If someone is looking for some inspiration TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is Showing The Great Race on Saturday, March 29 at 4:00 PM central time. (Check your listings to get the time for your area and in case the site I got the time from had it incorrect.)

This movie was the inspiration for Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races and has been an inspiration for others series, movies, etc.

evilproducer said:

I love shiny new toys to, but sometimes the necessities have to come before toys.

You know, like ... food ... shelter ... ;-)

One day, EP will get a new Mac and then the meteorologists will have to report on this unseasonably warm weather front over central Wisconsin. It will affect the entire continent. No one will know what is causing it. Except for Dart...he'll know...EP is basking in the glow of uncontrollable bliss.

Kharma- I'll usually mention it here whenever I see it, in case you miss it- but I'm spending a lot of time customizing my studio so am not surfing the shopping section as often. I do try to check it midday and evening, then late evening. Does anyone know what time of day the last two $50 spent get $10 off started? (it's been 2 days in a row, and I know they were active evening until around 1:15am when the site changed over. That would be Florida/Central time.)

BTW Kharma- did you ever customize/rearrange your studio? SereneNight was so helpful back in thread 3 (or was it 2?) and made it very easy to understand. Takes a lot of time to do it right though.

SixDs said:

You never cease to impress, J. Impressive work.

A comment on the chimneys: I spent some time rummaging around the net after following this thread with great interest. Essentially I was curious about the interior of the real chateau, and was hoping to find a floor plan or at least lots of interior shots. Given the high profile that the place enjoys, I was surprised at how little information on the construction and interior there was. Lots of exterior shots, but little inside. From what I did find, in particular a partial walk-through video (confined largely to the front of the first floor), it seems obvious that there have been extensive renovations over the years. I could see no evidence of either hearths or fireplaces where they should have been. This led me to assume that they had been walled over at some point, being replaced with central heating. Also, the black-and-white shot of the stairwell not only shows that much of what must have been the original marble on the floors and starcases is gone, when compared to the more recent colour photo. Even the orientation seems to have changed somewhat, although maybe that's just vertigo on my part.

Anyway, thanks for the fascinating diversion! The actual model will be a bonus!

Edit: I should have paid closer attention - the second, colour shot of the stairwell is from Versailles, not Sceaux, which I would have known if I had followed your link. :(

i think i saw a photo where we can see a fireplace ....
lets see ...

( note i released a first version of the castle just now )

a whole lot of photos here http://www.ytraynard.fr/2013/08/domaine-de-sceaux/

more than 1 building on the grounds though

You never cease to impress, J. Impressive work.

A comment on the chimneys: I spent some time rummaging around the net after following this thread with great interest. Essentially I was curious about the interior of the real chateau, and was hoping to find a floor plan or at least lots of interior shots. Given the high profile that the place enjoys, I was surprised at how little information on the construction and interior there was. Lots of exterior shots, but little inside. From what I did find, in particular a partial walk-through video (confined largely to the front of the first floor), it seems obvious that there have been extensive renovations over the years. I could see no evidence of either hearths or fireplaces where they should have been. This led me to assume that they had been walled over at some point, being replaced with central heating. Also, the black-and-white shot of the stairwell not only shows that much of what must have been the original marble on the floors and starcases is gone, when compared to the more recent colour photo. Even the orientation seems to have changed somewhat, although maybe that's just vertigo on my part.

Anyway, thanks for the fascinating diversion! The actual model will be a bonus!

Edit: I should have paid closer attention - the second, colour shot of the stairwell is from Versailles, not Sceaux, which I would have known if I had followed your link. :(

Daz Challenge-March-Reflections on Water: http://www.dreamslayerartworks.com/vB3/showthread.php?9967-Daz-Challenge-March-Reflections-on-Water
Deadline will be "Midnight" Central Standard Time at the end of every month

laurenwbr said:

chohole said:

So nice to see someone making some British buildings. And I know what you mean about 1800s being modern. We live in a late 1880s type working mans (think miners or iron workers) cottage, and in the next village up there is one street with similar age houses which are called "New Houses" as part of their addresses, so you could live in Number 1 New houses, and so forth

Hi Tim, Love your city/town, looking good!

