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Perfect Portraits with DAZ Studio and UberEnvironment2

Here’s a quick show’n'tell for DAZ Studio 3.

But first, the setup. I’m using Vicky 4.2 with the Morphs++ pack, the 3Dream’s free Boy Hair, RecieCup’s free Doll character & textures and the Sports Bra and Shorts (included with DAZ Studio 3), so y’all should be able to follow along just fine. If you don’t have the Morphs++ pack you won’t be able to use Doll’s morphs, but otherwise you’re good to go.

Load in Vicky 4.2 with the morphs, add the clothes & hair and apply the Doll texture & morphs. You should have something which looks like this:

In Render->Settings, the dimensions are set to Custom, 640×800. Time to pose Vicky and adjust the camera position. For this setup I used one of the poses included with the (free!) Girl 4 Base. Select the Default Camera in the Scene tab, set the focal length to 180mm and position to suit. I set the SportBra’s ClothThickness (in the Parameters tab) to 1, and adjusted the Cloth and Trim materials in the Surfaces tab to Black with a light grey Specular shade.

Now for the UberEnvironment2 magic. In the Content tab, go to DAZ Built-in Content->Lights->UberEnvironment2 and double-click !UberEnvironment2 Base. Go into the Scene tab and select it, then hop right back over to the Content tab again. Click on Set HDR KHPark then Set Quality 3Hi. In the Parameters tab, change Occlusion Samples from 64 to 128. This will slightly increase the rendertime, but increate the quality dramatically.

See how a backdrop appeared when you set the UberEnvironment to Park? By default it’s set to be invisible when you render, but if you like it (or are feeling lazy and don’t want to add a background scene of your own), you can make it visible by clicking on the little + next to the UberEnvironment in the Scene tab, selecting EnvironmentSphere then settting Visible in Render to On in the Parameters tab.

Hit CRTL-R, and………..

Even though a scene like this is quick to set up (honestly, it took me much longer to explain than it did to build), consider setting up couple of default scenes – one for Victoria, and one for Michael – with your most commonly used morphs (Morphs++, Aiko, FREAK or whatever) in place, UberEnvironment all set up and the camera in position. This will shave a lot of time off your workflow and help deliver consistently great results. But don’t tell anyone I said that, ok?

In summary

  • Set the camera’s Focal Length to 180-200mm for 3/4 shots, 300mm for head shots
  • UberEnvironment Quality Hi and Occlusion Samples upped to 128 is a great compromise between quality and render speed
  • Hair kills render speed when using UberEnvironment. If necessary, turn the Shadows off for the hair, or consider investing in the Uber Hair shaders. These let you turn off Ambient Occusion for just the hair – a great time saver!
  • If you want an outdoor look to your lighting, use the HDR Park setting
  • Once you’re used to this setting, look at ways to break it. Add other lights, drop in a full backdrop and use Depth of Field, experiment with camera angles. It is your render, after all, and there’s no such thing as wrong

Till next time!

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Posted 26 February 2010 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

Easy Depth of Field in DAZ Studio 3

Depth of Field, how I love thee. For those that don’t know, this is the photographic term meaning the parts of an image that are sharp and in focus; anything else is blurred out to some degree. But that doesn’t make it sound exciting at all, does it? So, let’s start again.

Depth of Field is that magical zing that takes a flat image and turns it into something three dimensional. It’s the cue that tells our minds where to look and what is important in the image. Movie directors use it all the time so we can follow the action. Yes folks, Hollywood can control your eyes and thus your mind! You have been warned.

For 3d render work all too often it’s not used at all which is why so many computer-generated images look like…. well, computer-generated images. Depth of Field giveth Realism, and lack of Depth of Field taketh it away.

When it comes to DAZ Studio, using Depth of Field in your renders used to be pretty darned tricky – it involved messing about with Null objects and lots of guesswork. Then along came the frankly awesome ahRenderControl plugin which made using DoF super-simple in DAZ Studio 2.3. I covered how to use this in some detail, right here.

Now, we’re up to DAZ Studio 3 (with version 3.1 just around the corner, it seems) and Depth of Field is easier still, built right into the program. Here’s how.

Let’s start with a simple enough setup that anyone can make and follow along. Here’s a couple of Victorias with Glamour Hair and wearing Sports Top and Shorts. These are all included content with DAZ Studio, so we’re good to go. I’ve used the Super Shiny Shaders on the clothes and the Bijou texture for the skin (an excellent skin texture, morph and hair pack, btw – watch out for it on Fast Grab and if it appears, get it!), but any skin texture or morph is good for this.

