[Commercial] Canary's Cameras - Now for Genesis 9
Canary3d
Posts: 2,032
Update: Now includes cameras for Genesis 9!
Now in the store - Canary's Cameras: my solution to some of the limitations of working with the Daz Studio default camera set.
I'll use this thread to share some tips for working with the cameras - including how to use them with additional figures - and to answer any questions you have.
I'll also share the no-overlays versions of some of the promos, and list the items used where I can remember them.
Thanks for looking!
Edit: now with how-to video!
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Nice, because with large objects it takes ages to pan away/zoom away usually
Tip: if you want to use a camera with a figure that's not supported in the set, here's how.
The cameras are parented to invisible props or to nulls, depending on the camera. Those nulls are parented to the figure's body parts. The wearable sets don't care what the name of the figure is, only what the name of the body parts are. So as long as the name of the body part is the same, you can load the wearable set onto a different figure and it will remember its parenting information. Then you move the nulls to the centers of their parents and you should be good to go.
If the set comes in NOT parented--which will happen if any of the parts aren't named exactly the same, or if you forgot to select your figure before loading--you must parent it to the appropriate part of the figure before you pose the figure or save the set. Otherwise it won't follow the figure, and sadness will result. Right-click on the null parent object in the scene hierarchy, choose "change parent" and parent it to the head, chest, hip, paw, or other equivalent part of the figure. Using this method you can put a camera set onto just about any figure, regardless of how the parts are named.
Example: Here's Lady Littlefox's Precious Tiger. It's bigger than the housecat but smaller than the dog, so I load the dog camera - basically whatever seems closest in scale.
The cams come in a bit too high so I select the parent for the dog head camera set and y-translate it down until the tiger's face is in the center of the camera. Then I check to make sure it's parented to the head of the tiger - it's not! So I parent it. [Note: this is the difference between using the cameras with the assigned & supported figures as opposed to unsupported figures. If you load the Daz Dragon 3 cams onto Daz Dragon 3, I guarantee they will be properly parented!)
Then I switch to the 3/4 face camera in the viewport - don't select it in the scene, you basically never need to select a specific camera in the scene view - and use the viewport controls to scoot it horizontally until the face is in the center of the camera.
Do the same for each of the other cameras in the set, or just the ones you feel like using. If it's a figure I want to use again, I rename all the cameras in the scene view (that's the only time you do need to select them - to rename them, if you're making a new set, so it doesn't say "dog cam" in your scene) and then save a new wearable preset in an "Extras" folder for the future. The animal sets put all of the parented sets (head, body, wings) into a single wearable preset, so for Precious you would repeat these steps (including parenting check!) with the dog body set before saving it all as a wearable preset.
Thanks! Yes, this came from exactly that feeling - I figured if I was spending so much time moving the camera just to look at my scene, other people must be doing that, too.
Here are all the supported human figures - this scene was fun to put together. I used this to test all the hand cameras, to make sure I named them all correctly and that they could all live happily in the same scene. Just like any other objects, the cams will put a (2) after the name if you load 2 of the same one in the scene, but each figures cameras are named specifically to them and their body parts, so that won't happen too often.
Let's see if I can run down what everybody is wearing here. The figures are holding up numbers of fingers to identify themselves. All of them have had the Iray uber base shader applied to all of their surfaces after loading their materials, which is a quick & not particularly beautiful way to convert surfaces. For a solo portrait I'd use one of the custom human shaders.
Aiko 3: 3dU High Tops, Aiko Toon skirt, Oriental Seasons top, Sherri Hair. Character texture is probably Rei, I use that one a lot.
Michael 3: The Privateer outfit, Uptown Boy hair. Default face - wow, M3 is a dork.
Victoria 3: GND2 Shoes, Morphing cocktail dress w/Fisty & Darc's iray mix & max shaders. Character is one that got taken off the market a long long time ago, unfortunately, but if you want pretty V3 characters, look for Kiera's metamorphosis set at that other place - it's terrific. It's also on clearance so get it while you can.
