I never did get Reality so the old saying goes I won't miss what I never had. I do think that this plug-in is in it's early stage of developement. I am going by what SphericLabs said about adding all sorts of things they have planned. I have a very low spec machine and I am having a blast in DS4.5 with no crashes at render time like I do using 3Delight. Yes it takes a long time to render but since I am learning I will keep things small and simplish until I get a new machine. I honestly think more materials will follow and I am hoping SphericLabs will privide a repositry, a central point where we can upload and download materials ready for Luxus. ;) As for PAs providing Luxus Mats yeah I made a suggestion like that a few days ago elsewhere on the forum. We can live in hope but personally I did so much material tweaking before I am not too bothered.

Well... I thought I would give this a try, for once.

Not only for the vague possibility of perhaps obtaining a treasure-trove of content as a reward... but also, I suppose, just for the experience of returning to the habit of having to produce some sort of results on a project within a given time-frame.

Of course, I just barely made it... sort of.

That, despite a myriad of the more common obstacles, such as lack of time, lack of render-processing-power, insufficiently varied types of installed content, and the occasional need to eat, sleep, and... even more occasionally... bathe.

Naturally, there still remain a whole lot of shortcomings to be addressed ( eventually, maybe ) in this final product... brought about by a number of 10-to-30 hour background and foreground renders, which in turn necessitated the inevitable cutting-of-corners to try and( supposedly ) save time. In the end, some of them didn't... and only resulted in additional reworking.

So, I had hoped to have two images ( a pair following a common theme ) readied in time for a double entry. The second providing an "explanation" for the first. That is:

A hobbyist's workshop is seen, well-equipped with wood and metal lathes, a mill, drill-press, and other assorted bench-type power tools ( I had though of using "Faded Industry" for this ) as well as being stocked with assorted hand-tools and shelving. A retired-gentleman is shown to be working on a table-top scale-model of a terrain, complete with miniature castle buildings and ruins. He is carefully reaching his hand down to position a small plastic tree-prop on the model terrain....

...... anyway, First Entry, here it is... Part One, at least, such as it is:

Image Title: "The World-Builder".

Rendering Application: Poser 7 ( yes... I'm still two generations behind ).

Stonemason Content used: Winter Kingdom, Ruins and Terrain. The terrain was mirror-copied three times, in a modeler application. Then all four of these sections were rotated and fitted together to provide a "mountainous-region" with a large central "valley". Now things are turning reeaallly slowly in Poser.

Other DAZ content includes:

Michael 4; Freak 3; Michael 3/2; Celestial Armor for M4 by Valandar ; Knight Champion for M4 by Valandar; Barbarian Lord for F3 by blondie9999; Viking and Saxon Paks for M2 by Daz, Lourdes Mercado, John Malis; DAZ's Millennium Horse with Astral-Spine-Bender and Dragon Lord Horse Armor by Ravnheart and ToxicAngel; Millennium Dragon 2; Castle Creator by Faveral; Medieval City and Village by Faveral...

... yes, that is the old Poser 3 or 4 disembodied hand up there. I suppose I could have gone for something a little more "photo-realistic" but, given the nature of the theme, I didn't really want to. Something a bit cartoonish seemed... to me, anyway... more appropriate.

... and I do have a texture pack, to spruce up that Castle Creator a bit... around here... somewhere...

HI Static drifter :)

I'm with you on the face book / twitter stuff,. ..

Since Win 7,. the "public documents" folder has been pushed by Microsoft, and adopted by most major software producers as the default (user files) location.
Daz3D,. and Smith Micro (poser) both use the public folder,. as does Adobe, Autodesk etc..
It's not a Daz only decision, and it makes a lot of sense.

Having user files mixed with Program files means more disk fragmentation,. and it's more likely that someone will delete, or move a program file,. when "organizing" their content files.

As for the Poser runtime folder structure,..
This is still the main structure used for most content. and it has to be done that way so that users can easily install content , and use it.

Carrara,. as an application,. doesn't actually need to use content from DS or Poser,.
However,. when you want to load content into Carrara from DS or Poser, then you have to deal with the folder structure used by those programs,.
It's not Carrara's fault that the Poser or DS folders are organised the way they are.
Carrara has to work with what's available.

