A very cool new Cthulhu Rising figure is available now on the DAZ 3D Store, for DAZ Studio 4.5…
1.0 final stable release of LuxRender – available now
The new v.1.0 final stable release of LuxRender is out now. It’s a high-end “physically based and unbiased rendering engine” that works with Poser Pro 2014 and DAZ Studio. Free software, both for personal and commercial use.
For a survey of other high-end external render engines for Poser, see my posting from back in March 2012.
Renderosity Halloween Contest
Renderosity’s Halloween Contest has its 2012 theme: Unhappily Ever After. The actual competition details will be available on 12th September 2012.
“They often say that love happens the moment you lay eyes on that special someone for the very first time. It’s as if the stars were perfectly aligned and the two of you were destined to meet in order to share eternity with one another. But what if your soulmate was really not the person they seemed to be? That after the vows were exchanged and the last bit of cake had been eaten you soon discovered a haunting reality too frightening to even imagine. This is your opportunity to let your creative juices run wild and interpret what the complete opposite of wedded bliss might be.”
Entry deadline: 16th October 2012.
Phenotype Havoc poses
A new free poses set for the superb R.D. Phenotypes set of characters by Sanctum Art. Specifically for the 002 Havoc monster figure. Although I guess they may also fit the others too, such as the awesome Phenotype werewolf (called “Horde” for some reason). Sadly the Phenotype characters are no longer sold. But if you have them in your runtime, then this is a nice freebie addon.
New issue of 3D Art
New issue of the free sci-fi and fantasy art magazine, 3D Art. Issue 20 (Aug 2012) gives us a detailed interview article on…
“the history of Renderosity, the staff behind the website and where it might be going next? Discover more about this remarkable community of digital artists, which has grown tremendously since 1999.”
Faces of Sam
A new and useful free set of face morphs for the Toon Boy Sam character, for which I did a full content survey a few months ago.
Free balloon
I was looking for a nice simple child’s balloon a while back, and couldn’t find one I liked for DAZ or Poser. Thankfully WestCPW has a nice shapely free one on Renderosity’s Free Stuff today…
Miki 4, due in Sept
The new Miki 4 figure for Poser, coming in late September 2012 via the Content Paradise store…
“Miki 4 is a completely re-sculpted body morph of Miki 3, with Poser’s powerful Vertex Weight Mapping for superior bending, and posing and Subsurface Scattering for photorealistic skin.”
* Vertex Weight Mapping for superior bending
* Subsurface Scattering for photorealistic skin
* Poser Face Room compatible
* New Miki 4 face morph
* Has abundant Advanced Body Controls for faster posing
* Joint Controlled Morphs for muscle and tendon movement
* Extensive set of facial expressions and phonemes for synthesized speech
* Fully modeled eyelashes
* All existing Miki 3 textures will work with Miki 4.
But what about the clothing…? Will Miki 3 clothing fit Miki 4?
Renderosity annual user survey
The official Renderosity annual user survey is underway. There’s one version for content vendors, and one for buyers.
Nursoda releases new standalone characters
Nursoda’s website may have vanished, but he’s still releasing cool standalone figures for DAZ Studio and Poser. Nos is his latest release, out today on Renderosity. Nos is a kind of hip film star from one of those French art-house movies, but given a toon look. I kind of like it. Could be great for someone producing a graphic novel and in need of an off-the-shelf central character…
Nos has a partner too, Muggie…
Nos in Poser Comic Book mode… definitely with something of the old silent movie-star Buster Keaton about him.
Mrs. Chunk – free standalone character
Miyre have a new free standalone toon character, Mrs. Chunk. Includes clothing and hair, and works with Poser and DAZ.
Soggy Bottom
A sweet little video demo, new from Nerd 3D, made with DAZ Studio…
Older and elderly characters for DAZ and Poser
Tired of all those buff young twinkle-toes and body-builders? Need some mature characters for your runtime and your art?
Welcome to my survey of the best of the older and elderly people available for Poser, DAZ, and DAZ Carrara.
I’ve deliberately chosen the simpler characters and packs, ones that have don’t have ridiculous levels of dependencies. I’ve also left out various hair and beard packs, since I think it’s often better and quicker to paint hair on after a render, using Photoshop or Painter.
