SKYLAB CHAT

[Rick]

The adult cats are called Catoon...and the kitten is called Moshi Catoon already has two still pose sets and a black fur option, but so far has no animation products, so there may be an interest there for aniblocks. It's a standalone figure, not based on Genesis 8....sorta like Sassafras was for Poser.

View attachment 66417

This is so cute! I wish I had made the change earlier on to Daz studio. They offer so much more! However, I have invested far to much time and money into poser since the Poser 5 days. I don't think I will be making the move to Poser 12 though. I am content with 11.3 . Even though it offers some benefits, it also takes a few away, like many of the addons that I use. I've been using Vue Infinite are far more these days anyways. I do love doing Natural scenes! Nothing more beautiful then nature!

 

[skylab]

Hey Rick I know what you mean....I was so hesitant to switch to Studio because I had so much invested in Poser....but then changes were coming to Poser that would leave a lot of my older content as just that....older content....and it wouldn't be so easy to work with it using superfly....so I started crossing over into using Studio iray, and discovered that I liked it. Linda who frequents this thread was very skilled in using Studio, and she helped me get through the "where's this?" or "can it do that like Poser?" stage....and once I started learning where stuff was, it got easier to use Studio. At first I felt lost and a bit overwhelmed. We started doing some fun challenges together that helped me get used to the new interface, and seeing the improvement in the results helped build confidence. I was still a little concerned about being able to do animations...but by the time I did the 3DU Toon Roach in Studio with a bouncing ball experiment (below), I finally was convinced that if I stuck with it, I could make the switch. There are a number of subtle variations in this animation....back and forth of the ball, some side to side, plus a squish on the bouce, and all the action in the roach....I thought I could only do this in Poser. I had to take most of this year off to move, and moving my workstation and archives left me with some disorder for awhile, so I'm finally recovering all that and getting up and running again....and getting my "chops" back that I had learned by end of last year. Here's the website where Linda and I were posting our Studio stuff...our last project was some joke stuff using angry Thanksgiving turkeys

TURKEY REVOLT - Sky

TURKEY REVOLT - Linda

LAST POSER ANIMATION PROJECT - ANDY DRONE FLIGHT

So if you have any interest in learning some Studio basics, stick around....either Linda or I could probably help you. The functions are pretty much the same, which you already have advanced knowledge from using Poser for so many years....the trick is just finding where all the buttons are tucked away in the Studio interface. Some terms are slightly different....like instead of materials, you'll see "Surfaces". I posted some DS4 tips on this page, if interested. Once you see some of the iray rendering results that can be stunning, it's cool to pursue what it will do. I'm especially interested in Studio animations with light, fire, and water effects. You know the limitations of my skill level, especially in the area of lighting...so you'll be able to see the difference in iray results in the tree lighting below done in Studio. So....stick around if you'd like to have some fun with Studio....and learn to "switch hit" with us

Peeping Toms

Surfaces in DAZ Studio:

Iray Christmas tree render from last year.

 

[skylab]

Rick: I looked back through this thread to try to figure out when we started discussing Studio and FlowScape, and seems like it was around page 417, plus I started posting Studio freebies. More FlowScape on page 434, more FlowScape on page 444, and looks like I was getting started with Studio at about page 464...some tutorials are posted, and Linda started helping me with the interface, and we started the turkey project at page 505. This will at least give you some quick links to some info already posted, without having to go through the whole thread looking for it. And the best way to learn fast is just ask if you get stuck. Linda is the Studio guru in this group

 

[Rick]

Wow! Sky these are really awesome! You are very creative!! Love the bouncing bug monster & the saber & WOW, beautiful scene from those windows. That tree is really beautiful! Great lighting! You are doing really well! You have such a positive attitude! You always have. I will definately think about at least looking more into Daz Studio. Its not just the program, but there is so much great content out there for it. I had thought about it for a few years now. Everything I like, is a daz studio product. The only thing I don't like is the dollar difference between Canada & the US. Right now I pay about 35% more in Canadian dollars on every US dollar. So something 100.00 there, cost me 135.00 here. If I should decide to, your help would most certainly be appreciated. I guess I could run Poser 11.3 & Daz Studio side by side & go back & forth between them & Vue Infinite & Zbrush. I have to find myself more available time. I really missed HiveWire & interacting here. IT was a great way to de-stress from everyday life. I just got so busy with work, life and day to day interactions. I forgot to take much needed time for myself. It hard to believe its been 7 years since HiveWire started up. I may have to download the Daz verisons of all my products here. That would take me a while. I have about about 60 pages of downloads at the store! So I certainly have to think about this quickly. Over the years, from different stores I didn't take the daz versions of anything. I would never find any of those stores now. Hind sight is indeed 20/20. They need to make the days longer. I hope all is well with you & you keep that great sense of humor! You take care Sky! Have a wonderful Sunday! I have a lot to think about, over the next few days. Its gotten cold here. We got a ton of snow tonight. I was out for 2 hours shoveling. I hate snow when I have to shovel it. It looks nice from the inside. Talk to you soon.

