@bduncan86

Welcome in the world of Art & 3D!!

You are not the only one who has discovered 3D art with a no-art background! I got hold of a PC Format magazine with a free full program of Vue D'Esprit some years ago and later on end up with Daz Studio! I have wrote about how I have started on my blog: http://launok.blogspot.com . I was years working in an admin environment (typist) which I was trained for ... and now as pensioner doing 2D & 3D art! And guess what, I am still learning as there are always new things on the road! :)

Most of the objects I am using is freebies I get all over the internet ... from here, ShareCG up to even SketchUp Warehouse and many, many more sites! SketchUp models when exported as .obj (wavefront) works great in other programs, i.e. Bryce.

Laura

music2u4u said:

Hey Betsy, where did you get that diner?

:-)

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=a9f008c548e8ca3b59867caf67f6d212

bigh said:

here's a skutchup house ( I converted to obj file ) and imported to DS

Sorry Bigh, I'm just now learning to navigate the forums. I should have read all of your replies before responding. I don't mean to bug you!

I'm glad you mention SketchUp, because it has (had?) me a little puzzled. A year or so ago I came across the program while working on a different project, and the way I understood it (which may very well be incorrect), anything produced in the free version couldn't be used for commercial use. At the time that was fine, but now that I'm designing a website I assumed it would fall into the "commercial" category. However, I haven't been back to their site since that time, so they could have changed their TOS. If I remember correctly, the price of the software for commercial use was out of my price range, but again that could have changed.

If it IS an option that would be perfect! Did I misunderstand originally, or have things changed enough that it would be worth looking into again?

Thanks SO much!

another sketchup with every thing inside

Well after seeing the thread in the commons and looking thru some of the threads here, i figured I would give this a go.

A little background, I'm Michael, been creative my whole life and got into graphics thru modding a video game years ago and have been hooked ever since. In addition to my art type images and renderings I am also a modeler, having used quite a few different modeling apps and settled on 3DSMax as my primary app. I do addons and mods for several game communities, both free and commercial. I also make some of my props for my renders when needed.

Currently, installed on my PC I have Max, Poser 6,7, 2010, DS 4.6, Cararra 6 pro, 7 pro, Blender, Milkshape, Sketchup pro and Gmax. My usually workflow is DS to Reality and then Luxrender and then PSD or Gimp if needed. Not a fan of postwork. I would like to move up to Octane or better yet, VRay, but not in the cards financially yet.

As for style and inspiration, I like fanart, comics, scifi, fantasy, realism and the female body. A large portion of my work violates the TOS here and some can be a bit on the dark/disturbing side, but you can see some of it at Deviantart, link in my sig.

I use quite a few figures, but rely heavily on genesis 1, with V4 and GF2 coming in second.

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to be informative.

___________________________________________________________________________

With that out of the way, here are some images. I have a friend that is writing some publications based on Red Sonja, so i have been sending her some images I did of my take on Esteban Maroto's classic Red Sonja.

The character is based on Genesis 1. The top is the death Maiden top here at Daz with my own custom chainmail and transmap. The bottom of the loincloth from Primordial barbarian set with my own chainmail and transmap again.

Might find something in Google warehouse for sketchup.

rschulte said:

No, they are Sketchup models I converted to 3ds.... I'm hoping to contact the people who created them for permission to poserize them.

Until then, you can use Sketchup to convert.
http://www.sketchup.com/ for the download.

For the moment I am running on a linux rig, until I can get my Graphics comp replaced... it died a horrible dead. Fortunately I managed to save the drives.

Sad part is... sketchup has something against linux...

I caved today and got the starship bridge 15 and Sotherland set...

Shadowhawk, I know how you feel, I subscribed to this thread and the thread from 3DWizard for the new suit he's making, I got unsubscribed from both...

scatha said:

rschulte said:

Hazard suit .... My version.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Hazard_team

Suit: XURGE3D M4 HEVS (lots of material zones to personalize)
Helmet: XURGE3D M4 HAAS
Belt: JoeQuick's Golden Age boxy belt

Assault Compression Phaser
Photon Torpedo AT Rile
George Haze's Assault hand Phaser
My Force-Lance

Are those two rifles in our freebie list?

