Fur for my cat

denisnormandin

Hi there.

I purchased the Millennium Cat bundle. Nice poses. But the cats are all white. Without fur. I tried to shop around to find some and only came out with something called Animal Things. It's an assortment of strange looking fir. But I couldn't find any regular looking skin or fur for the cats. And even the Animal Things don't work. Or I don't know how to make them work. Which adds up to the same at this point.

Can someone help me get those cats dressed up? Rendering them without proper skin or fur just looks like porcelain cats or even ghost ones.

Thanks

DN 

Richard Haseltine

The cats in the bundle should include several texture sets (though no mesh fur).

FSMCDesigns

there are some good free textures fr the mil cat here http://www.lynescreations.com/tabby.htm

I used one of them with LAMH (look at my hair plugin) for this image

 

denisnormandin

They should?
OK, but how do I access them?

denisnormandin

Thanks Michael,
I'm not sure I understand how to use those, but I'll try.

MelanieL

Do you mean you have this bundle? https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files#prod_1895

The textures are in the sub-products Classic Cats 1 & 2 - but they are in Poser format (I think) so probably won't appear in Smart Content and may need some tweaking to look good in renders.

WendyLuvsCatz

My little kitty's pelt you can use no restrictions

I zprojection painted it from photos in Zbrush

denisnormandin

MelanieL said:

The textures are in the sub-products Classic Cats 1 & 2 - but they are in Poser format (I think) so probably won't appear in Smart Content and may need some tweaking to look good in renders.

My bundle is the Millennium Cat not the Classic Cats and I searched all I could to find some skin or fur or whatever but could find nothing. Some of the strings and ropes of teh Daz3D interface are, to say the least, less than intuitive!
I can try to download the Classic Cats 1 and 2 to see if I can find something in there that will work with Millennium cat.

Thanks Melanie
 

denisnormandin

Wendy_Carrara said:

My little kitty's pelt you can use no restrictions

I zprojection painted it from photos in Zbrush

Thanks for the kitty's pelt attachment. I'm very new to  Daz3D and I don't know yet how tu use it... but I'll find out.
 

denisnormandin

To say the least, learning the basic nuts and bolts of Daz3D is somewhat less than intuitive. I viewed many tutorial videos but could find no help for that specific problem.

FSMCDesigns

denisnormandin said:

To say the least, learning the basic nuts and bolts of Daz3D is somewhat less than intuitive. I viewed many tutorial videos but could find no help for that specific problem.

We've all been there. I have been using DS for years and still find out new things about what it can do, LOL

As for using the kitty texture, there is a tab called surfaces and rendering. When you click on any object, the parameters will show in that section that show the various surfaces of that object. from there you can change any aspect of the surface or texture

Here is an example image of the surfaces tab with the horse 2 loaded

McGyver

I was going to offer you this bag of fur I had collected from a gorilla who lost a bet, because I thought your cat went bald... also I thought it was possibly a euphemism for something else (maybe there was a bad waxing accident with a significant other)... but seeing you might actually need textures, here are some free ones...

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=48530

https://www.sharecg.com/v/18700/related/6/Texture/Millenium-Cat-Textures

Good luck... and if it wasn’t textures you are looking for, try aloe... I hear that is kinda soothing.

denisnormandin

Thanks everyone! Now I have a lot of nice jpegs of cat pelts. I'm probably much closer to succes than I was yesterday.
Probably...
Now could someone tel me, step by step, in terms for a mentaly chalenged or bellow average individual (that's how I feel right now) how to use them. 
I downloaded the files suggested by McGyver (the renderosity.com ones) along with those suggested by FSMCDesigns at http://www.lynescreations.com/tabby.htm.

I tried to follow the instructions that came with the lynscreations files...

"Unzip the files to your Poser directory.
The MAT files for Clancy will be in Lyne's MilCat Mats folder of your Poses directory"

Sounds pretty straight forward, except I can't find a directory anywhere in the Daz Folder that is called "Poser" and I have no idea what the next line even means.

Is there an explanation for dummies available somewhere?

 

Leana

denisnormandin said:

I tried to follow the instructions that came with the lynscreations files...

"Unzip the files to your Poser directory.
The MAT files for Clancy will be in Lyne's MilCat Mats folder of your Poses directory"

Sounds pretty straight forward, except I can't find a directory anywhere in the Daz Folder that is called "Poser" and I have no idea what the next line even means.

Is there an explanation for dummies available somewhere?

The "Poser directory" in this case means the one where content in Poser format is installed, ie the one where the folder called "Runtime" (which is the base folder for Poser content) is located.

DS uses 3 main content folders by default:

• "My DAZ 3D Library" in Public Documents, which is the default folder for content installed by DIM
• "My Library" in Documents/Daz 3D/Studio, which is the the default folder for content installed manually
• "My Daz Connect Library" in Documents/Daz 3D/Studio, which is the the default folder for content installed with Connect

To install content manually:

• Unzip the files in a temp folder.
• Locate the "root folder" in the extracted files: it will be the one containing the main folders like Runtime, Data, People...
• Take all the folders you find in that root folder and move them in the content directory where you want to install them (by default the "My library" folders in Documents) so that the new Runtime merges with existing Runtime folder, new Data with existing Data, and so on.
• Content should now be available via DS content library tab. There's a good chance it won't appear in smart content though as it probably won't include metadata for it.

richardandtracy

For info, earlier this month (Or was it last month? It's all in a blur.) I reported a couple of broken links in the Mil Cat bundle. I was responded to quite quickly being told the Classic Cats textures had been 'retired' so the products were unavailable. IIRC the Mil Cat bundle was to be retired as a consequence of these other two bits going off the sale shelf.

