...in Texas, I expect it to be warmer this time of year.

Crikey, even Stevens Point up in Wisconsin's "tundra country" is 10° warmer than it is where I am.  They should be the ones dealing with cold, snow, and ice this time of year, not us.

One town in Eastern Oregon had a low of -9° (F) this morning (even Fairbanks Alaska was warmer).

I know its early in the thread, but...

...The Winter, Winter Go Away Complaint Thread.

Warm is one thing.  Wanting to turn the AC on, that's a bit much for me!  At least it'll be back into the mid-60f's at the end of the week.

So full! 6 teriyaki wings, Cajun fries, and 1/2 a bowl of pasta and it's naptime for me.  Still left: 4 meals worth of pasta, 5 bread sticks, and lemon-pepper seasoned fries.  When they said familty size pasta, they meant it!  I'll be sick of pasta before it's all gone.

Tme for a little lie-down snzzzzzzzzz

...I'd like not having to turn the heat on at night. Bloats the power bill.

Fortunately, the heat here is gas.  Now, the AC will add hundreds of dollars to the power bl,, it's BAD. :-(

Here, I lucked out.  My rental arrangement is a simple $400 per month including elec. and gas!   There are two apartments in this house.  I have 1/3 of the house and a family has the other 2/3.  There is only one electric and one gas meter.  I worried at first about getting an A/C.  Primarily because I wasn't sure the I had enough circuits but after some experiments I discovered that if careful I do.  I can't run an A/C downstairs for the living room, kitchen & bathroom because a) it would probably blow a fuse if my computers, & TV equipment were on too and b) there's no adequate window available.   However, I have one window in my bedroom (the only room upstairs) that is wide enough and unobstructed to take a typical A/C unit.  So, in the worst summer days the A/C keeps my bedroom comfortable and the cool air wafts down the stairway into the living room keeping it tolerable if I lounge around half naked.  Which works out well because nobody ever comes to visit me.   

The family in the other part of the house uses electricity MUCH more than I do with their multiple A/Cs, dishwasher, clothes washer & dryer, big refrigerator, etc.  So, my little contribution is aparently hardly noticed.  As long as I play the role of a decript old man who lives only on Social Security payments, washes his dishes by hand, does his laundry at a laundromat, doesn't over use his A/C, doesn't complain, keeps his apartment clean & tidy, and always pays his rent on time, I'm hoping to retain my position here.  Knock on wood!

However, the disadvantage of this arrangement is that there is only one heating system.  And there is only one thermostat.  But it is on the family's side of the house.  So I have to live with what they consider comfortable.  Which sometimes isn't.  Especially when they go away on vacation and turn down the thermostat a bit to save gas or decide they're too cold and crank up the heat.   I'm continually opening/closing my one and only floor air register to adjust how much heat I'm getting into my apartment.

It sounds to me like you're mostly in good shape.  The heat thing sounds annoying, though.  The AC/Heat here is central, it works pretty well especially now I have my insulated blackout curtains installed.  Best investment I ever made!

The window in this room is HUGE and would swallow a window unit air conditioner.  Mot to mention the wiring could be better, if I try to run my air fryer and foot heater at the same time it throws a breaker, so I just don't do that. :-/

 

Technique Sources: Sickleyield's Tutorial on Quick Godrays for Iray, Connatic's Forum Thread on Stained Glass for Iray, Tips for Sunlight in This Thread Here

I can definitely pick out the Real Lights for DAZ Studio Iray in your "Terminator Red Eye" and "Cross" renders, it's use in your "GlitterBrightBetrayalFin" is a little subtler, I'm guessing it might possibly be applied to the eight pointed star at the front of the sanctuary? All great renders btw, I've been facinated by the use of godrays in renders but haven't had the fortitude to attempt them yet. Any suggestions on where to start with godrays? Products or tutorials you found helpful?

Yeah, Night678winG, (and thank you) in that one, you're right, in part. I made the star in an old free program called Anim8or by Steven Glanville that's been around for just about ever. I positioned the star and applied a diamond shader from Mec4d, then duplicated the node, shrunk the duplicate down and positioned it in the center of the larger star then applied a real light from that set--but turned down the lumens a lot to keep from washing out the scene and godrays. I decided in the end to make light a third character in the scene, so as you can see that the central shaft of light associated with the knight is bounded by cooler blues in the godrays, which is echoed by the lady on the left, and there is another implied presence on the right which is generating the light in the scene which is flashing on the dagger blade as well as the highlights appearing on pews and columns to offset the golden light of the star doing the same. So there are in fact two lights from that set in that scene. You're spot on with the other images though, probably (Did you notice the lights of the Big Bill Truck reflected in his sunglasses approaching from the right? Those are from that set as well.).

