Digital Art Zone

Thanks Dave!!  Even I can get good renders with mcjTeleBlender and Blender Cycles!!!!!  Now if we only had better Cycles Node Management in Blender…

~ Update ~ ~ Update ~ ~ Update ~ ~ Update ~ ~ Update ~ ~ Update ~ ~ Update ~

Starting with version 2.64 it seems, Blender’s .obj importer no longer supports the “map_refl” keyword ( only the “refl” keyword” ) in the .mtl files.

This was effectively breaking the way mcjTeleblender marks surfaces as “mirrors” ( Sharp BSDF Glossy once in Blender )

This new update corrects this, if you check-mark mcjTeleblender’s “Fix .mtl file for Blender”;” check-box

- important update - important update - important update - important update -

mcjTeleblender’s February 8th update contained a severe error

—-

the February 10th version fixes this and gives you (back) mirror surface materials

—-

and to make you forgive me i’ll soon post a bunch of shader presets !

—-

( i discovered the error while working on that dress for Aiko3 i started working on in 2012 )

https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10151712112794746

Thanks Casual!!  Got your latest version.  What is “mcjTeleBlenderDS2.ds” for?

I also tweaked your “mcjMakeCyclesNodes_MIX_instead_of_ADD”.  I added the following line of code to connect the mixNode (multiply) output to the glossNode Input.

  links.new( mixNode.outputs[0], bsdfNode.inputs[0] )
  links.new( mixNode.outputs[0], glossNode.inputs[0] ) <—added this line
  links.new( bsdfNode.outputs[0], addNode.inputs[1] )
  links.new( glossNode.outputs[0], addNode.inputs[2] )
  links.new( addNode.outputs[0], outNode.inputs[0] )

It seems to me that Glossy shader is really a reflection shader.  There really is no Specular like there is in Poser and DAZ Studio—that is just a simple form of reflection.  Now I need to figure out how to best adjust my Diffuse/Glossy mix and roughness, based on a material’s DS4/Poser reflection and glossy settings.

nakamuram002 - 10 February 2013 09:20 PM

Thanks Casual!!  Got your latest version.  What is “mcjTeleBlenderDS2.ds” for?

I also tweaked your “mcjMakeCyclesNodes_MIX_instead_of_ADD”.  I added the following line of code to connect the mixNode (multiply) output to the glossNode Input.

  links.new( mixNode.outputs[0], bsdfNode.inputs[0] )
  links.new( mixNode.outputs[0], glossNode.inputs[0] ) <—added this line
  links.new( bsdfNode.outputs[0], addNode.inputs[1] )
  links.new( glossNode.outputs[0], addNode.inputs[2] )
  links.new( addNode.outputs[0], outNode.inputs[0] )

It seems to me that Glossy shader is really a reflection shader.  There really is no Specular like there is in Poser and DAZ Studio—that is just a simple form of reflection.  Now I need to figure out how to best adjust my Diffuse/Glossy mix and roughness, based on a material’s DS4/Poser reflection and glossy settings.

hi there

by default the BSDF Glossy node uses the ‘Beckman’ type,
which gives a sort of specular effect since it disperses the rays.
In Daz Studio if you apply a random image to the reflection channel,
mcjTeleblender changes the BSDF Glossy type to “Sharp” which is closer to a mirror.

in the examples shown below, i apply a given hue to the diffuse color, and vary the intensity.

For the specular color. sometimes i apply different intensities of white, sometimes i apply different intensities of that same hue.

in all those examples, the mcjTeleblender was set to gloss factor=0.1 roughness=0.1

if the Daz Studio’s obj exporter and Blender’s obj importer allowed it, each surface would have its own gloss factor and roughness
unfortunately the obj/mll pipeline is limited

—-
mcjTeleBlenderDS2.ds is the version for Daz Studio version 1.8 and version 2.3 which are still in use in far corners of the galaxy.

—later tonight i’ll publish the materials shown below, as poser poses or daz scripts

~ 160 Material presets ~ 160 Material presets ~ 160 Material presets ~ 160 Material presets ~ 160 Material presets ~

in this thread—-> http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/16798/

i posted 160 material presets ( for DS 1, 2, 3, 4 ) intended to be used with mcjTeleblender

Thank you very much for making this free. Works great and renders in almost no time .

CauriB - 12 February 2013 12:16 PM

Thank you very much for making this free. Works great and renders in almost no time .

