Digivault & Orestes Graphics 60% off today.

Stonemason said:

SickleYield said:

To my way of thinking there are two ways to do this, the "Stonemason/Dreamlight" method and the "Orestes" method. That is, you can make huge expansive environments that look fantastic in wide shots, or smaller detailed environments that look great in closeup.

Trying to do both in one set will drive you categorically insane. I'd pick one for a given product even if your catalog ultimately contains both.

I'd like to think my sets cater to both,they may be rather large in scale but you should be able to do good quality close ups at the same time, there's really no reason to be stuck with one or the other.

Or you can do both, because you're Stonemason. ;)

P.S. - This is not to say that there's anything wrong with his sets, or Dreamlight's, in closeup (as is undoubtedly visible from my own promos, which often use Stonemason's smaller sets). It's just that some of them are so huge that I'd think loading the resources would be wasteful for a small close-in scene!

SickleYield said:

To my way of thinking there are two ways to do this, the "Stonemason/Dreamlight" method and the "Orestes" method. That is, you can make huge expansive environments that look fantastic in wide shots, or smaller detailed environments that look great in closeup.

Trying to do both in one set will drive you categorically insane. I'd pick one for a given product even if your catalog ultimately contains both.

I'd like to think my sets cater to both,they may be rather large in scale but you should be able to do good quality close ups at the same time, there's really no reason to be stuck with one or the other.

To my way of thinking there are two ways to do this, the "Stonemason/Dreamlight" method and the "Orestes" method. That is, you can make huge expansive environments that look fantastic in wide shots, or smaller detailed environments that look great in closeup.

Trying to do both in one set will drive you categorically insane. I'd pick one for a given product even if your catalog ultimately contains both.

Needing a playground for all these awesome Merfolk? Well Orestes Graphics has you covered!

In five volumes, Rocks, corals, plants, invertebrates, and a preset starter kit, or get the bundle for over 120 props! Presets for both Poser and DS too!

The Gardens of Poseidon

Okay, I'd like to back up just a bit.
Sometimes we can see how, since Carrara has the ability to create a good many things, or rather, give you the tools to do so yourself, that perhaps some folks might not want content in their work flow. I can totally respect that. Perhaps I'll start a thread about that sometime when I jump on to that page. But I am a very content using person. Petipet is an excellent modeler and has some highly optimized models regarding the polygon numbers vs beautiful appearance. He is not alone in that, here at DAZ. A really impressive example of using maps and clever polygon optimization is Stonemason. Again... not alone. Going through a list of artists at DAZ... some excellent talent there.

I certainly do mean to imply that everybody should get down and dirty with content. I'm not even trying to tell anyone to use content. But as this thread evolves, perhaps folks who do have an interest in this will have a good example of how they can work with it. Some folks might not know what sort of things certain content does - and I'll hopefully give them some pointers - as I'm really jazzed about a lot of the content here.

Speaking of animation. I've mentioned Predatron and his Lorez series of figures. Many people know that these models boast low polygon counts, hence their name: Lorez or something incredibly similar. But unless you own one, you might not know how powerful he makes these things for the animator. He has multitudes of easy pose dials on his figures that makes animating and posing a snap. And I like the way they look. I doubt very much that I'm alone in that. Predatron also has some high resolution figures and a good overall variety to his store.

Every now and again I treat myself to a nice animated pose pack from Posermocap, GoFigure, and now SKAmotion has joined the DAZ team! How I've spent the last few years without knowing Cliff Bowman's store is beyond me. Cliff is an excellent conversation light in the forums, much like the amazingly helpful 3DAGE. It's cool, though, running across stuff like this - it gives me a whole new collection to collect! :)

Cliff and Andy certainly are not alone in the field of having excellent advice to share, either. Blondie9999 has been producing some guides of intelligent advice since Genesis came out - and a lot of Published Artists have learned a great deal from these guides. Again. With a very slight nudge into knowing where to go and what to do within Daz Studio Pro, we can all create new pieces for our favorite figures with a professional set of auto-rigging and set-up tools. People like Blondie and Bobby25 are so good with this tuff, it's really neat that we have this opportunity to soak up what knowledge they share.

