Something whimsical and "feel good"

I call the top picture "Listening at the Window," and the second "Rainy Days." These were such fun to do, and a huge departure from the usual stuff I do. They're also a lot more complex than they might seem! To begin with, I don't (yet) own either an owl or a cat (they're on the list!) so both of these had to be added in post, in Photoshop ... from transparent PNGs, which you can get for free from a remarkable site, which I assume is kosher. If it isn't ... ahem! Oh, while I'm in this neck of the woods, I should mention that HDRI Haven has changed its name and address to PolyHaven ... another godsend for resources. Fantastic place to get images to drive environment mapping for ambitious scenes like this:

Any chance I can get you to look at that one full size?! Thanks! That was such an ambitious project, in a HUGE set, with two spacecraft, two droids, and three armoured figures, plus an atmospheric plane. I'm just amazed that it only took 45mins in Iray -- and that's the magic of the low(er) poly figures of yesteryear. Then ...

We'll close on this one today, I think! The old DinoKonda, for which I did a new skinmap, and dug around till I found the DinoKonda Plus morphs to make it bigger and badder! This was a neat project too, so filled with shaders and props. Oh! One last image for today, before I sign out -- speaking of shaders, that is! This --

I treated myself to some new toys! Bohemian Candles by Sveva, from Renderosity, and ROG's Fantasy Home props from DAZ. I've also been installing scores and scores of older items from the 2010 - 2019 content ... am juuust starting to knock a dent in that work! The oars are definitely back in the water. 

In a mood for fantasy!

One thing about working with Genesis ... you never have to worry about the mesh crumpling! After working so long and hard to fix the M4 Stone figure (actually, his face), I needed a couple of days' respite from wrestling with that problem! So I went right back to Genesis, and did this the easy way. Actually, there's an experiment going on in these pictures. At this late, late date, I'm actually getting to grips with the dForce engine, which takes a costume and makes it fit and drape properly. I've avoided dForce items till now, because a) I have little experience with how to use the engine, and b) the couple of times when I did run it, it took sooooo long to drape the costume, even before one could start the render. These, above, were not so bad, which inspires me to experiment further. And...

This was actually a quickie this morning. It took no time at all, because that only looks like a set. In fact, it's just a backdrop and a couple of foreground bushes, and an HDRI light. The dress is resurfaced with a silk shader ... and (yay!) I have definitely cracked how to install Renderosity content into Studio 4.15. Phew. Now I can shop my favourite store without fear, for Genesis stuff. The old DAZ and Poser content was never any problem --

This is a V4 designed for Poser ... SASE's Nicole, bought in a sale at Renderosity yesterday, along with two other V4's. Installation is a breeze, and as soon as the skinmaps have been run through the Iray converter for Gen 4, they render beautifully. (Also lit entirely with an HDRI.) Call me nuts in this day and age of Genesis everything, but I'm having a flirtation with the Gen 4 characters. They are definitely a challenge, but they look ... different --

-- not to mention that a heck of a lot of stuff that was designed for Generation 4 hasn't been updated for Genesis. Even now, 85% of everything I own is for the G4 figures, and short of dropping about two grand on 3D shopping ...! So it's a good thing I like working with Michael and Victoria 4.