Coming up- a different look at Bethany.

1.) Replaced the materials with Summers.

2.) Made Surface Pane changes so far as the Base, Translucency, Metallic Flakes, etc. In other words, my own custom blend. So not "Summer" anymore.

Also darkened the iris color and the lip color via Surface Pane.

3.) Using body part sliders only (no People sliders, like dialing in Victoria 7, etc) made a custom character.

If you don't like the muddy-ruddy or orangey skins of Genesis 3, you can putz in Surfaces and create a wonderful spectrum of skin tones and sheen. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see what you can do with Bethany- what I like is the arms and legs. They have such a realistic weight added to them, and by reducing that massive bust and thinning the hips a bit, you get a gal that's solid without being busty. The thighs were toned and reduced slightly. What I was going for (and am very happy with) is a heavier figure that isn't a model, that has hips and a thicker waist, solid shoulders and legs, with meat on her bones!

I am running errands and this is currently rendering. I'll be back in about an hour- storms coming in so have to get out the door. (8:36am central time.)

Ok guys I changed the font to something thicker.  I attached a copy to the previous post so both thumbnails appear for comparision.  I also attached a copy here in case people don't want to scroll.

As a thumbnail, I can read the text and author name perfectly! Nice! The figures make a nice silhouette against the flame and the title and author pop. 

I do have question that popped in my head when I viewed the the full size image. With the title Athena in Ashes - I think of Athena the goddess, of course. The wording makes me think of not so much a person, but something feminine - perhaps a city like Athens for example. So when I view the full size image and see the central character is male (although because of the darkness somewhat androgynous) and someone who looks feminine but without detail behind him, I was like huh? The entire feel of the cover is very masculine with the dark shadows and flame - while the title is an aspect of the feminine.

I just thought I'd mention it because I don't know if the contradiction is intentional or if it was something that was considered at all. I thought perhaps you might want to play up that aspect or tone it down? That's something so subjective it's not funny. But one never knows what sort of thematic elements the author and artist want to touch on, so I toss it in your direction. Kick it around like a soccer ball - just don't hit me in the head, thank you! lol!

Great job!

Hows the one cover with the angel coming? I really like it. Or did I miss something while I was trapped in the stone age with no internet access? lol! 

Cheers,

Kath

The elevated road has always been there - I did a render from it almost as soon as I puchased. Remeber that only the central area is fully detailed, though I don't recall any desperate issues with my roadside render.

More stuff...

ABOVE: "The Central Core" set... Poorly lit, and only in material zone stand-in colors (no textures yet)... I never got around to properly setting up Twilight Render, so the lights don't work yet, but the sun does, so its lit by whatever I could get the sun to reach...
The unit is supposed to have a longer shaftway (this is only half its length), filled with lava at the bottom... it would be good for desperate laser battles, destroying an evil overlord's lair and "Luke... I am your father... really... no foolin'" type of renders and or scenes.

ABOVE: "Doctor Doomont"s Amazing Destruct-O-Tron"... I don't know what it does and I don't care, but I bought a real one from some old lady at a garage sale for $3 in Canadian pennies... She said something about it "warping the fabric of reality and merging the borders between other universes" and "being highly unstable and dangerous" and "great for making popcorn"... 
It didn't pop corn but the last I cranked it up, a talking ferret named Larry materialized... He went out for some beer and never showed up again... never give beer money to a talking ferret.
Anyway... I intend to finish this up in proper Steampunk fashion... lots of different metals and dark wood...with dial gauges and toggle switches. Right now its just in placeholder colors.
 

ABOVE: Just a "Corner Store"... as in store on a corner... It was going to be an old arcade, but it could also be a pool hall or Laundromat... it has offices or apartments upstairs and a full basement... all doors open and all windows too... there are stairs inside too.
This is one of several structures from my "Four Block" project... I'll be happy if I complete one block... all the buildings were to have full interiors and working doors and windows.
This model is also in placeholder materials, sans textures for he time being.

ABOVE: This does not even really have an official name yet... the working title is "SumCliffLedge"... very original and descriptive, no?
It is a cliffside lair entrance or secret base... it will have a couple of interior rooms and some corridors... It will be open for expansion modules.
That sloshy translucent stuff at the bottom is supposed to be ocean... I don't know how I feel about that. Its very hard to model good choppy seas.
 

shouldn't that part of the world be in slumberzone by now !!

