News about the DAZ Studio and Poser software

Author Archives: jonahjameson

Filter for Interactive licences at DAZ

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Here’s an unusual one. A free UserScript for your Web browser’s Tampermonkey or similar, and which interacts with the DAZ site. All it appears to do is filter your purchased Interactive licences. So that you can just see those. Kind of useful, I guess, if you’re a developer who just needs to see your available assets… and not the 569 other things you’ve purchased over the years. It’s open-source and the code looks clean.. it’s not doing anything untoward.

Scene Building in Blender

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A new community course for beginners to learn Blender by creating a scene via modelling and texturing, Scene Building in Blender : Winter Wonderland. Starts Saturday 19th November 2022, and then runs Saturdays.

The scene is akin to the famous Narnia fantasy books for children: the wardrobe ‘portal’ into the snowy Narnia, with the lamppost as the first thing to be encountered there.

Terragen 4.6 – a big update

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According to the Newsletter, Terragen 4.6 is about to be released. This being the first big update for the advanced 3D landscape desktop software in two years.

* Windows now has .VBD export (was previously Linux only).

* Export clouds in .VBD for use in Blender etc.

* Better sRGB support.

* Better .FBX import, better .FBX export compatibility with Unreal Engine.

* Now with import and export of population caches as XML, as well as binary.

* Rendering speed improvements, faster Preview renders.

* Pro users get an experimental pipeline for RPC integration with other third-party tools.

* An open-source RPC Python module, so you can write Python scripts enabling other software to ‘talk’ to Terragen.

* Geolocation (aka “Georeferencing”) is said to become free in the Terragen 4.6 Free (aka Learning Edition, Non-Commercial). So far as I can tell, this is about aligning tiles side by side, rather than grabbing a DEM landscape tile from a user-friendly Google Earth style world-browser.

Still supports Windows 7+, and the update is free. Terragen 4 Free is free, and then currently Terragen 5 Creative is $299, the Pro is $599. A Mac version is coming soon, and a fun nodes-free ‘sky making’ Terragen Sky tool is also coming in December 2022.

Planetside Software (website has yet to update to 4.6 details/downloads. but should soon) and see also the YouTube channel.

Poser 13 Survey

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Poser 13 Update and Survey. I tried to fill it in, and did so. But every time I pressed “submit” it blanked a button I’d already pressed, and failed. Oh well, you may have better luck. I’m not sure if there’s more than the first page of questions that I saw, mostly seeming to be about the Queue Manager.

So, based on the blurb on the intro page…

1. Support for a new figure type that maintains true unimesh geometry inside Poser to simplify content creation and cross-tool content development. New female figure based on the new unimesh figure type

Only 0.00001% of users know why unimesh is such a big thing. Please explain that to the community first. What is the actual benefit to users?

2. Upgrading to latest Cycles render engine, with Poser code changes to streamline future updates

Seems sensible and obvious. Faster is always better, and so far as I know it’s both faster and better. Eevee would be nice too, but it’s probably not going to happen.

3. Addition of light bloom and more PostFX using the bgfx library

Yes, and make that panel Python scriptable. Such that anyone can build a “module” for PostFX, and call it in a script.

4. App launcher feature to offer more useful scene selection on startup

I have no idea what this means.

5. Other smaller features and bug fixes

Naturally.

What’s new for Poser and DAZ in October 2022

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Here’s my survey of DAZ and Poser content and other items, picked from the October 2022 releases. As usual, freebies are only listed if ‘commercial use’ for renders.

NOTE: One person has said links don’t work, but they do. If you can’t click through on Web links, then you probably have an over-zealous anti-virus software that also tries to police your links. Please try whitelisting www.renderosity.com and sharecg.com and www.daz3d.com.

Science fiction:

The stylish Mecha One Male for DAZ Studio. Also at CGbytes.

He probably drives the new Sci-fi Space Rover.

Protective Gear 011 for Poser and DAZ. Whacky retro sci-fi helmets plus G8 fits.

You may need one of those helmets if you go up against the mighty Toad cliff for DAZ and Poser.

Landing Leg, Morphing, V1 for DAZ Studio. Add bio-morphic landing legs to any craft.

ShaaraMuse3D Planetarium 2 for Poser and DAZ. A high-quality “planet seen from orbit” set. 8k texture maps and halo variations.

A DAH Natalya Space for G8F, a retro Russian space-girl. Appears to be a character from the old Destroy All Humans! videogame, so for fan-art only.

Retro Bicycle a stylised low-poly-ish Blender file, but nicely done.

Need something sleeker? Try the new Manga Anime Bike.

