Bluejaunte appreciation

Artini

Thanks to the sale, got Amira and Noemi. I use smiles of Bluejante pretty often, even on the other characters.

Please share your renders and thoughts about Bluejaunte items.

https://www.daz3d.com/noemi-hd--smile-hd-expression-for-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/sahel-hd-signature-smile-hd-expression-for-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/amira-hd--expressions-hd-for-genesis-8-female

Asari

I own all bluejaunte characters except Nadia and I mainly use them for their skin because u rarely render females up-close, and for background chars BJ characters with all their fine details seems wasted to I use others. I use bluejaunte's presets on Male G8. Need some minor edits, works fine. So I'm not really sad that there won't be a male bluejaunte character in there for the foreseeable future. I hope for an Asian girl though.

Nice render, Artini.

Artini

Thanks a lot, Asari.

Good to know, that one could use bluejaunte's presets on Genesis 8 Male, as well.

 

Asari

You're welcome!

If you use a bluejaunte set, look for the diffuse map without brows. I think Amira's mats loads standard with a map where faint brows are painted on the diffuse map. Sina loads with browless maps. Forgot about the others.

Of course as these maps are designed for young women skin comes very smooth. Outrider has demonstrated how yo change this with Edie - he loaded Edie with Sina's skin settings but swapped in Edie's normal maps. This should work with Male characters, too, but never tried it myself. Never saw the need myself because the rugged males have already very good skin settings imho. That's my personal opinion though, YMMV.

Broader, less arched brows work well to balance out the skin smoothness, to me. A fibremesh facial hair set might work well, too. If you balance your character well I don't think anyone would notice you use a female texture set at all.

I noticed some females have details around their breasts - I just edited those out manually.

Artini

Misumi and Sina - now I understand better, the need to collect all of bluejaunte's characters

https://www.daz3d.com/misumi-hd--signature-smile-hd-expression-for-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/sina-hd--smile-hd-expression-for-genesis-8-female

 

xyer0

Lyra as Jeanne D'Avenir

mats76

I just bought Noemi and Nadya and was a bit suprised that they both have the exact same eyebrows as well as the exact same skin on the face (there are some changes on the skin on the body).

Super quick renders with Noemi face with Noemi skin and Nadya skin

barbult

mats76 said:

I just bought Noemi and Nadya and was a bit suprised that they both have the exact same eyebrows as well as the exact same skin on the face (there are some changes on the skin on the body).

Super quick renders with Noemi face with Noemi skin and Nadya skin

I bought Nadya a few days ago and I bought Noemi today. Thanks for bringing attention to this situation. I believe you are correct. This is a HUGE disappointment. People rave about the bluejaunte skins. I bought the characters to get nice skins for portraits. ​I don't care about the morphs; I already have too many G8F morphs. Do people realize that they are paying for essentially the same textures multiple times? It's not just the diffuse texture map, either, There is no visually discernable difference in normal map or bump map on the face either. The eyes have a difference in one of the sclera textures; the iris choices appear identical. I see no difference in teeth or mouth. And, as you said, the eyebrows also appear identical. This is all shocking to me.

MimicMolly

I only have Miriam and Misumi/Misha (with Malika wishlisted). Both skins are noticeably different as are the HD details which is what I like most about them.

Leonides02

barbult said:

It's not just the diffuse texture map, either, There is no visually discernable difference in normal map or bump map on the face either. The eyes have a difference in one of the sclera textures; the iris choices appear identical. I see no difference in teeth or mouth. And, as you said, the eyebrows also appear identical. This is all shocking to me.

Although I'm shocked the diffuse is the same, the reason bluejaunte's skin settings look good on all characters i because the normal, bump, specular, etc. are pretty generic.

barbult

Leonides02 said:

barbult said:

It's not just the diffuse texture map, either, There is no visually discernable difference in normal map or bump map on the face either. The eyes have a difference in one of the sclera textures; the iris choices appear identical. I see no difference in teeth or mouth. And, as you said, the eyebrows also appear identical. This is all shocking to me.

Although I'm shocked the diffuse is the same, the reason bluejaunte's skin settings look good on all characters i because the normal, bump, specular, etc. are pretty generic.

But I don't want the skin texture of multiple characters with different purchased skins to have identical lip creases and eye area creases, etc. There is just too much identical in those two textures for close high resolution portraits. From a distant full body shot you wouldn't notice, probably.

FSMCDesigns

mats76 said:

I just bought Noemi and Nadya and was a bit suprised that they both have the exact same eyebrows as well as the exact same skin on the face (there are some changes on the skin on the body).