 

[skylab]

I know exactly what you mean Rick....I had neglected a lot of the Studio downloads as well, so I had a lot of back tracking to do, plus I had to search out all the good freebies in order to get started. Once my renders started improving, it was self-motivating. Linda has more knowledge of lighting and mood renders. And yes, Poser can run alongside Studio. In my case my Poser runtime was so enormous that I had to work on getting the bulk of it onto an external drive to free up hard drive space for Studio and its library. I'm staying back with Poser 11.2 for now, but I check out the Poser forum to see how the Poser 12 bugs are being discovered and worked through.

As for content, it's best to catch the sales as a Platinum Club member. That's the fastest and most cost effective way to do it, and catching the sales. March madness is always a big sale. Wish listing content when you get a chunk of time makes it easy to see when the stuff's on sale. And, already existing Poser content will work in Studio....it's just the new stuff will have iray capability. One thing that Linda encouraged me to do early on is catch some of the shader packs on sale so that I'd have something to work with. She had a hilarius example of messing with shaders in "surfaces"...she replaced the tuna in a tuna can with a bubble bath shader, so that 3DU Toon Roach had his own bathtub There are also free shaders out there that can help you get started. I'll try to locate those links again, to help you out.

It helped me learn faster when Linda gave me examples to try, or we were working together to "kit-bash" for projects, especially the funny stuff. It takes your mind off the fact that you're actually learning as you go....it just feels like having fun, and at the end of the day you realize that you've learned a lot. Once you lose the fear of the interface, or the feeling of being lost, it becomes much easier.

Bob Ross would call this dimly lit room with fireplace a "happy accident"....with lighting presets, the iray renders are no brainers.

Studio recently did an update to DAZ Studio 4.14, and it's still possible to use the download manager to load content. I've not yet tried the new DAZ Central set up.

Pop in any time and show us what you're rendering, Rick, and let us know if we can be of help with any questions about using Studio.

Later on I'll post some Studio freebies.

 

[skylab]

This poor cat always cracks me up...happened to see him posted earlier in this thread and laughed out loud.
Looks like he's been partying way too hard

 

[Rick]

This poor cat always cracks me up...happened to see him posted earlier in this thread and laughed out loud.
Looks like he's been partying way too hard

View attachment 66537

Now that is really funny! Looks like he has been on a real binge! I like that!

 

[skylab]

Haha....something about the flip in that hair-do...and the dark circles around the eyes

WC Fir Tree for Christmas

SY Big Wave Iray

Butterfly for dazstudio iray

Straw-hat-with Hair for Dazstudio G8 female Iray

Leather Cowboy Hat

Autoglass Rain Shader

Wheelchair for Daz Studio

Iray Saffron Shader Kit

Teal Iray Emissive Shaders

Candlelight Studio Iray

Free Christmas Iray Shaders

Wagasani's Mirror Shader

Cooking Utensil Set (update 9-19-17)

Civilized Blade

Front Loader Washer & Dryer Set (updated 1-2-17)

DAZ Studio *IRAY* Car Paint #2

DAZ Studio *IRAY* leather shaders

Military paint shaders for DAZ Studio *IRAY*

Light Pole (DS Iray)

 

[skylab]

Here's the free soapy texture that Linda used in the tuna can bath.

Stezza's tuna can download is on page 513, and pages that follow explain changing the surfaces

Page 522 we were finishing up Linda's Laverne & Shirley characters, and YouTube links to real life terrorizing turkeys, which later started the whole turkey revolt thing for Thanksgiving, around page 539

Chaos Hair - Gen2F (Tina Turner hair!)

Glasses and Chain for G3F

Superman Daily Planet Globe

Happy Hopper

Creating Poses in Studio:
You can create your own poses by selecting the figure, and doing File -> Save As -> Pose Preset -> select a destination folder and name the pose -> and select Save -> and if doing a regular pose, select Current Frame Only (Animated Range is for saving animations) -> then choose Select.
Your new pose will now show in the folder that you created in the Content Library.


