The DAZ Store just got a tablet-tastic makeover. I wasn’t sure about the new design at first, but after a few minutes I saw how much more logical it is. It also works well on a big desktop monitor. The only problem is that the Freebies page isn’t on one of the static menus. Freebies is actually still there, you just need to bookmark the page if you visit it regularly. And, what’s more, it now actually has genuine freebies on it — as it used to!
The British Museum has just released a nice set of 3D scanned objects from antiquity, as 3D models in .obj, and with Creative Commons Attribution licences. You have to login with Google or Facebook in order to download.
Time for a quick round-up of some recent fab freebies for DAZ Studio and Poser…
WitchyWoo House from PoserDirect…
This could work nicely with the Halloween cats for Patch I already mentioned in a previous post.
SteamPunk Goggles for Poser…
Little Vintage Camera, 1930s style…
From RuntimeDNA, toon voodoo doll Samedi 2… Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store.
Haunted House Poses set for M4 & V4. It looks like a lot of work went in to create these matching pose sets…
Halloween Gob Bats & Eye Bats, a makeover for the Eye Bat available at Runtime DNA…
Some ruins Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store. which might enhance a recent Stonemason ruined cities collection, or serve as a superhero battleground…
Genuine freebies, currently on offer at the DAZ Store…
The AniBlocks (pre-made animations) are for FM Solar System.
Currently free, Biolight for the Terrors of the Deep: Jellyfish pack. For the current version of Poser, and then only with “IDL/Raytracing enabled” activated in your render settings.
(See also my DAZ/Poser content survey: ocean creatures and lighting)
Remember Anomaly, the really cool graphic novel made with Poser and DAZ Studio and Poser content?
The follow-up, an interactive Android production called Shifter
9 Epic Chapters
200 Fully Painted Pages
65 Interactive Touch Points
875 Panels of Art
2½ Hours of Audio
“Even without the digital features, Shifter is an engaging tale. Kunrong Yap’s illustrations are vivid, and the story, written by Mr. Brittenham, Mr. Haberlin and Brian Holguin, is fast-paced and captivating.” — New York Times review.
Here are some of the freebies I’ve noted this month for DAZ Studio and Poser users:
Timbers are definitely ‘a shivering with Mortemvetus. A message in a bottle; the wheel of a haunted pirate ship; and a treasure map. (Aug 2017: link fixed)
Pirates vs. Vikings? In 3D-land, anything is possible! Viking Longboats as .obj models with textures. And the Gabare, which is more of a coastal trading vessel, and also done as .obj models with textures. The textures loaded up fine for me.
Xanadu looks rather good, if you need a “1940s USA” look for a scene. I guess you could also turn it 90 degrees, add another copy, and stick it far in the distance behind some haze — to serve as a sci-fi tower?
Gasbit is a Poser-rigged free character. I’m guessing that a bit of extra work, and some Photoshop magic, might also turn him into more of a semi-toon astronaut boy…
Free Coursera online course, Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers. 8 weeks, starts 24th February 2014.
Those interested in 2D animation should go grab my re-release of 500 free props and backgrounds intended for users of the new CrazyTalk Animator 2.
Update: now on Archive.org in perpetuity.
So what cool free stuff has been released for DAZ Studio and/or Poser, over the Christmas break?
Simple Wood Sign is a nice example of the species. Could be combined with the werewolf above, maybe pointing the way to granny’s house?
Granny’s Old Sewing Machine, ready to animate. Are you sensing the Little Red Riding Hood theme, yet…? 🙂
Nubian Complex looks impressive and has lots of nice comments, although I haven’t loaded it yet and the maker rather ominously states… “textures do not load appropiately, the textures are located in the texture files.”
Unusual Melted Snowman at Poser Direct, along with other new toons. Including the Tremblin’ Terrors for Halloween which I must have missed back in October/November…
I also seem to have missed Poser Direct’s huge Toon Train set.
A useful new free headphones and microphone accessory for Poser.
DAZ Carrara 8 and 8.5 now have free patches that translate the interface into German.
A free one-hour recorded-video webinar from Stefan Werner, Senior Software Engineer for Poser: “Getting the Most Out of Your Poser 3D Renders”…
“He demonstrates how to leverage the new and improved rendering features, including Subsurface Scattering, available in Poser 9 and Poser Pro 2012. Stefan also discusses how to optimize your render settings to master features such as depth-of-field, indirect light, and ambient occlusion. Learn why more isn’t necessarily better when it comes to rendering, and find the perfect balance between quality and performance.”
There’s now a free Personal Learning Edition of the new Plant Factory Producer, from the makers of 3D landscape software Vue. It’s a…
“3D vegetation modeling, animation and rendering software [to create] fully custom intricate 3D plant models.”
Users of free never-expires version can apparently…
* Create complete projects and save their work
* Export their plants to other applications as standard geometry [standard .OBJ, .FBX]
Like most Eon/Vue freebies it’s also heavily crippled. Model exports are crippled in the free version because…
“Exported geometry removes 1 polygon out of 5”.
Although I’m guesing that those willing to experiment with smoothing (3DXchange), repairing (PolyTrans), remeshing by adding polys (I think the latest Poser can do that) or decimating (DAZ Decimator) the .OBJ models might make the plants acceptable for middle-distance use in DAZ or Poser?
