SereneNight's Sci-Fi Fun Thread 2

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  • Serene, I am curious, are you simulating from an A pose to your desired pose (Animated timeline)?  Or simulating from the desired pose / current pose.

    From what I tested with DAZ is that if you sim from a current pose that has very closed in arm or legs it tends to explode.  DAZ doesn't seem to handle that correctly.  So simming it from an A pose allows the cloth to drape correctly first and then into the desire pose which tends to not let dforce clothing explode.

    Also for the waist you can open the parameters for the expand waist and or other correction morphs to extend the slider for a better fit.

    Here's a test I did as close to Boyd's body parameters.

     

    I only simulate from memorized pose. I don't use the timeline at all. 

    Have you ever tried the timeline animation?

  • Although I find going from memorised pose almost always works I have had one or two items that work better with a Timeline simualtion, so it's certainly worth trying. (I have purchased thiss et but haven't had time to try it out yet.)

  • lilweeplilweep Posts: 2,490

    Essentially memorised pose is doing the same thing as an animation over the timeline, it's just you have more control over the starting or inbetween animations if you do it over timeline.

    I wonder if changing the simulation settings, like initialization time, iterations, collisions to make the simulation more robust would help.  I am not too familiar with Dforce though, and I guess playing around with these settings is exactly what you wanted to avoid lol.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    Someone asked how the pants handle the groin bulge. I tried dialing up the biggest one I could get, but don't see any discernable difference. Has anyone else found a way to do this?

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  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131
    edited September 2020

    I always use memorized pose, it's like what lilweep says, it is an animation too. If it works the other way it's just because the pose changed avoided an mesh intersection during simulation that the other method caused. Then change your character to the A or T pose and then animate using tweening into the pose it was placed in, in the scene. I still have more dForce blowups or DAZ Studio hangs than sucess though. I find the likelihood of sucess too small to attempt dForce draping that often. Even when it does work the drape is for something like soaking wet thin cotton and there are no textile presets to apply to those fabric surfaces either.

    Post edited by nonesuch00 on
  • Serene, I am curious, are you simulating from an A pose to your desired pose (Animated timeline)?  Or simulating from the desired pose / current pose.

    From what I tested with DAZ is that if you sim from a current pose that has very closed in arm or legs it tends to explode.  DAZ doesn't seem to handle that correctly.  So simming it from an A pose allows the cloth to drape correctly first and then into the desire pose which tends to not let dforce clothing explode.

    Also for the waist you can open the parameters for the expand waist and or other correction morphs to extend the slider for a better fit.

    Here's a test I did as close to Boyd's body parameters.

     

    I only simulate from memorized pose. I don't use the timeline at all. 

    Have you ever tried the timeline animation?

    No,  I admit to hating studios animation tools and removing them from my viewport. , I just use the memorized pose option, which is the same thing I thought. 

  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,624

    The timeline allows for a much greater control over the simulation, you can stop it when the explosion happens and it allows you to know exactly what is intersecting so you can tweak the pose.  An excellent tutorial to check out is by esha dforce Basics its long but well worth the watch.  I have it bookmarked just in case I forget how to do something.  I used to get a lot of explosions but after ive played with it a bunch it seems to have gotten better.  Still get them sometimes though, dforce is time consuming and I can understand not wanting to take the time to do it. There have been times I want to just give up but when I get that perfect drape that I had been trying to accomplish it is so very satisfying. 

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    This is not directed at anyone's dforce outfit in particular, but to be honest, I don't want to do a whole song and dance to fit a simple clothing item personally which could be done with conforming cloth faster and easier.  

    I don't see much use to dforce menswear unless it has a sufficient drape to warrant it such as a toga. It just adds a lot of time to the pre-render phase that I simply don't have. 

    I like Mal3Imagery's outfit, because it has a lot of detail that most dForced clothing doesn't have. This is worth keeping for this reason. It almost fits without dforce, which is probably how I will use it. 

    The current trend towards dForce is something that I don't care for. It isn't stable, it is hard to use for close up romantic poses, and it seems to be substitution for making properly fitting clothing.

    Sadly for me, I do have a runtime full of some poorly made dforced outfits, from later bundles. I will probably uninstall them. 

    There are some great pas who still make excellent conforming clothing outfits, and i'll probably stick to using those for now. I realize the store pushes dforce hard, and thats what they like. But I'm in the anti-camp.I don't have a half hour to dforce two men's outfits, and then render them for possible good results. I'd rather spend my time doing other stuff.

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    Someone requested I do a picture of Owen tying Boyd's shoelaces. so... I have tried. Sadly, I don't seem to have any shoes with laces... Except the hiking boots in Jumper and Tim set. Which wouldn't quite work

    .

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  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,889

    The Slide3D Casual Sneakers and Real Sneakers would sort of work for that, but I don't know if they have any morphs for the laces to stand up/out.

