The render from hell -- no, not this guy, above. That's a Genesis 8 character based on the Michael 8 skinmap, Varun hair and a lot of dial-in tweaks to make a new-ish face and body -- dead easy, with a couple of Merlin's trees set in the background plus the raytrace of the Moon Gate you saw the other day blurred down and set as a backdrop ... two hours cooking in Iray, and I haven't done anything to it. Nada. That's just the raw render. Okay, soooo --
This was the render from hell:
...this was a render that just didn't want to be done. Studio 4 crashed repeatedly, and since I can't save a file out of Studio 4, every crash meant starting from scratch; then, the textures drop out on the Xurge 3D costume and have to be reconfigured every time ... and the lighting gave me hell. The Ferendir skinmap that rendered so beautifully the other day looks plastic on the older human figure. The elf looks okay, but what's going on with the human?? I got this two-hour raytrace out of Studio 4, then it crashed yet again and I said, stuff it. I am NOT doing it over. Sometimes you just can't win. I suspect there's something "wrong" with the lights, making the skinmap look plastic on one figure, but I don't have the time or patience to start yet again. We'll try a whole new project tomorrow, and run some experiments.
So, just as I switched back to raytracing when Iray was jerking me around, this time I switched back to Iray when 3Delight was jerking me around. The results are pretty nice ... though I do admit, the Iray shot is soooo simple, while the raytrace was many times more complex. If Studio hadn't been crashing, I'd have worked it out ... if I could save a file in Studio 4, I'd have worked it out. As it is, what you see is what you get. I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's not bad, so... there you have it.
Try again tomorrow. 😐
