Valentine's card - white front, inner surface red. Boolean cut-out of a heart shape on the front to show through to the "red" inside, and have some white writing? A popular trend on commercial cards where I live is to glue on some "bling"(rhinestones, glass or plastic "gems" etc.)

Typing of bling, I obtained some free .OBJ format gemstones from another site... what's the trick to disassembling or breaking up the "sheet" of stones that you seem to get? They all seemed to have been "grouped" together.

Also when I apply a shader to this type of .OBJ file the best translucent, "glossy" effect seem to happen when a surface is unbroken. In the case of the large flat emeralds here (middle row) removing the central edges gives a great big n-gon? This is a no-no, right?

I am quite taken with gemstone and glass and water shaders... it would be nice to be able to 'control' them if possible, in the geometry.  So far so good except when a large "facet" in the gem "face" has polygon edges running through it... not sure.

Had a great evening here. Hubby went to bed first though, which was a bit unfortunate as he put the central heating on before he went to bed and never got round to turning it off again. He's the only one here who knows how to work it after reading the manual and stashing it away somewhere when the boiler was replaced. Son of mine stayed over with his Italian girlfriend, who is used to a warmer climate and has already been causing him to lose sleep at home by insisting on putting the winter duvet on in October(!). The poor lad slept with the window open last night while she slept under a hefty pile of quilts. New Year's resolution is to locate and read the central heating manual :)

I hope everyone had a good one! :)

...oops, been busy doing tests with the new IBL Master. 

Happy 2018 to all in the Central portion of the nation, the mountains, and Daz Land 

53 minutes to go here.

Happy New Years Eve everyone, except ps1, to whom I say Happy New Year!!!

It is already new year's day there?

IIRC they're 12 hours ahead of Central time, which puts them into tomorrow Down Under.  I might be a few hours off, though.

This was a real thing. They used it in movies, too. Good times...

The radio was telling us there are fourteen tons of fireworks stashed in central Melbourne waiting to go off, asbestos snow is sounding good right now :)

Oh no; consider the extreme health hazards of the asbestos.

This was a real thing. They used it in movies, too. Good times...

The radio was telling us there are fourteen tons of fireworks stashed in central Melbourne waiting to go off, asbestos snow is sounding good right now :)

Not so much a composition as it is an "assembly study".

I bet DynaGirlsDaddy will recognize this character.  It's an "Xilien" from "Invasion of Astro-Monster", alternatively titled "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero", the titular kaiju being revealed as King Ghidorah.

The Xiliens were aliens living upon a planet on the far side of Jupiter.  Besides introducing ETs to the Godzilla franchise, they presented the trope of aliens controlling kaiju as weapons.  Well, at least within Goji films.  Other movies (usually from the West) in no way connected to Godzilla had already explored this theme, but the Xiliens were Toho's take on the idea.

The Xiliens had a very distinctive appearance, wearing form hugging grey jumpsuits with black "vests", a matching "cumberbund" (an element I did not include here), gloss black gloves, boots and a scuba-like cowl mounted with an antenna.  They also wore thin visors predating the "cyberpunk" look by nearly 20 years.  Most eye-catching, at least to me, was the inclusion of a wide tubular "collar" that reached a height so as to partially hide the chin.

This collar reminded me of something.  JoeQuick had originally sold a product called "Alien Force", one he later offered for free at ShareCG.  The central item was a jumpsuit with, yup, a wide tubular collar and a large selection of material zones that could be customized.    While not as absurdly tall as the collars on the Xilien costumes, by selecting a "ghost" body group labeled "neck" (the collar geometry is actually associated with the "chest" group), I was able to lengthen the "T" axis to make it look more like the movie outfit.  Boom!  Instant Xilien!

JoeQuick's freebie is still available at ShareCG.

http://www.sharecg.com/v/62305/gallery/11/Poser/M4-Alien-Force-Suit

I used a cowl from "Zero-Gravity" a near future spacesuit for Michael 4, but JoeQuick has a variety of superhero freebies, some of which likely contain a "near enough" cowl.

Anyway, just something silly to show on a lazy Saturday.

Sincerely,

Bill

WOW! That's dang close! And I like the updated while still clearly oldschool look! Very good Job Bill!  And for some added info, Toho's first foray into the alien invasion controlling monsters was the non Godzilla film The Mysterians(1957), where the titular aliens controlled two robot monsters called Mogerua(later to become a combining mecha of human creation in Godzilla VS SpaceGodzilla). And here's some examples of Daz Dragon 3's versatility:

Not so much a composition as it is an "assembly study".

