Posted in Poser, Special Offers and Discounts, Spotted in the News, Tutorials
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Poser Expo 3, the online conference, now has the event registration open. Eight live webinars, with experienced content developers and Eric VanDycke of the Runtime DNA store, and the opportunity to interact and ask questions. Ir runs 18th-19th October 2014.
Poster artwork by Syyd of Runtime DNA.
It’s time for another survey of the last month’s 3D content, released for DAZ Studio and Poser. Surprisingly rich pickings this month, considering it was August and most folks were on holiday. I found a moderate amount of nice sci-fi, once I started digging. Plus a wide range of other quality and unusual items.
A new Stonemason sci-fi environment is always welcome. His new Sci Fi Crew Quarters looks like a great addition to his recent sci-fi interiors range. ..
AppleJack’s new AJ Airport is nicely futuristic, and could also double as a near-future spaceport of the Virgin Galactic type…
Sentinel Explorer 225 could be the first arrival at your new spaceport…
The Q88 Martian Explorer is another nice new sci-fi vehicle, with more than a touch of Syd Mead, and with a bit of Mead-like colour would look awesome with your new spaceport in the background….
Usefully generic is SciFi Blast Bunker. With a little tweaking and Photoshop work you could probably make it anything from far-future sci-fi through to a Second World War bunker, or even an underwater mini-submarine pen entrance.
The Cyber Drone is a nicely detailed generic sci-fi attack-drone…
Oskarsson has some very weak promo pictures for his new NecroGothica HD, but it’s an interesting looking Aliens-style large environment. There have been similar alien hive environments in the past but apparently this one “displays up to 4 million polygons on your computer but the HD Morph only becomes visible when you render”…
NecroGothica could perhaps be combined with Coflek-Gnorg’s new Klingon-ish Battle Council chamber.
Hivewire has a variety of new releases of its popular Hivewire Horse, enabling various new breeds…
Need a home for your Horse Lords? The well-known designer DM has a new Essence of Fantasy scene, obviously inspired by Rohan in the Lord of the Rings (although the central butterfly motif looks more Assyrian)…
Feeling a bit more Elvish? Take a seat on the new Throne Of Summer…
Got a few Rock Trolls? The new Ridge Walk Mountains would be a very cool place for your fantasy warrior to encounter them…
Kendra for Genesis 1 looks like a useful generic character to have in your runtime…
Ironman13 gives us a slightly retro 1990s style i13 Working and some handy i13 Working Office poses keyed to it…
The Studio, for which it would be nice to see a modern home-office makeover and preset. The distant view for The Studio might be a slightly Photoshopped Summer TreeHouse Cottage.
Faveral’s Explorer’s Den looks like a fabulous piece of work. We’ve seen a handful of retro explorer / detective rooms like this before, but this one looks like it beats them all. Useful for historic role-playing gamers needing prompt cards for players, especially those in the Call of Cthulhu and Gumshoe line. Cluedo-style “the butler did it!” murder-mystery scenes also spring to mind…
Your Explorer’s Den explorer probably drives a Retro Dream V16 Special… Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store.
With the First World War commemoration around the corner, London224 has a new authentic MS14 RAF FE bi-plane…
Koggen has a nicely made merchant ship from the era of Marco Polo, only in .obj format…
And once your Marco Polo sailor has safely reached China, he may find some hungry pandas that need feeding 🙂 Bamboo Megapack looks usefully flexible since it could also be handy for a range of other uses: jungle warfare, kung-fu, exotic fantasy gardens, steampunk hothouses, even biospheres on spaceships.
Halloween is coming, and the new Immortalis may be useful for that…
Lastly, Vue users aren’t forgotten. New are Curious Stacked Shack for Vue and the Halloween-ish Curious Shaker Row Houses for Vue…
That’s it! See you next month.
Genuine freebies, currently on offer at the DAZ Store…
The AniBlocks (pre-made animations) are for FM Solar System.
3d Art Direct has a Mastering the Poser Morph Tool webinar soon, for Poser users, with Nerd3D.
It’s that time of the month again, when I survey the most interesting DAZ Studio and Poser items released in the last month. I’ve pleased to see that Runtime DNA is now back online.
