Sorry for the double post (this is also over at the NPR thread), but I made some updates to page 09 panel 1. They're subtle, but I think they make the image a little better. Any thoughts or comments?

I think this works much better. It frames the central figure nicely without drawing the eyes away from him. The background cliff faces now match the colours of the line work on the background, placing them all on the same plane. It would be good to see this image alongside the other images on the page as that can often place art into context. It certainly does catch your attention and convey character.

The cut on the face in the previous post was looking great. I liked how you modified textures for the M4 model along with drawn on eyebrows. I wouldn't have thought to do that, but it really does make sense.

Thanks for the feedback. This panel is the peak of the emotional journey of the story – this spread (there are two more panels with him) the strongest emotional scene. So I'm glad to know that, even eithout context, there is a strong sense of emotion conveyed here. When I finish the next two panels I will post an update to this so you all can see how it flows together.

Thanks also for the comments on the cut images. The odd thing about working in black & white is that there are almost no textures on my figures. I have textures on the eyes, hair and some of the props, but in general everything else is pure white (except for the eyelashes, which are transparent) so that Poser can focus on the geometry and render clean renders without the speckling that can be caused by a standard skin texture (the bump or displacement maps on skin textures add realism to color images, but they play havoc with the comic book effect I'm shooting for). The one exception (as you've seen) is the need to add eyebrows (and in the special instance above, the cut). For female characters, where you want strong lips, I either color them in the Material Room or modify the V4 texture so that they are darker. 

In regards to the second panel with the cut, I've decided to start over with that panel. I'm not liking the shadows on his body and the strap is riding up too much. When i've finished updating it I will post another pic.

Really looking forward to using this. As others have said, I have a lot of V4 hair. Anyone have any luck using it yet? I keep getting the "No hair files detected" message, no matter what hair I try to add. This is what it logs....

13:05:15 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time): Adding Files...
13:05:19 GMT-0500 (Central Daylight Time): SKIPPING "" file: S:/3d/Runtimes/Hair/Runtime/Libraries/Hair/AlfaseeD/DesirHair/DesirHair.hr2

Bit concerned about the reference to skipping "" file. Can it not read the filename? What formats should the Add Files button allow us to add? I have tried hr2, cr2, duf....

Tim

Sorry for the double post (this is also over at the NPR thread), but I made some updates to page 09 panel 1. They're subtle, but I think they make the image a little better. Any thoughts or comments?

I think this works much better. It frames the central figure nicely without drawing the eyes away from him. The background cliff faces now match the colours of the line work on the background, placing them all on the same plane. It would be good to see this image alongside the other images on the page as that can often place art into context. It certainly does catch your attention and convey character.

The cut on the face in the previous post was looking great. I liked how you modified textures for the M4 model along with drawn on eyebrows. I wouldn't have thought to do that, but it really does make sense.

hot, humid, sitcky air at 10 P.M. at night.  Yuck.  I would not want to go to the southeast part of U.S.A. now. lol

That's why we have air conditioning.  Without air conditioning, Florida would still be a swamp with nothing but gators, snakes, mosquitos, bears, vultures, and assorted crawling, swimming, and flying dinosaur descendants.  With air conditioning, we have Disney, Universal Studios, probably a hundred or more colleges and universities, Wawa gas stations, and Ihop restaurants.

Oh, we still have gators, snakes, mosquitos, bears, vultures, and assorted dinosaur descendants.  Just don't give them a house key and don't tell them the alarm codes.  And for crying out loud, park your damned car INSIDE your garage.  You only need to learn that lesson once by experience, but I wonder why ANYBODY needs to learn it at all. 

I agree that air-conditioning has populated Florida, but it is possible to survive in Florida without it.  The Indians did it for thousands of years.  And even as late as the 1950s pioneering yankees moved to Florida and built houses sensibly.  Small, with lots of trees around them, with windows that opened and screens that kept the bugs out and the layout designed for airflow, elevated from the ground.  I had three pairs of Great Aunts & Uncles who moved to Florida in the 1920s (they were in their 30s at the time) and never had air-conditioning. They came from my hometown, here in western NY State,   However, if you went to Florida and didn't adapt, it would grind you into the dust.  There's a town called Fellsmere west of Vero Beach (lower central east coast) founded by a business tychoon who owned the Fells Naptha soap company, in the early 1900s.  It almost went kaput after years of fighting Florida.  Mosquitos bit the insides of the noses of the cattle and horses till they died of suffocation being just one of the problems the residents of this company town weren't prepared for.  The town still exists but the first few years weren't pretty.

