Archer in the Dawn: "Draw the bow, how does it feel?"

Lots and lots of experiments going on here -- and they mostly worked. The first big surprise is how good the old M4 costume looks on G8. Not all M4 costumes will load properly -- though I suspect there's a way to make them, I just haven't yet found it. I redid all the surfaces for Iray, of course, but at the end of the project, this is a very, very nice effect! Not to mention that I'm starting to love this character. The skinmap is Rex, and I'm using the Rex body morphs, but I designed the face myself -- and I'm using the vascular mapping from Dae, plus the SSS mapping from ... now, is it CC Foster? The effect is seamless and lovely.

The bow is the old V4 Dragon Bow prop, by Val. Again, I redid all the surfaces for Iray (mostly in the Surfaces Pane, but one or two shaders), and resized it for G8M. Very nice result. And the last of today's experiments is in "reverse vignetting" -- I'm fading the borders to white rather than black, and it's rather a lovely effect. I actually started with the backdrop, which helped to set the tone for the picture:

Once the background painting had set the tone, I was able to design the lights around it. I have one strong, warm spotlight and a soft greenish environment light on this, and the effect is ... artistic. Nice!