Hi Gang!

In this thread I would like to make it so that new(er) Daz users and seasoned ones can share advice and overall make this thread a good bookmark for those still learning Daz.

Those that are good with the program could maybe share some good advice on making renders, best lighting, etc.

Anyone have advice for the newbies?

_____________________
.::That which does not kill us makes us stronger::.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

I would be happy to add what ever I can.  I have been useing DAZ for about 10yrs.+  I do not know all the ins and outs of DAZ but it is the only 3d program I use.  To most new artest their problem seems to be in how to set up DAZ in the first place so that they are able to find content and use it .  I have posted in the DAZ forum a number of time on how I set up DAZ so I can find what I need. I will be happy to add my $.02 that is $.03 more then it is worth but I do love DAZ and will for a long time to come

well i dunno lmao i think i can help out a hair too since i've been using it since '07 and have a fairly good grasp on it even in ds4.

You are welcome to post any tips you have etc. You don't have to wait for questions :)

_____________________
.::That which does not kill us makes us stronger::.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Well had no problem with Daz3....Daz4??   Ok question...Why when you open a previously saved scene EVERYTHING is highlighted.. Would like nothing unless I want it

Win10  Poser 2014/Poser 11 Daz3D

that would be the greaest tip ever I do not like DAZ4 doing it there must be a way to turn it off and use it like daz3

I've never heard of that one -- I'm running DS4 Pro 4.0.3.47, 64-bit Windows 7.  I've tried it with scenes saved in both DS3 and DS4, and neither does that.

Quote - I've never heard of that one -- I'm running DS4 Pro 4.0.3.47, 64-bit Windows 7.  I've tried it with scenes saved in both DS3 and DS4, and neither does that.

 

I'm using 32-bit Windows XP..That shouldn't make a difference though. Any special settings u use when you open a scene?

Win10  Poser 2014/Poser 11 Daz3D

I have no default scene load on startup, and no Default Camera created on new scene, but neither of those should make any difference on loading a scene.  I've loaded both by double-click in the content library and File > Open.  I don't have an XP computer that can run DS4, but I'll ask around.

I don't have a problem when I open saved scenes, I'm on XP 32bit. When you say highlighted do you mean as if you are using the surface selection tool?

Am new to Daz 4, I downloaded one of chacomac_comte-mfd-genesis1-67803 and extracted to my Documents/Daz/Studio. I able to find it in my content library panel {to the right} however when it won't load to my selected genesis figure when I double click it or right click load it. what did I do wrong?

That's a texture for the MFD for Genesis, not an item to put directly onto Genesis.  You need to load the MFD onto Genesis, select the MFD, and then apply the texture.

(It will alsdo work with the V4 or V3 MFD).

Quote - Hi Gang!

In this thread I would like to make it so that new(er) Daz users and seasoned ones can share advice and overall make this thread a good bookmark for those still learning Daz.

Those that are good with the program could maybe share some good advice on making renders, best lighting, etc.
Anyone have advice for the newbies?

 

My first advice will be name things RIGHT...

DAZ is a company who makes DS4 ..so people have to learn DazStudio or DS ..not DAZ

Naming Ds, DAZ is creating a lot of confusion specialy for newbee's ..

So is there a difrence between DS figures and DAZ figures ..

one is owend and made by DAZ company and the other works in DS..

So start with the right names.. and half i done .. 

greetz Chris

HERE are my FREEBEE's

 

 if you wish to get right down to it the name is DAZ3d Studio NOT DAZ Studio

Some people can be so silly

Quote -  if you wish to get right down to it the name is DAZ3d Studio NOT DAZ Studio

Some people can be so silly

 

Actually I don't think its silly to point out that a post made by an official is worded incorrectly, to me it shows a lack of care, another example that renderosity care little for their Daz Studio customers.

My advise to new Daz Studio user is go to the Daz forums; there is a new users forum that has a great deal of very helpful information in it, you will also find the forum populated by people who know DS inside out and are ever willing to help and encourage.

"My advise to new Daz Studio user is go to the Daz forums" Humm am I missing somthing here? At the top of this page it states: "Welcome to the DAZ|Studio Forum"  

Quote - "My advise to new Daz Studio user is go to the Daz forums" Humm am I missing somthing here? At the top of this page it states:"Welcome to the DAZ|Studio Forum"  

 

Sorry yes I meant over at the Daz site

a link to the new user forum there

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewforum.php?f=97

Seeing as people are being 'nitpicky' about the name, lets get it right.

The company is called DAZ Productions Inc.

The website is DAZ3D or Digital Art Zone 3D

The program is DAZ Studio or DS for short and that name is trademarked, you'll find it on the splash screen when DS starts, on several of the help menu options and on the help/about daz studio pop up, as well as on the top left corner of the open program.

Things to watch out for when your buying content

Poser Dynamics don't work, hair doesn't show up and clothing loads as a static prop.

Poser procedural shaders don't work in DS, as a result most material settings look crap in DS, so you will need to 'adjust' surface settings if the product doesn't come with DS MAT presets.

Smart Morphs, DS hates these and can break the morphs especially if they are Poser PMD morphs.

Poser 8+ rigging, products like Miki 3 will load, but they start to distort when you pose them, as most of the additions to P8 rigging don't load into DS.

Poser 9+ weightmap rigging, avoid as it just doesn't work, some parts do load but you really don't want to go there.

Those covers DS1 to DS3, sadly thanks to the new system they are using in DS4 there are a couple of other things to avoid.

Geometry switching, this is completely broken and will probably remain broken as long as DS4 treats every mess like it treats Genesis.

PMD morphs, DS auto-loads these when they're called in cr2, pp2 & hr2 files, but if the vender didn't 'weld' the mesh before making the morphs and saving them in the PMD, then DS4 will cause the morphs to explode.

Good stuff, Bejaymac. I wish I'd known this stuff when I first started working in DS. 

 

A few other things I wish I'd known:

 

While Poser Lights load up in DS, they usually look terrible. 

 

"Generation" characters have unpredictable compatibility. Poses designed for most third generation characters (Michael 3, Hiro 3, Stephanie 3, Victoria 3, Aiko 3, David 3) wil work pretty well for all of these characters. So, if you have a pose for Hiro3, it will probably work fine for Aiko3. MAT poses (aka skins) will also work on all characters of the same gender, so a hiro3 skin will work on michael 3. However, some regions must be manually set on aiko3. Like, if you're using a MAT pose of a Victoria3 skin on aiko3, you'll often have to apply the legs manually. None of these characters have any clothing crossover compatability. If it says, "conforming clothing," it only works on that character. It also won't work on characters with the same name from a different generation. So, stuff written for Michael 2 won't work on Michael 3 or Michael 4. This is so obvious to me now, but when I first got the program, I thought Michael 4 was just a new version of Michael 3, not a completely different model. This is further confused by the fact that anything designed for Hiro4 or Freak4 (or Aiko4, Shefreak4 and Stephanie4 on the ladies' side) can be worn by Michael 4 (or Victoria 4, respectively). And Genesis can wear anything, if you buy the right addons. 

 

Hair figures only work on compatible characters. Hair will work on anybody if you take some time to tweak it. 

 

That's all I can think of right now. 

One of the things that I had to learn very indirectly was how to set certain shaders to figures/props/etc. For example, there's a great freebie called Cloth FX (I don't recall where I found it at the moment but Google will get you there) that you can use to set clothing items (or any surface, really) as either a leather effect or spandex. In order to do that, however, you first have to select the figure it's going on in your scene tab, then swing over to the surface tab and highlight what surface material you are going to use that shader on.

Now for the hidden part: Holding down control, click on the shader thumbnail in your file list/tree, and a pop-up box comes up. There's two selectable drop down options. The Top box has 'Surfaces' with the option Selected or All. (in this instance, we only want one or a few surfaces of your chosen item with the shader, so 'Selected' is clicked.)

The other box is 'Map Settings'. This is how it will work with the texture map or UV map of the item. The options are 'Replace' or 'Ignore'. Again, this time one would use 'ignore' which the shader with go over top of the texture map beneath, creating something of a dual layer image.

The control part and clicking on the thumbnail to activated it was the important part of all of this.

crimsonworx.com; free ebooks and previews

I've bowed down to facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crimsonworx

 

With DS4 the Surface selection tool also selects the item, so you no longer need the two step process.

Quote - With DS4 the Surface selection tool also selects the item, so you no longer need the two step process.

 

You'e right, that was a ds3 trick, but I turned that function off as it was super annoying to have your whole screen flare up with yellow. Sometimes Studio4 was not terribly precise while differentiating between a character's surface and the giant wall of pipes behind them, for example.

I have noticed that sometimes it does pick it for you, but sometimes not. Seems like a crap shoot by model/prop.

