Documentation Center artzone:pub:tutorials:otherapps

Getting Started with TransPoser

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Getting Started with TransPoser

Author: dtacy1

Tools Needed

Poser
Carrara Studio 3 or Carrara 4 or Carrara 4 Pro
TransPoser (Included in Carrara 4 Pro)

Introduction

Today I'd like to show you the basic steps for importing your Poser file into Carrara, using TransPoser. TransPoser is available for Carrara Studio 3 and Carrara 4 Standard, and is included in Carrara 4 Pro. You can use TransPoser to import complete multi-object scenes, or use it to import multiple characters from multiple Poser files into one Carrara scene.

Step 1 - Create Poser Scene

Create the Poser scene you would like to import into Carrara. I'm going to create a simple Poser scene using Victoria and the new 3D Celebrity Mandy Character. I only want to create the figure with hair and clothing, using Carrara for the rest of the final scene elements. I'll go ahead and use the Maria Hair, with Tex04 and Style 02 applied. I'll also use the Skirt and T-Shirt from the V3 and SP Clothing Pack, along with the V3 Anniversary Boots. Let's apply the Leather Texture to the Skirt, a Floral Denim texture to the T-Shirt along with the Tube transparency, and finally a Jeans texture to the boots, with blue suede tips, and the Knee length transparency. Apply your desired pose and adjust any clothing.

Now save this scene as a .PZ3. (Don't use the compressed .PZZ format - TransPoser can't read these compressed files!)

Step 2 - Create Carrara Scene

Now Open Carrara, and get your scene setup. If you have a complete scene in Poser, you can skip this step and just open the .PZ3 file. I'm going to use Carrara's Scene Wizard and select the Indoor scene, Afternoon. This will setup lighting and scene elements.

Now all we need is someone in the scene!

Step 3 - Import Poser Scene

Now import your saved Poser scene. Go to File- > Import. The Import Options will pop up. I've set One Poser unit equals 10.00 Carrara unit. I've unchecked the Import Animation, but left the Keep link to Poser file checked. If your Poser Scene had animation, you could import that into Carrara.

It may take some time to import the Poser file, so be patient.

Step 4 - Delete Extra Objects

It's time to get rid of the extra stuff. I'm going to delete the GROUND and Light 1 objects that were imported using the Instances tab in the Properties panel. If this was a complete Poser scene with lighting, I would leave the imported lights alone. In this scene, I will use the lights Carrara setup in the Scene Wizard.

Step 5 - Group Poser Objects

When I move my imported Figure, I'd like all of the hair and clothing to move with it. I've selected all the imported elements, and will now group them using Ctrl-G, or use Edit- > Group from the Carrara Menu.

Step 6 - Scale and Arrange Poser Objects

Select the grouped Poser Figure and move, scale, and rotate to fit into the scene. My initial guess of 10 for import left my Poser figure a little large for this scene. I'm going to scale her down to 85% using Carrara's Overall Scaling transform.

Then I will position and rotate the Figure into the scene.

Step 7 - Important Render Settings

Now go into the Render Room. Make sure you select “Light through Trans.”. This option will enable Carrara to properly render your textures that have transparencies, including the standard Poser Eye textures. Some of your imported Poser materials will look strange without this selected. You can also tweak any other Rendering settings to fit your rendering needs.

Step 8 - Render Scene

Now select your output image size, Camera, and File Format. Press Render and away you go!

Rendering Poser Figures in Carrara Studio

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Rendering Poser Figures in Carrara Studio

Author: thedanman

Tools Needed

Carrara Studio (Any Version)
Poser OBJ and texture maps

Introduction

If you don't have DAZ Studio or Poser but you've found yourself with an old copy of Eovia's / Metacreation's Carrara Studio (1.1-3), you're in luck, because you can do all your Poser file rendering from within Carrara Studio - No plug-ins required! Here are a few quick and easy steps to import, texture, and render!

Step 1 - Importing Your Figure

From the file menu within Carrara Studio, select import and locate your OBJ file from your runtime/geometries folder of the poser character you want to import. Click okay through the import settings and you should find yourself with a nice gray wireframe in your work window.

Step 2 - Texture Your Figure's Head

First find a convenient camera angle to view your character within your working plane and click to select the head of your model. You will need to use two textures - one for the head, and one of the body. After selecting the head, switch into the texturing window.

For your color, select texure map and locate the head texture of your poser figure, tweak any other settings as you wish for visual effect

Step 3 - Texture Your Figure's Body

To texture the body, switch back to your camera view and select any part of the body.

Before switching into the texture mode however - switch your object's shader to a distinct one, for example “Default” which you will remember to use to apply the rest of the texture to the body (this will save you the time of individually setting each body part to the body texture map)

Go into the texture mode and set your color to the texture map of the body of your figure - calibrate any additional settings according to your liking.

Step 4 - Applying Your Shader

Locate your bottom pane drag out window and confirm in your shaders list that your Default shader has been applied correctly - if not, click on the shader box and adjust the settings to reflect your body texture. When you are finished switch back into your camera window.

Open your shaders pane (bottom pane) up from your camera view and drag your body shader (I used “default”) onto the various parts of your Poser figure - a green highlighted box will bound the part of the body you are selecting. The correct texture part will be applied according to the geometries

The eyes are a little trickier, for some reason Carrara doesn't pick up on the texture map for the eyes - but no worries a simple work around is to use a square eye texture and map the eye using flat mapping and selecting the direction your model's eye is oriented.

Step 5 - Import Your Hair

Add some hair to your figure by simply repeating the steps of importing your hair OBJ, and texturing like the body and head, except using the hair texture (or whatever texture you want) for the color mapping. You can scale and place your hairpiece on your poser figure - I enabled collision detection from the menu to help me snugly scale the hair onto her head.

Step 6 - Final Render

After you have completed these steps - find a nice camera angle, render, and voila! Poser a la Carrara!

Using Carrara Transposer2 with Poser 6

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using Carrara Transposer2 with Poser 6

Author: ChipChop

Tools Needed

Carrara 4
Or Carrara 5
Poser 5
Poser 6
Transposer 2

Introduction

I've seen a number of posts and questions about using Poser 6 with Carrara 4 and 5's Transposer2 import utility. This allows you to use the faster render capability and Materials found in Carrara with your Poser 6 Scene files, however there are a number of quirks to work around.

I will show you the method that I use to successfully import Poser 6 scenes into Carrara 4 and Carrara 5 Beta. This method will work in both versions using Transposer 2.

Step 1 - Setup Poser 6 Options

First, you must disable Poser 6's external binary morph targets. This is the option that creates those mysterious .pmd files.

Open Poser 6, and Select Edit- > General Preferences. Click on the Misc. Tab. Now uncheck “Use external binary morph targets”.

Now when you save a scene file, the morphs will be incorporated into the scene file instead of being placed into .pmd files.

Step 2 - Uncompress Geometry Files

Poser 6 assets are initially installed as compressed files. Although Transposer 2 will read the compressed files, I have had better luck after uncompressing the OBJ files. Other third party utilities also work with Poser 6 after uncompressing the files.

From the Poser 6 menu, select File- > Run Python Script…, and select Poser6\Runtime\Python\poserScripts\Utility\uncompressPoserFiles.py.

Select your Poser6 directory, and check the 'Uncompress geometry files (OBJ)' option. Click on OK.

This will uncompress the Poser 6 assets. You can optionally delete the original files.

Step 3 - Create your Poser 6 scene and Save

Create your Poser 6 scene, and save it. Here I've loaded the Winter Queen, and I'll save the file for importing into Carrara.

Step 4 - Run Carrara, and Use Transposer

Run Carrara. You can use either version 4, or version 5 beta. I used Carrara 5 Pro Beta for these screen shots.

Select File- > Open, and find your Poser scene to import. Carrara 5 will display the Poser Scene Import dialog. Select Transposer as the import method for this tutorial.

Carrara 4 users will get a similar dialog box, but will not have a Native Importer option.

Step 5 - Deselect Keep link to Poser file

Deselect the “Keep link to Poser file” for the best import result, and to be able to load the Carrara file later. With Poser 6 materials you must break the link so the materials are fully converted. If you do not, you will not be able to successfully load the file back into Carrara at a later point in time.

Note:

If you are using only simple P4 or P5 materials, you may be able to leave this option checked. I've had good luck keeping the link with P6 files that are not using P6 Materials, but as soon as you use any P6 materials you will have material issues when you'reload the Carrara file.

Step 6 - Select Poser.exe in the Poser 6 Directory

Now for the Poser Application Path, select the Poser.exe located in your Poser6 directory.

You will have to do this every time you import. Carrara will only remember the path to the Poser5 executable.

Step 7 - Select the Poser 5 Executable

Press 'OK', and Carrara will pop up a dialog box titled “Please locate Poser executable”.

Select the Poser.exe file located in your Poser 5 directory. Press Open.

Carrara will now import your scene. Please be patient - the import process is slow.

Step 8 - Render!

Adjust the camera, lights, materials, Save, and Render!

Lathe A fountain In Cinema

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Lathe A fountain In Cinema

Author: DarkSun

Tools Needed

Cinema 4D R6 or higher

Introduction

Ok this tutorial will show you a way that you may create a fountain in Cinema 4D using a simple spline, and a lathe deformer.

Step 1 - Camera View

When you first launch Cinema the viewport will be set to perspective (the camera)

You will want to have it to front. Do this by going to cameras and scroll down to front.

Step 2 - The Spline

Ok now from the top menu right next to the cube you will see the draw spline option (like image above)Click on the icon and choose “Draw B Spline”. Now we will give some shape to what will soon be our fountain.

Step 3 - Shaping the Object

Now the shape you draw is very important here, but experimentation gives various results.

Also you want an “open” shape, not “closed”. The image above is what i came up with.

Step 4 - Giving Depth

Here comes the fun part, it will take shape. We will now add a Lathe Nurbs object.

To do this you can go to where you see the “Hyper Nurbs”. Click on the icon and choose “Lathe Nurbs”

* if you do not know where this is just scroll over menu items and it will show the name at the bottom

Step 5 - Extrusion

Still nothing!!?? Well we will need to now drag the spline object onto the Lathe Nurb Object.

So now you should see it has taken form, *if not make sure that spline is attached to Lathe object.

* Also switch back to perspective view

(the camera view)

Step 6 - Missing Something

It looks OK but i believe it needs a bottom don't you? Ok select the Lathe Object and now click on make editable. Which can be found bellow the undo button.

Step 7 - A Base

Now with that done we can manipulate polygons. Go down to the polygon tool which is found in the toolbar (it's the seventh icon). And also choose the live selection tool, which is the pointer icon that is beside the magnify glass. And now select the bottom row of polygons.

(you can rotate the viewport and hold down shift to add the polygons to the selection)

Step 8 - Shaping The Bottom

Next right click on any of the polygons and choose from the menu “Extrude”.

You will want to extrude it outward not inward. Also do not make to much of a big extrusion.

Step 9 - Optional

Now you are basically done except that the mesh is a bit rough.

Now you may notice the smoothing tag (it has a + and sphere bellow) double click on this.

Now click on the box that is to the left of “Angle Limit”, it should now be checked. This is a tag that all you need to know is it will smooth the mesh. Also you may want to add a cylinder and resize it to fit the center of the fountain. Since there is a hole, not very good for holding water ;)

Poser Animations in Cinema 4D

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Poser Animations in Cinema 4D

Author: kennez

Tools Needed

Poser
Cinema 4D XL6 or higher

Support Files

movie.zip

Introduction

You have a great animation that you created in Poser, but you don't want to use the Poser rendering engine. You have Cinema 4D on your hard drive, and you know how good the rendering engine is. Trouble is, you haven't got a clue how to transfer your Poser animation into C4D. Here's how.

Step 1 - Creating the Animation in Poser and Exporting it

First, create your animation in Poser, and make a note of the number of frames that your animation takes, and also the framerate. The framerate isn't as important as the number of frames, but it is good practice to use the same numbers in Cinema 4D.

When you have finished tweaking your animation, save it, and get ready to export it. We will be using the Wavefront OBJ format to export the animation. To do this, go to File > Export > Wavefront OBJ.

In the EXPORT RANGE dialog box, select Multi Frame Export, and make sure that the frames you want are in the range.

In the Hierarchy Selection dialog, select the items you want to export. For the purposes of writing this tutorial, I used the default options. Exporting all clothes, hair and props with the figure works fine. However, I don't recommend exporting more than one person or animal at a time.

In the next box, which looks like a regular Save box, select the directory that you want to export to, and give the files a name. I simply called mine 'f' (without the quotes), as Poser automatically adds the frame number to the file, so frame 0 would be f_0.obj, frame 1 would be f_1.obj and so on.

In the next dialog box, make sure that ONLY Weld Body Part Seams is selected. UNCHECK everything else.

Click OK. At this point you may want to go and get something to drink, as it may take a while to export all the OBJ files.

Step 2 - Import the First OBJ into Cinema 4D

Open Cinema 4D. The first step is to set up the Project to match the settings you used in Poser. Go to Edit > Project Settings and change them to match your animation in Poser. I used a frame rate of 30 and 30 frames in Poser, but I didn't bother changing them here, as I knew I was going to extend the animation in Cinema 4D.

The next step is to import the first frame of the animation. To do this, go to File > Open and navigate to the directory where you exported the animation to. Select the first frame (for me it was f_0.obj), and click Open.

The first thing you will notice is that you cannot see the figure. To correct this, go to the bottom right hand corner of the C4D window and click on the little arrow next to Size. Select Scale. Type 100 into each of the three boxes above Scale and hit Enter.

In the Perspective view window, select Edit > Frame Selected Elements. You should now see the figure in the main window.

The next thing to do is to texture the figure. To help me with this, I used Babel. I won't go into the texturing process here.

Once you have textured your figure, go to the next step.

Step 3 - Create a NULL Object

Rename your original imported object as MASTER.

Next, create a NULL Object (Objects > NULL Object) and click on both the little traffic lights until they are red. This is extremely important, as it hides the NULL Object and its contents to both the renderer and the camera.

Next, import another copy of the first frame in exactly the same way you did before. Rename this new figure '0' (without quotes) and drag it onto the NULL Object. It becomes a child of the NULL Object.

NOTE: You do not need to rescale the NULL object or the other objects you put in it. Cinema does this on its own.

Next, you can either import the following frame (f_1), or skip this and import the third frame (f_2), as Cinema will interpolate the frame in between.

Step 4 - Create a Morph

Open the Timeline (Window > Timeline). Right click on the MASTER figure, and navigate to Morph (New Track > Special Effects > Morph). Right click on the Morph track that appears and select New Key. A dialog appears asking where you want the key. Type 0 into the box and click OK. A new key is added at Frame 0. Double click on the key and type 0 in the box. Click OK.

Repeat this for the next object you imported, selecting the key at frame 2, and typing 2 in the Search For box.

Now, go back to the perspective view and scrub the frame slider at the bottom along. You should see the figure move over three frames (0, 1 and 2).

Repeat the above steps for all frames of your animation.

Step 5 - Remember

*You do not need to scale the NULL object or anything that goes inside it. You only need to scale the MASTER object.

*You only need to texture the MASTER object.

*Change the little dots next to the NULL object so that they are BOTH RED.

Poser to Cinema 4D

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Poser to Cinema 4D

Author: Chris

Tools Needed

Poser
Cinema 4D

Introduction

Here is a way to import Poser figures into Cinema 4D … without any plug-in.

Step 1 - Setting up Cinema 4D

After posing your Poser Figure and applying hair and clothes its time to export. You don't need to apply textures … that will be done in Cinema 4D. Export as Wavefront Object and use the default setting for export from Poser. Now open the exported figure in Cinema 4D. All parts are seperated so it is better to group them for later use.

http://documentation.daz3d.com/tutorials/images/400-01B63.jpg

In your Cinema 4D preferences you need to point Cinema 4D to your favorite texture folder. Copy all textures you want to use (need) into this folder. Cinema 4D (and you too) now know where the textures are.

Step 2 - Texturing

Start your texuring by doubleclocking the first material (the gray sphere in your Materials Window). The Material Editor Window pops up. Mostly we need two textures (if you make closeups you need to load a bumpmap too) color and alpha. First load the color map (1) … its the texture for the hair that I have used here … and set Sampling to “Alias 1” (3). I have used this Antialias setting because default MIP Sampling is a bit blurry but we want to have a sharp render so “Alias 1” is the best choise here. Repeat that step with the Alpha (2) channel (load here the transperency map of the poser figure). Now repeat this steps with the other materials by clicking each “gray sphere”. If one texture is loaded that you need more then one time you don't need to load it every time (see next image). Continue with all MATs. This will take you some minutes. Its a good time to save your work now …

Step 3 - Preparing Render

After removing all dublicate materials (to save some memory) we can now set up our scene that we want to render. I have used just a simple scene … a colored background with a flour that have only a compositing Tag to catch the shadow. Now put some lights in.

These are the render settings I have used, the other settings are not relevant here for this easy scene … they may be different to your favorite settings …

Step 4 - Final Render

I hope this tutorial was helpfull for you …

Preparing V3 materials for Bodypaint 2

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Preparing V3 materials for Bodypaint 2

Author: karanta

Tools Needed

Poser
UV Mapper
Cinema
Bodypaint 2

Introduction

In this tutorial I'll show you how you can prepare V3`s materials for painting a head and body texture with Bodypaint 2 from Maxon. You'll need basic knowledge of Poser, UV Mapper, Cinema and Bodypaint for following this tutorial. The most important thing: Never (!!) work on original obj files. So the first thing you should always do is to copy the V3 file and rename it. You will find the V3 file in the following folder in your Poser directory: runtime\Geometries\DAZPeople Open the folder, and save the file “blMilWom_v3.obj” under a new name. You can save the new obj in another folder to make sure you will not overwrite the original V3 file by mistake.

Step 1 - Start

Step 2 - Continue

Step 3 - Continue

Step 4 - Continue

Step 5 - Continue

Step 6 - Continue

Step 7 - Continue

Step 8 - Continue

Step 9 - Continue

Step 10 - Continue

Step 11 - Continue

Step 12 - Last Step

Ceramic Tile Style

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Ceramic Tile Style

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

DAZ Studio BETA v 0.9.7.8
DS Base Content
The GIMP(You can get it at gimp.org for free)

Introduction

Now new DAZ Studio (version 0.9.7.8) is available!And we could get the wonderful DS Base Content for free.With this perfect pack, we can make more good works.This tutorial will give you some suggestions about making ceramic tile style.

And you'd better take a minute to have a look at the tutorial "A Basic Visual Guide to DAZ Studio" here in the Wiki.

Step 1 - Make pictures in DAZ Studio

After taking a few minutes to have a look at the tutorial “A Basic Visual Guide to DAZ Studio” here, you can make your basic pictures using DAZ Studio.

You may render the picture like the one below.

Step 2 - Come to GIMP

Now come to GIMP.Open your picture in GIMP and choose Filters/Noise/Noisify to add noise.

Step 3 - Lightening

Choose Light effects/Lighting effects and set the options as below.Also the set is only for reference.You may set it as you think is proper.

Step 4 - Complete

You may get the result as below.

And you can do some further works.

Colourful Point Background

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Colourful Point Background

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

The GIMP2.0

Introduction

Are you interested in point background in comic books?This tutorial will give you some suggestions.

Step 1 - Create new file

Launch GIMP.Choose NEW to create a new file.Then follow the steps below..

Step 2 - continue

Select Filter/Distorts/Waves and set the setting as shown below.

Then.

Step 3 - Get the point

Choose Script-Fu/Alchemy/Erase every other Row.First erase rows. Choose “Rows” “Even” “Erase” to get the result.

Then choose “Columns” “Even” “Erase” to erase Columns.And you will get the point style then.

Step 4 - Adjust

Choose Layer/Colors/Brightness-Contrast to adjust the picture.

Step 5 - Complete

Then you can use it to your post works.

Comic Effects1(Line magic)

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Comic Effects1(Line magic)

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

GIMP

Introduction

Now we have got A3, H3 and many other Toon Animals. Do you want some amazing comic effects? Let's see what we could do. This article will give some suggestion about comic lines. The picture below is one example.

Step 1 - Get ready

Open your picture rendered in 3D software in GIMP. And create a new layer.

Step 2 - Make sure you have made right settings

Make sure you have made right settings as below. You can see it always affects the top layers and that'll be fine.

Step 3 - Come to Line Nova

Select Script-Fu\Render\Line Nova.

And come to the window below.

Step 4 - Setting Line Nova window

Setting is as the effects you want to. Some example is as below.

Step 5 - The Final picture

Shown as below.

You may create your pictures as the effects you want.

Create your beautiful backgrounds (fractal pictures)

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create your beautiful backgrounds (fractal pictures)

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

GIMP

Introduction

GIMP is a free 2D application and has powerful functions. You can get it at gimp.org for free. This tutorial will show you how to use it making beautiful backgrounds.(fractal pictures)

Step 1 - create a new file

Choose File- > new to create a new image. You will see the setting window as below:

You may type the number directly in the blank or choose a template. Click OK to create it.

Step 2 - start your picture

Choose Filters- > Render- > Fractal Explorer and you will see a new setting window. Click the Fractals button to choose the basic fractal you would like to use.

Step 3 - Settings

Go back to colors settings. Number of colors means change the number of colors in the mapping and the change will be shown in the bottom of the window. You can change the color density/color function freely as you like to make different beautiful setting colors. And you can change “Apply active gradient to final image” to have another feeling.

You may click the icon to the right of the “Apply active gradient to final image” setting to change some other types!

Step 4 - continue

Turn to the Parameters tab now. You can set the size and position here. A little change may bring you wonderful effects.

Step 5 - Save the picture

Save it and make a name for it. I call the picture below “Phoenix Fire1”.

And you may create many more wonderful pictures, so it's a good habit to make a rememberable name for one type of pictures. It won't be as disordered as making names like 13.JPG.

Step 6 - Use your works

Now you can use your new pictures as backgrounds or textures and so on.

Creating custom brushes in The GIMP

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating custom brushes in The GIMP

Author: SnowFox

Tools Needed

The GIMP (any version) available for free at gimp.org.

Support Files

brushes.zip

Introduction

First of all, there are two different file extensions for GIMP brushes: .gbr, which is for static brushes, and .gih, which is for animated brushes. This tutorial will show you how to make both. The support file contains two animated brushes, and two grayscale brushes, so you can see how they work. The GIMP's default brushes can also be opened as normal images.

Step 1 - Static brushes

We'll start with static brushes. These are quite simple to make. All you need is an image you want to make a brush from. This can be any image, or even some strokes with another brush.

Most brushes are grayscale. In grayscale brushes, white areas are fully transparent, and will not show as a stroke. Black is completely opaque, and shades of gray create varying levels of transparancy. Grayscale brushes are good for making brushes for postwork (such as hair) or watermarks, because they let you paint with any color you want.

Brushes can also be in color. These brushes act like stamps, making an exact copy of the original image, without any changes to transparancy or color.

Color brushes require an alpha channel for transparancy. First select the layer and select the Add Alpha Channel command. If your image has a solid colored background, all you have to do is use the magic wand tool to select the background, then use the eraser tool to erase the background to transparancy.

Now select Save As, and make sure the brushes folder under your GIMP directory is selected. GIMP only looks for brushes in this directory. Give the brush a name, and make the extension .gbr. GIMP will ask for spacing settings, and a title. Set the spacing very high for a “stamp” brush, and low (around 5) for a stroke brush, like those used for hair. That's it! Just refresh the brushes window and your brush will be listed.

Step 2 - Animated brushes

Now for animated brushes. These have a few extra settings, but aren't all that different from static brushes. The “frames” of the animation are made with layers. Each layer is treated as one frame. The layer at the top of the list is the first frame, and so on. You can even open a .gif animation and save it as a brush. Animated brushes, like static ones, can either be color “tubes” or grayscale.

First decide if this will be color or grayscale. If the brush will be color, make each layer transparent. If the brush will be grayscale, set each layer as white. Create however many frames you want. The more frames you have, the less often the pattern will repeat itself. The .gih brush file included in the support files has 9 frames. Put whatever you want on each frame, and arrange them in the sequence you want them to appear in.

Select save as, and name the brush with the extension .gih. GIMP will ask for spacing settings just like static brushes, but it also asks for other things.

Set the cell size to the dimensions of the image (this is usually set for you). Set the number of cells to the number of layers in the animation, and do the same for the number of ranks. Next to Ranks is a drop down menu. This lets you determine how the frames will be displayed.

Incremental - “Plays” the frames in order, from first to last.

Angular - Plays frames in order, according to the angle of the cursor's movement

Random - My favorite. Plays frames randomly. Good for “sparkle” effects.

The other settings seem to depend on the use of a tablet, which I don't have, so I cant comment on them.

Save to the brushes directory, and have some fun!

Make your special black and white styles

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Make your special black and white styles

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

DAZ Studio BETA v 0.9.6.0
DS Egyptian Content
The GIMP(You can get it at gimp.org for free)

Introduction

You have made many colored pictures, but how about black and white styles? This tutorial will give you some suggestions.

Step 1 - MAKE YOUR BASIC PICTURES

Make your basic pictures using DAZ Studio. I chose the woman from the D|S Egyptian Content in this tutorial. Render a picture like the one below.

Step 2 - START WITH YOUR PICTURE

Launch GIMP. First open the picture you rendered just now. Right click the picture and choose Layer/Colours/Threshold.

Step 3 - GO TO LAYERS TAB

Copy background layer and create a new empty layer. Then put the layer in order like the picture below.

Step 4 - DELETE WHITE BACKGROUND

Select “background copy” layer. Right click the picture to choose select/by color, then click the background color. Then, right click to select Edit/Clear or Cut to delect background.

Step 5 - CREATE THE NEW BACKGROUND LAYER

Select the empty layer we created just now. Select Filters/Render/Nature/IfsCompose. You may see the window as below.

It is a very useful function and can make many more amazing pictures easily. You can try some other ways.

Step 6 - COMPLETE

You may do some further work on it.

Magic Picture

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Magic Picture

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

GIMP

Introduction

Have you ever seen a picture that looks different after you select it?(You may press Ctrl+A to see the effect from the picture below.) Now you can get the effect in two or three minutes by following my suggestions.

Step 1 - RENDER

You need to render two pictures in the same size using D|S or any other 3D Application(or find two photos that are the same size). The pictures may be different as long as they are the same pixel width and height.

Step 2 - GO TO GIMP

Go to GIMP and open the two pictures in order. Right click picture1 and select edit/copy, then go to picture2 and paste it.

Then go to the Layers tab, you will see the “Pasted Layer” . Follow the instruction below to create the new layer.

Step 3 - FILTER

Create a new empty layer called layer 3. Choose Filters/Render/Pattern/Checkerboard and set as shown below.

Step 4 - CONTINUE

Now you will see the picture full of black and white. Right click and choose select/By color to select one colour like white(You may click directly on the picture to choose it). And then go to the layer you just pasted to delete the pixels in the selection. I mean to delete the pixels in the selection off the layer below. Finally, delete layer 3 to have the final effect.

Old Photo styles

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Old Photo styles

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

The GIMP

Introduction

You may have known how to create old picture style.But this tutorial will give you some suggestions on making this effect by the free 2D software GIMP in a few seconds.

Step 1 - Get your basic pictures ready

You may make your basic pictures using DAZ Studio or other 3D software or even a photo yourself.I took the picture below for example.

Step 2 - Start with your picture

Launch GIMP and open your picture.Choose Script-Fu/Decor/Old Photo.

“Defocus” can give your photo blur effect.If you choose it , the photo will be blurer than before.

“Borde Size” can change your photo's fade outline size.

Step 3 - Continue

If you choose “Sepia” it'll give the photo old colour and if not the photo colour won't be change, either.

“Mottle”can add dirty effect to your photo.

And “Work on Copy”can apply the effect to a copy of your photo.

Step 4 - Complete

You may get the final old photo effect as shown below.

Woman turning into man using GIMP

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Woman turning into man using GIMP

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

* GIMP

Support Files

*01.zip

Introduction

GIMP is a free 2D application and have powerful functions. This tutorial will show you how to use it making amazing morph animation.

Step 1: Get the pictures ready

Get your two pictures ready using DAZ Studio or poser. Or you can use any photos you like. In this tutorial, I saved the two pictures as PNG file.

Step 2: Start your work

Choose File/new to create a new image.

Choose File/open to open the two pictures. Press Ctrl+c then Ctrl+v to paste the two pictures to the new file.

You will get the layers placed like this.

Step 3: Create the morph

Choose Video/Morph and come to the window below.

Step 4: continue

You can choose the save button to save the setting you just placed.

In this tutorial, I choose 100 “steps” in the setting. So you will get almost 100 layers. Render Mode choose “Morph'. Press OK button to create the layers.

Step 5: Make the movie

Choose Video/Split Image to frames. Set the setting as below.

Choose Video/Encode/Master Video encoder and come to the window as below. Set the setting as shown.

Press OK button to finish.

The final movie has been provided in 01.zip.

Adding Real Beard

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Adding Real Beard

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

* GIMP

Introduction

This tutorial shows you how to add real beard to your man.

Step 1 - Open your picture with GIMP

Select File > Open to open your picture you want to add beard.

Step 2 - Draw beard

Choose beard color and draw it on a new layer.

Step 3 - Continue

Choose Filters > Noise > Scatter RGB and set the setting as below.

Choose Filters > Blur > Motion Blur and set the setting as below.

Step 4 - Complete

Change the layer mode from “Normal” to “Overlay” and do some more adjust.

Step 5 - You can also get some other types.

After Effects scenic animation

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

After Effects scenic animation

Author: chungbobo

Tools Needed

Poser
The Songbird or equivalent model with poses
After Effects

Support Files

scene.zip

Introduction

In this tutorial, I will show you how to use Poser and After Effect to make a fully scenic animation.

Step 1 - Making Animation in Poser

Open Poser, Select Songbird from Figure Library.

Click Pose Library , Select a suitable flying poses for Songbird.

In animation controls, set frame 1 as SB-Flight2, frame 5 as SB-Flight3, frame 10 as SB-Flight2, frame 15 as SB-Flight3. frame 205 as SB-Flight2.

Import a background picture (pic A in scene.zip ). Adjust the Light Controls of Songbird, to make it more similar to the background picture.

Step 2 - Export the animation in sequence pictures

Export the animation in sequence pictures.

Step 3 - Import files to After Effects

Open After Effects, click Composition > New Composition to create a new composition that's 8 seconds long, has a screen size of 427×320 and a frame rate of 25 fps. Name it something suitable, such as 'bird'.

From the File Menu, click File > Import > File.

To import the sequence pictures.

Separately import the front and back pictures.

Step 4 - Composing in After Effect

A. Drag them onto the timeline.

B. Position the back layer in the top left-hand corner.

C. Select the back layer in the timeline and Press P to access the position twirly.

Placing one key frame at each individual second( from 0 second to 8 second ) and decreasing 400 pixels per key frame.

D. Select the front layer in the timeline and repeat the process B. and C. as above.

E. Now add some special effect to the front layer:

Click Effect > Blur and Sharpen > Gaussian Blur (scale blurriness to 3 )

Press T, and scale to 80 per cent. (Optical)

Press S, and scale to 110 per cent. (Size)

Step 5 - Render in After Effect

Now we'll render the movie.

From the Composition menu, click Add To Render Queue.

Click on Current Settings. This brings up a new dialog box.

From the Quality dropdown, select Best.

From the Resolution dropdown, select Full.

Click on Output Module Lossless. This brings up a new dialog box. From the format dropdown, select Quicktime movie.

Then click OK and Render.

A guide to post processing your images in Zenliner 2

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

A guide to post processing your images in Zenliner 2

Author: JosephineAu

Tools Needed

Poser
Or DAZ Studio
ZenLiner 2

Introduction

Post processing with ZenLiner can produce some amazing results.

Step 1: Here I have rendered a simple image using DAZ3D's David

Open the program and click on “Files”

Choose a folder from the drop down menu

Choose an image to work with and hit “click to use”

Step 2: The work document will now load.

There are many choices. For the purpose of this tutorial we initially will use Row 1/Column1

There are two ways to do this. You can either let the program take its course or you can use the step mode and interrupt the process at any of the steps involved to preserve the image at that point.

Step 3: On the second page you can get some really weird effects.

Here I have used Row 1/Column 3

Step 4: Finally let's do some blending

For this I am going over to page 2 Row1/Column2

Step 5: Now I click on blending

If you want to blend with the original to recapture a little of the detail, move the slider until you find a result you like and then click on 'apply'. Then click on 'close' and you will be returned to the second page.

Step 6: Here you can save or continue blending

Now you can save the result if you want and/or do further refining. I am going to do a little more.

Return to the 1st page. I am going to further process the image above with

Row 7/Column4 and here is the final result.

Step 7: Examples

Top Row: Examples using the image of David.

Second row: 1st and 2nd use Michael 3 and the third is Sixus' Robogoth.

