Sparky's products at HiveWire

[carmen indorato]

That new Wolfman looks fantastic. I want it sooooooooooo bad. Having a lot of problems with Poser 2014 though, and still financially in a bind, but I am going to try to dig up the funds. It would make it possible for me to animate a scene I have been struggling with for some time.

@carmen indorato are you based in the U.S.? I ask because I just recently added an internal DVD burner to a refurbed workstation on the cheap. If it's a desktop I can send you a couple links.

Yes I am I live in Northern Virginia.
I am running two i7 Quad MacBook Pros the Poser machine being the oldest (2010) and the newer being the refurb about 6 months old.
The DVD works on the old one but there is no space fo the thinner aspect of the newer one. Apple is convinced that everyone is using their store and their cloud and creating a thinny-thin laptop is the way to go. I of course disagree. I just don't know what machine to get. Add to that the question of the newer technology of M-discs and compliant burners/readers and my brain shuts down from reading too damn many options to consider. I have been thinking of stopping to greedily horde my works onto discs as if the world depends on their recoverability. It still has not dawned on me that there is no one that comes after me who will give a heinie about my visual gurgitations otherwise thought of as art. My ego just refuses to acknowledge I will leave with nary a gasp and leave nothing of value in my wake that will outlast my memory stored away in a distant family members brain for their lifetime before that too disappears and I will be totally GONE!
I had a younger friend 10 plus years ago who threw away all his artwork wanting no memory of it and I was shocked he felt so little for it until now. Now I too understand the value of lifting all the anchors, burning down all the prisons that tie me down and let go. I know what I must do but my pride and ego struggles with doing so. Funny of the ways we become dependant on those things we come to believe define us. Sad too.
I just gotta put it all in perspective I guess and just get A DRIVE and damn one so I can transfer stuff of and onto my computer to keep working on my dumb stuff until I can't anymore.

 

[carmen indorato]

I'm not down, perse, just...in a bind. I guess I've gotten used to staring down termination notices. But, if you guys don't hear from me for awhile after the 2nd, you know what happened! LOL

Might even be able to get some reading in. I just picked up a copy of Watership Down from the used bookstore, and I haven't read it in ages!

AHHHH!!! I remember the olden days when I was a voracious reader. I have in m room three walls lined with book shelves that go wall to wall floor to ceiling and some stacked two to three layers back of books. I bought my iPad to read eLibrary books and realized after I spent $600+ there are many books and authors just not ported to eFormat....especially available in the dying libraries around the country. Sad. I try going back to reading but my eyes and sinus cavities get angry when I do.

 

[Stezza]

Took a bit to get the beast working in Carrara...
added some extra hair to him

 

[Hornet3d]

AHHHH!!! I remember the olden days when I was a voracious reader. I have in m room three walls lined with book shelves that go wall to wall floor to ceiling and some stacked two to three layers back of books. I bought my iPad to read eLibrary books and realized after I spent $600+ there are many books and authors just not ported to eFormat....especially available in the dying libraries around the country. Sad. I try going back to reading but my eyes and sinus cavities get angry when I do.

I have a large library going back over the years and more recently went down the Ebook route. I still buy real books these days but most of the time they are ones that have been long out of print and unlikely to be ported over to digital. In a lot of cases I pay more in postage than I do for the actual book but it is still cheap in the long run. I also have a collection of art books, mainly from digital artists, not only do I like the images I can use them for some ideas when my muse has deserted me. That said even that is not working for me this time around.

I have been using M discs for a while now and they seem good. I used to use CDs and then DVDs but always recopied to new discs about every five years as some started to have read problems after five years. Despite being more expensive the M discs have saved me the hassle and they should work out cheaper in the long run. As to the claim that an M disc will last 1000 years or more I guess my great, great, (well however many greats required) grandson or daughter will have to attest to that, assuming of course there is still the ability to read Tiff, Jpeg and other such data that many years hence. Hypothetical anyway as I have no children to so even the first 'great' is out of the question. They should last my generation and the one behind me, after that who knows.

 

[Hornet3d]

Took a bit to get the beast working in Carrara...
added some extra hair to him

View attachment 39737

As usual I am impressed.

 

[carmen indorato]

I have a large library going back over the years and more recently went down the Ebook route. I still buy real books these days but most of the time they are ones that have been long out of print and unlikely to be ported over to digital. In a lot of cases I pay more in postage than I do for the actual book but it is still cheap in the long run. I also have a collection of art books, mainly from digital artists, not only do I like the images I can use them for some ideas when my muse has deserted me. That said even that is not working for me this time around.

