A super free “Board of Souls”, a DAZ Studio and Poser prop, over at the Runtime DNA store…
Author Archives: jonahjameson
BioLight for free
“BioLight” is currently free on the DAZ Store…
It’s a Poser-only set of special glow MATs for the Terrors of the Deep: Jellyfish pack. It only works in Poser / Poser Pro 2014, and then only with “IDL/Raytracing enabled” activated in your render settings.
One of the things I love about iClone is that glow can be applied incredibly easily and quickly (like, one second). It can be applied to any object, and the glow realistically floods outside the boundaries of the object geometry. By comparison, a similar glow in DAZ Studio or Poser is usually either almost impossible or just a complete chore to achieve. It can be done in Carrara, but it’s a very convoluted set of fiddly steps to get it working. And even if you can get it to work, it increases render times exponentially. Whereas iClone just gives you the glow effect in real-time.
Free importer takes Genesis characters into Poser
DAZ have a nice time-limited freebie for Poser users. A free importer that allows DAZ Genesis characters to be imported into Poser…
“DSON Importer for Poser empowers you to bring Genesis models directly into Poser.”
Renderosity Autumn/Fall Sale
Renderosity’s “Fall into Savings” sale of DAZ Studio or Poser content is underway. The sale ends 21st October 2012.
I found about a third of my 48 ‘Wish List’ items have a $ sign against them. Some are just 15% off, but I did find a few that had cut prices by 50%. Nothing has gone down below the $5 mark, though. Certainly tempting, but coming so soon after the big DAZ sale means… I only have $10 left in my PayPal… /sobs into hankie/
Incidentally, the Renderosity Wish List icons are a bit cryptic, but — for the benefit of newcomers — a “$” sign against your item means it’s Discounted. “R” just means it’s Exclusive to Renderosity, and the “B” means it’s also available in a discounted Bundle Offer…
Poser and DAZ content survey: Autumn / Fall content
Here’s my new 3D content survey, for DAZ Studio or Poser. All things “Autumn”, except for Halloween freebies (which I covered in my previous survey). These are all 3D:
Autumn/Fall gourds are abundant and nicely textured in Pixelharbor’s Gourds… Was at RuntimeDNA, now appears to be lost.
Need a Cornucopia Horn to have all your 3D goodies tumbling out of? Cornucopias for Poser is free…
Flink’s items…
OBJ dead leaves are available in the free Scattered Fall Leaves pack…
Note that ‘dead leaves around the base of a tree’ are also available in Meshbox’s Haunted House 2010.
Transpond’s Fern Pack has an autumn fern in it…
Need animated leaves? Have a look at Falling Leaves Dynamic Prop for Poser…
Scattering maple (sycamore) seeds for Poser are available in Modualz Scatters Vol 7 – MapleSeeds…
And the trees these seeds are scattering off are available in the Modualz WildWood Vol 1 — Autumn Maples pack…
Need vines? Have a look at Modualz Autumn Vines Texture Expansion for the RDNA Vines Megapack…
Fogs are tricky and are probably best added later in Photoshop. Poser/DAZ plugins like Fog Tool Deluxe III send render times through the roof, in my experience, and can’t really be recommended unless you have a render farm or three tucked under your desk.
What Poser users might use for a basic Vue-like hazy distance is Oskarsson’s Add Fog tool, which is a set of simple OBJs.
To get a depth haze with DAZ 3 and plugins, see my tutorial.
I’m not going to delve too far into the thousand-and-one character textures sets and their dependencies. But I’d just note that there is a superb Nouveau autumn set which requires you have DAZ’s Elfin for V4…
A character wearing this dress might work nicely with the Forest Elf set which requires Nursoda’s standalone character Gosha…
Also have a look at the Autumnal Robin Goodfellow (which requires Puck for M4 and of course Michael 4 himself)…
Animals? The squirrel scampering about after the abundant season’s nuts is of course a classic visual motif of early Autumn. DAZ has the best looking 3d squirrel, although sadly I’ve yet to find a “red squirrel” morphs/texture set for it.
The best 3D woodland nuts that I’ve yet found are the sweet chestnut and the acorn available in the Gnome’s House set…
What’s an autumn scene without some fungi, toadstools and mushrooms? Traveller’s excellent three Mushroomz sets are worth having…
… and he also has a set of the more exotic woodland funghi — although I thought the textures on some of these were a little blurry (which perhaps explains why they’re on a fixed heavy discount)…
Nursoda used to have some very nice freebie ‘shrooms on his website, but sadly his site mysteriously vanished into the electro-smog in summer 2012.
That’s it! Enjoy your mellow and fruitful renderings!
$30,000 3D Environment Competition
The makers of the landscape software Vue have a new 3D Environment Competition 2012. They’re lined up $30,000 in prizes, a waggon-load of 3D VIPs, the CG Society, and 3D World magazine, among others.
Competition categories are:
* 3D Environment
* Character Rendering
* Architectural Visualization
They say that…
“Judging will be based solely on the quality, realism and artistic merit of the entries, not on the application used to create them.”
