Nothing clever today ... just experiments with various modes of rendering, and playing with blend settings. I'm one of those people who learns best by doing, not reading or being shown. I have to be hands-on before anything sticks to my brain cells! Also, to be completely honest, I don't feel so good. You try being ultra-creative while you have a headache and a toothache. (Problem is, the teeth have already been fixed, ain't no more to be done with them. Take the question back to the dentist, and he'll grab a hypodermic in one fist and the dreaded pair of pliers in the other. Argh. So we suffer a while longer, see if it'll subside on its own ... *sigh* To quote Ned Kelly, "Such is life.")
Anyway --
Though I'll be honest, I've been tempted a few times, and more lately than in the past. Desktop artists and animators are doing amazing things these days. In fact, they're doing stuff on the desktop that would have been state of the art in motion pictures not very long ago! I'm on a couple of mailing lists, and this morning had a newsletter from Renderosity, one of the 3D markets where I used to buy a lot of props and materials (such as skinmaps: some of the best skinmaps in my library came from Renderosity...
They're announcing a new partnership with a company producing a powerful tool called CC3, or Character Creator 3. There was a link to their demo video, soooo...
...and there really is no answer to that. I mean, honestly. The only thing the hobbyist (like self) needs these days is veryveryvery deep pockerts. Say, $2500 to upgrade the hardware to run this stuff. About $900 for the CC3 itself. And while you're at it, you might as well add another A$75 for Render Studio for Iray, from DAZ (Iray is a new-ish render engine which might have the edge on LuxRender. Then, you'd want the Genesis 8 stuff, and bundles of new skins, wigs, costumes. Another grand, at least, maybe two. Hmm. Well, it's only money, but ...! This is one expensive hobby.
Another time, when I have the bucks going spare! In the meantime, we play with what we have and have fun, right? Right. Because I was only running experiments with blending modes, the renders above are not even raytraces, much less Lux renders! Just old fashioned deep shadow maps, which I haven't used in many years. Will get back into Lux very soon. I do have the old version: basically, it's just slower. Its images were fine, it simply took time to get there. Reminds you of the garage mechanic in Mad Max: "Speed is just a question of money. How fast can you go?" LOL ... patience, Grasshopper!
