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... :-/

Tutorial: Word Balloons

Word Balloons Take Up Space, Usually Lots of Space

There's not a lot of hard and fast rules in the art of making comics, but there is a least one: Word balloons take up space. If you're going to use them, you need to plan for the space they will consume. Usually this means including things in your image that are expected to have word balloons placed on top of them.

This space can be what in a non-comic render would be called "dead space", areas of the render where there's just nothing of interest. Or it can be parts of the render that are not central to the purpose of the panel. The image below has both "dead space" and non-critial parts. Only the two central figures are key to the purpose of the panel. The rest can be covered with word balloons, if needed.

Notice that well over 50% of the panel can be covered in word balloons. This is quite common.

Stylized Word Balloons

In the second panel shown above, Knur is given stylized blue word balloons. Stylized word balloons let the reader know that the character has a special sounding voice. In the case of Knur, he is an AI powered hologram, and so his voice sounds artificial.

Once established, stylized word balloons can be used to let the reader know who's speaking even when that character is not in view.

I honestly would have thought You drew those Stezza if you had not said otherwise

thanks to toonPro 

@Mistara Nessie looking for Groot!  

There is also a product that was just released that can be quite helpful.

Sonja, A product... interesting. Will look around. Surely, I will run into it. dForce has a few tricks to figuring out it's settings. And as cool as it is, takes a while to get good results predictably and to know what perils to look out for.

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Here is an image that started off as an inspiration based on someone else's suggestion in an old thread called "An Oddly Specific Request" that they were looking for a texture/character with a medeterranean or spanish looking cast. They suggested a few paintings by Bouguereau as examples. The face reminded me of Sean Young in Bladerunner a bit with her sentimental heavy eyes. And so, began a little side image.

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Aside: As an added note related to that original thread, this image by Bouguereau would make a pretty good basis for a Facegen morp and texture set since it is a pretty straight-on image and relatively evenly lit.

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I used Facegen to take measurements from Sean Young's face and then disgarded the pictures bad images for a texture set generated in Facegen.It came off looking pretty good. The rest is just incremental adjustments.

 

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The smoke was fun because to get it moving in actual space I mapped it on a plane that was warped around a bit. and placed the head of the smoke stream as the child of a null object so that I could rotate around that origin point in space. It's a little adventure creating this stuff!

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I was going to side-light with an emissive panel, but when I created a default panel it was lying on the floor by default and it struck me that might be a good location for a dramatic light. It was a "happy accident".

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From doing the test-renders, it appears that it will take about 6 hours to render the full detail, which is good as I have a drawing group happening this afternoon during which I can let my computer chew on the image a bit.

P.S. - The thing that stands out to me is the hand and wrist. What to do beyond masking it behind a bracelet or other obstruction? It isn't central to the image as much as the eyes, but it's geometry throws me off a little in that it looks a bit plastic like. Image maps? a set of normal map creases behind the wrist... something to create some wrinkles on a bent back wrist?  There is always post-work, but I like to minimize that if possible. Anybody do any wrist-bend fold morphs?

"More Human than Human is our Moto" - Eldon Tyrell

Sorry, that's GMT, they always do an update with the conversions later, I think it's about 2pm Central time.? 12pm Pacific? 1pm Mountain, and 3pm Eastern.

 

https://digitalartlive.com/event/20-powerful-postwork-procedures-with-pd-howler/

Another webinar coming up! use "postwork10" to get a discount.  It doesn't matter which render engine you use, this is about postwork of the image in PD Howler. If you aren't interested, please spread the word! Sorry, that's GMT, they always do an update with the conversions later, I think it's about 2pm Central time.? 12pm Pacific? 1pm Mountain, and 3pm Eastern.

Thanks!

PS. has anyone else tried the techniques from the previous webinar? And I've been told that the recording will be on the DAZ store sometime this week.

Question of the night: Why, when people read ALOUD that they're supposd to travel on foot to a destination, do they immediately run to a taxi, thus incurring a 30 minute penalty for violating a rule they read out loud?  And both partners said'taxi' at the same time!!  It cost them first place and a huge prize.

Dimwits. :-|

I watch this program to reassure myself that I'm not the biggest idiot in the world. :-O

 

The world is full of idiots!  I used to tell my friend this all the time.  Eventually, he saw enough to realize I was right!  You, my friend, should know this already!  You are no idiot!

