I had some ideas for this topic, but the police of DAZ deleted my wip from the last challenge (I had offended a trash bag…), my ideas for this challenge are in the same spirit thus I doesn't take part, sorry…
Nice start for everybody !
bugger... I'm trying to remember what your WiP was but can't remember... anyways dudu don't let that put you off ... do your ideas and post your stuff I for one enjoy seeing your talents..
I like the posing. Did you rotate the joints manually or use a Pose file?
EDIT: So did you make the stained glass using a render? Is that the Daz Eagle or the Daz Eagle 2 in there?
I've always wanted the Eagle, and had it wishlisted. I saw it on sale, went to my wishlist and it wasn't on sale. Saw it again, only to reveal that it was the Eagle 2.0 that was on sale - and I got it! I love this model and can't wait to get the rest of the addons for it!
I'm also interested in finding out if the really cool addons for Eagle work with Eagle 2.0, or if I need Eagle for those. I want those too!
Oh... and you know I was kidding about the poses, right?!!!
Correct, Dart -that is the Eagle 2. I think it is a good model but I am annoyed hat it loads without textures. Why would that be the default?
RE: know you were kidding about the poses, but here is an update. I am about half way done on the textures. Hope you can tell the difference. Some cloth still looks too slick. Lighting is going to be tricky because it really needs to emphasize an as yet not included element in the foreground.
a newbie might wanna ask, how to make fur follow the skin textures?
It's quite simple - change the root and tip colors to texture map and use the same maps as are applied to the animal model. You may want to consider darkening the root color, you can use the brightness slider in the texture map panel to so this. Here is a five minute job on the Daz Bear.
Just a little warning, most of the models people apply fur to are already modeled as they have fur on it already, if I modeled a cat, as an example, as if it was complitely hairless (they are plenty of references online, lol), it would most likely look better then a DAZ cat when fur is applied, DAZ unfortunately does not have morphs (that I know of) which can help in this matter
Finally... got a scene somewhat set up. I'm using Howie Farkes' Stoney Creek "fall" and 3D Universe's Toon Turkey... running out of time to learn how to model one... I ain't quick.
Now need to mess with the shaders for the turkey... too shiney... may also change image map as I don't like the colour of the legs, beak and tail featers.
Howie's sets are aazing. What a fun turkey. I have some 3DUniverse toons, but hadn't seen that one. Happy Thanksgiving, or will this bird get pardoned?
Howie's sets are aazing. What a fun turkey. I have some 3DUniverse toons, but hadn't seen that one. Happy Thanksgiving, or will this bird get pardoned?
Get's pardoned... this will replace my web side intro page. I guess it is ok to publish that or a later WIP there... just not the final image. I might rotate the camera around to get a diff view until contest is over.
Yes! Post more time related inspirations of all types.
Got started on my hair effort. I am trying something a little new for me. I am going to add a band in a hair cap mesh, split the hair cap, and then grow separate hair volumes for the front and the back. Only able to show the first part right now because day job approaches.
I then extrude the oval while holding shift to get the profile of the band. I then delete the interior and the bottom and shape the band to fit behind the ear but lean forward on the head. Add thickness and assign a new shading domain.
gg05 modeling room extrude oval inward.JPG
1582 x 947 - 132K
gg06 delete interior and bottom put symmetry on.JPG
To the horror of the modelers out there, I insert a 2 by 2 grid (a plane) and angle it underneath the band where I want to separate the front and the back of the hair cap. I then use boolean cut and choose the last option selecting the plane and the hair cap (not the band). At this point you can triangulate n-gons for the two halves of the boolean cut (oh, the horror!).
Can uvmap now if haven't done so.
** very important ** assign new shading domains for the front and the back of the hair cap (band gts its own shading domain)
At this point, I return to the Assemble room and add hair to the hair cap object (first of two hair).
I use the "select by" and select the front hair shading domain.
After turning off show in 3d view, I add guide hairs along the edge of the band and where I want a part. I then use the brush tool, scissors, etc. to start styling.
