...and if you happen to be a Daz PC member, there is one whopping incredible deal on a bundle of Software tools.

I already have a couple (Bryce and Hexagon) but even the individual item pricing is great. (just picked up Carrara 6.1 for under 50$).

yeah I'd love to pick up the software but I cant spend that kind of money atm
going to go visit my family end of next week and need all my $$ for gas unfortunately

ugg a whole week w/o my computer or net access
bleck!!

Two quick pics from the dual-campaigns Tokyo in the Shadows and Jamaica in the Shadows:

Haywire meeting Big Mac

Kambei talking to Ayaka and Aoi

...those are all pretty cool.

Love the title pic to "Jamaica"

lends whole new meaning to de limbo rock mon.

They were quick renders on a whim. I hope to make more as the campaigns progress.

(As an aside, I have grown very fond of the wiki method of storing character and campaign data for online campaigns. Visually appealing, crosslinked, easy to share and modify, and accessible from all around the globe.)

..OK not totally Shadowrun (or maybe considering genetech) but I came across these while at Renderosity:

Obama

McCain

Hillary (add ons are on a 2 for 1 deal, I wonder if they know something we don't)

Just think of the possibilities...

Candidates Debate, Wild West showdown, Celebrity Death Match, Bar Fight, Hillary in Domino clothing with a minigun?

[addendum]

...also found this sweet little Prop.

...hokay, just finished DL-ing and installing Carrara 6.1.

Been designing textures with Gimp, & the Multiple Layered Texture Editor

Working with learning the ropes of Hexagon and Bryce.

Starting to figure out joint rigging in Poser6

Considering stepping up to either a Toshiba Techra or Levono Workstation.

...this is getting mighty serious chummers.

Letseee now...who can I blame this all on...

Gray?

Fuchs?

Redjack?

...

...seriously, thanks guys for opening me to a whole new and exciting creative medium. Yes, it really is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.

Hehe, I feel like the new guy now - I still stick to Daz, no postwork or gimp, not even poser. I added some new quick picture in the Jamaica campaign, taken from the current scene.

Sweet, no blame coming my way!

..ohhh yeaaah, I forgot.....(was getting late)

Caine too...

Fuchs: Yeah, felt I needed to step further into the whole thing. Seems the ideas I have go beyond the bounds of available content (though I'm thinking of stating up Stonemason's Floater Bot)

You should have seen my studio back in college, I worked for an art supply distributor during the summers & received a 33% discount. Daz has kind of done the same for me with the specials they've been offering on 3D tools.

...OK back to scaling Mt Hexagon.... (now where did I leave my virtual ice axe and crampons)

Hex is fun, and frustrating all at once. Hopefully though the designs I've been working on for the last month will see publication here soon. I am glad all of you dove into all of this like you have, its been good not only to get into a community there, but finding guys with a common thread like this group to keep me motivated.

...noticed Swirler's on the Daz forums now.

Yeah been creating simple items to get the feel (light bulb, organ pipe, nuclear warhead etc...). Amazing in that in less than an hour I had a grasp of what took me several sessions with Blender.

I like the interface a lot. Much more intuitive than Blender and more flexible than D|S. For one, you can select a move tool and then actively move around the viewport with your cursor instead of having to keep it on the tool's icon. The multi level undo is a godsend (I never could find it in Blender) and best of all is the bridge to D|S so I can send a model over to work on mapping clothes or hair.

Of course now with Carrara, which has a faster render engine and also a bridge to D|S as well as being able to handle imports from applications like 3DS Max (great even more ways to spend money now ) I may have a new tool of first choice. So now I can design and map new content (Hexagon), rig clothing and hair (Poser), set up and pose characters (D|S/Poser), develop detailed settings (Bryce), and render the finished scene in Carrara.

...I might need that Lenovo workstation after all.

yeah I've been on there a lil while, not super talky, just when I can answer a question or when someones having a problem I'm wanting to know about too

redjack and I are both on artzone also


I haven't made much progress lately
life has been pretty stressful and I cant concentrate enough to work on anything, even fun stuff like this or even rpgs
bleck
leaving friday to go back home and see my family
haven't seen them since august
before that it had been 3 years
heh
so no computer for me, well no internet anyway
we are taking the fiance's laptop and I've installed blender on it so I might curl up with it and the book I've got for Blender.
hopefully I can relax enough to learn

...been a while since something was added. OK this is an old one, but I've been conferring with Mike at Dreamlight Studios on lighting and MAT textures. While the Leela and Floater Bot pic was pretty good, I didn't like her skin texture as it didn't look "real" compared with the floaters, props, and background. In effect it looked more like she was "painted" on afterwards.

