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Suggestions, ideas and comments about Dartanbeck.com are always welcome
If you are and, especially if you like to animate, I have a new thread in the Carrara forum: Free Genesis 1 Animation Helpers
I put it in the Carrara forum because it was my work in Carrara that prompted me to be using Genesis 1 in the first place - While Genesis 2 works fine in Carrara, total support for everything, like Fit-To, for example, stops with Genesis 1. Which is fine. Genesis 1 is an Incredible 3D figure!!!
The dials will become part of Genesis 1. They are first dials I made which evolved into the wonderful library of them I've built and illustrate in my Dynamic Character Animation course.
See the thread Free Genesis 1 Animation Helpers for more details and for the download page link.
New Goodies from the Store!
I love expanding my library - especially since the opportunity to do so is fairly rare for me. What, with the rising prices and all makes it very hard on a limited to non-existing budget.
Foxhound's freebie (at least for a limited time for Daz + members?) FH Warehouse is Fantastic!
I love scenes like these even though they might not look like much with a glance of some promo images. But check this out.
The promos show the geometry - namely how incredibly low-poly it is. I love this for rooms like this because they load fast and often render just a quickly as well. But it also looks like everything can load as individual props too, which is also hugely beneficial. The elegant, simple walls make for easy manipulation into pretty much any sort of look. I love taking the texture maps into PD Howler and making them my own for the scenes I'm working on at the time - and I save the new textures with unique, identifiable names within the same folder as the product's maps so that I can easily load them whenever I bring the prop back in, years down the road. Eventually I often get a really good assortment of additional texture maps to choose from.
Beyond all of that, this is just a winderful setting without any tweaks or changes.
Thanks Foxhound! I Love It!!!
VDB Laser Blades - by ThoseThings!
I just bought some nice light sabers recently, but there's only one style and they require that we use Bloom, which really doesn't work well with my Cyber Rosie.
These are different! All of these different styles and colors - and the glow part that surrounds the ignited laser blade is actually a Volume Node that follows the size of the blade - so we don't have to make any additional adjustments. The Origin of the blade is at the handle, so we can simply use Y scale to make the blade length whatever we want, and the volume just follows along. Further, the blade geometry and the volume each have their own material presets in the pack, so we can mix and match for different effects. But there's more... the Presets are actually Shader Presets, so we can apply these awesome shaders to anything we want! Kudos!
The handles have many material zones for making them your own, but the included materials are Truly Stunning! These things are Gorgeous!!!
Material Zones
Marshian's Phelonic Sphere!!! OMG!!!
I wanted this the day it was released but the fortune stones didn't roll in my favor that day. In the wish list it went and... well... here it is!!!
Amazing are the many, Many, MANY possiblities Marshian has built into this thing! That doesn't surprise me either. Marshian is an incredibly enthusiastic content creator literally overflowing with imaginative, creative energy!
Difficult to put into words, this thing has a whole bunch of different ways to use it. I haven't even opened it yet because... well... still rendering out my animations. But when we look through the many promo images, we start to realize that all of these many different environments are this freaking Phelonic Sphere wearing different options that it comes with! Explore around the promos a bit... you'll see what I mean!
That's just a peek! There are a Whole Lot More Possibilities!
Zombie Animation Collection P1 for Victoria 8
This is So Cool!!!
Check out the SketchFab Preview of this product! These are some Excellent Motions! I couldn't take it. I stopped my render, cleared my scene, and built a new animation using one of these. After previewing them all on Rosie, I can verify that they are really well-made aniBlocks!!!
Charlie's Awesome Cyberpunk Motorcycle!
Big Aldecaldos fan in Cyberpunk 2077! Love this bike!!!
Rosie 8 ROCKS!!!
I still have a Lot of new material on the way.
Newly added at Dartanbeck.com:
Along with some updates to the top of the Home page:
Newly revised to Grow and Grow:
Thanks to Daz 3d!!!
