Loving Daz Studio!

Dartanbeck

Another OctaneRender

Dartanbeck

...and another

Dartanbeck

Those were all very early tests when I was just learning Studio in 2021

Dartanbeck

This is a Carrara render. We Carrara users can get So used to being able to animate everything - even shaders, that it's really tough to live without those features.

This is Rosie 5's Carrara dynamic hair, which I built up from four separate layers of dynamic hair

Dartanbeck

...and she liked to show off how resilient it is. If this Bonetech 3D aniBlock doesn't make it fall off, nothing will! 

I still can't get my new dForce hair to hold up to this one. Perserverance, I say!

 

And check out Carrara's very easy to use Volumetric Lighting. It looks so nice, I think. I still haven't figured out how to do that in Studio. But it took me a while to figure it out in Carrara too. 

If you're interested, I have a tutorial on that here

Speaking of Volumetrics, that's exactly what Carrara's Dynamic Hair is - a strand-based volume shader. So we can't truly see how the animation turns out until we render it. I think the visual feedback we get in Carrara might be better than what we get in Studio with its strand-based dForce hair, however.

 

Getting this far into Studio, however, I'm finding a lot of things in here that I like (for characters, at least) better than Carrara. Still, even without getting an update since, what... 2010 (?), Carrara is still one fantastic piece of rendering software!

 

As for the animated textures thing, Alvin Bemar (I call him Alberto for short!) came up with a magnificent system that works for Daz studio: ABAS: Animated Textures System

I also have DraagonStorm's Animated Textures Script, but I was still using OctaneRender when I bought it and wasn't sure how to make it work with that - I wasn't really savvy enough with Studio to even think about it, actually.

I'm glad that I bought it and will try it one day here. I have used Alberto's and it Rocks! But his does more than just textures. It works for pretty much any slider or user-facing function in the surfaces tab.

It's nice having all these tools to use.

Dartanbeck

Awesome - see what I mean?

My Daz + just landed me three new freebies! Just thought I'd look at the store before heading off to bed. I'm so glad I did!

 

Any other Daz + members out there? 

How 'bout those amazing Martin J Frost plants and scenes we get? I absolutely Love using those in my scenes! And now Mely3D is in there too, along with others. The freebies I get from Daz + really help to build that library! So at times when I don't have internet, I try to get to it somehow so I can add my things to my account. Sometimes I'm not so lucky.

 

I'm sorry... I have to say it again:

Thanks Daz 3d!!!

Dartanbeck

198 frames done so far. I am Really Loving Daz Studio right now!!!

Dartanbeck

There's a thread that begs for animation features to be a priority to Daz developers. I'd like to see improvements too, so I joined in. Well, one thing led to another and I ended up explaining (in short) the magic of my Anim + system - how I make it. So that's Right HERE if anyone's interested in making your own control dials. 

Enjoy ;)

Dartanbeck

Wow. The Piranha vs Nemesis chase scene is turning out Fan-Freaking-Tastic!!!

I stopped it after frame 500 so I could get some more animating done, which I'm rendering now - almost done. I'll pick up the final 400 frames when I go to bed.

 

It's awesome though! Here is the second time Rosie gets rammed by Piranha, the third time is in the next run of rendering, and actually sends her into a spin against the curb!

Piranha anticipates and sets up

...and comes in for the ram!

Dartanbeck

Looks more impressive in motion - trust me!!!

Ivy

Dartanbeck said:

Ivy said:

Dartanbeck said:

@Ivy

That example video is from years ago. That's Carrara dynamic hair, which won't fall out on you ;)

This is the dForce hair I'm using now. It's not strand-based so it doesn't fall out either. I love this hair!

I have it but i don't use carrara pro. I just could never grasp use it for animation. & because daz does not offer support for Carrara anymore is one of the reasons I stopped learning it

Also thank you for pointing out that the hair falling is with strand base hair.  I had never thought of that stand base hair being the issue. I never have issues with hair falling out with Poser dynamic hair or daz dynamic hair using the clothing plugin for dynamics. But they are rather cumbersome to use compared to deforce hair.     Hmm strand base hair.  I wonder how to fix that seeming strand-base hair is what daz offers for dforce.

I have had some pretty good success use conforming hair & add dforce modifiers to parts of the conforming hair I want to simulate.  which give me good results for ponytail hair sets.

IMO hair in Daz Studio is one of the hardest things to get to look right or natural when you animate it. and your results have been very good

Sorry, I missed this one.

I don't know if strand based hair was the culprit, but if it's falling off - or looks like it is, I have that feeling. Probably in the settings of the hair or a weight mapping issue or something.

I have the Dire Wolf bundle for Daz Dog 8, and I love how the strand-based hair turns out with that. Simulated quickly and looks fantastic, I think. RawArt's Snow Beast too.

I don't have the the Dire Wolf .. does the hair animate well. ?

Dartanbeck

Yes. It's not all flowy - more like a realistic coat of fur

Edit: In fact. that image is one frame of an animation

Ivy

Thank's it looks nice.   I seen the demo daz uses for their dforce intro and etc.. but I have not had a need for the dire wolf yet for me to buy it.

 

Dartanbeck

Ivy said:

Thank's it looks nice.   I seen the demo daz uses for their dforce intro and etc.. but I have not had a need for the dire wolf yet for me to buy it.

I did (and do): Again, this was early in my Daz Studio studies, using Genesis 8 F

Ivy

Looks great

Dartanbeck

Thanks.

I was so into other thigns at that time (and times prior - before the Daz Studio thing) that I didn't realize how insect-like I had poor Rosie's body - ever since I started the whole Rosie 5 - all the way up to my very recent version that I'm using now. Finally a friend told me, so I looked... sure enough! What? How can I not see that? I just don't get that! I mean... really?

