Possibly interesting for Python-coders who craft Python scripts for Poser, Vue, Blender, and others. The new Amazon CodeWhisperer, a free code-generator from Amazon, that appears to be genuinely free and supposedly “unlimited”. Although you do need an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account.
It’s powered by AI, of course. Be warned that the ‘free’ tier of AWS is only a 12 month trial, last I heard. Then you have to pay to keep the AWS account.
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MiDaS uses trained AI to take a normal 2D image and output a 3D depth-map. In Poser-speak it’s like Poser’s ‘auxiliary Z-depth’ pass or render.
Free and public, no sign-up needed. Just drag-and-drop your image. It can probably also be installed locally, though I haven’t looked at the requirements for that.
Once you have it you can use the usual Photoshop layer inversion/blending-mode tricks to create ‘depth-fog’ in the scene, where there was none before.
Dream Textures is the Stable Diffusion AI, sending AI-gen textures direct to the Blender shader editor. Can be used with DreamStudio as the paid Cloud generator.
Since Poser does Python, I don’t see why something similar couldn’t be done for Poser. Doubtless there will soon be AI’s that can take a text-prompt and pop out a finished .PBR material. For example: “Make me a lava material that looks like glowing snake-skin”.
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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.
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.
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.
An interesting new re-lighting service, ClipDrop – Relight. Requires a 2D picture-upload, and you then get “as-if 3D” real-time relighting.
I’m not sure how well it would work with a picture that doesn’t look like a head-and-shoulders passport photo.
I’m guessing it may also be flummoxed by wild Poser/DAZ stuff, such as an all-action hero cyber-elephant wearing goggles, posed against a complex cyber-city background.
Doubtless this sort of capability is coming to desktop software in a month or two, if it isn’t here already in something I haven’t heard about yet. But this is a nice online demo of the capabilities.
By the way, here is the “Click to replay” code, for the above demo. A few lines of simple HTML for Web pages. I’m surprised people go overboard with massive javascripts just to add a simple animated .PNG control…
Working in Opera (Chrome), Brave (Chrome) and Pale Moon (Firefox). You’re welcome.
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Reallusion have a new free “automatic rigging tool” for 3D characters. Equivalent to Miximo, AccuRIG 1.0 users load a T-pose or A-pose figure and apparently get back a 19-joint .FBX with…
“full-body and finger rigs for biped characters”
Seems to be genuinely free, and independent of the rest of the costly suite of Reallusion software (although it can interface with Reallusion’s ActorCore system).
No mention of face or toes rigging though. So I guess mostly aimed at quick auto-rigging of “low-poly NPCs”, of the sort needed for games. I’m uncertain how many auto-riggers gamer developers already have, but I’d guess it’s not zero. Also, I don’t see any mention that the rig can take standard .BVH mo-cap motions, or your existing iClone motions. But I guess Reallusion will hope to sell new motion packs for the figures.
It’s Windows desktop software that you download, and then ActorCore “free registration” is needed for any sort of export from it. Might be worth trying, to see how well it can do, say… the free Big Buck Bunny rabbit figure from Blender. And then how well that moves in DAZ / Poser, and if .BVH motions work.
But otherwise Poser and DAZ people probably have enough in their runtimes to provide the standard extras needed for a large scene, without having to go all around-about via the .FBX format.
DALL.E 2. has launched in beta. $15 effectively buys you three or four text prompts per day, across a month. The lucky beta “users get full usage rights to commercialize the images they create”. There’s also a bung for those around the world who can’t afford that… “Artists who are in need of financial assistance will be able to apply for subsidized access.”
Copy-paste, save as a .py Python script. Make sure the ” ” are not fancy curly quotes. They need to be straight quotes… " "
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 |
# A Python script to load and render a Sketch Preset in Poser 11. # Do the usual setup stuff. import poser scene = poser.Scene() # Tell Poser we are going to want to load a Firefly options preset. option = scene.CurrentFireFlyOptions() # Set Firefly as the render engine. scene.SetCurrentRenderEngine(poser.kRenderEngineCodeFIREFLY) # Load the Sketch render preset, and Firefly will # accept it even though it's not a .prp Firefly preset. # Note that the backslash is required on the file path. option.LoadPreset("C:\sketch_preset.pzs") # Now the important bit, we have the script switch # Poser's render mode to Sketch. scene.SetCurrentRenderEngine(poser.kRenderEngineCodeSKETCH) # Do the render with the current Sketch preset and Sketch # engine, and adopt the other current render settings. scene.Render() |
Yous custom Sketch presets are found at:
C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Poser Pro\11\SketchPresets
or
C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Poser\12\SketchPresets
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Looking rather useful for $3.50, Easy Toolbox ZBrush Plugin aims to speed your work with the software’s uncongenial and confusing interface, by…
“gathering together, in a single interface, many of the most useful functions of ZBrush that you use all the time.”
