new window, save as png) very often (either because of a mistake or to adjust shaders, morphs, expression, pose...) and then use a script in Photoshop (CS6) to load the render and its spot renders into a stack (file/script/load files into stack). That way it is aligned.

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,945

    I spot render (spot render to a new window, save as png) very often (either because of a mistake or to adjust shaders, morphs, expression, pose...) and then use a script in Photoshop (CS6) to load the render and its spot renders into a stack (file/script/load files into stack). That way it is aligned.

    If you spot render to a new window and save that as a .png the spot-image will be exactly in the right place with no need for any chicanery

  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130
    SimonJM said:

    I spot render (spot render to a new window, save as png) very often (either because of a mistake or to adjust shaders, morphs, expression, pose...) and then use a script in Photoshop (CS6) to load the render and its spot renders into a stack (file/script/load files into stack). That way it is aligned.

    If you spot render to a new window and save that as a .png the spot-image will be exactly in the right place with no need for any chicanery

    Damn, I didn't know you can do a spot render to a new window. And it follows the same settings of the normal render? 

    I could actually give it a try right now as I am not fully satisfied with the current expression :).

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,945
    edited March 2020
    SimonJM said:

    I spot render (spot render to a new window, save as png) very often (either because of a mistake or to adjust shaders, morphs, expression, pose...) and then use a script in Photoshop (CS6) to load the render and its spot renders into a stack (file/script/load files into stack). That way it is aligned.

    If you spot render to a new window and save that as a .png the spot-image will be exactly in the right place with no need for any chicanery

    Damn, I didn't know you can do a spot render to a new window. And it follows the same settings of the normal render? 

    I could actually give it a try right now as I am not fully satisfied with the current expression :).

    Yes, indeed - need to fire up the Tools tab (after picking Spot Render) and changing option to New window (need to do that every session as it is not remembered)

    Post edited by SimonJM on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 3,742

    When I first started using DS, it was a previous version that had a 'rabbit' that gave you an option for various levels of speed or something. So you could do a quick render to test the scene, and evaluate it. Then two or three weeks later, that version was updated and it was gone. I was totally lost. Dropped DS, and then a month or so later got back into it.

    It was easier to see on my iMac but had to switch to a Win10 computer built for 4.10 as my nVidia 660 card in the iMac just couldn't handle the improvements in DS. And I had three bad crashes of my iMac as it fought with nVidia updates to the driver.

    I spot render often but what got me on the above render was what I thought was part of the tunic, was the shirt at the shoulders coming through. It took a bit to find the right adjustment morph to fix that. Then render again. The Shieldmaiden series is one that I would dearly love to see updated officially for G3F and G8F and later for G9 when it comes out. The quality of work that is in all those texture sets are incredible.

  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130

    When I first started using DS, it was a previous version that had a 'rabbit' that gave you an option for various levels of speed or something. So you could do a quick render to test the scene, and evaluate it. Then two or three weeks later, that version was updated and it was gone. I was totally lost. Dropped DS, and then a month or so later got back into it.

    It was easier to see on my iMac but had to switch to a Win10 computer built for 4.10 as my nVidia 660 card in the iMac just couldn't handle the improvements in DS. And I had three bad crashes of my iMac as it fought with nVidia updates to the driver.

    I spot render often but what got me on the above render was what I thought was part of the tunic, was the shirt at the shoulders coming through. It took a bit to find the right adjustment morph to fix that. Then render again. The Shieldmaiden series is one that I would dearly love to see updated officially for G3F and G8F and later for G9 when it comes out. The quality of work that is in all those texture sets are incredible.

    I think what you can do instead of the old fast render (sorry I missed that, sounds cool) is to render with like 100-300 samples and denoiser on. It won't look good enough for final result but it should give you a good idea of what the final render will look like.

     

    SimonJM said:
    SimonJM said:

    I spot render (spot render to a new window, save as png) very often (either because of a mistake or to adjust shaders, morphs, expression, pose...) and then use a script in Photoshop (CS6) to load the render and its spot renders into a stack (file/script/load files into stack). That way it is aligned.