Newly revised to Grow and Grow:
The Daz+ Experience
Newly Revised to Grow and Grow:
Daz+ Cloth Frenzy
I've also added some new tips and tricks and workflows to my aniMate 2 - Fun Things you may not have Known thread in the Daz Studio Discussion forum.
Like how I created this upcoming animation (still rendering)
Do you animate strictly with DAZ or do you use other apps too? I've heard DAZ animation tools aren't exactly straightforward.
All of the animation I've been doing over the past couple years has all been in Daz Studio, but here's the thing:
You heard right. After animating for many years in Carrara I really thought that Daz Studio didn't really want us to animate. It's very... difficult - or so it seems when coming in from other 3D animation tools.
However:
Linday came out with that Classic Long and Curly Hair with dForce. That one thing forced my hand into thinking outside the box to try and figure out what would make Daz Studio happy, rather than trying to please myself - wishing that their tools were the same.
By the time I discovered my workflow, just months before making that course, I happened upon a workflow that's So Freaking Fun that I don't even want to try other types of animation software.
Why?
I don't have time to build, rig, and texture (then add morphs, weight maps, correctives... it keeps piling up) and Daz 3d's content is not only my favorite, but being a Daz+ Member grants me a Ton of free and inexpensive Library builders all year round - not to mention the great deals on the thing that I really have my eye on.
Daz Content, in my opinion, works at it's absolute BEST in Daz Studio.
I really wanted to use that hair. I had to find a way.
A good part of how I work is detailed in that course, along with a plethora of helpful animation-in-Daz Studio tips and detailed tutorial videos that supplement the main workflow so we can really dig in. But I also share a lot of that information - albeit without as much detail - in my aniMate 2 - Fun Things you may not have Known thread in the Daz Studio Discussion Forum.
Yeah... Studio! A few short years ago I'd never have guessed that I'd be animating in Studio - let alone becoming so addicted to how fun it is that I simply cannot stop! LOL
I've always felt that this is one of the biggest lessons to learn regarding creative software.
Back in the late 60s I read "The Making of Star Trek: What It Is - How It Happened" where – I believe it was Gene Roddenberry – discussed one of the biggest problems they had trying to bring more science fiction authors in to write scripts for them when the authors had no previous experience in writing for television. If I remember correctly – I may not have it exactly right, it's been a while – some authors would turn in brilliant stories that were, sadly, not possible to actually use, not without expanding the budget and producton time by a factor of ten or more (think multiple, huge sets with masses of actors, easily done when it's just prose). The authors wrote a great story but not one taking into account the limitations involved in producing a weekly show.
It's a lesson I've learned and used for almost every creative project I attempt, 2D, 3D, programming or even basic workflow problem solving: what are the limitations of the tools I'm planning on using or am being given to use, and how should I change the project to allow for those limitations?
It's not the only way to do things; most people have a vision that they want to create and they look at the various tools and try to pick the one that works best for them. They won't use 3D software xyz because it can't so *this* or *that*, nor will they use software abc because it can't do the "other thing". They either pick the best option that ticks the most of their "needs" and when none of the software fits all of them, create workarounds to mix and match features of multiple software to get the job done. It works for them and it gets them closer to their vison than would otherwise be possible.
I've always viewed the tool with regards to what it *can* do and plan the project around the tool's strengths, replacing the things it can't do with alternatives, many that turn the project out differently and often better than the original plan.
Looking at the quaiity and the amount of excellent animation you're producing, it's not surprising people have to confirm that you're doing it all in DAZ Studio. No one piece of software is perfect, and exporting from abc to xyz will work well for much of what one wants to do but there will be other problems with that process too, it's inevitable. Designing your animation to make as much use as possible with the features DAZ Studio has going for it (and there are a hell of a lot of them, especialy for free software) and spending less time on regretting the things it can't do or banging your head against the wall trying to make it do something it can't gets you from start to finish a lot faster and, as you constantly note, it's a lot more *fun*.
Thanks for continually sharing your work, your methods and most importantly, your enthusiasm. It's almost as much fun watching you create as it is for you doing the creating... and a lot less work.
