For newbies, that stands for Joint Controlled Morph and Full Body Morph, read more on this thread. Sickle Yield and jestmart were kind enough to explain the use.
I found a link to this in another thread (thanks to Mustakettu85 for posting it) and wanted to share it here, as it seems relevant to some of the things you've discussed recently: http://www.manufato.com/?p=902
For anyone who wants to learn about materials (particularly diffuse and specular settings), it's very illuminating. Not specific to DAZ Studio, though, and a few of the terms used are different...for instance, "Alpha maps" are what we would call transmaps or opacity maps, and "self-illumination" seems to refer to Ambient. Based on the other discussion, instead of "conductor" and "dielectric" it's probably simpler to just think "metallic" and "non-metallic."
Take a peek at this thread- galactica1981 asked a great question about area lighting, and zigraphix is very helpful. Nice links to products. (Thanks zigraphix!) Look at the Ring of Lights, has great samples of what it can do.
Wow. I usually hate all the ads on websites, but when this popped up I thought, "We need one of these for a DAZ product!"
It looks so futuristic! (And can be had for $25,000 up.) I know if someone modeled this I'd really take a look at adding it to my collection!
Check your emails NOW. If you got a survey and do it, you'll probably still be in the first 1000 people to do it (only takes three minutes) and you'll get a $5.00 off code later. I just did it at 8:15 central time (Fri Night, USA) and I was still one of the first ones. It will tell you that you will receive a code later.
Hmm, either there's glitches going on right now or either an email hasn't been sent out telling members they get additional discounts (which normally is stated the PC members will get 40% instead of 30%, yada yada.)
72% discount on banner promo items that say 60%. DM's store. Go shop! NEVER trust what a banner says, be sure you are logged in and click on all promos. On top of the 72%, I got the additional $5 off for Cinco De Mayo (over $25.) Time: 1:50am Central time, Saturday
morning.
I'm loading a lot of figures into my Studio, and decided to let you have some fun. How well do you know the hair? The figures? Perhaps you'll see something you like, so this is a product review :)
I am not doing any morphs, or adjusting the figures in any way- this is "straight out of the box." I am only slightly adjusting the hair with smoothing/collision and the volume if it needs it. So here's the first woman.
My observations: love this hair. SO many morphs and it fit VERY easily- and I do mean SO many morphs! And with this color, you can easily change it. The mahogany/brown was 112 / 48 / 48 for the diffuse, the other surfaces were left alone.
So do you know this gal? The hair? (Well known) The answer will be in the next post- don't cheat!
Move over Victoria, Stephanie has breezed in! Meet Riley for Stephanie 5!
And if you're just starting out, try the Silvermoon Hair. Wow, was it easy to work with! They must have poofed it up for the promo, I barely adjusted the volume. So what a wide range of styles you can get!
Wow. I usually hate all the ads on websites, but when this popped up I thought, "We need one of these for a DAZ product!"
It looks so futuristic! (And can be had for $25,000 up.) I know if someone modeled this I'd really take a look at adding it to my collection!
An interesting model. I can make a model for DAZ. Certainly not an exact copy, but very close to the original.
I think you'd have a lot of fans for it. On the website, it also has the tow-behind thingie, which would be a real selling point too. I'm so jealous that you know how to model this stuff! I like that it comes in so many colors- white, green, yellow, black. If you do it, try to throw a purple in there and a red :) And definitely let us know so we can pounce on it.
The website has a 360 degree rotating option, that's how I got my screenshots. You have to hold it down though, it bounces back to a different position (at least it did with me.)
Paoki- that's what you get when you mix Paloma and Naoki in the negatives in the morphs, with Keira in the positives.
And someone else that I want to mention....
