Mercenary Masks Now With DAZ Mats!

Posted on by
Reply

death mask promo image

This all started a while back when I saw a journal post by Retro Devil (who strangely enough is the artist most directly responsible for me bumbling into 3D) over at DeviantArt. He was looking for someone to take on the task of converting Poser materials for his new prop to DAZ Studio. I thought why not and took up the challenge. The materials only work with Studio 4.5 – sorry to the 4 and 3 users. I forgot that once something’s done in 4.5 there is no way back to older versions 🙁 The package also includes full metadata (bonus!).The new mats can also be obtained from ShareCG.These materials contain a lot of raytraced surfaces, so watch out. Swapping these for an environment map would be a good idea for older rigs. I may do an update for that in the future.

So, if you own the prop why not download the materials and give them a whirl, or if you don’t yet own Retro Devil’s Mercenary Masks why not go grab a copy and get rendering.

Hopefully this will be the first of more free files added to the site.

More demonstration images coming soon.


DAZ Studio 4 - Create 3D Art for Free

Luxus Pseudo Review

Posted on by
2

So I spent a bit of time playing with Luxus for DAZ Studio. I must say the work flow is quite streamlined when compared to Reality 2. Having access to the surface tool and the DAZ Studio native surfaces tab works for me a lot better than having to browse through long lists of materials in the Reality application in order to edit them. To find a specific material when working with Reality 2 often meant closing Reality getting the surface tool, selecting the specific surface, and then opening Reality back up. Allegedly this is all changed with Reality 3 which uses the native interface, but that is little consolation for DAZ users who have not heard an ETA for Reality 3 (currently in closed beta for Poser), so maybe Luxus will fill the time for DAZ Studio users looking for an alternative.

The first thing that stumped me about Luxus was getting nice looking Lux materials. I would look at the manual and go back to Studio, and then go back to the manual muttering, ‘what the hell does he mean “options menu”‘. Reading the manual you get the impression that 3delight materials will get something of a conversion to Lux, so I let up on the options menu search a bit and played around with my daz materials – doesn’t seem to do a great deal at all! Despite it all, Lux still gave me some reasonable renders, and damn is it quick when compared to just a short time ago.

alien palace luxrender

LuxRender image via Luxus for DAZ Studio. Model done in LightWave

 

alien palace luxrender

Android from DAZ 3D

Not bad, but I still wanted that extra pop ya get when working with materials native to the engine. I go back to the manual, muttering but finally the answer comes from a post at the DAZ forums. Here I’ll demonstrate with a screen shot.

luxrender materials via luxus

Easy as pi 🙂 Click to expand

1. Surfaces tab
2. Select the material you want to convert to Lux
3. “Options Menu” dodad
4. Make it so!
5. Configure your sexy new mats

A similar process works for converting Studio lights to Lux lights, except that you use the parameters tab. So, once this little problem is overcome the full power of Lux is yours for the taking, though if you want the most out of the render engine I’d suggest a lot of reading (I know I need to at least). There are a number of things advanced users of Lux will like about Luxus, though I wouldn’t have the foggiest about those, but suffice to say that they will be able to do more of their pre render configuration with Studio’s interface and spend less time in a text editor doing manual tweaks.

To compare Luxus to Reality at this point I’d say that Luxus wins in terms of ease of use and price, but there are a lot of winning features of Reality such as the material previews, water, and fog primitives, material editor (once particular surface can be located!), and premade light rigs such as the soft box. I think, given time and further development Luxus will prove to be a worthy LuxRender bridge in the Studio user’s tool box. I think there is a lot to be optimistic about. The threads about Luxus on the DAZ forums are going strong, the developer is engadged in the discussion, and the general consensus is that Luxus is good.

…and here it is still on the cook at about 800 samples per pixle, but looking good in those nice shiny Lux materials.

alien palace 3 luxrender

Much better

Happy renderings!

Carrara 3D Expo Issue 10

Posted on by
2

Carrara 3D Expo is something I’ve been meaning to plug for a long time now. On the 10th of March the free online magazine released their 10th issue. I’m not a historian of such things, but if one looks at their catalogue on ISSUU it seems that issue 1 was released all the way back in July of 2009. Having briefly ran a free online magazine myself (survived one whole year!) I know that it is a lot of work, so congratulations to Danas Bartkevicius and his team for keeping Carrara 3D Expo thriving for over 4 years and 10 issues. Seeing the awe inspiring work of Elianeck back in issue 9 was one of the precipitating factors in my purchase of Carrara.

Highlights of the issue, for me at least, were the interview with C3DE founder Danas Bartkevicius (so hope I’m spelling that right!), and the gallery section which, as usual, features some fantastic work from several artists. Looking forward to seeing the magazine into the future with issue 11 and beyond.

And… in other Carrara related news: Carrara 8.5 slotted for September 2013 release (that would be what Americans mean by end of summer?), and Carrara 9 planned for some time in 2014. Check out the few details that made it out of DAZ 3D to Carrara Cafe.


Carrara 8

Bryce Alive

Posted on by
4
bryce render surreal astronnut

One of Santosky’s images from his Ancient Astronauts series

Some people love it, others hate it, but such is the way with just about anything in 3D or anywhere else. With its roots as little more than a procedural terrain generator Bryce hit the market back in 1994 and quickly became the killer app of landscape rendering with a hefty price tag to match. Fast forward to 2013 the program is now at version 7.1 and available for $19.95 (prior to which it was free for over a year). Many say that the program has had its day and now the program will go quietly into the digital oblivion that has claimed so many other 3D applications. But the end of Bryce has been called before and subsequently proven wrong.

Five years and a move from Corel to DAZ 3D passed before Bryce 6 emerged in 2006, and then another four years to 7, but does DAZ 3D have the will and resources to release the Bryce 8 that the community desperately wants? What about a 7 point something with 64-bit support? Debatable, but not without hope. DAZ have shown some aptitude for software development with their updates to Bryce and Carrara, but particularly with the development of their flagship program DAZ Studio, which is evolving rapidly to compete with the Poser line of programs. Often it is uttered with a certain amount of despair that DAZ Studio’s development comes at the cost of its other acquisitions.

3d render by david brinnen

Sodium Lighting – David Brinnen

But even if Bryce (to come back to the topic) is slipping into the dark, there is still a vibrant and dedicated group of enthusiasts that show us that the software is capable of producing breathtaking results, and that this need not be the exception. This program has more than its fair share of bad press when it comes to producing quality work. Let the naysayers have their fun – haters got to hate and all the rest – but for all the mediocre Bryce images floating around out there, produced by hacks and noobs (those guys that just refuse to learn and evolve), there is a great wealth of wonder created by those that have embraced the software and learnt its secrets.

In putting this article together I corresponded with a number of Bryce’s most innovative and dedicated artists. All agree that Bryce is a good place to start for artists new to 3D. Not only is the software easy to learn with a strange and endearing interface, but there is a strong community on the forums at DAZ 3D and deviantArt (with several groups) which is enthusiastic about the program and happy to help out new adopters. There is also a vast collection of tutorials, both free and commercial. David Brinnen and Horo, both of whom I spoke with have produced some of the best quality instructional Bryce material to date, much of which can be discovered at Bryce-Tutorials.

This is but the beginning of the Bryce story. Coming soon will be at least four artist features, so say tuned.

Bryce - The First Name in 3D Landscapes