After a little wrangling and bashing I was able to get the DAZ 3D Bridge for Photoshop, posted about yesterday, fully running. Including its “Update” and “AutoUpdate” features.
Required:
1. As per my tutorial yesterday, the latest DAZ Studio 4.20.0.17 64-bit, and its latest DS4_3DBridge_1.13.0.17_Win64.exe Bridge. This Bridge then installed to both DAZ 4.20 and to my 64-bit Photoshop 2018. The latter is here superfluous though, as we also need to get another and 32-bit Bridge plugin into Photoshop CS6 to get the Bridge fully functional.
and
2. Photoshop CS6 32-bit, with its 32-bit plugin installed from an old DS4_3DBridge_1.6.2.70_Win32.exe installer I found on an old backup DVD. Note that install of this requires a DAZ Studio 4 32-bit version to be present (I used an old 4.12.x 32-bit), or else the vital Bridge install will be refused. 32-bit parity between the two is important. You may also want your old DAZ 4.12 Pro serial to activate the 32-bit DAZ, though that is probably not needed. No serial was needed for the Photoshop side of the old 32-bit Bridge. No damage was done to my DAZ Studio 4.20.0.17 64-bit by the install of an old 32-bit version over in C:\Program Files (x86)
It’s possible you don’t even need that old 32-bit Bridge installer, as a there’s also a current 32-bit one still available in your DAZ Product Library. The current is DS4_3DBridge_1.13.0.17_Win32.exe
Usage:
Then I just load Photoshop CS6 32-bit, load its 32-bit version of the DAZ Bridge, it will then auto-launch my latest DAZ Studio 4.20.x 64-bit. Then, the 32-bit CS6 plugin can happily talk to the latest Bridge script/camera in the 64-bit latest DAZ Studio. Update and Autoupdate work perfectly. Importing an iRay render into Photoshop also works fine. I assume it’s all direct script-to-script talk at that point, and thus no .EXE bit-parity is required.
So… the problem appears to have been that everyone had moved on to 64-bit Photoshop, partly breaking the Bridge’s “Update” and “Autoupdate” features. But the current plugin still works fine if you give it a 32-bit Photoshop CS6 with an old 32-bit Bridge plugin located in Photoshop’s plug-ins directory.
I should say that all this happens for me in Windows 7 64-bit, and that later versions of Windows may not be so co-operative.
Also found: the original Bridge PDF User Guide from 2008. Never updated, it seems.
Here’s how to get the free DAZ Bridge running with Photoshop, and streamline a chunk of the workflow with my additional automated script.
1. Download the Bridge.
BRIDGE: Most people will want the 64-bit installer current at DS4_3DBridge_1.13.0.17_Win64.exe and this is working with the latest DAZ Studio 4.20.x. DAZ Studio lacks Poser’s ability to render to a multi-layered Photoshop .PSD, so this is the only official way to get renders over to a layered Photoshop file.
PHOTOSHOP: In this 64-bit case you need a 64-bit Photoshop that also supports 3D. Adobe recently pulled all 3D support from Photoshop, for rather murky reasons. Technically that should not matter, as all we’re doing here is bringing in a 2D render via a Bridge. But you may still want to revert to an older 3D version of Photoshop. The following tutorial assumes Photoshop 2018 on Windows.
2. Install the DAZ bridge. In the installer, you specify the plugins directory for the version of Photoshop you want to target. In this case…
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2018\Plug-ins
3. Once installed, go look in your regular Photoshop’s ..\Plug-ins directory and you should see a new ..\DAZ 3D folder there, and inside that a psdzbridge.8li file. Success.
