DazPeople would like to see tutorials at dazshop - teach people 3d character creation! (call to al C

135

Comments

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,212
    edited December 1969

    Looking forward to it Blondie. Request... ERC tutorial in there too please?

  • RKane_1RKane_1 Posts: 3,037
    edited December 1969

    As I mentioned elsewhere, I am working on an advanced rigging tutorial that will include a section on geo-grafting.

    The Aquatic Genesis product was created largely for the purpose of teaching myself geo-grafting. I ran into a great many snags and unforeseen problems along the way, including one I discovered only after the product had been uploaded and was in testing-- and nobody could figure out what was causing it! Talk about hair-pulling! I finally figured out the cause of the problem, and it was something NOBODY had thought of-- including me. I blundered upon the answer entirely by accident.

    Would be willing to give a brief summary of the issue? i am curious because i am trying to learn about geo-grafting as we speak.

  • MEC4DMEC4D Posts: 5,249
    edited December 1969

    I put together some of the videos on my reopen forum and will post tonight 1 more about geo-grafting but not time lapse only with caption for the steps so check out later

    MEC4D FORUM - VIDEO TUTORS IN TIME LAPSE

  • RAMWolffRAMWolff Posts: 10,212
    edited December 1969

    Thanks so much Cath!

  • RKane_1RKane_1 Posts: 3,037
    edited December 1969

    Mec4D said:
    I put together some of the videos on my reopen forum and will post tonight 1 more about geo-grafting but not time lapse only with caption for the steps so check out later

    MEC4D FORUM - VIDEO TUTORS IN TIME LAPSE

    OH JOY! YAY!

    Thank you, Mec4D

    You rock!

    >:)

  • MEC4DMEC4D Posts: 5,249
    edited December 1969

    myself I would like to see advanced tutorial about wight mapping for custom figures as this is still not completely clear to me
    transfer utility is quick but not perfect when working with complex clothing and manual edition is needed as well , but I would like to learn about setups on custom figures and stuff not related to genesis

  • Zev0Zev0 Posts: 7,089
    edited September 2012

    RKane_1 said:
    Mec4D said:
    I put together some of the videos on my reopen forum and will post tonight 1 more about geo-grafting but not time lapse only with caption for the steps so check out later

    MEC4D FORUM - VIDEO TUTORS IN TIME LAPSE

    OH JOY! YAY!

    Thank you, Mec4D

    You rock!

    >:)

    In Mec4d's GOZ DS 4.0 creating Full Body Morph for Genesis vid make sure the SMT (subdivide smooth modifier) is turned off in Zbrush before you start editing. This will smooth out the entire Mesh when you import your morph to Daz, or import via morph loader as an obj. It is something you do not want to happen. This video was made before that discovery.

    Post edited by Zev0 on
  • blondie9999blondie9999 Posts: 771
    edited December 1969

    Mec4D said:
    myself I would like to see advanced tutorial about wight mapping for custom figures as this is still not completely clear to me
    transfer utility is quick but not perfect when working with complex clothing and manual edition is needed as well , but I would like to learn about setups on custom figures and stuff not related to genesis

    The subject of weight-mapping (and bulge mapping) is pretty well covered in my tutorial, "Rigging Original Figures in DS4 Pro." The same techniques apply whether you're making an original figure, or modifying the weight-mapping created by the transfer utility for a clothing item.
  • blondie9999blondie9999 Posts: 771
    edited December 1969

    RAMWolff said:
    Looking forward to it Blondie. Request... ERC tutorial in there too please?

    Yes, there will be a section on ERC as well.

    Right now the manual is kind of a hodge-podge of things-- there's some material on how clothing needs to be modeled to overcome the peculiarities of the smoothing feature, some material on setting the smoothing and collision modifiers, some material on topology, a section on ERC, and of course, a section on geo-grafting. I have a number of other things I want to include, such as adding bones to clothing items to do various things, and so on.

  • RKane_1RKane_1 Posts: 3,037
    edited December 1969

    blondie9999?

    You rock so hard, Aerosmith is jealous. :)

  • DaremoK3DaremoK3 Posts: 798
    edited December 1969

    Yes, blondie, what RKane_1 said!

    I already have money hidden away just for your advanced tut.


    Mec4D:

    I highly recommend purchasing blondie's tut she mentioned. It is invaluable, and will be exactly what you need. Not only did she bring to light the elusive, secretive details to complete a project that are hidden from the public in all the (nearly same) tutorials out there, but now I no longer have to hunt through 20 video tutorials, or 20 written tutorials for one small part of information. She has condensed all the necessary information into one easy to use PDF tutorial (with all the secrets).