Super quick renders with Noemi face with Noemi skin and Nadya skin

Thanks for bringing that up, guess I'll take them off the wishlist now. Textures are at least 50% of a product when it comes to characters, even more for me since I use my own morphs most of the time. Just another reason DAZ needs to have a place PAs can and do post nude renders so customers can see all of a product.

sunnyjei

I have three of her characters andI really like them; Malika, Nadya, and Sahel. Personally I think they look similar (these two mainly) but not identical and definitely of the three I have the skins are very different in freekles, dark spots, etc. For me what I love most about BJ's stuff is the expressions- all of her characters have really nice smiles and features that are great as is or tweaked toward something else. There are other artists on here that have a similar style for theirs as well- only speaking for myself but that doesn't bother me. I just pick the ones I like the most/wishlist them and skip the ones that are too similar. I'm glad there's a lot of variety in the store because I tend to mix between characters and love playing with the BJ smile settings for other characters.

xyer0

Duly noted, as well as Sahel, Miriam, and Misumi sharing the same source texture, BUT that neither sullies nor diminishes bluejaunte's accomplishment: Photorealistic women for dummies. Set Sahel or any of her sisters beside Babina 8 and her brood. The former looks real, and the latter looks interesting---but not necessarily real. And it is not merely the skins that are responsible for achieving this effect, as placing them on top other vendors' morphs will illustrate. If Genesis 9 looked as consistently real as bluejaunte's stable, then that would be an accomplishment.

How many characters from countless PAs are there with eyebrows that are ALL different but are obviously poor morphs of RedzStudio's excellent Supernatural Brows? Which, of course, is no argument, only a point for comparison. I view recycled skins and identical irises/sclerae (and sometimes eyebrows) as the idiosyncrasy of this artist. And I accept it because of the boon of unique beauty that attends it, just as I accept Luthbel's lack of morphs in his otherwise superlative clothing or Stonemason's unrigged doors on (many of) his preeminent environments.

 

Asari

xyer0 said:

Duly noted, as well as Sahel, Miriam, and Misumi sharing the same source texture, BUT that neither sullies nor diminishes bluejaunte's accomplishment: Photorealistic women for dummies. Set Sahel or any of her sisters beside Babina 8 and her brood. The former looks real, and the latter looks interesting---but not necessarily real. And it is not merely the skins that are responsible for achieving this effect, as placing them on top other vendors' morphs will illustrate. If Genesis 9 looked as consistently real as bluejaunte's stable, then that would be an accomplishment.

How many characters from countless PAs are there with eyebrows that are ALL different but are obviously poor morphs of RedzStudio's excellent Supernatural Brows? Which, of course, is no argument, only a point for comparison. I view recycled skins and identical irises/sclerae (and sometimes eyebrows) as the idiosyncrasy of this artist. And I accept it because of the boon of unique beauty that attends it, just as I accept Luthbel's lack of morphs in his otherwise superlative clothing or Stonemason's unrigged doors on (many of) his preeminent environments.

 

All very good points, xyer0.

I want to add to a point that you mentioned - that you don't get the same level of photorealism if you put bluejaunte's skin on other character morphs. We had a thread where people discussed displacement maps, and HD morphs. I think one example showed that some HD morphs include depressingly little details over the base morph. In one other thread about normal maps, one other user showed an example that some DO HD morphs more or less are dialable morph versions of the normal maps.

Bluejaunte's HD morphs are very detailed and from what I gather, not exactly copies of the normal maps. So here, the interaction between bump map details, normal map details, HD morphs (dazland's more or less equivalent of displacement details if the character has none) and SSS can play nicely which us essential for achieving realism. If you switch off one or other part, it might fall off.

nonesuch00

For me you can see in the advertising photos they are, if not the same textures, then nearly the same textures, so it's not a big surprise or disappointment. They look like those top notch Technicolor portraits from the 1940s, for those of you old enough to have parents that had such portraits in the 40s, which is why I personally like them.

xyer0

Malika wearing Hana Hair by Prae

bluejaunte

Hi, thanks so much for the appreciation thread 

I posted this in the other thread, I guess I will repeat it here. I'm glad that some here have already "got" what I'm doing, and extremely few returns across all my characters are hopefully and indication that I'm on the right track. So here goes:

Ensley's face texture is a bit different I think. But yeah I try to spend my time on "a character" and not so much on making all individual parts unique. I frequently add stuff instead of changing everything, say new eyes for Nadya, freckles for Noemi, sole wrinkles for Ensley. And some of these new options I can then add to future characters too, increasing their overall value iteratively and not just brute force everything from scratch every time. Ensley has the same freckles option, and future characters surely will keep the sole wrinkles too. Soon there will probably be entirely new color maps (and then they might very well not make quite as much of difference as you're hoping because the shader and micro details make up a lot of the look). 

