oops, didn't see you there...

Sorry I've been MIA lately. I haven't done much actual art. I've been revising a story, playing in the yard now that it's warmed up, as well as writing a new story in bits and spurts and keeping up on not one but two blog story lines. What 3D work I've done has all been in Hex 2.5 Beta and I've been playing with brushes in GIMP.

So this image: this month's members only challenge on Daz3D.com is "Epic Fails." I've had the idea for this image in my head ever since I purchased Hemlock (the tree figure). I decided this scene definitely qualified as an epic fail, so last night, since I couldn't sleep, I whipped it out. It turned out very nicely, I think.

New Critter

I've been working multiple story lines, so I haven't done much in DAZ that I'd want to share. I got stuck on a scene tonight and was playing around with a DAZ scene I've been working on for a few weeks. This started out as a spot check render (to see if her fur looked right) and I liked it enough to keep it. She's supposed to be a dryad.

Seraiah

Hi! I'd like to introduce you to Seraiah, chieftain of a forest elf clan called the Pine Martins. He's what's called a tracker, a type of forest elf who are born with inate skills in tracking. Be warned, he doesn't play well with others, though he has the unabashed loyalty of almost every elfin tracker not affiliated with an elfin house.

This is the very first avatar I've made for a character who isn't (yet) a main character in one of my stories. The key to this one, I think, was finally having a large assortment of M4 character pre-sets I could mix-and-match into the perfect character. The face and skin are Morven from Runtime DNA. The ears are Trystan's, because I just really like Trystan's ears. I finished off with Diamond hair and some earnings for M4 I picked up a while ago as freebies. I accidentally removed the texture from them at one point and ended up leaving that way because now they look like they are carved from bone.

Imaginary Friends Are The Best!

How to catch a smile and keep it!

I've been screwing with this scene for several days now. I'm still not entirely happy with the lighting but I'm just going to let it go.

Creeeeepy!

So I have been working the last two evenings on this scene where I've got fourteen emoti-guys crammed into a bird cage. I just can't get the lighting right on it. In a fit of frustration, I shut that scene down and started playing. This didn't start out creepy, but, as I was playing around with my shaders, this is what came out. It was too cool not to render a shot of it. The candle, by the way, is the fae candle from Runtime DNA. I have been told by "experienced" people that it doesn't "work" in Daz Studios... (it works fine!)

Nude but not indecent...

I actually made these clips a few days ago but just decided to share. The sparkle light in M4 Trystan's hand was a first for me; I'd never tried actually incorporating a light prop onto a figure before. And yes, he's nude. I wasn't happy with any of my M4 fantasy clothing on him.

The bottom set might be a little dark. For the hell of it, I layered the Trystan skin map over The Freak, added some toon fairy wings and horns and plopped him into the jewel cave. I struggled over-much with lighting the cave, though, because it ricochet'd everywhere and washed out my... what-ever-he-is. I'm calling him Thistle.



I picked up a bunch of new stuff at Daz and Runtime DNA with my income tax return- including some new fantasy M4 clothing, so I'll be able to properly cloth my creations. My unwilling ness to post full frontal nudes, for the most part, keeps me from posting post of my good renders here.

Going old-school

I'm not a fan of damsels in distress. I never write characters like that and the few times I've come close, it's because the character is either a minor one or the bad guy. That being said, I love the books covers from old-school fantasy novels. Runtime DNA has one of their contests running right now to make an old-school scene and I just couldn't resist the challenge of it. This one is not the final I ended up submitting, but it's pretty good, so I figured I could share it here.

New Character: Trystan!

I love this character; he's so nice and dark! This is Trystan for M4 with the Steel skin map, Wild Dreds for hair, a weapon from Deadly Edges and a loincloth I picked up at Runtime DNA, though I set the cloth to match Trystan's hair. Look at the definition in his arms. You can actually see veins!




After a while, I got the idea to try Trystan in a prone pose.



Then I hit pay dirt with this specific light and character when I took out the background props. Look at the richness from those shadows!

Lost In Thought

I got myself all wound up writing a fight scene this evening. Since I also got my content library sorted out, I unwound creating this very sad looking fellow. I have no idea why playing around with lights and camera angles in Daz Studio calms me down, but I'm not going to complain.

Valentine's Balloons

This is why you don't give a tigress balloons for Valentine's Day...

bunny goddess

A place to call my own

Hi! I'm an author and this is my on-line gallery for really cool art that I've created in my trials and errors in learning how to make art in 3D. I got into it because I wanted to create avatars for my characters. Since most of them, both from my published and unpublished work, are not exactly human, I needed learn to make my own. You are welcome to use any of these, just give me the credit and a link-back.

So without further ado, here's some art!



How I did this one (you can get all these from DAZ's store):

I used M4 complete with the Prince Albain character to make my white freaky dude. I'm not sure what he is, exactly, other than a mean little bugger.

I used The Freak with the Vargr character and Troglodyte horns for the beastie.

The background is MyPCForest2 and the weapons are the starburst and the ultimate push dagar from Deadly Edges. The lighting, you can make yourself. I used a lighting set-up from MD Druid Vally and turned off the main light.

Note: position the weapons before parenting them! Drove me nuts trying to position them before I figured that out. You will also have to fiddle with the horns to make them look right since they weren't built for The Freak.

The horns, blades, and The Freak are free on DAZ right now and the background comes with DAZ Studio 3. You have to buy M4 complete, but you could probably get away with the basic M4 model. You'll just have to put up with plain human ears. Vargr and Albain both cost money, but they are fairly inexpensive and well worth the money. If you choose not to get Albain and don't have M4 complete, you'll either have to dress him or put up with those ugly second skin undies he comes with. Ditto for the beastie. I didn't use gens for either on this but you could, I guess. Make sure you set the skin color in "skins" for Vargr's gens using some part of his body, though, or it ain't going to look right. I did set the horns to match the color of Vargr's nose.

That's about it for now. Have a great day!

Rebecca
RebeccaLGillan.com