Colony Wellness Center, not something you see in colony sets every day. But such things will be vitally important, off-world.

Steampunk:

DryJack’s Steam Tank. Good to see him branching out from his superb model railway items.

An Old West Western Train for the presumably forthcoming “Railroad Construction Kit” mentioned in the blurb. With dial animations.

Another Street for The Streets of SteamPunk, A texture makeover for the recent big Stonemason scene.

Beach:

Still dreaming of summer and the beach? Try some free Cocktails for Poser.

A free Fast Boat 03a, with a nice look to it.

An unusual Hideout Armchair with wings adding privacy and also protecting from wind and sand-kicks on the beach.

Storybook:

Four Simple Boats for Poser, stylized and suitable for storybook / stop-motion type scenes.

A Snow White Gown for Fay Gown for G8F.

Cake with candy.

Fashion Kid Poses for Parah for G8. Requires CNB Parah which is a HD figure.

Toon:

Beagle for Melody & Micah for Poser. I have a “Furries Melody/Micah characters – how to load the head shapes” tutorial that may help with getting this up and running.

NIK Female Morphs for G8F has one that’s semi-toon.

Clothing:

Retro Biker for G8M sees Cybertenko moving into clothing.

A free D-Force Gothic Headpiece for G8F.

Halloween:

DAZ Crow and Poses and Gothic Crow Accessories.

Illustratur Ad Mortem by MortemVetus. Olde books, skulls and candles for Poser.

Dracula Hair Long for G8. For the new Dracula.

A creepy-elegant Feast Of Bones table.

Figures and figure add-ons:

Antonia Polygon 1.3 Standalone base figure, and Free Nightie. Antonia was one of the base figures developed in the Apollo Maximus era, as a female companion for Apollo. Version 1.3 appears to have been fully updated for Poser 11/12 and is now under a generous permissive Creative Commons Attribution licence.

The free Sara for La Femme for Poser. A full-body makeover for the flagship female who ships with Poser 11/12.

Clarinet and Poses for Genesis 8.

WkD3D G8M Face Pack, great and non-generic male faces/heads. But note that “This product contains only the head morphs – no textures are included. The skin textures used in the promos are noted on each image.”

The DAZ Genesis 9 base figure is out, and also various packs of base shapes, expressions, essentials etc. It was said in the webinar that if you can run existing HD figures then you should be able to run G9. Also apparently requires the very latest DAZ Studio.

Landscapes:

Some basic Grass for Poser, as a small square prop. Flink’s Grass would usually be my go-to, but this may be useful for tiling in the distance or for a large low-poly soccer pitch.

Viking Town: Set 3. Old VanishPoint content, but still able to look OK at a distance. Also useful for Anglo-Saxon scenes, as the hut buildings were often much the same.

Underwater:

ShaaraMuse3D’s new Photo Plants: Plants of the Sea. Sea-grass for your underwater scenes.

Underwater reefs by RaffyRaffy, sadly only for Blender and not Vue.

Animals:

Songbird ReMix Parrots Vol 6 – Amazons of the World 2 for Poser and DAZ.

Love A Cat for the HiveWire Housecat and Hivewire’s Dawn base female figure.

Mutton, a stylised ram (sheep), perhaps especially suitable for a scene that looks like a stylised stop-motion scene.

Historical:

Viking Warrior’s Horn Helmets for Genesis 8.

Renaissance Astronomy Room, complete with the relevant papers, tools and so on.

Jolly Roger Pirate Ship for Poser and DAZ. Updated for 2022.

A free 1777 Musket, French Napoleonic type.

1970s glam-rock boots, Wedge Platform Boots for G8F.

Utilities:

AutoLoad Creator for DAZ Studio. Use a simple UI to generate scripts that will autoload items onto a figure. Looks useful for content vendors, who can thus supply standalone scripts that can reproduce their promo images for users. Would be great to see this also extended to lights and cameras and render-settings.

AutoSave for DAZ. A simple “save every…” tool.

A free DAZ Studio UI layout Industrial Layout.

A free DAZ script to List Products Used in a scene.

Camera Tracking Importer for DAZ Studio – HitFilm Composite Shot.

Regroup for Sketchup. UnGroup models, fix their axis, re-group. Might be useful for fixing badly-made models with good geometry, before getting them out to an .OBJ file.

A Photoshop Action to cleanly cut out Dream by WOMBO AI images and auto-heal the curved corners.

Tutorials and more:

Digital Comics Creative – volumes three and four. 100 pages packed with information and examples. This double-issue combo volume is aimed at those who want to use Poser to make line-art for comics and also make more storybook type pictures that emulate hand-drawn and watercolor. Also covers filters, and has a well-researched section at the end surveying the possibilities for mo-cap for comics production.

