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The Fairytale Book

Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,153
edited April 2018 in The Commons

Has anyone tried the Fairtale Book product?  I'm wondering how easy/difficult it is to use.  I'd love to see some user examples.

Post edited by Worlds_Edge on

Comments

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018

    I don't have this yet, but I watched the videos that are attached to thebundled product pages.

    If it works as easily as the videos for the various products in the bundle seem  to imply, this has to be one of the coolest products for Daz that I've seen in a while...

    Very creative!

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • ANGELREAPER1972ANGELREAPER1972 Posts: 4,555

    reminds me of the opening scenes with the Necronomicon in the Evil Dead movies 

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018

    I went ahead and grabbed the Fairytale Book Bundle, and am playing around with it now...

    Some photoshop and similar documents are included so that you can build your own book covers and pages, and the animation works pretty much like what you see in the video (the second addon).  Then assign the textures/images to the pages in the book scene and you are good to go.

    There's a text function too with this product, but since I was in Photoshop anyways, it was faster to just add the text there.  Here's a quick example, where I rendered one of the frames in the animation sequence...

    The book scene file comes with 10 even+odd page spreads, just remember that you'll need two separate page templates for a 'page spread', as they are on separate page flips (as explained in the video).  I'd imagine it'd be pretty easy to add more pages if you needed them, and adjust the animation sequence accordingly, but I'm just taking this for a test drive real quick at the moment.

    As I said before, this is definitely one of the coolest products I've seen recently...

    It seems fairly easy to use (just follow the instructions), but of course YMMV.  The above I threw together in about 30 minutes, loosely following the instructions I watched earlier in the video, including hunting down and resizing two fun pics from my render library in Photoshop (BTW, I'm using an ancient version, Photoshop 7, files still opened OK although some data was discarded). dragging them onto a page spread and adding some text real quick then saving the .jpgs, and then setting up the pages in Daz Studio, assigning the .jpgs to the pages and rendering the above animation frame in Daz Studio using the 'stock' book scene.  I adjusted the lighting slightly, but overall it was pretty painless...

    Hope this helps!

    FairytaleBook_Cosplayexampl.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 392K
    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,845

    ...will those PS elements work in Krita or Gimp?

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018

    No idea, but if Gimp will open .psd you should be good to go.  It's mainly about the layers...

    As I noted, I opened the files up with Photoshop 7 (which is what,  something like15 years old now?).  Not all of the layer details were able to load but to be honest I don't know what ended up being missing.  Mainly I just needed the template layer to overlay my images on, and that was all there.

    Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that  there are some 'regular' .jpgs and templates that you could use as starting points.

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,845

    ...don't have PC (never could afford it before they went total cloud) but do have both Gimp and Krita.

  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,153

    Thanks for showing your render @tj1ca9500b and sharing your thoughts about the product.  I think I will grab the bundle.  

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018
    Worlds_Edge said:

    Thanks for showing your render @tj1ca9500b and sharing your thoughts about the product.  I think I will grab the bundle.  

    Glad to be of help!

    ---

    @Kyoto Kid,

    As I talked about before, there's a bunch of .jpgs for the various page styles you might want to use in the textures folder (looking at it now) with the various types of pages, and also the front/back cover.  It should be pretty easy to just use those in Gimp, etc., adding your own pictures and such, then saving the new 'page' and assigning it as a texture in Daz.  Depending on how fancy you want to get with the textures, I suppose you could mess with the normals, etc. but really the 'regular page image' is what you need.

    It's really pretty painless if you don't mind editing texture maps, adding your own pics (and maybe text) to the page image.

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 7,133

    I don't know anything about animation, does it explain clearly how to do it? 

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,845

    ...editing texture maps?  Never had to do that before. All I am interested is text and images.

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    Wonderland said:

    I don't know anything about animation, does it explain clearly how to do it? 

    If you get the addon (in the bundle) that has the animation, you simply load the 'animated' .duf instead of just the book.duf.  The animation is ready to go, although you may need to open the animate tab/window so that you can switch between frames.  The product comes with 'click and follow' scripts that helps you add pages, set the delay between page flips, etc. so that you don't have to do that 'manually'.  There are a few different pre-animated .dufs with page counts of varying lengths that are included as part of the book addon, which can give you a good number of pages (up to 30 depending on which .duf you pick) to start with before you need to start messing with  adding more pages and such...

