Its come up on several occasions; what religion am I? Especially recently with my son. So I thought Id write something out sort of explaining what precisely I believe in. This, by no means, covers every single aspect… but its a good start.

When asked this question, I always retort Pagan. Pagan, however, is a bit of a blanket term, and not entirely accurate to what I believe. I choose to use it, because there isnt really any religion that perfectly hits on what I believe, and its about as close as I can get. But its probably because what I believe, I dont consider to be a religion; its more like a way of life.

For one thing, Pagans are typically polytheistic, worshipping several gods, or even just two (a god and goddess, or the female/male aspects of all things) I, however, am a Pantheist – I dont believe in many gods. I dont even really believe in one. What I believe in, is a force – or a source of power that cannot be seen with the eyes. It is everything, and everything is it. It has no face, no name to call it. And it is the essence of everything that lives…. even us. I also have a reverence and love for nature, and all living things – and I seek to harness and nuture that energy for a greater good. So, I guess you can say Im a tree hugger.

I was born Catholic – Im half Italian, ’nuff said. My dad made me go to catholic church, growing up. Ive read the bible and I actually love the stories inside it. I think they’re interesting and they have good lessons. Even to this day, I watch the programs on Discovery, and Ive even been known to quote it on occasion (hey, wisdom is wisdom to me) But thats all I think they are – stories. The bible is nothing more than a device, created to further the divide between good and evil. And I often look upon that conceptualization as being… well, sad. Thing is, people should know the difference between right and wrong, without being told…. or being frightened into sobriety by some convoluted horned beast. So, what I essentially believe, is in Karmic law, and the laws of the Universe. I don’t believe in the Devil.

My mom, however, diametrically opposed to my father, was metaphysical – and I also grew up in a new age church. This was the path I willfully chose. It was always a concept that resonated with me and made more sense… and while she had somewhat different beliefs than I ended up having, she ultimately led me to what I believe in now (even if indirectly speaking)

Modern physics teaches us that electricity is eternal. And the energy that makes up us, comes down to electricity; one spark from a larger soruce of energy, both of which live forever. Modern medicine teaches us that the human brain receives impulses; or electric currents, which are routed thru “wires” or the stems of the brain, which stimulate certain characteristics, capabilities, talents, likes, and memories, etc.

The human construct is essentially infinite energy, which is encapsulated in an organic shell. But in organics, everything rots, fades with time, and eventually dies, since its susceptible to disease caused by pathogens and other agents of decay. But the energy does not die, as it is infinite. So when we die, our energy leaves our bodies to return back to nature, and start over once more. Everything we see that’s natural has energy; its just that some things are inanimate. That tree outside… even it has energy. It just lacks the capabilities to do anything but sit there (its simply not programmed or articulated to)

So given all that, do I believe in an ultimate creator? Well, I dont disbelieve in it, but I dont really cater to any belief of it, either. I dont profess to know HOW we came to be. It could be natural evolution…. or we could be engineered by another species entirely. Id be inclined to, however, believe more in the aforementioned to some degree; coz even if something created us, it creates another equal question in how that species was created. Somewhere down the line, spontaneous creation had to come into play. But in any case, I don’t honestly believe it was some supreme deity with a beard.

I also believe in reincarnation; and as far as regression goes, its not really about the memory of a past life, but rather an imprint of one that remains on our energy. I believe our energy manifests itself infinitely. And we can recall these lives thru hypnosis, because we tap into that energy imprint. Truth of the matter is, we can always tap into it. Its just as humans, we only have the capacity to use a small portion of our brains. And we have been “trained” to believe such things don’t exist. If we as a species feel, for the most part, that we don’t have a need to tap into that unused portion of our brains, what is the point of it being there? Hence why we are “generally” incapable and it lies dormant.

I also believe that all energy can be manipulated, for good and bad. Hence the term “magic” Well, its not really magic at all, if you think in more generic terms. Thats just a “word” humans use to describe something that defies explanation; an occurance that happens thru the concentration of thought to will the energy to do what we wish. Consider this: A computer…. you tell it to do a number of commands, and it does them. But a computational command is no more magic than manipulation of energy. And the same thing can be said for prayer.

So do I believe in good and evil? Well, yes… there’s a balance to all things, especially intention. You cannot have good without its counterpart and vice versa. So as already mentioned, I believe in Karma and that everything comes back to you. Because for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In a lot of the same way, it is also how intuition exists. I dont mean reading tarot cards, or tea leaves…. those are just tools that help us decipher things. All intuition is, is the capability of reading energy…. well, and learning to decipher each nuance. And again, everyone is perfectly capable… its just that most ignore such ideas.

I also believe in ghosts. But not in the way most tend to believe. Ghosts are the energies from those whom have passed on, with imprints on them just as we have with past lives. Since energy doesn’t die, where does it go, til it has a new place to exist? Nowhere. To actually add levity to this, the night when my mother died, all the light bulbs in the area where she fell, blew out all at once (and not just one, either) I am convinced it was a direct result of the energy leaving her body; and her ultimate way of telling me she’d gone.

In a sense, I am a fatalist. But only to a certain degree. I believe that there is a pattern to everything, and that some things ARE meant to be, or are orchestrated by a greater balance of things; but I also believe that we have the power to change the way things are and that nothing is written in stone. It is, afterall, our fate to do with what we wish. But this balance also tends to keep us from things, because better things await, or because the universe has a better idea than we do in what’s good for us. So when Im confronted with disappointment, you’ll often hear me utter the words “it wasn’t meant to be” And I don’t generally tend to fight it; I find that if I go with the flow, Im often led to something better.

