Michael and Friends Appreciation Association [Lots of images, please.]

L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
edited January 2018 in The Commons

The girls get all the attention, it seems. Until recently, that is, when a thread about the "sexual discrimination" against the guys garnered the attention of DAZ moderaters. The thread was renamed to "It's Not Raining Men," and ultimately spawned a support thread for male content creation, and a render contest that ran through the end of the year, (2015.)

Okay. With all that going on, why start another thread?

The contest only lasted about 8 weeks and only renders completed during the contest time frame qualified. There was also a limit on submissions, although some got around that by posting non-entries. Female models repurposed to male were not allowed. And finally, with so many images posted to Galleries, nothing stays on the front page for long.

It just makes sense to me to have a place to showcase our male renders, old and new, great and not-so-great. Let's continue to show DAZ and the PAs that we love our men!

(I recommend you post the image to your own Gallery, then use the image link in the body of the post.)

Here is a list of the other threads, beginning with the thread that started it all:


And in the years since:

Post edited by L'Adair on
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Comments

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Okay, to get this party started, I'll post one of my favorite renders. This is FW Derek HD, a PC+ product and my first G2M with Iray presets. His skin looked so good, I wanted to show it off. Body hair is REAL Hairy, beard is from Unshaven 2, and Julius Hair with Unshaven 2 Iray hair shaders. The speedo? The leggings from Super Dress and Leggings, with a bit of post work to eliminate the groin gap! Rendered mid-July, 2015.

    Welcome to Maui
     

    Welcome to Maui by L'Adair

    To see all the products used for this image, or view it larger, click on the image to visit the Gallery page.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited January 2016

    I love this idea, L'Adair!! I have a couple renders to share. 

    I realize that it doesn't have just a male character in the render, but I think it turned out to be my one of my best renders to date and I absolutely love the highlighting I managed to get on Scott 6's face.  I think it really brings him to the forefront and let's most of the focus be on him and what he is doing.  I did a second one and reoriented it a little so that this became my wallpaper on my computer.  If you click on the picture is should take you to my gallery page with all of the items used, but the main items used were Scott 6. Victoria 7, Ocean Wide by Marshian and On the Beach by Ansiko.  I love doing the classic pinup or sexy render with the guys instead of the girls.   I really appreciate it when I see one in the Gallery.

    I also have this one in my gallery.  It started out as a test render for Jepe's Iray preset for his Leo from Jepe's Double Feature Leo and Madoc.  I liked how it turned out so much that I tweaked it a little more and posted it to my gallery.  He is a work in progress, though, because I have plans to turn him into a possible book cover.  I'm still playing with the scene a little more.  Who knows what I will finally turn it into.  The main products for this, aside from Leo, were Barn Yard and ForbiddenWhisper's Longitude & Latitude Lighting and Render Presets and the DAZ Horse 2.

    I hope this thread gets busy.  It will be nice to have a place to showcase the fellows!!

    edit: okay I guess clicking on it just brings up the full picture.  I have a gallery link in my signature, though, if anyone wants to see the full product list on any of my renders.

    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933

    I love this idea, L'Adair!! I have a couple renders to share.

    The light/shadow interplay in both renders is mesmerising.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Wow! I love the lighting on the kiss. You're right. Even though the image uses both a male and female, the lighting makes Scott 6 the focus of the image. Well done.

    I'm looking forward to seeing the final image with Leo. You're WIP looks pretty darn good already.

    Thanks for getting into the spirit and sharing your images.
    heart

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited January 2016

    I love this idea, L'Adair!! I have a couple renders to share.

    The light/shadow interplay in both renders is mesmerising.

    Gee, thanks, now I'm blushing.  I have to admit that I did good on those.  I still have some misses, but my skills are improving.

     

    L'Adair said:

    Wow! I love the lighting on the kiss. You're right. Even though the image uses both a male and female, the lighting makes Scott 6 the focus of the image. Well done.

    I'm looking forward to seeing the final image with Leo. You're WIP looks pretty darn good already.

    Thanks for getting into the spirit and sharing your images.
    heart

     

    Thank you both for your kind words.  I just love doing renders with the guys.  While I can appreciate good renders of the girls, and I do some renders with just the ladies, my focus is on the guys.  I really enjoy working on a render that makes them look drop dead gorgeous.  I'm looking forward to seeing what people post in this thread.  I couldn't NOT contribute when I feel so strongly about the subject.

