SKYLAB CHAT

[Miss B]

I've always liked DIM for downloading, and only tried installing some things to test it out, but as a general rule I prefer to manually install as well.

I do like the search criteria one of the DAZ coders set up, which does help to find groups of things, and I've even created a few for my own purposes.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Morning all... looks like I finally zonked out and got a nap in. No coffee yet. I'm semi-alive and semi-zombie still. Waiting on the pot to finish brewing because my Bear scarfed down the whole rest of the pot while I was asleep.

Sky, that sounds like your best bet for now? I'll see how the installation procedure goes later on when I do it, and then I can help you with it. But I can't help much with it yet since I haven't done the update to 4.9 just yet.

 

[skylab]

Hey Seliah...glad you got some sleep. I haven't had much, trying to puzzle through documentation for information. Found this on converting pose presets to .duf. I also found this forum discussion on converting Poser .pz2 to DS format. Also, there is a batch utility that performs the conversion between .pz2 and .duf.

In working with attempting to pose in DS, I can see why some of the commercial DS sets are kinda unrealistic...it would take a lot of patience to deal with the selection method in order to pose manually for a realistic appearance....unless I missed something. The old Studio was easy to navigate. With the current universal navigator, it's much like a safety pin with 13 movable parts...haha. I'll have to get the hang of it....until then, the converter looks interesting. That must be how a couple of my basketball poses have ended up in commercial packages on Rendo...I stopped doing sports poses because of it. If anybody is going to convert them, it should be me...and the poses are going to remain free. Kinda funny really, using a retired hobbyist's freebies to turn a buck...that's one reason that I go out of my way to advertise, so the 3D community will be familiar with my work and know if they are having to pay for something that is supposed to be free.

I'll upgrade to DS 4.9 as soon as I learn what to do in order to "connect", since I'd like to take a look at Iray rendering.

I need to rest my eyes awhile...I have trouble reading with bright white backgrounds after awhile. Will be back on later

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Sky, the forum here does have a darker colored theme, which is what I use. If the brighter colors bother your eyes, you can change the color theme to help alleviate some of that.

I had to finish THIS render, because my brain was driving me NUTS about it :
I Just Wanted to Post an Image Thread

So now... now maybe I can get that posing tutorial finished. LOL!!

As far as the .pz2... Studio can actually read Poser format .pz2 poses. You don't have to go crazy trying to convert them all to .duf format. Poser content is found under the "Poser Formata" area of DS. You click on "Poser Formats", and then your Poser Runtime folder, and then you can navigate through all of the usual Poser folders.

Body poses in .pz2 format can be loaded from there.

And yes. Saving poses in DS does involve a LOT of clicking to do it RIGHT. This is why the higher end pose packages, such as we see from Ironman13, are so much more expensive than what we are used to seeing with Poser packages. I've done a LOT of partial poses for Nataani as well, and while I always had a high respect for Ironman's packages, I now have a MUCH better understanding of WHY her packages run at the price points that they do. She makes massive pose packs, and she has TONS of partials... getting all of that done right takes a long time.

As far as getting realistic body poses... you click on the body part you want - then click on your Posing tab so that it opens up. From there, you have access to your x/y/z trans and rotate dials for the body part, and if the body part has any posing helper morphs those will be in that area as well.

I always pose everything by the body part - I don't use things like hand grasps or head/neck bending morphs on the human figures. I just prefer to leave those things alone in case the end user wants to make use of them.

 

[skylab]

Here's my basketball free throw pose for M4....done in DS 4.7...I just did FILE - IMPORT - and pull down to POSER FILES which includes .pz2, then navigate to the Poser runtime to apply the pose.

I notice that the batch converter program does not do the Mil Horse, or other figures...only M4, V4, etc.

 

[skylab]

Haha...we were posting the same info at the same time. I appreciate the tip about changing the forum color...it starts pulsating after awhile

And...I found the posing tabs about the same time you were posting...it's over to the far right side, and more like the x, y, z that I'm use to in Poser. Should be no problem then, once I get the hang of it. If I'm understanding it correctly, I could just resave my M4 stuff, and the Mil Horse too for that matter, in .duf format and put them up on ShareCG for DS users? That's the idea anyway.

 

[skylab]

Oh what a nice fluffy wolf Okay, so how did you get the fur? I know Carrara is supposed to be able to do that.

I'd love to be able to do a collie dog....I'm crazy about fuzzy animals. That's why I like Tiny's fluffy mil cat so much.

 

[skylab]

And yes, one certainly does gain an appreciation for poses that are done right in DS. I also go easy on the tight hand grasps...I give it a loose, manually done grasp, which gives the user the freedom to determine how much is too much. I have found in pose sets, often hands are grasped so tightly that there's a certain amount of distortion and odd bends to the fingers... and it takes more work to unbend everything than if I had posed the hand from the zero position. So I try to give people a break on that deal, with just a light grasp of steering wheels, reins, that sort of thing.

 

[Miss B]

I'm liking that free throw pose Sky. I think you got the arms/hands done perfectly. I might bend his knees a little, as I've see players do that to put a little extra umph in the throw.

 

[skylab]

That's the most "copied" pose I've seen so far...haha...it was a bear to do, models will only do so much and the arm placements were tough. I think that's why folks want to short cut and save themselves some work...haha. I just saved it as a .duf......FILE - SAVE AS - POSE PRESET. I guess it's easier with non-genesis figures, you just save the whole body pose. That pose was originally meant to represent the actual shot, after hopping upward, but you're right, a knee bend would have been easy to add, arms very similar...that's a thought

I was all prepared to do a baseball set, then I started seeing a couple of the basketball poses in commercial sets...and I thought whoa. So I aborted that project for a later time. Had the reference photos all ready too.

 

[Miss B]

Kewl.

 

[skylab]

Seliah, thank you so much for the tip about how to change the colors...now Hivewire looks similar to RDNA...I like the dark background, easier on the eyes

 

[Miss B]

Yes, I changed to the dark theme as soon as Lisa had enabled it. I can't deal with light colored themes.

 

[skylab]

Here's the original M4 basketball shot

 

[skylab]

Did you all see this Windows 10 zapper utitlity in sanbie's thread....looks very interesting.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Seliah, thank you so much for the tip about how to change the colors...now Hivewire looks similar to RDNA...I like the dark background, easier on the eyes

You're welcome, Sky! Bright colors physically hurt my eyes. I'm painfully photosensitive, and bright colored forums result in my needing to wear sunglasses to view them. This is another reason that I pretty much walked away from the Daz forums. No dark theme.

Yes, I changed to the dark theme as soon as Lisa had enabled it. I can't deal with light colored themes.

Anyway - making supper here now. After that, things settle enough for me to type and get work done, so I'll be on after supper.

 

[skylab]

I'm wolfing down dinner now too, and will rest for awhile. I plan to be up late tonight, and may do some cooking and 3D at the same time...supposed to be very cold, and cooking is the best way to deal with the extreme chill. So, see you later on

 

[skylab]

I installed the Windows 10 zapper, called GWX Control Panel, and set the options to choke the stuff out of Windows 10 reminders, folders, and non-critical updates. That taskbar icon disappeared immediately...YEEESSSSS!!! I set it to continue monitoring the system so nothing else can slip through Later. . .

 

[Miss B]

Interesting. I'll have to check that out.

It's cold here too. The temp's down in the teens, and it's extremely windy today. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice sunny day, but still windy until around noon, so maybe it'll warm up a little in the afternoon.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Dinner is done... nummy elk steaks with cauliflower and tangerines that my mother sent us from Florida this year.

Anyway. I'm back online. Finishing up that tut for you now, Sky.