• 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

Poser props in DS and some basic DS How-to

Seliah (Childe of Fyre)

Running with the wolves.
CV-BEE
Contributing Artist
Okay... so here we go. The basic overview of the Surfaces tab... understand that everything I'm about to say goes for 3Delight only. I highly doubt much of this would translate to Iray, and I have absolutely no experience with Iray, so I would not be able to teach that in any case.

The first thing to do, once you have the Surfaces tab open, is to know where to click to bring up the editor. At the top of the Surfaces tab, look up high, just below the toolbar. There will be three buttons. "Preset," "Editor," and "Shader Baker."

You want to click on "Editor." Doing that, will then bring up something that looks like this :

upload_2016-3-24_15-49-36.png


Now, Shaders and Materials are two very different things in Studio. Shaders are things like dzDefault, UberSurface, AOA_Subsurface, etc. Look up where it says "Editor," and look directly underneath that. In small print, the shader currently in use on any given surface will be listed. Materials, on the other hand, are basically the collection of settings that make use of the shader. Nataani's MATs, for instance, are material settings, that use the dzDefault shader.

In the screenshot example above, it is showing the Daz Studio Default shader being in use. This is often referred to as dzDefault, as I think in prior versions it would be displayed as "dzDefault" and not "Daz Studio Default" as it shows in 4.8.

It's important to know which shader you're using, because the options are different for each type of shader. I'm only going to cover the dzDefault shader in this. Ubersurface and the AOA SSS are more advanced shaders, and I'm only just beginning to understand those two in the last few months. Besides all of that, the basic dzDefault shader is what you will see on most things that are not from Daz. The other one you will see a lot of is the SSS, but for what you're doing with the house and such, the basic shader is probably good enough to start with, especially as you're not all that familiar with the software itself yet. Keep things simple in the beginning. :)

So, starting at the top and going down, I'm going to go over each of these. Most of them are self explanatory in the dzDefault shader. This is half of the material properties :

upload_2016-3-24_16-13-16.png


And this is the other half :

upload_2016-3-24_16-13-28.png


Lighting Model -
This allows you to set different lighting models. Clicking in this box, you can choose from Plastic (which is the default), Metallic, Matte, Skin, Glossy (Metallic), and Glossy (Plastic).

Plastic is fine for hard surface objects for the most part.
I have not seen a lot of use for the Metallic lighting model, as it doesn't seem to behave much differently than Plastic.
Same goes for Glossy(Metallic), and Glossy(Plastic).
Skin is basically a faked SSS intended for use with Caucasian skin textures; it will, when selected, give you two additional properties. I'll go over those later, as it does have some other helpful uses as well.
Matte is just what it sounds like. This will remove all the properties that have to do with lighting - things like specular, reflection, and refraction will go away when this lighting model is chosen, as it's meant for surfaces that you don't want reflection or specular highlights.

Diffuse Color -
This is where you choose the color of a surface/material zone. There is a square box to the left, that when you click on it, you can browse and select your texture map to assign to the surface. To choose a color, you click in the box with the RGB codes showing. In the screenshot above here, that box is white, as the surface is set for true white.

Diffuse Strength -
I know we don't use this a lot, but if you want to apply the texture map at less than 100% strength, this is the place to do that. If you click on where it gives the number value (in this screenshot, 100%), you can type in an exact value. Or, you can use the slider to adjust the value. This goes for all the sliders in Studio. In this screenshot, the box next to the slider is empty with nothing assigned, so it displays as a box with a downward pointing triangle.

The box on Diffuse Strength is where you would apply things like a dirt mask. Dirt masks are transparent PNG images that work as a sort of overlay. The effect won't be visible until the surface is rendered, but it allows for things like splatters or dirt to be overlayed on top of a texture map without having to produce an additional version of the texture. Smay uses these quite a bit, and I like them as well for some things. I've also used this field for things like applying tattoos or body paint over the top of a texture.

Glossiness -
I know this isn't visible in the screenshots above, but that's because the material zone in those screen shots was using the Matte lighting model. In Poser terms, this is basically your Specular Highlight strength/size. Deni Gaka's shaders have a pretty good visual representation of what the Glossiness property does :

upload_2016-3-24_16-49-53.png


You can set a map in the box to the left just like with Diffuse, Bump, etc. And there is also a slider on the Glossiness property that you can use to adjust the strength of the effect.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Specular Color -
Just like in Poser, this is where you would choose the specular color. If you have a Specular map, you would assign that to a selected surface in this property as well.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Specular Value -
Also very much like Poser, this is where you would adjust the Specular strength up or down.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Multiple Specular Through Opacity -
I'm not exactly clear on what this does specifically, but some shaders have it turned on, some shaders turn it off.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Ambient Color -

This works the same as it would in Poser. Just pick the color that you want for the ambient glow.

