So,

It's not a secret that displacement maps are a huge deal to enhance the realism of 3D rendering, specially with human figures. But, the displacement maps don't seem to work the same way with Genesis 8 as they did with Genesis 3. Except with Victoria and Olympia 8, all other Genesis 8 based figures (like Tara 2 and Elizabeth), I'm getting some seams when using displacement with subd.

Any ideas how to prevent this (without having to stop using displacement)?

any guesses the theme for Michael 8?

I'll throw in a guess: not Michael 8. Yes, DAZ may actually use a different character for the launch of the G8 male. They might actually drop Michael. Of course, DAZ might actually make their entire store available to me free of charge; anything that is remotely possible - is possible.

What could possibly prompt me to come up with such a notion?

Because on the Back to School promo page, whereas it is written VICTORIA IS MY GIRL! - it only pronounces MICHAEL WAS HERE. And it says it with three trailing dots of the kind that people writing stuff on forums use to make it seem like there's more to what they're saying than there really is...

MICHAEL WAS HERE...

And that's it. That's my theory. Which is to say is mine, and nobody elses.

I have another theory.

It's about dinosaurs.

Ahem...

 

 

lol That made me laugh! :) 

I just hope with G8M they fix some of the bend issues. Like when G3M raises his arms sometimes you get some weird shaping (I think it's the pectoralis minor). There's some nice improvement with G8F's bends, I'd like to see them go maybe a bit further with G3M as they tend to be more muscled and you can really tell when there are bend issues with really muscled characters.

any guesses the theme for Michael 8?

I'll throw in a guess: not Michael 8. Yes, DAZ may actually use a different character for the launch of the G8 male. They might actually drop Michael. Of course, DAZ might actually make their entire store available to me free of charge; anything that is remotely possible - is possible.

What could possibly prompt me to come up with such a notion?

Because on the Back to School promo page, whereas it is written VICTORIA IS MY GIRL! - it only pronounces MICHAEL WAS HERE. And it says it with three trailing dots of the kind that people writing stuff on forums use to make it seem like there's more to what they're saying than there really is...

MICHAEL WAS HERE...

And that's it. That's my theory. Which is to say is mine, and nobody elses.

I have another theory.

It's about dinosaurs.

Ahem...

Well the Victoria 8 was mostly, ignoring the extra character(s), the hair, and the poses they alway include was just underwear, sci-fi wear, and beach/teenage girl wear. I'd like to see Michael 8 be similarly themed although I'm not into sci-fi.

My guess? Fantasy theme like many of the previous bundles. He will have two fantasy outfits  along the lines of fantasy warrior and rogue one fw skin, one goth makeup skin, one plain base. He may have a basic pair of shorts or underwear. Hair is inevitably going to have one Mohawk since those are easier to make than full on hair and one nice hair used for promos. The stuff sold outside the pack will be more interesting and we might see full body hair and a beard, more shorts and poses. Clothing will still have the same inevitable issues such as lack of proper shoestrings pockets and zippered fly. Poses  included in the set will be lots of muscle flex poses, modeling and just standing there perhaps with a sword. There will be no sci-fi in the set but will be sold later. Any hair included will have a fit for Victoria and lack proper masculine hairlines because everything is secretly about v8

thats my guess. Hope to be entirely wrong though. My ideal would be great new short hair crew-cut style, fibermesh bodyhair, subtle expressions, really nice even non plucked eyebrows, and regular joe outfits. If there is a warrior outfit, maybe make it sci-fi or an espionage outfit. No weird hairstyles.

Yeah, just don't use the demonic parts. She's a typical Victoria-alike without them, if that's what you want for rendering.

I personally was tempted to get her, because of the unusual and interesting morphing entwinement of the horns, but then noticed that glaring blemish under her left eye. Gah... I need to be able to use a character, especially with unique creature-related stuff, to be doubled or tripled in a scene. I can usually put some shaping morphs to make them seem like different characters, except with a familial resemblance to one another, that way. Asymmetrical details, like facial blemishes, make that completely impossible. For supernatual creatures, it's especially required, since I might also need to give them an air of superficial 'perfection'.

Yes, the blemish isn't too noticeable for far away shots, but I need the contingency for close-ups, personally.

Wut?  Apparently it's not called Genesis4 but Genesis8... that makes no sense but at least I was able to find it.  Should be Genesis 4 Female / Victoria 8.  Feels wrong to see it listed as Genesis 4.  I guess they were influenced by the naming conventions employed by Windows and just decided to randomly skip some numbers  :)

Look who finally came out from under their rock lol :P 

I wanted to buy Fred Winklers Honey HD for Victoria 7 today. But it is DAZ connect only. That was a surprice to me, because I have other FW models, which are DRM free. I checked FWs catalog and the only DAZ Connect only items I found where Honey HD and Raymond HD.

Hence my petition: Free Honey and Raymond, offer DIM installation too. I really would like to buy at least Honey. But not with DRM.

Whenever I load the Victoria figure into the Morphing Clothes software, I get a message saying that "some script calls were not resolved". I am indeed missing quite a few morphs for my figure, for her arms, legs etc, and I have no idea where to find them. I'm using a windows 10. 

Morphing Clothes: Link removed

And did you note that one of Freja's gals is in Fast Grab? Edit- and if you are GenX2ing Victoria 4 gals up, the makeup on Vyla (cartoon, goth combination) is interesting.

Watch out for the latest news, CocoSuit arrive !

CocoSuit is a modern and fun set for Genesis 8 Female as Victoria 8 or Olympia 8.

