Dartanbeck's Journey - CG Filmmaking

1131416181927

Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    I have to say: I really love working with Blackbeard Media's Sci-Fi room kits. They're not just pre-built rooms, though they do come that way. They come with all of the parts to make the whole scene, which makes for a great construction kit for making other things. And that's with just one of them.

    The shaders are really nice! Just drop any piece into Studio and turn on Iray and watch the magic. I love how "lived-in" they look and feel.

     

    I have collected them all - and now I'm hoping he makes more of this amazing Sci-Fi stuff! Love It!!! Thanks Blackbeard!

      

     

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited October 2023

    It's a Daz + Anniversary Sale Kit Bash!

    Here we have a WIP of Rosie 8's new car. We have several, but I really like this one so far. For starters, the chassis is properly installed onto Linday's Animated Four-Wheeler Template system.

    The main chassis is Mely3D's Modular Buggy with the wearable Race Add On kit. I didn't load a preload, but built it from ground up using only the main parts I needed at the time - again... Work In Progress.

    All of the added screens and most of the gadgets come from either Xivon's Billionaire's Suite or Xivon's Anime Street scene. The wires are from Ansiko's Bot Shop. 

    I made all of the body parts of the car translucent and refractive - so not only can we see light through it, in some angles we can actually see right through it. The translusency is pretty high too, so it automatically illumunates Rosie when she's inside.

    I added the color map to the emissions channel on Ansiko's Bot Shop wires on some of the colored wires and tubes. 

    I haven't optimized it and I haven't even parented the kit bash to the chassis yet. I wanted to get somewhere aroung this far so I could run V3Digitimes' Scene Optimizer on it. For 720p I certainly don't need 4 K maps on everything. 

    I must say, Mely3D did an awesome job with the Modular Buggy and its add on. Which reminds me - this is not the way it looks. I purposely scaled and rotated all of the body parts to create all of the gaps we see - and I'm leaving them in. This was a purposeful move for an artistic, gnarly-looking piece of fast cyber buggy. Many of the shapes you see are distorted elements from the Billionaire's Suite and will be further optimized for system weight and finally parented to the Hull of the Animated Four-Wheeler Template. I do this in groups to make changing thing up in the future easier to accomplish. After all, there are a lot of parts already. 

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Oh... right! Those cool tailights are al;so from the Anime Street Scene, as are the peace signs on the doors.

    CyBuggy01A-Frnt01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 1M
    CyBuggy01A-FrntHood01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 2M
    CyBuggy01A-RearDrama01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 1M
    CyBuggy01A-EngineRear01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 2M
    CyBuggy01A-FrntOH01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 2M
    CyBuggy01A-RearOH01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 1M
    CyBuggy01A-Front01A.png
    1280 x 720 - 1M
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,206

    Rosie likes her rides lit kiss

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    Rosie likes her rides lit kiss

    Well... it's a colorful Cyberpunk art thing! wink

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    This is really quite cool! I just got Studio 360's Cloning Facility product, which is three separate scenes making up different parts of the facility, one being a Corridors scene, so that can encompass a much larger feeling to the whole thing. Well in fact, all of the scenes can do that. It's really cool and renders really well right out of the box!

    But wait, that's not all!

    Each of the three scenes come in two varieties - Clinical or Cyberpunk. Instead of loading one and then applying material presets, we just load in the one we want straight from the library. Big fan of that - though not opposed to the other way either.

    So I loaded up the Offices section, which is where they do the dirty deeds. I was welcomed with a camera already in view, set up in the perfect location to explore. I like that. With the smallest turn, I decided to shoot this render to see what it looks like. 1,500 iterations at 1080p - rendered in front of my eyes. Pretty slick!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited October 2023

    Really loving my Bone Minions! Man! Thanks for these Riversoft Art!!!

    This Daz + Sale has gotten really fun. All new motions from Havanalibere and Mocap Online, new monsters, new vehicles and a bunch of scenery both legacy and new. Really cool. I've been managing to play around with most of the new goodies too in between animation sessions. Really cool.