To make another technological analogy, to explain this concept in different terms – programming. There are several ways you can code something to get a certain end result – how you go about acheiving that end, though, tends to be different in each code pathway. Some ways are easy…. some are hard. And some paths of code in the programming will simply not acheive the result you are looking for. Now one has free will, and can take that last path, beat themselves over the head in trying to make it do what they want, simply coz they are unwilling to accept the alternatives; but in the end, its sometimes just not meant to exist and thereby, you have no choice but to take the alternatives.

If this is starting to sound like I’m coming at this from a technological angle, its not entirely off-base. In a lot of ways, how I believe is very similar to technology. Computers harness energy; and they have a brain, and can (to some degree) think. Our computers, however, to current standards, can only compute so much because thats all they are programmed to do. Our programming, however, is far more advanced… we just havent reached our full potential as a species. Also, step outside the box and consider this for a moment…. computers have been built to harness energy, and use it to better our lives. But “technology” is not something we invented; It was something that was always there, that we figured out a way to tap into. Some people use their extra sensory gifts to perceive energy, or even change it – that is all computers do as well (even if only to a lesser degree at this point)

Its really not mystifying, I suppose, to think of things in terms of this. But lets face it, ancients had a way of mystifying everything that couldn’t otherwise be explained. Like calling a solar eclipse the Sun god Re, or believing the Earth was flat. Its always only a matter of time til science reveals the true nature of things.

So now I come to the part where I have Gnostic leanings. Well, we are pure “light”, and there is a “hidden” world, waiting to be discovered in a different plane of existence. And once we learn how to become that pure energy, the energy from our beings will no longer require a body to exist. We will no longer require a mouth to communicate. We will no longer need air to breathe, or water to live. And from then on, there will be no boundaries.

Well, I figured Id put this up some place, coz its a handy thing to know (and remember, if you’re senile like me lol) This basically turns something that conforms into a parented “figure” instead.

So why on Earth would u ever want to do this? Well, in the cases of Helms that are conforming, or hats and such, you might want to. You see, when you conform a helm or a hat to V4, it deforms with her head movements. And no amount of joint editing or falloff adjustment makes it work like it should (that being, not deforming with her head movements and staying with her head instead) If you have extra posing parts coming off it? You’re even more screwed, as they will not pose correctly at all, and you’ll end up with that part being “stuck” while the rest deforms into mush. In order to make it so its stationary, but also keeps its functions (like posable parts, etc) you need to trick poser into believing its a posable prop – a weird hybrid between prop and figure.

Sooo, in order to do this trick, you need to change a few things in your CR2. For the sake of this tut, Im using a my War Helm from Vermillion Dawn since it was done this way, and the head is my target. Im also using this as an example, coz well… a skull would definitely not deform like it does when it is conformed, since its solid. So its a perfect example of why you want to do it this way instead.

After all your rigging is done, first, youre going to open your CR2 in something like Edit Pad, so you can see the code. Locate actor BODY. At the top, you will see the following code:

name    BODY
on
bend 1
dynamicsLock  0
hidden  0
addToMenu 1
castsShadow  1
includeInDepthCue  1
useZBuffer  1
parent UNIVERSE
creaseAngle 80

See where it says parent UNIVERSE? You need to change that to: smartparent head:1

Now, that its changed, don’t go loading it quite yet. Theres a few more tricks to this.

First off, if you loaded it in Poser right now, Poser would most likely crash. Why? Simply because its trying to parent itself to itself. This occurs when the parent is to head:1 and the instance numbers in your CR2 are also :1. You need to force it to see V4 as :1 and itself as :2. So youre going to change them all in your CR2 to :2, by doing a quick search and replace in edit pad. In the search field type :1 and in the replace field type :2. Then hit replace all. Note, this is also going to change the parent u just added to :2 – you will need to change that back to :1.

Also, so this trick will work in DS, you need to do another thing. Type “conforming 1” in your search field, and hit enter. It will take you to a line that says just that. Change the 1 to a 0. This will make it so it doesn’t auto conform in DS (and thereby, overrides the conforming function completely, so it parents instead)

Finally, the last part to making this work right. Poser will automatically omit the BODY on this, coz it sees it now like a prop and props do not have BODY actors. So any FBM’s for morphs you have will disappear altogether on you. That is, if you make the BODY the node for your FBM’s. DS’ Morph Loader Pro and ERC freeze will allow you to choose what node you want for your FBM’s. So instead of choosing the default root of the figure in DS (named after the figure name) (aka BODY in Poser), you’re going to change it to head.

Sadly, you cannot choose where to put the FBM in Poser, when making FBM’s…. so in there, youre kind of stuck just doing them like normal, and then manually changing them in edit pad or some equivalent. Thankfully, fixing them is simple. Open the CR2 in edit pad, and locate the ERC code on each morph (search for “valueOpDeltaAdd” to find the first of five lines of ERC code) You only need to change the BODY:1 in the ERC code to head:1 instead (also pretty simple using search and replace all – just copy the ERC lines and paste in the search field and in the replace field… then change the replace field to head:1 – hit replace all. Note, do not just search and replace BODY:1 – its important to include part of the ERC code in your search/replace parameters, or you will only end up replacing ALL with head:1 and it will break the CR2)

Also note, if you have Easy Pose rigged into the figure, you also need to make that node the head as well. Since Easy Pose is basically ERC controls, they function just like FBM’s – and if you make the Body the node, it will disappear like the FBM’s for the morphs.

