I typically apply the visual shaders and then re-map the texture over them. I've found that making my own custom VS shaders combined with certain textures yield fantastic results. I do remember a while back that there used to be a way to apply shaders without replacing the texture and then after one of the Studio version upgrades, there was no way to do it and the textures had to be re-applied manually. This may be going back a couple of Studio version upgrades.
So my question is, has that ability been restored in subsequent versions of Studio? Can we apply VS or any shaders to a character without blowing away the textures and having to reapply them manually? It would save a ton of time.
I typically apply the visual shaders and then re-map the texture over them. I've found that making my own custom VS shaders combined with certain textures yield fantastic results. I do remember a while back that there used to be a way to apply shaders without replacing the texture and then after one of the Studio version upgrades, there was no way to do it and the textures had to be re-applied manually. This may be going back a couple of Studio version upgrades.
So my question is, has that ability been restored in subsequent versions of Studio? Can we apply VS or any shaders to a character without blowing away the textures and having to reapply them manually? It would save a ton of time.
For ShaderMixer shaders, that only works in DS 4.5+. The Visual Style shaders were made in DS 4.0 so that feature wasn't set up in the original base.
Can you give me some idea on your settings and lighting? I am trying out the Cowboy Gumdrops outfit and it isn't coming out like I would like. I see too much of something ( shadows, occlusion maybe) something is not making it look right.
This is my very first messing around with a shader – so I am really sorry for my ignorance on the subject.
Firstly, thank you a LOT for the step-by-step guide, which helped me get this far.
I applied the Visual Style Shader by using material presets and all went well. BUT I need a heavier black outline, so I downloaded the Free Geometry Shell Outline Shader (THANKS!!!!)
Here, too, all went well up to the point when I assigned it to the skin surfaces. I followed the guide to the letter. Selected Hiro, created the Geometry shell, selected the skin surfaces (not eyes, pupils etc, nothing below "toenail") and assigned the Shader.
But I lose the eyes and the lashes. They turn milky white. Even though they are not in the selection. I tried it about 10 times in all kinds of ways but the results are always the same.
If I reassign Hiro-base skin material (he does not seem to have separate eyes), I lose all the former applied shading stuff.
My first question would be how to possibly fix this. In the demos that other people posted in this thread, this did not seem to be a common problem. So I am probably messing up some step.
----
Another question that might be related:
I am not reassigning textures on clothing and suchlike, but I would like to reassign the opacity map for the hair.
It seems to be something rather simple, but I do not know how to do it.
Step 3 in the VisualStyle-Step By Step guide seems to be trying to tell me how this is done. But how do I identify the correct file – in my case an opacity map for the hiro hair (but I have other figures and other hairstyles to fix – Hiro is just my tryout illustration)
If anyone could help me out here, I'd be very thankful.
Hi,
I played around a bit more with the Visual Style Shader after my last post and I am really quite happy with it – albeit not having managed to find a solution for the questions in the previous post.
Here is Hitomi ... I added a Photoshop stroke, which obviously only affects the outer contour, while I really need the fingers showing up separately.
Worst case I'll go ahead and add the lines in Photoshop, too. But obviously it would be really cool to have a shader doing this automatically.
The final illustrations will be in a book (black & white). The color is thus not really important. But the smoothness is. I cannot use a pattern because it might cause artifacts during the print process. That is why I am not using the Manga Shader.
I also noticed that I forgot my forum password and cannot update my profile. :)
So I'm "Info" here, as it seems.
Bye for now – and thanks again for the awesome shader!
Can you give me some idea on your settings and lighting? I am trying out the Cowboy Gumdrops outfit and it isn't coming out like I would like. I see too much of something ( shadows, occlusion maybe) something is not making it look right.
A lot of times these shaders look good (and fast) with no lighting at all. Otherwise I almost always use a single distant light.
