I am trying to put together a comic strip but have no real drawing skills. I want to use Daz for my character, and Google Sketchup for backgrounds.
The single character I will need is a female, and after a few opening frames of (She comes out of a 'replicator tube' and was literally just 'born'.) implied nudity, she will put on a skin tight space suit with a sort of skirt around her waist to cover her bottom (she's embarrassed by the exposure).
I've looked through the assets and can't find anything like that suit. The Gen 2 and Gen 3 isn't working so well either since I sould ike her to have long flowing hair. Not stupid long, just shoulder length. That will look good in some later frames of her in space.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to achieve these?

Presumeably you can only use freebies for this. Here are a couple of freebie exteriors:

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=27638

https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/free-chapel-celtic-video-3d-model/464431 Maybe retexture the sides to wood siding.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=398e781f-0d51-4c11-bb02-efc3f414e04b sketchup format but could be converted to obj.

That's kept up to date? Yes. There are a few other few modelers but I think except for sketchup it's been over 10 years since they were updated, forget the name, MS bought it, shutit down, and made it free. There are probably some obscure open source ones too if you search.

So Blender it is.

MayaLT is $30 a month or $240 a year. Mudbox is $10 a month but someone gossiped it is buggy and will be merged into Maya. Maya and 3DS Max can both be subscribed to monthly too I think but before paying money on a sub I'd get started in Blender and see if you urge to 3D model remains.

Took the plunge recently.  Spent the whole weekend teaching myself Hexagon on my Windows 10 desktop.  I've really got th bug to keep learning 3D modeling.  Now I find out Hexagon is no longer supported and does not work on the current generation of Mac OS.  I want to install it on my Mac so I can work with it while on the road and my laptop is a Mac.

This is a hobby for me, so cheap is paramount.  I looked at SketchUp - but the free version doesn't support .obj files.  Daz has a built in bridge to Hexagon, and ZBrush, but ZBrush is $800.  No thank you.

That pretty much leaves Blender - unless anyone has a better suggestion?

Hello nonesuch00! Welcome to the contest.
I can understand your confusion on how to list the props you used in your render.
Over the last 10 years the rules have changed depending on who was in charge.

Here is a guide on the format of how to list everything. (unless Saphirewild says no.)

NO COUNT: This is were you list all the base figures and their basic morphs. This includes DAZ figures & Poser program content.
Gen3, Gen4 & Genesis. For Genesis, this includes all basic morphs & clothing packages. Check to see if it's listed as free this week.
Sketchup warehouse models:
Although the models are free, the amount of work to convert them to a Studio friendly format differs from model to model. Converting most .fbx & .3ds models can be done in seconds. Converting .skp to .obj may take hours. You must use either Sketchup or Blender with a plugin, to convert it. Then you may have to take it into a modeling program to fix normals or texture zones. The general consents of the DAZ freebie community was that because of the work involved to use Sketchup models, it was not fair to the new users to allow them to count.

PAID ITEMS:
Any prop, model, character morph package, clothing item or outfits & texture mat sets or shaders packs that you paid for. And anything else except software used in making the render. If you paid cash for it, it goes here.
This may also include bi-weekly freebies that aren't free this week. Check the DAZ freebie listings.

FREE ITEMS:
If it is free and it has a valid download link it counts. Free items without a valid link should be listed, but don't count.
If you can't find a current link, check the Internet Wayback Machine. You might get lucky.
This includes models, props, character morph packs, clothing item or outfits, texture packs, shader packs & background photos.
All free items except software goes here.

SOFTWARE:
All software used in the creation of the render either free or paid goes here.
DAZ Studio, Poser, Brice, Carrara, Blender & etc.
Render programs like Reality & LuxRender  
Photoshop, Paint.net, Gimp, PaintShop Pro, BlackSmith Paint & other paint programs.
Sketchup, Hexagon, 3ds Max, Poseray & etc.

Make a note on any item that requires site registration, or if it's a required item.
The idea is to make it easy to read and give full credit on everything.
The above format is what I have been using for years, it's my personal opinion of how to do it.

As always, review the official rules, then look at previous entry posts to see how they were done. 
And remember, if your not having fun, your doing it wrong.

Gerry

The workflow I use with Sketchup assets is to export them as a Collada file, import the Collada into Blender, then finally export from Blender as an .obj. 

I imported an obj from sketchup. The MTL file is located in the same directory, but the obj is white (no materials) in daz3d. There are no textures. The MTL file just contains the colors. The mtl and obj file are in same folder and named the same (except for extension). I'm guessing Daz isn't compatible with these types of mtl files? See attached example.

Hello.

I'm not exactly new to 3d however I'm coming from the 'sketchup' side of things.

My question is about 'scaling' I'll try to be a brief as I can.

In most 3d applications you have scaling in the x y and z axis and daz has this as well.