Now, when I go to load my War Helm, it poses with her head as it should (being fully stationary) YET, the jaw still hinges and the posable parts still move as they should. All the FBM’s/Easy Pose dials are located on the head, so people can still use full body morphs and EP to control the entire figure (even though Poser has now omitted the BODY actor completely) Be sure to note the head is the node in your readme or something, so people know to use it instead for the FBM’s.

Keep in mind, should you need to save the figure again, Poser will default the code back to the way it should be, and you will have to do this all over again. Its pretty simple, though, so no big deal if it happens. But if you don’t wanna have to keep redoing it, its best to leave this step for last.

Lastly, this has been tested and works in P4, P5, P6, P7, and PP2010. It also works in DS2, DS3 and DS3 Advanced. It works on multiple instances of V4, with multiple instances of the parented figure.

And that’s all there is to it…..

My newest set has released – a cute pair of boots for Victoria! Available now at DAZ

Where is Victoria going today? Will it be the Frozen Tundra or out to the local mall? Wherever she goes, she needs the perfect boots to accessorize with! And ones that are comfy on her poor feet, besides.

Artik X Boots are the best of both worlds. These versatile, yet trendy boots were designed to withstand sub-zero temperatures. With padded soles and a 3″ shock-absorbing wedge, they’re also uber comfortable to wear for hours! But what good is comfort and durability, without appeal? Sporting a flirty lace-up closure with ties in the front, they are sure to be the perfect addition to Victoria’s closet.

Dearest Old Navy,

You have been a longtime friend to me. For years, I have faithfully shopped with you, spent thousands of dollars and donated hundreds maybe even thousands by now to goodwill (due to my incorrigible shopping habits) When we first met, it was love at first sight. You had the coolest tricks in town, the best prices… and your clothing was beyond worthy of my well-earned dollars. That was something like 8 yrs ago.

It is for these reasons, what I have to tell you might come as a shock. Now, Ive been holding this back for quite a long time. Its finally gotten to a point where I can no longer remain silent. I regretfully inform you that I am leaving you for another. Well… several others, actually. The reason? Over the years, I have witnessed your quality go down the tubes… which has been saddening to say the least. For instance, the tank tops I always buy (in many hues of cornea fusing shades) have become well… flimsy. I have bought three black ones, coz they keep ending up with friggon holes. 2 Blue ones besides, for the same reason. When I first started collecting these tanks, the total which ranks to startling numbers, the fabric was thick, and the fit was much tighter and held its shape much better. In fact, I still own one of these originals, and I solemnly look upon it, and wish for a time that once was. A time that will most likely never be again.

While I still buy these tank tops (and most likely will continue to as time goes on, here and there) I refuse to spend more than $8 bucks for them, and only buy them anymore when I have a coupon code, or they are on sale. They’re good for lounging about and whatnot, but they’re not worth more than 8 dollars, considering how well they hold up. I might as well piss kerosene on Ben Franklin’s and set them aflame.

Now, this little fact of the matter, I could easily accept. No big deal, we can’t always have our way. And I can dig on that. If it were only that fact of the matter….

I began noticing other trends…. your prints… your styles… your flimsy fabrics became a staple of your shopping catalog. I can’t recall the last time I bought a shirt other than those cornea fusing colored tanks. Hey, I know what you’re gonna say…. well, the economy is bad, and blahblahblah…. we had to make cuts for profit purpose and blahblahblah. Not to mention, some inane bullcrap about the 70s making a comeback to blow up our bums. Those ARE NOT good excuses to feed your customers CRAP! Esp the paying ones. Esp when the price didn’t drop. And esp when you keep cooler and higher quality items for your sister stores and price them at 100000$!!! (ok thats a bit of an exaggeration but…. still. I will not pay 100$ for a single top, you insane people)

Also, I think you’re taking your name “Old Navy” a little too literally these days as well. It used to be you featured millenium-appropriate clothing. But now…. you see, theres a reason those prints and styles went out in the 70’s – they weren’t cool then, either. Its like afro’s… some things should be left dead, like the horrible carrot, baby-shit green and pee yellow color schematics of that era. This is the millenium… I dont wanna dress like the mom from the Brady Bunch, thanks.

So, I began shopping for tops at different places – Body Central… as well as Fredericks of Hollywood (at least, those are the typical haunts these days – or anywhere I catch stuff that floats my boat) It’s a pretty safe bet anywhere but your store, sadly enuff.

But that wasnt even the last straw for me. I held steadfast and continued to shop in spite of that…. but…

Finally, you did the unthinkable. Not only did you take away my awesome tops, but now the bottoms too! Now, Im an avid jeans addict – I have 20 pairs sitting in my bedroom right now (and countless others Ive donated) Alas, I look upon your jeans section these days with grave distress and mourning. Skinny jeans? You have got to be KIDDING ME! Didn’t those go out in the 80s? Hey, I love the 80s too, but not THAT much. Bootcut all the way! And the other heinous fad you also started carrying is “drawstring jeans” WTF was the idiot that thought that was a good idea? Do you know how sloppy drawstrings on jeans look? What’s next, farmer’s overalls???? Ive waited …. for months…. in hopes that new arrivals would show up. Alas, all that ever does show up…. more skinny jeans, drawstring jeans, flared 70’s Im too cool for my afro jeans and the “jeans your mom would wear” dreamer rise that you carry the most of anymore. Yeah, I tried a pair of those… and brought them back before I hurled all over them. It was a close call, but fortunately, I managed in the nick of time.