You can find more examples in my Artzone gallery:

http://artzone.daz3D.com/index.php?mode=photo_album&act=view&pho_id=50795&p_id=343

http://artzone.daz3D.com/index.php?mode=photo_album&act=view&pho_id=50799&p_id=343

http://artzone.daz3D.com/index.php?mode=photo_album&act=view&pho_id=50797&p_id=343

http://artzone.daz3D.com/index.php?mode=photo_album&act=view&pho_id=50925&p_id=343

The possibilities for post processing your DAZ Studio and/or Poser renders are limited only by your imagination.

Create amazing background pictures with gloodle

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create amazing background pictures with gloodle

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

Gloodle1.03

Introduction

Gloodle is free software. You can get it here at: Wonder Touch

Step 1 - Create a new File

Select File/New to create a new file.

Step 2 - Continue

“Move Center” tool

“Mirror Horizontal' tool

“Mirror Vertical' tool

Step 3 - Continue

“Mirror both' tool

“Polar Mirror' tool

“Lines' tool

Step 4 - Continue

“Jitter' tool

“Skipping' tool

Step 5 - "Patten' tool.

This is a further tool. You can load it follow the instruction.

Step 6 - Complete

And here are some examples.

You can also adjust your picture as shown.

Create comic effects from any picture

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create comic effects from any picture

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

Manga studio ex3.0

Introduction

Manga studio is a wonderful comic program. We can create black and white comic effects from any picture.

Step 1 - Create a new page and Import image

Choose File/New/Page to create a new page. Then choose File/2DLT Import to come to the window below.

Then come to the Filter window.

Step 2 - Set the 2DLT settings

You can set the settings as below.

Press “OK” to give the effects.

Step 3 - Continue

Then You can do any work to the layers as usual separately.

Step 4 - Further work

You can also add tone effects on your works.

Create comic pictures from 3D models

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create comic pictures from 3D models

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

Manga Studio 3.0 Ex (You can get it from e-Frontier)

Introduction

Manga Studio 3.0 Ex can help you to create comic pictures from 3D models. This article will tell you how easy it is.

Step 1 - Create new file

Choose File/new/page to create a new page. Or you can follow the steps as the picture below.

Step 2 - Import 3D object

Choose File/3DLT import to import the 3D object you get from the other 3D programs and come to the “3D object import and render windows'. This article take the model “Toonimal Lamb” saved as OBJ file from poser for example.

Then set like this.

Continue to follow the step below. And you can set the setting like this.

Step 3 - Add background

Choose window/tones and follow the steps below.

Step 4 - Complete and save

Save your work and put in some other effects!

Create drips and sweat drops

2011-11-01T17:42:24+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create drips and sweat drops

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

* Painter IX

Introduction

Painter is a perfect 2D program. With its help, you can get amazing effects. This tutorial will show you how to create drip and water drop effect in one minute.

Step 1 - Get your image ready

Choose File/Open to open the picture you want to create drip and sweat.

Step 2 - Create Liquid Metal layer

Create a Liquid Metal layer.

Set the setting as shown.

Step 3 - Adjust and finish

And you can get the perfect result within one minute like the picture below.

Create speed lines with Manga Studio

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create speed lines with Manga Studio

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

Manga studio ex 3.0

Introduction

Manga studio is a wonderful comic program. This tutorial will show you how to create speed line effect.

Step 1 - Create a new page and Import image

Choose File/New/Page to create a new page.

Then choose File/2DLT Import to come to the window below. Set as shown. (You can follow the tutorial here: Create Comic Effects from Any Picture with Manga Studio

Step 2 - Create the Ruler Layer

You can set the settings as below.

Step 3 - Create ruler

Then Choose File/Preferences and set the setting as below or set as you like.

Step 4 - Continue

You can set the ruler center as below.

Press “Q” on your keyboard to move your “ruler center” to the place your mouse stays.

Press “A” on your keyboard to circumsphere your ruler widdershins.

Press “S” on your keyboard to circumgyrate your ruler deasil.

Then you can draw with the pen tool along the ruler and the lines will always follow the ruler. And then circumgyrate your ruler and draw again and again.

I hope this tutorial will help you!!^-^

Creating Dynamic Clothing For Poser5 in Cinema4D

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Dynamic Clothing For Poser5 in Cinema4D

Author: Chris

Tools Needed

Cinema 4D
Poser 5

Support Files

zeroposes.zip

Introduction

We will create a dynamic Skirt for Poser 5 in Cinema 4D

Step 1 - Preparing Your Poser Figure

First of all we need a reference figure in Cinema to work with. I have used Victoria 3. Load the figure in an empty scene in Poser. Disable IK and zero the figure. (you can use my Zero Poses for it). Now export the figure as shown in the image above. Open the figure in Cinema now and scale it up with 100%. It is good to save it now as your base figure for later use.

*note: you need basic knowlege of Cinema 4D and Poser 5 Clothroom to follow the next steps …

Step 2 - Modeling a Skirt #1

Lets start modeling …

(1.) Create a cube with x:10; y:2; Z:10 (see image above). Move this cube to the abdomen/hip area of your figure and hit 'c' on your keyboard to make the cube editable. Now turn over into Polygon Mode (2.) and select the bottom polygon of the cube … extrude it (3.) 10 times with an offset of 2m (it depends on you how long the skirt would be … I have extruded it 10 times to have a skirt that is a bit above the knee)

Now we need to move the points arround the body … for this I have used the rectangle selection tool and disabled 'Only Select Visable Elements' (1.) . By selecting each points (you need to be in Point Mode) and moving them we'll get the contour of the Skirt … I have done that in the 'Front View' and 'Side View' (you need to do that only for one side of the skirt … the rest will be mirrored)

After you have all points in the position you want cut the Skirt in the middle by using the 'Knife Tool' (2.). Select all new points and set X position to 0m (3.). After that you can delete all unused points (4.).

Step 3 - Modeling a Skirt #2

We now have a “half” skirt … drag the skirt into a symmertry object (1.). It should look like this now (2.). Now make the symmetry onject editable (hit 'c' on your keyboard). After that switch to Point Mode and select all points from your selection menu. Now optinize the points with default settings (rightclick - optimize).

OK … you have a full 'cube-skirt' now. Drag the Skirt into a HyperNurbs object (3.) and set subdivisions (4.) to 3. Now it should look like this (5.) Its a good time to save your work now …

Now delete your 'base figure' and set Y-Axis to '0' using the 'Object Axis Tool'. As you'remember we scaled Victoria to 100% in the beginning of your tutorial … now we need to rescale the skirt with 0.01 in X/Y/Z axis to get it working in Poser. After you have done that export the skirt as Wavefront OBJ.

Your Cinema 4D work is done now … lets get the skirt into Poser …

Step 4 - Skirt To Poser

Before you bring the Skirt into Poser it needs a UV map for later texturing. You can use Steve Cox' UV Mapper for it … its a free tool. After UV mapping the Skirt save it as skirt_uv.obj or something simular. Now open Poser …

Load you Poser figuer (here Victoria 3) in an empty scene and use the Zero Pose (I hope you have downloaded it … ) … now import the skirt with the settings in the image above (1.). As you can see it don't fits … now that will be the work of Posers Clothroom … but first we need to modify Victorias body so there are no intersections in frame 1 in our simulation …

After we have scaled all directions X/Y/Z of Victoria (2.) and no iteresections are there we can set up our cloth simulation … for this simulation we don't need much frames, I have used 10 frames. Our rescaled figure is now in the 1st frame but we need a default figure in the last frame. So set the scaling back to default in frame 10.

Step 5 - Poser 5 Clothroom

Its time now to open Poser 5 Clothroom … In the image above you see the Simulation settings I have used to calculate the Skirt.

First create a new simulation with 10 frames and then clothify the skirt. Now add Victoria as collision object and set dynamic controls as seen above. Now hit 'calculate simulation' botton.

When the cloth simulation is done you should see something like the image above. Save your work now. After that you need to export the skirt as a Wavefront OBJ file … export as single object from frame 10. Now create a new scene and load Victoria again and apply Zero pose and reimport the calculated Skirt. Voila … now save the Skirt into your props folder.

If you want to make the Skirt conformable you should read this tutorial at DAZ Tutorial Arcana: Dynamic To Conforming

Creating Morph Targets in ZBrush

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Morph Targets in ZBrush

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Poser 4
DAZ

Introduction

How to export a Poser 4 `Michael` (from DAZ3D) Mesh head, modify it in ZBrush and then export it for use as a morph target.

The tutorial can be done using P4 male or female figures. The demo version of ZBrush will not allow some of the import export functions. Yet!

Step 1 - GETTING STARTED

The previous tutorial in this series showed you how to export an .OBJ mesh from Poser and get it into ZBrush. This tutorial is similar in the initial stages but has one big difference. The .OBJ file that is created in ZBrush needs to have the same number of vertices as the original export or it cannot be used as a morph target. I chose to use DAZ3D`s `Michael mesh as a model and turn him into an Ogre.

I firmly believe that ZBrush, when mastered is one of the best free form modeling tools on the market. The modeling skills that you require to complete the ZBrush section of this tutorial will need to be practiced to become proficient. Once you are comfortable with that, any morph you can imagine is possible with this method.

Step 2 - Exporting Head as a Mesh

As with the first of my ZBrush thing to do is get the head mesh out of Poser 4. Load your model into Poser.

-Go to FILE > EXPORT and select Wavefront OBJ

-Select SINGLE FRAME from the `Export range` dialog box that pops up.

-The `HIERARCHY SELECTION` dialog box now gives you the option to select which body parts will be exported

Remove the check mark (little cross) next to everything. The quickest way is to un-check `universe` as this switches of the whole lot. Then recheck the `head` box. This will allow us to export just the head without eyes or neck.

You will then be presented with a dialog

-check AS MORPH TARGET (No World Transformations)

-Name the mesh and save it in a local directory on your machine. (I used zbmorph.obj)

Step 3 - IMPORTING INTO ZBRUSH

This section is similar to the previous tutorial Importing meshes into ZBrush. It`s easy and is achieved with the help of a `POLYMESH TOOL`(1).

-Launch the application and look for the TOOL panel, usually on the right-hand side of the screen (see image to the right).

-The `POLYMESH TOOL`(1) is the little star shape shown in the image opposite. If you can`t see it at first `click` into the biggest of the tool windows and a `popup` window with give you a selection of TOOLS to choose from. `Polymesh` wil be there

-Once selected this tool give you an range of options that the other tools don`t provide

-Go to `INVENTORY`(2)

- then `IMPORT` (3).

-Use the import dialog to locate `zbmorph.obj` and select it.

-The mesh will be imported and you should see a small image in the tool window next to the star and another head image in the DRAW window if you have that panel open (see image below - right).

-You may see a message saying `this mesh has 8 non standard polygons that have more than 4 sides. These polygons will be converted to quad and tri sided polygons.` Don`t worry. Click OK.

We now have a mesh head in ZBrush with the same number of vertices as the original OBJ export. We can now move on to editing and changing the heads shape but without modifying the underlying geometry. If we were to smooth the mesh out or subdivide it in any way, Poser would not allow it to be used as a morph target.

TIP: ZBrush Version 1.23 sets the `TRI2QUAD` setting in the TOOL > MODIFIERS > INVENTORY to `0` by default. If for any reason this is set to any number above `0` when importing, you may not be able to export the mesh for use as a morph target. It`s worth checking.

Step 4 - PREPARE THE HEAD FOR MODELING

-To begin editing we must draw the head into the current document window. Make sure the head is selected in the `TOOL` window

-Click into the center of the document window. Holding the mouse down drag out the head mesh. It will be a shaded mesh (usually light gray) and may well be back to front at this stage.

-To begin modeling we need to enter `EDIT` mode. Press `T` on the key board or use the `EDIT OBJECT`(1) icon in the `TRANSFORM PANEL`.(3)

-you should now see a Red dot and red ring which means you are in edit mode. (2)

-Click/hold away from the head and drag left or right. This will rotate the head as you move the mouse. Bring the head around to the front looking right at you.

-At this stage if you wish to see the mesh in wire frame you will need to change the preferences. Find these at the top of the screen in icon form or at the left hand side of the screen.

-If you now click into the document window (away from the head) as before the shaded head will turn to wireframe while the mouse is held down

PLEASE NOTE: Any Wire frame images in this tutorial that are black wire on white background are `inverted` images for ease of viewing only.

Step 5 - MODEL AN OGRE

-To model the head into the shape we require, we will push and pull the wireframe into the shape needed without changing the geometry

-As we are in `EDIT` mode already (red dot and ring showing) we can begin to modify the mesh

-Firstly we need to make sure that we only effect the mesh in small amounts. Go to the DRAW panel and set the DRAW SIZE (1) to about 30 and the Z Intensity (2) to about 5

TIP: A lot of the editing process involves adjusting these two settings a number of times. A large draw size effects a large area. A large Z intensity makes the effect more pronounced. This will take practice to master but is the key to modeling in ZBrush

-You can also use SYMMETRY in ZBrush to help keep your editing symmetrical on the head

-GO to TOOL > MODIFIERS > SYMMETRY and select `X`.

You will notice that your red dot in the draw panel is now 2 red dots and will work across the head in a symmetrical manner. Any editing is applied to both sides at the same time

-The first thing to do is to pull the head into a basic Ogre shape.

-Select the `MOVE` icon in the transform panel and pull the chin down a little (2). Then pull it to out to the side. You will notice the SYMMETRY duplicating your moves.

-Pull out the cheeks bones, the ears and the brow. Rotate the head a little to ensure you see the moves from more than one angle to prevent distortion. (3)

-Click away from the head and rotate it forward a little. Check the adjustments that you made and do more. Pull the bottom jaw forward a little. (4)

-Then pull the lips wider apart and pull the brow further out. Keep rotating as you go.

-NOTE: At some stage you may wish to add a little depth or push on the mesh a bit. Use the `DRAW POINTER` icon which allows you the paint depth onto the mesh without editing the geometry. To `push in` or `indent` hold down Ctrl (pc)

Using the methods described above try to match the progression in the image below. It will take practice!

TIP: If you want to see it shaded instead of wireframe turn the DOTS off in the preference panel.

-The head you should end up with needs to look something like this guy…

Step 6 - EXPORTING FROM ZBRUSH

- Now that you have a finished head mesh you need to get it back out of ZBrush as an .OBJ so that Poser can use it.

- With the head still in `EDIT` mode go to TOOL > MODIFIERS > INVENTORY and use the setting shown here..

- then click EXPORT

- This will allow you to export the mesh as a Wavefront .OBJ (the same format that it was imported in an.

- When you get the save dialog choose a name for the mesh and save it. (zbogre.obj

Step 7 - MAKING THE MORPH TARGET

-Back into Poser load the Michael figure and if you wish `pose` it

-Double click on the head

-You will get a dialog. Click ADD MORPH TARGET. Click it.

-Put a name in the label section. I used `OGRE`. This name will be used in the morph wheel so make sure it`s a name will recognize.

-Then use the locate geometry button to find the zbogre.obj file

-When you click OK a morph wheel will appear with the other preset morph targets.

-called `OGRE`

-And the final bit. Rotate the wheel the turn Micky boy into an Ogre headed Micky boy :)

Step 8 - Wrap Up

This tutorial gives you the basic steps in modeling in ZBrush. To get more information contact Pixologic at their website. It takes time and practice to become proficient at modeling in ZBrush but it is an extremely powerful piece of software.

Film Screen Effects

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Film Screen Effects

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

GIMP2.0

Introduction

GIMP is a free 2D application and have powerful functions.The article will give you some suggestion on making film effects under the help of GIMP.

Step 1 - Make A Group Of Consecutive Pictures

Using any 3D application to render a group of picture sequence.

Step 2 - Launch GIMP

Launch GIMP and open the picture sequence one by one.And you must open all the pictures you want the effect on at one time.

Step 3 - Start

Choose Filters/Combine/Film to load the film effect window.

Set the setting as below and click OK.

Step 4 - Finish

You may get the result like the picture below.

And some further study.

Fitting unconforming clothes in a simple 2D photo editor!

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Fitting unconforming clothes in a simple 2D photo editor!

Author: Hyperknux

Tools Needed

Any product that doesn't conform properly
Image editing software that handles layers

Introduction

Here is a fairly easy way to make clothes that don't conform to your figure look like it does in still images, using basic photo editing tools. Layers and the eraser tool is all that's needed!

Step 1 - Render 1!

First, put together you're work, and note the places that 'go into each other'. (Look at her right breast in the above picture)

Render your image and save it to a folder. Look at the image to make sure you're not missing any colliding figures in the finished render. Also make sure you name it something with a '1' or something showing that this was the first render. I would suggest going with the Poser5 default name “Render 1”.

Step 2 - Render 2!

Now that you have rendered the first image, the second one is needed. Click on the object/figure part that is showing through another and go to the properties tab. Uncheck 'visible'. (in this case, it was her right shoulder. The idea is to remove the object that shows through.)

Render, and save into the same folder as the first render. Again, I suggest using the default render name, “Render 2”. Or at least make an easy distinction between your first and second render.

Step 3 - Layer and erase!

Alright! Now, go into any photo editor that has a layer and eraser tool. (MS paint will not work!)

Import both renders into the same canvas and place render 2 underneath render 1. Zoom into the area that is 'showing through' and use the magical eraser and erase it! (Seriously, it almost looks like a magic eraser tool is being used. )

Note: The above image only shows it half erased, so you can see and understand it better, but once you're done, you'll get the same result as the introduction picture!

File > Save as… the image in what quality and file format you desire. (In Macromedia Fireworks a better way is file > export preview.) Once saved, the final picture is done and you got yourself a “Aiko in Veronica armor”!

GIF Animations on a Mac using Poser and ImageReady

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

GIF Animations on a Mac using Poser and ImageReady

Author: xalthorn

Tools Needed

Poser
ImageReady

Introduction

Animated GIFs can be fairly simple to create on a Mac, especially if you own ImageReady that comes with Photoshop.

This tutorial demonstrates the process using a very simple animation.

Step 1 - Load the model

I'm going to mess around with the Emotiguy. So, load him into the scene and apply the !Default pose. I've added a global lighting set and turned shadows off in the render options to avoid those nasty smudges.

Step 2 - Show the animation palette

Although you can use the animation controls at the bottom of the screen, I find it a darn sight easier to use the Animation Palette. Click on the 'Window' menu and then click on 'Animation Palette'.

A great little window pops up with a grid which shows each element in the scene. Including the body parts of each figure.

You'll also see a number of frames running along the top of the grid, labeled at every 5 frames.

We want a longer animation than the default 30 frames, so where it says Frame 001 of 030, change the 030 to 060.

Step 3 - Add the next pose

In the Animation Palette, click on the grid where the 'Body' row crosses the '10' column. Now apply the 'Angry' pose and you should see the pose take effect in the main window.

Do the same thing for the following frames, applying the following poses to each of the corresponding frames.

Frame 0 : !Default

Frame 10 : Angry

Frame 20 : Baring Teeth

Frame 30 : Disappointed

Frame 40 : Shh

Frame 50 : Wink

Frame 60 : !Default

You should have an Animation Palette that looks like the following.

We make the last frame the same as the first to allow the animation to loop nicely.

Step 4 - Make the movie

We now want to render the frames for the animation now. Select 'Make Movie' from the 'Animation' menu.

Set the settings as below. You'll see that I've told it to render at Half resolution. When you're testing your animation, you will probably want to render at Half or Quarter the final resolution so that you can preview it. The last thing you want to do is spend hours rendering at full resolution only to notice that you made a mess of it somewhere.

When you click OK, you will get a Save window. Put all of the files into their own directory somewhere where you can find them easily. It's important that they are the only files in that directory.

Step 5 - Load it all into ImageReady

Load ImageReady (or load Photoshop and then select 'Edit in ImageReady' from the 'File' menu).

This is one of the most painless parts of creating the animation.

Select the 'File' menu, and then 'Import' and then 'Folder as Frames'. Select the folder that has your rendered images and leave it to it.

When all of the images have been loaded in, you will have an animation window as well as your main image.

In this window, you can set all sorts of options, including how many times it should loop, whether it should loop at all, the delay between frames and so on, but that's another tutorial.

Anyway, we're nearly done. Click on the 'File' menu, select the 'Preview In' option and then select the browser of your choice.

After a short wait, you should see your animated GIF in action. All you need to do now is save or drag the GIF to a location on your drive.

Step 6 - Conclusion

That's pretty much all you need to do. If you find that it doesn't run very well in Internet Explorer, you may want to consider deleting every second frame from the animation. It's a good rule of thumb for getting the speed right.

As to creating wonderful animations, I leave that up to you and other tutorials. At least you now know the steps involved in getting your animation to a GIF.

How to model high heel shoes in Rhino

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to model high heel shoes in Rhino

Author: Ryverthorn

Tools Needed

Rhino OBJto3DM

Introduction

A woman can never have too many shoes. With this tutorial you will learn how to make enough high heels to keep all of your poser women in shoe heaven.

Step 1 -

Decide which character you want to be making high heeled shoes for. In this tutorial I'm using V3. Bend the character's feet to the appropriate angles for the finished shoes. I used 45 degrees for the foot and negative 45 degrees for the toes. Its best to save the foot pose so it is easy to use the finished shoes later.

Step 2 -

Then export as an OBJ both right and left shin, foot and toe. Uncheck everything while exporting. Use the OBJto3DM application to convert the obj file to Rhino format. Open the converted Rhino file and it should look something like this.

Step 3 -

OK now for the fun part - the modeling of the shoes!!! Next you need to trace a line around the outside edge of the foot from the bottom viewpoint. Now switch to the right viewpoint and copy the outline you just down below the foot. Then loft the 2 outlines and click the rebuild with 100 control points.

Step 4 -

Next draw a line outlining the bottom of the foot from the right viewpoint. Make sure it dips into the arch of the foot a little so that there aren't any odd gaps in the sole of the shoe later. Extrude the line through the solid heel. Perform a boolean difference selecting the heel first then the extruded foot curve. Use the Filet Solid command on the top edge to make it all nice and round. I used a .03 setting.

Then draw the profile of the shape of the heel in the right viewpoint and extrude it across the heel. Perform a boolean difference selecting the heel first then the extruded heel profile curve. Use the Filet Solid command on the edge to make it all nice and rounded. For the bottom I used a setting of .05.

Step 5 -

OK you should now have something that looks like the picture above.

Starting to look like a shoe isn't it? Time to add an ankle strap. Now unhide the right shin and keep the left foot hidden. Select curve - > from objects - > Section and draw some lines through the figure's shin where you want the ankle strap to be. Then lock the foot, toes and shin so that they don't get in the way. Loft the cross sections you made across the ankle area and rebuild with 100 control points. Slightly scale the strap and make sure its in the correct position around the ankle. Smooth it using the default settings 2 - 3 times to get rid of wrinkles.

Step 6 -

Time to work on toe straps! Unlock the left foot (still your right) and select curve - > from objects - > Section and draw some lines through the figure's foot where you want the toe strap to be. Then lock the foot, toes and shin again and loft the curves while making sure to rebuild with 100 control points. Then smooth the toe strap a couple of times to make sure its nice and smooth. Make sure it fits over the foot and scale it a little if needed. It's looking pretty good so far, but if you take a look at it in the perspective view you'll notice that the strap doesn't connect to the sole of the shoe. We will have to fix this.

Step 7 -

OK. Fixing the strap is fairly simple. Turn the control points on for the toe strap and in the perspective view select the part of the strap that needs to be shifted down to meet the sole of the shoe. Then in front view use the stretch command to pull it down to where it goes. This might take some practice but keep trying till you get something that looks acceptable. Alternatively, you can do this step in the right viewpoint, but instead of pulling down you would want to pull in the direction that the straps meet the sole so in this case it would be diagonally to the right.

It looks much better now… and now it really looks like a shoe

Step 8 -

Now it needs some side straps to keep the shoes on the model's feet. Unlock the foot and shin, select both and join them. Then select curve - > from objects - > Section and draw some lines through the figure's foot and shin where the side straps will go. Then lock the foot, toes and shin again and loft the curves while making sure to rebuild with 100 control points. Smooth and adjust over foot.

Then select Surface – > Rectangle– > Cutting Plane and draw where you want the side straps to be. You should now have something that looks similar to this.

Now use the split command to split the surface with the cutting planes you created and delete all of the extra stuff. The shoe looks about done but when you spin it around in the perspective view you will notice that it doesn't line up quite right. Go ahead and fix it the same way you did with the toe strap. Turn the control points on, select the relevant ones and push and pull the points around till it looks how you want it to.

Step 9 -

Now unhide everything and lock all of the figures foot parts to avoid confusion. Select all of the shoe parts and mirror them over to the other foot using the mirror command. You can add little frilly things to the toe straps if you wish or other little decorations but that's all there is to it. Congratulations! You now have a pair of high heel props ready to import into poser.

How to zip your files properly

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to zip your files properly

Author: MercyToo

Tools Needed

Winzip (I use version 9) from http://www.winzip.com
Your own content to zip
Windows Operating System

Introduction

I'm sure all of us have downloaded a free item that did not extract to the proper locations when we unzipped it. It can be aggravating, especially for those who are new to Poser and have no idea where things should go!

In this tutorial, I will walk you through the steps of setting up some temporary folders with your new files in them so you can zip them properly and share them with others, without worrying about where your files will end up!

For the sake of this tutorial, we're going to go through the steps of zipping up a texture package. The package I'm zipping is my Lilac texture for Koshini 2.

Step 1 - Setting up a temporary folder

We'll start by creating an empty folder on our desktop. We'll name this folder so that we know what it is. Let's call it “To Zip”.

Now, open that folder, it should be empty.

Inside the TO ZIP folder, create another new folder by right clicking in the empty area and selecting “NEW” and then “FOLDER”

Name your new folder “RUNTIME”. It should now look like the image below:

Step 2 - Creating the folder for our Textures

Now before we go any further, let's open up our Poser runtime folder as well. Leave TO ZIP open as well. we'll browse in our POSER RUNTIME folder until we find the TEXTURES folder. Open the TEXTURES folder in your Poser Runtime and find the location of your newly created textures that you want to package. My folder that contains my textures happens to be called “K2 Lilac”. Once I find that folder, I will right click on it and select “COPY”

After I have it coppied, I'll go back to my TO ZIP folder. I've only created a Runtime folder in there. Now, I will double click on the runtime folder I created in the TO ZIP folder and create a new folder named “TEXTURES”. I'll then double click on the new Textures folder I created in my TO ZIP folder and paste the copy of my K2 Lilac folder in there.

I've included a screen shot here of what my TO ZIP folder hierarchy looks like. Hopefully, this will help you to understand how all the folders and files are arranged thus far.

Let's review what we have. We created a new folder called TO ZIP on our desktop. Inside TO ZIP, is RUNTIME. Inside RUNTIME we created a new folder called TEXTURES, and inside that textures folder, we pasted the origional texture folder from our actual Poser Runtime folder. It contains all of the JPG's required for my texture to work properly on Koshini 2.

Good, let's go on to the next step and create our pose folders.

Step 3 - Creating the Folder for our Poses

Using the “UP” button in windows explorer, go back in our TO ZIP folder so that you're inside the folder named RUNTIME. You can make sure you're in the right folder by looking at the ADDRESS bar at the top. See where mine says C:Documents and SettingsElizabeth DalyDesktopTo ZipRuntime … That shows me I'm in the right folder. Right now, all that's in there is my TEXTURES folder. I'm going to create another new folder and name it LIBRARIES.

Then I'll double click and go into my new LIBRARIES folder and create yet another new folder named POSE.

Here's another screen shot of how your folder set up should look by now:

Now, we want to go back to our actual Poser Runtime. Browse until you find the Libraries folder in there and double click it. Find the Pose folder and double click it too. Now, look for your folder that you created for your package that you want to zip up. Mine is called “Lilac for K2”. I'll COPY that folder from the actual Poser Runtime and then go back to my temporary TO ZIP folder. Making sure I'm in the new POSE folder we just created, I'll Paste my “Lilac for K2” folder inside of it.

Now my temporary TO ZIP folder contains my Pose/mat files for my package!

You can see on the left hand side of the above image how my temporary TO ZIP folder hierarchy is set up.

Step 4 - Reviewing.

Let's review real quick before we go on.

We created a temporary folder on our desktop named TO ZIP. Inside TO ZIP we created a RUNTIME folder. Inside that RUNTIME folder, we created two folders… TEXTURES and LIBRARIES. Inside the TEXTURES folder, we pasted a copy of the folder containing our textures that we want to package from the actual Poser texture folder. Insie the LIBRARIES folder, we created a folder called POSE. In the POSE folder, we pasted a copy of the folder containing our poses/mat files that we want to package from the actual Poser Pose folder.

Double check to make sure everything is set up properly here. The next steps are to zip our files.

Step 5 - Zipping

Now we want to zip those files properly. In our Temporary TO ZIP folder, use the UP button to go back up until the only folder you see inside is one named “RUNTIME”

I'm assuming that you have winzip installed. If you do not, go download the free trial from http://www.winzip.com and install it. I use winzip version 9. Things may be a little different in older versions.

Now, we want to right click on the RUNTIME folder in our temporary folder. A menu pops up that includes winzip options. Select the option that says “ADD TO ZIP FILE…”

Winzip will open up. When it does, change the name of your file to whatever you like. You can do this by clicking once in the “ADD TO ARCHIVE” box and then pressing the “end” key on your keyboard. Just backspace until you delete the automatic name it gave your zip file. (in my case, it wanted to call it “Runtime.zip”. But, we want to give it a name that's unique so that we will know what it is and so that anyone who downloads the file will know what it is too). I've named mine “K2Lilac.zip”.

Then, simply press the add button.

Winzip will do it's thing and zip up the files for you. When it's finished, it will remain open and show you all of the files inside your zip. It does not, however, show you the names of our folders.

Step 6 - Checking the zip file

After you close winzip, your temporary TO ZIP folder will look like the image above.

You'll see your runtime folder in there and your new zip file. Now, we just need to check our zip file to make sure it extracts properly.

Inside your temporary TO ZIP folder, create a new folder named “Poser Folder”. This is a test folder and we're going to pretend that it's our actual Poser folder.

Now, double click on the zip file. When the winzip folder pops up, click on the “EXTRACT” button. Now, browse to the location of your temporary “poser folder” that's located within the TO ZIP folder on your desktop. Press the “extract button”

Winzip will do it's thing. When it's done, close winzip and go to your temporary “Poser folder”. Open it. You should now see a folder named runtime. That folder should contain all of the folders you set up. If it does, congratulations, you've done this correctly!

Now, just cut your zip file and paste it somewhere permanent so you can find it later or share it with others easily. After you've done that, you can delete the temporary TO ZIP folder from your desktop.

As with any of my tutorials, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me I'll do my best to help you out!

Import Victoria 2, clothing, and props into ZBrush 2

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Import Victoria 2, clothing, and props into ZBrush 2

Author: ringbearer

Tools Needed

Poser
ZBrush 2

Introduction

In ZBrush you can only have one texture map per object. Consequently, you have to import Victoria 2's body and head separately. This tutorial will show you how to import all the pieces of your scene and have everything line up.

Step 1 - Set Up Your Scene in Poser

Pose and clothe your figure in Poser.

Step 2 - Export From Poser

You can only have one texture map per object in ZBrush, so you have to export the head, body, clothes, separately. In ZBrush, transparency is either off or on, so I will not be exporting hair or eyes. You just have to make sure that what you export uses only one texture map. Click on export, select wavefront object, single frame. Then de-select universe (which un-checks everything). Check Figure 1, then de-select the head and eyes. I used the default export settings. Repeat this process for the head, props, and each item of clothing.

Step 3 - Import Into ZBrush 2

Now you are ready to import into ZBrush. Choose the Polymesh 3D tool, then click on import, and draw the mesh onto the screen.

Step 4 - Import First Object

I first imported the body, made sure I was in edit mode (quick edit off), then moved, scaled, and rotated it where I wanted it. Then I placed a marker.

Step 5 - Smooth The Model

You will see that the body is still faceted. We will fix that. Go to tools, geometry, and click on crease, then divide a few times, which smooths the model.

Step 6 - Apply Texture

Now you can apply the texture. Click on texture, import, and import the body texture. Uh-oh, looks really strange. Just click on texture, flip vertically and all is correct. Go back to tools, geometry and delete the lower subdivision levels. Make sure you click off the edit button and you are ready to import the next piece.

Step 7 - Prepare to Import Next Object

Import the head and hover your mouse over the body until you find the marker that you placed in the previous step.

Step 8 - Import The Head

Click on the marker and your head will come in exactly where it should. Then go to tools, polygroups, and click on the autogroup button. Then Ctrl+Shift click on the head and the eyelashes and eyebrows disappear. Then go to tools, geometry, and click on delete hidden. Repeat the process as before, crease, divide a few times, and apply the texture. Don't forget to flip the texture vertically and to delete the lower subdivision levels . There will be a seam between the head and body, but that's easy enough to fix in post, or the hair can cover it up.

Step 9 - Continue Importing Objects

Repeat the above steps, bringing in the clothes and props. You may not have to divide the props or clothing, it depends on how faceted they look when you import. I didn't have to divide the necklace or the butterfly; I only divided the pants and top once. If you divide too much and the mesh starts to degrade, you just go back down to the lower subdivision level or Ctrl+Z will undo what you did.