This is just a start on the front styling but I have to go to my day job. More between now and the deadline.
gg19 select by front hair.JPG
1495 x 830 - 135K
gg20 add guide hairs.JPG
1524 x 918 - 205K
gg21 brush hair aound part.JPG
1638 x 863 - 213K
gg22 test render front have to leave before finish.jpg
I am fairly sure that you are aware (but not 100%!) but for the sake of others, you can avoid some of the steps you have done and add multiple hair groups to the same object - there is a drop down which allows you to add a new hair group. So you could have (in your case) one group for the front and one for the back, so you wouldn't need to do that messy boolean stuff! Or you could have separate left and right groups for parted hair. Groups are able to overlap too, and sometimes dealing with a smaller portion of the hair can make styling easier.
I used separate front and back groups for the style in the attached image.
Here's another part of the mammoth scene. This is a G1 figure which I morphed to a Neanderthal build and with features that I am still working on, but hope he's good enough for this scene. The loincloth base is Sickleyield + Marieah's Jungle Majestyhttp://www.daz3d.com/jungle-majesty which has a set of very versatile items for my genre. I put a basic brown leather shader on it for a base. I am letting the hair do the jagged hemline work for me here, but I also have used transparency/alpha maps to get a jagged look when not using fur.
I chose two different fur colours for the loincloth to get a layered look. I use the setting for Hair NOT Fur in the side tool bar in the Hair Room, I think it gives a better look. You can always change the location of the guide hairs. The furs' shaders are mixed shades/gradients, colours, etc blended with Natural Functions such as Lumber Yard, Cellular, etc. I can spend hours making fur shaders and have about 60 as they are good for animals, clothing, hair, beards, bodies, eyebrown and even lashes etc. Adjusting lengths and thicknesses and reducing shine/highlight gives me the most natural look. My original inspiration was the bountiful Carrara REAL FURS by Holyforest http://www.daz3d.com/holyforest# which I have had for a long time. There are many good shaders in there, not just furs!
Phil, I would have used another hair group as I often do, but I find when I do that, if I want different lengths, I have to use the Set Hair Length tool from the drop down menu by highlighting the guide hairs I want to grow in that hair group only. Otherwise, if I just use the length tool in the side menu for an all around lengthening, all hair groups grow. What am I doing wrong? (it's probably very obvious!) The workaround is fine with Set Hair Length as long as I am not dealing with large areas such as the marsh grass planes in previous posts.
Interesting method, Dio!
So here he is, still bald, but head hair is next, and any others in the scene will likely have the same look... if they survive. Silene
There are certain parameters that are common to all groups and the hair length set in the side panel is one of them, so this will increase or decrease all hair groups accordingly, so you are not missing anything. As you have found out, you can adjust that either using the Length Tool, or set the length for the longest you will need and then using the Cut Tool to trim back where required.
At this time it is clear to me that I need *a lot* of playtime in the Hair Room. I watched Phil's turorial, 2nd and 3rd time last night, but my first attempt... need to watch it again and pay more attention. Hair Room begins on disk 3/chapter 8 on his Carrara 8.5 Tutorial Video - Instant Digital Download. I'd planned on painting the hair selection on some polys atop the toon turkey's head... unfortunatly, for me, it wanted to select too many polys automatically. I was able to select 1 poly only on one of my many tries, couldn't even shift click to select others... probably since I was rather sleepy... If I zoomed to the turkey and moved it around where I wanted it suddenly turned solid and no longer showed polys. I've since thought of a few things I may have done wrong. I'll give it another go today
On the subject of hair caps: I'd been wondering the other day what they are good for but as Diomede uses one may have helped last night. I'm thinking that I can go into model room for character/"Model"... select the polys I want for hair, copy them, leave the Model room, unselect the turkey, select vertex object to re-enter model room and simply past the copied polys and save as the hair cap for the turkey. Were hair caps originally for conforming hair?
One thing I did accomplish was to adjust some shaders for the legs, beak and head to look more desirable to me... next render will show the results.
