Digital Art Zone

Just wanted to say hey, and give a quick shout out to all the talented artists on here.    Some really amazing stuff Im seeing.

I have no training whatseover in graphic design. but Ive recently become interested in creating still images with 3D software.  Nothing too elaborate, but just 3D images inside of a home or office with a few people. 

So, Ill put my questions out there, plain and simple.

1) For a beginner with no training or experience, should I even bother, or do you need professional training to be any good at this?

2) Ive tinkered around with the software a bit, but I am confused.  Ive downloaded the software, Genesis and a few other things (dont want to buy anything until I can get some type of grasp on this stuff), but I am wondering….how do the enviornments work?  For instance, I saw stuff like “Dream Home Living Room”.  Now, do you need to buy the entire house for this too work or can you just load an individual room itself.    And in that regard, HOW do you load those enviornents you purchase/have?

3) In terms of character models, I am still messing around with it, but how do you load characters into an environment?  Plays off of my last question.  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but it would be nice to know for future reference.

4)  This is kind of an all encompassing question….can you just load character models youve downloaded (for instance Victoria) into an environment youve downloaded and then just situate them from there, or is it more complicated than that.

Im sure Ill have more questions in the future, but I would be very greatful if someone could point me in the right direction.  Pretty lost here! haha

Thanks alot, and hope to be able to discuss this more in the future.

I am going to move your post into the New Users Help Forum, you will get answers quicker there than here in the Welcome area.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

Just wanted to say hey, and give a quick shout out to all the talented artists on here.    Some really amazing stuff Im seeing.

I have no training whatseover in graphic design. but Ive recently become interested in creating still images with 3D software.  Nothing too elaborate, but just 3D images inside of a home or office with a few people. 

So, Ill put my questions out there, plain and simple.

1) For a beginner with no training or experience, should I even bother, or do you need professional training to be any good at this?

2) Ive tinkered around with the software a bit, but I am confused.  Ive downloaded the software, Genesis and a few other things (dont want to buy anything until I can get some type of grasp on this stuff), but I am wondering….how do the enviornments work?  For instance, I saw stuff like “Dream Home Living Room”.  Now, do you need to buy the entire house for this too work or can you just load an individual room itself.    And in that regard, HOW do you load those enviornents you purchase/have?

3) In terms of character models, I am still messing around with it, but how do you load characters into an environment?  Plays off of my last question.  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but it would be nice to know for future reference.

4)  This is kind of an all encompassing question….can you just load character models youve downloaded (for instance Victoria) into an environment youve downloaded and then just situate them from there, or is it more complicated than that.

Im sure Ill have more questions in the future, but I would be very greatful if someone could point me in the right direction.  Pretty lost here! haha

Thanks alot, and hope to be able to discuss this more in the future.

Hello and welcome to the forums.

Any questions that you have, you can use the New users Forum, there are a lot of very helpful people pop in there, but I’ll see what I can do with the few you have asked for now.

1.  You definitely don’t need professional training.  Some of the features can take a while to learn, like lighting and animation, but it should be within your grasp.

2.  Items like the Dream Home and other Environment load by clicking on the appropriate icon in the Content Library pane, it is that simple.

3.  Loading characters is done the same way.  You may need to add Hair and Clothing, but you can save taht as a Scene or Scene Subset, and load it with a double click to merge into other scenes.

4.  You can load characters into a new scene, or any saved scene you want.  Try loading V4 yourself into a new scene, just double click on the icon in the Content Library, or drag and drop into the scene.

The default model in the latest versions of DS is Genesis, a very versatile figure, which can be a man, woman, child, ogre, hulk or even a Gorilla.  Clothing that fits one Genesis character should fit any other without a problem (in most cases).

I look forward to seeing you on the forums,.

Welcome!

I definitely recommend working with Genesis instead of Victoria if you’re new.

Take a look at these youtube tutorials that will show you how to do a lot of stuff and are easy to follow. That should get you started.

Wow…thanks for the quick replies!

JimmyC…thanks alot!  Good to know it isnt completely over my head.

Only question I have now is….what makes Genesis easier to work with?  Only reason I asked is because Genesis seems like its just a grey crash test dummy with no features.  Now, I do assume you have to buy skins and textures and stuff, but alot of them say you need Victoria 3.0 body morphs.  Im not sure if that means you need the model or what, but I am just curious as to some of the basic (cheaper the better until I get the hang of it) textures and stuff that would help me create diverse characters. 

Thanks alot for the help.

I’d recommend watching the Fiery Genesis tutorial and the Dragonslayer tutorial, which will show you where to find the content (skin textures, clothing, lights, etc.) that come with the program.

Here’s a thread that may help as well, since they answer some commonly asked questions for when you’re first starting out.