Well, taking his suggestions to heart, I dove back in, reworked, and adjusted a number of elements. One thing I definitely learned, the Skin Tab in D|S is your friend and the Multiple Layered Texture Editor is an indispensable tool. When the render process completed, I was floored.

A major part with lighting and skin tones that I learned is that some textures do not work well in all lighting conditions. For example, I originally used the Helena skin MAT because the Teen Ashley textures seemed too dark. Well, under studio lighting this looked great, but once I moved her to the outdoor light dome (which has different ambients) the contrast between highlight and shadow zones was too pronounced. Basically, the Helena MAT has a high gloss factor which while great for the modelling studio or runway, lent to the "painted on" look under the outdoor Light Dome.

I also learned that many of the "out of the box" V4 MATs were generated in P4, and thus are not as high a quality as D|S generated MATs are (handy to look at the extensions). In the end I used the new Darci character D|S MAT for the body and one from a Freebie character for the face (for some reason the Darci MAT caused Leela's eyebrows to disappear, odd). Lightening the diffusion colour a bit on the face allowed me to match the facial tones with the body skin tone in the render.

So, without further adieu, I present A Captive Audience - Redeux (& be sure to click on the Full View).

Render Time: 31 Min + 8 min for shadow mapping. 18 ambient lights, 18 sky lights with Deep Shadow Maps, 1 Sun source.

No Postwork

Still have a bit of work left to do (which is why it is in my scrap book for now) as I just ordered a fun set of props entitled Trash Stash. Lots of cool and useful junk, like paint cans, shopping trolleys, boxes, pallets, litter, spills, etc. Also working on creating graffiti texture layers to put on walls and stuff.

...am seriously considering uploading this to the Realistic Renders challenge thread on the Daz Forums when finished.

...ohh & while not Shadowrun related (OK others have done so, so my turn), here is my take on the Marvel character Jubilee which I submitted to the Who Wants to Render a Superhero Challenge?. This was an interesting piece in that it required a lot re-texturing and tricky light placement as well as a tonne of postwork in Gimp for her fireworks effects.

Jubilee

What are these? I see Point Light, Spot Light and Distant Light as options....

...apologies, this is the terminology used in Light Dome Pro. All the light types used in LDP are Distant Lights. The Ambients serve as specific fill lights so shadows are not pitch black. The sky lights serve more as a general fill light and assist in shadow generation. These usually follow the Sun Source (if you look at the "sky" in an unrendered image, you will see arrows pointing off in the direction the sun is facing). Finally there is also a Sky Reference light that is used only for working purposes and should be turned off before rendering.

All Ambient and Sky lighting intensities are preset (in the Sunset mode Ambients are at 1% and Sky at 18%) but are fully adjustable as to intensity, colour, (so if you want a red sun for an SF scene you can make one), Transition, Rotation, Scale and shadow generation. Adjusting the intensity of the sky and ambients however can have unwanted effects as lights are always "hotter" in the final render.

LDP is a great tool for producing natural outdoor lighting, There are four sets, Midday, Sunset (Sunrise), Cloudy, and Night all with Extended versions (that include additional sun sources to create even more realistic shadows). It does take a bit more to work with than the HDRI or Cyclorama lights, but by the same token it is more flexible. Again I only used the basic Low setting and the results are nothing less than remarkable. I can say this is definitely worth the price.

Keep a watch during the Published Artists Showcase that is currently going on. Each day another artist/studio is highlighted with many items (if not their whole store) 40 - 50% off and I'm sure that Dreamlight Studios is on the list. I already picked up Nerd's new Rain Tool for under 10$ (heck, what is Seattle or London in 2060s - 70s without the ubiquitous acid rain?), some nice basic casual V4 clothing by Will Dupré/MAB Studio, and am of course waiting for Stonemason (have a lot of his stuff on my wishlist).

Good stuff!

...thanks, I think I'm getting the hang of this.