Vicky One is at 0,0,0 while Vicky Two is at -60,0,-100, slightly back and to the right. I’ve set the Default Camera’s Focal Length to 105 and moved it slightly to frame the two of them neatly. Now for the clever bit.

Select the Default Camera in the Scene tab, then head into Parameters. Set both Depth of Field and Display Persistence to ON.

Now, with the Default Camera still selected, change the camera you’re looking through (drop-down in the top-left of your viewport) to Perspective View and move the camera around. Lines show the Default Camera’s field of view, and a guiding box shows the Depth of Field! Change the Focal Distance to move the DoF forward and back, and the F/Stop to widen or narrow it. You can immediately see what’s going to be sharp, and anything else is blurred to a lesser or greater degree (depending on distance from the “in-focus” part). Easy, eh?

This is a pretty extreme example, but it’s well worth using DoF for all your renders. Set the F/Stop to a suitably wide value (for the photographically minded, a value of 22 = f1/2.2, 56 = f1/5.6, 80 = f1/8 etc, by my reckoning) so that the most distant elements have a touch of bluriness, and you’ll see a huge difference in the way your renders pop.

Same setup, but with the Focal Distance changed from 360 to 480 to put the back figure in focus instead. Ok it’s not going to win any prizes, but I like it!

When it comes to your Render->Render Settings->Advanced parameters, the main thing to remember is to set Shading Rate to 0.2, and leave it there. Don’t touch that dial ever again! The default value of 1.00 is much too high, and makes the out of focus elements look oddly pixelated. Set it to 0.2 for a much smoother effect, then forget about it.

There’s on last part to recreating this images, and that’s the lighting. I used nothing more than the included UberEnvironment2, and I’ll show you how to use that lovely light setup in DAZ Studio 3 – next time.

Till then!

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Posted 10 February 2010 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged: ,

So you’ve got the free Base Figures. Now what?

Just in case you didn’t get the memo, the generous people at DAZ3D have released all of their Base Figures (yes, all of them) for free. That has put the 3D rendering community into feeding frenzy mode with all and sundry stuffing their hard drives to the gills with everything from the very first Aiko to the latest and greatest FREAK 4 figure.

Then they’ve scratched their heads wondering what to do with all these terrific figures. After all, these are just the figures – there’s next to no hair, no clothes and many don’t even include a set of morphs or textures worth writing home about. So, just what can you do with a runtime folder full of just the base figures?

Use them, of course!


The Girl, bare. Cute as a button she is too.

The easiest way to use the figures straight out of the body is as figure studies. Get to know how the models pose and the strengths of each one. Every model is different. Michael 3, for example, is far more chiseled than Michael 4’s more rounded features, and the original Aiko is much more toon-like than the later Aiko 3 and Aiko 4 models. The Reduced Resolution figures are well worth the price of download (free!) as they’re ideally suited if you want to add a crowd scene or bunch o’folks in the background.


Ten Michael 3 RR figures in one scene and my little netbook didn’t even break into a sweat.

The Reduced Resolution figures also come with equally reduced resolution textures, and they work with any figure of the same Generation – so you can use the Michael 3 RR texture on FREAK or Michael 3 himself too. It’s not a great texture, but it’s good enough to get started.


Michael 4 base. A surprisingly great texture, by default.

The newer Fourth Generation figures (Michael 4, FREAK 4, Hiro 4, Victoria 4, Aiko 4, Girl 4 and She-Freak 4) are the current, and best, models out there but that quality comes at a price. These are all memory intensive figures to use. The earlier generation figures are much lighter to use, both in terms of loading and render time. For complex renders, I sometimes use Victoria 2 and Michael 2 as stand-in figures while I set up the scene, then replace them with their Fourth Generation counterparts when I’m ready to roll.


Stephanie 3, sunset and Gold Shader. Done.

The huge advantage of using an earlier figure is that there’s a wealth of free (and paid) content out there for them. I’d guess V3 has fifty times the number off outfits than V4, and Aiko 3 is easily the best supported Anime figure on the market. I’ll be looking at free resources for the older figures another time. Until then, I suggest taking a look at using Shaders to colour and texture the Base Figure directly. This is something I’ve already covered (here and here) – why not give it a try?


She-Freak 4. As deadly as she is beautiful.

Thanks to DAZ Studio’s Morph Follower, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make your existing clothing fit (provided it’s of the same Generation), and solutions exist to convert any clothing or hair to any figure. FREAK 4 sure looks funny in a dress.

But that’s not all. DAZ3D have also issued a $5 voucher for everyone. It’s valid until 1st February so be quick! The code is SPREADTHEWORD5 - just add it in the My Account page and it’s yours. You can read more about this offer over on the DAZ Forums. Until the end of the month there’s a huge dicount on 2nd, 3rd and 4th Generation clothing bundles so you could even use it to pick up a whole load of clothes for free!