    The basic 'book' also has morphs that help you flip the pages, similar to how you might adjust an arm pose, etc.  It's pretty slick actually.

    I haven't messed with it much, but the scripts seem very straightforward.  The videos also help explain where to find things and how to use the scripts.

    As for rendering, depending on the 'length' of your book and the number of frames involved (longer delays between page flips may result in more frames), well that can take a while, at least compared to a single frame render.  But, there probably won't be any complex models (say people) in your book sequence, so each frame should render fairly quickly, at least compared to rendering characters and such.  I suppose you could include a desk or podium for the book to 'fly on to', rotating the angle and pitch of the desk appropriately to 'fit' the animation.

    If you are just using the book as a 'static prop', you can do that too, opening the book and/or flipping the pages as needed for subsequent renders, say if you were rendering the book on a podium with a professor flipping through the pages.  Adding pages seems to be a 'click to add more pages' thing, simply select the book, then click the 'add page' icon in the product library.

    There's a thread for this product in the Commercial Products section of the forum.  That might be the better place to ask questions, seeing that's what that section is for...

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018
    kyoto kid said:

    ...editing texture maps?  Never had to do that before. All I am interested is text and images.

    I wouldn't call it editing per se, you are just adding your picture to the image of the page you are using as your texture, and saving it as a 'new' basic texture map.  You could add the text in Gimp, or in Daz (the product comes with a text widget).  And, as I pointed out, you may only need to edit the 'basic' map, unless you are trying to create 'raised text' on the cover or something...

    As for adding your image to a page, I suppose you could/probably should use the layered image editor in Daz.  Photoshop is my to go for layering textures, but the L.I.E. is designed to do this.  Also, the L.I.E. may interact with bump maps and such a bit better, if that worries you.

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,845

    ..L.I.E also slows scene loading so I rarely use it and sometimes acts odd (for example came back to an older scene and had to redo all the street signs on which I used the LIE again as they were all black).  I'm pretty good with layering in Gimp and Krita (Krita does handle .psd format as well) so I shouldn't need the LIE.

    For adding text, I actually find PSP to be a bit more intuitive and it gives me access to all my installed fonts. 

     

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018

    A real quick way to 'create' a page for this. or a texture in general, is to pick the page texture you want in Daz, and assign it to the model.  Then go to surfaces, click the 'base' map, choose the 'browse' option to quickly navigate to the folder that has the textures, then drag the .jpg of the page you are using into Gimp, etc. directly from that window without selecting a texture (don't hit OK yet).  Then you can add your image, text, etc. layers and then save it, probably to a newly created folder or in the same folder if you are lazy, with a new .jpg name of course.  Then go back to Daz and navigate to your new image (in that window that should still be open) and select it.

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 7,133
    tj_1ca9500b said:
    Wonderland said:

    I don't know anything about animation, does it explain clearly how to do it? 

    If you get the addon (in the bundle) that has the animation, you simply load the 'animated' .duf instead of just the book.duf.  The animation is ready to go, although you may need to open the animate tab/window so that you can switch between frames.  The product comes with 'click and follow' scripts that helps you add pages, set the delay between page flips, etc. so that you don't have to do that 'manually'.  There are a few different pre-animated .dufs with page counts of varying lengths that are included as part of the book addon, which can give you a good number of pages (up to 30 depending on which .duf you pick) to start with before you need to start messing with  adding more pages and such...

    The basic 'book' also has morphs that help you flip the pages, similar to how you might adjust an arm pose, etc.  It's pretty slick actually.

    I haven't messed with it much, but the scripts seem very straightforward.  The videos also help explain where to find things and how to use the scripts.

    As for rendering, depending on the 'length' of your book and the number of frames involved (longer delays between page flips may result in more frames), well that can take a while, at least compared to a single frame render.  But, there probably won't be any complex models (say people) in your book sequence, so each frame should render fairly quickly, at least compared to rendering characters and such.  I suppose you could include a desk or podium for the book to 'fly on to', rotating the angle and pitch of the desk appropriately to 'fit' the animation.

