Tag Archives: reality 3

Poser Pro 2014 60 Percent Off

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For a limited time Smith Micro is offering Poser Pro 2014 for $199, which is about 60% off the regular price. Upgrades from previous versions of Poser are also on discount, ranging from $140 for older versions down to $100 for Poser Pro, Pro 2010, and Pro 2012.

What’s So Good About Poser?

Considering the amount of content and features Poser Pro 2014 packs, this is a pretty darn good deal. For DAZ Studio users looking for something a little more robust, while still very cost-effective, Poser might just be the way to go. I personally use both. I love the additional features of Poser, especially the easy to use “indirect lighting”, physics and animation tools. I prefer DAZ Studio for its user interface, integrated 3Delight render engine, and native Genesis support.

Poser Pro 2014 features include:

  • Full rigging and weight mapping
  • Physics simulation – Soft and hard body dynamics (cloth, hair, jiggly fleshy bits etc)
  • Morph tools
  • Hair creation tools
  • Fitting room (refit clothing designed from one model to another)
  • Advanced OpenGL preview – high quality shadows and materials
  • Node-based material editor
  • Indirect Lighting (Global illumination)
  • Image Based Lighting
  • True HDR support
  • Robust animation tools
  • Pixar subdivision surfaces (OpenSubdiv)

…and much more.

Reality 3

Also hard to pass up over at Smith Micro, is Pret-a-3D’s Reality 3 for Poser (currently $27.95). For those unfamiliar with the product, it is an scene translator and exporter for LuxRender, which is a physically based unbiased render engine. Essentially LuxRender is capable of producing physically accurate images as it closely simulates the behaviour of light and how it interacts with materials and objects.

Skilled use of the render engine can and does produce photorealistic images. The main drawback with LuxRender and unbiased rendering in general is that it is typically much slower than biased engines like Firefly (Poser) and 3Delight (DAZ Studio), though with the continued development of LuxCore, much faster GPU rendering methods are becoming more feasible.

A Note on Poser 3 for DAZ Studio

The good news for DAZ Studio users (that have been waiting, both patiently and otherwise) is that Reality 3 for DAZ Studio is in rapid development and will contain new features not yet in the Poser version. Paolo Ciccone, the developer, regularly posts updates on development progress at Pret-a-3D’s blog.

Artist Feature: Eliane CK

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Free Tools and Content for 3D Artists

penny diver

Penny Diver

Eliane Camargo (aka Eliane CK) is undoubtedly one of the best known, and influential artists of the Carrara community (as well as the broader DAZ/Poser community). Her works are instantly recognisable and inspire everything from revulsion to awe and everything in between. Eliane is a master of lighting and shaders and moves easily from one render engine to another.

Eliane’s images are a punctuation of colour and light amid low-key environments. Often characters are composed of or wrapped (and/or embedded) in elements as unassuming as the surrounding environments, but it is the splash of colour, the contrast of matt, reflective and flesh surfaces, and clean, realistic lighting that draws us into the artist’s imagination. We ponder these images.

What we are met with at face value, is a mish-mash of eroticism, transhumanism, and fashion parade presented through a science fiction lens. We see wonder, exploration, joy, pain, suffering, beautify and the repulsive. We are invited to let out mind wander to questions about what it is to be human, the nature of consciousness, and the relationship between humans and technology. At least this is what comes to me when viewing Eliane’s works. The artist, herself, is reluctant to comment on what these images are about, instead encouraging the responder to explore at will.

think

Think

Jim: In all your interviews I read, I have never found how or when you started with 3D. What was your first experience with 3D? Was it something you instantly knew you wanted explore?

Eliane CK: I started in 2006 with Poser, just for fun, after that, DAZ 3D and finally Carrara.

Jim: You can see the beginnings of your unique and very recognisable style with your early renders, but looking at your Renderosity gallery you can really see it significantly in the last quarter of 2008 and fully formed by mid-2009. Was the rapid development of your signature style a conscious effort, or is it more about mastery of Carrara? Continue reading →

Reality Is Dawning

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I know I’ve been talking Luxus up a lot lately (still got some more to come too), but I can’t say I’m not excited about Reality 3. According to a recent statement presented at The World-wide PoserExpo Online Seminar, R3 for Poser (later posted at Pret-a-3D) will be released on April the 8th at a discounted price of $39.95 (usually $59.95). SIDEGRADE AVAILABLE for Reality 2 owners just $14.95! You’ll be able to get your fresh baked copy from Renderosity, RuntimeDNA and Pret-a-3D. Pret-a-3D is apparently the only site that will be handling the tasty sidegrade option.

I’m sure that I’m not in the unique category of user that have both Poser Pro 2012 (or P9) and DAZ Studio, but prefer Studio for whatever reason. The question for us is, “how long are we going to have to wait for our version of the program?”. According to an dated FAQ posted on the front page of Pret-a-3D we can expect to wait about two months Post Poser release, but that was with an expected Poser version release date of November 2012… Does that mean it is closer or further away now? The same? I shall try to find the answer. [edit: Paolo Ciccone, developer of Reality just kindly provided us with an answer – see comments – saying the DS version should be available in about three months).

There is a lot to get excited about with the new Reality release, not least of which is the very cool feature that lets Reality talk to Poser’s node based material system and, as best as possible, produce Lux equivalent materials. Check out the Reality 3 preview for more of the goodies – alt text if you don’t want to sit through the YouTube presentation.

 

Reality Killer?

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luxus promo image

LuxRender is nothing new to unbiased rendering enthusiasts using DAZ Studio, but with the recent and rather stealthy release of Luxus there is now an alternative to Reality. The release of such an exciting new product as this is usually preceded with a certain level of marketing hype, but with the community in the throes of March Madness Luxus seems to have slipped in almost under the radar. The first I saw of it was today when an email titled “Rendering Just Got Better with Luxus” popped up. Going by the title alone I admit to a certain amount of excitedness even though I wasn’t certain Luxus was a LuxRender plugin. Following to the product page I find that not only is it indeed a DAZ/Lux bridge, but that it retails at a third of the price of Reality 2.5 – snap! Though Reality has a good established user base and a history of consistent updates, I doubt the older program will be able to afford not to drop its price in the near future.

Early comments by users on the DAZ forums are generally positive, and give a good over view of some of the program’s features, which are not thoroughly outlined on the products store page. Reportedly, Luxus exposes more of Lux’s features to the Studio user, and thus negates at least some of the manual text editing hardcore Reality/Lux users performed on their scene exports. Luxus also uses DAZ Studio’s native interface for configuring Lux scenes, so I imagine using the surface selector and surface tab could be a huge time saver over the somewhat clunky Reality surface editing workflow. Also a very handy feature is the ability, not only to perform Lux renders in DAZ Studio’s interface, but perhaps even better, perform area renders. Using Lux’s native interface for final renders is suggested as it allows for the alteration of some functions (including lighting) in real-time.

Well, I have to say I’m tempted. I haven’t done a Lux render in a couple of months and I was only just noticing the itch. At just $14 bucks (special price) it is hard to say no.

luxrender image

One of the first scenes I rendered with Lux via Reality 2

It is also worth mentioning that Reality 3 for Poser has just gone into closed beta [link dead – rip RDNA].