Now I spose I could shop at the Gap (and occasionally actually do) But, sorry… I don’t do preppy. Most of the clothing at the gap comes across as snobby and stuffy to me. Id die if I ever wore an argyle cardigan :makes horrible wretching sounds: Athleta… yeah, there is some cool stuff there…. if I wanna sell my firstborn for it (I do not) All coz u feed the public some bs about them being anti-microbial. Shit, Ill take my chances…. cotton never steered me wrong or made me dead.

Sadly, Ive finally come to terms with it – old navy has become a graveyard for old women who are stuck in the 70’s. So, Ive started buying jeans at Alloy now… as they actually have CUTE JEANS… and many of which are even lower priced than yours (not that it matters, really… Id gladly pay 40$ for jeans that I absolutely LOVE, rather than ones I merely settled for)

I sincerely hope you will bring in some REAL clothes soon… coz if not…. do you hear that sound? Its the sound of my dollars, flapping out of your window. And I should tell you, I dont buy clothes coz I need them…. I buy em out of compulsion. But hey, your loss… not mine. Other stores will be glad to feed my addiction.

That is all I have to say.

Sincerely,
A irritated snake

So, this is the first time Ive really worked in PP2010. I can honestly say that I do like it, but there are some things that irk me. So since I need to stay up for a good hour, I figured Id compile a complaint list…. coz well, Im bored. Lucky you….

Its infernally slow. Theres like a delay to loading textures, which is absolutely asinine considering what Im running over here. The same delay occurs with deleting figures (though it doesnt seem nearly as bad as P7 is)

The friggon flocking fruity docking of windows. Oh its great, but unless u make sure once you have it set up, you make it so it cannot move, its annoying. I screwed up my UI TWICE tonight, just working in it. Learned how to lock it down with a quickness.

The lack of refreshing library content. This one significantly pisses me off, actually. And yeah, I know theres a refresh button thingie – but only when u have the tree view set, and I do not. So, if I make a new folder or delete something outside of poser, or overwrite something IN poser, I cannot see it. I cannot even fathom why they would do that.

It also will not allow me to delete a library folder, when inside Poser. I dunno why, but the stupid minus icon will NOT show up.

For some reason, if you have normals fwd checked off on a plain mesh, it will show the mesh grid. I dunno why…. it just does, coz its retarded. So to do plain mesh renders, gotta make sure normals fwd is unchecked. Dumb…. really dumb. I also presume that it will even do this with a texture on – it just doesnt show up as much, coz of the texture.

Now, in an attempt not to be all pissy poo poo, Im now gonna list some things I really like about it.

I love that you can compare renders for up to 10 (or more) cached renders. That is too cool. I use the slider A LOT to compare renders. Now that I can do so many of them is even better!

Multi undos, of course. Sooooo nice to be free of the one undo curse. But I had that in P7, too.

That they included a zero figure option. I cannot tell you how much I will use that damn thing. Only wish they had a zero morphs option too (but oh well, I have a py script for that)

Drag and drop conform. I dont think I need to really explain why thats bitchin’

That you can load one obj over multiple groups on a figure. Only wish you could batch load them (but I still have morph loader pro in DS for that) Also, I love that the morph brush actually works across the figure now too. That’ll be handy for little touchups to morphs and junk.

How freakin fast it renders… and that I can utilize all 6 of my cores, instead of only 4 in P7.

And I think thats sufficient (though Im sure there are other things – esp things I haven’t even used as of yet) All in all, I do really like it. I just hope they fix some of the weirdy bugs that it has, though.

I am holding a contest – but not just any ol render contest. This one puts your texturing and special FX skills to the test!

The contest charges the entrants with making new special FX for Hexxus, the sword from my newest set that just released during March Madness.

Wanna join in the fun? Check this post in the Commons at DAZ for all the details

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=2824312#2824312

Disgust fills the void in my gut where you once crawled in and died

And I have no displeasure in missing it

For, I cannot feel a thing.

Numbness washes over and encompasses me in its icy chill of non-being. 

An eternity to remain, this time.

To feel… what an intriguing concept that must be!

to a low-level species as thus…

as if worms that crawl on their bellies could ever find such a thing as a red, ripened heart…

 beating within them…

where there is none.

So, last nite, I stayed up pretty late and watched the rebuilding of Jesus’ face. Which they did by extracting the information from the Shroud of Turin (what is considered to be the shroud that wrapped Jesus, after he was removed from the cross) It was a pretty interesting process… especially since it kind of delved into 3D, which is what I do for a living. That stuff always tends to fascinate me (and you’d think I’d be sick of it by now)

By now, Ive also seen a ton of Jesus programs besides. Ok, so religion is always something that interests me…. and the Bible is really no different. I’ve actually read most of it, if not all by now. My mom and grandfather taught me a lot about God and the Bible too. And to this day, I watch those programs all the time…. they always manage to suck me in. 

But regarding the part, where its the actual shroud that wrapped Jesus….. what do I think? I think the proof is pretty uncanny…. although, I also think that it could’ve been anyone, as much as it could’ve been Jesus. But mostly…. I think that its kind of a morbid way to pay your respects to someone, who was respected as the son of God. And thats kind of the problem Ive always had with Catholicism – they seem to spend too much of their time celebrating Jesus’ death, rather than his life. Which Im pretty certain he never intended for.