     

    I really got taken away when I decided to take a look at my Mely3D collection. Wow. There's some really cool stuff in there and I got most of it either free or very nearly so, being a Daz + member. So happy to have Mely3D as one of the participating artists to this most wonderful membership!

    So I made the beginnings of a Thanks Mely3D page

     

    In this sale there have been a lot of days where, if we buy a New or Still New release, we'd get other benefits to our order - one being that products that are not new releases get another 50% knocked off the price! I didn't have a lot of money to play with, but this advantage brought some cool new gear to my table!

     

    Here's the new Futuristic Worker Outfit without the cyborg parts applied. It's for Genesis 9 so I'm not even sure if the cyborg aspects would even work on Rosie - but I wouldn't do that to my Rose anyway... not even just to try it out. I bring in someone else for that.

    These goggles are the same ones I used for Rosie 7 - from V4 Brazen

     

    See the description for all of the stuff in the video that I got from the Daz + Anniversary Event.

    I have to say, I'm not really a fan of how the new Daz + Celebrations are going. Yes, I get cool stuff at great prices, but this new model of making members 'buy-in' to get the deals is a massive bummer compared to the old Platinum Club. We used to get Free Bundles!!! And they weren't just bundles, they were Mega Bundles! 

    The 'buy-in' feature might not have felt so icky if those bundles were still coming. 

     

    The really neat part about the buy-in was when we'd add those items to the cart, and then just start dropping in things that we really want and watch the prices drop - sometimes really really far!

    Still. I miss the days when Daz 3d made us feel Special as members. We still get amazing deals year round, but that special magic that came once a year is almost completely forgotten.

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited November 2023

    I am very excited about the new product flow coming into Daz 3d on a daily basis. I love it!

    But I actually enjoy my entire library, and use a Lot of the oldest products I have quite often. Every day, in fact!

     

    Take Rosie 8 - City Girl option for example:

    In this image, the goggles are from V4 Brazen, the pants and guns are from Complicated Eve (V4) and this image is one frame from an animation edited from GoFigure's Runway Construction Kit for V4

    I also often use the Generation 3 era as well. 

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited November 2023

    That said, I'm also working on scenes as we speak that have item from the latest Generation 9 era along with the previous generation, and quite often use elements from the eras spanning the entire Genesis generation - from 1 through current. I have such an extensive collection from the generations prior to Genesis 1 that I feel very fortunate that I can honestly say that it stands up really well right next to the latest and greatest. 

    A little shader work goes a long way! (image: Gen 4 era "Arachnoid" by Elele)

    RT8CPS_GunDrawStopLR1b172.png
    1280 x 720 - 400K
    ArchnoidApproaches01A125.png
    1280 x 720 - 785K
    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Rosie's Platina Armor was made for Victoria 3 and she's riding Predatron's first LoRez Horse through a much more modern "A Walk Through the Woods", by Andrey Pestryakov with more modern elements from ThePhilosopher's iReal series to add some nice motion

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    OMG! I am having So Much Fun animating and rendering them in Daz Studio!!!

    My new tools, new characters, new environments, new shaders... it's all helping me do what I really wanted to do with this "Total Restart" after losing All of my previous work.

    Yes, I really do miss the animated renders that I accomplished and never had the chance to release. I even had an entire series of really cool stories all rendered out of Rosie 5 that will now never see the light of day.

     

    Rosie 8 is By Far my favorite version to date. There still isn't enough stuff available for Genesis 9 for me to be able to make a Rosie 9 that gives nearly this much satisfaction - and that's okay because, and I don't recall what what doing it, but Genesis 9 going through the animation, simulation and rendering process doesn't like my computer and crashes it whole. But you know what? I don't care! Genesis 1, 2, 3, 8 and 8.1 are spoiling me with delight! I'm even still using my Generation 4 series for some wonderful things.