I bet DynaGirlsDaddy will recognize this character.  It's an "Xilien" from "Invasion of Astro-Monster", alternatively titled "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero", the titular kaiju being revealed as King Ghidorah.

The Xiliens were aliens living upon a planet on the far side of Jupiter.  Besides introducing ETs to the Godzilla franchise, they presented the trope of aliens controlling kaiju as weapons.  Well, at least within Goji films.  Other movies (usually from the West) in no way connected to Godzilla had already explored this theme, but the Xiliens were Toho's take on the idea.

The Xiliens had a very distinctive appearance, wearing form hugging grey jumpsuits with black "vests", a matching "cumberbund" (an element I did not include here), gloss black gloves, boots and a scuba-like cowl mounted with an antenna.  They also wore thin visors predating the "cyberpunk" look by nearly 20 years.  Most eye-catching, at least to me, was the inclusion of a wide tubular "collar" that reached a height so as to partially hide the chin.

This collar reminded me of something.  JoeQuick had originally sold a product called "Alien Force", one he later offered for free at ShareCG.  The central item was a jumpsuit with, yup, a wide tubular collar and a large selection of material zones that could be customized.    While not as absurdly tall as the collars on the Xilien costumes, by selecting a "ghost" body group labeled "neck" (the collar geometry is actually associated with the "chest" group), I was able to lengthen the "T" axis to make it look more like the movie outfit.  Boom!  Instant Xilien!

JoeQuick's freebie is still available at ShareCG.

http://www.sharecg.com/v/62305/gallery/11/Poser/M4-Alien-Force-Suit

I used a cowl from "Zero-Gravity" a near future spacesuit for Michael 4, but JoeQuick has a variety of superhero freebies, some of which likely contain a "near enough" cowl.

Anyway, just something silly to show on a lazy Saturday.

Sincerely,

Bill

What's your rendering device, CPU or GPU or both? Either way, depending on the machine, the action of rendering the preview window is no different from clicking the Render button, at least where system resources are concerned. Think about it: if it's just using the GPU, the same GPU is also handling all of your primary display. If it's using the CPU, well, there's a reason it's called the Central Processing Unit. If it's using both, then you can figure out the rest.

OT: Every year I put up a holiday light show synchronized to music. I posted a video of this year's show if you'd like to see it. Best to view it full screen.

 

That is amazing!  I laughed out loud when your figure spoke. I don't think I've ever seen something spelled out, either. It's also amazing that arches' lights can go different directions. How long did it take you to set that up?????!!!!

Setup time varies by year. I usually add a new feature or new song each year and that takes more time to work out. The physical setup is about 20-25 hours and 10 hours to take down. The central tree is new this year (replaced a simpler one I had) and it became a bear as I had to build the display which took a couple days then figure out how to program the lights, redo all the song sequences to use it, and then it overwhelmed my data network so I had to set up a second one in parallel. So I ended up pulling a number of 12+ hour days sorting it all out. It will be easier next year (which I say every year, and then I add something new, and oops, it takes more time than I thought). It's a lot of fun to do and local people always ask if I have it up and running yet.

The was excellent and fun to watch! 

OT: Every year I put up a holiday light show synchronized to music. I posted a video of this year's show if you'd like to see it. Best to view it full screen.

 

That is amazing!  I laughed out loud when your figure spoke. I don't think I've ever seen something spelled out, either. It's also amazing that arches' lights can go different directions. How long did it take you to set that up?????!!!!

Setup time varies by year. I usually add a new feature or new song each year and that takes more time to work out. The physical setup is about 20-25 hours and 10 hours to take down. The central tree is new this year (replaced a simpler one I had) and it became a bear as I had to build the display which took a couple days then figure out how to program the lights, redo all the song sequences to use it, and then it overwhelmed my data network so I had to set up a second one in parallel. So I ended up pulling a number of 12+ hour days sorting it all out. It will be easier next year (which I say every year, and then I add something new, and oops, it takes more time than I thought). It's a lot of fun to do and local people always ask if I have it up and running yet.

this.