Things are changing , with Smart content, and a central database,. where it becomes irrelevant where you physically installed the files,. as long as the database knows where they are it can display them in the content / smart content browser,.

People have used the "poser" folder structure for many years, and many products have been built to work with that structure,. so it's not an easy task to rebuild all those products,. and redefine that structure overnight.
but Daz3D are trying...

As for DIM
The Daz Install Manager can be used to create as many runtime / content folders as you want,. wherever you want.
Although there is a "Default" folder set up for you,.. you can change that. if you want to.

If you want to install content into another drive or a new folder, you can do that.

What's not recommended is,,.. Installing content using DIM,. into a folder which already contains content (not installed with DIM)
this is simply to avoid confusion,. if you have one product installed using the Daz installers,. then you install the same product using DIM,.. should the files be overwritten? archived? or keep both versions ?
Which version should the uninstaller remove,. ..which version should DIM remove.

Wherever you choose to install your content,.. once it's installed,. you need to point your software to use the new location.
and that applies to Daz Studio,. Poser, and Carrara.
any program where you're loading content, needs to know where your folders are, before it can find all the files within that structure.

If you have multiple runtime / content folders, then that means adding each runtime to the list of content folders available to those programs.

Carrara should be, first and foremost, able to find, and maintain separation of, the Content that it can and cannot make use of at least as well as Studio, and that’s not even 100% but it’s a far sight better than Carrara in that respect.

Daz Studio was built to use "Poser" Content, and later Daz Studio format,. and now DUF.
Carrara will support all of those.

If you're using the "Beta" of 8.5,..
bear in mind that it's a beta version , and it's not complete,. so it currently displays files and folders from DS which it cannot load,. EG: Uber-environment, daz sample scenes, daz lighting, camera's etc...

Hope it helps :)

Blaine91555 said:

:lol: Thanks and sorry about that. I'm working so much I'm lucky to get one out. I had a lot of fun working on it though.

Lighting is the time killer for sure. My machine is so old and slow I did not dare attempt real fur on top of the lighting. Four years old and it's really starting to piss me off trying to work on it. The central lighting is all Vue, but the dark glow and outer dark area's are about four hours in Photoshop experimenting. Learned a lot doing it.

Starting to really like Studio!!!

My wife is very critical of daz art work and she walked up after I said your piece was up. "oh wow"...she doesn't hand those out.

Our main criteria when looking at many pieces...does it tell a story...or..is it just a bunch of objects that don't tell me a story. That can be hard to compose. Yours told a story well, even if one doesn't know Hamlet. The colours are vibrant, the parts are well played.

Great work!

csampson said:

Blaine91555 said:

Title: Alas Poor Yorick!

First, congrats....nice, very nice composition and render.

Second, thanks for killing my 10hr Gorilla in the Mist render...that now will...not be viable!

:)
Good work.
(now on to another piece before deadline-Thank god I have tons already close, just have to finish lighting and composition...anyone doing anything with dolphins?)

:lol: Thanks and sorry about that. I'm working so much I'm lucky to get one out. I had a lot of fun working on it though.

Lighting is the time killer for sure. My machine is so old and slow I did not dare attempt real fur on top of the lighting. Four years old and it's really starting to piss me off trying to work on it. The central lighting is all Vue, but the dark glow and outer dark area's are about four hours in Photoshop experimenting. Learned a lot doing it.

Starting to really like Studio!!!

Bobvan said:

Well the very least Luxus is getting many of you on board with using Lux. After hearing that Paolo will continue to support DS with Reality. I have decided to stay with it. I am used to the interface and know that I will get desired results. R3 is going to be sick. Good thing is those of you who learn how to use Lux can then get it if you choose to.

Equally annoying is when you deselect a surface using CTRL+Click and the properties shown are for that material type. As an example, if you select all glossy surfaces and then try to deselect a metal surface, Reality will show you the material properties for the metal surface instead of the glossy surfaces you currently have selected.