     

    3D Universe, V3Digitimes, Alvin Bemar, Riversoft Art, ManFriday and MikeD have added a whole new dimension since my "Dynamic Character Animation in Daz Studio" course that is upping my game - just like I wanted. But let's also not forget about esjaatin's contribution... PoseRecorder!!! Although not fully implemented into the workflow, the initial, quick tests without even going for 'real' acting was such a success that I'm just giddy to the point I feel like I'm riding the Best rollercoaster I've ever been on!!! Weeeeeeee!!!

     

    The utter skill of Daz 3d and their incredible Published Artists never cease to Blow Me Away!!! 

    Prior to these last two major sales event (PA Sale and Daz + Anniversary) I managed to scrape together some very exciting tools and new gear to add to the whole Rosie 8 experience. More costume material, more adversaries and wonderful new Daz Studio plugins and tools.

     

    Mesh Grabber Bundle has been a real game changer for me. Editing simulated results, creating new shapes on general things, altering hallways and moving things that simply cannot be moved, creating hand-keyed visual simulations without using a simulator at all... this tool has been Magic to me!!! I still Love my Fit Control for a lot of that too, and Mesh Grabber has taken it all far beyond working with just clothing. So Cool!

     

    Those sales events came along and gave me a really beneficial push in all of the directions I was going just prior - so it's all just elevating to greater heights every time I attempt to do something new. It's all just Working the way I was envisioning it... and then a whole lot more - the stuff I never envisioned, but ended up stumbling upon simply by trying to achieve my new results. This is equals a massive inner artistic Glee - and it's a really fun ride!

     

     

    ThePhilosopher's iReal products are So Freaking Cool!!! 

    I had visions of using these in scenes - and the scenes I was envisioning... I'm not working there yet. So I decide to just try them out in an empty scene, just to give them a try. Holy Moly!!! These things ROCK for making my own custom VFX elements for layering in post - Fusion. Using the same wonderful lighting HDRIs I use for my Character renders, and they match beautifully into the scenes! 

     

    Rendering is turning out Fantastic! Adding both Havanalibere and Mocap Online motions to my collection have given me a whole new realm of possibilities. Using Bone Minion allows me to get Beautiful results from everything I might grab from Mixamo! 

     

    Although I have Bone Minions for them, I've also been collecting the rest of the Genesis 8 versions of animations from GoFigure, Reisormocap, BoneTech3D and SKAmotion as well. When it comes to great motion capture, these folks have been giving me excellence - so I just keep collecting whenever I am able. 

     

    Adding 3D Universe's Animation Tools Set 1 gives me the power to save Mixamo animated poses in such a way that I can Bone Minion them perfectly to M4, V4 and their family members, Genesis 1, they're already in Genesis 2 - which is what I use on Mixamo, Genesis 3, 8 and 8.1 - soon Genesis 9 as well. But I'm not really using 9 yet, so I can hold off on that for now.

     

    Adding 3D Universe's LimbStick has also added a whole new realm of interesting, artistic animation decisions and implementation - saving massive amounts of time and headaches that may have otherwise stopped me from even doing them in the first place, Now it's like the binders have been removed and I'm free to do anything I want! Now I have to check his store to see if there's one for earlier generations. Wow this thing is Awesome!!!

    3D Universe's Catcher Plus is freaking Outstanding!!! The way I can now set up anything I want to be part of the alpha channel in my renders - and set how (if at all) I want the reflections... massive Up in the Game!!! Love It!!! 

    Those tools have been such a major boon to me that I'd really like to pour out a heartfelt Thank You to 3D Universe!!! Bravo!!!

     

     

    Those events also granted me the ability to collect ALL of JoeQuick's add-on sculpts for Monster Silhouette 01 (included with the Ravager Parasite) along with the Ravager Parasite base for the system. Fantastic new creatures that can act as friend or foe... and they're Beautiful!!!

     

     

    More Monsters and character sculpts, more clothing, more amazing environments, incredible new vehicles, and some really nice new props - all intended to fit within the Here and Now of what I'm doing - which is Uber Exciting!!!

