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WIP HiveWire Dragon Begins
- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
Well as long as what we create for them, add-on textures and morphs and such, can still be sold here I am okay with it. 
quietrob
Extraordinary
Might I ask, please. Where is the Hivewire Dragon? How will it compare to the Genesis Dragon?
May we have an update?
Cliff Bowman
Adventurous
What an interesting thread! You know how you get a "light" feeling of excitement in the pit of your stomach? I got that repeatedly reading this thread.
I often deplore WIP threads because when I see early meshes I think "but I'd like it to" or "it would be great if..." so it has been super to come to this thread late and see the progress from an early morph that I had FAR too many comments to make on to the later (and later and later) images that created that "excited stomach pit" feeling. Mmmm. Though to be honest I'm a bit concerned about how limited the dragon might be by trying to keep it as a morph of the Big Cat rather than adding geometry for neck, tail, and claw enhancements, and for the general idea of an elegant, almost fluid creature (although cats can be amazingly elastic themselves).
Then again, Chris has done a magnificent job of twisting a cat into a dragon. While it makes a LOT of sense to START one tetrapod from another - there is, after all, a certain commonality of design - once you get into the specifics of any particular creature it's much harder to stay with the same polys. I'm blown away by the work Chris has shown off in this thread.
Oh, how great the photos of reptiles are! They're so brilliant! As has the reaction Chris has had to many suggestions - "OK, we can do that" is not something I hear a lot of, in general. What a brilliant introduction to the HiveWire forums this is for me.
Now I remember why I usually fire off multiple replies on a thread... so I don't forget what responses I had meant to type up...
Cheers,
Cliff
I often deplore WIP threads because when I see early meshes I think "but I'd like it to" or "it would be great if..." so it has been super to come to this thread late and see the progress from an early morph that I had FAR too many comments to make on to the later (and later and later) images that created that "excited stomach pit" feeling. Mmmm. Though to be honest I'm a bit concerned about how limited the dragon might be by trying to keep it as a morph of the Big Cat rather than adding geometry for neck, tail, and claw enhancements, and for the general idea of an elegant, almost fluid creature (although cats can be amazingly elastic themselves).
Then again, Chris has done a magnificent job of twisting a cat into a dragon. While it makes a LOT of sense to START one tetrapod from another - there is, after all, a certain commonality of design - once you get into the specifics of any particular creature it's much harder to stay with the same polys. I'm blown away by the work Chris has shown off in this thread.
Oh, how great the photos of reptiles are! They're so brilliant! As has the reaction Chris has had to many suggestions - "OK, we can do that" is not something I hear a lot of, in general. What a brilliant introduction to the HiveWire forums this is for me.
Now I remember why I usually fire off multiple replies on a thread... so I don't forget what responses I had meant to type up...
Cheers,
Cliff
Glitterati3D
Dances with Bees
What an interesting thread! You know how you get a "light" feeling of excitement in the pit of your stomach? I got that repeatedly reading this thread.
I often deplore WIP threads because when I see early meshes I think "but I'd like it to" or "it would be great if..." so it has been super to come to this thread late and see the progress from an early morph that I had FAR too many comments to make on to the later (and later and later) images that created that "excited stomach pit" feeling. Mmmm. Though to be honest I'm a bit concerned about how limited the dragon might be by trying to keep it as a morph of the Big Cat rather than adding geometry for neck, tail, and claw enhancements, and for the general idea of an elegant, almost fluid creature (although cats can be amazingly elastic themselves).
Then again, Chris has done a magnificent job of twisting a cat into a dragon. While it makes a LOT of sense to START one tetrapod from another - there is, after all, a certain commonality of design - once you get into the specifics of any particular creature it's much harder to stay with the same polys. I'm blown away by the work Chris has shown off in this thread.
Oh, how great the photos of reptiles are! They're so brilliant! As has the reaction Chris has had to many suggestions - "OK, we can do that" is not something I hear a lot of, in general. What a brilliant introduction to the HiveWire forums this is for me.
Now I remember why I usually fire off multiple replies on a thread... so I don't forget what responses I had meant to type up...
Cheers,
Cliff
You know, Cliff, that was the thing I couldn't put my finger on about working with the Hivewire bunch, but you nailed it - excitement. HW is an exciting place to be for the creative person. There's so much being developed, and so many ideas being shared, you can't help but let your own creativity loose to run wild.
On top of being FUN, it's exciting and exhilarating!
Welcome! Now let your imagination run....
It is fun, exciting, and exhilarating! And ... every HiveWire animal has a bit of us in it since we get to provide feedback which more often than not is incorporated.
