oh crud i forgot to mention it here. I dunno if its still going on but if you join Daz then join their version of myspace you get the new victoria 4.0 (with male version) model(s) free

...yeah but you have to sumbit a profile with personal info and photo (which personally I am not into leaving on a site like MySpace). Nah, next paycheque I'm sending in for an annual Platinum Club membership. Almost as good as you get a 30% discount, special offers, and a lot of mods such as clothing and settings are 1.99$.

After getting things down I may look into going for developer status.

noone said you had to put real info or pic
has playing shadowrun taught you nothing?

lol

...according to the details I read on the Daz Website, those are the requirements.

Are they going to check it against your passport or something? Just post a fake one.

glad I was eligible for a free upgrade to my V3... and Akio 4 for the V4 hit today for Platinum members, just finished downloading it and a bunch of free Dystopia stuff. i actually have a plan for Akio already.

I gave up and deleted all my Daz crap. I suck at art!

...not if I want to do Dev work for them in the future. Also was never too keen on MySpace.

Caine,

Yeah I should have raided the savings & plunked my 99$ down for a Year's membership (Can't do the monthly deal without having Plastic). Would have saved me 18$ on the Pro Bundle.

Speaking of Dystopia, Do you need Poser to use it or will it run just with DazStudio?

Actually lots of the files from DAZ and otherwise are easily portable. The Dystopia stuff I dowloaded today is in .obj format, so I'll be using it in all the proggies I run here. Lightwave is really the only thing that doesn't do .obj well, and since I've stayed away from that, I should be all good. I do find it funny that Team Dystopia makes a "Vue" version of their blocks.. though I've not yet had time to import .obj into Vue, so I don't know if it will actually mess anything up with them. Guess I'll find out when I get around to it

...thanks, looks like I got me some serious downloading to do tonight.

Dystopia Hyperion bar lacks the mat files in DAZ, so the textures are not really great in DAZ. (My "meeting Mr. Johnson" shows the difference, my walls are flat grey, no details).

...that's OK for now. Need to do things a step at a time & I feel I will have my hands (& trackball) full for a while (249$ for Poser will require a little saving).

Anyway, the annual Platinum Club membership has next priority right now as it will more than pay itself back.

Yoiks! That was a lot of downloading...32 files not counting the Dystopia/Party lights stuff. Now comes the fun of installing...think I'll call in sick tomorrow.

...okay, now we're in business. Installed Victoria 4 & Ashley. Pretty neat. Was up until 02:00 when I realised "gee I have to be up for work in 3 & a half hours." Began preliminary work on "Leela 3D" as my first test subject. Should have a first draft by Sunday (have to run a game session tomorrow so... must...refrain...from...booting...up...Daz...tonight...).

FYI, for those who wanted to move into Poser but didn't think they could afford it : http://www.contentparadise.com/us/user/pos...l_product_37956

The current issue of the UK magazine 3D World includes a full copy of Carrara 5.0 Pro on the bundled DVD. It is already in bookstores (at least the big chains) here in the US. I think it goes for ~$15.99 US, but I'm not 100% sure.

You can also order it from their website, www.3dworldmag.com, but you pay the current Euro->US conversion rate ($19 for me + small bank fee).

Yeah $16 is nothing to sneeze at, but it's a lot cheaper than most other full-featured, non-gimped 3D programs (except Blender) if you are looking to do some serious 3D pix.

(If you get it, be sure to download the free Transposer plugin for it from Daz's support section.)

...great deal, however I am unable to find what payment options exist. Daz allows payment by Prepaid MO & activates the download once payment is received. Really would hate to miss out on such a savings.

...OK here's my first serious attempt at a 3D figure. No backdrop yet & she still needs a couple props (like her gun). Tried to put her into one of the Dystopia Blocks settings but some of her clothing morphs didn't load cleanly and she either she ended up floating a couple inches above the ground or her feet sunk into the pavement. Not sure why that happened.

Leela 3d

Did you move her around on the y-axis? You can position her very precisely using those dials.

...yes and the placement issue still occurred. I am also working though the Daz forum as well (wish I could get a help file that was offline). One person mentioned that instead of scaling the figure down to fit the setting, scaling the background up to fit the character (when I first imported Leela into the scene it looked like the "Attack of the 50 foot Teenager").

Started working on some other characters and see I really need to send in my platinum Club membership. Definitely need more clothing and hairstyles (Lady Meggan Grande in jeans, sports top, and sneakers with Aiko hair is so...undignified ).

Ah, that would be it. Scale the block up.

There are a bunch of free Daz weapon props available (not sure if any fit your character concept):

Desert Eagle:
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=168

Chaingun (Vindicator?)
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=91

SciFi Firearms
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=36

Western Firearms
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=42

Western Gunbelts
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=39

Modern Firearms
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=37

Knives and Daggers
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=38

Swords and Scabbards
http://free.daz3d.com/free_weekly/detail.php?free_id=43

Kruger MK-15
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/...5911&cat=38

There's more out there on other sites, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.

PS If you don't mind, where did you get the sneakers for Leela?

...already downloaded all the guns. Pretty nice selection, particularly the Western firearms. The SciFi group has a huge nasty gun named the Predator. I wanted to use the Desert Eagle holstered with Leela as she has the camo pants but when I selected it only the gun appeared & not the holster.

Did see a really cool add on though which almost seems tailored for the Short One as it is a cowboy themed outfit that looks fairly shadowrun which includes two big revolvers, a katana, and knives (& yes, it even has the Stetson).

One of the disappointing things I did notice looking through the available clothing selections is a lack of military clothing for female characters. When I asked on the Daz Forum about morphing male clothing I was told I needed one or more conversion programmes.

Panko might have some female military clothes in his store on renderosity.

Some pictures from the "Sink, Hollywood, Sink" PbP campaign.

Street gear

The Party

Street Performers

A charismatic Sleaze

A paparazzi drone

A rave

...saw the Street Perfromers and Rave on the PbP thread.

I'll post a teaser of the current character I'm working on tonight (unfortunately only a portrait as I don't have any clothing add ons yet beyond the standard ones & had trouble getting those to fit properly). Spent bit more time with the facial morphs and...well, you'll see. oo la la oooo la la la la!

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

Tracey Kyle

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

...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.

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)

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.

What program/filter do you use?

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.

...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).

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

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

...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.

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.

...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 ).

[Update]

Daz Productions just announced the release of D|S 2.0.

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.

...as forwarned (1st drafts)

Hi Mr. Drone!

Violet B 3D

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.

...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.

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.

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

Nice!

..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.

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.

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

A try at an AR window in normal field of view

...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.

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.



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.