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@DustRider Thank you very much for your words of encouragement.
I got a glimpse of your gallery, while I haven't seen the whole detail yet.
The images are magnificent, have some depth.
I like graphics so much, and while I have not mastered the full deteails, I do use these programs to create something simple, other times to have fun and tring something new.
When I was a boy, I had some imagination, me and a friend of mine did some drawings; he did a bit better drawings than me, in the other side I did an average of that.
Time went fast, and I forgot to do drawings by hand.
The old school of drawing was to use a drawing board and a wooden model to create the modelling by hand.
Some people use a drawing tablet, wacom brand or something else to do the job.
Daz Studio has the elements to get started, at first it looks easy, when trying to add more elements to do the rendering things get more complicated.
I am still playing around with the controls.
The HDR images do not fit the same way graphic programs do, scale to fit the image and place the layers whenever you want.
I have tried with the props, it takes time to fit them the desired way.
Anyway, I hope I can get around of these obstacles and get the satisfaction of something well done.
@DustRider, you are quite right in that the simpler images are the best to start with until you really get to grips with everything. However, my problem is that the vast majority of the ideas I have are overly-complex and require a lot of work/effort and along with that both time and a numerous variety of assets. This is not ideal for a number of reasons. However, while I have done a few simple scenes, many of them were not good enough to post anywhere and the ones that are were either accidents or not ones I can take full credit for. I have seen plenty of less-complex images by other people that were really nice but I am not sure I have "the eye" for those - not sure if that is an inate artistic ability I am lacking or if it is something that can be learned if enough time is spent on it.
I am hoping to have some time this weekend to work some some images as I haven't had a chance to run Daz in a few weeks so perhaps I will try to come up with some simpler ideas :)
Also, on a related topic is it worth posting images to Renderosity gallery even if you post them here and also to DeviantArt? When I looked there before it did seem to be overly dominated with promo images for items in the store.
@SofaCitizen, I got a laugh at you.
you got plenty of items at your disposal and you say none of em works for you ins't it?
I do struggle with few freebies, but still trying to get there.
I did some experiments with simple things.
Just one model and nothing else, a simple HDR image.
Some of the HDR images fit and do the trick while others do not fit the target.
I did manipulate the controls, some work while others not.
I want to get an image that convey a message, while trying to keep it simple.
With this month competition, I will try my luck and be there, if not, well.. that would be another agonizing month without any perspective.
@Halcon Bluesky, well, yes, I have a decent amount of assets but they are still nothing without the right dose of talent and creativity to present them in a new and exciting way. That is what we are all trying to do in the long run.
I have taken a look at the new challenges and I think they are going to be a bit better for me. I already have an idea for one of them, although it's going to need atleast 9 characters - so much for keeping things simple :P
@SofaCitizen, hey 9 characters?!
I need 5 for the entry.
I will think what I can do if I get some of em.
Meanwhile, I have to gather some free items, if these work then I can be there.
@Halcon Bluesky, the 9 characters would be needed for a scene for one of the other November challenges. I will reign things in a little for the Freebie challenge as I don't need to make things any harder for myself.
As I sit here with my morning coffee I have come up with an idea for the freebie one which will only need 1/2 characters and a creature. Hopefully I can find some suitable assets for it :)
@SofaCitizen, How you have been?
Did you achieve anything or not yet?
I wanted to enter this month contest but I got disheartened that I could do nothing yet.
Moreover, with useless offerings for the month that will end soon, no wonder there is no quality content as before.
I don't know if I can paticipate in next month contest.
Take care.
Oh dear, sorry to hear that you are still having trouble :(
I have had a little more free time this month and so I have done OK myself. I have managed to submit entries for the Freebie challenge, the Daz+ challenge for this month as well as Llola Lane's Render a Month thread too. I am also trying desperately to finish a submission for the new user challenge in the two evenings I have remaining - going to be a tight squeeze if I do!
