Medusa WIP 16 update

Small update with experimental lights using Lux Render 0.6.1. It seems to fix some of the problems I was having and performs better than it was.

Medusa WIP 16

Minor updates, just adding some fullsized renders to the blog. I'm still experimenting with the vector arrows as lights. It works, but I think I need to set them as real objects and not duplicated ones as Lux Render seems to have issues with them.

Minor update, if anyone is still watching...

I went and modeled the armbands and I am also experimenting with Lux Render for better rendering results. Next, I'm going to model a more accurate snake from the Soul Eater series that the character uses.

Also, I got an update for one of the game characters I wrote up for that long winded RPG I've been working on. 1 (technically 3, if you include Maya and Rad) full designs done, several more to go.

Benisato Dress release!

It's not much, but I managed to pack together an outfit I made recently for other Poser users to play with. More info can be seen on it over at My DA Gallery or on my ShareCG Page.

Other than that, not much else to report. Well, other than my Lux Render experiments which are still in process.

Medusa WIP 13?

Well, I'm still going at it, trying to better refine the render. This time, I exported everything from Poser back into Blender, then used an external rendering app named LuxRender for betting lighting and overall render finish. The end result that you see above took 33 hours to do. Oy!


For the most part, many of the materials and textures I had used previously for Medusa Final v.2 were not imported into Blender, which leaves me having to recreate them manually twice -- once for Blender and once for LuxRender as they don't seem to communicate properly amongst one another. The other odd thing I noticed is that while LuxRender takes forever to get a scene rendered, it took almost the same length of time to render this particular image (initially 14 hours or so) as it did with Poser 7 and it did not scream at me for somehow passing the theoretical memory limit as it used much less memory. Though, if I passed my installed memory for any reason, the LuxRender UI would crash as it loaded the scene. I guess I should report that to the devs. :shrug:

Anyway, depending on how much my modeling skills come to be in the near future, I may as well go ahead and replace Miki 2 with a custom model of Medusa. For now, I'm going to end up just modeling my own custom snake like the one she has in the series.

So, I'm still working on it, and hope to have some better results in the future!

Medusa Final v.2

Version two of the previous render, now with better hair, textures (hair only) and lighting. Also added some effects in Photoshop.

Well, I went back and redid the ponytail and textures for it using Kozaburo's messy Jessi v1 hair textures, then spliced it to match the same hair. I also ended up reworking the hood to to cover the parts that were exposed or coming through. Other than that, better lighing and snake textures.

Medusa Outfit Final... Somewhat WIP 11

Well, I've finally managed to get the outfit to a point where it moves decently enough not to destroy the collar and the hood! WOOT! I stayed up almost two days trying to figure out where I was going wrong in Poser 7's cloth room and the book did not help very much. If there's one thing that needs work, it's the manual to the software. Oy...

Anyway, I had to adjust the collar, buttons, and hood to be constrained portions of the mesh since they were always in contact with either the hair or Miki2's head. While I lost some minor detail with the hood not moving a great deal, it kept it from messing up everything in the area and looking like it went through a meat grinder when it touched the hair. I also did the same thing for the thigh portion of the mesh as it saved a TON of time to calculate the dynamic mesh deformations. The tail was set as a soft decoration with the tip being included in the calculations so it wouldn't make contact with anything else.

The hair... well, not much has changed a great deal with the hair other than I managed to use the above techniques to make it move to match the bends of Miki2's body and to come over the outfit without making part of it explode. Later, I hope to have the hair fixed in a manner that looks faithful to the original character's hair. Though, the same could be said about making a fully original piece and render that entirely in Blender.

Let's see... other than that, there are some texture changes for her nails to match up the original character, eye color was altered, and two snakes were added from www.most-digital-creations.com for their Shadow Serpent object as it saved me some time in creating another mesh (I'll have to make a better one that's actually specific to the series though) with altered textures. I wished I could have added Medusa's vector arrows to better show her as a character, but I ran out of time and was really too tired to draw up additional textures. Maybe later... or next time. XD

Anyway, I think that's it for this one. Time for me to get back on schedule.