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This video helps to illustrate why I enjoy shooting my backdrop cinematic sequences in Carrara.
It's a short and simple demonstration and tutorial for making volumetric lighting in Carrara. But even more, it shows the importance of Not having to use a lot of lights - we don't need them. What's cool, is that we also step into Howler to make a fog filter for our volumetric light, and to take it a step further, we make it an Animated gel. Keeping this motion subtle is paramount or it'll look goofy and fake. But not having the motion will keep the volumetric effect steady and unmoving throughout the scene, which can also make it look fake. Just a hint can help our brain forget that we're watching CG.
It's a nice little demo showing how easy and wonderful it is to animate in both Howler and Carrara - and how nicely they work together!
Hello World!
I'm still building this stuff, so this video is a total Work In Progress - but not in the sense that it might seem. I mean... some of what's going on in this video Only goes on in this video. Just mocked up scenes and actors to fill this up enough to put something out. I think it's a pretty fun ride!
Rosie's a little Bad Ass!
Wow! I'm taking the Digital Art Live course on PD Howler. We've just had our week 2 class today, so two more weeks to go.
Having so much fun learning more about one of my favorite tools! Howler truly is a gift that keeps on giving!!!
I started a new thread showing My 2023 Animation Demonstrations to keep them accessible in their own spot.
Something really cool happened last night. Riversoft Art's Bone Minion for using Genesis 3 poses on Genesis 9 was on sale at a price even I could afford, so now I have it! Yes!
On my system it's not very easy working with Genesis 9 for animations. Like Genesis 8, the view port gets a bit too unresponsive for my liking. Maybe the future will fix this, however, and now I can use the bazillion aniBlocks I've made for my Genesis 3 figures directly on Genesis 9, which I'm Uber-Excited about!!! Thanks Riversoft Art!!!
More homework for the amazing Digital Art Live: PD Howler Deep Dive Course!
I've been playing with Bone Minion a bit today. Really cool tool!
For doing what I want to do with it, it takes a bit of thought beyond just running the software as intended, and then it's an excellent addition to my workflow! Especially since it's got me to have another play with Genesis 9. I still haven't found a character product that will allow me to make the switch yet, but she's coming. I'm sure of that.
I have to be careful as I move forward because I'm hoping to up the game across the board when I do make the switch to Genesis 9. And that will include a lot more close-ups. Many of these HD and high res Normal map characters get a bit too far with it, adding too much age to the skin. A new teen character doesn't look like a teen at all to me, more like she's in her 40's or so, just because of those chiseled HD details. I'm hoping that these things can calm down a bit and give us subtle skin pores instead of so much orange peel.
Could be that I'm spoiled having Sol as my character base.
Yeah. I'm sure that's it.
In fact, the Genesis 9 character I'm testing is my first attempt at using Jay's technique for making Genesis 9 characters from Genesis 8 actors. I made one for Sol. But I don't have the surface textures.
This brings up a point:
When I first tried Bone Minion, I thought that the translation to Genesis 3's t-pose was off. But that's because I haven't realigned the joint bones for her shape yet. Oops! So if you see strange things, and you're using a custom character shape that you've ported over from something else, don't forget to do that!
Select the actor,
Joint Editor > Right-Click in the view window > Align to New Shape, I think it is. Something on that order. It's easy, it's automatic, it's done. Save.
Gotta Love Daz Studio and it's amazing figure tools!
I had a few minutes between stuff, and I couldn't help trying out an epiphany I had:
You see, I never did the repair job on Genesis 9's eyes figure after applying my custom Genesis 8 shape. I imagined that there must be eye bones in the actual genesis 9 figure - it just doesn't have eyes in them.
What was I all excited about when I started working on Rosie 5 besides her Carrara dynamic hair? Arki's EYEdeas 4++
Sure enough. I just added two of the figure eyes, retargeted the axis point to be in the center, and parented them to their respective bones.
A quick job of enlarging the scale across all axis did the trick. Quick test seems okay. So I selected each of them and Genesis 9 eyes and went to the surfaces tab to use the G9 eye surfaces, and replace the maps with V4 maps - and, like with Rosie 5, I went straight for my Surreality collection and picked a mix of maps for different areas so the light can alter hues, etc., Fun!!!
