Back to basics -- a raytrace right out of good old Studio 3. The skinmap and face morph are Atlas (which I think is by SAV; from Renderosity), and the render pulls virtually every trick in the book, with a good result. I fell back to basics after a fruitless hour trying to get the M4 Displacement to manually install properly ... it gave me the right, royal run-around, but in the end -- just as I was about to yank my hair out by the roots and run around screaming, I did get it to work:
This one is a Studio 4.11 raytrace, and I cranked up the sampling to get higher fidelity. I'm actually fairly pleased with this. (The only downside is ... I can't save the project file. Whatever I do, I do on the fly as a one-off, which makes for more work, but -- hey ho._ As you can see, I got the M4 Displacement to work in the end -- there's only one proviso: it doesn't work in Iray. So finding out that you can get higher quality raytraces becomes more important! Remember how much you love raytracing, and explore the new depth in the 3Delight settings.
The vascularity adds a dimension of realism ... it's going to be fun playing with this. The big challenge was finding the package, once it was copied over. If you're having the same problem, take a look here:
My DAZ 3D Library \ People \ Michael 4 \ Materials \ M4 Displacement
...and whaddaya know, there it is. The way Studio 4.11 reads files and folders is confusing, and can be confounding, but after six months I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. 😜
There's a package for Genesis 8 called "Add Some Veins," which essentially does the same thing for Genesis 8.. I don't have that package yet. Still going fifteen rounds with Studio, trying to get it to install things manually, and do it reliably, coherently. I had six items to install today, and got through three of them because with the exception of a set of poses (from Renderosity) the rest gave me a fight. But --
Genesis 8 -- "Going Dancing:" new poses and shaders, installed and working. Phew.
It was a bit of a chore getting the Polygonal Miniatures Iray Shaders Collection to work properly, because although everything copied over to the letter, and is in place, Studio can't find any of the texture maps ... meaning, every time I apply a shader, you have to "locate" the map. Just one more hoop to jump through I guess; so I went through the motions with a test piece --
-- using eight shaders on one prop, the Chinese screen from the Folding Screens set. Fair enough, I can go through the "locate" routine for this. The only "hmm" I have about this shader pack is that, as you can see immediately, the shaders visibly "tile" over large areas. They're beautifully seamless, but the texture maps are quite small, and you can pick the pattern at a glance. These will have to be used with considerable care, to hide this.
The poses are really good, and I think they were a freebie from Renderosity. Ain't it odd? The freebie is the item that works perfectly, installed without a fuss and just clicked into place. The only thing I need to remember is where Studio finds this item! So I'm going to make a note to myself here, LOL, so I can refer back to this post if I forget where it is! Note to self: the Thorvan Poses are here:
My DAZ 3D Library \ People \ Genesis 8 Male \ Poses \ thorvan-poses
...simple and logical, when you think about it, but I had to hunt it down. Worth the hunt.
Three more items to install, if I can manage it: a new hairstyle, a Wolverine-style leather jacket for Genesis, and an SF costume. I'll get to them tomorrow, and with a bit of luck they won't mess me about the way the M4 Displacement and Polygonal shaders did. Cross fingers.
