Thought I would start a thread for newbies to using the Hivewire figures for help and/or questions.

Shout out if you have questions we might be able to help with.

A little bit about DawnSE. First remember that the human figures from HW pre-date Superfly, so you will likely need EZSkin3 from Snarlygribbly: http://snarlygribbly.org/poser/ with the definition files. Dawn, Dusk and Baby Luna all share UV maps, so you only need one definition file for EZSkin3.

DawnSE comes with 3 faces with her Base morph injections. Just select her Head>Face>Special Edition Face 1, 2 or 3 morphs on the parameters menu. Here's an example render for you:

Additionally, she comes with a complete Head and Body morph named Special Edition Character:

I stickied this thread so it will stay at the top for a while.

Thank you, wheatpenny

Will Dawn and Dusk use the same definition files? Do the definition files come with EZ skin3?

EClark1894 posted at 8:17PM Sun, 22 September 2019 - #4363446

Will Dawn and Dusk use the same definition files? Do the definition files come with EZ skin3?

Yes, to both. I just downloaded the EZSkin3 file from Snarlygribbly's link I posted above and the Legacy Figures definition file contains the same Dawn as mine. Date and time stamped the same. I did the Superfly render above of Special Edition Character for this thread, using EZSkin3 and the legacy definition.

Of course, then there's DuskSE, who happens to be my favorite male figure ever. I find him easy to model and rig for and to use, in general.

My favorite character is CWRW's Dante. Pictured here:

And the amazing gorilla

Glitterati Are you considering bringing your Dawn, and especially Dusk stuff back to market? I'd already bought nearly all of it before you closed your stores, but for newcomers to Dawn and Dusk it would be a godsend, imho the best stuff ever made for Dusk

Nails60 posted at 6:54AM Mon, 23 September 2019 - #4363506

Glitterati Are you considering bringing your Dawn, and especially Dusk stuff back to market? I'd already bought nearly all of it before you closed your stores, but for newcomers to Dawn and Dusk it would be a godsend, imho the best stuff ever made for Dusk

I may, because I am thrilled with this environment for the Hivewire figures. I feel like they may finally get the exposure and adoption they deserve.

I hope some of the greats like Xurge will develop for them because they deserve the support.

And, sorry, I fell asleep waiting for this Baby Luna render.

I'm watching this thread with great interest!

I'm almost new to HiveWire 3D figures, and am just now learning to use Dusk SE and set him up with a variety of body shapes and heads (as I frequently do with a new character.) This figure is wonderful and I've purchased additional morphs, poses, textures, and clothing for him already. I'll be adding more HiveWire content for him (and later, Dawn SE) in the near future.

Dusk is the figure that looks to move me off of Michael 4 for my future products. I would encourage those looking for an alternative male figure to try him out. I think you will be pleased with what's been included in Poser Pro 11.2. And I expect Dawn to be just as good as Dusk.

Thank you for the renders, Traci! I'm looking forward to seeing more in this thread.

Lee

I am so glad Glitterati3D started this thread and much credit must go to Bondware for including some of the Hive family in Poser so users can see just how good they are. For many years I was using V4 to try and illustrate a sci-fi story that has been bouncing around in my head for what seems a life time. I had what I thought was a character, morphed to create a 5 foot nothing slightly mature heroine for my stories. As my skills with Poser grew, with a great deal of help from Poser users in forums here and elsewhere, I found V4 start to get limiting, expressions in particular were not as life like as I wanted but where was I going to find a replacement figure that had more scope but I could still turn into a petite mature heroine. Luckily two things happen around that time, Dawn SE was launched and 3Dream created some beautiful skin resources here at Rendo. Resource Number 7 was just what I was looking for.

OK so this story could get very long so lets cut to the chase, here is my heroine, Caoimhe, in about the third iteration, the last being reworking so that I could use Superfly as a render engine. Keep in mind I am not looking for photo realistic but more believable.

This helps to show the strengths of Superfly.

I hope this encourages other to at least try Dawn to see if the figure works for you, after all the only thing it is going to cost you is time.