Can you give me some idea on your settings and lighting? I am trying out the Cowboy Gumdrops outfit and it isn't coming out like I would like. I see too much of something ( shadows, occlusion maybe) something is not making it look right.
A lot of times these shaders look good (and fast) with no lighting at all. Otherwise I almost always use a single distant light.
Hi,
My problem was that I was using the presets, I went with the base. Or whatever that is called (the blank shader) and worked my way into a working render. In the end I decided to use pwToon with the presets by Crescent.
I have no idea what the base/blank shader is? I click on a surface, and double click the VSShader in the Content Pane...it applies.
Anyway, glad pwToon worked for you. I used it a while back, and I liked it.
I just ran DS to look it up, it is the "Visual Style Base" and followed the docs and I was able to get the look I wanted. Once I learned to control the shader I was able to apply presets to hair, for example, and knew what settings to change to get a better look.
Ok, for some strange reason I haven't been receiving updates from this thread (yet again).
@info: It looks like parts of the Geometry Shell are covering the eyelashes and eyeballs. When you select the Geometry Shell and go to it's properties (where you usually find a figure's morphs), you'll find a bunch of on/off options for things like hands, lips, chest, etc. These allow you to turn off the Geometry Shell for specific parts of the figure, either by body part or by material zone. What you'll want to do is find the on/off swiches for the Eyelashes material zone and the Eyeballs bodypart (or alternatively the sclera, iris, and pupil material zones). This should fix your problem with the eyes.
@esther: Funnily enough all of the shaders were created using the 64 bit version (I have a 64 bit machine), so they should work perfectly fine. :) For future reference, most things that run on 32 bit will also run on 64 bit with little to no issue (64 bit systems tend to be very good with backwards compatibility).
I'm using Toon Pro and YAToon for my current animation (screen shot below). But this product looks interesting. Might have to give it a look. Does it operate in Carrara?
Nope, as far as I know there isn't any way to use Daz Studio shaders in Carrara.
From what I understand YAToon is a very good toon shader for Carrara users, so you've certainly made a good choice there. :) http://carraracafe.com/tag/yatoon/
@TheNathanParable, have you ever thought about engaging a Carrara or Poser "expert" in converting/remaking your shaders for either? I find Poser or Carrara much better for animations. :)
Um, ok, I was about to be all "oh, Poser users already have this really awesome shader set made by an old friend of mine, which actually served as the inspiration for Visual Style"...but then I actually went on Renderosity to get a link and it turns out the product doesn't exist anymore. Damn.
Anyways, it's unlikely i'll make shaders for either Poser or Carrara. It's been years since I last used Poser, and i've never owned Carrara. Also, I don't think i've really exhausted what Daz Studio is capable of just yet. ;)
I just finished trying out the Manga style shader and it is awesomet. I was having some problems using it before I found this thread and I would just like to ask if there is any way to include a link to this thread or the tutorial in the document page or the product page?
Just out of curiosity is it possible to apply the shader to an entire scene or do you apply it to every object one at a time?
Just out of curiosity is it possible to apply the shader to an entire scene or do you apply it to every object one at a time?
Technically you can, but artistically it will not help you.
The lips, hair, etc, all will need different settings so you will still have to work those out and you may want a different style for the floor (as in sketchy) than you would for a figure, for example.
I figured out a way to apply a SecondSkin while keeping the Visual Style Shading to a character. In the pic, I used the Daemora Suit from Shaft73, and applied it to a Geometry Shell of the figure. I had to take a few extra steps:
1) Rename Geometry Shell to "skin"
2) Edit the Daemora PZ2 file, cahnge "figure" to "actor skin"
3) I had to make a transparency layer to hide the built in skin shading in the suit. (used the bump map as a base, you can see I missed the finger tips, but this was just a test)
In the pic, I made the torso/hip blue for a little more "decency" as a skinsuit, but as you can see, the suit/shell second-skin just lies on top of the VSS shaders on the figure.
Comments
Just Tsundere Things.