Orestes Graphics has some scene sets that I really want. I have a collection started, but I can hardly wait for this to grow. The Necropolis set is totally on my list. I have done so much using scenery set content products that I have often overlooked using some of the really sweet features found right within Carrara at the use of a feature. Orestes Graphics has his Techtonics Vol.s 1, 2, and 3, which work in Bryce, Vue, and Carrara, bringing some beautiful terrain presets to the browser. 3D Celebrity has a cool one too, with the Carrara Vista in the Clouds set. Simply gorgeous. Howie Farkes has some amazing products and are just so in depth with super rich detail, that it can really take a long time to render. The first thing that many of us do, is to put too much faith in the speed and power of our workstations and crank the resolution up to widescreen HD before hitting the render button. Just be warned that Howie's amazing scenes can bring the fastest machines to their knees! Please don't hold this against Howie's work. It is to be commended that someone can recreate reality in such amazing detail. But I bought the Stoney Creek bundle fairly early on in my owning Carrara - and I must say that it got me to shy away for Carrara made scenery - thinking that it was a slow-to-render method. I'm glad that I've proven myself to be a bit incorrect in that department. Mike Moir has some amazing Carrara kits too. Both Howie Farkes and Mike Moir have products that help to teach as well as provide additional landscape. Really looking at how things are made can be as fun as it is educational. The way Mike used sophisticated replication and duplication to build his Mystic Gorge scene just boggles my mind. Another excellent example for detailed settings is "An English Village" by Phil Wilkes, which is a real masterpiece. Ecomantics by Dimension Theory further helps to round out the surrounding environmental techniques by taking a billboard approach to quickly add expanses of scenery that renders at near instantaneous speeds. When I created Woodlands, I did so to help come right in between. I find that it renders quite quickly, while still providing the depth and texture of all three dimensions and Carrara's incredible atmospheric realistic sky.

So it might seem, at first, that I'm just being a big commercial for my friends who sell their skills at DAZ. Well... yeah. That's what I'm doing. But only because I find that sometimes I just need to know that something exists. Daz Dell took me by the hand when I first came to Daz3d and has shown me all sorts of products. It was a lot of fun. He's the one who shown me the Figures, Characters and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art which was then sold at DAZ, and includes a copy of Carrara 6 Pro and Hexagon plus a nice pile of content on the DVD. Fun book too. So my path included that book, a PC Yearly Membership, and upgrade to Carrara 7 Pro, which, at the time included a free upgrade to the soon to be officially released Carrara 8 Pro! Plus another big pile of content.

The thing is, I am hoping that by me rambling on about what I like about this and that, and go on about my methods used to get such and such results, I might just spark some questions that may not have otherwise come up. And, with any luck, we can hopefully answer the question that I somehow indirectly caused the asking of. I really am impressed by the products sold here. You may see that my tastes shift from time to time. One day I'm all about space and fusion powered vehicles. Next I'm buying a horse and a tent. I like it all.

Used:
Genesis Creature Creator Morphs
Genesis Muscularity Morphs
Sirena by Renderwelten(on head)
Raw Demon By Raw Art
Atrophy by Jack Tomalin
Them Bones by Orestes Graphics

Title:
Grave Robber

Software:
DAZ Studio4.6 no Postwork

We are gonna run a DAZ Monster/Creature contest to see who can render the best scary scene with one of the following DAZ characters.

You may use:
1. Fiend
2. Skullcrusher Ogre
3. Infernal Behemoth
4. Any Genesis Creature
5. Any Generation 4 monster/creature
6. or Any other DAZ scary looking figure you can come up with

Official Rules of the contest

1. You must be logged in to your DAZ3D Forum account to submit a valid entry. We will not accept Annonymous or Guest Entries.
2. Submit your image in .jpg format to the appropriate contest thread.
3. Upload you image using the Post Reply - Browse to Attachment feature (In other words please do not link to your image but rather post it to the thread)
4. Keep your images under 400 KB
5. Keep the size of your image to 800 x 800 Max for easier viewing. If you feel your composition would be better served in a wide format or one that is high, please feel free to use any proportion you like up to those numbers. (Example: 800 x 600 or 600x800 etc just be sure not to let any dimension go beyond 800)
6. Submit no more then 1 image.
7. Include the following information in the post that accompanies your entry:
1. Figure used
2. Image Title
3. Software Used to Create the Image.
* Any images that do not have this information will be disqualified
8. Minimal Post-work to your image.
9. Follow the DAZ Terms of Service. No nudity, extreme violence or profanity will be allowed.
10. Please enter images created specifically for this contest and not previously available for public viewing.