WendyLuvsCatz

Ivy said:

Dartanbeck said:

 

I don't know if strand based hair was the culprit, but if it's falling off - or looks like it is, I have that feeling. Probably in the settings of the hair or a weight mapping issue or something.

I have the Dire Wolf bundle for Daz Dog 8, and I love how the strand-based hair turns out with that. Simulated quickly and looks fantastic, I think. RawArt's Snow Beast too.

 

I don't have the the Dire Wolf .. does the hair animate well. ?

yeah me either

it's often on sale but I prefer a real animal IE wolf or German Shepherd however I guess the fur can be used without the morph

if so maybe I should grab it (I have the German Shepherd)_

Dartanbeck

Just horrifying!!! LOL

 

Another friend sent me a steal of a deal for a lifetime license for the AI voice used in that video, so I bought it. That was my first use with it. Not really planning on using it much, but it does come in handy. Plus, with the lifetime license... looking forward to see how much it advances over the years.

WendyLuvsCatz

Dartanbeck said:

Thanks.

I was so into other thigns at that time (and times prior - before the Daz Studio thing) that I didn't realize how insect-like I had poor Rosie's body - ever since I started the whole Rosie 5 - all the way up to my very recent version that I'm using now. Finally a friend told me, so I looked... sure enough! What? How can I not see that? I just don't get that! I mean... really?

she is very skinny but most supermodels are like that too 

Dartanbeck

WendyLuvsCatz said:

Ivy said:

Dartanbeck said:

 

I don't know if strand based hair was the culprit, but if it's falling off - or looks like it is, I have that feeling. Probably in the settings of the hair or a weight mapping issue or something.

I have the Dire Wolf bundle for Daz Dog 8, and I love how the strand-based hair turns out with that. Simulated quickly and looks fantastic, I think. RawArt's Snow Beast too.

I don't have the the Dire Wolf .. does the hair animate well. ?

yeah me either

it's often on sale but I prefer a real animal IE wolf or German Shepherd however I guess the fur can be used without the morph

if so maybe I should grab it (I have the German Shepherd)_

I've always been a big fan of Wolves. 

I got a full bundle that included the animations, which are really quite useful. The first time I loaded the Dire Wolf I was just floored - and that's before I lifted the Dire Wolf slider, which was off when I loaded it - so it was a wolf, but not the Dire Wolf. Cranking that up made me pee in my pants!!!

Another great find during that massive sale event was the DeepSea Eagle Bundle - Eagle, Environment and aniBlocks! Just freaking Awesome!!!

Frame 95

Dartanbeck

He started off sitting on the dead tree. It's a really nice Take-Off animation, and it comes with others too.

WendyLuvsCatz

so it does have a normal wolf option?

Ivy

Dartanbeck said:

Just horrifying!!! LOL

 

Another friend sent me a steal of a deal for a lifetime license for the AI voice used in that video, so I bought it. That was my first use with it. Not really planning on using it much, but it does come in handy. Plus, with the lifetime license... looking forward to see how much it advances over the years.

You really should look in to Azure Ai  for your voices.

I do not know how good you are with C++, and Asp.net coding.  I use it a lot for server controls for website design & creating phone apps. And Microsoft has Ai for about everything nowadays .  So you really should look in to Azure Ai  for your voices. if you seriously need voice actors.   They are really great, you can get a free Microsoft Azure Account &  The pricing fee is very minimal its like 16 cents for a 10000 words no long term licenses are requires. pay as you go & its very hard to tell the difference between Ai and human voices.  MS does have a demo page here  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/#security so you can see for yourself if its something you can use without making a Commitment .   plus MS has introduced the Virtual Desktop Machine that does not require a lot coding to use the voices system. 

I have used once in one of my Karate girl animations with good results .

Dartanbeck

WendyLuvsCatz said:

so it does have a normal wolf option?

Okay, I wanted to double check, just so I'm not passing along misinformation. 

Turns out it not actually a wolf, but Daz Dog with wolf textures and the strand-based hair. I'm really surprised that made it through QA! It loads without the Dire Wolf morph dialed up! Hmnpf! Looks great, though!

So here's my findings:

Daz Dog 8 Base

Dire Wolf from Breeds folder

Dire Wolf Breed with Dire Wolf Morph at 100

For fun, Ms. Celie, my departed :(  mini dachshund   :(

Ms. Celie with Dire Wolf materials and hair

Dartanbeck

I should add that I had to back the camera way off and reposition it for the Dire Wolf Morph render. Big Puppy!

Similarly, I had to zoom way in and reposition the camera for the Ms. Celie renders! ;)

EDIT: I should also add that Ms. Celeie is not the default Dachshund for Daz Dog 8. She's wearing the lightest texture option and she's been morphed around a bit to better resemble my gold awaiting me at the rainbow bridge.

Dartanbeck

Miss Celeie's final hour :(

Dartanbeck

Chicha brightened us up - rescued Podenko from Spain

WendyLuvsCatz

sad our furbabies have such short lives  she was much loved, it's their humans that suffer afterwards

Ivy

WendyLuvsCatz said:

sad our furbabies have such short lives  she was much loved, it's their humans that suffer afterwards

 

Dartanbeck

@Ivy:

Another great episode! Very cool!

I doubt that I'll be using AI voices, but thanks for the ideas. I do not code in any language! LOL

I have access to a really nice, full blown recording studio, and Rosie is an excellent actress. I love acting and doing many voices as well - and my band are all happy to chip in if needed - so I do have that covered.

I'm not focussing on dialog at this time. My feature is going to be a bit on the different side. Whether different will be good or not is yet to be determined! LOL