I call it Trouble.

You can see a larger verison here http://fav.me/d5t0qqp

Commented on it in your gallery, but will say it again. Beautiful Image. One question, what Teddy is that? I love the look of it.

Great image Kim!

Quote - Here was my first try using IES.  This image has one mesh light with the IES applied to it and one curved light.

I call it Trouble.

You can see a larger verison here http://fav.me/d5t0qqp

First let me say I absolutely love the sensual pose and overall mood of the image. Your girl has a wonderful face and her expression is spot-on!

Since you asked for critique on DA I will (try) to give a contructive one here..

My first issue is with her shoulder (you can't help it, it's V4 her fault) To make the crease on her upper shoulder more natural you have two options. You could apply Mesh Smoothing to V4. Set the 'Smoothing Iterations' between 10 and 20, that will clear up the crease considerably. You also could use the fix that Corvas made ( http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/simpledetails-v4lite/70402 only 5.00 and absolutely worth every single penny. )

My second thing is that I would go from a 2-light set to a 3-light set. In my opinion the image would bennefit from a third light coming from the (viewers) right to light up the left side of your model her hair and would provide also a rimm-light to her entire left side.

This really is 'my' kind of image and I do love what you done here Kimmers, so don't take my crtitique too seriously. :)

Attached Link: http://bobvan.deviantart.com/#/d5sx9xg

Quote - Here was my first try using IES.  This image has one mesh light with the IES applied to it and one curved light.

I call it Trouble.

You can see a larger verison here http://fav.me/d5t0qqp

Nice work and I agree with Callad, great image though!

Since we are on the IES bandwagon now, I decided to try the ones out at Paolo's link and I like the effect.

Quote - Since we are on the IES bandwagon now, I decided to try the ones out at Paolo's link and I like the effect.

Oh my! very likeable indeed! :)

Very nice Mikey

[quote Tollaris]Commented on it in your gallery, but will say it again. Beautiful Image. One question, what Teddy is that? I love the look of it.

Thank you for both your comments.

Panties for Beauty V4 A4 G4 Elite http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/panties-for-beauty-v4-a4-g4-elite/83820
IMPACTS: Lies for V4/A4/G4/Elite http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/impacts-lies-for-v4-a4-g4-elite/73030
Lowdown for Impacts: Lies http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/lowdown-for-impacts-lies/73166

[quote Pret-a-3D]

Great image Kim!

Thank you Paolo :)

Quote - > Quote - Here was my first try using IES.  This image has one mesh light with the IES applied to it and one curved light.

I call it Trouble.

You can see a larger verison here http://fav.me/d5t0qqp

First let me say I absolutely love the sensual pose and overall mood of the image. Your girl has a wonderful face and her expression is spot-on!

Since you asked for critique on DA I will (try) to give a contructive one here..

My first issue is with her shoulder (you can't help it, it's V4 her fault) To make the crease on her upper shoulder more natural you have two options. You could apply Mesh Smoothing to V4. Set the 'Smoothing Iterations' between 10 and 20, that will clear up the crease considerably. You also could use the fix that Corvas made ( http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/simpledetails-v4lite/70402 only 5.00 and absolutely worth every single penny. )

My second thing is that I would go from a 2-light set to a 3-light set. In my opinion the image would bennefit from a third light coming from the (viewers) right to light up the left side of your model her hair and would provide also a rimm-light to her entire left side.

This really is 'my' kind of image and I do love what you done here Kimmers, so don't take my crtitique too seriously. :)

Charley how long have you known me?  When have I ever shied away from constructive criticism?  I've always felt the way to get better is to have people who aren't afraid help you improve.  So with that.

You are absolutely correct about the arm. I was so focused on getting the darn correct to fit correctly and placing the lights I totally over looked her arm.  I do have the Simple Details and use it allot.  I guess I can't say I use it all the time. (smirks)

I originally had 3 lights in the scene.  But it made the scene way to bright.  Perhaps I just didn’t' have them positioned correctly. I have the scene saved and will try again with the suggestions you gave.

