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Viewers without a computer graphics background compare the DAZ Studio renders to images they see in movies, tv shows and the latest generation of games.
- If you visit forums of render engines that are used for architectual or product renders you will have a hard time telling if that house or product is an actual photograph or a CG image.
- It is easier to produce photorealistic images of objects than human looking figures. But also in the area of human figures the big movie and game studios with huge budgets come up with their own proprietary technologies to push past the Uncanny Valley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
The latest game engines produce real time images that come closer to prerendered images with every generation of consoles released.
Motion capture of facial details has become a standard procedure for most AAA games. More complex facial rigs for figures is a basic requirement. With each new game those rigs are improved and the boundaries are pushed.
compare:
GDC 2016 - Digital Humans: Crossing the Uncanny Valley in UE4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncAeT_jFtbw
-> It seems more and more game studios are partnering up with studios who specialise in motion capture and have started to build motion capture libraries...
The world outside the DAZ universe seems to keep improving at a steady pace.
As a conclusion to me the current speed at which DAZ is progressing seems reasonable to stay in touch with the progress made in the rest of the industry.
Every two years a new figure generation seems manageable as long as each new generation includes significant updates to the underlying technology.
- - -
I tell everyone that I can tell, that nowadays, ANY non-human "picture" is probably a render of some type. Just consider all the "mock up" software for photoshop.
I work in the internet advertising world and it is all about replacing expensive human talking heads with animated/CGI avatars. New products are even taking walking and pointing motions and laying them on figures to make advertising videos. Some of this is under $100!
Maybe what I create isn't art beacuse I can't qualify as an "artist" with a lack of art schooling or such, but for certain I do graphic design work and get paid for it here and there. I am a "creator" and I use quite a lot of tools from the full range of DAZ.
I usually try and produce art that looks good... as in good enough folks don't think about if it is a render or a photograph! I enjoy art for art's sake, mine and others. Artists? Meh, not so much, LoL! Not be confused will all my amazing DAZ Vendors!!!
Actually the facial animation is exportable via bvh from iClone as a motion plus file, you just have to under advanced tick all those face bones in DS BVH import.
I can get it in perfectly unlike the retargetted body movements.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/68946/bvh-import-save-map-no-facial-bones-ticked-save#latest
Thanks, wolf359. I've been a bit out of the scene lately what with vision and arthritis flare-ups slowing me down. Ah, the joys of growing old...er! I don't do animations and am not into the photo-realisim craze either, so I'll probably upgrade Poser Pro whenever I have some spare cash and it goes on sale. I'll probably get Carrara too, although I haven't used it in ages. Right now I'm trying to keep complications and frustrations to a minimum, much better for my health -- and my bank account! -- that way. :-)
I can see why you would like the option to save the BVH map in DS for G3 as reticking those bones on every import would be a tedious step backwards from my workflow perspective
I dont use G3 for this very reason
The Imotion Data takes well in iclone even for G3
and looks decent in Iclone after manually bone mapping the rig in 3DX( more teduim)
But as in the video
The G3 BVH that exports from 3D Exchange is rubbish.
Body motion is as important to me as facial motion.
That "fight video" I posted earlier was made with BVH motions generated in the (now discontinued ) program Endorphin.
But they work right out of the box with Genesis 1-2 as well as every poser figure dating back to millenium 2.
...in college that was my view of abstract expressionism particularly the "incomprehensible" kind that caused the viewer to scratch his or her head and go 'huh?"..
When asked during a seminar why I didn't work in that style, I mentioned I could crank out stuff like that in less than a day and saw no challenge in doing so. Yeah, that won over friends in the department even though I was being sincere about what I said.
However, seems I was not the only one of that opinion.
