Category Archives: DAZ Studio

Natural landscapes survey for Poser and DAZ, Part One — terrains and plants:

Spring is here, and perhaps you want to have Poser render a beautiful wild garden? But is it possible for Poser to compete with Vue? No, it’s not. Although some content artists have had a jolly good try at providing Poser users and Daz users with the means to try it (for DS3: Mood Master 2 / Light Dome Pro 2 / etc). What follows is a quick survey of key basic landscape resources in this area.

The Runtime DNA store seems to have cornered the market on naturals for Poser. They have three main series…

Series 1: Microcosm. These are terrains and the texture sets for them. There are a lot, and they even extend to undersea-style terrains. Though the geometry is very flexible and quite realistic, I found the textures to have too much of a ‘moire’ repeating pattern. Though that may not matter if all you want is a base on which to paint in Photoshop post-production.

Also worth a look is the older GeoForge for Poser or the Terraformers series for Poser.

Series 2: Old Wood. RDNA’s wide variety of trees designed for Poser renders, although I found the leaves on these to be unacceptably fuzzy. The render times were also through the roof…

Series 3: RDNA Grasslands. A huge variety of grassland types, although be warned that these are mostly somewhat fuzzy 2D billboards (that oddly take a long time to render). Only some are 3D models like Lisa’s Botanicals…

Many of the natural packs shown at Content Paradise fail to convince — although you might want to look at dinosaur specialist Dinoraul with his prehistorical foliage pack ‘DR Plants 1’.

The DAZ Store also has a vast range (nearly 100) of the high-quality Lisa’s Botanicals series. These provide almost every garden flower you could want in beautiful 3D, plus exotics, a range of creepy dead woods for Halloween, and some fantasy plants such as a giant beanstalk. These are 3D models and will all work in DAZ and Poser.

Also worth a mention, in regard to the DAZ Store, are FirstBastion’s fine The Hidden Waterfalls and The Old Waterhole…

And on Renderosity…

There are also various older 2D cyclorama systems around, but these seem to be getting a bit long in the tooth these days. Few of their backgrounds can convince when a scene is rendered at 3600px with crisp models set in front of them. Although I guess you may find that you can retrofit them with crisp modern stock photography?

There is also Dimension Theory’s Ecomantics Efficient Ecosystems, available at the DAZ Store. The product page for this says “DAZ only”, but there are definitely Poser install files available since late 2011. Poser users should consult the Ecomantics forum. The system uses a mix of billboards, shallow 3D elements, and panoramas to speed up rendering dramatically. Personally I found it to be unacceptably fuzzy/muddy and could render nothing as crisp or vibrant as the preview images — although the render times for Efficient Ecosystems are certainly fast. Possibly the pack only really works well in DAZ? And that’s why DAZ doesn’t advertise the Poser version? My guess.

So I found that all the trees and tree and grass systems are rather disappointing, except for Lisa’s Botanicals. Lisa’s are the only natural packs I could really recommend spending good money on.

Incidentally, if you want to see beautiful 3D woodlands landscapes running at 60 frames per second in 1920px, try the free videogame The Hunter. And they look 10 times better than anything you could spend days rendering with the likes of the Runtime DNA natural packs. Possibly some screenshots from this could be made to fit the old Poser cycloramas?

One rather more expensive possibility, for Photoshop users not afraid of doing post-work, would be to look at expensive 2D clipart DVDs meant for architects and the like, such as Dosch Foreground Plants and Trees and the XFrog plants billboards series (although the latter are only at 800px).

That’s it. I’ll cover atmospherics, sci-fi “alien plants”, and mushrooms / toadstools in later posts. But I’ll just note that Renderosity has an especially good selection of “alien worlds” plants and strange fantasy fungi.

Sky Captain, the very interesting new vendor of high-quality steampunk models, has a fine new one out today. The Cryo Chamber ($10) is fully posable in Poser…

Mad Scientist Lab Survey: Part Two.

This post looks at the resources available for the classic 1930s-style laboratory itself, for DAZ Studio or Poser users.

Some products were a good fit for the days of Poser 4, but things have moved on a bit and today you may want to re-texture some of the props. There’s a nice range of electrical capacitors and suchlike here.

This could be combined with the products by Coflek-Gnorg…

This could be paired with the M.S.L. Cloning Facility…

DAZ has a larger stage for Tesla-like lightning experiments, the “Faraday Cage” pack…

The Science Lab and Chemistry Set is a good selection of Poser-ready objects…

You can also get a free set of lab stuff from the CG Lighting Challenge archives.

The DAZ Store has a full Mad Scientist Lab, the “Mad Lab”.

For free tanks, those with old runtimes may have the Zaibora Nexus tanks in the library…

The Angel Egg Dream Machine pack has a useful vintage control panel and projector screen…

Finally, there a basic Lab Mouse which is light on resources, so you could have many of them in a scene. Poser’s Hair Room should be able to give them fur fairly easily.

Mad Scientist Lab Survey: Part One.

The brain-in-the-jar has been a staple of science fiction since the 1920s and probably earlier. This blog post is a survey of the 3d content assets available in this line for DAZ Studio or Poser and elsewhere. It’s the first of an occasional survey of the contents needed for a ‘mad scientist lab’.

The DAZ 3D Brain Model, complete with shelf jar, is an obvious first stop…

The AntFarm on the DAZ Store has this Dr. Mason package…

A contemporary update on the theme, the Memory Storage Device…

The Cargobots And Containers set could also be adapted, with transparent materials.