A pair of Victoria 3s all set for a disco face-off thanks to the V3 SP Clothing Pack. Oh yeah.

The David Clothing Bundle, Hiro Clothing Bundle, Chic Boutique, v3 SP Clothing Pack, David Clothing Pack, V3 High Fantasy Character Clothing Bundle, M3 High Fantasy Character Clothing Bundle and 4 in1 Hair Bundle are all currently only $3.48 each – that $5 more than covers any one of them. Heck, the Modern Desert Soldier Bundle is only $5.23 so you could pick up a full set of army dress for David, Michael 3 & FREAK for just 23 cents! Bargain? Oh yes! Grab all the links to these packs and more on the Generation 3 Bundles page – but be quick!

Next time, let’s take a look at just one of the figures – Hiro 3. Till then!

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Posted 29 January 2010 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (2) ° Also tagged: ,

When the spotlight falls, the dance begins

Just testing DAZ Studio 3’s Volumetric Lighting, don’t mind me. If nothing else, it’s a good excuse to post a render of a gorgeous elven ranger who is armed to the teeth. Go on. Count those swords. I’ll wait.

Using the Volumetric Lighting is easy -

  1. Add a spotlight (Create->New Spotlight). In thise case I’ve set it to Y=300 and pointing directly down (X Rotate = -90)
  2. Make sure it’s selected in the Scene tab then head into DAZ Built-in Content->Shaders->Uber->UberVolume
  3. Double-click Parent Cone to Light
  4. In the Scene tab, expand the Spotlight and select Spotlight 1 Volume then, in your Surfaces tab (you do have it open, don’t you?) make sure that Spotlight 1 Volume is also selected. As with any Shader effect, you need to have both the object and it’s material selected, remember
  5. Back in the Content tab, double-click Cloud, Dust or Smoke and fine-tune the effect in your Surfaces tab to taste
  6. Finally, expand the Volume to cover the entire scene (or as much as you need) in the Paramaters tab by adjusting Z Scale. For this scene I set it to 300% so that the smoke effect went all the way down to the floor

That might sound complex, but it’s not – it’s just harder to explain that it is to do. Try it and see.

There’s lots of potential to Volumetric Lighting – from fog effects to light spilling out of dusty warehouse windows, from adding a subtle depth to a romantinc render to over-the-top rock-god ground smoke MTV video. And much, much more.

Yeah. Tis good. Expect to see more!

EDIT: For more information about UberVolume, here’s the instruction manual online.

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Posted 22 December 2009 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,

DAZ Studio 3 Showcase: Figure Mixer and Morph Follower

siblings

See the image above? It’s not a great render by any stretch of the imagination, but it does show two of the new features which came on board with the release of DAZ Studio 3. I’ve come very late to the DS3 party but thanks to my shiny new netbook I’m here, and eager to highlight the new and funky stuff that the latest version of DAZ Studio brings to the table. This is the start of a short set of posts which shows you some of the features of DAZ Studio 3 which you might not be aware of, or not yet tried. Hope you like ‘em!

But first, back to those two heroes. They’re clearly brother and sister, and that’s due to the magic of Figure Mixer. Let’s call them She-Ro and He-Ro. The brother is a straight render of Freak 4 clad in the ever-essential M4 Bodysuit. All of the magic is in his sis. She is a straight Victoria 4, but I’ve used Figure Mixer to blend her with Freak 4 to create a completely unique figure.

To use Figure Mixer, put two figures into a scene (a Base and A.N. Other). They have to come from the same Generation of figures (Victoria 3, Aiko, David, Stephanie, Freak 3, Hiro 3 and Michael 3, or V4 and M4, etc) but they can contain any morphs, custom injections or whatever. Select the Base figure then click Edit->Figure Mixer and choose the second figure from the dialog box. Sit back and let DAZ Studio do it’s stuff.

What you’ll end up with is the Base figure altered so it’s a blend of the two (you can delete the second figure if you wish). With the Base figure selected if you head into the Parameters tab and find a new pair of sliders (by default set to 50/50) which let you set the balance between the two morphs. For She-Ro above I’ve set it to 25% Freak, 75% Vicky.

Where Figure Mixer comes into it’s own is if you want to apply a custom morph to a character it’s not designed for. For example, if you want to use the excellent M4 War Orc morph on Victoria 4, just add it to M4 then use Figure Mixer to blend it into a Vicky Base. Or how about a female Tauran, male Alice morph or even a blend of the two. I’m stoked at the potential for Figure Mixing!

