aaron575 said:

not sure about the poses and thinking of adding a few more birds.

One trick that I learned while doing the dance pose is that a point light between the two figures that hits them both with even falloff will put the focus on the central characters, and make it feel like they are sharing an intimate moment. I like this image very much! I am not sure if you are familiar with some of the communities beyond the Daz garden gate, but the folks over at PDFlives enjoy similar themes to this, and are content creators for a lot of textures and freebies for many things, including the various doll/toon characters. There are 2 sites, one where you have to be registered where the community interacts, http://pfdlives.com/pfd/ and one for freebies that anyone can access: http://www.pfddelights.com/index.php?action=forum. The only other suggestion I can come up with for your image is that it looks so happy- but the sky looks sad. I would like a more cheerful sky!

...happy - however many trips around the central stellar primary - you have made

Kyoto Kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

Speaking of trips to Orlando.... many many pages ago.

Here's something new for the area.
https://www.officialorlandoeye.com/

Now I have another reason to go besides the new HarryPotter Diagon Alley attraction at Universal.

...hmm, 400' tall in central Florida. First thing that comes to mid are thunderstorms.

Not the largest though as there is a much bigger one in Las Vegas (of course) at 550 ft tall making it the largest observation wheel in the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Roller_(Ferris_wheel)

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. (i.e your lunch after riding that wheel)

Kyoto Kid said:

LeatherGryphon said:

Speaking of trips to Orlando.... many many pages ago.

Here's something new for the area.
https://www.officialorlandoeye.com/

Now I have another reason to go besides the new HarryPotter Diagon Alley attraction at Universal.

...hmm, 400' tall in central Florida. First thing that comes to mid are thunderstorms.

Not the largest though as there is a much bigger one in Las Vegas (of course) at 550 ft tall making it the largest observation wheel in the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Roller_(Ferris_wheel)

The Orlando Eye will be about the tallest thing in Florida (other than antennas). Orlando's on the Florida ridge. That's the "spine" down the middle of Florida that is slightly higher than the rest of the state (elev 82'). Miami and Tampa have tall buildings but they are down at sea level. The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Space Center is about 400 foot high but it too is at sea level. I've been on the roof of the VAB 40 years ago when I worked there. Cool view of swamps and ocean. :coolsmile:

Don't worry about lightning. Just wear an aluminum foil hat and you'll be safe. :roll:

Oops, just Googled and there is a 70 story building in Miami that goes up to over 700 foot.
Also, a 580 foot building in Tampa, and a 450 foot building in Orlando.

But still, 400' is pretty tall for Florida. You can see every cow for 24.5 miles around.

LeatherGryphon said:

Speaking of trips to Orlando.... many many pages ago.

Here's something new for the area.
https://www.officialorlandoeye.com/

Now I have another reason to go besides the new HarryPotter Diagon Alley attraction at Universal.

Not the largest though as there is a much bigger one in Las Vegas (of course) at 550 ft tall making it the largest observation wheel in the world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Roller_(Ferris_wheel)

Okay,

Star Trek has a long history of trying (often succeeding) in getting technological theory correct. Surfinh on a wave of expanded space over compressed space and you have warp drive, for instance. Bussards lay out a parabolic field to collect fuel miles across. Particle beams and photon torpedoes. Quantum Communication allowing instant communication across galaxies. Graviton control for artificial gravity and inertial dampers and structural integrity... also allows the ship to “float” in an atmosphere like a dirigible (zeppline or blimp)

I am curious about some things: When you're thinking Trek, are you a purist? Or, in your fantasy do you incorporate elements of other Space Opera stories?

For instance: CJ Cherryh took a Heinlein Concept (Citizen of the Galaxy) and made it central to her universe in which Merchants were almost as well armed as warships, but privately owned by families that live on an run them.

Mercanter's Luck (Cherryh) and Citizen of the Galaxy (Heinlein) I think display this best.

I also loath the notion of Transporters for which there is no science save for a very vague, untestable hypothesis...

Then there is also the notion of Time Lines. What if Hitler died in 1915, and the British Empire never collapsed... nationalism was still a thing and Enterprise, or one of her sisters, could sidestep between these realities?

Some of you have seen the ISC Cruiser I'm working on. Frogs (or salamanders) who believe so much in a peaceful galaxy they'll kill to get it. Non-Canon, of course. But a product of Stat Trek licensed game. And I really like the meglomaniacle attitude of the frogs as the only race mature enough to enforce peace.

But, in general, what kind of non-trek elements do you incorporate into YOUR Star Trek?

Roygee said:

Joe, this is really interesting and informative. What I'd be particularly interested in is how to relate to Carrara and the various passes; what they do, how to use them to improve a render, how they interact and what blending modes are used.

I know this is a very big ask, but I'm sure you and the other experts can give good advice on this :)

Roy, I re-read your post and I'm not really sure what you're asking. I *think* you're specifically interested in info on the various Carrara render passes, and what you can do with them.