Having lived in Florida for a few decades myself I found it much easier to run around barefooted & half-naked than to try to live like a northerner.  Even with air-conditioning.  But even in the '60s & early 70s I would visit my Great aunt & uncle that still lived in Melbourne (where my college was) and their little cottage near the river, raised two feet from the ground, under the canopy of Live Oaks and palms with the windows open was quite survivable.  Even in the summer.  The problem is, those locations are rare and are now all owned by rich people who have torn them down, replaced the trees with grass, built a McMansion covering the neighboring three lots, filled them with air-conditioning, and leave them idle in the summer when the family goes back to their northern house.  (*Sigh*),  Air-conditioning has ruined Florida.

Early Florida pioneers included English composer Frederick Delius who wrote the "Florida Suite" after his stint managing his Father's orange plantation in Florida during the 1880s.  Sent there from England by his father, he only stayed there one year (must have been pretty hard), but it made an impression because this is how he describes daybreak in the Florida wilds of the 1880s.

Frederick Delius:  "Daybreak" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaYShTsIlsw

"By The River" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUCxJtje3o

"Sunset" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6CrzLXUHx4

And finally, here's his description of of evening:  "At Night" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI1OsWSb5ls

I actually feel sorry for people who have lived in Florida and never experienced it in the wild.  Yes, you have to watch out for spiderwebs as big as boat sails, spiders that fight back, cockroaches bigger than you want to deal with, and reptiles that will kill you either with poison or eating you whole, but it still has its charms.

Florida does still have its charms, but living under the trees with disease-carrying mosquitos would not be one of them.  I lived through the big fires we had 20 years ago. The fires ignited underwater muck in the swamps and even jumped I-95, which is a very broad and wide roadway, if you include the grass shoulders and center median. 

And then there's the lightning, yikes!

hot, humid, sitcky air at 10 P.M. at night.  Yuck.  I would not want to go to the southeast part of U.S.A. now. lol

That's why we have air conditioning.  Without air conditioning, Florida would still be a swamp with nothing but gators, snakes, mosquitos, bears, vultures, and assorted crawling, swimming, and flying dinosaur descendants.  With air conditioning, we have Disney, Universal Studios, probably a hundred or more colleges and universities, Wawa gas stations, and Ihop restaurants.

Oh, we still have gators, snakes, mosquitos, bears, vultures, and assorted dinosaur descendants.  Just don't give them a house key and don't tell them the alarm codes.  And for crying out loud, park your damned car INSIDE your garage.  You only need to learn that lesson once by experience, but I wonder why ANYBODY needs to learn it at all. 

I agree that air-conditioning has populated Florida, but it is possible to survive in Florida without it.  The Indians did it for thousands of years.  And even as late as the 1950s pioneering yankees moved to Florida and built houses sensibly.  Small, with lots of trees around them, with windows that opened and screens that kept the bugs out and the layout designed for airflow, elevated from the ground.  I had three pairs of Great Aunts & Uncles who moved to Florida in the 1920s (they were in their 30s at the time) and never had air-conditioning. They came from my hometown, here in western NY State,   However, if you went to Florida and didn't adapt, it would grind you into the dust.  There's a town called Fellsmere west of Vero Beach (lower central east coast) founded by a business tychoon who owned the Fells Naptha soap company, in the early 1900s.  It almost went kaput after years of fighting Florida.  Mosquitos bit the insides of the noses of the cattle and horses till they died of suffocation being just one of the problems the residents of this company town weren't prepared for.  The town still exists but the first few years weren't pretty.

Having lived in Florida for a few decades myself I found it much easier to run around barefooted & half-naked than to try to live like a northerner.  Even with air-conditioning.  But even in the '60s & early 70s I would visit my Great aunt & uncle that still lived in Melbourne (where my college was) and their little cottage near the river, raised two feet from the ground, under the canopy of Live Oaks and palms with the windows open was quite survivable.  Even in the summer.  The problem is, those locations are rare and are now all owned by rich people who have torn them down, replaced the trees with grass, built a McMansion covering the neighboring three lots, filled them with air-conditioning, and leave them idle in the summer when the family goes back to their northern house.  (*Sigh*),  Air-conditioning has ruined Florida.

