Sometimes the best way to deal with winter blues is to thnk about summer greens and yellows. I'm gonna need a beta tester or two for this 'un. I want to test it in PPP and P4. It's alllll...most ready to go out for testing. Just need to make the 'eaten' morphs for the hot dog, maybe model a can of soda for the fridge (with an 'open' morph, mental note to self), and I'm waiting on a ride (it's snowing) to run up to the 7-11 to buy a hot dog so I can scan it (then add mustard and eat it). Features already done on this: - Parasol closes - Steam Table parts (tubs, dividers, lids) all come out and can be rearranged just like the real thing - Fridge lids open with hard limits - Sauerkraut stuff has 'scoop' and 'stir' morphs and has two layers of subtle transparency to simulate semitransparent goop. - Wheels turn, castors rotate, brakes move with hard limits. - tongs are posable, spoon and tongs are seperate props - divider and shelves are seperate props so you can remove them. Top and Parasol are seperate sub-figures so you can remove them if you want. - the parasol is sooo easy to texture! - maintenance door does not open because Little_Dragon says Jimmy Hoffa's in there B^o - catsup and mustard have squeeze morphs - hot dog prop has a transmapped, textured, and bumpmapped 'condiment layer' which you can texture up how you like with catsup, mustard, relish, kraut, cheese, chili, or whatever! Oh, the hot dog just got here. Let me post these and ea-- err, scan it.

That is pretty awesome. I especially like the idea of the morphing bottles and umbrella stand. I can live without finding Jimmy Hoffa inside. I'll definitely check this one out when its available. :)

That's all no posrtwork, except resizing the image, BTW. I'd tell you how I did the 'fading shadows' effect on the ground, but except I've decided I want to keep at least one secret to myself. B^)

That's more impressive still. Maybe you'll take pity on us and do a tutorial on the effect as part of a product package one of these days.

L Maybe, we'll see. Thanks dialyn

CKFive, who drives a cab, and just stopped off to drop off the hot dog, was playing with it and says it's 'uncanny'. I don't know why that matters, but somehow a Philadelphia cab driver saying a hot dog stand is uncannily accurate gives me extra confidence in this. Not as much as a New York cab driver, but then if a New York cab driver said it, he'd say something like 'L'esattezza di quella sta sbalordendo!' or 'Die Genauigkeit von der verblft!' at best.

Here's the photo I worked from for comparison

Uh, dodger... are you SURE you didn't get the photos mixed up? I mean really, really sure? The one at the top looks a little more, well, real. Now, are you going to include aprons for the vendor with the package? We need a good apron for Mike and Vicky.

L Thanks Jim. That's a tremendous compliment, though I think the reference photo's not-realness was mostly a matter of it being a bad cutout. You can make out a street scene in the reflections on it, butwhen they cut it out and put it on white they didn't match up the faked-in shadows right and stuff (the primary shadow should be reaching back away from the viewer, not towards, and off to your left, not your right, based on the lighting on the cart and especially the awning -- they used a flipped, distorted copy of the alpha chennel they made for the mask and blurred it -- shoddy workmanship). Err, well, I guess an apron would be a good idea, wouldn't it. sigh and I was so close to done. I'll think about it. I still gotta make the soda cans. Though I never noticed the hot dog vendors in NYC wearing aprons. Nor in Chicago. The ones at Pioneer Square by you, sure. And probably the ones in Central Park do, too, I think. And maybe down by the bottom where tourists go to see the Statue. I know they do in Lincon Park in Chicago, too. bandies about the possibility... I'd have to charge more if I'm including a conformer... Course, the ones in Portland are mostly hawking Honkin' Huge Burritos and Hummus and stuff.

Got the hot dog textured!

Here's another close-up (with the textured hot dog)

uh... dodger... you read my mind about the Honkin' Huge Burritos. I was hoping you wouldn't catch that... Can't blame a guy for trying on the aprons. They've been on my personal wish list for a while, and I've never seen any anywhere.

