Well.....Forbidden Whispers store has many 60% off items- and I am not seeing a flash sale banner yet- (cleared my cache, logged in and out, yada yada yada. There are many characters for Genesis on sale and also light sets. (This is 12 noon Central time, April 30th)

EDIT- it's up now. :)

@chohole, could you fake the reflection without it being obvious to the viewer that it's actually in the wrong spot for the angle? For example, actually painting the reflection onto the floor where you wanted it (elongated so it looks normal viewed at an angle), or putting another set of lights at the far end of the room hidden behind the central light fixture, but with their reflections visible on the floor at the desired spot? It might or might not work, just an idea.

chohole said:

Not so much a render, as the start of a render, and a query.

As you can see this is a large room, so I have panned out and used a wide image to try showing as much of the room as I can without too much distortion. I may try a different camera angle.bedfore I add any more to it. THis was really jjust trying out retexturing a whole set with Bryce textures (except for the floor, which I made, and not too well I am afraid.

However the query I have is this. The room is lit by 8 low level radial lights, one in each of the lamp shades. The light fittin is central, the room is circular, and yet I am getting no reflection from the lights directly below the light fitting, it is appearing in front of the floor centre (which is the 8 point star) so is out of the scene in this image.

WHY?

I'm a little bit late for this conversation. When I look at the original I don't see all that much brightness from the lights. It might be helpful to make the radials into visible objects so you can see them physically. This might help with catching the reflections.

chohole said:

Not so much a render, as the start of a render, and a query.

As you can see this is a large room, so I have panned out and used a wide image to try showing as much of the room as I can without too much distortion. I may try a different camera angle.bedfore I add any more to it. THis was really jjust trying out retexturing a whole set with Bryce textures (except for the floor, which I made, and not too well I am afraid.

However the query I have is this. The room is lit by 8 low level radial lights, one in each of the lamp shades. The light fittin is central, the room is circular, and yet I am getting no reflection from the lights directly below the light fitting, it is appearing in front of the floor centre (which is the 8 point star) so is out of the scene in this image.

WHY?

Physics and geometry. Here's how I see it. From the side, drawn very crudely in PSP8. The eye on the left is your viewpoint. The lamp is reflected in the floor, so imagine that the floor is a mirror and that you mirror your room geometry along the axis of the floor. That puts your mirror lamp image well below the level of the floor at the centre point C so where the actual image of the reflected lamp is perceived is at the point of intersection between the floor and the lines traced from your eye to the mirrored lamp in the room below. Does that make sense?

Not so much a render, as the start of a render, and a query.

As you can see this is a large room, so I have panned out and used a wide image to try showing as much of the room as I can without too much distortion. I may try a different camera angle.bedfore I add any more to it. THis was really jjust trying out retexturing a whole set with Bryce textures (except for the floor, which I made, and not too well I am afraid.

However the query I have is this. The room is lit by 8 low level radial lights, one in each of the lamp shades. The light fittin is central, the room is circular, and yet I am getting no reflection from the lights directly below the light fitting, it is appearing in front of the floor centre (which is the 8 point star) so is out of the scene in this image.

WHY?

BurstAngel said:

Knowing the target audience is very important.

I'm currently trying to render my hubby's zombie graphic novel. It definitely not to my taste, but he has a specific audience in mind, him. So he want's girls in skimpy outfits fighting zombies. Lots of T&A, Lots of gore. If there is a man being torn apart by a zombie, he wants to see the gore out in the open. Thank God I have DAZ Anatomy sets and RawArt to help me. But I still need more body parts.

As for my distain for Sparticus, it was MY impression that the story was just an excuse to show hyper gore and sex.
That was the impression I got with Sparticus. I did not feel that the story was central to the show. I had a different reaction when I watched Dredd. I enjoyed it enough that I saw it twice and had discussed its good and bad points with Hubby. This is where expectations of the audience comes to play.
I expected a TV show like Rome, but left with a bad taste in my mouth.
I prayed for a halfway decent Dredd movie and was pleasantly surprised.

