Further adventures with Genesis 2 and Victoria 4

 

Iray Render, Photoshop painting

Okay, so having looked at Genesis 3 yesterday, I took a look at Genesis 2 today. Fair to say that you shouldn't actually render the base figure ... which is odd. You can render Michael 4 without a qualm, but Genesis 2 and 3 males load up looking uncomfortably like adolescents; you need to add characters to them, to get anything out of them. (In other words, pay some biiiig money!) I like the look of Michael 5 and 6 -- they fit the Genesis and Genesis 2 base figures respectively; one day, if I'm floating on cash, I might do something with them. They're not running away ... God knows, you can still get everything right back to Michael 3! Anyway, this, above is just the Genesis 2 base figure, which is actually preferable to the version 3, in terms of looking like a man, not a little boy. Then, when you add a character to the base figure -- it comes to life. Here is Michael 5, slapped onto the Genesis base:

...and while we're on the subject, we might as well follow the logic train to the end of the track! So, here is Michael 6, which fits the Genesis 2 base figure:

The weakest link regarding the early figures is the hair. It's no better than it was back in the days when Michael and Victoria 4 were on the cutting edge ... in fact, I don't think the very early toupees for Genesis and Gen 2 were as good as some of the best M4 and V4 toupees. Go figure. Then there's Michael 7 ... which is weirdly not really to my taste ...

...and you see what I mean about the hair being the weakest link, even by the time you get to Mike 7, which fits the Genesis 3 base figure! Soon after this, something went "pop" and 3D hair got very good indeed ... just in time for Genesis 8, Michael 8, and ... here we are:

Michael 8

Now, the next bit of news is that people are starting to talk about -- wait for it! -- Genesis 9. Well, okay. But I still haven't caught up with Genesis 8 yet! I'll have to wait on this. Meanwhile, let's come back down to Earth and look at what we can do in the real world. As I began, I've been exploring the possibilities of the generation 4 figures, largely because most of what I own, as per 3D assets, dates from that era and fits Michal or Victoria 4! So let's see what we can do in Iray...

That's Victoria 4, wearing the Angel skinmap, the Mimi eyes, the Chaos Seed costume with new shaders by Sveva, and a cyclorama in the background. IBL environment lighting, plus one photometric spotlight. The only thing that lets it down (and Genesis mesh would solve this!) is the unrealistic bend in the left elbow. Pretend you don't notice. I set off to design a whole new character this morning, and came up with this. I like this face a lot, so -- expect to see more of her! The eyes were the biggest challenge in this project --

 

Now, I usually opt for eyes from the "Eyes Have It" for M4 and V4 pack, which work marvelously with raytracing. But in Iray they're a disaster ... the sclera (the white of the eye) renders charcoal grey, and so far has resisted every trick I know to correct this. So I tried the Angel eyes, belonging to the skinmap. Worse! Angel renders flat black, iris and sclera alike, and nothing I did could fix this (and I did it all, believe me). In despair, I turned to a skinmap called Mimi for V4, from eons ago, and -- guess what? The eyes just work. Now, I need to get into settings for these eyes, in the surfaces pane, and reverse engineer what's there to fit both the Angel eyes, and The Eyes Have it. But not today -- or tomorrow, in fact. Tomorrow I'm out of here early. Dave's day off, and we're on a road trip. More soon.