I do have one question for you. You said you parented the mesh light to the camera so you could look through it.  I tried that but wasn’t sure I was looking through the mesh light.  I parented the mesh to the camera when I clicked on the drop down menu I don’t see the mesh light only the camera.  What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your input!  *hugs

.

Quote - Since we are on the IES bandwagon now, I decided to try the ones out at Paolo's link and I like the effect.

 

wow this is very nice!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2407007

There are three lights, the primary light (mesh) is above and front of the figure on the left side of the image, the second light (mesh) is above and behind her on the left side, and the third (soft box) is near the floor on the right side. The specular on the skin was at 5, the lips at 12, and glossy at the default (2000). I also used bump and speculatiry maps. I think the spec map for the face needs some adjustment on the upper bridge of the nose/between the eyebrows.

I'm close to the results I wanted, but I think the specular on the skin still seems a bit high (it's definitely a bit high in the DS render, need to work on the balance between spec and sss). There are some lines under her right breast that look like the mesh "skeleton", would enabling smoothing help this (genesis figure)? The image was at about 650 S/p.

Any suggestions or general comments on the lighting and or skin shaders would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

ps: I really like how Lux renedered the lace details on the shoes - those transmaps took forever in DS

DustRider, skin is generall reflecting large ares in a faint way. For that reason it's generally better to set the brighness of the specular color higher than what you have, something around 20, 20, 20, and then lower the glossiness strength to where you need it. Maybe in the 4000-5000 range. This is without specmap. If you have a specmap then the brightness can go a lot higher because the specmap then will controll it.

Very good start, congratulations.

Quote - I do have one question for you. You said you parented the mesh light to the camera so you could look through it.  I tried that but wasn’t sure I was looking through the mesh light.  I parented the mesh to the camera when I clicked on the drop down menu I don’t see the mesh light only the camera.  What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your input!  *hugs

It's the other way around, you parent the cam to the meshlight with its viewpoint just in front of the mesh or the mesh will block the camera its view.

If you parent the mesh to the camera Reality wil not see the meshlight. :)

Quote - There are some lines under her right breast that look like the mesh "skeleton", would enabling smoothing help this (genesis figure)?

The lines are caused when light hits the surface at a "grazing angle" (which to put it simply, is when light rays are closer to being parallel to the surface rather than perpendicular). The solution appears to be to increase subdivision on the figure in Studio (not in Reality). On Genesis the default is 1 level of subd; as I often use lights at these angles, I set subd to 2 on Genesis much of the time. If necessary, you can set it higher by turning off limits on the parameter slider.

Naturally, this increases memory and processor demands, so may not be practical on slower systems with low RAM (especially 32 bit, of course).

Quote - [quote Callad] I do have one question for you. You said you parented the mesh light to the camera so you could look through it.  I tried that but wasn’t sure I was looking through the mesh light.  I parented the mesh to the camera when I clicked on the drop down menu I don’t see the mesh light only the camera.  What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your input!  *hugs

It's the other way around, you parent the cam to the meshlight with its viewpoint just in front of the mesh or the mesh will block the camera its view.

If you parent the mesh to the camera Reality wil not see the meshlight. :)

Thanks Charley I will give that a try!

Nice IES. Will have to give them a try.

After receiving a most welcome critique on my first Trouble image I decided to make the suggested adjustments and here is the result. Thank you Callad for your input!

In the first image I used two lights. 1. Mesh light with an IES spot light assigned to it, and one curved light.

The suggestion was to add another light, and to fix the shoulders on the Model. Which I had over looked because I was way to focused on the lighting and making the corset fit properly.

In this version I used 3 lights all Mesh and have an IES spot light applied to all three.  One from the top, and one on each side.  Callad also suggested parenting the camera to the Mesh light so you can see where the light is pointing.  O.M.G. what a difference. I wish I had thought of it. It nice to finally see where the light is pointing.

