"Transparency Study 01"

DAZ 3.x, Reality, 1.25, Lux .08 with Advantix 100CD film type.

This was done as a study to try and educate myself on how to make a material translucent using Reality 1.25, in this case the bra. It eluded me for quite a while and in fact had me giving up in my last posted image. Finally discovered that I needed to reduce the Gain for the Texture in the Alpha tab in Reality.

"Club Girls Arrested in Police Crack-down on Public Nudity and Lascivious Behavior"

DAZ 3.x, Reality 1.25, LuxRender 0.8x, GIMP 2.6

Just messing around with Reality Gel Lights.

I spent a lot of time trying to change the Slog Bra cup material to something semi-translucent. Everything I tried though, it either came out opaque or naked. I finally decided that the missing cups would be a good reason for the police to detain her and her friend. ;-)

 Did some postwork on the armpits, because as you know, DAZ doesn't handle joints very well when you pose them to extremes.

"Untitled"

DAZ 3, Reality 1.2, LuxRender 0.8, no postwork

This is an image that I started many months ago, when I really didn't have much of an idea of how things worked in DAZ.  It started with wanting to have an innocent standing in front of a stained-glass window.  That idea brought me to liteluvr's Virtual Back Lot Cathedral Creation Kit.  Using Reality 1.0, I then had to figure out how to adjust the windows to pass light through them.  And then came the idea to pose the figure so that her head is in front of the round window.

Anyway, this thing eventually went through Reality 1.2 and was hashed and re-hashed, and finally I've just said, "enough!".  Now, to me at least, it seems contrived, stilted, and very static.  So feel free to tear it apart; can't be worse than what I think of it.

"The Red Room"

 DAZ 3, Reality 1.2, LuxRender 0.8, GIMP 2.6

Two softboxes and one RealGel spot.

Created for Renderotica's 2011 "red rally". 

"Violet Eyes II"

DAZ 3, Reality 1.2, LuxRender 0.8, no postwork.

CRF applied in Lux: FCICD

This is a just an exercise, giving a girl violet colored eyes.  This one is a better result -- at least as far as the eye color goes -- than my first attempt a few days ago.

The main light is a softbox, but I also used one of the Reality Softgels, which is a spotlight.  While that additional light gives that cool look to the background, it caused the render to take a good 20 hours to resolve the fireflies.

And yes, I realize the hair needs a bit of postwork.  Someday . . . .

"Violet Eyes"

DAZ 3, Reality 1.2, Lux 0.8, GIMP 2.6

This is the same setup as my "Bodysuit" render, just a tighter frame and then re-render.

I was working on this, when I heard about Elizabeth Taylor's reputedly stark violet eyes.  So I thought I'd try them on this model.  But in this case, the lighting, and the shadows from the bangs, does not make the eye color very impactful.  I'll have to try it again elsewhere.

Still I like the portrait.

"Bodysuit"

Daz 3, Reality 1.2, Lux 0.8, GIMP 2.6

This is a bit of a WIP, although I don't know if I'll ever spend any more time on it.

This is my first use of Paolo's (http://www.preta3d.com) Gel Lights.  It's a rather subtle application, and while I'm happy with the way it has colored the background screen, I'm not entirely happy with the lighting on her face.  The light on the hands, on the other (ahem) hand, look fantastic!  (There is also a softbox.)

I wish I could nail down the Daz Studio deformers.  I tried to "pull" the material between her breasts out and away, which would look much more natural, but despite spending an hour trying various field sizes, I just couldn't get anything that looked good.  :-(      

"Angels at War"

Daz 3, Reality 1.2, Lux 0.8, GIMP 2.6

This is three separate renders that were then compiled, along with the storm background, in GIMP.

The storm/lightning background was purchased at www.welcomia.com

This was inspired by the creature, "Serra Angel", in the fantasy card game, Magic the Gathering.
  

"Kee at Home"  

 

Daz 3, Reality 1.2, Lux 0.8

This is the elvish character that I debuted in my "Mo and Kee, Flowers for Him" render. A friend liked that image quite a bit and asked if there were any more with those characters. So I came up with what might be the second in a line of related fantasy images.

I made a change here in the skin texture on her body. In the "Flowers for Him" render, I was using a skin texture on her body that I like a lot, but the head texture was different because I wanted that particular eye makeup. Due to the lighting and her size relative to the frame in that image, the difference in texture wasn't very noticeable.

But since she is front and center in this image, I had to switch her body skin texture to the same one as her face, and I'm not as satisfied with it.

A couple of softboxes and one mesh light.

"The Wrong Way Home . . . Or Is It the Right Way" 

Daz 3, Reality 1.2, LuxRender 0.8, cooked for 20 hours.

Some cleanup and sharpening in GIMP 2.6.

Sun and two mesh lights. One mesh behind the punk girl's head to illuminate the innocent girl's face, and the other underneath her right hand to illuminate the good stuff.

"Gina at the Fountain" 

  
Daz 3.x, Reality 1.2, LuxRender 0.8


Started with the idea of a woman taking her lunch break from the office at a nice public place. I didn't have a park prop though, but this gave me an opportunity to use this fountain.

I have to admit that I couldn't get the intensity of sunlight the way that I wanted it. There are simply too many light reflective surfaces to make it any brighter. As it stands, it reminds me of a sunny day in Southern California just after the morning overcast has burned off. Kinda that foggy/smoggy look to the light. Perhaps I'll revisit at a later date.




  

"Mo and Kee: Flowers for Him"

DAZ 3.1x, Reality 1.01, LuxRender 0.7

For whatever reason, I decided to submit an entry to Renderotica's 2011 Valentine's Day Contest.  This image did not win, nor place, nor show.  Nor was it given an honorable mention. I was a little disappointed, but I can certainly recognize that it's not overtly a Valentine image. I spent a lot of time on it and did learn a lot about solving posing and lighting problems, so I'm happy that I entered, and I'm mostly pleased with the final result.

A couple of things that I wish had been better are 1) the light on her left shoulder and breast is a little hot, and 2) I wish I'd been able to find a better skin texture for the Apollo character. 

One softbox for the main light and then several spots for facial fill. GIMP for a bit of cleanup on Apollo's skin. 

"First Entry" 

Although I created this blog several months ago, this is my first entry.

My primary reasoning for starting this blog, and the main focus of my entries here, is to display the images that I'm creating with 3D software.  I am posting some of these at various other sites, but this blog will collect all of the ones that I choose to share with humanity (or whatever other species might be paying attention).


Although I bought a version of Poser many years ago, I never spent much time trying to gain any kind of proficiency.  Then about a year and a half ago, I started trying my hand using DAZ 2.x.  Once again, I didn't spend a lot of time with it.  Then when DAZ 3.x was released, I started dedicating a little more time becoming familiar with the workings of 3D posing.

For my first images, I used the 3Delight renderer included with DAZ.  Then late last summer, I jumped on the release of Reality 1.0, which bridges DAZ to LuxRender.  Although there was much more time involved in the rendering process than with 3Delight, the light was much more natural and predictable.  I still spend a lot of creation time tweaking the lighting, but to me, Reality/Lux just makes more sense for 99% of my images.


As far as post work, I don't have Photoshop, nor am I in a position to outlay the kind of cash required for a legitimate version.  So I'm using GIMP 2.6x, which is serving me just fine . . . with one notable exception: my Wacom tablet.  There is still something funky going on between GIMP and Wacom tablets, but hopefully it gets sorted in the next major release.


So what follows are my rendered images, for which I welcome any and all comments.