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 rending in the 3D software.
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I mentioned last week that I bought the War Vixen and the textures pack. I also stated that I had an issue with it. I installed it, twice, and achieved the same results. I load a figure and load the War Vixen outfit. The outfit does not have a map automatically. Not a problem. I go down to the poses for the outfit and apply one of them, any of the basic five maps actually, and the outfit loses any shape definition to it and becomes flat white. I figured maybe I had to render it. I render it and it's nothing but a white patch on the screen. Now, if I go to the pose folder for the other separate texture maps I bought then they work fine. It's rather aggravating that the original five maps for it totally fail. So far I manually mapped one of the original colour sets, and hope I got enough of it right on the bump dials and everything else. It's a good thing I generally end up tweaking the glossiness on practically everything or else I'd feel really lost. I've put in a report to Daz3D.
As often is the case, there are fit issues to this set, especially the thong. For parts of it not to be submerged within the figure wearing it you have to make other parts of it, like the thong straps, extend out in mid-air. Even then it does not fit perfectly in the buttock cleavage and the front of it has to be modified differently than the back of it, so it's limited to one angle at a time.
I also said last time that I had an issue with Hither & Yon, which is a map set for A Curious Hallway. This is somewhat simpler to handle, but perhaps no less annoying. Apparently you have to import each map to the item it belongs to since the maps are all separate. This I will have to do once, or on an as needed basis--though why not just do it once. At least they import correctly unlike the War Vixen issue above. This is a matter of just the producer not doing the work. It will still take some doing since you have to import it to the right part or nothing happens. I'll just get everything set to rights and save it and hope I remember to look for a saved set rather than to import it in all new again.
I'll run on just a bit longer. Bear with me. Each section of A Curious Hallway can be made to be the same doors with a bit of work. Or if you bought the separate set just called Hallways then it has ready-made same-door hallways. This makes applying the Hither & Yon maps somewhat easier, but requires doing it for each style door. Also, I tried to apply the map to several of the same doors at once and it won't allow it. Beyond the doors are the columns, the sconces, the floor and the ceiling, and the curtains if you use them--both fit the same door and I could not get it to look right reversed for the opposite wall. There is even a wall section with a tiny door that could be edited out in the map to make doorless wall sections so that the hallway isn't crammed so tight with doors. Lastly, I might have bought more of these Curious locations, but the off-kilter whimsical look is kind of limiting.
Some brilliantly nefarious person decided to try and tempt people back to the Platinum Club by offering a free month of it again. I found I couldn't help but take advantage of a number of $1.99 Platinum deals. First order of business was some more clothes so I can make use of Michael 4. So, I bought the M4 Leather Jacket Refit with sweater; DS Dynamic Jeans for M4; and M4 Casual Wear with pants, shirts, and shoes, but the resolution on the casual isn't that great for an M4 era product. For a new bunch of furniture I bought the Danielle Bedroom set; Reflections, dressing room furniture featuring a screen, and a mirrored vanity with stool; and for that I bought Timeless Reflections and the Reflections Vanity Set of makeup, brush and comb, and other assorted items. What else could I do but also grab up Boudoir Whispers for V4, a set of lingerie and nightwear.
Browsing the deals I was drawn to Disconsolation, a boardwalk with covered seating;
Castillo del Diablo, a foreboding cathedral-like castle set in a mountain; and Crypta Sepultus, a tomb with a vaulted ceiling. War Vixen and the map set War Vixen Textures (I have to email Daz about the first) caught my eye as a part of March Madness. More settings followed with A Curious Hallway, which is like a hotel hallway if almost all of the doors are different. For that I picked up Hither and Yon, a set of maps to alter the Curious Hallway (I have an issue about this for next blog), and Hallways, which is another different version of the Curious Hallway. Then came even cooler products like West Park, a decrepit hospital hallway with shallow rooms; West Park Legacy, items for the hall and rooms; and The Overlook, an even more broken and horrific version of West Park.
To round out that stuff, out of my wish list I grabbed Rockin Casual a dress-like top, capris pants, and shoes to use my $7 voucher that also came with the free Platinum Club. As if all of the above wasn't bad enough just last night I was drawn in again... I bought Eminence, a clock tower building; Mort Augur, a skull themed throne with a skull carved background on a mountainside, and accessories to go with it; and Cista Sanctus, a columned hall with barred stairwells and a stone bust on one wall. Somehow I missed these the first time through, but I snagged the West Park Lobby and The Overlook Lobby, complimentary rooms to the previously mentioned sets. Needless to say I can't wait for this Platinum Club freebie to expire so I can stop spending money I scarcely have, even though I am putting my Daz products to work for me with my magazine.