Hopefully little things like that will be cleared up when Reality 3 launches, but for now they remain a serious bugbear and greatly slow down material fixes as I have to select all of them individually and change every parameter by hand. Luxus at least doesn't seem to have this issue, since it uses the Daz Studio interface for material property editing.

In the battle of the converters, there are a few things that will win this war:

1) User friendliness
2) Complex material handling (skins, caustics, volumetric non-water liquids)
3) Price

Whichever one gets the better results is where my money will be going. I've enjoyed using Reality, but people are the central focus of most of my work and Lux really doesn't play nicely with skin tones without volumes. I've always said my main focus for Reality 3 was how it handled skin, and that remains true. Now that there's a new kid on the block though, I'll be keeping an open mind and a close eye on the results.

I've got the right side's bones in place. Still need the left side, but don't know how to properly use the Mirror Joints tool. Last time I tried, it screwed up the bones I had already in place. I don't want to go through that again. I won't add the central spine bones until the left side is done.

RAMWolff said:

Hmm. I would consider getting rid of the hand bones. Those might give your project some unforeseen issues in the long run. Well, like I said, all of the polygons currently assigned to them will be transferred to the new bones, most likely, Right3.

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

Sorry. I'm using 4.0, not 4.5 so I don't have the option of creating "Dson" conversion. Who knows though. If Daz does accept this for the Daz store, perhaps they'll do that part of it.

Now, On to the big question for Patience or anyone else in the know. I've just started making the new bones, starting with the Front-right bone set. but need to mirror them exactly to create symmetrical rigging for the left and right sides. There will be nine bone groups, of five bones each: Front-left, Left-front, Left, Back-left, Back, Back-right, Right, Right-front, Front-right. All of them, except Back need to be left-right symmetrically mirrored. How do I do that?

Rig the one side. Then choose right-click with the Bone tool up and choose edit--mirror joints.I tried that. It didn't work, and actually screwed up the bones I had. I'm not sure what I did wrong though. I selected the five new bones, went to Edit>mirror joints>right to left, hit accept, but no new bones were created off the left collar. All it did was screw up the bone order changing Bone one into bone two, bone two into bone one, bone three into bone whatever, bone four into bone five, etc. I had to delete them, and start over. Luckily I only had those five bones in place, not the full right half of the cloak.

Versioning is important when you've got complex rigging in process. Do half, save to library as ItemNameA, then try again the opposite of the way you did this time. This way you can reload your progress from library if there are further problems.

But why didn't "Mirror Joints" work the way it was supposed to? Why'd it screw up the bones I already did instead of mirror them on the left side like it was supposed to?

Please don't be offended, but from your post, I think you might have gotten the mirror command inverted. If you rigged the left side you should choose left to right, and if you rigged the right you should choose right to left.

None taken, but no, I definitely selected right to left when I did the Mirror Joints.

... edit ...
I have a WIP thread over in the Hexagon Discussion forum. And for Genesis, and Genesis clothes, the HIp is always the main parent bone from which all others are children of.

Okay except that people looking for rigging info don't usually go to the Hexagon thread.

My point in bringing up anything about the required bones was simply to be sure that you knew to use more than just the collar and shoulder bones.
Re: ...edit ... would need to be rigged to the collar at the very least, but to no more than the shoulder bones, and then use handles and morphs for the rest, neither of which I have any experience with.
... edit ...

As a professional indicated the necessity for a pelvis bone so that clothing would follow through with the figure morphs* for Genesis, arguments to the contrary will only prove valid if it is omitted and the garment works. And if it does, wonderful. If it doesn't, put it in ;-)

* not referring to the 'fit to' but the changing in line with Genesis from full height down to child, thin, proper or heavy weight.

Well, I have no intention of actually deleting any bones, just reassigning the polygons from them to new face groups to coincide with the new bones. While I may need to have a Hip, Abdomen, Abdoment2, Pelvis, etc. They don't need to have polygons assigned to them. The only original bones I need to keep Polygons assigned to them are the Chest, Right collar, Left collar, and Neck.