Here is another render of Caoimhe, taking her morning fitness run when on board ship, it gives a better idea of her figure. My aim was to create an attractive character that was very different than the norm for Poser females, more the girl next door type, only the viewer can decide if I have succeeded.. I should also add the character is created using nothing but free and commercially available morphs and a lot of dial spinning all within Poser.

Last one for now this one shows her relative size.

I sooooo wish this forum had "Like" buttons!! I miss being able to show my appreciation of posts/renders folks post that very often blow my mind.

I'm very familiar with Caoimhe's story, as I've been watching you post your wonderful renders on the HW forum Hornet, and I hope this encourages others to add their renders of the HW family of characters here as well.

Miss B posted at 6:52PM Mon, 23 September 2019 - #4363581

I sooooo wish this forum had "Like" buttons!! I miss being able to show my appreciation of posts/renders folks post that very often blow my mind.

I'm very familiar with Caoimhe's story, as I've been watching you post your wonderful renders on the HW forum Hornet, and I hope this encourages others to add their renders of the HW family of characters here as well.

Yes it has been a long and disjointed story so far, generally following the way mind works, or not, as the case may be. The reason for posting here is to try and encourage the people who suddenly have access to Dawn, Dusk and the others is to give them a try. I really can't stress enough that I have no formal training, no special skills just many years of working in Poser. It really is a case that if I can do it so can anyone, yes it took me a long time to get to where I was happy with the character but I learnt a lot and it was, on the whole, a lot of fun. All I had was Poser, some time on my hands and a great deal of help via the forums. I am sure if people try the figures they will be surprised at just how good they are.

I admit I was a bit put off by Dawn, Dusk and Luna because of their default eyes and having to buy a bunch more morphs to customize them. But the more I see the more I'm thinking ok ... Maybe I have to go into the fitting room for some clothes ... but this is better than I thought. So for those out there who didn't try these figures, I fully suggest you give them another try. I misjudged them.

Ok ... here is my first test with Dawn ... African face morph ... Texture done by me from default texture ... Hope you like the result.

Eh. There's something not quite right about that face, in my opinion.

I think a lot of people are somewhat put off by new characters, and it often takes a while before they'll try them. Sometimes it takes me a piece of clothing, or an additional character created for the new base, that will change my mind.

Then again, the original Dawn created years ago is soooo different from Dawn2, and/or the current DawnSE, and once folks get interested because they now have the base figures to play with, I'm certain they'll be interested in what's being worked on for the upcoming Dawn 2.0, though that probably won't be available for quite some time. Anyone who's interested, can come and check out the thread about her development on the HiveWire forum.

I'm a dedicated dial spinner, and though I only use DAZ Studio I'm posting a bunch of dial characters created with the Hivewire morphs sets that are available in BOTH DAZ Studio and Poser formats. It's true the HW figures don't have as many morph options as the old Generation 4 (V4/M4 etc) did, but you can still get a lot of "character" out of what is available.

All these were made with various combinations of Dawn's Starter Morphs, Dawn's Head Shapes, the Head Morph Resource Kit for Dawn, and Dawn's Creature Heads. Again, all available at the Hivewire store in both DS and Poser formats.

Folks might not care for my aesthetics -- I'm drawn to strong or striking faces rather than conventionally pretty ones -- but hopefully they'll show some of the potential variety available.

First off, the default starter base for the purposes of comparisons:

Carmen:

Carol -- this one originally made use of some free DS-only morphs, which I removed, and then I added in a bit of standard NoseSlope:

Dina, my attempt at a Native American woman:

A slightly creepy fae, which uses a bit of the creature head morphs:

Jayne, who also uses a bit of creature morph dials:

More in the next post...

And more...

Jillian, just a girl next door type:

Kaylee, an Asian character:

Nolah, African character:

Petunia, a more conventional fairy character:

And just a few more in the next (and last) post...

Prisha, an Indian character who's still a WIP:

Rachel:

Regina:

Xiulan, another Asian character:

And, lastly, Ysabeau:

And that's just Dawn...I have some Dusk and Luna too, but this is probably enough for now, ha!