Product contents :

• Hat
• Top
• ShortSuit
• Gloves
• Stockings
• Pad
• Shoes

Wut?  Apparently it's not called Genesis4 but Genesis8... that makes no sense but at least I was able to find it.  Should be Genesis 4 Female / Victoria 8.  Feels wrong to see it listed as Genesis 4.  I guess they were influenced by the naming conventions employed by Windows and just decided to randomly skip some numbers  :)

Nah, it makes a lot of sense imho, since it

1. aligns the technology & character numbers

2. avoids a lot of unfortunate confusion (& refunds = badwill) with V4/M4

Wut?  Apparently it's not called Genesis4 but Genesis8... that makes no sense but at least I was able to find it.  Should be Genesis 4 Female / Victoria 8.  Feels wrong to see it listed as Genesis 4.  I guess they were influenced by the naming conventions employed by Windows and just decided to randomly skip some numbers  :)

Ok, I'm not sure it's even caused by collisions this time

What even is this? It doesn't come off maaan. I loaded up this model in a completely empty new scene and it didn't have these eye problems, it seems completely random when this happens. And not only for this model but another one of the models I use as well. If it helps, her textures are from here

i installed Victoria 4 into the path : J:/DAZ3D Library

You need to add that as a Poser Format content directory, then - you can do that in the Content Library pane, right-click on the heading Poser Formats and select Add Runtime Directory, then select J:/DAZ3D Library

i think the third path into content (J:/DAZ3D Application), is wrong then ? 

Yes, you should not put content and applications in the same folder.

Isidorn's Top 3 for July

Benita for Victoria 8 - render

Nail Polish for Genesis 3 Female - Works on G8 too. Lots of options for nails (both fingers and toes). On preset displayed in this render

Lethal Rogue Outfit for Genesis 8 Female(s) - render

Only managed to get 3 renders done in July and that last one I wasn't happy at all with. But the outfit can definitely be used again, so into the list it goes.

Seems to just be the one skinn . . no problems using another.

well dang . . I really liked Victoria 7 skin too.

Thanks we found the problem

Dramatic Lighting Tutorial – 3Delight with UberEnvironment2

I wrote this tutorial for people who are curious about 3Delight, or those who don’t have expensive, fancy video cards and blazing fast computers. 

Dramatic Lighting Concepts

These are the basic concepts of lighting with emphasis on dramatic. 
Key Light - the main bright light.  This is your main light source.  For dramatic lighting and shadows, I put this light is off to one side rather than in front, so that one side of your subject is lit and the other is in shadow.  Distant Light is often best for this one.

Fill Light.  This is your front light.  It's used to fill in the front of your subject but is usually lighter than your key light.

Ambient Light - This is an additional overall light without shadows that fills in the spaces where the other two left off. This light must be set low - 30% or lower.  If it's too high, it will wash out your shadows.  Use UberEnvironment2 or AoA's Advanced Ambient Light.  You will get more depth with UE2 but a faster render time with Advanced Ambient.

Scene Contents

Here’s a list of items I used in this scene:
Victoria 8 with Lorellin G3F skin.
G3F Leotard
Window Seat
G8F Base Pose Sitting B

I made a few changes to the pose:
Legs: moved them out a little bit so the heel wouldn't collide.  Abdomen Lower: Adjusted the Side to Side so the hand would rest on the seat.  Here’s the base with standard lighting:

Add UberEnvironment 2

I wanted to add a stock photo in Environment as a background and precisely place it.  Since UE2’s Environment sphere is designed to hold an HDR file, I won’t be using that.  Turn off its visibility. 

Background and Photo

I used this royalty-free photo from Pixabay:
https://pixabay.com/en/scotland-landscape-scenic-mountains-1761292/

In Photoshop (or Gimp), flip it so that the sun is on the right, then crop it to a square.  I also increased the brightness and contrast. 
For precise placement, add the photo to a plane.  The plane is 10 meters and Z Positive.  In the Surfaces tab, add the photo to the Plane's Diffuse.  Position the plane behind the window and off to Vicki's right.  This way it won't interfere with the spotlight coming through the window.

Please note that the background picture below is not the one I eventually used, but… alas, my scene file corrupted, and so these screen shots and renders will have to suffice.

I also changed the red cushion to a more neutral leather color (DG Shader Essentials). 

Problem – Picture Isn’t Showing Through the Glass

After fighting with this for a while, I figured out why – there was some sort of problem with the 3DL materials on the glass.  It was a Daz Studio Default Shader, however just re-adding dzPlastic didn’t fix the problem.  I had to change it to Omnifreaker’s Simple Surface, then back to DS Defaults, dzPlastic.  Both of these are found under Shader Presets. 

If Reflection color is black, set it to white and Reflection Str to 100%.  Make sure that opacity is set to 5%.  You can also make the Diffuse slightly gray or blue – this will also counter the brightness. 

Key Light – Sunlight

I chose a spotlight for this rather than a distance light.

Add a Daz Studio Spotlight. 
Click on the Camera View and choose the spotlight.  Move the spotlight so that it is behind the window and slightly to the left of Vicki.  You want to see the side of her face, so it looks like this: (You will get the positioning circle if the spotlight is also selected in the Scene tab. 

Light Color

Select the spotlight in the scene tab and click on the Light tab.  Change the color to match the sunset – use a mid-range color.  I don’t have the number because I couldn’t get back to my corrupt file.  Change the Shadow Type to Raytraced (Software Only).  If your render is slow you can use Deep Shadow Map instead of Raytracing, but the shadow quality won’t be as good.

Leave the shadow intensity to 100%.

Set the Intensity to 200% and the Intensity Scale to 4.  I want the light so bright it is almost washing out the side of her face.  See how this also creates the window pane shadows and even brings bright light onto the wall to the left?

I'm trying to work on expressions more.  Here I am attempting a fierce expression.  I really like P3d Patricia.

i installed Victoria 4 into the path : J:/DAZ3D Library

i think the third path into content (J:/DAZ3D Application), is wrong then ?