* Note: By entering this contest, you agree to allow DAZ3D to use any artwork you submit in any promotional materials they may choose.

Contest close date July 15, 2013, Midnight DAZ time

Prizes:

DAZ 3D If participation is high, you never know, the prizes could get even bigger.
1st- $50 Gift Certificate
2nd - $30 Gift Certificate
3rd - $20 Gift Certificate
$10 Gift Certificate to each of the category winners.

Jaderail is offering Gift Certificates to each of the winners
1st - $10 Gift Certificate
2nd - $5 Gift Certificate
3rd - $5 Gift Certificate

ARTCollaborations http://www.daz3d.com/artcollaborations
1st - $20 Gift Certificate + choice of 3 products from our store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - $10 Gift Certificate + choice of 2 products from our store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - $5 Gift Certificate + choice of 1 products from our store (Excluding bundles)
Category Winners will receive a $5 Gift Certificate each

RawArt http://www.daz3d.com/rawart
1st - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

IgnisSerpentus http://www.daz3d.com/ignisserpentus
1st - 3 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

DzFire http://www.daz3d.com/dzfire
1st - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

FirstBastion http://www.daz3d.com/firstbastion
1st - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

Orestes Graphics http://www.daz3d.com/orestes-graphics
1st - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

FeralFey http://www.daz3d.com/feralfey
1st - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

ForbiddenWhispers http://www.daz3d.com/forbiddenwhispers
1st place -
http://www.daz3d.com/tjs-soapbox-derby
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-little-tykes-cottage
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-little-tykes-fort
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-roby-s-service-station

2nd place -
http://www.daz3d.com/tjs-soapbox-derby ,
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-little-tykes-cottage
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-roby-s-service-station

3rd place -
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-little-tykes-cottage
http://www.daz3d.com/the-playhouse-collection-little-tykes-fort

3djoji http://www.daz3d.com/3djoji
1st -Entire Store
2nd - 5 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

surreality http://www.daz3d.com/surreality
1st - 2 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
2nd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)
3rd - 1 products of choice from store (Excluding bundles)

Good luck to everyone!

This is a render I just finished.

Stonemason's Enchanted Forest
Orestes's Realm of Krystilium
Lantios Core Light set 3
AoA atmospheric effects

Used the photoshop bridge to edit some textures on the crystals to give them a more purple hue. Used heavy fog preset then changed the color of the fog and the depth as well. For those who have played Final Fantasy XI online, this scene was inspired by an area called The Sanctuary of Zi-tah.

After examining the image however I realize I could have added a few extra touches to really bring it alive, such as volumetric lights and some depth of field.

Wow. Deviney's work is effing gorgeous. I'm a harder sell on the "long-haired fantasy ladies standing outdoors" genre lately, but WOW.

And - mestophales Death of Sentinel? Epic. This is what I always wish comic book art looked like instead of how it usually does.

Orestes can paint. Wow.

I can't believe the things I'm seeing today. THIS IS SO COOL.

It must be running fot at least 7 hours already, since it was up when I came to work today morning, now it is afternoon here and it did not end yet. Just like Orestes Graphic´s flash sale.

mishwish said:

Unfortunately four hour flash sales are no good for someone in a different (non-US) time zone

I am in Europe and caught this one fine. But if it´s night in your timezone and you are asleep during the Flash Sale, then that sure sucks... But don´t worry, there are some 4-hour Flash sales that last much longer than just 4 hours. Today Orestes Graphics and 4blueyes both have Flash Sales, and those are up for at least 7 hours already, because when I came to work, they were already up, now I´ll be going home in about 1 hour and they did not end yet... Then there was also a Flash Sale last week (don¨t remember the vendor), and that lasted for at least 3-4 days!

I love the steampunk stuff that comes close to, or actually does cross the line into more of the Sci Fi genre.
Thought I should mention that I think I've just recieved a new DIM notification in my Product Library in my Daz account. It shows as a manual addition in my recent purchases (showing Purchase Date inverted). Yeah... I just spent some more. It was Rosie's fault. She wanted a new game, but was going to feel guilty if I didn't buy something too. So not only did I get that cool chameleon that patience pointed out and the free plinth thingy, but also Orestes Graphics' Flydragon! Excited = me!