This is mostly just the Sol shape I made (I don't really have much for G9 morphs yet) with Arki's EYEdeas as I explain above, Genesis 9 Female 1 surfaces with a touch of eyeliner I painted by hand. With Joel Gecko's HDR Photoshoot, HDR 10 map in the Iray dome and her eyes to the side like this, we're just starting to see some blue coming into her Iris from the scene lighting. We see in the image below, with her eyes turned back more straight they're mostly just green. This kind of thing looks really nice in animations and we don't have to do anything special to make it happen, because I already did setting up the surfaces. With the extra surfaces of these eye figures that I have turned off (reflection layer and lens) along with Alvin's ABAS animated textures system, we can add magical and other effects quite easily without having to wait and do it in post.
We also see that she looks quite a bit more like older versions of Rosie - though like I said before, this is not Rosie 9. Just a Genesis 9/Bone Minion test. Just a couple 720p quick renders
Well, while I like where this is heading, seeing the frames of the animation develop tells me already that I just can't use her yet. After carefully going through the store again, which is weird - so many things that are Not Genesis 9 People in the Genesis 9 People filter, I just can't find anything even close. Nice people in there, but not for Rosie 9.
That's okay though. Plenty still that I can do with Rosie 7!
Celebrating the Amazing Rosie 7!
Here's a new article page for Rosie 7 on my site
Just for kicks, I decided to look through my Product Library here at Daz 3d, sorted by Purchase Date from oldest to new.
I find it incredible how many things from waaaay back then are still some of my favorite products. Please don't get me wrong here. I love my new content! It's just that my first purchases at Daz seem so long ago - many things just kind of feel outdated - and some of them may very well be... in a way. But with a lot of my new content, like Iray Shaders, along with being more proficient at all of this, nothing is really dated anymore. They just need a little tweak - and some new stuff comes that way to - wanting us to rely on a texture pack upgrade to make it look better.
Anyway, Just wanted to share that. I was reminiscing with Rosie today on that wonderful day when I showed her the "Dragons - A Fantasy Made Real" movie, which came out right around the launch of Millennium Dragon 2.0 - or at least that's when I discovered it. And she let me buy it. I really like dragons, and Mill Dragon 2 is one heck of a piece of art, that's undeniable. Now my dragon collection is larger, with that incredible HH Wyvern, Daz Dragon 3, and Drago for Genesis 8 Male being the newest. They are Awesome! But that doesn't take away from the fact that Mill Dragon 2 is fantastic!
Rosie, Thank You So Much! I Love You, Baby!
Speaking of Celebrating Rosie 7, Claus just offered support via a wonderful Gift Card allowing Rosie to now run around in the rainy Cyberpunk streets with... you guessed it... Wet, Curly dForce Hair!!!
Since there was a sale on the hair at the time (oh, the Amazing Luck!!!) she was also treated to a new place to seek refuge between all of her world-saving adventures - a place which can often be an adventure all its own!
Thank You Claus for the gift of:
We are Forever Grateful, my friend!
The hair is really something. I have to tell you all about this.
The hair we always see on Rosie these days is Classic Long Curly Hair with dForce, also by Linday, and it's Incredible! From glancing into the forums, it appears that some folks don't like the time it takes to simulate, or aren't patient enough to find the settings that work best for their situation. I can understand these, to a degree. For me, however, I really Need that hair because... well... it truly Is Rosie's Hair!
Classic Long Curly Hair does come with wonderful instructions, tips and videos to really help artists make the most out of it - and it really works well and can get really long or not so much... it's really versatile.
dForce Wet Style Curly Hair (the new one I just got from Claus) has fewer options and fewer instructions. The options it has are perfect for making wet, curly hair: clump the wet ends, tuck behind either ear or both, and clumped ends for any of the behind the ear variations, and then there's the shorter version of the hair with its options as well. We also get several choices of presets for the Global dForce Simulation settings and a bunch of material options... a Bunch!
But what's really incredible is how we can literally just load it onto a character and simulate it. It just seems to work in every situation - at least that's how it's going for me. No helpers, no extra thought... just load and go! For something that simulates as realistically as this, I find that to be Incredible!!! I mean, Rosie is nowhere near a Base shape of any kind, and she's not even Genesis 8, 8.1 or 9 - she's Genesis 3 Female! Just load, Auto-fit, and run the sim. Sweet!