4. Now load Photoshop. Open the backdrop image (aka ‘background’, aka ‘backplate’) you want as the base layer for your picture, above which your 3D DAZ renders will appear as adjustable layers. Ideally this backdrop is not at some huge size, but rather more like 1800-2400px wide. Then you run the Bridge script thus…
6. The Bridge’s mini UI panel will then appear in Photoshop. DAZ Studio will also be auto-launched at the same time, if it wasn’t already running. Give it time to load. In DAZ you will see you now have a special camera which is being used to get and pass the renders, and you will automatically be looking through that camera.
7. In DAZ, the Backdrop now needs to match the same one you have open in Photoshop. I wrote a script that automatically takes care of all the fiddly steps involved in this: it first invites the user to select and load the same backdrop they’ve already loaded in Photoshop. Ignore other manual switches, as the script will take care of them. This is how you load a backdrop image…
Then, once you’ve done that, the script continues. It auto-sets the Viewport ratio to the new backdrop, then also matches the current render size to it in pixels, and finally it turns off visibility of the backdrop in renders. The script also sets the iRay Max Time (i.e. maximum render time) to 30 seconds.
* Script (save as Photoshop_Bridge_helper_script_for DAZ_Studio.txt and then rename to .dsa).
(I have a tutorial here on how to pin a script to your DAZ UI’s ‘Scripts’ menu).
8. Both DAZ and Photoshop should now have the same auto-magically matched backdrops. Set up your prop or figure in DAZ, via the special Bridge camera, so as to match the backdrop in terms of position and lighting.
For 64-bit users to get a cutout render on transparency, you need to first click “Preview Image”. This doesn’t Preview in 64-bit (see below for details) but does set up “Render to New Layer” to render onto transparency. 32-bit users with CS6 need no such workaround.
In Photoshop and via the Bridge’s mini UI, you then “Render to New Layer”. The resulting render will perfectly match the backdrop in Photoshop, and will also be a cutout on transparency.
And the DAZ render time is now reasonable, taking 30 seconds to get into Photoshop. The seconds can be adjusted at the foot of my script. Adjust the time to as long as you can bear…
// Max Time in seconds
oProperty.setValue(30)
oProperty.getValue()
Yes, sadly 64-bit users have to do a proper full render in DAZ before it’s brought into Photoshop. Because the Bridge’s “Preview” button no longer works in 64-bit. What “Preview” was supposed to do was… “create an image or layer in Photoshop using the current DAZ Studio viewport image.” But for most this no longer works. Bridge now only works fully if you can use this method which involves having CS6 32-bit on a 64-bit system.
Thus for most people the best way to get an iRay render into Photoshop with any speed is to manually cap the render time to just 30 seconds, which my script does for you. At my default of 30 seconds the iRay render’s result is grainy, yes… but that doesn’t matter for me. The aim in Photoshop is “painterly via a filter”. The grain thus gets smushed away by the filter, and the painterly effect is perhaps even helped along a bit by the grain….
Alternatively you could try setting your DAZ engine to use a superfast custom iRay preset you have working with a ninja $1,000 graphics-card, or manually set the near real-time render-engine of OpenGL, after my script has run.
The advantages of rendering to layers over a matched background are various. Layers can be filtered differently or faded out for a ‘depth fog’ effect. Cutout edges can be stroked. Layers can be moved or deleted without having to go back into a big 3D scene. Very large complex pictures can be built, potentially with many elements, without burning out your PC trying to render some DAZ mega-scene all in one go.
That’s it. Enjoy, as the DAZ Photoshop Bridge could have cost you $200 back-in-the-day!
The DAZ installer 4.20.0.17 (latest installer) has been installed here and the new DAZ has had some testing.
1) I found I had to recreate my Scripts menu and re-assign a custom shortcut. The items were still there (F3 | left panel | Custom | expand) but there was no scripts menu for them and one vital item had lost the keyboard shortcut.
They had all lost their native ‘Scripts’ UI menu, off which they hang. This menu had vanished, despite the UI layout preset being the same.
2) The slightly older 4.20.0.2 had a bug which I found. This prevented it from fully returning to the UI after fullscreen (Shift + F11). This bug appears to have been fixed with the new 4.20.0.17 (latest installer), but for keyboard presses only.
‘Why would you want to fullscreen’, you ask? Because doing so with the Viewport set to iRay means you can save the largest possible iRay ‘File | Save Last Draw…’ render. You already have an iRay render in your Viewport, so why render it again? It’s there, so just save it out in a micro-second. Admittedly it may be far from perfect after maybe eight seconds or so of rendering, but good enough for use in a complex compositing mix over in Photoshop.