Nice work Ghastly. :)
Thanks!
Just Dandere Things.
Just kuudere things.
I love all the images! visual style using is very good too. Are the hairs yours?
No the hairs are rips from the game Hyperdimension Neptunia. I can't remember where the heck I downloaded them from.
Like the images! Very nice! :) (...lost my sub to the thread)
Here is one I just posted...
CLICK HERE for the original larger version
I typically apply the visual shaders and then re-map the texture over them. I've found that making my own custom VS shaders combined with certain textures yield fantastic results. I do remember a while back that there used to be a way to apply shaders without replacing the texture and then after one of the Studio version upgrades, there was no way to do it and the textures had to be re-applied manually. This may be going back a couple of Studio version upgrades.
So my question is, has that ability been restored in subsequent versions of Studio? Can we apply VS or any shaders to a character without blowing away the textures and having to reapply them manually? It would save a ton of time.
Used to be, you could CTRL-double-Click the shader in the content pane, and it would popup a box asking to replace or ignore maps. Choose ignore.
For ShaderMixer shaders, that only works in DS 4.5+. The Visual Style shaders were made in DS 4.0 so that feature wasn't set up in the original base.
Can you give me some idea on your settings and lighting? I am trying out the Cowboy Gumdrops outfit and it isn't coming out like I would like. I see too much of something ( shadows, occlusion maybe) something is not making it look right.
Hello everyone.
This is my very first messing around with a shader – so I am really sorry for my ignorance on the subject.
Firstly, thank you a LOT for the step-by-step guide, which helped me get this far.
I applied the Visual Style Shader by using material presets and all went well. BUT I need a heavier black outline, so I downloaded the Free Geometry Shell Outline Shader (THANKS!!!!)
Here, too, all went well up to the point when I assigned it to the skin surfaces. I followed the guide to the letter. Selected Hiro, created the Geometry shell, selected the skin surfaces (not eyes, pupils etc, nothing below "toenail") and assigned the Shader.
But I lose the eyes and the lashes. They turn milky white. Even though they are not in the selection. I tried it about 10 times in all kinds of ways but the results are always the same.
If I reassign Hiro-base skin material (he does not seem to have separate eyes), I lose all the former applied shading stuff.
My first question would be how to possibly fix this. In the demos that other people posted in this thread, this did not seem to be a common problem. So I am probably messing up some step.
----
Another question that might be related:
I am not reassigning textures on clothing and suchlike, but I would like to reassign the opacity map for the hair.
It seems to be something rather simple, but I do not know how to do it.
Step 3 in the VisualStyle-Step By Step guide seems to be trying to tell me how this is done. But how do I identify the correct file – in my case an opacity map for the hiro hair (but I have other figures and other hairstyles to fix – Hiro is just my tryout illustration)
If anyone could help me out here, I'd be very thankful.
Hi,
I played around a bit more with the Visual Style Shader after my last post and I am really quite happy with it – albeit not having managed to find a solution for the questions in the previous post.
Here is Hitomi ... I added a Photoshop stroke, which obviously only affects the outer contour, while I really need the fingers showing up separately.
Worst case I'll go ahead and add the lines in Photoshop, too. But obviously it would be really cool to have a shader doing this automatically.
The final illustrations will be in a book (black & white). The color is thus not really important. But the smoothness is. I cannot use a pattern because it might cause artifacts during the print process. That is why I am not using the Manga Shader.
I also noticed that I forgot my forum password and cannot update my profile. :)
So I'm "Info" here, as it seems.
Bye for now – and thanks again for the awesome shader!
Info.
:)
I believe if you use the Free Geometry shell, you will get outlines on the figure. See the first post on here, I think there is a link.
Another one playing with A4 Stylized. Bigger version on DA
A lot of times these shaders look good (and fast) with no lighting at all. Otherwise I almost always use a single distant light.