Description of the Roach Hopper animation:
The final version of the Roach Hopper....enjoy the chuckle His wings flap with the up and down motion, as well as his feelers. His mouth comes together on each downswing....as does his eyes, and they widen the higher he goes. The legs move up on the upswing, and down on the downswing. The basic animation was three bounces done every 10th frame for 30 frames, with the roach parented to the ball. The ball is "squished" on the yScale on each of the three downswing bounces, and quickly returned to 100% once the ball begins the upswing trip. The ball also does a slight xRotation on the last bounce, and then returns to 100%, to make it more interesting. Once that basic animation is accomplished, the rest of the movements can just be added randomly, just making sure that everything returns to the same settings on the last frame as they were on the first frame, so that the loop is smooth, without burps or hiccups One of these days I'll learn how to fasten the hands to an object during the animation....for now I have to settle for randomly, briefly, and desperately, grabbing the object...haha.

 

[skylab]

For DAZ Studio
More DAZ Studio 4 tips, a link to the user guide PDF's.

Also, Seliah was very generous with her time and information back when this thread was first starting, and on page 38 through page 59, she took time to share many of the basics about DS4, and I even created PDF's of the information to make it downloadable for ease of offline use.


For Poser 11
Seliah also shared hand reset poses for Poser on page 77.

For the visually challenged, how to enlarge the text in the Poser 11 interface, under Preferences -> Interface -> UI Scale -> Interface Scale Factor -> Reset to 1.45

 

[Rick]

Wow, thank you so much Sky! This is great! You are so good at finding things! I really appreciate your help & the time you have taken. That UI fix definately helped me see the text in the interface so much better! You are really great at animation. I have never used animation in Poser. I will have to learn to. It looks like a lot of fun & it give you a true sense of achievement! Watching the results afterwards. I will have to learn. They would be great to send to friends, especially funny ones. Yes, its the dark around the cats eyes & that hair on top! That is a great list of Daz free stuff. Thank you so much for sharing the links. I lost all my links to sites I use to go to that carried freebies. I got so busy with life & I didn't do a render, for about 2 years. One day I sat down & opened it again. I am trying to make time for it every week now. I am still thinking about the leap to Studio & trying to figure out if I will have the time to invest in it as well. Maybe if I start to slowly invest in it as I learn to use it. By time I retire, I could build it up quite well. As I told you before, I really like a lot of the things being created for it out there. I have always liked the Daz characters from M3 to David to M4 & all the studio only characters that came after M4. I use M4 a lot in Poser. I have my biggest collection of things, like textures, clothes for both M4 & V4. More then any other character, because they were being created in masses. I really like Dusk, and fortunately, Texture transformer allowed me to convert all M4 to him as well. So M4 even even played a large role in Dusk for me. As well as V4 textures to Dawn. I am not seeing much movement with L'Homme, even though I like the character. I like to use male characters because most of the outfits are conforming, as most of the clothes for guys are tighter. I hate working with dynamics calculations. I have had major disasters. Besides, you don't need dynamics with tight clothes. They hardly wrinkle in real life. I can understand people wanting to use it for drapes, sheets, fancy dresses, & very loose stuff. I have tried it a number of times & failed every time. The clothes end up everywhere. Perhaps one day you can teach me animation. I seen the controls for it. Actually a couple. The top says animation & beside it under windows it says animation pallet, then there's this walk designer. I never experienced the full use of Poser. I used what I needed to, without moving past that and trying new things. Like making clothes. I bought Zbrush for that very purpose & didn't pursue it. I need to dicipline myself to learn to do some of these things & be dependent on waiting for others to create clothes for characters. I have to learn to use the templates. Which to me make little sense in looking at them. I want to make some things for L'Homme as there is little out for him. Most of what is out for him is dynamic. I have to do what you do with both Poser & Studio. Make the learning & creating of clothes somehow a fun thing to do. I've mastered Vue Infinite. I need to master these too & Zbrush. I have not installed Zbrush since 4R6 and I now have 2021.5. I am really impressed with your animations! They are flawless. IT must feel good to complete one. A great accomplishment! Thank you again for all the Studio tips! Thank you for all your help. It is greatly appreciated!

 

[skylab]

I had to chuckle when you brought up Poser dynamic cloth....that was the most humbling demonstraton I've ever had to do in this thread. There was quite a bit of interest in dynamic cloth, and so I decided to "learn" with everyone watching, and coaching me.....hahahaha. The gowns would end up on the floor, or stuck to stuff in the scene....and one time, somehow, I got the dress tangled up with a second garment so that it looked like a "shoulder pad" effect....haha. You name it, and I did it. If you want to see just how bad, and occasionally comical, cloth simulations could be, discussion about it started around page 111, and it went on forever, until around page 186...by that time Maja was doing free dynamic robes for Poser 11, at the time newly released. Paul and Pauline, and she was really an expert at Poser almost anything, whether it was dynamic cloth or superfly materials. Her whole exceptional collection of free content is worth downloading from ShareCG:

MAJA - POSER DYNAMIC CLOTHING and PROPS

 

[skylab]

Most of the freebie links are still intact, if you've got the patience to roam all through the thread. Maybe brew a pot of coffee and set aside an evening for browsing, maybe bookmark the freebie pages so that you can get stuff you're interested in. I know you like instruments....and you probably remember Mark Fowler who did the violin....he's over at ShareCG under Hypnagogia....and he also has done stuff for DAZ.