This is simply the business model that allows me to deliver this kind of quality at this price point. I've always been open about that and I understand if that is not enough value to you individually then there is the option to refund. I'd suggest looking more at "the character". If you like what you see for that kind of money, then apparently what you saw was not influenced by the fact that some bits may have been reused. If your primary reason to buy is so you can have a completely unique skin and the character per se doesn't matter much, then I understand if you go for a refund if you find that to be the case. It's a beautiful thing at Daz to have this option to try stuff at no risk.

TL;DR I guess, business model shenanigens, iterate on improvements, add value on top, occasionally do "from scratch". In terms of the hours I invest I can assure you're getting great value every time. Keep in mind when all is said and done you're paying me 10 bucks for Ensley 

 

lana_lass

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

 

Wonderland

I hate to say it, but it's not just the skin that is similar, but the facial morphs. These three are almost identical, with similar eyes, nose and mouth. A few characters look a bit different, but I'd like to see a bigger variety in the facial features. And even choices for the skin settings with different skin tones (which of course we can do ourselves but shouldn't have to) but there is just too much similarity with many characters...

bluejaunte

lana_lass said:

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

Thanks for your perspective. Yeah a lot of it just boils down to economic realities. 3D is just a very laborious thing. If you buy the latest OOT hair, chances are relatively high you'll get the same textures as last time. Some reused parts of products are probably just more accepted than others.

bluejaunte

Wonderland said:

I hate to say it, but it's not just the skin that is similar, but the facial morphs. These three are almost identical, with similar eyes, nose and mouth. A few characters look a bit different, but I'd like to see a bigger variety in the facial features. And even choices for the skin settings with different skin tones (which of course we can do ourselves but shouldn't have to) but there is just too much similarity with many characters...

This is where it gets weird, as I see absolutely no resemblance in these 3. Nose maybe? I dunno, these are 3 vastly different types of women to me. But the brain works in mysterious ways when it comes to facial recognition, I've learned that much.

barbult

lana_lass said:

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

 

I have a different perspective on the promo images. For me, the promo images are not sufficiently detailed. I can't tell that Noemi's eyebrows are identical to Nadya's. Every promo image of Noemi has the same hair hanging in her face, partially obscuring her brows. When a character advertises included fibermesh eyebrows, I would like to see a promo image that clearly shows them. I also couldn't tell that the eyelashes are crinkled. I don't know if that is intentional or an error, but it is not visible (to me) in the promos. You can call me picky and demanding; I'm not ashamed of that. I guess I have been spoiled by the 1750 by 1950 pixel facial closeups in Daz Original character product promos, where you can really see details.

I appreciate that bluejaunte explained the thought process that goes into creating the products. I have a better understanding now of what the focus is. I'm sure I will get good use out of the products. I was just so very surprised and disappointed at the materials duplication.

It is very nice that Daz has such a flexible return policy to handle cases where a customer can't really tell what they are getting from the product promos and description. I don't intend to return either Nadya or Noemi. (I don't return stuff unless it is fatally flawed; these are not).

sunnyjei

Two I haven't finished but still tweaking. I really like how versitale Malika is especially. Really interesting to hear some of the behind the scenes info and looking forward to more Bluejaunte ladies in the future.

lana_lass

bluejaunte said:

lana_lass said:

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

Thanks for your perspective. Yeah a lot of it just boils down to economic realities. 3D is just a very laborious thing. If you buy the latest OOT hair, chances are relatively high you'll get the same textures as last time. Some reused parts of products are probably just more accepted than others.

You do amazing work... no matter people's POV on this issue, I don't think a single person here would argue against that fact! You are incredibly talented and I for one am grateful you do what you do.

Also, I am fortunate to possess three painting by a very prominent European landscape painter. All of the paintings are seascapes with similar colours and paints used. Yet, they're uniquely beautiful and very valuable... to me personally and literally valuable, lol. So, please don't let it dent your self-esteem today  It is the nature of art, not simply 3D. 

barbult

lana_lass said:

bluejaunte said:

lana_lass said:

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

Thanks for your perspective. Yeah a lot of it just boils down to economic realities. 3D is just a very laborious thing. If you buy the latest OOT hair, chances are relatively high you'll get the same textures as last time. Some reused parts of products are probably just more accepted than others.

You do amazing work... no matter people's POV on this issue, I don't think a single person would here argue against that fact! You are incredibly talented and I for one am grateful you do what you do.