I have been using M discs for a while now and they seem good. I used to use CDs and then DVDs but always recopied to new discs about every five years as some started to have read problems after five years. Despite being more expensive the M discs have saved me the hassle and they should work out cheaper in the long run. As to the claim that an M disc will last 1000 years or more I guess my great, great, (well however many greats required) grandson or daughter will have to attest to that, assuming of course there is still the ability to read Tiff, Jpeg and other such data that many years hence. Hypothetical anyway as I have no children to so even the first 'great' is out of the question. They should last my generation and the one behind me, after that who knows.

So, how expensive are M disks readers/writers and the disc themselves per unit? I keep hearing about recopying old data from older discs to newer ones to maintain integrity of data but I have thousands of discs and a lot of them are of my own personal works. As much as I want to maintain them functional I have so much work from drive failures, disc failures, computer fails I am getting so disgusted I no longer care as much as I used to. and as time moves me forever forward towards the pearly gates the less I seem to be caring and directly refuse to copy those thousands of discs every five yeras or so....WAY TOO MUCH darn work and cost and for what? I ti s obvious I am torn between maintaining and abandoning the mind set sticking me in a sort of spin where I just get overwhelmed and inactive one way or the other. Does your M-disc reader writer also burn write regular discs without problem?

 

[Hornet3d]

I am based in the UK but mostly we pay the dollar price on pounds irrespective of the exchange rate but i did also check the prices on Amazon.com as a guide.

The drive I use mostly is a Samsung slimline portable USB unit so that I can move it between computers and a similar one is $29.99 on Amazon.com. I paid £21.99 but that was over five years ago and it is no longer available but there are quite a few at the £30 mark so I think the £=$ holds true.

The discs I use are a brand called Millenniata and a 15 x 25Gb cake is $69.00 again on Amazon.com while a single 100Gb M disc from Verbatim is $23.99.

Read and write wise, well the M disc write is slow at around 8X (USB 2) so I tend to leave it until I am ready for a coffee break before I burn a disk. Also burns Cds and DVDs and with the protections built in I have yet to have it trash a disc of any sort. Hope that helps you decide, for me it gives me the chance to backup the important stuff and also some personal stuff I might think twice about before I backed it up to the cloud.

 

[Sparky]

Took a bit to get the beast working in Carrara...
added some extra hair to him

View attachment 39737

This looks great, Stezza! I'm glad he worked for you in the end.

 

[Desertsilver]

@Stezza- wonderful, moody render!
@Sparky- hope you are feeling better and that your electricity is staying on! When my kids were little, we often had the gas and sometimes the heat turned off. They all remark that those hard times help them appreciate the things they do have. I hope there is light and laughter in your life to tide you through.
@ Carmen-could you start with just 1 small project so it's not so overwhelming?

 

[carmen indorato]

@Stezza- wonderful, moody render!
@Sparky- hope you are feeling better and that your electricity is staying on! When my kids were little, we often had the gas and sometimes the heat turned off. They all remark that those hard times help them appreciate the things they do have. I hope there is light and laughter in your life to tide you through.
@ Carmen-could you start with just 1 small project so it's not so overwhelming?

What you mean? You mean a small Poser project or a small fix my problems project?

 

[carmen indorato]

I am based in the UK but mostly we pay the dollar price on pounds irrespective of the exchange rate but i did also check the prices on Amazon.com as a guide.

The drive I use mostly is a Samsung slimline portable USB unit so that I can move it between computers and a similar one is $29.99 on Amazon.com. I paid £21.99 but that was over five years ago and it is no longer available but there are quite a few at the £30 mark so I think the £=$ holds true.

The discs I use are a brand called Millenniata and a 15 x 25Gb cake is $69.00 again on Amazon.com while a single 100Gb M disc from Verbatim is $23.99.

Read and write wise, well the M disc write is slow at around 8X (USB 2) so I tend to leave it until I am ready for a coffee break before I burn a disk. Also burns Cds and DVDs and with the protections built in I have yet to have it trash a disc of any sort. Hope that helps you decide, for me it gives me the chance to backup the important stuff and also some personal stuff I might think twice about before I backed it up to the cloud.