We live in a Victorian terrace house built in 1850 that we have broken up into 5 flats. It's a Grade 2 listed building. Some day I hope the gov't will wake up and let us have double glazing, change the old skylight that will never stop leakibng, etc. We lose so much heat and our heating bills the winters we had cold weather here in the SW were ridiculous. In London the Parliament building is the same, it's a heat hog. We cannot touch certain things on or INSIDE the building at all. I believe in preserving the look, but large (6 foot by 4 ft) single pane windows in a city with modern noise, it's a nightmare.

There are STILL gad-zillions of places in the UK that have no street address, they are just called EG Rose Cottage, Camden Lodge, Hollings House, etc.

When we lived in the US in New England, there were wood houses still going that were built as far back as the early 1700s!

Keep building!

xx :) SileneUK

I feel for you over the double glazing, but sometimes that can be overdone. Our cottages are stone built, with 18 inch thick walls. Many have been refurbished and had uvpc double glazing installed and central heating, usually gas fired. This actually causes condensation problems and windows have to be cracked open for a while on all but the really worst days to allow a smidgeon of air circulation, which doesn't help with heating bills at all. :coolsmirk: One neighbour has just splurged out and replaced all the uvpc windows with hard wood double glazing, hoping that will improve the situation.

BTW, as to houses with names. Until we moved here we lived in a house called "Chohole Gate Lodge" and as it was one of the gate lodges of Richmond Park we originallly had no street address, until the Post Office decided it was going to link us to the access road outside the park to give the postman some indication of which area the Gate lodges were, as Richmond Park is large (outside circumference is 10 miles) and has quite a few gate lodges.

Vaskania said:

I like the idea of an old horror motel a la Psycho or Vacancy. Something modular would be great. Maybe something with these:

1 office, left/right walls having ability to be hid separately so we could put it on the left or the right side of the motel
1 room, also left/right walls w/ ability to be hid, for the same reason (left/right end caps and central rooms)

Or something to that effect. Then we can just add as many rooms as we like and create preloads for whatever layouts we want. Granted, I'm talking of an exterior set. Interiors imo are easy to fake w/ any environment. Just need a wall w/ a door and a window.

if you have seperate buildings you don`t need hideable walls. One office duilding one "room" building so you can place so many "rooms" in a row you like :)

office:

door and window at the front, backdoor and smaller window at the backside

room: door and window front and smaller window (bathroom) at the backside

@gopherus - #4 - I love this idea and the poem is superb! And thanks for your comments on mine. What did the landlord have to say about the "improvements" to his house? Of course keeping animals in (or under) the living quarters was a traditional way of keeping the house warm, but I think I'm glad to live in the age of Central Heating :)
@Totte - thanks for the comment.

I have tutorials and videos from the internet that I would like to store in a central place.
Can I create my own sub-folder in the My DAZ 3D Library folder without causing problems with the DAZ 3D Install Manager?

Hi folks,

here is my render for the March contest DOF. I am new in the 3D World since November 2013. DOF is one thing I tried to realize at a very early stage in my renders. It gives a nice realistic touch for me.

Both renders are done in DAZ 4.6 Pro with just a littlebit of postwork in The GIMP. Using Victoria 6 (Norma) with Displacement Map, a Michael 5 character and quite some other characters. The Central Station backgound was a favorite product before I began working with it. It looked quite flat, so I added some Displacement and Normal Maps by myself. Unfortunately the additional parts of the central station did not show up at the DAZ Shop as promoted. Too bad. Central station really is a very nice place and it could give a much larger background to some renders.

The first of the both pictures gives You a little more overview about the scene.There is some DOF, but not too much. However, the focus is on Norma and Michael and You will notice a girl looking at them.

The second picture with Norma close is my favourite entry for this month. The sharpness in the picture is just on Normas face.

Hope You like it.

Cheers
Paul G.

LycanthropeX said:

I haven't been posting much online anymore. I really would like to get all my stuff in one central location where people can find it. trouble is a good portion of my work violates the TOS of most sites. Unfortunately the only sites that i can post on are usually adult/ porn sites, and while my work some times contains nudity, i really don't think of it as porn. My work is more towards the icky gore and violence side of things.

DA is probably one of the few places where I can post my work... but I just never really cared for their site. Not sure what it is but going there kinda gives me the same feeling i get when I see trypophobia images. When I get some new images done they will probably go up at DA. I have been in a bit of a funk since last October, not really done anything since then and that is really not like me.

