Entry # 6
Title: Model T - cars for the masses
Artist: Bunyip02

Entry: 21
Title: - Horse Domestication in Central Asia
Artist: Diomede

Entry #17
Title: Whose Voice or should it be Who's Voice
Artist: Stezza

Entry 22
Schrodinger's Dilemna
Artist and claymation director:  Grimmvald

Thank you for your help barbult! I saw that Default resources was installed but I was missing the Simple OpenVDB MDL Volume folder in data. I uninstalled Default Resources and reinstalled it but still no folder was created with the OpenVDB file.

Is the Smart Content view you showed - Is that in DAZ Studio, DIM or DAZ Central? I couldn't find that either.

Alien Hunter Shuriken Weapon (CGI)

This model is inspired by a design from a certain Sci-Fi Horror/Action movie franchise, the Alien Hunter's Shuriken weapon has had several variations on this design in subsequent movies, but this design is based on that which appeared in the first movie featuring this weapon, and I've based this model primarily on that design. There are two versions of the weapon on display here, the deployed weapon with the blades ready for action, and a closed version with the blades folded up within the central disc of the weapon. These parts bare little resemblance to the deployed blades, they just seem to magically unfurl and extend, hence the two separate models. This version is designed to be a 3D printed kit that will result in a one to one scale replica of the screen used weapon. I'm also working on a less high poly CGI version for use within Daz 3D. This will be my first model designed specifically for 3D Printing, and the test prints that are coming out are already looking very cool. Exciting times ahead.

Please enjoy the work in progress images to follow, and keep your eyes peeled for this model's imminent release in the not too distant future. I'm not yet sure which version will be released first, but I'll obviously keep you posted. Also included towards the end are images of the first test prints of some of the first parts to roll off the 3D Printer. Many thanks to my partner in this project for providing these prints. I'm very excited to see how this all comes together. 

(This release currently just includes the CGI version for now. The 3D printable version of this asset will be made available at a later date)

I cannot update Daz Studio in Daz Central.
When I press the update button the loading bar flashes two times with 89% on it and then goes away, leaving the update button visible again.

I don't use Daz Central. I use DIM, but in DIM, this is the product you need. Does that product show up in Daz Central? Default Resources contains the shader you need for any volume, not just the Dimension Theory ones. Do you have this installed?

kyoto kid said:

CHWT said:

ekajuan_9f765a669b said:

@all
First, my question derives from a user point of view and not a content creator. I was wondering.
With the ability/skill of some creators, even up to creating (almost) a resemblance of some movie actors/actresses, I think they can do it, if they want to, why didn't they create more of different ethnicities?

I just want to hear this forum opinions or perhaps some experiences. 

Second, for anyone who offended by the term race and prefer the term etnicity, no problem. Etnicity it is.

Third, why I don't make my own with morphs. I'm not good at it. I tried. I tried sculpting too. I ended up spend many weeks, trying to. Although I ended with somehting, but I didn't get the result I desired.
Thus, instead of making what I want to make, I ended up tweaking those.

Facegen, I've tried it. The result wasn't at the level I wanted it. 

With all said, in general don't need to get too serious guys.

 

 

 

I know it's frustrating for you... but if you really want to achieve what you exactly want it takes time. To achieve a level of realism/quality acceptable to myself, it took me TWO YEARS to fine tune one of my characters. Because I know I will NEVER get what I want in the marketplace

...after over 15 years at this (beginning with trying to create a viable young teen out of 5' 10 " tall Vicky 4), I feel I finally have one of my central characters looking like I imagined her.  G8 helped a lot as there are a few more "petite" base characters that aren't stylised like 3DU's younger ones and after struggling for a couple weeks, I finally was able to apply a nice G8.1 skin to a G8 character. 

The character herself is a blend of several different ones.  The skin is from Moryen 8.1 and is perfect for a ginger haired individual. Took a bit of adjusting first having to create a separate head surface with the Geometry Editor and then compensate for lack of the SSS channels 8.1 has that G8 doesn't, but finally got it to work.

Would post a pic but doesn't fit the main topic.

CHWT said:

ekajuan_9f765a669b said:

@all
First, my question derives from a user point of view and not a content creator. I was wondering.
With the ability/skill of some creators, even up to creating (almost) a resemblance of some movie actors/actresses, I think they can do it, if they want to, why didn't they create more of different ethnicities?

I just want to hear this forum opinions or perhaps some experiences. 

