Bunch of random questions

Blastedlabs

Hi,
I've got a bunch of questions after doing some tutorials and playing with this for a bit.

1) I feel like I used to be able to click on the "Eye" of a parent to hide it and all the children, but now to do it, I have to hide each item individually. What happened?
2) I got "Seascapes" as a promo and was placing some people in there. The preset lights are washing out almost all the shadows. I want to fix that, but besides deleting them and starting from scratch, how would I go about altering the lights so that the colors appear the same time of day but shadows are more pronounced?
3) I purchased Coalition Rapier Armor and when I use it, the white parts are always Matte instead of shiny. The red parts are shiny like the image. How do I get the "shiny" effect shown in the preview?
4) Is there a "current version" tutorial or explanation of how files are organized in Daz3D? I'd love to reorganize if possible.
5) I feel like subsurface shaders change how an object reflects light. Is that what they do? (I don't have any, but am curious)
6) One of my products had a missile accessory (I believe it was a Platinum $1.99 ship). I tried to resize it and there was no scale option! Am I missing something, or can vendors turn "off" variables?
7) Lights seem incredibly important. Is there a core light product I need to purchase to get "professional" levels of lighting?

Example of Matte Armor

Also, could you give any general feedback for this image? There's a few things I noticed about composition already (making it a bit brighter and adding more contrast between the figures and the background).
Imgur

Thank you so much!

Jaderail

Blastedlabs said:

Hi,
I've got a bunch of questions after doing some tutorials and playing with this for a bit.

1) I feel like I used to be able to click on the "Eye" of a parent to hide it and all the children, but now to do it, I have to hide each item individually. What happened?
2) I got "Seascapes" as a promo and was placing some people in there. The preset lights are washing out almost all the shadows. I want to fix that, but besides deleting them and starting from scratch, how would I go about altering the lights so that the colors appear the same time of day but shadows are more pronounced?
3) I purchased Coalition Rapier Armor and when I use it, the white parts are always Matte instead of shiny. The red parts are shiny like the image. How do I get the "shiny" effect shown in the preview?
4) Is there a "current version" tutorial or explanation of how files are organized in Daz3D? I'd love to reorganize if possible.
5) I feel like subsurface shaders change how an object reflects light. Is that what they do? (I don't have any, but am curious)
6) One of my products had a missile accessory (I believe it was a Platinum $1.99 ship). I tried to resize it and there was no scale option! Am I missing something, or can vendors turn "off" variables?
7) Lights seem incredibly important. Is there a core light product I need to purchase to get "professional" levels of lighting?

Example of Matte Armor

Also, could you give any general feedback for this image? There's a few things I noticed about composition already (making it a bit brighter and adding more contrast between the figures and the background).
Imgur

Thank you so much!

1. The Eye is now only for NODES of items, to turn full sets off you add them to a Group (edit Create Group) and it will turn off all in the group.
2. That can be many things, Ambient fill light (which could be lowered), the Angle of the Main Shadow casting light (you can LOOK through all lights just like a Camera to see how it is aimed) and even Shadow Softness settings for the shadows from the main light.
3. It looks like you could be using the POSER materials on the set instead of the DAZ Studio textures. Poser Materials do not fully translate to DAZ Studio and will need adjusted. Look at the RED parts in the Surfaces Tab and Adjust the Spec and other settings on the White parts until you get the same settings except for the texture loaded and colors used.
4. File management is discussed in many Threads in the New user section and the other more advanced User forums often. Check the Sticky threads here in the New User section and in DAZ Studio Discussion and Nuts and Bolts Forums.
5. It adds that subsurface light scatter that many items like skin and soft plastics have so your on the right path here.
6. Yes They can but you can do Show hidden in the Parameters settings menu, that should allow you to see and Unlock locked settings.
7. No such thing as a Default Core lighting set, I myself bought and use many from the store as starting points. They are also great to learn from to create your own lighting sets in the future.
8. I personally like the render and do not see much that needs improved. But for future Reference if you use the FULL post option you will see below the text field a Choose File button, you can use it to POST images to the forums. Its Choose file browse to your file, to add upto 5 images you do Preview Post then Choose file to add each image after the first one.

mjc1016

Blastedlabs said:

4) Is there a "current version" tutorial or explanation of how files are organized in Daz3D? I'd love to reorganize if possible.

6) One of my products had a missile accessory (I believe it was a Platinum $1.99 ship). I tried to resize it and there was no scale option! Am I missing something, or can vendors turn "off" variables?

4. Don't. Use Categories. That way you reduce the risk of breaking something to almost nil, because all you are doing is creating pointers to the actual file locations. Or if you do, do it globally...move the entire content folder somewhere else. Yes, you can, but making sure all the dependencies are kept and depending on exactly what the content is (is it 'native DS' or 'native Poser?) will determine exactly how easy THAT is.

6. Scale may not be 'hidden'...but it may not be on the 'item' but on the 'base node'. If you expand the item in the Scene pane, click on the first listed node...then look at the Parameters. You'll probably find the scale there...

Richard Haseltine

Jaderail said:

Blastedlabs said:

1) I feel like I used to be able to click on the "Eye" of a parent to hide it and all the children, but now to do it, I have to hide each item individually. What happened?

1. The Eye is now only for NODES of items, to turn full sets off you add them to a Group (edit Create Group) and it will turn off all in the group.

The eye will work on a figure, hiding all of the bones but not any parented props, as well as on a group.