So here is my revise image.

Quote - DustRider, skin is generall reflecting large ares in a faint way. For that reason it's generally better to set the brighness of the specular color higher than what you have, something around 20, 20, 20, and then lower the glossiness strength to where you need it. Maybe in the 4000-5000 range. This is without specmap. If you have a specmap then the brightness can go a lot higher because the specmap then will controll it.

Very good start, congratulations.

Thanks Paolo for both the suggestions and the compliment. I made the changes you sugested to the lights, and have another one cooking, I'll share it when it's done.

Quote - > Quote - There are some lines under her right breast that look like the mesh "skeleton", would enabling smoothing help this (genesis figure)?

The lines are caused when light hits the surface at a "grazing angle" (which to put it simply, is when light rays are closer to being parallel to the surface rather than perpendicular). The solution appears to be to increase subdivision on the figure in Studio (not in Reality). On Genesis the default is 1 level of subd; as I often use lights at these angles, I set subd to 2 on Genesis much of the time. If necessary, you can set it higher by turning off limits on the parameter slider.

Naturally, this increases memory and processor demands, so may not be practical on slower systems with low RAM (especially 32 bit, of course).

Thanks FyraNyanser, I thought it was probably due to the mess needing more smoothing. After the new image with corrected lighting is done, I'll increase subd on the mesh in DS and test it out (I got to focused on the lights). Talk about a "Well Duh" moment!

Thanks again!

No other posts since yesterday morning.  Is there a new thread now that I'm missing?

I have a quick question for Paolo or any other Mac user...

My new iMac 27" machine just arrived Tuesday, and I've been getting it set up and running with DAZ Studio 4.5, LUXrender and Reality.  I have a fresh setup with the DAZ-supplied Genesis Essentials in the library, and I was able to do a test render with Genesis and provided skin, hair, etc.  The system seems to render about 10 times faster than my PC, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Here is my problem...  When I download a purchased product on the Mac, it seems to unzip the files into a folder hierachy in the Finder, and I cannot find a way to merge the folders into my Runtime.  On the PC, I was in the habit of unzipping directly into the My Library folder, and the subfolders were automatically merged into the existing folder hierarchy.  I can not find a way to do this in Mac OS X (Mountain Lion).  If I drag the folders in, it warns me the folders will be replaced, and there is no "merge" option.

Help, anyone?

  ~ Russ  

The unzipping problem. It's a classic :). You can drag things by hand or you can use this free program:

http://www.ilike.co.nz/SoftwareDev/dittoGUI.html

which does the job of merging two directories oerfectly.

Cheers.

Haven't had time to post much lately.  Have had my head buried shoulder deep into my CAD and drafting homework the last couple weeks.  On the plus side, I'm nearly done designing my first full house in CAD and even my instructor's pretty impressed with how it looks.

Decided to dip my feet into the spotlight IES file waters.  This is a two light setup.  One mesh to the top left of the model and one dome light directly overhead.  Just fiddled with exposure and gain after that.  Only thing postwork-ie I did was to soften the whole thing up by adding some diffuse and taking a bit of the saturation out.

Quote - I have a quick question for Paolo or any other Mac user...

My new iMac 27" machine just arrived Tuesday, and I've been getting it set up and running with DAZ Studio 4.5, LUXrender and Reality.  I have a fresh setup with the DAZ-supplied Genesis Essentials in the library, and I was able to do a test render with Genesis and provided skin, hair, etc.  The system seems to render about 10 times faster than my PC, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Here is my problem...  When I download a purchased product on the Mac, it seems to unzip the files into a folder hierachy in the Finder, and I cannot find a way to merge the folders into my Runtime.  On the PC, I was in the habit of unzipping directly into the My Library folder, and the subfolders were automatically merged into the existing folder hierarchy.  I can not find a way to do this in Mac OS X (Mountain Lion).  If I drag the folders in, it warns me the folders will be replaced, and there is no "merge" option.

