• Welcome to the Community Forums at HiveWire 3D! Please note that the user name you choose for our forum will be displayed to the public. Our store was closed as January 4, 2021. You can find HiveWire 3D and Lisa's Botanicals products, as well as many of our Contributing Artists, at Renderosity. This thread lists where many are now selling their products. Renderosity is generously putting products which were purchased at HiveWire 3D and are now sold at their store into customer accounts by gifting them. This is not an overnight process so please be patient, if you have already emailed them about this. If you have NOT emailed them, please see the 2nd post in this thread for instructions on what you need to do

Introduction & Probably Newcomer FAQs

Tynkere

Motivated
Hi Everyone,

Is this where we introduce ourselves or ask basic stuff? If not, then mod/admin feel free to move.

How I got here is kind of long, so apologize about the length.

Had heard about Poser at a workshop in late 90s. Poser 3.0 demo? Thought they looked silly, and I was more a Photoshop / Quark Express person. “3D? What for?” Famous last words!

Anyway, got back into 3D in October of last year by accident. Had been looking at duckduckgo images & ran across one that caught my eye. "Woah! Photoshop filter or airbrush skills from Hades! How’d he do that?" (Photoshop user since version 2.5 or 3.0 I think.)

Turns out it was a 3D render! Off to Autodesk & Maya. Uhm... Must be nice, but out of my tax bracket.

So trial version of Poser11 and found a free one had never heard of-- DS. Clever about DAZ. Free app and easy tutorial with IRay to get you hooked. (Or me at least.)

Their store though is bizarre. For a project, I need a rigged mockingbird prop. How hard can that be? I'm sure most of you know the answer.

Type in Mockingbird and got “Dominican Monestary” or something. “Birds” got me a dinosaur that doesn't even fly. Predictive text had “Songbirds.” More silly results. “Songbird Remix” got me DJ sets. Now you can guess where this is going!

Internet search and looks like this site and the PA's own site are only game in town.

Looks like I need the basic ‘bird remix’ package + ‘Characters’ ? Definitely need wildlife props, so looks like Hivewire is is the place.

Final question since don’t want to be over long. How are “Dawn/Dusk” in Iray and or Superfly? The promo renders look to have some pretty good details on palm of hands & knuckles. I couldn’t find anything on whether all 4 carpal bones, but assume they have them?

Thanks for reading!

--Bruce
 

Hornet3d

Wise
Welcome to Hivewire Bruce, you should find the group here to be fun and very helpful, I certainly have.

I use only Poser but many use DS and a few very talented people use both but despite being a Poser user I think and free copy of DS and some content from Hivewire at some very reasonable prices is a good way to start out until you have an idea of what you really want to do. Believe me, as you get more and more hooked your goals tend to change.

As I only use Poser I can only speak about Superfly and for that some figures such as Dawn need to be run through a script called Ezskin3, that is because they were built for the other render engine in Poser called firefly. Other figures, including the new Dusk I think have Superfly shaders so no conversion needed. Once you are near the mark the skin tones, sharpness of detail along with other factors are really a matter of personal choice. I am sure someone will add to this thread about DS and iRAY before very long.

In the meantime you could get some idea from looking at the 'share your Dawn renders' and 'share your Dusk renders' threads in the 'It is all about the art forum'. There are some really great renders there and you should also find a look at the other renders in peoples albums, just click the media tab at the top of the page.
 

Alisa

RETIRED HW3D QAV Director (QAV Queen Bee)
Staff member
QAV-BEE
Hi, Bruce, and welcome to the Hive!! This is a great place for a HI thread :)

You'll find this a friendly community :)

All of Ken Gilliland's products are at HiveWire exclusively (including the Songbird Remix and Natures' Wonders series. Each of the SBRM sets are stand alone. Ken's in the process of redoing them all to have native DAZ Studio and Poser versions with Iray & 3DL for Studio and Firefly & Superfly for Poser.

Dawn SE comes with separate Iray & 3DL materials for DAZ Studio, and Firefly materials for Poser, as she came out before Superfly existed

As Hornet said, SnarlyGribbly's free EZSkin3 python script addon for Poser can get you Superfly rendering with just the base figure.

Snarly's Space: EZSkin

Dusk SE comes with separate Iray & 3DL materials for DAZ Studio and one set of Poser materials that are both Firefly and Superfly compatible.
 

Hornet3d

Wise
Where you can use superfly it is good and liquids and metals in particular seem very realistic but that does not mean that firefly can't produce some good results.

Here is a comparison of firefly and superfly to give you some idea.

SS and FF comp 2 HW.jpg


The character here is Exotic Adrianne for Dawn by Glitterati which is sold here at Hivewire. As the name suggests this a character loaded over the Dawn Base.

Again this is Poser only but I think that both the render engines in DS are equally as good from the renders I have seen here in the forums.
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Hi Bruce and welcome. As Alisa said above, all of the Songbird ReMix sets are standalone. In addition, there's a treasure trove of free bird downloads (especially for the base set) in my download section (Look at the "Downloads" in each of the products and click the caret next to "Click for List").

