NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Rich, do her with shoes, shirt, pants, no earrings or anything.
Playing around with the Mil Cat and http://www.daz3d.com/leather-and-fur-iray-shaders
So here are my results. I did two versions, one GPU only and one GPU+CPU. Your new computer is faster by 5 to 15 seconds depending on whether you were running with CPU or not.
I built my own PC about 2.5 years ago. It has an Intel Core i7 processor (4 cores, 8 threads) and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked video card with 2GB memory. It was shear luck that Iray uses Nvidia and that's what I had. You wil certainly like the speed boost you have with your new system.
Tjohn- I think the shaders will help when the cat is in a scene, because the millennium cat can look pretty flat otherwise. FYI, speaking of fur-Something I noticed while going through my products yesterday, Darwin the Chimp already has Look At My Hair in place. So for those of you who haven't ever tried LAMH, that would be a good one to play around with. I didn't have much luck with LAMH a few years ago, I did that gorilla a few years ago and he looked like a sprouting vegetation Chia pot.
Rich, mine was CPU and GPU. That was fun comparing!
Okay, I am going to drive some of you nuts, but in the interest of helping people on a budget and those who want to get extra bang for their buck, I will be mentioning clothing products which have poses included or props that may slide by at first glance. So if you've organized your studio with poses, be sure and add these from the G2F clothes! I'll be adding to this post as I find them. (Edit- and feel free to pitch in. These poses / props are with G2F clothing.)
Business Class One / Poses: Sitting in Chair
Casual Denim 2 / Prop: Chair
Cherry Blossom Dress/ Pose: Holding Fan
For you 3DL renderers, Chill Out has UberSurface Materials for you! (not to mention simply adorable options for the shirt.)
Mech Gear has socks you can use for everyday outfits. Mech Gear's do-dads on the belt are in a group but EACH ONE can be individually handled (the two pouches are together. The hook can be flipped upright and used as a cabinet or door pull. The round cannisters can be enlarged for containers.
This swimsuit is the one with the pool (half) and here's Barbult's old render from 2013.
One way I am customizing Content Library is by creating a Genesis 2 Female category and listing the gals by name. Why? When loading the G2F characters, DAZ Studio Formats>Daz>People>Genesis 2 Females>Characters some of them aren't listed by the female's name, it's by vendor or initials. (The initial characters are pretty well known, but sometimes when people refer to only a character's name, I don't always know the vendor. Too many characters.) I don't want to go to DIM and type in the product to go to the ReadMe. And point number two, sometimes DIM won't call up a product unless you know the exact name aka, those initials in front of it. Ring around the rosie. So you'd have to go to your Product Library, or the Store Search (shudder.) I'm looking to simplify my workflow.
I will say, in the images where the vendors initials are in front of the name (so far) they match where you'll find them in the list. BUT back to the list- there are some listed by vendor name, not the initials, so you'd need to know the vendor (and go through the motions already detailed above.) Example- if you're looking for Ingenue Desdemona in the list, you'd have to know it's Surreality. In my custom setup in Categories, I go to Characters>Ingenue Desdemona. Done.
And only the gals designated as Actor show up in the images, so you're missing quite a few quick-glance opportunities. (See comparison below.) Only 8 "A" character names are showing, and I have 20. (Granted, the L and F categories with those intials in front, would have those characters. I go by the characters' names, not the vendor initials. It all depends on how you refer to/ work with characters.)
What I am doing in Categories- I created a Genesis 2 Female Category>Characters. BUT- I put an image of each character with ONLY her name (no vendor initials) under the Genesis 2 Female main file. So if I want to pick a gal quickly, I have ALL the characters showing, alphabetically, and can see who I want. (SEE THE A's below. Notice I use the images from Shape and Materials quite often.) Because I can see all my characters' images when on the main Genesis 2 Females menu, I easily pick one then (still in my custom Category section) then I go to >Characters and zip right to her. It's nice because I can also pick which image I want to use to represent her.
Compare mine, above, with what shows up in the regular section for the "A" gals which show you Actors only, and only those without intials.
Creating categories is easy. Use Categories (and I don't use Default, many of us don't- if someone wants to explain the difference in putting our custom categories under that, would be interested to know. For me, it's another annoying click for no reason.) So Categories, right click, create a sub category Genesis 2 Females. Then right click that and sub-category again, and do Characters. Going back up to the top under the Daz Studio Format>Daz>People>Genesis 2 Females>Characters, click on the file, then right click, Create A Category from... This Folder and Sub Folders, and select your Genesis 2 Females>Character subfolder that you created.
Once you have created your custom Categories, To get an image under Genesis 2 Females (your custom one) simply click on your character folder and the images will appear below. Click and drag one of the images to Genesis 2 Females folder. YOU ARE NOT MOVING THE FILE OR THE IMAGE. It will still be in the character folder. I am using the ones under Morphs (in the character file) a lot- those have really nice images.
Easy surfing, best images to represent the character, alphabetical list by character, and showing ALL MY CHARACTERS. Reasons why I am customizing.
I put my custom categories outside of Default, so I know if something is under Default it was put there by product metadata rather than by me.
That's good to know. I was going back through my threads, and a couple times people had mentioned that DAZ recommended to put the custom categories under Default, but I never could find the reference and everyone was doing it outside Default anyway! BTW, what does "Create A Product" do? I know what duplicating and moving do, but I'm afraid to test it and click on create a product and mess things up!
