3D Art & Art Tools, No longer derailing Squinky's Thread Options

[Kyoto Kid]

...well, as promised. Only a headshot for now as I mention in the notes.

Tracey Kyle

[Fuchs]

There's some hair clipping at the ear, maybe move the ears a bit?

[Kyoto Kid]

...yeah, was aware of that when I posted the image. The Ears In-Out morph really didn't eliminate it & only made her look silly. I wish there was a morph handle for that part of the hairstyle. What I really need is something like the Sassy Hair add on for her as the actual character does wear her hair short.

[Fuchs]

More from the "Sink, Hollywood, Sink" Campaign:

Carroway's arrival in L.A.

Blackie in a station.

Dagda summoning his luggage carrier.

Addicted

Richard stepping in

Getting a job

Carroway (and others) watching Dancer

Carroway casting the "Pink Cotton Candy Wave".

Dagda at the Party.

Dancer "caught"

Dancer and Carroway chatting. (NSFW in some places)

[Blade]

Nasty "uncanney valley" effect, the models, poses and scenes are ok, I guess, but they look kinda creepy to me. I don't know if I'm the only one feeling like this.

Maybe some post-processing/filtering would help. I had the same situation with my webcomic. When I "turned" someone into a troll, he looked creepy and unnatural until I filtered the picture to make it look less photographic/realistic.

[Fuchs]

What program/filter do you use?

[Blade]

I use photoshop. I do more than just apply a filter, but all pictures go through a combination of watercolor and grain filters and changes in brightness/contrast/saturation and color parameters. But I'm not sure if it's the best for your pictures.

More details here.

[Kyoto Kid]

...just a quick note. it would be good to include NSFW labels on any images that may have sensitive content. Just opened Dancer & Carroway and...well glad the boss wasn't around.

Otherwise looks pretty nice. As to that "creepy feeling", hell I always thought the Shadowrun world had that kind of atmosphere anyway.

BTW will be posting another prelim of Leela (has a lot more of the "13 year old kid" look) and my first shot at Violet tonight. Think I'm beginning to get the hang of this. Then again I just installed the Poser7 demo last night, so for a while it will be back to "hex #1" again.

I need to get some more Shadowrun-like setting content. Downloaded some fun freebie stuff from Stonemason's site (a couple of his props will appear in the aforementioned Leela image).

[Caine Hazen]

See, I'm not getting the "uncanny" feel from these. Poser/DAZ are nice, but I can still feel the digital from it. Look at some of the books Ballistics Publishing puts out if you wanna see artists that will get you into the valley (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I did note on one of those, the figures don't quite seem to touch the ground.. I'm guessing like was mentioned before there are ground scaling issues to the terrains from Dystopia? Wondering, since I finally got the 4 gigs of downloads and files installed an will be working with some tonight

[Kyoto Kid]

...yeah, but at a price tag far beyond my means. I have been fairly active on the Daz forums as of late (which explains my absence on DS for the last several days) and unwittingly sparked a fairly heated debate about various different 3d platforms. One person started going on about professional packages used by studios (some costing over 1000$) which are capable of almost lifelike quality. That's all well and fine, however that way beyond my means and needs (I shudder to think of what the hardware requirements are). I had to in a sense throw up my hands and say Whoa Pardner you're leaving me in the dust, as I just started getting into this 3D thing. I'm in it for personal reasons and satisfaction, not to necessarily make a living at it.

I like to draw and paint. I like to create scenes and characters of my own vision. Unfortunately because of my stiff and unsteady hands it is very difficult to do what once came easy to me. The inner visions are still there, but the physical ability is no longer. I tried doing freehand 2d with a mouse bit it just isn't the same and way too "twitchy". I also tried just doing simple outline sketches scanning them and then finishing with digital rendering and painting but pencil line sketches don't scan very well without a lot of contrast adjustments which in turn adversely affects the tone of the "paper" surface. Then it was suggested I check out Daz & Poser (I had heard of Poser before) and found them to be nice and in some ways (particularly in the case of Poser) fairly powerful tools. I'll admit it is a learning curve and yes both software packages have their limits. But so do pencils, Oil paints, or any other media.

