Bryce 7 Pro, Vue, and a whole lot more

Video missing ... the link called a YouTube video, and it's just not there anymore. From memory, it was the promo for Bryce 7 Pro. DAZ must have removed it for some reason. It would have been a piece of history...

For some time you've been hearing me say I wasn't deliriously happy with Bryce, and I've been switching over to Vue a fraction at a time. Well, that juuuuust might be changing, because Bryce 7 Pro just arrived, and it's on sale at DAZ right now for about $54; and the moment Dave saw the promo reel, well, that was that. It was in the shopping cart!

Just take a squiz at that promo reel, above! Yeeeouch. Now, before you get too dazzled, take another squiz at the Vue 7 promo reel:

(Both of these will play FULL SCREEN ... and it's worth watching 'em)

And before you get too blown away, here's the rub -- and this is what dumps you unceremoniously back into reality:

The Vue 7 promo was not done with any of the affordable levels of Vue, which start out at about $199, if you want halfway decent functionality. It was done with one of the top-end levels of the program, and ... welllll, for that price, I'd want to stick a key in the ignition and drive away in it. We're talking four figures here.

By contrast, Bryce 7 Pro is about hundred bucks at full price, and if you happen along (which we did) at a time when you can get it on sale at 45% off (which we did!) you wind up with a prog that's going to give Vue some serious competition, for, uh, $54.

Now, I'm not saying I like the Bryce interface -- I don't! But the program will do some amazing things, if you can get your head around it. Time to learn! I cut my teeth on Bryce 5.5, which was the freebie, when Bryce 7 came out a while back. Time to switch up to Version 7 Pro, and just learn it.

Nothing momentous today, guys -- I've been working flat-out for the last nine hours, without a break. My brains are scrambled. Time to go drool in front of a movie, chill out, unwind and so forth. Will be back tomorrow with something more corehent...

Jade, 18 August

***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?!!!

The vampire displays a rare set of canines

At last, I managed to get an African skinmap ... and it's a beauty. The tones are rich, warm and beautiful, and when you bring the camera in tight, the texture of the map is also highly detailed.

This is the Zareb skinmap, but not the Zareb face. This face is one of my own. Rather a nice face ... makes me imagine a just-qualified young doctor of economics who's about to become the political leader of a stride-torn nation, and who's been surprised while on vacation after defending his PhD, and told he has to catch the next flight back to a home he hasn't seen in a decade, and take the reins.

Ouch. There's a monster novel in that, but I'd never be qualified in a zillion years to write it.

Anyway, the whole point of the renders is to try out a new skinmap, and I'll tell you, Zareb is a lovely, lovely map. Now, if only someone would do a great mane of dreads for M4, I could see about designing a face for Rogan -- "Rogue" -- from The Lords of Harbendane. I would dearly love to do that, but I don't think anyone's done dreads for M4 yet. We live in hopes!

Interested? Click here. One caveat: be aware of GLBT content, because it's a Mel Keegan novel, which means one of the romances will be gay. Might not be for younger readers, due to some very realistic battle scenes etc.

And now for something completely different!

The vampire Vladislav N. Stolitchniev has been annoyed enough to show his fangs! Now, I was going to be conservative about the fangs, and I came up with this:

To which Dave said, "You have GOT to be kidding, what a waste of an opportunity!" So here's the same image, with "Fangs by Dave" ...

And both of those were uploaded at 1:1 size, so you can click on them and see them just as they were rendered. Look at those fangs! Way to go, Dave. That'd sure keep me home nights...

Jade, 17 August

***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?!!!

Anyone seen Indiana Jones around here lately?

Do you ever have one of those fantasies where you're lost in the jungle, and it's steaming hot, and you meet this "native guide" who looks at you like you've gone bonkers, because you've been wandering in circles about 100 yards from the biggest landmark in a thousand square miles, and this "native guide" guy is like a dream come true, right out of a Hollywood fantasy ...? And what happens next after the tribal shaman gives you a taste of the magic potion to save your life? You get the gift of longevity, get weird powers, have a blazing affair with the one who rescued you, and, uh, like that.

No, I don't have those fantasies either. (Ahem!) But I did see The Champions, and Indiana Jones, about thirty years ago. (Golly, is it that long?) And The Phantom, now I come to think about it! Billy Zane in the purple spandex. Uh huh.

The set is the Palenque Ruins, which I got in the massive DAZ sale a few weeks ago, when virtually my entire wish list went on sale at the same time:

And you wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) how many items off that wish list splurge I still need to unpack and play with!

The character is JM Falcon; lovely skinmap -- I tweaked the face a bit. The hair is Spartacos, The costume ... well, Victoria 4.2 was wearing it, the last time you saw it. It take a whale of a fiddle to get it to fit Michael 4, but it actually does eventually. Plus the trees from the DM Fantasy Visions, and --- there you go! One jungle fantasy, made to measure.

Jade, 15 August

***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?!!!

Too early to be getting ready for Halloween? Nope!

Busy like you wouldn't believe today, guys ... painting bookcovers which could easily be recognized as having a "Halloween" flavor. At Christmas I was painting Easter stuff, and at Halloween I'll be painting Christmas cards. It's all about the lag time in manufacture and promotions of whatever products and ad campaigns you're working with/for.


So here are some very nice examples of what I'm up to ... different from the usual fare, and being used as a "stop gap" here, because I'm out of time! Nice art, though ... some of these pieces are worked up from items you've seen in some form or other on the blog here, but the leader shots (the generic torso art, which has become a genre all of its own lately) are new...

Sorry ... the remainder of these images were stored elsewhere, and have vanished. An account was abandoned, something like Photobucket or whatever, and there were a lot of casualties...

With a tiny bit of luck I'll be back tomorrow with time for something fresh and new, so -- see you then!

Jade, 14 August

***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?!!!