More Fairies in My Garden

I have added some hair to Hiro, and lengthened Aiko's hair. They look great out in my garden, don't you think?

Yet More 3D Fairy Images

I was so happy to find the Hiro 3.0 character, now Aiko has a friend (click for a larger image):


That's all for tonight. Enjoy!

More Fairy 3D Images

Oh, this is really cool, I couldn't help myself to spend a couple more hours... I have discovered a new character, called "Aiko 3.0", she's considerably cuter, and in a Japanese anime style. I've fitted her with some fairy wings, too, and placed her amongst some mushrooms I photographed this summer, near Alouette Lake:


Then I sent her out to my garden, among the Kwanzo daylilies, photographed in June'07:


Wow! I'm starting to see the possibilities... I wish I had taken more photos of my kids in the garden this summer... This would make a cute "photo", to sit them in the garden amongst a few fairies! Hey, would even work for my daughter's fairy party, I can get photos of the girls together, and then add in a few fairies when I "develop" the photos.

PS. I know, I've got to work on Aiko's outfit. The colour of her wetsuit matches her fairy wings, but I think I should be able to find something more appropriate for her to wear.

Fairy 3D Images

I was looking at fairy images today, getting ideas for my daughter's 9th birthday, which is coming in a few weeks. Last year, she took her friends to the Midnight Fairy Party Store, where they dressed as fairies and did fairy dances and had fairy stories, and brought home fairy dust and such. They had so much fun, that she wants to have a fairy theme party this year, in our house. We will transform the Christmas tree into a fairy tree, and decorate fairy wings, and whatever other fairy activities we can come up with.

After a few searches, I stumbled upon the fantasy-fairies.com website, and was quite struck by the 3D-like fairy images, such as this one:

At this point, my fairy search took a bit of a curve, and I found myself downloading the free DAZ Studio 1.8 software, and a few hours later, emerged with my own fairy image, which I'll call "Fern Fairy" (click for a larger image):


The DAZ Studio software is quite amazing, it lets you manipulate and animate 3D objects, and there are LOTS of characters and objects you can purchase, and assemble together. For example, you "fit" the dress to the character, and then it moves when she moves, and you have control over individual joints, to move fingers and toes and elbows. It is really worth trying out, but be warned, it could be totally addictive. I'm not sure what I'm thinking, having just returned from a serious massage session today, trying to undue all the damage to my neck & back which I do, sitting at the computer all day!!

Anyhow, I think this may only be a holiday diversion for me, at this point. I haven't bought any more objects (I'm afraid that if I look, I will!!), I'm just experimenting with the sample ones that come with the free download. (By the way, you need to download the objects separately, they are in "My Account" once you register.)

Another couple of hours, and here is my fairy in the scene I'll call "Follow that Dragonfly":


By the way, this is really cool.... You can set up her eyes to fix on whatever object you like, and then when you move that object, her eyes will follow. In this case, I fixed them on the dragonfly. You can also control how skinny or fat she is, make her pregnant (I want to try that out, for fun), and lots of other neat stuff.

I have yet to figure out how to export or save into a file format which I know what to do with. So for now, I'm using the SnagIt screen capture program to capture the rendered image, and save it to an image file. I also wish I could make the fairy smile. I don't seem to be able to control her mouth, just her eyes and head position. Perhaps other objects have control over this.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's used this software, and have any images you can share with me, or tips (just in case I spend some more time on it ;-) ).

First Snow Creation of the Season

The snow started out dry and fluffy this morning, but turned progressively wet and heavy this afternoon. Finally, my son and I were able to make a snow creation, before it turns to rain (which is the forecast for tonight, I hear). He wanted a penguin, since my kids are both Club Penguin (ClubPenguin.com) fans.

With some Photoshop colour (colouring the snow would have been too messy), it looks quite a bit like a Club Penguin member, don't you think?

First Snow in Vancouver

It is December 2, and we just had our first major snowfall in Vancouver (BC). Yesterday when the snow just barely covered the ground, my daughter was excited to run barefoot in it, and being a cool mom, I wouldn't deprive her of the experience:

Today, it has been snowing all day, and I got tired of waiting for it to stop before taking a photo of the back yard, especially since I've heard the forecast is for rain by this evening. I like how everything (except the shed and fence, and one pink solar tulip light) looks kinda black and white:

Good thing I pretty much had the garden trimmed, dahlias dug up, hoses disconnected, and my echium pininana potted up and brought into the basement. I would have liked a few more hours in the garden before the frost and snow hit, but it's in pretty good shape this year under the circumstances.

P.S. For any puzzle fans out there, here is that last photo as an online puzzle, courtesy of JigZone.com:

P.P.S. On first try, my time was 6:35. Wow, that was a challenging one. Enjoy!