Genesis doesn’t look like much in its gray form, but it can do so much more than Victoria 4 or Michael 4. (Keep in mind that all of the fifth generation figures, such as Hiro 5, Michael 5, Victoria 5, and Stephanie 5, are shapes for Genesis)

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

1) For a beginner with no training or experience, should I even bother, or do you need professional training to be any good at this?

You don’t need professional training, but DAZ Studio is a complicated software tool, and It will take you some time to learn how to get good results.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

2) Ive tinkered around with the software a bit, but I am confused.  Ive downloaded the software, Genesis and a few other things (dont want to buy anything until I can get some type of grasp on this stuff), but I am wondering….how do the enviornments work?  For instance, I saw stuff like “Dream Home Living Room”.  Now, do you need to buy the entire house for this too work or can you just load an individual room itself.    And in that regard, HOW do you load those enviornents you purchase/have?

Environments load from your content library. Most packaged content you buy has one icon to load the whole environment. Many will also have icons to load parts of the environment also. I only have one room of the “Dream Home”. You can load just one room and create a scene in that room. I believe the Dream Home rooms load by default at the location in the house, so if you load two connected rooms they will load so they are connected.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

3) In terms of character models, I am still messing around with it, but how do you load characters into an environment?  Plays off of my last question.  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but it would be nice to know for future reference.

There are icons to load most of the characters.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

4)  This is kind of an all encompassing question….can you just load character models youve downloaded (for instance Victoria) into an environment youve downloaded and then just situate them from there, or is it more complicated than that.

You can just put characters into an environment, but there are many other things you usually need to do.

Some characters have several skins available and you need to pick which skin.

Many characters have makeup, eye color or facial hair options you need to select.

You need hair for you characters.

Some environments are pretty complete. Environments like the Dream House need furniture and decorations to look realistic. You need to find all of those and add them to the environment.

You need to pose your characters. You can buy or find free poses. Usually you will just use those as starting points for the pose your really want.

Then there is lighting, cameras and rendering. Lighting makes a huge difference in the quality of results you get and how long it takes to render the scene. Learning how to light a scene involves a lot of trial and error. Don’t be surprised if the first time you try to render a scene things don’t look anything like the preview you see in DAZ while setting the scene up.

Some environments come with lighting setups that should work reasonably well to get you started, but I don’t think the Dream Home comes with any lighting sets.

mark - 14 December 2012 04:06 PM

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

1) For a beginner with no training or experience, should I even bother, or do you need professional training to be any good at this?

You don’t need professional training, but DAZ Studio is a complicated software tool, and It will take you some time to learn how to get good results.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

2) Ive tinkered around with the software a bit, but I am confused.  Ive downloaded the software, Genesis and a few other things (dont want to buy anything until I can get some type of grasp on this stuff), but I am wondering….how do the enviornments work?  For instance, I saw stuff like “Dream Home Living Room”.  Now, do you need to buy the entire house for this too work or can you just load an individual room itself.    And in that regard, HOW do you load those enviornents you purchase/have?

Environments load from your content library. Most packaged content you buy has one icon to load the whole environment. Many will also have icons to load parts of the environment also. I only have one room of the “Dream Home”. You can load just one room and create a scene in that room. I believe the Dream Home rooms load by default at the location in the house, so if you load two connected rooms they will load so they are connected.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

3) In terms of character models, I am still messing around with it, but how do you load characters into an environment?  Plays off of my last question.  I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but it would be nice to know for future reference.

There are icons to load most of the characters.

slimgrey814 - 14 December 2012 10:40 AM

4)  This is kind of an all encompassing question….can you just load character models youve downloaded (for instance Victoria) into an environment youve downloaded and then just situate them from there, or is it more complicated than that.

You can just put characters into an environment, but there are many other things you usually need to do.

Some characters have several skins available and you need to pick which skin.

Many characters have makeup, eye color or facial hair options you need to select.

You need hair for you characters.

Some environments are pretty complete. Environments like the Dream House need furniture and decorations to look realistic. You need to find all of those and add them to the environment.

You need to pose your characters. You can buy or find free poses. Usually you will just use those as starting points for the pose your really want.

Then there is lighting, cameras and rendering. Lighting makes a huge difference in the quality of results you get and how long it takes to render the scene. Learning how to light a scene involves a lot of trial and error. Don’t be surprised if the first time you try to render a scene things don’t look anything like the preview you see in DAZ while setting the scene up.

Some environments come with lighting setups that should work reasonably well to get you started, but I don’t think the Dream Home comes with any lighting sets.

 

Thanks alot sikeus and mark….great info!

Ill have to play around with it some now that I have this new knowledge.  Hopefully some good can come out of it.