WIP MEC4D - Creations for Dawn 2 and Dusk 2 , work in progress

[Miss B]

Yes, the flyaways definitely make it look more natural/realistic.

 

[MEC4D]

the colors looks so much better too , much softer , thank you for participating in the progress .. now the rest of the layers ..

THIS IS ONLY THE SCALP CAP ↓

 

[Miss B]

Looking good!!

 

[xyer0]

And just like that, the fine hair becomes a better choice lol , it works just fine , I used 0.06mm diameter for the hair and can't go smaller before it disappearing , now going to be lost of work doing the rest of 9 layers . Also if you want more flat look you can switch off the other layers as that was Chris idea on the model design to give the hair some volume /fly aways etc..

View attachment 72374

 

[unreal]

I was thinking , if I go with smaller strand hair diameter , it would looks better on very close up look but from far away it would be not even be visible at all since that are trans-mapped cards hair and not real strand hair

Textures 4x4 K scalp cap only

Along those lines, is there any way for the renderer to optimize based on what is actually visible? Is it clever with the input textures? A 4k texture on a cap (under hair strands) where the output of that cap is only 1cm square in a final render. I would hope the renderer was "smart" about that.

 

[MEC4D]

Along those lines, is there any way for the renderer to optimize based on what is actually visible? Is it clever with the input textures? A 4k texture on a cap (under hair strands) where the output of that cap is only 1cm square in a final render. I would hope the renderer was "smart" about that.

oh definitely , the size of textures does not matter here , only the visible parts will be taken by the engine to work , the layers are not opaque and will not cover 100% the scalp cap , this is more of a real time PBR hair , I tested in real time and it was just fine . Remember hair that have not pure white or black in their alphas will render forever , opacity/alpha maos needs to be only 2 colors , people tend to smooth out the hair by using grayscale what killing the engine .
In unbiased rendering there is no transparency , it is cut out opacity
you talking about issues with 4K textures ? the world moved already to 8K for the standard and 16K in the industry .

 

[MEC4D]

congratulation ! you wishes just came true ! so glad you pushed me into it ..

 

[Rhia474]

So basically am reading through the last few pages and what Cath is proving to all of us is that:
a. we've been using Poser 12 wrong and
b. it is capable of things a lot more expensive renderers can do and
c. she is a bloody genius.

Thank you SO much for dragging us kicking and creaming into the 21st century, ma'am!

 

[Miss B]

Thank you SO much for dragging us kicking and creaming into the 21st century, ma'am!

Amen to that!

 

[MEC4D]

So basically am reading through the last few pages and what Cath is proving to all of us is that:
a. we've been using Poser 12 wrong and
b. it is capable of things a lot more expensive renderers can do and
c. she is a bloody genius.

Thank you SO much for dragging us kicking and creaming into the 21st century, ma'am!

Thanks I am speechless
You see the new ways are little different than everyone was used for , we don't have yet Poser12 official released , it is an early bird and nobody really moved to another chapter yet, it was the same thing when people switched from 3DL to Iray . Poser 12 is capable to render the same way as other expensive software since January 2021 and it is gonna be only better from now on as everything is rewritten and changed . If Poser keeps the old way it would be its end soon as nobody would spend money on something that other software offers for free.
So again there is no wrong way of using anything , it depends of what you like and where you want to go with .
However myself I was waiting for the moment for the last 2 years , it is gonna be simple, quick and beautiful and once people catch up on new things the heart bit gonna be back ..
I just waiting to finish the products and the show can begin ! as I will have more time to share good stuff with you all .

P.S I love your spirit and passion ! this is the way !

 

[MEC4D]

so I am finishing painting the new layer of the scalp cap , it is not so dense as other layers will come on top , but so far I like it , I adjusted the hair to the eyebrows thickness so a slightly thinner and sharper, it reacting with light wonderfully on any angles giving the illusion of a strand hair.
Please ignore the skin, I just plug in some color maps for color references without proper shader .
P.S I wish the hair model have little longer nape to make some lover neck hair , but I think the other layer have some Flyaways to cover it up a little bit .