Has anyone made a new thread for comics done by various members in the forum? I remember there was a listing in the Art thread. Maybe its time for a new listing so we can see each others stuff and cheer each other on.

To your Hubby's defense, Perhaps he could resurrect the Graphic Magazine Heavy Metal! Certainly if he wants lots of T&A and gore, there is the audience for it. Tarantino has certainly helped desensitize a larger male audience. Spartacus has done the same. I will tell you that as Spartacus progressed, and characters were fleshed out (so to speak) It DID become a lot more like the series Rome. The women are bad girls. I mean really bad girls (the return of Lucy Lawless - Xena) but so lovely it left me a crush on the evil Ilithyia. The men aren't Julius Caesar and Antony but in some ways they are more fanatical. I will tell you that they haven't cut done on the blood quota or even how it's showed but I think it might be one of those shows you either love or hate.

I'll check out Dredd next weekend. The first one wasn't as good as I thought it would be even though I rather like Sly's action movies so I stayed away from this reboot.

I did another check for a comic thread and the truth is, they are just aren't very many. Most bring out a couple of pages and the critics weigh in accordingly. To everyone's credit, I didn't spot a single troll. Any criticism has been constructive even when the offering deserved to be flamed. Making a comic or graphic novel is a huge undertaking and not everyone has the patience for it. I personally would like to see more comics here. At least a good comic thread.

By the way, I do know you're not alone in your feelings for Spartacus. As I mentioned, some of my friends were turned off after the first five minutes for the very reasons you stated!

douglas442 said:

Out here, in Central California, it's Summer already! With 90+ degree days, nearing and breaking records that have stood since the early 1900's... back in the days when our civilization was burning dirty coal like a son-of-a-gun!

uh oh... warning signs... a record-breaking numbers of record-breaking days... that slightly nervous look you've been seeing lately in your local weatherman's eyes...

Cracks in the edifice of climate, folks.

Yup, I fear we've done too little, too late to stop the problems now. Doesn't mean we should stop trying, but I think the "good old days" are behind us.

Dana

Out here, in Central California, it's Summer already... in late April!

With 90+ degree days, nearing and breaking records that have stood since the early 1900's... back in the days when our civilization was burning dirty coal like a son-of-a-gun!

uh oh... warning signs... a record-breaking number of record-breaking days... that slightly nervous look you've been seeing lately in your local weatherman's eyes...

Cracks in the edifice of climate, folks.

Knowing the target audience is very important.

I'm currently trying to render my hubby's zombie graphic novel. It definitely not to my taste, but he has a specific audience in mind, him. So he want's girls in skimpy outfits fighting zombies. Lots of T&A, Lots of gore. If there is a man being torn apart by a zombie, he wants to see the gore out in the open. Thank God I have DAZ Anatomy sets and RawArt to help me. But I still need more body parts.

As for my distain for Sparticus, it was MY impression that the story was just an excuse to show hyper gore and sex.
That was the impression I got with Sparticus. I did not feel that the story was central to the show. I had a different reaction when I watched Dredd. I enjoyed it enough that I saw it twice and had discussed its good and bad points with Hubby. This is where expectations of the audience comes to play.
I expected a TV show like Rome, but left with a bad taste in my mouth.
I prayed for a halfway decent Dredd movie and was pleasantly surprised.

Has anyone made a new thread for comics done by various members in the forum? I remember there was a listing in the Art thread. Maybe its time for a new listing so we can see each others stuff and cheer each other on.

niccipb said:

Ok then, you should be just fine if you decide to use the Mirror modifier...

