In this episode I’ll show you what a Shader Browser is in Carrara and DAZ Studio. I wish Blender had one – perhaps there’s one in the works? We’ll talk about how it could be integrated as part of the Blender Cloud Add-On too. This video was inspired by a discussion we had over on …
Sometimes we want to reproduce an image using a brush stroke. It’s a handy way to replicate a 2D object along a path for example. Using the standard brush for this though, we’ll find that we can only reproduce a single colour image. But what if we want to reproduce all colours in our image?
Enter the Mixer Brush Tool. Here’s how to sample an image and draw with it in Photoshop.
While we were discussing how to generate a terrain in my previous post, the next question is of course how to we give our terrain different colour values depending on its height. For example, at the very top of our terrain we may have snow covered mountains. Slightly further down we have yellowish rocks on …
Sometimes we need to scale an object in two axis at the same time. Think of making a cylinder thinner rather than shorter at the same time, which would happen if we’d scale the whole cylinder. However, scaling the X and then the Y axis is cumbersome during modelling. Carrara has such an option: hold …
Did you know that Blender can create fabulous terrains from nothing but a greyscale height map? Of course it can!
In this article I’ll show you how to do it step by step. Grab your height map, fire up Blender and let’s get started.
I was trying to import a texture into ZBrush from an object I had created and UV mapped in Blender. The above shows an example of such an object, looking all nice and dandy in Blender.
However, when I imported it into ZBrush (after figuring out how to do that), I was shocked to see how ZBrush displayed my texture. Take a look:
That’s neither funny nor necessary. I’ve tested the same principle in DAZ Studio, Carrara and Poser and they all played ball, displaying the texture without a hitch. Only Hexagon wanted the texture flipped vertically, but – just like Carrara – offered handy tick boxes as to which direction an imported texture needed to be mirrored.
Zbrush also has such an option, but it’s not next to where you select the texture.
In this article I’ll show you how to import and apply a texture in ZBrush, to an object that has been created and UV mapped in another application. Let’s do this step by step:
I’ve just learned that Blender has a wonderfully helpful function called Local View. This will isolate a selection, zoom in on it, and hide all other items in the scene. Using Local View again will bring back all items as they were seen before.
Thanks to Darrin Lile for this tip!
We can execute Local View with the default keyboard shortcut “Numpad /” (the division operator on your numpad) – but of course that only works if you have a numpad. On my Windows system I have one, but sadly on my Mac and my laptop I do not.
In this article I’ll show you how to map this shortcut to another key. Let’s get started!
Sometimes you experiment with keyframe animations, but frequently things can go wrong and you want to start afresh. Like clearing the sheet of paper you were sketching on. How do we do that to a timeline? Easy: even though there’s no magic button for it, it can be done using the same technique in both …
Hexagon had a really nice nth-selection tool (1 over n it was called). With it you could select every other vertex or edge or face, creating things like the star shaped pattern above. You’ll be pleased to hear that Blender can do this too! Rather than select every other point though, Blender likes to deselect instead. …
In this episode I’ll show you how to install content you’ve bought for use in DAZ Studio. I’ll go through using Install Manager, DAZ Connect, and I’ll explain how to install content from ZIP archives (bought from marketplaces such as Renderosity or Hivewire). For Dwayne. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Install-DAZ-Content.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 18:37 — 17.1MB)
Quick and easy: In the Layers Palette, right-click somewhere underneath all layers (in the empty space), then pick a size (small, medium, large). Or choose not to display thumbnails at all.
In this episode I’ll show you how to use aniBlocks to animate a character, how to animate a camera around it like a dolly, and how to merge one scene with another. This is a kind of a “behind the scenes” walkthrough of the following walk animation I’ve rendered recently. I’ve received several comments on …
It’s easy to create an effect of draped cloth in Photoshop, like in the image above. We can do this with the Gradient Tool. It’s the icon with an actual gradient on it, sometimes hiding behind the Paint Bucket or 3D Material Drop tool (if you don’t see it, left-click and hold for about one …
I’ve been playing with Windows Azure the other day, specifically to hire rendering machines. My idea was very simple: if I have a long animation to render, why not pay a nominal amount of cash, but have the result back within hours rather than days?