So, keyboard fullscreen is fixed with 4.20.0.17. However, the scripted automation is not fixed. Using the script commands…
MainWindow.goFullScreen()
MainWindow.exitFullScreen()
… has the same problem as before. It works, and as if you were pressing keys. But the Viewport is then found to be kaput on return, whereas it was fine for simple key-presses. After the scripted fullscreen the Viewport is found to have lost all its widgets, and the display hangs forever displaying a ‘uniform grey’. DAZ has to be closed to cure the problem.
This script bottleneck is cured in VisNews #30 (April 2022), when the reader is shown how to chain together DAZ scripts, custom keyboard commands, mouse-gesture freeware and a Python script, such that…
I can now draw a simple “N” mouse-gesture in DAZ… and 90 seconds later I automatically have an eight-layer Photoshop .PSD file of quality artwork, ready for further creative compositing work.
This timestamped .PSD, dropped onto the Desktop, also has a Viewport ‘Save Last Draw…’ iRay render in in, made in fullscreen.
I should say however, that the VisNews solution is Windows-only and all renders must be at 1681px by 1141px. The size is due to the impossibility of forcing the Viewport Draw to be larger than the 1200px-height monitor size being used.
There are plenty of bits of software that will take this sort of lineart and filter it. This unfiltered example of source lineart is from Poser 11, with the real-time comic book option set to b&w and simple lighting.
Such lineart can be filtered by, for instance, the free G’MIC which has a big range of filtering options. The new G’MIC 3.1 will be out for Photoshop in a few days, and will add another comic-oriented filter. Then there’s Digital Auto-Painter (DAP), though only its graphic-novel preset is of real use for lineart — and with a bit of twiddling that can be emulated with the free G’MIC. A nice one I rate is Redfield’s Sketchmaster, especially if you want a kind of soft pastels look. Some people even work wonders with the native Photoshop filters, chaining them together in an Action. AKVIS Charcoal I tried some years ago, and though kind of nice it was slow. It may have improved since.
Topaz Clean 3 is also useful for cleaning off the bump-map and muddy-texture grunge, prior to any filtering. That can also be emulated with the free G’MIC. Though the sadly-discontinued Topaz Clean 3 is more than twice as fast, on what is a very slow process.
Now I’ve found another new way of filtering. I discovered that the maker of DAP had launched a new Style Animator 1.0 at $40. It vectorizes lineart, and can then apply a preset style. Kind of like SketchUp’s line styles, which many readers will be familiar with. I tried it, it’s nice, it works, but… is somewhat limited in its range.
Yet the idea of Style Animator 1.0 led me to discover software that’s been hiding in plain sight for the last 20 years. So much so that I don’t think it’s ever had a review. At least, I can’t find one. It’s Synthetik Studio Artist, which is from developer John Dalton and recently had a major update to 5.5.5. If the $40 Style Animator is a cute little furry Bush Baby, then the $200 Synthetik Studio Artist is a massive chest-beating 500lb Mountain Gorilla. And just as fearsome to approach, as it’s not easy software to learn despite the 560-page manual and a wealth of video tutorials. ‘Autopainter’ it may be… but it sure takes some getting used to. Yet recent intensive testing shows it has at least half a dozen great possibilities ‘out of the box’, when fed Poser lineart. When I say great I mean ‘looks relatively hand-made, without being cheesy’. The next edition of VisNews will have the details.
There’s a generous non-expiring free trial for it, and I’ve made two free preset actions for it which are on Dropbox.
1. Open File | New Source and Canvas (Ctrl + N), and select some Poser lineart.
2. Type number 100 in the h Mult box on the import parameters, to get the Canvas the same size as the Source image you’re loading onto it. Sadly this step can’t be automated.
3. Run one of my preset actions. If you loaded a .PNG with an alpha mask, then run the main action. If you loaded a render from Poser’s Sketch (no alpha possible), then run the Sketch one.
4. Either should result in the output of a cleanly masked .PNG file , when you use “Save Canvas as…” to save a .PNG file.
The Poser inks after my preset
A Poser Sketch render after my preset
There are of course just starting points. The idea is you bring the output into Photoshop. Output should be the same size as the source, and so easy to composite. Here G’MIC has added a finishing touch, seen most clearly on the toes. Not one line of this was inked by hand…
Figure is ‘BioBot’ by AntFarm.