News about the DAZ Studio and Poser software

Monthly Archives: May 2014

Daz and Poser, new content for May 2014

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Here’s my survey of the new paid-for DAZ Studio and Poser content that’s appeared in the last month. Just the items that caught my eye as being especially well designed and well presented, unusual (in a non-tacky or not over-the-top kind of way), or just plain useful…

Perfect for those who fondly remember The Movies videogame, Nikkelah’s Vintage Movie Makers…

vintage

AntFarm has a nice high-quality early 20th century Arctic research station in The Colony…

colo

Also from ArtFarm, Squid Mech…

squidmech

There’s also a similar Zeneca Fighter Drone, although it looks a touch low-poly…

drone

Zeneca Fighter Drone has a companion in the new Zeneca Racer which is usefully rigged for different looks…

zen1

MedShip Transportation…

medship

Consequence for V4 (boots not included, I couldn’t find those). Designer Shaft 74 has a range of original superhero characters for M4/V4, including the matching Slade…

conse

slade

The new IGD Fall poses for V4 could come in handy for superheroes and masked avengers.

fall3

Alien Plants…

alienp

Alessandro’s Warthog for Daz 4.5 and Poser, with Look At My Hair presets.

wart

Possibly inspired by the wild success of The Unicorn over at Runtime DNA, Hivewire has a semi-toon Toon Horse and poses…

horse

And last but not least, a well designed lecture lectern can always come in handy… Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store.

podium

Travel with Exidium!

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Love this picture from the Exidium Corp., which perhaps points the way toward combining sci-fi art with wildlife art.

exidium

My recent survey of DAZ and Poser content for ‘alien wildlife and fauna’ suggests there’s a big gap in the market for this sort of creature content in 3D. How many would buy it is another matter — but Dinoraul’s excellent dinosaurs, perhaps the closest 3D content, seem to sell well and to command high prices.

I believe the videogame Planet Explorers tries to do something similar to this sort of ‘alien safari’ theme, though with not-so-lush graphics (I think it’s an MMO, hence the need for the circa 2004 low-poly style?). But the animal designs in it are pretty inventive…

Planet-Explorers-1

DAZ/Poser 3D content survey: British elections

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As we’re now less than a year away from the General Election here in the UK, and in the grip of the Euro elections this week, here’s a quick survey of 3D election related content. With a British focus.

No. 10 Downing Street, the famous central London home of whoever is the current Prime Minister.

no10

Gothic Clock Tower, rather like the famous Big Ben in London. See Google 3D Warehouse for more London landmarks. 3D Warehouse also has a Parliament model.

bigben

3D Warehouse has a very simple voting box / ballot box model. Add a worn black metal texture.

box

There’s a free Blender version of Wallace (to whom Ed Milliband is compared), but it’s not rigged.

wallace

If you need a seedy/cluttered socialist election-campaign office, then The Office is not perfect but might help…

electionsoffice

DAZ/Poser 3D content survey: Tron

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Here’s my survey of the best / core 3D props and suits for DAZ Studio and Poser, for those inspired by the design of the movie Tron: Legacy…

Open Road for the Yamaki Rapture bike…

legroad

tron

Riders seen above wear the GIS Biosuit which requires Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female (which can only apply material presets which are in DUF format, sigh…).

Those who want to use DAZ 3 / Poser and good ol’ V4 might look at the Sykla Scout for V4, although it also has dependencies: which are the Victoria 4.2 Bodysuit and High-Tech Trekker Boots…

electrosuit

Sci-Fi Lounge stage set. Comes with lights. Daz users should note that the materials only work in Poser.

sflounge

The Pacificator…

Need Quorra? Q Suit for V4 including disk and gloves. But the boots are extra. There’s also Q Hair for V4…

qhair

qsuit

As a background set the new AJ Expo-Cars Hall could probably be adapted for a Tron: Legacy style scene. Includes an .OBJ version, so Carrara and Vue users should be able to load it easily. Although note that there’s a complicated explanation of the textures, which suggests you may not get the same glow/shine results in other software.

cars

As I’ve noted here before, getting authentic glow effects (with light spillover into the surrounding air) is not at all easy inside DAZ and Poser. See my DAZ Carrara tutorial on making authentic glows.