Not a great deal of quality sci-fi this month, but there’s a bit:
Sci-Fi Training Room could be useful for superhero team training scenes, but it probably needs livening up a bit by having the cracks between the tiles glow and some hologram MATs. You could also cover the sub-basement shaft with a glass dome and have it be a terrarium on a spaceship, alien containment dome, or a home for a classic 1950s-style ‘giant brain in a dome’…
Tenshi for Cyborg Version 4 (for V4) is a nice mix of ancient and modern…
Chroft Apartment Complex is a good-looking modern interior. Add-ons are Matching Furniture, the Chroft Apartment Bathroom and the Chroft Apartment Complex Illuminations Kit…
A little more futuristic is the AJ Futuristic Hall…
Piratess Hair for Genesis 1 and 2 looks unusual, very well designed, and (with a bit of adaptation) useful across a range of scenes: pirates, Iron Age/Viking, celtic, gypsy, Nordic, etc. It also has a Colors for Piratess Hair pack…
The Piratess Hair is probably pretty cool hair to have flowing in the wind while riding your new Battle Cat (for DAZ Big Cat 2)…
And flying alongside your Battle Cat? Why, Sixus1’s new Meowl of course…
Walker HD for Genesis looks rather nice, and is from the always-reliable The AntFarm. I’ve yet to start in on Game of Thrones (I have to finish Babylon 5 first) but I’m guessing this is similar to the ‘White Walkers’ I’ve heard about in Thrones?
HiveWire Unicorn for the HiveWire 3D Horse. Although keep in mind that it might take a while to get renders quite this fabulous…
Over in the semi-toon aisle, Dr. Pitterbill fans have a new semi-toon Madness Lab scene with a preload…
And a freebie. Thr3e Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store. for both Stan and M4. Three free “low res Head textures and MAT Files, to turn your M4 (or Stan) into an evil clown”.
The same content maker also has a new M4 character Balverk, should you need a grizzled medieval warlord or a mysterious seeker after The Nameless City…
Vue users have a couple of nice looking new scenes at Cornucopia:
Hi-res Volcano terrain…
Silk Road: Persia which could suit historical scenes such as a spice traders (for which there’s a handy new Vue camel) or Second World War desert warfare, or even a ‘greening the desert’ sci-fi tech scene.
That’s it!
Thinking of replacing the awful content management systems in DAZ Studio and Poser? The third party content database PzDB has just upgraded to version 1.3 with a big overhaul.
The new program is faster, more powerful, more customizable, and supports dozens more file types and applications, including Anime Studio libraries and iClone content. (Full disclosure: I helped out with getting the complex web of iClone file types untangled for the developer).
The new PzDB also has…
* new customizable Launch Buttons
* you can hook PzDB up to almost any program you have
* the database is faster and more accurate
* various bug-fixes
* fixed the product activation system
Hurrah for the new activation system!
“…some users found that their free trial was over long before it should have been, and made others reactivate their products over and over again. “That won’t be a problem anymore,” said Margolis adding, “of course, everyone will need a whole new product activation code, and that will take some doing.”
So it sounds like users who upgrade will simply need to ask for a new serial number. Hopefully for the last time.
There’s a trial version if you’d like to try it out. pzDB is especially useful for those who have accumulated huge 200Gb+ content libraries over the years.
So what’s new in paid-for content this month, at the DAZ Studio and Poser content stores? Things seem to be slowing down for the summer, at least for quality sci-fi and historical scenes, but here’s what especially caught my eye…
Darkseal has some Alien Podz, rigged and with transparency. For Poser and Daz 3+.
Darkseal’s Podz might work well with a fringe around the base of scaled-up Pikaia, a new Poser creature. Pikaia were basically prehistoric sea-slugs…
And your figures inside the Podz might benefit from the new Dirty Skin for V4/A4
A new Sci-fi Box pack, plus cages, containers, and gas cylinders.
Need somewhere to store the sci-fi boxes? Try the new generic Sci-Fi Industrial Colony and Sci-Fi Passage.
Stonemason has new sci-fi buildings to add to his city skylines, Utopia Cityscape Blocks.
Flying through Stonemason’s city towers could be the chunky new spaceship Zeneca Brute, by Darkseal.
AntFarm rarely disappoints, and this month he has the very cool CrabMech, plus three textures and 12 poses.
Adh3d has a 1914 Cyclone Racer, an early motorcycle of the First World War era. Although the engine is a little more valvepunk “wow!” than actually authentic.
Ironman13’s new Tenure looks like a usefully flexible “1960s professor’s office” scene.
If you need a similar professor’s office, but set another two hundred years back in time, Maps of the Empire might be useful.
For Vue users there’s a new Witches Coven House.
That’s it! Both Teknology3d and Runtime DNA have their stores offline at present, so I can’t select anything from them.
Posted in Carrara, Companion software, DAZ Studio, Lighting, Poser, Special Offers and Discounts, Spotted in the News, The Animation Industry
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The external render engine Octane 2.0 has been released for various 3D software, and has added…
* Displacement mapping.
* Faster hair and fur rendering.
* Better sky backgrounds.
* Motion blur.
* Region rendering (for making small test renders)
* Network rendering.
…and more.
Octane 2.0 is available for Poser 9 or 2012 or higher, DAZ Studio 4.5. Last I heard, a Carrara version of Octane 2.0 version is being worked on. All Octane users will need a newer CUDA-capable GeForce NVIDIA graphics card slotted into your PC, which for many will require fitting a more powerful Power Supply Unit than the puny one that shipped with the PC.
Free to students with a valid .edu or .ac.uk email address. Note that students are currently limited to the 1.2 version.
Posted in Competitions, DAZ Studio, Poser, SketchUp, Spotted in the News
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Want to design a cool Mars base for NASA? Make a 3D model in a standard format like .obj, upload to Thingiverse, win your own trip to Mars desktop 3D printer! Deadline: 12th June 2014.
Here’s a survey of swamp and related 3D models and characters for DAZ Studio and Poser users. Create your own Jurassic Park; stage “Swamp Thing vs. The Hulk” in the Florida Everglades; pit your jut-jawed 1930s hero against seedy rum-runners and bootleggers; or investigate Lovecraftian Cthulhu cults among the inbred shanty dwellers.
Marsh Monster (Swamp Thing). For Daz Studio 4.5 / Genesis 2.
The Swamp for DAZ and Poser…
Soggy Bottom, a whole virtual acre of wetland for DAZ and Poser…
Heavy Vines Vol 1 and similar… Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store.
Willow Deep GuardHouse is an .obj. The maker also has a nice range of Swampy Weeds Twigs n Stuff.
If you wanted to toon it up a bit, LarvaBug and CreexDR might help that along…
American Alligator and Caiman…
Need the original Creature from the Black Lagoon? He’s now free as a Poser character…
And last but not least, that cool Indiana Jones explorer hat! Relic Hunter Essentials. Just add snakes!
I don’t recommend volumetric fog in a scene, as it my experience it massively increases render times. It’s better to apply it in Photoshop. But I also have a tutorial on how to get depth haze in DAZ Studio 3 using Mood Master.
Here’s my survey of the new paid-for DAZ Studio and Poser content that’s appeared in the last month. Just the items that caught my eye as being especially well designed and well presented, unusual (in a non-tacky or not over-the-top kind of way), or just plain useful…
Perfect for those who fondly remember The Movies videogame, Nikkelah’s Vintage Movie Makers…
AntFarm has a nice high-quality early 20th century Arctic research station in The Colony…
Also from ArtFarm, Squid Mech…
There’s also a similar Zeneca Fighter Drone, although it looks a touch low-poly…
Zeneca Fighter Drone has a companion in the new Zeneca Racer which is usefully rigged for different looks…
Consequence for V4 (boots not included, I couldn’t find those). Designer Shaft 74 has a range of original superhero characters for M4/V4, including the matching Slade…
The new IGD Fall poses for V4 could come in handy for superheroes and masked avengers.
Alessandro’s Warthog for Daz 4.5 and Poser, with Look At My Hair presets.
Possibly inspired by the wild success of The Unicorn over at Runtime DNA, Hivewire has a semi-toon Toon Horse and poses…
And last but not least, a well designed lecture lectern can always come in handy… Update: This appears to be one of the items which vanished with the demise of the RuntimeDNA store.
As we’re now less than a year away from the General Election here in the UK, and in the grip of the Euro elections this week, here’s a quick survey of 3D election related content. With a British focus.
No. 10 Downing Street, the famous central London home of whoever is the current Prime Minister.
Gothic Clock Tower, rather like the famous Big Ben in London. See Google 3D Warehouse for more London landmarks. 3D Warehouse also has a Parliament model.
3D Warehouse has a very simple voting box / ballot box model. Add a worn black metal texture.
There’s a free Blender version of Wallace (to whom Ed Milliband is compared), but it’s not rigged.
If you need a seedy/cluttered socialist election-campaign office, then The Office is not perfect but might help…
Here’s my survey of the best / core 3D props and suits for DAZ Studio and Poser, for those inspired by the design of the movie Tron: Legacy…
Open Road for the Yamaki Rapture bike…
Riders seen above wear the GIS Biosuit which requires Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female (which can only apply material presets which are in DUF format, sigh…).
Those who want to use DAZ 3 / Poser and good ol’ V4 might look at the Sykla Scout for V4, although it also has dependencies: which are the Victoria 4.2 Bodysuit and High-Tech Trekker Boots…
Sci-Fi Lounge stage set. Comes with lights. Daz users should note that the materials only work in Poser.
The Pacificator…
Need Quorra? Q Suit for V4 including disk and gloves. But the boots are extra. There’s also Q Hair for V4…
As a background set the new AJ Expo-Cars Hall could probably be adapted for a Tron: Legacy style scene. Includes an .OBJ version, so Carrara and Vue users should be able to load it easily. Although note that there’s a complicated explanation of the textures, which suggests you may not get the same glow/shine results in other software.
As I’ve noted here before, getting authentic glow effects (with light spillover into the surrounding air) is not at all easy inside DAZ and Poser. See my DAZ Carrara tutorial on making authentic glows.
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)
Update addition to my H.P. Lovecraft 3D resources survey:
Antfarm’s Dead Pool could be a stand in for the working fishing port section of Innsmouth.
