Wait.. what?  How do I get the filament preview?

 

I have some additional tips. 

Filament doesn't really do cast shadows, it does a sort of raytraced deep blurry thing around objects.  In KA's renders you can see he's dealt with this by having the floor areas largely unlit.  One excellent way to cope with this lack on Filament's part is to start from a palette of total darkness and, as he has also done, add just enough light that it dissipates some of the darkness but leaves the floor and some other areas dark enough to not make this lack apparent.  KA is a genius at lighting, and we should all learn from his example.

I also have a product in testing for faking cast shadows by literally throwing a rigged shadow on the ground (shown)!  This one is dForce rigged.

Filament does do shadows, but it is limited in the number and type of light it can handle (and sometimes seems to behave oddly - I have a test scene in which I cannot get one of three spots with a shape to work).

Maybe another opportunity for the Lighting specialist PAs here? A set of Filament lights with shadow capability.

That's a great idea.  If nothing else, Filament will provide some challenges for PAs to sink their teeth into until G9.  Given how weird transparencies work, there's help need with those, as well.  Also with reflective surfaces.

Other than having Daz Studio crash hard with Filament open, when I was loading a character, then working just fine after rebooting and reopening, I have been exploring today as I read all 8 pages of the thread to date. Thank you everyone for your comments. 

My thoughts, it is a tool in our tool box to be selected when needed. Just depends on what project one is working on.

Shaders, I buy any and all, even if I have 20 silk shaders, or 15 metal shaders, I never know just what I might need in the future. As for skin, I have a slew. And I would buy skin shaders for filament renders. 

Thank you all.

 

 

I have some additional tips. 

Filament doesn't really do cast shadows, it does a sort of raytraced deep blurry thing around objects.  In KA's renders you can see he's dealt with this by having the floor areas largely unlit.  One excellent way to cope with this lack on Filament's part is to start from a palette of total darkness and, as he has also done, add just enough light that it dissipates some of the darkness but leaves the floor and some other areas dark enough to not make this lack apparent.  KA is a genius at lighting, and we should all learn from his example.

I also have a product in testing for faking cast shadows by literally throwing a rigged shadow on the ground (shown)!  This one is dForce rigged.

Filament does do shadows, but it is limited in the number and type of light it can handle (and sometimes seems to behave oddly - I have a test scene in which I cannot get one of three spots with a shape to work).

Maybe another opportunity for the Lighting specialist PAs here? A set of Filament lights with shadow capability.

I have some additional tips. 

Filament doesn't really do cast shadows, it does a sort of raytraced deep blurry thing around objects.  In KA's renders you can see he's dealt with this by having the floor areas largely unlit.  One excellent way to cope with this lack on Filament's part is to start from a palette of total darkness and, as he has also done, add just enough light that it dissipates some of the darkness but leaves the floor and some other areas dark enough to not make this lack apparent.  KA is a genius at lighting, and we should all learn from his example.

I also have a product in testing for faking cast shadows by literally throwing a rigged shadow on the ground (shown)!  This one is dForce rigged.

Filament does do shadows, but it is limited in the number and type of light it can handle (and sometimes seems to behave oddly - I have a test scene in which I cannot get one of three spots with a shape to work).

Looks like some interesting things coming to Daz Studio for animating with the new Filament Render engine introduced in the beta. It does really fast animation rendering. I'll have to look into seeing how I can transfer an animation I made in Daz Studio to Carrara so I can compare what they look like in each. I'd be interested to see what it would look like in Carrara vs rendered in Daz Studio with Filament, as well as test to see how the speed compares as well. I'm really just learning CG animation but so far it's pretty fun!

I love the ease I enjoy in Carrara with manipulating every aspect of the animations in the so-easy-to-use timeline.

So for getting motions from Daz Studio to Carrara, I use aniMate 2 (convert timeline to aniBlock) and use the aniBlock Importer for Carrara.

Info here

...but I also have more info in Animating and Hybrid aniMation

Thanks for telling me about Filament! Can't wait to try it!

Thank you, Dartanbeck! Yeah, I really need to pick up aniMate2. I just need it to go on sale at a good discount. lol The starting price is a bit hefty. I've also added the aniMate aniBlock Importer for Carrara to my wishlist. Hopefully, there will be a good sale with both of them soon. :)

Yep. Probably during this current PC+ sale, when they're (GoFigure) one of the artists in the list. There's often a 'recap' sale that has everyone as well! 

That's how I got them as well. You know... it's a starving artist thing! 