 

[CWRW]

Awesome work as always Cath! You are bumming me out though because I can't use Poser 12 as the min. operating system req for Mac is 10.15 and I can only go to 10.14 on the machines I have currently and a new $5-10K mac is not in the cards anytime soon... : ( (and no sorry.. I refuse to use a windows machine- not like what I looked at was much cheaper for a similar config...)

 

[Daniel Hicks(OganicPic)]

Thanks I am speechless
You see the new ways are little different than everyone was used for , we don't have yet Poser12 official released , it is an early bird and nobody really moved to another chapter yet, it was the same thing when people switched from 3DL to Iray . Poser 12 is capable to render the same way as other expensive software since January 2021 and it is gonna be only better from now on as everything is rewritten and changed . If Poser keeps the old way it would be its end soon as nobody would spend money on something that other software offers for free.
So again there is no wrong way of using anything , it depends of what you like and where you want to go with .
However myself I was waiting for the moment for the last 2 years , it is gonna be simple, quick and beautiful and once people catch up on new things the heart bit gonna be back ..
I just waiting to finish the products and the show can begin ! as I will have more time to share good stuff with you all .

P.S I love your spirit and passion ! this is the way !

This is the way!

 

[MEC4D]

Awesome work as always Cath! You are bumming me out though because I can't use Poser 12 as the min. operating system req for Mac is 10.15 and I can only go to 10.14 on the machines I have currently and a new $5-10K mac is not in the cards anytime soon... : ( (and no sorry.. I refuse to use a windows machine- not like what I looked at was much cheaper for a similar config...)

Thank you so much Laurie for stopping by , sorry to hear about that, definitely no matter today Mac or Win both are expensive, I invested $10K in my PC and I built it myself to my own specifications and looks like I could get better already , GPU in Poser12 needs at last 6GB VRAM minimum considering how much VRam to uses while rendering . The multiple rendering Devices options are not optimal yet , exactly as it was when Iray arrived in DS, so right now the best option is to have one powerful RTX card in place of many others . But Definitely no more than 2 cards , I have 4 and only 2 of them are actually usable when using progressive rendering mode (what I like most ) but I am sure with time they are going to fix it when the new engine arrivers .
I hope things will be better soon and it would be worth it for you to update your workstation . The main reason I am using Win is that I can update it myself without the needs to buy a whole new workstation every time they update their softwares as that is ridiculous .
I don't reinstalled my Poser11 on my new HD, but I may do that soon to see what I can do , I know it will not support proper HDRi maps and will crash when the size get above the limitation but there is work around I know , plus if my cycles shadow catcher nodes works in P11
Superfly then nothing is lost we can still do it , I just need to test one thing and if really works it could also lower the VRam consumption in Poser12 when using HDRI scenes , the only thing that would not works is the principle shader for the skin as it is not there in Poser11 , so I can't bring it back . However you can set up your future products that will look great in both versions so your customers can enjoy it no matter what version they use , this is the way !

 

[xyer0]

congratulation ! you wishes just came true ! so glad you pushed me into it ..

It's so gratifying [cool] that you encourage feedback and let us witness and be a part of your creative journey. I'm so thankful for you, this thread, and the whole beehive for continuing to push progress and hope.
I personally love nape hair, and I cannot name or even think of a hair that has it, even the old Mairy/3Dream hair caps don't have it.

 

[MEC4D]

It's so gratifying [cool] that you encourage feedback and let us witness and be a part of your creative journey. I'm so thankful for you, this thread, and the whole beehive for continuing to push progress and hope.
I personally love nape hair, and I cannot name or even think of a hair that has it, even the old Mairy/3Dream hair caps don't have it.