I've got the right half's new bones in place. I figured it would be better to get the left half rigged (mirrored) before making the central back bone group. that will run along the spine of the cloak. That group will be parented to the chest instead of the collars. Now, if only I could get Mirror Joints to work properly.

I tried it in my own version of DS. It doesn't create mirrored bones, it just edits bones on the opposite side to match the one chosen. :( I'm sorry, I remembered it incorrectly.

So what do I have to do to create mirrored bones on the left side then? I can't continue until the left side is rigged.
Sickle, these are the Mirror Joint Settings I originally used:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

Sorry. I'm using 4.0, not 4.5 so I don't have the option of creating "Dson" conversion. Who knows though. If Daz does accept this for the Daz store, perhaps they'll do that part of it.

Now, On to the big question for Patience or anyone else in the know. I've just started making the new bones, starting with the Front-right bone set. but need to mirror them exactly to create symmetrical rigging for the left and right sides. There will be nine bone groups, of five bones each: Front-left, Left-front, Left, Back-left, Back, Back-right, Right, Right-front, Front-right. All of them, except Back need to be left-right symmetrically mirrored. How do I do that?

Rig the one side. Then choose right-click with the Bone tool up and choose edit--mirror joints.I tried that. It didn't work, and actually screwed up the bones I had. I'm not sure what I did wrong though. I selected the five new bones, went to Edit>mirror joints>right to left, hit accept, but no new bones were created off the left collar. All it did was screw up the bone order changing Bone one into bone two, bone two into bone one, bone three into bone whatever, bone four into bone five, etc. I had to delete them, and start over. Luckily I only had those five bones in place, not the full right half of the cloak.

Versioning is important when you've got complex rigging in process. Do half, save to library as ItemNameA, then try again the opposite of the way you did this time. This way you can reload your progress from library if there are further problems.

But why didn't "Mirror Joints" work the way it was supposed to? Why'd it screw up the bones I already did instead of mirror them on the left side like it was supposed to?

Please don't be offended, but from your post, I think you might have gotten the mirror command inverted. If you rigged the left side you should choose left to right, and if you rigged the right you should choose right to left.

None taken, but no, I definitely selected right to left when I did the Mirror Joints.

... edit ...
I have a WIP thread over in the Hexagon Discussion forum. And for Genesis, and Genesis clothes, the HIp is always the main parent bone from which all others are children of.

Okay except that people looking for rigging info don't usually go to the Hexagon thread.

My point in bringing up anything about the required bones was simply to be sure that you knew to use more than just the collar and shoulder bones.
Re: ...edit ... would need to be rigged to the collar at the very least, but to no more than the shoulder bones, and then use handles and morphs for the rest, neither of which I have any experience with.
... edit ...

As a professional indicated the necessity for a pelvis bone so that clothing would follow through with the figure morphs* for Genesis, arguments to the contrary will only prove valid if it is omitted and the garment works. And if it does, wonderful. If it doesn't, put it in ;-)

* not referring to the 'fit to' but the changing in line with Genesis from full height down to child, thin, proper or heavy weight.

Well, I have no intention of actually deleting any bones, just reassigning the polygons from them to new face groups to coincide with the new bones. While I may need to have a Hip, Abdomen, Abdoment2, Pelvis, etc. They don't need to have polygons assigned to them. The only original bones I need to keep Polygons assigned to them are the Chest, Right collar, Left collar, and Neck.

I've got the right half's new bones in place. I figured it would be better to get the left half rigged (mirrored) before making the central back bone group. that will run along the spine of the cloak. That group will be parented to the chest instead of the collars. Now, if only I could get Mirror Joints to work properly.

I tried it in my own version of DS. It doesn't create mirrored bones, it just edits bones on the opposite side to match the one chosen. :( I'm sorry, I remembered it incorrectly.

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

SickleYield said:

Tramp Graphics said:

Sorry. I'm using 4.0, not 4.5 so I don't have the option of creating "Dson" conversion. Who knows though. If Daz does accept this for the Daz store, perhaps they'll do that part of it.