Help, anyone?

  ~ Russ  

Hi, there. I've got a Mac. No, with the Mac I at least open up the zip file and go to a folder such as "My Libarary"'; then, in a new Finder window, I open up ~ Documents/ My Library.

I continue doing this  through whatever folders are indicated in the new product I bought, such as /data/ Genesis/ whatever. 

Each time there are new files, in, let's say, /data, I drag those files over to the ~ Documents/My Library/data folder.

Anyway, that's how I do it. It works.

Quote - The unzipping problem. It's a classic :). You can drag things by hand or you can use this free program:

http://www.ilike.co.nz/SoftwareDev/dittoGUI.html

which does the job of merging two directories oerfectly.

Cheers.

OH, just now say Paolo's post. I don't know anything about this. I'll check out the free program. Might save some time.

OOPS! I'm back. Now, it says 10.6 and 10.7 only. I'm using 10.8.2. That's why I hesitate on things like this. What if a change in the OS makes the free app misbehave? It does take longer to do it by hand, but I know that I'm really getting the files into whatever folders they need to go into.

No criticism intended of anyone. Paolo probably knows that this app will also work with 10.8, but, I'm the super-anxious type.

Are we no longer getting the Reality update that was promised over a week ago?

Quote - Are we no longer getting the Reality update that was promised over a week ago?

Patience is a virtue Bob :) Paolo is working on it :)

Quote - > Quote - Are we no longer getting the Reality update that was promised over a week ago?

Patience is a virtue Bob :) Paolo is working on it :)

I did give it over week before brgning it up ..... I have been patient its been a while since 1.2 came out...

Quote - Are we no longer getting the Reality update that was promised over a week ago?

I never promised anything. Having said so, the update is in the hands of the testers.

Btw, I want to take the opportunity to mention that this is something extra. There was no obbligation for me to do this update. There was no commitment to support any and all updates to Lux for the time being for free. Making updates costs me a lot of money and I have to do it on top of the 14-16 hours of development, seven days a week, that happen normally.

I try my best to support a plugin that is sold at less than half the price of similar products. The website and badwidth for it cost a very high amount of money. The next delivery will result in a pretty big bill from my web provider. 

Making a new version of Reality requires to create four versions for it. Mac OS 32bit, Mac OS 64 bit, Windows 32 bit and Windows 64 bit. Each one of those versions must be tested to perform as expected and to not have introduced regression bugs. I never release a version that has not been tested completely.

I understand that there is anticipation but I ask to please avoid putting more pressure on me because I simply cannot take it. I have been running on an insane schedule for almost a year now. All this while we had death in the family, my wife has gone through some horrific experience that brough to the hospital, something that is still dragging its feet today. 

There is only one of me, writing, developing and providing assistance. Please bear with me. I always deliver but I never promise a date. Reality has been released, since day one, only when it's ready, and it's ready only after I'm convinced that it will work for all of you.

Just mention this to let know what's happening.

Cheers.

Ok sorry man....  I guess you are right better then putting out  broken rushed version...

I'm sorry for your dificulties, Paolo. I'm sorry for the death in your family, and I'm sorry that your wife has become ill (if that's what happened). I hope that things look better for you soon. Don't overdo it with work. It's just not worth it. Slow down, if that's what you need to do. 14 to 16 hours of development, seven days a week! OH, NO!!! That's 98 to 112 hours a week. That's much too much. Depression and frustration can set in, even without any external stress factors such as illness.

You should not, to the best of my knowledge, be working more than 70 hours a week. Take some time off for rest, relaxation, interaction with your family. You need to take back 28 to 42 more hours for yourself, at the very least. And I don't like the idea of 7 days a week. 5, 6, perhaps 7 occasionally, but not 7 regularly.

