[META] FenWiki "update and nags to update" thread

[KaiserDrgn]

Created the Koopa Kingdom page. It's little more then a stub. But I figure it's a step towards getting back involved in Fenspace.

[robkelk]

Rob, it looks like you forgot to put a texture on her ears and whiskers.

Fixed...

--
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

[robkelk]

Looked at the clock, realized I wasn't going to make it to the free concert in time to hear Bif Naked, sighed, and decided to give somebody else something good instead. So... http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... oulkes.png]one of the Roughriders now has a character image.

(Does anybody have sufficient Fen credentials to identify the background I used from the small amount that's visible? Your only hint is that it's from a famous SF movie.)
--
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

[Black Aeronaut]

I dunno why, but that's setting off my Uncanny Valley sense.

[HRogge]

Yes, blackaeronaut is right... I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but it somehow looks "strange"...
Maybe because the face is too well rendered compared to the hairs, I don't know.

-----

Oh, something else... I started experimenting with Blender, does someone has a good resource for materials and textures?

After some tutorials I started creating a mesh for Dartz 'Destiny Nova', but without the right materials and textures it looks boring.
(you will find my current experiment here: http://hrogge.de/blender/Nova%203.png)

[robkelk]

Yes, blackaeronaut is right... I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but it somehow looks "strange"...
Maybe because the face is too well rendered compared to the hairs, I don't know.

Those hairs are textured individually - that's the best hairdo I have in my collection.

I think I've hit the limits of the rendering software that comes with DAZ 3. Time to upgrade... luckily, DAZ 4 is free at the moment.

Oh, something else... I started experimenting with Blender, does someone has a good resource for materials and textures?

After some tutorials I started creating a mesh for Dartz 'Destiny Nova', but without the right materials and textures it looks boring.
(you will find my current experiment here: %[link=http://hrogge.de/blender/Nova%203.png]http://hrogge.de/blender/Nova%203.png])

ShareCG has some textures for use in any 3D modeling program. http://www.sharecg.com/b/6/Textures]5,576 of them, as of this posting... And they have 100 (as of this posting) http://www.sharecg.com/b/5/3D-Models/?k ... tdm=a&s=dd]ready-made Blender models, too. (They have a "Materials" section as well, but it's a mess - very little is categorized properly, and Blender isn't one of the categories in the first place.)

You might try http://matrep.parastudios.de/]this site for Blender materials - I found it on a web search, so I don't know how good or bad it is.
--
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

[robkelk]

Did some more work on the http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... nt_Faction]Independent Faction page - "Culture" is now divided into two parts, one of which has been fleshed out.

I'm doing fairly well here for somebody who's only watched two episodes of Firefly, eh?
--
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

[robkelk]

I think I've hit the limits of the rendering software that comes with DAZ 3. Time to upgrade... luckily, DAZ 4 is free at the moment.

Or I could simply fix (for which read "slightly mess up") the hair...

Is Bronwyn less of an Uncanny Valley Girl now?


--
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

[HRogge]

Or I could simply fix (for which read "slightly mess up") the hair...

Is Bronwyn less of an Uncanny Valley Girl now?

Definitely better than before...

[Black Aeronaut]

Hmmm.... The eyes - they're practically glowing. I know there's specialty contacts people can wear to give that impressing, but I've seen them in person. They're kinda freaky looking, but even so...

Can something be done about her smile? It's too close to the Stepford Smiler territory for my comfort.

[robkelk]

Aargh... It took me almost an hour to get her from "Stepford smile" to what she has now (and not giving her a smile leaves her firmly in the Barbie-doll zone), and I already added all the shadows I can to her eyes.

The program and the artist do have limitations, you know... but I'll see what I can do. Later. When work isn't calling.
--
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]

Rob,
#1, looks like you're directly lighting her with spotlights.  Don't.  Use some indirect light from at least two distance lights (make sure both cast shadows).  You'll need to set their intensity down.
#2, It looks like you haven't adjusted the surface shadors in your background.  Set the surface shader to Matte (don't set it to plastic, glossy metal or metal).
#3, in that regard, set everything that isn't part of her to matte.
#4, make sure she's set to skin and her iris, pupil and sclera are set to glossy plastic.
#5, try activating depth-of-field from your rendering camera.
I, personally, haven't moved to Daz 4 yet since they've only got the 32-bit version out.  I'm still happily plugging away with Daz 3 Professional 64-bit.  Until I can get the 64-bit version and I'm assured that Reailty works with it, I won't be upgrading.  I'll have to talk with Emily and see if she knows when it's coming out.

