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Monthly Archives: December 2023
Krunk
Free on the 2023 Fantasy Attic’s Christmas Gifts, AnnieMation’s “Krunktime”. After install, find it in Poser under Figures | Anniemation. The mesh tears on radical posing, so you’ve not going to animate it. But fine for 2D renders, as you can get a subtle ‘walking’ look on it. Seen here in the real-time Comic-book mode and without its texture.
Bad HAAR day
AI for hair. HAAR creates 3D strand hair from text prompts. Evidently rather clunky at present, and still at the technical paper stage, but promising. Wouldn’t it be easier to just sketch a few flowing waves on the screen, rather than use text?
Release: Poser 13.2
The latest iteration of Poser 13 has been released. The new Poser 13.2. Appears to be mostly a bugfix, error fix and a UI clean-up release. But two things that did catch my eye in the changelog…
* “Render Presets now include PostFX settings”.
* “Saving to Library with ‘Keep Thumbnails enabled’ now correctly creates a thumbnail on the first save.”
Apparently new features are being saved for Poser 14, and the developers anticipate a…
“version 14 in the new year”.
DiffusionLight
DiffusionLight. An AI looks at a 2D photo scene, and then it makes the HDR lighting ball (aka ‘light probe’) that would have produced the scene’s lighting. Using this new light probe, you can then seamlessly render a 3D figure against the backplate photo. The sort of thing that should be in Poser 14, I’d suggest.
Out of the Meshbox…
A quick proof-of-concept test. Miyre/Meshbox’s old H.P. Lovecraft figure for Poser, a simple Poser render with no line-art…
This was fed to InvokeAI 3.0, where it was used as a control for the text-prompt. A 1024px image was generated with SD 1.5…
Just another type of rendering from 3D, in my view. And think of how valuable it makes a big Poser/DAZ runtime, when you can reach into it and find items and angle them perfectly for use as control images… to get exactly what you want from the AI. And even the oldest and naffest 3D content can be used. Bad old textures and iffy modelling are not all that important.
How to make a quick real-time z-depth (“depth cued”) render from Poser
How to make a quick real-time z-depth (“depth cued”) render from Poser.
The result:
How it’s done:
1. Save the Poser scene file you’re working on.
2. Turn on the Smooth Shaded display.
3. Turn on the Depth Cueing.
4. Delete all lights from the scene.
5. Make the background white.
6. Make a real-time Preview render, save it as a .JPG file.
7. Revert to the last saved file, undoing the changes.
Ok, that probably doesn’t sound all that quick. But here’s my Python script that automates all this grunt-work.
You need to make a one-time edit to the file path, in the script. Just indicate where you want rendered images to be saved. Make this simple change, save as a .PY file and then add to the C:\Program Files\Poser Software\Poser 13\Runtime\Python\poserScripts\ScriptsMenu folder. Restart Poser, and you’re ready for real-time depth map renders of your scene.
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# Make a quick depth-qued auto-render from Poser. # Version 1.0 - December 2023. Tested in Poser 11 and 13. # With thanks to bwldrd for the 'SetBackgroundColor' tip. # From a saved Poser scene, auto render a quick real-time depth-map # as a .JPG on white, then revert the scene to the last saved scene file. # NOTE: The user will needs to change the output directory 'dirPath=' to their chosen path. import poser import datetime # Set up the saving and timestamp parameters. Change the save directory to suit your needs. # Remember that the \\ double slashes are vital!! This is for Windows. Mac paths may be different? dirPath="C:\\Users\\WINDOWS_USER_NAME\\FOLDER_NAME\\" ext="JPG" current_date = datetime.datetime.now().strftime ("%a-%d-%b-%Y-%H-%M-%S") # Are we dealing with a Poser scene? scene = poser.Scene() # First, we make the Ground invisible. Thus, no ground shadows or grid. # Comment out these two lines with #'s if you dont want this to happen. scene.SelectActor(scene.Actor("GROUND")) scene.Actor("GROUND").SetVisible(0) # Now we make sure the render is set to use a DPI of 300. # And switch the render engine to real-time PREVIEW mode. # This assumes the user has already set their preferred render size. scene.SetResolution(300, 0) scene.SetCurrentRenderEngine(poser.kRenderEngineCodePREVIEW) # Now delete all lights in the scene. Then redraw the Poser scene. lights = scene.Lights() for light in lights: light.Delete() scene.Draw() # Now turn on the 'Smooth Shaded' display mode. poser.ProcessCommand(1083) scene.Draw() # Now Toggle 'Depth Cue' display mode on. poser.ProcessCommand(1044) scene.Draw() # Figure style is now set to use document style, in case it wasn't for some reason. poser.ProcessCommand(1438) scene.Draw() # Set the scene's background color to white. scene.SetBackgroundColor (1.0,1.0,1.0) scene.Draw() # Now we render the scene in Preview at 300dpi and save to a .JPG file. # It must be .JPG otherwise we get a .PNG cutout with alpha and fringing. # The file is timestamped and saved into the user's preferred directory. scene.Render() scene.SaveImage(ext, dirPath + current_date) # Done. Now we revert the entire scene, to its last saved state. This means # that it doesn't matter that we changed the display modes and deleted lights. poser.ProcessCommand(7) |
Why do all this? Because AI image making can use depth-maps to recreate 3D scenes, in combination with the descriptive text prompt. AI + Poser’s content = accurate AI visuals of anything Poser has in its Library.
