This is one of a series of threads that I'm posting.  I worked on an image all weekend and encountered several problems with it.  In fact, I posted it in my gallery and the first comment I got on it fully confirmed my opinion that it sucked so I took it down.  I thought it would have some value to write what happened and post it for two reasons.

1.)  My experience might be interesting for some to see what kinds of things happened during the development of the image.
2.)  I would like feedback on what I could try to get it better.

I think these issues are big enough to have a separate thread for each so I have broken this up into separate threads with images and text to support each issue.

I am happy for any and all feedback!

Thanks!

Aura (My current revived #1 SUPER DUPER PET PEEVE!)
What worked.
Nothing
What didn't work.
Anytime I turned it on.
What I tried.
I tried using it.
What I learned.
It's busted and DAZ nor EOVIA fixed it!  In C4 and older versions of C, the aura function worked like a charm.  Turn it on, stuff has that warm and fuzzy cool glowing aura around it.  Don't you think that rocket flame needs some aura?  Of course you do rocket fans!  If you turn it on, C renders it with this nice dark sharp edged and clear outline of the original object.  Back in the old days before it was busted, the Aura never had this problem.  There was no line or transition between the original object and the aura that was post rendered.  Now?  It totally completely sucks.  The code draws in this super duper zero aliased outline of the original object between the aura and the object.  It looks like a jr. draftsmen came in with a pencil and outlined the object in dark lead.  I'm mad about it. I've written to Eovia about it, it has not been fixed now for four versions of the code.  AAAAAAAARRRRRGGHHHH!
I want to use Aura all the time!  Star wars bullets without Aura?  STUPID!  Light sabers without aura?  STUPID!  USS Defiant all glowing green in space in front of the Enterprise without Aura?  STUPID!  Rocket engine exhaust without aura?  STUPID!  Fiery hot chunks of rock flying into space without aura?  STUPID!
Yes!  I have had a lot of need for Aura and NO LOVE!

By the way,
#2 pet peeve.  No matter what you set it too, the jpg quality option you set in the render room has no meaning.  When you save your rendered jpg, it will always ask you with the default setting on good regardless of your initial setting preference.
#3 pet peeve.  When you change your camera names or add cameras or whatever, the list of cameras in the corner of the scene in the assembly room does not update the names.  This isn't a big deal but it annoys my tiny brain.
#4 pet peeve (C8 specific).  Who farted around with the production frame scales?  I updated C to 8.1.0.18 and all my production frames are about 5% smaller.  What the .....?
#5 pet peeve.  Why can't we have specific value entries for a metaball object?  Ever tried to put a metaball at 0,0,0?  It's a major pain when you can't type it in.  Sure would be nice if you could just type it instead of guess and guess and guess and guess until you die.  If the metaball modeler had more hardness to how you move and position metaballs, it could be quite useful.  As it is now, it's just messy.  I've seen some really great metaball models in magazines that I would love to try but there's no way when you can't really position a metaball at a reasonable reference point.

-Kix