    If you are just using the book as a 'static prop', you can do that too, opening the book and/or flipping the pages as needed for subsequent renders, say if you were rendering the book on a podium with a professor flipping through the pages.  Adding pages seems to be a 'click to add more pages' thing, simply select the book, then click the 'add page' icon in the product library.

    There's a thread for this product in the Commercial Products section of the forum.  That might be the better place to ask questions, seeing that's what that section is for...

    Oh, thanks for the info. Looks like I will try it then! I'm good with Photoshop so creating pages is easy, and if I can get them to animate, that would be really cool! 

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018
    Wonderland said:
    tj_1ca9500b said:
    Wonderland said:

    I don't know anything about animation, does it explain clearly how to do it? 

    If you get the addon (in the bundle) that has the animation, you simply load the 'animated' .duf instead of just the book.duf.  The animation is ready to go, although you may need to open the animate tab/window so that you can switch between frames.  The product comes with 'click and follow' scripts that helps you add pages, set the delay between page flips, etc. so that you don't have to do that 'manually'.  There are a few different pre-animated .dufs with page counts of varying lengths that are included as part of the book addon, which can give you a good number of pages (up to 30 depending on which .duf you pick) to start with before you need to start messing with  adding more pages and such...

    The basic 'book' also has morphs that help you flip the pages, similar to how you might adjust an arm pose, etc.  It's pretty slick actually.

    I haven't messed with it much, but the scripts seem very straightforward.  The videos also help explain where to find things and how to use the scripts.

    As for rendering, depending on the 'length' of your book and the number of frames involved (longer delays between page flips may result in more frames), well that can take a while, at least compared to a single frame render.  But, there probably won't be any complex models (say people) in your book sequence, so each frame should render fairly quickly, at least compared to rendering characters and such.  I suppose you could include a desk or podium for the book to 'fly on to', rotating the angle and pitch of the desk appropriately to 'fit' the animation.

    If you are just using the book as a 'static prop', you can do that too, opening the book and/or flipping the pages as needed for subsequent renders, say if you were rendering the book on a podium with a professor flipping through the pages.  Adding pages seems to be a 'click to add more pages' thing, simply select the book, then click the 'add page' icon in the product library.

    There's a thread for this product in the Commercial Products section of the forum.  That might be the better place to ask questions, seeing that's what that section is for...

    Oh, thanks for the info. Looks like I will try it then! I'm good with Photoshop so creating pages is easy, and if I can get them to animate, that would be really cool! 

    Yeah, you can't go wrong with the bundle.  As I said before, the animation for the basic 'animated version' is already done for you, assuming you like the 'default' animation.  You can just hit 'play' in the animate tab to watch the animation go, the 'heavy lifting' has been done for you already.

    Of course, if you've never worked with animations in Daz before, this will all be new to you.  The aniMate2 tab is under Window > Panes if you don't have it assigned to your tabs already...

    You can get 'fancy' with the animations later, once you are comfortable with the product, should you want a more involved animation for the book...

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 7,133

    Thanks, I posted this in the commercial thread, but it might get answered faster here, since I don't know if the creator will be checking it...

    My last few questions:

    1. If I create each page exactly as I want in Photoshop, including the paper page itself, can I just upload the jpg to replace the entire page? 

    2. Can I change the size of the book, make it thinner to look like a magazine and still have images (my own full pages created in Photoshop) work and use in an animation? 

    3. If I've never animated before, is there enough documentation on how to do it? 

    4. Is there lighting included? I have no idea how to light for animation and will probably have to render in 3DL which I have no idea how to light...

     

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057
    edited April 2018

    I'm sure the creator can give you better answers, but I'll do the best I can.

    1) Absolutely.  You'll note that I replaced the entire 'page background' in the render I shared above with my custom image background.  I was going for a more 'glossy magazine page' look.  I kept the other maps (bump, etc.) to keep that 'paper' feel.  Essentially just resize what you want to fit inside the 'page edges' in the template, or maybe even have it bleed across two pages (although you'd need to do this on two separate page images, due to the 'even/odd page layout thing).