Making an Autofit Clone and Shape for Genesis 9. A basic starter tutorial.

Using Poser Constraint Groups for animation, a short tutorial by Nerd3D.

Scene Power Building: How to Quickly Build Content-Rich DAZ Studio Scenes.

Digital Art Live’s YouTube Channel is changing. Old videos are gone, and many new videos are coming. Be sure to subscribe.

Digital Art Live magazine #72. Newly expanded, with freebies, ten new additional features and 108 pages. The theme this month is “Costume”, with a focus on fun and futuristic clothes and an Elia Neck interview.

That’s it for the October survey.

Text-based AI for mo-cap

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Human Motion Diffusion Model is new text-based AI for generating mo-cap animation for a 3D figure. Still a science-paper + source code at present.

But it can’t be long before you type in a text description to generate a rigged and clothed 3D figure (plus some basic helmet-hair), and can then also generate a set of motions to apply to the figure’s .FBX export file. Useful for games makers needing lots of cheaply-made NPCs, provided they can be game-ready.

But for Poser and DAZ users, the ideal would be to have reliable ‘text to mo-cap’ exist as a module within the software. Even better would be to have an AI build you a custom bespoke AI-model by examining all the mo-cap in your runtime, thus gearing it precisely to the base figure type you intend to target.

YouTube – never click the annoying “See more…” again

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A useful new UserScript for your Web browser. YouTube: expand description and long comments. No more clicking on “See more…”. With this installed, everything below the video is already open, and you just scroll down and cast your eye through it. Tested, and can be used alongside a UserScript that serves as a YouTube Comments Blocker.

Photoshop Action: Cut-out ‘Dream by Wombo’ AI-pictures

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Available now, my $2 Photoshop Action for users of the “Dream by Wombo” AI image generator. It very precisely and automatically cuts the picture out of a standard ‘Dream by Wombo’ AI-generated picture-card. It then auto-heals each of the tiny curved corners, and finally it saves the cut-out as a copy.

It works with the current Wombo output size available to free users. If that output size changes in future, then I’ll update the Action.

Available now on Gumroad.

Published: Digital Comics Creative, Volumes 3 & 4

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New and available now on Gumroad, Digital Comics Creative, Volumes 3 & 4 – Secrets of Poser 11 and Line-art Filters. Both volumes are bundled together as a bumper 100-page magazine-style PDF, great value at the introductory price of $15 (will soon be $18).

The earlier Volume 1 (Introduction) and Volume 2 (focused on DAZ Studio for comics) are also available. Volumes 5 and 6 are set for release in 2023.

Changes at ShareCG

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Changes at ShareCG. Mostly a home for freebies, but some also try to sell there. For content sellers…

“Due to the high cost of sales processing, the minimum price of a new (or updated) upload[ed product] will be set to $5.00. In addition the maximum discount was reduced to 50%.”

“The above change will set the minimum selling price, at the highest discount, to $2.50”

Seems fair enough. But they go on to say that even $2.50 “is too low to our opinion”. So presumably they would like to see a discounted minimum-price being set higher, in order to cover their processing costs.

Fractal wrangling

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An AI image derived from a fractal render as a seed-image + a text-prompt involving architecture / lush forest. Seems like an interesting and fruitful combination for art-gen AIs, in terms of wrangling fractal landscapes into more human/natural shapes. While still retaining something of the fractal-ness.

The combination of fractal and AI desktop software has yet to happen, but surely will. There will also be ‘auto up-detailing enhanced’ fly-throughs, something that both Microsoft and Google already have the code for. Video flythroughs will probably end of being a key use for AI in a year or so, because then the viewer doesn’t stop and notice the telltale signs of AI-ness so much. And there will be AI-generated music and soundscape to accompany.

With thanks to Steve Swayne for the example picture.

Changes for Vue creator edition

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Changes for the Vue landscape software.

The more affordable ‘Creator’ Vue now gets many of the Pro and Enterprise features. Cinema 4D and Maya integrations will be the addition that most will be interested in, since that will offer an easy Poser -> Vue -> C4D / Maya export workflow. Also added to Creator are “unlimited render size”, Python scripts, Multipass and G-buffer renders, among others. Nice. See the link for full details.

However, there’s a kicker… ‘Creator’ Vue will now be for “Personal non-commercial use only”. But that shouldn’t affect most hobbyists and students. At the most, it would affect those who pick up a few prints-sales each year from DeviantArt or ArtStation.

