Sunset Over Silicon (version 2) ------------------- by XOTT created: 17-APRIL-2014 created with: Poser Pro 2014, "Vue 2014 Complete" (and rendered in), a touch of postwork on the cat to make him a bit furry. ========================================= about: ------ This is version 2 of this image. I originally started this little project in VUE Complete 2014 (a recent acquisition of mine of the current VUE program) but I ran into problems because my store-bought ecosystems from years ago were now mysteriously failing to work. They'd only do the ground colours but no plants at all. (I used an ecosystem for the nice grass for the image.) I since discovered that it's because I manually set the VUE visual browser to NOT show Cornucopia3d store content by clicking upon the little 'pacman ghost' icon. Otherwise it shows stuff you haven't got in an attempt to get you to buy it from the store and I find that not only a bit confusing but annoying. - It turns out that (unlike VUE 6 Infinite which is what I had been using before this version) that clicking that icon affects the fuctionality of the VUE visual browser in harder ways, like in my case the weird no ecosystem effect. So I used VUE 6 Infinite to quickly make the first version of this image, which is the one I posted up beforehand on the 16th (my time). But then I vaguely remembered later (just before I went to bed) that some time back I'd read a possible solution online (in a forum?) about a warning of 'ghosting' stuff, with regards to it affecting your VUE collections. That ended up with me playing with the VUE visual browser store content setting to find a solution to my ecosystem problem. I simply just chose to show all the Conucopia3D store content (even if it does annoy me a bit with constant buying temptations), just so things will work properly. ;-) So....when I awoke, I loaded my VUE 6 Infinite file into VUE 2014 Complete and worked on it from there to create version 2 of this image. The difference between the two images I made is that mainly the second one has a cloudscape in it. The first one is more stark without it when compared. - And the 2nd version has better lighting in it especially the subtle red/orange photographic-like "glow" around the robot figure and the grass below it. - I enhanced that further by tweaking the post-render exposure settings in VUE to make the sunset more deeper. I lost the nice subtle lighting on the grass, making the grass and figures into more darker silhouettes, but that's what I wanted in the first place when I started this project. It made a big difference in a much longer render time too with the 2nd version taking around 4.5 hours to render a 4000x2250 sized image (which is the usual size I work with and then make smaller ones via postwork to post online). But I like both versions of my image so I'm not deleting the first one. :-) I haven't been feeling well for a week or so now. The weather doesn't help and it's only just gotten cooler this past few days. Almost every night I get woken around 3am or so by stinking smoke coming into the house from various places from fires near and far. It can either smell like just ordinary bushfire smoke or sometimes like a stench as if from a rubbish tip. It's no wonder I'm dead tired all the time, have only a few hours sleep, can't concentrate and have constant headaches...and would you believe it...there's smoke out there right now as I type this. >:-( Z. ========================================= items used: ----------- * EcoGrass by gillbrooks Renderosity store (no longer available in the store AFAIK) * Cyborg Version 4 by DzFire DAZ store * DAZ Millenium Cat DAZ store ========================================= =========================================