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I'm one of those that would donate once I actually get a chance to take a look at it and use it. Everything I've seen Will do with them looks good, but, to be honest, I haven't even had a chance to go download them or I downloaded them and haven't looked at them. At the moment, I'm not really sure which as I'd have to look on one of three different hard drives to figure it out now with all of the computer upheaval I've been dealing with lately. Every time I think I'll have time to take a look at them something happens and it gets pushed back further on my list of things I'd like to look into. I do promise to get to them soon. There are a couple of them that I've seen on Will's images that I think I could find really useful.
Ya switching to a new computer always sucks especially if its a catastrophic failure on the first one.
And I was happy to do it Will, seriously, I appreciate free stuff and while I can't donate much I do when I can
Will, Just looked at your shaders. Can and do you want to mark your product's discription to start with as Donationware, see below. I've probably grabbed some items of yours and not even noticed the "Donate via Paypal" button. Does it go directly to your PayPal account?
Yep!
There is a note in the product description asking folks to consider donating and how to do so (clicking on my name, clicking donate button)
I didn't want people to feel bad, just pointing out that 'donationware' can be... hard.
Also will get out of my funk and try to show off more of what it can do, maybe poke at the next set of things. Particularly snow and dirt. It's _really easy_: create geoshell, select geoshell surface, click on dirt or snow shader. Bam.
Among other things, I think I have a firmer idea on what is needed to do tolerable perlin displacement (though it's always going to be heavily based on the model's mesh), and possibly venture into Worley noise (which looks neat but has some limitations).
New directions can always be scary and challenging, but unless we try and take a chance, we're always playing the "what if" game. Daz3D is not complicated. If they think they can make money with you they'll give you chance. It all starts with that first review committee meeting and some excellent promo images.
So, I couldn't manage to stay away from DS while my desktop was down and I backed up my version of DS 4.7 that I had on the laptop so I could keep it and installed DS 4.9 on it. I haven't tried an Iray render on it yet. I'm almost afraid to see what would happen to my poor old laptop. I have been playing with LineRender9000 today. I set up a simple scene with the Pocket Pals Raccoon by 3D Universe and FirstBastion's Wilderness: Two Creeks. I love this set. It's very versatile for all of your wilderness camping needs.
I've played with LineRender9000 a few times. There are a lot of options and I still don't know everything about the script, yet, but it's fun exploring it. So, I basically did a lot of renders of the same scene with all of the different camera options, with different line outputs for each one, then took them all into Gimp and played around with the different layers. I took the original render and used the Google NIK Filters on it and got a couple of different layers to play with as well. I got a few very interesting looks.
Here are a few of my favorites so far:
Composited layers straight from LineRender9000
Two images with different NIK Filters applied to the base render and composited with outputs from LineRender9000
I was playing a little more with LineRender9000. I made this specifically for Lola's Render a Month thread which I just managed to post to her thread. Nothing like waiting until the last day to get things done. I actually finished doing all of the render passes for this last night, but didn't do the postwork until this morning. I think it turned out rather cute.
Dragon's Don't Like Water
Gallery Link
Introduction to Gimp 2.8
Someone asked me to please teach them how to use Gimp. I don't know if she wants me to mention her name. While I am still learning and don't know everything, I'll do my best. Since most people are using Windows and I have an emergency backup Windows drive with a bare bones install of Windows 7, I installed a fresh copy of the latest stable version of Gimp 2.8 which is what I'm using for the tutorial as this is what most people will be using. At some point, I'll introduce you to Gimp 2.9 which is still in Beta, but is reasonably stable and I love the added new features which help with some aspects of postwork if you use Canvases in Iray.
I'm trying to keep it simple for the moment so I've tried to put the important parts in text boxes in each of the screenshots. I'll add some text if I think it needs it. If after reading the screenshots, anyone doesn't understand anything and needs to ask a question, please ask and I'll do my best to answer. On a side note, I'm really bad at drawing arrows with a mouse. :)
There are two main ways to access all of the commands in Gimp. You can use the dropdown menu or you can use the RMB (right mouse button) to bring up a menu with the same options as are in the dropdown menu. I usually use the mouse. There are also shortcut keys for most, if not all, commands in Gimp. Unfortunately, I don't know them all yet, but I'll try to track down a shortcut list for those of you who like using shortcut keys.