    2) This is best answered by the creator.  I'll take a stab at it though

    • As far as a 'static' book, yeah rescaling shouldn't be much of a problem, although you'd need to account for the 'scale distortion' if changing the length or width of the pages when setting up your page images. This could also affect the 'side text' of the book if you are using the spine for text, etc. but othersise I think 'thickness' should be a bit easier to adjust
    • As far as resizing the book across all of the animation frames (if using a preset), yeah that could be rather involved (might be faster to build a new animation sequence).

    3) Well, if you want to use anything other than the 'provided' animation preset, it depends.  As to what the provided scripts may be able to do for you, that'd be a question best answered by the creator, but if you want a 'unique' animation that is significantly different from what's in the video, well this might be as good a time as any to learn about aniMate and how to animate things in Daz.  Plus, I think you may need some other Daz addons to get full animation editing functionality (separate product addons).  See aniMate2.

    4) Yes, the Storybook animation addon product includes lighting, and camera presets if you choose the provided scene. 

    • You can change the background image, etc. using one of the included ones or one of your own. 
    • I suppose you could also go the hdri route if you wanted to use an outdoor environment or some such.  There's a thread under the forum freebies selection that has a large collection of free hdri backgrounds in various sizes (1K to 16K), with indoor as well as outdoor 360 degree hdri pics.  They are free to download, no registration required, and are a great addition to your Daz toolbox.
      • If you've never messed with HDRI 'sphere' backgrounds, they are assigned under the Render Settings tab, using the Environment Map slider dropdown box (to the left of the slider).  These provide 'ambient' light from all directions, with the intensity varying based on how 'bright' various things are in the background image, and also on the intensity settings you choose.  HDRIs are a quick way to give the illusion of a background without actually having to 'build' one... the HDRI backgroundds can easily be rotated to taste to give you the 'ideal angle'.
      • If you've used HDRI's before, ignore everything I just said...
    • So yeah, in short, you have several lighting options

    I hope that my answers are helpful.  I'm sure the product designer can give you better answers the next time he checks the product thread.

    Post edited by tj_1ca9500b on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 7,133
    tj_1ca9500b said:

    I'm sure the creator can give you better answers, but I'll do the best I can.

    1) Absolutely.  You'll note that I replaced the entire 'page background' in the render I shared above with my custom image background.  I was going for a more 'glossy magazine page' look.  I kept the other maps (bump, etc.) to keep that 'paper' feel.  Essentially just resize what you want to fit inside the 'page edges' in the template, or maybe even have it bleed across two pages (although you'd need to do this on two separate page images, due to the 'even/odd page layout thing).

    2) This is best answered by the creator.  I'll take a stab at it though

    • As far as a 'static' book, yeah rescaling shouldn't be much of a problem, although you'd need to account for the 'scale distortion' if changing the length or width of the pages when setting up your page images. This could also affect the 'side text' of the book if you are using the spine for text, etc. but othersise I think 'thickness' should be a bit easier to adjust
    • As far as resizing the book across all of the animation frames (if using a preset), yeah that could be rather involved (might be faster to build a new animation sequence).

    3) Well, if you want to use anything other than the 'provided' animation preset, it depends.  As to what the provided scripts may be able to do for you, that'd be a question best answered by the creator, but if you want a 'unique' animation that is significantly different from what's in the video, well this might be as good a time as any to learn about aniMate and how to animate things in Daz.  Plus, I think you may need some other Daz addons to get full animation editing functionality (separate product addons).  See aniMate2.

    4) Yes, the Storybook animation addon product includes lighting, and camera presets if you choose the provided scene. 

