mcjTeleBlender:Daz Studio scenes/animations w/Blender's Cycles Engine

mCasual · August 2014

exact same scene as in the above post
but with the Use-Node-Groups option turned on

nakamuram002 · August 2014

Casual said:
exact same scene as in the above post
but with the Use-Node-Groups option turned on

Looks like something is wrong with the hair transparency in both examples.

Node groups or not -- I hope that the node trees generated by mcjTeleBlender don't get too complicated and slow rendering down. I find that most of my materials in a scene are simple -- a diffuse node, glossy node, mix node, and textures.

mCasual · August 2014

nakamuram002 said:
Casual said:
exact same scene as in the above post
but with the Use-Node-Groups option turned on

Looks like something is wrong with the hair transparency in both examples.

Node groups or not -- I hope that the node trees generated by mcjTeleBlender don't get too complicated and slow rendering down. I find that most of my materials in a scene are simple -- a diffuse node, glossy node, mix node, and textures.

the hair didn't use transparency
it's a bit part of her look to have paper-like hair :)

you will have a teleblender-2 legacy mode that produces the same node-tree as before

if tree complexity is an issue i'll put some per-material tree optimizer .... someday
for example, when a channel doesn't use an image map, the MIX-RGB node could be avoided

note that as before, the 3 texture-image related nodes are only added, per material, if there was an image-map applied to this specific channel in the .mtl file

someday i think what i'll do is create a few renderman shaders in daz studio,
mcjteleblender will recognize them, and replicate them in Blender

also i think Daz Studio's RIB export is faster than the .obj exporter
the data is way more complete than .obj
Collada is another avenue

nakamuram002 · August 2014

Speaking of Renderman -- A free version with Unbiased Rendering is supposed to be released sometime in the next two weeks...

http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849

dakkuuan · August 2014

I know lux was mentioned, and unfortunately, anytime I've attempted to render a created scene in Daz that was exported to Blender, it doesn't seem to work. No errors, no nothing just lux doesn't open and there is no error. It's..weird.

mCasual · August 2014

dakkuuan said:
I know lux was mentioned, and unfortunately, anytime I've attempted to render a created scene in Daz that was exported to Blender, it doesn't seem to work. No errors, no nothing just lux doesn't open and there is no error. It's..weird.

note that if you mean exporting through mcjTeleblender
make sure mcjTeleblender has the "Blender Render" option selected, not the "Blender Cycles" option
else mcjTeleBlender and mcjBlendBot go through a complicated process of building material trees
and they switch Blender's renderer to Cycles

right now i'm (re)installing LuxRender for Blender 2.6
and i'll see if the issue is elsewhere

one thing you could try, after mcjTeleblender exports the scene, then starts Blender
close blender
look in the output folder where you exported the .obj file
there's an .mtl file, a .py file and a .bat file
if you double-click the .bat file
it will start blender, and load the scene
you now have access to the blender console ( a black MSDOS-like window )
you can see if errors occured
aslo, maybe this freed the communication channel with luxrender

mCasual · August 2014

dakkuuan said:
I know lux was mentioned, and unfortunately, anytime I've attempted to render a created scene in Daz that was exported to Blender, it doesn't seem to work. No errors, no nothing just lux doesn't open and there is no error. It's..weird.

ok i tested it and indeed when Blender is launched through mcjTeleBlender/Daz Studio
it prevents LuxRender from working
but if you launch Blender ( and exported daz scene loading process ) through the .bat file produced by mcjTeleBlender
then LuxRender works

in this case, LuxRender's "console" mode

i think the 2 other types of Luxrender renders need an extra module installation

i only tried Blender+Lux long ago so i forgot if it's normal that the blender materials
are rendered without textures and without colors

3dOutlaw · August 2014

nakamuram002 said:
Speaking of Renderman -- A free version with Unbiased Rendering is supposed to be released sometime in the next two weeks...
http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849

Ooooh! Well this is cool! I registered...not sure if my computer will handle it, but cool!

mCasual · August 2014

someday maybe i'll add some Lux import helpers in mcjBlendBot.py
though it's possible that someone already wrote one

mCasual · August 2014

nakamuram002 said:
Speaking of Renderman -- A free version with Unbiased Rendering is supposed to be released sometime in the next two weeks...

http://renderman.pixar.com/view/DP25849

i used the standalone 3delight a few times so this should work the same way
though there's shader-compiling issues to tend to

3dOutlaw · August 2014

I thought 3Delight was not an un-biased renderer?

mCasual · August 2014

i meant the way to render Daz Studio's Rib files through the standalone 3Delight is probably the same as rendering through Pixar-Disney's Renderer., i dont think 3Delight has unbiased rendering modes

Luxrender render at 600+ samples per pixel

dakkuuan · August 2014

hey casual where is that .bat usually located?

mCasual · August 2014

dakkuuan said:
hey casual where is that .bat usually located?

in teleblender you can specify where the .obj file will be created
the .mtl .py and .bat files are placed there too

mCasual · August 2014

after i re-introduced the teleblender 2 shaders in teleblender 3
i was able to conduct comparative tests
and unfortunately the TB3 shaders are almost 2 times slower ( 7:00 vs 3:45 )
the group-nodes don't seem to cause the slow-downs so maybe they will remain as an option
but the node trees will be not be the one-shader-fits-all model
the node trees will be constructed as lean and mean as possible