I'm trying to create a figure with stunted proportion these are called 'chibis' in anime circles.

Big head little body.

When I try to rescale parts of the body the thighs for example there is only one slider available and it scales in all three axis. There doesn’t seem to be a way to unlock the slider or access the other sliders using the parameters tab.

This is the Genisis 2 female figure I'm tinkering with.

I apologize if this is a dumb question but the manual has not been very helpful at this point.

I'll pass on this one also. I am not a fan of the Fender Jaguar body style and I have plenty of cheesecake poses I can add a guitar to. Being an ex musician I'd also love a pose set with actual playing poses along with some rock attitude poses for GM3.

Anyone interested in instruments and accessories, there are quite a few at the sketchup warehouse that can be converted for DS use. I recently found a nice strat, a warlock bass, some custom pics, these amps and this nice destroyer

So the title is a bit dramatic.  I do however feel that even though Hexagon is convenient, I am really at the limits of what I can make in it.  I've felt this way for some time, but its been very difficult finding something else as easy to use.  There's a lot of things I want to do that Hexagon makes exceedingly difficult, or doesn't let me do at all.  I'm making this thread to help point people to programs that might be a good painless segway from Hexagon.  Sure there's plenty of Options out there, like Sketchup and Blender....but neither ever felt quite right to me.  I think that's partly because of the specific work flow Hexagon delivers.   So I think that's a crucial part, at least for me, in what one move on to, because different programs may be more appealing at different times than others, depending on the work flow you came from.  

 Recently I tried out Autodesk's Fusion 360.....and I'm actually finding it quite intuitive, and the UI is clean and uncluttered.  I'm sure I will probably run into things I can't do or that are difficult to do in the way I want to in this program as well, but for now it seems to be going well.  It does have a sketch based modeling side to it like Sketchup, but it also has all the typical features you would find in Hexagon and more, all easily accessible.  Kind of more importantly, it looks good all around and is pretty stable at that.  Hexagon while still useful for specific tasks, feels more like a hurdle that I have to constantly work around and appease, rather than an extension of my imagination.  

 

The image I included is not really anything special, but it does immediately show that there is more potential in it, as I couldn't easily make this in Hexagon without either ending up with a crash or bad geometry or some kind of other artifacts like pinching that I would have to correct.  That's kind of the problem, I feel I'm spending a lot of time cleaning up after Hexagon. There's also much greater control in the starting shapes you use to mold into final objects.  

Have you given a try to Carrara?  It is on sale and has many other features that Hexagon does not have:

https://www.daz3d.com/carrara-8-5-pro

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/155531/carrara-pro-8-5-can-now-be-purchased-for-45-50#latest

Give us a Weasley. 3d warehouse might have the glasses in collada format.

Well, look here!

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/4fac190fa3aecd8a1edf59b9c77b0b75/Scale-glasses

Hit download and pick the collada file.

Thank you.  I know it was here somewhere but if you don't know how the original post was worded hard to find. As for the scale  I exported his model out at Daz scale and then imported it into sketchup so scale should be ok.  My friend generally models fighter craft but built a carrier for them.  I was modeling up one of the escorts .  Why he has two scale pose settings. One so you can do deck scenes and the other for large scenes that don't involve closeups and such. 

I am having a problem getting an obj file I made in Sketchup to load up on the viewport grid.  Is there a method to get it to move to it?  I know it is probably a stupid question. I have tried loading it as a .dae file and it doesn't like that at all.  Not sure why it won't load in right place.  

Any help appreciated thanks. 

Launok - lovely work with the sketchup models and adding the people, adds to the scene. Looking forward to the animation.

Slepalex - the Victoria portrait looks nice rendered in Bryce 7 Pro

Electro-Elvis- thanks

Dan Whiteside - lovely crime scene, I especially like the killer's expression.

Rashad Carter - thanks for the comment and explanation about Scattering and Focused Scattering

Question: is the flickering of the particles somehow controllable? In some examples, the particles seem less like dust and more like blinking fireflies. I'm hoping it's a matter of the light source/direction.

Using these for underwater renders will be amazing. I was watching Finding Dory the other night and noticed how the floating debris/plankton/detritus really helped sell the environment, along with the incredible lighting effects. With the right settings for iREAL Ocean surfaces, would it be possible to mimic dynamic underwater lighting effects, maybe using caustics? If not, an iREAL Animated Underwater Lighting Effects would be another instabuy!

The flickering is the light reflecting off of different sides of the particles as they spin (Bloom can also cause flickering if not rendered out far enough). If you want to reduce it, you can do so by either adding another light source from the opposite side, or turning bloom off (or rendering out far enough to let bloom settle down), or increasing the luminosity of the particles.