Step 10 - Light and Render in ZBrush 2

Here is the finished image:

Importing and Rigging Poser characters in Maya

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Importing and Rigging Poser characters in Maya

Author: kennez

Tools Needed

Maya 4.5 5. or 6
Trinity for Maya

Introduction

Trinity for Maya is a plug-in developed by Rendermagix, for allowing the creation and editing of Poser characters in Maya 4.5, 5.0 or 6.0. It allows you to import the base Poser character, and then load the morphs into the figure from within Maya. This means no more exporting OBJ files, finding all the textures you need, and goint through the process of adding the required textures.

Another benefit of Trinity for Maya is that it imports the Poser skeleton, allowing you to animate or pose the character directly in Maya.

To complete this tutorial, you will need the Trinity for Maya plug-in, available at http://www.rendermagix.com/trinity/index.htm

I will assume that you are somewhat familiar with Maya, and that you have also read the docs that come with Trinity. However, for those of you who don't like reading instrutions, I'll briefly go over them.

Step 1 - BRINGING VICKY INTO MAYA

I am going to assume that you have installed the Trinity for Maya plug-in by following the instructions in the documentation. I am also going to assume that you have run the scripts to allow the Trinity plug-in to read the Poser files. If you have not, please go and read the manual now.

Right: on with the show!

First, you need to load up an empty scene. Also, make sure that your default unit is set to Centimeters. This is done by clicking on Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences > Settings. Select Centimeters as the working unit, and click Save(this step is not essential, but saves some time later)

Now, in the MEL command line at the bottom of the interface, type the following:

TrinityCmd -cc V3 -n Vicky;

This will bring Vicky into the scene

Step 2 - CLEANING UP THE FIGURE

Now that Vicky has been imported into Maya, it might be a good idea to tidy up the Outliner, making it easier to work with the scene.

Open up the Outliner, and select all of the Selection Sets that have appeared below the default lights.

If you know for a fact that you will not use them, go ahead and press the Delete key. If you normally use selection sets, feel free to do whatever you usually do with them.

Expanding the Vicky group, you will notice that there is a JointsGroup. If you select this, you will select the skeleton that was brought into the scene along with the geometry.

Poser skeletons are not the best for animation, but if you don't have the time to create a rig from scratch, leave it, otherwise delete it.

Step 3 - SKINNING THE FIGURE

To bind Vicky to the skeleton, first select the Animation menu set.

Expand the JointGroup node in the Outliner, and select the Hip joint. Next, select the Body geometry (holding Ctrl whilst clicking), and go to Skin > Bind Skin > Smooth Bind > Options.

For rigging, I find that the following settings give decent results:

Bind To - Complete Skeleton

Bind Method - Closest Joint

Max Influences - 5

Dropoff Rate 4.0

Now, simply click Bind Skin, and it should now be possible to animate Vicky.

Step 4 - NEXT STEPS

The deformations will NOT be perfect as they are, and will need smoothing out with weight maps. This is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but the results obtained if you followed along are definately usable (be careful with those poses though).

Also there is no IK set up here, so you will need to set that up.

Other than that, there you go. A Poser character that can be animated in Maya, and it didn't cost you a penny for anything other than the content!

Importing Poser Models into ZBrush

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Importing Poser Models into ZBrush

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Poser 3 or 4
ZBrush v1.13 or above

Introduction

How to import a Poser model into Pixologics ZBrush.

Step 1 - Getting Started

To begin this tutorial you will need a Poser model (or body part) that has been exported to a format that ZBrush recognizes, which currently is .OBJ or .DXF. ZBrush has it's own native format (The ZTOOL or .ZTL) and once a mesh has been imported into ZBrush it can be saved in that format

Begin in Poser and model your figure into the required stance or pose. I used poser 4 for the example here. Save the document as a native poser file with “save as” if you want to edit anything later. Now you can export the mesh to the required format. For this tutorial I chose Wavefront .OBJ

Step 2 - Exporting The Mesh

In this tutorial I will be exporting only the upper torso, arms and head.

Go to FILE > EXPORT and select Wavefront OBJ

Select SINGLE FRAME from the “Export range” dialog box that pops up.

A “HIERARCHY SELECTION” dialog box now gives you the option to select which body parts will be exported. Remove the check mark (little cross) next to everything you “do not” want included. For this tutorial I switched off everything below the hips and his eyeballs.

You will now be presented will the save dialog. Name the mesh and save it in a local directory on your machine. (I used tutman.obj)

If you wish to export the full mesh leave all items “checked” in the HIERARCHY SELECTION“ dialog box.

NOTE: I turned off the eyes in this example as it is possible to create eyeball Ztools in ZBrush and place them on a separate layer.

Step 3 - Importing Into ZBrush

Importing meshes into ZBrush is easy and is achieved with the help of a “POLYMESH TOOL”.

Launch the application and look for the TOOL panel (usually on the right-hand side of the screen).

The “POLYMESH TOOL” is the little star shape shown in the image opposite. If you can't see it at first “click” into the biggest of the tool windows and a “popup” window with give you a selection of TOOLS to choose from. “Polymesh” will be there.

Once selected this tool gives you a range of options that the other tools don't provide.

Go to “INVENTORY”(1) then “IMPORT” (2).

Importing Poser Models into ZBrush

Use the import dialog to locate “tutman.obj” and select it.

The mesh will be imported and you should see a small image in the tool window where the “star” was.

You now have an OBJ mesh with unmodified geometry in ZBrush. What you do with it next depends on whether you want to reuse the mesh or just use it in ZBrush and not worry about geometry. The next step describes what to do to use the mesh in ZBrush.

Step 4 - Adding Geometry

To model and shape the mesh in ZBrush you can now subdivide the mesh and add some “smoothing”.

In the TOOL > MODIFIERS panel select SMOOTH and drag the slider over to “1”. This sets the objects surface smoothness without changing polygons. Higher values smooth out larger portions of the mesh.

To subdivide the mesh use TOOL > MODIFIERS > DEFORMATIONS > DIVIDE

Imported unchanged mesh

TOOL > MODIFIERS > DEFORMATIONS > DIVIDE mesh

Imported untouched model with basic material

TOOL > MODIFIERS > DEFORMATIONS > DIVIDE shown with basic material

-In the TOOL > MODIFIERS > DEFORMATION panel there is a second smooth button. This will average out the points to neighboring points and unlike the “first” smooth button, mentioned earlier, this one smooth the polygons.

Step 5 - Wrap Up

This tutorial gives you the basic steps to get you started importing into ZBrush. There are a lot of different settings and modifiers that I have not touched on this time. Later tutorials will describe how to “stamp” or “snapshot” the model into a document, how to add ZBrush eyes and then on to texturing the models. A very different approach than that used in Poser or Bryce.

Kirisute's Quick Guide to Material Manager

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Kirisute's Quick Guide to Material Manager

Author: Kirisute

Step 1:

Tools Needed

Material manager
Pro pack
Poser 5

Support Files

mattute.zip

Introduction

A 10 page tutorial on using Material Manager from DAZ! This shows a complete set-up of a test figure and render using the script to greatly speed up adding materials and textures to the figures! Includes notes on using MAT files, adding transparencies, reflection maps and bump maps to produce the final render!

*NOTE* this is a PDF tutorial! Please download supoport file 1 to read the tutorial

Step 1 -

NOTE Please download support file 1 to view the tutorial! This is a PDF tutorial!

Magic line (manga studio)

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Magic line (manga studio)

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

Manga Studio 3.0

Introduction

Yes, you can get some amazing comic effects using GIMP: Comic Effects 1 (Line Magic) via GIMP. But it is even easier using Manga Studio to get the same effect or more.

Step 1 - Create new file

Select File/New to create a new page or follow the picture below.

Step 2 - Come to Focus Lines window

Select Filter/Render/Focus Lines to set the settings.

Step 3 - Here are some examples

Step 4 - And some other examples

Step 5 - Finish

Choose File/Export/Export Image by Size Specification, you can save your final works.

Multiple Replication in Painter IX

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Multiple Replication in Painter IX

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

* Painter IX

Introduction

This tutorial shows you how to use Painter IX to create multiple duplications of an image.

Step 1 - Ready your pictures

Render your single hand picture using Poser and save it as PNG file. And then change it into .PSD file using Photoshop or GIMP. So it may contain Alpha channel. Open the pictures you saved in Painter.

Then create a new file.

Step 2 - Place the pictures

Then place the other pictures as below.

Step 3 - Make layer group

Press “Shift” and select All layers you just placed.

Step 4 - Continue

You will get the file like this.

Then save it as “hand. RIFF” file.

Step 5 - Complete

Choose “Load Nozzle” to open a new window and select “hand. RIFF” you just save.

Then choose Nozzle tool to start your drawing freely.

Here is a final effect.

Project dogwaffle brush

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Project dogwaffle brush

Author: perfy

Tools Needed

Project dogwaffle1.2

Introduction

Project Dogwaffle 1.2 is a freeware version of the paint and animation program Project Dogwaffle and PD Pro Digital Painter, developed by Dan Ritchie - version 1.2 is based on a subset of version 2.0. This article will show you how to set new brushes with it.

Step 1 - Choose your brush settings

You may set the settings like this.

Step 2 - The result

Will look like something as fur.

Step 3 - For further study

change some other set to get new effects.

Step 4 - the result is

Something like this background.

Radiant Lighting for Free!

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Radiant Lighting for Free!

Author: Locke21

Tools Needed

POV-Ray
PoseRay

Introduction

Have you got Poser 4, but always admired how P5 and P6 use radiant lighting to simulate how light reacts to objects in the real world? If your like most people, you can't afford to drop a big amount of money just to get the latest toy. Well now you don't have too! I'm going to show you how to use two free programs to get some of the most beautiful renders you'll ever see. You'll be able to use full-on radiant lighting; photon caustic lighting which simulates light passing through clear objects, and you'll have access to some of the most impressive surface materials I've ever seen. Where to I go and what do I get you say? Well, go to www.povray.org and pick up their latest build of POV-Ray and PoseRay, and let's get started!

Step 1 - Step One

Ok, now that you have installed both programs, I'm going to tell you how to use them. I would first suggest that you play around with POV-Ray, just to see what it can do. I think you'll be surprised at the level of perfection you'll get out of this sweet freebie! You will also need to tell PoseRay where the POV-Ray render engine is. Its in the bin folder of the POV-Ray program folder. You'll notice one thing about POV-Ray, you have to CODE everything! “I don't feel like it” you may say. Well thanks to PoseRay, you don't have to. Here is how you get your Poser or Studio stuff into POV-Ray for rendering. First open up Poser or Studio. Then bring up what you want rendered in POV-Ray. I'm going to render a crystal skull, so I'm going to first bring up Dark Whisper's Morphing Skull. Then, if I needed to, I would put it in the pose I want it in jaw opened or closed, skull morphed, that kind of thing. Or if you don't have that, you can use the P4 Skeleton man.

Once you have everything the way you want it, go to File/Export/Wavefront Obj. You select ONLY the parts that you want, and save your obj somewhere on your hard drive.

Step 2 - Step Two

Ok, that's all you'll need from Poser or Studio, unless of course you want to render a background for your object later on. But for now, let's just get this thing rendered! First open up PoseRay. Although it may look slightly confusing at first, it's really very straight-forward. On the very first tab, you'll see Load Obj. Click that, navigate to your saved OBJ and load it up. PoseRay will spin away for a minute, and then you'll have your obj loaded! One thing, see down at the bottom where it says No Warnings, or possible Warnings, well that usually refers to a material setting that PoseRay can't resolve. Don't let that stop you, we can just change the setting to suit us!

Now that our OBJ is loaded, click the Preview button at the top to see it. Alright, there is our obj ready for rendering. You'll notice off to the left there are four tabs, camera, lights, options and placeholders. If you don't then click the Show Tools Button at the top. Options Tab gives you several preview options that help you pose your obj. Camera gives you the tools to manipulate your obj into the pose you want. Lights allows you to either create new lights, or use pz3 light sets that you create in Poser! Placeholders allow you to define spots within your preview that you can later change in POV-Ray. I wouldn't suggest using the placeholders unless you intend to learn the POV-Ray scripting language, which can be rather satisfying. For now though, just use the camera and light tabs to set up your scene just the way you want it.

Step 3 - Step Three

There is one more really important thing that you do in the preview tab, that's applying a background. You do that right above the Preview window. While you can use the various backgrounds already provided, I prefer to use the Map, which applies a spherical map AROUND your object, simulating light being thrown at it from its surroundings! Imagine a chrome sphere, you can see the sphere itself, but you also see the world reflected on it. If you add a reflective material to your object, this is what will happen! While you can probably find a lot of spherical maps online, you can make your own either with Photoshop's Distort/Spherize filter or with The Gimp's Apply Lens filter. I'm going to defiantly use a spherical map because my skull will be make of crystal, which reflects the environment around it. So I use the drop down menu to apply a map. You may not see it half the time, but don't worry, its there.

Step 4 - Step Four

Ok, now that the basics are out of the way, its time to get down to the fun stuff, time for the MAT's and materials. This step is very important, because just like Poser and Studio, the materials define how your obj will look. While PoseRay does have a button for loading Poser MAT files, more often than not exporting and importing obj's and MAT's will cause slight naming problems and the MAT's won't load.

It's easier just to load them by hand. I'm sure everyone can comprehend the Materials tab, it's so much like a simplified Poser Materials Pane that its scary lol. It has options for pigments, which are simply Poser color maps, bump maps and transparencies. I suggest that you spend a lot of time playing with all the different option and that you also check out the displacement option in the Geometry + UV tab at the top in place of a bump map. But I'm not going to use Poser materials; I'm going to use one of the standard POV-Ray materials to achieve my crystal skull look. If you'll look way over to the right, you'll see a tab that says POV-Ray materials. Click that. What you now see is a two selection areas that allow you to work with built-in POV-Ray textures, and the ability to mix and match these into your own custom textures. The selection area on the left sets the textures, while the area on the right gives you the ability to change the surface reactions of the obj. These options are far beyond the scope of this tutorial, I suggest you'read the POV-Ray Help program for more on Phong, Shiny and Reflective surface options

Step 5 - Step Five

The left selection area has a drop down menu that is filled with different materials. They range from dozens of gold, silver, copper and brasses all the way through over fifty different types of woods, stones and various types of glass and just plain cool-looking textures. Since I'm going to do a crystal skull, I'm going to pick the richly colored Ruby_Glass material. To do this, you have to select each body part and then press Insert.

In the blue window below, you'll see a line of code appear telling you that the material setting has been applied. Now, that I have everything in place, I'm ready almost to render. But not yet, because like I said, there is also a option in the Geometry + UV tab that will allow you to use displacement. Displacement, for those of you that don't know, is the using a grayscale map to actually change the mesh that your rendering. Whereas a bump map simulates high and low spots, a displacement map actually creates them. Well it just so happens that Dark Whisper provided a grayscale map with the skull, so lets go for it! Just go to the Geometries tab, click Displacement and load whatever map you may have, just like in the Materials Tab, each map for each part of the body. Oh, and don't forget to set the strength. Black is the “deepest” part of the map, White the “highest” parts.

Step 6 - Step Six

Well, that's it for this model. Now to render! But before we do, we have to make a few decisions. Go to the POV-Ray tab and look under scene options.

See that option that says radiosty? Well that's what we've been working towards. That option will give you the same type of radiant lighting that Poser 5 and 6's rendering engines can give you. BUT, like the warning says, it will slow down the rendering time. It once took me five hours to render one obj at 800×600, with no background! So just be ready to walk away from the computer if you model is very complex, it will need all the RAM and processor time it can get. Oh yes, for all the anime fans out there, POV-Ray can do a halfway decent cartoon render as well! Ok, well I want radiant lighting, so I check the box. Now go to the Render Options tab. Here is where you decide if you want bmp, POV-Ray's native format, PNG, and the size of the picture and so on, so I'm not going into all that. Do notice however that you have the option of setting an alpha channel. Its not a real channel, POV-Ray just gets rid of everything in the background, but a little layer work in Photoshop will give you an alpha. Now, all you have to do is click Save and Render up at the top. This will save all the information that you have input in POV-Ray code, and then open POV-Ray and render it!

Step 7 - Final

And that's it. Using Photoshop, or any program that uses layers, put a layer under the image you've just created and fill it black. Then make the top image invisible and you've got a nice little alpha selection to pick up your object and put it into your scene. I'm just adding black for a background. Now I'm sure that you could export an entire scene as an object and render it, but I have no idea how long it would take. I suggest you also check out the cool results with the millennium figures and their high res textures! Well, I hope you have a lot of fun with POV-Ray and PoseRay, and never forget, you have a great free render engine that can give you super-sweet results.

Resizing and Optimizing .GIF animations (e.g. avatars)

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Resizing and Optimizing .GIF animations (e.g. avatars)

Author: Cliff Bowman

Tools Needed

Animation Shop (3)

Introduction

This tutorial will show you the steps I take to convert a huge .AVI file into a small .GIF file, suitable for web use.

Note that for versions of Animation Shop other than 3, or for other packages, the basic steps should be similar but may vary slightly.

Step 1 - STARTING OUT

Choose “Resize Animation” from the “Animation” menu…

Step 2 - RESIZE OPTIONS

Choose how you want to resize (to a specific size? By percentage of the original?) and set your values, then press “OK”.

Step 3 - TO COMPRESS...

To compress an animation, choose the “Optimization Wizard” from the “File” menu.

Step 4 - CHOOSE FILE TYPE

Choose these options (these are the defaults on my machine) and press “Next”. NB for uses other than .GIF animated avatars some of the other options might prove more suitable.

Step 5 - ANIMATION QUALITY VS FILE SIZE

Here's where all the work would be - choose a quality level in the slider bar on the left.

Now ideally the lower the bar the smaller the file - if at all possible it would be nice for the lowest setting to work, but sometimes the quality it produces is just too low. No matter - because we're producing a copy rather than affecting the original, we can come back here and try again if we don't like the results. We can also press the “Advanced” button and go in and tweak things further - like drop the number of colours down to 15, 7, or even just 2!

For now, select the lowest quality/filesize preset and press “Next”.

NB my settings in this example remain at one level up from lowest quality because, from experience, the mix of colours in the animation I'm using here is too high to look good at the lowest level.

Step 6 - OPTIMIZATION PROGRESS

Animation Shop will run through the process reporting as it goes. When it is finished, press “Next”.

Step 7 - OPTIMIZATION PREVIEW

Now you have the option to preview your animation. The “original” copy is on the left, and the new compressed (or “optimized”) copy is on the right. It IS possible to see flaws in the one on the right despite the small frame, but this isn't a final proof as far as I'm concerned - that doesn't come until you can view it full size.

At this point you might be tempted to press “Back” and go back and tweak the settings. Alas at least for the copy I have there's a bug - it'll work, but the preview won't, so I press “Cancel” if I don't like the preview and start again.

If it looks good, press “Next”.

Step 8 - OPTIMIZATION RESULTS

This is the last screen - and here you can see the file size savings made compared to the full size, uncompressed .AVI and the resized, medium-high compressed .GIF file.

Some considerable file size savings have been made, at the loss of the colour depth (no. of colours) and frame/window size.

Press Finish.

Step 9 - FINALE

You now have a smaller, compressed copy of the animation. Try playing it, see if it looks OK - if there are too few colours you can easily close this version without saving and re-optimize the “original” copy until you're happy with it.

If, as was the case when I originally posted this animation, you simply can't get the quality high enough and the file size low enough you can try resizing the file (from the original each time!) down until it's small enough for optimization to “finish the job” (it's best to keep avatars as light as possible while still performing the job of identifying you as you'd wish).

Roll Your Own Weeds

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Roll Your Own Weeds

Author: BobCox

Tools Needed(Support Programs):

TreeDruid
Bryce
Corel PhotoPaint or other image editor

Step 1 - TreeDruid

1. Start TreeDruid.

2. Click on the little bush as shown with the yellow rectangle. In lower left hand corner.

3. Click on the little tree outlined in yellow.

4. When you get the window above, set all of your settings as shown here. If there is twist, set it to zero. Be sure to check “include leaves”. IMPORTANT! Write down the “Leaf Length” and the “Leaf Width”. You will use this to size your image/transparent maps.

5. Click on the “Tropisms” Tab.

6. Now comes the subjective part. Set your Gravity, Wind, and Sun parameters to set the general shape of your bush. These settings will affect how the grass/weeds leaves are oriented. Start with these settings and play. You cannot see the result in this display and must go back and forth between your modeler and TreeDruid to see them. I don't know if the Standalone TreeDruid displays leaf information or not. Careful with the gravity because it will cause some of the grass shoots to go into the ground. More on that later.

7. Believe it or not, you are done with TreeDruid! Click OK and save your object out as a wavefront file. Below is the OBJ as displayed in Ray Dream Studio.

Step 2 - Bryce - Cleaning up the Mesh

1. Import the bush (wavefront) file into Bryce. When you get done, it should look something like the image above.

2. We have to delete the branches, trunk, end caps, and stems. To do this, click on the little down arrow as indicated by the yellow rectangle below. If you don't see this at the bottom of your screen, click on the sphere on the far right.

3. Put your mouse pointer on the “Select Meshes” text in the popup and a second popup will appear. Select each of the meshes indicated by the yellow “D” and hit the delete key.

4. When you are finished, you should have something that looks like the image below.

5. If you can, start your image editing program now. If you must close out Bryce, save this object by saving your Bryce file.

Step 3 - Painting Your Grass

Your image editing program is probably different than my own. However, only the very basic tools are used and they are pretty common among the different applications. All we will be using is a basic brush with a texture tip and the masking tools. I am including images from Corel's PhotoPaint 9 to keep me straight. There may be enough similarity to help you use your own image software

1. Remember when I suggested that you write down your leaf width and height. We want to create an image with the same aspect ratio. To do this:

Pick a width for your image. I picked 20 pixels. ( See graphics included in the Weed.zip)

wh = Weed Height = 34.75

ww = Weed Width = 1

ih=Image Height = ?

iw=Image Width = 20

To solve for the height of the graphic with a width of 20 pixels:

wh/ww = ih/iw

34.75/1 = ih/20 so by cross multiplying 34.75 * 20 = ih = 695

So create a graphic with a background of pure white.. i.e. 255/255/255 with a width of 20 pixels and a height of 695 pixels.

2. Select a brush and draw in a single weed like I did below. Much of the image is not shown here. You are only seeing the very top. When done, SAVE the image as a bmp, jpeg, or tif file. My file, included in the zip file, is named “weedimageJPG”.

3. a. Create a mask around your stem and head by using the magic wand mask tool and picking in the white area.

b. Invert the mask. You now have a mask around the colored part of your image.

c. Fill or draw a filled rectangle over the mask with black as its color. See the result below.

4. Save this image as your transparent map. I named my transparent map “weedtransmapJPG”.

We are done here!

Step 4 - Back Into Bryce

1. Load the Bryce file we saved or bring Bryce to the front of your desktop.

2. Click on the grass mesh to select it.

3. Click on the little “M” in the attributes list.

4. You should look like this.

5. Click in the areas shown in yellow. Set the ambience to 3.3. Also, click where the green rectangle is and check “Blend Transparency”.

6. Click on the little ball above the golden man and you should see this:

7. Click on the empty box as indicated by 1. Load your “image” file.

8. Click on “Load” as indicated by 2. Load your “transparent” file.

9. If you used white as your background, click on the black/white sphere indicated by 3

Click the check and you are DONE!!!!!! Hahahahahahah!!!! Yipeeeeeee!

Step 5 - Wrap Up

Performance Tips

Use additional lighting to light your grass/weeds.

Turn off self shadows if you want more detail toward the center of the clump.

Take the wavefront file into a modeler and trim up your grass/weeds by deleting unwanted polygons.

The closer they are to the camera, the slower they render.

Add bump to another channel to give your grass/weeds character.

Please feel free to contact Bob Cox with any questions or feedback.

Shining Body parts

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Shining Body parts

Author: Mallex

Tools Needed

Image-Ready
Photoshop

Step 1 - Go!

Open up a picture where you want to add this effect to. I used a Sith Trooper with a Diecast Metal Armor from STARWARS KotOR!

Step 2 - Select

Select the part you want to shine, and copy it onto a new layer.

Step 3 - Add gradient

Create a new layer above the (in my case) shoulder-part and add the gradient like image 3.

Step 4 - BLACK and WHITE

Make it look like this with the default colors BLACK and WHITE.

Step 5 - Position

Then position the gradient layer as shown.

Step 6 - Image-ready

Hop onto Image-ready and press the button shown.

Step 7 - 1st frame

Make the 1st frame have a palette on the left, and the 2nd frame on the right shown on image 8.

Step 8 - Last step!

Press the tween-button and set the options shown.

Step 9 - The end!

Here is the final pic at Imageshack.us

Happy posering!

VirtualDub Video Compression

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

VirtualDub Video Compression

Author: pokethamage

Tools Needed

VirtualDub (Free)

Introduction

The reason I made this tutorial is because I see a lot of “just take the finished video and compress it and you're all done” in tutorials with no link or reference to how to actually compress that darn thing. So I made this to help beginners (a.k.a. “n00bs”) to make their own compressed video…prepare yourself to lose 15 minutes of your life…or around that number anyways…

NOTE: The intro refers to other functions of VirtualDub. This tutorial goes only into the compression aspect of the program. Look on the net on the other functions…

Step 1 - Intro and Download

VirtualDub is a free video manipulation tool that can do a lot of stuff like merging two video files together or compressing anything put into it with any codec that may be installed on your computer.

The author's own description is:

“VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.”

Now that you know what it is and does, it's time you downloaded it. You can go to virtualdub.sourceforge.net and get yourself a copy:

Scroll down to the link that looks like this:

Always download the “stable” version as the “experimental” version can damage your computer. After extracting the zip file into a directory (folder), you should see something like this as the content:

Step 2 - Open the Vid File

So you got the program. It's time to make it do what we want it to do. So run it. The first time you open it a dialogue box will pop up telling you about the GPL License or something. Click “I Agree” after reading that. Then go to “Menu” and click “Open Video File”, as shown:

The “File Select” box will come up:

Choose the video and press “Open”. The first frame of the video should fill the blank:

(That's a video of a game I played…pay no attention…for example only…you can put any video in it and it'll still work)

Step 3 - Set the Compression Settings

So you got the video on the table. Now what? Well, go to the “Video” menu and choose “Compression”:

A dialogue thingy will pop up:

On the left is the list of available codecs that are on your computer and usable for compression. You can choose any one of them. Here I chose the XviD codec because it's one of those free, “limitless”, and flexible codecs. You can get that at www.xvid.org. Anyways after you chose your codec you can go click “Configure” to configure the advanced settings for that specific codec. Each codec has its own unique settings. Refer to their website or their forums to get more info on that. For us beginners we don't need to worry about that. Just click “OK” and this part's done.

Step 4 - Save It

After setting the compression, time to save it. Go to “Menu” and select “Save as AVI”:

The “File Selection” dialogue thing will come up again. Save it with a different name, because if you choose to overwrite the original video file, the program will lose its source and be unable to continue:

After you press “Save” the “Compression Status” window will pop up:

All you can do right now is to sit back and wait.

Step 5 - Result

So the compression process ended. You wasted 15 minutes of your life doing all these steps, and what did you get? Well lookie here:

Amazing eh? From 522MB to 9.82MB! Now you can go do whatever you want with the compressed one and throw away the old one, saving half a gig of space!

Making Quick Conform Poses

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making Quick Conform Poses

Author: FyreSpiryt

Tools Needed

Morph Manager
A text editor
Knowledge of CR2 files

Support Files

V3JPsetter.zip

Introduction

FyreSpiryt works with Quick Conform Helper Applet and a text editor to develop conforming poses. She strongly suggests that you have enough knowledge of CR2 files to feel comfortable manually editing them.

Step 1 - Acquiring a Base Conformer

In order to make a Quick Conform pose, you need something that already contains the proper joint parameters. Luckily, there's plenty of those available, since every functional piece of clothing already has JPs set correctly. A piece of clothing that covers the entire body, like a catsuit, is ideal. If one isn't available, you can use several pieces of clothing, and copy the sections for the body parts you need into a new file. Bloodsong's painless conformer tutorial at 3D Menagerie.com shows another good way to get a base conformer, but I usally get better results from clothing items.

Step 2 - Preparing the Base Conformer Part 1

The next step is to strip all morphs and props out of your base conformer. Morph Manager will do this quickly for you, with a little finagling. First, change the file extension of your base conformer from .CR2 to .PZ2. Now, open your base conformer in Morph Manager. Under “More Options”, select “Delete all morph targets from file” and “Delete all props from file”.

Be careful not to select “Delete all channels from file”; if you do by mistake, reopen the file without saving it and start over. When you're finished, save the file and close Morph Manager.

Step 3 - Preparing the Base Conformer - Part 2

Now, open the file you just saved in a text editor, and delete everything between the figureRes lines. Delete the figureRes lines too.

Now scroll down to the bottom of the file and delete the entire figure section. Be sure to leave the last } in the file, however.

Depending on how much work you're willing to do, you can also delete out the sections for body parts you don't need, such as the eyes or fingers.

Step 4 - Making the Quick Conform Pose

Go through the file and delete all of the lines that begin with the following:

addToMenu
castsShadow
customMaterial
displayMode
displayOrigin
dynamicsLock
handGrasp
handSpread
hidden
includeInDepthCue
inkyParent
interpStyleLocked
locked
matrixActor
name
nonInkyParent
off
on
otherActor
parent
thumbGrasp
setGeomHandlerOffset

It won't take long to realize that this is a LOT of lines. For the sake of my sanity, I wrote a little Visual Basic Applet to do this part for me. I'm not sure of it's stability, but I've set it up so that it won't overwrite anything, and it saves a LOT of time and sanity.

Step 5 - Clean Up

Now just rename your file to something ending in pz2, drop it in a pose directory in your Poser Runtime, and you're done!.

Now when you need to set joint parameters, you can just apply your pose. Depending on how similar the new conformer is to your pose's base, some tweaking may still be needed, but your centers and end points will be set and you'll have a basis for fall-off zones.

Now go out and do something creative! :)

FyreSpiryt

Kirisute

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Kirisute

Author: Kirisute

Tools Needed

Rhino 3D

Support Files

blades.zip

Introduction

A complete guide to building bladed weapons in Rhino 3D!

From start to finish this tutorial will guide you through each stage of creating the component parts to a bladed weapon in Rhino!

Learn how to build a blade, the pommel, guard and handle of a sword, then apply that knowledge, with a few tips along the way, to whatever weapon you wish to recreate! A perfect start for a beginner, or an insight into a technique for an intermediate user!

NOTE

this is a PDF tutorial! Please download SUPPORT FILE 1 to get the tutorial!

Step 1 -

NOTE

this is a pdf tutorial!

Please download SUPPORT FILE 1 to read the tutorial

Custom product installers and (PC) uninstallers

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Custom product installers and (PC) uninstallers

Author: Looniper

Tools Needed

WinRar or WinZip or any similar compression program
A text file editor

Introduction

Are you tired of having to apply updates, correct references, move folders about, and make customizations each time you install a product? Join the club.

The good news is, you don't have to keep doing things this way.

The following tutorial will give you the basics of creating installers and uninstallers(PC only) for your content.

Note Paths in this tutorial use the / due to constraints of the tutorial submission form. In all instances, it should be the reversed slash.

Step 1 - Original Installation

Since everything in our 'working folder' will be part of the installer created, it is inadvisable to use the actual Poser or DAZ Studio folders.

On the desktop, create a new folder. Name it whatever you like, but I like to use 'Construct'

Once this folder is created, run the original product installer and proceed until the screen titled “Choose destination location.”

At this point, press the 'Browse' button and navigate to the work folder on the desktop.

When the installation is complete, open the work folder to be certain the product was installed here, particularly if it is 4am and sleep is only a vague memory.

Step 2 - Making Changes

Now that we have our own little work-folder-world containing the product we wish to build an installer for, it is time to make changes.

This can be anything you would normally do after a product installs. Applying updates, correcting references, adding or deleting content or unneeded files, or even applying additional products.

For instance, to create an installer for Victoria 3 Base with the Head, Body and Male morph packs included is no more difficult than creating a separate installer for each. Although the resultant installer would be quite large.

For this tutorial, I am using the original DAZ Stephanie figure.

The figure files for her are found in Runtime/Libraries/character/DAZ People.

In this instance, I want to change the 'DAZ People' folder to simply 'People' saving the 'DAZ People' folder for the newer figures.

Also, in the Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople folder, we find that there is not only the blStephanie.OBJ but an annoying little blStephanie.RSR as well.

Poser 4 will create this Geometry RSR file the first time Stephanie is loaded, so there is no need to have it eating up file space in our installer. Newer versions do not use these at all, so it really should be removed.

Just remember that Only the RSR files found in Geometries should be deleted. Those found in Libraries folders are used for those pretty little thumbnails you see when you browse figures, poses, etc.

Also be aware that moving any Geometry files or folders, texture images, or deltas will require you to edit each file that uses them.

