The DragonBraid for Victoria 4 created by: Arki (Kim Schneider), January 2013 contact: kim@drachen-tor.de ############################################ Thank you for purchasing the DragonBraid for Victoria 4! ############################################ Some notes about the Firefly Renderer: The following render settings were used in the promo images and they should bring you very good results: * Cast Shadows - ON or OFF (this depends on your image; if you wish to render shadows, switch it ON) * Raytracing - ON or OFF (this depends on your image; if you wish to render raytraced shadow, reflections and refraction, switch it ON) * Raytrace Bounces - 0; 1 or higher (0 will result in no real reflections, 1 or 2 will create real reflections if there is a shader present in your scene which requires this; 3 is required for refractions if there is a shaders present in your scenes which requires this; 4 is required for reflections through transparency if there is a shader present in your scenes which requires this – each value above 1 or 2 will increase render time!) * Min Shading Rate - 0,20 (you can lower this even more if hair or lashes don't look as good as you have expected) * Pixel Samples - 5 * Max Bucket Size - 64 (you can lower this if your computer is not able to handle it well, 32 is a common setting here * Smooth Polygons - ON * Use Displacement Maps - ON or OFF (depends on the material settings used in your scene) * Just leave the rest the way it is ############################################ Resources used * self created patterns and designs * self taken photographs * image material from image*after.com ############################################ Required products * Victoria 4 ############################################ Required software * Poser 8 or above * DAZ Studio 3 or above ############################################ Installation Extract the zip-file directly into your Poser Directory. ############################################ The DragonBraid for Victoria 4 comes with the following options: * one conforming hairbase figure * one conforming articulated braid figure * one conforming coilbraid figure * one conforming circlet figure * one conforming hanger figure * one conforming braid amulet figure * articulated hair needle figure (to be parented to the coilbraid) * ten natural colors with material poses for all hair parts * two color schemes for all the jewelry parts * Poser MATs for all options ############################################ Included texture resolutions: * all textures are between 500 x 500 and 4000 x 4000 pixels ############################################ Usage tips and limitations 1.) Load Victoria 4 2.) Zero her joints and switch off IKs (use the provided utility poses under Pose/AK DragonBraid/00 - Utils) 3.) Select the BODY of Victoria 4 4.) Load the desired hair figure 5.) Conform the desired hairpiece (in case you want to add the braid and the coilbraid, please conform those to the hairbase) 6.) Pose and morph V4 and adjust the position of the hair addon figures (the braids contain several adjustment and fix dials found in the BODY of the hair figure) 7.) Apply MATs to the hair figure and Victoria 4, add clothing 8.) render ... How to set up the hair Please conform both the braid and coilbraid to the hairbase! When moving the long braid, either use the easypose dials found in the BODY of the figure or move the bodyparts braid 2 through braid 20. If you want to move the part braid 1, please use the bodypart of the hairbase rather than that of the long braid. Morphs, adjustments and movement dials Almost each part of this set contains a number of morph or movement dials which can be accessed via the BODY of each figure. Using the similarly named morph dials in other body parts might results in mesh breakages and distortions because then the morph is only partially activated. The categories are as follow: * Movement - to move separate bodyparts * Adjustment - to adjust positions, shapes or sizes * Style - for shape changes * Fixes - to fix pokes in certain positions and/or poses In some morph or style combinations you will get mesh distortions or poke through. This can happen if you combine length morphs with easypose movement morphs. You can either get rid of these problems by postworking your finished rendered image or by using the brush morph tool (Poser 8 and above). Most of the mentioned dials are present as duplicates in the neck and other body parts of several of the figures and in the BODY group. Please always use the dials in the BODY to make your adjustments and changes! When working with the braid and hanger figure, please note that moving the separate parts can cause the hangers to