I discovered this bizarre effect today when I was making a Dolly cam for a new product. To cut it short, I was playing with various settings and found that reducing the Zscale on the camera produces this weird effect on the skin. I just about fell off my seat, I have to say. I was totally taken by surprise. After a few experiments, I found that it works with any figure, any camera and any light. The ideal seems to be a Zscale setting of 20 - 40%. But reducing the Zscale produces horrible perspective, so the trick is to increase the Focal length to compensate. At 20% Zscale, I was using a focal length of 800mm. Now, I know less than zero about Z-tooning, so forgive me if this is public knowledge, but I imagine it's done in a similar way, right? When I tried Zscales of 500%+, I realised it was probably the same idea as Z-tooning. But never having looked at the threads, I wouldn't know. Anyway, here are a few examples. Enjoy! mac

Full length at 20% Zscale

Normal and 30% Zscale

500% and a default vicki figure at 20%

mac

Message edited on: 06/01/2005 15:21

It gives new interesting possibilities. I like the way that pin-up render looks like, awesome ! In which Poser version did you try that ?

hi vilian, Lucky you asked, because I forgot to mention it. These were done in poser 4. It does NOT work in P6 (and I don't know why), not even with the P4 renderer. Haven't tried P5 yet. mac PS By 'pin-up' I assume you mean the full-length one? That's a specially made vicki I'm going to use for promo pictures for a new product. Took me a week to get her right. She's about 6' 6' tall and very skinny.

I love that! It makes the figure look like she's a bronze statue.

Mac - it doesn't seem to work in P5 with the Firefly renderer. About to try it with the P4 renderer. I'll report back.

It works just fine with the P4 renderer.

Thanks for the info, sam. I wonder why I can't get it to work in P6. I used exactly the same scene, lighting and cameras. Does anyone know if Z-tooning does work the same way as this? mac

Dunno about Z Tooning, sorry. Did use "Ignore Shader Trees" when you used the P4 renderer?

I just looked and 'ignore shader trees' wasn't checked. I tried it, but it still doesn't work. But what's really weird is that I see the effect in P6's preview (see pic). I didn't notice it before because I was using spots with DistStart/End enabled and the preview was pitch black. When I tried with an infinite light, I saw the effect. But it still won't render in P6. mac

Mac, you should write up a tutorial and submit it to Daz...you could get some credit towards some items.

LOL, acadia. You probably don't know this, but I sell through DAZ, so I already work full-time for them making my own products. In fact, I happened to stumble across this when I was working on an update to an old product, to make it compatible with P5/6 and DS. I have a few things I've thought about writing tutes on, but I never have the time to do it. At the moment, I have 9 -12 months of projects waiting to be done. Funnily enough, this is the first time in over a year that I've used vicki for anything other than standing naked in the default position in test renders. I'm updating a photographic studio I made 4 years ago, and I decided I needed a decent-looking model in the pics. If you or anyone else wants to do a tute, feel free. It's not a difficult effect to get. Hey! When you get the money, you could have a look in my store! How about that? mac

I would write one for you, however, I haven't ever worked with cameras, and based on your instructions above, this is what I end up with. This is V3, with the camera selected and the changes to the dial parameters. The figure gets so close to the "screen" that it virtually disappears. That's why I suggested you writing up a tutorial :P

Here is another try with the "ZScale" adjusted.

Acadia - it works with any camera. You'll have to play with the distance (Dolly Z) and focal length to get anything useful, though.

that's neat...I'll have to give it a try! thanks for sharing maclean!

Still doesn't work. I changed the ZDolly to 7000 so that I could see Vicky in the pose window. Render in Poser 5 using Poser 4 renderer, looks no different that it normally does. Maybe the effect depends on the type of light and pose, which is why it's working for you and not me? Of course there is the good chance that I don't know what I'm doing, and I'd place my money on the latter, LOL

Hi acadia, Sorry. I should have posted the settings. It would have been a lot easier. Here they are. Dolly camera Focal - 800mm hither - 0.016 Zscale - 20% X/Yscale - 100% Roll/Pitch/Yaw - 0 DollyZ - 6.650 DollyY - 0.750 DollyX - 0.000 These setting should give you a view of the face and shoulders, although my figure is quite tall, so you may have to adjust the DollyY setting. I only used the Dolly cam because I was playing with it at the time, and it's the only one you can physically move back/forward. But I've tried it woth different cameras, figures and lights and it seems to work every time. If you change the Zscale setting from 5% to 50%, the skin will change. Lower values = stronger effect. Make sure you're using Native Units in P5 and not feet or metres. And definitely make sure Hither is set to either zero or the default 0.016. Hope this helps. mac