-- Walt Sterdan
Thank you, Walt! Really. I really appreciate those words!
Yeah, animating in Daz Studio! All I had to do to get there was to stop wishing for what wasn't there, and think about what "I" could do to make things easier on myself. It truly presented itself when I was getting frustrated with how impossible those on-screen manipulators are compared to, well... any software I've ever used. "Poser", I thought to myself. Which meant that, instead of on-screen manipulators, I would be better off using dials.
Dials? Hey... a few years ago I learned how to make those dials - and it's a really fast and simple process!
Daz Studio is really magical in that regard. Being made so well as a software that can transform any mesh into a figure with such a plethora of pretty much automated tools... it's really powerful for that. I watched and read a lot of advice and tutorials from SickleYield for the transfer utility and learned a lot of inner workings processes from the amazing Josh Darling.
Dials! I had been thinking to myself for years - we have Arms Up/Down and Front/Back, but no Twist. If I had an Arms Twist dial I could remedy nearly all of my animation woes using Mocap that causes the arms or hands to clip into the figure. So that was my first dial. But since I made that dial, I could quickly see how more would also be very useful. Hmmm... what am I always fixing with the graph editor in Carrara? Oh... the individual bends for chest and abdomen. Bam. Made those. And I mean... get into a flow with a clear vision and this sort of work goes very quickly. I have a fun little demonstration on that in the Course as well - I explain: "This is only taking a minute because I want you to see what I'm doing. We'll speed it up as we go", and I do. And it is actually even faster than that when you're not explaining stuff!
I got really into it, but only for... maybe an hour. See... I didn't yet have that clearly though out plan, I was just testing the waters with an epiphany I was having.
When I tested out my new dials I was really amazed. Night and day difference. I didn't realize that I was actually creating what could very easily be used to completely obliterate the need for a graph editor, but I was.
Eventually I started making more and more useful dials.
Having the workflow smooth out so quickly with such a simple concept, everything else about animating just started to become easier and more fun. Faster and more fun. More efficient and more fun. Everything it became more of also added to the fun factor.
After getting good and used to working that way - which is fairly instantaneous once the actual workflow is realized - even 'knowing' immediately where to start looking for the right aniBlock became easier. Knowing what we can 'fix' with the dials... everything was just easier... and more fun!
The whole timeline becomes a LOT easier to manage, because we're not having to mess with the actual key frames made through baking the aniBlock, we're working with keys we make ourselves using our correction/control dials. It's not only easier to work with the keys, but we can clearly see where we placed them in the timeline, making it really easy to work out what happens next, and where.
Hence my making this promo, which actually (and accidentally) confused more people than drawing them into the idea.
...and this stuff doesn't only apply to our human/creature actors, but anything with geometry that we bring into studio can have custom dials added to it for a great many different reasons.
Documentaries and great show reels can be a great source of inspiration.
Check out my Inspirations page for some really fun and interesting (and informative) stuff!
This was a fascinating read, and I loved what you had to say about my lightsabers. As a content maker, I can't tell you how happy it makes me when an end-user appreciates all the little things that might otherwise get forgotten, or seem insignificant. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Great insights, Walt. Lots to think about.
Keep up the great work. Dart.
Thank You for my new amazing Sabers!!! Brilliant!
You're welcome. You deserve the praise.
What Walt said reminds of of my times as a Carrara artist. Oh my, I didn't mean that to sound so "Final". I still love my Carrara and have big plans for it!
I mostly ignored that sort of thing but sometimes I would come back with remarks like: "Well, why do you even need that, why not just...." and offer some kind of idea on how to think outside the box to make the images work.
I've always been a fan of stories from visual effects artists having to work their way through situations, where tools to just "Make it Happen" didn't exist. Even if the solution was to have one of their genius programming teams write new code to make the tools, it was pushing past the boundaries of what they didn't have to solve a problem.
One such thing that I recall quite vividly was when the community started crying for a Fluids simulator - this was long before Alvin Bemar came in and treated us to a remarkable Free plugin: Fluidos for Carrara - which has even been updated. It really works well too! But now I'm getting off track.