Dana

I was in a Wal-Mart store yesterday* (while out on my mini-adventure avoiding cabin fever), standing in line at the check-out.  The three unkempt women with the cart ahead of me had an overfull cart of crap and were arguing about which stuff they should keep.  Consequently, they were unloading as rapidly as drugged sloths.  Meanwhile despite this glacial unloading process the checkout person couldn't keep up, and items were piling up on her counter.  Having oodles of time on my hands my eyes started to wander and settled on the gossip rag in the display next to me.  I stared mouth agape at the headlines and finally had had enough foolishness and said in an easily heard voice "How did the world get so stupid?", turned my cart around while muttering "let me out of here I need to find some sanity" and moved about a quarter mile down the isle of check-outs until I found one with a very short line and a half intelligent looking person at the till.  I was pleasantly surprised that she was even more than half-intelligent, and we had a quick conversation about the only thing in my cart, "Grape Nuts" breakfast cereal and the state of cereal consumption.   And people wonder why I call my short trips uptown "mini-adventures".

- - - - - - - - -

* I normally avoid Wal-Mart like the plague because the parking lot is usually full, the store is too big to wander in less than an hour, and the traffic in & out is frightning, as are the people one gets too close to.    I had gone into Wal-Mart specifically for the Grape Nuts because it's the only place around here that I've found that sells them (because Wal-Mart sells everything).   It seems Grape Nuts are out of favor these days among smaller grocery stores, because only old people (like me) remember it.  And us old people are mostly too wise or too frail to compete with the typical Wal-Mart patrons.  While in Wal-Mart I did wander and oogle at all the stuff that defines modern life with the intention of looking for something that I couldn't live without.  But having a modicum of sophistication I was able to avoid throwing anything else into my cart despite the forest of big yellow signs telling me what a great price they had on it.   (Same avoidance technique I use in the DAZ catalog.)

 

** My recipe for warm Grape Nuts:  A little hot water from the tap (the hotter the better), enough to wet but not cover the cereal and a teaspoon of honey.  Stir to a consistancy of oatmeal.  Eat before it cools. Yummmm! 

...I only ever set foot in a Walmart once (with a friend was looking for new cookware).  That was one time to many.  The videos I see on YouTube and pics on Pinterest are no joke, it really is that bad even here in Portland OR.  When I looked at the prices on a few items, I didn't really see much of a savings (in some cases if any) over many other stores in the city here.

Fortunately I can get the food items I like at one of the regular supers within walking distance (including Grape Nuts which is about the only cold ceral I'll buy - and yes, using hot water is the best) and fortunately the nearest Walmart is a multi bus trip away so I'll never waste my time going there.

Oh, and that news the other month about Whole Paycheque prices coming down after Amazon took them over, hasn't happened here. Stopped at the downtown store to pick up a few hard to find items on the way back from dropping off my special election ballot at the central library on Monday, and if anything, prices have gone up since the last time I visited there.  They are also purging a lot of items (including some I like) as well. I have the feeling this store is about to become the next Amazon Go outlet.

And on a more innocent note, here are some posts of Sakura 8 https://www.daz3d.com/sakura-8

The background is the Central Park HDRI by Mec4D. Had to get that because I grew up in NYC right near the 59th street entrance to Central Park!

Also on laptop and iPad postwork. Just tests really.

I bought Gardens Vol. 1 and Central Park. The attached renders illustrate the problem: #! was done using the default settings, #2 with Environment Intensity turned down to 50%, #3 with Intensity and Saturation turned down to 80%. Besides reducing the available light, turning down Environment and Saturation settings darkens the car (and the car interior, supposing it had a tiny driver that I wanted to show).

re: Tom Robbins's words of wisdom, I've tried to live by them since I retired 8 1/2 years ago at age 58 (I was a surveyor on Canada's Wet Coast). Must be on my 4th or 5th childhood by now. Can't keep track any more...

On the subject of HDRIs, you might want to check out https://hdrihaven.com/ if you haven't already. They're free, they're super high quality--up to 16K--and Greg Zaal seems like a really square guy who deserves all the support he gets, including mine.

Cheers, eh? (as we're alleged to say in Canada).

Question - Have you ever tried to paint a figure?

What challenges did you face?

 

Well, with this guy, the challenge is reaching inside all the little crevices to get the details, like his gold chain under his lekku. 

Very good!  Did you air brush that?

Base coats are airbrushed, with that gentle highlight on the pants, but I've moved on to brush work. All the texture in the skin has been done via a glazing technique. Lots and lots left to go! I think I'm about 6-8 hours of work in so far, and not even done with the skin yet. I've been painting him up on-stream. You can check out the VoDs if you're interested: https://www.twitch.tv/hana_hanabi/videos/all Thursdays at 5:30pm Central and Sundays at 3pm central, although those times will be changing soon when I start my new schedule at work in Feb.

I've decided this year I need to render stuff I buy and not just stockpile it. I picked up Northern Winter Village yesterday. I like what I'm seeing. It comes with a 3DL or Iray scene with five buildings and a mountain surround. The village has pine trees, steps, a central square, street lamps, and paths through snow mounds. It reminds me of some of the skiing villages I've been at.  It renders with a light that's similar to late afternoon at northern latitudes - the sky is still blue but the lights have come on and are casting a glow on the snow. There is no sky with the set, so I used one from Eternal White Skydome and HDRI which is a fitting companion. 