Welcome !

i use it quite a bit too,

i often use images from the sIBL archive http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/index.html  as mcjTeleblender’s “environment maps”. or “world environments”

those are “equirectangular” environment maps

you can find others by googling “equirectangular

there’s also some free packs of “photography studio” types of environment maps here:

http://zbyg.deviantart.com/art/HDRi-Pack-1-97402522

( there’s more than 1 pack from that same artist )

( little known fact - Daz Studio and Blender accept .hdr images )

Casual - 12 February 2013 03:53 PM

( little known fact - Daz Studio and Blender accept .hdr images )

What do you mean by DS accepting .hdr images?

I’ve been wondering, is that last image purely lit by IBL or is there a sun lamp (or something similar) to get the sharp cast shadows?

Thanks for the links too. I’ve had sIBL bookmarked but somehow have missed the actual maps altogether until now.
So, if you just heard a slapping sound from a distance that was me facepalming due to being an idiot.

Tempest! - 13 February 2013 10:23 AM

Casual - 12 February 2013 03:53 PM

( little known fact - Daz Studio and Blender accept .hdr images )

What do you mean by DS accepting .hdr images?

I’ve been wondering, is that last image purely lit by IBL or is there a sun lamp (or something similar) to get the sharp cast shadows?

Thanks for the links too. I’ve had sIBL bookmarked but somehow have missed the actual maps altogether until now.
So, if you just heard a slapping sound from a distance that was me facepalming due to being an idiot.

some images, like environment maps, are supplied in .hdr format which i think, has 16-bit or more intensity levels per pixel color channel

in mcjTeleblender you can specify those images as the “World Environment” image

i was under the false impression that you can also apply those .hdr images to surfaces in daz studio and that they would be rendered correctly in software (3delight) render mode. apparently they are not.

but but i do remember that Daz Studio does accept 16-bit .tiff files ( which is quite usefull for smooth displacement maps )
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/3269/

—————

in this render, the IBL map did not produce sharp shadows, so indeed i added a cube with an emissive surface outside the field of view.

i think we can get the equivalent of Daz’s shadow-catchers using Blender’s post-processing compositing and the layers

but i was in a hurry so i placed a beige plane under her feet

new camera tracking experiment video !——>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9dGsAA1-Ww

Well, that falls in line with my (very limited) experiences too. While DS doesn’t seem to support .HDR, it does support HDR images in if they’re TIFF format. 32 bit TIFFs seem to work fine with UE2 for lighting. So basically you just have to convert the .HDR into TIFF using the utility provided with UE2 or Photoshop or something else that does the job.

I’m under the impression that “catching shadows” is fairly simple with the latest builds of Blender, particularly since the heavy focus on compositing with 2.64. Haven’t had a need for it myself (nor much time either), so no first-hand experiences here.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
* Update ** Update ** Update ** Update ** Update ** Update ** Update ** Update ** Update *
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

i fixed a longstanding issue, Blender uses 1 unit = 100cm, not 1 unit = 50 cm

in mcjTeleblender’s settings the “blender scaling factor” should be 1%

this new version now applies the same scaling factor to the positions of the cameras and lights

in the image below you can see Blender’s default cube which is 2 m x 2m x 2m

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
- UPDATE - V13 - UPDATE - V13 - UPDATE - V13 - UPDATE - V13 - UPDATE - V13 -
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
if you’re in a hurry, here’s a direct link to the zip
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjteleblender-for-ds1-2-3-4/mcjTeleBlender.zip
else it’s at the bottom of this page, as usual
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjteleblender-for-ds1-2-3-4

there was a confusion between mcjTeleBlender.zip and mcjTeleblender.zip
so you possibly didnt get the correct version if you updated recently

V13 fixes the issue wherein the materials were not smoothed when rendering animations

V13 has better scaling support, if you export to Blender, set mcjTeleBlender’s “Scale(%)” setting to 1

Blender’s default cube is 2 m x 2 m. x 2m

in the image below you can see Aiko was exported from Daz Studio using mcjTeleBlender with a Scale of 1%

Thanks a million for this update, Casual. The smoothing fix has definitely improved the quality of rendering Daz animations in Cycles. You are like a one-man software company!

Yogino - 18 February 2013 01:02 PM

Thanks a million for this update, Casual. The smoothing fix has definitely improved the quality of rendering Daz animations in Cycles. You are like a one-man software company!

welcome !
i guess at some point the smoothing code got lost during a version update
because i’m almost sure it was part of mcjTeleblender when i launched it last year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTIIwjTV7s4