Early Florida pioneers included English composer Frederick Delius who wrote the "Florida Suite" after his stint managing his Father's orange plantation in Florida during the 1880s.  Sent there from England by his father, he only stayed there one year (must have been pretty hard), but it made an impression because this is how he describes daybreak in the Florida wilds of the 1880s.

Frederick Delius:  "Daybreak" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaYShTsIlsw

"By The River" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwUCxJtje3o

"Sunset" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHKj8o6eMWs (edited to correct the link)

And finally, here's his description of of evening:  "At Night" movement from "The Florida Suite": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI1OsWSb5ls

I actually feel sorry for people who have lived in Florida and never experienced it in the wild.  Yes, you have to watch out for spiderwebs as big as boat sails, spiders that fight back, cockroaches bigger than you want to deal with, and reptiles that will kill you either with poison or by eating you whole, but it still has its charms.

I pin with the "Pin at both" setting with the active pose tool. I pin both feet and shins. Then I pin the forearms and hands. Then I proceed to move the pelvis and then DAZ 3D 4.11 crashes. 

I've played around with the pinning and active pose tool in 4.11 and it does seem to crash in other pinning varations. It seems to be less stable in general. 

Anyone else having issues with the active pose tool and pin at both?

Edit: Seems like even if you just pin both hands and both toes and then pose the central part of the body DAZ 4.11 crashes.

Yes, I have run into the same problem. Seems to not crash (or at least crash less) if you use "Pin at end" or "Pin at Origin" instead of "Pin at Both". "Pin at Both" seems to work OK as long as you only pin one or two body parts.

I pin with the "Pin at both" setting with the active pose tool. I pin both feet and shins. Then I pin the forearms and hands. Then I proceed to move the pelvis and then DAZ 3D 4.11 crashes. 

I've played around with the pinning and active pose tool in 4.11 and it does seem to crash in other pinning varations. It seems to be less stable in general. 

Anyone else having issues with the active pose tool and pin at both?

Edit: Seems like even if you just pin both hands and both toes and then pose the central part of the body DAZ 4.11 crashes.

Nice lamps, really impressed with your flower design - Wondering what you used to create it.

One thing though, your hexagon screen grab, your bulbs do not look central.

@WeeDangerousJohn Awesome sauce! Thanks for the comments. Do you mean the image, or the map? And yes, this is true. When I copied the parts to Daz, I arranged them and applied the textures. There I straightened out the alignment.

The image came from the below link:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Owen_Jones_-_Examples_of_Chinese_Ornament_-_1867_-_plate_008.png

I just played wit the horizontal and vertical tiling until I got it right.

Nice lamps, really impressed with your flower design - Wondering what you used to create it.

One thing though, your hexagon screen grab, your bulbs do not look central.

How do you not confuse genghis kahn and atilla the hun?

they both have horns helmets and big mustaches 

Well, I differentiate Genghis Kahn and Attila the Hun quite easily...

Genghis Kahn was the grandfather of Kublai Kahn and Kublai Kahn founded the Yaun dynasty around 1271 and a really boring guy I used to know lived in a building in Brooklyn that had an address something like 1271 Myrtle Avenue and since that guy was really boring, I used to yawn a lot (Yaun Dynasty) and he also had dog who was a mutt (mongrel sounds like mongol, the Kahn were mongols) and Kublai Kahn’s granduncle Ariq Böke who in at least one depiction of him had a very turtle-like chin (turtle sounds like myrtle) and the boring guy’s name was Steve which happened to be the same name as Genghis Kahn’s favorite horse... so when I hear the name Genghis Kahn, I immediately picture Steve’s dog riding a turtle into battle dressed in a Saffron taffeta evening gown... (I can’t explain that last detail, but it works)...