    If you spot render to a new window and save that as a .png the spot-image will be exactly in the right place with no need for any chicanery

    Damn, I didn't know you can do a spot render to a new window. And it follows the same settings of the normal render? 

    I could actually give it a try right now as I am not fully satisfied with the current expression :).

    Yes, indeed - need to fire up the Tools tab (after picking Spot Render) and changing option to New window (need to do that every session as it is not remembered)

    That actually works for me as I mostly do spot renders that I don't want in a new window, so only activating it when I need it is fine in this case.

  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130

    xmasrose (aka tulipe) and SimonJM . Again, I can't thank you enough for this amazing discovery with spot rendering.

    I just tried it. I didn't like how the eyes were closed in the original render (which took about 2 hours 30 minutes). I redid just the eyes with a spot render in like 3 minutes and now the image looks how I wanted.

    This will be such a time saver.

    I now come with a new question for you, hoping that you have an answer. If I would like to do an animation of blinking or talking, or anything else really, between 2 frames, the differences are very little, but unfortunately if you render out the animation as is in Daz, it will render the whole image every time (it would be amazing if there was a feature that just recognized the differences in pixels and rendered just those out, leaving the rest as they were before).

    How can I use this newly discovered spot render to do an animation faster? Or is there another technique?

    One thing I am thinking about is do the animation in Daz so it processes the frames and afterwards manually go frame by frame, see what the differences are and just spot render those to overlay over the original image. While I feel this would save a lot of render time, it instead would take an insanse amount of time on my part to check every small difference and do spot renders for 60 frames or who knows how many. Do you guys know of a simpler way to do it?

  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,945

    Heading waaaaaaaaay outside my boundaries of knowledge, but ... how about doing the base figure as a .jpg, then the moving bits as a, sort of, image series of spotrenders, then usign the 'big picture' as a background in Image magick and the spots as the ongoign animation?  WARNING: I do not kow the right terminology!!!!

  • NathNath Posts: 2,713

    Well... the Netherlands just did a 'soft' shut down - don't go to work if you're feverish, coughing etc., everybody else try to work at home if at all possible, all events over 100 people cancelled, don't visit elderly or otherwise vulnerable people, no in-person lectures at universities/polytechnics (primary, secondary schools stay open for now) until March 31.

    Our uni hasn't yet officially announced what's to happen, but they've posted all updates so far overnight, so I don't yet officially know whether I'll be working from home from Monday, but should know by tomorrow - I'm prepared, I can get at all the files I need.

    I don't expect to get bored, we're not (yet) in quarantine, so I can still go for a daily walk outside for fresh air and staving off cabin fever *g*

    And there's always Studio and Blender...

    Interesting times...

  • alex86firealex86fire Posts: 1,130
    Nath said:

    Well... the Netherlands just did a 'soft' shut down - don't go to work if you're feverish, coughing etc., everybody else try to work at home if at all possible, all events over 100 people cancelled, don't visit elderly or otherwise vulnerable people, no in-person lectures at universities/polytechnics (primary, secondary schools stay open for now) until March 31.

    Our uni hasn't yet officially announced what's to happen, but they've posted all updates so far overnight, so I don't yet officially know whether I'll be working from home from Monday, but should know by tomorrow - I'm prepared, I can get at all the files I need.

    I don't expect to get bored, we're not (yet) in quarantine, so I can still go for a daily walk outside for fresh air and staving off cabin fever *g*

    And there's always Studio and Blender...

    Interesting times...

    I think most countries are adopting these kind of measures or soon will. The good part about Netherlands is you have very nice bycicle lanes so you can at least take a nice bike ride outside in relative safety from the virus. I still believe the experts estimates that by the end of the year 60 to 70% of world population would have had the virus. So in the end, what we can do is protect ourselves as much as possible until a vaccine comes out.

  • NathNath Posts: 2,713
    Nath said:

    Well... the Netherlands just did a 'soft' shut down - don't go to work if you're feverish, coughing etc., everybody else try to work at home if at all possible, all events over 100 people cancelled, don't visit elderly or otherwise vulnerable people, no in-person lectures at universities/polytechnics (primary, secondary schools stay open for now) until March 31.