Additionally, Upgrade versions and product updates often check for an existing product by looking in the default geometry folders of the older package. If it cannot find them there, it will not install. So changing Geometry folder or file names is not generally a good idea.

If you feel you must change these, at least keep a record some place safe of where they would have installed.

Step 3 - Making the Installer

Once all of the modifications are made, it is time to create the new installer.

What to select?

If you select a folder and attempt to compress it, some compression software (WinRar) will include that folder in the archive, while others (WinZip) will ignore it and add only its contents. We only want to archive the Runime, Templates, etc folders so..

If you are using WinRar, select the Contents of the work folder.

If you are using WinZip, select the work folder itself.

For any other compression software, make a test archive to see which method should be used.

With the correct item(s) selected, right and chose to create an archive.

For WinRar this is “Add to Archive.”

For WinZip this is “Add to Zip”

At this point it is time to decide if you want a Self Extracting archive (EXE) or a simple archive (.Zip, .Rar, .Arj, .Lha, etc)

The primary benefits of a self extracting archive are that you do not need to have the compression program installed to use it, and you can set a default location to install to.

The primary benefit of a simple archive is that in most cases, a virus is unable to infect it.

The settings for WinZip are as follows.

The settings for WinRar are as follows. (for a 'Simple' archive, uncheck the SFX box.)

Step 4 - Self Extractors

In order to create a self extractor with WinZip, make the Zip first, then right click it and chose to do so.

If you are using WinRar, simply check the 'SFX' box when creating the archive.

If you want to set the default installation location, which you probably do if you are making an executable installer, the following applies.

In WinRar, with the SFX box checked, use the 'Advanced' tab and press the SFX button. The box at the top is where you enter the default location to install to.

In WinZip, when you right click the Zip file and chose to create Self-Extractor, the box for this information is there already, simply fill it in.

The default installation location should be the folder that contains the 'Runtime' folder.

For example, Poser 4's default installation would be C:/Program Files/MetaCreations/Poser 4/

Viola! We now have an installer for our product that installs things Our Way!

Remember that you should always back up your original installers as well. This means twice(or more) the required archival medium, but it also means that no matter what you do to your custom installer, you have the original to fall back on.

Step 5 - Uninstaller Basics

Because this section utilizes downward DOS compatability (.BAT files), this section only applies to PC users. Mac users can still create similar uninstallers using scripts, but will need to educate themselves on the specifics of the scripting system used.

The first step in creating this uninstaller is to make a list.

In the work folder (which hopefully still contains the product) create a folder called 'Remove' right next to the Runtime folder.

Inside this, create a text file, preferably using the exact same name used for the installer.

In this text file, record the paths and file names the product contains.

Using Stephanie as an example with the modifications mentioned above, the list would look like this

Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blStephanie.obj

Runtime/Libraries/character/People/Stephanie.CR2

Runtime/Libraries/character/People/Stephanie.rsr

Laetia at Renderosity has a free utility 'File List Maker' for content creators which, while not specifically designed for this, will help quite a bit in making this list.

At this point I should explain the DOS 'wildcards.'

Not Every file needs to be listed to be removed. Where files in the same folder have similar names, you can shortcut listing each of them individually using wildcards.

Examples:

blStephanie.obj means exactly what is entered, that exact file name.

b?Stephanie.obj means exactly what is entered, except that the ? can be Any character at all.

blSteph*OBJ means Any file with a name beginning 'blSteph' with the .OBJ extension.

blStephanie.* means Any file named 'blStephanie' with Any extension, or even no extension at all.

Attempting to delete *.* (which obviously means All Files) will cause DOS to stop and ask you for confirmation, but any other wildcards will be applied without consent, so be careful not to select too wide a range or you may end up deleting files from a separate product.

A good example of wildcard usage is this

Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blStephanie.*

which indicates the blStephanie.OBJ and also the blStephanie.RSR that Poser will create the first time Stephanie is loaded.

Step 6 - Filling in the path

C:/Program Files/MetaCreations/Poser 4/Templates/MyV3_templateJPG is an exact file name.

We don't want to this so specific, because we don't know for certain this is where we will be installing in the future.

What we Do know, is how the installation will branch out from that destination, so we will use what is called Relative file location.

The key to this is 2 simple dots, '..' which mean to take 1 step back.

We know that the 'Remove' folder in which we are creating this BAT is sitting right next to the 'Runtime' folder, so to reach files or folders in that 'Runtime' folder, our BAT must look in ../Runtime/

So, to reference that OBJ (and potential RSR) file for Stephanie, the relative path from the uninstaller would be

“../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blStephanie.*”

Those quotes are important!

Remember that DOS does not normally allow spaces in a filename?

Well it Does allow a quoted filename, so we're cheating a bit.

Once relative pathing is applied, and we add those oh so important quotation marks, we end up with a list looking like this.

“../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blStephanie.*”

“../Runtime/Libraries/character/People/Stephanie.*”

(Notice the Stephanie.* in People? This removes both the CR2 and the RSR.)

Step 7 - Adding Commands

While the DOS command set for BAT file programming is extensive, only 2 are really important to us,

DEL which deletes the file named, and

RD which removes an empty folder.

The uninstaller first needs to delete files, so the list in our text file now becomes

DEL “../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople/blStephanie.*”

DEL “../Runtime/Libraries/character/People/Stephanie.*”

That removes the few files this product installs, but it is leaving 2 folders that may very well be empty now. 'DAZPeople' in Geometries, and 'People' in character. To do this we need to add 2 more lines to our text file

RD “../Runtime/Geometries/DAZPeople”

RD “../Runtime/Libraries/character/People”

Don't worry, if you use RD to remove a folder that has other products installed to it, the folder will not be effected. It only takes out Empty folders, so there is no harm done.

Step 8 - Closing it up

All that remains is to rename the uninstaller.txt to uninstaller.bat and it is good to go.

If you have already made the installer, and it works (test it!), you can test the uninstaller BAT file right here in the work folder without risking anything you have installed to Poser or DAZ Studio.

Be sure to test both the installer and the uninstaller before tucking them away on a CD!

You don't want to find out 6 months from now that the installer is missing an OBJ or the uninstaller is looking in the wrong folders.

Step 9 - Creative Additions

If you did not create the installer yet, or if you don't mind creating it again, you can easily include the Uninstaller (after testing) in the installer archive itself.

This way, the product will be installed along with the 'Remove' folder and the uninstaller BAT file to take the product back out.

But wait, there's more!

If you edit the uninstaller.bat file and add this at the End..

DEL “uninstaller.bat”

the uninstaller will even remove itself.

(Just be sure you archive it along with the rest of the product!)

Using these methods, you can easily create installers and uninstallers to add and remove products on a whim, rather than picking tediously through runtimes to find and remove specific elements, sometimes breaking other products in the process.

FINAL NOTE

Some products Share Files!

Sara's clothing packs are a prime example, several sharing the same reflection maps, each installing them if they are absent.

Uninstalling these with any product's uninstaller means they are gone for all of them until you install one of them again, so be careful what you remove.

Sometimes it is best to leave certain files out of the uninstaller just for this reason.

I hope you find this tutorial helpful,

-Looniper

Energy F/X with Particles 2.0

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Energy F/X with Particles 2.0

Author: Poseworks

Tools Needed

Particles 2.0
Poser 4 Pro/Poser 5

Support Files

prt2_fx_energy.zip

Introduction

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use Particles 2.0 to create an energy blast inside of Poser–perfect for a wizard or a superhero. Download the support file for a PDF version of the tutorial and preset files for Particles 2.0.

Step 1 - Setting up the Scene

Create a basic scene in Poser. I'm using Poser 5 for this demo.

Open your Poser Figures library to %Particles 2.0. Here, you can access all of the components of the Particles 2 suite.

1) Select the Generator. The Generator is the component that builds new particle figures.

2) Add it to the scene.

Head's Up! Make sure you 'Create New Figure', not 'Change Figure' when starting Particles 2.0.

Step 2 - Particle System Basics

Here, you'll make adjustments to the Generator's settings. If you don't have the default settings to start out, click the 'Reset' button.

1) Select the 'Star' shape.

2) Choose a name for the system.

3) Change the amount to 80.

4) Change the age distribution to use the Range Editor.

5) Change the min and max for the location X and Y to '0.1' and '-0.1'.

Now you're ready to use the Range Editor to change how values are set.

Step 3 - Advanced Generator Settings

Here, you'll use the Range Editor to change how a particle's age is decided.

1) Click the arrow to pop up the Range Options menu.

2) Choose 'Edit Range' from the menu. The Range Editor window will appear.

3) Change the function to 'Parabolic (Even)'. This will make the particles trend to be younger, but have a nice, fluid distribution of ages.

4) Click 'OK' to keep the new settings and leave the Range Editor. You should return to the Generator window.

Now you're ready to change the range settings for X, Y and Z locations.

Step 4 - Shaping the System--1

Here, we'll copy the age range over to the Z Location range, saving us another trip to the Range Editor.

1) Click the arrow to pop up the Range Options menu.

2) Choose 'Copy Range' from the menu.

3) Click the arrow next to the 'Z'.

4) Choose 'Paste Range' from the menu.

Now you're ready to change the range settings for X and Y.

Step 5 - Shaping the System--2

Here, you'll use the Range Editor to change the YTrans value.

1) Click the arrow to pop up the Range Options menu.

2) Choose 'Edit Range' from the menu. The Range Editor window will appear.

3) Change the function to 'Trigonometric (Sin)'. This will make values go up and down.

4) Slide the Wavelength right to 500. This shortens the distance between waves.

5) Slide the Falloff left to 88. This makes values start small and get progressively larger.

6) Click 'OK' to keep the new settings and leave the Range Editor. You should return to the Generator window.

Now you're ready to copy and adjust the settings for X.

Step 6 - Shaping the System--3

Here, you'll use the Range Editor to change the XTrans value.

1) Copy the Y range and paste it onto X, like you did with the age distribution and Z ranges.

2) Click the arrow to pop up the Range Options menu.

3) Choose 'Edit Range' from the menu. The Range Editor window will appear.

4) Adjust the Phase so that a 'valley' is at the edge of the graph instead of a hill. This will create a corkscrew effect when paired up with the Y.

5) Click 'OK' to keep the new settings and leave the Range Editor. You should return to the Generator window.

Now you're ready to generate your particles.

Step 7 - Adding Particles to the Scene

Generate the particles and reposition them.

1) Click 'OK' to create your particle system. After it's fully formed and loaded, the Materials Editor will appear. Close it for now, we'll come back to it.

2) Reposition and rescale the Body of the particle figure to your liking.

3) Launch the Materials Editor, just like you launched the Generator in Step 1.

Now you're ready to set materials for your particles.

Step 8 - Setting Materials

Copy these settings in the Materials Editor. Make sure that the gradients are all set to 'Lifecycle'–this will make the particles pick their color from left to right according to age, rather than from a random location on the gradient. Hit 'Apply' when you're done.

Tip: To make your life easier, just make the gradient once, then save it and load it again for the others.

Tip: You can find the 'violent_cloud_greyerJPG' file in Runtime > Python > PoseWorks > Particles2 > Images > Maps.

Step 9 - Adding Poser 5 Materials

You can use Poser 5 shaders on particle figures. Here's a walkthrough:

1) Load a prop (like the ball) and go to the Materials Room.

2) Set your materials (the reflection map shown is the same “violent_clouds” file from the last step).

3) Save the prop as a PP2 file.

4) Launch 'Load P5 MAT' and choose the PP2 file.

5) Hit 'OK'.

6) Launch the Materials Editor and re-apply the settings. (Your new shader nodes won't be affected.) This is necessary to keep the gradient effects.

Tip: With Particles 2.0 SR 1, you can load MT5 files with Load P5 MAT, and skip the prop.

Step 10 - Render

Render!

For extra oomph, set a blue spot light facing your character.

Step 11 - Variation: Fire

Using the below settings for the Materials Editor will result in a fiery blast.

Firebreathing with Particles 2.2

2011-11-01T17:42:25+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Firebreathing with Particles 2.2

Author: Poseworks

Tools Needed:

Particles 2.2

Support Files:

Introduction

The Particles 2.2 update introduces some powerful new features, including the all-new Animation Editor.

Using these alongside Particles 2's already robust toolset, you can very quickly create a fire animation. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to do just that. Check out the Smiley animation (DivX) to see the final product.

If you need help with the basics of using Particles 2, try Energy FX with Particles 2 or Weather FX with Particles 2.

You do need Particles 2.2+ to follow this tutorial. Owners of Particles 2.0 can download the 2.2 update. Simply unzip to your Poser directory and run the updater from your Library.

Poser 6 users may want to pick up the Wacros linked in this tutorial.

Without further ado, flame on!

Step 1 - Create your character's animation

A) Set up your character's animation. Smiley's animation is 40 frames long.

B) Set the current frame to the first frame that you want a full jet of fire. In this case, frame 24 was when I wanted the fire was fully formed.

Step 2 - Launch the Generator

A) Create the Particle System using the Generator. The “Spurt” preset (included with the 2.2 patch) will give you the exact settings that I used. A continuous animation like a stream of fire is best with a Linear range for the axis that you want the fire to travel on. (In this case, the Z).

Keep in mind that you can always just rotate the particle figure if you want the particles to move along a different direction.

Step 3 - Set materials with the Materials Editor

1) Set the materials when the Materials Editor pops up. The “Burn” preset (included with the 2.2 patch) will give you the exact settings that I used.

Keep in mind:

Only Diffuse Color, Ambient Color and Transparency can be animated.

Setting a reflection map may give you undesirable results with sprites.

Step 4 - Position and Parent

A) Move the particle figure's body into place and parent it to a body part, if you want.

B) Go back to frame one, and your particle figure collapses to a dot! By not generating the particles on the first frame, they stay in their original state. The position that you set them in is saved as a key frame. Play back your animation and you'll see the particles grow from a dot to the full stream of fire. Make sure you go to Frame one after you're done inspecting the animation.

Step 5 - Move Keyframes

A) Now, you might not want the particles to start moving into position after frame one, and this is where Poser's Animation Palette (AP) comes in handy. [ Window > Animation Palette ] In the AP, go ahead and collapse all of your figures by clicking the little arrows next to their names. Now we can see everything that we need to. Each of the brightly colored rectangles represents one key frame. You can select one by clicking on it. Clicking and dragging will move the selection to a new frame.

B) Select the keyframe in Frame 1 and move in to the frame you want the animation to start in. In my case, I want it to start in Frame 14. Playback your animation to check it.

Step 6 - Launch the Animation Editor

A) Now it's time to set up the procedural animation for the fire jet, so that the fire continuously shoots out along the Z axis.

B) Go the frame in which you generated the fire (in my case, frame 24).

C) Launch the Animation Editor. The Animation Editor is a hybrid of the System Editor and the Materials Editor that lets you configure the animateable properties of each. Only the gradients and parameters that you check will be animated.

D) The preset “Burn” will load the settings that I used. Read on for more about choosing settings.

Step 7 - About the Animation Editor

A) The things that need to be set to animate are: Scale, zTran, Diffuse, and Ambient. Don't check off Transparency if you're using transparency maps, unless you know what you're doing.

B) By default, the formula used to animate is the same as the one used to create your particle system. You can use a custom

range if you'd like, but, in this case, what we already have is just fine.

C) Setting the keyframe rate properly is very important. In most cases, stick between 1 and 3. If you're animating a random formula, you might want to use a high keyframe rate, or else your particles will appear jittery.

D) Consider what you're animating when you choose how many frames the particles live. In the case of fire, short, rapid movement and a quick death are required, so a low number like 15 frames (half a second) is ideal. With something like clouds, a long, leisurely life would be better–something like 120 frames (4 seconds).

Step 8 - Animation Editor Tips

A) Hit OK and the editor will start calculating your values.

B) This process can be slow, here are some tips to speed things up:

Keep the number of parameters that you're animating to a minimum, and fewer calculations will have to be done.

For a fast but fairly accurate preview, use a key frame rate of 2 or 3. You'll probably want to re-animate with a key frame rate of 1 for the final render, but this will cut down on time exponentially for testing results.

Don't use more particles than you need.

C) Materials don't really have much impact on speed, so don't be shy about animating those.

Step 9 - Poser 6 Tips

Poser 6 users can take advantage of some new material Wacros developed specially for Particles 2.

“PRT2 Add Fader Node” adds a special control to the transparency node that overrides transparency maps, allowing you to fade in/out particle figures that use transparency maps.

“PRT2 Fade In” will set the Fader nodes to opaque (normal transparency, respecting other settings).

“PRT2 Fade Out” will set the Fader nodes to transparent (completely transparent, regardless of other settings).

Using Fade In or Fade Out on a frame will set a key frame so that you can fully animate these settings.

Step 10 - Render your movie!

Go to Animation > Make Movie and you're done!

Weather F/X with Particles 2.0

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Weather F/X with Particles 2.0

Author: Poseworks

Tools Needed

Particles 2.0
Poser 4 Pro/Poser 5

Support Files

prt2_fx_weather.zip

Introduction

Particles 2.0 allows you to quickly and easily create effects inside of Poser. In this tutorial, you'll use Particles 2.0 to add a blizzard to your Poser scene.

The support file contains a PDF version of the tutorial, presets for Particles 2.0 and a transparency map used in the tutorial.

Step 1 - Setting up the Scene

Create a basic scene in Poser. I'm using Poser 4 Pro for this demo.

Open your Poser Figures library to %Particles 2.0. Here, you can access all of the components of the Particles 2 suite.

1) Select the Generator. The Generator is the component that builds new particle figures.

2) Add it to the scene.

Heads up! Make sure you “Create New Figure”, not “Change Figure”, when starting Particles 2.0.

Step 2 - Creating the Clouds

Our scene will use several different particle systems. The first one we'll make will be the clouds.

1) Set the shape to 'Sprite'. Using sprites, we can have 2D images that will always face the camera.

2) Change the name to 'Clouds'.

3) Set the number to 50.

4) Drag the scale slightly towards 'Death'.

5) Set the Scale values.

6) Set the Location values.

Next, we'll be editing the way the scale and the location of a particle are set.

Step 3 - Clouds: Tweaking the settings

Here, we'll change the X-Scale's range. Logarithmic ranges will give you gradual shifts in value between two plateaus.

1) Click the arrow next to the X and choose 'Edit Range'.

2) Select 'Logarithmic'.

3) Drag the xOffset slider to the left, so that there's no longer a vertical line at the start of the curve. A value of '-114' should do the trick.

4) Click 'OK' to return to the Generator window.

Step 4 - Clouds: More Tweaking

Here, we'll change the Y Location's range using copy and paste, and then generate the clouds.

1) Click the arrow next to the Scale X and choose 'Copy Range'.

2) Click the arrow next to Location Y and choose 'Paste Range'.

3) Click 'OK' to generate the particles.

Heads up! When Particles 2 generates your figure, a status window will appear. Don't click on Poser while you have Particles 2 running, or you may cause a crash.

After the clouds have been generated, the Materials Editor will pop-up automatically.

Step 5 - Clouds: Setting Materials

Here, set the materials for the clouds.

1) Set the gradients according to the image.

2) Click the arrow next to the diffuse gradient and select 'Lifecycle'. This will color particles according to their age.

3) Click the arrow to set the transparency map to 'fluffJPG' (found in RuntimePythonPoseWorks Particles2ImagesMaps).

4) Click 'Apply'. The status bar will appear while materials are set.

5) Click 'Exit' after materials have been set.

Step 6 - Creating the Snowflakes

The clouds are ready to go. Next, we'll add some snow flakes.

1) Select the Generator.

2) Click the double-check to launch it.

The Generator window will appear, just like it did in Step 1.

Step 7 - Snowflakes: Basic Settings

1) Click 'Reset'.

2) Change the shape to 'Ball'.

3) Change the name to 'Snowfall'.

4) Change the number to 200.

5) Move the age scale slightly towards 'Death'.

6) Change the Scale values.

7) Change the Location values.

8) Click 'OK' to generate the snow particles. The status window appears, followed by Materials.

Step 8 - Snowflakes: Set Materials

1) Click 'Reset'.

2) Set the gradients according to the image.

3) Make sure that the 'Snowfall' particle figure is selected.

4) Click 'Apply'. The status window will appear while materials are being set.

5) After the status window has closed, click 'Exit'.

Now we have clouds and flakes, but it looks a little sparse.

Step 9 - Creating the Fog

We have clouds, we have flakes, but it's no blizzard yet. Let's add some snowy fog to emphasize that chilling wind.

Heads up! Before you go any further, make sure that you've got the fog transparency map. If you download the zip, it's included. Otherwise, save the next image as fogJPG.

1) Select the Generator.

2) Click the double-check to launch it.

The Generator window will appear, just like it did in Step 1.

Step 10 - Fog: Basic Settings

1) Click 'Reset'.

2) Change the shape to 'Sprite'.

3) Change the name to 'Fog'.

4) Change the number to 30.

5) Move the age scale slightly towards 'Death'.

6) Change the Scale values.

7) Change the Location values.

8) Click 'OK' to generate the fog particles. The status window appears, followed by Materials.

Step 11 - Fog: Set Materials

1) Click “Reset”.

2) Set the gradients according to the image.

3) Make sure that the “Fog” particle figure is selected.

4) Click “Apply”. The status window will appear while materials are being set.

5) After the status window has closed, click “Exit”.

Step 12 - Render!

And Render!

For rendering purposes, I've added David and a quick snow bank.

As you can see, sprites are dramatically affected by lighting. You can achieve some beautiful effects playing with lighting and the camera when you have sprites in the scene.

Heads Up! Sprites do not play well with other programs. If you're planning on rendering outside of Poser, consider using a different type of particle.

Heads Up! Sometimes at a certain angle, sprites will render with a line where two of them intersect. This can be easily corrected by Y-Rotating the figure's Body slightly.

Creating your MAT poses using Pro MAT Builder

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating your MAT poses using Pro MAT Builder

Author: Corinne

Tools Needed

DarkFaction's Pro MAT Builder (version 3.0)

Support Files

MATBuilder.zip

Introduction

Pro MAT Builder is a free utility that lets you easily create basic MAT poses. You don\'t need to learn the specific coding of MAT files in order to use it, and that makes it a really useful and time-saving program.

The following is a tutorial that will teach you how to start working with it.

Step 1 - Organizing your files

The first thing to do before starting to use Pro MAT Builder, is to make sure your textures are placed in the proper directory.

This means they have to be in the Poser folder, under the structure : Runtime > textures > Yourname > Nameofyourset - In my case, “Yourname, ” would be replaced by “Corinne”, and “Nameofyourset” by for example “VictoriaTextures”.

If your textures aren't placed in the right folder, Pro MAT Builder may end up creating absolute paths with your MAT files (for example C:/Windows/…) and your MATs won't work on every computer since not everyone has Poser installed on the drive C.

Step 2 - Adding new MATs models into the database

Pro MAT Builder needs for you to import sample MATs in the database in order to modify them. I will take, for example, Victoria 3 (but it can be replaced by any other model). You will have to import the material names from Vicky's CR2 file.

So, open Pro MAT, go into the menu File > Database > Add new MAT. You should then have a new window that looks like this :

Once here, click on the “Import Mat” button and search for Vicky's CR2 file in your Poser directory (should be located somewhere in your libraries > characters > DAZpeople). This will add all the material names into the big blank text area.

Note : For some models, taking the CR2 doesn't work. In this case, look for an existing MAT pose (pz2) and import from there. If it still will not work, you can add material names manually by looking into your model's OBJ file : open it with a text editor, and you will clearly see in the structure that there are material names. Just copy each one of them exactly as written (warning : case sensitive) in the blank text space “Material Name” and then press on “Add”.

When you're done with this, choose a name for your MAT file. Name it so that you'recognize it easily, for example “Victoria 3”, because this model will then remain in Pro Mat builder's database for future use.

The name has to be written in the “Mat Name” blank area, at the top of the window (I called mine “V3 - Body”).

When all the material areas have been added, press on “Ok”. You will be brought back into Pro MAT's main interface.

Step 3 - Starting customizing your MAT files

Now we will be working on the main interface.

Begin by selecting the model you've just added to the database by browsing into the sliding menu called “Object”.

The sliding menu called “Material” will then change and display all the material areas you've entered before.

You will now have to assign a texture to each of these material zones.

We will begin with something simple with no transparencies, bumps, etcetera.

Step 4 - Defining a texture for a material

Select your material zone in the “Material” sliding menu. We will start with “SkinTorso”.

The first things that you have to modify are the 4 colors at the top. Be sure that the first one (Object Color) is set to pure white, and that the 3 following ones (Highlight Color, Ambient Color and Reflective Color) are set to pure black.

This step will have to be repeated for each material zone; don't forget it.

We will put aside for now the options that follow this and jump directly to the “Texture Map” zone.

Normally, the entry in the sliding menu should be “None”, since you haven't loaded any texture yet.

Press on the “Load” button, and search for your texture in the appropriate folder (step 1).

The absolute path should now appear in the sliding menu.

Important detail: make sure the strength is set to 100%, otherwise your texture will look lighter than how you've created it.

Step 5 - Tip for working quickly

As shown in the previous screenshot, there's an option that you can check called “Texture Changes Apply to entire figure”.

If you check this option before working on step 4, the first texture you load will automatically apply to all the material zones of your character.

This option can be really useful if you have plenty of material zones using the same texture map. For example, Vicky's SkinTorso, Nipples, SkinNeck etcetera, will most often use the same texture.

Warning : if you want to work with this option, make sure you do as follows:

Start by having it checked and load the texture that applies to the most material zones. Once you've done this and before you load the texture for another zone, be sure to uncheck it, otherwise, the next texture you will load will apply to your previous material zones and therefore modify the texture you applied in the first place.

Step 6 - Saving your MAT file

Once all the materials have been applied, click on the “Build Mat” button at the bottom of the main interface. You will be redirected in a saving sub-menu.

Choose your MAT name (this is the name that will be displayed in Poser) by clicking on the “…”. Use a name that will be recognized easily by your users.

Make sure “Export All Materials” and everything in the “Export Options” zone are checked.

Then click on “Ok” and choose the directory (should be in Runtime > libraries > Pose > Yourfoldername).

Your MAT file is now ready to use in Poser !

Step 7 - Details about transparencies

I have to talk about transparencies here, since it's the trickiest to modify and the most useful (for Vicki's eyelashes and eyebrows for example). I'll be working on the “Eyelashes” material zone as an example.

The first thing to do is to set Transparency Min and Transparency Max to 100% - and Falloff to 1.

Redo step 4 for each material containing transparency, and load your transparency map in the “Transparency Map” zone.

Fitting M2 Clothes to M3 with the Tailor

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Fitting M2 Clothes to M3 with the Tailor

Author: FyreSpiryt

Tools Needed

The Tailor
Michael 3

Support Files

M3JP_setters.zip

Introduction

There are lots of great clothes for Michael 2 that we\'d like to keep using now that Michael 3 is out. Luckily, we can use the Tailor to convert clothes. This time you won\'t even need a special “mannequin” figure; I'll show you how to make one in Poser.

Step 1 - Importing the Michael 2 to Michael 3 object

First, open Poser and delete any default figures that are loaded.

Now go to File- > Import- > Wavefront Obj. Select blMilMan_M3_M2.obj in the DAZPeople folder and uncheck all of the options in the Prop Import Options box, then click OK.

Step 2 - Making the Mannequin

Now that the object is loaded, go to Object- > Load Morph Target. Select blMilMan_m3.obj in the DAZPeople folder and name the morph M3.

When Poser is done processing, save this object to the props library.

Step 3 - Using the Tailor

Now load the prop you just made into The Tailor. PP2 files aren't an option in the Open dialog, but you can make it look for your new prop by typing *.pp2 into the text field and clicking OK.

Once the mannequin is loaded, select the M3 morph you made in step two and check the “Morphs selected are like one full body morph” option.

Now load the clothing item you want to convert, run The Tailor as usual, and save the clothing item under a new name.

Step 4 - Setting joint parameters

Load the new clothing item into Poser, and apply the “M3 JPs-Centers” pose that's included as one of the support files of this tutorial. This pose changes the joint centers, but doesn't affect the fall-off zones; this method tends to work better on loose clothing.

Now test the item by loading Mike 3 into the scene, conforming the clothing to him, and setting the full body morph the Tailor made to 1. If the clothing works fine, you're done. If not, you can try to edit the joint parameters yourself, or apply the “M3 JPs-All” pose. The “M3 JPs-All” pose will change all of the joint parameters, which will more closely match Mike but may have odd effects on looser clothes.

Step 5 - Finishing up

Now just save the clothing item to your Poser library, and it's ready to use! You can add further morphs in The Tailor by treating it as you would any other clothing item, or you can use it right away on the default Mike 3.

Great V4 Eyes using MAT Pose Edit 3

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Great V4 Eyes using MAT Pose Edit 3

Author: unitychild

Tools Needed

* MAT Pose Edit

* Poser

Introduction

I had tried for several weeks to get really great eyes from Victoria 4. Finally I tweaked the settings enough in MAT Pose Edit 3 to get exactly what I wanted!!

Step 1 - Open MAT Pose Edit, open V4 character File

Open MAT Pose Edit 3

Open the Victoria 4 character file by clicking on Open - Character

File - then you should be at Characters - click on DAZ People - then

click on Victoria 4, click OPEN.

The program will ask if you want to load morph and pose data. Click NO.

Step 2 - Materials

Beside the word MATERIALS - highlight everything EXCEPT those that have a 5 or 7 in front of them. Click DELETE. You will be left with:

5_Cornea

5_Sclera

7_EyeSurface

5_Iris

5_Pupil

5_Lacrimal

7_Tear

Step 3 - Cornea

Highlight CORNEA

First, change the colors:

Object Color: white

Highlight Color: black

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 71

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 100

Transparency Falloff: 0.6

Texture Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Bump Strength: 1

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 90

Transparency Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your transparency map and click OK

Click Apply

Step 4 - Sclera

Highlight SCLERA

First, change the colors:

Object Color: 251, 255, 255

Highlight Color: 50, 19, 26

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 71

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 0

Transparency Falloff: 0

Texture Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your texture map and click OK

Click Apply

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your bump map and click OK

Click Apply

Bump Strength: 1

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 100

Transparency Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Step 5 - Eye Surface

Highlight EYESURFACE

First, change the colors:

Object Color: 251, 255, 255

Highlight Color: 50, 19, 26

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 30

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 100

Transparency Falloff: 0.3

Texture Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Bump Strength: 100

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 100

Transparency Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Step 6 - Iris

Highlight IRIS

First, change the colors:

Object Color: 251, 255, 255

Highlight Color: 50, 19, 26

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 71

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 0

Transparency Falloff: 0

Texture Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your texture map and click OK

Click Apply

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your bump map and click OK

Click Apply

Bump Strength: 1

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 100

Transparency Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Step 7 - Pupil

Highlight PUPIL

First, change the colors:

Object Color: 251, 255, 255

Highlight Color: 50, 19, 26

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 83

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 0

Transparency Falloff: 0

Texture Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your texture map and click OK

Click Apply

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Bump Strength: 1

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 100

Transparency Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Step 8 - Lacrimal

Highlight LACRIMAL

First, change the colors:

Object Color: White

Highlight Color: Black

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 1

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 0

Transparency Falloff: 0.6

Texture Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your texture map and click OK

Click Apply

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: Click on the … next to fix: find your bump map and click OK

Click Apply

Bump Strength: 100

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 100

Transparency Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Step 9 - Tear

Highlight TEAR

First, change the colors:

Object Color: 251, 255, 255

Highlight Color: 50, 19, 26

Ambient Color: Black

Reflective Color: White

Under colors:

Click APPLY each time you change something

Highlight Size: 83

Transparency Min: 0

Transparency Max: 100

Transparency Falloff: 0.6

Texture Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Transparency Strength: 100

Bump Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Bump Strength: 5

Reflection Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Reflection Strength: 100

Transparency Map: don't change this, as there is NO_MAP

Step 10 - Save

Click FILE - SAVE AS

You should be in the main POSE folder

Find the folder you want to save your poses in:

I am saving under Fatal3D Belina because that is the character I am working on. When you find the folder and open it, type in the name you want to save your pose as and click SAVE.

HeadForge and INJ Poses

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

HeadForge and INJ Poses

Author: JGreenlees

Tools Needed

Blacksmith 3D Headforge
Text editing tool
Character you want to morph

Step 1 - Make the Morph!

Start by loading your character that you wish to morph by dropping the CR2 right into the Headforge workspace window. Then load the corresponding Selection set. (You can get these from Blacksmith 3D's website)

Morph your character using the buttons. Take your time and get the best possible character you can.

Now Let's export out the character. Make certain that you have what you want then choose File > export. A dialogue box will pop up with options.

For this tutorial we want to choose the MOR Injection file. Name your character morph. and choose a channel. I've chosen PBMCC_01. Then press OK.

It really doesn't matter where you save it as long as you can find it. I am saving it to the desktop because next we will be going into the file itself. 2 Files will be created. 1 INJ and 1 REM.

Step 2 - The Inner workings.