No, they are Sketchup models I converted to 3ds.... I'm hoping to contact the people who created them for permission to poserize them.

Until then, you can use Sketchup to convert.
http://www.sketchup.com/ for the download.

NOTE: Once the Sketchup free period is ended, you will need to upgrade to regain the 3ds and obj exports feature (expensive), or you can just continue to use Sketchup to convert to DAE format and use Blender to convert to either 3ds or obj.

Assault Phaser compression Rifle
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=a7cf230b5a2967125f5038a2cf78b1e4

Compact version of Assault Phaser Compression Rifle
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=3151db7f965943ef9bba8f87a19ff3bd

Torpedo Launcher AT rifle
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=d6b6625aa4488c8d21fbac718728a36d

Hope this helps.

All this talk of Anglias...I have had this one in my archives for quite some time. I think it was a sketchup model and I converted it. This was way back before I learned how to smooth...lol.

:-)

betsy662 said:

Here ya go!

I got the Triumph too. Sketchup 2014. I haven't seen that 56 El Camino though.

I Did some more GTA converts this last weekend. Will post later.

:-)

betsy662 said:

music2u4u said:

betsy662 said:

hey guys ths may be the last of the sketchup modes that u will see by me as i may be getting my own laptop this summer and will be able to get daz finally. this one is for Betsy and Mus.

Looks pretty good there Usherstang, and of course, its a phantom, since Chevrolet didn't make the El Camino for 3 years after the 1960 model, seems Ford really pulled a fast one on Chevy when they came out with the economical Falcon Ranchero.

Ford had a Ranchero in 1952! here is an old photo of one. El Camino made it's first appearance in 1959.[/quote)

Atually, the Ranchero made its debut in 1957, the pic you have there is an Australian Ute. Which stands for Utility.

I would have answered it better before, but all I had was my cell phone to answer on at the time, and all that went through were the quotes, so here is my answer to that, Ford marketed their first Ranchero in 1957, they did not have any from the factory before 1957, what you have in that pic there is probably an Australian Ute, or a custom job, Ford also didn't stop making the Ranchero until 1977, when they ended production of the Torino.

The first El Camino hit the dealerships in 1959, and were built on the Impala chassis, just like the Ford's were originally built on the Fairlane chassis, Chevrolet did make the El Camino for 1960, however, Ford made changes to the Ranchero which totally came out of left field for Chevrolet, as the Chevy's were still being built on the full size Impala chassis, Ford's Ranchero for 1960 was built on the then new Falcon chassis, Ford went a different direction and emphasized economy, that killed many sales for Chevrolet's really nice car/pickup, so Chevrolet quit making the El Camino, until 3 years later for 1964, it was brought out on their new Chevelle chassis.

music2u4u said:

betsy662 said:

hey guys ths may be the last of the sketchup modes that u will see by me as i may be getting my own laptop this summer and will be able to get daz finally. this one is for Betsy and Mus.

Looks pretty good there Usherstang, and of course, its a phantom, since Chevrolet didn't make the El Camino for 3 years after the 1960 model, seems Ford really pulled a fast one on Chevy when they came out with the economical Falcon Ranchero.

Ford had a Ranchero in 1952! here is an old photo of one. El Camino made it's first appearance in 1959.[/quote)

Atually, the Ranchero made its debut in 1957, the pic you have there is an Australian Ute. Which stands for Utility.

betsy662 said:

usherstang said:

hey guys ths may be the last of the sketchup modes that u will see by me as i may be getting my own laptop this summer and will be able to get daz finally. this one is for Betsy and Mus.

Looks pretty good there Usherstang, and of course, its a phantom, since Chevrolet didn't make the El Camino for 3 years after the 1960 model, seems Ford really pulled a fast one on Chevy when they came out with the economical Falcon Ranchero.