Victoria 4: Medusa character, Bonbon dress by Esha, Cuban diablo shoes. I'm not sure which hair this is, but the shader/texture on it is from Sloshwerks' first or second Iray set (I have all of them, they are all must-have sets!)
Michael 4: Elven hair, Azrael character, Dark Thorn pants, not sure about the shirt.
Genesis 1: Pure Hair Wild, Homeslipperzz, and I think the jeans are by Hongyu. The top has a texture from a shader set, probably from ParrotDolphin.
Genesis 2 Female: Urban Girl outfit, Soleil hair
Genesis 2 Male: Sulaiman character, Eldritch seeker outfit
Genesis 3 Male: Lee 7 character, Rugby shirt. Not sure about the jeans.
Genesis 3 Female: Cork wedge shoes, 3d Wizard's jeanz skirt, Sveva's tethra jewels necklace, Trend Setter blouse with a texture that's probably from one of Diane's FabTex sets
Genesis 8 Female: April Rain top, jeans are some V4 ones by Hongyu that I converted. Hair is OOT's updo without the bangs.
Genesis 8 Male: Hipster outfit shirt, Alt style outfit pants and beanie, Grunge outfit boots. Owen 8 character. Basically all just stuff from the Owen 8 pro bundle!
Hey, thanks for mentioning who is who and who wears what. Appreciated
Here's the dragon picture without overlays.
I used the dog cam set when posing the piglets and lambs (a.k.a. the dragon's lunch).
This fellow came to town for a date and is reconsidering his life choices as he discovers that the town keeps a pet dragon. (This shot is using the front body camera on the woman)(It's grainy because I planned to shrink it down a lot to add to the final promo)
Cool, now we can use these cameras to do on DAZ what we have been able to do one-click on POSER for almost 20 years.
I have been looking for something like this, I think. i just am curious about one thing though. When you mention that the camera will follow the character because it will be parented to the character does the the camera pick up all the pitching and yawling of whichever part of the character ( the hip, for example) it is parented to, or does it act like a dolly following the character and behave like a steady cam? If it behaves like a dolly that alone makes it a must have.
Let me understand-- you're saying the non-supported figures have to have the exact same body names as the supported figure? Say head, chest, hip, foot, paw, etc. So I just load your preset, right click on the null, and change the parent to the body part of my choice to the unsupported figure. Your images show your head cameras collapsed, Are there different views under there that correspond with front 3/4, side, back, and so on? Your images show different stages of moving the head views. Are those pre-named cameras from your set?
And since your images show the head, do the body cams drop down to show different body views? Your image of the medieval with the woman waving, you say you just use the front body camera. Does that mean that the body also has pre-named cameras for different angles of the body? Similar to what I was asking about the different head cams.
I'm curiuos to see the drop down to show the different cameras under 'face' and 'body'. And in the parameters, how an expanded child view of the null set when it's parented to a body part.
Sorry to ask basic questions. I'm just not clear about your explanation and need a more 'kindergarten' approach. Due to my previous stroke and a few head injuries from falling, it takes simple steps that assume I'm starting at ground zero. I want to buy the set cuz it looks amazing. Thanks.
Ha! These were partly inspired by my fond memories of Poser's hand and face cameras, but unlike those, these don't require moving the camera to switch angles on the face, hand, or body. And the scene cameras are much, much more comprehensive than the not-very-helpful single faraway camera in Poser.
Edit: hey, when did Poser come out with animal and dragon cameras? I must have missed that version.
These are all very good questions and that's what this thread is for, so no need to apologize! I joked to my husband that my tagline for these should be "easy to use, hard to explain" . I tried making a how-to vid but unfortunately it didn't capture the camera drop-down dialog, which made it less than properly helpful - let me make a short one that answers your and kwannie's questions. Give me about 30 min and I'll post again.