Open the character pz2 file. (Not the one marked _REM). We need to do some editing of something's in here. I'm using TextPad (you can get it online at http://www.textpad.com/)

Now looking at your file you will see some names. You will see the name that you chose for your character and the channel. To make the INJ work right we need to do some fiddling around.

Here's a bit of explanation of the code.

valueParm PBMCC_01

{

name MyCharacter

hidden 0

keys

{

static 0

k 0 1

}

There are certain things you DON'T want to change. ValueParm and targetGeom are two. Name can be changed because this is just the name on the dial within poser. So if you were unhappy with the character name you could add a new name by replacing MyCharacter and changing it to Lisa

valueParm PBMCC_01

{

name Lisa

hidden 0

keys

{

static 0

k 0 1

}

If you already have a morph going into the PBMCC_01 channel you can change it but you must make sure that you change it everywhere in the file.

Now we are going to look at what NEEDS to be changed for the INJ to work.

Step 3 - INJ time

Looking a bit further into the code we run across this

interpStyleLocked 0

valueOpDeltaAdd

Figure

BODY:1

MyCharacter

MyCharacter really shouldn't be in this line. That's the name I want on the dial but it's not the internal name. We need to make that last line into the channel name.

So now we change it to PBMCC_01

interpStyleLocked 0

valueOpDeltaAdd

Figure

BODY:1

PBMCC_01

Now we need to do the same everywhere it looks like that. You can go through with search and replace but make sure you don't change the name area.

Once you have done that save your file.

Now in the _REM file just open it and look it over. If you changed the channel you need to adjust this file to read the same. Otherwise it should be OK and you can proceed to making the Chanvis and Delta files.

Step 4 - Deltas and Chanvis

This step is really easy. It's just renaming files.

For the first file you did you want to name it InjDeltas.MyCharacter.pz2.

For the _REM file rename it to RemDeltas.MyCharacter.pz2

Once that's done we are going to concentrate on the Hide and UnHide files.

Let's do the Hide file first.

Open up the _REM file again. We need to remove some things to get this to work.

Try to keep the formatting of the file as Poser doesn't like them messed with much

actor BODY:1

{

channels

{

valueParm PBMCC_01

{

name MyCharacter

hidden 1

keys

{

static 0

k 0 1

}

actor chest:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom PBMCC_01

{

name -

hidden 1

indexes 0

numbDeltas 0

We need to take certain parts out. Anywhere your character's name appears replace that with a - (Dash)

Then remove indexes 0 and numbDeltas 0 as well as this

keys

{

static 0

k 0 1

your file should look something like this

actor BODY:1

{

channels

{

valueParm PBMCC_01

{

name -

hidden 1

}

actor chest:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom PBMCC_01

{

hidden 1

}

actor neck:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom PBMCC_01

{

hidden 1

}

Save that and name it Hide.MyCharacter.pz2 But DON'T Close it yet.

Now let's alter it for the UnHide file.

Replace the hidden 1 with Hidden 0

Remove the name =

Your file should look something like this

version

{

number 4.01

}

actor BODY:1

{

channels

{

valueParm PBMCC_03

{

hidden 0

}

actor chest:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom PBMCC_03

{

hidden 0

}

actor neck:1

{

channels

{

targetGeom PBMCC_03

{

hidden 0

}

Save that and name it UnHide.MyCharacter.pz2

Almost done :) Now we need to set up the folders and the real Injection script.

Step 5 - Putting everything away

Now let's put everything where it belongs.

Start your main folder where all your morphs will go. Mine is Realadies. Then for convenience put in a character folder (this makes it easier to find the morphs when you need to. I chose A3.

Into that folder create 2 folders. ChanVis and Deltas

Now place your first two files in the Deltas folder.

InjDeltas.Mycharacter.pz2

RemDeltas.Mycharacter.pz2

Put the other two into the ChanVis folder.

Hide.Mycharacter.pz2

UnHide.Mycharacter.pz2

There now that's all setup.

Let's move on to creating the INJ script

Step 6 - INJ Script.

Open up any injection script in your poser folder.

Look at how it's set up. This is important because we are going to duplicate it.

But only a part.

{

version

{

number 4.01

}

This file is intended for use with Victoria 3 DAZ Productions, Inc. [www.daz3D.com]

— Delta Information — readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:Deltas:InjDeltas.PBMTone.pz2” — Visibility Information —

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:ChanVis:Unhide.PBMTone.pz2”

}

The above is what we are going to work with.

Since this isn't for use with V3 but is for Aiko we need to change that.

's are comments. Poser won't read them. If you find something isn't working comment it out and see if everything else is. You can add a copyright statement and other information as long as it's commented out. So { version { number 4.01 } This file is intended for use with Aiko 3

Copywritten 2006 JGreenlees [www.midwayproductions.com] — Delta Information —

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:Deltas:InjDeltas.PBMTone.pz2”

— Visibility Information — readScript “:Runtime:libraries:!DAZ:Victoria 3:Body:ChanVis:Unhide.PBMTone.pz2” } There that's better. Now we need to direct the readscript commands to find our morph. { version { number 4.01 } This file is intended for use with Aiko 3

Copywritten 2006 JGreenlees [www.midwayproductions.com] — Delta Information —

readScript “:Runtime:libraries:Realadies:A3:Deltas:InjDeltas.MyCharacter.pz2”

— Visibility Information — readScript “:Runtime:libraries:Realadies:A3:ChanVis:UnHide.MyCharacter.pz2” } Now save that file and call it by the morph's name and INJ. Mine is called MyCharacter INJ.pz2 now open a REM pose file and do the same thing but point it to your Remdeltas and Hide pz2's that you created earlier. Save the file and move these two into your pose folder. Place your other folder into your runtime directory. Now the fun part. Let's take it into poser. =====Step 7 - A new character is born.===== Open poser, and Load Aiko (or whichever character you used for this tutorial) Find your morph in the pose folder and apply it. The morph will apply but you will find the main dial for it on the body not the head (that's due to Headforge creating Full body morphs for the head as it affects the neck and collars.) Apply hair, skin texture and clothes and Tada! Your character is ready to take on the poser world. I hope this helps you to create characters and enjoy the program as much as I do. Thanks for reading.

How to get Victoria 2 Clothes to fit Victoria 3 using The Tailor

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to get Victoria 2 Clothes to fit Victoria 3 using The Tailor

Author: lululee

Tools Needed

The Tailor 1.1 by CODETWISTER

Victoria 3

Joint Parameters Pose - this generous gift is from FyreSpiryt (puts the Victoria 3 Joints into the clothes)

Mannikin Base Figure - this generous gift is from LordNakagawa

Support Files

Joint_Parameters.zip

Mannikin.zip

Mannikin_V3-V2.zip

Introduction

Cynthis Starmaker uses The Tailor 1.1 by CODETWISTER to modify clothing based on Victoria 2 to conform to Victoria 3.

Step 1 - Organizing Your Resources; The Mannikin Base figure

Put this in a folder in your Poser 4 character folder. Name that folder V3Mannikin. The file The Tailor will need is called ManikkinV3b.CR2

Victoria 3 Joint Parameters

Put this in a folder in your Poser 4 Pose folder. Name that folder V3Joints .

Make a folder in your Poser 4 character folder

Name that folder “GoTailor folder.” This is where you save the .CR2 files that need to go TO The Tailor.

Make a folder in your Poser 4 character folder

Name that folder “V3Tailor folder.” This is where you save the .CR2 files that come FROM The Tailor. These are your Correct V3 Morph Clothes.

Step 2 - Overview of the actual process of taking V32 clothes into Codetwister

Download and unzip the Resource files in Poser 4. Set up the proper folders. Then prepare your clothes for The Tailor1.1. Once in the Tailor 1.1 create the morphs in your Victoria 2 clothes to fit Victoria 3. Then in Poser 4 apply and conform your new Victoria 3 clothes. You might need to tweak your Victoria 3 morph dials to get the clothes to fit right. Then pose to make art with your new Victoria 3 clothes. But don't forget that on your hard drive you will want to clean out the files from your 'GoTailor' folder.

Step 3 - Applying the V3 Joint Parameters to the dress

Open the CR2 you want to take to the tailor. I have used the V2 Morphing dress but this works on most V2 clothes.

Apply the joint parameter pose.

Step 4 - Loading the Base Figure into Tailor

Then you will load the base figure into Tailor. Load the base figure that will be in your character library in folder “V3 Mannikin” named “ManikkinV3b.CR2”

Step 5 - The Dress in Tailor

Here's what it will look like once the file “Dress.CR2” is loaded. Make sure you select the Victoria 3 morphs in your “ManikkinV3b within Tailor.

Now, in the menu bar choose “Morphs selected are like one body morph”

Step 6 - Creating the Morph

Now to creating the morphs in the Tailor. Select Create Morphs and highlight “Morphs selected are like one body morph”

Then select Create Morphs in the dress.

Wait for Tailor to Calculate.

Select the “Save with new morph dials as they are.”

Step 7 - Conforming the Dress to Victoria 3

The next step is going back into Poser and conforming the dress to Victoria 3. Begin by loading Victoria 3 into Poser 4 by loading the dress.CR2 from your V3Tailor folder.Then conform the dress to Victoria 3.

Step 8 - Fine Tuning

Tweak the V3Morph dial to get most of her covered. Tweak the V3Morph “Body” dial to get most of her covered

Step 9 - Continue Tuning

Tweak the V3Morph Thigh dials to get most of her covered. Tweak the V3Morph Thigh dials to get most of her covered.

Test the outfit by placing Victoria 3 into a few different poses to test your image.

Step 10 - 10 Clean Up

Next, we have the cleanup. Clean out the files from your 'GoTailor' folder. You don't need them anymore. Then continue to make lovely art with your New Victoria 3 Clothes!! (Editor's Note: This is my favorite part!).

Making Mat Files in Mat Pose Edit 3

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making Mat Files in Mat Pose Edit 3

Author: MercyToo

Tools Needed

Poser 4 or P4 Pro Pack

Mat Pose Edit 3

Introduction

What you need:

*Poser

*A JPG Texture you've created using a UV Template

*Mat Pose Edit 3 (Free) created by Ilari Pihlajisto, and available from:

MPE Home

What this tutorial assumes:

I'm assuming that you know how to create a texture for an object by using a UV Template and your paint program of choice. This tutorial will only show you how to save your texture as a Mat File for easy use in Poser.

Who can benefit from this tutorial?

Anyone who makes their own textures or anyone who has downloaded textures in JPG format and wants to make them easy to use with only one click in Poser.

Materials I've used to build this tutorial:

*DAZ's Fantasy Collar from the V3 Fantasy Collar set available here at DAZ

*UV Template for the Collar also from DAZ.

*Poser 4 Pro Pack

*Mat Pose Edit 3 (See above for link)

Step 1 - Setting up MPE

First, make sure you've downloaded and installed MPE. If you installed it to the default directory, it will be in your windows start menu under Start > Programs > Mat Pose Edit 3.

Now, with MPE open we want to take a moment to set up MPE so it knows where our Poser Runtime is and where our Character, Pose and Other Libraries are loacated. This is worth taking a moment to set up.

Go up to FILE > SETTINGS > and select PREFERENCES. A new window will open.

In the DEFAULT FOLDERS tab, set the POSER FOLDER location first by clicking the three dots (…) button next to POSER FOLDER. It will automatically figure out where the other folders are located. Check to make sure this is correct. If all is well, click OK and go on to the next step.

Step 2 - Opening your figure in MPE

Now our preferences are set and we are back in our main MPE screen.

Go up to FILE > OPEN > and select CHARACTER FILE from the list. If you've made a texture for a figure located in your Character Library in Poser, this is what you want to do. If you're making a Mat file for a Prop or a Hair Prop, select one of those two options. If you need to adjust settings quickly to a Pose file you've all ready created, you would select POSE.

Because we took the time to set up our Preferences, MPE will open in your Poser Character folder. How nice and convenient :o) Now you just have to browse to the folder where the CR2 is located and open it.

After you select OK, another window will pop up asking you if you want to load morph and pose data also. For simple texturing, just click no.

Now, you can see what MPE has done. It has loaded the figure with the default texture. You can easily see each material listed on the left. Your object color, highlight color, ambiant color and reflection color are there at the top right, very similar to poser 4's material editor. What's so very nice about MPE… let's say you want every Material part to be the same color… with MPE, you can highlight all the materials in the Material section and change their object, highlight, ambiant and reflective colors all at once! Sure beats doing it one at a time in Poser 4!

Now that we've gotten this far, let's go on to the next step and set up the figure to take the JPG texture file!

Step 3 - Setting up the texture

Now we're going to add the texture we made to the figure. This is very simple.

First, on the upper left hand side of the MPE window, select the first material listed by left clicking on it one time. I created my texture on one single UV Map with every material zone on that one map. So, I want to hold down my shift button and then left click once on “TRIM”. This selects all three materials. We'll just leave the Preview alone since it doesn't show up in poser anyway.

All of my materials are selected. I want to go down where it says “TEXTURE MAP”. You will see that MPE is using the default texture. Click the button with 3 dots (…) and browse to the location of your texture you've just created.

*NOTE* If you plan to sell or give your texture away as a freebie, it helps to have your JPG file in your runtime textures folder of your choice for simple zipping. I keep my textures in RuntimeTextures!!!MercyToo. So before I click the (…) button, I'm going to make sure I've moved my JPG to that directory.

Also, you will want to leave the colons (:) in place of slashes (), particularly if you plan to sell your texture, so leave the “Use Full Map Paths” box UNchecked.

So now I have clicked on the (…) button and browsed to my texture. After loading the texture, be sure to click the “APPLY” button.

Let's move on to the next part :o)

Step 4 - Tweaking the texture

Ok, so we've got our texture loaded. But, I'm not happy with the highlight color. That light color is going to give more shine than I want on my figure. But, I think I want to have a little more shine on the COLLAR TRIM and TRIM material sections, just not the LEATHER part.

In MPE, I will left click once on COLLAR TRIM, hold down my Ctrl key and left click once on TRIM. Now, just those two material sections are selected. Now I'm going to click on HIGHLIGHT COLOR and change it to my desired color. If I wanted to, I could adjust my HIGHLIGHT SIZE, TRANSPARENCY MIN, MAX and FALLOFF at this point. But, I'm going to leave them at their defaults. Also, if I wanted to add a reflection map, a bump map or a transparency map to a material selection, I could do that too. Just load your reflection map like you did your texture map, only click the (…) button next to the section that says REFLECTION MAP. Of course, you would load a bump map in the section that says BUMP MAP, etc… Just click the (…) button next to the appropriate area and you're good to go! There you can also adjust the strength of your maps and other settings. :o)

Only one more thing I need to do. The highlight is too bright on the LEATHER material, so I'm going to click LEATHER once and then HIGHLIGHT COLOR again. I'm going to set it to black. You set yours however you like! :o)

We're doing great, let's move on!

Step 5 - Saving the Mat File!

Once you've made sure all your settings are correct, you can save your file as a Mat Pose File! This is what you came for, right?

Simply click on FILE and select SAVE AS. A window will open with your Pose folder all ready open. See? Once again setting up MPE's preferences has saved us some time browsing to the right location! Make sure it is your Pose folder though (programs can make mistakes too, hehe) and then browse to the folder you want to save your Mat Pose in.

I'm going to save mine in my folder called MercyToo. My folder shows up in Poser in my POSE LIBRARY under MercyToo… very convenient for me!

Now I'm going to close MPE and open Poser. I'm going to load the V3 Fantasy Collar figure in Poser and then look for my new texture in my Pose Library.

Now, this will not save a poser thumbnail. So, when you open poser to load your texture, you'll have the little shrugging guy looking at you with that currious face wondering what the heck this item is supposed to be! If you have the free RSR converter tool and a paint program, you can easily set up a Poser thumbnail. Since this tutorial deals with MPE, I will not go into creating RSR's here.

Now, let's check the texture in Poser to make sure it works!

Step 6 - Checking things in Poser

Now I have Poser open and I loaded up the DAZ Fantasy Collar and then switched over to my Pose Library and scolled to find the library where I saved the texture. There it is! Now I'll just double click on my texture or click the check mark at the bottom and see if my new texture loads. Woo hoo, it did! :o)

This is where I would start doing some renders to make sure things look OK. The poser preview screen isn't the best so I do a render in a new window with antialias. If I wasn't happy with my texture, I'd make adjustments and redo the mat in MPE.

MPE has made creating Mat files so much simpler. I hope you've found this tutorial helpful, and as always - if you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me and ask. I'll do my best to help you along :o)

Congratulations and I hope you get lots of use out of this handy program!

Making Partial Mats with Mat Pose Edit

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Making Partial Mats with Mat Pose Edit

Author: JGreenlees

Tools Needed

Mat Pose Edit

Figure of your choice

A texture

Poser 4 or higher

Introduction

We use them a lot. Just a pose that will apply a highlight or change eye colors. Maybe one that will put stockings on Victoria, or change her make up.

Did you know they are very easy to do with Mat Pose Edit?

Let me show you how.

I am going to assume you have already set up Mat Pose Edit (refered to as MPE for the rest of this tutorial) so that it points to the proper paths, and that you also have created your texture.

For this tutorial I am going to show you how to change Victoria's eye texture (the steps should illustrate how you can use them to change the texture for any figure for anything you want to change)

Step 1 - Open MPE

Open MPE

Go to File > Open > Then choose Character

Find your character. In this case I am going to use Victoria 3 SR1. Click on the so it is highlighted then open. MPE will open the file

Step 2 - Setting Up

Now MPE will ask you if you want to load Morph and pose information. Since we don't need it just click NO.

Now you will see a material list under the Materials are 2 blank pull down menus. (the red arrows point to it.) Templates and Set grp

If you haven't set up a template we will do so now.

Go to File > Selection Template and a window will open. Like the one shown below. It will list all the materials in this figure.

Step 3 - Making your template

Now that the window is open we will create our template. Click the Create New Group button. Set up a group for Hair. Click OK. Then do the same for the next groups. Eyes, Head, Body and teeth

Once you have your groups set up you will now assign materials to them.

Now choose your Hair Group and highlight the following in the Material List. (hold Control (PC) to select multiple materials)

EyeLashes

EyeBrows

PubicHair

Click the add to selected group button to put those materials in the list. (your window should now look like the one below)

Now do the same for the other groups.

Under Teeth add

Teeth

Gums

Under Head add

SkinHead

SkinScalp

Lips

EyeSocket

InnerMouth

Nostrils

Lacrimal

Tongue

Under Body Add

SkinTorso

Nipples

SkinNeck

SkinHip

SkinFeet

SkinLeg

Toenails

SkinForearm

SkinArm

SkinHand

Fingernails

Under Eyes Add

LCornea

LEyewhite

LPupil

LIris

RCornea

REyewhite

RPupil

RIris

save your new template by choosing File > Save template as

Name it something you can remember. Like V3 or Victoria 3. Click OK and we are now ready to make our Partial Mat.

Step 4 - selecting Materials

Now under template choose the new template you made (now that it's saved you won't have to make a new template for this model again)

Then lets choose the Sel Grp of Hair. This will highlight those materials in that group in the material list. Then click the delete button.

Do the same process for the Body, Head, and Teeth groups.

This should leave you with only the eye Materials and Preview. You can click on preview to highlight it and delete it.

Now choose the Eye group so that all the eye parts are selected.

Since we don't want to affect any of the other settings double click on each one to disable it. Do NOT double click on the texture Map box.

Your screen should now look like the image below.

Step 5 - Choose your texture

Now it's time to choose and apply your texture for the Partial mat pose. click on the … button to bring up the file dialogue box.

Browse to find your texture, and once found click OK. This will load the path into MPE in the texture Channel.

now click apply

Step 6 - Save your pose

Well now we are done. Let's go ahead and save the Pose. Go to file > Save as…

Browse to the folder where you want to save it. Name it something easy. Blue eyes for instance. Then click Save.

Now lets see if it works.

Open Poser and Load Victoria 3.

(you do not need to apply any morphs)

Step 7 - Apply the mat

Now that you have Victoria Loaded lets apply the mat.

Adjust your camera so you can see the eyes. Then find the mat you just saved.

Double click on it and wait for Poser to do it's stuff

Once it's done you should now see your eye color (if you are in texture shade mode) then render.

And there ya go. A partial mat for changing just the eyes. You can use this for changing lip color or switching out body textures. Almost any kind of partial mat that you want to create .

P3DO Explorer

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

P3DO Explorer

Author: Yarp

Support Files

P3DO

Explorer

Step 1 - P3DO Explorer

P3DO Explorer is the official name for Poser Explorer. P3DO means “Poser 3D Object”.

P3DO Explorer is a free Explorer-ish graphics browser supporting a good selection of popular image formats, plus the Poser file format. Over 40 different image types are shown including GIF, JPG, BMP, PNG, TIF, PSD, PSP, etc… plus the Poser and Vue d'Esprit file formats (Poser: CR2 CRZ Figure, PZ2 PZZ Pose, FC2 FCZ Face, HR2 HRZ Hair, HD2 HDZ Hand, PP2 PPZ Prop, LT2 LTZ Light, CM2 CMZ Camera, BUM Bump map, PZ3 Scene - Vue d'Esprit: VEG Vegetation, VOB Object, VUE Landscape, ATM Atmosphere, MAT Material).

It features selectable thumbnail image size, slideshow, zoom, Windows-like favorites menu, and more. It also offers a Windows Explorer-style file manager which allows you to rename files and do other basic housekeeping.

There's much to say about P3DO, let's focus on some subjects among others: Modifying RSR picture, associate a RSR picture to a PZ3, P3DO custom Favorites, Windows File association. At the end of this tutorial you'll find the “Tips and Tricks” page from P3DO's help file which will give you a good view of what I left appart in this tutorial.

Step 2 - Modifying RSR Pictures

The Editing tool is available for Poser image file format only. To open the Editing tool just select a Poser file and then choose the “Edit Picture” menu item. The editing window is a raw frame with just three features : copy, paste and save, …

P3DO won't stretch the pasted picture if it does not fit the window. Pictures size in Poser is 91×91 pixels. The Editing tool window save a 91×91 picture whatever format you pasted. That is to say the image modification should be done by your favourite image editor, then copied to the clipboard and last pasted in the Editing tool window. At last save modification.

Step 3 - How to Associate a Picture to a PZ3

You can edit a picture for a .PZ3 or a .PZZ (Poser Pro Pack compressed .PZ3s) exactly the same way you do with any other Poser library files. A .PZ3 with a picture is considered as a picture by P3DO and behave the same as any other picture in P3DO - i.e. double click on the picture to zoom to the .RSR.

Step 4 - P3DO Custom Favorites

Although they look and behave exactly the same P3DO Favorites are not Windows Favorites. P3DO Favorites use P3DO dedicated folders and won't interfere with Windows.

While Windows Favorites rather use URL links, P3DO Favorites are aimed to refer at local drives and CD devices. This way you can gather all your Poser stuff in some favorites links and gain access to them quite easily where ever they are stored.

Assume you've got 8 directories with props, create a props favorite with 8 links, one for each prop directory. Then with the Favorites view you'll gain access to all your props collection in few seconds. See sample above.

Step 5 - Windows File Associations

Poser library files, Poser Geometry files, Poser bump maps and Vue d'Esprit files can be associated to P3DO in Windows.

By double-clicking on an associated extension within Windows Explorer, P3DO is called, opening in the clicked file directory. This is a good way to call P3DO from Windows but you can also use the Windows SendTo menu, put a P3DO shortcut in your Windows SendTo directory and P3DO can be opened for any other 2D file.

Step 6 - Tips and Tricks

P3DO and other Poser tools

You can use the Send To option to call other Poser tools from P3DO. As P3DO is a fast navigation tool, it is often more convenient to find the file you want to edit with P3DO and then open it with the Send To option.

Expand on Startup

The selected directories will be automatically expanded at next P3DO startup. This offer the ability to always have you favorites and/or Poser directories opened easing drag and drop, copy/pasting and navigation. This feature is only available on directories with sub-directories structure.

Move To and Copy To functions and Poser files path

Assume you are copying files to an archive directory which is not a Poser dedicated directory. You've just copy some .JPG for example and want to do the same with the associated .FC2. P3DO did remember the path you copied or pasted or dropped the .JPG but if you want to use the MoveTo/CopyTo function with these .FC2 P3DO will open the wrong directory. To avoid this, don't Move/copy separate Poser file types (a .FC2 and a .HD2 together is not considered a Poser but obviously an archive purpose movement) or Copy/Paste them or Drag/Drop them (Copy/Paste and Drag and Drop don't remember Move/Copy operations path by Poser file type).

Zoom view and Browser view

The zoom view has been designed to be merged in the browse. This means you can still navigate the browse while the zoom view is opened. You can even navigate the browse when focused on zoom view, all navigation keys except the scroll remain active within the browse.

Step 7 - Conclusion

Current P3DO is more a file manager than a file viewer. It greatly ease navigation through your Poser stuff, enables to store it on several devices and provides all you need to manage those files. File viewing should be improved in coming versions as well as inner Poser management, i.e 3D viewing and File content informations (morphs, textures, …). Moreover several plugins are coming which will provide new features on such tips like: the RSR Workshop plug-in - all you wanted to do with RSR, the ZIP Explorer plug-in - P3DO will see through zip files, the PC Installer plug-in - P3DO will setup and un-setup CR2s for you, Skinny plug-in - give P3DO a custom look, but this is another story…

Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds - Part I

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds - Part I

Author: Robin Wood

Tools Needed

Poser 3 or 4. Photoshop

Or comparable image editing program

Support Files

None Needed!

Step 1 - Setting up your Scene in Poser

I think it's best to begin with your background picture; but you can begin with the posed figures, and find a background that goes with them. In any case, take care choosing the background. It will work better if it's clear and sharply focused, with distinct shadows; especially for your first few pieces.

Once you have chosen it, arrange and pose your figures in Poser, with the picture handy to refer to. I advise you not to import it yet, since having it in the background is distracting, and will only make the posing more difficult.

When the figures are arranged to your liking, change the background color to white using either the buttons at the right of the window, or the Display- Background Color… menus.

If you are using the buttons, holding down the option/alt key will allow you to pick the color from the color picker used by your computer, instead of the inaccurate one found in Poser.

You may find the white hard to work on, but it's necessary for some steps further down the line.

In the materials dialog (under the Render menu), change the color of the ground plane to white as well, making sure it has no texture or bump map. (Choose “No Texture” if there is one there already.)

Now import your picture into Poser using the File- Import- Background Picture… menu.

If the proportions of your window do not match those of the picture you are importing, Poser will ask you if it should change the proportions of the window.

Say yes. It's important.

Save your work.

Now the fun begins!

Step 2 - Align the Ground Planes

The first thing that you need to do is align the ground plane in Poser to the one in your picture.

Choose the Main Camera, and using the various parameter dials, adjust it until ground planes match.

It's easiest to do this by switching back and forth from wire frameor outline to one of the more fully shaded previews.

Pay special attention to the scaling of your figure, and the focal length of the camera used to take the picture. If the top and bottom lines of boxes or buildings have an acute slope towards each other, use smaller numbers on the dial. If the slope is more gradual, use larger numbers.

This is the hardest part, and may take a while.

If there is a horizon line in your picture, line it up with the one in Poser. Use all the guides you can!

If this is not done correctly, the picture will not look right no matter how carefully the rest is done.

Once you get it, SAVE!

Now you are ready to adjust your lighting.

Step 3 - Adjusting the Lighting

Outdoors, there is often only one light. Turn off the other default lights by holding down the option/alt key and clicking on them, or by choosing Object- Properties in the menu bar, and un-checkingthe On box.

If you are doing an interior, you may need to add lights.

Now move the light (or lights) with the Parameter dials, or using the Light Controls, until the shadows match the ones in the photograph.

Do a test render to see if you were right. If you were, great! If not, adjust the light again.

It sometimes helps to put an object similar to an object in the photo in your picture to test the light with, as shown here.

If there are other people in the picture, match your shadows with theirs.

It can be helpful to export your renders, open them in Photoshop, and drag the image onto your photo, reducing the opacity to 50% and testing the shadows against the real ones.

In any case, this step is also crucial. When you get it, SAVE!

Once you have these two steps right, the rest is ridiculously easy!

Step 4 - Fine Tune the Composition

At this point, you may find that you would like a different composition better. Perhaps there is a tree growing from someone's head, or an unfortunate shadow on a face.

DO NOT MOVE THE CAMERA!

If you do, you will have to do all the work from the last two steps over again.

Instead, give all the figures in your composition child relationships to one who will act as parent (the Poser manual explains how to do this) and move the parent using the parameter dials to swivel it, or move it in or out.

Be careful about the moving in or out, however. Remember the scaling of the figure has to match that of the photo. If you lose it, scale the figure. DON'T TOUCH THE CAMERA!

Step 5 - Rendering Shadows

Go to Render in the menu bar, choose Render Options, and check the radio button next to Render Over Background Picture.

Make sure the ground plane has been turned off. (Display - Guides - Ground Plane or command/control G).

Render it.

Under the File menu, choose Export - Image. When the dialog window appears, choose Save File As… Photoshop. Put it wherever you like and give it a name. I'll call this one Image.

It should look pretty good, but with no shadows. You are about to fix that.

When the Poser window comes back, turn the ground plane on (command/control G.) Make sure that it's white, with no texture or bump map applied.

Now go to the Render - Render Options and choose Render Over Background Color. Your background color is white, isn't it? If not, make it so.

Render again, export the image, and give it a name like “Image Shadows”.

Step 6 - Compositing the Image

Now for the best part.

Open both images in Photoshop, and arrange their windows so that you can see them both.

Choose the Move Tool (v), hold down the shift key, and drag “Shadows” onto “Image.”

This will create a new layer in “Image, ” and since the two are exactly the same size, the shift key will make sure that they are aligned perfectly.

Choose Multiply Mode in the layers palette. And presto! you have shadows! You also have a really, really dark figure.

But not for long.

Go to the Select menu, and choose Load Selection.

In the dialog box that appears, choose channel- Alpha 1. This loads the alpha channel that Poser automatically makes whenever it renders a picture.

When the marching ants show up, go back to the Layers Palette, and click on the New Mask button (the little circle in a square on the left of the bar at the bottom of the palette.)

And just like that, your figure is there with perfect shadows!

In fact, unless your figure is on a smooth floor, they are probably too perfect.

You can fix that by taking the smudge tool and pulling the shadow out over the photo a bit. Make sure you are working on the shadow layer (Layer 1) and pull the top of the shadow into the transparent area at the top, and the transparent area into the shadow at the bottom. Don't worry about being careful of the figure; that area is masked.

Match the ground by pulling shadow up onto raised areas (or off of them at the bottom of the shadow.) Leave smooth areas alone.

Step 7 - Compositing the Image II

Once the shadow is all ruffled and mussed up, like it should be, and follows the contour of the ground (or whatever) you are ready for the next step.

Open the original background photo, and make sure it's exactly the same size as the image you are working with now. (Check Image- Image Size in both, and fix it if it isn't.)

Now hold down the shift key, and drag a copy onto Image, just like you did before.

In the layers palette, drag the Background layer onto the New Layer button (the little page in the middle on the bottom) to make a new layer called Background Copy. Delete the original background layer by dragging it onto the little trash can at the bottom right. Now drag the layer with the photo, which is Layer 2, underneath the Background Copy layer.

Click in the Background Copy layer, to make sure you are working there.

Now click the mask button (the little circle in a square on the bottom left in the Layers palette) to make a mask for this layer.

Make sure you are working in the mask by clicking on it. The icon to the left of the layer will show the little circle in a square. If it shows a paintbrush, click on the white square to the right of the thumbnail.

Using black paint and the paintbrush of your choice, paint a mask up over the edges of the figure to blend them into the photo.

If you overdo it, go back with white and fix it.

In this case, she needs grass showing in front of her shoes. Your figure may need something else in front, like the bedpost later in the second section of this tutorial.

It's best if there is something, because it adds to the illusion that the figure is actually in the photo, and not just pasted on.

But if there isn't anything, you can skip this whole part, and just leave your picture with two layers.

Step 8 - Cleaning up and Fine Tuning

Finally, if necessary, it's time to fix the artifacts that Poser often leaves. You know, the bits where the joints don't quite work right, and the hair, and things like that.

I find that it works best to fix them with the smudge tool as well as the paintbrush, and I often fix them on a new layer in case I change my mind about something. But that's just an old habit of mine. You don't have to do that!

If you did your retouching on a different layer, click the arrow key at the top of the Layer Menu, and Merge Down until all you have left are the three layers you started with.

Then, if your background picture was a photograph, go to the Filter menu, and choose Noise- Add Noise. When the dialog box opens, check the radio button for Uniform, and adjust the slider until your figures no longer look smoother than the picture you started with.

This step is necessary because all photographs made with film contain some noise. (It's because of the way they are made) and you want your addition to match the original as closely as possible.

Step 9 - Wrap Up

And that's it! Sign your work, you're done.

If you want a few more hints about working with interiors, you will find them in Superimposing Images into Backgrounds - Part 2.

If you have a question, write to me and ask it!

Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds - Part II

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds - Part II

Author: Robin Wood

Tools Needed

Poser 3 or 4. Photoshop

Or comparable image editing program

This is the followup to Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds in Poser Part I

Step 1 - Finding the Horizon and Focal Length

OK, so you know what to do when you only have one horizon line to deal with, and you know about adjusting the focal length.

But what if you just can't get it?

Well, sometimes you can't. That's because photographers often crop their photos, and use cameras that are much more sophisticated than the one inside Poser, and so on.

So, in those cases, do the best job you can; but don't make yourself nuts.

The most important planes to match are the ones that the shadow will actually be lying on. In this example, I could match the top of the bed, and sides pretty well. But the line of the bedpost isn't exact. I'll just have to live with it. The finished piece won't show that line anyway.

Notice that since the figure is sitting on an object, I've used cubes to represent those objects and take the cast shadows. That's how that bit is done!

Don't forget to use all the light sources, and scale your model appropriately. This is the rendering with the model in place, but no shadows.

It's ready for the shadows to be dragged onto it.

Step 2 - Shadows and artifacts

This is the arrangement of cubes for the bedframe. If I was serious about this picture, instead of trying to rush it up here for the tutorial, I would have put in a ground plane and made sure the end of the “bed” was the same size as the one in the photograph.

In that case, I'd have rendered the ground plane as well, to catch the shadow of her toes.

Since I wasn't doing that, I didn't render the ground plane, since it would simply have gotten an extra shadow on it.

But I'm sure you can extrapolate from here, and add things like columns for trees, etc. Also, don't forget to have something to cast any shadows that will land on your figure. If there are other people in the photo, I'm afraid that you will have to pose them, etc.

That part can get complex, and if you can't make props you may want to avoid pictures that require it.

Now the problem with this, of course, is that after the images are multiplied, and the mask is in place, there are still artifacts left from the dark side of the box, etc.

Those will have to be removed.

Step 3 - Touching up the Mask

Hold down the option/alt key, and click on the little icon of an eye next to the name of the shadow layer in the Layer Palette.

This will isolate that layer, and let you work on it without being able to see the others.

Select the Magic Wand tool, and click on the sections of shadow that you don't want. Once they are selected, delete them.

You can also add those sections to the mask by clicking on the mask icon in the palette (the mostly white thumbnail) and then filling the selection with black. You might want to do this if the masking is tricky, and you want to be able to get the shadow back in fussy little areas. Otherwise, since you have to select from the painting, not the mask, it's a lot of clicking back and forth for no real reason.

You may also want to touch up the edges with the eraser tool to make sure all the bits are gone.

When you are finished, you should have nothing on that layer except the shadows themselves.

When you are deleting things, remember to use the delete key; don't fill the area with white. That may create a white halo on the image.

I'm not showing the checkerboard pattern for transparency in this illustration, because I find it difficult to see where I still need to clean up when it's there. To get rid of it, go to the Preferences in the File menu, and choose Transparency and Gamut. In the Transparency Settings section, where it says Grid Size choose None from the menu.

In the step where you mask out the figure to reveal things in front of it, you may have quite a large or complex thing to reveal.

In that case, I find it easiest to use a broad brush with the black paint, and make the entire edge just go away.

Then I can see what I'm doing when I go in with a smaller brush and white paint, and put the picture back.

That's the beauty of masks, and why this step uses one, instead of using the eraser!

Step 4 - Wrap Up

Just in case you wanted to see the finished picture after coming this far, here it is.

I haven't retouched her hair yet, or any of that stuff.

But I did add a color cast to make her fit in a bit better. It's easy enough to do. Just load that Alpha 1 mask again, and change the color balance using the Image- Adjust- Color Balance dialog box. (Or hit command/control B to bring the box up.) Then slide those sliders until the colors look perfect!

I also pulled the shadow on the bed a bit to match the bedpost. One of the things they don't have in Poser is bulb lights! Which is one of the reasons I seldom do my renderings there, myself.

Hope this was helpful!

If you have a question, write to me and ask it!

Create many thumbnails for Poser with one click

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Create many thumbnails for Poser with one click

Author: dorkati

Tools Needed

P3DOExplorer

Corel Photo-Paint or any Paint-program which know scripts

Introduction

When I made many textures and I started to make thumbnails I was very nervous. It was a slow, boring, awful procedure. But I found a very useful method in Corel Photo-Paint.

The Batch conversion. Now you can learn how you can make this for thumbnails.

You need for this P3DO Explorer. You can download from here for free: Senosoft.com

Maybe you can use this tutorial for another paint-programs, if they know scripting and batch conversion.

Step 1 - create your thumbnail design

First of all make renders in which are shown the poses or faces or textures. Make the renders 91×91 size. Save the pictures as you named the Mat, poses or faces files. Exactly same name! Use original background.

Go to Corel Photo-Paint and make a new document in 91×91 size. Now make your design. I made a background and a logo layer. The background is not merged with document's background. It is a layer too.

If you finished with design, select all layers and copy to clipboard.

Open one of your rendered thumbnail files. Create object (layer) from background, use on original grey background color the color transparency tool (with 0 tolerance).

You can find this tool in interactive flyout (left side of your workspace). Now you have a knock-out object without background.

Paste from the clipboard your designed environment. (each layers)

Change the order. Put your background to back and logo to front.

This is important for scripting. Don't make every step in this document, only paste the clipboard. And make sure that this layers are still in clipboard.

Your own unique thumbnail is finished.

But don't save, don't close. We need this.

Step 2 - Create the script

Now you stay in this new thumbnail document. In Window menu open the UNDO docker. You see this:

When you make a step in this document, the undo docker is save that. These steps will be the script. This was the reason, why do you need edit design in another file. It would be too many steps in one document.

Click on the little floppy and save this script.

Now open the script in a text editor (notepad)

Delete the

.FileOpen section. We don't need this and it would be wrong script with this section.

You can see .EditPasteObject section. I want to make for you a general script, but every script use for clipboard pasting a template on your pc. So you need to make your own script.

Save the edited script.

Now you need to save your basic thumbnail document (only the designed environment -background and logo) as .cpt or any other file which save the separate layers. It is important if you want to use this design in the future.

Step 3 - Running the script

Go to the File menu and Select batch conversion. Select all of the bmp-s which you want to turn to your own unique thumbnails.

Load the script and use 'save as new file-type'. Choose a folder where you want to put thumbnails and choose the file-type:

PNG

And run the script.

If everything OK, you find in your folder the PNG pictures. Put this PNG files to the same folder with pose- or MAT or face-files.

I hope you named picture files exactly same that pose, face, MAT files. It is very important!

Now we have many PNG-s, but we need .rsr for Poser4. So go on…

Step 4 - Make .rsr from PNG pictures

Open the P3DO Explorer open the folder where you put the thumbnail pictures and use the Tools– > ConvertRsr2png option with these settings as on picture.

This will be turn all of your Png to RSR file.

Step 5 - Check your thumbnails in Poser

Open the Poser and check your thumbnails. Perfect!

I know it was not one click. But only at the first time. In future you don't need to make whole procedure, because you have got the magic srcipt!

You need to open your 2 or more layers designed basic thumbnail, copy all layers to clipboard (you can select all layers in objects docker) and run the script with batch conversion.

I hope this was a useful tutorial.

If you have any question, send me a message or contact with me in e-mail:

fairyfan@freestart.hu

Easy RSR files !

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Easy RSR files !

Author: Corinne

Tools Needed

P3Do explorer (SENO software) and Photoshop

Introduction

What is an RSR file ? RSR is a special format of images used in Poser to create thumbnails in your libraries.

To make your Poser stuff or products look more professional, you need to create thumbnails for your MAT files, your character, your hair, whatever.

There are plenty of ways to create rsr. I've experimented a lot of them, and here is the one I like the most.

Step 1 - rendering

First of all, you have to know that your thumbnail has to be the most descriptive, in order to make your customers' life easier :) So we will be rendering parts of the product we want to showcase. Here's my method…

1. In Poser, in modify the size of my scene to a square. For example 600×600, or 400×400, etc. Imagine this square is going to contain your thumbnail, but in bigger size. Go in Window > Document Window size…

2. Compose your scene (remember that in order to keep things easy to undesrtand, less is more). For an head injection, for example, I will simply render the head of my character, with some hair and a skin, so she doesn't look awfully white. I will use a good and natural lighting, and an original pose so that my .rsr will be distinctive and not boring.

3. Render and (important) save your render in Photoshop format (.PSD) as shown in the screenshot below. Saving in Photoshop format will allow you to have a transparency (alpha) saved, you will be able to select your subject easily.

Step 2 - first steps in photoshop

Open your recently saved .PSD file with Photoshop. Go in your “couches” section, in the layers palette. You will see that there are color ones plus a black and white one. Select the black and white one (Ctrl + click on the layer).

Your screen should look like this, and one area (the white or the black) should be selected.

Now return to the layers palette. Your character (or the space around it) is selected. If the space around it is selected, invert the selection (Shift + Ctrl + I, or Selection > Inverse).

When your character is selected, copy and paste it. A new layer should be created, you can erase the background one. And you have a transparency.

Step 3 - creating a png

Now you have your character only with the transparency, you will have to reduce the size of your file. A rsr is 91×91 pixels wide. So reduce your .PSD file to 91×91. Image > Image size.

Decorate your file ! I usually fill the background with a nice tile, add some + or - symbols when it's for injections, or add some text. You can do whatever you want, but be sure that your file is 100% filled in and has no more transparencies.

When you find that the file is ready to be transformed into a thumbnail, save it in PNG format. File > Save as… and choose the PNG format.

Step 4 - converting in rsr format

So now you have a PNG file saved somewhere on your computer.

1. Open p3Do Explorer and browse to find the PNG you've just saved.

2. When you get it, select it, and go to into Tools > Convert Rsr2Png.

3. In the window, make sur “.Png to .Rsr” ic checked.

4. That's it, you should now have an RSR file !

Step 5 - Having your rsr working

1. Put your RSR file in the same library folder of the file that it will execute. For example, you have a MAT file called “skin.pz2” in your Pose library, you will put your RSR file exactly in the same folder.

2. You have to name your RSR file exactly the same as the executing file. For example skin.rsr. Case sensitive !

3. Run Poser, open your library : your thumbnail should be there !

Using The Tailor with your custom stripped CR2s

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Using The Tailor with your custom stripped CR2s

Author: Dama

Tools Needed

The Tailor by CodeTwister

Custom stripped CR2 (see other tutorials)

Introduction

Once you've made your custom stripped CR2 (see other tutorials), modifying clothing to fit him or her is EASY using CodeTwister's The Tailor, available here at DAZ.

Step 1 - Load your character and clothing

Open The Tailor and cancel out the Wizard window that might pop up.

Go to FILE and choose “Load base figure (*.CR2)”

In the dialogue box that pops up, navigate to the folder in your Runtime/libraries/character directory where you saved your custom stripped CR2.

Choose the selected character and click Open.

Now go back to FILE and choose “Load the dress (*.CR2)”

Find and open whatever clothing article you want. Just be sure that it was originally designed for the base figure.

Step 2 - Select custom morphs in body

In the base figure menu on the left, choose all of the character morphs except the head.

Now go up to CREATE MORPHS and choose “Morphs selected are like one body morph.”

Go to CREATE MORPHS again and this time choose “Create Morphs in the dress.”

The program will start to work, mapping vertices and transferring morphs.

When it's done, a dialogue box will pop up that has “Body_MT” in the text-entry area. Highlight it and replace it with the character name and click okay.

Step 3 - Now save it!

The program will update the morph names in the dress, and the menu on the left will expand. Notice that even though you selected ALL of the character body morphs, the program discerned which it needed and only included the ones for the body parts included in the clothing item.

Go to FILE and choose “Save the dress as (*.CR2).”

I suggest putting a dash and the character name after the name of the clothing item (or a dash and then your initials if you want to transfer more than one character's morphs to the same article of clothing, such as AmazonTop-Marcelia (or AmazonTop-GGS) and saving it.

Now you're ready to load another clothing item. All the character body morphs are already selected, so after the clothing item is loaded, all you need to do is go to CREATE MORPHS and choose “Create Morphs in the dress.” (Be sure that the “Morphs selected are like one body morph” option is still selected.)

When you load the morphed clothing item into Poser, it will have a full body morph dial in the Body parameter dials. Set that to 1.00, scale it to the size of the figure, and you're done. Resave the clothing figure to the library to save the dial settings and create an rsr file.

Creating a "Weathered Paper" Look

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a "Weathered Paper" Look

Author: rortiz

Tools Needed

Photoshop CS or equivilent

Introduction

With the invention of the computer, “Digital Art” soon became an interesting new medium to explore. But as artists create more and more digital art to pixel perfect, realistic perfection, the end results can sometimes be so perfect as to appear unrealistic.

This tutorial will teach you how to create weathered paper for use in projects from an old Pirate's Map to a page torn from an old book.

Step 1 - GETTING STARTED (SHORTCUT LEARNED: CNTRL-N)

Launch Photoshop.

Press “CNTRL-N” to launch the new document setup window and create a blank document. For this tutorial I will be using a new document sized at (width/height)500×650 pixels, at 72Dpi, and color mode RGB. However, you may create a new document of any size, resolution and shape you desire to suit your needs.

Once you have created your new blank document (see image), you may move on to STEP 2.

Step 2 - THE POLYGONAL LASSO TOOL (SHORTCUTS LEARNED: L, CNTRL-Z)

Press the “L” key, and you will notice the Lasso Tool is highlighted on your tool bar. If the Polygonal Lasso Tool is not already selected (see fig.1) click on the small triangle in the lower right corner of the icon, and in the new pop up menu, select it.

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with this tool if you have not used it before. Let's practice by creating a square shape with four clicks of the mouse. Click on the document workspace to create the first corner. You will notice the lasso has anchored to this point. Now move the mouse to the next corner of your square and click again. This point will also anchor and now you will have a line between the two points. Continue clicking out the square shape and when you approach the original point where you started again, to close out the shape, place your cursor over the first point - you will notice that a small “o” will appear next to your cursor icon. This indicates you are able to make a closed shape now. When you click your new shape will be created and the lines will move (like marching ants). Press “CNTRL-Z” to undo and clear your document again.

Once you are done practicing and feel comfortable with this tool, you may move on to STEP 3.

Step 3 - DRAWING OUT OUR PAPER SHAPE (SHORTCUTS LEARNED: CNTRL-Z)

Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, start drawing out your paper shape. You can draw the shape anyway you like, but remember that for this tutorial we are creating a weathered look, so as such, let's keep that in mind when drawing out the shape. In Fig. 2, I've drawn out a quick shape and have made sure to click where appropriate to shape out the missing and torn portions of the paper. Make sure that you “seal” your shape by clicking around to the original point and making this a closed shape.

If you make a mistake, it's OK. Just undo (CNTRL-Z) or press the Esc. key and start over. Once you are satisfied with your shape, you may move on to STEP 4.

Step 4 - GIVING YOUR PAPER SOME COLOR (SHORTCUTS LEARNED: ALT-DELETE)

Double click on the “Foreground” color swatch near the bottom of your tool bar and it will launch the color picker window (see fig. 3). Choose a color that is most appropriate and hit OK. (For my paper color I chose a darkish tan color to give it a parchment paper feel. If you wish to use the exact same color just input my RGB settings into your color pickers RGB input area. See image for RGB settings)

Once you have selected the color you will use, press the “ALT-DELETE” keys and you will see that the color will be dropped into the shape you have drawn!

When you are ready let's move on to STEP 5.

Step 5 - THE WEATHERED LOOK (SHORTCUTS LEARNED: CNTRL-D, O)

Ok we're almost done!

Now go into the Filter menu, select NOISE, then ADD NOISE. The Add Noise box will open up with a preview of your image in a small window. Set the amount slider to “2” percent. The distribution to Gaussian and check the Monochromatic box. Hit OK when you are done to OK this effect.

Press “CNTRL-D” to deselect your paper now, and make the polygonal lasso disappear.

Press the “O” key to highlight the Burn Tool icon on your tool bar. Again, if you need to, click on the small triangle at the lower right hand corner of the icon to open up the pop up menu and select it. The Burn tool icon looks like a small hand pinching something. (see fig. 4)

Once you have selected the Burn tool, we can now begin to give our paper a more “less than perfect” appearance that when combined with the noise filter we have already applied will help give it a more aged look.

With the Burn tool selected, click and drag along the edges of your document where paper would normally look “weathered”. Now this is a matter of taste so there's no right way or wrong way. Feel free to make your image as weathered as you see fit. If you would like, find an old paper and use it for reference. You can also play with the brush size/shape for the Burn tool and make it as big or small an effect as you like.

For my example (see fig. 5), I've chosen to concentrate a little extra around the cuts and crease edges where it might seem my paper was more damaged or handled. I've also burned a bit of the center area. Feel free to give more attention to certain areas to give it a darker effect and less over others to give a lighter effect. Doing that will make it possible to fade from lighter areas to darker weathered areas on your paper.

Now to finish off the look with a “Drop Shadow” effect!

Go into the layer dropdown, and select Layer Style, Drop Shadow (see fig. 6) The layer style box will open with the Drop Shadow menu selected.

Put opacity at “85” percent.

Angle at 120.

Distance at “5” px.

Size at “5” px.

You can leave the other settings in their default state. Hit OK and your paper will now have a drop shadow behind it!

Remember these are just my settings for this tutorial, feel free to experiment with the look you want.

Congratulations! You've created a weathered piece of paper! Feel free now to experiment with adding text, images, colored backgrounds, scaling, skewing, and any other effect you can imagine to go with it!

Step 6 - THE WEATHERED LOOK (SAMPLE)

Fig. 7 shows a sample of the final result.

Sample with text.

Creating Comic Book Text Bubbles

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Comic Book Text Bubbles

Author: rortiz

Tools Needed

Photoshop CS

Similiar Application

Support Files

rortiz_tuteimages.zip

Introduction

Creating your own comic book adventure can be a great deal of fun using Poser or DAZ Studio. This tutorial teaches you how to use Photoshop CS's built in “Talk Bubbles”, as a way to create your own talk bubbles as seen in comic books.

Along the way you will also learn some useful keyboard shortcuts to help you move about Photoshop a bit more quickly and efficiently.

Step 1 - Getting started (shortcut learned: Cntrl-O)

Launch Photoshop.

Press “Cntrl-O” to launch the “Open menu” and search for the image file we will be using on your Harddrive. Once located open the sample image provided for this tutorial (SewerJPG).

Note: This image will have been provided as a link, or it may be necessary to simply right click and save it to your desktop. Also watch for any notes as they may help you to trouble shoot any problems along the way.

Step 2 - The Custom Shape Tool (shortcut learned: U)

With the image (SewerJPG) now open, press the “U” key. You'll notice that the “Line Tool” icon is now highlighted on your tool bar. Click/hold on the small triangle in the lower right corner of this icon and a menu will open up with more options. In the new menu select the “Custom Shape Tool”. (See Fig. A)

Your regular “arrow” pointer should now be replaced with a “+” or crosshair cursor. Place your new cursor over the image and right click to open up a new menu. In the menu that opens up, click on the circular triangle button in the upper right corner. In the drop down menu that appears, highlight and select “TalkBubbles”. (See Fig. B)

A menu will appear asking if you would like to replace your current shapes with the new shapes, click “OK”.

You will notice various “TalkBubble” shape icons. Double click on the one that is most useful to you and your scene. The menu will disappear and you will be left with your cursor again.

Step 3 - Creating your "TalkBubble"

With your cursor now over the image, find a starting point then click, and drag to create your new TalkBubble. You will begin to see it take shape as an outline, when you are satisfied with the size and shape, release the mouse button and your new TalkBubble will be created. (See Fig. C)

You will also notice in your “Layers” menu a new layer has been created over your default layer named “Shape 1”. It should be highlighted.

Notice, however, that we have a problem! While the bubble has been created, the tale that indicates where the speech is coming from, points away from the character in the scene! (See FIG. C) Let's correct that in the next step!

Note: The color of your TextBubble depends on which color you have selected in your tool bar's “Foreground” color swatch. It may also depend on the color of a previous TalkBubble depending on if you have that particular layer selected or not.

Step 4 - Fixing the "TalkBubble"

Go to the Edit menu, Transform Path, Flip Horizontal. (See Fig. D) Your bubble should now be facing the right way. (note: depending on the bubble you selected in Step 2., you may or may not have to do this step as it may already be facing the correct way)

Step 5 - Adding Text to your "TalkBubble" (Shortcut learned: T and V)

We're almost there! Now, press the “T” key. You will notice the “Text Tool” is now highlighted on your tool bar.

Move your cursor over the TalkBubble and it will change shape slightly from a boxy shape to a more spherical shape. Click with your cursor within the bubble, and a marquee will surround the bubble. Now you can begin to type in your comic's dialogue and it will auto wrap to fit within the bubble on it's own layer.

If you wish to adjust the placement of the text you can simply select the text layer, and press the “V” key. This will highlight the “Move Tool” icon in the Tool bar. You can then click on the text within the bubble and drag to position it to your liking.

Note: If you do not see any text, chances are your font coloring is set to white, change the color to a darker color that can be seen against the white bubble to correct this.

Congratulations! You've created a TalkBubble!! (see Fig. E)

Try playing around with the TalkBubbles, shapes, and text placement to see what other unique and interesting ways you can come up with to deliver your comic's dialogue!

BONUS Tips:

In the layer's menu, try layer style/stroke to open up a new menu that will allow you to add a stroke around your TextBubble. This is useful if you want to add an edge to it.

In the layer's menu, try layer style/drop shadow to open up a new menu that will allow you to add a drop shadow to your TextBubble. This is useful if you want to add some depth or have it stand out more against the image.

Try stacking TalkBubbles in various ways to create new bubbles or staggered speech across comic book panels.

Play with text coloring or sizing such as bold and italic to convey important dialogue.

Learning the Power of Gradients

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Learning the Power of Gradients

Author: Narnia

Tools Needed

Photoshop 7.0.1 or higher

Introduction

With this tutorial I hope to show you the power of gradients, and how you can use them to create realistic buttons and graphics using only Photoshop and your imagination.

Step 1 - Create a New Document

The first step is to create a new document. Here we will simply use the Photoshop default size.

Step 2 - Create a New Button

Next we will create a new button using the rounded rectangular tool in Photoshop.

As below.

Step 3 - Add a gradient layer.

Next we will add some depth and texture to the button to make it look 3-D. Remember this step is important to do correctly since this is what will make the difference if a button looks great or poorly.

Making sure you have the shape layer selected in the layers palette, go to the layer effects button. And click on the 'Gradient Overlay' option.

Step 4 - Tweaking the gradient settings.

Now we are going to define the gradient that we want to apply to the button. To enter the gradient window click on the circled gradient bar as shown in this step's picture.

This will open this window.

Step 5 - Understanding the Gradient Editor

Now you can use one of the preset gradients in Photoshop, but that's not that fun. So we will create our own.

Looking at the slider on the Gradient Editor window, you can see two sets of box sliders. One at the top and one at the bottom. The top set are the opacity setting for the gradient. That is it defines is the gradient will go from a solid to a transparent effect or remain solid across the gradient.

The second set of sliders are control the colors that you would like to use. By clicking on one of the boxes, you can change the colors use by then clicking on the color box in the 'Stops' section, towards the bottom. (Or by double clicking on the box, directly bring up the color chooser.)

To create a new color or transparency setting, to be included in the gradient, simply click in an area above or below the slider bar where there isn't a box slider. This will create a new box slider.

As below.

Step 6 - Defining a Gradient

Now to define the gradient we want simply pick the colors we want to use. Make sure that you have three color slider boxes and that the darker colors are on the outside, while the little colors are in the center. You can add more colors to create more complex gradient effects, but we will use three to keep things simple.

Remember, the opacity boxes, must be set to 100%/display black.

By the way, to remove a color that you don't want, click on the color slider box and drag it off the slider, this will make it go away.

Step 7 - And you're done!

After setting the gradient up in the gradient editor, you are done. Simply click okay for both the gradient editor window and the Layer Style Windows and you're done! Doesn't it look great!

Nature's Iris

2011-11-01T17:42:26+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Nature's Iris

Author: Samanthie

Tools Needed

* A picture of a flower with well defined overlapping petals

* Paint Shop Pro

* Photoshop or any other graphic software with layers capability.

Support Files

*flower.zip

Step 1: Step 1:

Begin by creating a new file 500×500, 16million colors, 300.dpi.with a transparent background. Add a new layer and name it Iris. Choose the selection tool from the tool bar. Set the type to circle. The selection tool settings are set at feather 1 with anti-alias checked.

Make a large circle in the center of your image.

Flood-fill the circle with a base color of your choosing. This will be the base for your eye color. I chose #7c999e.

Step 2:

Invert the selection (selections/invert) and apply a drop shadow with settings V0, H0, Opacity100, Blur100. Deselect.

In the center of the iris draw another circle of medium size and fill with black. Apply a drop shadow with these settings V0, H0, Opacity100, Blur100. Deselect the image.

Your image should now look similar to this;

Select the image. Use the magic wand tool and click on the outside area of your image and invert the selection. If the selection is not exact go to selections/modify/contract/1 or 2 so that the selection is snuggly around the iris.

This is pretty much necessary for the entire tutorial. The reason you want to keep that outer circle selected is to keep things nice and tidy when you apply the blur effects a little later.

Step 3:

Tip: For future projects edge tools can be very helpful when editing your flower images. Try edge/dilate and erode as well. I used only edge/dilate and was pleased with the result. When you have finished editing your flower, be sure to save it for future use.

Copy your flower image to the clipboard and go back to your iris image. If the iris is not selected select it, create a new layer and name it flower. Paste the flower image into the selection on the new layer.

I wanted the edges of my flower to have a more consistent circular shape. To do this I turned off the iris and bg layers. Then I duplicated the flower layer and rotated it until the overall shape was circular. When I was happy with the shape I merged the two flower layers into one layer. Layers merge/visible. Then I turned the bg and iris layers back on.

Step 4: Color Editing

The natural colors of the flower may not be quite what you would want for your iris. To fix this the color must be changed to something more believable.

With the flower layer selected go to the top menu and choose Adjust/Color-Balance/Red Green Blue and use R-62, G-19, and B 22. If you are using another color for your base color then adjust your colors accordingly.

Step 5:

The outer edge of your iris should still be selected so click on the flower layer and duplicate it. Name this new layer blur. To apply the blur go to Adjust/Blur/Radial Blur and use these settings; select zoom, strength100, select elliptical, H0, V0 , Protect Center is set at 85%. Hit OK.

Just so you can see the effect and how it should look. Here is the image shown with all the other layers off and then again with all layers visible. You can begin to see the patterns developing in the iris!

Step 6: Layer Adjustments

Now we can make some adjustments to our layers. Set the blur layer to hard light 100%.

Click on the flower layer just below it and set it to soft light at 68%

Click on the iris layer and duplicate it and set the duplicated layer to hard light 100%.

Your image should now look similar to mine…

This is how your layer palette should look…

You may deselect the image.

Step 7:

Click on the flower layer and duplicate it. Set the layer to normal so you can see it better. Use the deform tool to size it down as in the image shown.

Go to Adjust/Blur/Radial Blur again and use these settings; zoom, strength 54, elliptical is checked, H0, V0, Protect Center is 85. Change this layer to overlay 100%.

That's it! Well that's it for part 1. You may merge/visible all the layers if you want. I think it is a good idea to save your image in its layered format as well so that you can play around with the various settings in your layer palette and see what special effects you can create. Try different colors too!

This tutorial covers only the patterns of the irises without any added highlights or reflections. I will cover both of those in the 2nd part. :o)

Tutorial by Debbie Overstreet ~Samanthie' 2006

Nature's Iris Part 2

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Nature's Iris Part 2

Author: Samanthie

Tools Needed

* Paint Shop Pro

* Photoshop

* Other graphic programs with layers support

Introduction

In this tutorial the focus will be on enhancing the iris and adding reflections.

Step 1: Create a new image 500x500, 300dpi, on a transparent bg.

Open up your saved and merged iris image from part 1 of this tutorial. Copy the iris image and paste it onto the new image as a new layer and name the layer iris. Just turn off the transparent bg layer. You may close the original image file.

Use the magic wand tool and click on the empty area of the iris layer. If your selection does not fit snuggle around the iris and appears jagged then you will need to do a little bit of cleanup of scattered pixels. Using the selection tool set to circle make a circle from the center of the pupil all the way to the outer edge. Then just go to Selections/Invert and hit the delete key. This will cut away any scattered pixels. Don't worry if the selection overlaps the edge just a little just go ahead and hit delete. Leave the selection inverted and apply a drop shadow with the settings V0, H0, Opacity 100, Blur 100. Deselect.

Inverted Selection

Drop shadow applied.

Step 2: The pupil's edge needs to be softened a bit.

Create a new layer.

Click on the selection tool/circle and use settings feather 1, anti-alias checked.

In the center of the pupil make a circle so that just the pupil is selected. In the Selections menu click on selections/modify/feather and choose 24.

Click on Blur/radial blur and apply with these settings: zoom, strength100, H0, V0, Protect Center85.

Repeat the radial blur with the same settings. Your image should now look like this…

Step 3: Colorize

In this step we are going to change some of the colors of the iris just slightly.

With the freehand selection tool (lasso) select an area on the left side of the iris as shown. Feather the selection by 24 as you did in Step 2 (selections/modify/feather). Then click on selections/promote selection to layer.

Click on Adjust/Hue and Saturation/Colorize and apply these settings:Hue115 Saturation 67.

Activate the iris layer again and draw another shape with the selection tool on the opposite side of the iris. Repeat as before and feather the selection by 24. Click on Selections/Promote Selection to Layer. Colorize the selection and use these settings Hue 115 and saturation 115.

Next select an area near the top of the iris and feather the selection again by 24, promote to layer and use Hue and Saturation again with these settings, Hue 115 and Saturation 45.

Turn off the original iris layer and the transparent background layer and merge the three promoted layers. Go to layers/merge/merge visible.

Turn on the iris layer and lower the opacity of the merged layers to 70 percent. Now merge visible layers. The changes are subtle but they add a little more realism to the iris I think.

Step 4: Reflections

Create a new layer. With the freehand selection tool draw an irregular shape over the iris. Flood fill the shape with a linear gradient set to foreground/background colors. I used #ffffff (white) for the foreground and an aqua color #9db1b0 for the background. Deselect.

Activate the eraser tool and set the opacity to between 11 and 20 and begin erasing the hard edges around the shape. When the edges have been softened duplicate the highlight layer and change the settings to Screen at 80%. Duplicate the layer and set it's mode to dodge and opacity to 16%. Merge visible layers.

Step 5: Reflections Continued

Create a new layer and again draw a shape but a bit more controlled than the last one. The selection point to point tool is a good choice for this shape. Draw the image on the opposite side of the iris. Follow the contours of the eye. See image'

Flood fill as before with the same colors.

Select the smudge tool (hand with pointed finger) and set your settings to size 53, hardness 42, Step 1, density 100, thickness 100, rotation 172 and opacity 100. Make sure that 'sample merged' is unchecked.

Gently push and pull the edges of the shape so that the contours more closely match those of your iris shape. It is very OK if the image edges blur somewhat.

When completed with the smudging switch the layer mode to screen opacity 36%. Use the eraser tool with the same settings as before and erase just a little bit around the outer edge of this new reflection as well as some of the inner curved edge. Duplicate the layer and set mode to Dodge at 22%. Merge visible layers. You should have an image similar to mine….

Step 6: Enhancing Reflections

Create a new layer. We need to add something more to the reflections to really set it off. This is a fun and easy way to do just that. Activate your brush tool. I chose +Round 10 in PSP. Settings are default with size set to 5.

I used color #5f3323.Begin by making some lines over the left area of the iris following the contours. The lines may resemble a fence perhaps or a window. Change the brush size to 10 to make larger lines as well. Repeat by making a similar shape on the other side of the iris over the reflection.

Use the eraser brush again with the same settings and gently erase away the hard edges at the top and bottom of both areas.

Apply a median filter. Go to Adjust/Add/Remove Noise/Median Filter. Use the default settings and set filter aperture to 7.

Set the layer to Multiply and lower the opacity to 16. Merge visible layers.

Your finished image should look similar to this:

Step 7: Further Enhancement

We can enhance the reflections even more. Create a new layer and choose the brush tool and choose brush 'wavey' from the drop down menu. Settings: size 85, Step 32, Density 100 and Opacity 100, color white. Just make a few random dabs with the brush over the highlights as shown.

When finished placing your highlights set the layer mode to Dodge and lower the opacity to 12 to 16%.

Dodge opacity set to 12%.

Step 8: Optional Effects

You can also extend the reflection into the pupil area and it will give the iris a more glassy effect. You can do this by adding a new layer. Make the shapes with the selection tool as shown. Flood-fill the shapes with same gradient as before and use the eraser tool to blend. Merge Visible.

Try this as well:

Colorize the image Adjust/Hue Saturation/Colorize with these settings:

Hue 25 Saturation 140 to 178.

Duplicate the layer and choose multiply with opacity set at 34%.

Duplicate this layer and set it to Overlay at 50%. Merge all visible layers.