So I created a Windows VM, logged in from my Mac via RDP (Remote Desktop Connection), installed DAZ Studio and some content… but sadly I couldn’t start DAZ Studio. I remember having had this problem before on my home network, where I have a similar setup.
This happens because DAZ Studio needs OpenGL 1.3 or higher, and with an RDP connection, only OpenGL 1.1 is supported. Quite rightly so, DAZ Studio throws an error message and quits. However, the app works just fine via RDP, so how can we circumvent it closing prematurely?
I was setting up an animation on one system, then transferred the scene over to a more powerful rendering machine. Usually DAZ Studio 4.9 does a good job at installing required content automatically (thanks to DAZ Connect), but this time my scene showed up with several scary grey blocks instead of content. In addition, I …
ShadowBox is an interesting feature with which we can create 3D geometry from three intersecting masks. Let’s see how to get started with it step by step in ZBrush 4R7. Select any tool to begin, perhaps something that can serve as a starting point. I’ll use the Dog tool. To do this, hit the COMMA key …
Marvelous Designer (or Marvy D as some fans call it) receives frequent updates with a plethora of new features. With every round new version number, and upgrade fee is necessary – if you bought the software with a perpetual license (like I have, because I genuinely dislike the subscription model… but I digress).
This means that it is very likely that a new version passes you by, and you have the need to download an older version of Marvelous Designer.
Good thing you can: from the Download Archive.
In this episode I’ll talk you through many of the render settings in DAZ Studio and how to get the best out of the Iray engine. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Iray-105_-Render-Settings-in-DAZ-Studio.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 11:27 — 10.5MB)
In this episode I’ll show you some tips on how to make working with DAZ Studio and Iray a bit smoother and faster. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Iray-104_-Performance-Settings-in-DAZ-Studio.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 13:20 — 12.2MB)
In this episode I’ll show you how to use realistic sun and sky effects in DAZ Studio 4.9. You’ll find this option under Render Settings – Environment. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Iray-103_-Setting-the-Sun-and-Sky-in-DAZ-Studio.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 12:53 — 11.8MB)
In this episode I’ll show you how to use Image Based Lighting with HDR Images in DAZ Studio, using the Iray render engine. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Iray-102_-IBL-and-HDRI-in-DAZ-Studio.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 13:29 — 12.4MB)
In this episode I’ll show you how to use parametric spotlights to light your scene in Iray. For Scott. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Iray-101_-Parametric-Lights-in-DAZ-Studio.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 18:34 — 17.0MB)
When DAZ Studio is finished rendering an image into a new window, we have the option to save it. But if we don’t do that, and there happens to be a power cut (and your computer is accidentally not connected to a UPS), where does that render go? Is it lost forever? Or is it …
The other day I bought a brand new copy of the 2001 classic HALO – Combat Evolved for Windows. I really liked this game and played it on the original XBOX quite a bit – even thought I must admit that I neither liked nor got it the first few times I picked it up. …
I was playing around with Reality for DAZ Studio the other day, and the above phenomenon occurred. It’s a Michael 6 render that should have worked out of the box – especially because Reality is clever enough to convert his skin shaders to automatically. The render worked fine on one of my machines, but not on another.
Strangely enough though, I could see the textures fine in the viewport. And a quick test render in both 3Delight and Iray showed the textures fine too. But Reality and LuxRender wanted to render the skin tone as some scary metal.
The culprit is DAZ Connect. On this second machine, Michael 6 was installed not via the DAZ Install Manager, but from within DAZ Studio via DAZ Connect. This has happened because I loaded the scene (from Dropbox), and DAZ Studio recognised that Michael 6 was not installed, and hence offered to install him for me. I accepted the generous offer, but Reality and LuxRender can’t handle textures installed via DAZ Connect.
I recently discovered the Manuel Bastioni LAB add-on for Blender. Judging it only by the title you’d never guess it’s an extravagant people generator of the highest caliber! Bastioni was working with the folks from MakeHuman for many years, but The LAB is his own project.
In a nutshell, it creates ready-to-use characters, complete with poses and morphs, as well as many other complex goodies. And as with many complex things, rendering can take a while. I tend to prepare a scene on one machine, transfer it to a faster system and let it render while I setup the next scene.