TIP: Benjamin May Help You With Upper Lip Pucker For Ladies
If there are features of the face you don't like, check out the opposite gender! By adding a touch here and there, you can fix areas that are non-gender specific in the face. Benjamin came to the rescue for my female Paoki- there was too much tension between the nose and upper lip, and none of the sliders helped..but Benjamin's addressed that very spot. I tried everything (philtrum, face depth, lip height and depth and different shapes, mouth height, nose height, fleshiness of face and nostrils, you name it.) Benjamin fixed it instantly!
She's still in progress, but thought I'd just pass that tip along. I'm still in the figure creation phase, haven't done anything with her yet.
I love mixing morphs. And tactics like dialing in a negative direction, or mixing morphs from different genders, do open up even more possibilities. If you enjoy this sort of thing, stay tuned for something fun I'll be starting in a few weeks. ;-)
And I agree, a petipet version of that motorcycle would be pretty cool.
Sounds good!
Now I need help finding hair for African Americans. Amazing- all I can find is the Paul hair and of course, the forum search provided zilch. There was only Evan, which I don't want. Any suggestions so she doesn't stay bald? And thanks for the link :) and looking forward to what you're working on.
Petipet, if you're still following the thread- note the cool seat on that thing- the rider's section is slightly elevated, a really nice touch. So it's multi-sectional. You can see it on that picture where I posted the URL.
Here's the Paul hair. I got the Beautiful Black hairstyles but noticed it's for V4. Does autofit work on hair? This is a Genesis figure. The Paul hair is interesting BTW, it has fits for the teens Julie and Justin. You can use those and it makes even more adjustments. The Paul hair was easy to use, recommend it.
Well, I know if I ever get good enough to make products, I've determined where there is a vast shortage.
Here's what I found, in addition to that store you mentioned. (That seemed a bit too much like felt material to me. But thanks for letting me know about it)
Well, a big thumbs up on the Summer Casuals Fitted Sun Dress. I changed the body quite a few ways and this outfit went on perfectly, no poke through, no issues, with quite a variation with the chest and hip size. (Within reason, folks. Dolly Parton she isn't.) So give it a try! :)
It has gone on sale several times, and there's different products to go with it so you have quite the variety.
Amy, Maya, Lana Elite Textures V4: A "Powder" Complexion
These are spot rendered. I have no idea what "add ons" mean, I chose the ones with them.
In one of the threads last winter, someone was asking about a pale complexion, such as when individuals wore white powder on their face, or for a vampire, or anything with a whitish/pale complexion- so look at Lana 2 and keep her in mind. Just thought I'd share what I'm comparing as I hadn't loaded them before. There's no changes, this is "out of the box." Keep checking back as when I experiment with outfits, figures, or morphs, I'll let you see them too. Nothing fancy, not going to pose them, just want to see what some of these look like!
EDIT: it's interesting to note the ones that give you more than one option, aka 3 vs 1.
This is cool- try the Pharoah's necklace with the Earlane outfit! Test some other necklaces and see what you can come up with. It fit nicely
both over and under the collar section.
Maya Elite Texture
Scotlyn Eye Color
Morgan Mouth makeup
Hampton Hair (for now)
Here's the Paul hair. I got the Beautiful Black hairstyles but noticed it's for V4. Does autofit work on hair? This is a Genesis figure. The Paul hair is interesting BTW, it has fits for the teens Julie and Justin. You can use those and it makes even more adjustments. The Paul hair was easy to use, recommend it.
Autofit works on hair, though not always very well. Actually Beautiful Black Hairstyles looks like it's a hair prop for V4 with a Genesis refit (despite having recommended it to you, I don't own it yet). If that's true, it should be very easy to use with Genesis (no AutoFit required). Load it, dial the Genesis fit morph to 100%, and parent it (in place) to basic Genesis's head. Only thing is, after you morph Genesis, you may need to adjust the shape or scale of the hair, especially if you're using an extreme morph like F5 or Basic Child.
Paul Hair comes with a scalp prop that has to be loaded separately. If you use Smart Content you can find it under Anatomy. I didn't notice that at first, so I thought I'd mention it.