Looks like some interesting things coming to Daz Studio for animating with the new Filament Render engine introduced in the beta. It does really fast animation rendering. I'll have to look into seeing how I can transfer an animation I made in Daz Studio to Carrara so I can compare what they look like in each. I'd be interested to see what it would look like in Carrara vs rendered in Daz Studio with Filament, as well as test to see how the speed compares as well. I'm really just learning CG animation but so far it's pretty fun!

I love the ease I enjoy in Carrara with manipulating every aspect of the animations in the so-easy-to-use timeline.

So for getting motions from Daz Studio to Carrara, I use aniMate 2 (convert timeline to aniBlock) and use the aniBlock Importer for Carrara.

Info here

...but I also have more info in Animating and Hybrid aniMation

Thanks for telling me about Filament! Can't wait to try it!

Thank you, Dartanbeck! Yeah, I really need to pick up aniMate2. I just need it to go on sale at a good discount. lol The starting price is a bit hefty. I've also added the aniMate aniBlock Importer for Carrara to my wishlist. Hopefully, there will be a good sale with both of them soon. :)

@SickleYeild That looks great! :D Shadows would be a really big help. I can't wait!

I was working on some skin shaders for Filament too, but since you're doing some already, I might skip it then. :)

Honestly I'd give it a month or so and then do it anyway.  There were many skin shader updater/solutions for Iray and as near as I can tell all of them were successful (Fuseling's and my BSI, JM HumanShader, IDG Essentials, EcVh0's Iray Skin sets, Anagenesis, etc.).  Every artist has a different "take" on this concept, with something different to offer, and yours is definitely as valid.

Yeah, that's true - there are a lot of different skin shader options for Iray, (and I think a few different shaders for 3Delight). It does make sense that Filament shouldn't be treated any differently. And having a variety of different options can be good. I'll probably do that then, wait a month or two and then submit mine (if I can manage to get the look of the shaders just how I want lol).

Thank you, SickleYield, for the encouragement. You're such a sweetheart! 

For Filament to really take off, there will need to be options.  I like Altern8 for its user-friendliness, and think there will be room for Filam8. :)

Sevrin - get out of my head, you! lol I was tentatively calling my Filament shaders Filam8! lol 

@SickleYeild That looks great! :D Shadows would be a really big help. I can't wait!

I was working on some skin shaders for Filament too, but since you're doing some already, I might skip it then. :)

Honestly I'd give it a month or so and then do it anyway.  There were many skin shader updater/solutions for Iray and as near as I can tell all of them were successful (Fuseling's and my BSI, JM HumanShader, IDG Essentials, EcVh0's Iray Skin sets, Anagenesis, etc.).  Every artist has a different "take" on this concept, with something different to offer, and yours is definitely as valid.

Yeah, that's true - there are a lot of different skin shader options for Iray, (and I think a few different shaders for 3Delight). It does make sense that Filament shouldn't be treated any differently. And having a variety of different options can be good. I'll probably do that then, wait a month or two and then submit mine (if I can manage to get the look of the shaders just how I want lol).

Thank you, SickleYield, for the encouragement. You're such a sweetheart! 

For Filament to really take off, there will need to be options.  I like Altern8 for its user-friendliness, and think there will be room for Filam8. :)

Ragazzi, ma il nuovo filament, ma come si usa?

Dovresti essere tu a dirlo a noi!

Comunque, al momento è solo un Draw Style, lo attivi come per Iray o Texture Shaded. Per renderizare devi selezionare "Viewport" nelle opzioni del motore, non è ancora stato traslato in "vero" motore.

Ah, dimenticavo, devi aggiungere i nodi dal menu create.

Sembra utilizzare i materiali Iray, emissivi inclusi. Sto cercando di capire come avere le ombre.

Veramente avevo letto che poteva essere usato diversamente che draw style ma amgari mi confondo io, ultimamente sn incasinato come pochi XD

Si, in Preview, come il vecchio OpenGL.

Ma non è un motore di render vero e proprio, dipende in parte dalle impostazioni IRay e in parte dai settaggi di preview. Troppo approssimativo, specie perchè IRay si è beccato una decina di nuovi bug e non sembra funzionare completamente, quindi anche Filament ne risente.

 

great news Sickleyield hope it hits the store soon

unfortunately my -1Y scaled instance cheat for openGL floor shadows doesn't work in filament as they are still textured

 

That's brilliant, Wendy!

I used your "Shadow Instance" technique here in this Filament animation:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/469408305

That was 472 frames and rendered in 21 minutes! That would have take HOURS for my computer to render in Iray.