 

...OK set up a short test.,   Created a sphere primitive and put it in an enclosed room (the old Stateroom which has 3DL shaders).  Used one AoA Ambient light (at 50%) and one AoA spotlight (100%) set to 360° spread (essentially making it a point light) by the central ceiling lamp.  Shadows were set to 20% softness with shadow colour 34, 34, 34, nd all settings at default. 

I flagged the sphere to not be illuminated by the Ambient light as it was creating a secondary light source in the reflection that didn't look right.  UE would have taken too long to do this test. 

With just a bit of experimentation I approximated a smooth silver surface with the following settings (I have skill in actually creating shaders).

Lighting model Glossy (Plastic)  Using Glossy (Metal) made the sphere turn black during rendering (similar to what you experienced)

Diffuse colour 46, 42, 43
Glossiness: 75%
Specular colour 255, 255, 255
Specular Strength: 100%
Negative bump -.3
Positive bump .3
Reflection Colour: 230, 232, 250
Reflection Strength: 100%

In Open GL it looked black and featureless

In the rendered image (below) the reflection worked fine as you can see.

Thanks for that - The glossy-plastic shader setting seems to be the one that did the trick!  All those settings I was fiddling with and it comes down to one button LOL

..glad that helped. Yeah a lot of times it's always soemthing small that thwarts one's plans.

this.

...OK set up a short test.,   Created a sphere primitive and put it in an enclosed room (the old Stateroom which has 3DL shaders).  Used one AoA Ambient light (at 50%) and one AoA spotlight (100%) set to 360° spread (essentially making it a point light) by the central ceiling lamp.  Shadows were set to 20% softness with shadow colour 34, 34, 34, nd all settings at default. 

I flagged the sphere to not be illuminated by the Ambient light as it was creating a secondary light source in the reflection that didn't look right.  UE would have taken too long to do this test. 

With just a bit of experimentation I approximated a smooth silver surface with the following settings (I have skill in actually creating shaders).

Lighting model Glossy (Plastic)  Using Glossy (Metal) made the sphere turn black during rendering (similar to what you experienced)

Diffuse colour 46, 42, 43
Glossiness: 75%
Specular colour 255, 255, 255
Specular Strength: 100%
Negative bump -.3
Positive bump .3
Reflection Colour: 230, 232, 250
Reflection Strength: 100%

In Open GL it looked black and featureless

In the rendered image (below) the reflection worked fine as you can see.

Thanks for that - The glossy-plastic shader setting seems to be the one that did the trick!  All those settings I was fiddling with and it comes down to one button LOL

...OK set up a short test.,   Created a sphere primitive and put it in an enclosed room (the old Stateroom which has 3DL shaders).  Used one AoA Ambient light (at 50%) and one AoA spotlight (100%) set to 360° spread (essentially making it a point light) by the central ceiling lamp.  Shadows were set to 20% softness with shadow colour 34, 34, 34, nd all settings at default. 

I flagged the sphere to not be illuminated by the Ambient light as it was creating a secondary light source in the reflection that didn't look right.  UE would have taken too long to do this test. 

With just a bit of experimentation I approximated a smooth silver surface with the following settings (I have skill in actually creating shaders).

Lighting model Glossy (Plastic)  Using Glossy (Metal) made the sphere turn black during rendering (similar to what you experienced)

Diffuse colour 46, 42, 43
Glossiness: 75%
Specular colour 255, 255, 255
Specular Strength: 100%
Negative bump -.3
Positive bump .3
Reflection Colour: 230, 232, 250
Reflection Strength: 100%

In Open GL it looked black and featureless

In the rendered image (below) the reflection worked fine as you can see.

Didn't have to flip normals or anything like that.

Apologies, Yeah, I probably should have posted this to the Nuts & Bolts forum but already posted a suggestion here to fix this.

oh gawwd bad girl eating the pie filling. >.<

felt guilty not making it from scratch anyhoos

Didn't you buy the brand that's guilt-free? *snort*

Pie filling omg yummy!

 

the most guilt ever  godiva

guilt driven visions of aiko-diva on horsies

Godiva is worth being guilty over! ;-P

Best chocolate I ever had was in Paris, a little no-name shop next to the hotel I stayed in.  Every bite made me swoon and made my toes curl *blush*

 

Before Godiva went plebeian and started displaying their product in chain department stores and drugstores all over the US, it was hard to find their chocolates.  Back in the '80s and '90s we lived in downtown Washington DC and there was a tiny Godiva store in Union Station (the grand old train station that had been converted to a hoity-toity shopping mall as well as a modern train & bus & subway (Metro) station)  We used to take a Metro sidetrip to Union Station just to grab a few Godiva goodies by the piece 'cause that was the only way we could afford them.

