Ravenswing

Yep, the first one needs some tweaking, bit too grey. There's only one distand light in the picture. So, actually, this only has soft lights, what it lacks is any direct lights. Still, I was going for something specific and it doesn't quite work.

The shadow colour depends on the light colour and the shadow softness. Shadow bias can also affect it since higher bias tends to result in harder shadows.

I've been unimpressed by Kozaburo's hair (IIRC), at least for my purposes. I really need a good bob which can be a bit longer than typical. Most of the bob cuts are well above shoulder height and don't include length morphs.

Kiss

Kiss - Captured

Something to support the Blahblahblah newspaper item over in roleplaying. Two shots featuring Liberty Girl and Nitoichi.

I really am having trouble finding hair I really like fr Libby...

I think that's as much to do with the rendering resolution as anything. Sadly, web sites won't let me upload multi-gigabyte files...

Nitoichi - Out of Fire

Messing about with setings and inspired by the Watchmen trailer, here's Nitoichi emerging from the flames.

I have no clue who or what 'Geek Sugar' is, but they just proved they're morons.

I14 won't be live in March 12th.

[ QUOTE ]
but how about (after fixing it) changing the team search box so we can indicate (via tick boxes, perhaps) whether we're interested in Blinds, Farming, Filling or PLing?

[/ QUOTE ]

Unsigned.

Reason: NCNC don't really approve of these activities (and neither do I really, though people are free to waste their money however they wish, just don't bother me with it). If they add official game functionality flagging whether people wish to be contacted about these activities, then they are officially endorsing those activities.

I don't think I want to be part of the first game to actively state that Blind invites, Farming, Filling, and PLing are a part of the game officially sanctioned by the game's developers.

[ QUOTE ]
I think a "weakness" element would be great. They did it with Kheldians (the Quantums are their weakness) and it works fine. Heck, I'd go so far as to say it's fun (but I don't have a K).

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, by the time you get a Kheldian, it's assumed you know what Quantum Guns do to them, and also, personally, I find Q-Guns about as much fun as an acid enema.

Selectable weaknesses are generally used in RPGs to allow you to select more, or more powerful, powers, and there's no mechanism for that at the moment in the game. So, presumably, we would be selecting weaknesses with an opposing increase in resistance to something else. That would need to be very carefully balanced.

Dependent NPCs are a whole different ball game. Tha would be an absolutely massive new system. I would be against it because it's creating a machine mechanism for something better handled by real roleplay. Honestly, do you really think Superman wants to keep having to rescue Lois Lane from yet another predicament she's got heself into because she's too stupid not to? Having to rescue your beloved, again, and again, and again, would get old real fast.

History lesson: (I'm old, I like history. )

This topic is not new (I'm sure no one is amazingly surprised) and got discussed way back. The reason given for not implementing a system like this was that it could put starting players off.

The reasoning goes like this: You start a new toon with no knowledge of what the game has in store for you. You like the look of ice powers, so you make yourself an ice/ice Blaster, or similar, and with it comes a resistance to cold and a weakness to fire. You think Magic would be a good origin. You start playing and the tutorial seems to be going okay, and then you walk into Galaxy City, get faced by a truckload of Hellions and are constantly having your bottom handed to you on a platter. You give up in disgust.

Why? Because you didn't understand the game enough to actually make that kind of choice.

Now, I think it could work as an optional feature which you could select at character creation, but then I pretty much know what kind of hell awaits me when I start playing these days.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There are still lots of supplies of GvE floating about.

[/ QUOTE ]

And would you honestly stock a 2 year out of date game in your shop if you had one?

[/ QUOTE ]

Given that if I walk into my local game shop, probably the majority of game boxes on the shelves are two or more years old, I find that emark very amusing.

Obviously, I don't expect to pay ful price for those older games, and even WoW or BC sell for a huge amount less than the retail price at launch, but (AFAIK) MMOs don't make money on the box, they make money on the subscription fee. (So quite why any shops stock the games I don't know.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Regardless of how amusing you found that, heres the reality, WoW box's obviously still sell or they wouldnt be on the shelf.

