Interested in the new FaceGen Artist Pro? The standalone software lets you create DAZ Studio Genesis 2 or 3 heads from just one or two real-life photos of people.
Digital Art Live has a new Easy Character Creation with FaceGen training webinar with John Haverkamp on 11th March 2017.
Renderosity has a huge 55%-off discount sale today and tomorrow on hundreds of top sci-fi, steampunk and imaginative fantasy content at their store. Renderosity Prime Annual Membership you can grab even better deals.
Well, it’s nearly the end of February. Which means it’s time for a look at the new releases for Poser and DAZ. As usual, it’s just my personal selection of what caught my eye and wallet. It’s been a pretty good month for affordable 3D content, and it’s not yet quite over.
Storybook:
Storybook illustrators may like this complete Hazel outfit and props for Genesis 3 female…
Fantasy:
The Armisael Wings for Genesis 3 and Victoria. Expensive, but it’s nicely cross-compatible with either Poser or DAZ Studio.
RawArt’s Frost Giant for Genesis 3 Male…
DA Let There Be Moss. “A system for adding moss to any object in a scene” in DAZ Studio. Possibly useful for faerie scenes and quickly adding new detail to older scenes which have muddy rock/tree textures.
Historical scenes:
WW2 Anderson Shelter. A typical back-yard bomb shelter scene, from the British Home Front in the Second World War…
I’m not a big fan of yet more medieval stuff, these days. But I have to tug my peasant forelock to Dante78 for his new Medieval Peasant House for Poser. It’s the usual very high quality and detail from Dante78, and if sunk down into the ground a bit it might also pass for a more primitive Iron Age structure. It also has a generic fantasy-game type interior.
The woodsman who lives here probably looks like the new Dragonsbane Barbarian Hair and Beard for Genesis 3 Male (for Dragonsbane Barbarian Character HD)…
Missing Jet is a crashed light aircraft / modern Robinson Crusoe scene complete with campsite and wolf-defying treetop bivouac. Possibly a scene that’s also useful in Vue, with some of the DAZ foliage stripped off and Vue trees/ecosystem substituted.
Lucky Vue users have a big new historical scene “Mel’s Drive In”, which might perhaps be given a sci-fi twist with flying cars and hover-bikes and retro robots…
This drive-in scene might be customised and enhanced in Photoshop, by being composited together with a render from the new Marquee Letters for DAZ Studio.
Science fiction:
The Gynoid_Tronic might work well in zero-gravity, inside the 2001-like minimalism of the new Echo Lima Halls…
A well-designed unusual sci-fi dress is MMLT Dress Set For V4 Elite A4.
Hr-175 Spectrum offers Victoria 4 hair as giant corn-row plaits, with a whole load of colour MATs. Possibly working well with the above MMLT Dress Set. Also likely to be useful alternative hair for something like a Trek-style sci-fi command-deck scene with several V4 ‘deck crew’ extras in the background.
There’s a nice sort-of late-1970s / mid-80s vibe to FaceMod for the new 2ndGen standalone robot figure for Poser.
Retro sci-fi pulp-art fans have a cool new 1960s-style monster, Kytis for Genesis 2 Male alien.
Also looking rather fun are the Swarmz Raiders. Definitely one for artists needing an unusual and fresh monster for your Doctor Who etc fan-art (although the TV would give them a chunky genital-concealing belt). I especially like the idea of their teleporting / inter-dimensional-shifting MAT texture — all sci-fi monsters should have such an easy-apply texture option bundled with them…
Need to send in the jets to destroy the Swarmz Raiders? KX Pilot Helmet for Genesis 3 female looks like a usefully generic prop…
Or perhaps the Swarmz Raiders can be taken out with the Dominator Crab, Petipet’s new mega-turret. Currently sensibly priced at an introductory $11.87…
Now that’s what I call a sci-fi turret. In terms of its design the Dominator works alongside Petipet’s similar Sci-fi Tank, Sci-fi UFO, Military Module and Dominator. Possibly these are manned (bugged?) by the new Mantisaran race…
Steampunk:
Abandoned Train Station could, with a bit of makeover (remove modern warning lines/decals, add rusty old steam trains) become a steampunk or valvepunk scene.
The lovely AJ SteamFlyer 2.0 is now in a “new version of the previous ‘Steam Flyer For Poser’ package”. Now tested and tweaked for DAZ Studio and iRay, by the looks of it…
DryJack is continuing to produce beautifully crafted models for British 20th century steam-railway enthusiasts.
