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XfrogPlants in DAZ

mcpughmcpugh Posts: 102
edited December 1969 in Daz Studio Discussion

Has anyone used XfrogPlants in DAZ before without any problems? This is and example of what I'm thinking about purchasing:
https://www.daz3d.com/xfrogplants-billboards-usa-conifers.

Thanks

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 40,000
    edited December 1969

    Grab the freebies off the Xfrog site and try them out
    for DAZ you need the obj files and take the png maps and in Gimp, photoshop whatever create a black back ground white leaf mask image
    for the opacity channel, DAZ needs a shadermixer brick otherwise to see the transparency in png files

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    wendy♥catz said:
    Grab the freebies off the Xfrog site and try them out
    for DAZ you need the obj files and take the png maps and in Gimp, photoshop whatever create a black back ground white leaf mask image
    for the opacity channel, DAZ needs a shadermixer brick otherwise to see the transparency in png files

    Actully they have alpha masks...but they are inverted from what Studio needs...on these the opaque areas are black and the transparent areas are white. So while there is no need to create a new mask, you will need to manually invert them.

    Here's a quick render...the alpha maps were inverted to DS transmaps, and it was scaled up...no materials were tweaked.

    coffee.png
    819 x 1024 - 1M
  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243
    edited December 1969

    mcpugh said:
    Has anyone used XfrogPlants in DAZ before without any problems? This is and example of what I'm thinking about purchasing:
    https://www.daz3d.com/xfrogplants-billboards-usa-conifers.

    Thanks


    Note that the product above is a 2D billboard (a flat plane with a picture on it.). Xfrog plants come in both the 2D billboards but also 3D versions, if you want products that will correctly cast shadows and interact with your environment. I've only used the 3D versions myself, and they require a bit of manual tweaking to get them into DAZ studio which takes time (If interested I can post my notes on this), but I'm happy with them once that's done. Some are higher resolution, others are lower resolution, depends on the product.
  • jaebeajaebea Posts: 456
    edited December 1969

    I grabbed some freebees in obj format over a year ago. I also found that the alpha maps were reversed but it wasn't difficult to pull them into photoshop and invert them. I then imported them into DS and saved them in my plant library. Below is a sample.

    Flowering_Shrub.jpg
    1200 x 840 - 1M
  • atticanneatticanne Posts: 3,009
    edited December 1969

    Sean Riesch said:
    mcpugh said:
    Has anyone used XfrogPlants in DAZ before without any problems? This is and example of what I'm thinking about purchasing:
    https://www.daz3d.com/xfrogplants-billboards-usa-conifers.

    Thanks


    Note that the product above is a 2D billboard (a flat plane with a picture on it.). Xfrog plants come in both the 2D billboards but also 3D versions, if you want products that will correctly cast shadows and interact with your environment. I've only used the 3D versions myself, and they require a bit of manual tweaking to get them into DAZ studio which takes time (If interested I can post my notes on this), but I'm happy with them once that's done. Some are higher resolution, others are lower resolution, depends on the product.

    I have benefitted from your notes in other subjects. So, yes, Sean, I would love to see your notes on handling Xfrog plants. Please, pretty please. :-)

  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243
    edited December 1969

    Ok, here are the notes I have scribbled down for myself. You'll have to make some adjustments and/or ignore a few steps of course, since they were written for my own use, and some of the notes won't apply to you and the way you store things or the applications you use, and there are one or two guesses in there, but hopefully this is helpful if a bit cryptic. You should be able to streamline this for your own workflow and delete some notes that don't apply to you or that you don't care about. Any questions or if anything looks wrong, let me know.

    Xfrog plants import:

    xfrog plant heights are listed in Documentation\.pdf .
    bring the xfrog objects into the content manager this way: One of the two DVDs for each product has the .obj (except for tropical which is on the only DVD.) Create empty folder "C:\sean\3D graphics\objects\xfrog " with a subfolder " custom materials". Copy entire original model folder's contents into this new custom materials folder so image references don't point at backup folders, and DS doesn't switch them with different products with the same trailing file path/name.
    Make .jpg copies of the leaf and bark textures (just because it takes up less space than the tiffs).
    If needed, make an inverted (black to white) copy of the black and white leaf picture (Gimp: Colors > Invert) so the background is black and the leaf is white. If there is no black-and-white picture, create one starting from the leaf picture. Set the foreground color to white and the background color to black. Select by color tool, select the background, Edit > "Fill with BG color". Select > Invert, Edit > "Fill with FG color". Save in the custom materials folder with "opacity" in the filename. (originally I used "inverted", no longer doing that.)
    (There may be extra unused tiffs.)
    ---
    In DAZ Studio:
    In the Content Directory Manager, map the folder as "DAZ Studio Formats" (BEFORE any .duf scenes get saved, so all texture references are saved relative and not absolute.)
    File > Import and browse to the first of the multiple .obj files. Copy the filename (minus .obj extension) to the clipboard, then double-click on it to load it. In the OBJImportOptions window, change the From dropdown to custom. So far most require setting the scale to 1000%, and the the Depth(Z) dropdown to Y (however I had at least one where the dropdowns should be in order left-to-right XYZ, and a range of scales between 10% and 50000%).
    In DAZ Studio's Surfaces (color) tab, set the Diffuse Color texture dropdown of the leaf and the bark to their appropriate jpgs. To get transparency to appear correctly (if used), for the leaf surface, set Opacity Strength to the (possibly inverted) black-and-white leaf picture. (the default Opacity might not even be using the right image.) For the bark or anything with a *_b texture, set the Bump Strength image to this. TODO CURRENTLY THE VALUE IS LEFT AT ZERO SINCE I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S CORRECT. I'LL HAVE TO SET IT WHEN I NEED IT PER ITEM.
    Make sure the entire object (not just one surface) is selected then frame the object to get a good thumbnail when saving, then File > "save as" > "scene subset" so it defaults to merge instead of replacing what's in the scene. Paste the copied filename and save in the top level folder.
    If there are additional textures such as an autumn leaf color, repeat and save as some descriptive duf.
    Repeat for the remaining .obj files. After all three versions are created, delete everything in the custom materials folder but the jpgs.

  • atticanneatticanne Posts: 3,009
    edited December 1969

    Sean, as usual your notes are terrific. I jot down notes on scraps of paper and promptly lose them. Without your help, I would probably just leave my plants sitting around, waiting to be used. Thank you, thank you, my hero.

  • Shield WolfShield Wolf Posts: 53

    I just came across this  posting conerning Xfrog plants into DS. Thanks so much sriesch for your wonderful notes.

     

    Much appreciated.

    SW

  • srieschsriesch Posts: 4,243

    Thanks, glad they are helpful to somebody.

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