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Posts from June 2014

3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 01 Shaders Updated with Bump Maps and Tiling Utilities for Daz Studio

3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 01 Shaders Updated with Bump Maps and Tiling Utilities for Daz Studio published on No Comments on 3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 01 Shaders Updated with Bump Maps and Tiling Utilities for Daz Studio

Loud Fabrics 01 Shaders Updated with Bump Maps and Tiling Utils for Daz Studio

Daz Studio only

Tested only in Daz Studio Pro 4.6 64 bit.

Loud Fabrics 01 gets better! In this update, there are 16 shader presets for seamless, tiled, boldly printed fabrics with eye-catching patterns: Bluish Blooms 01, Bluish Blooms 02, Broadway Dots 01, Broadway Dots 02, Bubble Yum 01, Bubble Yum 02, Electric Blue Honeycomb, Flaming Hearts 01, Flaming Hearts 02, Green Circles on Yellow, Green Circles Inverted, Little Red Bows, Magenta and Lime Dots 01, magenta and Lime Dots 02, Pink and Purple and Pink Pinwheels. Most patterns are replicated from Loud Fabrics 01, but there are a few new ones and variations.

Unlike the original Loud Fabrics 01, these shaders feature bump maps. To make these shaders even easier to play with, I have included a vast array of tiling presets, all the way from 0.25×0.25 to 50.0×50.0. These presets only affect horizontal and vertical tiling, so you can use them on any DS shaders, not just the Loud Fabrics series.

An improvement on Loud Fabrics 01 [the original], Loud Fabrics 01 Updated features bump maps!

These patterns were all generated and tweaked in PatternCooler, Harvey Rayner’s awesome free Web-based pattern-generating Web site:
http://www.patterncooler.com/index.php

Use for whatever purposes you like, commercial or non-commercial. Just don’t repackage and call your own. Have fun!

You can see my digital artwork, as well as my other creative pursuits, at my blog:

http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org

If you do use any of my freebies in your work, drop me a line [ModernWizard at the Daz boards and ShareCG, ModernWiz on Renderosity], as I’d love to see what you make. Thank you.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1660407.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Warehouse 13 closes with a lackluster season 5.

Warehouse 13 closes with a lackluster season 5. published on No Comments on Warehouse 13 closes with a lackluster season 5.

This truncated set of 6 eps provided no particular closure, no interesting character development and nothing particularly interesting. The overall flaccidity of the 6 eps just highlighted the show’s problematic aspects even more excruciatingly.

In no particular order, the problems were:

  • Steve. The show never did this character justice. He had great potential, especially as someone with the power of discerning whether people were telling the truth, but the show never really knew what to do with him. Without a tortured past full of secrets like the other agents [or at least not enough of the past for a multi-ep exploration], Steve had no grounding, no motivation, no hook. He also never really had anything to do except for to be Claudia’s best friend, to die, to be resurrected and to keep the home fires burning while everyone else ran away on adventures. He was a thoroughly dull and objectified damsel in distress type. I feel like the writers identified him by a cluster of traits — former ATF agent, Buddhist, gay, human lie detector — and just had him mention those identities occasionally in lieu of developing an actual personality.
  • While we’re on the subject again, let’s bring up homophobia, one of the show’s perennial failings. In 6.4, Savage Seduction, Claudia and Steve investigate a frat where the brothers are using an artifact to split themselves into two parts: studiers and partiers. Claudia and Steve’s quest started promisingly with Claudia grumbling about "kids these days" [even though she was the age of the students] and Steve’s revelation that he had been part of a nerd fraternity with "book group and holiday a cappella." Then Steve got a hold of the artifact and turned into two Steves, one of which was usual Steve and the other of which was a painfully swishy stereotype. Where did that come from? Steve had never shown any indication of harboring painfully swishy stereotypes. It could have been interesting if those were his long-buried fears about what he might have to be when he found out he was gay, but nah — the show just played swishy Steve for laughs. Claudia also made a passing remark that she liked swishy Steve "a little bit more" than usual Steve, which was indicative of the show’s whole treatment of Steve’s sexuality: it was only ever developed jokingly, with reference to stereotypes, even if Steve was bringing them up to say that he differed from them. The show could not take him as a gay guy seriously and invested way too much prurient energy into his sexuality.
  • Speaking of sexuality, the show also capitulated to cultural pressures of heteronormativity. After five seasons of him being annoyed at her exactitude and her being annoyed at his immaturity, Pete and Myka realized that they loved each other. Well, that was pretty obvious. But why did they have to end up as a romantic couple? They may have loved each other and worked well together, but they were not characterologically compatible, so why did the show hook them up? Boring, boring, boring.
  • Furthermore, racism featured prominently in Warehouse 13’s final season. It was like they crammed all the racism that they hadn’t gotten to into a single truncated set of 6 eps. There were the gratuitous "g***y" references with the fortune tellers in the Ren Faire ep. There was the trash heap of "fiery Latino" stereotypes in the telenovela ep. Then, in the last ep, Leena, who was bumped off for no reason at the end of season 4, was given a flashback scene in which she foresaw her own death in the Warehouse and then, when Mrs. Frederic said that she would try to prevent it, said to her, "But it’s okay." No, you stinkin’ show — do not try to retroactively sell me on the useless death of one of the show’s two main characters of color. I won’t buy it.