This is just an Introduction to Gimp to Get you started. Next little mini-tut will cover most of the Tools Gimp has or, at least, the ones I know about. There will be homework so I hope everyone is ready to learn.
Okay, so when you open Gimp 2.8 for the very first time, you are faced with this. Three windows that aren't connected to anything. It doesn't bother some, but the first thing I do is contain everything in one window. I like to have everything all together. If this doesn't bother you, you can keep your Gimp like this.
Or you can make Gimp go into single window mode.
You can open the menu and create a new image to get started.
Choose what size you want your document to be.
And, this is what you will get.
I should add here that the foreground color is usually picked up by the paintbrush and to change the color of the paintbrush, you just change foreground color.
Homework: Get Gimp here and install it. Open Gimp and create a new document. Scribble in your document in one color and then change colors and scribble again. If you wish, save your document with the Save As option under File in the Menu.
I've never understood Gimp... I will be following along although I'm not going to actually download it as at the moment my memory is almost maxed on my pc (thanks Daz!). I need to open up the case and see what kind of memory card I can get to help with that lol. I know I have a couple extra slots, I've just been putting it off
Uh, I do believe memory card is not the term you are looking for, but hard drive, perhaps? Although, extra memory cards are helpful, too, hard drives are the space used by storage on the computer. But, you are more than welcome to follow along and, when your get more storage space, you can play catch up. Although, to be fair, Gimp does not take up all that much memory.
Here are some fun facts of Gimp versus Photoshop you may not have known.
Size on Disk: Gimp 20 MB PS Several GBs, not sure exactly how many
System Resources (RAM): 128 MB PS 1 GB
Portability: Gimp can be installed on a USB drive and run from that! PS not a chance
Gimp is completely customizable and if you really like the look of a different photo program, you can customize Gimp to look like that program to ease the transition. I'll go over how to do that in a later tutorial. And, while the current stable version of Gimp 2.8 only recognizes 8 bit images, the newer Gimp 2.9 in Beta which I'll introduce later, can do 16/32 bit images just like PS.
So, if you happen to have a free USB drive, you could still give it a try.
Don't even think twice... download Gimp and install it. Takes up less room than nearly any one product from DAZ or elswere.
Cool... In your first paragraph for the Introduction to Gimp 2.8 I already have a silly question... what are "Canvases in Iray"? Keep in mind that I know very little about Iray... never took the time to learn much about it except for experimenting with, and messing up settings in DS.
I've a few ideas/questions for future tutorials that would help myself and hopefully also some other folks to.
I'm sure you have plenty of ideas already. :)
Ok I confess I am the someone who asked KM to teach me the basics of GIMP as I have no knowledge how to use it in the least bit and I would love to learn new ways to improve my renders.
I will get to my questions just as soon as I read all that is here.
Edited to add: I have just perked a new pot of coffee and got my munchies ready to dig in and do some hard learning!!!
Ok I confess I am the someone who asked KM to teach me the basics of GIMP as I have no knowledge how to use it in the least bit and I would love to learn new ways to improve my renders.
I will get to my questions just as soon as I read all that is here.
@wgdjohn Wow you sure do have a lot of realy good questions there buttt I only asked for the basics of GIMP so not ready to dive into scripts and such right now.
I am liking the way KM is teaching one step at a time because I can get overwhelmed quickly like I was when I first opened Daz for the very first time all those buttons and gadgets I have never seen in my life before but back then I had really no help because I was very shy and would never ask questions because I did not want to look like the stupid one. I am kinda feeling the same about GIMP right now, I do not want to be the stupid kid and ask a bunch of silly questions.
But here it goes anyway:
1. Why does GIMP open up that way all in pieces?
2. Also like John I would like to know in greater details why you work in layers and what kinda outcome do you look for with layers?