While the instance "shadow" isn't exactly true to the lighting it's MUCH better than before with no shadow and helps a lot to "ground" the character with the environment. Thank you so much for sharing your technique!

how did you do that in Filament though?

my video is using the openGL engine, I made it before we had Filament

in Filament my instances are textured even negative scaled

I added Omnifreaker's UberSurface and then turned the Glossiness down to 7% - that helped to make the "shadow" darker and less intense and less colorful. 

I also added a primitive plane for the ground, used a black and white gradient to "fade it out" in the back and dropped the Shadow Instance just below the plane so that it was less stark.

great news Sickleyield hope it hits the store soon

unfortunately my -1Y scaled instance cheat for openGL floor shadows doesn't work in filament as they are still textured

 

That's brilliant, Wendy!

I used your "Shadow Instance" technique here in this Filament animation:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/469408305

That was 472 frames and rendered in 21 minutes! That would have take HOURS for my computer to render in Iray.

While the instance "shadow" isn't exactly true to the lighting it's MUCH better than before with no shadow and helps a lot to "ground" the character with the environment. Thank you so much for sharing your technique!

how did you do that in Filament though?

my video is using the openGL engine, I made it before we had Filament

in Filament my instances are textured even negative scaled

I added Omnifreaker's UberSurface and then turned the Glossiness down to 7% - that helped to make the "shadow" darker and less intense and less colorful. 

I also added a primitive plane for the ground, used a black and white gradient to "fade it out" in the back and dropped the Shadow Instance just below the plane so that it was less stark.

great news Sickleyield hope it hits the store soon

unfortunately my -1Y scaled instance cheat for openGL floor shadows doesn't work in filament as they are still textured

 

That's brilliant, Wendy!

I used your "Shadow Instance" technique here in this Filament animation:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/469408305

That was 472 frames and rendered in 21 minutes! That would have take HOURS for my computer to render in Iray.

While the instance "shadow" isn't exactly true to the lighting it's MUCH better than before with no shadow and helps a lot to "ground" the character with the environment. Thank you so much for sharing your technique!

how did you do that in Filament though?

my video is using the openGL engine, I made it before we had Filament

in Filament my instances are textured even negative scaled

great news Sickleyield hope it hits the store soon

unfortunately my -1Y scaled instance cheat for openGL floor shadows doesn't work in filament as they are still textured

 

That's brilliant, Wendy!

I used your "Shadow Instance" technique here in this Filament animation:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/469408305

That was 472 frames and rendered in 21 minutes! That would have take HOURS for my computer to render in Iray.

While the instance "shadow" isn't exactly true to the lighting it's MUCH better than before with no shadow and helps a lot to "ground" the character with the environment. Thank you so much for sharing your technique!

@SickleYeild That looks great! :D Shadows would be a really big help. I can't wait!

I was working on some skin shaders for Filament too, but since you're doing some already, I might skip it then. :)

Honestly I'd give it a month or so and then do it anyway.  There were many skin shader updater/solutions for Iray and as near as I can tell all of them were successful (Fuseling's and my BSI, JM HumanShader, IDG Essentials, EcVh0's Iray Skin sets, Anagenesis, etc.).  Every artist has a different "take" on this concept, with something different to offer, and yours is definitely as valid.

Yeah, that's true - there are a lot of different skin shader options for Iray, (and I think a few different shaders for 3Delight). It does make sense that Filament shouldn't be treated any differently. And having a variety of different options can be good. I'll probably do that then, wait a month or two and then submit mine (if I can manage to get the look of the shaders just how I want lol).

Thank you, SickleYield, for the encouragement. You're such a sweetheart! 

 

Aw, you're welcome! I have a lot of products that are also made by other artists, before and after me; in my opinion the whole market benefits from diversity even if it would №¹theoretically benefit PAs to be able to call "dibs" and monopolize a product type. My library would be super dull with only one werewolf or zombie, and I would hate to work in a market where only I was allowed to make fog or do skin shader adapters! Plasma_ring is right - a lot of customers buy multiples of any given thing.

That's a great way to look at it, and I completely agree! :) I think the 3D community definitely benefits from variety and I think there's room enough for different PA's takes and styles on similar type products. :D

Ragazzi, ma il nuovo filament, ma come si usa?

Dovresti essere tu a dirlo a noi!

Comunque, al momento è solo un Draw Style, lo attivi come per Iray o Texture Shaded. Per renderizare devi selezionare "Viewport" nelle opzioni del motore, non è ancora stato traslato in "vero" motore.

Ah, dimenticavo, devi aggiungere i nodi dal menu create.

