Every year, at this time, everyone is making New years resolutions – except me. I refuse to make them. Why? Coz its a waste of time. With all the best of intentions, they are noted, and most often, they never come to pass. Hell, you’d be lucky if you even remember them 6 mos down the road. So, I dont make em. Its another silly tradition done by Americans. If you want to change things, break old habits and start new good ones, then why wait til the new year anyway? Change it NOW. Change it EVERYDAY.

Coincidentally though, this year, I happen to be upgrading to a new computer I bought for Christmas. And its vicariously through this that some work-related resolutions have been made (though I dont consider it making a New Years resolution, really – they would come to pass even if it was the 6th of July) So here are my resolutions for the year…..

• Clean out my Runtime completely
• Get my files more organized to speed up workflow
• Have more frequent releases in the coming year
• Revamp my private store and add some extra security
• Migrate to Cinema 4D

As noted in my last post, Im also canning support on some past versions of software. Generation 3 figures and lower have also been entirely removed from my Runtime, so I will not be supporting them.

Besides that, I will also be doing any lights included in sets as AO/IBL now – and hopefully, I can also learn how to do comparable lighting for DS in the coming year. And I will be devoting some time to trying to learn architecture, to incorporate into my sets as well.

Also this year, I plan on continuing with my Dark Apocalypse series, so you will see periodic releases pertaining to that. Im sure Ill have smaller things tossed into the mix that are unrelated as well.

Stay tuned for an exciting year! Wishing you all a happy, healthy and wealthy 2011!

I have pretty much finished the upgrade to my new computer (save some content I still need to install) And it went pretty smoothly for the most part. However, due to the nature of the upgrade (to windows 7 64 bit) I will no longer be supporting anything below these program versions:

• Poser 7 (version numbers will be defaulted to 7)
• DAZ Studio 3 (mats will only work in DS 3)
• Photoshop CS3 (brushes will only work in CS3 and above)

My apologies to anyone this inconveniences…. it was, unfortunately, unavoidable.

This is to inform everyone that I will be down possibly for a few days. Im currently upgrading to a new computer, and to a completely new OS as well, so it will probably take me some time to get it all set up and in working order.

You can still send any technical support queries or other queries through email, as I will still have partial access through my phone (and will be checking it periodically) However, I may choose to wait to reply until my computer is fully functional, if the issue is substantial enough to  necessitate my machine running.

You can contact me directly at IgnisSerpentus@damageinc3d.net (or by simply clicking on the “Contact Us” button at the top of this weblog)

Thank you for your patience 🙂

I rendered this last nite, for fun. Yeah, I know amazing…. I like never render for fun anymore. Its all DAZ’s fault, for running a damn sale! I fell for it, and bought some new toys

Ive finally had it with Poser and its lack of rendering coz of its memory probs – so this one is entirely rendered in Vue (and any images I do, henceforth, will be rendered there from now on) I was amazed that it handled so many high-poly meshes so flawlessly. I couldnt even render this in Poser when it just had the architecture and the girl clothed. And definitely not at the proper texture size, which would have greatly reduced the quality.

 Theres a tiny bit of post/painting….. the skulls didnt look evil enuff for me, so I messed with them a bit. The dragon’s fire is painted. DOF on the Skeleton was also done in PS

Credits (long list)

• Vermillion Dawn by me at DAZ
• Skulls from Azraella by me at DAZ
• Pose from Queen of the Nile by me at DAZ
• Mort Augur by Jack Tomalin at DAZ
• The Unseelie Throne for Mort Augur, by Moyra at DAZ
• Staff is from Moon Cult by DM at DAZ (quadratic spot light, to light it up)
• Wyvern 2.0 at DAZ
• Skeleton for V3 at DAZ (with a vue procedural)

Ok so, Im a HUGE Freddy Kruegar fan… I have been since I was a teenager. I remember those days where Id bug my mom to rent them, coz a new one came out, and Id watch them over and over and over, til I had the entire dialogue memorized. Theres not a Freddy movie I havent seen to date, and I own ALL of them (except for Jason vs Freddy, sadly, which might be one of my faves)

So when the newest one came out, I knew Id have to see it. But Ill admit…. I was taken aback. No Robert Englund as Freddy? Bah…. that was already a precursor to a bad experience. So I automatically reserved it to waiting til it came out to rent…. I wouldn’t waste money on that factor, alone.