I wanted to also use winter clothes I've picked up the past 6 months. Karen 7 has on Autumn Jackets for Genesis 3 Male(s) and Female(s), JeanZ for Genesis 3, Comfeez Boots for Genesis 3 Female(s), gloves from Nomad for Genesis 3 Male(s) and Female(s), and a knit cap from City Dweller Outfit for Genesis 3 Female(s). The hair is Fantasia Hair for Genesis 3 Female(s). I had to play around with the hair and cap morphs to mostly hide the hair sticking through the cap. The same for the boots and jeans as I wanted the tuck in look (easier if you stick with the jeans outside the boots). The gloves also needed attention as they widen to an extra large cuff - I used the geometry editor to select the parts of the gloves covered by the coat sleeves and hid the polygons. All in all it went together well. 

Mely3D is one of the PA's and I have their French Ski Resort. I plan to put the two together although I'll probably have to use the scene optimizer (mostly because I know the ski resort is memory intensive). For just the winter village, it did drop me to CPU rendering but the times were not bad - about an hour for 1200 by 960.

I have some 4000+ products in my runtime and when I do a thematic scene like this, I constantly find out how much I'm missing. If it was summer time, I'd have no problem, but cold weather has fewer offerings.

Here's two different Iray renders (click on images for larger versions).

 

 

You're welcome! I haven't taken them out in a while, myself. ​As to access, I think you fly in to those pods where the arches meet the central disc. There's a recessed opening, and a scaled-down (1/120th) traffikar or Dystopian Aircar would just fit.

1. they are different in angle to the camera resulting in slight different size and shape of the 2D visual

2. there are the already described differences in the shadows and the reflections from one face on the other already mentioned, the shadows I woudl as well thing are caused from the different angles

3. the left faces seems to have a slightly higher gloss especially on the nose ridge, I can't say if that is caused by the small difference they have in position or if that is what is caused by your indicated difference

4. the left face seems to be a tiny bit lighter in colour regarding the central facial area

I finally got Sakura to work--now her eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows are showing up when I installed through Connect rather than DIM... I think she's adorable, but I'm definitely going into that uncanny valley with this one. Tried out Mec4D's Central Park HDRI (plus extra lights) with it and a drop of iPad postwork (still sick in bed with flu!) Central Park was my childhood stomping ground so I couldn't pass that up when it was on sale. I see her products are on sale again, but I really miss those loyalty rewards...

Very cute, Wonderland! So sorry to hear you've got the flu. We spent a good chunk of December sick with Influenza A. My entire family had it at the same time. Guess who was sick and got to stay up with sick kids? So glad it's over (it really wrecked Christmas this year!)

Thanks @Llynara. I got sick a couple days after Christmas so missed New Years Eve and am STILL sick! Horrible cough, asthma, just started antibiotics. When I went to the doctor, she coughed in my face! Everyone seems to be sick in LA and it was 70/80 degrees until a few days ago.Raining yesterday and today. Sorry, so OT here, but I discovered something cool because of this: Himalayan Pink Salt lamps! (Available on Amazon.) Great for people who spend a lot of time in front of the computer. They are gorgeous and help remove EMFs...

Errrr. Antibiotics with a viral infection?

Yeah, I have bronchitis and the first thing I researched was treatments - and antibiotics aren't really helpful for viral infections. 

I finally got Sakura to work--now her eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows are showing up when I installed through Connect rather than DIM... I think she's adorable, but I'm definitely going into that uncanny valley with this one. Tried out Mec4D's Central Park HDRI (plus extra lights) with it and a drop of iPad postwork (still sick in bed with flu!) Central Park was my childhood stomping ground so I couldn't pass that up when it was on sale. I see her products are on sale again, but I really miss those loyalty rewards...

Very cute, Wonderland! So sorry to hear you've got the flu. We spent a good chunk of December sick with Influenza A. My entire family had it at the same time. Guess who was sick and got to stay up with sick kids? So glad it's over (it really wrecked Christmas this year!)

Thanks @Llynara. I got sick a couple days after Christmas so missed New Years Eve and am STILL sick! Horrible cough, asthma, just started antibiotics. When I went to the doctor, she coughed in my face! Everyone seems to be sick in LA and it was 70/80 degrees until a few days ago.Raining yesterday and today. Sorry, so OT here, but I discovered something cool because of this: Himalayan Pink Salt lamps! (Available on Amazon.) Great for people who spend a lot of time in front of the computer. They are gorgeous and help remove EMFs...

Errrr. Antibiotics with a viral infection?