 

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1652430.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Yup, I think he’s pretty much done.

Yup, I think he’s pretty much done. published on No Comments on Yup, I think he’s pretty much done.

Usually I’m not a fan of green in faceups, preferring pink, magenta, red, orange, yellow and black, but I must say that Flower is rockin’ the green here. Since the last picture earlier this evening, I progressed the freckles further down his torso and also onto the tops of his shoulders. I also started sealing his mouth with high-gloss varnish and added the style of eye makeup that’s been my signature since the very first faceup I ever did on Sardonix 1.0. Of the BJDs who bug me, Sardonix, Mellifer, Timonium, Yamarrah and now Flower have the upswept eyeliner and the down-slanting eyebrows.

Anyway, behold Flower the Unsubtle! What a change! I always knew he was fabulous…

Continue reading Yup, I think he’s pretty much done.

Chittenden County Vermont Doll Club meetup: 06/14/2014

Chittenden County Vermont Doll Club meetup: 06/14/2014 published on No Comments on Chittenden County Vermont Doll Club meetup: 06/14/2014

Nine people and God knows how many dolls attended last Saturday’s get-together. For the very first time, other types of dolls outnumbered the BJDs! Monster Highs represented very well, thanks to Shannon. Continue reading Chittenden County Vermont Doll Club meetup: 06/14/2014

More of my favorite digital content creators

More of my favorite digital content creators published on No Comments on More of my favorite digital content creators

 In no particular order.

  • Grey Cloud Design. She specializes in meticulously sculpted interiors with fabulously done drapery and luscious textures. The Montespan Interior Scene got me hooked on her stuff, and I look forward to getting the Montespan Bedroom and the Classic Curtains Set 1.
  • Richabri. He makes a variety of everyday sets — laundromat, parking lot, shooting range, hot tub, photo studio —  both detailed and affordable. I especially dig the Roadside Diner. He also specializes in kinky stuff — again, simple, well-made and affordable.
  • Alfaseed. Known in the past as Awful Soul or Aery Soul, these vendors do fantasy skimpwear par excellence. All of their pieces feature sculpted wrinkles, drapery and other details that give them a dynamic feel, as do the fantastical movement morphs included in most flowy pieces. Furthermore, most Alfaseed pieces play well with pieces from other Alfaseed sets. I don’t have any Alfaseed clothes [yet — waiting for Arkham Angel to go on sale, hah hah hah], but I use a very early release of theirs, New Age Room, a lot as a simple and elegant set.
  • AprilYSH. The hair goddess! Arguably the best and most talented creator of Daz/Poser hair, she provides highly detailed and asymmetrically sculpted meshes with easily customizable textures. Many of her models include a hair model and some accessory, like Calais Hair and Ruff 2, which contains a hair model, a ruff, a custom character morph and a custom character texture. Another favorite, Deeta Hair 2, comes with a hair model, a veil and a fascinator.
  • Adzan. Creator of densely sculpted, well-textured clothes for Hiro 3 and David 3, loaded with movement and style morphs to add realism. All the meshes convert superbly for use on other figures, even G2F [my latest base model]. Pretty much everyone in my runtime has worn the jeans and sneakers from Small Sins at one time or another.
  • PhilC. Known primarily for his ancillary utllities such as Wardrobe Wizard, which I have found indispensable for converting clothes so that I can dress who I want in what I want. 
  • Capsces Digital Ink. The goddess of morphing! Though she defaults to a toony style, the detailed head and body morphs that she creates for many Daz humanoid figures greatly enhance their customizability.