Now, On to the big question for Patience or anyone else in the know. I've just started making the new bones, starting with the Front-right bone set. but need to mirror them exactly to create symmetrical rigging for the left and right sides. There will be nine bone groups, of five bones each: Front-left, Left-front, Left, Back-left, Back, Back-right, Right, Right-front, Front-right. All of them, except Back need to be left-right symmetrically mirrored. How do I do that?

Rig the one side. Then choose right-click with the Bone tool up and choose edit--mirror joints.I tried that. It didn't work, and actually screwed up the bones I had. I'm not sure what I did wrong though. I selected the five new bones, went to Edit>mirror joints>right to left, hit accept, but no new bones were created off the left collar. All it did was screw up the bone order changing Bone one into bone two, bone two into bone one, bone three into bone whatever, bone four into bone five, etc. I had to delete them, and start over. Luckily I only had those five bones in place, not the full right half of the cloak.

Versioning is important when you've got complex rigging in process. Do half, save to library as ItemNameA, then try again the opposite of the way you did this time. This way you can reload your progress from library if there are further problems.

But why didn't "Mirror Joints" work the way it was supposed to? Why'd it screw up the bones I already did instead of mirror them on the left side like it was supposed to?

Please don't be offended, but from your post, I think you might have gotten the mirror command inverted. If you rigged the left side you should choose left to right, and if you rigged the right you should choose right to left.

None taken, but no, I definitely selected right to left when I did the Mirror Joints.

... edit ...
I have a WIP thread over in the Hexagon Discussion forum. And for Genesis, and Genesis clothes, the HIp is always the main parent bone from which all others are children of.

Okay except that people looking for rigging info don't usually go to the Hexagon thread.

My point in bringing up anything about the required bones was simply to be sure that you knew to use more than just the collar and shoulder bones.
Re: ...edit ... would need to be rigged to the collar at the very least, but to no more than the shoulder bones, and then use handles and morphs for the rest, neither of which I have any experience with.
... edit ...

As a professional indicated the necessity for a pelvis bone so that clothing would follow through with the figure morphs* for Genesis, arguments to the contrary will only prove valid if it is omitted and the garment works. And if it does, wonderful. If it doesn't, put it in ;-)

* not referring to the 'fit to' but the changing in line with Genesis from full height down to child, thin, proper or heavy weight.

I've got the right half's new bones in place. I figured it would be better to get the left half rigged (mirrored) before making the central back bone group. that will run along the spine of the cloak. That group will be parented to the chest instead of the collars. Now, if only I could get Mirror Joints to work properly.

How to Build a Carrara Workstation Yourself
In this world of 3d art and animation, we eventually crave a computer that can help us work faster, more stability, and all around more efficiently. For the last few years I've been enjoying building my own PCs, which has brought me the good fortune of getting the actual computer components that I really want as well as keeping my pay out much lower than it would have been otherwise. It may seem scary the first time, I know I surely was intimidated. But when it all comes down to it, the process is much easier than building a good model or assembling a 1200 piece puzzle. You just need to know where and how to look for all of the parts that you need, and use good sense during assembly - like, not to create any static electricity as well as taking preventative measures against finding any along the way, for example. In fact, if you lack the dexterity to do the actual assembly process, perhaps someone you know would be willing to lend a hand. It really is as simply as plugging everything in where it goes.

As with most of what I can write about, this really only pertains to Windows-Based computing, as that's all I know. To my knowledge, a MacOS machine has to be purchased that way, and I know nothing of Linux, but the main building procedure should be the same.

