High-quality realistic Gaze Warping. Seamlessly change where the eyes in a hi-res photo are looking. Currently it’s an academic paper and an WebGL demo. I’m guessing: next stop, Photoshop integration? That might mean there would be no need to do a fiddly pose of your 3D character’s eyes, as you could fix the gaze afterwards in Photoshop.
The Poser-friendly Hivewire3D store has a substantial April Showers Sale on now, until the 1st of May. Looks like most of the Sale items are 50% off or more, they’re quality and there’s a lot of them.
I also spotted there that Songbird Remix-maker Ken Gilliland’s ancient Assyrian Hanging Gardens of Nimrud is half-price. It also ships in a Vue version complete with ‘hanging-gardens planting’ friendly Vue materials. The Poser version has cameras and “place figure” poses which teleport your character and a matching camera to the correct spot in the vast structure.
Talking of Vue, the DAZ Store also has a heavy discount on the useful scene elements Mini Moss (easily applied tiny moss plants and micro-ecosystems for boulders and logs) and Misty Moments for Vue (low mists and fogs as hi-res position-able .VOB files, which cut render times compared to other depth-haze methods).
Update: people using Chrome-based Web browsers (e.g. Opera etc) can install the handy DeviantArt Filter.
Ever wanted to block those ‘giant mega-boobs’ Poser/DAZ renderers from your search results in regular DeviantArt searches? You probably know the ones. You’re searching for something sedate like “gardens” in Digital Art / 3D and… bam, “oh, I’ve run into the mega-boobs guys again”. Since they make pictures of clothed models, they show up in search results even if you block nudity and violence. It’s their right to make such pictures, of course, if it pleases them. I’m very much in favour of free-speech. It’s just that such pictures add nothing to my enjoyment of DeviantArt, and the makers do tend to make a whole lot of such renders. Often of exactly the same scene from slightly different angles.
Here’s how to block them easily from your search results…
1. Install the free Adblock Plus browser add-on, if you don’t already run it.
2. Go to a suitable set of keyword search results. Click on the Adblock Plus icon. Choose “Block Element”.
3. Mouseover and select the booby preview picture, in your search results page.
4. AdBlock Plus will then pop up a search filter rule suggestion. Edit down this search filter by adding a few * wildcards. For example, your resulting blocking rule should look like:
||*.deviantart.net*USERNAME.*
Note that the blocking rule also blocks all file types by adding a final USERNAME.* rather than .jpg, as that would just block the user’s .jpg files (they may also use .png or other types).
However, you will also want to cover the possibility that DeviantArt will sometimes add a tracking -hash after the username, such as USERNAME-7gftu4. For that you’ll need a final blocking rule of…
||*.deviantart.net*USERNAM*.*
Note that the last letter of USERNAME has been snipped off, which will also cover possible use of the tracking hash in the image URL. Be careful with this, as it may also block previews of pictures from other users. For instance, block the user BlubberBlubberBlubber01 and the above wildcard rule would also block pictures from BlubberBlubberBlubber02. So it’ll be down to you to judge how unique your target user’s Username is.
The result…
You can still mouseover the blanked result, and see the picture’s title and stats, and even click through…
Since you set a blocking rule using multiple * wildcards, all that user’s other previews in all future search results will be similarly blanked.
If you want to delete a filter rule, they’re in: Adblock icon | Options | Add your own filters | Remove selected. There you can also “Edit filters as raw text” and copy-paste in a mass blocklist with one instance of ||*.deviantart.net*USERNAM*.* per line.
A note on browsers: I usually browse DeviantArt using the Opera Web browser, and thus use Adblock Plus 1.13.2 to get the above result. I tend to use Opera for DA because of its Turbo Cache feature (Opera’s servers cache large chunks of high-traffic websites) and Opera’s free VNP sometimes helps reach the site when it seems down. All of which is to say that users of the Firefox Web browser may find they will also need to install the Adblock add-on Element Hiding Helper to do the same blocking.
Here’s a look at my second round of Vue freebies from the Cornucopia Store. They limit a customer to seven per week, so this is my second batch. Around 110mb for the lot, so once again the download wasn’t huge.
Readers of this blog may have noticed new posts flashing up on this blog, only to be seemingly removed some hours later. Their ‘removal’ is due to the ongoing problems with my website host’s database servers, problems which have been going on for about ten days now. The overall site and domain is stable, but the database server is not. This impacts on the WordPress blog, which requires a database to function. When the database server crashes and reverts to a stable backup of its contents, it has the effect of wiping my recent posts. Currently the blog is stable to 6th April. I have backups of all the contents and also the wiped blog posts, and will re-post those once the blog is stable again (i.e.: if this post remains live and doesn’t also vanish). Thanks for your patience, readers!