Hopefully by the end of April, I'll have free Superfly/Iray upgrades for all the Songbird series.
 

Tynkere

Motivated
Thanks for replies and warm welcome-- even from the PA-- wasn’t expecting that!

Maybe I’m easily impressed, but some amazing work. Looks like everything is rigged and almost need to be an ornithologist to fold the wings with no poke-throughs! Will need to look at the PDF & also photos of bird feet. Never thought I’d be posing bird feet. : 0 !

This is a quick “out of the box” render in a little 3DL test room I use.



He’s a handsome, curious little guy!

As for Poser, that’s a nice render with the eyes. In limited experience with all four (mainly IRay & 3DL, but also Superfly) a close-up always has sclera either flat, or with G8 figures, whites of eyes look red like they have hay fever or something! Am learning the art here isn’t posing, so much as surface settings and the different shaders. Maybe need to spend more time learning Poser too. : )

Anyway, thank you again. Time to read the docs and figure out my mistake in folding the wings. Great product & well worth price of admission.

--Bruce
 

LisaB

HW3D Vice President & Queen Bee
Staff member
Co-Founder
Hi Bruce!

:welcome: to the :beehive: !

We hope you hang around a while, share your experiences in 3D and of course, we love to see your renders!

Enjoy creating!
 

CWRW

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
Welcome aboard! Yep our Ken is DA BOMB when it comes to birds! (and lots of of other critters and nature as well!) he is very passionate about them and it shows.

If you enjoy doing renders of birds and animals, The Hive is the Place!!! We are VERY passionate about creating the best 3d animals out there.

Personally I LOVE Dusk- he is my "g0-to guy" and I love creating products for him. Dawn is fabulous too- I am just not a person who does a lot of female renders.

Enjoy and again welcome to our Hive! LOTS of very friendly folks!
 

Mythocentric

Extraordinary
A warm welcome to the Hive Bruce! You can also add light's to your explore list. It can make a world of difference to a render. That's 3D though. Its an endless journey but one which can reward, and more than occasionally surprise you, every step of the way. Enjoy! :welcome:
 

Hornet3d

Wise
Thanks for replies and warm welcome-- even from the PA-- wasn’t expecting that!

Maybe I’m easily impressed, but some amazing work. Looks like everything is rigged and almost need to be an ornithologist to fold the wings with no poke-throughs! Will need to look at the PDF & also photos of bird feet. Never thought I’d be posing bird feet. : 0 !

This is a quick “out of the box” render in a little 3DL test room I use.



He’s a handsome, curious little guy!

As for Poser, that’s a nice render with the eyes. In limited experience with all four (mainly IRay & 3DL, but also Superfly) a close-up always has sclera either flat, or with G8 figures, whites of eyes look red like they have hay fever or something! Am learning the art here isn’t posing, so much as surface settings and the different shaders. Maybe need to spend more time learning Poser too. : )

Anyway, thank you again. Time to read the docs and figure out my mistake in folding the wings. Great product & well worth price of admission.

--Bruce

Hi Bruce, that is a good render for some one so new to 3D art, you should see some of my first attempts, though come to think of it most were pure black. I spent a age trying to fix the lighting only to learn you must place the camera so it can see the subject and not have a wall in between.

I think one factors for making a figure look right is the hair and the eyes. Unless you are very skilled the limitations of the hair is down to which hair you use and lighting. Eyes are different in that you can change the shape of the eyes and the materials used. One of my key aims it to have real reflections not highlights burned into the image maps, not important unless you do portraits but I do a lot so it is important for me. Having the right image maps is important but then the shader set up has a massive impact as does the lighting. For me a lot of 3D is playing with the materials, lighting and spinning the parameter dials to get the shape.

Although we sometimes refer to some renders as click, pose and render, even that needs a some knowledge of lighting. After that it is all a question of playing with the features of the software to create the art you want.
 

Tynkere

Motivated
Thanks again for all the replies & warm welcome.

Confession time... Since not with a big company like Smith-Micro or even DAZ, I asked at a forum, "What's HW3D? Their returns/customer service OK?"

One reply, "Yes, it was co-founded by Chris Creek and has some really gifted PAs."

Woah! Been ages, but even from 2D & Photoshop-- name seemed familiar. So I did a little research, and like I say-- Woah! Names I've learned from 3D are here?

So Dawn / Dusk from the same person or group who came up with the original Victoria / Michael? And to that list add people who do horses? Plants? Think I'm going to like it here. : )

One "new - bee" (fun play on words) question though -- couldn't find it in FAQ. Since 3D community seems to be kind of a small one, might as well have same avatar and handle as at DAZ forums where I go by "Tynkere."

How do I change it? Under "Account Information" it has first name / last name as required fields of course, but I couldn't find "handle" or "User Name"

Best

--Bruce

PS: @ Hornet 3D

Yes, am learning that lighting in 3D isn't like photography at all! Unfortunately, my desktop has a CPU that goes into turbo mode for 3DL and Superfly, so I'm limited to about 5 minutes before windows-10 will stop things. Here's a slightly better version of "SongbirdRemix." Am sure it was never meant to be scaled 200% and put into a little light room I made out of planes. Am using one light product for DS called 'AoA Spotlight' and walls should be around 50% gray with basic Uber2 shader I think. Doesn't do it justice of course, but finding out that surfaces and rendering in 3DL is very challenging. Lot of docs to read and yes-- quite a few sliders to play around with!