Ambient Strength -
Also works the same as it does in Poser. Adjust the strength up or down via the slider, or type in an exact value for the strength of the ambient glow.

Opacity Strength -
This is the transparency setting in Daz Studio. Adjust the slider up or down to change the level of transparency of the selected material zone. Again, in the above screenshot, you see the box with the downward pointing arrow - that is where you would assign a transmap to a selected surface. The Opacity slider works with or without a transmap applied.

Bump Strength -
Works similar to Poser's bump settings. Assign a greyscale map in the box to the left (white triangle if nothing is assigned), and adjust the slider up or down for the strength.

Negative Bump -
This is where you set how far inward/downward you want the bump map to affect the surface. Go gently on the values with this; it's very common to only use -.10, or maybe -.25 values in both this and the Positive Bump. Some surfaces need a full 1.0 or -1.0 value, but these are pretty rare.

Positive Bump -
This is where you set how far upward/outward you want the bump map to affect a selected surface.

Displacement Strength -
Yup. This is where you assign a displacement map to a surface. Click on the box to the left with the arrow to select your map, and then a slider will appear for you to adjust the strength of the displacement effect.

Minimum/Maximum Displacement -
These two sliders work the same way as the Positive/Negative Bump sliders do, except that the affect only the displacement settings on a surface.

Normal Map -
This is where you can assign a normal map to a surface. In the dzDefault shader, you cannot control the strength of the normal map on the surface, but you can assign one here. I use normals often for skins, to avoid the clothing headaches that displacement creates.

Reflection Color -
Just like in Poser. You assign a reflection map here, as well as the color of the reflection. If you want TRUE reflections, just set the color and Stength value, and do NOT assign a map. True reflections take a little longer to render, but IMO, they look much more believable than a reflection map. I only use reflection maps for small surfaces like shirt buttons, belt buckles, or door hinges/knobs.

I do want to take a moment here to make a note regarding true reflections. I'm not sure how it works these days in Poser, but in Daz Studio, if you are using True Reflections, you have to have something for the surface to REFLECT. So if all you have in the scene is a single object, and you set your Reflection properties, you won't get a reflection. You have to have walls, other objects, or a skydome, something like that in the scene for the surface to reflect when it renders.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.


Reflection Strength -
Also like Poser. You adjust the strength of the reflection up or down on this slider.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.


Refraction Color -
Assign a refraction map (I would assume, based on the presence of the box/triangle) here, as well as the color of the refraction here.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Refraction Strength -
Assign the strength of Refraction on this slider.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Index of Refraction -
Again, I'm just not entirely sure what this does, other than it has to do with Refraction.

This property will NOT be visible when using the "Matte" lighting model.

Horizontal/Vertical Tiles -
This is where you can adjust how many times a tiling texture will tile on a surface. The default, of course, is 1.

Horizontal/Vertical Offset -
This allows you to sort of "slide" the texture alonng the horizontal or vertical axis of a surface. It might sound like a silly property to have, but it's actually very useful for many things.

UV Set -
This applies more to the Genesis figures which have multuple UV sets that they can use. If using Genesis 1, for instance, clicking in this box, I can choose to use the M4 UVs, or V5 UVs, or the Genesis 2 UVs, etc. Whatever UV sets are installed for a figure, you can choose between them here. This affects only the selected surfaces. If you want the entire Genesis 1 figure to use, say, the Kids 4 UVs, you would select ALL of the figure's material zones and then set the UV option.

Smooth -
I'm actually not sure what this does. LOL. I've tried rendering with it on and with it off, and I can't see any differences. By default, it's enabled, and I pretty much just ignore it.

Angle -
See my comment for "Smooth." :)

---------------------

I'm going to cover the "Skin" lighting model properties in a separate post, as I really think they're best demonstrated with a couple of example renders to show the effect.
 
Last edited:

eclark1894

Visionary
Materials and Shaders are NOT the same thing. Okay, very important distinction as I always thought the terms were used interchangebly.
 