I know a lot of folks have been asking me about the "neighborhood" portion of the Blue Collar series of houses, and I wanted to stop by here and let those who are interested know that I haven't forgotten about you!  As I think I've mentioned before, the Blue Collar Neighborhood was initially conceived as a 4-person project that would have been completed in a 3 month period ending in March of 2014.  I did my part, and then my three partners up and vanished on me without doing a single thing.  So in addition to the other projects I've had going on, I was kind of left holding the bag (and taking the heat) on that.

After doing a little work on the Blue Collar project this past spring, while I was in the process of wrapping up another smaller project today, I reopened the Blue Collar files to have a look and see what can be done.  I'm in the process of laying out plans to complete the entirety of the project and would like to begin on it this week or next.  The first step was to decide exactly how to fit the existing Blue Collar houses into the new plans, as well as figure out exactly what else needs to be built.

What I have decided on is represented by the attached grid layout.  There is currently 1 style of Blue Collar House, the Brick Bungalow, which is available as a higher poly full-interior house, and in 5 variations of a medium poly exterior-only.  I will now be building a set of medium poly exterior-only Brick Ranch houses, with 5 variations.  I will also be building 5 variations each of a sided medium-poly ranch exterior and a sided medium-poly ranch exterior (each with different rooflines/features to distinguish them from the brick versions).  Additionally, I will be doing low poly versions of each of the 4 styles for long distance, fill-in shots for backgrounds.  In total, the completed Blue Collar Neighborhood will feature 720 total houses (Brick Bungalow, Sided Bungalow, Brick Ranch, Sided Ranch, plus long-distance low-poly background variants), with roads, fences, power lines, trees, and a central park that has a baseball field, a soccer field, and an American football field surrounded by a running track.

It's going to take quite a while to finish all of this, and I will be working smaller projects into my schedule along the way.  But I did want to give everyone who has been interested a heads up on what's happening with this project.  Available sets will probably be the existing 5 low poly brick bungalows (with the roads and fences added), and a similar set for each of the others... sided bungalow, brick ranch, sided ranch, plus an additional set for the long-distance houses of all variations, and a final set for the center park.

Check out the layout attached.  I will also be posting more frequent updates at the Collective3d Facebook page, which is linked in my signature.  Come on by, give the page a like, and share it, if you can!  There are going to be lots of goodies coming between now and the end of the year!

So tell me, does the camera rotate around a central 0,0,0, point or is the torus rotating around the h.p. at 0,0,0 while the camera sits sets inside at a fixed point inside the torus tube itself?

TimBo, sorry for any confusion.The torus rotates AROUND the camera, in my example, on the 'Z' axis. Position your torus object at 0,0,0. Move your camera 'into' the tunnel of the torus. You may need to adjust the torus object, or camera or whatever to fit your conept of a wormhole. I found that making a smaller initial circle in the Spline Modeller and then making a torus of like 2 meter radius worked okay?

This video's opening was done in ChaosPro  (free at ChaosPro.de ) and is a seamless loop which repeats twice in the opening.  Ignore the rest of the video if you want.  Or watch it! It was my abandoned effort for FractalForums' Annual Contest this year.  The woman in the video is the Lissa whom I am always going on about being my only reason to live, and this was a tribute to her  (she's very sick right now and it's taking a toll on all apsects of both of our lives 

Sockratease, I watched the video, thanks for sharing. My heart goes out to both of you and I am sending healing thoughts your direction.

Black Hole Modifier...can be so cool!

 

Both DesertDude and Wendy (er, I mean JaguarElla) suggested using a torus.

I thought I'd try it.

http://www.whenpigsflyetc.com/gallery/wormhole2/

de3an, I tried watching you clip but only the first frame showed from my end. I tried Firefox and Safari...ah, now I see the OP  has had the same problem...

Meanwhile, here is my attempt with the spinning torus. I got fancy and spun the camera around it's 'Y' axis as well. Looped 3 times:

Really nice work! With the proper speed, it looks as if there is no need to even bother with an animated shader!

Thanks evilproducer! But I owe that to an old After effects tutorial interplated for Carrara. And after much thinking, nearly the exact same concept could be used directly in Carrara with all kinds of fun options...that is 'ring' of flat planes with some kind of alpha texture spinning aound the camera with some motion blur...

P.S. I am trying to get used to the new forum. Sorry If I attach tons of quotes upon quotes...where is the 'Preview' button????

So tell me, does the camera rotate around a central 0,0,0, point or is the torus rotating around the h.p. at 0,0,0 while the camera sits sets inside at a fixed point inside the torus tube itself?