Regardless of if the submissions do OK or not they have been incredibly handy for learing a few new things and practicing others too. Mainly doing some more rigging of assets, using geoshells, more practice with flames and smoke VDBs, more dForce practice - including using the wind node and using Blender & Morph Loader pro to add custom Morphs. All alongside a general helping of re-texturing and throwing lots of assets into a scene to make things that are (hopefully) both unique and somewhat nice-looking.
I can understand that it can often be disheartening when you cannot achieve what you are aiming for but I still think you should try and submit something to either the Freebie or New User challenges. It doesn't matter if they are that great or not - you will still learn something by just getting stuck in and getting a few renders done. You can always ask for feedback if you want so others can give you a few pointers. Then, bit by bit, you will get better at the various areas of the software and it will be easier to overcome any hurdles you might run in to.
Good Luck!
@SofaCitizen, what I do in my free time is experimenting with the controls using Iray renders with some HDRs, I find these good and the time to render is relatively short.
The props with lots of polygons will take more time depending how you want your figure(s) to be positioned and ready for the shoot.
I want to have more useful things, hair men/women, environmentsand more figures male/female.
Whithout it, I can't do anything that may look good.
Not that I may want to be an instant artist, just to be safe my work may be appreciated not to fall into the ridicule.
@SofaCitizen, I am curious what Daz product did you use for the "The Calm Before The Storm" render
It was funny that shower scene. it cost me a fortune a product similar to that, kind of useless, because it use too much memory!
Well, I don't think I anyone who posts here in the forums or gallery would get ridiculed - I imagine because it's only Daz users frequenting those places and everyone was a beginner at some point. That would probably go the same for Renderosity as well I imagine. Other image-hosting places where comments can come from a larger variety of people, including randoms who can create accounts quickly and easily would be different tho. I think the worst you would get here is just no reaction, which in itself can be a little disheartening sometimes. However, I still try and post the scenes that I am reasonably happy with, either for a competition/challenge or just for a random idea that I had as they can still serve as something that I can be proud of as I take steps towards getting better. Perhaps as I go along and improve I will start taking down the earlier ones when I start noticing more and more about how I can improve them - or alternatively I will look back at an old scene, see how I can improve it and use that focus to make a new version that is two or three times better. Thus, using that old render as a benchmark to give myself more confidence and pride in how much I have learned?
That was a bit of a ramble, sorry. I probably need another coffee to wake up a bit.
The point is that I think you shouldn't wait until you are an expert before you post anything. Perhaps try the New User challenges? Those are designed to help inexperienced users work on certain areas of DazStudio and if you post to that thread then people are much more likely to post some helpful comments as it is expected that the images will not be perfect and people are using that to learn and get better.
Ahh, yes. I wasn't sure if that one would be against the Daz's guidelines (I believe it would be by the letter of the rule even if not by the spirit) so I did not post it here and so did not get a chance to list the assets. I believe the environment was a Zeddicus one and the spider was a monster one that I had to over-morph to de-emphasise the non-natural parts. I'll fire up the scene later and list them out here when I finish work.
However, just on the memory issue - I usually go through the scene and remove stuff that isn't going to be seen to cut down on render times and also just to get things out of the way. It can be a bit time consuming but it can make a massive difference. I did pick up a few scripts to help with that during the sale - although while those can save some time they also add some other things to watch out for. For instance one script I have tries to remove things that the camera cannot see - but it seems it does not support iRay decal nodes and so I can't just run it without some manual adjustments.
Here is the Product list for that scene:
Not sure if this was the product you tried to use but for this image atleast I was able to remove/hide most of it to save memory. I only kept the floor, back wall and one row of shower cubicals. So that means I could remove the second row of cubicals, three of the wall, the row of sinks and the area just outside the door. Obviously that was only possible due to the narrow camera angle.
@SofaCitizen, the product I have is this:
https://www.daz3d.com/cosy-bathroom-with-rigged-shower-and-poses-for-genesis-8-female
I do have a few characters, unfortunately lacking hair and other things.
