Princess Zelda! This project should be done MUCH faster than Link was, for two main reasons: 1) I have a LOT more experience now than I did when I started Link. 2) Zelda's character seems to be much simpler than Link's; she probably won't need a custom-built head, and she doesn't have a myriad of props like sword, shield, hookshot, etc. Anyway, here's my reference pic of her, from official Nintendo artwork.

Here's what I have built so far. This is a shot of the face.

And here's a full-body shot. Also, I was hoping for a bit of advice on a few things: 1) I like how her face is turning out. One thing is, I'd like her pointed ears to extend further back, not just straight out from the head. Anyone know how to achieve this without having to build a custom morph? 2) I want her to have a really nice figure (she is a princess, after all ;-), and what I have now, while it looks ok, doesn't really strike me as a great figure. Any advice on how to improve it? 3) Her hair looks fairly simple. I was thinking of trying to build it with either the DAZ Wonder Wedge, or Vairesh's Maiden Hair. Are there any other hair models that might be suitable for this?

1. You'll probably need to create a custom morph, unless you want to buy a third-party morph pack. 2) She appears to be a bit more willowy in the Nintendo art. 3) VAIRESH's Menewe hair, perhaps? Available here and at PoserPros. I'd recommend VAIRESH's Athena hair (at DAZ), but the braids aren't quite the same.

1) Dang 2) Ok, here's another shot; same settings as before, but I applied the Fairy FBM at 0.5 strength. How's that look? 3) Hmm, not bad. Both Menewe and Athena pretty close (except, as you say, for Athena's braids). I just wish I knew WHAT morphs they came with, so I could decide whether I'd be able to alter them to my needs. Does anyone have either of these hair-sets who could provide me with a list of their morphs?

:-)

You could use magnets to pull back the ears and spawn a morph from that. Laurie

Good idea, I'll give that a try :-)

Take a look at the Ultra-Salon Elven Hair at Poser Pros by Mehndi. It might be exactly what you need for your princess. She's going to need a pointier chin and nose, isn't she? Emily

queri: Not bad, but I don't think I'll be able to use that one. The locks of hair that come down in front of Zelda's ears are much thicker than the wispy strands I see in the renders for the UltraSalon hair. Pretty close, but no cigar :-) As for the face, yes, she's still a WIP. I'll try to make the nose & chin pointier (though I personally like the softer, rounder look she has now). LaurieA: I gave the magnets a try, and I just couldn't get the desired effect. They're just not precise enough. I tried using a magnet to encompass the entire ear, and rotate it backwards. It worked, but produced some nasty deformations in the surrounding face -- deformations which I can't fix directly in Poser. Looks like I'll have to fire up my modeler after all, or just leave it as-is :-) Anyway, does anyone have a list of the morphs provided with VAIRESH's Menewe and/or Athena hairs?

The morphs for VAIRESH's Menewe hair are:

Rsidebraidadj
Lsidebraidadj
necklinesmooth
offquiver
tuckundercap
frntback
backout
Frntearfwrd
morph zscale
fronttipsout
sidesout
backmidR
backmidL
backtipfwrd
backtipback
backtipR
backtipL
backlngr
Lmidin
Lmidout
Rmidin
Rmidout
Rcheekin
Rcheekout
Lcheekin
Lcheekout
chintogether
chinapart
midfrntapart
widenRfronttip
widenLfronttip
modestL
modestR
morph yscale
morph xscale
morph ztran
morph ytran
morph xtran

I doubt there's much you can't do with all those! From what I've seen with the Menewe hair, you could get quite close to the hair pictured above, though I'm not sure if you could get the strands in front to be wavy. I don't have the Athena hair, so can't say much on that one.

My thoughts on the morph is that most Japanese style characters have very narrow torsos, Zelda included. If you made her chest and waist a little thinner I think it would help. Definitely a good start and a fun character to work with. :)

Molly

One more note... a pointed chin is one of the few things I haven't found possible with V2 or V3's built-in morphs. However, with a magnet or two its fairly easy to achieve. If only DAZ would put a darn "pointy chin" morph in there somewhere...

Whoa, that's a lotta morphs! Thanx for the list. That hair does sound pretty versatile :-) As for the waist, I did try making it thinner, but the "Waist Thin" dial makes wierd results if I turn it past 1. Vicky doesn't come with a plain "Thin" morph like Mike does. Any ideas on how to make her more petite? :-) Actually, I did find a pretty good "pointy chin" morph by RealitysPoison somewhere, but I can't seem to find where I got it :-)

I can email it to you if you want :-)

For V2, x-scale on the abdomen works nicely (below %100). There is a point where it gets a little freaky, but just a slight reduction should help you achieve it. I'm impressed with your head (though I think you should scale it up a bit to make it fit better for anime) When I saw it, I assumed it was preteen until I saw the next picture (which is definitely NOT preteen, LOL) Very cute! eric

Well, I tried following the various tips I got. I scaled the head up to 110%, xScaled the Abdomen down to 90%, set the Fairy FBM to 0.5, and played with the thigh dials a little to make them less full. I couldn't do much with the face; the pointy chin morph isn't as good as I thought, and I couldn't even find one for making the nose pointier. Here's the result. What do you think? :-)

Actually, pointy chins are easy to do using the 'ol magnet system. Select head, cready magnet, make sure the base is right at the tip of the chin. Shrink the zone so that it covers the chin nicely (but not the lips) I stretched the zone 's x scale considerably in order to make it blend better.

