Aura Final

I may tweak her face a bit more (it seems to be lacking something), but this is 98% likely to be Aura's final form going forward (until something better comes out).

This is the G8F version. The G9 proved to be troublesome. While the face was incredible, and the most lifelike 3D face I've ever had, the body was iffy. Many comments on the DAZ forums say DAZ3D outdid themselves with the G9 face, but it's as if they didn't put any time into the body. It's perfect for the 3D portrait artist, but awkward for the action artist. Maybe it's the unisex mesh, but I thought it didn't pose as well and didn't have the same level of detail morphs G3/8/8.1 did. At the end of the day, G8F is a known figure. I know what it will do and how it will behave, almost intuitively now. I can't say the same for G9. I just don't feel like spending that much time learning it, when I need to learn Blender and Linux.

Besides, what am I really looking for? That ever elusive pursuit of photorealism and realism in general? Why? The only art form that's realistic is photography. If I want realism, I should break out the Nikons and hire a model. All other art forms, be it pencil, oil paint, digital painting, 3D, AI, is to some degree abstract and stylized. The great painters I admire, such as Rembrandt, Frazetta, Kelly, Vallejo, Renoir, and Vargas created figures and faces that were, even to some small degree, stylized caricatures. Only one artist achieved realism. Michelangelo. We get one artist like that once every 1,000 years, and I ain't that artist. So, why bash my head against an ephemeral wall when I don't need to. Perfectionism can be a headache, you know.