I didn't buy into 'needing a fluid simulator'
I did need moving water beyond what we can get with our wonderful Ocean Primitive (Carrara), but it didn't bother me that there wasn't an automatic solution. By that time I had already purchased PD Howler, and knew that I could use that to paint animations that I could apply to shaders that I could apply to morphing geometry.
It was when I came up with that solution when I decided to try, for the very first time, Carrara's Particle Emitter.
What? This thing even comes with water presets right in our Browser when Carrara ships! What's the issue here?
So before I went in to report that we indeed already do have a fluid simulator, I ran some tests. The first was to have the particle emitter shoot water over a cliff onto the terrain below to make an underground waterfall. It worked really, really well even though - as always - I was working with very low settings at fairly low resolutions. I've never had a 'real' CG computer, just whatever I can build on my lack of budget.
Having played with Fluidos, I see it now. What folks wanted and why they wanted it. It truly is much different than using a particle emitter.
Still, when I'm working on my own projects, I do think a lot like the way Walt was describing about 'writing for TV'. I have a fair understanding of what I have available to me, and let that help me to drive what I create. And when I buy a new tool for Daz Studio, sometimes it's for possible future endeavors, other times it feels like the perfect thing to help with what I'm working on now, and sometimes it propels me into trying something new the day I install it.
I'm not in a position to just Buy anything I want whenever I need it, so many of these tools enter my world through the Daz+ Sales Events.
Reading books like that and watching the Extra Feature documentaries that come with so many films these days really help me to get into a mind frame of how I work. I do the best that I can in the time that I have.
Rosie 8 ROCKS!
Did you know that, whenever you watched one of the Original Star Trek series TV shows that you were also sitting next to William Shatner's dog?
His dog was on set every day. Everybody loved that dog.
While not the wonderful old Original Series documentary I was looking for, this is pretty cool!
LOL!!!
To get the perfect sound for a new space creature, they fed a guy a bunch of pizza and recorded it digesting in his stomach using a stethoscope!
Ladies and Gentlemen, harnessing the Magic of Carrara for Years,
I bring to you the 2023 Medical and Technical Animation Reel of our own Thomas Schwenke!
For those whom may find this interesting
I have been adding a LOT of animation tips, information and the like to my aniMate 2 - Real aniMating Power for Daz Studio! thread in the Daz Studio Discussion forum.
The animated graphic shown in the above post was a very early attempt at this new workflow I've created for myself as well as becoming acquainted with the Free Tier for Daz Studio of OctaneRender.
While there have been Major improvements to Rosie and the workflow since then, we can easily see the vast improvements over what I was doing prior in Carrara.
The funny (and Sad) thing is that Carrara is So Much Easier to animate in.
Bring this same workflow into Carrara, which does work for supported figures, by the way, and expect the experience to be even Faster, Smoother, Easier and, yes... even More Fun!!!
I still hold onto a hope that one day Daz 3d will update Carrara - even if only to have better support for their modern figures - I'd be overjoyed by that alone!
In the meantime, if you still enjoy working with Genesis 1 or earlier figures (and arguably Genesis 2, which is partially supported) try running my Dynamic Character Animation techniques in Carrara and see for yourself!
The control dials would still need to be created in Studio. You truly wouldn't want to do it any other way anyways - Daz Studio ROCKS at that sort of thing!!!
Do you have other rigged (or not?) figures that you'd rather be using?
Daz Studio will allow us to make these dials for anything we can bring into Studio. Yes. This is Studio's thing - it helps Content Creators Create Content!
Figures like older Poser monsters... move some joints around and make a dial. Move other joints around and make another dial - rinse and repeat. You'll end up with a Really Fun to Animate solution in No Time!
Save the results as Morph Assets and they'll work every time you load that figure.
Anything that can load Daz figures and allow them to work as Daz figures will recognize these custom tools you've created. That's what Carrara always had over Every Other Modeler on the market - Always!!! But more. Crarrara has all manner of wonderful animation features - it literally begs us to animate!