Attila the Hun is easy... During the First World War, the British often referred to the Germans using the derogatory term “Huns” (possibly because of the spiked helmets)... a freind of mine was named Tom (Or “Tommy” as his girlfriend used to call him) and also during WW1, British soldiers were referred to by the Germans as “Tommies” (possibly because of their love of overripe plum tomatoes), Tom/Tommy used to own a grey 1954 International Harvester delivery van (think of the old Mr. Softee ice cream trucks) that reminded me of an elephant, and when I was little I always confused Attila the Hun with Hannibal (who as we all know loved to cross mountains on elephants) which was a bit confusing until the TV show “The A-Team” which introduced the character John “Hannibal” Smith, which then made me picture George Peppard riding an elephant with skis... (it was in the alps)... later when Silence Of The Lambs came out, I switched that image to Anthony Hopkins riding an elephant through Brooklyn in a Burgundy taffeta evening gown... Tom also had a really stupid parrot who couldn’t talk, but still everyone would always ask it “Polly want a cracker?”... To which Tom would answer “He’s not hungry and his name is Clarence”... Attila the Hun was a Hun and due to some bad medieval record keeping, some Hungarians (Hungary-hungry, which the parrot wasn’t) used to believe they descended from Huns, who by the way were most likely actually were related to the nomadic Xiongnu people of Central Asia/China... Also the parrot loved fortune cookies... so, whenever I hear Attila The Hun, I picture Clarence wearing a spiked helmet and Baby blue taffeta evening gown, playing a saxophone while driving a beat up old Mr Softee ice cream truck across the alps... 

I hope that helps... it’s really very easy... its a lot simpler than my way of distinguishing between the plasma flow characteristics of a Symmetrical Tokamak Reactor and Adibatic Toroidal Compressor, which is really confusing because the directors of both labs wore similar green taffeta evening gowns in most of the pictures and that just throws off my reference points... if it wasn’t for Harold Furth having slightly hairier legs... ah, it’s complicated, but if you want a breakdown, I’d be happy to explain... 

What I really need is a good way to remember the difference between taffeta and chiffon... it messes up my mental depiction of Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Browne... 

Megh... I’ll figure that out eventually.

 

 

 

Did Hannibal have a big mustash too?

well atleast the elephant sets him apart from the other 2

In one episode he did... It was a huge mustache... I think him and B.A. Baracus were trying to impersonate the leaders of a rival drug gang to intimidate another gang that was harassing the students from the Eastland School for Young Women who were trying to start a rock and roll band to earn money to buy Mrs. Garrett new tires for Kitt...  

I dunno... I might be combining TV shows there... Did Mrs. Garrett live on a boat and own an alligator?

How do you not confuse genghis kahn and atilla the hun?

they both have horns helmets and big mustaches 

Well, I differentiate Genghis Kahn and Attila the Hun quite easily...

Genghis Kahn was the grandfather of Kublai Kahn and Kublai Kahn founded the Yaun dynasty around 1271 and a really boring guy I used to know lived in a building in Brooklyn that had an address something like 1271 Myrtle Avenue and since that guy was really boring, I used to yawn a lot (Yaun Dynasty) and he also had dog who was a mutt (mongrel sounds like mongol, the Kahn were mongols) and Kublai Kahn’s granduncle Ariq Böke who in at least one depiction of him had a very turtle-like chin (turtle sounds like myrtle) and the boring guy’s name was Steve which happened to be the same name as Genghis Kahn’s favorite horse... so when I hear the name Genghis Kahn, I immediately picture Steve’s dog riding a turtle into battle dressed in a Saffron taffeta evening gown... (I can’t explain that last detail, but it works)...

Attila the Hun is easy... During the First World War, the British often referred to the Germans using the derogatory term “Huns” (possibly because of the spiked helmets)... a freind of mine was named Tom (Or “Tommy” as his girlfriend used to call him) and also during WW1, British soldiers were referred to by the Germans as “Tommies” (possibly because of their love of overripe plum tomatoes), Tom/Tommy used to own a grey 1954 International Harvester delivery van (think of the old Mr. Softee ice cream trucks) that reminded me of an elephant, and when I was little I always confused Attila the Hun with Hannibal (who as we all know loved to cross mountains on elephants) which was a bit confusing until the TV show “The A-Team” which introduced the character John “Hannibal” Smith, which then made me picture George Peppard riding an elephant with skis... (it was in the alps)... later when Silence Of The Lambs came out, I switched that image to Anthony Hopkins riding an elephant through Brooklyn in a Burgundy taffeta evening gown... Tom also had a really stupid parrot who couldn’t talk, but still everyone would always ask it “Polly want a cracker?”... To which Tom would answer “He’s not hungry and his name is Clarence”... Attila the Hun was a Hun and due to some bad medieval record keeping, some Hungarians (Hungary-hungry, which the parrot wasn’t) used to believe they descended from Huns, who by the way were most likely actually were related to the nomadic Xiongnu people of Central Asia/China... Also the parrot loved fortune cookies... so, whenever I hear Attila The Hun, I picture Clarence wearing a spiked helmet and Baby blue taffeta evening gown, playing a saxophone while driving a beat up old Mr Softee ice cream truck across the alps... 

