Maybe it really is a LIE

deeahr2169

By LIE i mean of course Layer image editor. After having searched for tutorials without any luck, i decided to play around with it. It truly is a most frustrating experience, one is left floundering at every turn, and the most annoying thing is there seems to be no road map how to do anything with this potentially very useful tool. Please someone, anyone, either tell me where i can find a step by step explanation of how this thing works or maybe write a guide yourself...

Szark

OK at least you found LIE which is the first hurdle done with. Here is an old DS3 LIE tutorail but once the vid gets in to LIE it is pretty much the same as DS4.5 DAZ Studio Plugins - Layered Image Editor

Jaderail

I was under the Impression you bought the Wet-Body thing. It clearly lists the PDF as included with the set.

deeahr2169

The impression you are under is correct as is the fact that there is an included PDF. It may be that you consider the PDF to be sufficiently comprehensive to explain how LIE works, i can assure you it is not. Well let me qualify that, it is not explanation enough for me. I am watching the video tutorial at this moment, and i will probably have to watch it a few times for the messages to sink in. This is possibly a good tutorial were it not for some obvious drawbacks. First it is made for an outdated version of DS, which means that the look of things is different to the look of the current set up. The quality of the video is not that good, which means that in part i find myself struggling to read and translate things from the version of DS in the video to the one i have. Then there is a little button that is in the version in the video marked save as, i just checked and its not in the version i have, so i am starting to despair, i will attach screen shots. I see you have made over 7000 posts, so i defer to your superior knowledge, but i have to say that your comment has done nothing at all to cast any light on this subject. I do hope that this reply has not offended you, that is not my intention, my sole intention was and remains, to learn how to use the layer image editor. Doubtless there are many others who might need the same assistance.

Jaderail

My man we are cool, I just could not tell if you had found the PDF or used it from your other posts. I only know of one LIE tut and as Szark pointed out it is Also for the older version of DS. If I find one more up to date I will link to it for you.

That Link Szark posted is the best we have at this time for DS4.5 I believe.

deeahr2169

I am happy that we are cool, i hate being hot and bothered. Hopefully through a combination of trial and error and this blurred video and my squinting, plus a huge slice of good luck, i may worj this out before i expire...thanks for taking the time to reply to a somewhat touchy old man

Chohole

You may find something helpful in this thread http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3314/

Herald of Fire

The general idea of the LIE is to add layers to add details to textures. By clicking the '+' button in the LIE, you can add a new layer and assign it a texture, for example a scar or wet body maps. Each layer can be individually positioned and scaled. You can also set them to different blend modes. Masks can also be added which effectively work as alpha maps, selectively removing pieces of a layer. Masks are attached to a layer not strictly as a layer themselves.

You can also remove unwanted layers using the '-' button which removes the currently selected layer, or hide them by removing the tick.

After you click OK, Daz Studio creates a TIFF file which then replaces the texture you had previously and is stored in Daz's temporary files until you close the application. If needed, you can copy this file to another location for your own use.

WendyLuvsCatz

sizing the images the same is the one thing I personally find difficult with LIE.
Carrara shader functions and Poser wacro whatever (I never remember that word!) do it by default but in LIE you need to manually match them using percentages and is such a pain I actually resave copies of the smaller texture resized to the larger ones dimensions to save the hastle!

deeahr2169

To Chohole, Herald of fire and Forum troll
Many thanks for your help, you have given me food for thought which is helpful. I intend to spend some time tearing out what hair i have left until i understand exactly how to Lie.

Novica

I got curious and googled the LIE. Posted the links in my art studio. (see signature) There was one pdf that I'd love to know what it was, my pdf reader is messed up and I couldn't get it to enlarge very well. Looked like it had good screenshots. I did find a page from 2012 (DAZ's videos are 2009, but also linked.) In case anyone else was going to research it, I tried to compile it. (I sure am not at the stage to use it yet!) Also, if there's anything else you want to add to how to use it, feel free to add info to the section. :)

EDIT- here's the direct link: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19756/P180/#314545

adamr001

Hi Novica,

If that tutorial was mine, I'll be happy to repost it. I'm pretty sure I still have all the original images. Mine was about how to create (UV specific, both otherwise universal) LIE maps.

It's probably due for an overhaul though since it's definitely DS3 specific towards the end (where it talks about editing the .dsa files for distirbution).

Novica

I think that would be SO neat! I'm just guessing, based on what I found, that information is scattered around and real gems of information such as yours have been "error not found-ed" in the old forums. Don't really know what "used to be" or why some pages that are linked are not there, but your preset part was gone. I know everyone who doesn't know about it or hasn't used it would appreciate a concentrated effort to get LIE explained- very kind of you!
Cathie

adamr001

Alright, I'll give it a whirl. The original forumarchive link and the PDF seem to work for me, so I won't just re-transplant the existing one, I'll work on a DS4 update.