SKYLAB CHAT

[skylab]

Hey Terre Sure hope so....I have often used background images to help keep the weight of the scene down. I did a test render of the roach in 3Delight....and it wasn't so good, like a really bad Poser 4 render....so apparently the mats are designed for iray. So...I did the only other thing that I could do....like when I first started doing animations, I stripped the beautiful room away, cropped the rendering size down to the necessities, and trimmed the animation to only include the walk cycle. The whole thing will be 72 frames, rendered in iray, and already it's on frame 7....so it should finish this morning. That's disappointing, since I'm enjoying working with environments and scenes. But if I can import a background picture, perhaps I can render the room, and then have a picture of it in the background....we'll see.

 

[skylab]

Here's a still render from the original Roach animation....and the background that had to be stripped away.

 

[Janet]

When I clicked on this link Zippo newer freebies I got a warning:
This website has been reported as unsafe
Hosted by lab108.x0.com

We recommend that you do not continue to this website. It has been reported to Microsoft for containing threats to your computer that might reveal personal or financial information.
Back to safety
More information 

Windows Defender SmartScreen

 

[skylab]

Hmmm....that's odd....Zippo's old site has been used over and over again as a free source....and some of the stuff is now on Rendo. The "newer freebies" is just a page set aside for props that had mats that were compatible with Poser 6 and above. Here's what I see when the page loads....and I have Windows 10 and Defender with updates enabled on the newest workstation:

 

[skylab]

Well, now we have a walking iray Toon Roach, 72 frames in less than three hours....so the background and reflections are what caused the same animation to take over 27 hours, and never got beyond 36 frames, and two steps. So it will definitely be necessary to find shortcuts to building iray scenes for animations.

This animation was created using free AniBlocks for the Toon Cockroach

 

[skylab]

Brief attempt at rendering an iReal Ocean animation, but stopped it when I realized it was going to take probably all day...but did get a sample scene out of it...great potential The blocks of animated water would need to be continued to the horizon, but this was just a render test.

 

[skylab]

Trying new things in Studio today...this is a 3Delight render.

 

[DanaTA]

When I clicked on this link Zippo newer freebies I got a warning:
This website has been reported as unsafe
Hosted by lab108.x0.com

We recommend that you do not continue to this website. It has been reported to Microsoft for containing threats to your computer that might reveal personal or financial information.
Back to safety
More information 

Windows Defender SmartScreen

I didn't get that warning, either. But it is reported as Not Secure up where the padlock would show. Do you use Windows Defender as your antivirus? Maybe that's why. Sites that don't use SSL certificates are being reported as unsafe. Since there is not a payment checkout, no financial info can be taken. But it's still unsafe. A possibility that a hacker could load malicious code onto the pages. it is a very old site. I downloaded a bunch of stuff from that site years ago.

Dana

 

[Linda B]

Sorry so late in responding, sky. Yes you can use a background. Make a primitive plane and add your texture. Scale it to desired size. There is also a flat sky plane if you have the skydome stuff.

 

[skylab]

Just scan your downloads if you are afraid. And at this point I'm starting to feel the need to say... if we can't mention newer commercial links for fear of somebody else making money, and we stir up fear of old freebies (where many of the old sites are not up to today's security standards), we'll all have to just sit around and do nothing, because we're too afraid...wouldn't that be a productive life worth living. Whenever I feel the slightest need for caution, I always do a quick Defender scan of my download folder (use right click and you'll see it). It has been a very rare thing to find any problems with old content. The biggest risks these days I've found are in newer free utilities and programs...since they are laden with adware and junk that attempts to hijack browsers (with yahoo search, which is a challenge to remove, and stuff like that) or run relentless task bar ads, as if they can annoy folks into buying a product...there's a point where marketing crosses a line, and with me, it gets a quick left foot of fellowship....haha. Someone in my family has a tendency to click on stuff on a gaming site that results in a yahoo search invasion....and I've spent hours unwrapping its grasp on her computer. There's also a big problem with false positives reported by free anti-virus and free anti-adware programs...it's best to google any kind of "security" software, even those that are fairly well known, and observe user and tech comments about issues like this before trying it.

We take risks every time we download commercial or free content. And for awhile there, if we'll park our fears long enough to admit it, we couldn't even make purchases without card numbers getting loose all over the internet, until the 3D stores finally got it, and started tightening and updating their security. This is why I knew I had to move up to Windows 10 and proper security before the January 2020 drop of support for Windows 7 (that's how I ended up getting a great deal on my workstation...it was formerly a business workstation at a company that unloaded all of its Windows 7 computers in preparation for January)....because I'm often on the front line....I'm the one taking the first risk when I'm finding links.

 

[skylab]

Oh, thanks Linda....I was thinking it had to do with a plane somehow, but wasn't sure. In Poser, it just has an import background image feature, and I was wondering if Studio had anything like it. Thanks!

 

[Linda B]

I think I remember older DS version had that feature but can't find it in this one.

 

[skylab]

Yeah, back when I got started and was using Studio 1, seems to me it had a feature like that....but now, Studio is a very different animal, and features can get easily buried in all the icons and pull downs. I'm finally, at last, relaxing and getting more comfortable with the interface. I knew I was going to have to make myself plunge in and sink or swim, and not go running back to Poser every time I got into a jam....haha. The one thing that still makes me a little nervous is how features can just disappear, or appear suddenly. Poser does have an advantage with this in that it divides its features into "rooms" or tabs, so that the desktop can remain neat and readable. I finally found the place to add color to the lighting....it was in one of those frequently disappearing places. All in all, I'm enjoying discovering how to drive this new version of Studio. In between working on the bug project, I'm trying out stuff that I've had squirreled away for a long time....fluid simulation, flames, neat toys like that Did you see the Rainbows on sale? Love those....God's signature....despite the fact that there's been a sad attempt at identity theft in recent years, I still see rainbows as His signature.

 

[Linda B]

Yes, rainbows purchased. With some more shaders. We got our holiday bonus! I love my company. They really care about their employees and the community. We do a good job for them, we get rewarded above and beyond.

 

[skylab]

Oh look....it's Yahoo search....haha. Actually it's the Gesora freebie that was recently released....all I did was add a chrome shader to the main body.

 

[skylab]

Oh cool...I remember holiday bonus time....was always really nice, and good reason to celebrate

 

[Linda B]

Speaking of holiday, this is cute from 3duniverse

 

[Stezza]

for a background image in DS

Window-->Panes(Tabs)-->Environment

add your desired image for the background

 

[Linda B]

Thank you Stezza, figured it had to still be there somewhere!

 

[Stezza]

took me a little bit to find it lol