Ok so I did a mini tutorial, showing how to convert to subd in DS4P, coz its a bit different than it was in DS3A and kind of obscured in the UI. This was mostly coz if I write something down and see it in image form, I remember LOL But figured it might help other people, too.

Just click the image to englarge – everything Ive used is highlighted in Yellow.

 * Select figure in Scene Tab

*  Select little arrow dropdown (circled in the image) then select edit, then select convert to SubD (mine is greyed out, as the figure has already been converted)

* Select the General Tab and scroll all the way to below the dials (make sure the figure is selected in the scene tab, or it will not show the subd options

* Select Resolution level as high resolution

* Enter Subdivision level (mine is shown at 2)

Note: My UI might be different than yours, as I have added the “Scene” (among other things) to my left (and right tabs) I am also using City Limits for my workspace.

So, what does adding SubD in DS do? It adds polygons to a mesh, to make it more refined than the object actually is. This allows you to model a lower poly mesh, and then refine it in DS to look smoother (which is more efficient than modelling it high poly to begin with)

Take a look at this illustrated example to see what I mean:

And yes, for the record, my UI did change colors lol The first screenie was done before I changed it to teal

Got what it takes to render evil? Got a kick ass gallery? Well you might just be able to join my newest entourage – The Axis of Evil!

If you’re interested in becoming an official Damage Inc Art contributor, drop me a line in email with a gallery link to check out your stuff.

PLEASE NOTE: All submissions are subject to approval and only so many slots are available. You will receive notice if you are accepted within 1-2 weeks. Also, please be aware that your gallery examples will be judged on stringent quality and exemplary execution. If you are not accepted, do not feel badly – it doesn’t mean your work is not good. I am just looking for absolute perfection and consistency (as they say, membership has its privileges)

What you get if you’re accepted:

• * You will officially represent Damage Inc with your awesome art everywhere – be it DA, DAZ or Renderosity, et al.
  

• * Official Contributor status on my DA group (located here – http://damageinc3d.deviantart.com/)

• * Official Axis of Evil status on a special hierarchy page on my website, for all the world to see.

• * You will also be added to a special Axis of Evil group on my forum as well, in the back end where no one can see (located here – http://damageinc3d.net/phpBB/)

• * FREE STUFF! Oh yes… you get my stuff free, just for rendering it all awesome-like.

What you will have to do once approved:

• * Register on my forum – its free (link is above)

• * Join my Deviant Art group (link is above)

• * Render to your heart’s content

Interested? Well what are you waiting for? Submit now to:

IgnisSerpentus@damageinc3d.net

So… Ive been messing around in Z – this time with ZSpheres all weekend, working on a new pack. ZSpheres are so friggin fun to play with. I modelled this tree with them, and added extra deformations and stuff. Decided to turn it into an image… its rendered in Z. The leaves and fog were added in PS.

It might end up in the pack… if I decide to tackle the mapping manually. Sadly, UVMaster couldn’t handle it.

Totally gooby title, I know… but it fits all the same.

LOOKOUT! Im fired up and ready to aim my arrows. So if youre easily offended, you might want to close your browser… like right now. No, like 4 seconds ago.

There are two major problems with this world, as I see it – religion and politics. If both were absent, the world would be a much brighter place.

Recently, NY passed a law that gays can be married. Id like to say…. WAY TO GO NY…. ITS ABOUT TIME! And certainly ITS HIGH TIME the rest of the country followed suit. But… YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TELLING PEOPLE WHO THEY CAN LOVE AND MARRY IN THE FIRST PLACE! And this is PRECISELY one reason WHY I cannot STAND politics, and this country. You say we’re free? I call BULLSHIT! There’s hardly anything about this country that is free – its a monarchy disguised as a government. But thats a rant for another day.

I do, however, applaud NY for being one of few states that was ballsy enuff to oppose the general disdain at gay marriage…. even if the opposition shouldnt have been the case from square one. Better late than never, I suppose.

But digressing here… Ill tell you why the govt wont allow gay marriage. It has everything to do with one word…. r e l i g i o n – the other evil meat. And religion likes to think it controls the world. But I suppose a country, who continuously puts religion in the seat of power, is just as bad as they are, and is giving them a reason to believe that. Ohhhh its horrible that gays are in love? Its against god, against the bible, you say? We shouldn’t have to be exposed to that? Well, then close your friggon eyes. Again, I REPEAT … YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TELLING PEOPLE WHO THEY CAN LOVE AND MARRY! So, why dont you right wing bible bangers go sacrifice yourselves to your god and give the rest of us a break from your dogmatic rhetoric. 