     

    And All of this Magic works beautifully as expected and beyond thanks to the amazing Daz 3d and their incredible Daz Studio! Thank You So Much!!! I love that I can buy something, pop it into studio and Iray will render it So Nice!!! Whew! It's fun being this happy - but I'm sure it's kind of annoying! Sorry... I just can't help but write about it.

     

    I'd also like to remind everyone to just take a short break and check out the really cool Daz Studio Technology page as well as the Tech page for DIM. Especially if you don't use DIM (not sure why you wouldn't - the thing Makes Magic Happen!!!) There's a lot more to it than what that page displays, but it's a cool promo. I use my DIM all the time. It helps me know where all of my files are. I like to edit textures and know what goes into the data directory - and where. I like to be able to bring up the product pages. I like to peruse my collection using various filters and searches to sort through how I like. So... yeah. I use DIM all the freaking time.

     

    If you've read this message this far, thank you. Because I really am having So Much Fun with all of this that I'm ready to explode as I watch these animation frames render through - and as I await these wonderful dForce simulations, making the animations really shine. And I really want to share it with You - My Amazing Friends!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited November 2023

    We usually don't see Rosie in the raw, but she's just freed a Cyborg (played by Thorne's Lara, wearing Ansiko's Bot Store Cyborg) from utter slavery and was killed in the process by the vengeful slaver, who also didn't survive the onslaught.

    So the grateful Cyborg rescues our Rosie and plunges her into a bacta tank. 

     

    Back to life, she needs time to recover. Cyborg (I still need to name her) is now assisting Rosie to Med Bay so she can examine her and get her all back up-to-snuff.

     

    Of course, in order to do all of this, Cyborg needed a bacta tank and a med bay. Having access to her ex-slaver's accounts, she bought a star ship for a really good price considering what the vessel can do. But it is known to be haunted - hence the steal of a deal.

     

    Nonetheless, while Rosie was in the healing fluids of the tank, Cyborg learned the ships systems, fired up the life support and is now showing Rosie her new ship for the first time. 

    Groggy, slowly-coming-to Rosie is in awe and immediately starts to feel a psychic connection to the unique, living vessel she was just granted ownership of. 

     

    Here we go!!!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    So now it's time to recreate the SS Marcoor Hunter, originally kit bashed in Carrara, lost in the recent data-wipe. We can do it! 

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    I love this ship - inside and out!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Of course, I'm having So Much Fun in Daz Studio, all of the above images are shot in Carrara - and I think Carrara was born for this kind of work.

     

    So my current intentions are to render all of the ship shots in Carrara.

    In Carrara, I don't have to even think about "Fitting everything into my GPU". It'll use the 16 threads of my Ryzen CPU to burn all of the pixels into place in record time - complete with volumetric atmosphere and lighting. Oh it's going to feel so good to hop intpo my Carrara again!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited November 2023

    Oh... right... wet, out-of-the-tank Rosie.

     

    Something really cool about using Sol's materials is that she comes with her own wet skin - and it's not mentioned anywhere, I don't think. I happened upon it by accident.

    In the Surface pane, select the "Skin" option to have all of the major fleshy parts selected.

    Scroll down until you see "Glossy Layered Weight" and you'll notice that there are maps in there, but the control value is turned down to 0.00

    Increasing that value turns Sol from Dry, but with natural sheen (0.00 Default) through various stages of sweaty to full-on soaked. And it looks really good! Sol's skin looks really good on Rosie. The shader is quite different from all others that I have - and I have quite a few really good ones. Sol's is very translucent and is set up to work really good that way - and I really like it. However, many of the "Skin Control" type of products, that work Amazingly well on most skins, take away the special nature of Sol's incredible well made skin materials. 

    Once I discovered that built-in wet look slider (Glossy Layered Weight), I also discovered that I don't need to use any of that on Rosie, even though it works really well on my other characters that use more Standard Skin materials.

     

    If I need a close-up and want drops too, Linday's Long Wet Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 comes with Wet and/or Sandy geoshells for both male and female Genesis 8 figures - and they look Fantastic!!!