I'll have that scotch now... since you're pouring ;-)
Ahhhh smoooooth! Nope... hold the rocks. I don't like water in my alcohol.

While I was at it... I got Rosie a new vehicle to fly around on: Flydragon, by Orestes Graphics! I've been wanting this since it first hit the store. Now It's all Rosie's to fly around on as she pleases. Almost can't wait to show off some renders with her flying this awesome new creature... but, alas... duty calls, and I must.

Oh my.
Someone shows a clip of the results of a dedicated dynamic cloth group made for an engine that can utilize hundreds of lightning fast cores, and suddenly the most wonderful CGI animation creation software for the private user is somehow diminished in quality? Not a chance. No need to get riled or ugly about this.

ManStan, himself has already proven the softbody dynamics of 8.5 beta to be getting really, Really close. I've seen his results. Transposer might have been the perfect solution for One thing... but it needed to go away... and it did. Who knows. It might even still work if you grab a copy of the SDK and mess around, some. So what?

This isn't about what Carrara cannot do... I could walk all over that dynamic cloth Game engine plugin with things that Carrara can do that it simply cannot even have a dream about! lol No comparison - except for the fact that I already know that we ARE getting dynamic cloth for Carrara. It just isn't there yet. But to say that the introduction of Carrara 8 Pro did not prepare Carrara for the ability to accept further reception of more demanding features as it grows... why that would be one o' them thar, what they call an incorrect statement!

Awesome.
In this world, it is not the people who give up that rise above. If you really want your clothes to move, make them move. Nobody is stopping you but yourself. "But those guy's do it for you", true... perhaps. Perhaps not. Go and ask them to do it for you and be done with it then. Or you could do as Cripeman would do... find another way. That's the beauty of owning a copy of Carrara - there's always another way. I used to be pretty good at the cloth room in Poser. Done a lot of work with it. It actually isn't a bad solution if you really want to get dynamic clothing.
My characters simply opted to wear a lot less clothing! :) And the stuff they do wear is pretty snug stuff. Motion morphs are a great way to get motion into clothing to a degree. Nothing beats a great dynamics engine when it comes to realistic draping, however. For a measly, what is it... $99 for PD Pro Howler (Professional, animation suite version of Project Dogwaffle)? Something like that. They might as well give it away... that is very inexpensive for what it can 'help' you do to your animation endeavors. You'll never really find a tool that does everything for you, short of buying the work of somebody else. Then they truly are doing it for you.Movies, games... there you go.

PD Pro Howler now has GPU enhanced support. It's Rotoscoping tools would absolutely help you to get a true feel into your clothing, if you can't seem to get the morphs just right.

Man, this is too bad. All while this was going on I wrote up this really cool article about making terrains in Carrara. Pointed out the cool Tectonic Evolved Series from Orestes Graphics: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, & Vol. 3, Vista in the Clouds, by 3D Celebrity, and the great stores of mmoir (Mike Moir) and Howie Farkes... and just the whole Environments Category for Carrara at Daz3d. I go to hit "Submit" and the dog gone forum broke again...

Too hungry to write it over but I will say this. Just because you may lack the vision to achieve what you set before yourself to achieve, don't blame your tools or the people who made them for you.

(force glow on MS_Lycan created through a special shader setup and the Aura FX feature in Carrara)

Jay_NOLA said:

Glad everyone like the Atomic Rocket site.

The sister site is on star chars is at:

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/starmaps/: 404 Error - Site not found :(

The creator, Winchell's, main site is at:

http://www.projectrho.com/

He did the artwork for some classic sci fi wargames including Ogre.

For those who may not have seen it yet, my Just for Fun video has some cool SciFi Space stuff starting at 4:00 in the video. I enjoy watching the whole thing from time to time. But don't expect it to make sense. It was made from test clips that got me to have the collection of car files that I have today. I look back at that video with pride... I really like most of it.

Oh... But I linked to that video, because at 4:00 you see the reason I created Starry Sky for Carrara. I bought the entering ship from Simon3d at Renderosity. He has a store here too. When Rosie launches her craft from that ship, she's flying a ship I bought from petipet here, for $1.99! :) I love it, as with the rest of his collection. The Stone Mason "Arc" scene was testing cone light FX, and a down the stairs animation I added to a walk. TheAntFarm's Techo Station was another test - and then I decided to make that the location where I'd attempt Rosie's ship landing sequence. She does a quick scan of the entrance before landing. Man, I love this stuff!