The image below shows the extended reflection as well as some added color placed randomly with the wavey brush as in Step 8 on a new layer set to overlay. Lower opacity as needed.

And lastly here is one more iris with the use of one of my paintings for a reflection. To accomplish this just use the same techniques as outlined in Step 5 but instead of using a gradient flood fill you would simply cut and paste your image into the shapes and continue with the tutorial from there.

Congratulations you have completed part 2 of Nature's Iris! :o)

Tutorial by Debbie Overstreet ~Samanthie' 2006

Painted Portrait Background

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Painted Portrait Background

Author: beckyh2112

Tools Needed

Paint Shop Pro 7

Introduction

So, after setting up a lovely portrait render, you come to the conclusion that you don't have an appropriate background against which to set your portrait. Since this is a portrait, you may not be overly worried about a realistic background. You just want something that will look good.

Here's a step-by-step method for creating a colorful background for use in DAZ Studio.

Warning: This tutorial happily uses layers and masks. If you have mental blocks with creating new layers and turning their visibility on and off, this may not be the tutorial for you.

Step 1 - Setting Up Your Layers

Figure out what size your rendered picture is going to be. It is important that you know exactly what size the final rendered image will be before you start working in your graphics program, because that is what prevents it from being rendered all pixelated. Fortunately, DAZ Studio's render options will tell you exactly what size you're rendering to.

Go to your graphics program of choice. I am using Paint Shop Pro 7, but this should be easily translateable to other versions and programs. Open up a new file with the size that your rendered image will be. (900×1041 in the case of my example image.)

Create four new raster layers on top of your Background layer. The bottom three (including the Background) will be your color layers, and the top two will be the basis for your masks.

Here's a screenshot of my labelled Layer palette for reference. (Note: This screenshot was made with the masks already in place. That's why two layers have little theater mask icons.)

Step 2 - Adding Colors

Now's the time to choose your palette. I'm working with some light, cool colors - green, blue, and yellow.

Turn off the visibility of all but the Background layer, then flood-fill the Background layer with your color of choice. I am using a green at R 192, G 255, B 192.

Turn on the visibility to the layer above the Background layer and flood-fill it with your color of choice. I am using a blue at R 128, G 128, B 255.

Now turn on the visibility of the layer above the Blue layer and flood-fill it with your color of choice. I am using a yellow at R 255, G 255, B 192.

After all that, turn on the visibility to the layer above the Green layer and flood-fill it with solid black. This is where we start working with the masks.

Step 3 - The First Mask

Masks are transparency maps that are applied to a 2D image - even the colors are the same. Black is transparent, white is opaque, grey is in-between.

Change your foreground color to white and get out your paintbrush tool. Unleash your creativity on the canvass however you like, so long as some of the black background is still visible, and you only use white and shades of grey. I just speckled the thing with different designs from my brush collection.

When you're finished decorating, select your Yellow layer, WITHOUT turning off the visibility to the mask layer. Then go up to your menubar and go to Masks > New > From Image. Leave it on the default settings, as pictured.

After you've created your mask, make sure the mask is applied to the Yellow layer, then turn off the visibility to your Mask layer.

Step 4 - The Second Mask

Turn on the visibility to the topmost layer and flood-fill it with white. Set your foreground color to black, and color this one to suit you. Again, I used my brush collection.

Yes, we are reversing the masking effect. Instead of creating a little bit of opaque stuff in a sea of transparency, we're creating some transparency in a sea of opaqueness. This tutorial doesn't hinge on doing that, but it's a trick I like.

When you're finished decorating, select your Blue layer, WITHOUT turning off the visibility to the mask layer. Then go up to your menubar and go to Masks > New > From Image. Leave it on the above-pictured default settings.

After you've created your mask, make sure the mask if applied to the Blue layer, then turn off the visibility to your Mask layer.

This completes the masking. If you aren't happy with a given layer's mask, delete it and make another one.

Step 5 - Setting Up for the Special Effects

Assuming you're happy with your masks, now we're going to try some fun stuff.

I trust you've been saving your file as you go along, but if you haven't, now's a good time to do so.

When you're done with your save, go to the menubar and Edit > Copy Merged. This will copy your visible layers and merge them together so, when you do Edit > Paste > Paste as New Layer, you get all of your work in one nice, easy-to-manipulate layer.

Now, turn off the visibility to all but your new merged layer. You can even delete the non-merged layers if you want, but I like to keep them around.

Step 6 - Blurring

Time to hit the Effects menu.

The first three effects to use are found under the Blur sub-menu: Soften, Blur, and Blur More, in that order. Since they don't require any user input, there's not much else I can tell you about them.

Next up is also under the Blur sub-menu: Gaussian Blur with a radius of 10.00. You can adjust that number as you like, but the higher the radius, the less distinct the different color patches are. In fact, if you go high enough, it just melds into one color.

Step 7 - Geometric Effects

Next up is under the Geometric Effects sub-menu. Do a Twirl at -85 degrees. Again, this is entirely adjustable - use your little eye icon to see how it looks on the image.

I then did a CurlyQs with the following settings.

Grid Settings

Columns 10

Rows 10

Symmetric

CurlyQ Settings

Size 100%

Strength 15

Clockwise

Next up is a Ripple with these settings.

Amplitude 13

Wavelength 56

Horizontal Center 45

Vertical Center 52

Finishing off the Geometric Effects are two items that I further added to mix up the colors. The first is another Twirl, this one at -150. Following that is a Spiky Halo with these settings.

Source Settings

Horizontal Offset 50

Vertical Offset 45

Radius 50

Ray Settings

Amplitude 50

Frequency 20

Step 8 - Artistic Effects and Wrap Up

After you're done with your Geometric Effects, hit the Artistic Effects sub-menu and the Brush Strokes option. I used the following settings, but this is once again something you should experiment with.

Strokes

Length 10

Density 25

Brush

Bristles 160

Width 5

Opacity 30

Softness 20

Lighting

Angle 102

Color

R 80

G 80

B 80

—

And there you have it! Save as a jpeg and apply it as a backdrop to your DAZ Studio render. Thanks to it being the same size as your proposed render, it should not pixellate, so no one misses out on your hard work.

RED-BLUE 3D Images

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

RED-BLUE 3D Images

Author: White Knight

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Bryce

Red-Blue Glasses

Support Files

women3h-l.zip

women3h-r.zip

Introduction

You will need a pair of RED-BLUE lens glasses to view the Images created by this process.

Here is the URL for a good Quality set of Glasses

3D Glasses

Create a scene in Bryce, or your Favorite rendering program.

Get a good Camera Position and save it using one of the Camera Dots.

Render this image and save it as RightEye.

Open the Camera Control and change the camera Settings.

Adjust the X position more Positive (.1 to 2.0 ) depends on distance from the subject

Save this camera Position to a camera Dot

Render this Image and save it as LeftEye.

By shifting the Camera position along the X axis, you have created slight change in the Camera location and also the perspective of the Image.

These two perspectives will be used as the right eye view, and the left eye view, and combined into or 3D Red-Blue image as described in the Photo Shop portion below.

You will need a pair of RED-BLUE lens glasses to view the Images created by this process.

RED Lens over the Left Eye, and BLUE Lens over the Right Eye.

Two Support Files, One is the Left Eye image, and the other is the Right Eye image

Step 1 - Create and Render a Left Eye View and Right Eye View

Open Photoshop.

Image Mode must be RGB For this to work.

(note: Not all color images will work. Gray Scale Images work Best)

(Convert each image to grayscale, then convert back to RGB, the image will still be shades of Gray, but there will be Separate Red, Green and Blue Channels to work with.)

Open the Left and Right Images.

Select the Left Image, Copy the Whole Image.

Open a New Image.

Switch to the default colors for Foreground and Background (black / white)

Paste the Copy of the Left image into Layer 1 of the New Image.

Close the Left image.

Select the Right Image, Copy the Whole Image.

Paste the Copy of the Right image into Layer 2 of the New Image.

Close the Right image.

Select Layer 1 or the Left Image.

Step 2 - Make the Left Eye Image RED

Layer 1 is selected.

Layer 2 is turned off.

Then the Channel Pallet is selected.

The RED Channel is then selected.

Ctrl-A to select the whole Channel, then press Delete.

(note: the Default Foregraound and Background colors must be set to Black and White for this to work)

The RED Channel of the Left Image is Erased (filled with White), Leaving only the Blue and Green Channels intact.

Now Select the RGB channel. This Image should be very Red.

Then go back to the Layers Pallet.

Step 3 - Make the Right Eye IMage BLUE

Layer 2 is selected.

Layer 1 is Hidden.

The Select the Channels Pallet.

Select the Blue Channel and Erase or Fill it with White.

Select the Green Channel and Erase or Fill it with White.

This leavs only the RED channel intact.

Now Select the RGB channel. This Image should be very Blue-Green.

Select the Layers Channel Again.

Step 4 - Multiply, Multiply, Multiply....

Un-Hide Layer 1, but make Sure Layer 2 is currently selected.

Change the Blending Mode of Layer 2 to MULTIPLY. This will combine the Red and Blue Images.

Now is the Time to Put on your RED-BLUE Glasses.

RED Lense over the LEFT eye, BLUE Lens over the RIGHT eye.

You Should now See your 3D image pop out at you.

We will now fix and adjust the image in the next step.

Step 5 - Fix and Adjust - It

When you View the Image with the Red Blue glasses, each eye will only see the filtered image for that eye, creating the effect of 3D.

If the Camera Position was shifted too far along the X Axis when the images were rendered, then the Separation between the RED and BLUE images Might be too Great, Causing Eye Strain to see the 3D effect.

This is Fixed very easily, by Selecting either Layer 1 or Layer 2, and then using the Nudge Tool.

Nudge the Whole layer Left or Right to Decrease the Amount of Separation.

This adjustment is best Done While Wearing your Red-Blue Glasses, so you can tell when the 3D effect POPS into View.

Once you are Happy with the 3D effect, you can Flatten the Image, Crop it to Remove any Blue or Red Fringes on the Sides, and then Save it.

Important: Only Nudge or shift to the LEFT or RIGHT, Never Nudge or Shift UP and DOWN.

Step 6 - The Finished 3D Image

The Whole 3D effect is Controlled by the Amount of Shift Left or Right between the Red and Blue images.

The More the RED is shifted to the Left, the More the Image will Seem to Jump Off of the Screen, or the closer to you it will appear.

The More the RED is shifted to the Right, the More the Image will Seem to Sink into the Screen , or the Further away from you it will appear.

Most 3D effects are best viewed when the red is left shifted so the image appears to pop out from the screen.

Step 7 - 3D Primer

A brief primer on how the RED-BLUE process works.

Our Brain Processes Two Separate Images, one from Each Eye, to Give us Depth Perception. If you Focus on a Point on a Wall or an Object, and then Close one eye, and then Open and Close the Other Eye, the Image you See will seem to Shift slightly from Left to Right. This is because Each Eye, has a slightly different Line of Sight to the Object.

Eyes are spaced 2 to 3 inches apart. If you draw a straight line from each eye to the object you are focusing on, there will be two different Paths, or Lines of sight to that object.

Now Pretend to Place a flat Screen between you and the Object. The Lines of Sight from each Eye will Intersect this Flat Screen at Two Different Points. If we Color the Left Eye's Point Red, and we Color the Right Eye's Point Blue, we will Have a Separate RED and BLUE Point, for any given Focus Point in our Line of Sight.

If we are to Move or Scan our Line of Sight in a Horizontal Line from one side of the Screen to the Other, and Create a MAP of all of the RED and BLUE Points, we would have a single SCAN LINE for our Image.

Areas where the RED and BLUE colors intersect or overlap, must be Blended. The exact Shade or intensity of RED and BLUE is determined by the Color of the Focus Point, or the Shade of Gray of the Focus Point.

Repeat this same Horizontal Scan Process for each Vertical step, in our image, and we can combine all of these Horizontal Scan Lines into one Image.

This is the Reason why, we can only Shift the RED and BLUE separation Left or Right. We are only changing the Horizontal Scan Line. If we shifted the RED and BLUE up or Down, we would Distort the Image beyond recognition. Not to mention give our self a Headache. The same thing happens if the Amount of separation becomes to great.

Our eyes try to Cross Focus, and can cause a headache.

See the Sample Drawing for a Visual diagram of the Above description.

In the Diagram, the Separation has be greatly exaggerated, the red lines show the left eye line of sight, and the blue lines show the right eye line of sight.

Warped Speed Effect

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Warped Speed Effect

Author: Yofiel

Tools Needed

Photoshop

Introduction

One of the easy ways that I have learn to create Warp Speed Effect using Photoshop.

Step 1 - Make a New Document

Start a new document any size you want or you can choose your own size, doesn't matter, just make it big. Now press 'D' to reset the palette colours.

Step 2 - Add Clouds

Go to Filter > Render > Clouds

Step 3 - Add Mezzotint

Go to Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint

Set the Type to Medium Lines and click OK

Step 4 - Add Radial Blur

Go to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur

Set the Amount: to 80 > Blur Method: to Zoom A > Quality: Best and click OK

Step 5 - Give it some Color

Now add color, do this quickly by pressing Ctrl+U, Check Colorize and set your colors to what I have here or to your own style Have FUN

Animated Waves

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Animated Waves

Author: Phoul

Tools Needed

Vue 4 Professional

Support Files

Fake_Waves_QT.zip

Clouds_1024.zip

Introduction

I will show you how to animate big 'fake' waves (like in storm) with Vue 4 Professional (could also work in Vue d'Esprit 4 with Mover 4). And it will not be animated material.

Note: here the final shot's length will be only 8 seconds.

Step 1 - A scene with fog !

Create a new file. Select the atmosphere called Thick Fog in the Daytime collection.

Step 2 - A terrain will be our waves !

Create a new Terrain. Size: 1024 x 1024. Do not close the terrain Editor yet.

Click on Iceberg. Then click on Picture.

In Import Terrain Data load the file called Clouds_1024.JPG (to download that file, please see above the SUPPORT FILES link); that picture was created in Photoshop (filter > clouds). Close the Import Terrain Data: click OK. Close the Terrain editor with another OK.

Step 3 - Terrain scaled !

The terrain is selected. In the Numerics tab, change the terrain's sizes to: X=7000, Y=7000, Z=300.

Step 4 - Load a material !

Now load a material for the terrain: Foamy Water in the Liquids collection. In the material Editor, check the Mapping.

World-Standard must be selected (that's very important!).

Scale the Material to 7.

Step 5 - Check the Camera !

Select the main Camera. Go to the Numerics tab. Enter the new position : X=2500, Y=-2500, Z=500.

Then, change the orientation with new parameters: Pitch=115, Yaw=0, Roll=225.

Step 6 - Time !

The Main Camera is always selected. Go to the Animation tab, and in Motion, select Standard. If the Mover Assistant is opening, please close it (Alt+F4).

The Timeline is now opened, and the camera appears in it. Move the cursor to 8 seconds. The camera is selected; with your keyboard: one click to up, then one click to down, so a new key position is added.

Step 7 - The terrain is moving !

In Timeline, back to start: 0.

Select the terrain. Go to the Animation tab, and in Motion, select Standard. If the Mover Assistant is opening, please close it (Alt+F4).

Open the Animation Toolbox. Check Spin. In Overall revolving speed enter: 5 degrees. Select Z axis for the Revolution Axis. Then click Ok.

Step 8 - Preview and render.

That's all! Launch a preview. As you see the center of the terrain is lost in fog. The liquid material is not mapped to the terrain, but to the world, so it is automatically animated. That's work.

Philippe Bouyer

Creating Your Own Personal Atmosphere in Vue d Esprit

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating Your Own Personal Atmosphere in Vue d Esprit

Author: Sacred Rose

Tools Needed

Vue d Esprit

Introduction

In this tutorial, Sacred Rose will take you step by step through Vue d\'Esprit in the creation of your own personal atmosphere.

Step 1 - Light and Color

Create a new scene and load atmosphere.

NOTE: We are creating this atmosphere from entirely without using any preset elements or settings, so make sure you load the null atmosphere - located in your 'Others' atmosphere collection. This atmosphere has no presets, giving you a blank canvas to begin your original creation.

TIP: All of your materials, atmospheres, textures, models, filters, functions and scenes are maintained in directory locations. When you create your own, it is a good idea to give a small description of the creation. This will help you later on when you are searching for a certain file that is capable of doing XYZ. (XYZ being the task or effect that you need the file to do) If you look at the diagram below you will see the title of the Atmosphere and you will see a description of it. To the side of the multiple thumbnails you will see your 'Available collections'. Every directory that you access within Vue is referred to as a 'collection'. You can add single files to your collections, or you can add complete folders. You can also delete folders. ( to do this use the 'New' 'Del' or 'File' buttons)

F4 is the keyboard hotkey to access your Atmosphere Editor. Alternatively you can go to your top program menu, select Atmosphere, holding your mouse to open the pull down menu, select to edit your atmosphere.

Under the 'Sun' tab, right mouse click on the sun colour and 'Load Colour Map'. This will take you to your Colour Map Collections. Browse through and select one of your choice. In this case I have loaded the red to black colour map.

TIP: Do NOT limit yourself to the Sky Colour Maps, you can choose any colour map at all, and create your atmosphere around it. You can even create your own colour maps by editing any existent colour maps.

Adjust your Azimuth and Pitch, the 'Size of your sun' and 'Sun light masked by clouds' sliders to suit. You can also choose between 'Volumetric atmosphere model' or 'Standard atmosphere model'. For this tutorial I have chosen to create a standard one.

Moving on to the 'Light' tab, change your light colour, ambient colour, exposure, light balance, ambient light. Choose to apply these settings 'to all lights' or 'only to sunlight'. Decide whether you want Auto decay on the sunlight, and if so then choose your light decay colour (you can load a colour map if you prefer by right clicking and selecting load colour map), and the amount of decay as well as the rate it will decay at. In my atmosphere I have selected 'only to sunlight' and no Auto decay sunlight.

Moving on to the 'Sky' tab. Right mouse click on your sky map colour and load the same colour map that you loaded under your 'Sun' tab.

In my case it is the red to black colour map.

Change the position of your colour map in relation to the sky dome, sun distortion rate, and your fog thickness and maximum altitude levels accordingly.

Step 2 - Clouds

Under your 'Clouds' tab, select to 'Add layer'. This will add a cloud layer to your atmosphere.

TIP: When you click on your cloud image, you can load a preset cloud material found inside your various Cloud collections. You do NOT have to accept the default cloud that loads when you add a new layer.

Right mouse click on the cloud layer image and edit layer, then change colour map to your desired colour by selecting the colour and right mouse clicking on it to load or edit you Colour Map.

Add another cloud layer in your atmosphere editor. Edit the colour or type of cloud as you desire. This time I have chosen a cumulus cloud layer.

Edit your new cloud layer's settings for altitude, thickness, exposure, contrast, illumination, proximity to the sun, level of cover and the density to suit your needs.

TIP: Every setting is customisable, either right mouse click on a colour or image or move sliders, or type in a numeric value. If a setting is greyed out, and it has a little box under the label with options near it, you can click inside that little box to open those options for you. So if you don't see a slider, try to right mouse click on the item (or colour), it will probably give u a pull down menu of options.

Add another cloud layer. Edit your layer to load a cloud material (right mouse click on picture and load/change material) Edit your new layer's settings to suit your needs.

I selected an Alto Stratus cloud material… and I edited it's procedural colour map.

Step 3 - Fog and Haze

Time to edit 'Fog and Haze' settings next

Change the colour of the fog and the haze to suit your desired effects. Change the density, altitude, fog accumulation effects and falloff settings as needed.

Under you 'Effects' tab, edit your lens flare settings for direction lights and point lights.

Edit your directional lights first, and ensure you alter the settings to suit you. The settings are totally customisable; there are no hard and fast rules on how they should be. Only YOU can decide what you want, and make changes accordingly. That includes the colours and the intensity. (everything is editable)

Edit your point light settings and don't forget to edit the colours as well.

Step 4 - Wrap Up

Save your atmosphere. There are two ways to do this. You can click on the little floppy drive icon at the bottom of your atmosphere editor. or you can click the OK icon to accept your changes and then go back to your menu on the top of the screen. Select Atmosphere, and scroll down to Save Atmosphere. You will be asked to give your atmosphere a name.

TIP: There is provision when saving the atmosphere to give it your very own file name and include a file description. Take advantage of this opportunity by describing the atmosphere and make sure you include any 'special' qualities it may have. This will also be advantageous if you decide to share any of your creations at a later stage.

Almost there. After saving your atmosphere, Vue will give you the following message.

Voila! Your very own atmosphere is complete.

To start use your new atmosphere in a scene

Load a 'New' scene. It will ask you to load an atmosphere. Scroll through your atmosphere collections. You will see your new atmosphere amongst these collections. It will probably be in your 'Personal' atmosphere collection, if you have not changed the default saving path.

NOTE: When you select your atmosphere, you will see the description you gave it right next to the thumbnail. Makes you feel good knowing you created your own.

Here we have our personalized sunset in action :)

The beauty of creating your own atmosphere's is that you can personalize your own scenes, thus making them unique :)

Anything that can be edited is a wonderful opportunity. When editing clouds you can edit the procedural colours, you can also opt to import a mapped image instead of using a procedural colour. This can result in creating your very own, very unusual cloud layer. Try importing a small fractal in place of a conventional cloud procedural colour. You will be delighted with the effects. If at any stage of your creation, you decide you don't like the overall effect, go back and change it. Re-edit the atmosphere and change things around. Add more cloud layers, delete cloud layers; change your colour maps, sunlight colour maps. Edit as many times as you need to, to get the effect that you are happy with. Always remember to SAVE.

Creating a Forest in Vue d Esprit

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a Forest in Vue d Esprit

Author: Sacred Rose

Tools Needed

Vue d' Esprit

Introduction

In this tutorial, Sacred Rose will take you step by step through Vue d\'Esprit in the creation of a forest.

Step 1 - Laying Down the Ground Work

Start by going into Photoshop or Paintshop Pro and creating a 512×512 image, filled with pure solid black. With a large brush, draw a ridged circle in the centre of the image in pure white. Make sure this circle is completely filled in. Save this image as a bitmap and put it aside for use later on.

Open a new Vue scene, select an atmosphere (I like to start of with nice sun lit one so that I can see what I am doing).

Create a terrain. (you will need 4 terrains in total). Right click to edit the terrain. In your terrain editor, adjust your terrain by editing filters for height, type of terrain you want, etc to suit your scene. Go to your front view (lower LH side of your screen) and reselect your terrain. A blue box marks the current active window (view) you are working in. You need to edit the height of the terrain (using the stretch handles), to make it slightly lower…this is a front ground terrain. After editing your terrain to get the desired shape, you will then edit the texture.

HINT: Forest floors are never one texture only. They are usually a combination of textures. These can be a mixture of grass, dirt, twigs or bracken etc.

We will be aiming to create an similar type of ground texture.

By default you will get a flat sand texture. Right click on the texture image to edit the texture and create a new one or load your desired texture from one of your material collections. I use a lot of jpegs, but if you prefer, you can use procedural textures instead.

Note: If I have used a jpg for the texture, I will use the same jpg for the bump map as well.

Edit the bump map settings (right click on the bump image to edit) and choose mapped values, then select mapped picture - load the jpg as the bump and adjust the values and strengths of the bump accordingly

Once I have set up my first texture the way I want it, I reselect my texture and right click to edit it again. I then change the material type from Simple materials to Mix materials.

(remember we are trying to get a similar texture to one we might find on a forest floor)

The second material I load is the procedural grass material (found in your landscape texture collection). The most important thing here is to adjust the influence the environment has on the material texture mix.

Note: The environmental influence will determine how your texture is applied. Whether you will see your second material on flat areas or on slopes; whether the slopes will be affected by the orientation or the altitude of the object; whether it will be affected by the position of the object within your (world) scene or simply by the object itself.

Note: In previous tutorials I discussed layering; this is the effect we are aiming for. Each terrain shall overlap the previous one marginally. It will give them an interlaced effect, and stop them looking man made, which unfortunately, is one of the common mistakes some computer graphic artists make. Nothing is more off putting than a dead flat terrain, except maybe a dead flat terrain in front of a structure like a open temple of some sort, in front of another dead flat terrain, in front of a tall mountain terrain. In this scenario all u see is flat, structure, flat, tall lumps. If u take a look at a scenic view with mountains in it, you will see that the terrains will not be totally flat. If you walked towards the mountains, you would see that there are varying heights and levels of terrains, leading up to the mountains themselves.

Create your subsequent terrains. Make sure that you edit each terrain to ensure that they are all slightly different from each other. Edit the height of each terrain as well. (this will help *add* realism to your scene) We want a low terrain for positioning in front of the camera, and the rest of the terrains will layer the view and give u a sense of depth. The final terrain will be used to hide the horizon, and to block any excessive sky patches creeping into your scene, should you have missed a few spots. For this type of forest scene, we do not want patches of light coming through the back of the scene.

HINT: If you leave these visible sky patches and extend your terrains, forest plants and trees, and positioned them substantially further from the camera, you will give your scene a greater illusion of DOV (D.O.V. = Depth of View). However, in order to make that more credible, you will have to add LOTS more vegetation, and terrains. *think distant mountains here and the paths you would find in your quest to reach them

Label each terrain so that you know which one sits in which position in your scene.

example: My main terrain (closest to my camera) was called front terrain, the next one was middle terrain (slightly taller), the next one after that was called distant terrain, and last one (furthest away from the camera and the tallest terrain of all) I called Mountain terrain.

Group your terrains and name the group. I called mine ForestBase.

Create another terrain, and right click to edit it. In the terrain editor select picture and load the black and white image you created earlier in Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. Move the slider to 100% of picture and then select OK to accept.

Step 2 - Adding Vegetation

Clip your newly created terrain to get rid of the square edges as desired, then select OK to accept your editing. This new terrain is going to be a large forest tree trunk.

HINT: You can also use this new terrain as tree stump. *Simply export the terrain and run it trough UV Mapper to give you a texture template*

Note: The forest we are creating today is going to be more of a illusion that borders on realism rather than a realistic forest. Therefore DOV is not part of our aim.

After you have accepted your changes to the new terrain, you go into your front view and enlarge the height of the terrain to make it look more like a tall tree trunk. [see Figure 1]

Your main camera view should look like this [see Figure 2]

HINT: If you select your camera and look at your top view, you will see a two dotted lines on either side of the camera. (shown below in yellow) Everything you put between these two lines will be visible. Unless you are overlapping your models along the lines themselves, everything outside these lines is a waste of system resources, as they will not be seen in the final rendered image.

You edit the material of the trunk terrain to load your favourite bark texture. I like coarse, thick bark textures, and as such I usually use a photo of a really old tree trunk.

Note: Pay attention to the orientation of your texture The terrain is torical or cylindrical, so these are the best mapping modes to choose for the texture application.

Remember to use the same texture as the bump, and scale it accordingly etc.

Name your terrain and move it into the second layer in your world browser. I called mine tree trunk. I duplicate this trunk (terrain) twice, and strategically positioned it in inside my camera view, trying to keep in mind some kind of balance for the camera view.

I grouped my three tree trunks (terrains) and named the group. I called mine large tree trunks

Load some Plum trees - I loaded 6 of them. Load some maple trees (approximately three) and various other vegetation which can be found in a forest. (I did this to increase the realism factor, and give an illusion of forest density, filled with diverse plant samples for variety. Also to create a sense of lushness)

I ended up with groups of plum trees, maple trees, aucubas, monsteras, ferns, and scheffleras. (approximately 4-6 plants in each group)

HINT: In nature no two plants are ever exactly the same in every respect. Therefore make sure each one (regardless of genre) is slightly different from the other in orientation, height, width and girth. Use your stretch, scale and rotation handles to achieve this.

HINT: Use some of the trees as bushes at various points of your scene, you will have to drop the trunk below ground (It adds to the illusion)

Note: Do not forget to rotate each plant in a different direction; change their size, their position and their height; make some lean to their sides/back/forward etc. (Forest plants rarely grow straight up).

Keep an eye on your main camera view window (bottom RH side of your screen). Position your extra vegetation around the scene so that there are no massive gaps or bald spots in your immediate main camera view.

You are aiming for density and lushness **crowd that rear view**

Step 3 - Secret Fertilizer Ingredients

Here is one of my secret ingredients.

Create a box. Make sure you scale the box large enough to cover the entire scene but scale the depth of the box to less than half an inch in thickness. Position this box halfway up the tree trunks.

Note: You should NOT be able to see the box in your main camera view!

You have texture the box. Edit the current texture (right click on the image), choose mapped values, select mapped image, load a picture of Ivy or something similar (your texture needs to be foliage with gaps in it), failing this you can try using some of the leaf mats in your plant collection.

The most important thing about this box is it's texture and it's transparency. Load the same Ivy or image you used to texture your box, as your transparency map. You want to filter the light through the Ivy. (like a light gel) **This is why we need a texture of foliage with gaps in it**

To do this you go to your transparency tab; select 100% transparency; select underlying material; right click to edit the transparency picture; choose mapped values; mapped picture; load the same image you used to texture your box with (you can also invert it to change the overall effect). Voil' Instant Transparency map. Play with your fade in, fade out settings and your highlights, etc.

This will be your forest canopy. It will affect the way the sunlight shines through to the vegetation below, and it will give you some lovely leafy shadows from the light source itself. Rename your box and call it canopy.

Second secret ingredient.

Load a Winter Pear tree. Position it so that the camera is peering through the branches.

Note: Doing this will add to the forest illusion, and will give viewer the feeling that they are peeking through the undergrowth into your scene.

You may have to play with the orientation, or the size of the Winter Pear tree, but once you have it positioned correctly around the camera, you will see how effective it can be.

In essence the winter pear is going to be a frame for your camera to sit in and look through

I chose the Winter Pear because it has fine branches and small leaves that look like they have tiny little white flowers. If you don't have a Winter Pear tree, do not panic. Choose another tree with fine leaves and branches. The tree (branches) have to be above, below, and on both sides of the camera. You should be able to see the branches in your camera view, however, they should not be so dense that your view of the scene is obstructed.

We are almost home.

Note: We have previously discussed the benefits of grouping and layering in terms of why we do it, and the benefits associated with this.

Step 4 - Wrap Up

To recap this discussion:

We group to tidy up our work area; to keep control over our elements, and to help the render engine when it comes time to render the scene. It is far easier to render 6 plum trees at the same time, in the same render pass, than to render 2 plum trees, one pear tree, 3 monsteras, 2 plum trees again. To render 2 plum trees, the render engine needs to find the trunk texture, the leaf texture and the trans map for the plum tree (twice), then it has to find the pear trunk, leaf, trans map, then the same for the monsteras (3 times). You are now asking it to go back and re locate the trunk texture, leaf texture and trans map for the two extra plums (two more times). This is a total waste of system resources.

Now we make sure that we are all cleaned up and organized. Items are grouped and named and put into appropriate layers.

We load our atmosphere of choice, and add any lights we may need to change the mood. Lighting in deep forests is usually green because of the overhead canopy and foliage. You may need to add some extra lights if the atmosphere you choose makes your scene too dark..

HINT: I like to add a spotlight above my camera, pointing into the scene, set at approximately 600% intensity. I edit the colour of my light/s to green (multiple lights mean varying shades of green); edit the lens flare settings and add light gels (depending on the atmosphere I am using)

I type F7 to give me to a large version of my main camera screen and do a quick preview render (a lot easier on the eyes using a bigger view). This larger window helps me check for any bare patches, or any holes in the scene along the edges of the camera view that I could have missed if I had used the smaller window instead.

If you have any holes, open up your various plant groups, and move plants accordingly to plug up the holes.

HINT: Moving the plants one by one will give you more control, if you keep your eye on the main camera view whilst moving them in the top view. It let's you see where you need to put them. You may need to adjust the height of the plants or their width or even their position in the scene to close any visible gaps.

You will be able to see the effect of your changes in real time, as the preview window self updates.

Adjust your atmosphere or lights for the last time. Adjust your camera angle as required.

Ask yourself one last thing:

What sets your scene above the rest?

The Answer: The finishing touches.

The attention to detail. The little extra's to make the scene complete. Be they flowers, weeds, fungi, a little insect, it could even be a little white rabbit with a pocket watch. This little extra will add the WOW factor to your scene.

Once you add your WOW factor ingredient, and you are happy to roll….. SAVE the scene.

XTRA IMPORTANT INFO

Even though I have not told you throughout this tutorial to save, you should already KNOW that you need to save often, and various intervals. This NEEDS to become second nature. Nothing hurts more than to spend hrs/days on a scene only to suffer a power failure or a crash, resulting in you losing it because u forgot to save the scene or the changes.

SO…….

SAVE, SAVE, SAVE, and then………………………….Render the baby.

Here is a quick preview of what your new forest scene looks like. Hopefully yours will be better!!

This is a similar forest scene, using the above method, LIVE in action.

The stunning Avros by Styxx of Electronica Fashions lends herself beautifully to completing the illusion.