Fig 2, same network complexity
this may indicate that i must not add a transparency node to a material that doesn't use it
.... no, i did a test and if the transparency is 100% blocked by a mixer, it doesnt add render delays

in fact if the mix shader lets only the transparent shader through, render is even faster 40 seconds
so, what's expensive is mixing a transparent shader with another shader

mCasual · August 2014

TB3 will be TB2's material nodes

plus, opacity/glossy functionalities

similar to what Nakamuram did here: http://www.sharecg.com/v/72122/browse/8/Script/Mods-for-mcjTeleblender-DAZ-Studio-to-Blender

plus improved lights
Daz Studio spotlights will be transfered as properly oriented Blender spotlights
direct lights ........... as sun lights
point lights .......... as point lights
specially marked planes ..... as area lights

also some bug fixes

----------

figure 1 - an image map was applied to to glossiness channel in daz studio, so in Blender this image map was applied to the roughness channel - in this case the specular strength is the same all over the surface, it's just the roughness of that shiny surface that changes.

nakamuram002 · August 2014

Too bad the DAZ Studio Lighting Model types (Matte, Plastic, Metallic, Skin, Glossy Plastic, Glossy Metallic) cannot be used as a guide for general node setup...

mCasual · August 2014

nakamuram002 said:
Too bad the DAZ Studio Lighting Model types (Matte, Plastic, Metallic, Skin, Glossy Plastic, Glossy Metallic) cannot be used as a guide for general node setup...

i could export that value, also the shader name including "DSDefault "
on the receiving end, mcjBlendBot would ignore it for now

anyway i do need a general purpose function in BlendBot

def setMatParameter( surfaceName, materialName, parameterName, parameterValue ):
  if( parameterName == 'lightingModel' ):
    setMatLightModel( surfaceName, materialName, parameterValue )
  elif ( parameterName == 'opacityColor' ):
    setMatOpacityColor( surfaceName, materialName, parameterValue )
  else:
    print( "unsupported parameter " + parameterName )

nakamuram002 · August 2014

I think Plastic is the normal default lighting model.

I think of Plastic as a Blender Glossy, Diffuse, and Mix nodes. Metallic as a Anisotropic, Diffuse, and Mix nodes. Matte as a Diffuse node. Skin as Plastic with SSS.

mCasual · August 2014

Fig 1
glass with opacity strength and tint

Fig 2 not totally sure about the opacity setup
in TB3 the colors of the opacity map are part of the transparency ( as they are in DS/3Delight )
the DS opacity strength and color also are at play

in TB2 the opacity-map based transparencies ( which were the sole option )
were black and white and not influenced by the DS opacity strength and color
Though you could inject your tints through the diffuse map to get colored transparencies

mCasual · August 2014

Fig 1
when there's no image-map attached to the opacity strength channel
AND the opacity strength is not 100%

the diffuse node will replaced by a Transparent BSDF node

if there was an image map attached to the diffuse input
an RGBMix node is added to implement the opacity-strength
else
the old diffuse channel color is 'mixed' with the opacity strength

as you can see the glossy node is intact

--
when there is an image-map attached to the opacity strength channel
i guess we should limit its effect to that of a B/W opacity map
and have the diffuse color or map give the color

Fig 2 - Hair check ( TB2 )

eiliestl · August 2014

Just undated my Blender from 2.68 to 2.71 .Still using mcjTeleblender2 and now my models won't show up in Blender anymore when I try to import them . Please help!

nakamuram002 · August 2014

I'm running mcjTeleblender with Blender 2.71 successfully. Did you put the mcjBlendBot Scripts in .../scripts/modules after you upgraded?

mCasual · August 2014

eiliestl said:
Just undated my Blender from 2.68 to 2.71 .Still using mcjTeleblender2 and now my models won't show up in Blender anymore when I try to import them . Please help!

as nakamuram is saying
you should still have the zip file from the last time you installed mcjBlendBot
if not, it's this zip file
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjteleblender2/mcjBlendBot2.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

it needs to be unzipped in blender 2.71's scripts/modules folder
typically
C:\Program Files (x86)\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.71\scripts\modules
or
C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.71\scripts\modules

also, in teleblender, make sure you specified a valid export folder/file for the .obj file

note that not too long ago July 12 there was an update of the script itself, it solved a problem that appeared in Blender 2.71 where the "collected maps" (texture images ) could not be found

to be unzipped in your Daz Studio content folder
https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts3/mcjteleblender2/mcjTeleBlender2.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

3dOutlaw · August 2014

Is anyone using mcjTeleblender for import and then Freestyle render? I'd love a few tips, if you are! I am just starting to look into it.

mCasual · August 2014

3doutlaw said:
Is anyone using mcjTeleblender for import and then Freestyle render? I'd love a few tips, if you are! I am just starting to look into it.

i think i only tested it once in 2012
i have this line chart, not by me i think
and a few renders

i doubt i kept the blender files but i'll see !

mCasual · August 2014

in TB3 i want to make sure that the TB2-Daz-Studio-like opacities work the same way, for hair, eyelashes and corneas etc
but i also want to have the ability to do colored transparencies

in TB2, opacities used a shader mixer node, and a white bsdf-transparent node and there was no opacity-strength control

apparently there's good reasons why i find this a bit confusing
https://renderman.pixar.com/resources/RPS_17/opacityRevealed.html