Building a Vue content Wishlist on the Cornucopia Store is a bit odd. You first have to add-to-Cart, then go to the Cart and turn it into a Wishlist item, then you get taken through to the Wishlist. It slows down powering through the Store to build a Wishlist. But I spotted some nice free small scenes there, such as “Crypt” and the Pit” and some others…
That lot came it at around 200mb total, so the download time was acceptable too (Vue scene files can be big).
“Ah… what I could do with a faster PC”. How many times have you heard that one? Well, if that’s you then you might interested that there’s a new form of slot-in cache memory from Intel, “Optane memory”. It promises to give Moore’s Law another push and potentially to make media content production work on PCs faster. If you have a Core i3 CPU or higher…
“powering up your PC will be twice as fast; overall system performance will be faster by up to 28%; storage performance will be up to 14 times better; launching of apps will be up to 5 times faster for Google Chrome, up to 6 times faster for MS Outlook, and up to 67% faster for some games.”
“… officially available from 24th April onwards in 16GB and 32GB sizes at $44.00 and $77.00 respectively.”
Intel-based PCs with Optane memory ready-fitted should be shipping-and-affordable around Christmas 2017. But bear in mind that Intel’s cheapest 8-core consumer CPU costs $1,000 just for the chip. So a complete 8-core + Optane system is not likely to be cheap.
Note, however, that Intel are mostly touting start-up times for software, and I’m guessing that the “overall system performance will be faster by up to 28%” may be degraded by other components. But if you already have the correct motherboard slots and the correct CPU, then a mere $44 for 16GB of Optane memory looks like it may offer a very affordable speed boost for artists, even if it’s only an overall system performance boost of perhaps 15% in the end.
The Optane price also compares well with the current price of around £69 (UK) to get, say, an extra 8Gb of branded DDR3-SDRAM 1600 for my AMD-based PC. But that may may not show a great deal of difference in performance either…
“… for most regular work, there is no tangible performance difference between 8GB and 16GB of system memory.”
For the beast-like 3D software Blender, the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation’s…
“test only pushed the entire system usage to 6.1GB”
Here’s a little round-up of some Vue freebies I found and checked today on a quick 30 minute scoot-around, and which are not fan-art…
Reeds 2.0 as a .veg file.
And the shiny new D&D Creations web store has a nice free frozen lake material which uses multiple layers.
Starbase1 – 26 semi-transparent PNG alien planets for Vue.
Vue Scaling Objects – 34 different types of sports ground terrains. I’d never considered that Vue might be good for sports scenes, but it makes sense — big fields and stadia, atmospheric weather, large squads of easily-posed and placed characters via Poser.
And of course the 3D free samples of trees and plants from Xfrog and the Silva3D freebie plants.
Vue content makers D&D Creations have a shiny new Web store, and if you sign up to the email newsletter first (and confirm) then you should get a 10% discount coupon code. They also have some nicely-priced sale items at present. I picked up five full scenes with atmospheres, and a cool multi-layer freebie, for a low price…
Note that your purchase download links are delivered by email, and I didn’t see them show up immediately on my account dashboard.
Poser 11 Standard and Poser 11 Pro are currently 50% off, at Renderosity.
Worth your $65, I’d say, just for the Comic Book Mode. Also the options that owning Poser would open up, in terms of the seamless pipeline to using Vue as a renderer. The latest Vue works fine with Poser scenes and supports Poser shaders (it ‘knows’ how to render them properly in Vue). Both Poser 11 SR6 and Vue 2016 SR2 are now fully patched and integrated.
It’s time for the monthly survey of what’s new in the world of content for Poser and Daz Studio. Here’s what caught my eye, in March 2017.
Characters and clothes:
Dale for Genesis 3 Male is a distinctive character, who could serve in a role as a sensitive craftsman or a spaceship’s ‘alien ecosystem’ expert. He comes with fibremesh goatee and eyebrows…
Adaptable new sci-fi clothing from veteran designers like Aeon Soul is always a treat, and especially when it’s made for males. Such as the new 20.50 Cyberpunk Everyday Clothes for Genesis 3 Male…
Hair and headwear:
Poisen’s new HelmetZ 3 is the third expansion pack for the wonderful Helmetz series for Poser, and you also get a folder of .OBJ files alongside the Poser files…
Sci-fi Head Gear for Genesis 3 Females and Males…
Gwennili Hair for Genesis 3 female is a very nice freebie from Kayleyss and is inspired by a hairstyle to be found in the recent The Witcher 3 videogame…
Toon and storybook:
DAZ Studio’s Real Toon Expressions for Toon Generations 2 for Genesis 3.