Maybe more later…

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1651318.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

This is SO COOL.

This is SO COOL. published on No Comments on This is SO COOL.

Vanishing Point recently released a standalone therianthropic figure, SquidMan, clearly influenced by Davy Jones from Priates of the Caribbean 5000. I just love it when people take standard ideas and head them off into little-used aesthetic regions.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1651025.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Favorite digital content creators

Favorite digital content creators published on No Comments on Favorite digital content creators

In no particular order.

  • SickleYield and Fuseling. I dig her their collaborative products [Burlap Dolly and Ball Joint Doll for G2F], as well as SY’s always well-sculpted everyday essentials. Heck, she’s the only person who offers Six Sickle Sandals 2, which includes close-toed webbing sandals of the type I regularly wear. I also like SY’s sense of humor; she has a freebie outfit for G1 called Impractical Rogue, for example, providing equal skimpwear time for the dudes as well as the gals. And there will always be a special place in my heart runtime for FSL’s Latex and Rubber shaders.
  • Traveler. A true Renaissance man over at Runtime DNA, Traveler does bugs and plants with equal finesse. He also has a fetishy Technophilia series, for all your robotic, cyborg and gasmask-related needs. The Breathless package, which allows one to build one’s own gasmask — ventilators and goggles and helmets and tubes and valves, oh my! — is a useful and easy-to-use set offering hours of recombinatorial fun. No links because RDNA is temporarily offline. 🙁
  • WillDupree and MAB. These two team up on a variety of therianthropes. I started off with Catgirl for V4/A4 just because it was on deep discount several years ago, and most recently got Popobawa for G1 for the bat wings!
  • Stonemason. A specialist in urban and sci-fi environments, Stonemason makes urban decay look beautiful. I only have some of his cheapest items, such as The Tomb and Fairy Tale Collection Tower Interior, but I lust after Abandoned Interiors Warehouse, for example.

More later.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1650783.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Stuff I use all the freakin’ time in Daz

Stuff I use all the freakin’ time in Daz published on No Comments on Stuff I use all the freakin’ time in Daz

Just for entertainment, here’s a list of some of the digital models and resources that I regularly rely on in my art:

Tune in later when I start figuring out the fun stuff, like what clothes I use most often.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1650457.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Jareth the goof, or, Sometimes the best things in life are free!

Jareth the goof, or, Sometimes the best things in life are free! published on No Comments on Jareth the goof, or, Sometimes the best things in life are free!

I’ve finally approximated something close to Jareth’s usual expression, which is about one-third playful, one-third fabulous and one-third off-the-wall. Hey, I even threw some lights in there! You don’t know how much of an accomplishment it is to finally have him able to stick out his tongue.
Continue reading Jareth the goof, or, Sometimes the best things in life are free!

I really like the Life in the Dreamhouse Web series…

I really like the Life in the Dreamhouse Web series… published on No Comments on I really like the Life in the Dreamhouse Web series…

…with Barbie and all her friends because, for the most part, it manages to balance light humor at no one’s expense with slapstick and clever in-jokes. Midge as snorting, safety-obsessed introvert who talks like the 1950s also cracks me up — and she’s so cute when she appears in Smidge of Midge in greyscale!