Linday warns in the product page that this hair is resouce intensive on the computer - and it is. But it's really very worth it and the new design of it allows it to simulate at around the same speed as the Classic Long Curly Hair, possibly a tad faster. So when I first tried it, it didn't seem to be all that resource intensive. But after the simulation is done, we start to see what he means. It takes a bit for each frame to load. Like I said earlier, that doesn't bother me in the slightest. The outcome is Fantastic!!!
In that first run, I had forgotten to set one of the Global Simulation presets, and it turned out amazing! Really wet and therefore heavier. How it lays on the character, how it reacts to movement... it's Wet Hair!!!
The Global Simulation settings presets can make it really, Really heavy and wet!!!
Fantastic product from an artist who obviously knows how to make dForce Hair! A Wonderful set of Gifts from a wonderful supporter! Thank You So Much!!!
Okay, while I've been experimenting with this hair, I kept trying to remind myself to load it onto a Genesis 8 Female (basic) and then apply the materials I want for it, and then Fitting it to my Genesis 3 Female Rosie 7, and then saving as a wearable.
You see, after it's been Fit To Genesis 3 Female, trying to apply any of the Material presets coughs up an Error in Studio.
I've finally remembered to do as described above and... Wow! What a Difference!
As I suspected, those material presets do a lot more than simply changing maps here and there. They set everything up for that color - that look.
It's a very simple and small procedure, and it's So Worth it! Just thought I'd mention that in case anyone else wants to use this amazing hair on a different generation than intended.
Looking forward to the day that an amazing new Genesis 9 Female character comes out that will work as a starting base for Rosie 9. After experimenting with Riversoft Art's incredible Bone Minion for applying Genesis 3 Female poses to Genesis 9, I've seen how amazing Genesis 9 can be, and I'm really excited to make the switch!
In the meantime, however, I've decided not to rush it mainly because Rosie 7 is such a joy to work with. So for now... Rosie 7 Lives!!!
In my upcoming "Daz Studio Dynamic Character Animation Mastery" course, I'll cover details about using Bone Minion products on aniBlocks - tips on the workflow, as it's slightly different, but amazing and powerful!
I'll also be covering how I make custom partial aniBlocks, how I set up for dForce simulations as I'm animating, how I set up Iray to render my characters, all manner of topics taken directly from my daily routine of animating in Studio - especially the main reason for making this course in the first place: we'll be making our own animation helpers that vastly improve the entire experience of animating characters in Daz Studio.
In the course I liken it to using the graph editor without opening the graph editor. Since I've made that analogy I have to say that it's even better than that!
I'm going to include a Primer for Beginners, which will introduce many topics, tools and techniques that can get someone who is new to either Studio, Animation, or both up to speed for what comes next, which takes us on an Intermediate journey which launches more Advanced methods as we go - following me as I build an animation from scratch and take it through the dForce process (though this is not a course on dForce) and then rendering.
That's just the beginning.
What follows is a set of lessons that cover all of the techniques I use in an all-inclusive manner for each topic - and there are a lot of topics.
The reason I'm setting it up this way is so that people of all skill levels can learn from this. There is a specific order of everything, but the lessons can truly be done in any order, and the full workflow set will always be there to see how I'm employing these techniques live as I work. I thought long and hard on how best to offer an educational course on this subject because I was one of those people who 'knew' that Daz Studio is not really a good animation tool. After a little experience with using Studio for animations, I've discovered how wrong I was on that front, and there's still a Lot of negativity about it - so I want to show everybody how fun and Powerful Studio is as an animation platform!
Cheers Friends!
Oh Yeah! Ally 9 looks like she'd be a great new Rosie 9 base to start with!
Now I just need to get her!
Rosie's new dForce Wet Hair with proper materials
Since that render, I've opted for a darker look to match better as a wet version of her dry hair look. I'll update when I have a render for you.
On second thought, maybe not.
Update on the new dForce Wet Style Curly Hair:
It actually simulates a lot faster than her dry hair (Classic Long Curly Hair with dForce).
The "Tuck Behind Ear" presets stay tucked throughout the animation simulations I've done so far - a real treat!!! Either ear or both. Other presets include Clumped Ends for either the base shape or Behind the ears morphs (each of the variations)
A real Win!