What’s new for Poser and DAZ Studio, November/December 2023
New for Poser and DAZ Studio, November/December 2023, Here are my latest picks from the latest goodies for Poser & DAZ creators, and with some overlap with AIs at the end. Though there is increasingly overlap, as people start to use Poser and DAZ to produce the poses and depth renders that guide the AI generation.
As usual, freebies are only featured if the renders are ‘commercial use’.
My last round-up was 3rd November, so we’re looking at six weeks worth here rather than just a month.
Science fiction:
UltraScenery – Planet Taira, a set of alien plants.
G…Glitch is a new near-future sci-fi ISS Space Station like interior from Coflek-gnorg.
DD PBR Alien Rock Shaders for iRay Vol. 3.
Sci-Fi Octopus, obviously for Matrix fan-art only rather than commercial use.
Fantasy:
Army Of The Dead. Plus ogres lugging rocks.
Medieval Village Destruction Kit.
Demonarium by Poisen, for Poser. 3D models.
Free, More Conforming Tails and Tentacles for Poser. Including what appears to be a squirrel tail.
Steampunk:
Free, a Pirate Outfit for Genesis 8/8.1 Female. With steampunk runtime-bashing potential.
New free Poser Shaders: Corrosion.
Beach:
Heading for the beach in January? Don’t forget the Castle Made of Sand, in two parts.
Beach bar set for Poser from 1971s.
Free Summer Casual Deck Shoes for La Femme 2.
Storybook:
Moonlight, three free Moon / Sun figures in 3D.
A free playroom Wigwam.
More conventional modern play-tents are in the new Backyard Playset Bundle for DAZ Studio. Or can be had as TF Playground Tent.
B.E.T.T.Y Teen Accessory Pack. Backpack and smartphone for young teens.
CNB Calvin for Genesis 9, a young boy.
Toon and semi-toon:
RA Chull Christmas, a Xmas outfit makeover for Nursoda’s Chull figure.
He’ll be dancing around the new Steampunk Christmas Tree.
Possibly with pixies. Currently free at DAZ, over a hundred Power Pixie morphs for the 3D Universe Pixie.
Need ‘a right Charlie’? King Charles for M3 LowRes.
Superhero and comics production:
A new series of pose sets, SuperHero Dexterity for G8M Volume 1. Specifically intended for the new Red Devil (Marvel’s Daredevil) Set for G8M.
Grid Suit G8M, an overlay of guide-lines for those producing rough layouts and pencils for comics.
See also the “AI” section.
Character helpers:
Free, Reset the face V4 and Reset the Hand V4. It “also works on M4”.
Cheryl for V4. Free and definitely taking V4 away from the ‘usual look’.
Animals:
DS Fantasy Owl Species for last month’s DS Fantasy Owl.
Landscape, oceanscapes:
Mediterranean Juniper High Resolution Plants and Trees from Martin J. Frost.
Ultrascenery : The Ultimate Guide.
Maelstrom, for when you need an ocean whirlpool or river sink-hole.
Remote Mini Sub for underwater landscape exploration.
Historical:
A Complete Roman Tavern from the Ancient Roman period, in .OBJ and .FBX formats.
Roman Villa with garden, interior, pool, for DAZ Studio.
The Three Wise Men (The Magi) for the Christmas story.
Viking Jewellery for Genesis 9 and 8. Not something you see every day.
Medieval Tinker – Package #1 and Package #1 FBX, with basic metalworking tools said to be accurate for the medieval period.
dForce Monk for G9. I can’t tell if you also get the character morph or not. The pictures suggest so, but the inventory doesn’t mention it.
Renaissance Gloves for G8M, G8F and G9
Napoleonic Scottish Highland Infantry for G8M.
Ilya Muromets WWI Bomber for Poser, a First World War bombing plane. With detailed interior and accessories.
Need air defence? Try the new Pom-Pom Gun for Poser. Also available for DAZ.
