Fairy Hide-and-Seek Image

I believe this is my best 3D image yet. I call it "Fairy Hide-and-Seek". It took a couple of hours to figure out the depth of field to match the focus of my mushroom photo, but I think the effort paid off. What do you think? (click the image for a larger view)

Fairy Discovery at Whytecliffe Park

The other day, we were exploring the scenic seaside Whytecliffe Park in West Vancouver with some friends, and I noticed it was unusually quiet. I wandered back along the trail, and was surprised to see my daughter and her friend Justine chatting with fairies. I was able to take this photo before they noticed me and flew off (click the image for a larger view):

Aiko in the Forest

Tonight I was much too tired to work, so I found myself downloading more accessories for Aiko. It has been a long time since I played with DAZStudio. Made sense at the time, except now I'm tired and my eyes hurt, too. ;-)

Okay, here goes, Aiko as a fairy in her new "Tink" dress, with a texture applied (which happened to fit okay, even though designed for an entirely different outfit), and her new wreath headband, courtesy of faerie-dreams.com (click the image for a larger view):

What do you think? Was it worth staying up until midnight, or should I have caught an early night while I had the chance?

Fairy Discovery

Last weekend while we were walking Lighthouse Park (one of my favourite parks), my daughter discovered a fairy (click for a larger image):

3D Creature Battle

It feels much too late to be working on a 3D image, but I'm trying to stay awake until my husband makes it home (he phoned at 9pm that he was finally giving up on getting home for dinner, and now at 11:30pm he's still not home)... sigh! Anyhow, I created a DAZ 3D image of the "Millenium Dragon" fighting with "Xerr". Could be better, but not bad for being much too tired tonight (click the image for a larger view):

Aiko Dragon Rider

Aiko's back, and this time she's riding a fiercesome dragon (click photo for larger image):

Okay, for all you non-believers, who think she should be sitting and holding the reigns:

Aiko Rediscovered

First chance in a long time to go to sleep early, and here I am playing with Aiko 3. I wanted to try on some new hair I had for her, and give her some boots. I think she will need to find some better boots one day, but the hair really suits her. What do you think?

3D Dinosaur Scene

I've been working long hours lately, with not even a chance of "spare" time to play with the DAZ Studio software. But when a free 3D Protoceratops arrived in my Inbox tonight, just before a long weekend, it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

Here is a little scene I put together, called "Keep Up Junior" (click photo for a larger image):

Pink Green Forest Fairies

I found this photo, I believe it was of a mountain azalea. Anyhow, it looked like a lovely spot for some flower fairies. First, a pink and a green one (click photo for larger image):

I think this looks even better, their dresses match the pink and green colours of the foliage:

Weird cakes and weird creatures

We are coming to the end of birthday season. My kids have birthdays 3 weeks apart, so for a period of about 4 weeks, it is birthday season.

My daughter had a fairy birthday with her friends, where they decorated fairy wings and wands, and gave themselves fairy names. Since she also had a fairy birthday last year, and the Fairytopia cake, we didn't want to choose the same cake, so I Photoshopped an image for her, and had it put on the cake. Save-On-Foods offers this service, using sugar paper to add the image to the cake. The result is pretty neat.

Here is the photo I altered (the original was lifted from the site fantasy-fairies.com), to insert my daughter's face:


I'll post the photo of the resulting cake once we develop it - I took it on the SLR camera.

On the weekend, we had the combined birthday party with the family, and a combined cake, too. Encouraged by my Photoshop experiment, I decided to try out my DAZ 3D skills, and create my own image, which I did, and then I Photoshopped the kids' faces onto it. Here is the image, which I entitled "Mythical Meeting in the Forest":


I'll try to post the resulting cake also, once the photo is ready.

Every week, DAZ seems to come out with another free item. Fortunately last week it was the dragon, just in time for the birthday cake. This week it is a weird looking creature called "Xerr". I think he's a little too scary for a birthday cake!:

5 Beautiful Fairies

Okay, I've learned a bit more.... How to duplicate objects, change colours... Now I've ended up with a set of 5 beautiful fairies (click for larger image):

Fun with 3D Textures - Not Pretty!

Tonight I found a tutorial on how to use textures to create outfits for the 3D characters. I tried to create a Waldo outfit for Aiko, but didn't have much luck. After 2 tries, I got the stripes in roughly the right places, but my white seemed to be translated as "skin", so I tried off-white, still no luck (click for closeup):

So then I then just experimented with some random textures, had a bit of fun, the result is definitely not pretty, but I can see there is some good potential here:

Dragonfly Fairy

Oh my, this one is gorgeous, and I love dragonflies. I think her pose/posture is not quite there yet, but I love it already... What do you think? How would you improve this image (click for a larger view):

What are Toadstools Anyhow?

Hmmm... Ever wonder why they are called "toadstools"? Because toads like to sit on them, of course! Enjoy my latest DAZ 3D creation (click photo for larger image of these lounging tree frogs):

Trio of Forest Fairies

It didn't take long tonight (less than an hour) to create a magical scene of a trio of beautiful fairies in the forest. Something to the right has captured their attention, and stopped them mid-flight (click the photo for a larger image).

What was that light? They had never seen one quite like it before....

Well Dressed Fairies

I got tired of the fairies being stuck in wet suits, and decided to buy them some dresses. What do you think (click photo for a larger image)?

Fairies and Toadstools

It was just over a year ago I was pleased to discover and take photos of some beautiful spotted red mushrooms (the classic toadstools from the childrens fairy tales - see mushroom photos post), and thought this may make a good setting for my fairies. What do you think? (Click the image for a larger view.)


Here it is, in a puzzle:

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.