Stream is done, but progress was made on Amanda, and it was achieved a lot faster than Cassie's. So I must be figuring some shit out. 
she's T-posing to establish dominance
edit: I don't like the meme that every woman without make-up looks tired/sick unless she puts on "natural looking make-up"
but I concede that the third cassie picture looks better then the second and I can't put my finger on exactly why that is!
edit: I don't like the meme that every woman without make-up looks tired/sick unless she puts on "natural looking make-up"
but I concede that the third cassie picture looks better then the second and I can't put my finger on exactly why that is!
- Sep 23, 2019
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- Sep 28, 2018
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Not yet...but the next update is the Cassie update.
- Sep 23, 2019
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Low res version of some exclusive art I did for the gallery.
Still messing with Blender. Getting a thing or two figured out, so it's no perfect. But we'll get it there eventually.
Cheers mates!
Still messing with Blender. Getting a thing or two figured out, so it's no perfect. But we'll get it there eventually.
Cheers mates!
- Nov 11, 2017
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Did you composite her into the Daz-based scene, in this case?
If you migrated that scene into Blender instead, the materials came across nicely.
I set everything up in Daz and then imported to Blender. I applied the Blender Materials I put together for Cassie on, and then I added a Mapping and Bump Node to the couch and Pillows. The remainder I just left using the Blender default because I was planning on the background being blurry and not having much detail anyway.
I didn't think the process was too painful and the whole transfer just took a couple of minutes.
What I need to do is find a way to mark the camera position in Daz and so that when I export to Blender the camera's align.
At some point I'll work on just place a simple Geometric object on the camera in Daz and then snapping the camera in Blender to it. Rotate it towards the subject, and voila, it should work. (at least in theory).
- Apr 26, 2017
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- Dec 17, 2017
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... Neighbor's ... Daddy, look what you did to me!
- Nov 11, 2017
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Sounds good, I'm curious about translating the camera alignment, too.
Just a tiny observation: her skin seems a bit "pocky" in this test shot, which I also realize is not a full render (per the noise). If that's not noise and actual appearance of texture detail, might want to consider dialing down the normal a bit and see how that looks.
- Dec 17, 2017
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Fucking hell mate! If you're just going to tear apart all the hard work I've done then I guess I'm just going to have do more hard work and keep getting better!
So I reworked the eye shaders and found a better specular balance. Also improved the lip coloration and redid the lighting. Still getting used to lights in Blender, but it go easier once I discovered how to "look" from the light's perspective like I do in Daz. Made set up much easier.
Up until now I haven't rendered much in Blender. So I've been relatively ignorant of Blender's render controls. I knew Blender was capable of rendering in layers, I just finally took the time to figure out how to do it. So this was a much higher quality pass than the last round.
Still, the whole thing only took about 15 minutes, tops. Anyway, opinions please!
(Also, $15+ patrons have access to a 1920 X 1080 version of this image on patreon) Cheers!
Damn, just realized the back light was off so she's got this "unnatural" shadow on her right shoulder... oh well, I'll fix that in the next go around.
- May 25, 2017
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O.O Looks good! Nice to see she's taking care of herself 'down there...' even though she's all knocked up!
Also... don't go changing them toooooo much. We don't want another "Magic Door" incedent do we? DO WE?! ...do we?
- Mar 23, 2019
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RomanHume: So your latest batch of blender renders are looking pretty good. The only think I notice that catches my attention is that Cassie's face seems a little too smoothed over, but perhaps that is just due to the low resolution. But, I am wondering, what is the benefit of Blender vs. Daz rendering? Your renders of Amanda in the last update looked great, which were in Daz right? What does Blender do for you that you can't do in Daz, once you master it? Does Blender give you more fine-grained control of the lighting, skin textures, model parameters, etc., so you can customize better than in Daz? Are there more or better resources available with Blender that don't work in Daz? I've only dabbled in Daz, and never used blender, so I really don't know why you would pick one over the other, except Daz seems much more popular with VN's I see here, probably because it is free (as is Blender) and semi-user friendly.
- Nov 11, 2017
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That looks great! Much more subtle skin material and she is looking more "alive" and natural, I feel.
See? My minor critique goaded you to better things
C'mon everybody, lay it on RomanHume !
The goal is to keep them exactly the same, just more life-like. I'm not changing any of their physical properties (well, except in the pregnancy example), and if I can re-texture it, I'll even keep Amanda's dreaded Colony Hair (which I can manipulate just find without any problems in Blender).
I'm trusting my players to let me know if something about character seems to deviate too much from what was originally in Daz.
First, thanks for the feedback on the test renders. And I agree, her face is very flat. I'm using all the maps and layers that came with the original character. But for some reason, the maps that come with the Blair character have a lot of subtle detail in everything except her face. I'm going to continue working on it and see what I can do to improve.
On along enough timeline, I'd like to run the mesh through ZBrush and add a bunch of details that I can then use to make a new normal map for the character. This will keep all the coloration and such the same, but add additional details like pores and minor imperfections that will make the face more life-like.
The difference between Daz and Blender is the trade off between simplicity and full control. Daz keeps things simple by saving new adopters from having to really know anything about how 3D modeling, texturing and rigging work. Everything is control with simple tools and sliders. It's great for getting started.
Blender by comparison is a full 3D modelling suite. It's more complex, requires a lot more training to maximize it's effectiveness, but once you know what you're doing, there is literally nothing you can't do. Things like clipping, where one mesh pushes through another (like Amanda's hair consistently does), can only be controlled in Daz through premade sliders, and plugs-ins. And even then they work with varying degrees of success. But in Blender, I can just literally grab those pixels and push them wherever I want.
The Cycles Shader that Blender uses, is also significantly faster than Daz and capable of producing (from what I've experienced) far more complex results a lot faster. Some of Amanda's art took upwards of 30 minutes to render. The Cassie image above took less than fifteen. In Blender I can also manipulate the light in near real-time. If a grab a light in Blender and move it around, I can see the effects of the change almost immediately!
In Daz, if I move a light while it's rendering, the system freezes for about a minute while it recalculates the change I made, and that's before I've even finished making my move. So in Daz I have to move a light, test render for a minute or two. Stop, make an adjustment, test render for a minute or two. It's a painful process that I don't have to suffer in Blender.
But one of the biggest advantages of Blender is that I can make all my own environments from the ground up. I can build props, items, surfaces...pretty much anything. And I can make it fast! So there is a creative freedom in that I can make whatever my story requires, without having to shop the Daz store waiting for sales. And that is assuming what I want even exists.
With Blender, if I need it. I can make it, and I can make it look good.[/spoiler]