I hope that helps... it’s really very easy... its a lot simpler than my way of distinguishing between the plasma flow characteristics of a Symmetrical Tokamak Reactor and Adibatic Toroidal Compressor, which is really confusing because the directors of both labs wore similar green taffeta evening gowns in most of the pictures and that just throws off my reference points... if it wasn’t for Harold Furth having slightly hairier legs... ah, it’s complicated, but if you want a breakdown, I’d be happy to explain... 

What I really need is a good way to remember the difference between taffeta and chiffon... it messes up my mental depiction of Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Browne... 

Megh... I’ll figure that out eventually.

 

 

 

Did Hannibal have a big mustash too?

well atleast the elephant sets him apart from the other 2

How do you not confuse genghis kahn and atilla the hun?

they both have horns helmets and big mustaches 

Well, I differentiate Genghis Kahn and Attila the Hun quite easily...

Genghis Kahn was the grandfather of Kublai Kahn and Kublai Kahn founded the Yaun dynasty around 1271 and a really boring guy I used to know lived in a building in Brooklyn that had an address something like 1271 Myrtle Avenue and since that guy was really boring, I used to yawn a lot (Yaun Dynasty) and he also had dog who was a mutt (mongrel sounds like mongol, the Kahn were mongols) and Kublai Kahn’s granduncle Ariq Böke who in at least one depiction of him had a very turtle-like chin (turtle sounds like myrtle) and the boring guy’s name was Steve which happened to be the same name as Genghis Kahn’s favorite horse... so when I hear the name Genghis Kahn, I immediately picture Steve’s dog riding a turtle into battle dressed in a Saffron taffeta evening gown... (I can’t explain that last detail, but it works)...

Attila the Hun is easy... During the First World War, the British often referred to the Germans using the derogatory term “Huns” (possibly because of the spiked helmets)... a freind of mine was named Tom (Or “Tommy” as his girlfriend used to call him) and also during WW1, British soldiers were referred to by the Germans as “Tommies” (possibly because of their love of overripe plum tomatoes), Tom/Tommy used to own a grey 1954 International Harvester delivery van (think of the old Mr. Softee ice cream trucks) that reminded me of an elephant, and when I was little I always confused Attila the Hun with Hannibal (who as we all know loved to cross mountains on elephants) which was a bit confusing until the TV show “The A-Team” which introduced the character John “Hannibal” Smith, which then made me picture George Peppard riding an elephant with skis... (it was in the alps)... later when Silence Of The Lambs came out, I switched that image to Anthony Hopkins riding an elephant through Brooklyn in a Burgundy taffeta evening gown... Tom also had a really stupid parrot who couldn’t talk, but still everyone would always ask it “Polly want a cracker?”... To which Tom would answer “He’s not hungry and his name is Clarence”... Attila the Hun was a Hun and due to some bad medieval record keeping, some Hungarians (Hungary-hungry, which the parrot wasn’t) used to believe they descended from Huns, who by the way were most likely actually were related to the nomadic Xiongnu people of Central Asia/China... Also the parrot loved fortune cookies... so, whenever I hear Attila The Hun, I picture Clarence wearing a spiked helmet and Baby blue taffeta evening gown, playing a saxophone while driving a beat up old Mr Softee ice cream truck across the alps... 

I hope that helps... it’s really very easy... its a lot simpler than my way of distinguishing between the plasma flow characteristics of a Symmetrical Tokamak Reactor and Adibatic Toroidal Compressor, which is really confusing because the directors of both labs wore similar green taffeta evening gowns in most of the pictures and that just throws off my reference points... if it wasn’t for Harold Furth having slightly hairier legs... ah, it’s complicated, but if you want a breakdown, I’d be happy to explain... 

What I really need is a good way to remember the difference between taffeta and chiffon... it messes up my mental depiction of Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Browne... 

