Attached Link: Google Translate

Use the Google translate tool to translate PoserClub webpage into English.

However if you try to register via the translated English webpage it won't work.

The trick is to have two entirely separate web browsers open side by side.

One web browser with the original Japanes text.

One web browser with the translated English test via Google.

This way you can compare the original Japanese webpage to the translated English webpage and then know where to register on the original Japanese webpage.

And have a lot of patience grasshopper and it will work.

Quote - If you set the output type to JPG, D|S will render your background image just fine.

Ah! I see. I never use render as JPG. I always use render as PNG because of it's high quality to work with later in Photoshop. Thanks for clearing that up.

I'm not sure about Reality but I know that DS will not render any image you load in as background. The image must be a texture in a plane. If Reality follows the DS convention then this would account for your missing background.

BTW always set you background to black before rendering. It makes a difference to the edges of your image that will slightly bleed in the background colour.

Attached Link: FAST METAL Shaders for DAZ Studio

I used them on my last render "Seagod" for the statues.

Happy rendering.

Attached Link: A Brief Introduction to Toon Shaders in DAZ Studio

This was actually the method from the linked tutorial used to load shaders. But I thought why not try it with borrowing skin surface settings also. And it works well.

1. Load your DAZ Gen4 person, example, Vicky 4.

2. Load the Poser skin (from Pose folder).

3. In DS "Surface" tab select all the surfaces.

4. Find any other skin that already has DS surface settings.

Sometines content creators are nice enough (many thanks)  to create skins with both Poser & DS surface settings. You will find them in either your Content folder or your Pose folder.

1. Hold the CTRL button when you click to load the other skin.

2. A menu will pop up. Choose "Ingore" (not "replace").

This will allow DS surface settings only to be loaded without replacing the texture maps.

So now you have your prefered Poser skin texture map with DS surface settings borrowed from another skin. Some tweaking may be required.

Note this will only work between skins for the same character (i.e., V4 to V4, but not V4 to M4).

Never be afraid to experiment (I love to press big red buttons LOL).

Happy rendering.

Attached Link: Xurge3D

Anyhoot never forget the old addage "Sex Sells". Women buy clothes for Vicky to live out their fantasy to wear attractive clothes. Men buy clothes for Vicky to live out their fantasy to see women in attractive clothes (or nothing at all LOL which is cheaper if you intend to save money on buying 3D content).

Poor Mick is relegated to a prop for Vicky. However it is great now that this steampunk fad has brought in some interesting apperal for Mick. And don't forget Xurge3D who has always had great fantasy clothes for Mick. Xurge3D has items on speacial sales at time to time and I think a large sale around XMas.

Quote - LBAMagic  - Regarding dead hard drives which I have also faced, here's a possible solution that did work for me. Acronis True Image Home (http://www.acronis.com/promo/ATIH2011/ATI-ALL/index.html?source=us_google&ad=ati&c=5336852657&k=acronis%20true%20image&gclid=CPiT7aDb7aQCFRYM2godgSWA2w)

Hi JasonWynngard, Thanks for the link. I'll check this out.

I recently bought a larger external backupdrive but after 1 month it's software started to not work. Starting & shutting down Windows then took longer and it would freeze sometimes. I uninstalled the software that came with the backupdrive and that fixed the Windows issue. Now it's just a dumb external harddrive. My drive woes are driving me nuts. LOL....sigh!

Quote - not re3lated,m but you know what drives me completely insane. People and their damn exclamation points. You buy something and its like !!!yournamehere

Hi R.P.Studios, I soooooo much agree with you. My runtime folders are a war of exclamation marks!!! LOL.

P.S. What's happening with these Posts creating huge line gap spacing in our text?

I would prefer exe file same as DAZ also but I voted zip files at the recent Renderosity poll. Having exe or zip files is really a much of a muchness. It's the quality of the content within that's really important.

IMO the quality control of content / file structure at Renderostity is not  on par as DAZ, therefore with zip files I can fix up the content / file structure and rezip them for archiving. Having said that the QC at DAZ is not 100% either.

If you've ever had your hard drive fail (I had 2 fail in one year) then you'll understand the pain of rebuilding your content/runtime libraries. Exe files do make it easier, but exe files with poor content / file structure are a nightmare waiting to happen.

Recently I purchased Dimension 3D Runtime Repair (on sale here at Renderosity) and it has been an enormous help to fix one of the most common errors, i.e., wrong file paths. It's not fully automatic and you have to be really careful about file association, but it's still a fantastic tool.