Speaking of, for anyone who has the same problem, you can go to your tool tab next to your scene tab in the left hand side window and change that from bounding box and surface to bounding box only, should you wish.

crimsonworx.com; free ebooks and previews

I've bowed down to facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crimsonworx

 

I was wondering if anyoe knows if the figure Lulubelle can also be used in Daz? It's a poser plushie lamb- thank you

Ok so I think this is kinda sad coming from a Daz coordinator, but how the heck do I find anything other than Genesis is D/S4?! The only things I can find are the pre-installed content, like the magus clothes, journeyer scout clothes, and genesis, I can't find M5 or any of the Genesis morphs I've dropped lots of moola buying, which I installed two days ago, or any of my 134 gigs worth of runtime, nothing! Please help! lol

Just look in MY DOCUMENTS If you have not set up your own file system then look there  I set up my own files and know where they are trying to hide

Quote - Ok so I think this is kinda sad coming from a Daz coordinator, but how the heck do I find anything other than Genesis is D/S4?! The only things I can find are the pre-installed content, like the magus clothes, journeyer scout clothes, and genesis, I can't find M5 or any of the Genesis morphs I've dropped lots of moola buying, which I installed two days ago, or any of my 134 gigs worth of runtime, nothing! Please help! lol

 

Try looking in the Content Library tab under "DAZ Studio Formats".

I'm pretty sure Genesis Morph* installers will give you a dependency error if you try to install them in the wrong place (same thing as the Gen 4 morphs), so if you didn't get that then M5 is installed properly.

It sounds like your looking at the "Smart Content" tab, which means you probably haven't installed the metadata.

Use the "Content Library" tab instead, first entry on the left should read "DAZ Studio Formats", following the arrows to the right and you should see > My Library > People > Genesis > Characters, in there is where you should find the Character preset to load M5.

The Content Library tab allows you to access your content directories/runtimes as they are on the drive, this is the old school way and my prefered method. It also allows you to 'see'** your content in a Database similar to DS2/3.

The 'Smart Content' tab is the new way of accessing your content, but it's pretty useless if you dont have any metadata for the content, or if like me you dont use the CMS.

 

 

*Yep that really is all that M5 & V5 are, character morphs of Genesis and over priced ones at that.

** You need to add it first before you can see it.

Quote - Speaking of, for anyone who has the same problem, you can go to your tool tab next to your scene tab in the left hand side window and change that from bounding box and surface to bounding box only, should you wish.

Ah so that was the problem...

Thank you!

Win10  Poser 2014/Poser 11 Daz3D

Don't Know whether anyone has asked this befor in any threads, but i would lik to ask this:

I am not able to use " Magnetic clothing " in DAZ  studio 4. ANyone know how to use this and what exactly this stuff do?

 

Thanks!

The 'Magnetize Clothing' files are mainly for use in Poser.

Victoria 4 was released with a pile of magnets rather than JCM's (Joint Controling Morphs), in Poser these magnets don't work on the clothing you have 'conformed' to her, which is where these files come in as they link V4's magnets to the clothing.

DS users don't really need them as we have an auto-magnetize function already built in, select "Edit > Preferences" and click on the "Content Library" tab, 'auto-magnetize' is either the 2nd or 3rd option.

Magnetize clothing poses are only needed in Poser; DAZ Studio auto-magnetizes V4 clothing.

You can switch auotmagnetise off - you might, for example, want to use magnets to alter the figure to fit into a set of pre-morphed clothing, or to make a set of clothes loose-fitting, for example. If the option is off you use the unnumbered magnetise pose (or my free script, which should still be linked from the index thread at forumarchive.daz3d.com )

Thanks all for your time and valuable inputs

...Poser lights will pretty much always show up as Distant Lights (Labeled Light1, Light2... etc) in Daz Studio. They tend to be rather garrish but can be adjusted.  For example, I frequently use a set of Freebie lights from the old "Bonnie Teen" freebie character for V4 when I'm doing character portraits.

What I do is select the specific light and then replace it with a corresponding Daz Studio Spotlight, Distant Light, or Point Light depending on the effect I need. 

As I am still currently working in 32 bit I rarely use UberEnvironment and other IBL lights as they tend to crash the render process due to the larger number of calculations requried.

For those with little experience, lighting a scene can appear daunting. However, one advantage Daz Studio has over other applications is that you are able to "look through" a light as if it were a camera, so aiming is so much simpler.  When I was doing theatriacal lighting, I would have killed for a system like this.  Would have saved a lot of ladder climbs into the flylines.

There are also good tutorials as well

Lighting also doesn't have to be overly complex to be effective.

For example this scene used a total of only five lights (three distant, one spot and one point).

---

...forsaken daughter is watching you.

[Intel Xeon 5660 Hyperthreading 6 core CPU, 24GB GSkill Ripjaws 1333 DDR3 Tri Channel RAM, Nvidia Titan-X GPU with 12GB GDDR5 & 3072 cores, 1 x AData 240 GB SSD (boot) + 1 x 2TB HDD, EGVA 850 G5 PSU Antec P-193 with more fans than Justin Bieber.]

...bugger, the editing time expired before I could save my changes.

Here are the instructions for viewing though a light:

In DS3, click the down arrows on the Default Camera widget in the viewport.  In DS4 the camera selelction menu is located above the camera cube. Once you expand the menu, you can select the light you wish to view through and click again.  The scene may look a bit distorted, but now you are viewing through the light itself as if it were a camera.

---

...forsaken daughter is watching you.

[Intel Xeon 5660 Hyperthreading 6 core CPU, 24GB GSkill Ripjaws 1333 DDR3 Tri Channel RAM, Nvidia Titan-X GPU with 12GB GDDR5 & 3072 cores, 1 x AData 240 GB SSD (boot) + 1 x 2TB HDD, EGVA 850 G5 PSU Antec P-193 with more fans than Justin Bieber.]

I have been using DAZ Studio since August of 2011, so I suppose you could say I am a new user. Even so, I have already learned a lot, mostly through tutorials and by trial and error. I have noticed that the majority of video tutorials are made by people who are working by trial and error also. Not a good way to make a tutorial. 

At this time I would like to ask if anybody knows where I can get free clothing for Michael 4. It seems that there is a big lack of such clothing. I am not making much money these days. 

...unfortunately, male 3D models have always been on the "short end" with respect to commercial and freebie clothing content.

The two most "active" (as in frequently updated) sources for freebie content are the "Free Stuff" page here and ShareCG.

You could also post your concerns/interests on the Freestuff Forum here as well.

---

...forsaken daughter is watching you.

[Intel Xeon 5660 Hyperthreading 6 core CPU, 24GB GSkill Ripjaws 1333 DDR3 Tri Channel RAM, Nvidia Titan-X GPU with 12GB GDDR5 & 3072 cores, 1 x AData 240 GB SSD (boot) + 1 x 2TB HDD, EGVA 850 G5 PSU Antec P-193 with more fans than Justin Bieber.]

Quote - I have been using DAZ Studio since August of 2011, so I suppose you could say I am a new user. Even so, I have already learned a lot, mostly through tutorials and by trial and error. I have noticed that the majority of video tutorials are made by people who are working by trial and error also. Not a good way to make a tutorial. 

At this time I would like to ask if anybody knows where I can get free clothing for Michael 4. It seems that there is a big lack of such clothing. I am not making much money these days. 

 

I unfortunately have to say there is a severe lack in the m4 clothing department. However I recommend learning how to make your own. You can make some serious moola doing this. I highly recommend Silo or Hexagon, Hex is free at Daz3d.com currently, and there are some ok tutorials and vids on yahoo. Also the digital tailor m4 startking kit is an absolute MUST HAVE! Go buy it the instant you have a chance!

Attached Link: DOF tutorial at DA

I Guess I should post my DOF tutorial here.

DOF is one of my favorite features in ds4, so I made this simple tutorial to help get a friend up to speed.

DOF in DS4

• Load a new camera
• Position that camera to frame the shot you want.
• Go to the parameters tab and turn on the DOF for that camera (camera 1) in the parameters tab
• What is in focus is shown between the two panels (you will have to switch the scene camera to perspective view to see the workings of your new camera)
• Adjust the focal distance and f/stop till the part of the image that you want in focus is between the two panels.
• switch your scene camera view to your new camera and render

 

Rawn

Ha! Rawn, that is PERFECT timing!! I've just had a very frustrating afternoon with exactly this... but it's still not working :-(

I created a character who is standing with one arm up and out in front.  When rendering, the fingers are amazing - crisp, focussed etc. The face and hair however is blurry.  I've messed around with the DOF and the F-settings (I used to be pretty OK with my SLR so I get it), and on screen had the box pretty much as shown above - also tried it a bit tighter.... but my face and hair are STILL blurry!  If I turn DOF off, still the same.

I get the feeling it's me messing up, but bejeezus, I can't find the solution :'(

Any help would be appreciated, I've attached my settings.

Cheers.

Mike 

When you starve with a tiger, the tiger starves last.

