Artistic slump with Daz - any advice?
Ashfire45
Posts: 126
Now don't get me wrong. I adore Daz Studio. I find it absolutely stunning that someone like myself with no art background (but an appreciation for art and a big imagination) can create suchgreat images. I still have a long way to go, certainly, but I'm damn happy with my skill level right now.
But because of the way Daz works, it's a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand, I don't have to focus on the creation process, only the artistic, which is fantastic for someone like myself who has no drawing or modelling skills. Which is just ideal.
HOWEVER:
The main issue I'm feeling right now, something that has me in a sort of creative slump, is that I feel so limited. The ideal 3D style I'm going for, in all honesty, is a sort of Final Fantasy/Soul Caulibur - especially Soul Calibur - sort of feel. You know, that amazing blend between anime and realism, that's -exactly- what I'm going for. But I just can't achieve that with Daz Studio, I feel, and I think I know why...
Clothing. I feel really quite trapped with Daz Studio's fashion. As someone going for a more anime/fantasy fashion, I feel stuck. For instance - http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs8/i/2005/334/4/6/SoulCalibur_III___Tira_by_Artgerm.jpg,
http://photos.imageevent.com/afap/wallpapers/videogaming/soulcaliburiv/SoulCaliburIV106.jpg ~ Now, we all know how hard, if not impossible that'd be to create with Daz Studio/Poser. Damn near impossible, I imagine.
So how -do- I achieve the exact look I'm going for, exactly? Creating my own clothing seems...Hm, well, impossible to be honest, I've looked at various tutorials and it's all quite over whelming.
Any advice on what I can do to get past Daz's limited clothing? Why doesn't Daz ever do cute little anime outfits that aren't slutty? Like...
http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters4/talim-sc2-hd.jpg ~ I'd love to recreate a costume like that in Daz.
RANT OVER! Sorry if that was long winded and boring, but it's something that's niggling at me a bit in my art. I can't get the style I'm looking for, mainly due to clothing. =\
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Comments
Combine clothing with props such as leaves and other elements. You wont get a specific outfit that will be exactly what you need. Also postwork/re-texturing can really help. Also mix and match clothing parts from different sets. The worst mindset you can have is to limit your creativity with the size of your content library. That can put you into a creative slump. I used to do that, but realized there are other shortcuts to achieve the results I am looking for. All depends how far you are willing to go:)
Outfits for Aiko3 aiko4 and eventually Aiko5, have always had the anime feel. and will probably meet what your looking for. Sometimes if the clothing models themselves have the general look, you can mix pieces from different sets to fit your needs, and then a re-texturing can get you closer to what your looking for.
You need to kit bash - that last outfit shouldn't be to hard, there are several sets that have leggings that would do, and the top shouldn't be difficult to find, the sleeves could probably be put together from the MFD accessories and the bloomer shorts something like this could work http://www.runtimedna.com/Victorian-Innocence-Underpinnings.html thats just off the top of my head.
You would need to retexture things to suit; if you don't want to do that yourself Marieah's fabricator etc http://www.daz3d.com/marieah?p=2 and other fabric shaders - Calida has some very nice ones http://www.calida3d.com/calidastore/ come in handy
Thank you both for the reply! So, the best mind set to go for is 'How do I achieve this?' rather than 'I can't achieve this', huh? That's certainly a more optimistic view point to go for, I'll try make it a more realistic one!
Because my favorite character is on Aiko 4, I think I'll stick to her, even with the release of Aiko 5/Hitomi. Then again, I am missing out on good clothing sets with Genesis...Annnyway!
How, exactly, does one re-texture? Or at least, where do I go to start learning about it? There's always Stitchwitch, that looks like an interesting piece of software to get me what I want! Hmm...But then, where does one find materials -to- re-texture with? Oh, the mysteries of life..xD
You know, I think you're right! Those shorts would be great retextured, as soon as I learn to do that, and I have some shoes/leggings in my runtime that just -might- do the trick! I have a breastwrap in my runtime as well, as well as bracelets! The sleeves...Well, I'll have to see what I can find for them.
I might try to recreate that outfit, just as an exercise to help me out of this slump and feel more unlimited with my work. Thank you!
There are dozens of ways to re-texture an item. The path of least resistance is to simply take an existing texture into Photoshop or similar and edit it until you're happy with the colours. Applying filters and layer effects can give a new lease of life to older items you might have had for a long while. Of course, you won't be able to redistribute those textures as they're based off the original, but for your own use they're perfectly fine.
Another way is to find 'patches' of texture from the mighty Google, colour them and use them to create your own textures. You should always check that the images you're using allow this, but there are a good number of royalty free images you can use without worry. You can modify them to make them tile as well, so you can use them for larger textures if the original is too small. Just be wary that if your image is too small, the tiles will be very noticeable. You can get around this to some extent by enlarging your texture's workspace, copying the texture so it fills the area and then applying a noise filter over the entire image. Motion blur the noise slightly. lower the opacity and you get a more randomized texture appearance.
And last but by no means least, you can take photographs of actual textiles and apply those to your texture with some judicious editing. The results can be very professional, but they're also significantly more difficult to obtain.
If you want to use an A4 character with Genesis, you may want to ask around about Genesis Generation X with the V4 and M4 shapes.
As far as a texturing tutorial, I would suggest the one by Chohole on her website: http://chohole.ovbi.org/
Ah, thank you, Zylox! Although I've tried Gen X, and I have to say, the character I wanted was translated perfectly onto Genesis. But there are rather hideous bend issues, along with hair fitting issues, eyelash issues - basically, a lot of issues that just make sticking to Gen 4 ever so easy! I'll have to try it again sooner or later, as Gen 4's eventually going to become obsolete.
Also, that tutorial looks just fabulous, thank you! Exactly what I need! For now, I'm looking into Stitchwitch, since I've found a great tutorial for that. Failing this, however, trying Chohole's wonderful tutorial will be next. =)
Thank you as well, HeraldOfFire. These textures will be used for personal projects, so no need to worry about redistributing! I think, I might start off with simply editting textures in photoshop, just so I can get a little grasp of texturing! Tyvm!
Glad I could help :-)
You may want to check out these threads for information on getting hair to work with Genesis:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/1866/
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5646/
For a promising product that should help with autofitting A4 clothes to Genesis, take a look in this thread:
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15492/
Finally, you may want to check some of the tutorials in the New Users Help section of the forum. They may have more information on textures.