Second, for anyone who offended by the term race and prefer the term etnicity, no problem. Etnicity it is.

Third, why I don't make my own with morphs. I'm not good at it. I tried. I tried sculpting too. I ended up spend many weeks, trying to. Although I ended with somehting, but I didn't get the result I desired.
Thus, instead of making what I want to make, I ended up tweaking those.

Facegen, I've tried it. The result wasn't at the level I wanted it. 

With all said, in general don't need to get too serious guys.

 

 

 

I know it's frustrating for you... but if you really want to achieve what you exactly want it takes time. To achieve a level of realism/quality acceptable to myself, it took me TWO YEARS to fine tune one of my characters. Because I know I will NEVER get what I want in the marketplace

...after over 15 years at this (beginning with trying to create a viable young teen out of 5' 10 " tall Vicky 4), I feel I finally have one of my central characters looking like I imagined her.  G8 helped a lot as there are a few more "petite" base characters that aren't stylised like 3DU's younger ones and after struggling for a couple weeks, I finally was able to apply a nice G8.1 skin to a G8 character. 

The character herself is a blend of several different ones.  The skin is from Moryen 8.1 and is perfect for a ginger haired individual. Took a bit of adjusting first having to create a separate head surface with the Geometry Editor and then compensate for lack of the SSS channels 8.1 has that G8 doesn't, but finally got it to work.

Would post a pic but doesn't fit the main topic.

As far as I know Central places its Manifests in a sub-folder of the root folder, alongside the Downloads folder (and Thumbnails folder). You could install Install Manager, which will then show the individual paths in its Advanced settings (in the Installation tab).

Richard Haseltine said:

Delete the .dsx files in the Manifests folder in the folder Daz Central writes to to clear its list, in Daz Studio open the Content Library option menu (the lined button in the top corner orr ight-click the tab), select Content DB Maintenance, check Reset Database, adn click Accept - note that if Daz Studio is allowed to go online it will rdownload your product list and show everything greyed out.

Sorry for the time it took to respond after trying to follow through on these instructions, life being what it is, I had put doing work on Daz on the back burner. Now, I have tried following the instructions to delete the dsx files, running into a small problem: there is no Manifests folder in Daz Central's folder or any folder except for one in the Windows/WinSxS. 

I successfully followed the Reset Database which worked fine. 

Now, because I could not find a way to delete the dsx files or reset the Daz Central database, I have to uninstall all Open files and reinstall them individually.

Thanx for helping me with the Daz3D issue (honestly). Even with the DC issue, it has made resetting Daz3D to a clean copy doable. 

I'm sorry I'm not sure what any of what you just said means. I installed this product manually and through DAZ Central and each time I load the product I get the error that states there are missing packages here:  /data/DAZ 3D/Built-in Content/Simple OpenVDB MDL Volume/Simple OpenVDB MDL Volume.dsf. Going through DAZ Central there are no additional resources for me to install, so I'm confused on what is missing and where do I find it to install. Thanks!

With all due respect but that's way too broad of a question I think. Daz Studio is seriously extensive and things could go into either direction. I mean, is this about Daz Studio itself, the rendering process, the market place?

Meh, but then again....  let's just DO THIS :)

Daz Studio

At the risk of coming across as a fanboy: if you stop to think about all the features which Daz Studio ("DS") provides I think it's very interesting to see his being presented for free. Yah, sure, it's also a sales model (important detail!) but seriously: do not underestimate this environment!

