Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
I attended the Digital Art Live webinar on Creating Iray Shaders this weekend. Interesting stuff. I learned a lot from @Esha. So, today, I played with making my own shader presets from scratch. I decided to start with glass and plastic as I have a project planned that I've been wanting to for a long time. I've wanted to model some desert props for a long time starting with some cake displays, candy dishes, and dessert platters. While I've gotten a little better at the modeling, I didn't know how I was going to do the textures. As most who read my thread know, I'm an Iray girl. While I'm getting a better handle on 3Delight, I think I will always love rendering in Iray more. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to do anything with the shaders and making my own shader presets. Now, I'm learning and I'm actually understanding it more thanks to Esha's class.
So, here are a few of my first ever, from scratch Iray Shader Presets!!! The cake stand prop is from Glassware Collection for Iray Vol. 2. Next step is to model my own stuff real soon. I already have some reference photos for the type of thing I have in mind.
4 Colored Glass Shader Presets:
3 Colored Plastic Shader Presets:
Edit: Hmm, I just noticed that I managed to mess up my lighting on the last two. Not sure what I did there. I'll have to check my scene file and see what I managed to goof up because the lighting looks different and it should have been the same as all of the rest of them.
The only generation 3 figure I have is Aiko 3. Is V3 even available anymore? Was also curious how well that generations clothing fitted on V4 and M4.
Yep, Victoria 3.0 Base is still available along with Victoria 3.0 Head & Body Morphs . I believe all of the various monster and character packs are also still available. As for what of hers, fits on Victoria 4, I have no idea. I'll have to experiment with V4 and let you know about that. I think I've seen some outfits with unimesh fits for v3 & v4, but they were mostly separate products, I think. I'm not sure I have any of those. I don't have all that much clothing for V3 as I got her mostly for the novelty and the price was real cheap. I got the bundle that has her and some clothing in it.
In those days, there was no cross generation use of clothing without the 3rd party plugins like cross dresser. Those backward compatibility options were introduced with genesis 1
That makes sense. When I searched the store after Sonja's post, I didn't find as many outfits as I thought I had seen that would fit both V3 and V4. The few that I did looks like they had special fits for v3 & V4 like the Snow Bride Bundle and the Square Toe Boots for V4 V3 A3. My guess is those vendors took the time to make sure their outfits had fits for the older Victoria figure. You won't likely find too many that did that I just happened to have the Snow Bride Bundle which might be why I remembered seeing some outfits that fit both. I don't see hardly anything else in the store that looks like it has fits.
You did really well with your glass presets :)
Thanks, @Liana. They are still a work in progress, but not bad for a first effort, I think. :)
I would agree :)
Sorry - but that is wrong, Daz included backward compatibility since Victoria 2!
V2 was just a V1 with morphs, V3 includes a V3toV2 figure (cr2), that can wear Victoria 2 clothes and Victoria 4.2 includes a V4.2 to V3 figure, that can wear Victoria 3 clothes.
With Morphing Clothes by Dimension3d you can even make those figures use the body morphs:
You get the basic V3 body shape with the V4 head, you can use V4 head morphs to change the face but neither V4 nor V3 body morphs.
Workaround: If you have Morphing Clothes by Dimension3d, you can transfer V3’s morphs into the V4-V3 figure.
You would treat V4toV3 as a clothing and transfer V3 morphs to her and save as a new cr2.
So, just a slight update to my glass shaders. After a discussion with @Isidorn about them, I put some cake under the dome and rendered again. While visible, I wanted to see what was inside the cake dome a little better. So, I made some slight adjustments and got a little closer to what I had in mind with these shaders I've been playing with.
In the first one, I thought I'd just adjust the dome and leave the original shader on the stand. I didn't really think the base match top after that. Not sure if I like it like that so in the next two images the new shader is applied to both the dome and the stand.
I might have to make a few more adjustments, though, because I think it looks more like a transparent plastic than glass.
I like the later 2 myself also. I see what you are saying about the plastic look.
Thanks, I kind if figured the last two were a better look than the first one. I'll keep this saved as a shader preset, but I think I'd have to call it a plastic. I'll work on my settings, though, to see if I can get a more glass-like look. I'll have to go hunt down some refraction values for colored glass and see what I can find.
Interesting stuff. Sadly I had to pass on the shader class, I'm hoping to pick it up soon though
The only way I was able to afford it is because I cut way back on my spending. I haven't bought much in the new category in a couple of months, maybe just two or three items. Most of the little bit I have gotten was older stuff that had good deals on them. I did manage to used the recent coupon so I did pick up some good deals with that on things that were in my wishlist on DOs.
I enjoyed the webinar and you should definitely pick it up when you can afford it after it hits the store here. Normally, I don't like paying full price for things. That webinar just happened to hit one of those areas that I really wanted to learn about so I could do my own shader presets so it was worth it to me. I definitely learned lots.
They have one with Arki coming up on modeling clothing in Hexagon that I would have loved to take, but, even with the recent discount special they ran over the weekend, there is just no way I could afford it. When they have it in the store, I'm hoping they break it up like they did with Esha's first one on modeling into the 6 or 7 parts that it looks to be. That way I can pick up the parts when they are on sale one at a time as I have the money.
Ya I've cut way back on spending too but that includes passing on some of this stuff for now. I will just pick it up another time and in the meantime I will be working on my modelling skills in Carrara. Its not like I don't have plenty to learn already lolol.
