2023 Big Picture

[jammixx]

Outstanding images Arnold!  Hope to see more.

[Arnold]

thanks Jammixx
great picture you've created :-)

[Llola Lane]

Here is one of my first images using an HDRI.  I have not figured out how to get some ground texture without overlaying a prop yet.  I could use some help with that.  For now I just call it "game style.  Using IRay, the pilot is GF3 with Tau Ceti Overseer uniform.

Adding a ground plane is about the only way... so you did correctly... I usually make the plane about 50percent transparent so it shows some of the HDRI ground and matches the scenery... I also crop most of the ground off (so it is less noticeable) and use Depth of Field but I know a lot of people don't.  It helps focus your eyes on the main subject.  HDRIs to me are mostly for portraits so I avoid the ground issue... Hope that helps.  Here is my sample HDRI with the ground like I mentioned.. https://www.renderosity.com/gallery/items/3096379/llola-lanes-free-texture-shaders-2022

[Agent0013]

Got one for this thread now, which I composed and rendered in Bryce 7.1 Pro.
It's Coming Down
We have all heard stories about UFO crashes that our governments say never happened. Well I could tell you some things concerning the actual existence of UFOs, as I have seen at least three that could not be anything else other that extraterrestrial vehicles; in other words, spaceships from other worlds. Still I've never seen a UFO crash, but I have no reason to believe what government wants me to believe, which is that supposedly there have never been any real UFO crashes. I don't believe that for even one second. I mean witness this virtual image of a UFO coming down with a flaming trail.
I think it's gonna crash!


I wanted to see if I could do some convincing flame trails using the existing materials in the Bryce Material Library. I could not be happier with the results. I placed a point light inside the flaming trail to give it its own light. The fact that the water reflects the flaming trail fairly well is something I did not know would work this well. The UFO was made using a symmetrical lattice, and shaped with a height map in the Deep Terrain Editor of Bryce. The mountains in the distance were made using a terrain object, which was edited also in the Deep Terrain Editor. The sky was made in the Sky Lab of Bryce, and includes volumetric haze. That slows down the render considerably, but the results are definitely worth it.
Cheers!

[sanbie]

Super render Agent...actually looks a bit like a UFO a friend and I saw many many many moons ago, except ours had a higher bit on top.

[Agent0013]

I love it when my experiments do this well, Sanbie. Thanks for the comment.
I joke about seeing a few UFOs myself, but the truth is that I really have.
The first was when I was a preteen in Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA. I and a friend were wrestling, not hurting each other. I had him pinned in the front yard of our home. His eyes got really big as he stared past me into the sky, and then a large round shadow moved across the two of us. I turned to look up, and there was a low flying disk shaped object, moving at a speed no flying vehicles could do; like 10 to 15 miles an hour. I was able to walk faster than that at that time. There were some odd looking devices on the bottom of the disk, it had no wings or other protrusions, just the devices on its belly. It floated across the street about 60 feet up from the ground, and then floated beyond my friend's home across the street. Once it got past his home, it suddenly went upward super fast, and disappeared into the sky. As quickly as it accelerated, if humans were in an Earth vehicle that did that, they would have been crushed by the inertial forces involved. And that was just the first one I have seen in my life. I was 12 at the time, so no one other than my friend would believe me when I told them about it. They tried to say it was an AWACs airplane, which did have a large disk shaped device on top of it that rotates. I knew what an AWACs plane looked like, and the object I saw that day did not have the wings or fuselage of the AWACs or any other plane, plus the disk was much larger than what those planes had on them. I don't know if any of our other neighbors saw it. This happened in 1969.

[sanbie]

Yeah mine was with my badminton partner, we had gone off to play in the finals of the competition, it never finished until after midnight...so I said to my friend...we'll take the shortcut and go around the mountain...Yeah well big mistake...we rounded a corner and there it was...just like it had been waiting for us...I nearly went off the road...and like you, next thing it just went straight up so fast and it was gone...we both promised not to tell anyone lol and we didn't for years!

[Llola Lane]

WOW you two!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done Agent... I love the color pallet.  :)

[Agent0013]

WOW you two!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done Agent... I love the color pallet.  :)

Thanks Llola. The colors just came together, practically on their own.

[Agent0013]

Got another Big Picture Image.

Skinless Fembot Android


In the last few years we have been seeing the advent of humanoid robotic androids that look very nearly human in appearance. Some are outwardly appearing to be women, and some pundits are saying these androids could be the next girlfriend for a man. These are the female versions which have been dubbed Fembots.


There are several questions we must ask ourselves.
Is this really good for humanity?
How well would such androids perform?
Is it good to have something that is not the real thing in place of the real thing?
What is the lifespan of such an artificial human?
What will be the impact of the robots on humankind?
What if one or more of them become self aware, and actually achieve Full AI (Artificial Intelligence)?
If men and women decide to have an android as their lover, who will perpetuate the human race?
How will the people deal with these possibilities?
Will we as a species just die off and leave the androids in charge?
What will they do to Earth after we are gone?


These and other questions have not really been addressed, concerning the advent of these mechanical people. It seems to me, we really need to address these questions, because it could be the edge upon which we sit, that determines whether or not our species will survive into the future. Our future is at stake in this.
Let's make no mistakes, as we move headlong into an uncertain future!


In this image I used Genesis 2 Female(s), in the Alphakini; both of which I retextured with JSPlacement Greeble Textures. the eyes are from a collection of unusual eyes that I got for DAZ3D. The environment is a sci fi corridor. Lights and Camera were created and edited in DAZ Studio 4.10. Rendered in DAZ Studio 4.10 with the 3Delight Render Engine.