Decisions decisions...
In this modern age of computing, the tables have really turned. Before we had to really watch our purchases as you never really knew if you'd get a product that isn't really up-to-snuff. Nowadays, you can buy the least expensive laptop from pretty much anywhere and it'll last you for years. Buying PCs is like that, too. Technology has grown to a point where you can expect to get great pricing on some of the best new products available. What we're looking for is a bit more special that the average gaming device. I used to build my rendering machines based upon a gaming PC, with the mentality that if you can run high-end games, you can run anything. While this might be somewhat true, it doesn't entirely apply to Carrara or most of the other 3d rendering apps - and it certainly won't get you the best deal for the fastest render speeds. Know this now. I am no expert on this. But I've done it before - and most successfully, too, I might add.
Carrara would rather have a quad core processor than a zippy video card. This is not to say that the graphics card won't help. You want a good, solid card that can really turn out good OpenGL results - but in Carrara, it won't help at all with rendering. Times are changing, however, and GPU (graphics processor unit) rendering capabilities are becoming a reality - but Graphics cards are an easy upgrade if you choose wisely on a good motherboard, but we'll talk about those a bit later.
Quad core isn't the top dog anymore, either. I have an AMD Eight Core Desktop processor. Garstor uses server class stuff, which I am incapable of talking about at this point. Too bad, too. Because server class motherboards allow two, possibly more by now, processors on the same board (in the same computer). So two eight core cpus would give us sixteen cores, which isn't just twice as fast - it much faster than that!

That being considered, I make cpu (central processing unit - or processor) options my first priority. Since we're build a desktop PC workstation, I'll try to avoid bringing up server-class parts. For that stuff, you need to look in a different category at Newegg, which is good. Server-class and desktop parts are often not compatible.
In my search for a cpu, I have a few things in mind that I'm most interested in at first. Once those criteria are met, then I'll look deeper at the products themselves and make sure that it would be an acceptable choice, like customer reviews, and other consumer specs. For a Carrara workstation, my first glance goes to the number of cores and the price, all at the same time. I am always working under an impossibly tiny budget, so I have to make do within the lowest prices I can find. If cost is less of a concern, you may feel free to drop that part. So I check both AMD and Intel processors in the 'Desktop CPU' category and look for the biggest bang for the buck. In my case I really lucked out and was shocked to find an eight core processor at a very affordable price, through AMD. The very next thing I check is the slot configuration. This is how the cpu connects to the motherboard. Usually noted by a code name, otherwise the number of pins. This is how I'm able to check the availability of compatible motherboards - which is the next thing on my list.

Picking out a good motherboard begins with sorting them by the cpu connection type, as mentioned above. Once this criteria is met, I begin looking for the maximum amount of (and the type of) RAM the board is capable of handling. I never want to spend money on multiple cores only to have them sitting idle due to a lack of rather affordable RAM, which we'll shop for next. This may seem funny, but if you don't pay attention to this detail, you could end up getting excited over, and buying, a motherboard that can't use all of the RAM you've bought. How embarrassing! Once this is out of the way, I look next at the video card compatibilities, number of SATA(newer, faster hard drive/disc drive interface) connections, USB connections, what kind of features it has in general. I try to save money, but I also try to get the best motherboard I can, even if it means that I have to find a way to increase my budget. The motherboard is the information highway that gives your cpu direct control over everything in your system. Together the cpu, motherboard, RAM, and your primary Hard Drive make up the brain of your computer. These parts should get major consideration.

Well then. Did a quick transfer rigging and found it responds very well to Genesis. No poke throughs at all and looks great.

New thing to learn. UV Mapping. According to some help on ZBrush Central when using the QRemesher it creates a spiral polygon layout so that when trying to create UV Mapped zones you can't get them. From any angle is APPEARS that the poly's are laid out perfectly but they are indeed not. So not sure how to proceed with this. There is a way to fix it by some weird rebuilding of the mesh but I'm not at all familiar with the process. :gulp:

Complaint: I was recently trying to find recordings of music by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein on YouTube and was surprised at how difficult it was to find what I would consider a descent if not good recordings for either. Perhaps I'm spoiled in that my father had excellent recordings for these pieces in his collection, which he used to play when I was a child. Both pieces require a powerful speaker for their narrations. Finally, though, I think I had some success.

"Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs6cIi_mKfg

An aged, powerful, stately, and charismatic voice is a must for this piece.

If you like the Lincoln Portrait then you should definitely also listen to Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6CnG5dmvM

Both the Lincoln Portrait and the Fanfare for the Common Man go hand in hand and were sometimes packaged together on the same recording.

The second piece I was looking for is the "Kaddish" by Leonard Bernstein... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71r99SjU0JU

My father's recording of this piece was conducted by Bernstein himself and featured a woman's voice that was saturated with anguish and emotion and powerfully unforgettable. The narration was also done in Hebrew as I remember, but in the recording I've linked to here the narration is done by a male voice in English.