3. Can you use the same type of filters for GIMP as you do for PS? (eye candy 7, etc.....)
4. I know GIMP is kinda simular to PSP9 but does look a lot different is there a way I could kinda set my stuff in GIMP to match those in PSP9?
5. I seen in some tutorials for Daz postwork they use some sort of filter to get certain lighting effects can you tell me which ones they are and where to get them or it or if they are attached to GIMP?
6. Is it true you can paint hair on a 3D Charactor? (I guess I am getting ahead of myself there)
I hope you can answer these questions.
First the easy one. Iray Canvases is a way of rendering in layers. You can pick and choose which things in your scene gets rendered and when. You can set up multiple canvases to all set to render and walk away. You could have all lights on one canvas, your character and lights on another canvas, and the background and lights all on another canvas and still get what they call the beauty canvas which is a render of everything in your scene as you see in in the viewport with your light setup and tone mapping the way you want. Set it up, click to render and walk away and you can have 2 or more layers all rendered when it is done. I'm still learning about canvases. There is still a ton I don't know. There are two really good explanations of how to use canvases that I can link to which should get you started and give you a rough idea of some of the possibilities. The resulting canvases are in .exr format which I believe is 32 bit. Gimp 2.8 can't read these files, but Gimp 2.9 Beta can. So, to composite all of the images you need a program like PS or Gimp 2.9 which can read these files. When I get to that point when I'm ready to talk about Gimp 2.9, I'll show everyone what I've been doing in Gimp 2.9 and how I put things together and play with the different layers. By that time, everyone will be an expert with layers because that is definitely a tutorial all on its own. :)
Rendering, Canvases, Compositing, and additional Postwork
Relighting with Iray Canvases
Okay - I can definitely do tutorials on 1, 2, and 3. Those are fairly simple in Gimp and I can show you how to do those. Number 4 is a little harder as I'm not great at Python. I know just enough of the basics to do a little bit of scripting. Unfortunately, I had to learn on the fly while trying to get the Google NIK collection working in Gimp in Linux. Those are actually easier to get setup and working if you are in Windows. But, yes, Gimp supports two scripting languages that I know of, but it is possible there could be more. The two main ones are Python and the other is called Script-Fu. I don't know anything about Script-Fu other than I have a lot of plug-ins written in it for Gimp. It seems to be popular. I can show the basics of scripting in a tutorial, but anyone who really knows scripting is going to be way ahead of where I am at when it comes to knowledge about the language. I don't know about a learn mode, but I'll look into. Yes, it doesn't hurt to know where things are, how to open them, where they go, and if you can edit them. Mostly, you can do all of that and I'll be going over where to get plugins and scripts and where to put them. How to use them. There are a few essential ones that I've collected that are really useful in postwork with DS and also some that are really useful for creating your own textures.
Number 5, I'll have to do a little bit of research. I think I know the answer, but I want to make sure that I give the correct answers. But, yes, Gimp can Flip and Rotate images. Number 6, I'm not sure about that. It isn't something I've needed to do yet, but I'll look into that and get back to you. If I can understand what you are asking and can find the answer and understand what I'm doing, I'll do a tutorial to explain it.
I hope I answered everything. If anyone has requests for how to do something in Gimp and I know how to do it, I'm more than willing to fufill requests for mini-tuts to show how. If I don't know how to do something, it might take me a bit longer to do some research and figure out how to do things so I understand it and then I can share with everyone else.
If there are any Gimp experts reading who know how to do something I don't when the time comes, maybe they will step up and help us out. :) I'm still learning Gimp and I love what I've learned so far. I'm very happy to share what I know, but I know there are going to be questions at some point on how to do something I just haven't learned yet.
Next tutorial should be up by tomorrow evening. It goes over all of the tools, what they are and how to use them. Today was just too busy to get to it and, on Saturdays, I'm usually out all day carting the boys around. So, I'll sit down tomorrow afternoon when I get back and work on the next tutorial.
