#herewiss

...This concept started as a joke, but I'm thinking that I've finally found the story behind it. Maybe I can write it now... :)

ETA: Added a link to a higher-definition version of the cover image without text. (And I can see I'm still not done fiddling with the materials on his damn shirt. In fact, the shirt itself is in question now. [muttering] Never mind. Can't make a judgment call on this when I haven't even had my tea yet...)

ETA 2: No, not this shirt either. (I mean, dammit, I like looking at pecs as much as the next lass or lad, but the cut on this shirt isn't right for this angle of light, or for the way it drapes when animated. Dammitall, why do all Daz's men's shirts have to be so crap?)

(from an earlier rant on this subject:) (re: @rembrandtswife​‘s comment [”Find that man a GOOD shirt, because his CHEST deserves it.”]: well, not arguing…

…But finding a decent shirt at all on Daz is the challenge. Some of the ones that seem like they might have possibilities are just frustrating, because they either aren’t dForce enabled (that being the draping and animation engine) or they’re just badly made.

The one below would be typical. (“’What, do you call this a sleeve? It is like a demi-cannon, carved up and down like an apple tart.’”)

You're incredibly kind to say so. I'm partial to these folks too. :)

I hope you enjoy the books to follow.

I was casually posting on Bluesky over the weekend about (among other things, check out the thread...) good Daz Studio sets and how they can surprise you with their quality. One particular one came up for mention... and on linking to it, I was delighted to realize that the makers (Roguey and Strangefate) have just actually and significantly extended it. Provoking the more or less immediate realization: "I'm doomed." 😅

So I spent my birthday, and today, putting the expansion through its paces. And it seems that a lot can be done with it. ...Just for comparison's sake, here are some pics for those who were interested.

Here, for example, is a lighting study referred to as "Afternoon off": Lorn and Dusty down in their local in Prydon, waiting for some neighbors to roll up and have a drink with them. This is the original Tumblr post showing that version of the image.

The test that was ongoing here was whether what's actually a rather dark and small corner could be lit well enough to use for close character work. (Which, as you see, it can: though some jiggerypokery was involved.)

Here's a wider angle on the same scene, to make it plain how tight this space was in the original version of the Red Crow Inn set. (Full size render at the link in the image.)

...Now, though, the same makers have taken the basic set and altered its structure in a number of different ways to widen out some of these nooks and niches, potentially making them more useful. (And also easier to subvert to other purposes, but that's a different issue. ...I also recommend to interested readers the detailed description of the new sets on the "Little Crows" page; it's hilarious.)

For my own purposes, I wanted to see what could be made of the space most similar to the old one above. Here's a test render of that space, with Freelorn and Herewiss stuck into it (after a change into more casual clothes...). ...Again, the full size render is at the link in the image. I've left most of the original ROG furnishings in place, though I got rid of a lot of dishes and cutlery to speed the render up. (Still wondering how Lorn wound up with a spoon in his lap at one point...)

...So this definitely shows promise. :)

As usual between reworks of a set, there are some differences in the way lighting gets handled: but that's to be expected. On first glance, it also seems as if textures across these reworks-or-addenda have been updated to a much higher quality than in the original Red Crow / Black Crow sets. So, in the fullness of time, we'll see how that turns out in updated renders.

...So here's an evening-lighting test of the other day's "Afternoon Off" image staged in one of the ROG Red Crow Inn "Little Crows" expansion sets, "Crows Cellar v2". (Click the in-image link to see the full-sized render.)

The improvised out-the-window view doesn't quite work yet. I was fighting to get the moon to appear where I wanted it to, while also trying to work out (and change) where the functional moonlight was coming from. (It's folly to expect a background HDRI file to necessarily light in-scene items correctly and look natural: normally that file's functions will need some help from other light sources.)

So some more wrestling with that is likely to happen sooner or later (with the addition of more/different/better mountains, and ideally some localized mist to soften them). This is, after all, just a quick-and-dirty testing shot. (sigh) "We learn by doing..."

ETA: Pushed in for a medium angle. Full size render at the link.

(I have no idea what the garlic’s doing there. I’d have hung up, I don’t know, some horse brasses or something…)

...Meanwhile, off a note at Bluesky from @pj-evans.bluesky.social: "Magic keeps the warm air inside." The response: "Doubtless the fault of the guy on the left. :)" ...Amusing that this issue gets dealt with glancingly in a WIP:

Lorn had enough Fire of his own these days to feel the protection of the unseen chamber-wards settle into place around them with the shooting of the bolt. Herewiss had spent a difficult week’s wreaking on those invisible barriers five years ago when Lorn formally moved into Kynall, weaving his Flame and the fraction of his life’s days that would fuel it into the building’s ancient bones: the stone of the walls and floor, the wood of the doors and the glazing of the windows. No creature or being not part of their family had power to pass those wards… though each year as the seasons shifted toward winter, Lorn was most routinely glad that what Herewiss had also warded away were the drafts.

...Meanwhile, must try the daylight render again with these positions...

(For the moment, though, a daytime-set version with the wider angle and a different outside background.)

For 30 Days of Pride: Day 4: "Up late reading."

(Originally from this post—a lighting and SFX test—with accompanying excuses:)

...A first-light render (with some minor tweaking) of a new Daz Studio Medieval Forest Village set from clacydarch.

I'd been looking around for some time for a set that could stand in for those parts of the near-Woodward Brightwood that could be made representative of the area. (After all, the principality-town on which the Wood is centered does not consist of just a giant log house-cum-castle with "a tree growing through its living room floor" [as the lady would say] and a bunch of hovels.) Délann-in-the-Brightwood is a smallish but proper city, with neighborhoods and streets, and even a few avenues.

This set came very close to something I could use almost without adjustment... except I had to get rid of a lot of the grass in the street (which made no sense) and add some trees and background terrain. But this'll do to be going on with.

...Making notes to swap in some better trees when there's time: and some better weeds. There are makers on Daz who specialize in trees and flora, and I've got some of their stuff in the toolbox... so I'll go rummaging when I have time. No hurry on this: there's much more immediate work on the desk.

Meanwhile, a closeup of these two idiots, because why not. :)