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| Ooooh, for the ability to raytrace... |
I'm working with Sara Lansing (another one of the writers who's supplying content to DreamCraft -- she "plays the other side of rhe GLBT fence," writing "L" fiction. She has a huge novel coming out soon, and a quick read coming out even sooner, and both are Celtic. So we're trying to work up cover designs, and I wound up doing this last night:
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| Boy, do I wish I could raytrace! |
I was so surprised ... first off, I designed a bloody great Amazon of a woman, not a little waif in leathers, pretending to weild a sword that, in reality, she couldn't even lift. (Much as I like Hudson Lieck as an actress on Xena, as Callisto, I could wish she had some muscles. That character of hers, Callisto, gets away with it because she's stark, raving mad, and sane men twice her size won't get in her way.) Anyway --
It all starts off with an Amazon of a woman who looks like she could deck Arnie. So far, so good -- at least I'm believing the character here. Then ... the props and costume and a backdrop. And I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out very very nice indeed.
So, I thought, add in her male counterpart ... it's the same warrior dude who was exploring the mirror, and got swiped off his horse. Remember what I was saying about keeping your scenes because you can always cast the actor in a new part. What you do is, open the main scene and then go FILE > Merge, and the second scene imports into the first. Then, delete whatever items you don't need (I tossed out the mirror and so on, because in this shot you have two professional warriors who look like they're thrashing out a battle strategy) and you're good to go.
Working with two models and seven lights, a swag of props (all the costumes, the hair, and the dagger) really slows down the system. Next thing on my shopping list is a biiiiig capacity jumpdrive to use with Vista Memory Boost, or whatever they call it -- the thing where you plug in a jump drive and the system uses it as a memory cache. I want an extra 8 - 13G, if I can get 'em. That'll speed things right back up.
Don't you love this stuff? I have to admit, the artwork is the biggest thrill in my job right now -- and the fact I do this as part of my work is great. I'd do it anyway, job or not, but getting to play with this stuff and call it work...! I know, I'm just lucky. Painting bookcovers is a big part of the job -- and I also use DAZ 3D to create artwork on the fly for commercials and so on...
Jade, 11 January
***Posted by MK: my connection is intermittent, too slow for this. Seriously, guys, I've got dialup speeds. How are you expected to do anything these days, at 1990 dialup speeds?!!!