Where To Find The ReadMes. Water With Shaders- Spot Render!!!!.
Now, I KNOW you know where they are, but finally I asked Szark where the heck they are on the site. They are: help section at the top of the page, then Documentation Center, then left menu ReadMes. Thank you Szark!
And in the wee hours of the morning (from 2am till 6am) Szark coached me on dome lighting and I learned about rendering water that has shaders. They don't show up until spot rendered- have fun with THAT. Here's the thread- don't laugh (well, go ahead) as I spot rendered the BEACH and was like, "Where's the water?" Then when I spot rendered it, a critter showed up in the water (think those blot tests where you see things.) I'll share the image below. See the fish? Or as Szark says, "A Wonking Wine Glass."
That GRAY is the water. Gonna be fun working with lighting with THAT.
This set was my first with a dome light. (Think, "EEEEEK! What do I do????" If you don't know anything about dome lighting, (and I do mean ANYTHING) you'll see the questions I was asking. And Skull Cove water without and with spot rendering.
Comments
JCMs and FBMs
For newbies, that stands for Joint Controlled Morph and Full Body Morph, read more on this thread. Sickle Yield and jestmart were kind enough to explain the use.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19278/P15/#284722
I found a link to this in another thread (thanks to Mustakettu85 for posting it) and wanted to share it here, as it seems relevant to some of the things you've discussed recently: http://www.manufato.com/?p=902
For anyone who wants to learn about materials (particularly diffuse and specular settings), it's very illuminating. Not specific to DAZ Studio, though, and a few of the terms used are different...for instance, "Alpha maps" are what we would call transmaps or opacity maps, and "self-illumination" seems to refer to Ambient. Based on the other discussion, instead of "conductor" and "dielectric" it's probably simpler to just think "metallic" and "non-metallic."
Thanks Scott-L :) Post links anytime!
Area Lights
Take a peek at this thread- galactica1981 asked a great question about area lighting, and zigraphix is very helpful. Nice links to products. (Thanks zigraphix!) Look at the Ring of Lights, has great samples of what it can do.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21784/
Ring of Light:
http://www.daz3d.com/environments-props/lighting/ring-of-light-environment-lighting
This is the link to Omnifreakers Area Light from that thread.
http://www.omnifreaker.com/index.php?title=OmAreaLight
Futuristic Motorcycle
Wow. I usually hate all the ads on websites, but when this popped up I thought, "We need one of these for a DAZ product!"
It looks so futuristic! (And can be had for $25,000 up.) I know if someone modeled this I'd really take a look at adding it to my collection!
Here's some more- and a few more coming.
And the last one. This is the limited edition one pictured. Gave you the website so you can have a good site for posing motorcycle riders.
Check your emails NOW. If you got a survey and do it, you'll probably still be in the first 1000 people to do it (only takes three minutes) and you'll get a $5.00 off code later. I just did it at 8:15 central time (Fri Night, USA) and I was still one of the first ones. It will tell you that you will receive a code later.
Hmm, either there's glitches going on right now or either an email hasn't been sent out telling members they get additional discounts (which normally is stated the PC members will get 40% instead of 30%, yada yada.)
72% discount on banner promo items that say 60%. DM's store. Go shop! NEVER trust what a banner says, be sure you are logged in and click on all promos. On top of the 72%, I got the additional $5 off for Cinco De Mayo (over $25.) Time: 1:50am Central time, Saturday
morning.
Genesis Body Morph Resource Kit- Thorne's Tutorial
Thorne was kind enough to do a tutorial with images so content creation got a whole lot easier! Even if you're not at this stage yet, take a peek.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/1636/#18780
the tutorial starts here, but I would read the thread from the beginning so you know what they're talking about.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/1636/#18780
I'm loading a lot of figures into my Studio, and decided to let you have some fun. How well do you know the hair? The figures? Perhaps you'll see something you like, so this is a product review :)
I am not doing any morphs, or adjusting the figures in any way- this is "straight out of the box." I am only slightly adjusting the hair with smoothing/collision and the volume if it needs it. So here's the first woman.