Very nice Kyotokid. Love the Beaten-up Look of those Drones! Oddly she reminds of a characetr in a Super-Hero Story I've been working on off and onn for a long time now...
I've been playing with a free and stupid-easy program called DOGA for all of my 3-D Rendering needs at the moment.
I've really got too little time to learn some new art programs without going back to school for that purpose...8P
Mostly I've been designing starships, but I've a few hover-type ground vehicles as well. However the program is far too limited to relaly let me get nuts with the swoopy lines I'd LOVE to use...8P

...thanks. Unfortunately I cannot take credit for the Floater Bots as they are actually a poseable prop available from Stonemason (free). The Setting is Stonemason's Backstreets. I have just started working with 3D CG and to create a scene like this from scratch is still a bit down the road for me.

The software that I (and the others on this thread) use is Daz|Studio and/or Poser which are primarily posing, morphing, and scene building tools. These programmes are incapable of true 3D modelling.

If you are looking for another modelling tool, Wings 3D is free and not that difficult to learn. It is also capable of handling more complex curves and forms. If you are in the market to purchase a better tool, then I would suggest Hexagon from Daz 3D. It isn't terribly expensive (unlike CAD programmes) and has a very intuitive interface as well as being capable of UV mapping. There are also several downloadable tutorials available. A lot of the elements you see in the images posted here, from clothing to vehicles, were most likely created using Hexagon.

BTW Daz|Studio (or D|S as you may see it abbreviated) is free and comes with a bundle of content to get you going. There is also starter pack the3D Bridge Pack which is free as well. Studio is also fairly intuitive, and like with Hexagon there are tutorials and tips you can get from the Daz Forums.

Poser (now up to ver. 7)is a bit pricey at 249$ though you can find a better price at some resellers. Besides what Studio can do, Poser is also capable of "rigging" (configuring) and texturing hair and clothing, creating character morphs, and animation.

There are also an number of other tools out there such as detailed scenery/skydome building (Bryce) and advanced scene rendering and animations (Carrara).

For skinning, designing textures, and Postwork, you need 2D design tool like Photoshop or Gimp. I suggest Gimp because for one, it is free and capable of performing many of the same functions as Photoshop.

I have all the tools mentioned here.

I am back finally
wee!
ugg too tired to try and work on anything though
lol

...welcome back and understood.

Been mostly doing some finish up work. Posted the Violet pic in the May Doorstep Challenge and the moved finished version of Captive Audience from scraps to my main DA gallery. Been pretty busy over on the Daz forums as well as chasing down a render bug in D|S.

Ok, I broke down and bought the Dreamlight Master pack when it was 65% off. Feel free to send tips my way.

A fantasy environment available on DAZ ==> Tasadur. It's free until 6/3.

So... I'm just about to buy Bryce 6, I used Bryce 3D waaaaaay back when digital dinosaurs roamed the digital Earth.

Booleans make sense to me, I can actually build things pretty rapidly in them.

<Edit>
Riiight so Kyoto Kid pretty much answered my question all of 5 posts above me.

Bad doc! No digital cookie!

By the way, it feels nice to actually own legit copies of software. I never thought those words would exit my mouth.

And Bryce 6 is just as much fun as I remember.


So are any of you actually using DAZ's Hexagon? How does it compare to say... Blender?

Update:
Holy Hell! Hexagon is fantastic! This is so much easier to work with than 3D StudioMax...

Who else among you is using Hexagon?

If I remember the issue here though, booleans don't carry-over to other applications (esp. Poser & D|S) well. I have pulled D|S scenes into Bryce, but complex scenes really pull it down.

*Raises Hand*
Working on it.

My experience runs on the low side, but here goes. As noted, I own Hexagon and am working to learn to use it for modeling. It appears that to rig the models, Poser is the only choice out there. Given the tutorials and various forum entries I've read, UV-Mapper is the category killer for creating UV maps, while zBrush seems to be the defacto standard for creating bump maps and the like. Daz Studio (D|S) is definitely easier for setting and posing scenes than Poser, though lighting, shading & effects really require 3rd Party Plugins for realistic/professional results. Finally, the camps are definitely divided between Gimp, Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro for post-work editing.

Here is my latest render. I have to admit, despite the price, I am pretty happy with LDP.
*nods to Kyoto-Kid* I wouldn't have bought it without your praise of it.

is that the swat outfit from Planet vixens?
LDP? Light Dome Pro?

Yes. Looks good, eh? M3 has the Privateer and the Ingram Mac-10.

