Picture Time - A Princess Of Mars

I loved Edgar Rice Burroughs' tales of Barsoom, and my worldball happens to have a Mars environment set. Mere coincidence? I think not...

I've had a fairly vivid picture of Dejah Thoris in my mind ever since I first read the books in my early teens.Project Gutenberg have  'A Princess Of Mars' online and I've started re-reading the stories. The princess is very clearly described at the end of Chapter VIII - 'A Fair Captive From The Sky' (the bottom of page 35),

"And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life... Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure."

Here's my first attempt at getting the picture from my head into a format I can actually look at. It's not perfect (either artistically, technically, or in matching my mental image) but it's a great start - I'd say 90% there. And I'm really pleased that even after all these years my mental picture still fits the description in the book.

I'm currently doing a lot of test renders in Poser 9 to try and get the basic characters of John Carter and Dejah Thoris sorted out (mainly skin textures), and trying to find a few good lighting setups.

I intend to keep all my images in line with the original stories, so they'll be posted where artistic nudity is appropriate, i.e. my galleries at ShareCG, Renderosity, and DeviantArt. However, I will be posting the occasional 'suitable for all' pictures here and on my DAZ3D Art Studio thread.

Freebie - Simple Thai Style Bird Cage

A Simple Thai Style Bird Cage for Poser / DAZ Studio (OBJ format also included)

In the South of Thailand keeping caged birds is very popular. By far the most popular bird is the Red-Whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) with its beautiful singing voice. Known locally as 'Nok Krong Hua Juk' (literally 'crested cagebird') their owners regularly get together to show off the birds in singing competitions...
 

Available for free (login required) from:

•  ShareCG ‘Simple Thai Style Bird Cage’
•  Renderosity ‘Simple Thai Style Bird Cage’ 

(4AUG13 VERSION 2 UPDATE: added the missing wood texture images. Alternatively download the images manually from http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/26621/#395336 )

This low resolution (1745 vertices/980 faces) model represents the most basic and simplest style of cage - a dozen or so square-sectioned pieces of wood form the basic frame, shorter pieces of wood are used to make the perch and door, and simple wooden doweling is used for the bars.

You'll probably want a freebie bird model to put in this freebie cage. Two suggestions:

• Papasmrfe's Bird: (semi-realistic) free from ShareC - http://www.sharecg.com/v/68060/ 
• LiluBird: (toon style) free from here - http://blueplum.sakura.ne.jp/sazanami/Original%20doll.htm

I've included a couple of Poser files to make it easy to use these two birds with this cage. You need to download and install the bird models separately first. I've also incorporated a very simple Red Whiskered Bulbul texture for LiluBird (I was unable to do this for Papasmrfe's bird due to UV mapping issues).

And for those of you who have the basic DAZ3D Songbird (it can be purchased from http://www.daz3d.com/songbird) I've included a couple of Poser files to help with that too. You need to buy, download and install the DAZ Songbird separately to make use of these files. They incorporate a very simplistic Red Whiskered Bulbul texture, crest morph, and bill morph. As in the promo image above.

Happy rendering!
Pete Williams
3rd August 2013