[meta] 3D modeling - one Goddess found, (mumble) to go

[Mark Skarr]

Here's the updated picture after an hour.  I think Belle has gone from "Barbie" to "Stepford Wife," but I'll give it another 10 hours and see.  I've been wrong before.
Edit:  Here's the image after 12:40

Edit 2:  And, with an updated picture comes . . .

[Bob Schroeck]

Wow. That's coming out nice now. I'm looking forward to putting a slightly smaller version on the top page for DW5 now...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Here's the image after 21 hours in engine.  It still need about another 10-15 hours (maybe even 20) to get to 3k-4k samples.
What resolution do you want it at, Bob?  I, generally, work at 1024x1280, but, in theory, I can make it any size upto 10k x 10k.  Not that it would be ready at the 10k resolution any time in April . . ..

[Bob Schroeck]

This resolution is just fine -- any larger would just be inconvenient to view, IMHO. And I'll make a copy shrunk to fit the page and link to the full-size.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

*whew!*  Had a brief computer problem and it didn't want to restart the render where I left off at.  Managed to finally convince it.  So, the Goddesses are back in the engine. 
As for Resolution I can make it smaller if you want.  I just work at a higher resolution because I like to see what I've done.  
Edit: I goofed around with my noise filters to see if I could help speed things up.

[Mark Skarr]

I noticed I seemed to use the wrong shade of blue when I fixed Urd's markings.  So, here's the picture after 2.5k samples with a noise filter for some added smoothing.

[Mark Skarr]

Which of these outfits do you like for Belle better, Bob?
This or this?  Or, neither (you prefer the dress she's in already) is also a fair answer to this question.

[Bob Schroeck]

Mmm. The Betty's bare-ish midriff isn't really Belldandy, is it? Then again, the Alicia's Victorian isn't quite her either -- but the dress-and-apron combo is a lot closer to the stuff she wears on a regular basis than Betty or the outfit you're using now.

Hm. Can you mix-and-match? I wonder how the Alicia apron would look over the current dress...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

That "bare midriff" had me groaning out loud for several minutes.  I thought I'd found a nearly perfect outfit, but, DAZ doesn't like outfits that aren't "sexy" for some stupid reason.  There's actually a story that someone couldn't sell an outfit to DAZ because it didn't bare V4's belly.
The dress she's wearing in the render doesn't like the apron and vice versa.  For a short period of time, Belle was just wearing the apron and MonkeyFist said that I should just go with that.  I've actually used the Alice dress as it didn't look to terribly Alice in Wonderland in the virtual space.  When it reaches a relevant sample level, I'll post an image.
Edit:  Hey, post 108!  Mwa-haha-ha-ha-ha!
It's only 20 samples (which means it's incredibly rough), but you should be able to see how the new dress looks.
Edit 2:   Around 340 samples and 4:15.  Updated the picture again.

[Bob Schroeck]

You're right, it doesn't look too "Alice in Wonderland" here.

Mm. Do Bell's feet seem oddly placed to you?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Foxboy]

Shoulder width apart, so legitimate "standing" distance, but it may just be a little too far apart for Bell
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Mark Skarr]

The cat woke me up, which is the only reason I see this time, in general.
Belle is the only one not in a contrapposto stance (apart from Doug, but you can't see him as anything more than impression).
Put Belle's feet closer together, restarted the render.  In a few hours, I'll post a preliminary image.

[robkelk]

Yeah. The manga makes it clear that Bell has divinely-perfect balance; she doesn't need to stand the way we mere mortals stand. (Although feet right together as if she's at attention is wrong, too...)

Edit: Ninja'd!
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mark Skarr]

Updated image.

[Bob Schroeck]

Yes. Looks great.

Can't wait to see the finished product.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Today was our IST LA game, so I was preoccupied.  Updated picture after 11:50.

[Black Aeronaut]

Suh-weet! This is looking better and better all the time.

[Mark Skarr]

Whew.  After 14 hours it's only at 1k samples.  Looks like it's gunna be a 42-48 hour render.
I would post an update, but it isn't significantly different from the previous image . . ..  I'm gunna play with the lights and see about warming the scene up a little bit.
Edit:  Woot!  100 posts!

[Bob Schroeck]

I hadn't noticed this in the earlier, rougher renders but... is Urd a little cross-eyed?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Wiregeek]

Mark, I'mma tossing a thread together in General Chatter, you're invited.. I don't want to clutter your thread with hardware discussion.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Mark Skarr]

Heh.  We had a discussion about this a little while ago.  Urd's not cross-eyed, both of her eyes are focused on the camera.  And, since her head isn't directly facing the camera at a 90-degree angle, her eyes are "off-center."  Comics/manga draw a picture based on what they think it should look as opposed to what the picture would actually look like.  Since the right-side of her face is closer to the camera than the left-side, her right eye is closer to the center than the left eye.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, fair enough.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Unfortunatly, making an AVI to show how the eyes track the camera would take precious time and render-cycles away from the actual picture.  I get in this argument with MonkeyFist constantly, and have to show him, in the virtual space, how the eyes track.  His answer is almost always the same:  "I know you're right, but she still looks cross-eyed."
However, it is your picture, and it only takes a little bit of Photoshop magic to fix:

[Mark Skarr]

Here they are after nearly 4k samples.  It still needs more.  I've got MF's computer helping out (he's added nearly 900 samples to this).
The funny thing is now Urd looks cross-eyed to me.

(I apologize for broken links, I'll be purging them as soon as I get some sleep.)
Edit:  I'm having some weird linking issues.  I may have to repost the picture as it's not updating properly.
Edit 2:  Just uploaded a new version at 4.2k samples due to the linking issues.

[robkelk]

The funny thing is now Urd looks cross-eyed to me.

Only because it's been pointed out to you - she's no more or less cross-eyed than Belldandy or Skuld are.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012