From Wikipedia... "Kaddish (קדיש, Q Aramaic: "holy"; alternate spellings, q, ḳaddish) is a hymn of praises to God found in the Jewish prayer service. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy different versions of the Kaddish are used functionally as separators between sections of the service."

Thanks! I love the set. You always do such cool things.

I really, really miss the heating system in my last house. It used a heat pump and had a programmable thermostat. SO nice to have a warm house when you woke up or got home from work. I also never realized just how cheap electricity was in the Pacific Northwest. Not like out here on the East Coast.

Anyway ... you know the air conditioning/heating units you normally encounter in hotels? Where the unit is under the window and each unit has those horrible cooler/cool/normal/warm/warmer controls? That's what we have in these apartments. However, shortly after I moved in, the unit in the living area leaked and was replaced. That unit actually has a digital control where you can set the temperature to a number, while the one in the bedroom has the ever so unhelpful dial.

Now, being ever so poor since I work in a non for profit company funded through the state, and consequently, our salaries have been frozen for five or six years now, I keep the thermostat set at a chilly 68 degrees in the winter. It just doesn't seem to matter whether I set it higher, it still isn't warm enough for me. So ... since I'd have to wrap up in a blanket anyway, I may as well save some money while doing so.

The downside is that I usually end up falling asleep on the couch because I'm so toasty warm wrapped up in blankets. It took me over two hours to watch NCIS Los Angeles this afternoon because I kept falling asleep!

IgnisSerpentus said:

Satira Capriccio said:

I finally got this one finished.

It's so hard to work at the computer when I just want to snuggle under my blankets on the couch :( Maybe when the weather gets warmer?

So, here is the Serpent Goddess (with a Scarab)

Central heat is next to godliness lol

Lovely job on the render!!!

Thank you for the nice comments. I'm glad you liked them.
@Guss: I wouldn't even begin to know how to go about creating a tutorial for, well, anything. They're not really all that complicated.
For the red one:The camera is inside of a column style B facing down the central axis of the shaft towards one end. There's a series of toruses spaced out along the column that are just large enough so that their inside radius is partially inside the column. There are radial lights along the columns central axis that are in line with the toruses. A sphere caps the end of the column that the camera is facing and the end behind the camera is capped by a cone. The column has the polished silver mat, the sphere is gold and the cone is etched gold. The toruses and the radial lights all use the ruby 1 mat. Finally there's a sphere in line with the lights that has a radial light inside it both with the same ruby 1 mat. That's really about all there is to it. The multi-colored one is done the same way. So is this one only this time I've used a star column instead of the column style B. I've also used different shapes as endcaps.
I hope that explanation is helpfull and not as confusing as I fear it may be...

Satira Capriccio said:

I finally got this one finished.

It's so hard to work at the computer when I just want to snuggle under my blankets on the couch :( Maybe when the weather gets warmer?

So, here is the Serpent Goddess (with a Scarab)

Central heat is next to godliness lol

Lovely job on the render!!!

jaguarry3 said:

Paul's request for a larger TOS era Romulan bridge set me thinking . None of the Romuan bridges had seats so all the consuls would be standing only and of course you would need to incorporate a central periscope unit. Just playing around in Hexagon this is what I have so far. ignore the garish colors I am just setting up seperate walls so i can have different views. Comments suggestions welcome

Oh, I like this a lot!

Paul's request for a larger TOS era Romulan bridge set me thinking . None of the Romuan bridges had seats so all the consuls would be standing only and of course you would need to incorporate a central periscope unit. Just playing around in Hexagon this is what I have so far. ignore the garish colors I am just setting up seperate walls so i can have different views. Comments suggestions welcome

ssgbryan said:

blubeetle3 said:

mdbruffy said:

So why is the U.S.S. Invictus controversial ?

Good question!

