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Looks similar to a product called M.O.M or Movement of Mass Crowd Generator that Powerage did awhile back for Poser.. This one looks interesting in being able to have groups of figures as one plane, about the one thing that may be of issue will be to get images to look like they belong in the scene and don't stand out like a sore thumb..
Yeah was called M.O.M or Movement of Mass was very handy back then the only problem with it was that each pane was of one figure only sort of thing.. What looks to be good with this is the ability to use Ultrascatter with Insta Crowd..
So can someone explain what this new billboard stuff is? sounds very interesting from the discription I read... a self turning plane?
I was wondering if this is what they were.
I'll see what reviews are if it's better than rolling your own.
Great! Thanks for sharing.
Seems like the Daz Primitive method is slightly better looking with richer colors doesn't it?
Here's my primative method image. I think a rather obvious advantage of doing it yourself is that you can render in the lighting you will eventauly use for the larger comp WHEN you create your images for the primative planes for a perfect match.
reminds me of the old Bryce 2d picture object .....
I wish there will be a method, to create billboards, that looks equally good under different light conditions.
Does anybody know, how to create a cut out mask from .png images easier way.
I have created mask for my billboard, using Photoshop magic wand by selecting transparent area around the character, but have had to edit it with the brush later.
I do not know, how to easily select the shadow, to create the mask for it. Anybody know?
The only way to do it would be to use the light setup that you are going to use for the scene you want the billboards in..
Thanks for the tips and the comments, Greybro and ghosty12.
I've played around with the plugin, the fact that it automatically turns the billboards to the camera when you move it is awesome. Saves a lot of time adjusting the scene. As far as the transparency map, Two layers, black background on the bottom one, take your original no background png make it the top layer, then use exposure to adjust it to white. Set exposure all the way up, then catch the shadows with Offset.
I didn't realize this was to create your own I just figured it a optional requirement for the other billboards released, I added all the stuff to my cart but if I can actually make my own character billboards with this then it's more useful than I thought :) my bank and husband will definitely hate me for a while lol
What it does is add an entry to the menu enabling you to create a blank billboard that always points towards the camera. It also adds a pane which enables you to control all your billboards at once.
Not to take away form the new product, but mCasual has a free script to orient billboards to the camera. I discuss it's use here. If a billboard orients to the side instead of the front, you can change one parameter in the script to change the angle. The new billboard plugin appears to make this process easier.
casual has done just about everything first, the man is a legend
Sadly most would probably not pass Q&A at the store as customers want things click load use put brain idle, he does constantly tweak his stuff but its always a WIP.
I am not much of a DAZ studio user myself, it's mostly there as a way to get things into Carrara and iClone which do a lot of this stuff already and what Casual and his scripts bring to the table for DAZ studio, if I do need to use D|S Casual's Google page is frequently perused to try and solve any missing functions I need, he is sadly underrated.
Call me stupid, but
How do I load "Createbillboards" or "CreateBillboards_grouped" etc? (those scripts)
I don't see anything in the Create dropdown in Daz.
I just loaded a character and trying to create a billboard.
Do I need to install the EXE installer too?
"The plugin adds two interface elements:
Create Menu
To create a new billboard node, simply click on "New Billboard Node" in the Create menu. This will create a plane primitive that is oriented automatically to your view."
I don't see these options?..
Or am I thinking the wrong thing here.. Load a scene or Character, and trying to create a billboard out of it.
IIRC, billboarding as a term predates CGI; it's the cheat Ub Iwerks used to keep Mickey Mouse's ears always facing you no matter what direction his head was facing (in both the animations and the comic strips), and now used digitally in current animations.
The plugin and sample scripts needs to be installed via DIM or Manually. Daz Connect can only install the sample billboards.
I did use the DIM and not connect.
If you don't see the missing two Plugin installers, the plugin and sample scripts, check your Download Filters on the Ready to Download Tab and make sure the Plugin is checked.
Edit: After making the filter change, you may need to click on the refresh icon on the upper right if you don't see the plugin and sample scripts installers.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but you can't just load a character, push a button and create a billboard out of it (I wish :) ). The menu option just creates a blank billboard that's always facing the camera (mine come out really small for some reason). You then go into the 'Surfaces' tab and add a render of a character that you did earlier, plus a matching transparency map that you've created in Photoshop or similar.
I have a
Billboard Nodes Plugin Content
Billboard Notes Plugin Sample Script
Installed.
nvm.. I did have the plugin unchecked.. missed a tiny file.
it's there now :)
Seems like it might be useful but it is kind of non-intuitive and the readme pdf is a joke. I haven't tried to make my own billboard yet... just loaded the samples but I can't even figure out how to change their position in the scene. Translation moves them in weird directions without seeming to actually move them like it's mixed in with the scaling. Probably a side effect of pointing at the camera I guess? The Billboard pane has nothing except a randomization option.
I'm probably missing something obvious but at the moment I'm feeling like I wasted my money. The complete "documentation":
Introduction
The Billboard Nodes plugin creates flat planes that always align to the view of the user. This works
automatically with all cameras and views in the viewport.
The plugin adds two interface elements:
1. Entry in the Create menu called "New Billboard Node"
2. New "Billboard" pane
Create Menu
To create a new billboard node, simply click on "New Billboard Node" in the Create menu. This
will create a plane primitive that is oriented automatically to your view.
Billboard Pane
The pane is not necessary but provides a couple convenience features.
1. Select All Billboard Nodes – this makes it simple to select all billboard nodes in the scene
2. Randomize PointAt % - this will change how strongly the billboard nodes will point at the
view. This affects all selected billboard nodes.
General Notes
While content created with this plugin will work best with the plugin, it isn't actually required. If the
plugin is not present the billboard content still loads but doesn't automatically face the camera. The
user can then manually set the billboards to point at an object or camera in the scene.
In computer graphics, I can recall to have seen it for the first time in the game Castle Wolfenstein (1981). The enemies, the powerups, they're all billboards.
Which is a plane always facing the camera, with a texture on it, to fake a real object. In early days of gaming most things were billboards instead of real 3d objects, because there was no computing power to do them as real models. Those were the days before GPUs were born, mind you. So, it's actually a really really old term.
As for the billboards asset: It's not difficult to create some on your own, it is finding good textures for them what makes it somewhat time consuming and difficult. You need to consider that.
OK, why is the numbering so weird for this.
Are we missing something?
IM00037839-02_BillboardNodesforDAZStudio45Win64bit
IM00037839-06_BillboardNodesPluginSampleScripts
IM00037839-05_BillboardNodesPluginContent
What is 01,03 and 04 ?
I have this in my wishlist for as soon as I can swing it. I also immediately thought of Jepe's products of which I own almost all. This would make them really easy to use.
Just look in your Product Library. -01 is Win 32-Bit and -03 and -04 are Mac versions.
Aah, makes sense..
btw. if the creator is here. the windows 64 Bit version, doesn't install anything. it only does some registry things and creates an empty folder.
and the uninstaller is in the same folder as where I downloaded the 32 and 64 bit versions.
The shortcuts are not right either for it.
My guess the EXE is for 4.5 only ?
Well, played with it, and asked for a refund.
All it is is an plain item and loading a png file and change the properties..
Was already doing some of that, I thought it was more, but it wasn't.
and don't get me started about a manual, since there is none..