But it’s not without some problems. Your resulting custom blended figure is unique, and unlikely to find any clothes to fit him or her. It’s a similar problem if you use a custom morph (Alice again, for example) which the clothing doesn’t support. Prior to DAZ Studio 3 the way around this was to use magnets, deformers and clever Scale dial twiddling to make the clothes fit. That’s a fine art (and something I’ve covered before) and DS3 offers a new solution too: Morph Follower.

Right click on the item of clothing in the preview pane, select Morph Follower, wait a while and it’s done. Simple as that – the clothing gains the custom morph settings of the figure and adapts to fit automatically. I had to make a few small tweaks to the settings for She-Ro above, but it was far, far easier than trying to fit the bodysuit to her unique shape by hand. This ‘wulf approves.

Next: DAZ Studio 3’s easy Depth-of-field

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Posted 12 December 2009 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

So you want to render a Superhero

When it comes to creating superhero images whether for your own amusement or to fill in that blank portrait spot on your character sheet I reckon there’s no better program than DAZ Studio. And today I’m going to show you just how to do it – for free.

I’ve already covered a lot of this ground before in the DAZ Studio tutorials (and I recommend checking them out), but this post should hopefully be a one-stop shop to get you started on the wonderful world of 3D rendering. Just so this doesn’t become a book-sized blogpost I’ll be skipping along at a fair old pace, so if there’s anything you need clarifying either use the search box or drop a question in the comments.

In future posts I’ll be showing you how to render Elves, Spaceships, fantasy dioramas and more. Watch this space!

Right now though, I’m going to show you how to get started rendering superheroes. You will need:

DAZ Studio 3 is available in two versions – free, and not-free. The free version is complete and unrestricted in any way. The Advanced version costs $149 and includes a whole load of additional plugins and advanced features. Seriously, you don’t need it. My humble aged laptop unfortunately can’t run DAZ Studio 3 due to the higher OpenGL requirements so for this tutorial I’m using DAZ Studio 2.3 (available at the bottom of this page if you have the same problems) but there’s few changes to the interface or workflow so you should be able to follow along with any version.

Michael 4 is the current best-quality male figure there is. The base figure is free and comes with a surprisingly good default texture. The only real catch is that morphs (to change his body shape) and higher-resolution textures cost extra – the Morhps++ pack costs $29 though is best bought as part of the Michael 4 Complete pack for $49. But you don’t need that for this purposes of this tute.

We’re going to use the lights from Pose Kit 1 and the two packs of shaders to create  faux superhero costume bodysuit for Michael 4. Unzip the Poser Kit and you’ll find a folder called Runtime. Copy that into your DAZ Studio/content folder (there’s a Runtime folder already there). Unzip the Shaders and there’s content folders. Copy those into your DAZ Studio folder, and we’re ready to roll.

Fire up DAZ Studio and select File->New to get a blank scene. You’ll need to have four tabs visible on your screen to follow along, so select View->Interface Layout->Select Layout… and choose 2nd Level, then select View->Tab and make sure you’ve got the Content, Scene, Parameters and Surfaces tabs visible. Drag them around and position them as you wish. My layout, for example, looks like this:

ss1

As show above, select the content tab then click the little triangle in the top-right corner and choose View Folders as List. This shows all your content in folders rather than DAZ Studio’s default category-sorted view. Next, choose Render->Render Settings, set the Dimensions to Custom, 600×800 and make sure that Render to New Window is selected.

In the content tab, click on DAZ People->Michael 4 (just click Accept if the Powerloader pops up), and you should see something like this:

ss2

Time to pose him. Still in the content tab, head into Poses->DAZ’s Michael 4->General Poses and pick a suitably superheroic one. M4_18, for example. Reposition the camera using the controls in the top-left corner of the viewing window (the ball rotates the cam, the crosshairs pan it and the arrow pointing forward zooms it). Hit CTRL-R to render, and…….

ss3

Congratulations. Your first render of a… uhhh… naked superhero. If you want to save him for posterity, use File->Save Last Render. Before we clothe him, let’s add some lights to give him a little more definition. Go to Lights->Mostdigitalcreations->PoseKitM4 and choose 1a, 1b or 1c. Hit CTRL-R to see the effect of each. If you want a dark, brooding hero change the Background colour to black by pressing the triangle at the end of the camera controls, choose Background color and select black.

Time to give Our Hero a costume. As we’re doing things the quick, easy and cheap way, we are going to do this by using shaders applied directly to Michael’s skin to create a faux bodysuit. Shaders allow you to create textures, materials and other special effects on a surface. Every figure, prop or item of clothing has different material zones which you can alter, recolour and shade to create whatever effects you desire.

