Information on Publishing Things please...
wildbillnash
Posts: 756
in New Users
I'm thinking of publishing a set of vehicles and wondered about the material for them. Do I need to create my own shaders for them or do I use what I have already and material will transfer with the objects? (Sorry if I'm using the wrong terms, still new at this.) If not, is it common to have vehicles/objects in a neutral color/material and the buyer will use the shader they want to paint it with?
Thanks in advance for any input.
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As far as I'm aware, you'll need to have the materials for each of your vehicles set up. So you'll need to paint the materials onto the vehicle. Then, once you have all your maps, you will need to import into DAZ and set up the materials using the surfaces pane.
FenixP, is there a tutorial about what you mentioned? If I understand correctly, I can't use the materials/shaders I have in Daz but have to open a different program to paint my vehicles? If so, I need tutorials.
Learn the difference between shaders, materials, shader pressets, textures; it will help.
Well it depends on what program you use, really. I use Substance Painter, which allows me to paint directly onto my imported object. Afterwhich you can export the maps and set them up in DAZ studio.
Having said that, you might also want to take a look at some merchant resource shaders. Using those will allow you to work directly from DAZ studio. However, you'll need to check the limitations of each product on how you can include them in your end product.
For example (since your product is cars) Mec4d merchant resource shaders could be helpful. So you'll import your vehicle, create material zones via the geometry editor, then use the shaders to texture it. After you've done it all, you'll need to save those as material presets. However, you'll want to check with the owner of the product if you can include the texture maps or not.
As @scorpio mentioned, knowing the difference between those concepts will also help you.
Okay, I think I have it now. I just checked my shader inventory and saw most of the ones I'm using came with the DAZ program. So, I guess it's alright to use them for my finished products. Going to have to check the others, though. Thank you for the information.
FenixP, I have no idea the proceedure of how to continue with the process after making the vehicle and applying the shader. Is there a tutorial vid about it? Also, how do you contact the owner of the product you want to use?
Shaders or Shader presets most presets are not merchant resources.
The 3dl default shader and the uber shader for 3dl can be used, the shder not presets.
For Iray you can use the Uber Iray shader - not as far as I'm aware use the presets.
Hope I'm showing the right folder, I've purchased soooo many shaders ....
We can make materials from the Daz Shader Presets AFAIK.
Save the model with nothing if you want it loading 'blank' or apply the desired Daz shader/preset(s) then save the model [if it was not saved before] and then save out Material presets. Not shaders, nor presets. [unless like what was said, you're using Merchant Resources, then read through their instructions for usage].
For the Daz products, a CS ticket is how to make contact.
Yes, first check that all the shaders you're using are merchant resources. Each product should have come with a readme file, where you'll be able to find out the usage limitations. Once you are certain that you're using the shaders in the correct way, then you can proceed to save them as material presets.
You can find several useful tutorials here: https://www.youtube.com/user/WWWDAZ3DCOM/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=7
I understood from a previous question that in fact, we *couldn't* use DAZ Shaders for something intended to be distributed, and that only merchant ressources and one's own shaders could be used?
You can distrubute the default shaders, most presets you cannot unless they are merchant resources.
Well when I asked years back, as best I can recall from Richard's answer, from the set that came with the program, yes we could - everybody has them. We cannot redistribute any of the textures, etc. All of that type of stuff has to be our own. i.e. apply whichever shader, change any textures to your own, and save out the material preset.
When you think about it, ALL items start off with a shader involved. That's how the materials are put together. So we load an .obj, make clothing, add textures, save the clothing and then make the appropriate material presets. It is in this texturing process that one does not use Shaders which we bought unless they are MR and being used according to the usage agreements with the vendor(s).
Edit to add: I've sent in a CS query about the matter.
The Shaders themselves are .dbm files and load into Shader Mixer. The default items we see in Content are actually also Shader Presets. Somebody else has been traversing the forums educating us all in this matter ;-)
Some of you mentions a 'read me' file for the shaders. I've found the folder in Daz's library for read me's but there isn't any for any of the shaders I've bought. Out of over 1600 products I've gotten I may have only around a dozen or so read me's. Is there another place I could find the rest?
Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who's responded. I have a lot of stuff to read over and won't be able to do much on it until next month. I had considered just making the 'vehicles' (oh, I should say they are not cars) nude and let the buyer add on the shaders he wants, but what JonnyRay said makes sense.
Back in 2009, Stefan Morell (aka Stonemason) wrote a brief tutorial on painting hard surfaces. While it may be more advanced than what you need right now, read through it to see how he thinks about building the textures. Considering where the "wear points" should be, where dirt would accumulate, etc. Stefan is obviously a wonderful modeler, but to me it is these touches of realism to his textures that really put his products over the top.
You will find the ReadMes on the product page of items purchased here.
I believe that link is provided by the Daz Deals browser extension. If you haven't installed the extension, you have to manually search out the readme by SKU number on the Daz documentation pages.
Ahh sorry, I forget what is and isn't part of the addon.
Scorpio, where would I find the 'product page'? Do you mean the product's store page? If so, nope, that there.
See Barbults post