intersect with Victoria 4 or the hair figure(s). The movement dials were created to adjust the figures for different poses of Victoria 4, allowing for a more realistic look. Careful manipulation of the rotations will avoid poke through. Also, some of the fix dials in the base hair will affect the coilbraid figure if you have conformed it to the hairbase. The fix morphs of the hairbase are crosstalking and should follow the adjustments made in the hairbase. Should this not work for some reason, please adjust the fixes for the coilbraid manually with the fix dials found in the neck body part of the coilbraid! Using the coilbraid figure If you want to use the coilbraid with the hairbase, please make the clasp of the hairbase invisible. There is a utility pose to do this (03a - Hide Clasp top under Pose/AK DragonBraid/00 - Utils). Also, when you wish to add one or more hair needles, please load one of the needle figures from the characters folder and position them with the provided utility pose (03 - Needle Coil L or 03 - Needle Coil R under Pose/AK DragonBraid/00 - Utils). You can rotate or translate each needle to adjust them further. Parent the BODY of each used needle to the head of Victoria 4 or the head of the coilbraid figure. The jewelry accessories The included circlet, hangers, braid amulets and hair needles have to be conformed or parented to their appropriate base figure. See the list below of how to use which part: * Circlet - conform to V4 * Hangers - conform to V4 (if you want more flexibility in the movement of the hangers sides, just parent this figure to V4's head or use the Movement Morph dials found in the BODY of this figure) To position the hangers so they point to the ground, you can either use the movement dials located in the BODY part of the figure or rather point the hangers to the bottom camera (top menu in Poser -> Object -> Point at... -> Bottom Camera) Also, in DS the movement dials found in the BODY won't work as expected. Please use the Movement Morph (DS) dials for adjustments. * Braid amulets - conform to the braid figure * Hair needle - position two of these needles with the provided utility files (use the provided utility poses under Pose/AK DragonBraid/00 - Utils) and parent the BODY of each needle to the head of either the hairbase figure or the head of Victoria 4. Then use the appropriate utility file to hide the hair clasp on the back of the hairbase (Pose/AK DragonBraid/00 - Utils/03 - Hide Clasp top). Fit the hair to Aiko, Stephanie, etc There are no special fit morphs provided to fit spinoff figures of Victoria 4 (like Aiko, Stephanie, etc), but I have provided a number of adjustment and fix morphs which will help to adjust the hair figures to the new headshapes. In most cases, simply scaling the hair figures will help to get the pieces to fit. If the braids will not conform properly, I recommend simply parenting it to the hairbase instead. ############################################ Poser files ################################################################## ..\Runtime\AK Readmes\DragonBraid\ AK_DragonBraid_README.txt RDNA_license.txt ..\Runtime\AK Templates\DragonBraid\ AK_DBneedleV4_1.jpg AK_DbamuletsV4.jpg AK_DbraidV4_1.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2.jpg AK_DbraidV4_3.jpg AK_DbraidV4_4.jpg AK_DbraidV4_4a.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp2.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp2a.jpg jewelryparts2.jpg jewelryparts2a.jpg ..\Runtime\Geometries\Arki\DragonBraid\ AK_DBcircletV4_1.obj AK_DBhangersV4_1.obj AK_DBneedleV4_1.obj AK_DbamuletsV4_1.obj AK_DbraidV4_1.obj AK_DcoilbraidV4_1.obj AK_DhairbaseV4_1.obj ..\Runtime\Libraries\Character\AK DragonBraid\ 01 - DragonHairbase V4 1.cr2 01 - DragonHairbase V4 1.png 02 - DragonBraid V4 1.cr2 02 - DragonBraid V4 1.png 03 - DragonCoilbraid V4 1.cr2 03 - DragonCoilbraid V4 1.png 05 - DragonBraidmulets V4 1.cr2 05 - DragonBraidmulets V4 1.png 06 - DragonCirclet V4 1.cr2 06 - DragonCirclet V4 1.png 07 - DragonHangers V4 1.cr2 07 - DragonHangers V4 1.png 08 - DragonNeedle V4 1.cr2 08 - DragonNeedle V4 1.png ..\Runtime\Libraries\Pose\AK DragonBraid\00- Utils\ 00 - Victoria.png 00 - Victoria.pz2 01 - V4 IK off.png 01 - V4 IK off.pz2 01 - V4 IK on.png 01 - V4 IK on.pz2 01 - V4 ZERO.png 01 - V4 ZERO.pz2 02 - Jewelry.png 02 - Jewelry.pz2 03 - Needle Coil L.png 03 - Needle Coil L.pz2 03 - Needle Coil R.png 03 - Needle Coil R.pz2 03a - Hide Clasp top.png 03a - Hide Clasp top.pz2 03a - Show Clasp top.png 03a - Show Clasp top.pz2 ..