I was actually born Catholic, by my father’s Italian lineage. I renounced it tho, at a young age. I remember as a (very young) kid, I experiemented with many religions. For a time, I wore a star of David, ate Latka’s and boldly proclaimed I was Jewish (and there wasn’t a jewish bone in my body) But in the end, I actually chose Paganism (but not the polytheistic side of it – yeah, its kinna complicated) After watching the program, Id also boldly claim that I have Gnostic leanings…. but thats a blog for another time. Getting back to my point…..

I remember once, growing up, my mom saying to me that crucifixes bothered her (which is the predominant symbol of Catholicism) And the reason is because they always depicted Jesus hanging on the cross, as if it were a celebration of the act, moreover than a rememberance for why he died; for our sins. And people spend too much time mourning the loss, instead of celebrating the very point he was attempting to drive home.

There’s a fine line between rememberance and sensationalizing an event that was considered a tragedy; or using that event as a means to sensationalize the message. If the message is worth hearing, it should stand on its own. Something Ive always thought, and which bothers me about most organized religions (the fact they feel the need to force it on me, rather than letting it stand on its own)

Sooo… yeah. Guess I kind of see the Shroud of Turin the same way. I dont need to know what the man looked like, to know his message was of value. I dont need to see the act of crucifying him or any other human, to understand the wrongs of this world and how that is seriously fucked up. I just think we’d be better suited to remember what he stood for and all that implies; not how he died. But thats just my humble opinion.

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I gotta rant, coz I recently heard the (bogus) news about the new 13th Zodiac, Ophiuchus. Hell, Ive even had friends and family members go out of their way to call me and discuss it with me. Now Im gonna rant why its total and utter bullcrap.

All it takes is one uneducated comment, to spur the world into a panic attack. And thats just what the announcement that there is a 13th Zodiac was – an uneducated comment. They failed to mention the part where it was Vedic Astrology, and here, we use Tropical (and personally, I think they need to print a retract… but thats a different story)

Ive studied western astrology for damn near my entire life, ever since I was young (as Im Pagan) However, I dont consider myself to be an expert, by any means, as I haven’t completely devoted my life to it. For a short time in my studying, I looked at Vedic Astrology (although, I found it to be terribly inaccurate and quickly reverted) And yes, Ive even studied Serpentarius the Snake Bearer long before now, as its been a controversial subject in the Astrological community for years. I even counted it in a series of Zodiac images Ive been working on for the better of a year. But most Westernized astrologers don’t count it – it is part of the Sidereal Zodiac, and only 1 percent of the Westernized populous adhere to Vedic Astrology. Some who dabble with Astrology purely on a superficial level might actually take it into account in some form or another, coz hey, it sounds cooler than their own sign… or coz theyre adhereing to the rules of ASTRONOMY and not ASTROLOGY.

So what is Vedic Astrology? Well, its the type of Astrology they teach in India. Western Astrology is based on the Tropical Zodiac, which affixes the signs to our seasons – with Vedic, it is based on the Sidereal Zodiac, and the signs are affixed to the Constellations. The reason Westerners adhere to the Seasons, is because the seasons are what affect us the most, so it centralizes the planetary energy to our location – planet Earth. And this will never change, as our seasons will never change. When you affix the signs to the Constellations, its a little too wide ranged and changable over time, from the Earth wobbling. The result of that is sudden claims that a new sign has been inducted, and the entire system has now changed (well, in reality, Ophiuchus isn’t really new to Vedic Astrology – but the possibility of even newer concepts being introduced to the system in the future is not only prevalent – its inevitable)

Western Astrology is a delicate balance; of elements, numerology, mathematics and dates and this is WHY it works so well and how it tends to be so accurate. You have 4 elements, and 3 signs in each element, all nice and even – but with Ophiuchus tossed in, you have an oddball. Where does it go? Is it Air, Earth, Fire or Water? Or is it a completely different element? If its that latter…. well how does that work? 5 elements? Only one sign ruled by this odd, made-up element? What about the other signs, and why is Serpentarius soooo special? If its not configured to a new element, than I go back to my original thought – which element gets an extra sign? And why is it sooooo special? There is also a certain order the elements go in; fire, earth, air and water. And it repeats that pattern throughout the Zodiac, in order of the signs. You stick Serpentarius in, and you have a double somewhere. Or you completely mess up the pattern, otherwise.

Beyond that, there are also 12 houses for 12 signs. So which house gets the extra sign? And why does that house not fit with Ophiuchus either? (each house meaning fits each sign, characteristically, and in the same exact order that the Zodiac goes) Since each sign gets its own house cusp, it’s most likely that in Vedic Astrology, Serpentarius creates a 13th house. But what IS that the house of? Given how little information is available on Serpentarius, I fail to see how one could even accurately create a new house cusp, and make it understandable to the masses to even follow Vedic Astrology. And having this new house cusp thrown in, would change all the other placements in a chart as well, as some would now land in Serpentarius’ house. So everything you thought you knew about yourself, changes. And it changes everytime the system changes coz of the Earth wobbling. It might not be so bad, if they counted from that moment forth, but they don’t – its counted retroactively.

And houses aside, which planet gets doubled up to also rule Ophiuchus? And do any of them even fit? Or do we start counting Planets that were well out of orb, and dropping others that are now out of orb?

Ill go even further – when you add Serpentarius in, it cuts the dates short for Scorpio – which means its not a very long transit til the sign changes, which results in less people possibly being Scorpio (yet many of them will claim they are Scorpio to a T) But its the ONLY sign that gets cut short. Coz the balance is lost. The Scorpio transit LASTS 6 days with Serpentarius figured in – while the rest are nearly the normal month long.