I'm also trying to finish up my new LAMH tutorial. I started working on it when I had the big computer Windows meltdown. I have not been able to get that working in DS in Linux yet so I have to find my files and finish it up in Windows 7 as I do have a bare bones DS setup there. I'd like to finish that LAMH tutorial and have it posted by the end of next week so I can get it off my list of stuff to do.
@Saphirewild Good luck. The first homework was fairly easy so I'm sure you'll be fine. :)
I might be thinking RAM as well. I'm going to to look up my specs and start a thread in the tech forums to figure out what I should/could get that won't break the bank. I'm running out of room very quickly. I've considered an external drive but don't want to have try and move everything on my c drive for Daz to another drive and start over. Ugh. it gives me hives thinking about it lol. Anyway, not going to hijack this, when I am ready I will go post in the techy forum here lol
Bonus Tutorial
OMG, I lost my Toolbox! What happened and how do I get it back?
Okay, relax! This happens to everyone at least once when they first start out. It isn't the end of the world and you can recover. If you happen to close any of the toolboxes in Gimp, you can go to Windows>Dockable Dialogs under the main file menu and find the window you lost. It will either do one of two things. You'll end up with a window floating around or it will dock in a place you don't want it to dock. In either case, you can grab it and move it where you want to dock it and let it go. It will dock automatically.
I do have an external drive, but I have to say I like having everything internal. Since I am reorganizing everything due to the computer meltdown, I did end up getting another 3 TB hard drive. So, now my setup is one 3 TB hard drive which has Linux on it and DS is working in there. That is also where all of my DAZ downloads are going. I have a 1 TB drive which is where I currently have Windows 7. Eventually, I'll get rid of that Windows 7 completely, but I like having it for a backup. I WILL NOT update to Windows 10 again. Ugh!
My old hard drive that had Windows 10 on it is also a 3 TB hard drive. I'm still transferring files. As soon as I'm sure I have everything off of there I need to keep, I'll be reformatting it in a format that can be read by either Linux or Windows and will just be for extra storage. I'll use my external drive strictly for backups after I'm all done moving things around.
If you have the room, for a new hard drive go for the 3 TB hard drive. They have come way down in price and I got mine on Amazon and it was only a few dollars more than the 2 TB hard drive. It was about $89, but I paid less because I used some rewards from my CC and only paid $66 out of pocket.
It's funny. I originally bought that 1 TB drive when I first built my computer thinking it would be more than enough space to hold everything. Between DAZ sales and collecting freebies all over the place, that 1 TB drive filled up really quickly which is why I had ended up getting a 3 TB drive. So now, I actually have two 3 TB internal hard drives, 1 TB hard drive and one 3 TB external hard drive. I really hope that's enough space! :)
So if I add a hard drive do I have to move all my daz stuff to it? No idea how to do any of that. I have a $10 gift card to amazon at the moment....that's not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be.
You could leave everything where it is and just start installing to a new directory on the new HD with DIM and then map it in DS as an additional directory. I think DIM will keep track of what is installed with the files in its download directory. That should work if you don't want to move everything. You just need to make sure your computer has the space for another HD.
I don't know if you have DIM keep the downloads or if you have DIM delete those. Personally, I keep them and then move all of the zipfiles to another HD after they've been installed. I started doing that when I started running out of space in that 1 TB drive I had when I first started using DS.
If you are using Connect, I have no idea what the difference is yet. I'm testing out Connect in the Windows install that I have, but haven't done multiple directories. I haven't gotten Connect working in Linux yet.
I'm off to bed. Have to get up early to take the boys to karate in the morning.
Oh noooo... my questions/suggestions were meant for waaay after basic training is finished. Right now I need to install Gimp so I can take advantage of KM's Intro... it's been quite awhile, years, since I last used a much earlier Gimp on a different computer. Don't ever be shy to ask any anything... there are no stupid questions... In my quest for learning I've asked plenty in order to learn more about many things.