     

  • I picked up X-Transfer, Genesis 3 to genesis 8 morph converter. Now that I purged my runtime of morphs, of course I seem to want to fill it back up again. Don't ask me why, I don't know, it is a compulsion wink

    But anyway, the Cairo Gifts coupon still seems to be working so I picked up Xtansfer-Genesis 7 to Genesis 8 Male converter. 

    For kicks, I loaded up some Genesis 3 Male expressions: https://www.daz3d.com/grimaces-dialable-one-click-expressions-for-genesis-3-male

    These are somewhat goofy set of male expressions, but I thought some of them were cute, so I'd see how they transferred.

    The utility seemed to freeze up at 72 percent, but transferred the expressions mostly anyway. 

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    In addition to that I was compelled to buy the ElianeCK Warm Light Set thttps://www.daz3d.com/elianeck-iray-warm-light

    The set installs a duplicate ElianeCK directory in my Light Preset directory... Uh... Yay?

    But, the lights are very cool, and I tested out a few of my converted expressions with them. 

     

     

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    One thing I wish, is that if I buy light presets, that the presets in the promos are what the lights look like when rendering.  I get wanting to make snazzy promos, but I buy lights because I like the way the promos look .If there is a specific combination of the lights included in the set that are used to make the promos, it would be awesome if those were what was included in the set. I get that I can click to make my own combos, but I'd love to know what combos the PA is using to achieve their results.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131

    One thing I wish, is that if I buy light presets, that the presets in the promos are what the lights look like when rendering.  I get wanting to make snazzy promos, but I buy lights because I like the way the promos look .If there is a specific combination of the lights included in the set that are used to make the promos, it would be awesome if those were what was included in the set. I get that I can click to make my own combos, but I'd love to know what combos the PA is using to achieve their results.

    I like Virtual_World's portrait promos and would like if the scenes she made those promos with were included with her products. Sure, I'd likely get not found references from DS but then I'd know exactly what to buy. 

    I don't see the point of keeping how a scene was made a secret if you are a PA especially and why scenes used in promo art aren't included in the product when it takes 0 extra effort to do so makes no sense. Products sold in the DAZ 3D Store  enabling customers to make great renders and art is the whole point of the DAZ Store after all. So what if I also get missing products from Rendo or Hivewire in those included scenes as well.

    That's not to say they are intentionally holding back helping customers by not including those scenes in their products; maybe it never occured to them; but it makes sense from a customer seeing a promo art render and buying a product based on liking those promo renders, not to have those promo scenes included in the product.

    LOL, although Serene Night I think you've moved far beyond needing PA help to make good renders.  laugh

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    In the case of these lights... The implication is you can click and get an image with lighting like this. But there are only 5 HDRI, and additional complimentary lights. The combos aren't presets, so, you have to try to figure it out which combo is used for each pic. How do I achieve number 6? There are about 50 possible combinations of lights. It would be great if this info was part of the promo or product, because presumably the user  buys it because they want renders like this.

     Also a lot is added by the background used. The HDRI are pretty plain. So if you show it as a dome, it doesn't look like this. I find this... Misleading. 

    All I'm asking, is I understand what I'm buying before I buy it. If you are marketing an HDRI, I'd really like to see the results from the light set. Not from a complimentary background added to make them look neat. 

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    I should really state, that I love JDA HDRI's. I really do. So I was excited to see the HDRI Asian district set on sale. 

    First thing to know is the JDA HDRIS load in about 3 default directories. They can be found in sub directories, in Render Settings, and inside other odd locations, with or without an underscore.. 

    I am really not a fan of inconsistent file naming, and this is a big issue with this Pa's HDRIs, but is becoming an increasing problem with other PA's stuff too.

    However, I just move the stuff where they should be. In an ideal world, all of JDA HDRI's are in the same sub directory, so, I just move them there ( I still have an open ticket out for the Snow set, which lingers in bug tracker. But I fixed the error myself).

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    Why do I like these HDRI's? I like the fact that most of them are done with 3d Assets. This makes them stylistically consistent with 3d models, they render quickly, and they are fairly  moody and edgy, all of which I like when I'm in a fairly moody and edgy mood.

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131

    Why do I like these HDRI's? I like the fact that most of them are done with 3d Assets. This makes them sylistically consistent with 3d models, they render quickly, and they are fairly  moody and edgy, all of which I like when I'm in a fairly moody and edgy mood.

    Yeah, I like the effect created by those HRDIs as well although since I have several modeled sets that are similar and always have trouble with HRDI ground plane I didn't buy the product.

  • With the new demands on IRAY, using large Stonemason sets without hiding  most of it, reducing the textures to nothing, and butchering it, I really like that the HDRI's are being made.  Since Rendering figures requires so much Video RAM these days.