Rest, rest, enjoy. Reality will wait.

Yeah thats a good point too

Thank you for your concern inquire. Unfortunately there are simply not enough ours in the day for me to take any rest until the end of March, when Reality 3 for Poser will be released. But that's OK. I can do it. Every now and then I need to vent a bit :) but it's not too bad. I do work a little less during the weekends but the last push is needed because there is still a bunch of things to do. Of course if everybody was using Mac OS at 64 bit it would make my life a lot easier :) In that way I would not have to spend a few days cursing  the %$@# out of the Microsoft C++ compiler ;) But no, people still insist on using Windows. Damn! ;)

When I was involved in Web development everything was perfect until you had to make the site able to run inside a MS browser. At that point, perfectly legal, verified, adherent to Web standards code that ran inside Firefox, Chrome and Safari would simply stop working inside IE. I would spend days finding "work arounds" for perfectly good code just because MS cannot make a decent browser. The same is generally true for C++. Perfectly good C++ code that has been compiling and running using either the GNU compiler or the latest compiler from Apple (clang) would simply not compile using MS Visual C++. 

I should bill them for weeks of lost time. Weeks! 

OK, I will stop ranting now. Thank you for the "therapy" ;)

Lil' advice for Paolo's wife Holly..

1 - put candles in livingroom and lit them

2 - open up a good bottle of wine

3 - remove batteries from all mobile phones present

4 - hide I-pad and/or tablet 

5 - throw main power switch and remove all fuses from fusebox and hide them (also the spare ones)

6 - call Paolo from where ever he slaves on Reality and say: "Geez, have you heard? No power for the next 24 hours!"

7- when he comes down chain him to couch if you must so he gets some REST!

Lil' advice for Paolo: you have 5 minutes to back up the files you are working on.. I have it from a reliable source the power is about to fail and won't come back soon..

When all my kids still lived at home and it was dinner time I just switched off the internet router.. Then I counted back from 20 to zero. Before I was at zero they all were downstairs with terror on their faces.. "Internet isn't working! I'm socially dead!" they all cried..

I just looked and them calmly and said: "I just received a phone call from the provider that internet is closed for the next 45 minutes since they have to back-up Youtube and facebook. So we just have enough time to eat our dinner, shall we?"

Was a better method than screaming my lungs out at the bottom of the stairs for three or four times and ending up throwing away the then cold dinner..

Heheh, that was a good technique indeed. One of the things that I do enjoy and I don't compromise is our time together when Holly comes home from work. But after we have dinner and watch a couple of episodes on Tv (The Sopranos, Braking bad, Being Human, etc.) it "back to the salt mines" till midnight :)

Paolo - no complaints here, I'll be very happy when ever the update comes out since I wasn't expecting any new updates for 2.5. Actually, I'm very impressed with your support and development cycle. I often wondered just how many hours a day you spend on Reality, and you have confirmed my suspicions. With the additional family issues you have had to deal with recently, it really is amazing all that you do for Reality and the community. I've never seen a lone developer so involved with end user support. That is one of the reasons I'm comfortable purchasing your products and recommending them to others. You really do care, you seem to want to build a solid business and customer base, and obviously aren't just trying to make a quick buck.

I just hope you don't burn out!! I also hope that the DS users are very gracious and don't give you too much grief when Reality 3 comes out. I'm sure we will all be green with envy until you get the DS version done. I'm really looking forward to Reality 3, for those of us who use both Poser and DS it will be great to be able to use Reality/LuxRender with either application!!

I just wanted to say thanks for all you do!

I know I don't post on here regularly. Most of the time I am just reading and learning from what is posted here, while sipping on my coffee in the morning before work, but I wanted to take a minute to say a couple of things while I have some down time.

First off, seeing what other artists here have been posting is just sheer amazing and inspiring. I do mean that, when I see the work being done here it inspires me to take my work to a higher level.