    I did manage to post 2 entries in the It's Raining Men contest and I'm rendering a 3rd entry.  We'll see if it gets done before the cut off time tonight.  So far, I have been astounded by some of the entries there.  I would say that some were definitely better than others, but I didn't see a single really bad entry as everyone did their best to make the contest really outstanding.  It was so nice to be able to see SO MANY good renders!

     

    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • Mustakettu85  - I really like your render.  The lighing is wonderful and I like your DOF.  I haven't done anything with the younger guys yet, but you did nice job on this one.  I'm not familiar with Radium, but it the skintones look great.

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    From my archives... Full info re:products used etc here - http://mustakettu85.deviantart.com/art/Jayden-a-better-study-in-Radium-not-Iray-536382446

    He looks really good. I was surprised to find, when I checked it out on DA, that this is a 3Delight render, he looks so realistic!

    Thanks for adding him to this thread.
    heart

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933

    I just love doing renders with the guys.  While I can appreciate good renders of the girls, and I do some renders with just the ladies, my focus is on the guys.  I really enjoy working on a render that makes them look drop dead gorgeous.

    And you succeed =)

  • Mustakettu85Mustakettu85 Posts: 2,933
    edited January 2016

    Mustakettu85  - I really like your render.  The lighing is wonderful and I like your DOF.  I haven't done anything with the younger guys yet, but you did nice job on this one.  I'm not familiar with Radium, but it the skintones look great.

    L'Adair said:

    He looks really good. I was surprised to find, when I checked it out on DA, that this is a 3Delight render, he looks so realistic!

    Thank you both for your kind words =) The Radium project is my ongoing one... a custom family of 3Delight shaders, bringing the latest 3DL advances into DS. It will be a freebie some day.

    Where I live most guys are very "br00tal"-looking and stop looking young very fast, so I guess my male characters represent what I don't see IRL.

    Here's a promo for my older freebies - it was using the shaders that come with DS and from the DAZ store (UberSurface2). A way less realistic look, but passable for a fantasy, non-human character like this one. Should be clickable for a bit bigger size... And the info is here: http://mustakettu85.deviantart.com/art/FREE-Subsurface-Scattering-tutorial-ShareCG-463183335

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    It's funny how tough it is to find interesting content for the guys, and if more male renders mean this could change... here's to hoping.

     

    Post edited by Mustakettu85 on
  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    Here's a promo for my older freebies - it was using the shaders that come with DS and from the DAZ store (UberSurface2). A way less realistic look, but passable for a fantasy, non-human character like this one. Should be clickable for a bit bigger size... And the info is here: http://mustakettu85.deviantart.com/art/FREE-Subsurface-Scattering-tutorial-ShareCG-463183335

    It's funny how tough it is to find interesting content for the guys, and if more male renders mean this could change... here's to hoping.

    Thanks for the link to your tutorial. I'm downloading it now. I'd been playing with DS for about half a year when Iray came out. It does what I need a lot easier than 3Delight, so I quickly got rusty on what few 3DL skills I had. But there are still times when a 3DL render will be more appropriate for what I need so I'm sure your information will do more than come in handy!

    As has been said so many times before, it's all about the money! We have to convince the PAs it's worth their time to give us high quality products for the men. Had I not already been tapped out, there is a whole slew of men's clothing—since before the release of G3M—that would have ended up in my cart instead of my wishlist. Releasing G3M right after two awesome, back-to-back sales means a lot of hobbiests weren't able to take advantage of the new release pricing. Tha'ts got to skew the sales numbers.

    I vote with my wallet here, but when the wallet's empty, I have to abstain from the vote no matter how great the product.
    sad

    Again, thanks for sharing your renders. Your promo image looks really good, too.

  • Just uploaded one of the last pictures to my 2015 gallery golder and I thought I would share.  It was a test render closeup so it is big.  The skin was looking exceptionally well and I wanted to see how close I could get it while still having it look good.  I used Warhol Inspired Lights ForbiddenWhispers fist volume and Mec4D's Unshaven for Genesis 2 Males for the beard and Unshaven Body Hair for Genesis for the chest hair.  I just bought the second volume of the Warhol Inspired Lights, but haven't had a chance to play with them yet.  I think he turned out fairly well.  The mustache on the beard is doing somthing funny, but it is made for G2M, not G3M so not a bad fit.  The clothing is for G2M as well.  My final render of the year or first of the year depending on how you look at it is STILL rendering so I may have to cut it short if I want to make the contest deadline tonight.  I still have a little less than 2 hours to let it render out.  But anyway, this is the character and outfit that I'm using in that render and this was my test for skin and lighting settings.  I'm finding that I like some things about G3M, but I like more things about the G2M series.  For one, I have yet to find where I can adjust the Adam's apple on G3M.  If it is there, I sure haven't found it yet.  I won't even discuss the atrocities they have wrecked on his 'anatomical elements'.  That being said, I like this character that I've created and I will definitely be playing with him more in the next year.  So far, I think he might be the best spin dial male I've created.