Yes.

yeah i thought I recognized it
I've used it some
I like it

Alright so I'm mucking around in Hexagon and have discovered the pure joy that this symmetries. I'm still having some trouble with the interface and I'm trying to figure out how to get more precise controls over er... rounding? That thing where it adds in extra faces to make things look nicer? I'm also having trouble working with multi-object symmetries, like car tires. I've figured out how to make clones but I haven't figured out how to clone movement translations (ie. I want these 2 tires to both move 2 inches outboard, not move one tire 4 inches and try to recenter it on my vehicle)

So... rigging. If I model a vehicle or a weapon I have to go to Poser to properly rig it? Or is poser mostly for rigging people? Any recommendation on tutorials or are the ones included with Poser pretty good?

Also, rendering options. If I recall, older versions of Bryce allowed for distributed computing. You could hook up a bunch of old machines and have them shoulder the load of animating or rendering. Do all the DAZ3D products still do that? My current desktops no speed daemon but I do have some old parts laying around.

...LDP really makes for some realistic lighting like the sunset I used in Captive Audience and the late afternoon light i used here:

The Welcoming Committee

ONk not SR but a god example of hw exellent LDP is. After "conversing" with Michael from Dreamlight Studios, I picked up on a few tricks to make shadows appear more real and change the angle of the sun without screwing up the shadow maps.

Again this was done on the low setting and I added a hint of very light yellow to the sun. I now need to work with the ambients to get a little more fill light on Leela's face.

Also if you have either the UberEnvironment or Pendragon's light shaders, they do work with LDP contrary to what I have heard some say (this again from DreamLight).

BTW, Just picked up on Studio Light Pro during the weekend blitz as well as a nice 3 storey frame house that has interior detail.

OK a little off the topic of lights, I definitely find Hexagon way easier to grasp than Blender. Even before I downloaded the tutorials I felt I was much more in control of things. One feature I like (and I wish they added to D|S) is the active viewport where you can select a camera control and then move around the model by placing the cursor in the viewport . I also like having a good undo function.

Never tried 3DS (I find demos for pricey software are just malicious teases when you can't afford it to begin with) so I have nothing else to compare to, though I hear a lot of people saying good things about modo (1/3 the cost of 3DS).

As to rigging, Carrara will do rigging but only for figures in Carrara. It will not transfer over to D|S like Poser's rigging does (which explains why a fair number of people on the Daz forums have taken to working in Carrara). Carrara is more the "do everything" tool in one package . Very powerful especially when you consider the price compared to the higher end tools. However, for creating quick of on the fly scenes (save for rendering) D|S still has everyone beat hands down. I created a piece as a joke for a thread the other day in about 6 min (including render time) Later I spent about another 10 or so updating it (the Drooling cat on the Stonemason Contest announcement thread).

As to rigging, anything can be rigged in Poser to make "poseable" props (e.g. car doors and windows that open). These of course would still need to be modelled in in an application like Hex. Again I have just started down the modelling road myself so I can't say exactly how this would be done.

What KK fails to mentions is that 1/3 of 3 grand is still a grand But yeah, modo looks interesting but I don't think I'm anywhere near ready for 900 bucks worth of graphics modeling.

That and my computer is already starting to chug on rendering.

i wish I could have taken advantage of the big sale they had on software but... just couldnt swing it, it's a bad time for money

Here's my latest ==> Sword Practice. Sam visits Tir Tairgire to learn the art of the sword.

I got the Humvee model so I think I'll use that in my next render.

...yeah it's still out of my budget too (even having just received my Federal kicker cheque) but I mentioned it as an alternative to a multi thousand $ software tool that a lot of CG artists fawn over which also requires you to renew your license every 12 - 14 months (for even more $). Just infuriating that a lot of good vehicle and aircraft content is only available in 3DS format. Heck even Daz in their latest sale is offering three 3DS car models. Like 3DS users go "slumming" in the Daz store.

If I were to step up to the next level, modo would be my choice over any of it's competitors. It's like having Hex, Carrara, Poser, and Bryce on steroids all in one programme with the bonus of a kick butt render engine, intuitive interface and sensible license agreement.

Long render times are not necessarily only the fault of the hardware but also the render engine in the software. There is a discussion concerning Bryce development by Daz that includes how its render engine is inferior compared to Carrara and even D|S (well maybe with the exception of 2.1.1.3).

...ouch, glad I wasn't at work then I clicked on the link. Very nice (hope she isn't going to slice that poor birdie though).

Small technical detail, It appears she's wielding a Ninja-to or Wakasashi (hard to tell from the angle). Considering the ice cold relations between the TT and Japan I'm surprised she isn't training with a western styled blade.

I gave Sam a heavier, longsword type blade. I also gave her a variant of her long hair back. I also included an elven swordmaster, so it doesn't look like Sam is about to do harm to the birdie.