Hopefully I already answered some of your question before seeing your post in my previous post. But there are some links in my post that I've highlighted above. Those gave me the missing links to make it happen.

It's 54f here at 12:38 pm.  So, it will likely get warmer before it starts going down again.  We have central air conditioning and heating.  No open windows required...keeps things in better shape without all that humidity creeping in.

LG, consider a portable A/C unit.  You can probably rig something to get the exhaust out of small windows.  Just a thought.

Dana

I've been looking for an Indian or central Asian model for G8M. Any suggestions?

The 200 faces product seemed to have some good options but if there was a cohesive character for body and head that would be ideal.

Much appreciated.

People are really bringing out some wonderful actors and actresses.

I certainly agree about the adult cast of the Potter movies.  Each movie in the franchise seemed to add at least three more English actors with significant gravitas.  And Sam Rockwell could make my list just for Galaxy Quest, but has done so much more.  And Allison Janney - give me more Allison.

Green Acres and Everybody Loves Raymond are perfect examples of surrounding a "sane" central figure with comedic characters.  Perhaps the most extreme form of that was the original Bob Newhart Show, in which he played a psychologist so they could have part of the comedic circle be he his patients.  The Mary Tyler Moore Show used this approach as well.

Slim Pickins!  Yes!  Enough said.  ​.  

@wwes - my apologies to Brad Bird and to Linda Hunt.  Unforgivable on my part.  Linda Hunt gets to stay on my list though, and will just have to content herself with her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

I really like the additions of Elisha Cook and Agnes Moorehead.  They just showed Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane on TCM, so both actors were on my mind.

The discussion of 60s/70s TV shows made me think of an iconic sidekick - Bill Daily.  He played the pilot neighbor on Bob Newhart and "master's" best friend on I dream of Jeannie.  Spent a lot of time in uniform!

Don't envy the leccy bill, but at least no central heating would be needed... 

well. we do have deer aorund here - warning signs on the road that goes up the hill from here.  we have a good pack of coyotes, I have seen bear tracks in the park across the river and we have the occasional cougar. Plenty of beaver and there are osprey and bald eagles that patrol the river.. Out in the mountains we ran across a grizzly once.. 

I would love to see a moose, but unfortunately there are none in these parts (Pennsylvania, US). I've seen black bear lots of times and we're polluted with deer where I live in the south central portion. I've even seen the occasional red fox and coyote, but no moose :( And right now, on February 21st, 2018, it is 76 degrees outside. I have the windows open. If I close my eyes, I could swear it was early summer. There are bugs outside. Three days ago it was snowing. Wild...lol.

;)

Laurie

I would love to see a moose, but unfortunately there are none in these parts (Pennsylvania, US). I've seen black bear lots of times and we're polluted with deer where I live in the south central portion. I've even seen the occasional red fox and coyote, but no moose :( And right now, on February 21st, 2018, it is 76 degrees outside. I have the windows open. If I close my eyes, I could swear it was early summer. There are bugs outside. Three days ago it was snowing. Wild...lol.

;)

Laurie

Complaint: My central heating pump just went "Bang clatter clatter clatter kaboom silence." And now there is no more hot.

This is the second major failure in my heating system so far this Winter. Ho hum!

That sucks!  I hope it doesn't cost too much to get it repaired.

Dana

Fortunately it's a mild +6 C outside, so at least I don't have to rush for an emergency plumber!

Complaint: My central heating pump just went "Bang clatter clatter clatter kaboom silence." And now there is no more hot.

This is the second major failure in my heating system so far this Winter. Ho hum!

That sucks!  I hope it doesn't cost too much to get it repaired.

Dana

Complaint: My central heating pump just went "Bang clatter clatter clatter kaboom silence." And now there is no more hot.

This is the second major failure in my heating system so far this Winter. Ho hum!

Well, that blows.. erm, wait.. doesn't blow.. oh, bother..

That's not good.

Another way to transfer the focus (just occurred to me) would be to have both of those characters (mage and big guy) frame the middle guy. You just have to move each to the side, so that they don't cover or overlap with the middle guy. Then cut each of those forefront guys in half, so that they act as a frame for middle guy.

Here's an example of what I mean, except this is done with a crowd:

Notice how the people frame the central figure, drawing our eye towards him.

Though, in your case, since your foreground guys are wearing black and you're using a black background (between panels), I'm not 100% certain this would work as intended. But just food for thought :)

Complaint: My central heating pump just went "Bang clatter clatter clatter kaboom silence." And now there is no more hot.

This is the second major failure in my heating system so far this Winter. Ho hum!

For the viewports, are the panes different sizes or aspect ratios? (The adjacent panes and monitor size all interact to leave the central viewport size). That would affect the view. For the render viewport though, the rectangular box is the essential one; so as long as the aspect ratio is the same, the images should match. Not sure what else it could be.