Like I said, that's a huge topic. And I think I lightly covered a bit of that when I discussed the object index, depth, shadow, reflection, etc. passes. And the important concept is this: look at your image, decide what you want to modify, and then figure out how to do it. Are your shadows in need of a little blur cuz they're too sharp? Are your reflections in need of a little blur cuz they're too sharp, and you don't want to spend all of that render time on the internal blurry reflections ? Do you need to focus the viewers' attention on a central character and want to apply some depth of field or fog to the background? Do you need to apply a color correction for any of the reasons I mentioned?

I think the natural tendency here is to focus on the tool and how to manipulate it. But I'd suggest focusing on your image first, how you can modify or improve it, and only then do you start to look at your tool and its capabilities. Guaranteed you can find a way to do it, but first you need to know what "IT" is...

I think I gave a bunch of examples of stuff you might want to change, so I'd suggest starting off with one of those things and explore it a bit. Or if you can think of something else, then post it as a question and we can help you figure how to do it.

I'd suggest starting off simple. Forget the GI and all the fancy stuff. It's too easy to get off on a confusing and complex side issue. Just take each pass, figure out what it looks like and why, and use your imagination to see how you might change things with it.

Hey FirstBastion - I love this product; its one of my most favourite sets. I really needed some sci-fi sleeping quarters and this fit the bill perfectly.

I'm having a little bit of trouble with the central "FloorMain" floor panel though in Iray - the textures of the metal are coming out nicely but for some reason the panel gets divided up into sections with clear black dividing lines. Have you come across this, and do you know how to get around it please?

Edit: Ureka! Sorted it - I had to put the texture map into the Displacement Strength map and whack the value up to 2. Looks perfect now. Sorry to bother you; I'm learning something new every day at the moment.

I originally wanted to have a lightset that works for both indoor and outdoor scenes. However, fully enclosed indoor scenes was out of the question (no sunlight coming in). So I transferred the strength of the distant light I was using as sunlight to the various linear point lights acting as fake bounce lights.

The scene is FW's The Central District Subway Station. I've converted most of the surfaces (if not all) with my various US2 MATs.

SileneUK said:

Oh, you forgot about BST, I did, too! Well I hope this is out like a lion and in like a lamb... need to organise outside DIY and soon! :) SileneUK

All my other clocks change automagically. So I only forgot to reset the central heating clock before going to bed.

SileneUK said:

chohole said:

SileneUK said:

OK so can you buy "another one" to put on a different computer, eg my laptop??? Could I then copy my DAZ file folders with content to said laptop?

Sorry to be confused.com

:) SileneUK

No you don't need to buy another one for a different computer. You need to buy 2 items from the MM sale to get the 50% discount, any 2 items, not 2 of the same item.

Ahhhh....OK, thanks CH for putting me right on this.

Got a couple of shaders of Ringo's that I didn't have. With the horrid weather here, I am happy to work inside today.

:-) SileneUK

Ah you got some lovely weather as well. I had to get up an hour earlier than I wanted to only to find howling winds and torrential rain, plus the Central heating boiler was an hour slow, so the house was cold.

If you choose to make your own island in Bryce using the terrain editor, you can of course make it any shape or height you want. You might be able to do it all in one shot, or it might make sense to compose it of several terrains like one flat one for the beach sand, another one for any higher rocky portion or central hill, etc.)

If you decide to try to create an island in Bryce, but decide to transfer that to DAZ Studio instead of transferring your figures to Bryce, there are two things you should keep in mind:

1. Bryce shaders are not compatible with DAZ Studio. when you do the transfer, Bryce will make a half-hearted attempt to bake a material onto the terrain if you choose to do that, but it won't look the same. Make sure you have DAZ Studio materials available to re-texture it, or do a quick test to see if you are happy with the default.

2. Don't use the bridge ("Send to DAZ Studio") which degrades the terrain to an unusably low level. Instead, do this:
Select the terrain, then from the menu bar select File > "Export Object". Change the filename to have no spaces, or it won't work. Change the "Save as type" dropdown to "Wavefront OBJ Files (*.obj)(Mesh Export)" and press the Save button. Drag the slider at the bottom of the next window all the way to the right to increase the resolution to the desired level (the default is far too low) and press the green checkmark.
Then in DAZ Studio, import the exported terrain.

I've been through a few minor tornados. Trees down, lost a fence, etc. But my most memorable experience was on a nice sunny day with a couple of dark patches of cloud in Florida on the central east coast near Melbourne. My home was only a couple hundred yards from the ocean. I came out of my door, looked up for some reason and noticed that I was looking up at a shaft of bright white vertical cloud almost above me. I thought "that's strange". I grabbed my binoculars off of the piano and took a closer look and could see that it was swirling really fast. By that time I was looking almost straight up this column of white cloud and realized that it was a waterspout in the ocean just off the beach less than a quarter mile away. Then it disappeared in a few moments. Poof, gone.

I was at the Sheetz flagship store in Altoona, PA.

