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...

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

angusm said:

There are some pictures of what people think women's clothing might have looked like at this page. The baggy overdress worn by the woman in blue, plus headscarf, looks a lot like what I've seen women wearing in Central Asia, which makes me think that it could well be a kind of 'proto-dress' that showed up in a lot of cultures at different locations and times.

The red dress with brown overdress about halfway down the page is a pretty cool outfit! I'd love to see something like this made as a proper set, with all the accessories. But in the meantime....

The MFD has some "loosen sides" morphs that would help, though you want the waist to tuck in again where the belt ties it. I think http://www.daz3d.com/defiant-for-genesis would probably be the best starting point for Vikings, both male and female, as the basic garment is mostly the same other than length. Defiant includes a tied belt at the waist, as well as a tabard that could be used for the overdress, with a little transmapping, and brooches can be parented into place.

For those wanting to try dynamic options, I think these would be good for starting points:

http://www.daz3d.com/angelic-dynamic-gown-for-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/angelic-dynamic-robe-for-m4
http://www.daz3d.com/angelic-dynamic-robe-for-k4

This would be pretty plausible for guys:
http://www.daz3d.com/dynamic-male-peasant-clothing

Tabard here, might work for overdress:
http://www.daz3d.com/dynamic-tabard-with-coif

Or the dress included here might work for the overdress:
http://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-pattern-design-kit

That set also includes various scarves and such that would work for head coverings.

There is the medieval female peasant outfit, but that scooped neckline looks as if it would leave you a bit chilly round the fjords. Possibly you could morph the morphing fantasy dress to make something that looked baggy rather than sexy.

Re-textured, the headscarf from Valea's Gypsy Hair might make a decent head-covering for your Viking maidens. Less prosperous members of your community might wear something like the Old Hag Robes. A hooded cloak is probably appropriate too, and you might get some mileage from Courageous for V4.

The problem is that even the more modest female clothing available at DAZ typically either has a plunging neckline or clings in a way that I don't think would be likely before the advent of modern tailoring.

There are some pictures of what people think women's clothing might have looked like at this page. The baggy overdress worn by the woman in blue, plus headscarf, looks a lot like what I've seen women wearing in Central Asia, which makes me think that it could well be a kind of 'proto-dress' that showed up in a lot of cultures at different locations and times.

...that was because rooms needed to be closed off to hold in what heat a fireplace or "Franklin" stove provided on cold days. Central heating (usually coal fired) was found only in the largest, most expensive homes and still primarily only heated the lower floors.

Kyoto Kid said:

j.zyla said:

spiderland said:

Very cool. I just picked this up and have the previous Bungalow and Farmhouse. Looking forward to the next neighborhood releases.

Thanks for your support :)

The Cape Cod is incoming very soon and very shortly after it the much rumored Modern Home 2 should also be making an appearance!

...Frank Lloyd Wright styled?

Modern Home 2 is a two story foursquare with faux dormers on all four sides of the attic and ship lap style siding. The interior has a living room and a formal parlor with pocket doors and coffered ceilings and an interesting central staircase. It was originally designed for Sears around 1916.

Kyoto Kid said:

...well, it's not actually at Mt Mood proper. The centre gets it's name from the nearby Mt Hood Community College (which is is also partly affiliated with) that is on the far east side of the Portland metro area. The one bus that goes by there takes a long time to get there from where I live (even more so from downtown), is usually never on time and because it has a lousy frequency, is frequently crowded even in the middle of the day.

If they wanted it out of downtown they could have relocated it in the "Eastbank" area or Lloyd District across the Willamette so it would still be readily accessible to those who live in the central area.

I saw the location of the college on the map. The community college is kinda far from downtown Portland. I don't know that there is a suburb called Mount Hood. Learned something new today.

I'm going shopping on Content Paradise before one of the sale ends.

...well, it's not actually at Mt Mood proper. The centre gets it's name from the nearby Mt Hood Community College (which is is also partly affiliated with) that is on the far east side of the Portland metro area. The one bus that goes by there takes a long time to get there from where I live (even more so from downtown), is usually never on time and because it has a lousy frequency, is frequently crowded even in the middle of the day.

If they wanted it out of downtown they could have relocated it in the "Eastbank" area or Lloyd District across the Willamette so it would still be readily accessible to those who live in the central area.

Kyoto Kid said:

...busy week last week.

Why the central city WorkSoruce office (which was conveniently located right downtown by the university campus) was closed and consolidated with the Mt Hood one way out in the eastern burbs one will never know. Guess the city felt the presence of jobless people in the downtown area would detract from the latte swilling "hipster" environment they want to create there.

Makes no sense. You'd think they'd make want to it to be more convenient and attractive to use their services to help get you back to work as soon as possible.

I checked the map. Mount Hood is about 50 miles east of downtown Portland. Wow. Mount Hood looks like a nice place to go hiking though. There is a big forest there too.

...busy week last week.

Must have been tired as I didn't get up until late today.

Was gaming with some friends last night Did some RPG stuff followed by a rousing round of "Cards Against Humanity" that went until after 01:00. Got home checked the forums some conspiracy theory fun stuff on YouTube then went to bed.

38° and cloudy today with icy cold (not freezing, just cold) rain and more wind on the way. Good day to just stay home.

Was a lovely day yesterday, got up to 64°. Felt like spring....well...unless you had to go to "east county" like I did where there was still a frigid wind out of the Columbia Gorge. Nice though once I got back into town.

...related Caturday complaint:

Why the central city WorkSoruce office (which was conveniently located right downtown by the university campus) was closed and consolidated with the Mt Hood one way out in the eastern burbs one will never know. Guess the city felt the presence of jobless people in the downtown area would detract from the latte swilling "hipster" environment they want to create there.

..or maybe it was a plot to get more money for the transit agency by forcing everyone who lives in the city to pay 5$ a day (or 100$ a month for a pass) to get there. You are unemployed and looking for work and/or any way to better your chances (a lot of the workshops WorkSoruce offers are actually very helpful and free), you don't have a lot of money, yet you have to cough up for round trip bus/tram fare plus waste an hour or more out of each day just to get there.

Makes no sense. You'd think they'd make want to it to be more convenient and attractive to use their services to help get you back to work as soon as possible.

DIM is offline due to the site being down- Jaderail was nice enough to answer my question in the commons. You'll get the sit and spin, then message about checking your password/account. Just wait it out. (it's 3:40am central time and still not working. Site went down two hours ago for about an hour and DIM has gone poof ever since. They are working on it.)