Digital Art Zone

Just started using DS4 Pro, got the freebies when they were available + bought the V5 bundle to have a start.  I have zero experience in this sort of thing, but i think it looks like a lot of fun.  Eventually my goal will be to use renders as a base to bring into photoshop, where i can work on it much like i would a photograph.  Based on a couple of nights tinkering around i have a few questions that hopefully someone can answer

1) Renderer.  I’ve been using the highest quality one packaged with DS4 (3Delight) but my understanding is that there are higher quality renderers available.  Can anyone point me in the right direction on information or good ones to look into getting?  I also can’t find any good documentation on the advanced settings of 3Delight.  I can guess at some of them, but are there any optimum settings that get the most out of it?

2) Content Management / MetaData.  I understand that i can add keywords as metadata to various objects, however the search only seems to be able to identify one tag at a time.  Is there any way to add boolean searches (ie. if i wanted to search for “hairstyles” and “long hair” and “curls”?  Also, i am kind of confused on what the workflow is intended to be.  On the right hand side i have a content library tab that seems to have everything in a somewhat, but not completely organized tree structure of folders.  On the left hand side i have SmartContent, Surfaces, etc which seems like it is supposed to organize me content better, but things don’t seem to be particularly better ordered, and a lot of stuff seems to be missing (V4, for example, is nowhere to be found).  Anyone have any tips on best workflow for managing content (and is content management what people refer to as their “runtime”?)

3) I downloaded some freebie hair objects and sometimes they just don’t seem to fit.  Same thing for clothes.  I have tried selecting them and pointing them to both the right character, or the part of the character that seems appropriate, and it has sometimes helped, sometimes not.  For example, i had some shoes where I could get the right shoe to fit perfectly, but the left one was clipping through the foot.  Furthermore, ive tried to use the Z Y and Z to move them to nudge them into position, and while what looks like a selection box moves, the content itself does not.

4) Compatability between V4, and Genesis (specifically with V5).  My understanding from a bit of research is that pretty much all V4 content can be fitted to Genesis (which may very well be wrong) .  this seems to work reasonable well (though not perfectly).  However, if i load V5 and then load V4 content, it seems to not work very well at all, or not at all in some cases.  However, if i did it with default female on genesis it works better (though not perfectly).  Is there any way to force V4 content to fit genesis?

5) Navigation.  As a long time photoshop user, i’m used to using a lot of keyboard tricks to help navigate the software quickly.  Panning, Zooming and rotating seems like it should be easier, but the only way I’ve figured out to do it is using the spinny cube in the top right, and the icons to the right of it.  Would love to be able to do stuff like spacebar-pan.  do shortcuts like these exist? is there a better way to navigate quickly?

6) Tutorials.  There are a lot of 3d posing and modeling tutorials online, but none of them seem to apply to DAZ.  Is there a good resource of tutorials available for a new user?  I’ve seen a few of the “official” DAZ tutuorials on youtube, but they’ve been not very useful :(

Phew that was a lot!  I appreciate it if you’ve made it this far, and hope to get at least some of the answer!

Cheers!

First things first, meet the DS4 manual. It’s not complete, but it’s sure as heck better than not having one.

1. Reality is, I’ve heard, the best thing going. I don’t use it, yet, but I keep telling myself to stop whinging about the cost and buy the plugin already. I believe there’s a thread about it in the Commons, although I may be thinking of the archive…

2. I don’t know about boolean content searches, but you can tweak the interface until it makes sense to the way you want to do things. Edit > Customize… , if I’m not mistaken. It’ll let you set which stuff you want to see where. I tend to load stuff, then texture it, then light it, then render it (then texture it again, then curse at it, then texture it again, then mess with the lights, then curse more, then go for coffee…). Also, the thing about ‘Smart Content’ is that it’s only going to find content that has metadata. I’d say consult the manual for your content management issues, because it’ll make much more sense than I will, at this hour.

3. Shoes are a real pisser. Bottom line. Some shoes come with fit poses. Other shoes can be fit with the ... I think it’s called ‘Fit to Shoe’ or ‘Shoe Fit’ parameter on the foot. Still others, it’s best to just turn off the feet. The other thing to keep in mind is that clothing not originally intended for the figure will be harder to fit, and sometimes no amount of screwing around will make it work. Also, once clothing or hair is conformed, it can’t be moved from the root node. You can sometimes move it from a child node, but be careful, because that may have some unexpected side effects, like rotations you didn’t ask for.

4. I don’t use DS4 very often, (read: every time I try to get it to do something useful, it crashes) so I can’t speak much to autofit problems, but there are a couple of threads that address V4 clothing autofit issues:
Help with Genesis Autofit correction for V4 clothing
Can Genesis Generation X converter transfer V4 clothing morphs?

6. Greywulf did some tutorials for DS3, back in the day, that really helped me get started. I see that there are now DS4 tutorials, over there, so there’s a pretty good chance you’ll find something useful.

Hi adb1982! Welcome to the mad house.  Lol.  I’ll do what I can to answer your questions, but bear in mind, I might not always have the absolutely “correct” answer, but I can get you pretty close, or point you in the direction of someone who can.

adb1982 - 11 June 2012 08:15 PM

1) Renderer.  I’ve been using the highest quality one packaged with DS4 (3Delight) but my understanding is that there are higher quality renderers available.  Can anyone point me in the right direction on information or good ones to look into getting?  I also can’t find any good documentation on the advanced settings of 3Delight.  I can guess at some of them, but are there any optimum settings that get the most out of it?