Could someone please tell me how to lock a camera into position?  I'm

forever moving it by accident.  Must be my newbishness showing

Select the camera and open the Parameters pane's option menu - in DS4, right-click on the tab, or in any version click the button in the pane's top corner. There's a Lock sub menu with options for locking and unlocking - you'd want Lock Node(s).

no worries xandi i've been using DS since '07 and still forget to lock my camera. usually end up with a close but better view in the end half the time

Hi how can i rig a cloth on to a posed character. I want to rig V4 high heel boots on to Genesis. Autofit does not work with high heels. And reshaping the boots to zero pose would cause unpredictable problems.

Using the weight painting tool and polygon selection tool to set the heels to a weight of 1 for the foot bends may help.

On the subject of locking cameras: If I decide to render a scene from the camera view, I switch to that view and use the zoom and pan controls toset the camera into the position I want. Then if I have a character or creature I want to look at the camera, I select the eyes and set the "Point At" parameter to that camera. When I go to the Render feature the default perspective view setting will usually reactivate, so I reset it to the camera view again.

I rarely have more than one camera for a scene unless I want to do an animated scene that switches from one camera to another. 

As for locking a camera into a position, I never do that, since I have not really had a use for a camera to be locked in a certain place.

Just thought I'd throw that in for you.

Thanks for the kind reply,

Since im a newbie, can you break the process for me step by step. It doesnt need to be very detalied, for ex. something like this.

Project V5 High Heel Boots

---

Put the V5 into high heel boots

Export to modeling software

Import to D|S

Use transfer utility (Which im confused with options )

Choose - Source|Scene item:Genesis||Morph:V5|- Target|Scene Item:BootGeometry||Default|

Check: Reverse Source Shape from target (Or not?)

Fix the weight mapping for heels etc.

Save figure 

---

For reuse

Put the genesis figure into high heels pose

Than apply the Boots

---

Is this the process?

Whoah.....I think I have some misconceptions.  I thought that all the renders were done from the camera view, the default.  But you stated that.... if you decide to render from the camera view..... Also...I took particular note of the fact that.... when you go to Render feature the default perspective view setting will usually reactivate....and you have to reset to camera view again.  We can render from the perspective view? 

This might be the cause of the problem I'm having off and on with the render not being the camera view.   Crikies.  I'm going to go look for those options right now.

And thank you for the information!

 

You are quite welcome. As a new user myself, I am always looking for anything I can find that will teach me about the software. This one, however, I discovered on my own; since I have a need to explore the depths of the program a lot. I kept trying to render a camera view, and could not get the camera view setting to stay on when I went to Render. So I went looking for the reason.

I don't know which version of DAZ Studio you have, but there should be a tool that allows you to switch between views that you see in the scene window. Click on that tool to see a dropdown menu and then click on the view of your choice. It is that simple. If you are having the same problem I was having, do the following:

1. Go to the Render application.

2. Now click on the view tool to see the dropdown menu.

3)Choose the camera view option and click on it.

4. Enter your Render settings.

5. Render.

Whats the best realistic lighting setup for Daz that would incorporate realism with render time thanks?

Quote - Whats the best realistic lighting setup for Daz that would incorporate realism with render time thanks?

As a new user I cannot be sure about this; however, I like to create my own lighting and position it to create interesting shadows. The contrast of light and dark is a great way to add dramatic atmosphere to a scene. I learned this long ago when I was in art classes for painting and drawing. Yes, I am an artist in other mediums besides  the digital ones.

For Shadowing in DAZ Studio I turn on the Raytraced and fiddle with the setting a small amount. You won't see these shadows during the scene composing phase so set you render size to a small image to test render and see if the shadows look the way you want them. When you have everything looking the way you want, reset the render size to the size you want your final image or animation to be and then render. Understand that the size of an image or frame determines how long the rendering will take. Also know that  rendering takes longer when you use extreme light and dark colors or you have a very complicated scene to render. If you have a 64 bit operating system on your computer and more that 2 gigabytes of RAM, you can speed up your render time by having the 64 bit version of DAZ Studio 4 installed. It will access more that 2 gigabytes of RAM while the 32 bit version only accesses 2 gigabytes.

I hope this is helpful. If not, I suggest looking for tutorials on lighting for DAZ Studio.

Thanks for the information so best to do some tweaking on a much smaller render size great idea!

Been using a distant light and a spotlight that is raytraced tried another type lighting but  long render times. Guess a backdrop of some sort adds some depth to the realism?

Does Reality 2 plugin really help ? Or does it take even longer time to render ? Thanks for the info

i agree with agent0013 about tweaking your lighting but with one variation of course.  you will have one thing in your render that is the focus of the image, if you start with that figure in your image then you set up your lighting with that figure in mind.  you could set up your lights right after you have the figure in the scene so that you get the shadows and highlights as you want them even b4 you put anything else in the scene.  i usually make at least 3 distant lights set one to illumination on and the other two on to spec only that way you have the specular highlights illuminated more so it is more like natural lighting.

Quote - i agree with agent0013 about tweaking your lighting but with one variation of course.  you will have one thing in your render that is the focus of the image, if you start with that figure in your image then you set up your lighting with that figure in mind.  you could set up your lights right after you have the figure in the scene so that you get the shadows and highlights as you want them even b4 you put anything else in the scene.  i usually make at least 3 distant lights set one to illumination on and the other two on to spec only that way you have the specular highlights illuminated more so it is more like natural lighting.

Thank you for that tip in lighting. I have been wondering how to do exactly that. Now if we can find out how to do ambient lighting, I think we will be doing great. Don't quote me on this, but I think ambient lighting has something to do with the underlying surface glow. It sets the mood of the piece. A good example is how a spooky setting is lit. Like I said, I don't know this for sure.

The additional distant lights seemed to add more realism in the skin textures as well

what would be some recommended settings for the lights and spotlights as well as for the most realistic lighting say for instance outdoor lighting or studio lighting thanks.

Realize theres lots of tweak settings to obtain the best result

Also the placement of the distant lights where would be the best area to place them?

Thanks!

Quote - The additional distant lights seemed to add more realism in the skin textures as well

what would be some recommended settings for the lights and spotlights as well as for the most realistic lighting say for instance outdoor lighting or studio lighting thanks.

Realize theres lots of tweak settings to obtain the best result

Also the placement of the distant lights where would be the best area to place them?

Thanks!

As I understand it, and from what knowledge I have gleaned from tutorials, Distant Lights work without having to be moved from their original position. All you need to do to get them to look as though the light is coming from a certain direction is aim the lights to point in the direction you want. If you zoom in on a distant light you will notice that it has three arrows all pointing in the same direction. This indicates the direction the light is travelling in. As Distant Lights are parallel by nature, all of the light that is associated with one is travelling in the direction the arrows point. Use this to help you figure out where you want the light to point. As far as placing a Distant Light is concerned, I don't think it is really necessary to move it, although you can if you want to. For more about Distant Lights in DAZ Studio, visit YouTube and type in the search box: "DAZ Studio Tutorial - Distant Lights". You should be able to find several good tutorials on the subject.

yes distant lights can be set in the middle of the scene and left there and just pointed in the directions you want to have them point.  the main distant light you have it it's an outdoor image sould be set to the direction of the sun or moon of course.  also it would be set to 100% to >100% if you want it too unless you are using a darkerr bunch of lighting which you could either lessen the % of light or darken the color as needed.

the two set to specular only lighting would be set around 25%-85% depending on how much you want the specular lit up.  also set darker than your main light so that it doesn't over power the rest of your scene.  if you need an ambient light you could set up another distant light set to difuse only set to about 1/2 or less of your main light percentage.  set that light to a bit darker than your main light.  you'll have to play around with the settings to get the image lighting you want but that should get you started.  for those using spotlights as their main lighting like for torches and other lighting sources, you set your spotlights to 100% and use the two specular lights like with the distant main light.  and use the third distant light as your diffuse only light for ambience.

Thanks for all the help will be testing those later tonite it can get rather complicated but that seems simple enough.

Was reading up on Reality 2 but seems like the renders may take forever also one last thing using 3d delight whats the setting for anti alaising seems one render i did the object wasnt curved or you could detect polygon seams or the object wasnt smooth and countoured.

oh another note on your shadow settings for your lights if you are having shadows only hav eyour main light source with raytracing and have the rest with deep shadow maps

Quote - Thanks for all the help will be testing those later tonite it can get rather complicated but that seems simple enough.

Was reading up on Reality 2 but seems like the renders may take forever also one last thing using 3d delight whats the setting for anti alaising seems one render i did the object wasnt curved or you could detect polygon seams or the object wasnt smooth and countoured.

As for anti aliasing, I have not encountered any problems with it. I just use the default settings. Of course there may be some recommendations I don't know about concerning this.

Quote - oh another note on your shadow settings for your lights if you are having shadows only hav eyour main light source with raytracing and have the rest with deep shadow maps

I have sometimes created a scene with two separate light sources, each of which could serve as the main light. Since I wanted to have two shadows for my objects in the scene, I would set both with raytraced shadowing. In my first version of DS4, I could not get this to work, but the Pro version seems to have solved that problem. That being said, I would like to know more about the deep shadow map settings, as I think they may work better for what I just described.