Megh... I’ll figure that out eventually.

I think the computer has a discreet video card (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080) and a GPU chip on the motherboard or central processing unit.  I'm not familliar with the new AMD motherboards or CPUs.  Good luck.  Sorry I couldn't help out more.

@DAZ_ann0314 - I totally agree about the skins.  I was very focused on teh central character and became a little color blind to how the contrast made the other 2 girls look a little zombie-esque.  I put a little work into restoring their color.  They should look like they are exerting themselves (so a little drawn and pale) but (as Monty Python used to say) 'They're not dead yet!' (sic...yeah I paraphrased a Monty Python quote).

@dtrscbrutal - I used anagenesssis 2 to add some texturing noise to the skin (you can do it manually too but I'm lazy).  I took down some of the specular lobe weight and glossiness and kinda tweaked bump maps a bit.  I don't really have a work flow for this yet because I'm just really starting to experiment on pushing skin too.  I got great results from my Darius post so I need to keep working and I promise to try to do some work flow when I have a little more confidence that I have even the slightest clue what I'm doing :O

Next iteration...tonal skin changes to give a little more life to the zombie soccer team.  A little less exposure to go for less uniform contrast and focus the eye more on the center image.

*SIGH* and I uploaded the wrong version first (before I photoshop out the stubborn sleeve) so full size image is the one on the right below.

Forgive me for my uninvited constructive critism.I found your youtube channel refreshing and honest despite the multiple excuses/apologies. You can't let others expectations and their timelines demand content from you. If you are brave enough to try a similar channel on Youtube again, under promise and over deliver. Tell people you're busy and when you can share - you will. Don't let others dictate your schedule. Do what you want when you want and set those terms upfront. I found your persona on Bluebird/Youtube  magnetic. Your personality shone thru as a strong asset. I think you overthought the process and may have felt overwhelmed by 'expectations'. I really think your personality and attitude would do really well on youtube if you did at your pace. Great content every now is far better than junk every week or god forbid every other day. Be brave. Tell people, "I'm busy, I can't commit to a set schedule but subscribe and you'll get a notification when I post". The Youtube world is far larger than Daz Stusio members and the world could be your oyster.

 

I'm back! I've been hard at work since January but it took time to get into the swing of things after taking a year off because... reasons.

I loved the reach outs and the messages asking if I was okay. Thank you so much!!

Where have I been?

I took my business apart, sold the assets that gave Bluebird equity and then rebuilt and rebranded as: Blackbeard Media.

Last year was a lot of fun in the outside sales world and living on commission was no different than being a full-time PA here. Having a boss for the first time in years was tricky. I'm not used to being told what to do or when to do it. Overall it was a worthwhile experience and provided the creative refresh I really needed. I met some awesome Central New York locals because of it.

No worries: I'm headed back to YouTube and Instagram. I shut Facebook and Twitter down (I'm way too political to not be a complete dick on those mediums) so if you want to connect, let's stick with the visual mediums. This is 3d Art, after all! I'll letcha know when the handles are ready for friending.

So what did I miss last year? What's your favorite render? Have you learned any new skills just for fun?

Edit: And by the way I did hire a PA who delivered and did not ignore me so I found that video to be a tad off.

Thanks for the effort and the feedback. That was very brave and I appreciate it. You got me thinking!

Is 40 degrees c cold or hot?

cold for a computer/Central processing unit and video card.

I don't like the big train station in Washington, D.C.  Signage is poor.  I couldn't find the ticket counter to buy a train ticket nor the entrance to the subway station.  Apparently the renovations on fixed the outside of the building and the food court.  I couldn't find the other platforms for trains that go southbound.  Lighting in the waiting room is a bit dark too.  Fix the train section now!  No more shops and restaurants.  I'm going to take the train out of a smaller station next time if I can.