I also really like Ken, who ultimately ends up being portrayed as just another character who happens to be Barbie’s boyfriend, rather than the major plot motor and deus ex machina of the series. He’s goofy and utterly devoted to Barbie [“Barbie sense…tingling…”] and supremely confident enough in his masculinity to invent a super-sophisticated closet for all his girlfriend’s clothes. In other words, rather than having gay panic over activities often coded as queer, Ken does IT, back-end programming for the Super Style Squad [actually saying, “Beep boop bop,” with Skipper as they hit buttons ^_^ ]. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see a cartoon where all the characters, male and female, take fashion, style, clothing, etc., etc., etc., seriously, and no one shits on it for being trivially feminine. That’s actually kind of revolutionary.

Life in the Dreamhouse would be even better if it ditched its racism and ableism. For example:

  • The cast needs more POC in significant speaking roles besides Nikki.
  • While we’re discussing Nikki, she needs to develop a modicum of personality beyond Sassy Black Friend. For God’s sake, she even does the head jerks and vocal fry so routinely associated with this stereotype. Everyone else has some interest or trait to differentiate them [Teresa’s monkey, Midge’s macrame, Summer’s high energy, Skipper’s use of gadgets, Ryan’s really bad songs], but Nikki has nothing.
  • Furthermore, the show needs to stop using Afros as a visual shorthand for disastrous hairdos. When all characters have shiny, sleek, straight hair and curly, kinky, gravity-defying clouds of natural locks are depicted as the ridiculous punchlines to jokes, people with such curly, kinky hair are derided by extension.
  • The ableism needs to go too. Any use of “lame” as an adjective meaning “bad quality, boring, uninteresting, etc.” should be scratched from the script pronto. Ditto for any appearance of “crazy” for “wild, unusual, strange, exciting” or “cray cray” for same. Just cut it out.
  • In terms of additions, I think that Life in the Dreamhouse would be greatly improved by the appearance of Becky, a photographer friend of Barbie who uses a wheelchair. I mean, c’mon — if they can devote the air time to a running gag on the inadequate single elevator in the Dreamhouse, surely they can devote an episode to its upgrade and Barbie and Becky’s happiness when Becky can finally get to the second floor to see her super-awesome closet, right?

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1649981.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Zombieville Prologue 5: “Isabel and the King of Toxic Waste”

Zombieville Prologue 5: “Isabel and the King of Toxic Waste” published on No Comments on Zombieville Prologue 5: “Isabel and the King of Toxic Waste”

Isabel finally learns her interlocutor’s name and his problem with the world.
Continue reading Zombieville Prologue 5: “Isabel and the King of Toxic Waste”

3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 03 Shaders for Daz Studio

3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 03 Shaders for Daz Studio published on No Comments on 3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 03 Shaders for Daz Studio

Loud Fabrics 03 Shaders for Daz Studio

Daz Studio only

Tested only in Daz Studio Pro 4.6 64 bit.

This is a set of 40 shader presets featuring seamless, tiled, boldly printed fabrics with eye-catching patterns: Blue Bubbles, Blue Maze, Cool Discs 01, Cool Discs 02, Cubes&Curves 01, Cubes&Curves 02, Cubes&Curves 03, Green Bubbles, Green Diamonds, Magenta Tropics, Pastel Diamonds, Pastel Squares, Pink Maze, Pink Swirlies 01, Pink Swirlies 02, Purple Bubbles, Purple Maze, Purple Squares 01, Purple Squares 02 and Purple Tropics. There are 20 different patterns, each in large and small tiling versions, for a total of 40 brain-breakingly brain shades!

An improvement on Loud Fabrics 01, Loud Fabrics 03 features bump maps!

These patterns were all generated and tweaked in PatternCooler, Harvey Rayner’s awesome free Web-based pattern-generating Web site:
http://www.patterncooler.com/index.php

Use for whatever purposes you like, commercial or non-commercial. Just don’t repackage and call your own. Have fun!