Attached is a quick test (using vicky 3 character that I had open. Pay no attention to the cheekbone and nose magnets (I was going for nice full Cheeckbones and a more pudgy nose for my own needs. ) If you look carefully, I think you should be able to see the magnet zones. I also scaled the actual magnet down to cause the pointy shape and scooted it's y & z trans down and forward. It is a decent start, I would think, for a pointy chin.

Please note that I threw that chin on top of a WIP. She is going to have a very rounded chin, so the face isn't really good for the pointy chin here (thus the odd shape at the neckline)! I just couldn't close her just yet:P eric

Cool, I'll give that a try! :-) Why is there a second magnet at the nose? :-)

There are three magnets on the character I was building at the time. 2 eyes (for better big eyes) a nose (for a better round nose) and the one the chin I did as an example of a pointy chin. Never tried a pointy nose, but a magnet similar to the chin should work to make the nose like you wanted (except you'll have to put a lot of time getting the shape you want without really distorting the cheeks and eyes. Magnets are really pretty useful. Once you rename them properly (requires editing the cr2) you can save magnet poses which will allow you to have lots of different shapes on the fly (and no extra morph data to slow your machine down!) eric

Ok, here's my shot at a pointy chin morph. What do you think? I think it looks ok, but there's just something ...off about it, something I can't quite put my finger on.

MegaJar,

Is this close to what you want for the ears?
If so, It's just a couple of magnets, and I'd be more than happy to upload them.

~DM

How do they look from the front? Because the side view looks like EXACTLY what I'm looking for! :-D

Yep, those are nice looking ears, DM MegaJar, I think the chin is fine looking. Perhaps your dissatisfaction lies in the shape of the face. The image at the top of the thread has a very pronounced profile (with the nose leading the brows and chin by a longshot) Perhaps some of Vicky's 'flaten face' and 'smooth' morphs can change that somewhat. You can use a magnet for that, but it distorts the eyes and the chin, which might be less than satisfactory. Eric

DM, can you post a render of your ears from the front plz? :-)

Ok, sorry about the wait (stupid att)...

Here's the magnets, Have fun!
http://home.attbi.com/~crystaldragonx/VicElfEars.zip

~DM

That is PERFECT!! Many thanx DM! :-D

No problem, glad I could help! ~DM

Ok, here's some new renders incorporating DM's elf ears, and attempting to give her a more "pronounced profile" as Eric puts it. Here's the front view.

Here's the profile.

And here's an angle shot. Personally, I think her eyes look a little sunken-in in the front view. What do you think?

looks good so far. Are you going to give her nose a more pointy upturned look like in the pics?

I'll give it a try :-) I'm still not sure about this new look. It does give her a more defined profile, but I think it makes her eyes look more sunken-in when viewed from the front; she looks gaunter with the new look. What do you think?

I think she's looking really cute! Any hints on the morphs you used to get vicky looking so young, or are they your own creation? As for the sunken eye thing, I see what you mean, but I wouldn't have noticed had you not pointed it out. Have you tried the eyeDepth morph to see about pulling them out a bit? eric

Yeah, I tried the eyeDepth morph and that just made the wrinkles worse. But, I found that increasing the eyesPuffy dial made them look much better! (Ironic, ne? :-) What do you think of this one? Thanx for the compliment eric :-) Let's see. I used the HeadYoung and FaceHeart dials to shape the head. But I think what really gets that youthful look is moving the features closer together -- that is, moving the nose closer to the eyes, and the mouth closer to the nose. I also used the FaceLong dial at negative values to get a smaller chin.

Hmmm...then again... It seems that when viewed under different lighting, the eyesPuffy dial has actually made them worse! :-(

The face I was working on yesterday (which I used to try out the magnet) turned out to have a perfectly flat nose on top (nice little squared surface running all the way from her brows to the tip of her nose) Didn't notice it until I loaded the character in the default light.....ouch! You might try adding a mag to the eyeballs (1 each...plus adding the face to the influenced geometries) to try and draw the eyes out....that will require a lot of careful attention to zone sizes, though. I've used that method in revers (accidentally making the eyes look like they were in large sink holes!) eric

I think what I need is some way to eliminate those depressions under the eyelids. Something like the Asian "epicanthic" morph. Here's a shot of her with the EyeLidAsian morph applied (obviously I wouldn't actually use it at full strength; this is just to illustrate). The problem is that it only affects the UPPER eyelid. Any thoughts?

For comparison, here's a shot without the Asian morph.

Um...hello? :-)