• Make sure to become familiar with both the smart contents pane as well as the so called "Content Library" pane, both are equally important. Trying to apply an accessory meant for Genesis 8 onto Genesis (1)?  Impossible with the smart contents pane because of its filtering but no bother at all with the content library. Of course there's more: sometimes stuff doesn't end up in the smart contents section, sometimes you may want to look up all the assets of a product and sometimes...  you want to rely on 3rd party contents which you need to install yourself. => content library pane.
  • For example: find "Genesis" in the smart contents pane, right click, and check the "Show asset in..." area...
• DS is like elastic: everything can be customized! Press F3 (or use the pulldown menu: Windows => Workspace => Customize) and you can just do it all... keyboard shortcuts, toolbars, even the pulldown menus themselves!  Just be careful not to overdo things if you're new, make sure you know what you're messing around with!
• 3rd party contents: Trust me: some day you'll be going here as well. With all due respect to Daz3D but there's more than just their marketplace. If you're going there: don't dump your new stuff into existing places. Instead create a new folder somewhere, then use that as your new 3rd party library. This helps you keep an overview, it will prevent your library from clogging up and keep things manageable.
• Add your own categories! => For example, I do a lot with Genesis base figures, in many cases that's how I start. I mean, when I'm creating poses it doesn't matter what character it's meant for: the Genesis generation is all that matters. As such: Figures => Genesis is a category in my setup (know what? I'll share a screenshot).
• Old doesn't imply obsolete!! => I cannot stress this one out enough: yes, Iray is an amazing render engine and the stuff you can squeeze out of that is sometimes mindblowing. Some of my older sceneries honestly suddenly looked... frickin' amazing, when all I did was change render engines. Thing is though: 3Delight is still an amazing engine and you should not underestimate the things you can learn from using it.
  • However... this also applies to the figures in the Daz store. Genesis 9 is the new hot deal but trust me: that doesn't mean older generations suddenly have no value anymore. Even up to this very same date (time of writing but... I don't see this ending soon) I'm still more than often using Genesis; so the first generation? I'll do you one more: some of my renders ("elsewhere") featuring Genesis 3 can sometimes still go through the roof where appreciation is concerned. That's also kinda old stuff ;)
• If you're serious about this stuff: consider getting a "3D editor". Daz provides Hexagon, very dated but also very capable. Even free of charge it seems?. And it's natively supported by DS through a "bridge" => "Send to Hexagon".
  • Bias goes into effect here for this item: There's also Blender, also free of charge but with a bit of a learning curve too. To be fully honest I never liked this product myself, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate it's amazing potential. My personal favorite though is ZBrush. Commercial software, very expensive and I'm not even sure how long it will remain available as a perpetial license vs. a subscription model. I've been using this critter for 3 years now and I'm still learning stuff; there's pretty much nothing I can't do here!
  • Much cheaper but also seriously useful: Daz Bryce.  This isn't the kind of "3D editor" I had in mind with my main point above, but this critter is priceless when it comes to creating backdrops. Clouds in the sky? This fractal generator can still blow your mind to this very same day, even in combination with Iray (provided that you know how to use the whole shebang and set up proper lighting and all....). I'm serious... My start menu for 3D? => Daz Studio, ZBrush and Bryce 7. Followed by Photoshop organizer.
• Instead of buying texture packs... maybe consider Substance Painter? ;)

Render process

• 3Delight can give you way more freedom and options than you may realize!
  • Lighting is a very important part of your rendering process, and 3Delight can help highlight all of this. Because it's a lot easier to apply lighting and then almost immediately showcase their effect. Yah, I'm the nut who actually set up a red, green and blue lightsource ("spotlight"), aimed them in the same general direction of a 3D primiate I placed, just to see what would happen. Then I added a figure in between....
• Don't always accept standard presets: at the very least go over the properties to see if you understand what's happening there.
• Filament is an awesome render engine but ... if you just select it in your viewport you will probably get met with oversaturated objects. Solution: Create => New filament draw options node. (remember my "DS is elastic" comment earlier? Nothing is stopping you from adding this option to, say, your toolbar?).
  • If you do go here: pay specific attention to "Environment intensity scale" as well as "distance scene light scale".
• White dots in your Iray render usualy indicate lighting issues. Either go over your render settings or... add more light sources.