Makes Lurch 'Urrrr' sound ALright, I'll see what it would take and how long it would take me. At least there's no arm parts on an apron, sop no elbows to keep from poking through... B^)

I wanted to add (since I just added it up), that this is a lot lower poly than it looks like it is, too, and it renders this well. The total number of polys in the top picture (not that you can see them all at once), is 9213. Compare that to the figures you usually load: Vicki: 28984 Mike: 33980 Stephanie: 33214 Posette: 16380 Eve: 17010 Scarecrow: 12715 Even the DAZ frog weights in higher at 11384 facets! That means this thing won't kill your computer to have it in a scene. Or even a few of them. One could be selling Honkin' Huge Burritos, even.

Have you got separate hot dogs and buns, ooooooh please say yes, cause I'm sooo there. My fave hot dog stand in NYC had a sign saying Our HotDogs are better than Filet Mignon! Love this and will buy this, Emily

Do you need a P5 tester??? Emily

Oh, yeah -- I should mention -- I deliberately avoided anything that could cause a fuss with trademarks on the name on the awning... See, there's usually no problem because very few companies' trademarks cover 3-D models, which is why DAZ can sell Ferarris and Mustangs and Uzis with impunity. But not wanting to push it in case this goes on Renderosity, I avioded the obvious name. 'Dodger Dogs' is trademarked. It's the brand name of the foot-longs sold at Los Angeles baseball games.

Emily, yep, the hot dogs and the buns are seperate. Moreover, the hot dog buns are posable. I feel so silly typing that. I made a posable hot dog bun. To go withthe posable pretzel consolation prize I gave away with my scarecrow contest, I guess L. Oh, and I think I have P5 testing covered, actually.

I'm also going to build 'Bitten' MTs for the weiners and buns before I call it done.

Twisted minds think alike, apparently. I included "bitten" morphs in the dog biscuits I uploaded to Free Stuff this evening.

maintenance door does not open because Little_Dragon says Jimmy Hoffa's in there

Not all of him .... just bits. They had to spread him around, y'know.

An impressive job, keeping it below 10000 polys. I recently tallied the polycounts of several Poser figures for comparison purposes, and can tell you that 9213 is featherweight compared to Victoria 3, who outweighs the Millennium Dragon.

Bits of Hoffa... Ahem. looks around, whistles Damn crazy people comin' up to me on the street. That's what I get for working outdooahs. Red hots! Red hot hot dogs! Geddum whillair hot! Red Hot hot dogs, Chicago Red Hots, right'ea. Getcha red hots...

No aprons for your real hot dog guys, once in awhile there's a dishtowel--dirty--hanging around the waist for him to wipe his hands on once he's touched . . .you. Well, no telling where you've been.:)) The funny white paper hat is sometimes part of the uniform, but it's more likely a baseball cap turned around. I recommend some of the more unsavory members of Dalinese's seniors for this. We need half knitted gloves to hold the burgers. Hey, since Little Dragon's listening. . . .:))) Anyone interested in my Times Square and other NYC street pics for this? Emily

I know I have seen a apron for Mike somewhere. Diane

I'm not going to put the apron in. Sorry pdxjims, I just feel that a conformer is too far beyond the scope of this project, and I have the rest of it done now, bite MTs and all. You know if all else fails there are a lot of tunic-type shirts for Mike and Vocki both that you can transmap into aprons with almost no effort. BTW I have my beta testers set, now, too. I'm about to package everything up and send it to them.

PhilC has a free apron for the P4 Male. It probably wouldn't be too difficult to refit for Michael.

Nahp, this is done at this poing, about to send it out for testing. I'm including a morphing can of coke, too.

The condensation, BTW, is a seperate prop smart propped to the can. The can has crush, open, and opening morphs. (Opening has the tab all the way up, and open has it pushed back most of the way down)

It looks great. I don't need another blond texture (yawn) but I sure do love that little hot dog cart. Great job, _dodger!