Thanks.

the most i know of deep shadow maps is that DS calculates the area that the shadows will fall and maps them out which it does before it even startes to render which makes, the rendering faster than the raytracing but would also maybe require the use of the shadow bias settings.  so that your main shadow hits a little harder

Quote - the most i know of deep shadow maps is that DS calculates the area that the shadows will fall and maps them out which it does before it even startes to render which makes, the rendering faster than the raytracing but would also maybe require the use of the shadow bias settings.  so that your main shadow hits a little harder

That seems to make sense. I know that when two different colored lights are present in the real world, and someone is between them, the part of the shadow that lies outside of the overlapped area of both shadows will be the color of the light that is not casting that particular shadow. Example: Say there is a red light and a blue light. You are stand in a position that puts you at the apex of a triangle formed by yourself and the two lights. You look at the shadow you are casting from the red light and see that where the other shadow does not overlap the one you are looking at it is blue. This is because blue light shines on that portion of the shadow from the red light. This is the type of effect I want when I use two or more lights for my scenes. I have not tried the deep shadow maps with this yet. I plan to do that in my next rendering in DAZ Studio 4, and I'll let you know how it works. If the scene is decently great looking, I'll upload it here so everyone can see my results.

Hello to all.

I have a question.

How to set up the camera (focal length, focal distance, f/stop) etc in DAZ 3D so that I can have a nice and sharp image rendered. Without checking the 'Depth of field' button, the render is working fine, I want to know how to setup cameras with depth of field button on?

 

Thanks.

the best way i've found is create your camera and move your perspective camera viewto go to one side or the other or over the scene.  then go into your camera settings, and set your focal distance so that your focus of the image is in between the two DOF panels.

i am having trouble removing 2 sets of noses and 2 sets of lips when I load a mat into a scene...what am I doing wrong and how can I fix this?

 

Nativegyrl

It sounds as if you might have the wrong UV set.

Which figure are you using and which texture set are you using.

If you are using Genesis with a M4 texture applied you need to set the M4 UV.

In the Surfaces tab select Genesis at the bottom (or with some shaders its at the top)of the section you will find a UV Set, in the drop down box select the correct choice for the texture set.

Hope this helps.

I'm a brand new user of Daz Studio 4...  and a brand new member of Renderosity.  Frankly, I don't have a clue where to start.  Not even enough tofollow the DAZ videos (which seem a bit hard to follow).   I think my main problem right now may be that the install was not properly completed.  

Would it be best to uninstall and start all over?  Or is there something obvious I'm missing...

 

Peejay

 

What happened with the installation?

Do you have the shortcut icon on your screen after you logon? If you do then it is most likely installed correctly. I suggest you contact the support desk at DAZ 3D's website and put in a request for help. You will need to give information about your PC or Mac, its operating system, and the program your request is for. Then write a short message describing your problem.

I know that the support desk has its ups and downs, but the people there will generally try their best to aid you with your problem. My most recent request involved products that were not installing into DAZ Studio. The person that helped me stuck with me until we were able to narrow it down and solve it. I think that is real dedication.

I have a few questions. I have been creating content for some time now. Mostly for poser I have tried to keep my stuff DS freindly but I am missing a trick or 2 and want to create stuff that renders well in both (with out all the texture faffing) by starting to do 2 versions of models/ props. But being as thick as a brick and not having much time to find the tutorials I thought you guys would know.

I'm fine at adjusting the textures in DS3/4, Up until now I have just saved a DS scene file with the adjusted mats and added that to the product but its not a great way. What I would like to do is save the Character, Prop or Material/material set but can't seem to workout how to save them. Yeah Yeah I know dumb f...

Also another thought can a poser scene be loaded into DS?

Anyhelp would be great, ABC steps even better.

Actually more accurately I know how to save them just not where too and how to use them after.  For example I saved a materials file but It doesn't show up in the libraries?

Put the Studio mat file in with the Poser pz2 mat and give it the same name as the pz2.  Studio will execute the DS file instead of the pz2.  You know you did it right if the file icon changes by having a little scroll added to the upper left corner.

Here is one I could use a little advice for: 

There are several clothing items that were made for the Victoria 4, or the Michael 4 character bases, that are in my content library. Supposedly, there is a way to fit these items to the Genesis character base. I have followed the procedure laid out in some of the tutorials, but the fit is (more often than not) a bad one, with poke through in several areas of the figure, especially when I pose the character. I have watched the videos that talk about how to use the transfer utility tool, and followed that as well, thinking it would fix the problem. I still get poke through in certain areas of the figure.

Maybe there is someone here that can tell me what I am doing wrong. I know that there is at least one extra bone in the Genesis torso that is not present in the V4 and M4 torsos, but this problem occurs with clothing that is not for the torso, such as boots and shoes. I may be wrong but it seems that those types of clothing should not be affected by an extra bone of the torso.

Can anyone tell me what the problem could be?

Quote - Put the Studio mat file in with the Poser pz2 mat and give it the same name as the pz2.  Studio will execute the DS file instead of the pz2.  You know you did it right if the file icon changes by having a little scroll added to the upper left corner.

Is this the same for props? This is what I did

Load the poser prop, adjusted textures, "File>Save as>Support Asset>DSF Figure or prop file" gave it the same name as the original. But it doesn't show up.

I checked it, Its in the folder, opened it with wordpad and it looks to be correct as far as I can tell (found references to the geometry, the jpgs etc)

So what am I doing wrong?

Quote - Here is one I could use a little advice for: 

There are several clothing items that were made for the Victoria 4, or the Michael 4 character bases, that are in my content library. Supposedly, there is a way to fit these items to the Genesis character base. I have followed the procedure laid out in some of the tutorials, but the fit is (more often than not) a bad one, with poke through in several areas of the figure, especially when I pose the character. I have watched the videos that talk about how to use the transfer utility tool, and followed that as well, thinking it would fix the problem. I still get poke through in certain areas of the figure.

Maybe there is someone here that can tell me what I am doing wrong. I know that there is at least one extra bone in the Genesis torso that is not present in the V4 and M4 torsos, but this problem occurs with clothing that is not for the torso, such as boots and shoes. I may be wrong but it seems that those types of clothing should not be affected by an extra bone of the torso.

Can anyone tell me what the problem could be?

Boots and shoes are absolutely terrible in transferring from Gen4 to Genesis. Autofit and the transfer tool usually botch the operation. When this happens to me, I try the 'fit to' for the character and outright hide the feet in the scene tab. At this stage, it's just a crappy fact of life kind of thing.

There is a way around this, but it's fairly complicated and not terribly cheap. You'll need to get a hold of a tool called  'GenX for Genesis' and the 'm4/v4 shapes for Genesis', both at Daz. Combined when not on sale, it's a $50+ issue, which is why I haven't got it yet either. The short story is that the tool uses your Gen4 figure and converts the shapes, morphs and any clothing into a Genesis figure. Its a great idea but a bit spendy. 

Honestly, (personal opinion warning!) I haven't been sold on all the Genesis hoopla, though I certainly appreciate what it is. I've just got too much content for Gen4 that will not work on Genesis, and beyond that, I haven't seen any significant increase in performance for what I use the gen4 characters for. If I were a monster/creature person, then yes, Genesis is 'all that' and a stick of butter. But I like realistic characters, and I know precisely how to get what I want/need out of the old stock. Long story short, if it isn't broke, don't fix it =D

Add: I forgot to add this, but when I have that unavoidable poke through where you can't hide the problem part, it's just a few adjustments in the morph or scale panel that can fix a thigh that's too big, or a bicep popping out of a suit or what have you. I know, tedious, but a quick fix is to save the character as a preset scene with just the character and whatever items are attached when you get it set up to perfection. Easy work around that you can later merge into any file/scene and he/she/it is already set up with no issues.

 

crimsonworx.com; free ebooks and previews

I've bowed down to facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crimsonworx

 

My fix for poke through is hide the part underneath if possible or creat a transparency map if you know how.

Quote - > Quote - Put the Studio mat file in with the Poser pz2 mat and give it the same name as the pz2.  Studio will execute the DS file instead of the pz2.  You know you did it right if the file icon changes by having a little scroll added to the upper left corner.

Is this the same for props? This is what I did

Load the poser prop, adjusted textures, "File>Save as>Support Asset>DSF Figure or prop file" gave it the same name as the original. But it doesn't show up.

I checked it, Its in the folder, opened it with wordpad and it looks to be correct as far as I can tell (found references to the geometry, the jpgs etc)

So what am I doing wrong?

I don't save props or characters too terribly often, but in your above post, the process I recall is just that.

One thing I do know is that Studio has issues using certain poser mat files. The .mc6 definitely doesn't work, and occasionally, the .mtl5 or .mat5 (I forget which was the old poser format, but I believe its the .mat5) won't load or even show in the content directory. You can convert them and most of the time get something cooking, either by changing the extension manually to .pz2, or using a little freebie calle 'file extension changer'. It's really handy for converting bulk mat5's to work with Studio.