You toss an odd 13th sign into the mix and it completely screws the balance up. People who felt their traits were true to their sign, are no longer accurate anymore with Serpentarius thrown in (and you can see as much, given the outcry from the community, when it was mistakenly announced there was now a 13th Zodiac) It not only alters your sun sign, but YOUR ENTIRE CHART. And you are no longer who you obviously are and Astrology no longer works accurately.

So how do the characteristics work? Do the names of the signs only change, so that the traits of Gemini are now the traits of Taurus? Well, duplicity rules the twins (hence the name and symbol) and that doesnt fit with a bull now, does it? So you can’t just change a name. Yet, you can’t really change the sign, either. Coz then, the person no longer fits the traits. Sidereal Astrology claims that the entire characteristics of the sign change, so Gemini now becomes Taurus. So the person stays true to form; but their sign changes. But you can see how that doesn’t work.

And here is another question – why even consider this specific cosntellation at all? I mean, there are tons of other constellations in the sky, and Im sure another that crosses the Ecliptic… why don’t we toss those in as well? With the planetary shift, surely theres another that could be viably shoved into place. So why does Ophiuchus get the spotlight?

All these questions are easily answered, however. Astrology and Astronomy are NOT the same thing, and while they may seem synonymous, they’re not. And this is why I personally feel that Vedic Astrology does not work. Who am I to say? Well, Astrology isn’t a science; its more of a (somewhat) religious belief or (moreover) a philosophical pursuit…. and like both of those things, it comes down to faith, and opinion gained through personal experience. My experience has been that it is not accurate… at all. And I can only govern myself accordingly.

I have been asked questions about content development many times…. how I do certain things, and what programs I do them in. So I thought I would do a blog revealing some aspects of my workflow (though certainly not all — that would be dizzying) for the benefit of those who are just getting into content development, and want to know more.

Before I go on though, workflows are kind of a personal thing. What works for one person, may not work for another. Also, mine has been, at times, ever-changing. Im always adpating new things to it, or changing how I do things completely. Im a hopeless software junkie, so I tend to buy apps just for the sake of buying and playing (when and where they were affordable to do so, anyway) Some I adopt, some not so much. There have even been some I shelved, and adopted later on. And some I will probably never use. Ive also been building my workflow for the better of 6 years… some things can only come with time and experience (and well, money)

I also will mention that I am a code geek, so most of my methods for making content come down to raw coding. So whether its material files, custom morphs, ERC, externalizing geometry, or configuring a CR2, all of that I do in edit pad. And that is something that takes a good deal of time to learn (but I would, of course, recommend learning – the more you know, the less you need to rely on smaller programs to do that work for you – although, smaller programs CAN make things faster for you)

Currently, I have a tool chain that doesn’t really have much room for change, as far as I can forecast anyway, because its the end all, be all for me. Whether or not thats actually true tho, remains to be seen.

Texturing:

The very basic level of content. For this, I use Photoshop 7 or CS3, as well as Bodypaint in Cinema 4D.

To texture, you need at LEAST a program thats capable of editing images. There are many that will do this. However, I will highly recommend skirting away from programs like paintshop pro, and going straight on for Photoshop. Photoshop has an optimizer in it, that can save everything at a very good resolution, while keeping the size of the file down. Paintshop pro has something similar, but it doesnt do as good of a job, and you will end up with very low quality images. Theres also a myriad of other reasons Photoshop is better to use, such as the things it can do in the program (I wont name them all, though)

Projection painters, on the other hand, are PRICELESS to have in your aresenal. What they enable you to do is see a model in 3D form, and paint it realtime. If you ever wrestled with a seam, you can understand how much of a pain it is to fix-render-fix-render-fix-render. It can take hours. Days, even. And sometimes, the seam is never perfect. Projection painters, however, allow you to clone or paint right over seams, in seconds. Perfect everytime. One thing I can honestly say to anyone just starting out — be sure to get yourself some projection painter, like Bodypaint. It will make your life a whole lot simpler and because of how much it makes your life simpler, it will make your work better and faster. You will find that you dont shirk away from doing more difficult things, coz you know you can always fix the seams.

Modelling:

Ive tried out a bunch of programs for this. Modelling is prolly my favorite aspect of content, so I like to play around with modellers, even if I dont adopt them into my workflow.

I started with Rhino 2 and modelled in it for a couple years… and its okay. However, I wouldnt recommend it to anyone doing Poser content… for one, its nurbs based, and it triangulates the polys to boot, so the meshes come out very poly-heavy. For two, its not a poly modeller, and poly modelling is better. This allows you to pull at the vertices/edges/faces, so you have absolute control – in Rhino, you can only edit a few points it utilizes for deformation purposes. I soon realized those two little tidbits, and then I moved onto Silo (Also, the current price on Rhino is a bit ridiculous, for its capabilities – if youre gonna spend a grand on something, get Modo, Lightwave or C4D Prime)

My main modeller has been Silo for 4 yrs, and its pretty decent modeller (esp for the money) and I still use it to this day (coz Im most comfy in there – old habits die hard, I guess) But Silo isnt very stable on my machine, unfortunately and is very glitchy with its functions – though, other people I know have had better experiences. And it doesnt have nearly enough functions for an advanced content creator, so it will eventually become limiting and oppressive, as it has with me.