However, the reason for using the plane and the boolean cut is to have a quick and convenient way to create an angled polyline in the mesh that matches the band. That way the hair can be brushed forward and backward away from the band easily. The hair cap mesh has horizontal and vertical polygons, but the band crosses it at an angle. It was the device I used to separate the mesh into shading domains that I could easily select in the hair room for separate hair groups. See the blue line in the attached pic. I raised the band so you could see the angled polyline. Happy to try another method. The reason I use separate hair models for the hair in front of the band and back of the band is to have maximum freedom to style them differently. As per Phil's and Silene's posts, certain hair room elements are the same for all groups.
jj01 boolean angled line in hair cap matches the band better than orizontal polyons.JPG
@PhilW - I love that hair style with the band, obviously. You should think about releasing some more store items. Mine is going to be very similar, but with shorter bangs brushed forward and parted on the left, and (hopefully) the long hair in back in an updo. Ambitious.
@SileneUK - thanks for the links. Sickleyield has amazing support products for skirts, loincloths and similar. Thanks for the tip regardng using the hair setting instead of the fur setting. The stone age hunters are looking good.
@wgdjohn Did you reduce the size of the selection tool to apply to the grow area? The default is a huge sphere thingy that almost fills the screen... on my PC if I hold down Ctrl, I can use the mouse wheel to reduce the tool-sphere down to the size I need. If you are too zoomed in, you may not even see the tool. Or you can change the size of it in the right side menu under Tool>Mode>Radius . It might need to be a 3 digit decimal vs 1.00
Have you seen Jonstark's hair videos? He focuses on animation, but lots of other things, too. Scroll down to Hair Tutorial Part1 to start, or start anyplace you like!
Comments
Cool, thanks for info...I like extended deadlines.
I'm a product of 80's underground goth, for a hint...
Plus me too!
I like the posing. Did you rotate the joints manually or use a Pose file?
EDIT: So did you make the stained glass using a render? Is that the Daz Eagle or the Daz Eagle 2 in there?
I've always wanted the Eagle, and had it wishlisted. I saw it on sale, went to my wishlist and it wasn't on sale. Saw it again, only to reveal that it was the Eagle 2.0 that was on sale - and I got it! I love this model and can't wait to get the rest of the addons for it!
I'm also interested in finding out if the really cool addons for Eagle work with Eagle 2.0, or if I need Eagle for those. I want those too!
Oh... and you know I was kidding about the poses, right?!!!
Correct, Dart -that is the Eagle 2. I think it is a good model but I am annoyed hat it loads without textures. Why would that be the default?
RE: know you were kidding about the poses, but here is an update. I am about half way done on the textures. Hope you can tell the difference. Some cloth still looks too slick. Lighting is going to be tricky because it really needs to emphasize an as yet not included element in the foreground.
Why do I get an idea that I 'know' exactly what you mean? ;)
If so, might I suggest a egl in a spot light?
...and, yes! Big difference! I love what you've been doing with it!
Bravo!
a newbie might wanna ask, how to make fur follow the skin textures?
It's quite simple - change the root and tip colors to texture map and use the same maps as are applied to the animal model. You may want to consider darkening the root color, you can use the brightness slider in the texture map panel to so this. Here is a five minute job on the Daz Bear.
Just a little warning, most of the models people apply fur to are already modeled as they have fur on it already, if I modeled a cat, as an example, as if it was complitely hairless (they are plenty of references online, lol), it would most likely look better then a DAZ cat when fur is applied, DAZ unfortunately does not have morphs (that I know of) which can help in this matter
Here is a tutorial for putting hair on a Daz animal.
http://carraracafe.com/tutorials/fur-tutorial-comicbook/
Personally, I think it makes it look better, but that is just my opinion.
Finally... got a scene somewhat set up. I'm using Howie Farkes' Stoney Creek "fall" and 3D Universe's Toon Turkey... running out of time to learn how to model one... I ain't quick.