Also, for editing problematic files, there's another freebe called notepad++, specifically made for opening files where you might need to do some hardcore editing. It's tons nicer than notepad and lets to edit line by line, which are also numbered. You can batch convert files types, change extensions within several files, etc.

crimsonworx.com; free ebooks and previews

I've bowed down to facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crimsonworx

 

Ermm.... I am just getting no joy.  I am back to trying it as mat file again. I save the materials , that all looks good it asks which surfaces to set (check the correct boxes), save it in poses (.DSF) change the extention to (.pz2). It shows up in the library. I load the original Poser version, Select it, find the .pz2, click it, It applies it (well something flashes up, its too quick to read) but nothing changes. Any other ideas?

A DSF file won't auto load when you double-click the Poser file, you need to use the deprecated script-based formats (.dsa etc.) for this. You should also save a Materials preset rather than a prop or figure for this, and put it in the Pose (or Materials if you don't mind not supporting DS3) folder with an identically named Poser file (ideally the Poser material settings, if you provide them. So you'd have something like PropsMYPropsMyProp.pp2 and PropsMYPropsMyProp.png in the prop library, and PoseMYPropsMyPropMat.pz2, PoseMYPropsMyPropMat.png and PoseMYPropsMyPropMat.dsa in the pose library. It is possible to make a script that will apply materials when the prop is loaded, but it requires (minor) hand-editing of the script file to get it.

Thanks RHaseltine ill give it a go. It should be easy why has it been made so fiddly, some money making going on somewhere no doubt.

I am at a lost here..

I purchased Stonemasons Winter Kingdom and didn't think about the format.. thought it was for Poser..

I am so confused in Daz..

Can someone help..

Thank you!

~alice

Quote - I am at a lost here..

I purchased Stonemasons Winter Kingdom and didn't think about the format.. thought it was for Poser..

I am so confused in Daz..

Can someone help..

Thank you!

~alice

I am new to this myself but here are my thoughts:

If you click on the Content Library tab and look at the list at the top of the pane that appears, there are five different things in the list, (this is at the beginning of the library). They are as follows:

1. DAZ Studio Formats,

2. Poser Formats,

3. Other Import Formats,

4. Products,

5. Categories.

You may notice that Products and Categories are headed by a different icon. The only parts of this list you need to concern yourself with at this time are the first two; DAZ Studio Formats and Poser Formats. I suggest you explore both of them all the way to the last folders. Look at every folder and all the products that can be found in the last of each hierarchy. 

If you don't understand what I'm trying to tell you, the following is how this works:

Click on DAZ Studio Formats. This is the main folder for all things that can be found and used of this type. The next part of the hierarchy opens, where you will find two folders; My Library and Studio3. 

Click on My Library. The next part opens. You will find several folders in this part with names like aniBlocks, Animals, Content, People, Props, etc.

Click on People. You may have more folders in this next part than I do, but I have only one named Genesis. If you have DS4 you will have this folder as well.

Click on Genesis. The next part has at least six folders in it, each with a descriptive name like Characters, Clothing, and Hair.

Click on Characters. At least two icons appear in the bottom section of the pane; Basic Female and Basic Male. If you double click on one of these it will load a character into the scene.

Now each part you clicked to get here corresponds to a folder that exists on your computer. The first folder, DAZ Studio Formats, contains all of the other folders. As you click on a folder name, it opens that folder, which will have the next set of folders within this particular one, until at the end you open the deepest folder containing the actual items you want to use. So you have a main folder that has secondary folders within it, which in turn have folders within them, and so on until the final deepest folders. This is how all five main folders are set up. It helps the software keep everything organized in a way that it can understand. The name for this setup is "Hierarchy", (basically just folders, within folders, within folders, etc.)

Now when you buy or acquire a 3rd party product to install in DAZ Studio or Poser, make sure it comes with a readme that gives clear instructions on how to install the product. This is important because it must be installed to the correct folders in order to work with your software. Otherwise you may not be able to use the product.

One thing I will suggest to you is to make sure you do not remove the product from your computer's harddrive even after in has been successfully installed. If you need the extra memory space, save the product on an external memory device that can be accessed by your computer if the need should ever arise.

I hope this helps. I am still learning myself, so let me know how you do.

Why can't this just be made in poser too!

ugh..

There's an OBJ you can import into Poser, but you will need to set materials up yourself - Winter Kingdom was an experiment with materials, so it wasn't given a full Poser version though Stonemason usually does provide both.

I tried to do it in Poser..but it doesn't work very good. I knew the obj would be HUGE and would have to resize them and apply the mats.. but all the time is just not worth doing one render.

Thank you for all your help.

~alice

I have a question on backgrounds....

In the Freebie section of Renderosity, a background is often referred to as a "planar" so is this different from a background for Poser?

And can Poser backgrounds also be used in D4?

Thanks.

R

Quote - I have a question on backgrounds....

In the Freebie section of Renderosity, a background is often referred to as a "planar" so is this different from a background for Poser?

And can Poser backgrounds also be used in D4?

Thanks.

R

I think planars are actually just images that can be used as the background of whatever scene you are creating, as opposed to the skydomes that come with certain product packages for DS and Poser. The planars will be in one of several formats, such as .bmp, or .jpeg.

I have use some of my own photos, backgrounds I created in Bryce, and photos or background images I downloaded from the internet. It would seem to me that any image you can import into the scene could be called a Planar. Of course if you use an image in this way, you need to make sure you know the aspect ratio of the image in order to set that as your rendering aspect ratio. This will prevent distortion of the background image. I like to use a 16:9 aspect ratio. This will fit most wide screen monitors.

If you want to try this, let me know and I will gather all of my information on how to do it and post it for you. One thing I will tell you now: you can use any image you can find in this way, as long as it is in a format that DS or Poser can recognize. If the image is in a format not recognized by DS or Poser, there are several good programs available that can be used to convert the image to the correct formats. Some of these are probably already on your computer. Others are free to download, or you can purchase one of them if you prefer.

Quote - > Quote - I have a question on backgrounds....

In the Freebie section of Renderosity, a background is often referred to as a "planar" so is this different from a background for Poser?

And can Poser backgrounds also be used in D4?

Thanks.

R

I think planars are actually just images that can be used as the background of whatever scene you are creating, as opposed to the skydomes that come with certain product packages for DS and Poser. The planars will be in one of several formats, such as .bmp, or .jpeg.

I have use some of my own photos, backgrounds I created in Bryce, and photos or background images I downloaded from the internet. It would seem to me that any image you can import into the scene could be called a Planar. Of course if you use an image in this way, you need to make sure you know the aspect ratio of the image in order to set that as your rendering aspect ratio. This will prevent distortion of the background image. I like to use a 16:9 aspect ratio. This will fit most wide screen monitors.

If you want to try this, let me know and I will gather all of my information on how to do it and post it for you. One thing I will tell you now: you can use any image you can find in this way, as long as it is in a format that DS or Poser can recognize. If the image is in a format not recognized by DS or Poser, there are several good programs available that can be used to convert the image to the correct formats. Some of these are probably already on your computer. Others are free to download, or you can purchase one of them if you prefer.

Agent, thank you so much. 

That is a good help to me in understanding this better.

Yes, I would appreciate you sending the information you mentioned to help me in this.   I seem to do images with no background and I would like to try to improve this.

I have a related question I think... In Daz 4 the background is default white. Can this be changed to black or gray, and if so, how is it done?

Again, thank you so much.

Randy 

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - I have a question on backgrounds....

In the Freebie section of Renderosity, a background is often referred to as a "planar" so is this different from a background for Poser?

And can Poser backgrounds also be used in D4?

Thanks.

R

I think planars are actually just images that can be used as the background of whatever scene you are creating, as opposed to the skydomes that come with certain product packages for DS and Poser. The planars will be in one of several formats, such as .bmp, or .jpeg.

I have use some of my own photos, backgrounds I created in Bryce, and photos or background images I downloaded from the internet. It would seem to me that any image you can import into the scene could be called a Planar. Of course if you use an image in this way, you need to make sure you know the aspect ratio of the image in order to set that as your rendering aspect ratio. This will prevent distortion of the background image. I like to use a 16:9 aspect ratio. This will fit most wide screen monitors.

If you want to try this, let me know and I will gather all of my information on how to do it and post it for you. One thing I will tell you now: you can use any image you can find in this way, as long as it is in a format that DS or Poser can recognize. If the image is in a format not recognized by DS or Poser, there are several good programs available that can be used to convert the image to the correct formats. Some of these are probably already on your computer. Others are free to download, or you can purchase one of them if you prefer.

Agent, thank you so much. 

That is a good help to me in understanding this better.

Yes, I would appreciate you sending the information you mentioned to help me in this.   I seem to do images with no background and I would like to try to improve this.

I have a related question I think... In Daz 4 the background is default white. Can this be changed to black or gray, and if so, how is it done?

Again, thank you so much.

Randy 

Okay, here is how this works:

Make sure that the Actors, Wardrobe & Props tab at the top of your work window is the active one. Active tabs are darker in color.