There is another symmetry option in Blender, but it can be a little tricky... if your working on a whole mesh that has the same topology on both sides... you have to make all of your adjustments on the left side of the X-axis looking at the front of the figure... that would be the right side of the suit... make sure you don't cross the center-line... after you make your adjustment, press A once or twice to select the entire mesh... then select Mesh on the tool shelf and select Symmetrize... the changes on the left should now also be on the right...

Now the tricky part of using that is, if you move any of the verts along the center-line, then this function will create new edge loops to match the displaced verts... you might not see them if the verts were moved only slightly...
Also, the tip I gave you before about using the Circle loop tool might not work to well for you... I am so use to working on a low-poly Sub-Division cage that I forgot that your suit is already fairly high-poly... it works great on low-poly SubD cages...

For a high-poly model you could use the Relax loop tool... find the vertex that is closest to the nipple, then count outward the number of verts were you would like the circles to start... then edge select an even box from the outer most ring around the central vertex... press Relax repeatedly or in the Loop tools operator box increase the iterations to a higher number.... this will start to smooth out the selected edges... it wont go completely into a circle, but repeat this process working your way towards the central vertex... as you get closer to the center the rings will get rounder... you can then work your way back out doing the same thing... when they are all pretty circular, select all of the rings and then press the Smooth Vertex button on the Tool pallet... at this point it will just take some adjustments to smooth out the suface... you can use Proportional editing to make smoother adjustments...

It's a bit tedious, but it does work.... once the figure is in Studio, depending on how dense your poly count is, you can add Studio SubD to further smooth out the shape... this type of topology works pretty well on most all of the Genesis females with the only ones that poke through being The Girl4 and the Voluptuous morph, or any other overly large breasted morph...

Ideally though, true circular edge loops are best, but trying to cut in circular loops into an existing straight edge loop mesh is very difficult if it is already high-poly...

Well those are my suggestions, other Blender users may have some other ideas that might work better...

nicci... :)

edit to add example pics...

Tried my best to follow getting the C Circle created. I think it looks OK. I found as I got to the outer areas to "Circle" that lowering the Influence by about 15 points allowed the circle to slowly relax but there are areas that really need to be more smoothed out and I'm not sure how to do that. I did figure out how to subdivide the center areas to make more mesh for nipple morphs so hopefully no poke-throughs there when Genesis is morphed up a bit. Worked on just one side and then Mesh>Symmetrized it and BAM, other side was just like it. COOL. BUT yea, need to figure out three things:

How to soft select
How to Multi Select areas (faces, edges or verts)
How to Smooth out areas that are looking a bit odd.

Thanks again for all the great info folks. This thread is totally worth Bookmarking at this point! :-)

Ok then, you should be just fine if you decide to use the Mirror modifier...

There is another symmetry option in Blender, but it can be a little tricky... if your working on a whole mesh that has the same topology on both sides... you have to make all of your adjustments on the left side of the X-axis looking at the front of the figure... that would be the right side of the suit... make sure you don't cross the center-line... after you make your adjustment, press A once or twice to select the entire mesh... then select Mesh on the tool shelf and select Symmetrize... the changes on the left should now also be on the right...

Now the tricky part of using that is, if you move any of the verts along the center-line, then this function will create new edge loops to match the displaced verts... you might not see them if the verts were moved only slightly...
Also, the tip I gave you before about using the Circle loop tool might not work to well for you... I am so use to working on a low-poly Sub-Division cage that I forgot that your suit is already fairly high-poly... it works great on low-poly SubD cages...

For a high-poly model you could use the Relax loop tool... find the vertex that is closest to the nipple, then count outward the number of verts were you would like the circles to start... then edge select an even box from the outer most ring around the central vertex... press Relax repeatedly or in the Loop tools operator box increase the iterations to a higher number.... this will start to smooth out the selected edges... it wont go completely into a circle, but repeat this process working your way towards the central vertex... as you get closer to the center the rings will get rounder... you can then work your way back out doing the same thing... when they are all pretty circular, select all of the rings and then press the Smooth Vertex button on the Tool pallet... at this point it will just take some adjustments to smooth out the suface... you can use Proportional editing to make smoother adjustments...