I mean ... how great is that?!?
I mean ... how great is that?!?
That's so nice to hear!! Yes, it's very cool. There are lots of things that get changed or added because of input from customers - not everything can be done that's asked for, but a lot is! I love these threads.
Collaboration is really encouraged here - it's one of the 5 "C"s that HiveWire was founded on (Create-Collaborate-Communicate-Commit-Care), and it tells you a lot about the company philosophy. It's something that got my attention back when I volunteered as a beta tester for the original Dawn.
About Us
Glad to hear it Cliff. Stick around, and the excitement you felt will grow.
Cliff Bowman
Adventurous
Hi Pendraia. Yes-ish - what you probably remember was me posting a pretty rough and poor introduction to rigging in DS.
The problem to me was that many people seemed to be upset with the then-new rigging tools that DAZ had released, to the point where they considered them useless. And just like me, they were not backward about coming forward and saying so! I prefer happy people. Happy people smile more, and smiles light up our lives.
I not only had a LOT more confidence in the DAZ coders than that, but I also have a background in tinkering with stuff and learning it quickly. So I went and bought the rigging tools in order to try and help folk out, and the first thing I did with them was that basic rigging tutorial (just because I had never used the tools did not seem to me to be a barrier to writing a tutorial at the same time as learning the tools myself).
Learning a LOT of 3D stuff is made easier by good documentation (not something the tools had) and a rough background knowledge of everything 3D (an area I am more blessed in). So - if my re-rigging "Spuggles" (a 3D Universe character model, BTW) "live" was of any help, I'm really pleased about it! Sadly I never did get on to anything past the most basic aspects of rigging in the tutorial, but I DO hope that I helped push a few people forwards (or drag them after me - either way!).
Cheers,
Cliff
The problem to me was that many people seemed to be upset with the then-new rigging tools that DAZ had released, to the point where they considered them useless. And just like me, they were not backward about coming forward and saying so! I prefer happy people. Happy people smile more, and smiles light up our lives.
I not only had a LOT more confidence in the DAZ coders than that, but I also have a background in tinkering with stuff and learning it quickly. So I went and bought the rigging tools in order to try and help folk out, and the first thing I did with them was that basic rigging tutorial (just because I had never used the tools did not seem to me to be a barrier to writing a tutorial at the same time as learning the tools myself).
Learning a LOT of 3D stuff is made easier by good documentation (not something the tools had) and a rough background knowledge of everything 3D (an area I am more blessed in). So - if my re-rigging "Spuggles" (a 3D Universe character model, BTW) "live" was of any help, I'm really pleased about it! Sadly I never did get on to anything past the most basic aspects of rigging in the tutorial, but I DO hope that I helped push a few people forwards (or drag them after me - either way!).
Cheers,
Cliff
Glitterati3D
Dances with Bees
Yeah, that was the tutorial that taught me I could rig. Even though you stopped the tutorial when the tools would crash at the moment when it was time to Save to Figure. As a newbie rigger, I understood that it wasn't me doing something wrong, or being stupid, but the tool failure that made DS crash over and over. That gave me the confidence to continue learning rigging once the tool was fixed.
Cliff Bowman
Adventurous
Stupidity may not be the SOLE preserve of computers, but they do suffer from it an awful lot - so to me it sometimes seems that way. Some people get the impression that computers are in some way "clever", but they aren't - they are just stupid very, VERY quickly, which gives the impression of being clever. Only people can be truly brilliant!
Cheers,
Cliff
I remember being able to follow it but when I tried rigging with other things I just couldn't get the hang of it. Even bought Lady Littlefox's tutorial but never seemed to make sense for me unfortunately. I like the triax system but also like the new system...sorry can't remember what it's called as I just got home after a long day at work.
Agree totally with this...do you know when you smile you release endorphins into your system that actually make you feel better. I remember my doctor telling me this years ago...: )
Actually, that reminds me of a story I read years ago about Norman Cousins, an influential writer and editor-in-chief of Saturday Review, who back in the 1970s was hospitalized with a mysterious, crippling disease. Traditional health remedies weren't working, so he checked himself out of the hospital and into a hotel. He watched films from the Marx Brothers and Candid Camera, as well as read all kinds of funny books, and he "laughed himself back to health".
Cliff Bowman
Adventurous
Yup - I also know that a smile TENDS to be reciprocated, so if one person smiles at someone they usually improve the happiness and health of at least two people. Everybody wins!
Cheers,
Cliff
Cheers,
Cliff
.. says the man whose avatar is a bunch of sharks circling
(Sorry Cliff- I couldn't resist!