This games box's dont sell or they would be on the shelf.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or the shops can't get them. Tried getting a copy online recently? Generally, you can't, no supply.

I'm going to ask that this thread be closed down. I'm sick of anything even remotely positive being turned into something negative by people like you who clearly want nothing more than to spend their time rubbishing a game they claim to enjoy.

<removed>

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There are still lots of supplies of GvE floating about.

[/ QUOTE ]

And would you honestly stock a 2 year out of date game in your shop if you had one?

[/ QUOTE ]

Given that if I walk into my local game shop, probably the majority of game boxes on the shelves are two or more years old, I find that emark very amusing.

Obviously, I don't expect to pay ful price for those older games, and even WoW or BC sell for a huge amount less than the retail price at launch, but (AFAIK) MMOs don't make money on the box, they make money on the subscription fee. (So quite why any shops stock the games I don't know.)

I stared at the fnords! I stared at the fnords!

Eris rules!

Don't know if this got mentioned in the MA Academy thread, but apparently we're due a new retail box, featuring the MA, sometime in the near future. Details currently unknown.

Wow, a new retail box. Clearly the game is DOOMed!

[ QUOTE ]
There is nothing wrong with looking and learning, and maybe the Devs need to do a bit more looking at new ideas.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't think of anything in WoW that's new, so looking in there seems a bit of a waste. I just started playing again over there and I'm already bored because (oddly enough) playing levels 70-80 is strangely the same as playing levels 1-70 was. It's just more WoW. (The developers are obviously getting sued to the scene editors though, the interior models are getting more complex structurally, if not graphically.)

WoW is planning to introduce dual-builds with the next release (3.1)...

The chances of WoW getting anything remotely like the MA anytime soon are remote to say the least.

[ QUOTE ]
As you pass through the skyscrapers in Steel, there should be jump gangs of Outcasts, hovering Tsoo spirits, more than just blank buildings to traverse through.

[/ QUOTE ]

I kind of think the flyers, who have to put up with slow speed to pay for safety, would hate this...

If we're going to have a rubber chicken, I feel we also need an enormous fish, also a rolled up newspaper.

Can you imagine the horror on Recluse's face if he were brought down by a squad armed with rolled up newspapers, rubber chickens and wet fish?

[ QUOTE ]
Besides, paying for software sure as ain't cheap...

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I use this: DAZ|Studio

It pretty much only does figure modelling, with some basic primitives like planes and spheres. If you want to produce characters like Ni then you'll need to pay for them, but the basic Victoria and Michael models are free from the same web site. You can also get free clothing, set dressing, and scenery models from various sites, though you'll have to fork over cash if you want really good quality materials.

As I've said before, and others have also said, it isn't so much talent, artistic know how, or skill that gets you good results, it's patience. (Though I think a grasp of anatomy and an appreciation for lighting helps.)

[ QUOTE ]
You might still be a goit, but you're an artistic one

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm going to take that as a compliment, rather than firebombing your house.

Okay, this I'm quite pleased with.

No Rabbit

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]


If you can see that my name is not grey, then you can also look at the end of the line and read 'Soloing' in the message field.


[/ QUOTE ]

To be fair, often when people are in teams their names don't grey out. That's a bug, not the fault of the messenger. It's happened to me more than once.

[/ QUOTE ]

So that means they still cant read the no entry sign that means not looking for a team then?

[/ QUOTE ]

It could equally mean the lazy so and so just forgot to change their message

[/ QUOTE ]

Which, of course, makes it okay to ignore it.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
if he did send me a tell, he did so impolitely.

Um... I'm tired.

[/ QUOTE ]
Impolite!..if ur in a team, you go grey...so ill ask...quick "no" Im happy...but most here are outraged! OMG! ok

[/ QUOTE ]

You, sir, can't read. I guess that explains why you might send a tell to someone without reading their search message. I did explain why it was impolite, but you aren't interested in hearing that, you're just interested in ranting.