Now need to mess with the shaders for the turkey... too shiney... may also change image map as I don't like the colour of the legs, beak and tail featers.
Howie's sets are aazing. What a fun turkey. I have some 3DUniverse toons, but hadn't seen that one. Happy Thanksgiving, or will this bird get pardoned?
Here is a little inspiration to think about time (and check out the haircuts).
Get's pardoned... this will replace my web side intro page. I guess it is ok to publish that or a later WIP there... just not the final image. I might rotate the camera around to get a diff view until contest is over.
All I know about time is that Time Flies
Fifth Element, you are so right. LIfe is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes!! Silene
Well that has cheered me up no end!!
Yes! Post more time related inspirations of all types.
Got started on my hair effort. I am trying something a little new for me. I am going to add a band in a hair cap mesh, split the hair cap, and then grow separate hair volumes for the front and the back. Only able to show the first part right now because day job approaches.
Daz has hair caps for Genesis and Genesis 2 in the Objects : Hair : Daz subfolder of the browser tray. I have an edited version that I keep there.
I loaded he hair cap and the default G2 female.
I selected the hair cap and parented it to the G2F head
With hair cap selected, I clicked the wrench in upper left to begin modeling in the assemble room.
I then started the band by choosing CONSTRUCT : INSERT 3D : OVAL.
I then arranged the oval where I wanted the band.
I then extrude the oval while holding shift to get the profile of the band. I then delete the interior and the bottom and shape the band to fit behind the ear but lean forward on the head. Add thickness and assign a new shading domain.
To the horror of the modelers out there, I insert a 2 by 2 grid (a plane) and angle it underneath the band where I want to separate the front and the back of the hair cap. I then use boolean cut and choose the last option selecting the plane and the hair cap (not the band). At this point you can triangulate n-gons for the two halves of the boolean cut (oh, the horror!).
Can uvmap now if haven't done so.
** very important ** assign new shading domains for the front and the back of the hair cap (band gts its own shading domain)
At this point, I return to the Assemble room and add hair to the hair cap object (first of two hair).
I use the "select by" and select the front hair shading domain.
After turning off show in 3d view, I add guide hairs along the edge of the band and where I want a part. I then use the brush tool, scissors, etc. to start styling.
This is just a start on the front styling but I have to go to my day job. More between now and the deadline.
I am fairly sure that you are aware (but not 100%!) but for the sake of others, you can avoid some of the steps you have done and add multiple hair groups to the same object - there is a drop down which allows you to add a new hair group. So you could have (in your case) one group for the front and one for the back, so you wouldn't need to do that messy boolean stuff! Or you could have separate left and right groups for parted hair. Groups are able to overlap too, and sometimes dealing with a smaller portion of the hair can make styling easier.
I used separate front and back groups for the style in the attached image.
Here's another part of the mammoth scene. This is a G1 figure which I morphed to a Neanderthal build and with features that I am still working on, but hope he's good enough for this scene. The loincloth base is Sickleyield + Marieah's Jungle Majesty http://www.daz3d.com/jungle-majesty which has a set of very versatile items for my genre. I put a basic brown leather shader on it for a base. I am letting the hair do the jagged hemline work for me here, but I also have used transparency/alpha maps to get a jagged look when not using fur.
I chose two different fur colours for the loincloth to get a layered look. I use the setting for Hair NOT Fur in the side tool bar in the Hair Room, I think it gives a better look. You can always change the location of the guide hairs. The furs' shaders are mixed shades/gradients, colours, etc blended with Natural Functions such as Lumber Yard, Cellular, etc. I can spend hours making fur shaders and have about 60 as they are good for animals, clothing, hair, beards, bodies, eyebrown and even lashes etc. Adjusting lengths and thicknesses and reducing shine/highlight gives me the most natural look. My original inspiration was the bountiful Carrara REAL FURS by Holyforest http://www.daz3d.com/holyforest# which I have had for a long time. There are many good shaders in there, not just furs!
