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...I expected to have DNI (direct neural interface) by now so I could just plug myself into the system and make art.
Not really as I was more into Art at the beginning but I dreamed big about it, in the times I was only busy with texturing and UVs and got also a 3D scanner 2 years later but got quick bored with it scanning bananas and onions lol
I was the first PA to release commercial textures for Michael 1 , a day after the release , and before V1 of course when the business was called just Zygote .
The 2 years between 98-2000 was awesome in the evolution of 3D and I learned a lot , I found my love and passion for 3D and so is until today .
In 1998 the time was kinda running slower than it is today and I wish to have more time but I still love to learn and challenge myself everyday.
You have no idea how many videos and articles I read in the last month about hard edge modeling , but I am ready for the finale and I learned a lot .
Organic modeling is easy for me since I have been doing it for so long , but this new kind not only requests me to learn new moves but also different approaches to UVs , baking maps and other stuff I did not care much about before as I did not need to .
I made like 5 tables, sofas, chairs and other stuff just to practice until I am fine with it and yesterday I finally finished hard edge UVs for my stuff and ready for texturing . I wasted too much time with automatic buttons too.
My biggest challenge was a perfect UV that will take one single shader and put the wood grains in the proper direction each time on each element of the model so it looks proper , Zbrush is not too good with that nor is Blender or Maya , manual work is the only option and it take longer than the modeling . I guess I am old enough to like puzzles
. But I don't like one ride pony stuff , too boring
In the meantime I also created a universal wood shader for my upcoming furniture , so one shader map can deliver all the needs in styles and colors for your pleasure . Today working on the PBR fabric styles as I want a beautiful microfiber plush/velvety shaders as well that looks and behave realistic , switched to metalness as well as not much people use PBR Specular anymore outside D|S and less maps needed .
I found out that low poly modeling is not good for Iray at all as it affect not only the shading but also proper reflections on the surfaces that why triangulated models works best , so a low poly model yes, but at last 1 SUB for rendering for optimal result as we have with Genesis or regular size model. I found a happy middle so I can skip it .
Sorry for the long reply, but as you see the passion is still here and it keeps me going as it was in 1998
I still don't know everything that I wish to know but that I will leave for the second part of my life's adventure in 3D
That what I wish for the afterlife lol but not just a copy of my consciousness as that would be not me . Vitraya Ramunong tree would be cool at last ..
Hi Cath, Sent you an email via your own Store's contact form!
Nothing here Richard , can you please sent direct to office @ mec4d.net (without spaces ;) or use this direct online https://www.mec4d.net/inquiry-services.html
I just tested the contact form in the store everything working fine ..
Sent it to this address office at mec4d.com (at = @)
Not Com, Wolffy, mec4d.NET lol
Weird. I have it in my address book with .com. YIKES! LOL
Just shows, he doesn't read your posts properly
OK, resent with HOPEFULLY the right address!
No, I had Cath's address in my address book for years Dr. So perhaps it changed!
Thank you Richard I got it to office e-mail as well via the web inquiry I replied to you as well
That's true Richard , I still make mistakes sometimes putting the old extension lol for so many years it was Com , the hijackers wanted thousands of dollars to get me back my .com , I don't have the founds for a court case so I rebuild new domain and website .. including Sitelock services and all good stuff to protect everything . They did not got hands on my website data as it was on another secure server just the domain they stolen from my domain.com account that I terminated already too after wars with them as they don't wanted to take responsibility for what happened . I spent 2 months on fight with them all . Google said I need to go to court and get order but of course it is not free so whatever , one day they going to release it when people stop clicking it in the search and it will cost $10 not 10K , so remember never go to m e c 4 d. c o m again use NET
Awesome. I know it's getting trickier out there to keep things safe. Too many asshats out there disrupting folks lives with their asshattery!
I have now 2 live services monitoring both the domain and the other my data server , not even I can edit anything unless provide 2 way verification and insurance ! and of course it is not cheap but I have no choice
Hello beautiful people , so quiet here
Still learning and working with your freebie
Mixing organic and hard edge models was quite a challenge in the UVs as both needed separate approaches and I learned it the hard way .
Short cuts did not work , as I wanted my model to work as well with Tiled shaders and as well with Projection shaders outside DS , but at the end it worked well so I can move now forward.
And as simple it looks now it was not 1 month ago , also found out that Zbrush native UVs generator ( not UV Master ) switching the U<><>V so only good for use with Tiled shaders but as usual there is nothing and nobody that helps you when you need a help on this subject.
so as for the 22 years I am figuring stuff on my own lol trial and error style ..
Since I am in texturing process at this moment I made for you a tool for Photoshop or any program that support psd files with layers , to read the correct albedo of your materials, including photos, scanned photos or all surfaces as long the photo material have no Fresnel reflection ( best scanned one with your home scanner or pictures made with polarized filter )
How does it work ? you load your picture for example wood, drop in a layer and with color picker you can read the true albedo value ( what is the brightness in gray scale ) if is above the correct value you can adjust the exposure to correct it and then do the same to the original color picture , colors have nothing to do with albedo value but just the grayscale , so for example when you find an albedo value for a wood it is the value of the gay scale not the color, in DS you can hold Ctrl and click on the base color to set it using the Float Color , example wood albedo is between 25-36 then you put 0.30 under each color R-G-B and you have the proper albedo in gray scale for wood, then you click again on the color base and adjust the desired color without touching the left gray scale and you done . I will make some video tutor to go with it step by step. Very interesting and easy approach and the results are wonderful .