And… “starting today, any VUE and PlantFactory legacy licenses (versions 2016 and below) re-activation request will be contingent to a service order.” In other words it seems you’ll pay a small unspecified ‘servicing fee’ to have E-On re-activate an ancient Vue licence. Seems fair enough, as long as it’s a fair price. I believe you can also ask them to restore your old Cornucopia content purchases.

What was new for DAZ/Poser in September 2022?

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Time for another survey of the new and recent 3D content for DAZ Studio and Poser, for other related software, plus links to other goodies. Not quite monthly, as the last such was back on 20th August. So it’s roughly a six-weekly survey this time.

Magazines:

Available now, the new Digital Art Live magazine #72 (October 2022). Newly expanded, with ten new additional features and 108 pages. The theme this month is “Costume”, with a focus on fun and futuristic clothes.

It this sells at $5 then the following issue will be on AI image generators.

Science-fiction:

HF Asterya for G8F. Looks great. Hellfyre71 now has quite a nice line in humanoid aliens.

Car Viter, a Syd Mead-like personal vehicle of the future for DAZ Studio. Looks “very Mead”.

Cafe Racer for DAZ Studio.

Car Tork for DAZ, suitable for sandy and swampy places.

IBOT D2, floater bots for corridors.

The IBOT D2’s are probably hunting for Coflek-gnorg’s Critter. A bionic dino shark-bot!

The classic AirFish, now for DAZ Studio.

1971s Sci-fi interior kit for Poser, and he has another separate page for a DAZ version. 8 modular parts. His content always toons nicely in Poser’s real-time Comic-book mode.

Planning to help Elon take his Boring Company tunnel-digging to Mars? Then you’ll be needing the AtoZ Mobile Dual Beam Gantry Crane and tunnel sections.

Fantasy:

Broomhelga for La Femme for Poser.

Cirque De Lune Texture Set for La Femme. Plus poses.

Cybertenko’s new Atlantean King For Michael 4. Who could perhaps find a use for a D-Force Fur shoulders cape/wrap.

Photo Props: Bottles by ShaaraMuse3D. Pop all sorts inside, from micro-moss landscapes to pesky imprisoned imps.

The classic Steam outpost, now for DAZ Studio.

Halloween:

1971s has a new Underground Place kit for Poser and DAZ. A classic type environment which reminds me of the waterworks under the city of Vivec in the famous videogame Morrowind. There’s another separate page for a DAZ version. Suitable for Halloween revels with the monsters.

A dForce Stage Outfit for G8F. Unusual, and I imagine you could make the web pattern glow.

Fyrboil and his bat cousin Nibbles Bloodfang, both by Anniemation.

Halloween Hair. Fun, but could also form part of an unusual ‘yeti-type superhero’ kitbash for a new addition to your comic-book team.

Scruffy Hair Set for G8M. Always useful to have this sort of Gollum-hair, since it’s so rare.

Cheapskate’s free 3D Candle Flame for Superfly in Poser.

Everyday items, fruit and vegetables. I guess this sorts of counts for Halloween, as these days some think you should give nice healthy broccoli (eew…) to kids instead of candy. The potatoes and tubers looks especially nicely done.

CW Jospeh for Genesis 8, a handsome vampire with just the right sort of face for a less photoreal look (e.g for a 3D comic).

Another Vulture Mask for G8F.

Toon:

Not much in toon this month, as everyone switches to Halloween and Christmas. But Norbert the Nerd for Genesis 8 appeals, as a photoreal semi-toon.

Storybook:

Cutie Cloud Bundle studio set for DAZ Studio.

A generic Bicycle for Poser. Looks to be electrically assisted, and the sort of town run-about you might see in Japan.

Steampunk Submarine SeaMaid, possibly useful for a storybook adventure.

Hobby Props Art Supplies for DAZ Studio, including crayons.

Handmade Textures for Use with G’MIC’s ‘Artistic Stylize’.

Poses and AniBlocks:

Skydive G8 poses. Unusual, and possibly very useful if that’s what you want for your scene or animation. Could perhaps also double-up as outer-space weightless-ness poses? But for that see also HF Outer Space Poses for Genesis 8 Female.

Loiter Motions 2 for G1 and G2. Slightly mis-named, as one involves the figure having a heart-attack (see video)! There’s also a Loiter Motions 1 for G3F & G8F. Who knows what lurks in that one?

MultiGroup IV – Poses for Genesis 3 and 8.

Characters and clothing:

DZ G8F FemmeFataleZ. Looks similar to the Catwoman character, but not being any kind of a DC Comics or movies fan I’m not sure how similar. Be wary of commercial use, as DC Comics are very protective of their IP. For G8F.

