Ok, so today I went ahead and worked on Norma's portrait again, this time seeing what I could do to bring her to life. The previous render was like I just phoned it in, and I know it. I wasn't captivated by her like I was Monie, and just didn't put in the effort. Well, here's the effort. WOW. Lot's of effort. But... the end result is worth it. Turns out, g7/g8 LIE presets will work just fine on a G6, just so long as you don't cross a seam. That causes problems. Then there was figuring out how to get her skin looking more textured. Luckily, Gia 6 comes with a normal map that helped that out greatly. Then I realized just how terrible her eyebrows were. I know there's an "Eyebrow remover" and at least one makeup set for g6 that has eyebrows, but... I found a skin that works better anyway, from Karina by FWSA. Her skin is MUCH nicer, and now there are more than just black pencil lines for her brows. They could be better, but for now... I think this is much better. Hair got a bump map and some shine added, but the original texture was the best for it. Applying a hair shader made it look all wrong, no matter what I did. I think it's because there are so many individual surface parts to this hair, and they don't all use the same mesh type? The top would look great, and then the tails would look like ribbon. Applying tiles didn't fix. Masks didn't fix. But hey, the original texture is pretty nice, and they do sell a texture add-on if I ever want to use the set in something other than blonde or brown. (I'd like it in red. I might have to pick the add-on up at some point.) Speaking of ribbon, I used a satin shader on the hair ribbons. It's a subtle change, but I like it. Plus, it's more purple. Sword got some metal shaders. Necklace got metal and gem shaders. I didn't change anything about her outfit. I thought it looked nice enough, and producing bump maps seemed like a bit of a process. I think I _could_ do it, but decided not to after spending most of the day getting the skin layered correctly. I learned a lot, and should have an easier time of it in the future. Maybe I'll pick up a few things from the Daz store next time they go on sale for the future as well. There are a few g6 characters I really like. Such as the aforementioned Karina, who I picked up for super cheap because she's freakin' beautiful and haven't actually loaded to render yet. I'm going to have to fix that soon. Especially since I've learned how to make her look really good! Lighting changed from a sun-sky preset to an HDRI from Paper Tiger as well as a finely tuned spotlight. I turned the environment intensity down to bring out the shadows a bit more, which did wonders for her eyes. Especially since I ditched the makeup. After all, a swords-woman wouldn't put on eye shadow to go into before battle! I spent a little time adjusting her smile a bit. I think this seams more "wry." Makes me think she's amused by the person she is facing. Perhaps it's an upstart trying to prove themselves, and she knows she's about to spank 'em. I figure she's good enough to not cause serious harm. At first, I was just going to give her the one scar on her cheek, a la G.I. Joe. But... I guess she started to speak to me. She isn't a pretty bauble, she's been to battle and has fought her way through life. I almost want to roll up stats for a D&D character. (Hey, feel free to use if you have a D&D character she'd be perfect for!) Thanks to those that pushed me to do better. It was a fun exercise, and I am armed with more knowledge than ever. Always onward! Sometimes I just want to wait a couple days after I post a really good one. If you haven't already, please check out my previous gallery post, "Innocence." I'm really proud of it. Anybody know how to embed an image link like crender does? I'm not well-versed in html coding. Have a great evening ~~LA