Hi!
Thanks for the help and yes it helped. Now I gotta find something that will work happy with a Mac. The M-discs sound a bit hefty in price. Not sure I gonna go that route! On Medicare and what little I make off my investments and though it has been good for the past couple of months it has been fickle for a while and after ll the expenses i have had lately gotta keep the cash close to the chest!

 

[carmen indorato]

This looks great, Stezza! I'm glad he worked for you in the end.

Sparky
I have never used a WM figure. Is this beauty of yours ready to jump and snap out of the box with nothing else to do for it?
Is it a morph set or a standalone that needs the M4 Geometry files?

 

[Hornet3d]

Hi!
Thanks for the help and yes it helped. Now I gotta find something that will work happy with a Mac. The M-discs sound a bit hefty in price. Not sure I gonna go that route! On Medicare and what little I make off my investments and though it has been good for the past couple of months it has been fickle for a while and after ll the expenses i have had lately gotta keep the cash close to the chest!

Yep, M discs are pricey which is why I only use them for private stuff and other items that are dear to me or my family and not replaceable, most of my day to day stuff is backed up to SSDs and Amazon Drive. I understand your position, being on a pension I also have to watch my spending I guess the big plus I have is that, being in the UK, my medical expenses are pretty well covered. As I am on lots of tablets because of my diabetes without that I would struggle to live let alone afford a hobby.

 

[carmen indorato]

just got that Werebeast before the sale ended. Nor sure when I'll be able to use it but if and when, I gts it!
Thanks Sparky for the good work....as usual.

 

[Sunfire]

I am having problems downloading my werebeast

 

[carmen indorato]

Finally go to play with your Beast Sparky.
As was setting it up and playing wit the dials, I noticed the tongue behaving wonky. A big hard bend in it and I can't get it to stick out of his mouth as in panting. After a reinstall gave me the same problem I just made the tongue invisible and stuck a separate tongue figure n his mouth instead. Works much better and gives me a lot more control, but still seeing some issues with the upper teeth edge of some sort sticking out of the lips when I try creating a snalr morph with th dials and another weird part not sure if lower teeth) sticking out from the lower jaw/chin.
Anyone else see these anomalies?

 

[carmen indorato]

Working more with the figure I found it is the inner mouth prop whose edges stick out on the outside of the face when you morph the face into open mouth snarls and/or growls. Seems the face morphs or phenomes do not play nice with their special face morphs and these are merely the dialed in morphs. Also the tongue as I stated above, has problems. I finally gave up and made the tinge invisible and added my own poseable tongue to make it work.
Also Sparky I gotta ask have you thought of converting the other creature morphs for the Mil4 figures as you have for the Werebeast? Would be nice not having to add lower body parts to complete a figure like the pig or Minotaur or Canis set (to name few).
I have most of your beautiful morphs and use them often but would love to see the whole figure conversion for those I already have to minimize the size of a completed figure in an image especially where more than one figure is needed.

 

[carmen indorato]

So, another question and sorry for seeming picky but is there any way the face morph can be made to dial back to human or semi human by itself?
I am working on the female version for the beast for my own use. I have injected V4 NGM and Karina V pack, etc as well as the Woman morph for M4 and it all seems to work great at least as a hold over figure until any time your V4 version were to be released. It would be great if there were a dial in the Face selection stack that would allow the beast face/head to go back a bit to human face....or maybe something to keep in mind as an option if and when you decide to create a V4 version of the beast.
I would like to send you some WIP on these characters but can not post here. So if you want to see them (or if anyone else would like to see what I am doing with this) drop me a line where you would like the sent and I will send them to you. Eventually the final images of these will be posted at my DA gallery.

I tried asking these questions privately in a PM but the darn frustrating 450 word limit there makes it impossible so forgive me all for posting this long comm here.

 

[carmen indorato]

I haven't abandoned the Mil4 figures, but I do want to start doing projects for more current figures as well. As I mentioned above, I am also working on a set of digitigrade leg morphs (Poser only) for M4/V4.
View attachment 38652

I lie the idea of including the digitigrade legs and animal appropriate feet/paws/hooves included in these morphs. Look forward to seeing where these go.

 

[rampa]

Hi Sparky.
Just wanted to say how much I like your Anthros! Very cool mix of animal and human, and not comical.

I saw your entire collection for M/V 4 on another site, and hope you will make them available for Dawn and Dusk. Having both a male and female in a pack is excellent. I already bought the two Hivewire Anthro packs you have here. Please convert more of them!