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Description

Featuring Minerva 9, Ivar 9, and their wildly improbable love child Antony. (Being as he's technically the same age in some ways as both Minerva and Ivar, he would be wildly improbable indeed.) Mostly this is a test render, but it turned out well enough.

Ivar will be discussed somewhat later in a different entry. He's in this image primarily because of Antony.

Minerva 9 appears intended to be an older-presenting character, filling in some ways the same space as Alexandra 8. She uses 11% Proportion Height to make her a tiny bit taller than default G9. She comes in both HD and standard versions, with the HD included as part of the character; the character includes both standard definition and HD normal maps as well as morphs. She includes material for one eye color (the rest are included in the Character Essentials Expansion, so it's pretty clear that Daz itself won't be including more than one eye color for name-and-number characters for this generation); eyelashes material; several makeup options with several separate remove options, so that you can individually remove eyeliner or foundation and leave the rest of the makeup set alone, for example. She also includes both male and female chest options, and all three genital options ... which brings us to Antony.

Antony uses Minerva's male texture options, more of which will be seen later. For his head shape, he uses one of the Ivar 9 Kinship options, so he's got 100% of Ivar's head plus some additional shape based on Ivar's head. He also has 50% Minerva's head, plus 25% Michael 9 head. For his body, he's got a bunch of sliders slid, no Ivar or Michael at all.

None of the characters above uses the default skin settings. As is my normal practice, translucency weight has been turned down from its normal very high default value to somewhere between .55-.70. Interesting discovery: apparently Minerva's texture doesn't tolerate values below .6/.65 very well. In the image here, Minerva's translucency weight value is .65 (she also has some light makeup), while Antony's value is .55. Above his beard, he's so pale that you almost expect Ivar to ask, "Dude, have you been sick or something?" (Modern day Ivar would totally call someone "dude", even though he's a touch older than he looks, I think.)

The set is the Dew Drop Inn by Tesla3DCorp, the arched windows along one side. And the Dew Drop Inn is ... a touch odd, as hotel rooms go. To quote what I told someone about it:

The Dew Drop Inn is a hotel room that is approximately two thirds bathroom. But a very weird two thirds bathroom.

The first third of the room is occupied by a giant bathtub and its accoutrements. There's a door positioned in such a way that it seems that the door is the entrance into the room. You enter through the bathroom. (Or it could be a closet. More about that anon.) There's also a large picture window in that bathroom part so that you can see and be seen. There are no curtains.

Then there's a huge cased opening into the main bedroom area, the second third. Huge round bed "pod" [sic], and a counter-type thing against the far wall. Magnificent arched windows, which allow you to see outside, and allow anyone outside to see you sleeping or in one of the two thirds of the room that is some kind of bathroom. And they WILL be able to see you, because while there is a curtain, it can't be drawn. Clearly, a room for exhibitionists.

To the right of the bed, there's another huge cased opening into which you enter the final third of the room, wherein the ginormous shower -- with all glass sides -- is located. This also has another door which could be either an entrance or maybe a closet. (Both doors open, by the by.)

There is, of course, no sign of a toilet anywhere. Or a sink, but why would you need one if there's no toilet? (To be fair, the vast majority of people will not be rendering their characters in a hotel restroom using the toilet or the sink. BUT STILL.) There's a glass panel on the floor next to the ginormous tub, and ... it's a terrarium. You step out of the tub onto a terrarium. I suspect most people would likely give it a very wide berth when they finished bathing, what with not wanting to break themselves or the glass.

As I say, a touch odd for your average high-end hotel room.

Oh, one additional thing. Minerva is wearing the MK Sheath Dress. I put a bodysuit underneath, because I really didn't want a belly-baring diamond there. Then I thought that maybe I could shader the dress so that it all matched and well ... no. Turns out all that nice ruching and that tied bit? That's all texture. No geometry at all, so when you shader it, that all disappears. If you don't mind that, then the shape is fine, though you'll then want to turn off the little bow surface, because all the string above it disappears as well.

The guys are wearing clothing upconverted from G3 and G8 with the RSSY G8-G9 Clothing Converters. Antony is wearing Just Josh, upconverted first from G3 to G8 a while ago, and then from G8 to G9, and that all worked just fine. Ivar is wearing the DeNimes outfit, upconverted from G8 to G9, and that did fare slightly less well. For some reason, it didn't handle the original boots that came with the outfit as easily, and they bent in the middle of the sole.