    These HDRI's are great

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    Asian district HDRI

    There are 8 Day HDRI and 8 Night HDRI. 

    The day HDRI are really dark, so you can use them for Night too- Especially if you don't show the sky. 

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    Owen and Boyd out on the town!

    The pose is by Muscleman, in his love is love set. It was somewhat difficult to get the hands close to the real pose, due to Owen being so much shorter than Boyd and them both wearing thick gloves.. But it kinda sorta works. 

    This is the new HDRI, more lights added, and Topaz Labs Star effects to create some flares in the background. Afterward, a bit of Topaz Studio-Free  Soft Rainbow filter to tweak the lighting to be more hazy.

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    SDE B outfit, the Workout Pack is extremely nicely done. Includes the shorts, shirt, gloves, and shoes with socks. Multiple colors in the set.  It also has both a dforce version and a conforming cloth version. This is the conforming version. It all fit great, no real  conflict with Boyd's morphs, nothing strange. This is a nice piece. Would recommend it. 

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    So, I want to talk briefly about saving poses for G8M and G8F. I am by no means an expert, however, I think the tools that are in the store and the settings are somewhat confusing, so I think a document which covers this with screenshots might work best. The Documentation is pretty scant, especially when it comes to unchecking the boxes, so it is my desire to formulate something with screenshots, that makes this process easier. Feel free to add anything I do not cover, or suggest improvements. 

    First, There are different types of ways to design poses. It is important to know which method you intend to use, since this will be important as it will determine the steps you need to save the poses. This is not a tutorial on designing poses. 

    Before you begin, I think it is important to create a simple Vanilla runtime with just your base figure, the starter pack underwear, and perhaps any other figure you intend to use for pose. Map the Vanilla  directory, and uncheck your complicated mondo directories with lots of morphs and stuff. This will save you from agonizingly slow pose saving and improperly saved morphs that will clutter up your pose creation window.

    Also before you begin, if you use pose controls I suggest you purchase at least one copy of the 3DU pose architect for the figure you intend to use. This will make using poses with Pose controls easier, and saving as well.

    I tend to use Pose Controls when making poses. I was at first opposed to this, but I have changed my mind. I think especially in the neck bones it just makes more sense to use them. This is not a pose creation tutorial, but knowing how you make poses will help a lot in learning to save them properly.

    When you make a pose that is a solo pose, unless the character is flying off the ground, or doing something specific in the environment, it should always be centered in the scene with any translation being done at the hip. If you have translation on your figure, the pose set you save, will fly to that location when applied, and people don't like that. The only exceptions should be poses where the figure is interacting with others (such as a couples pose), or the environment, where you specifically need a figure to be in that one space. As such translation should be used to make sure that happen. Obvious if this is a pose you make yourself  then no one cares, how you save it, but this is specifically for sharing poses with other people. 

     

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    1. Load the pose you have created. 

    2. Check the Translation for the figure. You will need to verify he is on the ground, and that any translation is on the Hip bone only.

    3. If you have used Pose Controls, You will need to Bake to Transforms. To do that, You press Shift B. If you did not use Pose Controls skip this step. If you have 3du's Script, you can use the 'extract pose' option.

    4. Next go to File>Save as>Pose Preset and Save your pose set. Select a directory where you will be able to find the figure and pose. Give it a name. 

     

     

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    5. If you did as instructed and created a vanilla runtime to work in, you will have a relatively clean looking window filled with a minimal amount of junk. Each section can expand though, so be prepared. 


     

    The reason we uncheck things in this window, is because we don't want to alter the figure that the pose is being applied to. If you aren't careful, an improperly saved pose can change the expression, move the figure, or alter the character's height, all of which we really don't want to do, unless this is part of the poses design. Such as a pose which may need specific translation to work.

    6. To make sure your pose does not affect the expression of your figure the following items need to be unchecked. First, you open up the hip, and drill down to the head. You uncheck the head, but leave the neck. Otherwise, the neck pose will not be retained. Next, you drill down to Pose Controls and Uncheck Head. Now any expression the user applies to the head will be retained when you save your pose.

    7. Finally these remaining items must be unchecked. Unchecking the scale information prevents the scaling of the figure from being reset when the pose is applied. Unchecking translation allows the current location of the figure to be retained, when pose is applied. 

    8. Final Compiled Screenshot for saving individual poses that can be applied anywhere. 

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  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    9. Finally, for Couples poses or poses where you want the figure to be in a specific place, you will need to retain the translation information. The cheat sheet for that preference is here: 

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  • There you are. I hope this proves useful. If you have anything you feel needs to be added or changed, let me know. wink

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131

    Thanks for that!

  • Let me know how you like it.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,651
    edited September 2020

    Looks like Boyd is a bit wet! 

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