Regards,

Richard.

 

WendyLuvsCatz

Pity they then didn;t replace it with a new cat then 

Not for my sake as have but all the newcomers 

richardandtracy

Agreed, a cat equivalent of the current range of dogs would be good.

Maine Coon & Norwegian Forest Cat would be high on my list.

Regards,

Richard

Chohole

Wendy_Carrara said:

Pity they then didn;t replace it with a new cat then 

Not for my sake as have but all the newcomers 

The PA that made the Classic cats textures took her complete store to that other other site, so there is just a possibility that the textures are over there.

denisnormandin

Thanks you all.

Leana said:

To install content manually:

• Unzip the files in a temp folder.
• Locate the "root folder" in the extracted files: it will be the one containing the main folders like Runtime, Data, People...
• Take all the folders you find in that root folder and move them in the content directory where you want to install them (by default the "My library" folders in Documents) so that the new Runtime merges with existing Runtime folder, new Data with existing Data, and so on.
• Content should now be available via DS content library tab. There's a good chance it won't appear in smart content though as it probably won't include metadata for it.

I did all that, but the contents is still not available.
 

richardandtracy_e725004c1a said:

For info, earlier this month (Or was it last month? It's all in a blur.) I reported a couple of broken links in the Mil Cat bundle. I was responded to quite quickly being told the Classic Cats textures had been 'retired' so the products were unavailable. IIRC the Mil Cat bundle was to be retired as a consequence of these other two bits going off the sale shelf.

Is that why it wouldn't work ?

Actually I don't think so. The files are just not listed anywhere in the Content library even after copying the runtime folders in my default folder. It's not that they don't work, I couldn't even try them since I couldn't find them.

I'm getting a bit more discouraged than frustrated (and I am frustraded a lot).

Thanks anyway for your efforts to help.
Much appreciated.

Denis

Leana

denisnormandin said:

Thanks you all.

Leana said:

To install content manually:

• Unzip the files in a temp folder.
• Locate the "root folder" in the extracted files: it will be the one containing the main folders like Runtime, Data, People...
• Take all the folders you find in that root folder and move them in the content directory where you want to install them (by default the "My library" folders in Documents) so that the new Runtime merges with existing Runtime folder, new Data with existing Data, and so on.
• Content should now be available via DS content library tab. There's a good chance it won't appear in smart content though as it probably won't include metadata for it.

I did all that, but the contents is still not available.

Could you please tell us where you put the files exactly on your disk, and also post a screenshot of the content directories you have in DS preferences?  (Go to edit > preferences > content tab > Content directory manager, expand the lists under "poser formats" and "DS formats")

denisnormandin

Leana said:

denisnormandin said:

Could you please tell us where you put the files exactly on your disk, and also post a screenshot of the content directories you have in DS preferences?  (Go to edit > preferences > content tab > Content directory manager, expand the lists under "poser formats" and "DS formats")

OK Leana,

Here it is, a screenshot of my windows explorer for the files location and a screenshot of the Content directory manager.
I hope this wil help puting me back on the right track.

Note that the directories in my Windows Explored are in French, never the less, the actual system names are in English, they are just displayed that way on non english versions of Windows.

Thanks for your time.

 

denisnormandin

Leana, are you still out there?
Your help have been very appreciated so far, Can you please take a look at my previous answer and tell me if you see anything wrong with where I copied the files?

In French Windows "Users" is displayed "Utilisateurs" but the system still uses "Users" in the background. Same for "Documents", it is displayed as "Mes documents" but the root directory is actually still called

The only thing I see is that I should go to the "Public" destination...
I'll try this

But in the mean time, If you have any comment. I'll be glad to take them into account.

Thanks

Leana

Sorry, I've spent most of yesterday and today in meetings at work, so I had missed your reply... Screenshots in French are not a problem, I happen to be French ;)

It seems to be installed properly judging by your screenshots.

The texture folder itself won't appear in DS library, but the files contain poser presets to apply them to the cat and those should appear in DS in the "Pose" folder (I know the "Pose" name can be confusing as it's not really a pose, it's called that for historical reasons).

In DS you should find the poses to apply those textures in Content Library > Poser Formats > My Library > Pose > Lyne's MilCat Mats, like on my screenshot.

denisnormandin

Thanks a bundle Leana,

You just made my day 

Mille merci (et même plus) 

Denis

Leana

Ravie d'avoir pu aider :)

denisnormandin

I'm back with another question!

How can I make my own cat pelts?
Editing the fur from one of the png files I downloaded is actually quite easy. But how can I make the .pz2 file that must has to come with it? Is there anything else that must be done? Is there a function in the Daz environment that allow us to make such a file or do I have to find another program somewhere esle?

Leana

There are several possible options to create a preset to apply your texture:

• Create a copy of the pz2 you have for another cat texture, edit it with a text editor like notepad++ and replace the paths to the other textures with paths to your own. You will also need to create a thumbnail for it, for this just render a 91*91 pixels image and save it as "nameofthepz2.png".
• Apply the texture manually in DS in the "surfaces" tab, then save a material preset in DS. This preset will be in DS format though, not a pz2 which is poser format.

denisnormandin

Leana said:

There are several possible options to create a preset to apply your texture:

• Create a copy of the pz2 you have for another cat texture, edit it with a text editor like notepad++ and replace the paths to the other textures with paths to your own. You will also need to create a thumbnail for it, for this just render a 91*91 pixels image and save it as "nameofthepz2.png".
• Apply the texture manually in DS in the "surfaces" tab, then save a material preset in DS. This preset will be in DS format though, not a pz2 which is poser format.

Thanks, I'll try that and give news of my progress here.