Description

Featuring Minerva 9, Ivar 9, and their wildly improbable love child Antony. (Being as he's technically the same age in some ways as both Minerva and Ivar, he would be wildly improbable indeed.) Mostly this is a test render, but it turned out well enough.

Ivar will be discussed somewhat later in a different entry. He's in this image primarily because of Antony.

Minerva 9 appears intended to be an older-presenting character, filling in some ways the same space as Alexandra 8. She uses 11% Proportion Height to make her a tiny bit taller than default G9. She comes in both HD and standard versions, with the HD included as part of the character; the character includes both standard definition and HD normal maps as well as morphs. She includes material for one eye color (the rest are included in the Character Essentials Expansion, so it's pretty clear that Daz itself won't be including more than one eye color for name-and-number characters for this generation); eyelashes material; several makeup options with several separate remove options, so that you can individually remove eyeliner or foundation and leave the rest of the makeup set alone, for example. She also includes both male and female chest options, and all three genital options ... which brings us to Antony.

Antony uses Minerva's male texture options, more of which will be seen later. For his head shape, he uses one of the Ivar 9 Kinship options, so he's got 100% of Ivar's head plus some additional shape based on Ivar's head. He also has 50% Minerva's head, plus 25% Michael 9 head. For his body, he's got a bunch of sliders slid, no Ivar or Michael at all.

None of the characters above uses the default skin settings. As is my normal practice, translucency weight has been turned down from its normal very high default value to somewhere between .55-.70. Interesting discovery: apparently Minerva's texture doesn't tolerate values below .6/.65 very well. In the image here, Minerva's translucency weight value is .65 (she also has some light makeup), while Antony's value is .55. Above his beard, he's so pale that you almost expect Ivar to ask, "Dude, have you been sick or something?" (Modern day Ivar would totally call someone "dude", even though he's a touch older than he looks, I think.)

The set is the Dew Drop Inn by Tesla3DCorp, the arched windows along one side. And the Dew Drop Inn is ... a touch odd, as hotel rooms go. To quote what I told someone about it:

The Dew Drop Inn is a hotel room that is approximately two thirds bathroom. But a very weird two thirds bathroom.

The first third of the room is occupied by a giant bathtub and its accoutrements. There's a door positioned in such a way that it seems that the door is the entrance into the room. You enter through the bathroom. (Or it could be a closet. More about that anon.) There's also a large picture window in that bathroom part so that you can see and be seen. There are no curtains.

Then there's a huge cased opening into the main bedroom area, the second third. Huge round bed "pod" [sic], and a counter-type thing against the far wall. Magnificent arched windows, which allow you to see outside, and allow anyone outside to see you sleeping or in one of the two thirds of the room that is some kind of bathroom. And they WILL be able to see you, because while there is a curtain, it can't be drawn. Clearly, a room for exhibitionists.

To the right of the bed, there's another huge cased opening into which you enter the final third of the room, wherein the ginormous shower -- with all glass sides -- is located. This also has another door which could be either an entrance or maybe a closet. (Both doors open, by the by.)

There is, of course, no sign of a toilet anywhere. Or a sink, but why would you need one if there's no toilet? (To be fair, the vast majority of people will not be rendering their characters in a hotel restroom using the toilet or the sink. BUT STILL.) There's a glass panel on the floor next to the ginormous tub, and ... it's a terrarium. You step out of the tub onto a terrarium. I suspect most people would likely give it a very wide berth when they finished bathing, what with not wanting to break themselves or the glass.

As I say, a touch odd for your average high-end hotel room.

Oh, one additional thing. Minerva is wearing the MK Sheath Dress. I put a bodysuit underneath, because I really didn't want a belly-baring diamond there. Then I thought that maybe I could shader the dress so that it all matched and well ... no. Turns out all that nice ruching and that tied bit? That's all texture. No geometry at all, so when you shader it, that all disappears. If you don't mind that, then the shape is fine, though you'll then want to turn off the little bow surface, because all the string above it disappears as well.

The guys are wearing clothing upconverted from G3 and G8 with the RSSY G8-G9 Clothing Converters. Antony is wearing Just Josh, upconverted first from G3 to G8 a while ago, and then from G8 to G9, and that all worked just fine. Ivar is wearing the DeNimes outfit, upconverted from G8 to G9, and that did fare slightly less well. For some reason, it didn't handle the original boots that came with the outfit as easily, and they bent in the middle of the sole.