[Mark Skarr]

Here's a quick example render in both normal Daz (without using advanced surface shaders) and one with Lux.
The Daz one has everything set to Matte, except her, where she's set to skin (and her eyes are set to Glossy Plastic).  I'm using three distant lights to light her and the scene.  Normally, just using Daz, I would be using six or eight distant lights to get the ambient lighting that you get from normal air.
E3:
The advanced surface shader introduces things like Ambient Occlusion.  Oh, and I remembered how to actually do a mirror in Daz (d'oh!).  I had to move the lights a bit (the advanced shaders are really dependent upon good lighting).  I was getting strange feedback from throwing AO on the backgrounds, so I removed it.
/E3
The Reality/Lux picture has three light sources, because there are three light sources in the picture: the sun coming in through her skylight and then a pair of lights on the kitchen set (which you can sorta see in the mirror behind her).  Lux takes the sky/atmosphere into account and gives you great light scattering from that. 
The Daz version took about 12 seconds to render.  The Lux one is still going after almost an hour.
   
Alright, I admit that Reality/Lux is $80.  If/when I get some time, I'll see about redoing the Daz version with advanced surface shaders to show you how those look (pwSurface, if you want to check it out on Daz3D's site).
ETA:  Updated Lux Image after 5 hours.
ETA2:  Added Advanced Surface Shader version.  It's Daz, Advanced Shaders, Lux
ETA3:  Forgot to add information about advanced shaders . . ..

[Bob Schroeck]

Wow. That third image is starting to look like a photograph of a real person.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mark Skarr]

Bob Schroeck wrote:

---

Wow. That third image is starting to look like a photograph of a real person.

Yep.  That's why I usually go with Lux.  It's an unbiased, physical-based, rendering engine.  It's slow but amazing.
I use these two pictures to demonstrate it as well.
I spent several hours tweaking this version of the picture, getting it as close as I could to the Lux version.  Before Lux, I would, actually, have given up on this image since I couldn't make it do what I wanted it to:

This is the Lux version of the SAME picture.  Actually, this has fewer light sources.

The only things I changed was cutting out the lights from the first image and using mesh lights (something Lux does but Daz does not) and the rendering engine.  The lamp, in Daz has four point lights and you can barely see the effect.  The lamp in the Lux shot has the bulb set as a 50-watt mesh light and the shade is a matte-translucent material letting the light bleed through naturally. The scene has 6 flourecent tubes as props (that you can't see directly here), I set them to 100-watt mesh lights and they lit the scene beautifully.

[robkelk]

I'm not going to have time to play with Daz until the weekend, and I want to enter http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t= ... eac6450715]the current Daz freebie challenge (there's a good A3 morph in the all-entrants goodies package this month), so it'll be a while before I can update the image of Bronwyn...
--
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

[robkelk]

Need a cargo carrier that doesn't belong to HUD or JMC? Why not consider a http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Roadrunner]Roadrunner? The Galacticans did... and so did the Stellvians.

(Page created from mining some of Griever's notes, and fleshed out by me. Feel free to add more ships of the class to the list.)
--
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

[M Fnord]

Added a comparison diagram for anybody who might've had trouble conceptualizing the Gagarin-class cruisers. Hint: It's a big sucker.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Black Aeronaut]

Outstanding! This definitely raises the bar for new ship construction.

[M Fnord]

I will probably revisit this picture at some point - when I finally delve into the secrets of UV mapping - but for now have some Gagarins.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Mal's already noticed that I've given the Sammies http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... ed_Militia]their own page. (I left a capsule description of them on the Senshi page.)

I also realized that, with their Age of Sail and Royal Navy habits, the Sammies were the perfect group to have ships named after Aubrey's commands... so I gave the ships to them. (Now I have to come up with what's in an Aubrey-class search and rescue craft / patrol vessel. Equivalent-to-ambulance, definitely; International Rescue style gear, maybe; weapons, possibly; enough weapons to qualify as a battlewagon, not a chance.)
--
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

[Star Ranger4]

Point defense style, so the ship can get in, make the rescue and get back out. Anything heavier you need to send in and OGJ cruiser for cover fire.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[robkelk]

Turned another Wanted Page into http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... ime_League]a stub... (nudges Ebony)
--
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

[robkelk]

Took a half-day out of my summer vacation and created a handful of images for the FenWiki...

• http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... marine.png]New icon for the Submariners (to replace the low-quality monochrome one Bob found a while ago)
  
• http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=File:Dice.png]Dice (for the Gaming navbox)
  
• http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... ainbow.png]Over the Rainbow, the abandoned, half-completed, possible Boskonian way-station at L5
  
• http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... base_2.png]Starbase 2 (with a ship on approach that you'll never see in Star Trek - you were right about that model coming in handy sometime, Bob)
  

(And, no, of course I didn't do anything with Bronwyn's image. That would have made sense.)
--
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

[Bob Schroeck]

you were right about that model coming in handy sometime, Bob

Heh.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.