Union Station: Washington DC https://www.amtrak.com/stations/was

When I lived in Greenbelt, MD the closest place for Godiva was Needless Markups (Neiman-Marcus).  I haven't had Godiva in a long time but I do understand it's not as good as it used to be, which is sad.

Ah, the Netro.  Used to take it downtown to the Mall and visit the Smithsonian.. years ago.  I love light rail!

 

...you'd like our system, five lines (including one to the airport) with a sixth in the planning stage. One of the lines travels through a 3 mile long tunnel with one of the deepest underground stations in the world.

Back in the '80s and '90s when I lived in the Washington DC area there was always talk of extending the Metro system out to Dulles airport (25 miles NW of WashDC, outside the "Beltway") but it never happened.  But now I've learned that they have finally got (or are building) that extension.  That would have been great for me when I lived out it Reston, VA I could have walked to the station.  But back when I lived there I had to drive several miles to Falls Church, VA inside the beltway to try to find a parking spot in the always too small parking areas for the Metro.  But if doing the Washington DC downtown shopping or Smithsonian museum scene, Metro is the best way to go.  Quiet, clean and efficient. 

Except for the 4th of July ceremonies on The Mall.  Speaking from experience, you don't want to wait until the fireworks are over before heading to the Metro station.  You want to leave about half-way through the fireworks to reach the Metro station well before the crowd gets there.   Otherwise you'll have to wait for 3 or 4 (or more) trains to get aboard.  And another trick is to head for the station a couple blocks off the Mall, not the one right on The Mall (but make sure you get on a train that is heading TOWARD the mall, not coming FROM it.  Duh!!!  The situation isn't as bad as Tokyo during rush hour but close.

...some of the trains here during the commute times are almost getting to Tokyo like crowding (we don't have transit system personnel hired to push people on the trains...yet). People here have taken to using transit instead of driving (thanks in part to many narrow streets in the central neighbourhoods, little if any free parking in the city centre, only three roads across the West Hills to the burbs on the west side, and for some the cost of keeping a roof over your head that takes most of your income).

Just saw the first "3700 series" bus on Friday so another new batch of buses has apparently arrived.  Big plans for next year to improve service system wide and lay the final plans for the proposed southwest LRT line. Transit may be the only way to get around the inner area of the city in a few years as they are expecting big population gains here, mostly through migration.

 I did a short render and i thinks now it was the central district subway station

You can try these:

https://www.daz3d.com/the-central-district-subway-station
https://www.daz3d.com/cyberpunk-subway-station

commuter nightmare comin hope 

big flakes falling, my bus skidded, bus! skidded!

i'se paler than a hospital sheet.

...I was on a bus during a sleet and freezing rain storm back in the 60s.  When we approached a light that just turned red, the driver hit he brakes and the bus began sliding sideways right towards a railway underpass with bridge supports in the middle of the street.  He hit the accelerator and steered into the skid getting the bus to point forwards again narrowly missing the central bridge supports.

There was another time when I was something like 11 or 12 and we had a heavy snowfall.  School was called off at mid day and I remember the city bus I was on (one of the old gas powered ones they had - see below) getting stuck in deep snow at a stop and several older passengers got out to help push it actually getting us out and going again.

 

that is a cute bus.

...yeah we used to have a lot of them they were used on the route that went through my neighboruhood.  Actually kind of stylish looking for the day (Milwaukee's fleet entered service in mid to late 40s) and they had real leather seats. Last ones were retired from service in 1967. 

commuter nightmare comin hope 

big flakes falling, my bus skidded, bus! skidded!

i'se paler than a hospital sheet.

...I was on a bus during a sleet and freezing rain storm back in the 60s.  When we approached a light that just turned red, the driver hit he brakes and the bus began sliding sideways right towards a railway underpass with bridge supports in the middle of the street.  He hit the accelerator and steered into the skid getting the bus to point forwards again narrowly missing the central bridge supports.