While I agree about the "digital look", the challenge for me is to give it a more personal touch.

I'd also check Stonemason's site as he has some incredibly detailed Dystopia props and settings. both free and for purchase. I have his Science Fiction Wall and the detail is incredibly rich even in D|S compared to the Dystopia downloads I have.

[Fuchs]

I see Daz mainly as the best way so far to get my imagination on paper/screen. Before starting with this, I tried sketching and drawing, but I never got as close to how I imagine scenes and characters as with rendering.

That said, I am not shooting for perfect pictures. I am aiming to add some color to pen and paper and online games, and since my time's not unlimited, I can't tinker that long with every picture.

[Kyoto Kid]

...no issue there. Have a similar situation in that RL work tends to cut into my most creative time (usually after 10:00PM as I have to be up for work at 6:00) Ended upgoing to work a couple-three days in a row on about 3 hrs of sleep, not advisable when you're my age.

Fuchs: I still have ways to go (both experience and download wise) to actually build a real scene. Still waiting for confirmation of my PC membership (1.99$ vs 18 - 25$ for the same pack is a significant savings). I like your work and it has inspired me to press on. I am well aware of deadlines (having worked in various phases of publication production before) and while one would like to do the best, time is frequently not on your side (definitely need that stopwatch from the old Twilight Zone episode (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) ).

[Update]

Daz Productions just announced the release of D|S 2.0. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

[Caine Hazen]

Awesome.. D|S 2 should be all sorts of fun it looks like. Think I'll look it over tonight.

With the Uncanny divide thing, I just think its over utilized without true understanding of where that line really is. Plus I think the art we might do (myself included) probably won't reach that level yet. However, I do really want to delve into doing more with something beyond Daz here one day. Hopefully I'll get to work with something bigger when I next have time.

[Kyoto Kid]

...as forwarned (1st drafts)

Hi Mr. Drone!

Violet B 3D

[Fuchs]

Those look nice, I especially like the expressions. You could try to paste some photograph (like a skyline) as a background, with the right pic and perspective it works well.

[Kyoto Kid]

...thought about that but I don't have much in my own photo vault that is anywhere near dystopian in nature (Street scenes of Honolulu or Milwaukee WI in winter just don't cut it). Did download a couple cool freebies from the Daz forums that may work but I need to play with the lighting somewhat to get that gritty look and not have them overpower the figures. I also have the free Dystopia Blocks as well but I need to work more with scaling so that the characters actually stand on the ground instead of sink in or float above it or This doesn't happen.

Apologies to Roger Corman.

[Blade]

With the Uncanny divide thing, I just think its over utilized without true understanding of where that line really is

Yeah I know it isn't exactly uncanney valley (that's why I used quotes), because they don't look human enough to be disturbing, but I still find something creepy in a lot of these pictures... I can't tell the reason, though.

[Gray]

I justs started playing around with DAZ 3D Studio.

Here is a shot I did of my character, Samantha "Sam" Rodriguez, elven gunslinger adept from Puyallups III: This time its corporate, Kilroy's latest venture. Base models are Victoria 4 and Millenium Cat LE.

Sam and the alley cat

[MYST1C]

Sam and the alley cat

Nice!

[Kyoto Kid]

..agreed. I like the cat (need to get some textures for my MllCat as I only have the basic white one). Nice clothing as well, I need to get more as I only have the basic stuff that came with V4.2 and Ashley (somehow a female street sammie wearing a flowered strappy top, blue jeans & sneakers just seems so wrong). Tried to use some files I downloaded from the Freebies Forum on the Daz website but found out most are configured for Poser instead of D|S so they don't fit at all).

I especially like the background. Did you do that up yourself or was it a pre-made prop? Appropriate backgrounds are something else I need more of.

[Gray]

I especially like the background. Did you do that up yourself or was it a pre-made prop? Appropriate backgrounds are something else I need more of.