Whoops! For some reason Jayne didn't show up:

Whoa Michele!! Fantastic dial spun characters for Dawn. I've seen your Carol character in the dial spinning render challenge we had at HiveWire, but I hadn't seen all these other goodies. Nicely done ma'am!

All of these renders are awesome! Thank you for posting them here.

And thank you to Glitterati3D who has been giving me pointers and taking the time to come up with solutions to my Poser Pro 11, SuperFly rendering, and HiveWire figure questions.

Lee

Having had Dusk SE in my possession since last Thursday and some additional add-ons even more recently, I feel like I'm a little fish swimming with the big fish. But here goes a test render with Dusk SE...

I always set up different body/facial shapes for my characters before really applying much clothing, props, additional textures, etc. My creative Poser style is to make characters that are somewhat realistic but have a caricature/stylized proportions sort of vibe to them. That said, here's a lean, more defined body type and a little bulkier bodybuilder type for Dusk. I made 2 custom morphs to start to get the look I'm after with Dusk. One is a neck morph and the other is a narrow hip morph. Still much work to do to find my style for Dusk, but I am truly enjoying my tinkering and all the help that others have graciously given me.

I marked this with the nudity flag due to the figures wearing just briefs. Just to be cautious.

By the way, eclark, definitely ... Some one actually I laughed at it on facebook. Looks like I need more morphs.

Glitterati3D posted at 11:10PM Mon, 23 September 2019 - #4363458

And the amazing gorilla

The gorilla also makes a good werewolf

mmalbert, I hope you bring some if not all of those morphs to market, well done!

And I'm liking that Dusk character LeeMoon!.

While I consider myself a Daz Studio user and for my personal art I prefer to use animals, I'd have to say if it wasn't for the HiveWire figures I probably wouldn't have used any people, especially in Poser as I found Dawn much easier to use than the other ones I tried. (I also find the HW horse much easier to use than the others lol).

And since Halloween is coming up, this is Dawn (ok its a DS render)

This one is a Superfly render

And these are Firefly renders

@LeeMoon - I'm liking what you accomplished with Dusk after working with him for such a short period of time.

@me195 - I never would've thought of using Dusk's Gorilla as a Werewolf, but you're right, he does look good.

@Rae_Designs - I'm used to seeing your great HW animal renders, but these ladies all look great. You should work with the human figures more often.

Not only do we have Dawn and Family..but LaFemme also. She may be set up a bit differently to the other Poser figures we're grown used to..but she's well worth learning how to use. I'm pretty sure someone way more talented that me will soon post some promo's of what can be accomplished with her :)

LeeMoon posted at 9:45AM Tue, 24 September 2019 - #4363735

Having had Dusk SE in my possession since last Thursday and some additional add-ons even more recently, I feel like I'm a little fish swimming with the big fish. But here goes a test render with Dusk SE...

I always set up different body/facial shapes for my characters before really applying much clothing, props, additional textures, etc. My creative Poser style is to make characters that are somewhat realistic but have a caricature/stylized proportions sort of vibe to them. That said, here's a lean, more defined body type and a little bulkier bodybuilder type for Dusk. I made 2 custom morphs to start to get the look I'm after with Dusk. One is a neck morph and the other is a narrow hip morph. Still much work to do to find my style for Dusk, but I am truly enjoying my tinkering and all the help that others have graciously given me.

I marked this with the nudity flag due to the figures wearing just briefs. Just to be cautious.

No such thing as a big or small fish, just one big shoal. I think the aim of the thread is to encourage people to experiment with HiveWire 3D figures as so many people will have them for the first time with the new Poser update. Some of us have had fun with the figures for a long time now but, as with all figures, there are things to learn and many of us have learnt a lot about the HiveWire 3D family so why not pass that information on. Doesn't really matter if you are using Poser or DS one of the figures might be just what someone is looking for, so we are not attempting to trade one figure for another just encouraging others to see if any of the figures are good for them.

Two faces of Dawn, this time in my idea of a film poster. On the right is my character Caoimhe and on the left is the Dawn character Adrianne created by a particularly talented vendor who is no longer a vendor and so, sadly, Adrianne is no longer available.

I thought it might be of interest to show how my Dawn Character developed over the years.