    • You can change the background image, etc. using one of the included ones or one of your own. 
    • I suppose you could also go the hdri route if you wanted to use an outdoor environment or some such.  There's a thread under the forum freebies selection that has a large collection of free hdri backgrounds in various sizes (1K to 16K), with indoor as well as outdoor 360 degree hdri pics.  They are free to download, no registration required, and are a great addition to your Daz toolbox.
      • If you've never messed with HDRI 'sphere' backgrounds, they are assigned under the Render Settings tab, using the Environment Map slider dropdown box (to the left of the slider).  These provide 'ambient' light from all directions, with the intensity varying based on how 'bright' various things are in the background image, and also on the intensity settings you choose.  HDRIs are a quick way to give the illusion of a background without actually having to 'build' one... the HDRI backgroundds can easily be rotated to taste to give you the 'ideal angle'.
      • If you've used HDRI's before, ignore everything I just said...
    • So yeah, in short, you have several lighting options

    I hope that my answers are helpful.  I'm sure the product designer can give you better answers the next time he checks the product thread.

    Thanks so much for your response!  I do use HDRIs all the time, but would have not thought to use it for this because of too many shadows, but actually I suppose it could be cool, giving it more of a real world setting. I don't think you can use them in 3DL though, or can you? I never really used 3DL, but I feared IRay in animation would take days to render! 

    I suppose this product could help me learn animation, and I did buy Animate2 when it was on sale a while ago but have never used it! Now I'm thinking of all these things I'd like to animate...  Thanks so much for your help and the creator should thank you too because you just helped him me a sale!  laugh

  • tj_1ca9500btj_1ca9500b Posts: 2,057

    You are most welcome!

    I don't have any 3Delight experience so I can't comment on that option (I've been focusing on Iray stuff up until now), but as I pointed out before, if you are rendering just the book, the renders shouldn't take too long, even with CPU only using Iray, depending on how long your animation sequence is.  If you add other stuff in the scene though (such as characters, furniture, etc.), then that'll change that equation significantly.

    Another 'trick' if you don't mind rebuilding an animation sequence frame by frame using some other video editing tool, would be to simply not render all of the 'pause' frames; i.e. just render the intro, outro, and page flip frames in separate 'runs'.  Note that you can choose which frames to start and end with when  rendering an animation sequence in Daz, so you can render the various sections separately,  Then duplicate the 'pause' frames a bunch of times in your 3d editing program to 'fill in' the gaps.  Of course, you'd have to have an appropriate video editing program to do this, and I have no suggestions on that front.

  • OdaaOdaa Posts: 1,548
    edited April 2018

    I can't get the scripts to work on this one for some reason. I don't own photoshop, so that may be the problem for the texturing scripts, but the problem with the page turn script surprised me. I also can't find a node/bone or morph to turn the pages manually. Other than that, seems like a nice product.

    ETA: The PA helped me fix it. Got everything working with MikeD's help! It's a lot of fun to play with.

    Post edited by Odaa on
  • Worlds_EdgeWorlds_Edge Posts: 2,153

    Hi @odaa, the PA has a thread in the commercial forum.  You may be able to get your issue sorted there.  

  • OdaaOdaa Posts: 1,548

    Okay, sorry for the mixup. I'm going to try something and then ask for help if it doesn't work.

  • OdaaOdaa Posts: 1,548
    edited April 2018

    Sorry wrong thread again.

    Post edited by Odaa on
  • WonderlandWonderland Posts: 7,133
    tj_1ca9500b said:

    You are most welcome!

    I don't have any 3Delight experience so I can't comment on that option (I've been focusing on Iray stuff up until now), but as I pointed out before, if you are rendering just the book, the renders shouldn't take too long, even with CPU only using Iray, depending on how long your animation sequence is.  If you add other stuff in the scene though (such as characters, furniture, etc.), then that'll change that equation significantly.

    Another 'trick' if you don't mind rebuilding an animation sequence frame by frame using some other video editing tool, would be to simply not render all of the 'pause' frames; i.e. just render the intro, outro, and page flip frames in separate 'runs'.  Note that you can choose which frames to start and end with when  rendering an animation sequence in Daz, so you can render the various sections separately,  Then duplicate the 'pause' frames a bunch of times in your 3d editing program to 'fill in' the gaps.  Of course, you'd have to have an appropriate video editing program to do this, and I have no suggestions on that front.

    Thanks. I have the one that comes with a Mac. I think it's still called iMovie. I've used it a couple of times, but just have the basics down. 

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