You can use other rendering engines, yes.  And it depends on what you’re looking for.  There’s a plug-in for DS4 called Reality that is a gateway, if you will, to the LuxRender engine. You used to be able to purchase the plug-in at DAZ, but recently the vendor decided to sell it on his site exclusively.  Preta3D.com

But that will cost you a small chunk of change (well worth it).  In the meantime, here’s some settings that are pretty good in the 3Delight render engine.  (I got these from Fisty. I give credit where credit is due.)

Raytrace Bounces: 3 or 4
Pixel Samples: 12
Shadow Samples: 24
Shadow Rate 0.1

2) Content Management / MetaData.  I understand that i can add keywords as metadata to various objects, however the search only seems to be able to identify one tag at a time.  Is there any way to add boolean searches (ie. if i wanted to search for “hairstyles” and “long hair” and “curls”?  Also, i am kind of confused on what the workflow is intended to be.  On the right hand side i have a content library tab that seems to have everything in a somewhat, but not completely organized tree structure of folders.  On the left hand side i have SmartContent, Surfaces, etc which seems like it is supposed to organize me content better, but things don’t seem to be particularly better ordered, and a lot of stuff seems to be missing (V4, for example, is nowhere to be found).  Anyone have any tips on best workflow for managing content (and is content management what people refer to as their “runtime”?)

You can rearrange the tabs in any configuration that works best for you.  Personally, I have the content, the smart content, the scene tab, the tools tab, and the render tab on the left side (as I’m looking at it) of the screen.  On the right side I have the parameters tab, the surface tab, the dynamic cloth tab, the shaping tab and the pose tab.  I also have customized some buttons on the top tool bar for scripts that I frequently use like PoseMaster and Poser Format Exporter.  It all boils down to what works best for you.

3) I downloaded some freebie hair objects and sometimes they just don’t seem to fit.  Same thing for clothes.  I have tried selecting them and pointing them to both the right character, or the part of the character that seems appropriate, and it has sometimes helped, sometimes not.  For example, i had some shoes where I could get the right shoe to fit perfectly, but the left one was clipping through the foot.  Furthermore, ive tried to use the Z Y and Z to move them to nudge them into position, and while what looks like a selection box moves, the content itself does not.

As for the X, Y, and Z nudging problem, it sounds to me like you don’t have the “hip” bone selected.  You won’t be able to move some models without having this bone highlighted/selected in your scene tab or from the drop down menu at the top of the parameters tab (the button with the arrow over the four horizontal lines). Some models will move if you just have the body selected, but more likely than not, it’s the “hip” you want to move.  In the case of the shoes, however, you may have to re-rig them as separate entities using the content creator tools.

4) Compatability between V4, and Genesis (specifically with V5).  My understanding from a bit of research is that pretty much all V4 content can be fitted to Genesis (which may very well be wrong) .  this seems to work reasonable well (though not perfectly).  However, if i load V5 and then load V4 content, it seems to not work very well at all, or not at all in some cases.  However, if i did it with default female on genesis it works better (though not perfectly).  Is there any way to force V4 content to fit genesis?

While theoretically things that are made for V4 and M4 should autofit to Genesis, it’s not yet a perfect system.  For one thing, the morphs and pose controls don’t transfer over. Yet.  So, there’s going to be some poke-through, particularly if the model in question is an older model with a lower poly count. It is possible to get the outfit/hair/article of clothing looking better if you learn how to use the content creator tools and have a modeling program (like Hexagon) on hand. You’ll need Hexagon and an exported obj of the V4 shape in order to create a V4 injected morph for the clothing item.

5) Navigation.  As a long time photoshop user, i’m used to using a lot of keyboard tricks to help navigate the software quickly.  Panning, Zooming and rotating seems like it should be easier, but the only way I’ve figured out to do it is using the spinny cube in the top right, and the icons to the right of it.  Would love to be able to do stuff like spacebar-pan.  do shortcuts like these exist? is there a better way to navigate quickly?

Shortcuts and keyboard tricks are available, but unfortunately until the documentation center gets all of the information together (and it’s possible that they already have this covered - it’s been a while since I’ve been to the documentation center) you have to keep your eyes and ears open for tips and tricks that others have found out.  I know that I find tricks nearly every time that aren’t documented.  Sometimes I find them by accident and I have no idea what I just did to get the pop up screen. 

I do know that you can move, pan, and bank the camera using the camera control button (the one with the curved arrow pointing right going around a circle). That button has a mouse over function that gives you quick hints on how to quickly move the camera. 

6) Tutorials.  There are a lot of 3d posing and modeling tutorials online, but none of them seem to apply to DAZ.  Is there a good resource of tutorials available for a new user?  I’ve seen a few of the “official” DAZ tutuorials on youtube, but they’ve been not very useful :(

I know on the site before the upgrade there were a ton of tutorials.  They may have already been moved to the document center.  If I find where they’ve put them, I’ll post a link to them.  I do know, however, that you can find some, if not all the new ones re: DS4 and Genesis, on YouTube.

Hope this helps.