    AND, to those of you out there who think there is no merit to an accomplished PA here at DAZ writing a detailed tutorial from beginning to store, I respectfully disagree.

    Sure, there are hundreds, if not thousands of amateur (some Pro) tutorials all rehashing the exact same "basics" (and I probably have them all, or at least seen/read them over a period of 15 years). I, for one, would appreciate and purchase an exact workflow tutorial with all the hidden "secrets" from a DAZ PA that shows exactly how they got that beautiful, and technically Poser/DS compliant product into the store. And yes, not everyone works the same, but I have already mastered the basics. I can adapt anything to my workflow, and programs. I just need that push over the hump by someone in the know of what is or is not compliant in all facets of end product.

    At least one PA thinks it worthy enough of her time to educate those beyond the "basics", and kudos to you, blondie, for that. Also, thank you...

    Oh, and my short list is:

    blondie9999
    Valandar
    Rawart
    MidnightStories
    Stonemason (whom I've already learned a great deal from)

    and, yes, even you:

    Mattymanx (I could write your two basic tuts in my sleep, BUT, I would pay for an all encompassing/dot-the-T's, cross-the-I's tutorial from inception to completion on how you create your amazing renders)

  • MEC4DMEC4D Posts: 5,249
    edited December 1969

    my meshes are never smooth out , and I explain it already in the old forum , it is not issue or bug it is that people switching in and back between high and low resolution , you can't do that , if you work on high then do it until the end and not switch, for preview use the preview setting , the tutorial I made for the import was how to import and not how to model .. as my subdivide smooth modifier in Zbrush was in and always should be off for working with genesis morphs and this is not discovery as I mentioned it before when folk had problems with long before genesis was here ..

    Zev0 said:
    RKane_1 said:
    Mec4D said:
    I put together some of the videos on my reopen forum and will post tonight 1 more about geo-grafting but not time lapse only with caption for the steps so check out later

    MEC4D FORUM - VIDEO TUTORS IN TIME LAPSE

    OH JOY! YAY!

    Thank you, Mec4D

    You rock!

    >:)

    In Mec4d's GOZ DS 4.0 creating Full Body Morph for Genesis vid make sure the SMT (subdivide smooth modifier) is turned off in Zbrush before you start editing. This will smooth out the entire Mesh when you import your morph to Daz, or import via morph loader as an obj. It is something you do not want to happen. This video was made before that discovery.

  • MEC4DMEC4D Posts: 5,249
    edited December 1969

    I think I purchased it and forgot to download as other stuff was going on .. as I remember now ..
    what I am mostly interested in was how to modifying the weight-mapping and I come across little troubles as well and just want to skip it and go into the finale so I am checking it out .. thanks

    Mec4D said:
    myself I would like to see advanced tutorial about wight mapping for custom figures as this is still not completely clear to me
    transfer utility is quick but not perfect when working with complex clothing and manual edition is needed as well , but I would like to learn about setups on custom figures and stuff not related to genesis

    The subject of weight-mapping (and bulge mapping) is pretty well covered in my tutorial, "Rigging Original Figures in DS4 Pro." The same techniques apply whether you're making an original figure, or modifying the weight-mapping created by the transfer utility for a clothing item.

  • RKane_1RKane_1 Posts: 3,037
    edited December 1969

    There is a youtube video on that. You have probably seen that but, if not...

    DAZ Studio 4 - Weight Map Brush

    Hope this helps! :)

  • MEC4DMEC4D Posts: 5,249
    edited December 1969

    Yes I saw it , it was made by Daz but it is not complete I missed the most important step after that , sometimes it is like my time-lapses , see what you can do with but how? figure by yourself .. lol after the new update to 4.5 I am losing some stuff as things changed in the workflow ..
    also returning to the geo-grafting , it is good if you are going to do your own creation something that can't be reused without editing , as geo grafted figures not always allow you to reuse them on different shapes due to the textures that will never match , for stuff like horns or wings and tails using the half way of geog rafting is better , I was working the other day on a fish tail , and was for plan to full grafting the figure but then come to conclusion that no one can use different body textures to blend , so I use only half option to hide the lower parts automatic while fitting and blend the edges of the tail so it can be used with any textures people wish and this will have to do with anything else you going to do so not practical and not versatile , ge grafting process is as simple as it is mentioned in WIKI, but what the users get trouble with are the weld points, if they are shifted you will get zero grafting and that why people struggle with , so the correct skills in modeling and preparing your figure is the answer as the setup is 5 min .. and not different from what everyone know already , geo-grafting sounds mysterious but is nothing else as insert mesh ( Zbrush ) or merge weld points so a little bit modeling skills are needed to start with .
    and as Blondie is going to make it in her advanced tutorial I better don;t go to spoil it and gentle back off at this moment and I hope you don't mind , there is a lot of other subjects that can help everyone creating better stuff ..so I am going to find one