Wheeeeee! Down to my last six beers, just ordered two large 2-topping pizzas and an order of cajun spiced fries, under $25 which leaves me enough grocery money for a week or so.  Well, once the weather cleas up...

Supposed to rain all of next week right into the weekend, at least they say that for now.  It changes every day so there's no point in trying to believe an forecast more than one day ahead. :-| 

Soon as it clears it's another long, painful walk to the store and a bus ride home.  Need refried beans, corn and flour tortillas, wings, wing sauce, hot dogs, and maybe some salsa and more soup.  Ig I have money I'll get instant coffee and powdered creamer as well.

62f outside, overcast and damp.  This morning they said rain starting tomorrow, now rain won't start until Tuesday.  No wonder nobody trusts the predictions.. :-|

Will break out the beer when pizza arrives.  Woo-hoo! :-)

I watch the Fox 25 Boston news and weather.  The chief meteorologist is Kevin LeManowicz.  He's more accurate than the Weather Channel.  He does a 7-day forecast.  He always says that 6 or 7 days out is tough, because usually the storm isn't even formed yet, so the forecast will be more accurate 3 or 4 days out.  And he's usually spot on.  It helps when the meteorologist is local.  they have the knowledge and experience of the location, which helps in their accuracy.

Dana

This is true.  KXAN local news has a meterologist that hitting about 70%, which for Central Texas is pretty dang good!

Complaint: 30 posts since I last looked! :-O

Non-complaint: Coffee and aspirin, they good.

1) I hate sitting here chiming in every 2 seconds. We're at the point of "What I would do advice" and if you're happy/content with what you're creating then carry on.  It's easy to sit here and keep picking apart your demos. At some point though, you gotta get tired of hearing advice and forumites saying "X makes that work better". If you're still comfortable then you are stronger than most. I have to be in a zone for criticism. And even then, if there's something there, I meant for to be there and come out that way. There's no aspect of my work that I am not 100% in control of and making deliberate decisions.

2) My 40 cents is you should commit fully to any direction. If you want to be loud, be the loudest then. Make that mark. Why 'hint' at a 70s poster when you can just actually make one? Put that final render through one of those paint filters and use one layer on top the other to control the amount and where the paint effect falls heaviest. In other words, maybe around your central character, you go with a lighter paint effect (by erasing the painted layer or one of the copies of the original render if it was sitting on top) for the areas you want clearer and heavy paint for the edges or non-important characters. Do the same thing with the saturation. Main characters in vivid color (turn up the saturation) and turn it down for the backdrop. Do the same thing with focus. Keep the main more crispy and in focus than the edges/backdrop. etc.....there's a million different approaches to controlling reader focus.

3) An important aspect, maybe the most important is LAYOUT. The layout of a magazine cover is different than a poster or advert or...Comic Book cover .... So copy the shape and design of a movie poster. All that text on the bottom could be your real credits. You boldface the badguy's names and the heroines name and such. Use "starring in a comic by...." All that stuff. They always list who's starring or featured. And better you've got an actor. It'd be cute to say the alias is starring as the hero.

4) From a creative perspective, you can always flip the concepts. What about the regular woman looking at a poster for the hero. Like it's her back, but she's facing us with the sly wink and behind her is that 70s poster that's all about her super-hero alter-ego. That would be a twist. There's phone apps that can graffiti-ize an image. That poster placed on a wall is another groovy idea. And if you MUST do Fonts, there's plenty of 70s style fonts to serve as the base shape.

The most interesting part in more characters is the skin for me, plus dialing in some sidestory character from the "genepool" makes the process faster than dialing, but for the central characters is morph dialing

Horo, Yes, 'light pollution'...we've, in some-a-ways...forgotten about how invaluable a clear night sky is.

Chohole...You're so lucky, privileged...I've seen a great view of our central galaxy one time, but current location, in Co Cork Ireland @ 51.59N, 8.45W is a challenge for those illusive northern lights (time to travel, I guess - if only I can afford it).                                                                                                                                                                 

Jay

I've been to Neuschwanstein Castle and there is indeed a lot of gold.  Everywhere lol.  And a ton of rugs hung on the walls in between the giant windows since they didn't have central heat and those stone castles are COLD! We went in the summer and I remember that while it was quite hot outside, it was heading toward chilly the castle. 

I love what you ended up doing with the bed, and while I agree it may not be totally realistic given the lack of lighting in those days it looks gorgeous

..making an offering to the weather gods for just liquid water from the sky and mild temperatures.

...The Weather Forecasters Never Get It Right Complaint Thread.

I'd send you some Central Texas weather but they say it might sneaux in the Hill Country... :-/