I finally decided to rent it. Didn’t read any reviews or anything of that sort, coz I didnt want other peoples opinions to kind of spoil the stew… so I went in without knowing the premise entirely. So what did I think? Uh…. well…. Ill go over below. If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want it ruined, don’t read on.

Rerun: not long in, I started having deja vue…. to the point where I commented rhetorically, “gosh, I think this is just a remake of the old movies” Oh yes, its a total reboot. And after I watched it, I read the directors comments, and it said that they purposely took snippets of past Freddy movies and spliced it into one film. Part of A Nightmare on Elm Street’s charm was the many different and creative ways he would kill his victims…. so the new one lacked ingenuity for that very reason. Even the main characters were named the same way and they captured most of the deaths that were in the original movies. In that respect, I thot it was very lame. It was like watching the other movies, but with different actors. And well, if its a beloved movie from childhood for you, like it is me, this will leave you feeling…. bereft.

TOO fast: They wasted no time jumping right in…. they didnt much develop the plot, it just jumped right into the story line. It was a little confusing…. at the very beginning, youre not sure if its a diff storyline, a continuation, or the same damned thing. It was TOO fast paced… to the point where there was weak character development and you couldnt even feel empathy, or relate to them whatsoever, even though they caricatured the original characters. They just did it so very poorly, that while they were intended to be them, they totally fell short.

Lack of Wes Craven: Ohhh yeah, you could tell…. which also made it worse. It did not feel like a typical nightmare on elm street – it felt like someone switched my friggon coke with a pepsi and passed it off as a coke.

Lack of Robert Englund: Part of what makes Robert Englund the perfect Freddy, is his charisma. And yes, even his hokeyness. They way he toys with his victims…. indulging in a macabre sense of humor the entire time. The guy that played Freddy in this new one lacked that entirely (which reading the comments about the film, was on purpose, as they were trying to make it more terrifying) I will say, they did ramp up his scariness – this guy brought skeevy and terrifying to a new level. Also, this Freddy was portrayed as more of a child molester, than a child killer – which was also skeevier and gross. So on one hand, I think they managed to do what they intended- that being, make it a more terrifying flick as it was intended to be originally (well terrifying at least to some degree- I think final destination still ranks as scariest film ever for me) But, on the other hand, I think what makes Nightmare sooooooo popular and such a staple of that era, was the hokeyness and the charisma that Robert Englund exuded… mixing death and murder with jokes – theres just nothing like it. Without it, its just another friggon serial killer….. who just happens to stalk dreams.

Overall, Id say…. dont bother going out of  your way to see it….. it was okay, if u have nothing better to do one nite, and feel like watching it. But will it replace the originals? Not a friggon chance.

Ok, well, I messed around a little further with my ram head today. For one, I wanted to see how it created the topology, since it was my first time using ZSpheres (which was pretty decent, surprisingly) But the head was so refined, the poly was up at 90K. That’s a ton for something like this, which would only be a detail on something.

So, got the wild hair up my ass to see how Decimation Master in Z worked, and how low I could go without losing detail. It took a few tries to see how it worked and to get it really low. I also had to build up the tips of the horns a little, as they were lacking in mesh and the decimation really botched them up before I built it up. The end result ended up being 7K poly – thats a massive difference!

Also, since it triangulated the mesh, I decided that I didnt wanna tangle with mapping it in UVLayout, so instead, I mapped it in UVMaster in ZBrush. It did a decent job. Usually it butchers the hell out of a mesh and creates too many islands for my taste, but with this mesh, it created one long seam, which is pretty cake to deal with. The seam isnt how I personally would have done it, had I mapped it manually (its a little uneven to each side and a bit crooked considering its triangulated) but since I have bodypaint, it doesn’t matter anyway 😀

Here’s the final. Really amazing that it didnt lose much detail at all, being decimated soo much…..

So while I was cracked out on C4D today, I figured I might as well crack out on Z too lol Ive been meaning to figure out ZSpheres for awhile now…. I guess tonight was the night.