Seliah (Childe of Fyre)

Running with the wolves.
CV-BEE
Contributing Artist
Alright. Now, for the "Skin" lighting model. I'm giving this one some extra attention because it really is very useful for a lot more than just Caucasian skin textures. As I mentioned above, this basically gives you a "fake" sort of SSS-style appearance to your surfaces when rendered. It also adds three more properties to the Surfaces tab. These are the properties that are added when choosing to work with the Skin lighting model :

upload_2016-3-24_17-55-46.png


And this is what those properties look like when first added and in their default state :

upload_2016-3-24_17-56-52.png


The first image is a screen shot from my material settings on Dusk's bomber jacket. The second one is the default state of the properties when you choose the Skin lighting model for the first time on a surface.

This lighting model is intended for Caucasian skin textures. I used it on Nataani's skin, by adjusting the Sheen and Scatter colors. I also like to use it on things like leather, velvet, hair objects, grasses, plants, soft woolen cloth, silks... basically any soft, organic surface can benefit from this lighting model at times.

The way I use this, is I always set the "Sheen" color to be a brighter color than the "Scatter." If the underlying surface is brown, for instance, I will use a mid-to-dark colored brown in the Scatter color, and I will use a light-to-mid colored brown in the Sheen color.

If the surface's underlying color (the texture map or whatever), is blue, then I will use a mid-to-dark blue on the Scatter color, and a light-to-mid colored blue on the Sheen color. What colors you choose for Sheen and Scatter depend on the color of the surface your working with. You want the color tones to complement each other, or at least be in the same color family.

For a Caucasian character, that red Scatter is often too much of a red, and I frequently will fade it out to a more pale toned red, or go for something along the lines of more pale off-white/cream color. For pale-skinned figures, I find leaving the Sheen color to be a shade of grey is best. White is a bit too strong, but a light to medium grey works well for Caucasian skins.

For darker skinned characters, like Nataani, the Scatter is usually set to some sort of brown-ish color, as is the Sheen. Sometimes even with a darker skinned character, leaving the Scatter as a shade of grey just works better, so if it looks better that way, then do it. I had to leave Nataani's Sheen color a shade of grey as well, as the other shades were giving too much of a "bottle tan" appearance to his skin. This what Nataani's colors are set to for his skin :

upload_2016-3-24_18-3-49.png


So, basically, you just want to keep in mind what the base color of the surface is. Is it red? Blue? Purple? Black, brown, green, etc. And choose Scatter and Sheen colors accordingly.

So, looking at the effects of the "Skin" lighting model here. I am going to pull a couple of example renders that I used back when I was helping AD work out her bomber jacket textures.

First render : This was the jacket with her base DS materials applied, using the "Plastic" lighting model.

LightModel 01.png


Second render -
This time, I have the "Skin" lighting model selected for use on the jacket's torso, collar, and sleeves. Because the surface of the jacket itself is black, I went with shades of grey for both the Sheen and Scatter colors.

If you look at the shoulders and the back part of the collar on the jacket, where there's light hitting it from behind or off to the sides, you can see the effect of the Skin lighting model in play there. This sort of mimics the way light reacts to things like skin or animal hide.

If I were going to be using these materials to do a serious render, I would probably change the Scatter color to a slightly darker color of grey, and possibly do the same thing with the Sheen so that the overall color of the fabric wasn't being washed out so much. But for the purposes of this post, this gives you a pretty good idea of what effect the Skin lighting model has on a surface.

LightModel 03.png


I use the Skin lighting model for a lot of things. Skin, yes. But soft organic surfaces in general - hairs especially can benefit from it's use sometimes.

Anyway - that's how to work with the extra properties that this lighting model gives you in the shader. I just thought it was best to separate it out to it's own post as it really did need a couple of images to properly demonstrate.

I would suggest sticking with Plastic lighting model for things like hard-surface textures. The Matte lighting model is very good for surfaces that would not normally produce any specular highlights or reflections. I just have never seen much difference with the other lighting models, so I basically ignore them and don't use them. Plastic, Matte, and Skin are the three I use the most for the dzDefault shader.
 

Seliah (Childe of Fyre)

Running with the wolves.
CV-BEE
Contributing Artist
Materials and Shaders are NOT the same thing. Okay, very important distinction as I always thought the terms were used interchangebly.

Correct. They are VERY different things. Think of "Materials" as the settings that depend on the Shader. Materials would be equivalent to your .mc6 and .mt5 files in Poser, where they can be loaded either for a specific object like the bomber jacket (mc6), or you can save them as a material to be applied to any surface you want it on (the .mt5).

Shaders in Daz Studio 3Delight --

dzDefault - the default daz studio shader that I went over up above
AOA_SSS - this is Age of Armour's Subsurface shader. You will see this used a lot on figure skins.
OmUbersurface - this is the Ubersurface shader. I've seen it used on figure skins also, but moreso on fabrics and hairs.