I think every content creator (or the QC department of content sellers) should have Runtime Repair in their toolkit so we content buyers don't have Daz Studio / Poser freak out on missing / wrong addressed files and then fix them (after market) ourselves.

IMO a lower QC for conent / file struction is Content Paradise. Often I find OBJ / OBZ files are not in a folder under the Geometries section where they rightfully belong. This is OK for Poser but for DAZ Studio it becomes a nightmare. Then again I guess CP will has a "Not tested in DS" get out of gail clause somehwere in fine print. Sigh!

BTW I think PMD files should also go into a folder under the Geometries section. The reason would become apperent if you ever rename or move a folder (that has the PMD) under the Character / Pose / Prop sections.

Attached Link: PankoLand

Most poser stuff will work in Daz Studio (except stuff that uses poser shaders). Often just the surface settings have to be changed. And sometimes the filepaths are incorrect that causes DS to freak when trying to find a file.

Also Panko has some great commando knives as freebie at his (her?) web site. Great for slicing up zombies on Halloween. LOL. They are poser products but work ok in Daz Studio. Just have to tweak the surface settings.

Just to sweeten the deal....

The following link is to a tutorial on how to create full body morphs using the "Daz Studio to Hexagon Bridge"and export them from Daz Studio using DeltX15 free "InjRemExport" script for Daz Studio.

The Tutorial.
http://www.balaenanun3d.net/FBM_DS_Hex_tutorial/FBM_DS_Hex_tutorial.html

The Script (for DS2).
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=44444&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

The Script (repaired by tosufan for DS3).
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=44444&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=220

Enjoy!

I got Hex2 about a year ago and love the "Daz Studio to Hexagon Bridge" feature.

It's also a great modeler for beginners to start on (but it can get a little twitchy on big models).

At $1.88 (for DAZ Platinum Member) you'll be insane not to grab it.

For outstanding Hexagon video tutorials go to Geekatplay.

http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagontutorials/weekly.php

http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagontutorials/index.php

Also don't forget the videos at DAZ's Product Documentation Wiki.

http://artzone.daz3d.com/wiki/doku.php/pub/software/hexagon/start

Have fun!

Quote -  wow,..I never realized how lighting plays a very important role in photography especially in 3d rendering. I had taken it for granted and thought that a simple "pose then render" would create the result I want to get. Well, yes, I was  so infatuated with photo-realism, the bumps, pimples of every face is so amazing for me. I think I have to stick with poser because it has nothing much to remember and learn because of its default capabilities.

o well, thanks a lot guys!

"....lightings"

Lighting may seem daunting at first but "be patient grasshopper", take the time now to understand it and experiment. In the long run the rewards are better renders. Of course you can always tweak things later in Photoshop. LOL.

But if your impatient (and we all are at times) then, ......

DAZ sells many lighting plugins for DAZ Studio. I generally use Light Dome Pro 2 for my large outdoor scenes. I read that Lantios Lights are good for smaller scenes but I missed them when they were on sale, maybe next sale.

RuntimeDNA sells some special and advance lighting for Poser. I don't use Poser so I can't really comment on them except to say the renders I've seem with them are really good. Makes me wish I was more patient and took the time to learn Poser. LOL.

Note, lighting (especially with shadows turned on) usually equate to a PC with more grunt and longer render times to take advantage of their higher quality. Start small and work your way up to find your PC's limits. Make sure you save your scene before rendering.

Quote - Isn't it about time you supported those other compression formats then? Some of them are far more popular than zip & give better compression rates as well.

Accessing a ZIP file with Windows XP or later does not require additional software. So it makes sense to standardise on ZIP files. I'm sure you don't want to be constantly searching for and loading different decompression programs on your system just because others want to use exotic compression files.

Hi Acadia. Thanks for your advice. I'll post it there too.

I'm not very good with any painting program but recently I tried the following.

Load the dress into DS then export it as an OBJ into a temp folder.

Open up the dress OBJ into "Sculptris". It is a free 3D modeler from ZBrush.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=090617

Sculptris will recognize that the OBJ already has a UV map and then asks you if you want to go paint it or sculpt it. Answer that you want to paint it and you are taken to it's simple paint room.

In Sculptris paint room you can do your painting on the 3D model. maybe can use it to paint simple guide lines or rough work then you can export your painted UV map from Sculptris and open it in Gimp or Photoshop to do further more detailed painting.

Note Sculptris may crash depending on how large the OBJ is and what your PC system is.

Following is link to video tutorial for painting in Sculptris.
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=91753