I know how you feel, having dropped out the loop long enough to forget where things are....after working with Maja and testing her dynamic clothing, I ended up in the hospital for awhile, and it took some time for recovery....then I decided to learn Studio, was getting along well, and then moved to a retirement home. I love retirement...but moving is never fun. When I began to think about setting up the workstations, I discovered that I had lost a few of my older drives during the move....they don't tolerate jostling about that well....and then my best workstation started showing signs of the Windows 10-update-itis which is usually terminal....and I was ready to throw in the towel. Then I found a good price on a refurbished i7 drive with 32 gig of ram....so this is my last attempt at doing stuff that requires extra juice for rendering. But now I'm trying to locate my most recent files that I was working on last Christmas, and some content that I'd lost track of....like the Christmas tree above....I just found it about an hour ago...it was called Render in a Box Christmas Tree...and there was a Render in a Box Snowman as well, so now it's loaded in Studio again. So I'm right with you....can't find my hind parts with both hands right now....hahaha....but maybe we can recover the lost time and get up and running again together, if you want to take the plunge into 3D again

 

[Linda B]

My DS skills are jack of all trades, master of none. Poser skills are "sky, please help!" Seriously, if it wasn't for people here in this thread and another site I frequent, I wouldn't use Poser at all. In fact, a person who is now a product vendor got me started in 3d work by buying me a gift card to get the mil puppy so I could create my dogs in 3d. Wow that was back in 01/7/09.

 

[skylab]

Hey Linda I got started back in 2006, briefly with Studio, then shifted to Poser 6 and kept upgrading, and sticking with it, in order to help a friend who wanted to learn Poser animation. I had to learn in order to help her....so, blind leading the blind....haha....but we had fun the whole time. We'd all be lost now without your skill with Studio. I was hoping you'd have time to meet Rick. His major strength is Vue. I'm hoping he will post an example of his work, and you'll see that he would be a fast learner, and has a lot of fundamental skill with 3D already.

 

[Linda B]

Cool, the more the merrier in learning new things. hi Rick! I'm Linda B here, Elynda a few other places and lbruce1730 at Rendo. I'm still currently recreating my runtimes from a computer crash and no longer have a cd/dvd drive to get what files I did have backed up. So I'm going realllly slow finding all my purchases from everywhere. Sadly losing stuff from sites no longer available. But I think I have enough to keep me busy rendering. Reinstalling is tedious. Been at it for a year now. Did I mention there's not enough hours in the day? hee hee Hopefully my family stays healthy and unhurt this year. Do not want a repeat of the last 2 years.

Sky, I don't the 2 of us have been online at the same time in a very long time! Missed you my friend.

 

[skylab]

Yeah....I guess that's my fault....I tend to post and run when I'm doing stuff....and that crazy workstation wouldn't stay up more than 10 minutes before it would freeze, so my options were getting less and less. Now I'm on the new workstation and it will stay on indefinitely, so that's probably why you caught me. I'll keep online here this evening while I'm piddling. My goodness, Rick and I used to work together until late hours, at least we're all in or near the same time zone....he's a little further east than us, up in the colder country, which is why he's shoveling snow.

 

[Linda B]

Did my shoveling last night, so I didn't have to do it today. Work was messed up this morning because none of us could get into the servers. They were supposed to call us when we could log in. So i went back to bed with hubby and the dog. Didn't get up until noon! Logged into my laptop and what appeared but an email from work stating we could log on....sent at 9:54. Oi! Told my supervisor what happened and asked if I could take paid time off for the difference between the email time and my actual log in time, because we can only work until 5:00. They paid us for the time the system was down. So I only worked a bit over 3 hours today. Now I'm wide awake and won't be sleepy at bedtime.

 

[skylab]

Ahhh....well, at least your hours worked out....haha. Hopefully Rick will swing by again and you all can get acquainted. I've been searching through my files to see if I have a Vue render of his....the trick is remembering where I put stuff. It was like a miracle finding that Christmas tree...I think it was a freebie last year at DAZ because I don't see it come up in the search now, even when I click the product page from my account, I get an "oops" page instead of the product page.

 

[Linda B]

Yeah I think it might have been.