FairyTale Furniture as .OBJ or for Bryce…
Old Windmill for Poser, a freebie from VanishingPoint. Possibly a bit of an old model newly converted for Poser, but it should still look fine in the far distance of a storybook scene. The sails can be animated in Poser…
The AntFarm is developing a very appealing line of Nursoda-like characters, and his latest is Kobold Woodland Spirit for DAZ Studio, currently nicely priced with an introductory offer. Both .FBX and .DAE exports get badly crushed on import to Poser but Kobold can be successfully taken to Poser for Comic Book Mode, with pose intact, using a basic .OBJ export.
Animated lip-synced Talking Kitten? It’s now a possibility, with the new Talking Kitten for the HiveWire Housecat kitten. There’s also a set of 18 PuddyTat Poses for the HiveWire Housecat.
Creatures:
The Great Kraken, a squiddy sea monster for DAZ Studio. Might also look interesting small, re-textured with some luminous stripes, and placed in a sci-fi lab tank…
Need a demonic moggie? SkeleCat for the HiveWire Big Cat…
Need a robot dinosaur? The new R.A.P.T.O.R. and R.A.P.T.O.R. Battle Poses…
Steampunk and valvepunk:
Freakshow Tent for DAZ Studio.
Also in the sideshow section, a bucking Mechanical Bull by Coflek-gnorg, which might even be given a steam-driven copper-plated steampunk makeover. Perhaps pop a clock-face dial texture on the central circle…
This valvepunk Snowmobile is nicely quirky…
Oskarsson’s The Great Library is a scene where you may struggle to get satisfactory low-level camera angles, but this certainly is a very good-looking library with a pleasingly fantasy/steampunk edge…
1920s Explorer:
Ancient Egypt Exhibit is for DAZ Studio, but looks like it would also look good in Vue (via a Collada .DAE export) provided you’re willing to wrestle it to get the camera angles…
Ancient Egypt Exhibit might be combined with the new The Wraithgate from Orestes, and the M4 World War I Headwear Pack II. The latter is a freebie and includes a good Michael 4 Pith Helmet…
Cornucopia has a delightfully ratty old Swampboat / Riverboat for Vue, with detailed interior and many accessories…
Natural scenes:
With Vue 2016 and Poser 11 now both fully patched up, speeded up and talking nicely to each other, now seems like the time for those with fast multi-core CPUs to take another look at using Vue — especially if you want to render Poser scenes that require lush natural landscapes or rich atmospheres. (Note that Vue’s rendering isn’t speeded up by a faster graphics card, as its final rendering is CPU based).
There’s a complete traditional Medina oasis settlement for DAZ Studio, which might also be adapted to serve as a future or off-world setting found in the cult videogames such as Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (which opens in Casablanca in the year 2219) and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (which starts largely in the town of Balmora). Might be combined with the new Tropical Palm Trees for Daz Studio.
And if you need a large city then the Medina is accompanied by a fascinating sounding Cityscape Generator script for auto-generating vast low-poly 3D backgrounds…
And how will your camel reach the Medina? Perhaps take the new Wild Road for Vue, available at Cornucopia…
DryJack’s Railway Cutting is a fairly simple scene, but this .OBJ could save someone a lot of time in Vue if they wanted to set up a lush summertime steam train scene. DryJack also has a host of other beautifully modeled British train line scenes and props…
Sci-fi scenes:
There’s a very appealing Tomorrowland-style / Mass-Effect-style Sci-Fi Square from Mely3d…
If you have a need for secret underground test facilities, also have a look at Mely3D’s Secret Underground Base and Mecha Hangar.
Dominator Planet from Petipet…
Ahead of the release of the Blade Runner sequel later in 2017, the new Stonemason scene Urban Future 5 is well worth a look, and can of course be used as an expansion for the other Stonemason scenes in his series.
And finally, free tentacular Repair Drones that should work well with Stonemason’s Urban Future 5…
That’s it, more next month!
Got Vue 2016? There’s now an R2 update patch for Vue 2016. This weighs in at a 350Mb download, and in the changelog I see that they’ve added 360° VR panoramas and additional viewports, plus a host of fixes for EcoPainter and fixes for various stability and loading niggles. There’s also an R2 patch for Plant Factory.
If you don’t have Vue but want to try it, E-on has just announced the PLE (Personal Learning Edition) and trial versions of Vue 2016 and Plant Factory are now available.
The free 3D software Blender is getting a real-time render engine. Blender’s Eevee engine roadmap has just been published, and the development team are now heading toward presenting a basic demo at…
“Siggraph 2017 [end July], with a more polished usable version by the Blender Conference.”
Still an insane interface, that no-one in their right mind would try to learn. But this new move raises the possibility that the new engine will eventually be integrated into Poser, as part of Poser’s Cycles integration.
Last night I spotted some nicely-discounted goodies at the DAZ Store, and finally picked up the old wishlist-hoggers Tea House Spirit and StarMan (both currently 40% discounted, both by TheAntFarm)…
“First Contact”, Poser 11 Pro.