Second off, Reality is just the best program to work with. I have tinkered with numerous other programs in the past and stick with Reality because it is simple to use but produces incredible results. I had a friend on DA the other day ask me if I would share what settings I use for skin on my work. I told him....his response made me laugh...he asked me, "Is that it?" He thought it would be some complex setting. It isn't for me though, most of my settings are simple and I use all the time. That is why I like using Reality above any other program.

Thank you very much Paolo for all your hard work and efforts.

Mustang, you have a nice gallery of work yourself. hope to see more of you in this thread.

I too appreciate all the work Paolo has put into bringing DS (and poser) to Luxrender. No matter how many times I use another renderer I keep coming back to this combo, mainly due to ease of use thanks to realitys UI. I can get most any 3D mesh scene into most renders, but setting up materials without a proper UI is usually a nightmare.

Take some time to enjoy the fruits of your labor Paolo, you deserve it.

Thank you everybody for the kind words. Don't worry about me burning out. Everything is under control. After I release Reality 3 for Poser I will disappear for two weeks and relax for good :)

I appreciate immensely the feedback that you gave me and all the words of appreciation about Reality. It's really heartwarming to see how you use it and how it has become part of your artistic workflow.

Thanks again.

No problem and sorry to have push did not realize your other issues. I just want to keep moving forward with LUX but it will be ready when it is!

I appreciate your feedback Bob. BTW, a bug was indeed found in the build that I sent to the testers, so we are going to tst a new build. 

Cheers.

Quote - I appreciate your feedback Bob. BTW, a bug was indeed found in the build that I sent to the testers, so we are going to tst a new build. 

Cheers.

You KNOW its cause weez Reality lovers!

Thnaks again Paolo!

Guys, I really have a serious 'Merge' problem and I hope anyone here can help me.

Somehow the Reality_Scene_data gets lost when I merge a .DUF scene into another existing .DUF scene.

Now I know I have seen Reality_Scene_data (1), Reality_Scene_data (2), ect in scenes before (back in the days when all worked well)

Example:

I load the 'SpotCam' scene I saved to disk. (top image) As you can see there is Reality_scene_data present in this scene.

Now I merge that same scene again. (bottom image) Now I would expect there would be another Reality_scene_data hidden object that should be named 'Reality_scene_data (2)' or something like that, but it isn't there!

Would any of you be so kind to try to reproduce it? I'd hate to bother Paolo with this if it is just 'me' who has this problem, cuz the he's busy enough as it is without having to spend time on silly questions from me. 

Thanks in advance :)

Wasn't that the older way it worked, creating the multiple instances?

Doesn't it now merge the two Reality_Scene_Data objects together into one rather than have the multiples?

Quote - Wasn't that the older way it worked, creating the multiple instances?

Doesn't it now merge the two Reality_Scene_Data objects together into one rather than have the multiples?

I don't know Reggie, all I know is that Reality sees only the values from the first scene, the Reality data of the second (merged) scene simply isn't there when I call Reality.

It happens to me too for example I have a scene I delete everything but lets say object A or Character B save it as its own scene. I open another saved scene and when I merge said character B or object A to the scecond scene all the materials Reality settings are wiped out. In my shuttle scenes if I made it invisible to make my posing my character easier, all the Reality settings were all wiped out when I made it visible again but with some other stuff everything merges without a problem....

Someone else was having a problem with merged data earlier in this thread, I think it was Bobvan. Don't know if it was ever resolved. Maybe he can verify the problem if nobody else can reproduce it?

Bob?

EDIT: Doh :) Bob beat me to it

Quote - Someone else was having a problem with merged data earlier in this thread, I think it was Bobvan. Don't know if it was ever resolved. Maybe he can verify the problem if nobody else can reproduce it?

Bob?

 

EDIT: Doh :) Bob beat me to it

LOL indeed it seems to have gotten better in the last Reality update but as mentioned above I still run into issues...