Make sure that Michael is selected in the Scenes tab, then go into the Surfaces tab and CTRL-click his Nipple, SkinHip, SkinTorso, SkinArm, SkinFoot, SkinForearm and SkinLeg. Back in the Content tab go into Content->Shaders->jlgPlastic Presets and double-click Fire. Hit CTRL-R.

ss5

You can mix and match using different shaders for different material zones. Select whichever zones you wish in the Surfaces tab by clicking to select one, or CTRL-clicking to select multiple. Apply the Ice shader to the Hips and Forearms and you get this guy.

m4_hp2

Over to you. Try out the different shaders and see if you can create that superhero style you’ve always wanted. Use the Super Shiny Shaders (Shaders->SuperShine) for that classic shiny Spandex look. Meet Domino, the two-tone superhero.

m4_hp3

The only real limitation to applying shaders directly to the skin is the belly button. But, that’s why God invented Photoshop and the Clone Stamp tool, right?

Working with the shaders can take you a long way, but at some point you’re going to hit a point where you need to accessorize, baby. One of the best superhero packs for DAZ Studio/Poser is Hero M4 by MDC. It’s just $7.50 and inludes masks, pants, bodysuit, cape, belts and more – plenty for an infinite variety of hero.

Domino, plus!

m4_hp4

You’re not limited by the superhero genre either – use the jlgVelvet shaders with the belt from the Hero M4 set and you’ve a passable sci-fi uniform from a certain TV series.

m4_hp5

Change the colour of the velvet to green, use the Hero M4 hood, and you’ve got the makings of a fantasy Ranger

m4_hp6

Add in the Morphs++ for muscle tone, and you get this guy.

m4_hp7

In short, DAZ Studio is more than enough for your character portrait needs. Why not give it a try and finally fill in that blank portrait hole on your character sheet?

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Posted 10 October 2009 † greywulf § RPG § Renders ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

The best DAZ Studio freebies, ShareCG edition

Ah ShareCG, how I love thee. This is one of the largest repositories of free models, textures, clothes and props for DAZ Studio, Poser and other 3d apps, and it’s also one of the most regularly updated. It ranks right up there as being one of the site I check every single day, and can be assured that there’ll be at least one new thing each day that’s worth adding to my runtime folder.

But at the same time, it’s among the most frustrating sites on the internet because it’s set up to only allow one download at a time (which is fair enough), but it also completely locks your access to the site while you’re downloading. This means you can’t set a download going then carry on looking through the site. You’re stuck there, waiting… and waiting… and waiting. It’s like surfing in 1986, only worse. Why they’ve set it up like that I don’t know.

But anyhow. Once you know about that limit, it’s easy to work around by looking through the pages first, opening the items you like in separate tabs on your browser and downloading each in turn as they complete.

This time around I’m going to show you the pick of the crop from the Poser section of ShareCG, the must-have freebies from this vast site which merit space on your hard drive and you’re use time and again as you explore the wonderful world of 3d rendering.

Moonfire, by Colleen
When you’ve reached a point where you you’ve had enough of that purple rash and want a higher-resolution texture than the sample-res Natural skin, this is the one to get. I’ve raved about this texture and morph for Victoria 4 before – it’s a beautiful pale skin texture which is easily commercial quality, and just right for rendering ethereal elves, Irish lassies and your typical Gothette. It takes lighting very well indeed, and (with a little tweaking) works well on Michael 4 too!

v4_colleen
No, I don’t know either.

What’s more, the headmorph works with the Victoria 4.2 EZ figure provided with DAZ Studio, so you don’t even need the morph pack to use it. Which is nice.

Gelf and Babs, by michy
Don’t be fooled by the identical pictures in the promo shots – these are two different texture-and-morph sets which turn Michael 4 into an elf or futuristic alien. Like Colleen above, the morphs (even the body morph) work with the Base figure so you don’t need M4’s morph pack to use ‘em. The textures look good right out the box, though as usual I recommend changing the skin’s Render Style to Matt in the Surfaces tab.

gelf_babs
Despite the savage attack from Gelf, Babs still managed to balance the tree on his nose.

The headmorphs work with Victoria 4 too, so use Gelf and apply the Colleen skin texture and just a touch of Photoshop magic, and……..

v4_gelf

Fable and Red Guard update, by Dyald
As a relatively new model, Michael 4 is sadly lacking when it comes to freebie clothes, so it’s well worth grabbing anything that’s available. Thankfully, Fable is a terrific set which has been very well fan-supported with tonnes of additional free textures and addons.

m4_fighter

The set comes with two different tunics, two sets of sleeves for either tunic, two sets of pants, gloves, boots, sword, scabbard, shield and banner – in other words, more than enough to provide M4 in fantasy-themed outfits for months! And that’s where Fable stands out – in it’s sheer re-usability. I’ve used the boots and gloves for superhero renders more times than I can count, and the whole set for everything from fantasy to sci-fi and beyond.

m4_fable_hero
M4 Base + Gloves + Boots + Shirt Front + Fast Metal Shaders = done!