I remember in one of the studios once, there was this jumble of what appeared to be just a bunch of old ratty pieces of wood, segments of rope, and piles of paint splotched canvas drop cloths which seemed to be haphazardly thrown in one corner. Well a couple days later it was gone, after which heard about a student raising a ruckus with the Dean of the college because his work stolen from one of the painting studios. Turns out that disorganized pile wood rope and canvas in the corner of the studio was this artist's project. Apparently the custodians mistook it for just a pile of rubbish which they removed and threw in a dumpster.
...the elbow joints still have teh "bent tube" look.
bored.
...I've been around since the tail end of the Gen3 days.
What attracted me to Genesis and G2 was the fact I could create younger characters as well as get better clothing fits with better consistency. The biggest issue I had with Gen 4, there was no really viable teen/pre teen figure and it took a lot to of effort (as well as expense) refine one from Vicky or Mike, as well as even more to fit clothing to them.Yes, there was the figure mixer in Daz 3.1, but unless you had a beefy system with a lot of memory (which I didn't at the time as I Was still working in 32 bit) it put a huge load on system resources as it meant dealing with the total polys of both figures (and Gen 4 figures were high poly to begin with).
Both Genesis and G2 changed that, not only with a more versatile mesh and autofit, but also the introduction of teen figures that had been absent since the days of Luke and Laura. What really opened things up were Zev0's Growing up morphs as now I could go from preschooler to adult with just a few slider manipulations.
Hi The Daz genesis models or even the Mil4 era model are never going to look as good in Iclone
after a FBX export and they are not meant to.
they need to be "lighter" to take advantage
of the realtime animation envrionment that makes Iclone so Appealing.
Most people export that realtime animation data back out to be appied to a Hi res rig version back in their production rendering app like Maya Max lightwave etc.
Maybe not a lot of people were aware of the inexpensive morphs at Rendo that turn V4 into various kids, with much more believable results than k4? Some of my kid images made using V4:
yes thats because FBX import into iClone does not bring over the JCMs only bone rigging.
It was the facial bones I was demostrating and that info can actually be exported back to DAZ studio.
This the advantage of a bone based rig.
I only wish I could use her in Carrara as there would be just so many more possibiliies with JCMs
That's very good work. I was at my wits end trying to get rid of the uncanny valley appearance of K4 characters, glad to know there are some options out there.
Thanks :D
It's easy to make young boys once the initial morph is done. And since I usually use dynamic clothes, it doesn't really matter if I make V4 male or female. It means most of my hair models will conform to the young V4's, too. If you'd like the product links, send me a PM.
*Edited to correct spelling and add ...
It's also handy that all of the V4 materials I have can be used on kids this way, too.
I've seen this product, and besides it using PMDs which makes it useless in DAZ Studio, you still have the issues with clothing, and the proportions are incorrect making it a product where you're making a short adult, which has always been the case with people making teens out of the gen4 products. As I said, this is why I ditched gen4 for Genesis, since I've been doing custom young adult morphs since Gen4. The scaling, adjustable rigging, and ease of adding custom morphs makes it easier to make morphs like this, even without a vendor product.
I started with V3 just prior to the introduction of V4 while using Poser 6. I watched as Genesis came out and was not NATIVELY supported in Poser, then watched the same with Genesis 2. I promised myself that if the new Poser Pro 11 did not support Genesis figures natively I would switch to Poser, so that I too could use a newer figure and here I am now. I found the Genesis 2 platform to be welcome replacement to V4 and use it almost exclusively. Genesis 3 just doesn't make a connection with me. The bends make it look more like it should be a transition figure between V4 and Genesis. I wish that more PA's would support Genesis 2 but I am not going to start that war again. I do agree with you on 3DL and Iray on your other post but will leave it at that here. I do agree with the OP on a lot of things they said and commend him on being able to say them in a way I haven't been able to.
I feel that when you say "V4 stragglers"...you mean "Poser users that have a hard time giving it up". I feel that if you were already using Daz Studio, leaving V4 wasn't an issue with Genesis. It's the Poser users that can't understand Poser was doomed once bad decisions were made regarding it.