Oh I know… I sound like a rude and intolerant ass. And my only utterance in response to that would be…. it takes one, to know one…. doesnt it? Its no fun when that crap lands on you, is it? Do unto others…. just like your blessed book says.

I heard a pretty good quote the other day, in a movie, or a show… something I was watching, anyway. A girl was asked why she was Satanic. And her response was…. its the only religion that accepts everyone. That speaks in volumes…. coz its absolutely TRUE. While Im not Satanic (I dont believe in the devil) I would ABSOLUTELY prefer to be a part of a religion who accepts everyone for who they are. Even one that has a stigma of evil attached to it (but only coz its opposition spins it that way – coz, if you ask me, most organized religion is E V I L, the subject of this blog being a prime example of WHY)

Now, to clarify…. I dont have a problem with people who believe in God. At least, not the ones who are actually decent people, who don’t judge others, and don’t shove their crap down others’ throats- you know, the ones that ACTUALLY understand what the bible is about. Im actually quite open minded- a live and let live kinna gal and accepting of all religions and people. But this judgemental bullshit pisses me off so badly. Maybe you religious judgemental creeps should go back to Sunday school and learn what the  bible is REALLY about – tolerance, forgiveness and LOVE. And obviously, as you don’t know the meaning of those words, you should look them up too, while you’re at it.

Also re the election: Show me a potential who is an Atheist… He/She will get my vote for this election. If you ask me, religion has no place in politics – an Atheist should be an obvious choice, as he/she would have no religious agenda tossed into the mix. You know, you CAN have good, solid, decent values, while simultaneously, not believing in God. Its called having a conscience.

That is all I have to say.

I need a doppleganger; how nice it would be,
to have a little clone who’s just like me

It could do all my work, long as the the day,
while I could just go out to shop and play

Although, shed prolly want to occasionally shop too,
and the bank acct would be dry once we were through

It could endlessly listen to me piss and moan,
and eternally gripe in my irritated tone

Of course, Id have to listen to my clone as well,
and would I get a word in edgewise? Its really hard to tell.

BUT… It would never interrupt my endless drivel,
Coz we are the same! And nothing rhymes with drivel…. 

We could talk about all the things that interest me,
and also the things that interest me, and interest me.
(HEY, me rhymes with me dammit)

And I know all the things that would bother myself,
enuff to not do them to… uhhh… myself

Id be into all the things, where I tend to be poured,
there would be no complaints that I am so bored….
no wait… Im sure there will be. Even more than before—d.

To end this bizarre ode Ive written so bold,
dont think the world could handle me two or tenfold.

So, thats my dad at the top. Pietro (or Peter in English) born December 20, 1923. As you might have guessed, yes, we’re Italian (he even spoke it, which I wish he could have taught me) This is one of my favorite pictures of him (I think because hes so down to earth here) He died when I was 12 yrs old.

I could say a lot of things about my dad – some of them not so nice. I didnt get along with him growing up…. and I didnt get to see him much, either. But thinking back, that was prolly half my doing – I used to get so bored at his house as a kid, that I never wanted to go. He was always trying to get me into sports…. he bought me my very first bike and taught me how to ride it.  I took tennis lessons growing up coz of him lol which I HATED. I dont have to tell you, I wasnt very sporty back then. I was fat, and awkward. And being such, I reflect back and think… he prolly had as hard of a time relating to me, as I did to him.

But its the funniest thing…. as an adult, I have become him. I am my dad through and through. Just looking at me, you can see I look like him the most. Sadly, even down to the early gray hair LOL And who I turned out to be is a lot of him as well (well, and a lot my mom too, but I digress) He’s where I get my tendency to tan and beach bum… where I get my passion for bike riding and my sporty side…. and partly why I am such a vagabond, run the roads type chicka. Even my vain, narcissistic side comes from him LOL (hey, just being honest here) as well as my “expensive taste” side. And growing up, I didnt have a ton of exposure to him, so those weren’t learned traits. I think thats just who we become through evolution. I can remember staying at his condo on the beach… I would fall asleep listening to jazz and the waves, coz I was afraid of the dark. I actually find myself longing for those days again and both eternally remind me of him. And everytime I bike ride, I feel closer to him than I ever did…. like he’s there riding with me. Sometimes, I swear he is.

I think that if he were alive today, him and I would have a far better relationship than we did when I was a kid. Coz I think I just relate to him better as an adult, and would actually enjoy the things we did that I thought were so boring and hated way back when (ok so, maybe not tennis per se LOL but you get the point) And as for his tendencies…. well, I may not agree with them all, but… as an adult, I think I could look past them. Maybe even understand why, to some degree, better than I did as a kid.

So, this is for you, dad… Happy Father’s day. We might not have been the perfect father-daughter, but I love you all the same.