Ive also used Hexagon to model (another Id highly recommend, although I dont tend to use it very much) But it has cooler capabilities than, and is much more stable than Silo (although, not entirely stable unto itself) It does spline stuff really well, which Silo doesn’t. And it has text in it, if you want to use text in your modelling. Hex is actually VERY similar to Silo, in how it moves and works – and in many ways, its better. However, no matter how much better it is than Silo, its still only a lower-end modeller just like Silo – a good option for someone beginning and needing something moderately priced, but in the end, just as limiting.

Finally, I use Cinema 4D. Its true, what they say…. you get what you pay for. Cinema 4D (or any other high end modeller) can do so many things, and more efficiently and accurately. Mostly, til recent, I used a combo of Silo and C4D (using C4D for things where Silo wasnt capable) I am, however, currently working on making C4D my permanent and lone modeller. Its functionality is so advanced, it can refine your time spent from hours to minutes. And C4D is very stable and can handle MASSIVE amounts of poly, without slowing. If you can afford it and are serious about sticking with content creation, its best to start with something high-end like C4D – as you progress, you will not have to adapt to new software.

I have tried many others, but Im not gonna list them all, as they fell short for me.

Mapping:

Well, what can I say…. UVMapper is usually the standard for mapping. Its what everyone is recommended when they start out. And having it is necessary to some degree (but not to map in!)

No, instead, I will suggest you get uvlayout instead. Why? Well, it flattens uv’s and allows you to map more cleanly and nicely, without icky stretching and such. In fact, I love uv layout so much, I wish I had gotten it years ago instead of UVMapper. Now, Im not gonna totally diss uvmapper…. its a great little program, if youre just mapping hard surface stuff, but its terrible with organics and the learning curve is a lot steeper, I think. It will take you years to master UVMapper, and for some things, the work process is too arduous, and will never be simpler than that. UVLayout, on the other hand, does both organic and hard surface mapping (the latter, if you learn how to use the segment tool, which is specifically for hard surfaces) and it makes stuff so much quicker and simpler too, that all you need to understand are how the functions work, and some keyboard shortcuts. Now, you will still need to have uvmapper for other things, like making material zones, and some grouping, as uvlayout will not allow you to edit those things. But thats pretty much all I use my copy of uvmapper for anymore.

Some modellers also have mapping capability – like Cinema 4D, which as I understand it, is quite good too (though, I havent tried it yet) Most of the high-end modellers include a mapping program, which may or may not (but in most cases do) flatten UV’s like UVLayout.

ZBrush has UVMaster, which will also flatten UV’s and it will map a mesh in a matter of seconds without you doing much to it (except you will have to slice up edges before taking it in there, so it will map how you want it to… otherwise, the uv islands will be quite butchered) I stick with UVLayout, however, simply because its good enough for me. It can handle anything.

Rigging:

Well, if youre gonna get into clothing and posable figures, you’re gonna have to embrace one of the hardest aspect of content. I, of course, say its hard, coz I started out in Poser. Poser doesnt make rigging very easy… its numerically based, and not nearly as intuitive or interactive as it could be. Poser 6 and below dont even let you undo more than once, so its restrictive in that aspect as well. Im the type of person who likes to experiement – so sometimes, I will purposely screw with stuff, just to see what it does. Not being able to undo it more than once is very bad for me LOL And some of the settings (like the joint editor, for example) cant undo AT ALL.

So where Poser kind of flunks in that department, DAZ Studio picks up. DS IS POSITIVELY BRILLIANT for development (although, you will need to own figure setup tools and Advanced figure setup tools) The only thing that it cant do, is create props (so if youre gonna want to do that, gotta have poser) For me, I use both Poser and DS. In Poser, I build my rigs, just coz I have a decent workflow in there for doing it, and Im more comfy there. And Ill also do my falloffs in Poser, coz those are cake, either way. However, to edit joints, I tend to move to DS. DS makes editing joints completely interactive; you can pull at the joint angles and center points, and move them about in the scene. The joint zones have hotspots, so you can see how it moves the mesh and controls the joint. No numbers (unless you want them, of course… it has a value-based system with dials as well, for more exacting type work) Theres also more-than-once-undo’s on everything. And that isnt ALL the figure setup tools are capable of – with things like ERC freeze (which is capable of making and slaving JCM’s) the property editor, morph loader pro, multiple selection editing and everything else it boasts, it is an absolute MUST HAVE.

Im also known to make a lot segmented parts in my posable figures. Whether its tails, chains, or even loin cloths, I have a horrible habit of it LOL For this though, I insist on using Easy Pose Underground. You will still have to build a rig in Poser or DS – what EP does is set up ERC on the rotations in the chain, in an instant.

Now, I know there are some folks out there that gripe about EP. But they really dont understand what theyre saying LOL Easy pose DOES make posing these types of things much easier (as the name suggests) and you can get intricate twists and turns way more quickly than it would take to pose each segment by itself. All it takes is setting up a node on the model, and that node will contain the main ERC to move the entire chain. You can even bend further down on the chain using more EP controls, or even the regular rotations, and really twist it up. So, for rigging that type of stuff, Easy Pose is a definite must have. I would also tend to prefer to rig these chain-styled pieces with EP, than doing bodyhandles. While bodyhandles seem to be the standard among clothing makers (and I do bodyhandled parts as well, for certain things like skirts and such) EP allows for more movement and ultimate control. So wherever possible, I use it..