I have to say, it was interesting, doing a sculpt from the ZSphere angle. Its very abstract, and kinna weird at first. But its a really quick and easy way to rough out a general shape. And no, I didnt intend to model a ram head LOL it just kinna went that way.

So this one was sketched out as ZSpheres, and then I made a unified mesh from it.  This first image is just after unifying the mesh, with some smoothing to ease out the zsphere marks, and a little bit of deformation. You can see how crude it is….

After that, I deformed it a lot more, and this is the end result (you can click to enlarge)

Its not perfect…. it could use some further tweaking. But methinks he will make a nice detail somewhere.

Ok itd been awhile since I messed around in C4D…. and well, this wasnt serious in the least.

I just wanted to see if I could make a spiral staircase, out of one block, and using duplicate.

I could. In fact, its so easy, even a caveman can do it O.o

Just tell it how many copies u want, and u can skew or rotate those copies however u deem fit. Simple as PIE! Although, Im not really sure how pie is simple. But anyway….

From there, I just started messing around….. and it somehow turned into a fractal. It just happened…. I dunno. Theres symmetry, and an array, and I added a sky, using a bg I had laying around.

I also messed with the render effects. The first has an edge outline, the second is kinna toony, and the third… well its just washed out completely.  You can click to make it bigger.

And that concludes todays lesson 😀

At long last… she has been UNLEASHED!

And, since shes part of the PA Sale, you can ALSO save 50% on my entire store

But act fast, as it only lasts for one day!

Platinum club members can get Queen of the Nile and Olympian Goddess today for only $1.88!!!

Non-Platinum members can get them for 30% off

But hurry, this special price will last only one day (click the promos to go to each page at DAZ)

Yeah, Ive kinna started calling both programs Z4D, coz saying it is easier (plus, its kinna cute, no?)

So, I spent a few minutes this morning, waiting for my son to get up and did a little something special…..

What is it? Well… its a weirdo blob thing LOL But what it is isnt important! Its how it was made that is (yeah it was a test run, so I wasnt too serious about making it “something”)

I started out in C4D, with a polygon which was extruded into a kind of plate, extruded it again, so Id have thickness, then hypernurbs’d it and finalized the mesh (again, trying to see how well I can replace the shell in silo – and I think I easily could) Then, using GoZ (which I installed into C4D last nite) I sent it to ZBrush and deformed it in there. Then using UVMaster (in ZBrush), I unwrapped the uv’s (in about 2 seconds) Finally, I sent it back to C4D, and using Bodypaint, I painted it with one of the stock textures.

The biggest point of this exercise was to really test GoZ — which I accidentally discovered yesterday in Z, doing clothing morphs. What GoZ does, is take your mesh from C4D (or other high-end apps like max, maya or modo) and places it into ZBrush for deformations or polypainting. Once GoZ is set up, all you have to do is click one button, and it opens up Z and adds the mesh to the document window. When youre done in Z, by clicking another single button, you can send it back to C4D with the deformations and the texturing, including any shaders applied in Z, as well as displ maps, etc, being in tact… all without having to export any obj’s. From there, you can do other C4D things to it – like using Bodypaint, for example (tho, I cant see the point of using both polypaint and bodypaint – me, Id only ever use the latter)

So now, comes the picking at it part. Ok, so the uv’s are a damn mess IMO. Since UVMaster flattens uv’s in seconds, it puts the cuts in wherever it sees fit (and doesnt give you the option to do so how you wish, like UVLayout) So, unless you have edge cuts already done in your mesh itself, UVMaster kinna butchers the uv islands (which I was already aware of before – this is not the first time I used UVMaster) I personally wouldn’t map that way, as its messy and anyone not using a projection painter would have a horrible time with seams (its not particularly good for Poser content, for that reason – but prolly is dandy for gaming content and such) So, unless I learn how C4D’s mapping system works (which isnt a high priority for me) or cut up my mesh in C4D (which Im not keen on doing), Id still export it out and map in UVLayout. But it was kinna neat that I could do all this in 2 programs, without having to export anything.

Finally, I messed with the mesh in ZBrush someore, just playing around. I turned the weirdo blob thingie into a butterfly. Rendered in Z with an oxide matcap.

