I've been tweaking this outfit for Bryce far to long. I created the sword from scratch in Rhino. I may still do upper arm armour, but I need a break from tweaking the character. :-) Before I say "enough" and go on to work on a scene and a slightly different pose, is there anything here that you really like and I should definitely keep? Is there anything that doesn't look right and I should tweak or change? The good and the bad, because once I work out the scene, who knows what I might decide to change. ;-) Credits: The outfit is the Victoria Changing Fantasy Suit. The textures are mostly from the first Texture Pack for the VCFS by Symphony, tweaked, custom bumped and custom reflection mapped. The hair is the Pony Tail hair by Kozaburo, with modified blond texture.

Opps!!! Very important credit, the skin is Noa by StefyZZ! :-)

hrmmmmmm..... [turns picture around] hrrrrrrrmmmmmmm....... [turns picture back] hrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmm...... nope.. I'd say she's all set to go.. although... [ and you knew this was coming right?] maybe just a tad on the ties for the skirt... but only if the final has that in a very significant position in the picture. but even then.. she looks all set... I'd say time to leave the makeup trailor and get onto the set 8 )

stunning

Amazingly nice :)

I've enjoyed watching you develop this character. The textures on the armour, helm and shield are first rate. I also think the character's face is top notch. Altogether it's a fine looking package well worth the time and effort. I have one tiny, little bone though. To tell the truth, the length of the handle on the sword doesn't work for me. I think it would look better shorter and thicker. For what it's worth.

Very well done. I like the sword as is, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to shorten the grip a bit... that could look cool too. I really like the shape of the blade. The other thing that struck me is how the mask frames her eyes. If I had to pick something, I guess that would be my favorite part about this peice. But hurry up and finish this peice already =) I can't wait for the next scene with this character... or your next character!

One suggestion: The sword looks nice, but it doesnt 'fit'. All of the other textures on the armor and shield look slightly worn, battered and tarnished. Then you have a sword that looks so perfect. Even if it came straight from a blacksmith it wouldnt look like that -- they didnt have chrome in the middle ages. All I would change on this pic is the sword textures, and perhaps work a bit on the way she is holding a sword. This might sound silly, but hold a broom or something and look at how your fingers and hand are positioned, then try to replicate it in poser. Another thing you could try (and I dont know if Bryce is capable of rendering effects like this) is adding some depth of field -- blurring the background just a touch to give the illusion of depth. If Bryce doesnt do it, you could render it in 2 separate layers, load the alpha channel of her as a second layer, and blur the background a touch in an image editing program. The rest of it is great. She's absolutely gorgeous, and the work you did on the armor is awesome.

How does the mask stay on her face? I'd like to see some of that spiraly ringlet jewelry thing on her upper arms, but that's just me :) Good stuff. -WTB

I think it's done... might tackle some of the texturing as people suggested, but you did one hell of a job on this. As a swordsman, not as an artist, I'd leave the grip it's current length - a good ahnd and a half blade balances nicely and was preferred for the extra leverage.

Thanks for all of the comments! :-) I may fiddle with the sword some more. Not only the ratios of lengths of various elements, but more texturing. I think it balances well in the hand as is, but maybe the blade should be a little longer in relation to the length of the hilt? I don't know. The grip of a sword in the hand can be hard to get just right in Poser. I do have a real sword here and I find it balances well in my grip with a similar orientation to what is seen here, but I'll work on it for the final pose. :-) Depth of field is possible with some post work. You can render masks in Bryce for that. The scene itself is temporary right now. I have some ideas for the first real scene, I'll see how depth blur looks when I get to that point. The mask is very cool, I also like the way it frames her eyes. It's hard to see, but there is a metal band that can be seen just above the mask that covers her forehead and runs back through her hair. I envision that the mask/helm attaches to that. As it comes, there is nothing it is attached to and I thought this would be an o.k. solution with out changing the nature of the item. When in doubt, "it's a magic item and that's one of it's features"! ;-) William, if I add anything near term, it will likely be jewelry. I hadn't thought of spiral jewelry for the upper arms! That may be something I can do and will make them look a little less vulnerable if I don't go ahead and just make upper arm armour. :-) I hope that now that the details of the figure have been worked out, I'll be able to do a series of images with her. I know I will want to create some companions for her, not sure whether that will be sooner or later. I already have some ideas for the first scenes, now I've got to work out the best way to do them! Thanks again! :-)

When in doubt, "it's a magic item and that's one of it's features"! ;-) LOL! Good response! Is that a +3 Mask of Bonding? :D -WTB

Hmmm ... maybe I should explain a bit about my comment on making the hilt shorter and thicker. It's really a matter of physics rather then esthetics. The business end of the sword is massive and as such will tend to be heavy. In a fencing foil or katana it really wouldn't matter since the blades are comparatively light. Here though, the sword would have a greater tendency to twist in the grip. A shorter, thicker hilt would give better control. I was viewing it from how I'd expect this character to look in the real world. As WTB said, if it's magic then the physics be damned. Just my two cents.

Bushi, I'll fiddle with it. The sword is modeled after one from a painting by Royo. His version has an even longer blade, but the hilt isn't much thicker. I know that most hand and a half and two handed swords tend to have fairly long hilts. This character is Elven, so I figured her hand would be even smaller on the hilt than a human character's. I also would think that the areas of the blade that are "cut out" would decrease the weight of the blade? I will mess around with it. I haven't added much to the texture maps for the sword yet, other than the design on the lower part of the blade and the end peice for the hilt, but I don't want to have to make a new UV map. I guess the best approach would be to do the alterations as morphs, which actually should make it easier to fine tune. Thanks. :-)