LineRender9000 vs Camera Magic: ToonyCam Pro
Tryhard
Posts: 166
Anyone tried this new shader? From the description it seems like it's almost the same thing except LineRender being $15 more expensive.
Post edited by Tryhard on
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The guide that came with LineRender9000 had me completely baffled. I couldn't produce a single line art render. I'm not tech minded at all when it comes to 3D models, so when a product like this is released I rely on supporting instructions to use it (preferably a video tutorial). I have Camera Magic Toony Cam and it works fine (I especially like using it for backgrounds). Manga Style Shader seems to work the best for me. Although it is a little time consuming, as you have to apply shaders to every surface. But it has a step-by-step guide that a slow learner like me can understand and produces great results.
The user guide actually has a section (the last couple pages) that compares ToonyCam Pro and LineRender9000. The TL;DR is that LineRender9000 can do more but is also more complicated. LineRender9000 also solves issues with surface transparencies that is a fairly big issue with ToonyCam Pro (in my biased opinion).
Sorry to hear you're having problems getting started! I'm certainly happy to help if you want to reach out. Theoretically the Quick start guide in the manual should produce line art renders, especially if the 'Black and White' setting is used.
ToonyCam Pro is certainly quite a bit more "1-click" methodology, but it comes with a lot of decisions made for you on the artistic front. Manga Style Shaders is a great product that I used for quite a while as well, though I couldn't get the type of line work I wanted using that solely.
Thanks for the offer of help, djigneo. I uninstalled LineRender9000 because Daz gave me a refund. But I would reconsider purchasing it if there was a good video tutorial, or a PDF of simple projects with screenshots of each step.
Nathuado is right. LineRender does need a video tutorial.
Or a step by step tutorial with matching images
I installed the product in DAZ 4.9 and yes it installed correctly.
I sampled it on emotiGuy using the quick start guideline in the user guide. And only got full colour usual render of Emotiguy
No line drawing render at all.
Very well, I will create an extended tutorial with screenshots.
In the mean time, did you use the Black & White preset or Toon Color? Did you see 4 renders performed after step 4 in the Quick start guide? (That should have been what should happen.)
If you're getting a normal-looking full-color 3Delight render, then a possibility is that Render options > Render was invoked instead of the LR9k AutoRender script. The LineRender9000 script's "main" output is indeed a regular-looking 3Delight render. The line files get saved directly to file in the path specified in Render options.
Did a video tutorial ever get created? This product is in the flash sale today and I'm considering it, but most of my materials and shaders are Iray. So I'm a little concerned about whether they'll convert to toon and how hard everything will be in general. Thanks!
Well, there's not really a magic bullet to make scenes in D|S toon-friendly. Every approach I've seen will require specific tools and settings to get good toon results. That being said, LineRender9000 was designed to solve the problem of "getting good lines". That was the issue I was facing in my attempts to create good cel-shaded looking art, and I think I've mostly solved the issue with this product. As to your question about iRay, I can say that if you wish to continue to use IRAY, you can. LineRender9000 uses 3Delight for the line art (only), but you can composite that line art on top of any rendering engine and style you want to configure. You might want to peruse the faq for LineRender9000-specific info or the NPR thread for non-photorealistic rendering in D|S.
As far as "magic bullets" go, the black and white styles in the promo images are presets and are based on scene geometry and the surface shaders don't really matter, so for black & white the bar is a lot lower than color (where surface shaders start to matter).
I won't try to tell you that LineRender9000 isn't complicated. It definitely has a learning curve. That being said, the quick start guide should give results in 5 minutes.
I am of course happy to answer any questions in the meantime.
Am finding LineRender 9000 not worth the effort of using. The feedback it is generating here have made it very clear what the developer shouild have done from the get go in marketing his product. Instead I am reading so many assumptions and what I think in his explanations in the user manual..
This is not how to market a product
He needs to get busy in doing a video tutorial or a basic numbered step by step process work flow (with supporting illustrations)
instead of presening paragraphs and pages of further assumptive explanations.
To be fair I'd like to use his product and for it to be a sucess for himself.
I bought it the other day. I'm a new Studio user and even for me it wasnt any trouble to use. Thanks, it's a good product.