Playing today with the costume I bought yesterday ... changing the textures and surfaces on it, to rather good effect, actually. Also --
On a whim, I took a crack at hand-painting the hair, and am quite pleased with the result. It's actually somewhat more realistic than the usual ... though I do admit, I need a lot more practice! My real problem with this kind of very, very fine work is (yep, you guessed) shaky hands. Truth is, my hands just aren't rock-steady enough to handle painting reliably at the two pixel mark! At least, not with a Wacom Bamboo tablet. Maybe if I was painting directly onto the screen! Sooo...
Let's go again! Switch out some of the textures and play with the surfaces on the set. Result: nice! I also switched out the skinmap on the first character above (the one with the hand-painted hair), which is why he has a slightly different look. The skinmap there is Jagger, which you usually see on Amadeus -- and Kevin Jarrat (thanks, Mel Keegan, nudge, wink). Such a handy skinmap. The skinmap on the second version of the character is HZ Victor, which did come from Renderosity a long, long time ago.
Still need to get back to Xurge.com and buy another couple of those costumes. Didn't get the chance to do it today, but it's on the agenda for tomorrow. Michael 4 renders up beautifully, even now, and I'll tell you something: I'm really enjoying the return to Studio 3! It's so fast and it's such fun. RAytraces, with a bit of over-painting in Photoshop ... have to admit, I really do like the texture and flavor of this kind of work.
The set, incidentally is The Mirador, by DM, which I think came from the DAZ marketplace a long, long time ago. I actually bothered to track it down, LOL. Try this, if you're interested. Anyway ... the oars are back in the water, and we're having fun with this again. There are loads of images in my mind's eye right now, dying to get out. So -- more tomorrow!