It's a bit tedious, but it does work.... once the figure is in Studio, depending on how dense your poly count is, you can add Studio SubD to further smooth out the shape... this type of topology works pretty well on most all of the Genesis females with the only ones that poke through being The Girl4 and the Voluptuous morph, or any other overly large breasted morph...

Ideally though, true circular edge loops are best, but trying to cut in circular loops into an existing straight edge loop mesh is very difficult if it is already high-poly...

Well those are my suggestions, other Blender users may have some other ideas that might work better...

nicci... :)

edit to add example pics...

I wish I had the link to the presentation I saw on these. They made the two seem like the dynamic duo that would revolutionize 3d graphics, and basically said as much. I've been around long enough to know how long it can take to implement something this ambitious, if ever though, so I wasn't holding my breath (similar to ubiquitous, robust, standardized 3d in web browsers.) They point to the future at some point either way and that is exciting :)

The fact that DAZ is incorporating it into DS is promising. If they can capitalize on it to provide a good central format while also handling managing native formats, while cleaning up their catalog program, they could have a very nice app with a foot firmly in the future. Add-ons that handled things like project management would go a long ways towards getting them more scalability, but only if the fundamentals were more rock solid.

Jaderail said:

Ledhead said:

Jaderail said:

In my neck of the wood's either you drive or make friends with ANYONE that haz a car. The closet grocery store is 12 miles away, one way.Unless the guy with the car wants you to squeal like a pig, then you gladly walk, even if it's uphill both ways.I only get worried when the Banjo music starts. Some Rednecks just like to make funny noises because its fun. I then check for empty beer bottles, I see those and it's time to get out and walk, uphill both ways.

DanaTA said:

Jaderail said:

In my neck of the wood's either you drive or make friends with ANYONE that haz a car. The closet grocery store is 12 miles away, one way.

Do you live in northern Maine? :lol:

Dana

I'm in north central Alabama, I'm thinking pretty much the same just more heat and skeeters.
In my neck of the wood's either you drive or make friends with ANYONE that haz a car. The closet grocery store is 12 miles away, one way.

hehe the shopping centre and supermarket at the end of my street is going to close for a rebuild, everyone is complaining they have to walk to the other shopping centre and supermarket at the other end of the street meantime - OMG the world as we know it is ending :lol:

I have one Mom and Pop store a half mile walk from here. If it ever closes all us folks in Shady Grove will be SOL for chips, beer and cig's without driving all the way to the Highway as we squeal like pigs for the fun of it.

Jaderail said:

I'm in north central Alabama, I'm thinking pretty much the same just more heat and skeeters.

They have a lot of skeeters. And black flies, too. Although the Black Fly is New Hampshire's state bird. :lol: That's their joke, not mine. But when I was up in Carribasett Valley in northern Maine once, we stopped at a spot to watch a moose in a creek. I was almost flown away by these little black bugs that seemed to be burrowing into my skin! :ahhh:

Dana

Ledhead said:

Jaderail said:

In my neck of the wood's either you drive or make friends with ANYONE that haz a car. The closet grocery store is 12 miles away, one way.Unless the guy with the car wants you to squeal like a pig, then you gladly walk, even if it's uphill both ways.I only get worried when the Banjo music starts. Some Rednecks just like to make funny noises because its fun. I then check for empty beer bottles, I see those and it's time to get out and walk, uphill both ways.

DanaTA said:

Jaderail said:

In my neck of the wood's either you drive or make friends with ANYONE that haz a car. The closet grocery store is 12 miles away, one way.