This workflow usually works a treat with .blend files, but not necessarily with those containing Manuel Bastioni characters. Turns out the skin has a good chance of looking alien purple. Quite a nice effect, but perhaps not all the time.
Lucky for us, knowing why this happens will help us understand how to fix the problem. It’s not a bug, just a question of which box to tick when saving those files. Let me show you which box that is and how to avoid the purple skin effect.
As with real life objects, lights in the Iray Render Engine are by default not invisible. They’re like a lamp in a film studio: if it wasn’t there, it wouldn’t emit light. But now that it’s there, it can sometimes get in the way, even though we want it to emit light. Turns out there’s …
The NVIDIA Iray render engine can be a bit of a mysterious box sometimes. Especially when it comes to lighting. But it doesn’t have to be. Let’s see how we can add a standard spotlight to our scene and set it up so we can use it properly with Iray.
Let’s take this simple scene as as demo and a staring point. It’s a there and a plane, both of which have Iray shaders applied (it’s Walnut on the floor, and orange car paint on the sphere).
The default lighting for a new DAZ Studio Iray scene comes with a small HDRI image applied by default, and when we render our scene, we can see the effects of that light source.
Notice that there’s a small specular highlight on the sphere, on the left hand side (a small shots spot). This is the sun’s hotspot from the HDRI image map. As you turn the camera around, the hotspot moves. Alternatively you can move the Iray Dome to move that hotspot (under Render Settings – Environment – Dome – Dome Rotation).
Not every HDRI image has a sun though, and depending on which map you use, you may not even see such a hotspot in your renders.
The left hand side of our sphere is a little darker, and if this was a character’s face, we may want to brighten it up a bit. In 3Delight we’d just add a standard spotlight, tweak the intensity and shadows until we’re happy, and then we’re done with it. With Iray we’ll do the same thing – but the settings are just a little different.
Here in the US, sometime in 2016, McDonald’s surprised everyone by adding “All Day Breakfast” items to the menu. Now we can order egg burgers around the clock, 24/7, every day of the week, at any time we please.
Previously we were always restricted to very awkward breakfast times that seemed to change arbitrarily: some stores started breakfast at 4am, others at 5:30am, and the offering ends either at 10:30am or 11am. Or something. And of course during breakfast hours, you can only order breakfast items – nothing else.
As I understand it, this was a technical limitation of the kitchen, in which equipment had to be re-purposed to either be an egg fryer or a burger fryer. Or something along those lines. It was not technically possible for McDonald’s to serve both breakfast and burgers at the same time, so it was one or the other.
Since 2016 and the big “All Day Breakfast” move however, things are different. I don’t know how they do it, but now you can order almost the entire breakfast menu during lunchtime, in the evening or in the darkest night. Add that Egg McMuffin to the Quarter Pounder, or have your Big Mac with a Sausage McGriddle. You can even wrap your Chicken McNuggets in Hotcakes and dip it all in syrup if you like. Excellent!
This is great news for all of us who have McDonald’s breakfast on their minds, but arrive at the store at 11:02am, where in the past our hopes and dreams would be shattered to get those soggy Hash Browns with an Egg Burger and orange juice. Not anymore: come in for breakfast anytime, to any McDonalds.
So the breakfast lovers are all taken care of. How about the burger lovers though?
When I owned a DS console many years ago, I remember playing a game called Hotel Dusk: Room 215. It was more like an interactive book than a classic adventure game. At times a little tedious, it had a super gripping storyline and I couldn’t forget.
In the story, protagonist Kyle Hyde, former NYPD detective, has left the force and is now a door-to-door salesman. He’s still trying to find out what happened to his former partner. When his employer sends him to Hotel Dusk in LA, he finds a host of characters that all tie together into a larger plot, which appears to be connected to the disappearance of Kyle’s former partner.
When I discovered the DesMuME emulator for the DS recently, I thought I’d try running the game on my Surface Pro – and it’s almost exactly like having a super sized DS, complete with stylus.
Since the game has it’s tricky moments, I’ve made list of questions I had while re-playing the mysteries of Hotel Dusk: Room 2015.