Ford had a Ranchero in 1952! here is an old photo of one. El Camino made it's first appearance in 1959.

usherstang said:

hey guys ths may be the last of the sketchup modes that u will see by me as i may be getting my own laptop this summer and will be able to get daz finally. this one is for Betsy and Mus.

Looks pretty good there Usherstang, and of course, its a phantom, since Chevrolet didn't make the El Camino for 3 years after the 1960 model, seems Ford really pulled a fast one on Chevy when they came out with the economical Falcon Ranchero.

hey guys ths may be the last of the sketchup modes that u will see by me as i may be getting my own laptop this summer and will be able to get daz finally. this one is for Betsy and Mus.

Thank you very very much for your time in trying to help me, I very much appreciate it. I have tried to import a house model into daz from sketchup and the file transferred it seeemed but I couldnt see it for some reason, soo the experimentation goes on but it's fun!

I love daz and have already turned my neighbores onto it! They love it too!

Jaderail said:

Xenomorphine said:

Would be nice to be able to pose stuff, though. Like, say, elevating or rotating a light or gun turret at different angles (or something as simple as swinging surfaces/wings out at specific angles). Plus, the texture issues... Whenever I've imported .obj into DS, they're not only static, but always coloured grey and the surface tab isn't overly helpful, as it treats the entire model as one single surface (which is fine if you want to 'paint' something with, say, a metal shader, but if you've got things like lights and canopies and such, you can't specify what to make look like glass and so on).

I could be wrong, but the only file format I've been able to import into DS which auto-textures the model and allows for it to be rigged, are those if the Poser-compatible type. It's a bit of a murky subject for me, as I prefer to buy stuff through the Daz store and let the auto-installer figure the installation process out for me or else I'll likely provoke a file error. :)

For SketchUp models to work properly in DAZ Studio the models must be created properly in SKU first. That means you build the items as Groups so for a plane your going to have many sections such as fuselage, wings, canopy and such. Then to get the obj out Properly only the Pay version of the obj exporter does a proper export.
You can then Import that mesh to DAZ Studio and WELD if needed or Rig if needed. You will then need another tool to create a proper UV map from your proper Mesh. So real Textures can be made for the UV template, Other wise you will only have Mat zones for each Group the obj was created with which will only take shaders.

Xenomorphine said:

Would be nice to be able to pose stuff, though. Like, say, elevating or rotating a light or gun turret at different angles (or something as simple as swinging surfaces/wings out at specific angles). Plus, the texture issues... Whenever I've imported .obj into DS, they're not only static, but always coloured grey and the surface tab isn't overly helpful, as it treats the entire model as one single surface (which is fine if you want to 'paint' something with, say, a metal shader, but if you've got things like lights and canopies and such, you can't specify what to make look like glass and so on).

I could be wrong, but the only file format I've been able to import into DS which auto-textures the model and allows for it to be rigged, are those if the Poser-compatible type. It's a bit of a murky subject for me, as I prefer to buy stuff through the Daz store and let the auto-installer figure the installation process out for me or else I'll likely provoke a file error. :)

Xenomorphine said:

Did it only save/export in .obj format? Shame if so, but it's better than nothing.

Maybe someone can make a Kickstarter project to create something as user-friendly as Hexagon for today's computer systems or an import-to-Daz-Studio facility for Google Sketchup. :)

Appreciated, Haseltine!

There is never going to be a single app that suits everyone. Even if someone did make a new 3D app, in order for it to be successful it would have to offer a lot of what is already available in other apps and the more you add, the more a program becomes complicated. While you find Hexagon user friendly, to me it is not. I could barely build a crappy model in it and that was after I watched about 20 video tutorials from Geekatplay (though I still recommend them to someone wanting to learn Hex). After watching a handful of videos on Silo, I ended up building several small models and two cars. So to each their own. My recommendation to everyone is find something that suits you and learn it.

Did it only save/export in .obj format? Shame if so, but it's better than nothing.

Maybe someone can make a Kickstarter project to create something as user-friendly as Hexagon for today's computer systems or an import-to-Daz-Studio facility for Google Sketchup. :)

Appreciated, Haseltine!