Ken OBanion said:

Title: Friday Night at the Drive-In (With Apologies to George Lucas)
Tell me you've never done this! Now get me to believe it!

*cough* Never. *cough. cough...*

Tag: Karibousboutique #3

For Pull #3, Excel spit out:
2062 Parkside Head Interior
676 Deena Hair
606 Dainties for Boudoir Bliss
1900 Mystic Sun

Oh, and I turned Boudoir Bliss into a .cr2 and put it on V4. Used 's Blakrunner's script to convert the .dsa texture into a .pz2. Tweaked bump, etc.

Also used A Curious Schoolhouse (Jack Tomalin, DAZ3D), Terradome (Colm), Nica for V4 (Godin), Them Bones (Orestes Graphics), and various Ron's Brushes (deviney). Rendered in Poser Pro 2012. Postwork in Photoshop CS6.

This didn't feel like an RRRR entry... This is the kind of tragic, girly thing I do all the time. Anyway...

Title: The Ghosts of April

She'd followed him to this forsaken place so they finally could be alone. She'd thought they would become lovers. She was wrong.
Now she stands in the window, looking for the murderer she'd once loved. April may have been a fool, but she won't ever be fooled again...

I've bought a few hairs and a LOT of props, which was kind of expected (I make clothes, so of course I need lots of these for promos). I mean I knew I was getting Maximum Madness and the Outpost the second I saw their WIPs, and I had a giant squeefit when I saw Orestes sets on sale. Everybody loves Jack Tomalin and Stonemason, and I am no exception. But Orestes has done some things that are very special to me because besides being great fantasy sets, they remind me of the Elder Scrolls games' visuals, and those games are what got me into 3d.

I didn't exactly plan to buy the Utahraptor or a bunch of the skins I got, including Ibrahim and Caleb, but I am just a sucker for good male content. Also, the person who can look at Dinoraul's store and not reconnect with their inner eight-year-old (ZOMG DINOSAURS) is dead inside.

Haven't bought any clothes. I feel like I'm more motivated to do good work if I don't fill my library with other people's outfits, so I mostly only buy outfits I want for my D&D roleplaying portraits or the inexpensive very full-featured sets that are in the Plat Club (and these two categories do overlap). I did end up with a couple of cheap female sets a while back as part of another promotion, and I don't care for them except for Scorching Black and Red, which has a very detailed necklace and shoes that are worth the price all on their own.

New Stuff:

http://www.daz3d.com/geishas-for-aiko-5/
www.daz3d.com/yuriko-hair/
http://www.daz3d.com/princess-asia/
http://www.daz3d.com/shuttlestar-extra-textures-package/
http://www.daz3d.com/morphing-square-toe-sandals/

PAs:

http://www.daz3d.com/oskarsson/
http://www.daz3d.com/bluebird-3d/
http://www.daz3d.com/danmoria/
http://www.daz3d.com/orestes-graphics/
http://www.daz3d.com/the-digivault/
http://www.daz3d.com/dzfire/

Themes:
http://www.daz3d.com/people/?vendor=469

3DProclivity said:

LightofHeaven said:

PA CC Freebie mix
Adorkable Christmas -- Enjoy it however and wherever you want!

Used:3DProctivity' AlienHeazds and Scaling preeets
AntFarm's Flex Flyer
AprYSH's Ciri Hair
DestinysGarden's Ciri Hair textures
DzFire's Xmas Train
Maclean's Kids' Playground
Orestes Design's Super Epic, Most Awesome Xmas Tree
SickleYield's Winter Gown
vycktohria's Always A Lady Poses

Sorry I couldn't use them all. And sorry for the bad positioning of the teddy i tossed in.

Thanks for sharing your image. I like what you did and think the teddy bear's position is fine. Someone has to be in danger of falling off when they push it down a hill anyway. Might as well be a plushy someone. And someone had to place that hair on one of the alien heads. Just had to be done. ;)

Anyway, no apologies necessary. It would be hard to get them all in one image. ;)

Yep, I just HAD to use an alien head. I thought the lady looked funny enough with just that hair, then along comes the AlienHeads which . :gave me a grin. I couldn't resist. :D