Sheetz is a gas station with cool computer consoles to order food. Their central location has gelato and amazing food options, it's like Heaven's gas station.

I started taking pictures so I could relay how cool it is to friends, and was told I'd have to refrain.

Dumor3D said:

The free HDR site I linked is for sIBLs. They have an extra file in them that allows you to create lights within them. So, for softwares that support sIBL, and if the sIBL is a good one, there are extra lights in the scene which combined with the HDR, the ENV.hdr, there is a lot more information and the scene should look good or great.

I've spent a good bit of time on using HDRs with Iray and so far the only truly successful renders included using the backdrop in combination with the HDR. Some HDRs do work pretty good on their own. What I've found is the central portion, where you figures would be are in a shaded area and not bright sun. Of course use of a HDR for indirect lighting into a room works very good as long as there is not a super clear view to the outdoors through a window or opening.

The number 11 hdr in the second Yosemite set works really good as a standalone in Environment Map as it is a shaded scene.

My two favorites from there are Malibu Overlook and Ditch River...also any of the DutchSkies ones are pretty nice.

Now here's a quickie I did last night. Just the HDR...but it was a big one with a pretty good ev (over 20, if I remember correctly). I made sure the headlamp was OFF and that's about it...yeah, it could 'cook' a little longer, but I went with default values so it quit at 95% in about 30 mins on my 1 GB 430GT and dual core 3 GB HTPC....

The free HDR site I linked is for sIBLs. They have an extra file in them that allows you to create lights within them. So, for softwares that support sIBL, and if the sIBL is a good one, there are extra lights in the scene which combined with the HDR, the ENV.hdr, there is a lot more information and the scene should look good or great.

I've spent a good bit of time on using HDRs with Iray and so far the only truly successful renders included using the backdrop in combination with the HDR. Some HDRs do work pretty good on their own. What I've found is the central portion, where you figures would be are in a shaded area and not bright sun. Of course use of a HDR for indirect lighting into a room works very good as long as there is not a super clear view to the outdoors through a window or opening.

The number 11 hdr in the second Yosemite set works really good as a standalone in Environment Map as it is a shaded scene.

Linwelly said:

kaotkbliss said:

I've made modifications to the lower figures bend and hand and also added a scene (of which I still need to mess with lights and change stop settings to get rid of the graininess)

Welcome back to the newts contest kaotkbliss.
You have chosen a very complex scene, with a lot of changes compared to the originals. That is not a bad thing, but it makes comparing difficult. I guess the poses are rather close to your orignals, what I am missing is ther correspondanceof the two figures with each other, wich obviously is not central in this case as they come from different scenarios. But I believe it would make your scene more complete if you could achieve that.

... guess I'm not of big help here

ps: yes I know what newts are :coolsmile:

If you look at the 2nd reference image, that character isn't even looking at the opponents and I was trying to keep that same feeling of surprising the enemy (you know, pretending to not be ready when you actually are) Unfortunately the unclear render washed away the angry face of that character and I think I need to make the open-mouthed surprise face on the white one more apparent. Although it is hard to see through those helmets lol.
*edit*
maybe I can add some motion to the character on the bottom without losing the pose to make the interaction more complete...

kaotkbliss said:

I've made modifications to the lower figures bend and hand and also added a scene (of which I still need to mess with lights and change stop settings to get rid of the graininess)

Welcome back to the newts contest kaotkbliss.
You have chosen a very complex scene, with a lot of changes compared to the originals. That is not a bad thing, but it makes comparing difficult. I guess the poses are rather close to your orignals, what I am missing is ther correspondanceof the two figures with each other, wich obviously is not central in this case as they come from different scenarios. But I believe it would make your scene more complete if you could achieve that.

... guess I'm not of big help here

ps: yes I know what newts are :coolsmile:

You have closed the Viewport pane - Window>Panes(Tabs)>Viewport, drag the tab into the dicking area (just under thetoolbar) to place in in the central well.

EDIT: New question asked in this post here.

EDIT 2: New question solution found.

I apologize for the redundancy, since I'm sure this question has been asked and answered more than a few times by now, but basic search isn't specific enough, and advanced search is still broken.

So: I may be getting a new computer and/or moving the location of my content in the next few weeks. I was wondering where the actual database that PostgreSQL is using is located on my computer. Is it just the startling number of DSX files stored in Runtime\Support? Is there an actual database other than that somewhere? If so, where?

I've exported UserData more than once, and those files are in Runtime\Support, but there's nothing remotely approaching the size of the UserData files in there.

I don't mean the PostgreSQL.exe itself; I know where that is. I'm just looking to find the actual database with the content.

I'm using Windows 7 64-bit.

I've looked in Appdata/Roaming/DAZ 3D, but there wasn't anything big enough to look like a database that I saw there.

Any information will be much appreciated. (Also, perhaps it could be added to the FAQ in this forum section so that there's a central location. Or if there actually is a main post with that information, maybe a crosslink?)