Apex

Although progress has been slow on the job hunting front, I've been pushing my 3D skills as far as my budget and computer resources will allow. This has paid off in this image. Apex was created in DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro using custom head morphs designed in FaceGen, Look At Me Eyes, a bit of customization on the V4 skin texture to fix Avi's eyebrows so they match her rust red hair, and applying leather and metal shaders to customize the Dark Moods outfit she's wearing. The background is one of the winter terrains created by Stonemason, which I picked up in the DAZ store using my Platinum Club discount for the week. I managed to set this scene up over two nights, including the material edits, posing, test rendering, fixing poke-throughs, and then waiting in agony as my computer locked up for four hours trying to get through the render on a mere 2 cores. The extra time spent finding the most realistic eyelashes in my library, picking out the right materials and settings to make her lips look more natural, and adjusting lights helped produce a render that works without postwork. There are a few spots in there I might go in and touch up later, but all in all, I'm very happy with this one.