Bridport West Bay Station, a classic British train station by Dryjack.
Skippy Racer in two parts. A nice 1940s/50s children’s push scooter.
dForce Picnic Pinafore Outfit for Genesis 9, a classic 1950s / early 1960s girls outfit.
Hurricane Aircat prop for Poser. Amphibious assault craft.
And finally the Snow System for DAZ Studio. Because “snow is a thing of the past”. Or so we’re supposed to believe, as it falls abundantly from the sky.
Coding for scripts:
Beginners Guide to Scripting in DAZ Studio.
Camera-facing billboard script for Poser, working in Poser 12/13.
Starting the Mac OS finder with Python in Poser. Seems to be the equivalent of Windows Explorer.
Tutorials:
DAZ Studio Render Engines : Essentials Guide.
On YouTube, What you need to know about the five types of Poser/DAZ hair.
“Bondware continues making small but meaningful Poser improvements” and there’s a video summary of what they are. Who knew that the latest Poser 13 apparently no long needs Snarlygribbly’s EZSkin for rendering older V4/M4 etc figures in SuperFly? They kept that one quiet, if correct. However, my tests just now suggest you’ll still very much want the new and latest “EZSkin 3.2 (Updated version maintained by Y-Phil)”, for the realism it adds to the skin of older figures. I don’t see Poser 13 adding that in the same way, if at all. It may well handle recalcitrant old textures better, as the video seems to suggest… but no nicer skin. I find EZSkin 3.2 works fine with Poser 13, but note that you will need to import the older figure .def definitions file from the 3.1 .zip file. The definitions are not also in 3.2, so you will need both files. My test: M3 + Draguul dragon-rider, plus EZSkin in Superfly…
How to create fog, mist, spotlights and ‘god rays’ in Poser.
DAZ Studio Techniques – Rendering in Layers for Faster Results.
AI items of interest:
The freeware InvokeAI standalone installer 3.2.0 at the Internet Archive. It’s otherwise a single 32Gb non-resuming .zip file, which many find impossible to download due to line-drops.
DAZ Studio G8F to Openpose, tested. For use in ComfyUI, InvokeAI and others. Pose in DAZ, export the special pose picture, then have the AI image conform to the same pose. Free, but doesn’t do hands.
There’s also a free Openpose Editor, online, with hands. Or an offline Windows Openpose editor free on Itch.io, for which 1.0.9 came out last month. Poser 12 and 13 also has a paid Openpose plugin, which can do hands.
AI can also use depth map renders to guide the image generation. New this month, the paid Basic Depth Map Maker for DAZ Studio. Poser will get you a depth map for free, either in a .PSD after a Firefly render, or as an automated real-time Preview render. These are used in a ‘depth T2I-Adapter’, not a Controlnet’s depth slot.
Reposer, a free and relatively simple ComfyUI workflow for “Consistent Stable Diffusion Generated Characters in ANY pose from one image”. Basically, it does a quick face-swop and pose in one easy workflow. The developer has his stuff here. Obvious potential for comics makers who have lots of ‘talking heads’.
A free Render To Real batcher workflow for DAZ Studio and ComfyUI. Render in DAZ, pop out photographic photoreal. For advanced users, “this is a ComfyUI workflow to batch image-to-image process rendered scenes from something like a Ren’py game with DAZ3D-rendered graphics to photo-real scenes.” Tagged as NSFW, as the guy is making a ‘nudist colony’ game. Thus it may not show up if your site settings forbid it. But it can of course be reworked for other storytelling such as comics.
Green Screen LORA. Does what it says, in three flavours of greenscreen. Again with obvious potential for comics makers, with the resulting generated images being used with Photoshop greenscreen knock-out plugins such as Primatte.
But since animation seems to be all AI users can think about at present, now real-time generation can be done, I’ll also add a couple of related links…
Chromox – Transforming Ideas into Visual Stories. A new online service. See also the free MagicAnimate demo.
DiffusionAvatars: Deferred Diffusion for High-fidelity 3D Head Avatars. Impressive.
That’s it. More picks and links in the New Year! Merry Christmas!
Release: Lightwave 2023 for Windows
The venerable Lightwave is now back, newly led by a team of veterans from the NewTek years. They’ve released a new version for Windows. Lightwave 2023 adds plugins for GPU-accelerated fluid turbulence (smoke, fire etc), a 3D sculpting plugin, and it can now use ‘instancing’ for quickly populating a 3D scene. Including a new Vue-style ‘paint the instancing onto the scene’ brush designed to work with things like “rocks or vegetation”. Plus an integrated OctaneRender, and it sounds like you might even be able to use this for free on a single GPU(?).