Sembra utilizzare i materiali Iray, emissivi inclusi. Sto cercando di capire come avere le ombre.

Veramente avevo letto che poteva essere usato diversamente che draw style ma amgari mi confondo io, ultimamente sn incasinato come pochi XD

 

 

It could be Octane, try disabling it through Help>About Installed Plug-ins and resart DS. If that doesn't help whata re your system specs?

you will need to browse to the dll and add.bak to the extension to disable it.

(or move it temporarily) I made a desktop shortcut to do this

Unchecking in Help>About Installed Plug-ins and then restarting DS doesn't work?

Wendy, Richard -- thanks for the tips. Uninstalled Octane and renamed the .dll file, rebooted. Still have same issues - note - the system freezes when I try and change animation keyframes via the graph. As long as I don't point-click on the graph, all seemes to work fine. I will have to keep researching - probably file a bug report as I need Octane more than Filament (right now anyway).

Sorry to take up space on this thread - but thought the problem might be related to Filament, It might be just my system - since no one else seems affected.

Dell 9020 24Gb RAM,  Geforce 2060RTX 6gb - Intel I7-4770 3.4GHZ

Thanks
Alan

@SickleYeild That looks great! :D Shadows would be a really big help. I can't wait!

I was working on some skin shaders for Filament too, but since you're doing some already, I might skip it then. :)

Honestly I'd give it a month or so and then do it anyway.  There were many skin shader updater/solutions for Iray and as near as I can tell all of them were successful (Fuseling's and my BSI, JM HumanShader, IDG Essentials, EcVh0's Iray Skin sets, Anagenesis, etc.).  Every artist has a different "take" on this concept, with something different to offer, and yours is definitely as valid.

Yeah, that's true - there are a lot of different skin shader options for Iray, (and I think a few different shaders for 3Delight). It does make sense that Filament shouldn't be treated any differently. And having a variety of different options can be good. I'll probably do that then, wait a month or two and then submit mine (if I can manage to get the look of the shaders just how I want lol).

Thank you, SickleYield, for the encouragement. You're such a sweetheart! 

Aw, you're welcome! I have a lot of products that are also made by other artists, before and after me; in my opinion the whole market benefits from diversity even if it would №¹theoretically benefit PAs to be able to call "dibs" and monopolize a product type. My library would be super dull with only one werewolf or zombie, and I would hate to work in a market where only I was allowed to make fog or do skin shader adapters! Plasma_ring is right - a lot of customers buy multiples of any given thing.

@SickleYeild That looks great! :D Shadows would be a really big help. I can't wait!

I was working on some skin shaders for Filament too, but since you're doing some already, I might skip it then. :)

Honestly I'd give it a month or so and then do it anyway.  There were many skin shader updater/solutions for Iray and as near as I can tell all of them were successful (Fuseling's and my BSI, JM HumanShader, IDG Essentials, EcVh0's Iray Skin sets, Anagenesis, etc.).  Every artist has a different "take" on this concept, with something different to offer, and yours is definitely as valid.

Yeah, that's true - there are a lot of different skin shader options for Iray, (and I think a few different shaders for 3Delight). It does make sense that Filament shouldn't be treated any differently. And having a variety of different options can be good. I'll probably do that then, wait a month or two and then submit mine (if I can manage to get the look of the shaders just how I want lol).

Thank you, SickleYield, for the encouragement. You're such a sweetheart! 

OK ... is it just me - or a bug.

I've installed the update, but every time i set up a animation scene and go to manipulate the timeline, the interface freezes up. That includes windows itself. I have to use ctrl+alt+del to even get the task manager up, then several trys to activate the Daz interface. After a few minutes of trial and error, everything becomes active again. But, touch the timeline again and the freeze starts all over again. This even effects older versions of DAZ that I still have installed. Only way around this has been to uninstall the update and reboot, then everything works as normal - but no Filament. of course. Tried this three times (uninstall/reinstall, etc.) - all same result.

It's weird that it affects older versions of Studio as well (installed in separate folders).

Can anyone confirm or reproduce?
I also have Octane installed - maybe a conflict somewhere?

Running a 2060RTX 6GB (no memory problems with sample scenes I'm trying).

Thanks
Alan

It could be Octane, try disabling it through Help>About Installed Plug-ins and resart DS. If that doesn't help whata re your system specs?

you will need to browse to the dll and add.bak to the extension to disable it.

(or move it temporarily) I made a desktop shortcut to do this

Unchecking in Help>About Installed Plug-ins and then restarting DS doesn't work?

I am not sure now as on the wrong PC but I didn't think it appeared there, someone can correct me if it does