Anything by Shukky
Certain names are uttered in hushed reverential tones among the 3d rendering community. If it’s sci-fi or urban scenes you need, it’s Stonemason. If it’s gritty fantasy, it’s Danie and Marforno. And if it’s manga/anime, it’s Shukky.

I’m going to be looking at how to create manga/anime style images in the future, but for now, just know that if it says Shukky on the label, you want it.

M4 Pose Pack, by magneto1969
If there’s one thing you need it’s poses for your figures, and here’s a stonkin’ collection for Michael 4 along with a pile for M4 & V4 together too. It’s not perfect, and there’s a handful of NSFW poses in there that really don’t belong, but if you want action poses for Michael this collection deverves space in your runtime folder.

That’ll do for now. As is typical I’ve bared scratched the surface, and doubtless forgotten some items which I use on a daily basis, but ShareCG has one ace up it’s sleeve – a search facility which actually works. You can search for only hair, clothing, characters, etc, and look for just Poser (and, by association, DAZ Studio) content – though don’t forget the ever useful .obj format files too. DAZ Studio loads those in just fine (File->Import is your friend), and there’s a wealth of great spaceships and buildings out there in .obj format.

If you find any great freebies on ShareCG, why not leave a link in the comments for others to find too?

Till next time!

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Posted 04 August 2009 † greywulf § Renders § Review ‡ Comments (4) ° Also tagged: , , ,

10 Minute Masterclass: Realism in DAZ Studio

Here’s a typical render from DAZ Studio, as created by someone who is just learning their way around the program. The pose, lighting and table are from Adam Thwaites’s excellent (and regularly updated) Freestuff and the hair is the (also free!) Valens Hair by Dyald. The skin texture is Sira Black which looks great in the promotional shots, but here it’s…. not so good.

table1

As far as renders go, it’s pretty typical and nothing to be ashamed of if you’ve got this far – but I’m going to show you how you can spend just a few more minutes before hitting CTRL-R to make it look much, much better!

The first thing to do is head into the Surfaces tab. Click on the entry for the Toenail texture then hold down SHIFT and press the up arrow on your keyboard 14 times. This selects all of the skin textures (arms, torso, head, etc) for Vicky. In the bottom box, scroll down and you’ll find that the Lighting Model for the skin is set to Plastic. This explains why the skin looks so…. well….. plasticky. That’s the default setting DAZ Studio uses when there’s no DAZ-specific information in the texture map, and that’s the case with most (90%+) of all skin textures designed for Poser.

Change the Lighting Model to Matt, and your render quality has taken a sudden boost upwards. There is a specific setting for Skin, but I generally find that Matt gives better results unless you’re rendering high-key glamour shots – the Skin lighting model gives the texture a bit too much of a glossy glow for my tastes, though it largely depends on your preferred render style. Try both.

You won’t see this change to the scene until your render, and it’s the same with the next trick.

Shadows.

Lights designed for Poser (such as the set I’m using here) load into DAZ Studio with the shadows disabled by default. This is a Good Thing as it means your scene will render quickly, but it also means you’ll need to remember to enable them when it’s time for your final render. For this scene, I selected both lights in the Scene tab (click the bottom light then hold CTRL and press the up arrow to select the other), then in the Parameters tab set Shadow Type to Deep Shadow Mask and Shadow Softness to 45%. Hit CTRL-R and wait while it renders each shadow in turn then applies them to the final scene, and…….

table2

MUCH better! But that’s not all. One thing which helps renders look “more real” is to use Depth of Field. This is the photographic effect where different parts of a scene look out of focus. This helps the eye to know which part of a scene to look at, and helps give a sense of depth. I’ve already covered how to use the ahRenderControl plugin to set up Depth of Field, set the Focal Point to Vicky’s Left Eye and an f/Stop of 5.6, and we get this:

table3

We could (and probably should) stop there, but it’s worth considering converting the image to black and white in Photoshop/GIMP. For some reason we see monochrome images as being “more realistic” than colour ones. Go figure.

table4

Just a few minutes to change the skin texture, add shadows and apply depth of field, but a world away from the first image in terms of realism. Not bad, eh?

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Posted 22 July 2009 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

The best DAZ Studio goodies for free or cheap!