Daz marketplace

• Don't trust promo pictures!  You more than often do not get what the pictures are showing you, be sure to go over a product contents section and try to veriry that you understand what you're grabbing.
• Daz Central isn't the only option to install stuff...   many people rely on the Daz Install Manager for example. Simply put: if you want your software to reside on drive C and your content library on D... you'll want DIM.
• Please keep this in mind: older does not imply worse! When Genesis 8 hit I soon had a field day with several Genesis ("1") assets because they dropped so much in price... And yes, you will come across assets which were build for "RSL" (Renderman Shader Language; used with 3Delight) which may not properly work with the modern MDL ("Material Definition Language", specific for NVidia's Iray). So then there's this thing called Substance Painter, available on the Adobe website for rent but also on Steam for purchase with a perpetual license. Once you got your fingers behind that you'll never bother with a texture pack again. And it can go as simple as to just drag & drop materials to "make it work" towards applying several layers in order to customze stuff into the most detail possible. Maybe even fully converting RSL based assets into MDL.
  • Also don't be afraid to experiment... I made some of my best "ghost renders" by simply (ab)using the lack of support for MDL and just put an RSL asset into my scene. It rendered pure white with a bit of variations and... it looked pretty cool despire that it wasn't meant to be used this way.
• With all due respect to Daz3D (<= they deserve it IMO!) => 3rd party marketplaces exist and they also often sell awesome stuff.
• And yes, I am going here: if you're looking for proper / useful anatomy...  on the Daz 3D marketplace you need to grab Pro bundles for their Genesis assets (other than Genesis 9 I think, with all due respect I'm ignoring 9 for now). The assets are useful, but you may want to focus on "other places" if you need more detail.
• Speaking of bundles: sometimes it helps to check the individual parts. Are you sure you need all of the items? Maybe you can save money there.
• And speaking of saving money: this hobby isn't cheap, try to build up a pose of your own (no: not using morphs!) and you'll see how much time and effort it'll take. Now imagine building 3D assets yourself! If you're new to Daz3D and want to build up a nice collection then I strongly recommend using Daz+. I also strongly recommend to keep taps on all this and to make sure that you're still in your "buying spree year / moment" when you re-evaluate your subscription. You might notice I don't have such a subscription right now myself but trust me: when I build up my library I had, and put it to good use too! It's definitely worth noting.
• Last but certainly not least: Free doesn't imply useless advertisement junk. But it can be!  Always make sure that a freebie doesn't rely on "other items", this often happens on the Daz marketplace. But there are also plenty of freebies up for grabs "out there" on the Internet and yah: all easily implemented into your smart contents pane if you'd want to (there's a reason why I mentioned NOT to underestimate the insane amount of usability of DS despite it being provided free of charge!).

And there you go!

My take on getting started in the wonderful / awesome world of Daz3D / Daz Studio. Thanks for reading, I hope this could be useful!

For context sakes, this is what my setup looks like, I'll bet you don't have a 'Genesis' section ;) =>

I'm having the same problem with the same product but am unsure of where to install these default resources. Is this from DAZ Studio or DAZ Central? I'm pretty new to this software. Thanks!

Already plenty of good advice. I would just add that if you are using either Daz Central OR Daz Install Manager (DIM) - which you probably should - then do not log into your account within the Daz Studio application itself. Doing that is only required if you want to use Daz's built in installer (Daz Connect) and will cause conflicts with assets installed via other means if you have it connected.

Secondly, watch the tutorials in the masterclass here: https://www.daz3d.com/community/masterclass

There are of course other good tutorial videos on Youtube to help you get to grips with various things.

Charlie Judge said:

ArtAngel said:

butterflyfish said:

OK, so I bought horse 3 back in December, and I also already own the horse 2 pro bundle. Does the $36.02 include the extra 20% off for owning the horse 2 pro bundle? Or should I be seeing more off than that?

I also pre-owned the Daz Horse 2 Pro Bundle and the Daz Horse 3 (part of the December 24th sleigh bundle).  I had the Mega Horse 3 Bundle carted ($30.02) and 4 add-ons, plus 8 other items pertaining to todays offer, for a total of $93.59. I now have the orange banner but the price did not lower. It remained the same.

I  think you were already getting the banner discount even though you weren't seeing the banner. I got the banner early-on and my price for DAZ Horse 3 mega bundle was also $30.02 when I had one additional addon in my cart.

Same here I bought it at 0124 Texas time (Central US Time Zone) 

daniel_ff86a18d said:

daniel_ff86a18d said:

Richard Haseltine said:

I am not aware of a way to do that.

Have you rtried setting a different location for the Content Cluster? What security software are you using? How are you installing?

Tried different locations and tried both the DIM and Daz Central to load it. The weird thing is, I can get the program loaded, and I can even load assets from the DIM, but I can't log into daz through the program or see any unloaded assets inside the program. So the program is kind of usable in a half-baked way.  

OK, have pretty much been throwing everything at the wall. I got my assets to show up in the program and can download them... not sure what I did differently. BUT, it's still not letting me log in, inside the program.

 You do not want to log in, inside the program.

daniel_ff86a18d said:

Richard Haseltine said:

I am not aware of a way to do that.

Have you rtried setting a different location for the Content Cluster? What security software are you using? How are you installing?

 

Tried different locations and tried both the DIM and Daz Central to load it. The weird thing is, I can get the program loaded, and I can even load assets from the DIM, but I can't log into daz through the program or see any unloaded assets inside the program. So the program is kind of usable in a half-baked way.  

