Ao Dai for Luna

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

I know as a Poser user, I hate when I see items, usually on Daz that are ambiguous as to whether I can use them in Poser or not. I'm willing to take the risk on something I really like, knowing I may have to put some work in getting it to behave, than think I can just use something, and then realize that I have to spend a lot of time jumping through hoops.

That's what it comes down to, yes. I always try to be very, very clear about any limitations something I've made might have. If I don't think it's going to work "at all" in Poser, I say so. If I think it "might work with some adjustments" in Poser - I say so.

That's the best thing you can do. Make it a Poser-only item, and drop a note in the description that DS users will need to do some kitbashing to make it work for them. I've made many, many Poser-only items work for me in DS, by kitbashing the heck out of them. (Seriously, I even got the TerraDome 2 about 95% functional in DS! LOL)

As long as we know that something is going to need some extra tweaking on our part to use, then we know what we're getting into. For me, I look for that kind of language in a description. I check for certain keywords - is the item 100 percent dependent on Python scripting? Then I don't buy it, because I know it won't be any use to me in DS. Is the item Poser dynamic hair? I don't buy it - it wont' be any use to me in DS.

Poser dynamic cloth used to be on that list also, but well... *pats her lovely little script* Not anymore!

As far as making the conversions... it's really not hard to do with the script. The script does all the hard work of making something go from prop to dynamic. Materials... well, again, any long-time DS user is well accustomed to adjusting materials. It wasn't all that long ago that the main program on the block was Poser, and it was DS users who had to make their own adjustments to every product. Now the situation has somewhat reversed, but I don't think there's any product out there that I can say I don't make adjustments to it's materials before rendering.

With Poser items, as long as the vendor is up front about the limitations, I'm good with it. If it's something I really like, and the price is right for the amount of kitbashing I'll need to do, then I grab it, and I make my own conversion and save the conversion natively in DS for future use.

I think as long as you're honest about it - "This is Poser dynamic cloth, with Poser procedural shaders, DS users will need to make their own adjustments," - then people know what they're getting into, and no one gets burned.

 

[Pendraia]

Seliah's correct...I just wondered if you'd actually checked with someone.

 

[Gadget Girl]

So I figured out how to do 2 sided materials in Superfly. The funny thing I've found is that whenever I position the lights to show off the inner fabric, I get funny shadows on the rest. I'm going to consider these bonus materials, because the other ones I have been working with render just fine in Superfly, except that the backfacing polygons are black. Most of the time with Luna I haven't found this to be an issue because it just looks like shadow. Sadly though, Poser doesn't let preview at all these sort of materials, so they are kind of obnoxious to work with when you are trying to compose a scene, because you just have this big blob of white. Again, that would be why I'm considering these 'bonus' materials.

On the other hand, I've made several small adjustments that make the cloth sims work better. So I'm getting close to getting this ready. Until of course I find the next detail to fix

 

[Glitterati3D]

GG, on the Superfly lights, Properties Tab, Shadow Min Bias........Poser defaults that setting to something like 0.8 and I always turn it down to something like 0.2 max. That will help with those deep shadows, it will soften the shadows and make them look more realistic on the cloth.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Too late to edit.........one more hint....

Since Luna is so tiny, the UV scaling can be turned down a bit so you get more repeat in the diffuse texture.

Scaled down per above setting

Original size of texture

 

[Gadget Girl]

GG, on the Superfly lights, Properties Tab, Shadow Min Bias........Poser defaults that setting to something like 0.8 and I always turn it down to something like 0.2 max. That will help with those deep shadows, it will soften the shadows and make them look more realistic on the cloth.

Thanks so much. This is a huge help. I've been trying to figure out how to deal with shadows.

I did know the UV trick, but I'm sure it will be useful for others. In this case I had actually scaled the textures in an image editor and adjusted them to the size I liked on the UV. I know I could get a lot more repeat of the pattern, but I like the sizes I've scaled things too, because I think it does reinforce Luna's size in a subtle way. One of the neatest things I ever heard was when they made The Lord of The Rings movies, they specially wove the fabric for the Hobbits, so that the weave was bigger, this was so in comparison to the full size characters it would look like the same size weave.

 

[Gadget Girl]

So the Luna outfit should be out soon, in the meantime I've been working on adding in morphs to my Dawn version for several of the Hivewire characters. Still more smoothing to do, and the textures don't quite match up, but still a fairly good start I think.

All the Dawns

• Gadget Girl
• May 26, 2016
• alexis dawn diva dynamic cloth sora vietname

First go at matching morphs for Diva, Alexis, and Sora.

Oh, and by the way, DM's Pretty Sandals are super easy to copy morphs from and use on Diva. Possibly because each foot is it's own figure, so it doesn't have as much issue with the scaling, but anyway, it was easy.

 

[DigitalDreamsDS]

What modeling program do you use? I use Hexagon. If you need any help with the shoes I would be glad to.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Thanks for the offer of help. Actually the only thing that's had me paused on the shoes for Luna is that I wanted to add a version for Diva. The mesh is fine, but when I try to adjust the weight maps on the back of the shoes, Poser just freezes and get's stuck. I'm thinking I should try in 2014 as opposed to 11, because I know some people have better luck there when it comes to rigging.

Also I've gotten caught up in other projects . Although they don't have absolute time constraints, I'm hoping Dawn's dress will be done in time to match up with Sora's launch, and CWRW and I are working on some accessories for Dusk to go with the Jungle theme.

But if you were just wondering about what programs I use in general, for many things I start in Marvelous Designer. But I use Maya for me tweaking and adjustments.