It started with Chris Cox’ freebie Rococo Gown for V4, but really kicked into high gear when I got Neftis’ Lady de Lioncourt Dress for G2F, which is Rococo + Goth. I spent the first few months of my possession admiring the detailed mesh and classy textures, but also pissing and moaning that the dress did not sit well — i.e., it contained no morphs or other provisions for seated postures and the ways in which they deform and re-drape cloth.

I could not resist two more relatively new releases, despite their collective inability to sit realistically: MEC4D’s Queen of Hearts for G2F and Penny Dreadfull for G2F by MartinJFrost. Even if my characters could only stand around in Queen of Hearts, the elaborate hairstyle could be used with other clothing. And heck — even though the creator of Penny Dreadfull himself said that he had tried all sorts of ways to make the dress sit, but had been unsuccessful, it was one of the most realistic bustle dresses I’d ever seen. I tried to resist it, but I could not.

Eventually my annoyance hit a breaking point. What was the use of all these nifty outfits if I couldn’t pose them in positions that my characters use at least a third of the time? My exasperation thus motivated me to force the gowns to sit myself. Using D-Formers in Daz, I made a morph first for Lady de Lioncourt that tucked it up around the figure’s ass and calves, as it would if being sat on. I achieved something passable and cheered myself on.

Since then, I have been unstoppable!! I made sit morphs for the Rococo Gown, Queen of Hearts and Lady de Lioncourt [try #2, using what I had learned from previous attempts]. My proficiency with D-Formers increased dramatically to the point where I created and released an entire package of morphs for Penny Dreadfull, including morphs to make it sit, to compress parts of the skirt and even to lengthen the whole skirt with a minimum of texture distortion. I’m now packaging up another set of helper morphs for Ravenhair’s Priestess for Genesis because someone liked the work I did on other dresses and requested that I do something similar on a Genesis outfit. I’m also converting the Rococo Gown to Genesis for her.

The compliments and request from a fellow user really make me feel like a digital artist. I’m glad that someone appreciates my work and that I can help others achieve their artistic ends. I’m also glad that I’ve found areas of specialty — such as shaders and sit morphs — at which I can demonstrate rapid improvement and that other people like too. I’ve spent so long feeling socially and artistically lonely that public approbation means a lot to me and my confidence.

 

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