OK, have pretty much been throwing everything at the wall. I got my assets to show up in the program and can download them... not sure what I did differently. BUT, it's still not letting me log in, inside the program.

Richard Haseltine said:

I am not aware of a way to do that.

Have you rtried setting a different location for the Content Cluster? What security software are you using? How are you installing?

Tried different locations and tried both the DIM and Daz Central to load it. The weird thing is, I can get the program loaded, and I can even load assets from the DIM, but I can't log into daz through the program or see any unloaded assets inside the program. So the program is kind of usable in a half-baked way.  

Thank you, for so swift a reply!

Due to your explanation, I solved an installation issue with using Daz Central rather than the Install Manager on my end and was able to download an auxiliary item with the missing files. Everything now seems as expected. I greatly appreciate the time taken to help me here!

For the benefit of anyone else who may experience the same probelm...

After checking the  "General" folder and finding nothing, I ran a Windows Explorer search and confirmed that the file was nowhere on my PC. While I had installed through Daz Central, I intended to uninstall and reinstall through the Install Manager, as it seems to show more technical information. That is where I discovered the missing files within a seperate 5KB item titled the same as the Emphasized Visemes for G8.1F product yet not downloaded. Additionally, I found "Anilip 2 Tutorials" and a completely seperate product I had forgotten about. None of these showed up in DC, and everything that was present over there showed as installed in both DC and IM. Downloading that item added the missing folder with the "dobitAnilip2.dsx" and "UseVisemesInAnilip2.txt" files to the "General" folder within the "My DAZ 3d Library" directory, right where Dobit said it should be. I had that window open before I clicked "download", and it appeared instantly. While I feel that I was mislead by Daz Central and hope my confusion was understandable, I do wish to acknowledge the user error here on my part. I apologize for any unnecessary bother I have caused.

Thanks again!

P.S. On a personal note, I just wanted to say that having attempted lip-syncing animation by hand before, I already love how much this frees up time and energy to focus elsewhere. I am really glad I got these!

richardandtracy said:

I don't really know what to say. Five characters, all posed beautifully, perfect lighting, draping the central character in mystery and the use of dof is spot on.

 Thanks, I've been grinding away for the last few months to level up my skills, guess its payed off some.

richardandtracy said:

 I'm left with a new appreciation of how far I have to go to turn my efforts from images into pictures. Wish I could do one tenth as well.

I have the same feeling when I look through the galleries, I guess no matter your skill level the grass still looks greener in someone else's render.

richardandtracy said:

 Thank you for sharing. Regards, Richard

 Your welcome! I'm happy to share!

PerttiA said:

marth_e said:

benniewoodell said:

I don't remember offhand, but if you search on google 8.1 power pose face controls, you'll find a thread here in the forums that outlines exactly how to get it to work. You have to go and take out certain folders that are installed and it works perfectly fine. And don't use Daz Central to install or if it asks you if you want to install something when you load Daz because it would put those files back, found that out the hard way and had to search for the thread again lol. But it works, it's just been like 8 months since I had to do it so I don't remember the exact process. Or hang tight for NorthOf45's way, I'd love to give that a try too! 

Thanks for the tip Benniewoodell. I think I have seen that thread you mention but if I'm not mistaken that was a trick to make G8 expressions work with G8.1. Maybe I'm wrong... But what I wish I could do, besides that, is to be able to tweak the expressions directly with powerpose.

Cheers,

Same trick gets you the G8 powerpose templates for G8.1

Making the G8 base expressions (and any expressions that are using them) work on G8.1 requires removing dummy/placeholder expressions that are installed to G8.1 morph folders - These dummy/placeholder expression files have no other function than to prevent the base G8 expressions from loading. 

The dummy/placeholder files are located in;

...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Base Pose Head\ (255 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)
...\Data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Male 8_1\Morphs\Daz 3D\Expressions\ (24 files, can be more if you have additional DAZ expression packs)

Please make sure you are removing the files from G8.1 morph folders and not G8 morph folders.

Note 1; If you are logging in to DS and letting DAZ Connect (within DS) to install/update your content, you may have these also in an other location that has "\Data\Cloud\" in it's path
Note 2; Do not remove any files from "FACS" or "FACSExpressions" folders

That's the one! I don't use premade expressions, I do everything with power pose, what PerttiA wrote here will work for you.