Just an early morning doodle

The myth: Apollo was struck by one of Cupid’s arrows, in vengeance for sassing him – and it made him fall in love with the nymph, Daphne. But Cupid also struck Daphne with an arrow – one that made her repulsed by the thought of love. Apollo chased her feverishly, and she ran from his charms. As Daphne fled from Apollo, she cried out to her father Peneus, the River god, to help her. He turned her into a Laurel tree. From there on, Apollo honored the Laurel, by wearing crowns of laurel leaves and making the tree sacred.

Credits:
Forest Dryad by Mada, Thorne and Sarsa
Texture is Absinthe, by me
M4 (default tex) with Luthbel’s Gladiator outfit (at DAZ)
Vines by Art Collab (in Jungle Hideaway)
Bg by Sveva
Misc plants from…. I dunno lol
Rest is painted/postwork

So I had a dream about the Zombie apocalypse. It was terrifying and I hope I never have that dream again. In fact, as a direct result of that dream, Ive decided that if the Zombie Apocalypse actually takes place, I will be killing myself and not dealing with it. Not too long before that, I had a dream of the end of the world occuring; that the sun would supernova. Prophecies, perhaps? Doubtful lol Im more convinced that these are nothing short of being the result of all the bullshit about the end of the world stirring around lately. And looking back over the history of just after when Ive been born, the world has been plagued with these kooky claims…. thats not even including all the bs claims that came before.

Now me, Im particularly sensitive to the idea of the world ending. Its not only just terrifying to me, but ultimately depressing. I can handle the thought that Im mortal and will die eventually; or that anyone will. But the end of the world is so very dark to me. I guess I dont really like the thought that this wonderful world, and all life on this planet would cease to exist. I would much rather be convinced of it being there eternally, and that life would go on (even if its not true)

That said, I am SO FRIGGON SICK of hearing about the end of the world. Don’t people have anything better to do with their pitiful, end of the world wishing lives, than to sit around and claim the end is nigh? They’ve been doing this for centuries…. thousands of doomsday theorists, screaming at the top of their lungs that they know the world will end on this date, or that date; and theyre always wrong, wrong, wrong. This shit happens so frequently, I am surprised that psychiatrics hasn’t given it a name, and called it a bonified psychological disorder by now. If I could say one thing to any and all of you that do this? It would be SHUT THE :censored: UP!!! You’re scaring the children.

I remember as a child being absolutely TERRIFIED of Nostradamus. My mother, being interested in prophcies and whatnot, would watch these shows on him – one in partciular claimed that Florida would be under water by a certain year. And I remember her saying that we’d need to move by this year, which IIRC was the year 2000. She died that year…. and I didnt move. While the Everglades IS slightly under water, its no more than it ever was lol And now, I look back and think how utterly ridiculous this claim is. There is no volcanic activity near Florida; there is a fault line in the Gulf, but its so far away that only the West Coast could possibly feel some slight tremors- and unless the tectonic plates shift and create NEW faults, that’s not going to happen. There is no impending threat of a great flood or Tsunami that could occur in Florida. The only other possibility; by hurricane, which is at best, pretty retarded. Or an asteroid slamming into the ocean (but in that event, Id be more worried about the fallout from that, over a flood)

I remember at the turn of the millenium, the Y2K scare that claimed all our technology would shut down and screw up, and rolling blackouts would occur; that the stock market would crash, that this, that or the other would happen. And this was definitely going to happen, and worried everyone to frantics. BUT…. it went by, and nothing happened. I remember we got windows updates to correct the clocks on our computers, even. And I had a computer that didnt have that update installed, and it still worked just fine (just displayed the time incorrectly)

The heaven’s gate bs; that the comet Hale-Bopp would come by Earth on its usual travels, with a spaceship travelling behind it. Amassed believers all killed themselves, so their souls would ascend to the spaceship. When detectives uncovered the bodies, they most bizarrely were laid out in brand new nike sneakers, spare change in their pockets and weird blue patches they wore. But hmmmm… now that Im thinking about it, I guess theres really no way to know if it was true LMAO But that kook claimed it was to spare their lives from the end of the world, too – which, obviously, never happened. Well, at least, not for the rest of us. I guess it was the end of their world.