    .

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479
    edited January 2016

    Just uploaded one of the last pictures to my 2015 gallery golder and I thought I would share.  It was a test render closeup so it is big.  The skin was looking exceptionally well and I wanted to see how close I could get it while still having it look good.  I used Warhol Inspired Lights ForbiddenWhispers fist volume and Mec4D's Unshaven for Genesis 2 Males for the beard and Unshaven Body Hair for Genesis for the chest hair.  I just bought the second volume of the Warhol Inspired Lights, but haven't had a chance to play with them yet.  I think he turned out fairly well.  The mustache on the beard is doing somthing funny, but it is made for G2M, not G3M so not a bad fit.  The clothing is for G2M as well.  My final render of the year or first of the year depending on how you look at it is STILL rendering so I may have to cut it short if I want to make the contest deadline tonight.  I still have a little less than 2 hours to let it render out.  But anyway, this is the character and outfit that I'm using in that render and this was my test for skin and lighting settings.  I'm finding that I like some things about G3M, but I like more things about the G2M series.  For one, I have yet to find where I can adjust the Adam's apple on G3M.  If it is there, I sure haven't found it yet.  I won't even discuss the atrocities they have wrecked on his 'anatomical elements'.  That being said, I like this character that I've created and I will definitely be playing with him more in the next year.  So far, I think he might be the best spin dial male I've created.

    I noticed that the beard and mustache followed his face well in the original "Cole" image in your gallery. Did you by any chance apply the facial hair after posing the face? Before Cath released Unshaven 2, I was using Unshaven for Genesis on G2 males and found the hair didn't follow the changes to the face. But if I changed the "fit-to" to none, and then changed the "fit-to" back to the figure, the facial hair would conform to the new shape.

    I know it's too late for the entry, but if it works you'll know what to do next time.

    Cole is truly gorgeous, in all three renders. Good luck in the contest.
    heart

    Post edited by L'Adair on
  • Cath's beard was already in place when I changed his facial expression slightly for the next render and that is when things went a little weird  I don't know why I didn't think to refit the beard, but I didn't.  I also changed the beard slightly just to give it a slightly different look, but also to try to minimize the way it no longer conformed with his facial expression.  I'll give your suggestion a try and see if it helps.  Thanks for the tip.  I do really like how he has turned out.  He is still a little bit of a work in progress.  I did have to stop my render a little before he was finished rendering to get him into the contest.  Mostly the little bit of the black motorcycle still has some slight noise.  I'm letting him finish rendering overnight even though the entry deadline is past now.  I'll try out your tip after he is done rendering.  I'm off to bed now.  Happy New Year!!!

  • L'AdairL'Adair Posts: 9,479

    Cath's beard was already in place when I changed his facial expression slightly for the next render and that is when things went a little weird  I don't know why I didn't think to refit the beard, but I didn't.  I also changed the beard slightly just to give it a slightly different look, but also to try to minimize the way it no longer conformed with his facial expression.  I'll give your suggestion a try and see if it helps.  Thanks for the tip.  I do really like how he has turned out.  He is still a little bit of a work in progress.  I did have to stop my render a little before he was finished rendering to get him into the contest.  Mostly the little bit of the black motorcycle still has some slight noise.  I'm letting him finish rendering overnight even though the entry deadline is past now.  I'll try out your tip after he is done rendering.  I'm off to bed now.  Happy New Year!!!

    Redoing auto-fit wasn't the first thing to come to mind for me, either. LOL It's been a while, but I'm sure I pulled out some hair before I figured that one out!

    Happy New Year to you, as well.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604

    M4 in Bryce 

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,714
    Chohole said:

    M4 in Bryce 

    Nice one.

  • isidornisidorn Posts: 1,601

    My gallery is heavily dominated by females, but I do have some men in there too and I fully support efforts to show off more manly goodness. 