Do you live in northern Maine? :lol:

Dana

I'm in north central Alabama, I'm thinking pretty much the same just more heat and skeeters.
In my neck of the wood's either you drive or make friends with ANYONE that haz a car. The closet grocery store is 12 miles away, one way.

hehe the shopping centre and supermarket at the end of my street is going to close for a rebuild, everyone is complaining they have to walk to the other shopping centre and supermarket at the other end of the street meantime - OMG the world as we know it is ending :lol:

@David: Oops, well I knew it started with a "P". :red: Besides, it was late and my gray matter was asleep, even though I was awake. :lol: I first looked at Print Shop and Photoshop but neither was in my price range. Then someone mentioned GIMP, which was at a price I could afford. I don't do a lot of post work, or creating in those type programs, so GIMP works just fine.

It's probably a given that no one knows if post work will be needed until the render finishes. The Colorplexity images were always too bright, no matter what changes made to the lighting. I think now I should have tried a negative radial light, as I did in the latest three, to see if that would decrease the intensity. Seems I remember a video you made where you mentioned using a higher bit depth when exporting an image for post work. Guess my storage bucket sprung a leak since I didn't remember that was possible.

@Horo: Thank you.

@Sean: I like what you've done, I'm easy to impress. :-) But you might want to have a second look at that image and notice two things I see right off the bat. You have light hitting those object from two different directions. The shadows on the objects are the give away. But there are no shadows for any of the objects. While the light isn't really intense, it would cast, or cause, shadows to be seen.

The other thing I noticed was camera position. Right now the ball on the left is clipped, and the space on the right is open. You could try swing the camera a bit to the left and that would bring the ball totally into view. Or repositioning the objects around the central object and repositioning the camera. But the biggest thing I saw was the lack of shadows. Still, it is a nice job.

@Miss B: I'm so new to all of this I have trouble knowing when post work should and shouldn't be done. I tried it on the Colorplexity images because I couldn't get the lighting as I wanted. It always turned out to bright and not enough contrast. I did, however, figure out that contrast might be accomplished by using a negative radial light, as I did in those last three images I posted. They too were to bright before adding the negative radial light, and I kept tweaking its settings until I thought the contrast suited the image.

head wax said:

the joints still need tweaking as far as the falloff zones
and the mesh splits at the groin when K4 does the splits

hmm, not sure why
maybe this thread would tell me http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/2174/

Hi as Roy has said, you have the left thigh group in contact with the right thigh group.
That's a common problem with autogrouping the K4 rig due to its small size.

Use the grouping tool in poser to change the central polys to the 'hip' group.
The easiest way to do this would be front camera in wireframe mode. (wireframe in Poser allows the backfacing polys to be selected in the grouping tool)
Make sure you weld the hip group after you've done the re-grouping or you'll still get tearing.

OK, following along with Guss' thinking about using a lower MRD, I tried re-rendering at MRD 4 and I like the more muted background. However, I still prefer the more detailed central area, soooooo, I composited the two renders using the same layer adjustments as my previous render.

Don't forget to click to see unsquished.

Y'know, I've been using this system for almost two months now, and I still can't get over how awesome it is. Case in point: the girl in the pics below is one of the central characters in my comic, created on a V3 base back in 2007 or so. I was aiming for what they call in the South a comfortably-built girl; I was too inexperienced with DAZ to realize that what I was actually making was a Mutant Invader from the Planet Boob Cling -- and that was when I was lucky enough to find clothes that fit. I spent most of the next four hundred strips grimly chanting "Do the best you can with magnets, fix it in postwork, when all else fails strategically-placed word bubble."

Genesis was a huge step forward, but the SRMS is magic. Seriously. I went to put the 9mbi Garden Nast outfit on her today and I was almost laughing. It's so easy! I don't have to do anything! I just put the clothes on and she looks like a well-endowed human instead of a Mutant Invader!

So yeah, not really a point to this post. I just wanted to say thank you again for putting this out there. It's a lifesaver.

This is important!!!! If you are placing orders today (Friday, April 19th, around 3pm Central time) Paypal is messing up- please read or you may double order!

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/20855/