I know what you mean. There are still a lot of things I need to learn about the software and using all of the tools. I'm hoping knowing how to do my own shader presets will help with the models I've been making. I have a few done that I haven't gotten into DS yet. The material zones are set, but no textures as of yet. I have not figured out the complicated texturing in Blender yet. I think learning how to make my own shader presets will make it easier to texture my models inside DS and then I can just save them as DS files including DS textures. That way I just skip the texture in Blender part because the textures don't transfer very well anyway. At least, none of the ones I've done have.
Between what I learned about textures from @DestinysGarden and shader presets from @Esha, I should be good for all of my texturing needs in the future, hopefully. At least for Iray, I haven't tried doing any texturing or shader presets for 3Delight.
Ya DestinysGarden's thread was very helpful in understanding how the basics work. So far, all I've managed is 4 walls with doors and windows for a house as far as modelling goes. I am going to follow along with some of the Carrara tutorials hopefully this weekend and then I have some ideas of my own. I just need to really familiarize myself with the two types of modelling Carrara does which of course, just takes time. Sometimes, I really feel pulled in too many directions. I need to be independantly wealthy so I can stay home and work on this stuff all day lol.
Happy Valentines Day everyone. Whether you have a Valentine or not, I wish you well today and happy thoughts.
Fantasy Cupid
Gallery Link
I adore that cupid, KM! Awesome work!
Thanks, @Divamakeup. It was kind of a quirky thing to do, but I like him. When the idea popped into my head, I just had to do it. I'm actually surprised I managed to do it as well as I did. I didn't even have to do very much post with him. Most of that was done inside DS. I love that outfit. I may have to actually use it on G3F sometime.
I'm working on a piece with @RawArt's Dragelle. I've come to the conclusion that I don't own the appropriate clothing for her. I'm going to definitely have to possibly make something custom for her or try to modify an outfit in Blender or Hexagon that I'd love to see on her. I'm thinking that Badlands Maiden would be just about perfect but the skirt isn't cooperating. It's little high up on the waist in the back for her tail. Dystopian Princess is another option that I already own but, again, the skirt is too high in the back and interferes with the tail.
For this test render her I have in the Alphakini which I'm not real fond of. I have no idea why I even bought the bundle. It does autofit to G3F really well, though. The material preset from the Future set for the bottoms happens to fit perfectly with no modifications needed. You can't see her tail base in this image, but the back of the bottoms rides just below the tail and does go perfectly with this character. Unfortunately, the future theme doesn't really go with the idea I have playing in my head for this character. The Badlands Maiden, though, perfectly suits the idea I have.
I do kind of like how the hair turned out. That's Chace Hair and it does great with the horns with some slight messing around with the settings. The more I play with this hair, the more I like it. It has some great morphs and works perfectly with characters with horns.
Your glass shaders are rich in color and definitely, definitely "not bad" for a first try. My goodness, they're very nice! Kudos!
Ah, thanks, @Novica! That means a lot! :)
I was having a hard time understanding why I would want to transfer the morphs to another figure. But then I found some videos on how to do this. And now I get it. If I like M4, then I can transfer the morphs that make him over to Genesis 2 or 3 and then dial him in. He will look like M4, but he will have the benefits of the newer figures. I also found that I have some of these chararcters already. If I was to transfer David 3....I was debating what figure I should transfer him to. I thought maybe Genesis. But then I found I already have a shaping morph for D3 and M4 for Genesis. The challenge can be how to use the original textures, if you desire. There are UV maps for M4 for Genesis, but not for David 3. At least I don't think so.
I think I can use Texture Convertor to change the David 3 textures to use with M4 and they will also then work with Genesis, but will they work with G2 and G3? I think I might have the products to do that. Like the Caymen products.
But anyway...now I get it. (I was stuck on why would I want to transfer the morphs when I can just use the actual figure.)
And I do have David3 for Genesis.
@KevinH Yeah, there are some advantages depending on what you want to do with the figure. There are times when I still just use a straight up M4 or V4 because they are perfect for what I have in mind and I can do whatever it is with those original figures. And, believe me, I have some favorite M4 characters! However, there are some things that are specific to G2 or G3 that I might want to take advantage of but I like the look of a particular character for the earlier figure. There isn't anything wrong with using the older figures. It's just a matter of perspective, tools available and what you wish to acomplish and knowing the best way to get there.
I couldn't resist @FirstBastion's new Highland Lakeside Cabin. What and amazing landscape and set. Wow! I tried to keep it simple for this first render. Just a little bit of post, mostly levels and curves, and bumping up the contrast a bit. I wish I was better at using the water brushes I have or I would have tried putting some foam at the water's edge where it meets the land, but I'm just not that good with them yet. Everything I tried just looks fake and clunky. Working with brushes is definitely something I need to work on in the future. Right now, I'm keeping it simple.
I wanted an image I could use for a book cover idea I had, but I'm not sure if I can use this one as the sunset colors might be too dark for a cover. Not sure. I'll play with it some more and maybe render again with slightly fewer kayaks and a more daytime sky and see if that works for the book cover idea. In the meantime, I love the colors on this one and how nicely my landscape turned out with all of those shadows. I'm a sucker for a nice pretty sunset or sunrise. :)
Highland Cabin
Gallery Link
Have you got some reeds or similar from another set, that you could use to hide the water's edge between those two boulders? Just a few patches would probably be enough. I think it would work better than trying to do foam (I've tried and failed with foam several times!)
I got the other FB set, which came out a week or so ago, although I haven't loaded it yet. Don't have this one (have to wait till pay day!)
@TangoAlpha Hmm, I'll have to look. I might actually have some from another set. That's a good idea. Thanks! :)
If you have this set.
http://www.daz3d.com/liquid-pack
There is a morphable disc that might work.
Yep, I do have that. I forgot I had that. I'll dig it out and see what I can do during the next go 'round with my picture. Thanks, @Fishtales!