Sorry you had a bad experience.  I lived in Washington, DC for many years and believe me, Union Station is a LOT better than it used to be back in the '80s.  It was a half closed, trashed, leaky, disgustingly dirty, dangerous building before the refurbishment.  Finding a train was a nightmare of circuitous, temporary, narrow, plywood lined, passageways around the fallen roof segments and dirty pools of slimy water/sludge.  Nobody in their right mind would take a train from there. (I know because I was not in my right mind a couple of times).  Now it's all put back together.  Marble polished, ceiling gold leafed, clean & safe.  Plenty of parking for cars and buses in the huge parking garage on the back side of the building.  Interior shopping malls are spacious and elegant. Connection to the Metro is conveniently located with not one, but two entrances, one at the west end of each of the two shopping halls right where the Metro logos are.  Ticketing booths and waiting area are right there on the ground floor of the north side of the smaller shopping hall.  I took the train to Grand Central Station in NYC several times, and from the look of the local stations along the way I would be afraid I'd catch some disease if I touched anything at one of them.  American trains are dismal, but Union Station in Washington DC, and Grand Central in NYC are gems among coal.  You can even fly into either National(Reagan) airport or Dulles airport, take the Metro and arrive at Union Station, to hop the train to the limited places that trains go in the US.  But I agree, the principle connectivity at Union Station is geared for Washington/Philadelphia/NYC/Boston traffic.

HOWEVER, I left Washington in 2002 so a lot may have happened in the last 17 years.

Images of Union Station in Washington, DC https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/union-station-washington-dc?sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=union%20station%20washington%20dc&license=rf,rm&page=1&recency=anydate&suppressfamilycorrection=true#license

a central wind tunnel for luggage

now i'm seeing the kerplunk game canister >.<

Once again, my personal perspective may differ from others, but the old portrait photography adage "Look at the camera. Smile" may work sometimes and certainly simplifies the photographer's work, but I don't believe that it necessarily produces the best, or at least, the most interesting portraits. So, no dogmatic rules. Using your first, closeup photograph as an example, would having the subject look directly at the camera be more effective? Perhaps. There is only one way to find out, then choose. I know that when renders take hours to complete, I am loath to redo them, especially if only to try something a little different that I may simply discard. But it is what it is, and that is why most professional photographers have long ago learned to bracket their shots and take lots of them. Just to produce that one "winner". I don't really have any issue with the subject in that render looking away from the camera, but I do think it could be more interesting with a few subtle changes. For example, give her just a little more expression. Perhaps a little bit of a frown in the brows by sqeezing them just enough to be noticeable. Don't overdue it. Then, part her slips slightly. Again don't overdue it, just enough. That will give her a slight look of puzzlement and surprise and make the viewer wonder what it is that she sees down there that has caught her interest.

Without resorting to redoing the render, here is something else that you might try, just for the sake of curiosity. Take your completed render and open it in Photoshop or whatever image editing software that you have, and change the mode from full colour to grayscale, then save that as a copy and compare the two. The difference might surprise you.

Once again, I agree with Linwelly. The mother's day render, although a portrait, works because the message is central to it. The softness of what then essentially becomes a background that compliments and complements the message without detracting from it. The excellent use of depth of field is also perfect. It is well done.

I spent the most time on the mother's day portrait to get the lighting just right.2 hours to set up and 2 hours to render

Once again, my personal perspective may differ from others, but the old portrait photography adage "Look at the camera. Smile" may work sometimes and certainly simplifies the photographer's work, but I don't believe that it necessarily produces the best, or at least, the most interesting portraits. So, no dogmatic rules. Using your first, closeup photograph as an example, would having the subject look directly at the camera be more effective? Perhaps. There is only one way to find out, then choose. I know that when renders take hours to complete, I am loath to redo them, especially if only to try something a little different that I may simply discard. But it is what it is, and that is why most professional photographers have long ago learned to bracket their shots and take lots of them. Just to produce that one "winner". I don't really have any issue with the subject in that render looking away from the camera, but I do think it could be more interesting with a few subtle changes. For example, give her just a little more expression. Perhaps a little bit of a frown in the brows by sqeezing them just enough to be noticeable. Don't overdue it. Then, part her slips slightly. Again don't overdue it, just enough. That will give her a slight look of puzzlement and surprise and make the viewer wonder what it is that she sees down there that has caught her interest.

Without resorting to redoing the render, here is something else that you might try, just for the sake of curiosity. Take your completed render and open it in Photoshop or whatever image editing software that you have, and change the mode from full colour to grayscale, then save that as a copy and compare the two. The difference might surprise you.

Once again, I agree with Linwelly. The mother's day render, although a portrait, works because the message is central to it. The softness of what then essentially becomes a background, compliments and complements the message without detracting from it. The excellent use of depth of field is also perfect. It is well done.