Come learn the art of 3D computer generated art and animation. This blog deals with the lessons learned and the art created by Robert G. Male using DazStudio from Daz3D.
Also covered are the ancillary software, tools, techniques, and processes needed both before and after rendering in the 3D software.
R.M.T.P. Co. is a
company dedicated to quality
Web products without all of
the unnecessary hype. Our
products speak for themselves. Down to earth, easy,
usable, these are the principles
we believe in.
I was just thinking (dangerous I know) if there were to be an image that just summed up Friday, what would that image be? Would it be a shot from inside one of the locations of the restaurant chain T.G.I. Fridays? Would it be a gathering of friends at a bar? Would it be people on a dance floor? Maybe it would be me sitting at the keyboard, leisurely wasting time on a fluff blog posting, shooting the breeze in a chatroom, and wishing Ghost Whisperer were on this week.
Maybe the image of Friday is the football field with the lights on. That's certainly Friday Night Lights... though I did see the same appellation for indoor high school basketball on the "local" Pennsylvania station. I say local because I get the channel over air, even though it's across the lake (Erie) and in another country (the U.S.A.). Maybe I touched on it when I brought up a Friday night TV show. Sadly none of them, that I am aware of, are really representative of Friday. The only day that has a representative TV show would be Saturday, even if SNL actually airs on Sunday for the most part, appearing after midnight, well here anyway.
Yesterday I half wanted to talk about something less specific than what I did. As such I only barely brushed the topic I was aiming toward. Or maybe I completely missed even looking in its direction-sometimes I rewrite sections entirely. I was more specific about it on Tuesday. This all comes about because I got thinking about when and why I make a comment on someone's pictures. It also grows somewhat out of the kind of comments that I feel compelled to make, where possible. As my title intimates I look for the pictures that have a story, beyond the usual story told by all pictures.
It need not be a story beyond, or of greater depth, although those are pretty sweet. It can also be that there is more than one story to be told by the picture. Of those, some achieve a myriad of possibilities summed up in their composition, characters, lighting, and inferred motion. Even in the choice of calling it a character instead of a figure I'm applying my set of preferred criteria upon the elements. It's my predilection, just like I could have called it a predisposition, but somehow predilection sounds more ominous, and although I avoid the appearance of being too much into anything to avoid poser-dom (sad eh, how that has nothing to do with Poser so it could be a good thing) I can't hide too much of my enjoyment of the elements of the medium.
I was out about town last night due to the good weather, cold but not too windy, and the snow gone from most of the sidewalks. While I was crossing the bridge, a habit I've gotten into just to, first, look at the water, and second, to walk the extra little bit on the far side of it to extend the exercise and the time out on my walk. Every time I go out without the camera in my pocket I just know that I'm going to see something that I'd wish I could get a picture of. I don't feel so bad about missing this one because I think if I really wanted to I could composite such a picture myself and make a certain tweak to it.
Before I spill the beans about what I saw, I'd like to say that the instant I saw this tableau before me I immediately said to myself there is a story here. Then a number of cogs slipped and in a tremendous eureka moment I knew exactly where I had to use this image-in a specific story I'm working on. As if that wasn't cool enough. I have declared this simple scene as the image of ultimate horror. Okay, here's what I saw. On the bridge, sitting on the roadway, here in the still, very winter, weather was an orange. It was a bit black on the skin in places. That's the one change I would make. For the story, for the most impact of the picture even, it would need to be a perfect, pristine, fresh looking orange. Why is this so scary? Well you'd have to wait for the story to find out...
I think I have to decide what it is that I want to do with all of this rendering software and figures, and tools, and everything else. Up to this point I have just been downloading freebies and had no real goal to do anything specific until the mood hits. Now I'm paying a monthly fee to get better deals, and should buy things with some regularity to make up for my costs. It's time to put some thought into things. My first buy of some Platinum marked down products was driven by the sale for Saylor and what I was lead to believe I would need to put it to good use.
For myself I have to look at designing, directing, what-have-you, images that tell a good story. It's not enough to just tell a story, to some degree all pictures tell something of a story, or at least the creators and photographers make sure that theirs do. I have to look at what I want to tell and the more the image can tell the better. I've made comments on some people's pictures here at Artzone and I when I look at pictures on here I always look for the story that is there. I may admire a portrait but that's not where my "passion" lies.
I went to the horse's mouth to get the skinny on my materials problem. Thank you Stephanie. Those files I found as part of Saylor, to modify her dress, work in Poser, Daz3D doesn't read them. Not much help for me. This is an area that should be worked on by the Daz people. We need more direct information. On that same front it appears there needs to be a better definition of the requirements needed to use a new figure or set of mats and morphs. I think I stated already that for Saylor it said the only requirement was Victoria 4.0 Base, and it provided a link to it. However you need more than that.
Stephanie suggested that I would need the V4 head morph package. I of course thought the V4 Full package would be good for me, eventually, though now I wonder if it has the proper head morph abilities included with it. At this point I don't feel like I know top from bottom. The "help" documentation seems to be rather lacking in all of this, not to mention the other things that I could not find in it. I know they are working on it, and there are forums and tutorials but they haven't taken me very far, at least not as far as the kind and generous people posting comments to my blog, and graciously answering questions directed at them with much speed. So to all of you whom I've regretfully neglected to mention, thank you.