Let’s go through the various key base characters for DAZ Studio or Poser…
Micheal 4 (M4):
August for M4 is perfect for your senior Ancient Roman senator or modern businessman…
The free Frank for M4 is also quite distinguished but in a more flinty way, and he comes with facial expressions. But note that he requires the Michael 4 ++ morphs set…
Also worth a look, and also requiring the Michael 4++ morphs, is this more soulful one who could make an excellent learned scribe or monk…
Gramps for Troy for M4 might be useful if you need an ageing astronaut or an armed services veteran…
There’s also a baldness pack for M4 which could be useful. See also the free Balding for M4 and M3.
Micheal 3 (M3):
Charles is a characterful older man for Micheal 3, made from photo textures…
Ralph for M3 has a rounder face…
Need an old biker or a dubious religious guru? Senile Santa 2 should fit such a casting call…
There was also an M3 “aging skin” kit, the Adrian Overlay Texture Kit Vol 3.
Victoria 4:
Dragonstorm’s 1-Click V4 Age Injector for Poser works with Victoria 4, Victoria 4 Elite, Aiko 4, The Girl 4, or Stephanie 4. This gives you morphs, saggy effects on skin, and elderly skin textures. There’s also a DAZ version…
This Injector kit allows you to “age” any Victoria 4 -based character, and without requiring the Victoria 4++ morphs.
One of the most notable elderly women characters, who do require the Victoria 4++ morphs to work, is Mrs Senile Santa…
Another nice characterful choice, for a female ancient warrior woman or starship commander, might be V4 Horizon…
Victoria 3:
Phyllis for V3 is perfect for the homely farmer’s wife…
While Rose for V3 could fit the role of the wise old Queen…
For older black women there is Golden Years V3… Was at RuntimeDNA, now appears to be lost.
Miki 3:
Miki 3 users have Moira for Miki 3…
Miki 2:
Miki 2 users have Elder Grandmother: Huian and the similar Elder Grandmother: Weici…
DAZ Genesis:
There’s a full set of Genesis age morphs…
The old Poser G2 series:
G2 Jessi & G2 James came with the old Poser 6. G2 Koji was a purchasable extra. They can still be useful as background characters that won’t put too much stress on your PC when in a scene…
Koji has Toghrul, an older Mongolian style character…
G2 Jessi has Martha for G2 Jessi…
And those needing a witch or beggar-woman might look at Granny Goatflax for Jessi G2…
Toon and stylised (Micheal 4):
Grandpa for M4 could be quite useful for those needing a comic character, perhaps for over-painting. He does need the Michael 4 Morphs++ and also the Morphus add-on, though. Still works without Morphus, but the head is not quite so toony. He also has extra photoreal textures.
Toon and stylised (all these are standalone characters):
The main stylised older male character is Nursoda’s excellent Doctor Pitterbill. He now has quite a good range of accessories, props, and clothing. My other iClone blog had a full survey of Pitterbill stuff earlier in 2012. Although unfortunately Nursoda’s website (with all its freebies) has been down now for about six weeks. Here’s Pitterbill…
Other stylised older people who are standalone characters include one by the toon specialists 3D Universe, which has a nice standalone Gramps character, along with some basic clothing for him.
There is also a good stylised standalone character that comes with a steampunk-era clothing set…
Female toon characters are notably less well served with character-aging kits. But there is Mature Mavka which is for Nursoda’s standalone Mavka character…
That’s it. Don’t forget to keep taking the old age rejuvenation pills! 🙂
Stock 3D
Added to the sidebar Directory, on this blog: Stock 3D. Stock 3D which sells Poser World models individually, rather than via the $25 “all you can download” membership system that the Poser World website operates. A nice easy way to ‘top up’ with that latest ‘must-have’ model, even if your Poser World membership has expired.
Fluff your cat
Interesting new item at Renderosity from a new vendor, Fluffy Cat for Poser, for $25. Requires Poser, Millenium Cat, Classic Cats textures for MilCat, and RTEJava (for which Fluffy Cat’s readme has full instructions). The pictures are certainly nice, but the description is a bit vague and very minimal…
“Produces a lovely, fluffy and dynamic fur on the Millennium Cat […] made in the Poser hair room.”
Update: Now at Hivewire. The Java appears to be a utility needed to check if you have MilCat in your runtime, and if so then it unpacks matched hair-base geometries?