My observations: love this hair. SO many morphs and it fit VERY easily- and I do mean SO many morphs! And with this color, you can easily change it. The mahogany/brown was 112 / 48 / 48 for the diffuse, the other surfaces were left alone.
So do you know this gal? The hair? (Well known) The answer will be in the next post- don't cheat!
Move over Victoria, Stephanie has breezed in! Meet Riley for Stephanie 5!
And if you're just starting out, try the Silvermoon Hair. Wow, was it easy to work with! They must have poofed it up for the promo, I barely adjusted the volume. So what a wide range of styles you can get!
http://www.daz3d.com/riley-for-stephanie-5
http://www.daz3d.com/silvermoon-hair
And all of these of course were Stephanie 5 at 100 percent, Riley at 100 percent.
Enjoyed the glitches when I shopped just now. 50% was nice on things that normally won't go that. Glitches started at 1:15am central time, Sunday.
An interesting model. I can make a model for DAZ. Certainly not an exact copy, but very close to the original.
I think you'd have a lot of fans for it. On the website, it also has the tow-behind thingie, which would be a real selling point too. I'm so jealous that you know how to model this stuff! I like that it comes in so many colors- white, green, yellow, black. If you do it, try to throw a purple in there and a red :) And definitely let us know so we can pounce on it.
The website has a 360 degree rotating option, that's how I got my screenshots. You have to hold it down though, it bounces back to a different position (at least it did with me.)
Paoki
Paoki- that's what you get when you mix Paloma and Naoki in the negatives in the morphs, with Keira in the positives.
And someone else that I want to mention....
TIP: Benjamin May Help You With Upper Lip Pucker For Ladies
If there are features of the face you don't like, check out the opposite gender! By adding a touch here and there, you can fix areas that are non-gender specific in the face. Benjamin came to the rescue for my female Paoki- there was too much tension between the nose and upper lip, and none of the sliders helped..but Benjamin's addressed that very spot. I tried everything (philtrum, face depth, lip height and depth and different shapes, mouth height, nose height, fleshiness of face and nostrils, you name it.) Benjamin fixed it instantly!
She's still in progress, but thought I'd just pass that tip along. I'm still in the figure creation phase, haven't done anything with her yet.
I love mixing morphs. And tactics like dialing in a negative direction, or mixing morphs from different genders, do open up even more possibilities. If you enjoy this sort of thing, stay tuned for something fun I'll be starting in a few weeks. ;-)
And I agree, a petipet version of that motorcycle would be pretty cool.
Don't know if you saw this post from Totte...some great info on bump maps and tiling textures: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21483/P120/#322837
Sounds good!
Now I need help finding hair for African Americans. Amazing- all I can find is the Paul hair and of course, the forum search provided zilch. There was only Evan, which I don't want. Any suggestions so she doesn't stay bald? And thanks for the link :) and looking forward to what you're working on.
There's this...and it's on sale right now: http://www.daz3d.com/beautiful-black-hairstyles
And the two hairstyles that come in this bundle are good (the bundle itself is a good deal too, if you do fantasy renders): http://www.daz3d.com/fantasy-starter-bundle
Edited to add: also check out StudioArtVartanian's hairs at Renderosity.
Petipet, if you're still following the thread- note the cool seat on that thing- the rider's section is slightly elevated, a really nice touch. So it's multi-sectional. You can see it on that picture where I posted the URL.
EEEEK. I like (no LOVE) your first link. The second one I'll have to wait until I win the lottery, lol. Check your messages, I am PM'ing you.