You can see my digital artwork, as well as my other creative pursuits, at my blog:

http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org

If you do use any of my freebies in your work, drop me a line [ModernWizard at the Daz boards and ShareCG, ModernWiz on Renderosity], as I’d love to see what you make. Thank you.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1660149.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Zombieville Prologue 4: “Will Work for Brains”

Zombieville Prologue 4: “Will Work for Brains” published on No Comments on Zombieville Prologue 4: “Will Work for Brains”

Isabel learns that it’s a difficult proposition to find brains to eat, especially if you have to beg. Continue reading Zombieville Prologue 4: “Will Work for Brains”

3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 02 Shaders for Daz Studio

3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 02 Shaders for Daz Studio published on No Comments on 3D freebies: Loud Fabrics 02 Shaders for Daz Studio

Loud Fabrics 02 Shaders for Daz Studio

Daz Studio only

Tested only in Daz Studio Pro 4.6 64 bit.

This is a set of 30 shader presets featuring seamless, tiled, boldly printed fabrics with eye-catching patterns: Cool Daisies, Cool DNA, Modern Art 01, Modern Art 02, Modern Art 03, Orange Vortices, Pink Vortices, Primary Daisies, Purple Cubes, Purple Targets, Purple TVs, Trippy Triangles 01, Trippy Triangles 02, Warm DNA, Yellow Confetti and Yellow Vortices. There are 15 different patterns, each in large and small tiling versions, for a total of 30 brain-breakingly brain shades!

An improvement on Loud Fabrics 01, Loud Fabrics 02 features bump maps!

These patterns were all generated and tweaked in PatternCooler, Harvey Rayner’s awesome free Web-based pattern-generating Web site:
http://www.patterncooler.com/index.php

Use for whatever purposes you like, commercial or non-commercial. Just don’t repackage and call your own. Have fun!

You can see my digital artwork, as well as my other creative pursuits, at my blog:

http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org

If you do use any of my freebies in your work, drop me a line [ModernWizard at the Daz boards and ShareCG, ModernWiz on Renderosity], as I’d love to see what you make. Thank you.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1659738.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Now I want hamburgers.

Now I want hamburgers. published on No Comments on Now I want hamburgers.

Exnem over at Renderosity makes the most realistic and versatile digital food I’ve seen. Witness the Amazing Super Burger Pack, which, with a 55% off [!] sale + my Render Rewards, set me back a whopping  $3.53. Cleverly done and beautifully sculpted and textured, this is a wonderful product. And now I want a burger.

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1648992.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

Daz documentation STINKS.

Daz documentation STINKS. published on No Comments on Daz documentation STINKS.

Every day I learn how to do something new in Daz Studio, but no thanks to the rudimentary documentation supplied on the Web site. Daz Studio Pro 4.6 contains some very useful and powerful tools and little to no instruction on how to use them. Thus most of the cool features are hiding, unused, in the menus.

Today, for example, I learned that Daz can convert textures between UV sets. In plain English, this means that textures made for one character model can be converted to another character model. This is great ’cause I still use Victoria 4 textures for my main characters, even though my base figure for everybody is G2F [Genesis 2 Female, who is 2 generations newer than V4]. I also have some M4 [Michael 4] and K4 [Kids 4] textures that cooperated automatically with G1 [Genesis 1, 1 generation removed from V4 and friends], but which will not automatically cooperate with G2F. I should be able to convert them over to either G2F UVs or V5 UVs, which G2F can read automatically.

I also need to see if I can convert Jareth’s texture from V4 to V5 so I can use draagonstorm’s Instant Rainbow of Makeup, which is a hell of a lot easier than making makeup in Elements and manually applying it.

Funny how my desire to accurately render Jareth drives my adoption of new technology in the doll and digital worlds… :p

This entry was originally posted at http://modernwizard.dreamwidth.org/1648837.html. You can comment here, but I’d prefer it if you’d comment on my DW using OpenID.

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