  • MattymanxMattymanx Posts: 6,910
    edited December 1969

    No one has said that there is no merrit or that its not worthy to do these or teaching. Yes there are certain steps to be taken for certain procedures, but there is no definitive method to take you from A-Z. In my tutorial on 3D Model conversions, I make this simple statement "If steps listed in the tutorial for one program is something you are comfortable doing in another, please feel free to do so." I state this simply cause I can only share what I have learned. I dont know everything. DaremoK3, if you have your own methods or better methods for accomplishing the same task in the same programs or different, then please feel free to share as well. I would love to know more myself in these areas.

    Some PAs team up cause one is better at one part of the process then another. It would be best if someone who is a master at modeling handle tutorials on modeling in their prefered app cause the same person may be the weakest as doing textures. Someone who is a pro at texturing and knows what to watch for is best handeling that aspect and so on and so on. If I may make a suggestion, instead of asking for an "All-in-One" tutorial that covers every aspect of the process, break it down and request smaller aspects. Its best if its broken down so its easier to digest anyways. No one knows everything there is to know about everything.

    I have thought about doing a posing tutorial a few times but I have to admit, the number one question that keeps comming up in my head is, "How is anyone suppose to teach anyone else how to think as they do or observe the world as they do?" The answer, you dont. I can tell you that I use the node selection tool in DS to select the different body parts. The Parameters Tab is open for access to the different dials and that I use the Perspective cam to move around the scene since its movement is not recorded by DS so it does not effect the undo list. I can also suggest that when working with any human figure, to start at the hip and work your way out form there. But for all thats worth, its useless until the end user understands HOW a human body moves. We all think we know, but we dont. Its the littlest details that always excape us. The figure is not balanced correctly or the position of the arm is wrong for the motion that is being represented and hands are still the worst. One of my art teachers in high school use to say, "Draw what you see, not what you know." What she meant was to observe, dont just look, but observe the subject. If anyone wants to learn how to pose a human figure in ANY 3D program, my best suggestion would be to spend a few weeks at the very least drawing human figures. Not to full completion, but to the point of using basic shapes to represent the body parts. But even then, its up to the end user to change how they think and observe in order make progress. I cannot teach anyone how to look at a human figure standing there in a T Pose and to see it in motion the whole time they are working on it. Its difficult for me to pose them when I cannot invision what they are doing.

    DaremoK3, you're better off just asking me different things you want to know about my images. Inception is impossible to explain. Different desires and thoughts prompt differnet courses of action. Though I can say that I like girls a lot and they would be my primary source of inspiration for my art. So I can recommend observing those! Other then that, feel free to PM me questions you have about certain things. You may also want to look at the comments section on DeviantART for any info I posted there for each render. I know I dont always but there are times I do. I would not make anyone pay for this information. I haven't charged for explaining things about my art in the past so why start. Art is someting I love to do so I dont mind sharing.

  • blondie9999blondie9999 Posts: 771
    edited December 1969

    RKane_1 said:
    blondie9999?

    You rock so hard, Aerosmith is jealous. :)


    Wow, nobody ever compared me to Aerosmith before...!!!
  • blondie9999blondie9999 Posts: 771
    edited December 1969

    Mec4D said:
    and as Blondie is going to make it in her advanced tutorial I better don;t go to spoil it and gentle back off at this moment and I hope you don't mind , there is a lot of other subjects that can help everyone creating better stuff ..so I am going to find one

    Hey, Mec, don't worry about it. You do video tutorials, and I do written ones, so there's no "conflict" there-- and in any case, our "approach" is different.

    Regarding posing-- Mattymanx made some good points. Posing looks "easy," but creating good poses isn't easy at all-- and having done several pose sets, I'm certainly qualified to say that. The "gross" movements-- moving a leg forward or back-- aren't the difficulty; the difficulty is all the little subtle stuff-- the little things most people don't consciously notice.

    For instance, two guys are sitting in chairs, in pretty much the same pose-- leaning back, hands resting on their thighs, one foot flat on the floor, the other leg stretched out. Same pose, right? But yet, one guy looks "relaxed," whereas the other guy looks tense or nervous. Why the difference? There's nothing obvious to explain it-- but if you look closely, you see that there are many tiny differences. The "relaxed" guy's shoulders are drooping slightly more; his head is tilted just a little rather than being straight; his hands are "loose" with the fingers slightly curled; etc., etc. It's all those little subtle things that make the difference-- and learning to "see" those little subtle things is the key to creating good poses.