10 Downing Street, famously the home of the British Prime Minister. Complete with detailed interior, but I’d only want the famous door. Perhaps Blue Tree Studios might consider also making a cheaper frontage-only package?
I see Blue Tree Studios also has the new Steampunk Slum. I like its wibbly-wobbliness…
Serenading his beloved in the yard of the Steampunk Slum might be the One Man Band for Genesis 3 Male. Includes the usefully-generic top hat for G3M…
Everyday:
Millennial Business Casual Outfit for Genesis 3 Male is a generic ‘millennial boy’ look. The hair is Heath Hair for Genesis 3 Male(s) & Female(s)…
Man About Town for Genesis 3 Male(s) is a generic ‘online start-up / crowd-funder’ kind of chap.
Oh My Body Hair for Genesis 3 Male is “nine morphing fiber hair models” for G3M, for easy body hairiness…
Animals:
HiveWire Cougar for the Hivewire Big Cat…
18 PuddyTat Poses for the HiveWire House Cat. The Hivewire House Cat also has a BNB Talking Cat add-on for Poser, for speech, and also emotion dials for human-like emotions.
Helpers:
Finally there are some possibly-useful helpers for Poser and DAZ Studio this month:
Flamer – A flame tool for Poser. Flamer is a basic “prop with shaping morphs used to create various fire objects such as fireballs, rocket flames, flames for torches and candle.” Could be useful for that time when you need a quick adjustable rocket exhaust or candle flame. So far as I can tell, you don’t also get presets with the emissive light shown in the store preview.
FaceGen Artist Pro lets you create DAZ Studio Genesis 2 or 3 heads from just one or two real-life photos of people. Windows-only.
BOSS Pro Light Set for Portraits & Promos in DAZ Studio, complete with place-holder mannequins to indicate exactly where to position your characters for the best results.
Lastly Hands Dial-up for Genesis 3 Male and Female is a big set of hand poses plus control dials.
That’s it. Another pick next month.
Oh dear. The cheesy get-a-quickie-website service Wix “has purchased DeviantArt” for $36m. Such a pity the community wasn’t first given a chance to crowd-fund for $40m, since we probably would have reached it too. Wix now…
“intends to improve DeviantArt’s platform”
Uh, oh…
Graphics-card maker Nvidia has announced the Quadro GP100, a slot-in card that is specifically geared for those who want to render 3D to a graphics file, rather than display 3D graphics on screen. It has 16GB of HBM2 memory which helps load 3D model and scene textures “significantly faster”, which should reduce rendering times. It’ll need a PCI-Express 3.0 slot on your PC motherboard. No price yet but industry pros are suggesting it will cost 20-30% more than the current-fastest card the P6000 (“$5,000”), which puts it at perhaps $6,500. Far too high for many, but possible for a small professional studio looking for a purchase they can write off against tax. And for amateurs, there’s the comfort that what is $6,500 today is often $1,200 or less in three years time.
And if you happen to also want to create a new cyber-AI, the GP100 also being touted as the ideal card from which to build your own AI and “explore deep learning”.
So what’s new and eye-catching in the DAZ Studio / Poser stores, since late December 2016? I see that the remaining content from Runtime DNA has continued to pop up on Hivewire (Scene Toy Pro for Poser) and Renderosity (creepy clowns), presumably as vendors get time to upload and price it.
There’s a new flagship HiveWire House Cat: Kitten at HiveWire. Requires the adult HiveWire House Cat.
A Sakura Extreme Detail cherry tree, from new vendor Whitemagus, possibly an ideal setting for your romping new kittens.
Aeon Soul’s popular V4 Tau Ceti Overseer armour arrives for Genesis 3 Female, along with an XPS expansion pack.
A detailed generic Time Gate or inter-dimensional gate.
Atlas Rover is for Poser, but looks like a vehicle probably best seen looming up into a Vue atmosphere.
The AntFarm’s Twiglet Wood Spirit is lovely, and also currently sensibly priced at $10.47.
Robbus Goblin HD for Genesis 3 Male has a lot of detail and character.
EleBeast for Genesis 3 Male also has both detail and character.
A storybook flying fishing boat, by 1971s.
Need a fish for your fishing boat to catch? Dinosaur expert Dinoraul has a new Fantasy Fish.
Vanessa Marquise Outfit for Genesis 3 Female looks like a good steampunk outfit base.
Sadly no President Trump -alikes for M4, this month. I would have thought that someone would have spotted that opportunity by now.