Hard Work for M4 and V4 Hi-Vis Top and Pants for Poser. Useful if you make work-safety training videos for companies, and need the right gear. Also matching Work Gloves.

Victoria 9 HD, pre-order, for the forthcoming Genesis 9 free base figure. Apparently you need to be able to already comfortably run HD figures, to run this one. Also needed will be the very latest DAZ Studio.

Sexy Leotardo Classic for G8. And it is indeed, since it looks like a ‘instant classic’ go-to for many.

Layered Strand-Based Hair Shader and Merchant Resource for iRay.

Animals:

Songbird ReMix Parrots Vol 5 – Amazons of the World 1. Another triumph for Ken’s line of birds packs. See also the Songbird ReMix Perching Places and Eggs and Nestlings for garden birds.

DS Cadichon for DAZ Horse 2. Strange name, but it’s a donkey with pack gear. The gear probably needs a dust and wear pack for a makeover.

Texture Pack for the Hivewire Winged Horse and Poser.

Steampunk Pirate Octopus. A static model, but nicely done. Would be fab to see something akin to this made for Poser / DAZ.

LoREZ Horse 2 Bundle, a useful looking general cart-horse.

Landscapes and environments:

OpenWater, a block of open sea with waves. Looks useful, when you don’t want and can’t really control a big plane of water that might try to take up your entire scene.

Also a matching Wading model.

3 Beach Materials in SBS and PBR.

Raffy Raffy’s new Four biomes, though for Blender rather than for Vue.

Historical:

BW Primitive Weapons Bundle. Also digging and skinning tools.

dForce CH Greek Mythological Armour for Genesis 8. And a Medusa shield. See also the dForce Ares War Outfit.

Far From Home – Roman Legionary. Looks like it has just about everything you’d need to build your own legion, provided you can get more than four G8s in a scene. For G8M.

Viking Town Set 2. Older content from VanishingPoint, and showing its age, but now available for DAZ Studio. Also suitable for a Saxon settlement, seen from a distance or in a bird’s eye view. May also interest Vue users who can put an ecosystem on parts of it.

Napoleon’s Polish Lancer Bundle for G8. Specialist military historical content, no doubt a big hit in Poland.

Battleship Variations, an add-on pack for the Massena Pre-Dreadnought Battleship from the 1900s. Real-world, but suitable for steampunk.

Classic Silver Age retro Comic-book helmets.

1930s/40s hard-working Farm Livin’ outfits for Poser. Requires the Work and Leisure set.

A 1930s German Nurse for Poser.

Scripts and Utilities:

Ken K’s new script has been released. One-click to fit clothing to body morphs on figures in Poser 12 (only). There’s a video demo.

AutoSave and AutoLoad Creator for DAZ Studio.

OBJ Companion, “makes creating morphs using OBJ files easier”. Seems to be a helper for content makers switching between DAZ and Blender.

D-Talks! Realtime Talking Chatbot for DAZ Characters. Works with SAPI5 voices.

Legacy Set Converter. I’d always be wary of letting an autobot loose on a big runtime, but this apparently goes through on automatic and converts everything to the current DAZ .DUF format.

Bone Minion for Genesis 8 for Generation 4 (V4 and M4).

Tutorials:

Digital Comics Creative : Volume 2, for DAZ users. The Poser volume of this six-parter is due shortly. Update: it’s here.

dForce Case Studies : An In-Depth Tutorial Guide. Break through your dForce learning roadblocks.

Fixing Marvelous Designer Clothing Objects for DAZ Studio.

An easier and better way to do displacement in Poser 12.

Creating a hand grasp from one main dial in the body of the Poser figure.

Creating Scripts for Moho, the 2D animation software that uses Python. Formerly Smith Micro’s Anime Studio. No longer interfaces with Poser, sadly, put perhaps someone could whip up a new Python script for that?

Ok, that’s it for the latest round-up. Be sure to pick up the new edition of Digital Art Live magazine. More next month!

MMD to DAZ

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By accident I found the freeware MMD to DAZ, v2 (2019) plugin. May require Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable installed in Windows, which all but ancient dinosaur PCs should already have. Lets you import .PMD (older MMD) and .PMX (newer MMD) Miku Miku Dance figure files, apparently with the proper textures and bones, shaders, and toon outlines. You can also apparently drag and drop .PMX files onto the DAZ viewport.

Basic tutorial video: MMD Importer for DAZ Studio.

The other MMD option is said to be: Blender importer > FBX export (optionally also with dance motions) > Poser 11 import > save as .CR2 from which you can also take it to DAZ Studio. There may be other, perhaps better Blender importers by now, I haven’t made a huge search for them.