The background is a freebie download from Renderosity called Grafitti Wall. There are no DAZ MAT files so you have to change the basic brick texture manually, but there are about a dozen different textures included, as well as a few props. I used the garbage can from the Backstreet set from DAZ. Backstreet is not free but it looks like a good set for the Barrens. The cat texture was also a freebie.. I forget where I got it but it's the nicest one I've seen. I'm trying to turn it into a red tabby with Photoshop.

Sam's pistol, gunbelt, and hair are part ot the High fantasy Treasure Hunter series from Renderosity. The "Daisy Dukes" are a morph of the commercially available JeanZ for V4, the shirt is a freebie called "My Vest", with an added texture pack to make it red. The boots are commercially available StomperZ, with the leather texture.

I'm saving my pennies for another High Fantasy Treasure Hunter add on, to get a blue tooth ear piece to use as Sam's comm.

There is a good set, and it's on sale at DAZ called Shadow Dancer for V4, that would make a good female Street Sam outfit. I just bought it last night, as well as the male version for M3.

Does anyone know of a good trench coat for V4? Something I can turn into a lined coat.

[Fuchs]

Hm... I'll have to check what the set is called I got my coats from.

[Fuchs]

A try at an AR window in normal field of view

[Kyoto Kid]

The background is a freebie download from Renderosity called Grafitti Wall. There are no DAZ MAT files so you have to change the basic brick texture manually, but there are about a dozen different textures included, as well as a few props. I used the garbage can from the Backstreet set from DAZ. Backstreet is not free but it looks like a good set for the Barrens. The cat texture was also a freebie.. I forget where I got it but it's the nicest one I've seen. I'm trying to turn it into a red tabby with Photoshop.

Sam's pistol, gunbelt, and hair are part ot the High fantasy Treasure Hunter series from Renderosity. The "Daisy Dukes" are a morph of the commercially available JeanZ for V4, the shirt is a freebie called "My Vest", with an added texture pack to make it red. The boots are commercially available StomperZ, with the leather texture.

I'm saving my pennies for another High Fantasy Treasure Hunter add on, to get a blue tooth ear piece to use as Sam's comm.

There is a good set, and it's on sale at DAZ called Shadow Dancer for V4, that would make a good female Street Sam outfit. I just bought it last night, as well as the male version form M3.

Does anyone know of a good trench coat for V4? Something I can turn into a lined coat.

...I'm still waiting for an acknowledgment email from Renderosity on my membership. Been nearly a week. They do have some great stuff though. One thing that kind of sours me on freebies is the fact that not all of them load properly. I am not a Windows geek so I don't know where to put everything manually to make things work. Also a lot of the ones I downloaded are designed in Poser & not always tested in D|S (D|S cannot handle the Poser "dynamic" settings for hair & clothing).

I am familiar with the Shadow Dancer series and it is on my wish list. There is also another set from their Omega series called Omega Huntress X which almost fits the Short One's concept perfectly.

Still waiting for my payment for my Platinum Club membership to make it to Daz (the USPS has really been hosing things as of late).

Fuchs: pretty good. I would so some postwork on it in Photoshop (or similar) to make it a bit more translucent and lose the heavy border. From what I gather from SR4 illustrations, that is more how AR looks.

[Gray]

...I'm still waiting for an acknowledgment email from Renderosity on my membership. Been nearly a week.

The site where I got the cat texture (Planet 3D or some such) will not approve my memebership until my parents fax in the approval form... I'm 39 years old. Omega Huntress X is also on my wishlist.

Most good freebies tell you exactly where to unzip the files. If they do not, I usually put them in a temp folder and import the .obj file manually.

Still waiting for my payment for my Platinum Club membership to make it to Daz (the USPS has really been hosing things as of late).

Platinum Club is awesome. I got the beard in the picture linked below for $1.99, along with a bunch of other stuff.



Here is a very quick morph I did last night for a dwarf mage in our campaign with my elven gunslinger adept along side for scale. I do not have any good clothes for a mage yet so they are in their underwear.

Ramses and Sam in their undies

Should the dwarf be taller? Sam, the elf in the picture is supposed to be 6 feet tall so I thought he looked close to the right height.