I’ve uploaded a new freebie. It’s been a long time, I know but while I’ve moved away from Poser and have been focusing on Photography I’ve decided I really miss it. So, here is a texture set for the Psyche outfit from Daz3d.com and you can find it on the Downloads page (link above).  You’ll need the outfit to use the texture. Enjoy!

What happens is you’ll be surfing the web and suddenly a pop up appears in your task bar that looks legit and states that your computer is being attacked. A pop up will look like it’s scanning your system and will “report” a few dozen bogus infections. What it does is install itself on to your system and will re-direct your browser to the website that claims it will fix your computer. Don’t go to the website! From everything I’ve read online about this malware, the whois info shows it’s in the Ukraine and others have mentioned that the website itself is dangerous to go to.

When it popped up on my system I assumed it was much like the other one that I’ve seen and known people to fall for. It’s not. It won’t let you open some of your exe files. Your system runs slowly and if you ignore it not only will you deal with pop-ups, you run the risk of having your information compromised.

Most sites that discuss this POS malware suggest malwarebytes, you can download it for free at www.malwarebytes.org. I had to download it from another computer and it took a while to get it to install since the Antivirus Pro malware was affecting my ability to run exe programs. Some suggest that a more vicious version specifically affects the ability to run malwarebytes because it’s said to be the most successful at removing it.

I’ve installed it to my laptop which hasn’t seen the malware yet so I’m prepared.

Here is one example of how I have used it.   I needed a cover for the schools yearbook and when I was browsing through the different styles in Postworkshop, I came up with the idea to have a “sketch”.  So I took 3 photos into Photoshop.  One of the school itself, one to add a flag that wasn’t there in the original and the children, which is from a stock image.   Then I adjusted each layer so that it would appear the lighting is the same on all three, flattened the layers and imported it into Postworkshop.

Once you decide on a style you aren’t limited to what it originally looks like.  You can edit line lengths and strengths and adjust it to exactly what you need.

All in all a good program to have if you plan on doing any print work or web design.

Find PostWorkShop here.

So, for now it’s workable.  Still not happy with Poser 8 on my laptop but even Poser 7 didn’t work well with it.  I haven’t had the same issue with other programs but we’ll see what happens when Smith Micro puts out Service Release 2.

Rosa May's Resting Place - Bodie, California

The Bodie Foundation’s Calendar contest has ended and I’ve uploaded my images for this year.  The above is the gravesite of Rosa May.  She was a prostitute that followed the mining towns and died in Bodie during the infuenza epidemic.  Despite the fact that she nursed many of the miners and was very charitable, she was not allowed to be buried in the town’s cemetary.  She was buried in the Outcast Cemetary by her friends.  I thought the image of her grave with the town in the background was appropriate for this image.

My son even sent in some of his images this year.

It uses an unbelievable amount of memory, it’s slow, it’s clunky and a simple scene testing only Poser 8 content and one Daz scenery prop and it crashed. Whoever designed the library tree should be fired on the spot. (ok that’s the frustration talking but it does appear to be unnecessarily resource draining)  It takes way to long to get to where you want to be. And it’s not like I have a POS system either. My runtimes are arranged into categories and the minute I loaded them it began to slow to a grinding halt.

I’m not all that impressed with Smith Micro either.  When I purchased my upgrade they failed to send me a conformation email which was supposed to include my serial.  I had to contact them for it’s location.  And after reading multiple discussion threads I still can’t find any real information on if and when there will be a service release.

My opinion is to save your money until they they release at least one service release for it.

Second try

So after walking away for a bit and venting I’m giving Poser 8 another shot.  This time I am avoiding any P8 figures and loaded V4 from Daz.  So far so good.  No error messages and no memory warnings either.  It’s taking a very long time to render but I’m using the P8 lighting and testing the indirect lighting.

As far as the lighting goes, and as far as I can tell just by the thumbnails, Poser 8 lighting has a lot more to choose from including studio lighting such as Rembrant, eye light and studio back light.

The interface is growing on me.  I still intensely dislike the library and think they could simplify it and save some of the memory usage.

I’ll post a render when I finish.

Ok, first image.  A simple scene with all Daz products and my clothing texture.   This is without indirect lighting.  (clicking on the images will open them up larger)

And here’s the same scene using a different light (still P8 content) with indirect lighting.

Indirect lighting takes avery long time to render.   I would appear that I am going to have to upgrade my memory just to use Poser 8.   Smith Micro should include on the box “Does not play well with others”.  When rendering a simple scene, I cannot have any other programs running, no music, no browser window, nothing.   No other program has had this problem on my system and this is something that Smith Micro absolutely needs to address.

After this render I tried loading a pz3 that I had saved in Poser 7 and it crashed on me.

I started with a large box and cut out three sides and the top.

Now the tutorial recommended lining the inside with paper.  I wanted something super quick so I chose to use flat spray paint.

Once the paint was dry I cut my white muslin, wrapped it around the top and sides and taped it so the muslin was taut.   A large piece of heavy-weight paper fit perfectly as a back drop.  I set my lights up on either side and a desk lamp above and voila!  A quick and (somewhat) easy light tent.

As you can see, it works pretty good.   Good enough for Ebay anyway.

This shot was taken by my 13 year old son with his Grandmothers point-and-shoot camera.

He has expressed an interest in Photography and while it still remains to be see whether he’ll retain his interest or if he has a good eye for composition, he did good here.

I pointed out this shot to him as we were walking around the meadow after the Wagon Train had pulled into town.  It’s definitely a favorite subject of mine and I’ll have this years images uploaded to the gallery soon.

While you can get good images with just about any camera, it helps to have good image editing software. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is an amazing piece of software.

I took the image he took and rendered it to a Sepia tone.  We’ll print it for next years Wagon Train and he can display it as his creation.   Between now and then I’ll show him how to get the Sepia tone in Photoshop and let him decide on the final image.   Later in the week I’ll post a small tutorial on achieving a sepia tone in Photoshop.