There are others, but those three are the most commonly used.

So, a Material will be using ONE of those shaders, which will be displayed in the Surfaces tab at the top as seen in the first screenshot with the yellow-on-black text.

The Shaders are the collection of properties, and Materials are the settings for those properties. SSS and Ubersurface have entirely different properties than dzDefault, and they behave very differently as well. dzDefault is the simplest of the shaders, and is the best one to learn when new to Studio because it's a lot more straightforward and self explanatory.

SHADERS can be created custom-made via the Shader Builder and Shader Mixer tabs, but again I have not delved into those before, so I can't teach anyone how to use those two tabs.
 

Seliah (Childe of Fyre)

Running with the wolves.
CV-BEE
Contributing Artist
Yeah, a lot of people use them interchangeably - even in the Daz store, they do. And I really wish they would stop doing that, because all it does is confuse new users who are having a hard time learning the interface as it is! LOL
 

Seliah (Childe of Fyre)

Running with the wolves.
CV-BEE
Contributing Artist
What's the difference between Glossiness and Sheen?

Glossiness affects the entire surface, whereas Sheen/Scatter primarily only come into effect on the edges of a surface, where light would just hit off the very edges.

Think of Glossiness like Poser's specular highlight size and strength, and think of Sheen/Scatter as similar to Poser's translucence settings (except that Sheen/Scatter don't affect the opacity of the objects)... that's more or less the differences.
 
Last edited:

Seliah (Childe of Fyre)

Running with the wolves.
CV-BEE
Contributing Artist
Visual display here of the differences...

Shader : dzDefault
Lighting model : Plastic
Glossy : 25%

Glossy25.png

Shader : dzDefault
Lighting model : Skin
Glossy : 25%

Glossy25Skin.png


Shader : dzDefault
Lighting model : Plastic
Glossy : 75%

Glossy75.png

Shader : dzDefault
Lighting model : Skin
Glossy : 75%

Glossy75Skin.png


Hope that helps demonstrate the differences.
 

Dreamer

Dream Weaver Designs
GZot a question for any one who can help, I have a morphing poser prop that I want to convert to DS but not sure how. The morphs were made in poser using the clothroom and while the dials show up in DS when you open the .pp2 file they dont work.
Can some one please walk me through getting this to work?
 

eclark1894

Visionary
Hmm. If I recall correctly, any morph made in the cloth room would be basically the same as an animation. The only way to convert it into a real morph in Poser would be to spawn it off as a morph target. I'm not familiar enough with DS to know how or if you can do either of those methods. Your third method, which I think may work in DS is to export it as an object in Poser, and import it as a morph target in DS. As I said, I' not familiar enough with DS to know if any of these methods will work in DS. They'll ALL work in Poser.
 

Dreamer

Dream Weaver Designs
I had spawned morph targets from the sims so as there was no need to run calculations for the morphs. I am beginning to get the horrid feeling I need to export each morph as a target obj and then inport to ds
 

Pendraia

Sage
Contributing Artist
Dreamer, would the tutorial I did for converting character morphs help with this? It's in the DS forum here...it's a very early post from memory.

iirc, I tried initially using the transfer utility but that frequently doesn't work so I exported to cr2 with the morph dialled in and then exported to object file from daz then uploaded via Morph Loader pro. If you have lots of morphs it can take a while.
 

Dreamer

Dream Weaver Designs
Dreamer, would the tutorial I did for converting character morphs help with this? It's in the DS forum here...it's a very early post from memory.

iirc, I tried initially using the transfer utility but that frequently doesn't work so I exported to cr2 with the morph dialled in and then exported to object file from daz then uploaded via Morph Loader pro. If you have lots of morphs it can take a while.
Im not sure, I did look at that but wasnt sure if what worked on a character would work for a morphing prop?
 

Bejaymac

Inspired
Thanks @Bejaymac umm you don't happen to know of a handy tut for converting PMD's to embedded do you?
Been 18 months since I last had Poser installed so I don't remember the exact wording, but under preferences there is an option for external morphs, it's on by default which is what creates the PMD's. With it turned off, load the PP2 into Poser and then save it back to the Prop Library, this will embed the morphs into the PP2.
 

Dreamer

Dream Weaver Designs
Been 18 months since I last had Poser installed so I don't remember the exact wording, but under preferences there is an option for external morphs, it's on by default which is what creates the PMD's. With it turned off, load the PP2 into Poser and then save it back to the Prop Library, this will embed the morphs into the PP2.
Thanks, I'll give that a shot.
 
Top