Not sure if I will be doing any video tutorials. I don't have a program that does the screen videos like you see in most, and truth be told I am really crap at doing tutorials. Its so much easier to just do this stuff than it is to try to explain how to do it.

I think I am coming out of my funk now and have a few projects in the works. I think a lot of my stuff is probably going to end up on my YouTube channel. I also have a comic book I have had on the back burner since last September. Not sure if or when or where that will be posted.
I'm looking forward to seeing more from you. I keep getting in funks myself and spreading myself too thin. So many media styles I like and need to learn/expand on that I keep jumping in with both feet in everything and end up belly flopping and smacking my face instead.

I would suggest Flickr with a content rating of restricted on your images, but their new system can be awful in some areas. For example, when setting filters, the settings window shows you the last used settings rather than the current settings for the album you're editing, so everything looks like it has the same damn settings when you're editing (when they don't). I went through flickr settings for 2 hours with a friend before we figured that out.

Another option if you can afford it is getting your own webspace and throwing a gallery script on it.

LycanthropeX said:

What is the square root of bacon?

narwhals bacon at midnight

Sorry, I have to
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Narwhals/ ;)

I haven't been posting much online anymore. I really would like to get all my stuff in one central location where people can find it. trouble is a good portion of my work violates the TOS of most sites. Unfortunately the only sites that i can post on are usually adult/ porn sites, and while my work some times contains nudity, i really don't think of it as porn. My work is more towards the icky gore and violence side of things.

DA is probably one of the few places where I can post my work... but I just never really cared for their site. Not sure what it is but going there kinda gives me the same feeling i get when I see trypophobia images. When I get some new images done they will probably go up at DA. I have been in a bit of a funk since last October, not really done anything since then and that is really not like me.

Not sure if I will be doing any video tutorials. I don't have a program that does the screen videos like you see in most, and truth be told I am really crap at doing tutorials. Its so much easier to just do this stuff than it is to try to explain how to do it.

I think I am coming out of my funk now and have a few projects in the works. I think a lot of my stuff is probably going to end up on my YouTube channel. I also have a comic book I have had on the back burner since last September. Not sure if or when or where that will be posted.

Thanks for the tips none01ohone, jestmart! I've tried that out and it's a better solution than moving vertices completely away then moving them back again; i'll use it in the future!

There remains only one thing now; eyes in Daz3D. I've created the morph (which changes the head shape entirely, and partially the feet) and it imports fine, morphs fine, the result is great. Now it's the textures that need redoing.

But I found a slight hiccup; the eyes are now in a different position, slightly enlarged and further apart, with the unforeseen consequence that the eye bone is in the same place, away from the center of the eye sphere... so rotating launches them out of the eye socket on most axes, which is fun to play with but isn't exactly what I intended!

Two questions, two obvious solutions; can the eye bones be relocated so the eyes rotate "on the spot", inside the socket? If not, is the only realistic option to leave the eyes where they were (I assume their size doesn't matter as long as they're still central to the original position), then reposition them separate to the morph to keep proper rotation?

I like the idea of an old horror motel a la Psycho or Vacancy. Something modular would be great. Maybe something with these:

1 office, left/right walls having ability to be hid separately so we could put it on the left or the right side of the motel
1 room, also left/right walls w/ ability to be hid, for the same reason (left/right end caps and central rooms)

Or something to that effect. Then we can just add as many rooms as we like and create preloads for whatever layouts we want. Granted, I'm talking of an exterior set. Interiors imo are easy to fake w/ any environment. Just need a wall w/ a door and a window.

I downloaded and installed Central District Subway Station using DIM but now all I have is the icon with exclamation mark. No product loads. when I double click the icon it prompts me "which of the pages would you like to view? Read Me, Product, Neither"

evilproducer said:

And yet. when you're talking about the numbers the OP is talking about, he clearly wants density, so the overlap issue may not be a problem for a forest or grass, as in real life, branches and blades of grass tangle and intertwine one another.

Also, you can use distribution maps to control where the replicators replicate the objects.

Speaking of food for thought, here's my method of dealing with just that sort of thing:
After replication, I find that I need more sticks or stones, blades of grass... whatever.
Select the thing I want to make more dense and Ctrl D (Duplicate) to create a new instance of it. (working directly inside the replicator, usually)
Scale, rotate, translate that second instance to my liking - something that in effect makes the one become two that are near each other or even overlapping.
Repeat if necessary.
Select those instances and Ctrl G (group) them so that they appear to the replicator (no matter which you're using) as a single item.