    Our uni hasn't yet officially announced what's to happen, but they've posted all updates so far overnight, so I don't yet officially know whether I'll be working from home from Monday, but should know by tomorrow - I'm prepared, I can get at all the files I need.

    I don't expect to get bored, we're not (yet) in quarantine, so I can still go for a daily walk outside for fresh air and staving off cabin fever *g*

    And there's always Studio and Blender...

    Interesting times...

    I think most countries are adopting these kind of measures or soon will. The good part about Netherlands is you have very nice bycicle lanes so you can at least take a nice bike ride outside in relative safety from the virus. I still believe the experts estimates that by the end of the year 60 to 70% of world population would have had the virus. So in the end, what we can do is protect ourselves as much as possible until a vaccine comes out.

    I've seen those estimates too, and there will come a point in the next few years, if this virus sticks around, that it'll be just another of the seasonal bothers like flu and colds.

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 3,742

    Colorado has asked that older people to avoid going into the mountains, not only due to limited healthcare facilities, but one of the things everyone has to deal with, the higher elevation is dryer air and it is harder to breathe. Makes sense. 

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited March 2020

    Colorado has asked that older people to avoid going into the mountains, not only due to limited healthcare facilities, but one of the things everyone has to deal with, the higher elevation is dryer air and it is harder to breathe. Makes sense. 

    Do they qualify what they mean by mountains,  height  wise?   as a good many people do actually already live in mountainous regions.   Just interested,  our highest mountina in this area is Pen y Fan   which is 886m (2.907 ft).  I live in the southern foothills of the range at 1200ft.

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859
    edited March 2020

    Mom's facility got closed to visitors starting yesterday, and they get their meals in their rooms now. It's lonely for some of the residents, Bingo is cancelled (and I know we may smile at that, but there's a LOT of social interaction and chit chat when they all get together.)  Mom doesn't know about Ci Pwff and I was planning on taking him to her patio doors this weekend so she could see him/ pet him, but now it will be just to see him. Should be fun! 

    Talk about fun, my niece mentioned she was getting a puppy too- a Goldendoodle (which I had actually considered but I love Samoyeds more) so she did- and so did my sister!  She got the brother to her daughter's dog. So we all three have PUPPIES!  Ci Pwff was born late November, theirs in January, but they are bigger dogs so about the same size currently I think. 

    IMG_2810FIXED.jpg
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    Post edited by Novica on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 3,742
    Chohole said:

    Colorado has asked that older people to avoid going into the mountains, not only due to limited healthcare facilities, but one of the things everyone has to deal with, the higher elevation is dryer air and it is harder to breathe. Makes sense. 

    Do they qualify what they mean by mountains,  height  wise?   as a good many people do actually already live in mountainous regions.   Just interested,  our highest mountina in this area is Pen y Fan   which is 886m (2.907 ft).  I live in the southern foothills of the range at 1200ft.

    @Chohole, I live in Denver, which is known as the 'Mile High City' and many Olympians and professional sports teams come from all over the world to Colorado to practice to improve their breathing and endurance. It is normally very dry and we have to adjust all recipes for baking. I visited Georgetown, and had to buy a hat to protect my eyes because the sun is so much closer. Glare is a problem. Headaches as well.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_highest_major_summits_of_Colorado

    That give a great list of the mountains, with measurements in meters. So many folks talk about climbing 'Fourteeners' which are the mountains over 14,000 feet. Which does require a lot of practice. Denver is considered almost outside of the 'foothills' of the Rockies at 5280 feet and slopes into the beginning of the MidWestern plains.

    Ci Pwff looks so cute! I love his picture.

    Mary

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 3,742

    Novica, do they have Skype? Can they do Bingo over a group chat session? While not immediate contact, it will give them a chance to speak to one another or text each other and their families. Or facetime? (No idea what able in facetime, I do Skype.)

    And can families walk around the facility to outside windows and do a show & tell with the window still closed? (I heard a care facility allowed one family do that somewhere.)

    Mary

This discussion has been closed.