 

Alisa

RETIRED HW3D QAV Director (QAV Queen Bee)
Staff member
QAV-BEE
Since 3D community seems to be kind of a small one, might as well have same avatar and handle as at DAZ forums where I go by "Tynkere."

How do I change it? Under "Account Information" it has first name / last name as required fields of course, but I couldn't find "handle" or "User Name"


Send a pm to LisaB - she can handle it for you (yes, that's Lisa's Botanicals, and co-owner of the Hive with Chris ;)).
 

Hornet3d

Wise
Thanks again for all the replies & warm welcome.

Confession time... Since not with a big company like Smith-Micro or even DAZ, I asked at a forum, "What's HW3D? Their returns/customer service OK?"

One reply, "Yes, it was co-founded by Chris Creek and has some really gifted PAs."

Woah! Been ages, but even from 2D & Photoshop-- name seemed familiar. So I did a little research, and like I say-- Woah! Names I've learned from 3D are here?

So Dawn / Dusk from the same person or group who came up with the original Victoria / Michael? And to that list add people who do horses? Plants? Think I'm going to like it here. : )

One "new - bee" (fun play on words) question though -- couldn't find it in FAQ. Since 3D community seems to be kind of a small one, might as well have same avatar and handle as at DAZ forums where I go by "Tynkere."

How do I change it? Under "Account Information" it has first name / last name as required fields of course, but I couldn't find "handle" or "User Name"

Best

--Bruce

PS: @ Hornet 3D

Yes, am learning that lighting in 3D isn't like photography at all! Unfortunately, my desktop has a CPU that goes into turbo mode for 3DL and Superfly, so I'm limited to about 5 minutes before windows-10 will stop things. Here's a slightly better version of "SongbirdRemix." Am sure it was never meant to be scaled 200% and put into a little light room I made out of planes. Am using one light product for DS called 'AoA Spotlight' and walls should be around 50% gray with basic Uber2 shader I think. Doesn't do it justice of course, but finding out that surfaces and rendering in 3DL is very challenging. Lot of docs to read and yes-- quite a few sliders to play around with!


I come from a photographic background hobby wise and it took me while to discover that 3D lights work differently than the real world. That is one of the main differences between superfly and firefly, superfly lights work very much like the real world where firefly is full of little tricks to try and mimic the real world. It has changed over time too, try rendering a figure with an old skin shader and if comes out with a blue tint due due to the fact that some tricks change over time. We also have sub surface scattering in Poser which was not there when I started and the lighting has had some major changes over the years.

Yep we are very fortunate to be with such rare company as Lisa and Chris, not only for their talent in 3D but also the ethics and love they bring to their creation of Hivewire.
 

Tynkere

Motivated
@ Alisa

OK. Although I imagine she is very busy. Busy bee? Kind of clever with ‘hive’ name. : )

@ Hornet 3D

Yes, I need to get with Smith-Micro tech spt, or maybe they have a forum? Tech forum here?

Am finding that Poser might have more resources that fit my genre of Norman Rockwell style scenes. Might be better off buying props them for Poser, and changing the mats. Tedious, but a better investment can be used in two apps, or in some cases they might be 'rigged' for more options? Maybe that depends on the PAs though.

I tried a very close facial render of “Alisha2” in superfly and except for eyes (probably need to learn settings for them) it looked amazing until Windows killed the process. : /

In DS, male actors' skin & lips appear look like they are wearing lip gloss and have had a wax job! Have to tweak the surfaces. You have to do that in Poser?

That also brings to yet another FAQ about Dawn / Dusk.

For posing hand, they have 4 carpel bones or are grouped as 2?

They would require their own clothing? I found I can get DS hair to work on a Poser actor like “James high res” but clothes much more difficult.

Anyway, better close. Hopefully that’s not too many questions and shop talk. Sound like a chatterbox. : )

Thanks for reading!

--Bruce
 

Ken Gilliland

Extraordinary
HW3D Exclusive Artist
I'll try to answer a few of the questions...

There are many Poser oriented forums... Smith-Micro, Renderosity and Hivewire3D to name a few.

Shiny lips-- it depends on the model but most of them have a separate material for lips... go into the material settings for the lips and turn down gloss/highlights... if you're in DS and using the 3Delight renderer turning the material to the "plastic/glossy plastic" to "matte" helps.

Carpel bones on Dawn/Dusk... I had to check... Either 2 or 3 depending on what you are considering "carpel" . The main carpel bone goes from the wrist to the Index and middle finger. There's a second bone that bridges the connection to the Ring finger and Pinky from that main carpel bone. The third bone I mentioned connects the thumb.

Sharing clothes- clothes made for one character generally don't work perfectly "off the shelf", with a different character. DAZ Studio will try to make them work -- some times with passable results. In Poser, you'll need to hand work it in the "Fitting Room" or a third-party solution like Cross-Dresser.
 
Top