    As I simply can't make renders with the beauty qualities shown in the top gallery images (or the ones posted above in this thread, for that matter) I usually try to add something else to my renders instead, hoping to give the viewer something to think about or laugh at.

    This was an "almost entry" in Novica's current "Because I said so" contest for December/first half of January. It's an idea I've had in mind since I first found DAZ last summer but never got around to do until early december.

    A matter of size (list of content used found in my gallery)

    So my apologies for the lack of drooling factor in the render, but hopefully it'll give someone a laugh, or at least a snicker. It's my conviction those are needed too. wink

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,333
    edited January 2016

    Here's a character transformation. 

    I started with Michael 5 and spun dials for the face and body and used DD Resource Ears for the ears.  I used a combination of Creature Creator (Genesis) and Leon and the Night for the teeth and claws.  The skin is James M5, and I adjusted the diffuse and subsurfaces for the dark skin color. 

     

     

     

    Krek Darr Jhinn Closeup.jpg
    1173 x 962 - 718K
    Post edited by dracorn on
  • @Chohole I'm amazed you did that in Bryce.  It is really nice.  I'm still trying to figure Bryce out, but every time you post one of your images, I get inspired!!

    @Isidorn  I really liked that render when you did it.  It made me laugh AND think.  Although, there is nothing wrong with drooling, I like drooling personally, a render doesn't have to have a drooling factor to be good.  A Matter of Size will fit right in with all of the other renders that have been posted and, hopefully, be posted in the future.

    @dracorn  Nice job.  Love the expression you have going on there.

  • Hi, It's me, the original Mr "Sexual Discrimination". Glad to see all the things that have happened since I started my original thread here, with a rather more 'intrigueing' title than what it has now. Had to get some way to get people's attention. All the threads and posts and competitions that came afterwards was amazing. But we still need the PA's to get more involved in creating more and better quality outfits for the quys. And een get the store to promote more  male stuff, even if it's just 70%/30%, that would alreay be a huge improvement. Was checking out the holiday sale, and the top items for 2015 was 90& female, including V6 and V7 and all their clones. Scott 6 HD didn't even feature once, and I would consider that a Top 2015 item.

    Nothing will change unless we get the people at DAZ and the PA's to see that people REALLY want these things.

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited January 2016

    @Chohole I'm amazed you did that in Bryce.  It is really nice.  I'm still trying to figure Bryce out, but every time you post one of your images, I get inspired!!

    @Isidorn  I really liked that render when you did it.  It made me laugh AND think.  Although, there is nothing wrong with drooling, I like drooling personally, a render doesn't have to have a drooling factor to be good.  A Matter of Size will fit right in with all of the other renders that have been posted and, hopefully, be posted in the future.

    @dracorn  Nice job.  Love the expression you have going on there.

    Ok here is more inspiration then,  not such a heavily dialled M4 this time 

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • xmasrose (aka tulipe)xmasrose (aka tulipe) Posts: 1,403
    edited January 2016

    Chohole great images! Love your postwork too.

    Here is an old one done in Carrara with M4

     

    11_M4-carrara.png
    600 x 800 - 762K
    Post edited by xmasrose (aka tulipe) on
  • My very first render in DAZ, with Dan...

    My Gallery

  • Started to get interested in male characters recently ,but I need to get more clothes and hair. Hope you like this character for your gallery!feature image

  • ButchButch Posts: 797
    edited January 2016

    I rendered these the other day - I was on a bit of an Arabian binge.  Hope you like :)

    Genesis with a mix of "unshaven" face and body hair, "actual" facial hair (I think it's called), freebie turban from ShareCG and rough home made pants (Marvellous Designer).  Close up image, I used NIK Tools to clear up the image a little, full body image has no post work.  And, lastly, both done in Octane Render.  

     

    Oops! the close up shot's on the next post.

    Arabian Morning - sig.jpg
    1100 x 1555 - 1M
    Post edited by Butch on
  • ButchButch Posts: 797

    Here's the closeup, it wouldn't go in the last post. 

    Bruno of Arabia 2 - sig.jpg
    1100 x 1100 - 535K
  • Nice renders!! Keep posting when you've got them.  I have to admit to being very partial to renders with facial and body hair.  They look good!

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,552

    I think Chohole makes clever renders. My favorite one is still the guy with the cowboy hat. =-)

  • I agree.  Chohole can do things in Bryce I didn't think possible.

This discussion has been closed.