2024 edit: The big issue I have with the 3D trees of this era is ... the leaves. They're the size of hubcaps or dinner plates. Back in the day, this was pretty much to be expected of any 3D asset an ordinary user such as myself would be using: the smaller the leaves, the more of them you're going to need to fill out a tree, right? The more leaves, the more polys. And verrrry soon you will run right out of ram. So this effect, here, with the hubcap-sized leaves, was par for the 2010 course...
The Yaoi vampire ... the moonlight rendezvous ... the elegant courtyard ... thank you, DAZ! Looks like the Vampire Amadeus has taken a vacation, and it's a beautiful night with a clear sky ... warm and balmy. Makes you wish for a vacation yourself, doesn't it?
Seriously -- there's a trick to simulating moonlight in 3D. It's not just the colors -- though this will get you halfway there. Blues, grays and silver-greens are what you're looking for, and unless it's supposed to be a cloudy, stormy night, do turn on the deep shadow maps. But also, remember to adjust your shadows to soft, not hard. Also (and this is really important) remember to have only ONE set of shadows.
You can afford to have two or three light sources in the daylight, and cast shadows in several directions. Sunlight is strong enough that it gets bounced back from surfaces like white walls, windows, open water, and the reflected light casts a shadow too. But moonlight, now -- that's a different question. Moonlight does reflect, but it has to be bounced back off glass to be bright enough to cast much of a shadow.
The courtyard is a really nice set -- designed by me, using odds and ends from several different kits. The walls and gate are from the DM The Gate kit; the water feature and stone benches are from the BRC Cloisters kit; the tree in the planter and the vine-covered vase are from the DM Instances kit...
Amadeus is played by Michael 4, wearing the Midnight Price hair set to white, and the Jagger skin map (but not the Jagger face). He's wearing the Narquilir trousers and shirt with the colors set to deep blue, almost black.
And it looks like he went out to meet a paramour. Which inspires a whole 'nother daydream...
You might like to see the courtyard set itself, just for its own sake:
 |
| Very nice set indeed ... except for those leaves! But what could you do?! |
2014 edit: the tree problem would haunt me, and virtually everyone else, for about eight more years, before PC systems simply got fast enough to allow for proper foliage -- trees ad grass! Then, you could start doing it properly, like this:
Jade, 17 March