It is like with a normal wig and a lace front wig , huge differences , I may consider adding some nape to my other hairs I created already , especially the one that shows some neck . Right now I have to work with what I have , considering it is a 5 years old model already and still so much better than many others .
I must confess my pen is getting shorter while planting each hair at a time , and I am not working in 3D view just on a plain texture layer , but posting stuff in progress helps me to do things better , so thank you for sticking around with me, I really appreciate it! We all know what we need and what looks best , but sometimes it is impossible to make it , as nobody is perfect , however I always loved the challenge , mistakes make you better !
With the hair there is a thing, not every hair will look realistic on every face , different hair line and different edges , I will have to make a different adjusting morph for AVA to match her face as her edges will need to be much closer to the face . I think Dawn2 could profit from it too as it would make her a little more delicate in appearance . Edges that are too far from the face tend to make people look older and less appealing.
Once the hair is set up I can do a little magic , I can always create a nape for it and separate add-on after for the fine details lovers .

Remember dear people , without you being here , there would be no reason for me to post anything ! Thank you for the support and I wish everyone else would do the same to inspire each other like it once was a long time ago ! I still hope I win the lotto one day and spend my days creating wonderful freebies for you like we once did a long time ago. What brings to mind Kozaburo , I wonder what happened to him and his beautiful hair creations we loved so much in the early days .

 

[Miss B]

What brings to mind Kozaburo , I wonder what happened to him and his beautiful hair creations we loved so much in the early days .

I know, I used so many of his hairs back in the A3/V3 and early A4/V4 days. I don't recall if he ever created hair for any other figures in the days past early V4.

 

[CWRW]

Thank you so much Laurie for stopping by , sorry to hear about that, definitely no matter today Mac or Win both are expensive, I invested $10K in my PC and I built it myself to my own specifications and looks like I could get better already , GPU in Poser12 needs at last 6GB VRAM minimum considering how much VRam to uses while rendering . The multiple rendering Devices options are not optimal yet , exactly as it was when Iray arrived in DS, so right now the best option is to have one powerful RTX card in place of many others . But Definitely no more than 2 cards , I have 4 and only 2 of them are actually usable when using progressive rendering mode (what I like most ) but I am sure with time they are going to fix it when the new engine arrivers .
I hope things will be better soon and it would be worth it for you to update your workstation . The main reason I am using Win is that I can update it myself without the needs to buy a whole new workstation every time they update their softwares as that is ridiculous .
I don't reinstalled my Poser11 on my new HD, but I may do that soon to see what I can do , I know it will not support proper HDRi maps and will crash when the size get above the limitation but there is work around I know , plus if my cycles shadow catcher nodes works in P11
Superfly then nothing is lost we can still do it , I just need to test one thing and if really works it could also lower the VRam consumption in Poser12 when using HDRI scenes , the only thing that would not works is the principle shader for the skin as it is not there in Poser11 , so I can't bring it back . However you can set up your future products that will look great in both versions so your customers can enjoy it no matter what version they use , this is the way !

Thanks Cath! Honestly I've been thinking about either "retiring' from 3d content creation or taking a good long break from it. I make a lot more money making and licensing my own artwork than I do making 3d content at this point, so we'll see. Also the artwork I make that sells the most is NOT the heavy photorealistic style that is so much more prevalent now in the 3d world, so that has also been making me rethink where I want to "go" from here. I think this year will "tell" me more about where my focus should be...

 

[MEC4D]

Thanks Cath! Honestly I've been thinking about either "retiring' from 3d content creation or taking a good long break from it. I make a lot more money making and licensing my own artwork than I do making 3d content at this point, so we'll see. Also the artwork I make that sells the most is NOT the heavy photorealistic style that is so much more prevalent now in the 3d world, so that has also been making me rethink where I want to "go" from here. I think this year will "tell" me more about where my focus should be...

You welcome Laurie , I guess the best thing is to not push anything and see where the flow take you , a little break is always good , but don't stay away for too long , great things are coming and I am sure it will inspire you to do something great again for the customers as well , and personally I don't want to miss you around , it is already so quiet here sometimes .

 

[MEC4D]

In meantime some progress on the hair .. I have one last highlight layer to finish
Starring my Emily shape for Dawn.2