HI Canary3d, would you consider making a short video to show how this product is used?
Canary I don't need a full explanation, I just need to know if the camera picks up the pitching and yawling of the character it is parented to, or if the camera remains steady as it follows the character. Ilove the other features you include with it, but I have be trying to figure out how to set up a proper dolly cam for ages.
Kwannie it poses with the character but I think re-parenting the body cam group to the figure root instead of to the hip might do what you want, so I'm going to try it out right now to see if it does.
OK, that is something I didn't know.............there is a character root that can be parented to? I know that the MMD charaters have a root bone but never knew DAZ characters did.
That would be great. I was always a visual learner. No rush, will check back.
Where exactly would someone parent to the "root" node? I tried just parenting a camera the the Genesis 8 figure in the hierachy and the camera did not move at all, so I assume that is not the root that you meant.
I don't have the Camera Product - mulling it over, it's why Im here.
I think I'd assume the "root" node of a figure was the Hip
Ok, I tested it out and I think this would work. You don't need to buy the set to do this with one camera, incidentally - the point of the set is that it has a zillion cameras. So here's what you should do.
1. Create a null. Parent the null to the "Genesis 8 Female" figure (or whatever figure), not the hip. If you have the CCam set, load the body camera set as usual and then change the parent of the null to the figure, not the hip.
2. Set up your camera where you want it when the figure is at scene center. Parent the camera - in place - to the null that is parented to the figure. This enables you to save the camera as an object in the scene - if you save it as a camera preset it just modifies your existing cam when you load it.
3. Pose your figure however you want. The camera should stay still, not roll or move.
4. Move your figure around the scene (translate). The camera should travel with the figure.
I tested it with the body cameras and it seems to work, although I don't know what would happen if you were doing an animation where the figure was moving in the scene as well as changing poses.
Worlds_Edge, Sapat, the video is done. Please excuse the horrible transitions between sections - I recorded 3 vids and slapped them together
[BRB, fixing video, it's missing a chunk][video link is in the original post now]
Edit: OMG it made the "dragon's butt" view my video thumbnail! I better fix that! Edit2: ok, fixed, ha ha ha ha
Gaff,
That was my thinking but Canary speciffically drew a destinction between the hip and the root above, so I am eagarly awaiting the results of her experiment....lol. I never have understood why it is so hard to set up a camera to follow a character without having the camera bounce all over the place. There should be some kind of stable null that acts as a gyro that is locked into moving in horizontal directions. This would be such a useful feature. Just think ov how many real world movie and television producers regularly use dollies and steady cams.
I think the method I describe above will work that way, as long as poses don't rotate the figure "root" - I've circled what I mean by that in the attached screen cap. Generally poses only move the hip or something further down the hierarchy.
Usually, yeah.
There are some old pose sets in Freebies that rotate the hip like a gyroscope on random - V4 you often have to rotate the hip to make up for poor bends.
LOL that's funny. However, I don't see the link, and I checked your youtube channel and did not see the video there either. Can you direct me to it? Thanks!
Houston, we have a problem. Parenting the null to G8 "root" does move the null with the figure and the camera parented to the null if translations are applied manually. The null simpy stays in its original position as welll as the camera if a BVH or aniblock is applied to the figure. Unless I'm doing something incorrectly here.
Ah, then I guess that won't work after all. The product is designed to have the cameras move & turn with the figure, so it's not going to meet your needs, sorry!
Worlds_Edge, I'm uploading the fixed video now - will post when it's up. In addition to the thumbnail problem I found that I'd uploaded only a portion of the video - still learning my way around Adobe Premiere, blech.
I'm sure I could find other uses for it. It really is an amazing product.
Oh, ok. Please take your time!
All righty, video is finally done uploading - here's the link, and I also linked it into the original post. Please feel free to ask any questions you have!
Thanks