So you’ve downloaded DAZ Studio to give the wonderful world of 3D rendering a spin, and now what you need is content – and lots of it! You’re tired of seeing Victoria 4 prancing on the beach, and want more figures, scenes, lights, clothes and props to fill out your Runtime folder.

But you’re still not sure about it all. The last thing you want to do is throw your hard earned pennies into something you might use once or twice and decide it’s not for you, yet at the same time you want top quality models that really let you put DAZ Studio through it’s paces and show what this brilliant, awesome program is capable of.

Trust me, I understand. I’ve been there.

Starting with this post, I’m going to highlight the best of all the free (and ridiculously cheap) content out there so you can make the most of DAZ Studio with as little (or no!) money spent at all. We’re going to begin with what’s available directly from the great guys at DAZ3D themselves. In later posts we’ll be cherry-picking from sites across the whole of the internet. Some of this is old ground I’ve already covered in past tutorials, but time (and product availability) marches on, so it’s worth taking a fresh look at what’s out there in the wonderful world of 3D Rendering for free or dirt cheap.

The first thing to so is register your copy of DAZ Studio, right here. This drops a load of Free Additional Content for DAZ Studio into your Available Downloads as a thank you for registering, and also adds a special STUDIOSTART coupon to your account too. We’ll be coming to that shortly.

Download and install the Additional Content, and you’ll find a couple of Fairy scenes setup in Scenes->Faerie Forest and reduced resolution version of Victoria 3 in People->Victoria along with a Fairy outfit (People->Victoria->Clothing), hair and poses. As a starting setup, it’s a darned sight better than Vicky and her beachball! :D

fae v3

But there’s more. DAZ3D offer a whole shedload of free bundles and content on their site. Probably the single most useful one is the 3D Bridge Starter Pack which includes Aiko 3 complete with hair and sci-fi outfit, a dragon, cat, dog, elephant, toon emotiguy and rather cool Stinger Aircar. I’ve raved about this particular free bundle before – it’s a terrific introduction to a wide range of 3D styles and models.

3dbridge

To complement this bundle, I recommend snarfing two more. The free Sarafi Starter bundle updates your existing Cyclorama backdrop with an excellent Serengeti background set and models of an African Elephant, Pronghorn Antelope, Panther, Rhino and Zebra too.

safaristarter

The Anime Uniforms bundle includes the full (rather than Limited Edition) Aiko 3 complete with full morphs and texture maps as well as manga-style Sailor and Captain’s uniforms. XinXin is also included for free. This is an excellent manga character and hair set for Aiko 3, and with this bundle and the goodies from the 3D Bridge Starter Set you’re all set for your manga-inspired renderings.

madeinjapan

That’s a LOT of content just to get you started! Most of it is older (but no less high-quality and useful) stuff from DAZ3d’s back catalogue. Moving more up to date, the Michael 4 and Victoria 4.2 base figures are an essential download. They are the latest generation models from which all new DAZ3D characters and figures are based. For Victoria 4.2 grab the wonderful Shadow Dancer set too. Alongside your existing Casual Clothing and Basicwear Sports Top and Bra that should give you more than enough clothing combinations to get started. Michael will have to stay in his second skin boxers for now, though next time I’ll be showing you where to find some great free clothing to cover his bones too.

shadowdancer

We’re almost done, but let’s not forget that STUDIOSTART coupon. This gives a whopping 97% off the price of any bundle listed on these pages – including those items already on sale. For example, the Kay Bundle is currently $23.97 (reduced from $39.95 until the end of July), but use the STUDIOSTART coupon at the checkout and it’s yours for just 73 cents!!! Considering the full price of the individual items is close to sixty bucks, that’s one heck of a bargain.

freakbundle

Which pack you use your coupon on largely depends on the kind of renders you want to produce. As it’s a one-shot offer (use the coupon, and it’s gone) it’s worth looking carefully at all of the packs to decide which one offer the best value for you. Order them by Newest First and you’ll see that the newer bundles easily eclipse the older one both in terms of quality and value with only the FREAK Bundle imho worth consideration out of the older packs. That’s a personal favourite of mine as it includes the FREAK himself as well as a full set of textures, morphs and the all-important bodyuit – perfect for superhero renders!

pvp

I guess the choice boils down to this: if you want to render absurdly muscled superheroes, get the FREAK Bundle. If Dinosaurs are your thing, it’s Predator vs. Prey. If Sci-Fi, grab the SciFi Sets and Vehicles, and if you want to create realistic modern scenes, grab the Modern Apartments bundle.

scifiset

When it comes to fantasy renders, there’s two choices – either the Kay Bundle, or DM Briana. Either are excellent and include a full character and texture set for Victoria 4, poses, scenery, weapons and more. Either is likely to get tons of use, though for my money the Kay bundle just edges forward in terms of re-usability.

briana

Here’s the thing though. All of these bundles are currently on sale so the most one of them will cost you is a buck eigthy after your STUDIOSTART coupon is applied. For what you’re getting in terms of great quality content, that’s a steal!

