Heart candy box prop (+ normals and Materialize conversations!)

perlkperlk Posts: 854
edited February 2022 in Freebies

Just a crappily modeled heart candy box prop so your Genesis characters can say Happy Valentine's Day to one another in chocolate style.

https://www.deviantart.com/perlk/art/Heart-Candy-prop-for-Daz-Studio-905783031

candy-promo.png
1200 x 960 - 1M
Post edited by perlk on

Comments

  • I love the way the chocolates look. Really looks very good. Congratulations.
  • Sky77Sky77 Posts: 820

    Nice work!  I agree, those chocolates look delicious!  laugh

  • perlkperlk Posts: 854

    Anyone who tries to eat them will be disappointed that they're just a photograph inside a box, ha ha ha!

  • Sky77Sky77 Posts: 820
    edited February 2022

    Yeah, licking the computer screen wasn't all that effective either...  cheeky

    Using the normal textures was very convincing!  How did you create the texture files for that from a photo?

    Post edited by Sky77 on
  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,683
    edited February 2022

    I have managed to get pretty impressive (well, maybe I'm just easily impressed) normal maps from Materialize (https://boundingboxsoftware.com/materialize/index.php) by simply loading in a hand drawn monochrome map into the 'Height' channel. (Or is it 'displacement? One or the other.) Anyway, using that, I was able to create a normal map, and that's what  I used to get the surface texture pattern on the 1916 fountain pen below:

    Materialize can work with an image too rather than just a hand drawn map.

    Regards,

    Richard

    Post edited by richardandtracy on
  • perlkperlk Posts: 854
    edited February 2022

    @Sky77 - I create normal maps in Photoshop usually. They're not the best though. Adobe is stopping support of it soon.

    I will have to check that out @richardandtracy - I haven't heard of it before! I'll check out Materialize!

    Post edited by perlk on
  • Sky77Sky77 Posts: 820

    Thanks for the info, perlk, good to know.   Thanks Richard for the resource.  That IS pretty impressive!!  I just watched the sewer cover tutorial on their site - Materialize looks like a really amazing tool.  This may be a game changer!  yes

  • The effects in the Materialize preview are a lot stronger than they seem to be in DS, so it's always worthwhile keeping the Materialize file in case you need to dial up the effect.
  • perlkperlk Posts: 854

    I'm installing this now!!! Can't wait to play around with it.

  • Have to confess I haven't used it as often as I could have done. Just a bit slow on the modelling side and get diverted onto other things. I hope to eventually write all the tools I need and then be a bit more efficient. Also need to trawl through places like Polyhaven to be more aware of the range of available textures.
  • perlkperlk Posts: 854

    I haven't played with it yet, but it does look cool. Maybe later tonight.

  • Sky77Sky77 Posts: 820

    Not to completely derail this thread (sorry perlk!  wink), do you need to download one of the shader packs (Unity or Unreal) for this to be functional for Daz Studio?  Is there any benefit if I don't plan on using Unity or the Unreal engine anytime soon?

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 5,683
    edited February 2022
    I haven't downloaded either of them. Regards, Richard.
    Post edited by richardandtracy on
  • perlkperlk Posts: 854
    edited February 2022

    This tool is pretty freakin' amazing. It's about 100 times faster than Photoshop and customized for this purpose. You don't need to be creating video game graphics. It'll save time in texturing models for sure.

     

    Original:

    Modified and put on a plane in DS:

    blocks.png
    500 x 334 - 167K
    bricks-test.png
    800 x 640 - 1M
    Post edited by perlk on
  • perlkperlk Posts: 854
    edited February 2022

    And this is after spending no more than 10 minutes on the thing.

    Original and Materialized version in the same render:

    Original is just the unmodified texture without the normal, AO, diffuse, etc.

    bricks-test2.png
    800 x 640 - 1M
    Post edited by perlk on
  • Sky77Sky77 Posts: 820

    Thanks again Richard!  Wow!  Nice perlk... yes

    yup, definitely a game changer... so many ideas!! laugh

  • My, I've managed to suggest something useful. Where's my diary? First time this year.. ;) . Glad you think it's of some use. My irritation with it: It's a Windows program that fails to use standard Windows dialogue boxes. That's annoying. Just as annoying as Gimp. Otherwise, I like it enormously. Just don't have cause to use it often enough. Regards, Richard.
  • perlkperlk Posts: 854

    richardandtracy said:

    My, I've managed to suggest something useful. Where's my diary? First time this year.. ;) . Glad you think it's of some use. My irritation with it: It's a Windows program that fails to use standard Windows dialogue boxes. That's annoying. Just as annoying as Gimp. Otherwise, I like it enormously. Just don't have cause to use it often enough. Regards, Richard.

    ^ This. So much this. The learning curve for menus is steep - I had to watch a video just to figure out how to load an image.

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