I even tested G8M skin albedo for the values and it was surprisingly correct , the only problem it had was AO build in it so after removing the build in shadows and specular (Fresnel ) reducing the translucent color corrections the result was amazing and rendered faster. Of course we talking about Metallicity Shader and Iray that is simple and produce the best result in HDRI or Sun-Sky Environments ( not in empty scenes with a spot light )
Also there is a simple way to convert correctly 3DL shaders or Specular Shaders to Iray Metallicity shader without leaving DS in less than minutes as long you have texture maps or color values but I guess it will be subject for another video.
Also I was busy converting Strand hair into various stuff like flowers , butterflies and feathers with the base strand hair available in regular version
below some tests with converted shader to Metallicity on my old helmet stuff and Strand-hair based feathers and butterflies that render in seconds .
That's all for my coffee break talk for now
back to work ...
...and this is why I will never make a good modeller as I dont have the skill, software, or hardware to create accurate materials. This is why I keep giving the PAs' in the Daz store my money.
Me, I just don't have the patience although I would simply love to be able to create such beautiful things. But I'm real good at adoring them! Apropos that, just bought my first set of MEC4D's shaders, they really are so brilliant! Thanks very much for making them, they will enhance my pictures no end.
nobody is born with skills, , this project reminds me why I hated always hard edge modeling, and it is not the modeling itself but what come after ..but thankfully I am over the learning process , I was feeling like an old grandma puzzling every evening UV tiles to match the flow lol
I used my old not used for many years portable scan , to scan walls, floors outdoor or whatever , run on battery and fit in a poket lol I think Amazon have it for 10 or 25 dollars , I used to scan books with it before and now come so handy in many cases and better than picture as it does not create shadows or Fresnel effect on flat surfaces , that what the creators of Megascans used for many surfaces converting old home scanner .
sadly it scans only flat surfaces, concrete , side walks tile, walls, paint , blankets, fabrics , wood surface , carpets .. very handy
I don't have as much patience as I had before , but I am stubborn and don't not give up so easy .
Thank you for your support ! I hope you enjoy working with it ! that are my to go shaders especially the vol1 as I use it mostly everyday on something .
I preparing next mixed volume materials again as well , but this time Metallicity based shader .. it is not as popular yet in other software than Specular based shader but giving some support for the Game users that can load them easy into game engine or other Game engine plugin , less maps, quicker result
Thank you very much again !
modelling looks so boring. i would rather not.
This is why i use Daz Studio, so i can just press the Make Art button.
im way too dumb to ever make anything myself.
You're very welcome, and I think another mixed shader set is a great idea! I actually bought the second one precisely because it has so many different shaders. Now, I'm finding I can almost start uninstalling a lot of my other shader sets because yours are really so good. Plus, they're easy to use, which is great if you don't have much time to fiddle. So, yes, more of these please!
It sounds depressing , oh the new generation of an Art Button ... I sense you just messing up with me , if that is true you are too lazy to be that rich ! lol
Sorry my mistake I meant vol.2 as well , I spent months on the stuff I think 3 months to make it the way it should be breaking up the shader codes since it was new , but new stuff going to be as good if not better ..
Thank you
While I get frustrated with creating stuff at times it's always nice to know YOU made it! One of the nice things is your spending on fluff stuff goes out the window when you realize you have the ability to model, uv and texture something!
Well that are not superman powers , but dedication and some time to learn as that do good stuff for your brain as well in main time . I just do extras that usually people don't even bother , and it may be still not perfect but do more at the end .
look the example , first is 1 sec organic UVs and the other hours of manual UV mapping with both box projection mapping and organic mapping in one , sadly there is no magic button yet for that second combination , looks simple now but was not when I started as hard edge mapping was not my area but I learned something now it will get easy
and you are right Richard , it is creative time that save you some
...creating the mesh and even rigging is not so much the issue, it's all the other stuff, like setting up material zones, creating the various maps, and textures from scratch (which requires ditital painting that is very difficult as I have an unsteady hand and severe arthritis) is what seems more daunting.
I agree, the stuff after modeling take the most time, UVs, textures and setting , material groups should be created while modeling to save time especially if the model is complex you don't want to do that in DS
Zbrush have only option to export groups only or material zones via FBX format but the last one importing weird into DS creating weird shaders , if you remember all my scene go caca last time ? it was FBX doing it , messed up all shaders under shader mixer adding weird bloks and there are no import options so not welcome ... I convert now my zones from groups only quick and easy in DS
...yeah, the Geometry Editor in Daz is pretty tedious to use for setting up material zones for an entire model Fine for little changes here and there but that's about it.
Also I find node based shader systems (such as the Daz Shader Mixer and Blender's shader system) to be terribly confusing as they look more like what's left of a skein of yarn after the cat got through with it or a map of the London Underground.
Yes it is , but Daz shader nodes are the worse , without deep manual there is no way to figure things out , simple stuff I can work out like my Satin Progressive Shaders , but nothing complex , I was better with that in Octane