And I’ve still only scratched the surface of what DAZ3D has to offer the freebooting render junkie. There’s the two free Dystopia city packs (here and here, and I’ve written a tutorial or two how to use them, here and here), the regular weekly freebie with the newsletter, the sizeable freebie archive and the Freepository forums. Phew! And that’s before you even sign up to their Platinum Club ($100/year, and well worth it) and be given a hole load of even more free content to fill your Runtime as a thankyou.

Next time, we’ll take a look at the best of what ShareCG has to offer, and find some clothes for Michael.

Till then!

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Posted 18 July 2009 † greywulf § Renders § Review ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Second Steps with DAZ Studio: Clothing fits and fittings

More questions from PaulD, more answers from me. Read on………

Can any item of clothing be made to fit ALMOST any character?

Short answer: maybe, given enough time and patience
Long answer: yes, given enough time, patience and money

In theory, any clothing could be made to fit any character if you’re willing to fiddle with the Scale dials and the provided morphs (if any). There’s a difference between making it fit, and it looking good though, and sometimes the wisest thing to do is walk away. It largely depends on the differences between the two characters; I’ve had successes with getting Victora 3 clothing to fit Victoria 4, for example, whereas clothing designed for Aiko 3 can rarely be adjusted to fit Vicky 4. The bodyshapes are too dissimilar.

But………

Two commercial products are designed specifically to make clothing from one figure refit a different figure. CrossDresser does an excellent job of refitting clothing from one figure to another. The base program is a free download, and you pay $9.97 for each figure you want to convert to. For example, if you want to refit clothes for Michael 4 then it’ll cost you just $9.97, regardless of which figure the clothes were designed for. Grab licenses for Michael 4 and Vicky 4, and you’ve opened up a whole universe of refit clothing for the two core figures.

The other alternative is Wardrobe Wizard. That is $59.95 and the expansion packs cost $4.95-$10 each meaning it’s a pricier option overall.

I’ve heard very good things about both, but for the money I’d say that CrossDresser is hard to beat. Considering the overwhelming wealth of free (and dirt cheap) clothing for Michael 3 and Victoria 3 out there, twenty bucks is a small price to pay to make them fit M4 and V4 figures.

Can you ALWAYS get the clothes to move with the character?

If the clothing doesn’t move when you pose the figure, check that it’s conformed correctly. Select the clothing in the Scenes tab, then in Parameters make sure that it’s Fit to…. the correct figure.

If it still doesn’t move, there’s likely something wrong with the item. I’ve seen some freebie clothes like that where it just wasn’t rigged correctly. There’s not a lot you can do unless you’re willing to try rigging it yourself, and that’s Evil Juju Magic. Better to leave well alone and delete that sucker :D

Sometimes, clothing will move but not quite how you expect. That’s particularly true in the case of poses (sitting figures are a pain) with skirts and dresses. In this case, it’s a matter of adjusting the skirt’s handles (yes, skirts have handles. Who knew?) to the correct position. Here’s a quick example.

Here’s Vicky, all posed and wearing the free Cupcake dress from EvilInnocence.
snap-2009-06-07-10_46_29

It fits pretty well, but the entire skirt follows the direction of the hip rather than fitting to the legs and hanging properly. That’s where the handles come in. In the Parameters tab expand the Hip and there’s handles to adjust the left, right, back and front of the Dress. These are dials that you can use to morph and twist the dress into a more realistic position. Almost all dresses and skirts should have these (or something similar) unless they’re dynamic. Dynamic clothing doesn’t need ‘em to work their magic.

In this case I used skirtLeft and skirtRight to make the dress flow downward a little more, pulled the front forward a touch, and………
cupcake
Tada!

AND — naturally, I assume — I’ve been grabbing all kinds of freebies from various sites, loading everything into Content and hoping for the best. My folders are a mess right now. I know you’ve written about organising folders and it was very helpful, but DAZ’s own site had a tut advising to create a separate “Studio Library” folder for Poser items, and I can’t always tell what’s for Poser, what’s for DAZ, what’s for both and what’s definitely NOT for both.

Hooo boy. Content organization. I’ll save THAT one, for next time! :D

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Posted 07 June 2009 † greywulf § Renders ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: