News about the DAZ Studio and Poser software

DAZ Studio 4.12 beta supports RTX

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This week everybody seems to be announcing their software will support real-time ray-tracing for those with “Nvidia’s new RTX GPUs”, which at the consumer level means the GeForce RTX gaming graphics cards. Including DAZ Studio 4.12 (already enabled), Blender, and KeyShot (in the forthcoming version 9 in Autumn/Fall 2019).

In DAZ Studio 4.12, with “RTX On” according to DAZ you get…

RTX-accelerated ray tracing for both the interactive viewport and final renders … [with a claimed] 140 percent more performance in final frame rendering compared to previous generation GPUs, and an incredible 10.5x faster than CPU-only rendering.

Looks nice, but Amazon tells me that even a low-end budget gaming “GeForce RTX” is likely to cost me around £350, and that’s without a Power Supply Unit (PSU) upgrade to run it. An RTX version that’s going to last a few years starts at £700. Still, for a small commercial studio, that sort of amount could be written off against tax. Although I think I’d really need a new PC to go down that route. And that’s still some years away.

Blender 2.8 final

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Blender 2.8 final (really final) is out. I gave it one last chance. But I got the same instant display-driver crash on loading as I had with the late beta(s), and then just hanging for 30 minutes, while loading no interface at. It won’t even show the splash screen.

Update: three months later I found it was actually a driver issue. A long and laborious driver uninstall and update of the drivers took me from OpenGL 4.2 to 4.5… and Blender now launches at least.

Neobarok

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Neobarok. The alpha for 2.0 was previewed a year ago. 2.0 is now being trailed on the site.

Totally free open source software, from one developer. Intuitive modelling and sculpting, with easy boolean and also paint.

It has good video reviews, and it looks quite promising for 2.0. There’s .OBJ export, but so far as I can tell there’s no in-software rendering of what you see to a big 3000px .PNG file. The best you can get there is switch to hi-res, go fullscreen, and take a PrintScreen screenshot.

There are some introductory tutorials and the maker has a DeviantArt gallery.

The most vital first-step in using it is quite tricky, until you get the hang of it. To rotate:

1. First press down and HOLD the RIGHT mouse button.
2. Then do the same with LEFT mouse button, so that both buttons are held down.
3. Then move the mouse to rotate the view.

Do not just press both buttons simultaneously, as that won’t work.

It’s not insanely complicated like some software, although the basic camera and move controls are not initially very intuitive or standard. Let’s hope 2.0 has a camera widget like Poser.

Release round-up

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Some release notes of interest, re: recent releases in budget/free software and/or comics and non-photoreal rendering.

* The latest version of PD Howler is available, as Howler 2020 (Windows only) at $77 before discounts. The big changes seem to be a revamp of the legacy brush engine, new paper textures, and rationalised de-cluttered media presets.

* The free Krita 4.2.3 (17th July) is only a minor update, but makes the 4.2 (May 2019) brushes even slicker.

* Just released, a new version of Cinema 4D R21, although I can see nothing on the feature list to interest Poser users or users of C4D’s Sketch & Toon module. However, it’s important to note that there’s now no more confusion between Prime / Visualize / Broadcast / Studio / BodyPaint editions of C4D — they’re all gone. Everything is now in the one edition. Apparently Internet access and online log-in is now required with each launch, with this edition. It doesn’t work with the PoserFusion plugin, and for that you want R17 (which also, rather usefully, doesn’t need the Internet).

* The Release Candidate for Blender 2.8 is now available, as Blender continues to grind its interminable way to the final final really-final-we-mean-it-now honest-it’s-here-at-last 2.8 release.

Corel purchased

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Wow, even Corel Corp. is not immune to being purchased. A big investment firm has just bagged Corel for an undisclosed sum. The press-release mentions Parallels, which was purchased by Corel in 2018, and one suspects that this was the main prize rather than the Corel’s creative tools…

“Parallels enables seamless delivery of virtual desktops and applications to any device; running Windows on a Mac; Mac management with Microsoft SCCM; remote access to PCs and Mac computers from any device”

It also mentions…

“ClearSlide, a sales engagement platform leader that enables sales, marketing, and service teams to drive more successful customer interactions.”

Again, something purchased by Corel relatively recently in 2017.

Sounds to me like these generic ‘doing business’ tools were what the investors were after, and not the ageing graphics software such as Painter, PaintShop Pro, and CorelDraw.

Release: MagicTints 1.0

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Just released, an interesting new “tint transfer” engine for Photoshop called MagicTints 1.0. I especially like the apparently semi-generative ability to…

“iterate through moods, matte color spaces and ideas”

It needs a later CC 2014+ versions of Photoshop and it works as a Panel. There’s a 15-day demo.

I’d just suggest that someone wanting to save $39 could probably wait six months on this. To find that something very similar has been added to G’MIC, and thus to Krita, for free. G’MIC already has 2D style-transfer, auto-colour of line-art, and automatic greyscale-to-colour (see below)… and thus instant-and-acceptable tint-transfer between 2D pictures can’t be far behind.

Cartoon Animator 4: new 360 head tutorials

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Whatever you may think about ‘the ultimate price-tag’ on Reallusion’s software, or the radical UI makeover and new render-engines in iClone, as a company they do provide excellent support and tutorials. And the new Cartoon Animator 4 is fine software which is also useful for comics makers of a certain type. Today Reallusion uploaded an hour of detailed new tutorials on the vital skill of how to set up a “360 head” in their new Cartoon Animator 4 software…

Basics of Head Composition in CTA 4, and Full 360 Degree Head Creation Part 1 and Part 2.

There’s also a new 20 minutes video that dives into the details of all the Face Key Editor Enhancements in CTA4, which offers the user detailed creative control over the resulting frame-by-frame animation.

DAZ Studio 4.11 – new strand hair and a denoiser for iRay

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The new DAZ Studio 4.11 is available,. It’s been out a few weeks now, but as usual it seems impossible to find a full official changelog via search. The main new things in 4.11 are…

1) a new and much-needed Denoiser for iRay renders, to remove the speckles, grain and fireflies. Several tests I’ve seen suggest this works fairly well.

2) the new dForce-enabled strand hair. I’ve seen some fiddly-looking tutorials, but as yet no one-click preset packs which offer nice furry makeovers for popular DAZ creatures. I assume it increases render time, and apparently it often doesn’t play nicely with the new Denoiser.

Note that the Denoiser is GPU (graphics card) only. Those who, like me, run their occasional iRay renders with Scene Optimizer + CPU seem unlikely to see the Denoiser in action.

Release: Flowscape 1.3

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FlowScape 1.3 is out, and the most stable way for purchasers to get this $10 landscape tool is via the Itch downloader/loader.

New are…

* a basic ‘first draft’ implementation of a terrain-sculpting tool. The maker says “ideally you want to sculpt the terrain before you place anything” on it. “Also if you save and reload, it does weird things if you try and sculpt some more.”

* paint paths, which seems to mean that you can easily lay down footpaths and trackways with a paintbrush.

* 12 new skies.

* a collection of ships.

* six “snowy mountain pieces”, for backdrops.

* “lava and ice options”, as well as water.

* more save slots.

* the overlay grid opacity can be changed, which is useful for RPG map makers.

* water can be made more reflective in top-down-RPG views, so it shows up better.

* “pressing SHIFT will let you rotate”, and this seems to mean rotate a prop with the mouse wheel when placing it on the terrain.

Renderosity Summer Sale: 50% off (nearly) the whole store

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Summer sale… “50% off Storewide on Renderosity.com”.

Does this also include Poser 11 Pro, I wondered? No, sadly not. It’s still at the $199 it was lowered to immediately Renderosity purchased Poser. That was a nice discount from its previous price, but it hasn’t now been reduced again by 50% to $99. However, you can get upgrades to 11 Pro from any old version of Poser at $99, which is flagged as “60% off”.

What about other big software? Nope, none that I could see. It seems Renderosity no longer carries Corel Painter, Smith Micro’s Motion Comics software, Clip Studio (Manga Studio) etc.

Down in Clearance, one Poser standalone worth having is the ‘Heavenly Zeppelin 2’ by 1971s at a mere $2.79. I picked it up along with Poisen’s Eyeball Garden 2 (plants with eyes on stalks, and two of the newer Nursoda characters I didn’t yet have.

And I was able to use up some slowly-accumulated store credit, and thus got the cart for free. Nice! Onward to Black Friday!

New for Poser and DAZ in June 2019

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It’s time for another survey and picks of the new goodies, released this month for use with DAZ Studio and Poser.

Steampunk:

Ancient Atmospheric Diving Suit by Cybertenko.

AS Nocturne luxury airship.

Steam Powered Dirigible for DAZ Studio.

Xigbar for Genesis 8 Male, a freebie with eyepatch and hair. Seems to suit the steampunk airship-captain style. Perhaps a freebie because he resembles a game character? Check that if you want to use him in a commercial comic.

Science fiction:

Project Eden for DAZ Studio. Shown here without textures so you can see what’s going on…

Lunar Hotel for DAZ Studio.

Historical:

A free British Commando for M3. Since the British Army have ‘prior art’ on this outfit, I doubt even commercial use would be infringing, even if it is from a game — as the uploader’s other Wolfenstein uploads seem to suggest it may be. The saved .ZIP needs to be re-named to the .RAR type.

Oxford Classroom for DAZ Studio. A pre-1945 English classroom in the University of Oxford style.

A free ramshackle 17th-19th century Raft with barrels.

Goddess Braids For Genesis 3 And 8 Female, in the ancient Mediterranean style.

Ancient building thatched. Northern Iron Age, and low-poly so one could probably build a village of them in the same scene. The modern-looking square brick chimney would need to be removed for authenticity.

Secret Society Room by Coflek-gnorg, for Poser. A classic 1960’s Bond-style lair for scheming plotters. With more Edwardian style chairs, it could also serve for Sherlock Holmes scenes.

Fantasy:

Gruesome Ghoul for Genesis 8 Male. With a nice ‘Frank Frazetta paperback cover’ look, but also a nod to the H.P. Lovecraft of “Pickman’s Model” and the Dreamlands. The body looks to have had as much design attention as the head.

Medieval River Quarry, a freebie, with a hefty 123Mb download due to “detailed UV-Mapping up to 4096×4096 to allow quality textures”. Would probably look good looming up in a Vue atmosphere.

Characters:

Alt Sanjay 8, a useful generic modern Indian Modi-era guy with lots of suitable body morphs. Requires the more Bollywood-hero Sanjay 8 character and the Genesis 8 Male morph packs for body and head.

Also, the flagship Poser figure La Femme is now at version 1.1 with a variety of updates and tweaks.

Clothing and poses:

Blisstopia dForce Cloak and Bodysuit for G3F/G8F. Looks useful for a wide range of scenes and genres.

A free Genesis 8 Male Hawking Pose for the ancient sport of hawking. Not something you see every day.

Toon:

Scampixie Pranx 2 for Poser 11 and DAZ Studio. With a freebie Braid Hair and free Chibi. Also a free American Majorette costumes and American Marching Band pack. Also some free Poses.

Toon Hero for Genesis 8 Male with matching ‘airbrushed toony’ body texture.

Boss Dog for Poser. Requires Bulldog and the Poser 8 Dog. Possibly released a while back, but newly noticed by me at CG Bytes. Should toon well with Poser 11’s comic-book mode.

Animations for Nursoda’s Kelm and Bong. Given that poses for one Nursoda character also often fit another, I’m guessing these may also more-or-less work on his other characters too, such as Dr. Pitterbill?

Storybook:

Flying car/boat, albeit low-poly. Possibly too good to be true, at just $5 on CG Trader. Do some research before you use it in a commercial storybook.

More believable Genesis 8 Young Child Poses from BBarbs, such as this…

Girl’s Clothing Store and Caribbean Village exterior street to serve as an exterior.

A free Duck Buoy for V4, K4, A4.

Animals:

Hedgehog Rigged. I’m pretty sure DAZ Studio already has something very like this. But it may be of interest to some.

European Otter in HD. A ridiculous price of $249, but I’m including this here in the hope someone might be inspired to make a DAZ otter to showcase the new dForce strand hair, perhaps even give it wet/dry looks (it swims underwater).

Songbird ReMix Ostriches, all five species. “Completely updated in June 2019 to include a new file structure with native versions for both Daz Studio and Poser.”

A prehistoric underwater Drepanasis.

Landscapes:

3D Tropical Holiday beach for Vue 7 or higher.

Mountain Set by ShaaraMuse3D. HD micro-landscapes resembling what you’d see on the rocky floor at an old iron foundry, or in the scree of a high volcanic mountain landscape.

Utilities:

RSSY Hair Converter from Victoria 4 to Genesis 8 Female. Appears to be fairly easy and semi-automatic.

Tutorials:

How to Create Sci-fi Special Effects.

How to Make Amazing PBR Materials for DAZ, using Substance Alchemist.

That’s all my picks for this month. More in July!