\Runtime\Libraries\Pose\AK DragonBraid\01 - Hair MATs\ 00 - Hairbase.png 00 - Hairbase.pz2 01 - Hairbase 01.png 01 - Hairbase 01.pz2 01 - Hairbase 02.png 01 - Hairbase 02.pz2 01 - Hairbase 03.png 01 - Hairbase 03.pz2 01 - Hairbase 04.png 01 - Hairbase 04.pz2 01 - Hairbase 05.png 01 - Hairbase 05.pz2 01 - Hairbase 06.png 01 - Hairbase 06.pz2 01 - Hairbase 07.png 01 - Hairbase 07.pz2 01 - Hairbase 08.png 01 - Hairbase 08.pz2 01 - Hairbase 09.png 01 - Hairbase 09.pz2 01 - Hairbase 10.png 01 - Hairbase 10.pz2 02 - Braid 1.png 02 - Braid 1.pz2 03 - Braid 01.png 03 - Braid 01.pz2 03 - Braid 02.png 03 - Braid 02.pz2 03 - Braid 03.png 03 - Braid 03.pz2 03 - Braid 04.png 03 - Braid 04.pz2 03 - Braid 05.png 03 - Braid 05.pz2 03 - Braid 06.png 03 - Braid 06.pz2 03 - Braid 07.png 03 - Braid 07.pz2 03 - Braid 08.png 03 - Braid 08.pz2 03 - Braid 09.png 03 - Braid 09.pz2 03 - Braid 10.png 03 - Braid 10.pz2 06 - Coilbraid.png 06 - Coilbraid.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 01.png 07 - Coilbraid 01.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 02.png 07 - Coilbraid 02.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 03.png 07 - Coilbraid 03.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 04.png 07 - Coilbraid 04.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 05.png 07 - Coilbraid 05.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 06.png 07 - Coilbraid 06.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 07.png 07 - Coilbraid 07.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 08.png 07 - Coilbraid 08.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 09.png 07 - Coilbraid 09.pz2 07 - Coilbraid 10.png 07 - Coilbraid 10.pz2 ..\Runtime\Libraries\Pose\AK DragonBraid\02 - Accessories MATs\ 00 - Hairbase Clasps.png 00 - Hairbase Clasps.pz2 01 - Hairbase clasp 1.png 01 - Hairbase clasp 1.pz2 01 - Hairbase clasp 2.png 01 - Hairbase clasp 2.pz2 02 - Braid Amulets & Clasps.png 02 - Braid Amulets & Clasps.pz2 03 - Braid clasp amulets 1.png 03 - Braid clasp amulets 1.pz2 03 - Braid clasp amulets 2.png 03 - Braid clasp amulets 2.pz2 03 - Coilbraid amulet 1.png 03 - Coilbraid amulet 1.pz2 03 - Coilbraid amulet 2.png 03 - Coilbraid amulet 2.pz2 04 - Jewelry.png 04 - Jewelry.pz2 05 - Braidamulets 1.png 05 - Braidamulets 1.pz2 05 - Braidamulets 2.png 05 - Braidamulets 2.pz2 05 - Circlet 1.png 05 - Circlet 1.pz2 05 - Circlet 2.png 05 - Circlet 2.pz2 05 - Hairneedle 1.png 05 - Hairneedle 1.pz2 05 - Hairneedle 2.png 05 - Hairneedle 2.pz2 05 - Hangers 1.png 05 - Hangers 1.pz2 05 - Hangers 2.png 05 - Hangers 2.pz2 ..\Runtime\Textures\Arki\DragonBraid\accessories\ AK_DBREF1.jpg AK_DBREF2.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2BUM.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2_1.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2_2.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2aBUM.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2a_1.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2a_2.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2b_1.jpg AK_DBjewelryparts2b_2.jpg AK_DBneedleBUM.jpg AK_DBneedle_1.jpg AK_DBneedle_2.jpg AK_DbamuletsBUM.jpg AK_Dbamulets_1.jpg AK_Dbamulets_2.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp1BUM.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp1_1.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp1_2.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp2BUM.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp2_1.jpg AK_Dbraidclasp2_2.jpg AK_Dbraidjewels3BUM.jpg AK_Dbraidjewels3_1.jpg AK_Dbraidjewels3_2.jpg AK_Dbraidjewels3aBUM.jpg AK_Dbraidjewels3a_1.jpg AK_Dbraidjewels3a_2.jpg ..\Runtime\Textures\Arki\DragonBraid\ AK_DbaseBUM.jpg AK_DbaseSPC.jpg AK_DbaseTRS.jpg AK_Dbase_1.jpg AK_Dbase_10.jpg AK_Dbase_2.jpg AK_Dbase_3.jpg AK_Dbase_4.jpg AK_Dbase_5.jpg AK_Dbase_6.jpg AK_Dbase_7.jpg AK_Dbase_8.jpg AK_Dbase_9.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2BUM.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2SPC.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2TRS.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_1.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_10.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_2.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_3.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_4.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_5.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_6.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_7.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_8.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2_9.jpg AK_DbraidV4_2aTRS.jpg AK_DtailV4BUM.jpg AK_DtailV4SPC.jpg AK_DtailV4TRS.jpg AK_DtailV4TRS2.jpg AK_DtailV4_1.jpg AK_DtailV4_10.jpg AK_DtailV4_2.jpg AK_DtailV4_3.jpg AK_DtailV4_4.jpg AK_DtailV4_5.jpg AK_DtailV4_6.jpg AK_DtailV4_7.jpg AK_DtailV4_8.jpg AK_DtailV4_9.jpg