A very early concept towards the end of 2015

By the December of 2015 she had matured a little.

Then by late 2016 she was beginning to travel

and gained a friend, thanks to HiveWire 3D

She was always meant to be a time traveller but at least the style needs to change so 2018 she had a new style. I don't tend to render nudes but this exposes a little more of the character. The outfit is actually a woodland outfit but I have played with the materials to make is work in the time frame.

By 2019 she is closer to the earlier renders in this thread, the major change being the hair colour.

I love Dawn & family. They are easy to create poses for.

@mmalbert I must start spinning those dials aswell! Those are awesome characters!

Boni posted at 7:32AM Tue, 24 September 2019 - #4363739

By the way, eclark, definitely ... Some one actually I laughed at it on facebook. Looks like I need more morphs.

Boni, I didn't mean that it wasn't a nice render, but, well, it doesn't look "black" enough. I say that as a black person myself and it's one of the biggest complaints I've often had about DAZ figures before the "PURGE". Their black characters looked like white people in blackface. That's one thing I will give Poser credit for. Their Black figures LOOK like BLACK people.

ghostman posted at 11:02AM Tue, 24 September 2019 - #4363769

Well now, that's just breathtaking.

That is spectacular, ghostman.

Fiery ghost for the HiveWire horse

Freebie Superfly lightcasting material setup for the HiveWire horse. Also has MC6 for Angelyna wings.

This is just a snap shot to show how I use Dawn to tell a story. The story clip and render as shown elsewhere.

The missile launch from the cloaked battleship had caught the station defences by surprise but station defences had dealt with most of the incoming missiles either by destroying them or confusing their targeting computers yet two missiles had manged to defeated all efforts to deter them from the mission. At the last minute the defence computer had momentarily applied thrusters to spin the station thankfully, as the remaining missiles were aimed at the outer edge of the station, the action had largely been successful. Having lost their lock on the target both missile immediately detonated, the resulting energy washed over the station adding to the spinning motion it already had. The sudden lurch overwhelmed motion suppressing chairs and many, including Caoimhe and Turlough were thrown with some force from their seats. Caoimhe, who had doggedly kept to the tradition of wearing support suits when many had abandoned the tradition had cause to be thankful for her stubbornness. She was the first to gather a full realisation of what had just happened and using the bulkhead managed to at least grab a hold on the chair. The lack of any alarms suggested the station had suffered little damage but the fact they were still rolling suggested this was not entirely true.

I love the HiveWire Horse!!

Dawn with Diva

I rather anxiously awaited the release of Dawn way back in 2013. Needless to say, I dove into the HiveWire waters with both feet and never looked back. It was with relief that I retired V4, and the rest of the Gen 4 characters.

One of my early characters in 2013 was the rather haughty Louisa, which was an entry for the HiveWire Dawn contest.

Another was Riley in her Outpost, also an entry in the HiveWire Dawn Contest.

One of my absolute favorites though has been Brielo, who was joined by several members of her family.

Her Grandmother, Gran Ola

then Podgie and Niblet

All of Brielo's family used a lot of body part scaling, which both Dawn and Dusk held up well to.

Dawn has been able to give me rather elegant ladies ... in this case, Editha Gellis McGwinn II, Explorer and Traveller Extraordinaire

Or perhaps ... more to other's liking ... a Girl in a Scarf

Or maybe even, Miss Gladden, Lady Detective

Or perhaps even, the Woman in Veil

Then we have Dusk as an alien ambassador and Dawn as his mate.

An early Dusk

And another early Dusk, absolutely one of my favorites.

The HiveWire Horse has been just as fun to work with

And of course ... Brielo out for a stroll with her companion

Nor should we forget HiveWire's House Cat

(With the HiveWire Big Cat)

Or the HiveWire Dog

And the Big Cat again

Woman in Veil was based on the Bronzino Portrait of Laura Battiferri, who was an Italian poet during the Renaissance period.

Yes!! Satira's in the House!! If you like the wonderful renders she's posted here, you should come check out her wonderful products for Dawn and Dusk at the HiveWire store. She's a master when it comes to dial spinning the HiveWire family of products.