Both run fine in Poser but are slightly flawed by current standards, buyers should be aware. The Tea House Spirit’s eyes are fine but the mask is not geometry, and not at all HD. I’ve painted the fuzzy/pixillated mask out in the above quickie picture. The StarMan’s arms and body can be twisted but the legs can’t be made to look like “going at a run”. So far as I know there are no third-party texture makeovers or pose sets for either character. However, these are beautiful character designs and well worth a few dollars each.
Inspired by the new discovery of some Iron Age Celtic gold torcs near my home (the Leekfrith torcs), I thought I would undertake a new Poser/DAZ Content Survey for this blog. The theme is Ancient Celtic, trying to steer toward somewhat-authentic historical recreation, rather than barbarian fantasy or modern ‘gift-shop style’ Celtic-wear or Leprechaun tartan.
There’s not a great mound of specifically Ancient Celtic content out there, so some of the following suggests mixing and matching and re-working much late Saxon, Viking and even Roman-era content.
Clothing:
Genesis 2 has Celtic Maeve Outfit and Celtic Fionn Outfit, and the latter looks to have especially nice ‘looks-authentic’ boots.
Although meant to be oriental Sarsa’s Fighting Monk for Genesis 2 Male and Fighting Monk Textures give you a believable looking waistband and leggings.
The Hunters for Genesis 2 Female has a good fur cloak of the correctly square type, but for the fur you’re required to load the Look at My Hair preset with the Look At My Hair fur-ifying plugin for DAZ Studio.
Norsemen I for Viking for Genesis 2 Male which requires Viking for Genesis 2 Male…
Medieval Countrymen for Peasant Outfit for Genesis 3 Male…
Medieval Cloaks for Genesis 3 Female…
Tattered and Torn for M3 Hooded Cloak and V4 Hooded Cloak, because the Celts are in a wet and usually rather muddy environment, and not all of them are going to be walking any distance in their best finery. Possibly good for middle-distance extras in a village scene.
Dark and Moody has the required plaid texture for Dynamic Cloak for V4/M4…
Highland Lad for Genesis 1…
Shawls appear to have been a big thing in Celtic life, rather than bear-fur shoulder-pads. So Camelot Texture Pack for the DNA Morphing Shawl for the DNA Morphing Shawl For V3 may be useful.
See also the Dynamic Evening Gown and Drape for Victoria 4.
Russian Ladies for V3/V4 may offer some possibilities with re-textured headscarves…
Guarded Heart Clothing for G2F also has adaptable-looking heavier winter headwear…
The Rachel Dynamic Tunic and Shawl for V4 is Biblical, but could also be adapted with some suitable textures.
Hair:
Dragonsbane Barbarian Hair and Beard for Dragonsbane Barbarian Character HD for Genesis 3 Male…
Milen Hair for Genesis 2 Female and Male…
Fishtail Braids has a nice chunky look to it…
There was a lot of Viking content published about 18 months ago, and there are probably quite a few other suitable braided semi-windblown hairstyles around.
For a neater and more ‘Galadriel’ look, try Nimue Hair for Genesis 2 Female and for a more ‘wild Irish coleen’ look try Piratess Hair for Genesis 1 and 2.
Adornment:
There are neck torcs (torques) in the ensemble costume sets in Woodgod M4 H4, Hyperborean for V4, Aether for V4 and the Red Sonja-alike Briana Culaith for V4 / A4…
There’s also a nice torc in Celtic Jewel for M4 along with bracelets and metal armbands…
Sadly the 3D torcs in Arki’s CernunnosCircle range were retired when the Runtime DNA store closed.
Power Barbarian for V4 is a fantasy-girl barbarian, but the neck-fur could go well in a winter scene with another warrior outfit…
Battle:
Warrior Monk for Genesis 3 Male looks later, rather “Black Sea circa 400 A.D.”, but the shield looks nice and has a worn texture MAT. Although generally the Celtic shields were long and oblong.
Celtic Warrior for M4 looks a little basic, but he might be useful if you need a dozen M4s in the middle-distance for a battle-scene. Apparently the helmets were like that, even though it may seem rather too “Lord of The Rings” to many modern eyes.
Scenes:
Celtic Great Hall for House of Mog Ruith is a bit Lord of The Rings, but with some thatch on the roof it might be suitable. As far as I know no-one has made a thatch / aged expansion for it.
Although 1,000 years or so later, Saxon Settlement by Merlin is detailed and high-quality, and will give you two types of primitive huts needed for a Northern European village setting.
For settlement clutter, Viking Village Props has an especially nice fish-rack…
DM’s Stones of Graith is the usual DM quality, and might be merged with Ancient Tree.
Karacairns has some archaic-looking monoliths with carved stylised designs, though these are more Pictish than Celtic. There’s also the basis of a large round-barrow (minus turf) in the pack.
Merlin’s Celtic Stones in OBJ also look useful.
That’s it. Slange!