How to create Flying Wet Sand in Vue d Esprit

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

How to create Flying Wet Sand in Vue d Esprit

Author: Anonymous

Tools Needed

Vue d'Esprit

Introduction

Flying sand, and particles in general greatly enhance motion and drama in your scenes. Explore in this tutorial and learn how to get the most of this effect

Step 1 - Create a Scene

Create a terrain and right mouse click to edit the terrain.

Clip your terrain in the terrain editor to get rid of the square edges.

Right mouse click to edit the texture (you will see it is a mixture of two materials). Edit the wet sand ripple part of the texture. (I want to remove the ripples - personal choice here)

Step 2 - Working with Simple Materials

To remove the ripples, hit the swap button on the editor, then go to the top and select 'Simple materials', that will remove the second material (the rippled part).

After removing the ripples you are left with this texture.

Step 3 - Resizing Terrain

Resize your terrain, by reducing its scale, but make sure you scale it from length and width as well as overall (use your stretch handles to scale it). You want a very small landmass here for the end result.

Right mouse click on the terrain in the 'World Browser' located under the preview window and name it. I named mine-wet sand.

Tip: At this point in time, I would advise you to give your scene a name and save it. Get used to saving scenes, and naming your objects. It saves confusion and keeps you organized.

Put your terrain aside and create a sphere. Resize the sphere, and duplicate it. Ctrl + D.

Tip: I prefer to duplicate rather than copy and paste. This is less time consuming, and also for some unknown reason, does not clutter up your clipboard as much. Don't ask me why, it just does.

Continue duplicating and resizing each sphere until you end up with approximately 7 sphere's of varying sizes and position them in alternating positions that looks similar to a group of rain drops.

Step 4 - Selecting and Grouping

Select all of your spheres by selecting the first one and then holding down the shift key to selecting the rest.

So…you have them all selected, you right mouse click and choose 'Group objects'. Then you double click on the group and enter your new name for the group. I called mine flying sand.

Step 5 - Positioning and Scaling

Now select your flying sand and duplicate it, rescaling the group and changing the position (the angle and rotation direction) I prefer to duplicate the flying sand group 3 times, so that I end up with four groups in total. But this is a personal choice only.

Step 6 -

This is roughly what your new group (flying wet sand) will look like. This may look weird at the moment, but scaled down and placed at a distance, the sand will indeed look like its flying off.

From here you can duplicate the group and please, remember to rescale, change the orientation, and direction of each group for realism.

This is the flying wet sand in a completed scene :)

There are many ways to do flying sand. You can chop and change elements, textures, steps etc, to suit your project.

Instead of creating spheres, you could paint your terrain with dots (terrain editor reset and then the brush tool set on raise); if you are using Vue 4 you can create that terrain as a symmetrical lattice, thereby giving your terrain a roundness (two equal sides); you can go into a 2D image editor and simply paint some dots on a white square with pure black, with varying sizes, arranged in the same way you think wet stuff would look like, then invert it and import the image so that the terrain editor creates the terrain like your image.

There are a lot of options. The bottom line is that you need to play. You need to tweak and organize your stuff the way you want it, after all it is your scene, and it needs to please you. This tutorial is merely a guideline, from here on out; you can adapt it to suit you in any way you like, as long as it works for you.

Map-Based Materials in Vue d Esprit

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Map-Based Materials in Vue d Esprit

Author: Canary

Tools Needed

Poser

Steve Cox

Support Files

None Needed

Introduction

Mary brings us a detailed walk through for exporting a figure and its clothing from Poser and importing it into Vue d\'Esprit for texturing and rendering.

Step 1 - How to Export From Poser

a. Pose your figure and get everything just the way you like it. For this exercise we'll be using a figure with separate clothing and hair. I'm using Victoria with Steve Burton's sweater set, the gel hair, and the boots from the clothing pack, but you can adapt these instructions for the p3 or p4 woman wearing whatever you like. If you have p3 and can't use conforming clothing, we'll be going over some of the same concepts with a building model of your choice as well.

b. Go to the materials editor and REMOVE all the maps. Just choose “none” and check “apply to entire figure.” Be sure to do this for all the figures in the scene (hair, clothes, etc). Don't worry about material colors but make sure to remove texture, bump and transparency maps.

c. Open the hierarchy editor (under the window menu) and rename each of the figures (s-l-o-w-l-y click 2x on the name) in the scene to something fairly clear. Make sure you give each a unique name (like, don't name both boots “boot, ” name them “Lboot” and “Rboot” or something like that.

d. For this exercise we'll be doing 2 exports: one for the figure and one for the clothes. This is so we can use a UV map on the figure and tiling maps on the clothes. Trust me. Oh, and if you have an imported prop of any kind, export it on its own as well because otherwise it might mess up the mapping of the figure. Don't worry, vue will line them all up automatically import.

e. Go to export and choose “wavefront object.” Even though sometimes the mesh isn't as smooth with this export as it is with 3Ds, obj does a much better job of keeping all the body parts labeled for import. With 3Ds for instance, you cant select Vicky's teeth or a lot of other parts, so we'll stick with obj for now. Uncheck “world” and then check the main figure and the hair figure if you're using poseable hair. I'm using the gel hair which is a smart prop, so it's already part of my main figure. My character, “Thora, ” wears an eyebrow ring but for some reason the poser torus explodes in vue, so I'm unchecking that.

f. Save the figure with a nice long obvious name to your objects directory under the vue d'esprit install dir. In the dialog window, check “include figure names” (the first check box) and leave the rest as the default.

g. Repeat the procedure for all the clothes as a single export.

Step 2 - Using UV Mapper

If you're interested in mapping at all, UV Mapper is an essential tool. It assigns coordinates to a model so that particular places on a texture will “map” to particular places on the model. It can also remove those coordinates, which is essential for some of the vue mapping we're going to be doing. Here's the basics of how to use it.

a. Load a model -

Maximize UV Mapper so you can see the maps properly. It defaults to a teeny-tiny window.

Go to the file menu and choose load object. there are 3 kinds of models: models with no UV mapping, models with clean UV mapping, and models with “out of range” UV mapping. Whichever kind you have (and you won't know until you try opening it) just click OK until you get to the main screen of UV Mapper. If your model has no UV mapping you'll see a message saying it has no UV texture coordinates. If it has good texture coordinates, you'll see what looks like a texture template. If it has out of range coordinates, you'll see a lot of messy black lines.

b. Make a map

If the model already has a good texture map, you can skip to step d if you just need a texture template to paint on. To make a new map, go to the edit menu and choose “New UV Map” and then, if you're a beginner at this, choose “planar.” It's the simplest type of map to work with and understand. If you're feeling adventurous go ahead and try the others and see what you get.

Now you'll have a dialog box asking which axis you want to split the model on, and if it should be horizontal or vertical. This takes some experimentation since different models should be split on different axes. Choose whatever you like and look at the result. If it's what you want, move on to step c; if not, go to “edit/new UV map” again. You can do this as many times as you like with no problems.

c. Save a model -

Ok, now you're ready to save. I do NOT recommend saving over your original model, unless you have a backup of it. (Note: I'm also assuming you're working with exported objs and prop objs rather than poseable poser figs at this point. To remap a poser figure and keep using it in poser, you should learn how to edit CR2 files so you can have multiple objs with different mapping. I would characterize that as “advanced” so won't try to cover it here).

Go to the file menu and choose “save model.” If you are saving a mapped model, leave all the defaults checked.

If you are REMOVING UV mapping for a model, uncheck the “save UV coordinates” box. This will save a stripped-stripped model that will allow you to use tiling textures on it directly in vue.

Give the model a new name and it's all ready for importing

d. Save a map -

If you want a texture template to work with, go to the edit menu, choose “color” and choose “color by material” or “color by group” to see if that gives you a more useful map for that particular model. If it does, leave it set in color and the map will save in color. Go to the file menu and choose “save texture map” and give it an appropriate name and you've created a template.

e. Say “thank you, Steve Cox, for this wonderful free utility!”

There's a lot more to it than that, but that will get you started.

Now that you know how to use UV Mapper, load the obj file of your exported clothes and use it to REMOVE the mapping from the clothes and resave the obj. You can save over your “original” obj in this case because it's just an exported group. Don't noodle around with any of the other settings on the UV Mapper export though! If you don't have a clothes group to use, go ahead and de-UV map a building instead.

Ok, at this point you should have 1. an obj file of an exported poser figure, with its default UV mapping 2. an obj file of a posed/conformed clothing item with the UV mapping removed -or- 3. an obj file of a building (house, castle, etc) with the UV mapping removed.

Step 3 - Create a Vue Material

Yay, freebies! download the texture tiles as you see them in the tutorial here and put them in your vue d'esprit/bitmaps folder. These are free to use in any pictures you like but you may not redistribute them–people will just have to come see this tutorial if they want them!

Now open up vue d'esprit.

We're not importing anything yet! We're just creating material files that we can use over and over in the future. So just load a sphere into the scene.

I don't know what e-on calls this but I call it the OBJECT CONTROL PALETTE. It's VERY important.

And I call this the OBJECT BROWSER. Also very important.

Create the wood material

Double-click on the material preview (the big sphere) in the object control palette. this will take you to the material editor.

Colors: choose mapped values.

Click the “picture” button and browse to the Vue bitmaps folder. Choose woodJPG.

Do not bother changing the picture scale, since this is a tiling pattern.

Type a name, “wood” for instance, in the name slot at the top

Check “object space” and uncheck “cast shadows.” [HM, actually I've been experimenting with this and sometimes you want shadows and sometimes you don't, so try leaving it checked unless you get a funny result.]

DON'T click OK yet! Proceed to the Bump tab.

Bump: right click on the big gray function and choose “edit function.”

In the next window choose “mapped values, ” then click on the “picture”

Browse to the “woodJPG” file. That's right, you can use the same file for bump.

Pretty bumpy huh?

Change the “gain” setting to .1 or even .05 for nice smooth wood flooring type material.

right click on the diagonal gray/white filter and choose “load filter”

browse to “other” and choose the invert filter (not the absolute filter in the picture–sorry!).

This will make the light values raised and the dark values lowered instead of the other way around–for any bumps from poser this step will be very important.

You're not done yet! Go to the highlight tab.

Highlight: set both intensity and size to 50 for a hint of polish without looking wet or plastic-y. Feel free to play around and get a setting you like better.

Nope, don't click okay! One more step for this material:

Saving: Click the SAVE button and save the material into the “material” folder. Name it something reasonable like “wood.”

Ok, now you can click okay and it will apply the material to the sphere.

Create the cobblestone (or yellow brick) material

Double-click on the wood preview again and change the name of the material to “cobblestones.”

Color tab: click picture and choose the cobblestonesJPG image

Bump tab: right click on the function, choose edit function, click picture, choose cobblestonesJPG. right click on the filter, choose load filter, choose high gain 5

Set gain to .05 This will make it a little more bumpy and will make the stones seem to stand out more from the mortar.

Highlight: turn global highlight all the way down

Save: save in the materials folder as “cobblestones”

Create the Fabric Material

this uses all the same steps as the wood and cobblestones, but uses one of these fabric jpegs. the amount of gain on the bump depends on the fabric type–for this chunky weave I use a little bump, but for this blue silk or other smooth fabric I switch bump back to the null function.

Step 4 - Create the Leather Material

Ok, this is a little different. On the color tab, set it to Procedural values. Right click on the gray function ball and choose “edit function.” Set THAT to mapped values and browse to the leatherJPG file. Click OK and go back to the main material screen. right click on the color block and choose “load color map.” Go to the “rocks and grass” library and choose the brown one called “soil.” Later you can experiment with other colors of leather and with making your own color maps but we'll start with that one.

-on the bump tab, load the bump like you did for the cobblestones etc. Set the gain to .05 and set the filter to the “invert” filter. Then on the highlight tab set the intensity to 30 and the dull/shiny value to 20. That should give us a nice leather with a bit of a soft shine to it. Save it as “leather” in the materials folder.

Ok, we'll be doing more with those later.

UV Mapped materials a.k.a. Y-1 materials

Now we need to create materials for normal poser figures. These are all UV mapped so there's an important difference between these and the tiling textures; picture scale Y-1. You'll see where we use this as we go along.

Step 5 - Create the Eyelash Material

Oboy, transparency!

-on the color tab in the material editor, we're going to do something a little different. Choose “procedural values” and right click on the color block. Choose “load color map” and choose the all black map from the browser. (For now our gal is going to wear mascara. Later you can choose other eyelash colors–orange-red for a redhead for example). check “cast shadows” and write the name “black lashes” in the name slot. If you end up with icky spidery shadows you can try it without cast shadows though.

-on the bump tab, leave it at null

-highlight will determine how wet or gooey the lashes look. You decide what you like; I leave it at 0% generally.

-now go to the transparency tab. Oboy, something new!

-set the transparency slider to 100%

-set the fading out slider to “clear”

-double click the blue fade out color to change it to black

-double click the green light color to change it to white

-check the “variable transparency” box and a “transparency production” display will be added.

-right click the gray ball and choose “edit function” (this works similar to bump production)

-change the setting to “mapped values”

-browse to your transparency map for eyelashes and select it

-IMPORTANT!!! set the picture scale setting to “-1” for the Y value only. This is what makes it line up with the figure's UV mapping.

-back in the transparency window, right click on the diagonal filter and choose “load filter”

-browse to the “other” filter library and choose the invert filter.

-now it's all done so SAVE the material as “black lashes” in the materials folder under your vue folder. You know the drill!

Ok, Since Vicky uses separate maps for head and body we need to create 2 materials here; if you're using Posette the procedure is the same but you only need to make one material.

Step 6 - Create the Vicky Head Material

Ok, so by now you're an expert at creating materials, right? So I'll just hit the high spots:

Color: set to mapped values, load your texture map, set picture scale Y to -1. No transparency, no highlight. For bump you can either load a special bump or try loading your main texture map again. Load the inverse filter for the bump to make it come out right, and turn the gain way, way, way, way down. Like to .005 or .001. Make sure “cast shadows” IS checked unless your Vicky is a vampire and doesn't have a shadow. Name it and SAVE IT in the materials folder.

Create Vicky's Body Material or Posette's Material

This uses the exact same steps as Vicky's head. If you start with the head material already made, you just need to swap the pictures from the color and bump; the y-1 setting and gain setting will stay the same and save you a little time. SAVE IT SAVE IT SAVE IT!!!

Create the Hair Material

Vicky's hair uses the same method for transparency as the lashes, but for color and bump it's like the head material. Get it? So you load the picture for mapped value color, set Y-1 for picture scale, load the bump if you've got it, again Y-1 picture scale, set the gain really low, then you set the transparency to 100%, check variable transparency, fix the “murk” colors so they're not blue and green, turn the “murk” all the way down, set the transparency function to mapped values and load the hair trans, set picture scale to Y-1, set your transparency filter to invert, and name and save the .mat file. Easy-peasy.

Whew! That's a lot of materials. now it's time to use them!

Step 7 - Import into Vue

Go to the file menu and choose options. There's an option to “center and resize imported objects.” If you're importing a file you exported from poser, make sure this is NOT checked. Leaving it unchecked means your files will import with the same scale and position they had in your poser scene. If you're importing a downloaded file from 3Dcafe or someplace, you may want to check this, however–I once imported a pipe that was bigger than everything else in my scene put together. Checking this box will size it to fit in the camera's view and save you some trouble. You can switch this back and forth as much as you like; it doesn't need to restart to save your preferences. But as a default I leave this turned OFF since most of my work starts its life in poser.

Once you have that option set appropriately, select an empty layer. Then go to the object menu and choose “import object” and browse to your figure obj. It may take some time to import; don't be impatient! Then do another import object, using a different layer, and bring in the clothes obj. If you unchecked the option above, the figure should now be wearing the clothes.

If you're using an imported building and it comes in at the wrong angle, click to the second tab of the object control palette and then click the second button, to adjust pitch, roll, and yaw. This is just another way of saying y rotate, z rotate, x rotate. Noodle around with it in 90 degree increments until your object is lined up right, then drop it onto the ground with the “drop objects” button. (if it says “nothing to drop object onto” it means it's already on or *in* the ground. You can drag it up in the air and hit the button again to fix this.

Step 8 - Apply Your Vue Materials to a Figure with Clothes

Ok, now's the really easy part because you've already done all the hard work. Hide the layer with the clothes on it and we'll start with the nude figure. Once all the texturing is done you can group the clothes and figure and move them around in your scene together but don't do that yet! Just move the camera around if you can't see your whole figure, and move or delete the ground if her feet are stuck in it.

You should have a big long list at the right of body parts. Click on the name of the obj file to select the whole figure. Then in the object control palette, click the little “load material” button. Browse to the “materials” library and–hey presto! –you should see all the materials you spent all that time saving. Aren't you happy now?

Choose the body material and apply it to everything. (do all your selecting in the browser window, NOT in the camera since that's fairly impossible. Hold down the control key to select more than one part at once) This is a time saver so you don't have to select all the individual body parts. And if you're using Posette, this is all you need to do anyway aside from the lashes!

For Vicky, now select the head and eyes in the browser. Click the load material button and choose the head material.

Now select the eyelashes (you may need to click the + to open up the head) and load the eyelash material.

If your Vicky has her mouth open at all, you need to select the teeth, tongue, and inner mouth from the head browser and re-apply the body material because these are actually mapped on the body texture.

If you use the eyebrow transparency function on Vicky, you would create that material just like the eyelashes and apply it to the “upper eyebrow” head part. I never use this though so I haven't tested it in vue.

For Vicky, open up each eye and select the “eyeball” material. Load the “clear water” material from the liquids library.

Ok, last of all select the hair prop OR the hair figure, and apply your hair material from the materials library.

If you want to do a test render at this point, be sure to set it to render only visible layers, or else you'll render the clothes too and they're not ready yet!

Ok, so now we're ready to texture the clothes. At this point there's just one other thing you need to know, which is how to use the texture scale setting. This is the number in the object control palette just under the “preview ball.” This *only works on non-UV mapped objects* which is why we've gone through all that trouble with UV Mapper. Here's a picture using Vue's default brick material that shows 3 different settings.

I think the resolution of the image file affects how low the settings have to go–the files I'm giving you seem to like very, very small settings. If you figure out how to change that so they tile correctly at the default setting please let me know!

Ok, ready? Select the different clothing items, click the load material button, and choose the fabric materials you created earlier. Twiddle the scale setting around until they look good. It's that easy. For the leather I use a very small setting, like .01, and for the sweater I use more like .10. If the texture goes in the wrong direction, however, you can go into the material and mess with the “mapping” settings, but I prefer to just go twirl the map itself in a photo editor and then reload it into the texture.

You can't use a transmap on the clothes when they're de-UV'd like this but you can still set parts to 100% transparent or (my favorite method) just delete them. This also works for body parts that show thru the clothes, like Vicky's feet in her boots. The more you delete the less there is to render, is how I figure it.

Ok, so here's my final result (with a little post work to smooth things out):

Now, say you render your pic and don't like a material–the face, the sweater, whatever. By keeping a library of materials you can change things on the fly without wasting time re-loading the same texture more than once.

Step 9 - Apply Your Vue Materials to a Building

Okay, say you don't have poser 4 or don't have it at all, you can do the same kind of tile mapping on a building to get the hang of the idea. Import your NOT-UV mapped building into Vue. I'm using Zygote's castle with the UV removed.

Here is where you may want to set the “center and resize imported objects” option back on. If the building you're importing is huge, you can size it down yourself, of course, but it's quicker to let Vue do it for you. Since I'm using a poser-scaled object, though, I'll leave that check mark off and just push the castle back from the camera after I import it.

Now it's just a matter of selecting the different parts of the building and applying wood, cobblestone, brick, and any other materials you care to create with this method and free tiling textures you can find all over the web (starting with Marlin Studios.com and Wiremonger.com) You can get very effective results fooling around with the filter settings on the bumps as well to make, for instance, roof tiles look like they have real gaps between them, that kind of thing. Try different scale settings after you load the material to get it to look just right. If the texture seems to be applying in an odd direction, go into the material editor and make sure “object space” is checked. You can also change the mapping method but be SURE to change it for both the color and the bump if you do! With some textures, they really only want to be scaled in specific increments (.5 generally) and you'll need to change the original map file if you want something different.

For windows and metal trim and so on, just use Vue's built-in glass and metal materials.

Here's my castle with textures loaded.

Kinda dorky but remember with this method it's a cinch to change, for instance, the wood trim on a building without changing the walls or roofs–one of Vue's many great advantages over the poser renderer.

Step 10 - Wrap Up

So, time for you to hit the web and look for seamless tiling textures! Here's where to start:

Marlin Studios

Wiremonger

Have fun!

The Vue Finder

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

The Vue Finder

Author: TSquare

Tools Needed

Vue d' Espirit

Support Files

t2_VueFinderUtility.zip

Introduction

I have found it hard to find my camera, or an area in Vue at times because of clutter in the view ports. So I have devised a way in which to quickly find the camera or certain places within the scene. Within the support file, you will find Tsquare's Vue Finder Gadgets in VOB (vue object format), and in 3Ds format. These are my utility devices for camera or object placement in Vue d'Esprit.

My gadgets are very simple low-poly column objects that have prongs on both ends and in the middle. The middle prong set is a great place to attach the gadget to other objects such as the Vue camera. This helps to locate the camera, and also serves as a rotation guide.

Step 1 - Where in the (Vue d

The picture above is an illustration of what led me to make my Vue Finder Gadgets. I couldn't find my camera!! So I started trying ways to show the location of my camera or an area I wanted to keep an eye on. Hence, the Vue Finder Gadgets. So, where IS that camera?

There it is!!

Step 2 - The Gadgets

Attaching the Finder Gadget to the Camera:

The blue Vue Finder Gadget was specifically designed for attaching to the Vue Camera. Place it on the back of the camera with the prongs facing away from the camera, lining up the middle prongs to serve as an indication of the cameras height.

Note: As the camera cannot be “Grouped” to anything within Vue, just place these two items in a layer. Keep this layer empty of all other objects. Selecting the layer will allow you to move the camera and the Finder Gadget all at once, which helps in camera placement and for rotation guidence.

Step 3 - Use of the Green Gadget

The green gadget is to ease your eyes when placing objects within the scene. Just place it in your scene and render a preview to eyeball the placement.

Enjoy your Vue Finder Gadgets!!

You can change the material entirely or just change the color of either gadget. You can also resize them as needed.

I hope they help you as much as they have helped me!

Step 4 - Support Files Included:

t2VueFinder1.3Ds — Tsquare's Vue Finder Gadgets in 3DStudio format

t2VueFinder2.3Ds

t2VueFinder1.vob — Tsquare's Vue Finder Gadgets in Vue Object format

t2VueFinder2.vob

HTML version of this tutorial.

Creating a Camp Fire in Vue d Esprit

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

Creating a Camp Fire in Vue d Esprit

Publication Date: 2/10/2003 Author: Sacred Rose

Tools Needed

Vue d Esprit

Introduction

In this tutorial, Sacred Rose will take you step by step through the creation of a camp fire in Vue d'Esprit.

Tutorial Name: Creating a Camp Fire in Vue d\'Esprit

Step 1 - The Logs

Start a new scene, and create your fire base…i.e. logs if applicable.

I used 3 square boxes and positioned them similar to the way they would be, if we were building a real campfire. For the sake of this exercise, we will imagine that they are round, textured logs.

Next we group them and name them (so we don't get lost down the track)

Step 2 - Build Your Fire

Create a cone (approximately small to medium in size, stretching it a tiny bit length ways to give it more height, using the stretch handles)

Note: We are actually going to create three cones, with three different heights for a layered effect

Select (or highlight) the cone and 'Load material', browse to your 'Special effects' collection and select the first flame material. There should have three of them.

Once it has loaded, right mouse click to edit the material. Under 'Effects' in the material editor, set your luminous slider to the required amount. I set mine to about 53% (no reason why its 53 it was just where the slider landed.

Play with this amount as you need to.

Create a second cone. Make it bigger this time, set it further away from your first cone, and you drop it lower to the ground. Go to your material icon (top thumbnail in the RH corner of the screen) and 'Load material'. You should still be in your 'Special effects' collection, select your second flame material and select OK to accept this material.

(if you do not have three different flame materials don't worry about it, use the same material as the first one, but change the colour slightly to make it lighter)

Right mouse click to edit the material and again , under the 'Effects' tab change the luminous value by moving the slider.

I only set it to 50%, but YOU will want to change it when you begin to *tweak* the fire to suit your needs.

Create a third cone, make it smaller than the second but bigger than the first in height, make it thinner in width (use your stretch handles). Position your cone so that it intersects the other cones slightly, making sure that the you position it at a different height to the previous two cones.

Select your third cone and 'Load material'. Choose your third flame material and right mouse click to edit it. Under the 'Effects' tab, move your luminous slider to the desired amount. For this simulation I set mine to 80%.

Note: A good idea is to have three different size cones (layering) with the luminous slider set to three different values, once again for layering. PLAY with them!!

Remember, once you have set the fire up, you can then *tweak* each material to blend or enhance each other more as you need to.

Step 3 - Light Your Fire

You are now there, but you say that all you are getting is dark Smokey stuff? hmmmmm . . .

Here is the secret

Create a point light and position it inside the flame cones usually the centre of the fire. Change the colour of the light to orange. [Ensure you have lens flares enabled (for vue 4 only)] and set the light strength to 50% intensity.

You can add another point light if you like, but make sure the colour is slightly lighter or darker to your original point light colour (remember layering) and position the point light slightly further away from the first light at a different height. Set the intensity the same 50 % and enable your lens flare (if applicable)

Select your cones and your lights and group them. Name your group. I called mine fire.

For ease of movement, so that you don't inadvertently move portions of the fire when you don't want to and leave others behind… select your fire group and your log group, and group them again. Name this new group. This time I called mine open fire.

TIP: Try to remember that grouping is a good thing to do to maintain a organized workplace. In complex scenes you will be cursing yourself if you have not kept track of all your bits an pieces. Grouping similar things helps your conserve work space and, will aid the render engine when the times come to render your scene.

I load my desired atmosphere, complete the rest of my scene and away I go. Time to tweak my flames to my desire.

For all intents and purposes I have NOT tweaked this fire. It NEEDS TWEAKING!! If it was your fire YOU WOULD *tweak* it. This is the reason why it is NOT a perfect fire, but yours will be!

TIP: I always start a scene with a daylight atmosphere. That way I can see everything without too much difficulty. It allows me to position and change textures and elements without too much drama. (my eyesight is getting worse as I get older ;)) When my scene is ready to roll, then I play with atmospheres. Which ones I like, don't like, what lights I need etc etc. I find this much easier for me personally. *YOU* may not.

Step 4 - Wrap Up

Remember all settings are tweakable! Play with rotations, play with different colours.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT!!

and do NOT forget to SAVE SAVE SAVE

Other Applications

2011-11-01T17:42:27+00:00

This page exists within the Old ArtZone Wiki section of this site. Read the information presented on the linked page to better understand the significance of this fact.

DAZ 3D encourages you to upload your tutorials here to the ArtZone Wiki so that they have a permanent home and are hosted on our servers. If you do upload your tutorials, please add them to the appropriate software category and create sub-pages/categories as needed. If, for some reason, you do not want to host your tutorials here, please add links to external tutorials in the appropriate categories as well.

Other Applications

The following applications are those that don't as of yet have enough tutorials to justify their own categories. They're grouped below into General, and then alphabetical listings by Application Group.

General

A Different Way to Make Clothing Conformers

Adding Full Body Morphs to Clothes with Wardrobe Wizard 2

Advanced Texturing of Scenes in 3D Studio Max with Pro Pack

After Effects Scenic Animation

A guide to post processing your images in Zenliner 2

Building Weapons in Rhino 3D: Advanced Techniques

Creating Amazing Background Pictures with Gloodle

Create Drips and Sweat Drops with Painter

Creating a Loose Knot in Hexagon 2

Creating Morph Targets in ZBrush

Custom product installers and (PC) uninstallers

Easy Pencil Sketches

Exporting DAZ Figures with All Textures to MotionBuilder

Fitting Unconforming Clothes in a Simple 2D Photo Editor

GIF Animations on a Mac using Poser and ImageReady

Hairbrush in Corel PhotoPaint

How to Model High Heel Shoes in Rhino

How to Zip Your Files Properly (for Poser Distribution)

Importing DAZ Studio Content into MojoWorld 3.0

Import Poser Dynamic Cloth into DAZ Studio

Import Victoria 2, Clothing, and Props into ZBrush 2

Importing and Rigging Poser Characters in Maya

Importing Poser Models into ZBrush

INJection poses for Stepanie Petite w/DAZ INJection Pose Builder

Kirusute: building bladed weapons in Rhino 3D!

Kirusute's Quick Gide to Material Manager

Making Quick Conform Poses with Morph Manager

Multiple Replication in Painter IX

Painter 8: Seamless Tiling Kaliedoscope Pattern

Project Dogwaffle Brush

Radiant Lighting for Free - POV-Ray and PoseRay

Resizing and Optimizing GIF Animations (e.g. Avatars) - Animation Shop

Roll Your Own Weeds with Tree Druid

Shining Body Parts with Image-Ready & Photoshop

VirtualDub Video Compression

Carrara/Transposer

Getting Started with Transposer

Rendering Poser Figures in Carrara Studio

Using Carrara Transposer 2 with Poser 6

Cinema 4D/Cinema

Importing DAZ Studio Scenes into Cinema 4D

Lathe a Fountain in Cinema

Poser Animations in Cinema 4D

Poser to Cinema 4D

Preparing V3 materials for Bodypaint 2

XFrog in Cinema

The GIMP

Adding Real Beard

Ceramic Tile Style with DAZStudio and GIMP

Colorful Point Background with GIMP 2.0

Comic Effects 1 (Line Magic) via GIMP

Create Your Beautiful Backgrounds (Fractal Pictures) w/GIMP

Creating Custom Brushes in The GIMP

Creating Simple Wood Textures with GIMP

Film Screen Effects

Make Your Cartoon Style (Basic) with GIMP and D|S

Make Your Cartoon Style Part Two with GIMP and D|S

Make Your Special Black and White Styles with GIMP and D|S

Magic Picture with the GIMP

Old Photo Styles with The GIMP

Simple Texture Creation using GIMP

Texturing Eyes with The GIMP

Using the GIMP to Change Eye Texture Iris Colors

Woman Turning into Man Using GIMP

Manga Studio

Create Comic Effects from Any Picture with Manga Studio

Create Comic Pictures from 3D models with Manga Studio

Create speed lines with Manga Studio

Magic Line w/Manga Studio

Particles 2.0

-99 Red Balloons w/Particles 2.0 and Bryce

Energy F/X with Particles 2.0

Firebreathing with Particles 2.2

Weather F/X with Particles 2.0

PSP and Photoshop Related

Creating a "Weathered Paper" Look w/Photoshop CS or equivalent

Creating Comic Book Text Bubbles with Photoshop CS

How to Use Adams Art and Tool Actions in Photoshop Elements

Learning the Power of Gradients in Photoshop

Nature's Iris using PSP/Photoshop

Nature's Iris using PSP/Photoshop Part 2

Painted Portrait Background in Paint Shop Pro

RED-BLUE 3D Images w/Photoshop & Bryce

Sliding Door Effect with Photoshop and Image Ready

Warped Speed Effect in Photoshop

Poser Related & Poser

Basic Dynamics in Poser

Create a Waterfall in Poser 5

Complex Face Morph with EM3D (Extreme Morph 3D)

Converting INJ Poses for V3/M3 Reduced Resolution w/Injection Pose Builder

Create many thumbnails for Poser with one click w/P3DO Explorer

Create conforming clothing from a 3D mesh with Morph Manager 4

Creating Dynamic Clothing for Poser 5 in Cinema 4D

Creating Your MAT Poses using Pro MAT Builder

Dissecting Props in Poser 6

Draping Vs. Simulation in the Poser Cloth Room

Easy RSR files with P3DO Explorer and Photoshop

EM3D: Simple Body Morph with Extreme Morph 3D

Fitting M2 Clothes to M3 with The Tailor

Fixing Spiky or Pointy Polygons in Converted Clothing with Poser 7

Great V4 Eyes using MAT Pose Edit 3

HeadForge and INJ Poses

How to Get Victoria 2 Clothes to Fit Victoria 3 using The Tailor

How to make a glass object sparkle in Poser 7

Injection Pose Builder 101

Making MAT Files in MAT Pose Edit 3

Making Partial MATs with MAT Pose Edit

Morphos Tips to create different characters

P3DO Explorer

Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds in Poser, Part 1

Superimposing Images onto Backgrounds in Poser, Part 2

Switching Cameras in Poser

Using RSR converter to create Poser Thumbnails

Using the Grouping Tool and Magnets for realism

Working with Depth of Field in Poser6

Using The Tailor with your custom stripped CR2s

Vue D' Espirit

Animated Waves in Vue 4 Professional

Creating a Camp Fire in Vue d'Esprit

Creating Your Own Personal Atmosphere in Vue d'Esprit

Creating a Forest in Vue d'Esprit

How to Create Flying Wet Sand in Vue d'Esprit

Map-Based Materials in Vue d'Esprit

The Vue Finder