Its been a few days since I really messed with C4D… so I decided to mess around with it a little this morning. Nothing major today, as I wasnt much up for it. But I gotta keep on…..

The more I use it though, the more Im convinced this is my definitive modeller.

Theres…. nothing really special about this, save the fact its my initials (and yeah, C4D can do text too out of splines, but thats not how this was done)

Basically, I wanted to box model in here a little bit (since I do a ton of box modelling) as well as figure out a replacement for the shell feature in Silo (which basically turns a flat polygon into a two sided, thickened mesh) I also wanted to figure out the protocols for smoothing it too, since thats also how I build my outfits. See, to smooth in Silo, you only have to subdivide, coz everything is already nurbs based. And if you want it to stay crisp, you apply a crease to the edges you want crisp. In C4D, however, u turn it into a nurbs object (otherwise, the edges stay creased, no matter how many times you subdivide – subd only adds polygons)

Interesting little difference in the way the two work. The question remains though…. can you have it both ways? Im most undoubtedly sure…. but Ive yet to figure that out.

There is no shell equivalent that will automatically do what Silo does – best you can do is box model something and give the box actual dimensions and then apply the hypernurbs and delete the backside polys. Or to extrude the edges of the flat box and pull them into the back side. Not a big deal tho…. I faked it in Silo too at times without using shell. Its a small price to pay, to be able to have everything C4D does.

Ive also learned the difference between subdivision editor, and subdivision renderer on the hypernurbs settings (the numeric values each is based on)  The editor surely puts the poly in, so that you can visibly see how it subdivides in the viewport. But unless the renderer matches that number, when you finalize a mesh, it wont be subdivided to the editor number – it will be based on the renderer number. Even if you have the editor set to 20000000 poly levels, if the renderer is set to 2, thats what it will be (also, how something will render as well)

But I also notice that C4D (as Ann had said) can create some bad poly, just at random when applying extrusions and junk. But honestly, if you know your topology, its not any worse than any other modelling program, and can be fixed simply. I had already learned before, when doing my urn, how to draw poly, and fill poly holes. Today, I learned the stitch and sew tool, which is very cool. In the case of vertices, where the points are separated, but do not form quads (to be able to draw a poly), stitch and sew is what you use to fuse them together into one vertice.

And can I just mention HOW FRIGGON NICE it is, to be able to align the normals, and have it actually work! Silo fronts that it can, but it always just crashes on me and then I have to reverse them one friggon poly at a time.

Finally, I messed with the render settings before rendering this. I added an object glow, to make it glowy.

So, sit down kids, while Iggy tells the tale of her running the roads today, after spending much time being all nocturnal like. I havent spent much time in actual sunlight, in like 2 mos…. seriously. In fact, Im fairly suspicious that I might turn into a gremlin now (but at least the fear of the sun exploding me into oblivion abated… and no, I dont sparkle in it, either)

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away (from my office anyway) I decided to go run some errands. Among these errands, included going to a huge Borders on Ft Lauderdale beach, to locate a book for C4d (I figured if anyone would have it, it would be the ginormous, snobby bookstore of the city) I also had to make a deposit at the bank. So whooosh, off we went.

We get to borders with its flashy two storeyness and promises of any book you could ever dream of. I locate the “computer geek paradise” (actually referred to as the computer reference section) and BEHOLD… the holy grail of all book stores. They’ve got books on max, photoshop and Zbrush en masse. Wanna learn Dreamweaver, Flash or Cold Fusion? You’d have 40 different books to choose from! They even had programming books for every form of code you could ever dream of learning…. as well as sql. but ! godammit…. no C4D book. Drove 17 miles…. in the end of summer high noon sun, uphill both ways (no seriously, uphill… its on the intercoastal, so had to drive over a drawbridge lol) for naught!

Borders – Ft Lauderdale Intercoastal

Next stop was the bank, which was, amusingly and unbeknownst to anyone, 10 meters from borders, according to the gps. Handy! Now, we bank at Bank of America, which has these nifty ATM’s you can do a deposit at, and enter fat wads of cash all at once, and a crapload of checks to boot, and it sees all that junk! Its very fast and handy, not to mention accurate, and it even prints out a little reciept with all the check images on it! BUT!!! Not this friggon one!!! No, it was the retarded stepchild of the normal ATM’s at our bank, and it made us enter the 7 checks 1…. by…. 1 (even noah got 2 by 2, geez) In the end of summer, high noon, hot florida sun. Weee!