If so, I know the feeling. I am still in withdraw but jumping into Daz Studio every now and then, make a character, play with settings etc. I still don't like the interface but after spending over a decade using Poser, that's a given.
Well, I don't mind that Daz is constantly trying to improve their product as they clearly have departments devoted to content and the application itself.
I think I have your issue too. I was just getting into learning "Genesis 2" and then I hear they are making a "Genesis 3" which isn't really that much an improvement and could have waited in my opinion. I haven't even bothered touching "Genesis 3" because I am not looking for "realism"...however...I am a 3DX artist and I know that many of the 3DX artist appreciate the upgrade.
However, I wasn't sure how "Genesis 2" and "Genesis 3" were even considered Genesis. They are not.
With all of the converters out there to transfer V4's content to every level of Genesis in Studio, my massive V4 Poser runtime is still heavily utilized. I continue to buy heavily discounted, quality V4 content that I can find a use for. Heck, my last two renders have been of good old V4 herself because why not. I can see that the newest users might feel there is little value in V4 content and buying the conversion utilities, but it can certainly open up a massive amount of content for the Genesis lines.
I use V4, G2F, and G3F interchangeably, just depending on my artistic whim at that moment.
Not sure what you mean by useless in Daz since all I use is Daz. And I find the proportions for the kids do look like 6 yos or 10 yos or teens. At least, they look like my kids at those ages. They are not just 'short adults'. Since I use dynamic clothing almost exclusively, clothing fits are less of an issue for me, too. Sometimes the poses and get a bit wonky, needing adjusting, but a small inconvenience.
Each to their own. :D
All I know is I am LOVING this V4 sale. I am grabbing up loads of stuff. Between the Welcome to the Jungle sale and The 4th of July sale, two full pages in my product library so far and more being bought today.
Very true, there are simply a wider array of items that were made for the V4 line that you can't find for the newer G2 and G3 figures. While it's oft-times a pain to try and get them to fit, it beats not being able to realize a render because the stuff I needed just wasn't available.
...ah, thanks for the clarification. Don't do much animation other than motion blurs.
I checked my static G3F pics and yes, the elbows look better.
...these (as well as K4) came out after I did most of my work since V4.2 was still pretty "new". The only thing I was able to find at Rendo at the time was a flat chest morph freebie that worked pretty well. For more petite physiques I used the body morphs from Thorne's fey characters. Steph 4 was the biggest help as she had a smaller physique/stature and the NPM morphs. Clothing fits were still a bit of a pain as the shoulder blades and centre of the chest still would have poke through. I usually was able to fix that using the Morph Follower in 3.1.
..yeah, a lot of my time was spent working on getting the right proportions and a more youthful face. I consulted growth and proportion charts during he process. In a sense it was kind of like building a "manual version of Zev0's Growing Up morphs for each character/growth phase.
I made some kids before Growing Up. I could get most of it, but breasts and posture were REALLY hard to battle.
I once walked across a Manhattan street and placed a box of driftwood and a discarded lobster cage nailed together and painted grey placed it into the trunk of a limousine. It was an Alexander Calder sculpture and it has been purchased for approximately twenty thousand dollars by a private collector. Honestly it looked like something that washed up in the East River.
btw I hope vendors keeping making V4/M4 stuff, I still use it and I favor it. I have V7 but I have not been able to do anything practical with it. Maybe in time I will but for me, if it ain't broke, and it ain't a $20,000.00 lobster trap it works for me.
@WillowRaven
I never saw what was done with the Auschwitz prison gate after I modeled it but the cover of your book looks amazing. I had a hard time working on it because of what it represented, but I'd love to read the story.
I'm sorry, StratDragon
I could have sworn I posted it on my old request thread. If you want to read the blurb, it's on my site: http://willowraven.weebly.com/innocence-lost.html. It's on Amazon, too. :D
If I remember right, the story is based on a relative's actual experience.
thank you.