Here is a new render I just made of Gray, a lion shaman with his totem guide, on the Backstreets set. He's wearing a very beat up duster that looked perfect for his character from the BeastHunter set. I need to get Millenium beard to finish him off, the red one he has right now is not quite right.

Gray and Lion

That is looking real good. Here is my ork, An Shui. I need to start working with light and textured backgrounds next... And that copy of Carrara 5 Pro I got.

What things can I do in Carrara 5 Pro that I can't do in Daz or Paint Shop? Why would I want to upgrade to Carrara 6.1 Pro?

From our last pen and paper session:

The ex-marine in a sniper position

The mage recovering in a private clinic after the run (and after getting some cyber).

Modeling your own environments, better quality renders, better lighting and the creation of effects via particles, I believe the upgrade to 6 will get you better support for D|S and Poser models, which is why I'm considering it.

...Gray: Gray and Lion is very nice. This is what I am hoping to aim for now that I have a few more resources at my disposal (can get a lot of stuff when its only 1.99$ or better yet, free).

Redjack: Now An Shui looks like a tough ork should. Which morphs did you use to get the head shape and tusks? I need to branch out a bit into races other than humans & elves (too easy).

Fuchs: Nice Job, the shading is excellent (almost had to make a Perception test). On the average, how long does it take you to do a pic from the game you're in (sans rendering time).

30 minutes to 2+ hours, depends on the motive.

,..that's pretty good. My quickest (character alone) was the Short One at about 3.5 hrs. Then again, I'm still on the upwards slope of the learning curve & had to do a lot of adjustments to the clothing and hair for I was using files that were not totally compatible with the base V4 figure. Still surprised that the Aiko3 Mitsu Hair actually worked.

I have the main characters usually already done, and just import them to the scene I want, adding props and minor characters.

...just learned how to create and save a character morph. Pretty cool.

Having now become a member of the Daz3D PC, I also received a lot of neat free downloads including M3 & V3. Now I can use a lot of those freebie clothing & hair files. So this also leads me to the following question: In V4.2 there is a selection in the Characters folder on the Content tab that is named V4 to v3, what is this used for?

Nice. I really like the private clinic one. What did you use for the sky?

Here is my latest: an ork talismonger. I could not figure out the huge teeth like Redjack has done, so I used the wolf fang morphs from Character pack 1. He's got big Bob Marley dreads, 5 o'clock shadow, and glow in the dark eyes. I was lazy and put him in front of the Space Needle.

Dances With Weasels, Ork Talismonger

....nice, cool dreads. I like the Seattle Backdrop.

Also don't know how I missed Fuch's Mage Recovering earlier. That is so damn sweet.

I used a caribbean beach picture from google images.

I agree with the others. This one is really nice.


I have been really happy with D|S at this point. I am strongly considering the upgrade though while it is so cheap..
What about Bryce? Hexagon? Mimic?

M3 Creature Combo (Daz #ps_mr077). It has ork teeth.


That seems to create V4 with V3 sizing so that you get V4 morphs and can use V3 cloths. Works well, seems like I have to manually move some files when I first installed it to get it to work right.

I have that.. I just need to find them... I used wolf teeth...

Bryce: Landscapes, atmosphere, some effects and a bit of modeling. I actually started off with this, I used to import DEM (geographic datapoints plotted in elevation height in greyscale) info and do some landscaping for the Anthro dept I was in when I started. Learned a bit of modeling before I moved to trying some other modelers. Would make for rendering some pretty good backdrops as such... Some mountains and pine forests or these mountain islands in heavy atmosphere or even space scenes. I'd like to do some more renders, but I need to get the computer set so it doesn't have the issues its having before I do more complex ones again (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Hex: This is a modeler and sculptor a bit like ZBrush. You can model and then paint on effects and do some pre-vis rendering there. It will also do UV mapping (for texturing models) and a few other advenced things. I'm in my first few weeks of training with it, but I'm really getting to like the interface. Hopefully I'll have a new model to share with you all later on.

Mimic: Uses the morphs in a character that is boned correctly to try and mimic the mouthshapes of dialog. More useful if you're going to do movies with the poser figures. Movies take some hella effort and time (though I've thought about it for a "fanfilmfest" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I finally got a model for my Gunslinger's long coat. This shot is experimenting with particle effects for muzzle flash and ejected shells.

Sam, shooting

is anyone makingtheir own models? (people, things equipment, whatever)
if so, what are you using? and do you know of any good very "start at the bottom" tutorials?

I've been working in Blender and Hex on a few pieces of original content. In fact you can go back a few pages and see my Pred in blender (I have a link back there somewhere). I have a few other things in the early pre-vis stages, but I'll keep the suspense going with those (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

...Redjack: Thanks for the info. I have the V3 MFD series and a lot of free textures I downladed. I'll give it a try. I have a couple character morphs now so I can just inject one of them in so I don't have to work from the ground up again.

As to manually moving files, is that within the D|S directory structure? This again is where I feel like the proverbial fish out of water. I also noticed this with some free downloads that say just to "unzip to your Content folder" but often times I get a query that D|S needs to find a component from another directory. Basically I am an artist first and Windows junkie last.

Caine Hazen: Thought about Hex considering it is on a 72 hr special right now for PC members, but just installed Bryce6.1 and feel I have enough to keep me busy for the time being.

I do have Blender but kind of clueless on how to make it work. Seems everytime I click on a tool, primitive, etc, a scripting box appears and I don't know much about how to use Python. I wish that there was a PDF user manual like D|S has. Having to be logged on to the Blender website to read tutorials or help files is really kind of cumbersome.

Also noticed that Membership does have some nice privilages. When I placed my latest order I discovered I had a 30$ voucher. Basically got Aiko4 and Filosofy Hair for free. Also learned that I can open a gift certificate to pay for orders so in a sense I can set up an account balance to order with (no more USPS hassles).

Gray: Sam Shooting is excellent. What application does particle effects?

Also need to start perusing Renderosity some more. Some pretty cool stuff there as well.

Pardon any typos. On a computer at a washermat that has internet but through Internet Explorer so I don't have auto spellcheck.

That is a pricey add-on... I want it.. but not sure if I want it that much....


I was under the impression that one purpose of Carrera was to enable custom content. Man, I feel like such a babe in the woods with these tool sets..

I've mostly figured out moving files in the 'figures' and 'poses' directories around. I think I actually have a few missing files. Still sorting it all out..

I just wish I better understood what I really need...

I hate being forced to use a substandard browser..

It's the Particle FX plugin for DAZ Studio. It does muzzle flashes, ejected brass, 2 types of dragon fire, camp fires, water coming out of a shower, jet exhaust, and stars. I'm working on a better one with a background, but the long coat is not co-operating.


From what I've seen so far it was worth it.

...yeah, the Particle FX add on will have to wait a bit. However did find a couple other useful tools in the Layered Image Editor and Mask Creator. Sounds like these would be a big help for creating new textures which is the next step I need to take.

Hm... tempting, and 35 bucks are not more than two regular models.

Here is another picture of Sam, elven gunlinger adept on a run. Nothing special in used in this one, except the cool freebie background from Renderosity. Playing with ambient (light light gray, 100%) to make the monitor in the background glow, without using a point light. Also trying a slightly different morph for her face so she looks more elven.

Sam in the reactor room

I'm going to try a spirit banishing scene next.

Here a link to that scene... it's still under construction, but I wanted to show you what I have so far. I finally got to use Aiko 3 for something.

Gray and a Fire Spirit

Looks good. How did you get that effect with A3?