The plan is to make an east, west, north, and south section of the colony and a central core, each its own unique set but with similarities to tie them together visually. Each of these are large environments,  and easily adaptable to both games and animation and graphicart storytelling.  And then there will be a couple more interior sets for a variety of locations and uses, stuff like industrial research types of settings. This is to tie in to the scifi stuff I already have in the store.   I've got the basic blueprint and I expect that it'll evolve as I go along creating it.  Each set will have a full scene preload as well as additional individual props presets.  And as most of my emvironment sets,  many of the the elements can be added to,  or  hidden,  moved or removed from the scene.

I am from and live in central (upstate) NY. I've been lucky enough to travel a bit - been to England a few times and a brief trip to Paris. 

Hi all, I wanted to have a central place for discussing some of the current and forthcoming IRay, UE4 (and DAZ related) tech in hopefully an easy to digest manner.

There are a number of discussions going on here about IRay, but I would like to focus on the underlying technology and expand that into educated perspectives on the future directions of this technology. With that in mind, I'd like to kick it off with a couple quick links...

As people add links, I may copy their links to these first couple of posts so that people don't have to root through the whole discussion for links that are particularly popular or pertinent.

Due to the nature of updating this front page with new links as they become available, anyone interested in this topic will want to check in on the front page from time to time for updated information.

Nvidia Physics Hair: Thanks to Luv Lee for pointing this one out. While I've been watching IRay demos for a while now, this one slipped past me and was the inspiration for the thread.

Nvidia Turf Effects

Nvidia (Official) Physics Flex video

NVIDIA PhysX FleX v0.25 【Tech Demo】 i7 4770K GTX 780Ti 【1080p 60 Fps】Another Flex video that showcases some of the great features of Flex

NVIDIA Iray: Light Path Expressions and Compositing Elements Light Paths and compositing are very powerful tools that aren't currenlty exposed in the DAZ environment but are common tools in most advanced environments, including Blender, VRay and many other render environments. This technology was brought out in a product by Dreamlight for the 3DL environment (don't remember the name atm..) Hopefully we will see this technology in a near future update to DS. Forum link to discussion on LPE in IRay.

London Loft in UE4. While most of us have probably seen some of the many Realtime Archtectural demos in UE4, this is a nice quick example that is included to open the discussion related to this type of use of the technology and perhaps where DAZ might fit into that environment.

Nvidia PhysX FAQ

Nvidia's IRay Home Page Some good information here

IRay Origins For the curious.

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the reply and for the link to your video.

In the video, your character is standing and bends his knees until he almost touches his own heels.  Then he straightens up again and, throughout this motion, his feet have remained on the same spot.

I could do this easily in Poser because, by default, the figure's feet are 'frozen' on the spot.  I would simply select the hip (or whatever bone is the central one) and pull the figure downwards.  The feet stay on the same spot and the knees are forced to bend. If I pull upwards high enough, the figure's feet do raise from the ground but they are still drawn to the spot they were standing on (if I move upwards and sideways, say).

What I've been trying to do in Carrara is take a figure sitting on a rock, legs dangling over the edge.  I want her to stand up.  So far I've animated the figure swinging round with the legs simultaneously being drawn up to begin standing up from the flat rock she was sitting on.  At the point  where the figure has swung round she needs to lean forward, put her weight onto her feet and begin to stand up.  It would be great to start this part of the animation by having both feet fixed in place at that point.  Then I could select the hip and pull upwards - just as I could in Poser.  The legs would straighten up as yours did in the video.

Instead, when I raise the figure by the hip bone, the whole figure rises with the legs still bent - as would be expected unless the feet could be fixed in place.

The pre-built nature of DAZ characters may be the problem in setting up a new IK chain.  I tried and it worked poorly.

As for locking from the motion tab:

The motion tab has different sections to open up: Constraint; Translation; Transform, etc.  None of them seem very intuitive to me at first sight.  In conjunction with the manual, they do make a lot more sense but I still can't see a simple way to freeze  parts of a scene.  The 'Lock' tick box only seems to apply to certain types of constraint - if I remember correctly - my brain is wasted nowadays.

If you select part of  DAZ G2 figure and look at the Translation section of the Motion Tab, there are 6 padlocks, 3 odd symbols (which toggle on and off) and 12 tick-boxes to play with.  By playing with these, I could get a shin-bone to freeze but I thought that there may be a tried and tested better method.

I appreciate your help and any further help but if there is no quick answer, I would hate anyone to go to a lot of trouble on my account.  Maybe other people would use NLA clips - about which I know next to nothing!

Regards

Chohole, as i get time today, I'll start with the Art Studio and cruise through those using Chrome, Windows 7, 64 bit. I'll try to hit the first three pages and click to enlarge images. That way we'll have some kind of organization at least for the Art Studio forum. I'll edit and post the results here so they'll be in one spot.

