Does the latest version of Daz Studio have layers

lululee1

Does the latest version of Daz Studio have layers and if it does is there any info on how to use them available?

Cheerio

lululee

RKane_1

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

Now, if you are wondering.if there is a way to emulate layers like 2D layers, you may want to experiment with this technique and putting transparent panes parented to the camera in front of it. This is the way many successfull atmospheric renders are made.

Finally, don't forget the option DAZ offers to export to Photoshop. You can tweak render settings, colors, etc into multiple layers using PNG files to preservce transparency and then change layer opacity to bring certain elements you want into the final picture.

Richard Haseltine

Or do you mean render layers? In which case I think the Canvasses feature available with iray is what you want - Render Settings>Advanced tab>Canvasses sub-tab.

Peter Wade

It depends what you mean by layers. The idea of layers as used in 2D programs like Painshop Pro, Photoshop or the Gimp doesn't really apply. All objects are in a virtual 3D space so they appear in front or behind each other depending on their position and the camera position and angle. If you render to a .png image then any part of the scene which doesn't have any object along the line of sight will be transparent and you can load it into a 2D image editor that has layers.

RKane_1's method of parenting objects is similar to layers but each object in a parented group has it's own position so parts of one group may be in front of and other parts behind another group.

Render Layers as described by Richard are what I think of an advanced feature (translation, I don't know what they are). I think the idea is to somehow seperate stages of the rendering process into seperate images.

There is also the layered image editor, I think this is used to edit the textures wrapped around objects.

Richard Haseltine

RKane_1 said:

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

Now, if you are wondering.if there is a way to emulate layers like 2D layers, you may want to experiment with this technique and putting transparent panes parented to the camera in front of it. This is the way many successfull atmospheric renders are made.

Finally, don't forget the option DAZ offers to export to Photoshop. You can tweak render settings, colors, etc into multiple layers using PNG files to preservce transparency and then change layer opacity to bring certain elements you want into the final picture.

You don't need to use a primitive - DS has groups which will allow you to manage the items in the group from the group itself (e.g. turn off visibility and all members of the group are hidden) without having actual mesh adding to the scene.

DaWaterRat

RKane_1 said:

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

I've always used "create null" for this, rather than an invisible primative.

lululee1

Hi,

   I am creating bodygloves on the geometry shell. I'd like to be able to have a "layer" obove the geometry layer to add something like a metal for buttons or belt budkles etc.

  I know I can create another geometry shell but I thought I read somewhere there was going to be a layer feature.

I can't use the layered image editor besause I don't think I can use metals on the L.I.E.

Cheerio

lululee

Richard Haseltine

LIE is for images, what you need is layered materials. You could use a map in the Iray Uber shader to cotrnol metallicity (if using that model) or the glossy strength and other properties, and applying the map over the base map and the necessary colour overlays to other maps would be a job for LIE. You could also use Shader Mixer to create a shader that was a mix of two sahders, with a mask blending them at the final step.

lululee1

Hi Richard,

Thanks so much for the valuable info.

    I think I will look into the shader mixer and see if I can do it that way.

Cheerio

lululee

RKane_1

Richard Haseltine said:

RKane_1 said:

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

Now, if you are wondering.if there is a way to emulate layers like 2D layers, you may want to experiment with this technique and putting transparent panes parented to the camera in front of it. This is the way many successfull atmospheric renders are made.

Finally, don't forget the option DAZ offers to export to Photoshop. You can tweak render settings, colors, etc into multiple layers using PNG files to preservce transparency and then change layer opacity to bring certain elements you want into the final picture.

You don't need to use a primitive - DS has groups which will allow you to manage the items in the group from the group itself (e.g. turn off visibility and all members of the group are hidden) without having actual mesh adding to the scene.

I did not know that! :) Where can I access them? And do they allow you to move and rotate whole groups too?

RKane_1

DaWaterRat said:

RKane_1 said:

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

I've always used "create null" for this, rather than an invisible primative.

This just shows sharing info gets better info from smarter people back. :)

Richard Haseltine

RKane_1 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

RKane_1 said:

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

Now, if you are wondering.if there is a way to emulate layers like 2D layers, you may want to experiment with this technique and putting transparent panes parented to the camera in front of it. This is the way many successfull atmospheric renders are made.

Finally, don't forget the option DAZ offers to export to Photoshop. You can tweak render settings, colors, etc into multiple layers using PNG files to preservce transparency and then change layer opacity to bring certain elements you want into the final picture.

You don't need to use a primitive - DS has groups which will allow you to manage the items in the group from the group itself (e.g. turn off visibility and all members of the group are hidden) without having actual mesh adding to the scene.

I did not know that! :) Where can I access them? And do they allow you to move and rotate whole groups too?

Create>Create New Group (which will add any seelcted items to the group as well as creating it). It's also on the toolbars in at least soem of the supplied layouts, and in the Scene pane's option menu under the Create sub-menu (that's newish, so if you are using an old layout and haven't updated your menus you may not see it).

Yes, you can apply transforms to the group and move all its members.

RKane_1

Richard Haseltine said:

RKane_1 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

RKane_1 said:

No, but you can fake the layer folder aspect a bitnd move multiple items..

Create any priimitive, I usually use a sphere.

In the scene tab, make the primitive invisible and rename to suit your desires like "Layer 1" or whatever.

Drag and drop items into the primitve to parent them there. Then, you can move the primitive about and all the items parented to it will move with it.

I use this technique to move lighting assemblies and then tie the camera to them or to poarent the camera and subject together to move through the environment until I find the right light.

Now, if you are wondering.if there is a way to emulate layers like 2D layers, you may want to experiment with this technique and putting transparent panes parented to the camera in front of it. This is the way many successfull atmospheric renders are made.

Finally, don't forget the option DAZ offers to export to Photoshop. You can tweak render settings, colors, etc into multiple layers using PNG files to preservce transparency and then change layer opacity to bring certain elements you want into the final picture.

You don't need to use a primitive - DS has groups which will allow you to manage the items in the group from the group itself (e.g. turn off visibility and all members of the group are hidden) without having actual mesh adding to the scene.

I did not know that! :) Where can I access them? And do they allow you to move and rotate whole groups too?

Create>Create New Group (which will add any seelcted items to the group as well as creating it). It's also on the toolbars in at least soem of the supplied layouts, and in the Scene pane's option menu under the Create sub-menu (that's newish, so if you are using an old layout and haven't updated your menus you may not see it).

Yes, you can apply transforms to the group and move all its members.

Thank you, Richard! I can't wait to try this out!

As always you are an inexhaustible supply of great info on DAZ! You should right a book for them. :)

Jimbow

Groups are great. Not only are they handy for moving stuff around like a null, but you can hide everything in them with one click.