Morphing:

Well, I do more than one kind of morphing. I do custom morphs which includes shapes/expressions for the heads and bodies of characters. I also do clothing morphs, naturally, as one would have to do to make clothing fit a figure. Sometimes I even do morphs that are more abstract than that, like movements and such. Then there’s other deformations, which are intended to add detailing to a model.

My workflow for morphing has changed more than I care to admit lol I change it all the time, in fact, after I discover something that will make it easier and quicker. So, Ive used multiple programs to morph in.

For face morphs and expressions and things of that sort, I used Silo’s displacement brush for years. More recently, I finally got ZBrush, and do it all in there now, including body morphs.

For movement type stuff, I also used a Silo/C4D combo, and sometimes even used Poser magnets… but for the most part, I now use Z. The fact that you can use the mask option in Z, to mask off certain areas, makes it perfect for movements. And if you need to isolate by group (as opposed to deforming the whole mesh in one stroke), theres even an option to do that (if you keep your groups intact) However, there are times where I’d need to turn off a piece of a model by its material zone (and not by group), so I can get underneath it. And sometimes, Z’s masking doesnt work out too well. So, for situations like this, its C4D to the rescue! In there, I have three choices for editing the mesh: Soft Selection, the magnet and brush tool and all of them have an option to isolate what youre deforming to the specific surface only (leaving the other parts untouched) Best of all, I can opt to hide things by group or material (which Id use according to what would work best in the situation)

As for wrinkles in clothing, I generally prefer that they be in the model itself, as opposed to done as morphs…. but you absolutely CAN make them morphs, if you prefer. And for that, C4D, Silo or ZBrush would do well. Me, I tend to do wrinkles wherever Im modelling them at, since I dont usually spawn them as morphs (tho there have been cases) However, Z does have brushes and settings to change the brushes, that modellers dont equip in their displacement painters (things like stitches, and reptile scales, etc) so if I wanted something like that, Id naturally move to Z. If you have a high-end modeller (lC4D, Max, Maya, or Modo), Z also now has a feature called GoZ, that allows you to send a model from your modeller, into ZBrush for deformations and texturing, and then back to your modeller with all of it in tact… and without having to export an obj.

For clothing morphs (the fitting kind), I started out with Poser magnets, and then moved onto DFormers in DS (the latter which Id recommend over Poser’s magnets, as you can actually see what youre doing; it has hot spots to show u where it will deform the most/least and theres no bulky magnet in the way) More recently, however, I started doing them in ZBrush. I have never seen a better and faster program for doing clothing morphs than Z… in fact, so much, its going to be hard, if not nearly impossible, to beat. And due to the way it works, its also a lot more exacting than magnets and DFormers, such as you would need in the case of tight-fitting clothing.

Also, part of my workflow for doing morphs, is using Morph Loader Pro (part of DS and Advanced figure setup tools) This is a positively priceless plugin that will make loading many multiple morphs over multiple groups much more simple (one obj with groups all attached – spun out in 5 seconds, FBM’s and all. You can even batch load a metric ton of morphs at once)

And thats pretty much all there is to my workflow  (well, as I said, theres more, but Im not gonna go over every single aspect) The best thing to do, is try things out and make your own workflow that works best with you.

Upgrading is usually a great experience, and my upgrade to Windows 7 has been nothing short of that. However, if you’re anything like me, you don’t like to change too much.

I definitely don’t like to change software – especially when Ive been using a certain app, or version for years and years. I find the change hard to adjust to, so I will use what I have for the longest time, til I absolutely CAN’T use it any longer.

And this is precisely how I am with Dreamweaver MX.  It fits like an old glove – probably coz I read the whole book years ago and have used it exclusively ever since. You can imagine my disdain in realizing …. it doesn’t work properly on Windows 7. Grrrrr!

For the most part, it does work. But it seems the insert tables function breaks (it did work for me for a little while and then suddenly, one day, it just refused to) My options? Well, I suppose I could have inserted tables manually. But I’m lazy – too lazy to do that every time, and I use tables A LOT. I prefer the little dialog to be present, coz its a lot faster and painless. Upgrading to the latest version really wasn’t something I wanted to do right this second. Not only coz it would cost me for the upgrade (and dreamweaver isnt a high priorty for me atm) but also coz I would DETEST having to relearn everything, since the new one is so vastly different. So I scoured the net and I found a fix.

Figured I’d add this for anyone who needs it (plus, it will help me keep it backed up LOL) It took me FOREVER to figure out where it was supposed to go, as the instructions on the net weren’t very accurate. I also modified the text, font and size on the new insert dialog, as it was MASSIVE and kind of an eyesore to me.

To sum this fix up, basically, the “Table.htm” function is shot. The javascript in it which loads the dialog that inserts a table doesn’t respond to the way Windows 7 is set up. So what you essentially have to do, is paste some code into a certain “Table.htm” file, which is located in a specific path.

But rather than go over the details and paste the very lonnnnnnnnnng code here, Ive zipped everything up instead, which  you can download here. Included is the table file with the modified code to get the table insert dialog working properly. The text file in the zip tells you what to do, and what exact path to put it in. All you have to do is drop it there, reopen Dreamweaver, and its fixed.

Finally, this fix is for Vista and Windows 7

Download the zip file here

A MASSIVE set of 40 backgrounds and matching lights

Includes:

40 Backgrounds rendered in Vue at different sizes (sizes are listed on DAZ store page)

40 matching lights, with Ambient Occlusion and Raytraced Soft Shadows. Scenes that have water, have lights with gels on them, to create caustics

Available now at DAZ