  • creativemodelsbecreativemodelsbe Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Mec4D said:
    Yes I saw it , it was made by Daz but it is not complete I missed the most important step after that , sometimes it is like my time-lapses , see what you can do with but how? figure by yourself .. lol after the new update to 4.5 I am losing some stuff as things changed in the workflow ..
    also returning to the geo-grafting , it is good if you are going to do your own creation something that can't be reused without editing , as geo grafted figures not always allow you to reuse them on different shapes due to the textures that will never match , for stuff like horns or wings and tails using the half way of geog rafting is better , I was working the other day on a fish tail , and was for plan to full grafting the figure but then come to conclusion that no one can use different body textures to blend , so I use only half option to hide the lower parts automatic while fitting and blend the edges of the tail so it can be used with any textures people wish and this will have to do with anything else you going to do so not practical and not versatile , ge grafting process is as simple as it is mentioned in WIKI, but what the users get trouble with are the weld points, if they are shifted you will get zero grafting and that why people struggle with , so the correct skills in modeling and preparing your figure is the answer as the setup is 5 min .. and not different from what everyone know already , geo-grafting sounds mysterious but is nothing else as insert mesh ( Zbrush ) or merge weld points so a little bit modeling skills are needed to start with .
    and as Blondie is going to make it in her advanced tutorial I better don;t go to spoil it and gentle back off at this moment and I hope you don't mind , there is a lot of other subjects that can help everyone creating better stuff ..so I am going to find one

    I have a problem with your Zbrush tutorials.
    they do not show the user what brushes you use and why you use that function.
    I really would like to see more of you.
    they are great.

  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited September 2012

    ...For me trial and error are how you learn the basics, shared knowledge is how you take it to the next level

    It is important to understand different people learn differently. This strategy though it works well for you is totally unsuccessful for some and of varying degrees for others. Let's try not to get into the 'this works, what's wrong with you' perspective... It isn't laziness on other people's part, it "just doesn't work" sometimes.

    It also goes beyond, just do it vs study it to death first, read vs video vs hands on... it goes to how something is explained, what background any given individual brings into the environment, how well the presentation matches a given person's needs/desires, ie what they are trying to achieve 'at that moment.'

    Deciding people are just 'lazy' doesn't do anyone any good.

    As learners, we need to step out of our comfort zones some times. I know some learn better by being shown as in a video, some by reading step by step, and some by playing (etc..) but, the other methods actually present material fundamentally different and we don't get as complete an understanding of something if we just tackle learning it using the same methods all the time, and this is an easy trap to fall into.

    Another note, learning from associated but not directly related areas will often help round out our understanding of things because the 'related but different' approach things differently and will often give us new perspectives that can be vital in filling in gaps. Looking at videos on other modelers, etc... might seem a waste of time if we don't plan on using them but it's not. One doesn't need to pay the same attention to it if they don't plan on using that particular tool, but it's a good thing to watch how different software approaches modeling, texturing, etc... and a lot cuts across tools so can inspire us to try things we might not have otherwise in our tool of choice.

    A couple good free courses I've found using Blender, though it might not be one's modeler of choice, goes into the fundamentals of what makes up a good mesh, what all of those complex issues of uv mapping mean and why one method over another etc...

    Modeling 101 by Jason Welsh and Texturing 101 by Jason Welsh

    If you find these resources helpful, remember to thank him ;)

    Long post, sorry bout that... best wishes

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited September 2012

    I would like to say thank you to everyone who takes the time to put together tutorials or answer questions.. I appreciate the time you've taken to make my life a bit easier, a bit nicer :)

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited December 1969

    Dogz said:
    ..When in doubt, pick apart files of products you have purchased, you can examine everything from Topology to how a Pz2s has been edited.

    This is actually one of the main reasons I buy an item, to rip it apart and examine how someone made it. Even when they show me in a video how they did it, I like to get my hands in it :)

  • RKane_1RKane_1 Posts: 3,037
    edited December 1969

    Wow...

    Hey, fixme12!

    Will you gather all the links to the tutorials people have posted here and edit your first thread post to list them there for all to see when they come here?

    That would be fantastic to get all these listed in the first post for future reference.

  • Fixme12Fixme12 Posts: 589
    edited December 1969

    RKane_1 said:
    Wow...

    Hey, fixme12!

    Will you gather all the links to the tutorials people have posted here and edit your first thread post to list them there for all to see when they come here?

    That would be fantastic to get all these listed in the first post for future reference.

