A Little Challenge

So, my friends and I did a little challenge, and we all had the same rules:  Use A4, Use the tent prop, and then a clothing item & a scenery item with specific instructions on which to choose.  (Either the vendor name or the item name had to start with a certain letter... for clothing, we had three choices - V, S, and Z.  for prop.scenery, we had R, E, and G).  This is my result...

Have a Faerie Merry Kissmas!

I am hoping you all have a most wonderful holiday season, and may this coming year be the best ever!
Thank you for your continued friendship and support, it means the world to me!

Melissa Gifford
MidnightMoonDesigns

Flame Wings

Well, yesterday was interesting... I decided I wanted to try my hand at texturing The Wings by Rhiannon - available in the Renderosity Marketplace.  Well worth the $$ as they're pretty versatile and UV mapped decently.  I had to separate out the maps, as UVMapper likes to pile the maps on top of each other, and it makes it more difficult to determine lines.  Thankfully, that IS something I managed to learn in the short UVMapper class I took at LVS.

Then into Photoshop... and while I had originally intended to begin with something Kissmassy... well, things rarely go as I intend them to.  Thankfully... my artwork IS something that I can adapt to change fairly quickly.

So, they ended up being Flame Wings instead LOL.  Complete with Transmap, and they even "glow in the dark" - i.e., remove ALL lighting from the scene and they will STILL show up - just a bit dimmer.  There is, of course, a way to brighten them for those unlit scenes... and a way to dim them for brighter-lit scenes.

This was also my first foray into using the Ambient Occlusion feature in Poser.  I STILL can't find a good definition for this lighting style, but it DOES mimic what happens RL with little effort.

I did do an oopsie, but it turned out lovely... I used a skin that had the AO effect already attached to it (don't ask... don't know HOW you can make a texture do things lighting is supposed to do... but then again, i can make things glow...)  Then, I turned AO on all 5 lights.  The background is also metallic/reflective, but a dark dark DARK grey, as I wanted most of it to vanish in the... well... background LOL.  Picked my size... and 25 hours later, had a beautiful image.

My lighting still didn't turn out QUITE like I wanted, so I ended up doing postwork in Photoshop to lighten up her skin some and give her yellowish highlights (even though I had most of the lights "leaning" to the yellow-red tones, she still ended up looking purple-blue... not cool for such great lookin wings, huh?).  Only SLIGHT work done on the wings, just to enhance what was already present.

I believe I may make this set a freebie, as I am not 100% satisfied with how they turned out - flame-wise anyway.  First as an exclusive to my online family at the Faerie Hollow, and then a couple weeks later, to the general public.

But, I have ideas.... for more wings.  =D  Maybe, if I can be creative enough, I can even break into Rosity's and RDNA's marketplaces.  Danged annoying if you ask me, stupid exclusive merchant clubs is the feeling new merchants get when they get rejected.  At least RDNA was nice enough to explain why Kyleena wasn't accepted.... Promos, mainly.  Seems... my promos lack LIFE, DEPTH, CHARACTER... yeesh.  Looking at most of the ones by others, the only life is in the lighting - most of the characters look terribly bored.

Anyways.. here's Alice 4.0 wearing Whimsy Curls hair (both by Aery Soul), and TheWings from Rhiannon with my texture, as well as Classic Fantasy by Aery Soul.

Alice 4.0

New update to Alice - one of those collector dollies that are available for purchase for a week or two each december... Aery Soul stuff ROCKS ... and may i say, this is the loveliest Alice ever.

I used the Morph Clothing program to inject Alice 4.0 into the bridal set by Jasmina.... Alice WAS wearing most of the outfit, but decided at the last minute the shoes, stockings, and gloves (as well as necklaces) weren't suiting her, so she removed them.

I decided to try new camera angles... and ended up literally flipping the camera upside down to get this shot.

Steampunk

Just playin around.

Finally, Final Finalized!

Yep, finished it... and submitted on sunday - nearing the end of my extended deadline.  LOL
Anyways, you have to view this as if it was a brochure.  Page 1 is the outside, page 2 the inside.