So, since the Galleria was right there, I thot to myself… “Self, I wonder if they have a bookstore inside?” Now, the Galleria is a mall where all the rich people go to shop.  You can merely gaze upon it and catch a waft of the smell of money floating on the floridian seabreeze. In fact, my dad used to shop there (which says a lot to me, but you prolly dont really get all that) But anyway, I digress. We toddle into the Galleria, and locate the little directory. Not. 1. friggon. bookstore. in. the. whole. damn. place. Which started a whole debate on whether rich people read or, just had their hired poor peoples read to them. Or just didnt bother to read anymore, coz they dont need to improve anything, as he with the most money, wins…. or some crap. I would think they’d instatiably read, with nothing better to do with their time (aside from shopping at the snobby mall, of course)

The Galleria Mall in Ft Lauderdale

So, we leave the galleria, and drive by Ft Lauderdale beach (it was how we had to go to get back west) And we catch a glimpse of the strangest freakin vehicle ever – it was a bus, it was a boat…. it was a boatbus (basically, a boat fused to a wheel frame of like something between a mack truck and a lawnmower) In fact, I dubbed it that… boatbus (not to be confused with shortbus…. or maybe it should have been…. hmmm) Anyway, the boatbus, which was some hokey tour bus en route without passengers, nearly assaulted us, by cutting into our lane (on my side, no less), coz the driver was clearly and obviously inept at driving boatbuses. It was also very loud, this boatbus…. it was blaring obnoxious callypso music or some crap, so that everyone’s car radios were overtaken by the noise. Methinks boatbus was overcompensating…. but thats just a theory.                              

Behold!!! the boatbus…

picture not by me. Apparently, this thing gets around a lot…..

So then, we’re driving to barnes and noble, yet another bookstore to search for the bra that fits… errr.. i mean the C4D book (shit, Im getting my storylines confused here… chuckles at Ann) We get a red light, and this mack truck (not to be confused with boatbus) pulls up next to us. Im sitting there all unawares…. window wide open, and I catch this waft of a smell — and it wasnt the money from the Galleria this time…. oh no, I couldnt be so lucky. Instead, this smell resembled what a diaper genie smells like when you dont clean it out fast enuff. But tenfold. It was HORRIBLE!!!! I rolled up the window, once again, end of summer high noon sun in Florida. To hell with it tho, Ill die of the heat before the smell. Alas… IT PERSISTED! THRU THE WINDOW!!! The light must have been laughing its ass off at me holding my nose and making all kinds of stinky gestures at the horrible stench (not even the bog of eternal stench could have been that bad) coz it freaking REFUSED to change. It must have made us wait something like 7 minutes, taunting me…. or what felt like 7 minutes anyway, next to the horrible poopy truck. When the light changed, I yelled OMG GO FAST! Get away from that guy! The poopy truck was in the going right lane, but IT TURNED LEFT WITH US INSTEAD!! And Im all omfg nooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I am fairly suspicious that he noticed my grossed out gestures, and did it on purpose. Thankfully, we smoked his ass with a quickness, so we didnt have to sit next to it again. And it led me to ponder aloud rather rhetorically, whether or not he got my reaction from alllll the people he drove up next to…. or HELL, even within a 5 mile radius.

I dont have a picture of that, sadly…. but youd have to smell it anyway, to fully grasp it.

So, now we have a boatbus, and a poopytruck. WTF?

Soooo, to barnes and noble we finally get. And I mistakingly start at the other end of the store, and searched everywhere…. only to find the section i was looking for in the last part I hadnt searched, on the other side of the store. Doh. Annnnnnnnnd…. heres the clencher…. NO CINEMA 4D BOOK…. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH! But every other friggon book known to man.

Tell me whyyyyyyyy something as mainstream as C4D is, is not on any bookstore shelves? WTF???

Finally, I gave up the ghost and went home empty handed. No book, and only the warm, glowing memories of retarded boatbus and poopy truck. I couldve DIED TWICE (once from boatbus, and the other from the stench) and had nothing to show for it.

Shoot me now….