‘World enough, and time’

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Yesterday I stumbled across Drea Horvath’s guide to faster render times in Vue. So I gave my old Vue one last try, and actually managed to make my first real picture with it. Now that I seem to have found out how to reduce Vue’s aeon-long default render times, it seemed appropriate to make a picture about endless time vs. the fleeting moment. And jaggies. Giant jaggies. 🙂

world_enough_and_time_2014

“World enough, and time” (2014. Vue + DAZ content.)

Update, July 2014: looks like Drea’s website went down and she had to move URLs. As a consequence her blog has lost all its images. Archive.org doesn’t have them all. Here’s my screen capture backup, showing her Vue render settings…

vue-fast-render-archive

Content survey: alien life (not characters)

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Here’s my survey of alien life forms (xenobiology) for your DAZ Studio and Poser 3D sci-fi landscapes. The focus here is on what you might call natural or “just hanging around the waterhole” alien creatures for sci-fi scenes, rather than on humanoid alien characters or movie style ‘enemy alien’ characters.

Anomalocaris…

anom

Styrax. Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store. The head could be Photoshopped to make it more like a flamingo, and the arms removed, so that it’s more of a herd animal…

st

The Animotions store seems to have inherited some early Davo creatures…

3Pack_image01-03

Catamaran’s Downloads has an OOoomph and an Inner/Outer Space floater. Both are free, but for non-commercial use only..

ooh

float

For more free air floaters see old Poisen floater freebie. They might work well with the occasional SkyManta…

pojel

skymant

‘Alien plants’ are a whole other topic, but I really like the look of the new Alien Plants DAZ/Poser pack from Petipet.

peti

That’s it. Steer clear of the Gallumpaburps — they bite!

DAZ and Poser: new content round-up

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So what cool or useful paid stuff have DAZ Studio and Poser users had in the last six weeks? An avalanche of content has come out, to the extent that Renderosity almost needs a “don’t show me girly hair / clothes / colours MATs” filter on its What’s New pages. But these are the new paid packages which especially caught my eye…

Viking Village Bundle. Containing one of the great wooden architectural forms of the world, a Viking Stave Church.

stave-church

Sadly it doesn’t appear to include a detailed interior. Although, at a pinch, the Tithe Barn interior might serve (although it has stone in it, and stave churches were 100% wood)…

tithe

Poser and DAZ users have had plenty of wizard rooms before, some of them excellent. So I was willing to pass this new one by, until I saw the name “Dexsoft”. They’re an outstanding modelling company which usually serves the videogames development industry. It’s good to see them moving into DAZ/Poser content. So you might want to take a look at their new Mages Room for Poser.

mages

Another room is the unusual War Room from Cybertenko. If you need a Second World War or Valvepunk map / Operations room, this looks like the one…

warroom

Badkittehco’s Ragnarok Mask came out a few months ago, but I seem to have missed it in my previous sweep of new stuff. There have been a few like this before, but this is obvious quality….

rag

Also from Badkittehco, this new Dr. Love’s Love Clinic neon sign could add a touch more humanity if added to one of Stonemason’s science fiction city scenes. Badkittehco is looking like a designer to watch for in future.

love

AJ Expo-Cars Hall doesn’t appeal to me as a car showroom: I’ve never been partial to the “Oooh! Shiny red car!” approach to 3D. But it could probably be adapted for a Tron: Legacy style scene or a sci-fi / Tony Stark / James Bond sort of stage set. Includes an .OBJ version, so Carrara and Vue users should be able to load it easily. Although note that there’s a complicated explanation of the textures, which suggests you may not get the same glow/shine results in other software.

cars

Finally, a new AntFarm character is always welcome. His latest is the Hookah Cat. Obviously modeled after Tenniel’s famous creature in Alice in Wonderland, but fatter and with a face that evokes Sylvester McCoy playing a 1970s British hippie hash-dealer. For Poser and DAZ.

cat

Vue 2014

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Vue 2014 appeared just before last Christmas. I think it must have passed me by completely. But, better late than never, here’s a quick list of the new features which caught my eye in the surprisingly sparse number of reviews…

* “FBX geometry importing, which supports textured geometry”. Sounds promising for those exporting a posed FBX foreground from DAZ Studio, thought .obj + texture re-sizing is probably still the better export option..

* Ability to… “configure the interface … presets include 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Lightwave, Maya and Softimage – or long-term Vue users can leave it as the default.” Not sure if it’s a few simple presets, or if you can drag stuff around to suit yourself.

* Your mouse wheel now zooms you in-and-out of a scene. Useful.

* A new and “better lighting model , “Photometric”. Looks great, but doubles the render time (groan).