Beneath the tab title you will see a series of icons. Hovering over them with your mouse will cause a small label to appear that tells you what can be done if you click on that icon.

Click on the icon that looks like a sun and mountain.

In the small window that appears, click on the bar next to the word Image. A drop down box appears.

Click on the word Browse in this drop down box. A window will appear that lets you navigate to anywhere on your computer.

 If you know where the image you wish to use is located, go to it and click on it. The image will appear in your scene.

The original small window will still be open. Click on the Accept button if you want to keep this image as your background. If you wish to change it, click the Image bar again and browse to find another image to replace the first one. When you are satisfied, click on accept. If you do not want to use any images at this time, click on the cancel button.

If the image you wish to use will not load into the scene, it is probably not in a format that DAZ Studio can use. To get around this, I suggest a separate program that you can import the image into which will allow you to save it as either a .bmp or .jpeg format. There are others that DAZ Studio recognizes, but these are the most common formats I have found useful.

Some good programs that can be used to convert the format of an image are listed below:

1. Microsoft Office PowerPoint – if you have any version of this program, it is excellent for this purpose. I suggest creating a PowerPoint file just for this task. You can set the size, aspect ratio, and several other things in this program; and there is even a way to create images. To save images in a desired format in a separate folder, use the Save As feature.

2. Photo Shop – I do not know much about this program, but from what I gather, it is also an excellent one to use for this purpose. There is post production work that can be done as well, and you can use it to create or alter materials.

3. Gimp – This is much like Photo Shop with similar tools. I have Gimp 2, which is free to download. Like Photo Shop, it can be used for post production work, and material creations and alterations.

Now to address the other question you posted. Yes, you can change the scene viewport default color. Here is how:

At the top of the scene viewport on the right side you will see a small icon with a tiny triangle and four horizontal lines. Hovering over it will cause a textbox to appear that has “Options: Display the Viewport Options” in it. Click on the icon.

In the drop down box that appears click on Change Background Color.

A window will appear with the familiar colors table in it. Choose the color you want and click on the OK button.

Your background color in the viewport is now the color you have chosen.

I hope this helps. Let me know how you do, and don't be afraid to ask questions about anything you do not understand concerning this explanation.

Agent 0013.

This will be a very simple question, and display my ignorance. When I am doing an image in D4, the default seems to be a white background. How can I change the background, for example, to black, or any other colour?

Thanks.

R

My appologies to everyone. My question has been answered and I did not know... I must have missed the notification, So sorry for that, and thank you Agent 0013, so much.

Very sincerely,

R

Quote - My appologies to everyone. My question has been answered and I did not know... I must have missed the notification, So sorry for that, and thank you Agent 0013, so much.

Very sincerely,

R

I am happy to be of service. As a fellow artist, I want the experience of creating to be an enjoyable one for you and all.

Stay awesome.

Agent 0013.

P.S. 

If you have not done so already, you can highlight the text in the explanations I posted and copy it. Take it to a document program and paste it, then save the document. That way you will have the instructions on how to do this ready for access when you need them.

Hello again, and thank you Agent0013.

I can't believe I missed this earlier, but I did..... so dumb of me.

I will do as you suggest, copy it. Thank you so much again.

Sincerely.

R

Okay. I have DAZ Studio 4.0 Pro. I just upgraded from my original version 3 months ago when they offered the pro version for free. Now I see on the DAZ 3D website that 4.5 Pro is being offered for free. 

Here are my questions: Is there much of a difference in my version and the new 4.5 Pro version? Is it worth upgrading so soon after my last upgrade?

From what I am seeing, the latest upgrade is free for a limited time only. It supports certain extra software that allows developers to create content for DAZ Studio 4.5, which kind of fits in with my goals of making things for the software that I can upload to various sites for sale. Of course i already have the Content Creator Tool Kit installed in 4.0 Pro, so I'm wondering what to do.

Well, 4.0 was free for a limited time only too - DAZ is just making sure it can end the offer when it wants, not setting, as far as I know, a specific limit. And it will go on working once you have it - the end of the free period won't disable your serial number. As for whether it's worth getting, 4.5 fixes a lot of bugs and adds some useful features (instancing, for example, which is useful for populating a scene if you want multiple copies of an item, and AutoFit now preserves morphs), as well as having a finalised and documented version of the DSON format which will work with Carrara 8.5 and should, in theory, open the door to other tools working with native content.

Quote - Okay. I have DAZ Studio 4.0 Pro. I just upgraded from my original version 3 months ago when they offered the pro version for free. Now I see on the DAZ 3D website that 4.5 Pro is being offered for free. 

Here are my questions: Is there much of a difference in my version and the new 4.5 Pro version? Is it worth upgrading so soon after my last upgrade?

From what I am seeing, the latest upgrade is free for a limited time only. It supports certain extra software that allows developers to create content for DAZ Studio 4.5, which kind of fits in with my goals of making things for the software that I can upload to various sites for sale. Of course i already have the Content Creator Tool Kit installed in 4.0 Pro, so I'm wondering what to do.

I have downloaded 4.5 but hesitate to install as it will uninstall previous versions. I have saved many scenes (to redo when the time comes) and I am thinking that they probably will not load in 4.5. There is a forum dedicated to discussion about 4.5

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/5343/P690/#94257

Thank you all for the responses to my query. I have already downloaded it and will be installing it today. With all the bug fixes it should work a lot better than my current version, which crashes when I use the bridge to Bryce 7 Pro for moving certain large object files. I hope this bug has been addressed and fixed, because when I export my objects as .obj and import them into Bryce, there is a lot of materials a textures files that have to be manually loaded to get everything I want in. Tedious.

Unfortunately, I have no version of Carrara at all, which I have heard is a fantastic 3D art software program. Still I have several already that serve me quite well for now. 

I will look in on the discussion thread for 4.5, and see what is being said about it. Thanks for the heads up.

HeatherT: old scenes should open in 4.5. Some may "explode" when saved as .duf and reopened, but saving the .duf file again seems to fix that (I haven't encountered the problem at all, but that's what has been reported by several users).

Quote - HeatherT: old scenes should open in 4.5. Some may "explode" when saved as .duf and reopened, but saving the .duf file again seems to fix that (I haven't encountered the problem at all, but that's what has been reported by several users).

 

Wonderful news! Now I can go ahead and install. I just found a reply at Daz similar to yours....Thanks so much!

hi all :D

 i am very new here. i am currently trying to get familliar with Elite Human Surface Shader. and i have a probem. whenever i set my textures and values of additional controls as i desire (also i used RAWArt settings to check if i am doing everything right) i get my renders blank - i mean all HSS surfaces go white. no maps. plain white shape of a figure...

 

what am i doing wrong? (i use the ctrl+double click option when loading HSS).

 

i use DAZ3D 4 x64.

 

any guess what's going on? 

Did you install a separate version of the HSS shader? It's included with DS4, so if you did you may have repalced a working copy with a non-working copy. If that isn't it, do a render, then go to Help>Troubleshooting>View Log, scroll to the end and see if there are any shader-related errors. Also, make sure you are using the 3Delight render engine (top poisition on the quality slider in Render Settings).

**@ RHaseltine **

i had hss shader form an older version of Daz3D and i've probably made that mistake. so... i hope that uninstalling the previous hss shader will fix the thing. if not, i'll spend rest of the day reinstalling whole daz3d and libraries :(

 

thank you RHaseltine :D i hope this will help :) 

i had hss shader form an older version of Daz3D and i've probably made that mistake. so... i hope that uninstalling the previous hss shader will fix the thing. if not, i'll spend rest of the day reinstalling whole daz3d and libraries :(

You shouldn't have to reinstall DAZ Studio and the Libraries, not just for a shader error.

Which version of DAZ Studio do you have? If it is 4.5 Pro, there are a lot of differences in it from earlier versions of DS4. I would suggest checking your plugins to see if they are all green. Also check to see if the hss shader installed correctly.

Also try going to the surfaces tab and checking all of the sections that have to do with colors including the sliders. This can have a large effect on how an image renders.

If you reinstall DS4, it may not fix the problem. You would just be reinstalling what is causing the problem along with it.

Another thing that might be causing the problem is whether your computer is at optimum performance level. Your processor may be having trouble finding what is needed to make the shader work correctly. This can be caused by several things to do with your hard drive. To fix this, if you have a Windows operating system, do a search using the following search words: 10 free ways to speed up my pc. 

 

@ Agent0013

 

is 4.5 Pro. i have a complete machine pc made for graphics (i5, 8gb ram, nv5500 geforce) since it's my normal job. i guess i'll have to dig deep inot the files then :(

sections in surface tab are ok to me (also i've checked same thing with tutorials and patterns from raw art for example to exclude my own mistakes) 

 

i have also this communicate when launching Daz#d (when genesis figure is loading up with it) "Duplicate formulas found in files. Make sure that the content is properly installed. See the log for more details."

 

every single plugin is green light (except of "Freeimage" whatever that is)

 

so... what should i do now? reinstall? where can i find those HSS files?