Need something bigger? Coflek-Gnorg’s Sci-Fi Chambers Megapack should do the job for your giant talking brain scenes…

Runtime DNA has the RDNA Psiberion Vol 1 for Michael 2… Was at the RuntimeDNA store, but since its closure the model now appears to be lost.

Also worth a mention is that iClone users have this fully animatable Cyborg Librarian head…

There were also a couple of ‘alien brain in tank’ Poser models I remember from way back, but they seem to have vanished from the Web.

Update, Oct 2013: Think Tank.

Added to my recent survey of steampunk content assets. This delightful new steampunk hot-air balloon for Poser and DAZ, with a brass bathysphere-type basket. It’s just arrived on YURdigital at just $10…

Made by SkyCaptain, a name to watch if you like affordable steampunk models.

This is my survey of the best of the 3D house cats for Poser 9, Poser Pro 2014, and DAZ Studio, available in early 2012:

Millennium Cat:

The DAZ Millennium Cat is of course the master moggie that you must have, and she has long since chased the earlier and lesser Poser cats out of the neighbourhood. The base cat is available on the DAZ Store…

She works fine in Poser. There is also an “LE” edition that looks identical, but which has less morphs and thus has a less taxing effect on your PC. The LE is currently free.

Seven beautiful extra textures for the Millenium Cat can be had for free at PlanIt.

You can also buy the “Classic Cats Combo” textures pack on the DAZ Store.

Need a wildcat or bobcat texture? Yup, there is one. Cloud and Castle has a free wildcat texture for the Millenium Cat…

For depicting more civilized kittees, your classical Egyptian cat renders can take advantage of “Bast for Millennium Cat” pack, available on the DAZ store…

Animations and poses for Millenium Cat:

Paid poses packs for the MilCat are available; and the “LB Millennium Cat Poses” and the “Purrfect Poses for the Millennium Cat” on the DAZ Store.

Kittee toys and baskets:

The DAZ Store has the “Millennium Cat Props” containing such items as sleeping baskets, indoor cat trees, and a litter box, etc.

Fur:

Poser users can get fur as standard, without any addons. Although a careful application of parts of something like the Instant Hair Collection PSD Photoshop files, in Photoshop, might reduce render times considerably. Advanced Photoshop users should also take a look at the amazing filter plugin Alien Skin Eye Candy: Textures (Animal Fur), which can do a lot more than the Alien Skin website’s lacklustre samples suggest.

For fur DAZ users will need to upgrade to DAZ Carrara, and then install the “Real Fur for the Millennium Cat” addon pack from the DAZ Store. Another alternative is the “Furify: Fur Shaders” pack, which also works on Poser.

There was also a “Furred Cat Short” pack, which appears to have worked, but is no longer sold. Update: It’s now called Fluffy Cat for the Millennium Cat and is sold at Hivewire.

Toon cats:

The cutest kittee is Yanelis’s free Mesky & Blackie for Poser. Was at RuntimeDNA, now appears to be lost. The Blackie kitten comes with Dynamic Hair for Poser…

There are some pretty ugly toon cats out there, but I think the most pleasing balance between realistic and toon is the new Noodle from 3D Universe…

Noodle comes with good texures, and posing dials (not preset poses). Noodle once had a free Mimic file for all your talking cat needs, but sadly it vanished in the 3D Universe website makeover of Nov 2012. However, I tracked down a copy at the South African version of 3DU.

There’s also a classy toon cat in the form of Cupcake. And Tom Pawyer is an excellent male toon morph set for Cupcake.

Spooky cats:

Need a cat skeleton that you can make glow-in-the-dark? Try the Skele Cat for Poser. It’s actually a lion skeleton, but if you scale it down I expect that not many viewers will actually spot the difference…

Cheshire Cat is Alice in Wonderland via Tim Burton…

A little too garish? There’s an eight texture pack FuzzBallz for Cheshire Cat that gives this fearsomely pink grimalkin a much more natural look, but which can’t do much about the lamp-like eyes. The Cheshire cat accepts poses from the old Poser cat and the new Millennium cat.

There was once a morph set for the Cheshire Cat that turned it into more of a thinner demon-style cat, but it appears to have vanished without trace.

A leaner Halloween-style cat is Black Cat. Although it’s old now and doesn’t stand close-ups like the Millennium Cat does, it might be especially good for silhouettes with a little rim lighting and some Poser fur…

Robot cats:

The Cat Robot is the only one I know of…

There’s definitely a gap in the market for a steam-punk cat robot, I’d say.

Update: see also the “D-Claws and D-Squeek” cat robot on the DAZ Store.

Sci-fi:

There was once an “alien cats” pack of morphs and textures, but it appears to be no longer available…

Home environments:

There are plenty of normal home environments for DAZ and Poser, but the Crazy Cat Lady Mobile Home perhaps deserves a special mention.

That’s it! Enjoy your kittee renders and animations!

A new addition to Jack Tomalin’s sci-fi GIS series of high-quality interiors have just landed for DAZ Studio and Poser — “GIS Sigma” and its additional Future Quiet texture pack are available now. GIS Sigma 3D science fiction architectures are pretty much how I’d imagine the movies of Asimov’s Foundation books might look when the first is released in 2013.

This blog now has a single port of call, a new fixed page that collects links to all my themed surveys of Poser and DAZ 3D content.