Although that’s not quite true. Since you have to use at least one E-on product (such as Vue or their Lumen real-time architectural software), if only in part, to make your picture.
Deadline: 16th December 2012.
Sammy and Sadie for Genesis
The toon characters Sammy and Sadie are now available at the DAZ Store, recreated for DAZ Studio’s Genesis character system…
I was impressed by the new look at a first glance, but then I very quickly had reservations. I think that’s perhaps for two reasons. Firstly, with toons the closer you get to a photo-real look, the creepier they get (see the Tintin movie, etc). Sam & Sadie’s ‘melted-chocolate’ hair probably doesn’t help to ease these characters out of the ‘creepy zone’. And secondly the DAZ renders have somehow lost the freshness and appeal of the Sammy character, in the main ‘splash’ image and in Sammy’s individual character image. But… perhaps it’s just a matter of presentation, and once people start using these new characters, they’ll look fine.
Miki 4 for Carrara
Are you a DAZ Carrara user who’s keen to get the new Miki 4 into your runtime? There’s a new plugin from veteran developer Fenric, Poser Weightmap Injector. It shuttles Miki between… “Poser Pro 2012 SR2 and Carrara 8”, and it’s free. It should work on similar official Poser figures, but is… “not guaranteed to work for every dedicated Poser figure”. Presumably it also works with Poser Pro 2012 SR3 and Carrara 8.5, but that’s just my guess.
Humans in Space Youth Art Competition
Another Space Art competition, this time for those age 10 to 18. The 2nd Humans in Space Youth Art Competition is backed by NASA and asks young creatives to…
“submit a visual, literary, musical and video artwork expressing your vision of how humans will use science and technology in the future to explore space and uncover its mysteries.”
DAZ Store’s big PA Sale “catch-up”
It’s your last chance to catch up on the recent big sale of almost everything at the DAZ Store. 50% off, so the Store’s web servers are definitely slowing down under the pressure! It all ends Friday. Update: now extended!
Every major DAZ Store content artist appears to be in the “50% or more off” game, until Friday only. Some of the fleeting ‘Fast Grab’ items go… “up to 70% off”. I found all but two items on my Wishlist were heavily discounted.
New free Cinema 4D student edition
The traditional 3D software Cinema 4D has released a… “free, fully functional, Student Edition of Cinema 4D”. Specifically, the new version 14. Which potentially saves you about $1,000.
Nice, but it’s actually not quite fully functional. There’s no plugin support in the student version (so presumably Poser Pro 2014 users won’t be able to use their official PoserFusion Poser-CD4 bridge plugin with it), and nor is there networked rendering. Oh, and the software expires after 18 months.
Still, if you were thinking of testing it then the student edition might be an option. The results can look rather pretty. Here’s Fredy3D’s “The Defenders of Bast Prime” from his New Egypt sci-fi series…
Fredy’s pipeline between Poser and Cinema 4D is actually via the $75 commercial plugin InterPoser, rather than PoserFusion.
Survey of free archery / bow & arrow content for Poser and Daz
A quick survey of free bows and arrows for Poser and DAZ Studio…
FoRender’s free bow and arrow…
A more “Ice Age” or “dragon age” style bow set is the Bow & Bandoleer…
Also rather fantasy, although suitable for sci-fi too, are the SciFi Battlebow M4 Smartprop and the SciFi Battlebow V4 Smartprop.
There’s a Cupid’s Bow and Arrow set…
Medievalists might like the Diviner’s Posable Yew Longbow with poses and morphs…
Keihan’s Bow & Arrow is an older model but it has a draw morph.
Not much in the way of free archer’s clothing, seemingly.
That’s all! Stay on target!
Fortis Space Art Contest
Swiss precision watch-maker Fortis
“The winner will accompany a crew of scientists onboard of a zero-g airplane and assist them with their experiments in weightlessness. Participants over age 18, from all over the planet, can take part in the contest.”
Simply submit your own space art creative artworks (pictures, graphic works, videos) which have a strong “Space” theme. Winner announced 31st March 2013.
Photoshop Elements 11
The new Adobe Photoshop Elements 11
.
Elements is the simplified and streamlined version of the full Photoshop, and it takes far less time to learn. It took me three years to learn Photoshop 3 and 4, over a decade ago. It would have been a lot quicker if I could have started on an easy Elements version first, and then upgraded later.
Amazon USA still have the new Photoshop Elements 11 on pre-order, and Amazon UK don’t even list it yet — so if you want a gift copy early then the Adobe offer seems worth looking at.
Hop on your bike for more freebies…
Currently free on the DAZ Store, Old Fashioned Bicycles, featuring a Penny Farthing and a wooden Velocipede (or “boneshaker” in English slang). Although the blurb gives the latter the German name of Draisine. They should be of interest to steampunk enthusiasts.
Since my great grandfather was a bicycle manufacturer, it’s super to have the really old bicycle models in 3D form. It’d be great to see more of them. The bicycle went through hundreds of weird and wonderful variations, until the British finally came up with the classic “safety” bicycle that we use today.