The more recent rapture lol Harold Camping claiming the rapture would absolutely take place on May 21st (who now claims that it was a quiet judgement, refuses to recant and still holds to the claim the world will end in October) And that wasnt even his first claim – his first was in 1994, which also did not come to pass (and he blamed on a mathematical error) Now, I waited and waited to start floating; and nothing happened lol (well, unless everyone in the world, including Harold Camping and his followers, are not worthy of ascension lol which IS COMPLETELY BELIEVABLE TO ME. People think they live so pristinely, especially devout believers, and I seriously doubt any of us really do)

As far as the end of the Mayan Calendar goes; ok yes, they were pretty accurate in their star charting. And yes, their civilization was obviously well-steeped in astronomy. But do I want to trust that an ancient civilzation, whom KILLED THEMSELVES OFF, BY POISONING THEMSELVES FROM DUMPING THEIR OWN HUMAN SACRIFICES INTO THEIR WATER SUPPLY, really knows wtf theyre talking about? LOL No! At the end of the day, they were STILL an ancient civilization without the tech we have in present day, whom theorized about shit they really knew nothing about. Maybe it was never intended to mean “the end of the world” maybe they just didnt plot it any further. And even if it was intended as the end, why the hell should I believe that? If we ran around believing the claims of ancient people, we would still be believing the earth is flat. If they were so wise and all-knowing, they’d still be around. And they are most definitely not.

Then theres the planet Nibiru (aka Planet X) lol This one is the most funniest doomsday theory ever! That theres a planet we cant see, that telescopes and radar cant detect, and its due to collide with the Earth and we will never see it coming. NASA has attempted to squelch these rumors, saying that anything the size of a planet could be seen with the naked eye, if it were that close to our planet, and other such facts based in Astronomy. But all people retort with, is that its a conspiracy theory, and NASA should not be trusted.

And to what end? As a fear factor? Its so sad to see people killing themselves in fear of this crap coming true; lives wasted coz of crackpots. And you’d think being proven wrong again and again would be enuff to deter this sort of bullshit. Alas, it doesnt… there’s always some new whacked-out person to scream new prophecies of doom and gloom. I for one think that this should be outlawed; that you shouldn’t be allowed to scream THE END IS NIGH! Coz look at the results. These claims actually have bad consequences, and never due to it actually occuring…. but scaring people literally to death…. into committing suicide, or throwing away all their worldly possessions, quitting their jobs, etc. Sure, maybe it makes them dumb for believing so intently. But does that mean it should be allowed in the first place? :shakes head: Beliefs are dangerous things.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, it might happen…. eventually, some day, somehow. And even if it did happen in our lifetimes, wtf could we possibly do? NOTHING. And I think I would prefer not to know, honestly. Live every day like its your last…. end of the world or not, our time is short here.

Because Ive been in tinker mode, I ended up making new banners for my site out of my blogs design. Tossing em up for anyone who wants to link to us 🙂 Our url is www.damageinc3d.net

Well, had a couple things to announce, so figured Id put it all in one post.

DS4 Compatibility Updates:

I have submitted updates to DAZ, so that my products will be compatible with DS4. While beta testing DS4, I noticed that a few of the outfits weren’t working properly, and some of the geometry was being omitted. The issue was extra lines in the obj code preceding the bodyparts, and it has since been resolved. I am not certain the updates have gone live yet or not (you will get an email announcing the update when they do, if you purchased any of these sets) The packs that have been updated are: Artik X, Vermillion Dawn, Azraella, Olympian Goddess and Queen of the Nile.

Tutorials coming to Weblog:

You will notice I have a new button on my weblog, called “Tutorials” Ive decided that my weblog serves as the perfect grounds for maintaining and keeping my tuts, so I am in the process of moving/converting all my old tuts to here instead of my mainsite. So you will start to see the smaller ones pop up here soon. For the lengthier tuts with full images, Ive decided those will be in PDF form, which will open in your browser. You can also conveniently save them to your hardrive or print them.

Ok figured Id toss up the ZBrush icons I made as well as the DS ones I did yesterday. These work the same way as the others, and theres versions for 2, 3 and 4 to present.

ZBrushIcons < Download File Here

Sooooo… I made new icons for DAZ Studio tonight. Basically, I make custom icons when I have more than one version of something on my system (so I can visually tell which one is which on my taskbar) Now that I have DS 3 and 4, I needed new icons. Figured Id toss em up for anyone who wants em.

To set an icon, you simply right click on a program shortcut (like DS) and go to properties. At the bottom, you will see “change icon” Click it, and a browse window will open – browse to the icon, click it to load it, and hit ok (or apply) Keep in mind, you need to keep the icon in a permanent location on your system, to keep the icon loading properly.

Heres a shot of how they look:

Custom Icons For DAZ Studio 3 & 4 <Download zip here

Figured since its the end of the world, I should get one more render in before then LOL

Credits:
Chicka is an unreleased character by moi
Dood is Troy from Art Collab
Cold Blooded also by me @ DAZ
BG by Sveva @ Rendo
Misc plants from Lisa B @ DAZ
Elf Age Light by 4Blueyes @ DAZ
Gladiator armor by Luthbel @ DAZ
Rest is painted or postworked