Sword Practice - take two

come on Sam... kick Legolas ass!!!

...wow, that is a large image. Much better. The lighting works very well with the sky. Including the swordmaster really makes the scene work as now Sam has something to focus her attention on. Before she seemed to have that characteristic "blank CG" stare.

...and yes, he does kind of look like a buff version of Legolas

You should seriously consider submitting this to the Daz June Monthly Gallery.

I debuffed "Legolas" a bit (his face is a character named Sebastian from Renderosity), gave Sam a more balanced stance, and balanced the whole composition a bit, trying to approximate the Rule of Thirds... and I submitted this version to the DAZ June Monthly Gallery.

Sword Practice take three

...definitely better. For one, the bird soedn't look like it's flying directly between them (and still risking losing a wing or two). Sam's pose gives her more power and her eyes are now totally focused on her sparring partner. I like the hint of confidence (maybe a bit of overconfidence?) in her expression.

@Redjack, just saw your entry in the Stonemason contest. Very nice. A Johnson who may have hosed a one too many runners or his boss perhaps?.

This was going to be my entry before I learned that posting the image somewhere else disqualified it (I posted it as a demonstration on using V4.2 to create children in another thread). Not quite Shadowrun though it is from Leela's past.

The Welcoming Committee

When I finish it (Need to play with the lighting some) I'll most likely post it to the June Gallery as well.

Not really a shadowrun render, but here is: Outgunned

LDP does wonders for realistic lighting...

KK, you render cats real good like

I guess I'll have to grab LDP, your lighting is very uhm... warm. That's pretty cool. I'm sorry but I think I missed it earlier, is this in Poser or Carrera?


And just some clarification. Can I do decent rigging in Carrera? I want to make vehicles with trunks that can be opened (you know, so I don't have to the tie the bodies to the hood), as well as some more complicated things (like gimbaled weapon mounts) at a later date.

D|S (Daz Studio)

...you should post that in the Unfeasible Heroes thread.

@DocTaotsu: Actually it was done in D|S believe it or not (after two render runtime crashes). The "warmth" is because I added a light straw colour to the sun light itself.

Yeah been a cat person for since I was a kid. Also did an in depth study of felines while developing a science fiction story (still a WIP) which is why I have their mannerisms down so well (and why I chose the Mil Cat Bundle with my D|S 2.0 coupon over the Freak and Sci Fi ones). Just ordered the V4.2 Creature morphs which is the first step to doing renders of the feline characters from the aforementioned story (and no thy aren't just "catgirls" )

Female Sabrinno Sketch (2D)

Hehe... No that clearly is a feline hybrid... not a creature borne of the unholy union of a creepy fanboy, puberty, and a manga kitty.


Oh and I just spent 2 hours pushing edges, faces and points around in Hexagon instead of sleeping or studying.

Thanks guys, first ones free huh? Bastards.

The worst part is that it's a freakin fan blade in a ducted fan... I have a serious problem with wing like structures... I just can't stop... playing with them.

yeah, its hard to stop playing with those damn rotors/fans There are soooo many options.

...the development of the Sabrinno spanned a number of years. I was tired of the anthropomorphic upright standing animal alien and "furry" fandom basically gave me the creeps. I have several milk crates and paper ream boxes full of notebooks and sketch pads which are slowly being transferred over to digital format.

In my studies of felines I noticed for one, that with the right evolutionary turn, the forepaws could easily become hands as there is a vestigial opposed digit which in some cats almost does become a sort of thumb. Watch the way a cat grasps at something dangled in front of it. It appears to try and wrap it's toes around the object. Besides being efficient hunters, felines are almost natural born explorers (particularly when in the kitten stage). Despite the general view that felines are solitary creatures, they can become very sociable depending on the environment they are placed in. Felines also have a short childhood and venerable stage in relation to their adult stage (not too unlike SR elves though the comparison mercifully stops there).

When I set out to design the Sabrinno species, I wanted to base them more on the more subtle feline traits. No tails, no fur coat, no animal muzzle. They still of course retain the large eyes and movable ears as well as some unique features (such as the whisker like eyelashes, mane along the spine, and sensing pits on the bridge of the nose). In working up the physical model and evolutionary track I was also assisted by a graduate biologist and ecologist. Their language is a blend of verbal, feline sounds, and subtle gesture.

...oh, and Sabirnno love water (on the home-world, the capital is like a much larger version of Venice).