Also, I am fortunate to possess three painting by a very prominent European landscape painter. All of the paintings are seascapes with similar colours and paints used. Yet, they're uniquely beautiful and very valuable... to me personally and literally valuable, lol. So, please don't let it dent your self-esteem today  It is the nature of art, not simply 3D. 

All true!

bluejaunte

lana_lass said:

bluejaunte said:

lana_lass said:

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

Thanks for your perspective. Yeah a lot of it just boils down to economic realities. 3D is just a very laborious thing. If you buy the latest OOT hair, chances are relatively high you'll get the same textures as last time. Some reused parts of products are probably just more accepted than others.

You do amazing work... no matter people's POV on this issue, I don't think a single person here would argue against that fact! You are incredibly talented and I for one am grateful you do what you do.

Also, I am fortunate to possess three painting by a very prominent European landscape painter. All of the paintings are seascapes with similar colours and paints used. Yet, they're uniquely beautiful and very valuable... to me personally and literally valuable, lol. So, please don't let it dent your self-esteem today  It is the nature of art, not simply 3D. 

Thanks for the kind words. No it doesn't bother me, I like to hear from people no matter what they have to say. That's why I'm in the forum still, as I understand most PA's avoid it and I respect that too. For me it's a pretty simple matter, I'm selling stuff to people and I need to hear what they think. At the risk of getting opinions of a minority, but it's the best I have since I will likely never hear from the vast majority of my target market. Otheriwse all I ever "hear" is when I find someone made a render with my girl in it. 

lana_lass

bluejaunte said:

lana_lass said:

bluejaunte said:

lana_lass said:

I think that's totally fair @bluejaunte. What we get when we buy your products is what we see on the product pages and you always provide very thorough and detailed promo images so we can make informed decisions about whether or not to buy.  Skin textures are a HUGE selling point for me with 3D models so I do understand what people have said above... but there are a lot of artists who make models and use merchant resource skin textures as their basis, so I don't see why it's an issue that you reuse/refashion textures you've actually made by hand yourself. Of course, if a PA claimed in their product description that the textures included with a model were 100% new + unique and they weren't then that would be one thing, but you've never claimed that as far as I've seen.

Considering the fact that when we buy 3D models at the Daz store we get a morph (usually more than one morph these days!), multiple make-up options, loads of eye textures, and usually more than one skin variation all in a single product... I know people might feel differently, but to me that's generous for the price.  

Thanks for your perspective. Yeah a lot of it just boils down to economic realities. 3D is just a very laborious thing. If you buy the latest OOT hair, chances are relatively high you'll get the same textures as last time. Some reused parts of products are probably just more accepted than others.

You do amazing work... no matter people's POV on this issue, I don't think a single person here would argue against that fact! You are incredibly talented and I for one am grateful you do what you do.

Also, I am fortunate to possess three painting by a very prominent European landscape painter. All of the paintings are seascapes with similar colours and paints used. Yet, they're uniquely beautiful and very valuable... to me personally and literally valuable, lol. So, please don't let it dent your self-esteem today  It is the nature of art, not simply 3D. 

Thanks for the kind words. No it doesn't bother me, I like to hear from people no matter what they have to say. That's why I'm in the forum still, as I understand most PA's avoid it and I respect that too. For me it's a pretty simple matter, I'm selling stuff to people and I need to hear what they think. At the risk of getting opinions of a minority, but it's the best I have since I will likely never hear from the vast majority of my target market. Otheriwse all I ever "hear" is when I find someone made a render with my girl in it. 

That is a really healthy approach  And another thing for us to be thankful for -- that you actually want to hear our POV, good or bad

Asari

So, since this is an appreciation thread and usually appreciation threads are meant to flood the thread with lots and lots of renders ...

Very hesitant to post my stuff when I see so much beauties in one thread, but at least I have something unique to offer - technically not a bluejaunte girl but Amira on G8M.

bluejaunte

Asari said:

So, since this is an appreciation thread and usually appreciation threads are meant to flood the thread with lots and lots of renders ...

Very hesitant to post my stuff when I see so much beauties in one thread, but at least I have something unique to offer - technically not a bluejaunte girl but Amira on G8M.

That's interesting, didn't know you can get away with female skins on males.

barbult

bluejaunte said:

Asari said:

So, since this is an appreciation thread and usually appreciation threads are meant to flood the thread with lots and lots of renders ...

Very hesitant to post my stuff when I see so much beauties in one thread, but at least I have something unique to offer - technically not a bluejaunte girl but Amira on G8M.

That's interesting, didn't know you can get away with female skins on males.

UV swap