Again, repeat if necessary either on the same subject, or anything else that I need to make more dense.

Here's a tip that can help to prevent a common problem with over-replicating:
Replicators are great. All of the different versions make our lives much easier for placing mass amounts of items.

Do keep in mind that the render engine has to calculate all of this stuff for each and every frame.

Density is often most important in the foreground. If the background is obscured, even just partially, it will not need as much density - and giving it more density anyways might be a simple and quick way to lay down a lot of stuff, it can have the effect of slowing your render to a crawl. This is how I thought up the idea of using multiple terrain pieces.
Here's how the EnvironKit method works, just as an example of how I do it, but the possibilities are not very limited in ways to deviate:
There's one super large piece of terrain specially made to bowl out in the center, so that it only shows in the very distance, while also encompassing the entire horizon of the scene, no matter the camera angle. I even keep the fidelity low on this piece, since we're only seeing larger details, and we're taking advantage of a special shader setup that makes the most of its appearance.
In the center of the scene there's a 100' x 100' (or similar) terrain which is relatively flat in the center, because that's where I like to load in my content for whatever final scene I'm after - be it a dragon, a house, or both and a whole lot more, etc., with nice terrain features all throughout, beyond that central radius. These features, however, are purposefully kept relatively small to work nicely with the next part.
Where I've really found magic and control is to introduce yet another terrain element. A smaller one that I can replicate stuff all over without stealing precious time and resources for my renders and my system memory. Sure, I have made many distribution maps for placing stuff onto the central piece of terrain I've made in the last step too. That's a great, and even fun technique to use. But using these new pieces, like I've said, allows for much more flexibility and user control over the actual, final appearance and placement.
For Woodlands I use three such new terrain pieces, small, medium, and large. The smallest one uses duplicated plants instead of replicated ones, because this gave me total control for a really natural look. The largest one has replication that works to huge advantage. I can turn the terrain one way for a really dense forest, or another way to show off more of the underlying terrain shader and topology, and other angles show somewhere in between - and all of these angles look great and render pretty fast. The medium size uses a combination of hand-placed duplicates and replication, focusing on having lots of detailed interest around the border in addition to the taller stuff in the middle, inter-mixed with other sizes for natural depth, filling the area to look like a natural piece of wooded land. During the whole process of making all three, I had worked very long and hard to keep resources to a minimum while going for a nice, dense, natural look and feel. It's always easy to add more, but not so easy to start with just what you need, where you need it, to help keep efficiency at a peek.

Time it takes to render isn't the only consideration when it comes to using masses. Carrara is a ray tracing renderer - and it's a pretty darned good one at that. If you're casting raytraced shadows, the raytracer has to store every single polygon to memory, because it sends rays, according to the ray depth setting, for each rendered pixel against every light that uses raytraced shadows, and against every other polygon that each ray intersects. This is not only a huge burden against render time, but it can easily cause today's most RAM-ridden computers to run out of memory - causing a failed render or, at best, one that takes forever as your system constantly tries to juggle all of these polygons, what they might block and what might be blocking them, from those lights. The problem increases massively if you're also using soft raytraced shadows, and distant lights, including the sun and moon lights, are even more taxing that other types.

So I have always been in mind to keep density where it is absolutely needed, and away from where it is not.

We do have the ability to isolate such problems by adding lights that don't raytrace shadows for those distant objects - another topic altogether.

Lately I have been experimenting with using shaders to help remove the need for intense replication of smaller objects with great success. I can hardly wait to show some of those results.

starionwolf said:

Paypal or some other online payment system dropped an art gallery because the art gallery hosted nude 2D and 3d artwork. I think the art gallery is hosted in central Europe. Said art gallery does not allow artistic nude art anymore.

Ok, so why not drop PayPal? Are they that important? I doubt it.

Paypal or some other online payment system dropped an art gallery because the art gallery hosted nude 2D and 3d artwork. I think the art gallery is hosted in central Europe. Said art gallery does not allow artistic nude art anymore.

Jabba101 said:

An untouched test render - scene uses four lights, but only the two central spots are flagged for volume - render time of 3mins 44secs...