Here's the Paul hair. I got the Beautiful Black hairstyles but noticed it's for V4. Does autofit work on hair? This is a Genesis figure. The Paul hair is interesting BTW, it has fits for the teens Julie and Justin. You can use those and it makes even more adjustments. The Paul hair was easy to use, recommend it.
Well, I know if I ever get good enough to make products, I've determined where there is a vast shortage.
Here's what I found, in addition to that store you mentioned. (That seemed a bit too much like felt material to me. But thanks for letting me know about it)
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/afro-magic-1/92236
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/afro-magic-2/92497
Well, a big thumbs up on the Summer Casuals Fitted Sun Dress. I changed the body quite a few ways and this outfit went on perfectly, no poke through, no issues, with quite a variation with the chest and hip size. (Within reason, folks. Dolly Parton she isn't.) So give it a try! :)
It has gone on sale several times, and there's different products to go with it so you have quite the variety.
http://www.daz3d.com/summer-casuals-fitted-sundress
Amy, Maya, Lana Elite Textures V4: A "Powder" Complexion
These are spot rendered. I have no idea what "add ons" mean, I chose the ones with them.
In one of the threads last winter, someone was asking about a pale complexion, such as when individuals wore white powder on their face, or for a vampire, or anything with a whitish/pale complexion- so look at Lana 2 and keep her in mind. Just thought I'd share what I'm comparing as I hadn't loaded them before. There's no changes, this is "out of the box." Keep checking back as when I experiment with outfits, figures, or morphs, I'll let you see them too. Nothing fancy, not going to pose them, just want to see what some of these look like!
EDIT: it's interesting to note the ones that give you more than one option, aka 3 vs 1.
http://www.daz3d.com/v4-elite-texture-maya
http://www.daz3d.com/v4-elite-texture-lana
http://www.daz3d.com/v4-elite-texture-amy
And this is Victoria 4.2 (exact same position) so you can see her, in case you don't have her.
TIP: Big Necklaces Fit Nicely With Earane Outfit
This is cool- try the Pharoah's necklace with the Earlane outfit! Test some other necklaces and see what you can come up with. It fit nicely
both over and under the collar section.
Maya Elite Texture
Scotlyn Eye Color
Morgan Mouth makeup
Hampton Hair (for now)
EDIT: Maya 2
Cathie
Autofit works on hair, though not always very well. Actually Beautiful Black Hairstyles looks like it's a hair prop for V4 with a Genesis refit (despite having recommended it to you, I don't own it yet). If that's true, it should be very easy to use with Genesis (no AutoFit required). Load it, dial the Genesis fit morph to 100%, and parent it (in place) to basic Genesis's head. Only thing is, after you morph Genesis, you may need to adjust the shape or scale of the hair, especially if you're using an extreme morph like F5 or Basic Child.
Paul Hair comes with a scalp prop that has to be loaded separately. If you use Smart Content you can find it under Anatomy. I didn't notice that at first, so I thought I'd mention it.
Where To Find The ReadMes.
Water With Shaders- Spot Render!!!!.
Now, I KNOW you know where they are, but finally I asked Szark where the heck they are on the site. They are: help section at the top of the page, then Documentation Center, then left menu ReadMes. Thank you Szark!
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/start
And in the wee hours of the morning (from 2am till 6am) Szark coached me on dome lighting and I learned about rendering water that has shaders. They don't show up until spot rendered- have fun with THAT. Here's the thread- don't laugh (well, go ahead) as I spot rendered the BEACH and was like, "Where's the water?" Then when I spot rendered it, a critter showed up in the water (think those blot tests where you see things.) I'll share the image below. See the fish? Or as Szark says, "A Wonking Wine Glass."
That GRAY is the water. Gonna be fun working with lighting with THAT.
This set was my first with a dome light. (Think, "EEEEEK! What do I do????" If you don't know anything about dome lighting, (and I do mean ANYTHING) you'll see the questions I was asking. And Skull Cove water without and with spot rendering.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/22128/