I seem to remember daz recommend custom categories be placed under default. My initial one was created outside of default and I had some database corruption. Now I back up my user data regularly so if it goes south I can't restore it.
Question- I backup in the Content Database Maintenance (Export User Data) but is there something else I need to be doing? Where does this Category setup go- can it be put on an external hard drive?
I would copy the userdata files to an external source. I'd also back up studio and its databases once you get things the way you like it. I believe userdata is in runtime/support.
Yes, the backup creates UserData files in Runtime:Support of the first DS-format content folder.
Thanks, I'll do that. I am still using 4.8 and won't switch to another version for awhile, but I want to back everything up before I do (and do it correctly.)
Ok, quick question. Is the Runtime>Support only the custom Categories, or is it everything that is loaded into the Studio? (Since I'm starting from scratch, everything in the regular section is also in my custom section.) EDIT: And when you say "backup" you mean the Export User Data, or something else?
Export the user data which will update your userdata files then find the physical userdata files (usually called userdata1 and userdata2) and copy them to a hard drive.
I believe that this contains the file structures you create such as your categories.
you will need to manually back up your studio folder and the content management service especially if you do any reorganization or have custom installed stuff from other stores. This will make restoration easier as you don't have to reinstall your custom files.
Edit: the reason you want to do this is because userdata is overwritten when exported and if you have damaged database you can go back to an earlier version if you have a number of userdata a to choose from.
It's anything in the CMS database that isn't in the product metadata -- categories, tags, any custom metadata you've created. It doesn't include the categories that were in the product metadata (which is in all the other files in Runtime:Support).
ETA: And yes, that's Export User Data.
I'm glad you're asking all this, Novica, because I'm thinking a lot about trying to customise in a way that makes sense to me too. I feel like the time I spend looking for stuff is getting excessive in proportion to the time I spend using it, and there's perfectly good stuff I don't use at all because I've forgetten it's even there, not to mention stuff I know I've got but can't use because I've forgotten what it was called.
I found a couple of videos on Youtube by the lovely Slosh that have given me a clue where to start, but not knowing what to do is only half my problem. It's not knowing what I shouldn't do that bothers me - even sturdy databases can be scarily cantankerous, and I doubt anyone ever called the DS database sturdy. What I'm really asking everyone is 'Are there any moves I absolutely shouldn't be making here, or things I should avoid doing?'. I'm the person who always has a queue backing up behind me at the supermarket checkout because of my unerring talent for picking the till that's about to choke on a till roll etc, so I know that technology sees me coming and laughs. I'd like the last laugh this time :)
Export User Data frequently:
Categorize a bunch of stuff, then Export User Data, then go to Runtime/Support in your first DS-format content folder, zip up all the UserData_x.dsx files, and name it with the current date or a description of what you've just categorized. If anything goes sideways you can just unzip the most recent backup, reset the database and Re-Import Metadata to get it all back.
Oh woot! I fiddled around with learning more about Corel and did a mask and interactive fill background. I haven't figured out how to anti-alias around the plane to get rid of the jagged lines yet, but I'm tickled. I'm headed out to the barn (it's about 65 degrees) but I'll do a few interactive fill backgrounds when I get back (2000 x 2000) for anyone to use. There was a thread on multicolor backgrounds last week and these will be easy to crank out for you. Gotta grab the carrots and head out, TTYL
I didn't see if you had covered this, I picked up Sally hair over the holidays.
10 Shades, it says the mats are 3Delight and Iray, and it has a lot of movement and style morphs.
I really like it. I forgive SWAM for Hampton, in fact. (joking, Hampton and I have issues)
quickie 3Delight render with a light preset that probably doesn't do it justice. (or me fiddling with the style dials randomly)
Thanks Teofa- I like that style, it looks good! If you like a lot of morphs, give the the Emma and Jordi hairs a try too. Thanks for sharing, feel free anytime!
These are 2000 x 2000 jpgs, feel free to use as backgrounds/ to play with. They are called "interactive fills" and fountain fills. (Top to bottom is interactive, side to side is fountain)
These are the fountain fills.
And a few more, different colors. The last one I did as a "probably gonna rain" sky for you.
Feel free to hop in (anyone!) with any questions you have.
And thank you Fixmypcmike very much, as usual!
The green one was perfect! There is now a Novica folder in my runtime/textures.
Aw, he's spiffy! I'll have to do a few more backgrounds with more colors (and some textures.) I feel like playing tonight and not cataloging.
Well, will have to wait on that, the textured ones, even as pngs, have file sizes that make it impractical. Will have to experiment. I will, however, make some lighter fills for everyone so you'll have more choices, some subtle. Back in a few.
Wheee! I'm calling these godrays. If you are indeed adding these to your runtime and want to name them, this is called Smoked Glass. It puts a color tint and blurring over the image. Blurred here is 100%, with the tint varying (always a gray in the first three, etc.) Speak up if there's any colors you want.
The first one is what I am using, so any colors will have the gray base. Use your imagination- if you flip these, you can have those beams of light coming from a vehicle like a spaceship in the background, or a building. With DOF (depth of field) these could be quite fun.
You can also crop off the top and have a gentle variation of light, without a sharper pinpointed origin. Or crop the section you want, and increase the dpi (these are 72)