EDIT:

Novica And Invited Guest Contributors, Thread 6: Images there, click to enlarges not there, starting page 1

 Images not there at all, starting page 1

Exumbra23's Render Thread

Car and Bike Lovers Thread- Mark IV

ZDG Random Daz Studio Discoveries  

Bigh Some of My Renders and Animations

Book Covers 

Art of the Promo

Serene Night's Sci-Fi Fun

Okay, seen enough to know the entire Art Studio forum is down. (as of 10am Central Time, 7-10-15. 

Note this behavior:

Samples of my Renders By Cosmo: one image only was there on the first page, the rest gone. When I clicked on the one image, page not found, and then it was also gone from the first page!

...astronomy has always been a big interest of mine since I was young. My mum gave me a really nice telescope for Christmas and at the time we didn't have a lot of light pollution in the neighbourhood (being close to the airport I guess was a help). While in grade school I used to check out books from the adult section of the library, which I read and actually understood which "concerned" my teachers to thje point the school had several "conferences" with my mum. I knew the life cycle of stars, understood red shift, knew what made each of the stellar types unique and was able to grasp a lot of the basic physics involved (Physics and Math were also my best subjects in high school). My minor in college was astronomy and astrophysics and even my work study job was co-managing the campus observatory (which had a 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope under the dome). I learned to actually like winter (even though it was old as heck up in central Wisconsin) as that was when the atmosphere was the most stable.

Taozen said:

Novica said:

fixmypcmike said:

Novica said:

One thing to note- the cart is and has done the wrong dates ever since Magento, possibly before but I wasn't a member then. My order several hours ago (BEFORE daz time changeover, Central time was even before midnight) showed 7-1 when it was clearly still 6-30. This might make a difference if you are trying to tell support that you still had the Summer Sizzle savings (as we don't know when it ends.) So be aware the cart date isn't correct, even by Daz time. It is only now 1am central time.

Where are you seeing this?

In your Orders. The dates are often one day off. And I mean when I order several hours before daz midnight. I am central time, placed an order around 11ish here (which means 1am is daz's midnight) and sure enough, it put the order as July 1.

I've noticed these inconsistencies too. Some are possibly related to summertime which is a global mess because the change takes place at different dates in different parts of the world. I've more than once discovered that my cart have gone to full price an hour before expected because a store has shifted to summertime that day, at a different date than where I am.

Yes, but in Novica's case something very strange is happening, as the purchase is being made at 11:32 CDT but the email says 11:32 PDT. My emails always display MDT and show the correct time (i.e. 2 hours earlier than EDT in my case).

Novica said:

fixmypcmike said:

Novica said:

One thing to note- the cart is and has done the wrong dates ever since Magento, possibly before but I wasn't a member then. My order several hours ago (BEFORE daz time changeover, Central time was even before midnight) showed 7-1 when it was clearly still 6-30. This might make a difference if you are trying to tell support that you still had the Summer Sizzle savings (as we don't know when it ends.) So be aware the cart date isn't correct, even by Daz time. It is only now 1am central time.

Where are you seeing this?

In your Orders. The dates are often one day off. And I mean when I order several hours before daz midnight. I am central time, placed an order around 11ish here (which means 1am is daz's midnight) and sure enough, it put the order as July 1.

I've noticed these inconsistencies too. Some are possibly related to summertime which is a global mess because the change takes place at different dates in different parts of the world. I've more than once discovered that my cart have gone to full price an hour before expected because a store has shifted to summertime that day, at a different date than where I am.

fixmypcmike said:

Novica said:

Jun 30, 2015 23:53:54 PDT on the receipt

Order Date: July 1, 2015 in the Orders section

Happens a lot whenever ordering after 11pm Central time.

I wonder why it says PDT if you're Central time? Is your billing address correct?

Yep. Florida. Central time.

Novica said:

Jun 30, 2015 23:53:54 PDT on the receipt

Order Date: July 1, 2015 in the Orders section

Happens a lot whenever ordering after 11pm Central time.

What date and time does it say in the confirmation Email? I checked my order from yesterday and they are correct, but that was 11:30 AM (9:30 AM MDT).

Mine is given in MDT and I live in EDT..

EDIT; DOH I should read better! :red:

Novica said:

Jun 30, 2015 23:53:54 PDT on the receipt

Order Date: July 1, 2015 in the Orders section

Happens a lot whenever ordering after 11pm Central time.

I wonder why it says PDT if you're Central time? Is your billing address correct?

Jun 30, 2015 23:53:54 PDT on the receipt

Order Date: July 1, 2015 in the Orders section

Happens a lot whenever ordering after 11pm Central time.