There was another time when I was something like 11 or 12 and we had a heavy snowfall.  School was called off at mid day and I remember the city bus I was on (one of the old gas powered ones they had - see below) getting stuck in deep snow at a stop and several older passengers got out to help push it actually getting us out and going again.

that is a cute bus.

https://www.daz3d.com/easy-teeth-for-genesis-8-male-s-and-merchant-resource

The teeth of humans never look exactly the same. Unique characters have different teeth.

Give your Genesis 8 Male based characters some more individuality with adjusting the shape and look of their teeth.

This morph pack contains 122 morph control dials to adjust the teeth. You can adjust each tooth individually. Make them longer, shorter or completely gone to have gaps or adjust their volume. With these morphs you can get many different looks of the teeth for more individuality of your characters. 
Included are also morph dials for all teeth, like one to get childish looking teeth or irregular teeth. Morphs to make the upper canines sharp (vampire teeth) are included too. 
Rounded up is this product by the included 10 material presets for Iray. Unclean and yellowed teeth, different teeth tones like slightly stained or bleached white teeth, bloody teeth and one preset with gold teeth.
You can of course save all your teeth adjustments as your own shape presets as well to be able to quickly apply your favorite settings later.

Overall a very versatile product to make your characters more unique.
This product works with all Genesis 8 Male based characters. 

This product is also a Merchant Resource you can use to create morphs for your character products. 
 

Merchant Resource Usage:

You may bake your own morphs using the morphs (also mix them) included in this products to include them with your own commercial character products. You may also include the morphs directly (altered or unaltered) to your commercial character products. This product is not a requirement.
Resource Usage should be stated in your product Readme. The image maps/materials of this resource may be used alike (unaltered or altered).
You may not create another merchant resource using this resource or a similar product like another teeth morph/control or teeth material only product.
Using this resource for free products is not allowed as well. The main purpose of this resource is character creation. The usage of this MR is limited to Genesis 8 Male based characters.

• Easy Teeth
• Morph Dials (.DSF):
  • All Teeth Irregular
  • All Teeth Length Reduce
  • Boys Milk Teeth
  • Vampire Teeth
  • Lower/Upper Teeth Length Reduce
  • Lower/Upper Central Incisors Gap
  • Upper/Lower Central Incisor L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower Lateral Incisor L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower Canine L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower First Premolar L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower Second Premolar L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower First Molar L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower Second Molar L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower Third Molar L/R Length Reduce
  • Upper/Lower Central Incisor L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower Lateral Incisor L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower Canine L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower First Premolar L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower Second Premolar L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower First Molar L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower Second Molar L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower Third Molar L/R Longer
  • Upper/Lower Central Incisor L/R Rotate L/R
  • Upper/Lower Lateral Incisor L/R Rotate L/R
  • Upper/Lower L/R Central Incisor Width
  • Upper/Lower L/R Lateral Incisor Volume Reduce
  • Upper/Lower L/R Canine Volume Reduce
  • Upper/Lower L/R First Premolar Volume Reduce
  • Upper/Lower L/R Second Premolar Volume Reduce
  • Upper/Lower L/R First Molar Volume Reduce
  • Upper/Lower L/R Second Molar Volume Reduce
  • Upper/Lower L/R Third Molar Volume Reduce
• Shaping Presets (.DUF):
  • Reset Easy Teeth Morphs
  • Teeth Irregular
  • Boys Milk Teeth
  • Vampire Teeth
• Material Options (.DUF):
  • 10 Easy Teeth Materials
  • 03 Gloss Options
• MR Useage Document (.PDF)
• Textures Include:
  • 30 Texture, Bump and Normal Maps (2048 x 2048 up to 4096 x 4096)
• Daz Studio Iray Material Presets (.DUF)

https://www.daz3d.com/easy-teeth-for-genesis-8-male-s-and-merchant-resource

commuter nightmare comin hope 

big flakes falling, my bus skidded, bus! skidded!

i'se paler than a hospital sheet.

...I was on a bus during a sleet and freezing rain storm back in the 60s.  When we approached a light that just turned red, the driver hit he brakes and the bus began sliding sideways right towards a railway underpass with bridge supports in the middle of the street.  He hit the accelerator and steered into the skid getting the bus to point forwards again narrowly missing the central bridge supports.

There was another time when I was something like 11 or 12 and we had a heavy snowfall.  School was called off at mid day and I remember the city bus I was on (one of the old gas powered ones they had - see below) getting stuck in deep snow at a stop and several older passengers got out to help push it actually getting us out and going again.