That's why I can't start, I go to some places looking for these items in the free stuff.
Ahh, yes, that is a different style of asset. I do have that one too, although it wasn't right for that scene and I have not used it in any other scene yet.
If you are just looking to make some scenes and not going for a particular style then there are free hair assets that you can use to add to other assets in the scene. I have used the Gwennilil and Ameizing ones in previous renders and they are perfectly fine to use. Obviously, those are both "up-do" styles but again, if you just need to do some renders to make some scenes then in some ways those are probably easier since you won't have to worry about the hair getting in the way of anything else. There are other styles of free hair also anway, just those two are ones I have used.
@SofaCitizen, the up-do hairs I have a few, medium and long styles are the ones scarce to find.
@SofaCitizen, I have tried to post my first render for the december beginner/Intermediate contest.
I don't see the uploaded work there, did you got any issues when uploading your work for the previous entries?
@Halcon Bluesky, you can either upload your image to the gallery or attach it directly to your post. If you do go via the gallery method then you should wait until your submission is approved by the moderators before linking it to the post since the link will change.
The easiest method is to perhaps attach the image to your post (you can edit the post to attach it). If you click the link below the text box that says "Attach a file" it will expand down to show a "browse" button. Click that to open a dialog window where you can select the image to upload.
If you ALSO want to have the image appear inline then you can edit the post again, right click on the attached image and select "Copy link", then click the icon in the toolbar above the text box that has a mountain and sun on it and paste into the "URL" field. Then you can click OK on that box and the image is also displayed at that point in the message. NOTE: do not delete the attachment since it will break the inline one.
@SofaCitizen, I posted the image, it was an enbarrasment for me to not see the picture.
You can look at it in the post, you tell me later if that was good.
Also I congratulate you for the last month contest, your name is there.
@Halcon Bluesky, don't worry too much about that - this forum has a few little quirks to get used to and it's easy to mess up a few times when posting your first images as I know I did. Thanks for that, I was quite pleased I managed to squeeze it in before the deadline shut. It did have a few things I wasn't happy about but fixed a few of them with some quick Photoshopping.
@SofaCitizen, how are you?
Did you saw last month contest results?
I wish I could have some Daz content, I don't think I may fulfill my wish list, neither buy any of the nice bundles out there.
Last year was a very tight time for me and this year I hope to see the light out from the tunnel.
If there is any freebie contest later, I will try my luck.
At the moment I have had to clean install Windows 11 as it was causing me some despair with some screen freezes.
It will some time until I can install all my applications including Daz Studio.
Looking forward for a new challenge later.
@Halcon Bluesky, I hadn't seen the results before but I have just checked now - congratulations on your win! :) Hopefully that will spur you on to keep posting more images as there are always plenty more challenges to try for.
I hadn't been able to do a single render in December unfortunately as I seemed to catch every winter bug that was going around over here. Pretty frustrating as I did have a few ideas for a few of the challenges.
The January freebie challenge appears to be up now: Speed Demons and Slowpokes so I will have to start thinking about that. Hopefully January will be more productive than December for me :)
@SofaCitizen, You got more resources than me, you can try your luck for this month challenge.
I am taking a break and solve my computer issues.
I am not sure if renaming this post or leave as it now.
When I entered last month challenge, I was trying hard.
Clothes selection did not fit well, I had to see how to get everything in harmony.
I told you before.
In the last minute, when I thought I had uploaded the render, I could not; I noticed something wrong with the image, a floating drinking glass.
Everything was ok when I did the render, but somehow when opening the saved scene there was some misplacement of the objects.
You can imagine the frustration I got and at least I had averted some embarrasment.
I am not sure if I need to create my gallery or wait later when I get some more renders
@Halcon Bluesky, yes, I hope to submit some images for some challenges this month altho I do have a few things that I need to do which will take away some of my free time.