Thanks Linday!
...and Thanks Daz 3d for making Ally 9! I can't wait!!!
I really like the Ally 9 promo close-ups of her face. 8K Normal maps are just gorgeous! They suit her age and really enhance the realism of the skin.
There are some really, really nice looking characters out already. But this one nails it for a new Rosie 9 base. There's another character (?) that looks really cool, and might be able to be made into a Dart 9, but for now he's going to remain Genesis 3 Male. He's made up from some really nice character packs, Guy 7 probably being the main base to add a bit of stylization to his overall shape, but Guy 7 also has a very Dartanbeck face.
Rosie 7!
It doesn't bother me that Rosie 9 will have to wait another year or so before I can afford to make her - Rosie 7 is just So Much Fun!
Cyberpunk is Back in Action!
I'm currently rendering more Car Chase between Piranha vs Nemesis - over 670 frames so far - many more to go.
A lot more animations underway, many already rendered.
Adding some new Linday products including clothing, hair for Dartanbeck, and the new wet version of Rosie's hair, which really makes these rainy scenes better!
Stonemason is also now entering the scenes and I just got BEO2K10v2, so he'll be a force to contend with. Those corpos are getting tired of Rosie thwarting their evil plans - so this cybernetic monstrosity hits the streets to evade her... but will they win?
In the meantime, I'm also finally getting the opportunity to show the full story of how I'm actually animating in Daz Studio after being in Carrara for so long. Carrara is born to animate and loves to help the user in every way possible. Going from that to Daz Studio was really quite difficult.
I've used Daz Studio all along, but for different things - character, mesh, morph and animation prep sort of things.
Using what I've learned from the Content Creation Tools in Studio, I've developed a new way to animate in Studio. What's really cool is that the process I employ gets saved to the base figure, so it also works in Carrara or anything else that can maintain the figure's rig.
Thanks to Digital Art Live and Daz 3d, the full course is coming and I'm hard at work on the next one - creating custom clothing for your heroes, which will come in the future.
The Dyanmic Character Animation course comes with a really cool Bonus video "Behind the Scenes" look at the Car Chase scene: Piranha vs Nemesis from the Rosie 7 Animation Demo 2023 Cyberpunk.
This is just a short teaser I made for that bonus featurette:
Woah! A friend who enjoys my site just gifted me the precious Ally 9 - one of the missing links to creating Rosie 9.
Here she is!
It's mostly Ally 9 but with a few tweaks from Growing Up for Genesis 9 as well as some free shaping morphs from SickleYield.
The costume has been changed slightly and this hair will likely be her new default look, at least in this setting. When she cleans up and dries off it gets Classic and Curly again! :)
Check out my article for more info on her!
Rosie 9 is still under slow development since I'm still animating Rosie 7 and having a ball with her.
I really enjoy working with Rosie 7, and Rosie 9 just isn't quite right yet. One thing in particular is the shaders, I think. It's amazing how hard it can be to keep the inside of her mouth from looking like a dark hole, unlike Rosie 7 who lights as easy as 1, 2, 3. I'm sure it's just growing pains of opting for a new figure, but Rosie 7 certainly has been taking the urgency out of it.
During this whole thing, I'm revisiting my Story Driven Through Content Collecting idea - What Happened on Odysseon Station, a fun look at how a rather enjoyable collecting habit turns into a cohesive staging for a massive story. I love this!
The collection is still growing. You'd think I'd have reached them all but I keep finding more!
It's really cool how these kits work in Carrara, Poser, 3Delight, Iray... all with very little to no additional help. They all have a very cohesive look and feel and work very well with one another to enhance each other. I guess what I'm saying is that, with the collection this complete, I can make pretty much any interior or exterior structures environment I need for this story and far beyond!
I've also updated my Rosie 9 Article page with current progress on her - more to come later.
Very inspirational. Keep up the good work. And congrats on your DAL tutorial on animation. Never hurts to post the link one more time.
https://www.daz3d.com/the-complete-guide-to-animating-dynamic-characters-in-daz-studio
Thanks man!
Say, have you even seen Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets?
I just watched that again last night. Probably the umpteenth time I've seen it and, every single time it reminds me of Brash and Moxie! :)
Great flick. Hmmm... I may just watch it again tonight! ;)