 

please help 

 

Quote - @ Agent0013

 

is 4.5 Pro. i have a complete machine pc made for graphics (i5, 8gb ram, nv5500 geforce) since it's my normal job. i guess i'll have to dig deep inot the files then :(

sections in surface tab are ok to me (also i've checked same thing with tutorials and patterns from raw art for example to exclude my own mistakes) 

 

i have also this communicate when launching Daz#d (when genesis figure is loading up with it) "Duplicate formulas found in files. Make sure that the content is properly installed. See the log for more details."

 

every single plugin is green light (except of "Freeimage" whatever that is)

 

so... what should i do now? reinstall? where can i find those HSS files?

 

please help 

 

Go to DAZ 3D and put in a request at the help desk. There are several people there that can provide support for you. Just describe the problem in detail and submit the request. You may have to wait for a response but they will get to it.

Try using the Uber shader that comes with DS4.5 Pro it can be found in Shader Presets, omnifreak.

Aftter applying go to the surfaces tab and see what is listed at the top.

 

Reinstalling DS4 will give you the correct version of HSS - no need to reinstall the content, not even the Genesis Starter Essentials. As an aside, a shader like HSS is not a plugin so it won't appear in the About Installed Plugins list.

@ RHaseltine

thanx :) renistalled and it works fine now :D finally i'll be able to try my maps as i wanted to :D :D :D works like a charm :D thanx again for help and good will everyone :)

As an aside, a shader like HSS is not a plugin so it won't appear in the About Installed Plugins list.

*Thank you for clearing that up. I was only trying to cover all bases. The reason I suggested not reinstalling DS4 is because when I tried it, (my version was giving me the same problem), it did not fix it. Also, I did not reinstall the content library, since it was not the content that was causing the problem. I went through two weeks of frustration trying to fix the problem. I searched the internet every day, and finally I found the cause on my own. The specular and ambient settings were wrong. Reflection settings compounded the problem. So I backed off on the sliders for each, doing a test render each time. and began seeing improvements. It can be a problem when the workspace won't show the effects of what you do with those settings and with shadowing until it is rendered in 3Delight.

Anyway, if it will fix the problem, go ahead and reinstall. I hope it works for you.

Quote - @ RHaseltine

thanx :) renistalled and it works fine now :D finally i'll be able to try my maps as i wanted to :D :D :D works like a charm :D thanx again for help and good will everyone :)

Good deal! Have fun and let us see something you do with it.

Stay awesome!

Agent 0013.

@ Agent0013

** **

your advice was good, but i've reinstalled thing twice. once i've aloowed setup to use ththe same content library and the same installation folder. didn't worked (probably 'cause i haven't cleared old data from the folder). 2nd time i've changed the installation paths for both - studio and content library folder. worked. now i've simply cropped and pasted all my collected/made content to new content library folder and finally i have it all fixed :D

 

yu are right about specular settings, they can cause some problems (i use 2 spec's 25% & 35%  + textures) and i've decreased ambient to less than 50%, just as you did. finally i can go experiment with lights and shadows :)

 

btw. i hope i'll be able to show some of my works to this wonderfull (and really helpful) community :D check my gallery to see what i am going to make daz/poser aviable :D here is today's prop in progress and in the galllery is the "prop bearer" :D

 

 

 

 

Happy that you got it fixed. Your prop looks good, similar to a fantasy video game sword or machete. Perhaps you can post a link to your gallery so we can go there to look at it.

Stay awesome!

Agent 0013.

---

When James Bond sees me coming he says "Oh! Oh! One! Three! Everybody RUN!"

Glad you got it working.

Just out of curiosity why are you using tthe HSS and not the Uber shader?

@ Agent0013

 

props are is still in progress (i have to make 9 types of swords at least).

here iare 2 links to my recent (and only due to limitations) uploads

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2373885

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2373654&user_id=715260&np&np 

 

i have the "underarmor" ready and working to view at my "artist" :P page 

 

http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.php?userid=715260 

 

@ tparo

 

 uber shader won't give me the effect i require. i've made some extra textures (veins, muscles, blood and meat) i need for my characters. i want them to be extremely detailed. with bump, specular and displacement they are quite satisfying for me, but i need them to "come to life" and gain some guts and "extra vibration" from beneath the skin. also i need to check if what i made in 3dsmax is achievable in daz3d.

sss maps and hss maps will give me (i hope) that extra touch ubersurface won't for now. also i am not very familliar with ubersurface yet ;) and i need to base on what i know better.

 

what can i have with UberSurface by the way? anything good for characters? armors? 

@ haeressiarch:

As with you, I don't know much about ubersurface. What its capabilities are, and how well in works are two things I would like to know. Also, an easy to follow tutorial would be nice, preferably in document form. It may be nice to have new tools to work with; but if there is no instruction describing how to use it, that can be a source of frustration. You wouldn't put a new type of powertool on the market without instructions on how to use it.

@ Agent0013

i will put a RawArt settings here (i find them useful for human figures and human skins with few small tweaks, ;cause i use separate HSS textures (2 types actually and +1 for extra template for tattoos/bodypaint). for creatures (depending on skin types i want to have) i also use my own SSS maps and lots of tweaking.

 

i will try to put up a good tutorial (settings of dialers and examples of my own work) if you need, but i must warn you - my english is not as good as i want :(. 

 

here is what i do without SSS maps:

 

it's not very impressive, i know, but i will try to explain the issue (remember - i'm a newbie here, so if there's someone better informed, please check and correct).

gimme few hours and i'll be here with some explanations and few propositions of settings :) 

@ haeressiarch: 

The image is really good I think. I like the textured look of the character's skin markings. This is something I have been unable to do as of yet. In Bryce I can get textures to have depth, but in DAZ Studio I cannot even find any tutorials covering this subject in particular that is easy to follow. You even have the vein shading working correctly. Simply amazing!

Great job you did on this one.

uberSurface is pretty much HSS2 - I can't recall that it lacks any features of HSS, and it adds some new things.

haeressiarch that is a very cool character, I like it alot, the textures are very impressive.

Agent0013 to get what I think you mean by depth in DS, you would use displacment maps. White is positve black negative.

Thank you **RHaseltine. **I will check with some friends over at DAZ 3D to find out more. What I find will be posted here.

:D thank you very much. simple displacement ant bump texture work. so... maybe i'll start from explaining the textures and values, and i'll also put out my preferences about them. here we go with trembling heart. some people may find it very obvious what i will write about here, but understanding of basics always makes human life better ;)

 

TEXTURE TYPES

 

DIFFUSE MAP

or simply the Color Map. not hing more to add. color works as it is. represents the color surface of the model, no matter if it's human body/skin or metal/wooden/plastic prop.

Making the Color Map

** **

black color - it's black as it is. it's value/gradient may vary with lights/surfaces etc.

white color - it's white as it is.   it's value/gradient may vary with lights/surfaces etc.

rgb (red-green-blue) colors - their value/gradient may vary with lights/surfaces etc.  skin pigment will apear with that color. you may always adjust some color for better/more toned skin.

SPECULAR MAP

or simply the Light Map. specular map can decide the range of skin greasiness reflection and (sometimes) its shape. by default light will be filtered/reflected (reflect is a big word here - it only simulates/fakes this effect) according to the color you choose.

Making the Specular Map

 

black color - black painted areas are not shiny. they won't "reflect" light.

white color -  white/gray painted areas are shiny (you may use gradient rom dark gray to pure white). they will "reflect" light.

rgb (red-green-blue) colors - leave this map black and white. colors except bw won't do anything here.

*(i use quite dark specular maps, but it's just me - i give it higher values with the dialers and i find it easier to controll that way, specially while using omnifreaker HSS with it)

TIP.1. remembeer that skin is more shiny in places closer to the human bones.

TIP.2. notice that it's always bit shiny where tendons are (see your hands, achilles and neck)

TIP.3. it's getting shinier on skin tensions, to simulate this effect i add sharpness on my specular textures and some brightness-contrast is being adjusted. white spots are being stretched, and skin shines a bit more on wrists/elbows/knees when body is being posed ;) - same thing goes with muscles. 

BUMP MAP

or the Detail Height Map. i am using it for skin details as roughness, facture, small fractures, body hair, short facial hair etc. it belevels and embosses (in "micro" scale) object details, by simulating light/shadows over non-modelled objects. excellent layer for details.