A lot of times these shaders look good (and fast) with no lighting at all. Otherwise I almost always use a single distant light.
Hi,
My problem was that I was using the presets, I went with the base. Or whatever that is called (the blank shader) and worked my way into a working render. In the end I decided to use pwToon with the presets by Crescent.
I have no idea what the base/blank shader is? I click on a surface, and double click the VSShader in the Content Pane...it applies.
Anyway, glad pwToon worked for you. I used it a while back, and I liked it.
I just ran DS to look it up, it is the "Visual Style Base" and followed the docs and I was able to get the look I wanted. Once I learned to control the shader I was able to apply presets to hair, for example, and knew what settings to change to get a better look.
Cool, I may have a new, old toy to play with!! :)
I'm downloading it manually, but it says 32 bit. Is there a 64 bit version?
Ok, for some strange reason I haven't been receiving updates from this thread (yet again).
@info: It looks like parts of the Geometry Shell are covering the eyelashes and eyeballs. When you select the Geometry Shell and go to it's properties (where you usually find a figure's morphs), you'll find a bunch of on/off options for things like hands, lips, chest, etc. These allow you to turn off the Geometry Shell for specific parts of the figure, either by body part or by material zone. What you'll want to do is find the on/off swiches for the Eyelashes material zone and the Eyeballs bodypart (or alternatively the sclera, iris, and pupil material zones). This should fix your problem with the eyes.
@esther: Funnily enough all of the shaders were created using the 64 bit version (I have a 64 bit machine), so they should work perfectly fine. :) For future reference, most things that run on 32 bit will also run on 64 bit with little to no issue (64 bit systems tend to be very good with backwards compatibility).
I'm using Toon Pro and YAToon for my current animation (screen shot below). But this product looks interesting. Might have to give it a look. Does it operate in Carrara?
Nope, not that I know of...
BTW, i just watched that Ex-Men Gambit: Animated...hilarious! Great work!
Nope, as far as I know there isn't any way to use Daz Studio shaders in Carrara.
From what I understand YAToon is a very good toon shader for Carrara users, so you've certainly made a good choice there. :)
http://carraracafe.com/tag/yatoon/
@TheNathanParable, have you ever thought about engaging a Carrara or Poser "expert" in converting/remaking your shaders for either? I find Poser or Carrara much better for animations. :)
(there is also YaToon2)
Um, ok, I was about to be all "oh, Poser users already have this really awesome shader set made by an old friend of mine, which actually served as the inspiration for Visual Style"...but then I actually went on Renderosity to get a link and it turns out the product doesn't exist anymore. Damn.
Anyways, it's unlikely i'll make shaders for either Poser or Carrara. It's been years since I last used Poser, and i've never owned Carrara. Also, I don't think i've really exhausted what Daz Studio is capable of just yet. ;)
I just finished trying out the Manga style shader and it is awesomet. I was having some problems using it before I found this thread and I would just like to ask if there is any way to include a link to this thread or the tutorial in the document page or the product page?
Just out of curiosity is it possible to apply the shader to an entire scene or do you apply it to every object one at a time?
Technically you can, but artistically it will not help you.
The lips, hair, etc, all will need different settings so you will still have to work those out and you may want a different style for the floor (as in sketchy) than you would for a figure, for example.
I figured out a way to apply a SecondSkin while keeping the Visual Style Shading to a character. In the pic, I used the Daemora Suit from Shaft73, and applied it to a Geometry Shell of the figure. I had to take a few extra steps:
1) Rename Geometry Shell to "skin"
2) Edit the Daemora PZ2 file, cahnge "figure" to "actor skin"
3) I had to make a transparency layer to hide the built in skin shading in the suit. (used the bump map as a base, you can see I missed the finger tips, but this was just a test)
In the pic, I made the torso/hip blue for a little more "decency" as a skinsuit, but as you can see, the suit/shell second-skin just lies on top of the VSS shaders on the figure.
Cool! ;)