Phil, I would have used another hair group as I often do, but I find when I do that, if I want different lengths, I have to use the Set Hair Length tool from the drop down menu by highlighting the guide hairs I want to grow in that hair group only. Otherwise, if I just use the length tool in the side menu for an all around lengthening, all hair groups grow. What am I doing wrong? (it's probably very obvious!) The workaround is fine with Set Hair Length as long as I am not dealing with large areas such as the marsh grass planes in previous posts.
Interesting method, Dio!
So here he is, still bald, but head hair is next, and any others in the scene will likely have the same look... if they survive. Silene
There are certain parameters that are common to all groups and the hair length set in the side panel is one of them, so this will increase or decrease all hair groups accordingly, so you are not missing anything. As you have found out, you can adjust that either using the Length Tool, or set the length for the longest you will need and then using the Cut Tool to trim back where required.
At this time it is clear to me that I need *a lot* of playtime in the Hair Room. I watched Phil's turorial, 2nd and 3rd time last night, but my first attempt... need to watch it again and pay more attention. Hair Room begins on disk 3/chapter 8 on his Carrara 8.5 Tutorial Video - Instant Digital Download. I'd planned on painting the hair selection on some polys atop the toon turkey's head... unfortunatly, for me, it wanted to select too many polys automatically. I was able to select 1 poly only on one of my many tries, couldn't even shift click to select others... probably since I was rather sleepy... If I zoomed to the turkey and moved it around where I wanted it suddenly turned solid and no longer showed polys. I've since thought of a few things I may have done wrong. I'll give it another go today
On the subject of hair caps: I'd been wondering the other day what they are good for but as Diomede uses one may have helped last night. I'm thinking that I can go into model room for character/"Model"... select the polys I want for hair, copy them, leave the Model room, unselect the turkey, select vertex object to re-enter model room and simply past the copied polys and save as the hair cap for the turkey. Were hair caps originally for conforming hair?
One thing I did accomplish was to adjust some shaders for the legs, beak and head to look more desirable to me... next render will show the results.
Diomede, "Oh the horror" :)
Back from the office. Booooo - boo to work.
Phil is correct in everything, as always.
However, the reason for using the plane and the boolean cut is to have a quick and convenient way to create an angled polyline in the mesh that matches the band. That way the hair can be brushed forward and backward away from the band easily. The hair cap mesh has horizontal and vertical polygons, but the band crosses it at an angle. It was the device I used to separate the mesh into shading domains that I could easily select in the hair room for separate hair groups. See the blue line in the attached pic. I raised the band so you could see the angled polyline. Happy to try another method. The reason I use separate hair models for the hair in front of the band and back of the band is to have maximum freedom to style them differently. As per Phil's and Silene's posts, certain hair room elements are the same for all groups.
@PhilW - I love that hair style with the band, obviously. You should think about releasing some more store items. Mine is going to be very similar, but with shorter bangs brushed forward and parted on the left, and (hopefully) the long hair in back in an updo. Ambitious.
@SileneUK - thanks for the links. Sickleyield has amazing support products for skirts, loincloths and similar. Thanks for the tip regardng using the hair setting instead of the fur setting. The stone age hunters are looking good.
Thank you Phil!!
@wgdjohn Did you reduce the size of the selection tool to apply to the grow area? The default is a huge sphere thingy that almost fills the screen... on my PC if I hold down Ctrl, I can use the mouse wheel to reduce the tool-sphere down to the size I need. If you are too zoomed in, you may not even see the tool. Or you can change the size of it in the right side menu under Tool>Mode>Radius . It might need to be a 3 digit decimal vs 1.00
Have you seen Jonstark's hair videos? He focuses on animation, but lots of other things, too. Scroll down to Hair Tutorial Part1 to start, or start anyplace you like!
http://carraracafe.com/tag/hair/
Sorry if you already know this... Silene
ETA: Image showing a change to radius of tool... vs doing the Ctrl + Mousewheel thingy.
rivets and gears and metal shaders on those skull caps, would make kewl helmets lol
a little inspiration - time and hair.
Enjoy.