I feel your pain on spotting errors after rendering - I have done that so many times myself. I guess, it's good that you spotted them before submitting tho.
It's probably a good idea to start adding images to your gallery sooner rather than later. Mainly because image attachments are generally broken in the forum so uploading to the gallery and then linking this in the challenge submission posts is probably the next best option - also, your first few submissions to the gallery will be held in a moderation queue and so won't be available for a day or so after you first post them.
Good luck with your computer issues!
Last I checked the animated GIF format was allowed, for avatars... although I haven't personally gotten around to modifying mine.
I have versioning issues with Alchemy's GIF Construction Set (I'm lazy, I'm always misplacing me keys) but I can certainly make them. The best source art is probably a few .BMP or .PNG files and the lower the color depth the better. AND the software lets you include a comment (authorship, copyright etc.)
Heh heh... www.stickydoggy.com (it's a page of cartoony humor about a rich, spoiled little dog)
I like the "to and fro" of the forums too. Just as an example this is the first thing that crossed my desk this (Saturday) morning: https://www.ingcogni.com/about-us
??? Data brokers ???!! Now you know as much about it as I do.
@ SofaCitizen, how are you my friend?
I haven't done anything since the competition.
At this moment, there are some pressing matters that need my attention, I will move out to another place, I don't know when, I have to do that.
If I am settled, and find another interesting contest, I am not sure if I can do that as begginner.
I am not advanced yet, and this setback is taking me away form the graphics creation, I would like to come back again and do something more different.
Now, I suppose you have gained more experience than me.
Take care, buddy!
Well, real life is more important and so you should deal with that first.
I didn't really touch Daz much over December and for most of January for various reasons. This month I have already posted 3 renders and will try and get a 4th done in the next day or so. Sometimes that is the way it is with inspiration and motivation coming and going. However, the only way to really gain experience is to keep at it - every render is a chance for us to learn something new or practice something that we are not so good at. Plus, even if no-one else seems to care about them, then you can still be proud and/or can look back a while later and see how far you have come. No-one starts out being great so we all have to start in novice-land, if you don't take many steps then you cannot expect to reach other places. Sure, there will be others who seemingly may have more native talent or who have transferred skills from other areas/platforms but you shouldn't really compare yourself to others - only to your previous self.
Good luck! :)
@ SofaCitizen, Thanks for your feedback.
I will try to sort out my situation, then I will comeback here to see if I can do something more.
That banner, looks like Doom or Quake PC Game.
Have you had the opportunity to play any of these? Not to mention the granddady of all 3d games Wolfenstein 3d. :p
Ahh, the freebie challenge banner? I didn't make that but I guess it does a bit. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to submit an image for the contest this month :( I did try a few times for an idea I had but I wasn't able to source all the right assets for it. Hopefully, next month I will have more luck or just have to try to come up with a less complicated idea.
I never played Wolfenstein and only played the demo of Doom as I only had a 386/16 PC at the time which struggled to run it. I did play quite a bit of Quake and Unreal Tournament tho - not on my own since I don't generally enjoy those kind of games that much. But I had a group of friends who would all drag our PCs round to someone's house and network them up for some DeathMatch games, those were some good times.
@ SofaCitizen, I had an i386 computer, gifted to me, with that I started to learn how to use it.
Graphics were not really good, 486 were a bit better than previous generation CPU.
But graphics never were good with most types of computers until core processors made a great difference, also Nvidia cards are the defacto standard.
I know many people prefer AMD CPU and graphic cards which are more cheaper than Intel.
I do stick with Intel because is better tech.
But I can't say the same of Microsoft, Windows 10/11 are in shambles.
Take care
Yeah, mine was gifted to me as a "hand-me-down" from my Dad's workplace when they upgraded. Had to make do with that for a while which started a dislike for Microsoft since Norton DOS was far superiour to MS DOS back then.
These days I much prefer using OSX for as much as I can, although I did buy a new Windows machine last year for using Daz since it's so much faster when it can render on the graphics card.