Thanks for the detailed explanation and the links. From your explication it sounds a bit like the many Carrara Render Options and Modes that many folks use for compositing. Looks to be perhaps better in some ways... after all DS is constantly updated while Carrara's Render options have been around for awhile. Don't concern yourself with explaining actually writing scripts... if there is a Learn mode that should be enough to show anyone... I was disappointed with PSP v?? which allowed only very simple things to be done, IMO,... most of what I wanted to control were locked for PSP use only.
I thought that PSP had this but I couldn't find it tonight... could have been a diff program. What it does is when the, let's say... left side of image moves off the screen at left it moves onto the screen at right side... as if it is one continuous image. By adjusting it to move x and y to the center of the scene a self tiling image can be created.
Sonja, you might www.tigerdirect.com and http://www.newegg.com ; I've found better prices at those places... Amazon does have good deals occasionally.
KM, If I understand it correctly if you use Connect you only get the files needed by DAZ Studio... I don't think it has an option to save the zip used for installation... but I may have the latter wrong. I only use DIM and keep the zips of downloaded files.
Iray canvasses are very cool and let you do some wacky things.
For example, you can have a single render that produces several images with different lights active, so you can then composite and essentially 'adjust lighting' in post.
No connect. Hate it lol. Although I do use it on the work computer, I loaded it there to test out the the newest version of 4.9 before I updated my home pc (wanted to make sure the categories would still work and randomly disappear). I almost never render on the work computer, unless the internet goes out (our system depends entirely on the internet and there is no working when the is down we take messages and deal with stuff when we are back online) but I wanted to test out connect and see how it did. Still hate it lol.
I've used TigerDirect before wgdJohn thanks for reminding me!
Will I just started kind of playing with canvasses and the potential for combining with postwork is very exciting!
It is! Though my use has been limited:
General Beauty canvas, which is VERY useful if you have a scene with huge light variations, like relatively accurate daytime outdoor shots. Before using beauty canvas, it'd be next to impossible to make a decent outdoor shot without faking stuff or ending up with black and white blowouts.
Distance canvas, which easily lets you do a bunch of distance haze effects. Heck, if you do it right, you can have a tweakable focal length.
Iray is finicky about haze/godray effects. I don't normally separate different lighting, but I find it useful to have 'regular lighting' and then 'fog + one light source' and then layer it together.
Gimp 2.8 Intro to the Tools
Will, Thanks for expanding my understanding of Canvases. I only had a very basic understanding of them. Did'nt know that they were called Canvases until KM enlightened me.
Great eplanation... in Carrara I would have to manually render seperate images. Oh... wait... I can do this in Carrara very easily by just creating a *very* short animatiion... making the changes to each keyframe and rendering out to seperate images instead of a single file animation. Then I can just load up the image into layers of a paint program like PSP or another. PostWork can often create much better final images.
When Wil speaks I always listen... always seem to learn something. :)
Next tutorial I'll open an actual project and go through actually using each of the most used tools. Some tools will need their own tutorial. I found a couple of good references for those who like shortcut keys.
Gimp Shortcuts pdf
Image from the pdf
GIMP keyboard shortcuts
Canvasses are actually quite an amazing tool that comes with Iray. Using them with Light Groups is incredibly powerful, letting you adjust lighting completely in postwork.
Then you can move into actual light path expressions (LPEs) that let you not only specifiy the light source, but the actual lighting path to render. That lets you render the impact of specific lights on individual objects.
See: http://blog.irayrender.com/post/76948894710/compositing-with-light-path-expressions and
http://blog.irayrender.com/post/77365439434/get-a-grip-2-instant-color-change
Ok my homework is done and now posting it for all to see all on 1 doddle pic lol
I not only checked out the color changer but also the different brushes GIMP had!!!
@TabascoJack I haven't managed to get that far into canvases yet, but it is on the list of things to explore. So far, I've only done some very basic things with canvases. There are a lot of possibilities using it.
@Saphirewild Very good. I'll work on the next tutorial later today when I can get back into Windows. I'm busy in Linux at the moment. So, if I don't get one up by tonight, I should be able to post it tomorrow morning.