If you can see that my name is not grey, then you can also look at the end of the line and read 'Soloing' in the message field.

If you can't be bothered to do that, then you deserve to be put on ignore, quite frankly. You certainly don't get to complain that anyone else is impolite for not replying when you don't have enough common courtesey to fill a thimble.

Grow up.

[ QUOTE ]
Yikes, what happened to Nis shoulders

[/ QUOTE ]

Well spotted. You get this kind of distortion a lot and it annoys the hell out of me. I have another render which I haven't posted anywhere yet because I'm not totally happy with it. The base position is the same, with some tweaks, and the shoulders are distorted there too, so I've smudged that area in postwork and it looks a lot better.

It's also possible that rendering to a much higher resolution might fix it. I may try that tonight, just for the hell of it.

I reply to tells if I see them. This has lead to grief. and if I don't reply, I get guilt trips here. Oh joy.

See, I generally solo. My search message says I'm soloing. So why do I get tells asking if I want to join a team, or have space on my team? Answer: because the person sending the tell isn't polite enough to look at the message.

Quite why I'm polite enough to reply to them, I don't know, but I do. If I've ever not replied to the OP it's because I didn't notice the message, for any one of a dozen reasons. Really, I don't need the nice chap guilting me out over any possible case of this when, if he did send me a tell, he did so impolitely.

Um... I'm tired.

What her costume needs is probably some work on the skin bump-map I used to overlay it, so the skin looks skin-like and the costume looks cloth-like. (Edit to add that I haven't looked at those yet, so goodness knows what I need to do. Opacity was bad enough.) And, yes, I'm still looking for good hair that's more Libby-like. No one seems to do a good bob sort of style.

Anyway, I'm really not sure about this one. It gets the job done, but I need some good casual clothes that morph properly so Annette is a bit under-dressed.

The idea is to show a view of what goes on in Annette/Ni's head when they meet to 'discuss' things.

Ni and Annette - Oi! I'm talking!

Already had the skin surface shader on my list of things to get, I've added the lighting one. That environment shader could be very useful.

And on to business... I found this work-up of the US Seal, the Eagle with the arrows and olive leaves, y'know? It does look really cool on its own, but I thought it was just crying out to have a Liberty Girl in front of it...

Patriot

And, Crius, before you complain about the background being really simple, that's the point for this one. It's meant to look like a photoshoot for a magazine cover or something. Plain white background (actually, slightly grey) and a blue sheet on the floor.

Anyway, hope Dan likes it.

Hmm, I did specifically make sure I narrowed her waist and lengthened her legs this time, which is how the character is built in CoH. It's rather an Image character style, slightly exaggerated. I rather like it, actually, so

Now, the odd thing with the background is that the same lights are lighting it as Ni. I guess the paler rock surface reflects more. The ground map does suck a little bit. I've got some really juicy looking scene maps I found on dA via Renderocity. If I can figure out where to put what to get the right results, you may be impressed. (I did say 'may'. )

Try this then...

Beyond the City

[ QUOTE ]
Once you've made a Ni, for example, that you're happy with, can you save it and then recall it later, reposition/re-pose the model in a new environment, etc. - or do you have to rebuild from scratch every time?

[/ QUOTE ]

Assume that, when you load everything up on a new PC it doesn't stop loading old files...

Yes, you can save and reload. I don't know how other people do it, but I tend to have a Scene file for the basic nude character, which I can then either use as a base to create the scene I want, or merge into another file. The Libby flying with Ni shot was done by taking Libby's basic costumed scene and merging Ni's costumed file into that. (I also save versions with the costumes if it's complex enough, and getting the fits and setting the texture maps is complex enough.)

You can also save 'character presets' which can be applied to the base model to give different characters. I'll figure out how to do that properly sometime. As it is, it works, so I'm happy doing it the way I do.