The Invictus is so controversial because, without making too fine a point of it, it is a "warship". Starfleet prides itself on being an agency of exploration, and it doesn't like to be seen as a military force. But, Starfleet also has the responsibility of defending the Federation from hostile forces. Starfleet has flirted with warships before with the Defiant class and Prometheus class. But, both the Defiant and even the Prometheus were small, overpowered ships. The Invictus is a very large (25-30% larger than a Sovereign class starship), very heavily armored ship with a vast arsenal of weapons and a detatchment of Starfleet Marines.

The Invictus is Starfleet's response to a number of events: the Borg incursions of the sector and of Earth itself, the Dominion War, and Shinzon's attempt to destroy Earth to name a few. The Invictus was envisioned to be a strong line of defense for the Federation. Or, as I like to put it, "...When it hits the fan, Starfleet sends in the Invictus!"

Some of this isn't very well thought out.

Starfleet's primary mission IS defense of the Federation. It controls the "monopoly of force" for the UFP. That is why every ship in Starfleet has weapons.

If you want to make the Invictus controversial, have the ships' history include some "questionable" missions i.e. gunboat diplomacy.

Some real world examples would be:

1. United States behavior toward Central & South American countries over the past 100 years or so (Mexico, Honduras, The Philippines, Cuba, etc).

2. Britain's 19th & 20th century behavior towards "independent" nations like Egypt or how they handled internal dominions like India before granting independence.

Now that I think about it - a lot of stories in Star Trek (TOS, TNG, etc) could be viewed as 23rd & 24th century versions of how Russia & England jousted over the Northwest Frontier in Afganistan.

I have to disagree with you. It's been stated many times over many of the series that EXPLORATION is Starfleet's primary mission. "...To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations..." Starships are armed for defense. And while it's true that most Federation starships can outgun spacecraft from lesser civilizations, compared to the likes the Borg or the Jem'hedar, most Federation craft are underarmed.

The controversial part of the Invictus is that it doesn't even offer the pretense that it's a ship of exploration. The ship has few labs and most of its sensor capabilities are geared toward tactical purposes.

Now, ask yourself how the Vulcans would feel about that. Or even the Federation's allies. How would the Klingons or the Cardassians view a ship like the Invictus? How would non-allied cultures like the Romulans view the Federation using a cruising weapons platform?

ssgbryan said:

blubeetle3 said:

mdbruffy said:

So why is the U.S.S. Invictus controversial ?

Good question!

The Invictus is so controversial because, without making too fine a point of it, it is a "warship". Starfleet prides itself on being an agency of exploration, and it doesn't like to be seen as a military force. But, Starfleet also has the responsibility of defending the Federation from hostile forces. Starfleet has flirted with warships before with the Defiant class and Prometheus class. But, both the Defiant and even the Prometheus were small, overpowered ships. The Invictus is a very large (25-30% larger than a Sovereign class starship), very heavily armored ship with a vast arsenal of weapons and a detatchment of Starfleet Marines.

The Invictus is Starfleet's response to a number of events: the Borg incursions of the sector and of Earth itself, the Dominion War, and Shinzon's attempt to destroy Earth to name a few. The Invictus was envisioned to be a strong line of defense for the Federation. Or, as I like to put it, "...When it hits the fan, Starfleet sends in the Invictus!"

Some of this isn't very well thought out.

Starfleet's primary mission IS defense of the Federation. It controls the "monopoly of force" for the UFP. That is why every ship in Starfleet has weapons.

If you want to make the Invictus controversial, have the ships' history include some "questionable" missions i.e. gunboat diplomacy.

Some real world examples would be:

1. United States behavior toward Central & South American countries over the past 100 years or so (Mexico, Honduras, The Philippines, Cuba, etc).

2. Britain's 19th & 20th century behavior towards "independent" nations like Egypt or how they handled internal dominions like India before granting independence.

Now that I think about it - a lot of stories in Star Trek (TOS, TNG, etc) could be viewed as 23rd & 24th century versions of how Russia & England jousted over the Northwest Frontier in Afganistan.

You have to remember that one of the influences GR qouted for Star Trek was the "Horatio Hornjblower" stories- which are set in the 19th century. The whole 'Ship-far-from-home-and-captain-has-the-last-word-and-responcabilty" thing comes from that.