    And for Rosie's wet hair I use the newer dForce Wet Style Curly Hair for Genesis 8 and 9, also by Linday. It simulates a very convincing wet curly hair look, and come with plenty of settings and tips. I love taking Linday's obviously well-studied advice and working notes to heart, and running with them - getting creative with how the hair behaves with dForce and the animation I'm working on. So Fun!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Unfortunate that I cannot actually show the results, but the rendered animation of Cy'Lara leading Rosie down an SS Marcoor Corridor turned out Amazing!!!

    She is fully healed, but not entirely conscious yet. So Rosie needs Cy'Lara's (Cyborg Lara) help to make her way through the new surroundings and get to med bay.

     

    A sound... and a feeling... a psychic connection flows through Rosie and it startles her at first. Concerned, Cy'Lara holds her steady. As the confused Rosie begins to turn to her, she smiles and Rosie, a bit overwhelmed feels sudden relief and smiles back. It's amazing and the Wet Look turned out Beautifully!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Cy'Lara - Thorne's Lara wearing the Bot Store Cyborg Wearable

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567
    edited November 2023

    Cy'Lara examines Rosie in the med bay - alpha shot - single frame - All dried - Systems Okay - Ready for Action

    RT8SF_MedbayExamBot801S2.png
    1280 x 720 - 866K
    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169

    Wow, I was 51 posts behind.  Can't comment on them all.  Great to see you remain so active.  Interesting side discussion on the blog entry about animation plugin.  yes

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Diomede said:

    Wow, I was 51 posts behind.  Can't comment on them all.  Great to see you remain so active.  Interesting side discussion on the blog entry about animation plugin.  yes

    You mean this discussion: Animation gurus - Announcement ?

    Yes... quite the discussion going on indeed! A lot of the Same Old Song and Dance, which of course gets me up on my horse and running. 

     

    I'm sorry but I totally and completely disagree with the notion that we simply cannot animate in Daz Studio - and I won't have it!!! LOL!!!

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,053

    Dartanbeck said:

    I'm sorry but I totally and completely disagree with the notion that we simply cannot animate in Daz Studio - and I won't have it!!! LOL!!!

    I've never seen anybody argue that you CAN'T animate in DS, just that there are much, much better tools available.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Gordig said:

    Dartanbeck said:

    I'm sorry but I totally and completely disagree with the notion that we simply cannot animate in Daz Studio - and I won't have it!!! LOL!!!

    I've never seen anybody argue that you CAN'T animate in DS, just that there are much, much better tools available.

    I have. Plenty of times. Especially before I started posting in the Daz Studio forum. 

     

    Someone who obviously wasn't trying to get into a professional animation studio for work asked if animation was possible in Daz Studio.

    I'm not even sure that I got there in time for that one. The poor forum poster was absolutely nailed with literally nothing but various versions of "No". 

     

    I felt really bad. Not everyone can afford the time or money to go off trying to use the more traditional methods. And most of the traditional methods are incompatible with a Lot of Daz 3d content - you have to find or build another way to do it. The big one being the reason I came to Studio in the first place - Linday's dForce Hair. Bring that into Blender or Maya or Unity or anything else other than Studio, and try and get it to work without a fuss? Right. 

     

    Here, as it turns out, we actually Can animate in Daz Studio. We really can!!!

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    in fact, some folks send me PMs telling me that I should try X, Y or Z software instead of Daz Studio. 

    My answer is always a firm - "Nope". 

     

    You believe in your god, I'll just keep being me.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    More animation demonstrations on the way - as I chug along animating, simulating, and rendering.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Wanna use aniMate 2+ to do more than just 'Add aniBlocks to your Character'?

     

    Check out my new thread:

    aniMate 2 - Fun Things you may not have Known

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,169

    Always look forward to your updates.  yes

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,567

    Still busting my tush to get the cool new reels out. 2023 was a really fun year for me.

    There would have been a Lot of videos if I hadn't lost everything! LOL

Sign In or Register to comment.