As for an underwater setting, I was experimenting with this for about 30-45 minutes last night using my oceans as the top, and it looks like it is very doable. I did a very rough sketchup (see attached render). All I did was add a volumetric light cube between the surface and the floor, and added a slight blue tint to the subsurface scattering (also added refraction to the surface, and increased the scale of the particles).

Sorry for the poor render. It was just a test so I didn't invest too much time into it;

I'm guessing particle movement within the volumetric space as well as particle spin is not user-controllable other than perhaps adjusting the speed of the aniblock as a whole (if that's even possible). Just means I'll have to play around with it, which is all part of the fun. Looking forward to this one. I envision lots of possibilities for rendering both static and animated art.

Question: is the flickering of the particles somehow controllable? In some examples, the particles seem less like dust and more like blinking fireflies. I'm hoping it's a matter of the light source/direction.

Using these for underwater renders will be amazing. I was watching Finding Dory the other night and noticed how the floating debris/plankton/detritus really helped sell the environment, along with the incredible lighting effects. With the right settings for iREAL Ocean surfaces, would it be possible to mimic dynamic underwater lighting effects, maybe using caustics? If not, an iREAL Animated Underwater Lighting Effects would be another instabuy!

The flickering is the light reflecting off of different sides of the particles as they spin (Bloom can also cause flickering if not rendered out far enough). If you want to reduce it, you can do so by either adding another light source from the opposite side, or turning bloom off (or rendering out far enough to let bloom settle down), or increasing the luminosity of the particles.

As for an underwater setting, I was experimenting with this for about 30-45 minutes last night using my oceans as the top, and it looks like it is very doable. I did a very rough sketchup (see attached render). All I did was add a volumetric light cube between the surface and the floor, and added a slight blue tint to the subsurface scattering (also added refraction to the surface, and increased the scale of the particles).

Sorry for the poor render. It was just a test so I didn't invest too much time into it;

 

@Launok: I love the daylight scene and your idea to show an accident :-D Are the cars Sketchup models as well?

 

Yes, everything in the scene including terrain are models from Sketchup Warehouse.

I'm so sorry I forgot to comment on your two latest entries. I love both the daytime and the night time versions. To my eye, you seem to be learning very quickly. I think adding people will be a really nice focus for the viewer. Good to see you have a strong desire to animate. We need more Bryce animators. Keep it going!

@Launok: I love the daylight scene and your idea to show an accident :-D Are the cars Sketchup models as well?

Yes, everything in the scene including terrain are models from Sketchup Warehouse.

@slepalex: You have done a very good job here. I like the light in your new version better, because it is softer. Dome lights are a true improvement of Bryce. I am not quite sure, I cannot see it clearly, but have you added bump maps to the skin? It looks a bit like that. Thumbs up!
"Road in the rye" is a wonderful picture. I find the bent ears well observed and well done. I wish, I knew how to do such a thing

slepalex wrote:

Electro-Elvis, it looks like a high-quality studio shooting with professional photographers. Setting lighting - perfect.
Which rendering mode you used?
I imagine the difficulties you are facing. Missing maps and how to find and include them - this is not the biggest problem. I have some experience with this.
The big problem - it's pseudo SSS and other work with the skin.

Thank you slepalex: Light comes from a HDRI and 2 sphere lights. Rendered with Premium effects with TA and 144 rpp. Still a bit grainy. I have used the spot render with rpp = 256 to reduce the graininess in certain parts.First I used a cube dome light, but the render time would have lasted more than 30 hours for 64 rays per pixel. That means 120 hours for 256 rpp.

@vivien: Thanks: Your ruins are nicely done and nicely lit.

@Horo: Thanks. Your study of transparency, reflection and specular looks very interesting.

@c-ram: Thanks. Another outstanding Bryce scene. The details are wonderful and the angel of view is very good chosen. The only point I could say, it looks a bit bleached out.

@S Ray: Interesting effect.

@Hansmar: Thanks

@mermaid010: I love the texture of the sphere and the table cloth. Dave has given us very nice materials and you have presented them very well.

@Launok: I love the daylight scene and your idea to show an accident :-D Are the cars Sketchup models as well?

SketchUp, 3D-modeling for the masses? (Sorry if this App has been already mentioned.)

The SketchUp 3D modeling software made 3D modelling easy, err...easier for me!    I am a long time user of SketchUp, which to me is the most intuitive 3D modeling program I’ve tried.   Certainly not one’s first choice for building organic shapes, but for building props to use in DAZ it does the job for me (imports & exports OBJ, allows texturing and making bones). 

The 3D-Warehouse has tons of free models, and the Extensions-Warehouse has enough extensions & plugins to do almost anything… including organic shapes.   You can even bring in terrain w/satellite images from Google Earth into your SketchUp model.

I am using the most current Pro/paid version, but there is a free/trial version called SketchUp Make, and lots of older free versions that can be found that may have more functionality for import/export than their current free/trial version.

Here is their link: https://www.sketchup.com/