Making the Bump Map

black color - black painted areas are depressed down

white color -  white/gray painted areas are being raised up.

rgb (red-green-blue) colors - no function here. leave whole texture  bw

*(i only use it for skin facture/fractures/body hair/rough surfaces/small cuts, wounds etc. it helps to add details to displacement map if you won't make any clear white displacement spots ;))

TIP.1. i use sharpness filter here as well, to add skin facture. works good for me in closeups ;) 

DISPLACEMENT MAP

or the Height Map. i am using it for skin details and changes that model details won't allow me to apply in modelling software (i use zbrush), won't do much when you want to change small things, but you may add veins, re-shape whole body (depth of spaces between muscles, body buliding structure, emaciation, "wiryness" of body parts. skin markings, deep wounds, large scars or anything you like is avaiable without re-modelling whole body. making elder bodies is extremely easy with it :) 

Making the Displacement Map

 

black color - black painted areas are depressed down (deep down - you can make your figure skinnier and thin fingers for example, but it's better to make some details)

white color -  white/gray painted areas are being raised up. pure white is always the highest spot.

rgb (red-green-blue) colors - no function here. leave whole texture  bw

*(i use displacement maps only in few cases. it's determined by the goal i want to achieve. using it will give you some ideas i think. experiments will allow you to find your own way for this thingy ;))

SUB SURFACE MAPS

sub surface maps are indended to show what's underneath the skin. in reality, they are here to simulate the light scattering under the skin surface. we are able to see veins, tendons and bones (their reflection) through our dermal layers as well as blood in reality as lighter or more reddish/soft blue/green areas. when light hits the skin its not just reflecting the pigment and features on the top. because flesh is relatively translucent, that light is often bouncing off multiple 'layers'. the first and most prevalent is the skin/pigment (color/diffuse map), then there is the blood vessels, muscles, insertion points, and bone. all of these elements are very subtle in a final skin texture, but when they aren't present, skin can look dead and lifeless. it may be also used to simulate injuries (hematoma, internal bleeding etc.) but it is here to work as sub surface of human flesh.

Making the SubSurface Maps

 

black color - black painted areas are black as in color map.

white color -  white areas are white. use it to mark bones close to the skin surface.

rgb (red-green-blue) colors - try to keep whole texture in warm red+yellow (+orange) tones. simulate the living flesh, muscles, tissues, bones, blood. yellow works great to simulate fat, red /pink is for muscles, purple serves as blood vessels (green and blue do the trick with smaller veins). everything you know about underneath the skin regions. it pays a lot to know a bit more about anatomy ;)

TIP.1. paint it red and use brightness-contrast to get the final look. use sharpness to adjust wrinkles, muscle facture, etc.

TIP.2.  paint veins, blood vessels etc. in proper colors. i use green, purple and blue. works fine on humans.

TIP.3. you can always use black-white (grayscale) texture to simulate the same thing. i prefer more detailed full color texture. you may also split this texture into three parts and use separate layers for veins/blood vessels, bones and muscles etc.

TIP.4. you can also create Back Scatter Map to simulate deeper tissues and bones. might be useful when it comes to really detailed renders (when light pierces through the skin or when you create monsters).

TIP.5. you can separate Sub Surface (second skin layer with only a reflection of what's underneath) layer from Sub Dermal (veins, muscles, closest bone landmarks etc.) layer and use them separately.

 

next post will describe some settings and effects but renders are still taking a while ...

@ RHaseltine

oh! i must try it then :D i guess i'll be very busy with it right now :D

**@ tparo **

i was going to put it in the shop here, but while it is possible to make it better with HSS maps i'll do that before i'll make it aviable :) thank you for liking it and giving me some extra strength to work on it evenharder now :)

Thanks for the explanations. Very informative, clear and concise.

This is a link to a description of the ubersurface feature. From what I just found it is indeed a human surface shader upgrade. If you wish to know more follow this link:

http://omnifreaker.com/index.php?title=UberSurface

i have a question guys, i've read in here that dynamic clothing doesnt work, what sort of outfits can be used then in animation to give the same or a similar end result?

OS: Windows7 64-bit Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)  6GB Ram
Poser: Poser Pro 2012 SR3.1 ...Poser 8.........Poser5 on a bad day........
Daz Studio Pro 4.5  64bit

Carrara beta 8.5

Modelling: Silo/Hexagon/Groboto V3
Image Editing: PSP V9/Irfanview
Movie Editing. Cyberlink power director/Windows live movie maker

"I live in an unfinished , poorly lit box, but we call it home"

My freestuff   

 link via my artist page

Poser dynamic clothing doesn't work in DS - but the OptiTex clothing made specially for DS does work. Of course the choice is somewhat more limited, and you can't "clothify" a normal piece of clothing as is usually possible in Poser (depending on how the clothing is made).

am i right in thinknig the optitex range are made with marvellous designer|?

OS: Windows7 64-bit Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)  6GB Ram
Poser: Poser Pro 2012 SR3.1 ...Poser 8.........Poser5 on a bad day........
Daz Studio Pro 4.5  64bit

Carrara beta 8.5

Modelling: Silo/Hexagon/Groboto V3
Image Editing: PSP V9/Irfanview
Movie Editing. Cyberlink power director/Windows live movie maker

"I live in an unfinished , poorly lit box, but we call it home"

My freestuff   

 link via my artist page

No - the Optitex range are made using software only avalilble for a very high price from Optitex.

Theres a good range of free dynamic stuff for DS here.

http://www.optitex-dynamiccloth.com/FreebieDownload01.php

ty guys appreciate it

OS: Windows7 64-bit Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2401 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)  6GB Ram
Poser: Poser Pro 2012 SR3.1 ...Poser 8.........Poser5 on a bad day........
Daz Studio Pro 4.5  64bit

Carrara beta 8.5

Modelling: Silo/Hexagon/Groboto V3
Image Editing: PSP V9/Irfanview
Movie Editing. Cyberlink power director/Windows live movie maker

"I live in an unfinished , poorly lit box, but we call it home"

My freestuff   

 link via my artist page

Quote - Seeing as people are being 'nitpicky' about the name, lets get it right.

The company is called DAZ Productions Inc.

The website is DAZ3D or Digital Art Zone 3D

The program is DAZ Studio or DS for short and that name is trademarked, you'll find it on the splash screen when DS starts, on several of the help menu options and on the help/about daz studio pop up, as well as on the top left corner of the open program.

 

Touche

You beat me to posting this.

I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them.

 

If I am talking about a certain software application, I either use the fully spelled out name or its shortened form (usually capital letters) and the version suffix. I do this to let folks know exactly what application and version is being referred to. As different versions will have several changes between them, it helps if the reader knows which version is being used. I understand how someone might get confused if they don't recognize something because their version is different.

 

 

can I use auto fit to make victoria 4 clothing from renderosity fit  onto genesis in daz studio 4.5

 

thanks

can I use auto fit to make victoria 4 clothing from renderosity fit  onto genesis in daz studio 4.5

 In my experience which I admit is somewhat limited, I have found that most third party clothing for DAZ figures do not work well with the auto fit feature. It boils down to how complete the clothing file is. As I understand it, there are certain things that need to be included in a generation 4 clothing file to allow the auto fit feature to work with it so that the clothing will work on the Genesis figure. Also, there is an extra torso bone in the Genesis figure that is not found in the generation 3 and 4 figures, and the Genesis figure is able to be morphed into either gender, (male or female). There is some clothing made by third party modellers that can work with the auto fit feature, but the only way to know if something does is to try it.

My advice to you would be to find clothing that is made specifically for the Genesis figure. there is quite a lot of it available at Renderosity, ShareCG, and several other sites. When installing Genesis clothing from third party vendors, be sure to put it into the DAZ Studio format folders rather than the Poser format folders. The reason for this is that is where the default Genesis content is located, including clothing, hair, footwear, accessories, and props. You can also find the default scene files there.

Hope this helps. 

Quote -  

 

can I use auto fit to make victoria 4 clothing from renderosity fit  onto genesis in daz studio 4.5

 

thanks

 

Yes it should work, shoes are a bit of a problem especially heels, long skirts also go a bit funky smoothing can help here - but theres no reason why items from rendo made for V4 won't work any better or worse than stuff from Daz.

 

If you have a particular item in mind can you post a link.

Since tparo says that it will work, I would advise you to take the word of the more experienced artist. Like I said, my experience is somewhat limited. tparo obviously** **knows more about the software than I do. I have only been doing 3D art for about a year. I only posted my comment because of my own experiences using the auto fit feature of DS4, which has not worked all that well for me. I think what would be nice is to find a tutorial that tells how to use the feature for this purpose and how to do the smoothing. I have seen a few video tutorials that handle smoothing but they turned out to be hard to follow for various reasons. This is why I prefer document style tutorials.

As for shoes and long skirts, tparo is absolutely correct. Even shoes and long skirts from the DAZ store made for generation 4 figures have that problem. I wound up having to make the Genesis figure's feet invisible to make the shoes look right, and if the shoe was open toe, low uppers, or sandals, even the zero opacity setting won't work. Fortunately, there are several 3rd party shoe products available for the Genesis figure.

thanks for your very informative and prompt responses -- this forum is a great resource.  

**@ **johnfairbanks I totally agree. I myself have learned quite a lot here.

I suggest you check out the tutorials as well. You can find some good information there, which covers a large variety of "how to" stuff.

Just go to the Homepage here at Renderosity, click on Tutorials at the top of the page, and then click on the software name for the application you want tutorials for. Once you are in that section, click on a tutorial title that you think would help you.

Admittedly some of the tutorials are hard to follow, but there are a lot that are easy to follow.