    Done!

    still hope on more support by all other PA's...

  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited September 2012

    Some you missed:

    Bobbie25 Rigging Tutorials
    Patience55 Tutorials
    Carnite's Channel
    Some guy named Rob Whisnant's Tutorials
    Procedural Cloth Shaders by AoA
    Hexagon Cheatsheets by Daybreak Studio
    Genesis Starter Kit (clothing Creation) and Classic Bikini (Clothing Design) By Fugazzi1968
    Johnny Bevo's Tutorials
    Tecy's Hexagon Tutorials
    CG Dreams Hexagon Quickstart Tutorials

    Basically all of these apply as basic modeling concepts as well as rigging are fundamental to character creation and all of these touch on aspects of these. A lot more could be added ofc, but this is a start. (Listed in no particular order.)

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • Fixme12Fixme12 Posts: 589
    edited December 1969

    Gedd said:
    Some you missed:

    Bobbie25 Rigging Tutorials
    Patience55 Tutorials
    Carnite's Channel
    Some guy named Rob Whisnant's Tutorials
    Procedural Cloth Shaders by AoA
    Hexagon Cheatsheets by Daybreak Studio
    Genesis Starter Kit (clothing Creation) and Classic Bikini (Clothing Design) By Fugazzi1968
    Johnny Bevo's Tutorials
    Tecy's Hexagon Tutorials
    CG Dreams Hexagon Quickstart Tutorials

    Basically all of these apply as basic modeling concepts as well as rigging are fundamental to character creation and all of these touch on aspects of these. A lot more could be added ofc, but this is a start. (Listed in no particular order.)

    at them to the list...thx

  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited December 1969

    Oh, almost forgot.. Lynda.com has some excellent tutorials on Blender, Photoshop, Gimp, Maya, 3DS Max, Rhino, etc etc... at a very reasonable subscription price (monthly and annually) complete with practice files. There are basic courses and specific ones, including character design.

  • Fixme12Fixme12 Posts: 589
    edited September 2012

    We need more tutorials with subjects like Genesis inside Zbrush (morph, texture, and re-rig genesis back in studio)
    like the creation of the "GENESIS MERMAID"
    things like explain what brushes you use, why you use the tools,...

    Post edited by Fixme12 on
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited September 2012

    fixme12 said:
    We need more tutorials with subjects like Genesis inside Zbrush (morph, texture, and re-rig genesis back in studio) like the creation of the "GENESIS MERMAID" things like explain what brushes you use, why you use the tools,...

    What people have been trying to explain is that the tutorials on exporting then importing back into DS are one skill set and will typically be covered in one training session. Detailed instructions on a separate tool like ZBrush will be found in ZBrush tutorials. Detailed rigging in DS is a complex set of tasks in it's own right.

    The most anyone could do in the manner you are asking is an overview type of tutorial typically since there is just too much information to cover. It's like asking for a PhD in Physics in a single college course.

    Having said that, overview tutorials like the one you mentioned can be very handy as long as the person watching it understands this is 'one way' of doing that particular series of tasks, and that a lot of steps would have been simplified due to time constraints. Kind of like "Physics for Dummies" serves a valuable purpose for many people but isn't going to make anyone a physicist.

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • Fixme12Fixme12 Posts: 589
    edited December 1969

    Gedd said:
    fixme12 said:
    We need more tutorials with subjects like Genesis inside Zbrush (morph, texture, and re-rig genesis back in studio) like the creation of the "GENESIS MERMAID" things like explain what brushes you use, why you use the tools,...

    What people have been trying to explain is that the tutorials on exporting then importing back into DS are one skill set and will typically be covered in one training session. Detailed instructions on a separate tool like ZBrush will be found in ZBrush tutorials. Detailed rigging in DS is a complex set of tasks in it's own right.

    The most anyone could do in the manner you are asking is an overview type of tutorial typically since there is just too much information to cover. It's like asking for a PhD in Physics in a single college course.

    Having said that, overview tutorials like the one you mentioned can be very handy as long as the person watching it understands this is 'one way' of doing that particular series of tasks, and that a lot of steps would have been simplified due to time constraints. Kind of like "Physics for Dummies" serves a valuable purpose for many people but isn't going to make anyone a physicist.

    true, but you can learn the basics from such tutorials,
    example in Zbrush...
    you learn to use the tools, you need for your own character design, morph, texture.
    after all the secret still remains at the dazstudio part as Pa's also don't know how to do this or just don't like to share this kind of info.
    actually daz have to create the tutorial videos.
    but i don't expect it from them, they don't have time...
    to busy developing studio...

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