Graphics stuff....

M Crawford made a comment that I wanted to expand upon, as I wasn't happy with my reply, hehehe.

In case many haven't noticed, I'm pretty anal with my work.  Sometimes that is good, as it gets the best quality of work out of me; however, sometimes it is bad, as it can take a long time for something to get published.  That not only pertains to my writings and stories, but also the graphics I work on.

There are three things that actually take time when I'm working on my graphics.  The first is just plain shopping.  Not only do you have to find a model (male or female) that you like, but you also have to find the poses.  Although you can pose the models yourself, sometimes it's more than awkward as the physics of the models don't necessarily comply.  For example, trying to move just a finger on the model can cause her to bend in half, her head fly to the side, and completely distort the model--so typically you find a pose package you like and then try to make small modifications to it.

But not only do you need to find the model, but also the hair, the outfits, the nail polish, the shoes, the skin textures, the make-up.  It gets to be quite an endeavor.  And let's not forget making the scene.  For example, I have several strip club scenes, but none of them are 'just right' so you take pieces of one into another, moving things around, until it's just right

And then, once you have all the textures, materials, and whatnot for the model, you have the camera angles and lighting to consider.  Lighting makes a HUGE difference--and I would even say is the most important aspect of any render.

So once you find everything you like and buy it, you end up having to put it all together in the graphics program.  Whether using Daz3D Studio or Poser, it's all the same.

Finding the right model is the next part of my anal tendencies, LOL.  Not only do you import her, but then you have to play around with her skin, her make-up, etc.  You have to adjust her face--eyes (not only color, but placement on the head, tilt, eye lashes and brows, pupil size, iris size,), make-up, nose, lips, smile, teeth.  Then you adjust other body parts--breasts (size, angle, droop, placement), nipples (size, placement, perkiness), aureola, arms, hands, legs, feet.  It can take HOURS to get her looking how you want.

And then you pose her, bring in facial expressions, bring in lighting, camera angles, scenery.

And even when everything is all done, you find after you render it into an image it's nothing like you wanted, so you go back and play around with the lighting, coloring, etc.

Making a single image can take HOURS or even DAYS.  The image I made of the girl laying down and the other girl's shoe on her head took me about a week to make, and that I already had the image in my head (was working off an actual photograph) and it was a close-up.

To make matters worse, not everything you purchase ends up being what you expect.  When artists advertise their models/clothes/whatever, they demonstrate them in the optimal circumstances.  There have been several times I've spent money on models only to find I can never get them to look like what the advertisements showed.  As such, I've gone to "trying before buying" many models and such.  I don't promote piracy, but a lot of times I'll download pirated copies of a model and if she's what I like and will use, only then will I purchase it.  I will NEVER post anything online that I do not legally own, but because many things are made for Poser and I use Daz, or vice versa, it's often nice to have the bits and pieces to see how they come out first before investing in them.

So I have a bunch of downloaded models, clothes, etc. that I have to install, and then play around with.

So yeah, it just takes time.  Not having a job at the moment gives me at least some time to play with things, but a lot of the work is just monotonous playing around with files and such before I even get into the graphics program, LOL.

What I end up doing is having Word with Lapdancing 06 open, as well as two views of folders of my downloads.  I'll unzip and install several packages, then go into writing, then go back to the files, and bounce back and forth.  It breaks up the monotony of one, but definitely prolongs writing the chapter.

Just wanted to share a bit of what I've been doing...a lot of it is monotonous work that will pay off in the end, but right now there is little to show for it....but I hope to be able to show at least some preliminary images as well as get the stories written!