Render in progress
Well, that was a nice break! I’ve had a chance to relax and a chance to be sick as well. Yay. but now it’s time to get back to work. This year I want to try writing shorter posts and see how that goes. The plan is to actually publish more. We shall see!
A lot of my Daz time of late has been more technical in nature, a lot of tweaking and experimentation. I have some new toys that I have been practicing with! This is the result of some experimentation and I love the eerie light quality! I still want to tweak the head a little, but it’s coming along really well, I look forward to painting it up.
Flip 3 – nude steampunk Daz studio render
Flip – Daz Studio 4 Render
I just can’t get enough of this pose style and set! I think I am going to have to do a triptych.
Lately I have been obsessed with viewing a pose from lots of different angles. translating the same thing into different images and differing moods. I think this is something I will explore further as I progress.. Sometimes we only focus on one side of things. It’s good to get the whole picture.
And one of the benefits of 3D is that you can!
Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Character: Reby Sky
Morphs: Morphs++ NGM for V4
Wings, Helmet, Harness, Boots and Hair: Apteromata Flight
Textures: Acherontia Atropos Flight
Flip 2 – steampunk Daz render
Flip – Daz Studio 4 Render
I love this pose so much I just have to keep playing! It’s odd how something changes with the angle. At the moment I am doing some watercolors and exploring the same pose from different angles, it’s really fun to see how much mood can change.
I will probably start posting those next week.
Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Character: Reby Sky
Morphs: Morphs++ NGM for V4
Wings, Helmet, Harness, Boots and Hair: Apteromata Flight
Textures: Acherontia Atropos Flight
Rebirth – Daz Render
Rebirth – Daz|Studio Advanced Render
Ah, when switching things around and symbolizing light as a character is there anything better than volumetrics? I didn’t think so. almost an identical pose, similar lighting, Now with added volume! Jean Grey again, for FanBoy vs ArtBoy at ArtBoy Gallery.
Figure: Victoria 4 *free*
Character: Reby Sky
Morphs: Morphs++ NGM for V4
Nude of the week – inverted
This is the last render created with my old iMac! My trusty iMac is no more, the hard drive has died. The good news is that I now have a very sexy new iMac on order, the bad is that I don’t know how much data was backed up in my time machine backups because I had been having problems. The broken hard drive is accessible and I should be able to get my most vital content off it. I’m looking at having to install all of my Daz 3D content all over again! I just did that! Ah well. As long as my photographs are safe i’m happy. A lot of my data is backed up somewhere, but I would prefer non compressed.
This render came to me in a flash, then the pose came together very easily. I discovered these goggles in my runtime and was just so excited! They are fantastic! Here you can see one of the problems of 3D though, her hair just isn’t sitting right.
I have at least a week before my new Mac arrives. Luckily I have a few works to be getting on with, and my iPad for keeping up to date. I should be able to last!
Nude of the week – lace
I am currently painting this. If I thought, for one moment, that copper pipes were bad, well, let me tell you, lace is no picnic to paint! It’s funny, this is such a simple pose, but getting the feel just right took weeks of painstaking work. The painting is practically flying by in comparison! Except for the lace. I am enjoying it though, this entire series is a huge challenge and delightful fun. It also looks like it will be extended into a full exhibition later this year!
7 reasons why virtual models are better than life models.
Life models vs virtual models: round 1
Something someone said to me the other day made me think of the many reasons I choose to use 3D as reference material for my art. In my mind, 3D has so much potential for artists, in so many ways. I often laud the cost savings of using virtual models as opposed to real ones, but that is such a small part of why I use it now. I have models lining up to work with me, I spend a lot of time and money on my 3D and I frequently bang my head against the wall while working on a render. So why do I prefer it? You see, the beauty of 3D is that it is based in reality, but only limited by your imagination.
1. It’s always available. Unless you live with your model you are going to have to wait for them to get to you- losing valuable inspiration time!
2. It’s patient. Even the most professional model won’t sit in their pose while you adjust the lights, the surface textures, the colors, the room, their skin, for hours and hours. And hours and hours. Then go away for a day and come back to it and tweak it for a few more hours.
3. It’s forgiving. I don’t want to offend my model of the day by telling them that I need to add a little more here or shave off some there, and If I change things up in the eventual piece it’s not going to create an issue. I know most models won’t care, but I always worry offending people- and worry gets in the way of art. There is no place for misunderstanding in 3D.
4. It’s flexible. I can have a model hovering in a backflip for as long as I need, I can freeze a moment in time while I tweak the lighting and the colors, the volume and the mood. I can use any angle, I can make the pose very mundane or I can take it beyond the realms of the human norm and distort and abstract things while still maintaining a sense of reality.
5. It’s quiet. I’m introverted, I need privacy in my studio and i’m very demanding. 3D allows me to do what I need to without worrying about feelings or being interrupted. I can be my own, caustic self without feeling like I have to put on a front. It also means that the only person I talk to is myself, and I talk to myself a lot! It gives me space.
6. It’s..3D.. A lot of you may be thinking that I could achieve a lot of these with photographing the live model and using the photograph for my reference. And you would be right, but photographs are a limited painting resource. The reason so many pieces taken from a photograph look flat is because they use a 2d resource. Now I can hear you thinking, ‘but isn’t that what render is?’ And yes.. But days later when i’m trying to work out what that dark blob is or where the arm went because I changed the angle of something I can virtually walk around the model and see. I can rotate it, change it up as often as I like, and everything is crystal clear. I don’t have to try to re-create it, it’s there exactly how I left it.
7. It’s a guide. The render is not the finished piece, it’s a path along the way.
It really is the best of both worlds! As long as you have the patience and understanding to make it work. It’s harder than life models in a sense, but, for me, it’s the best choice. This may be because i’m a control freak who prefers mindless bots that do my bidding, it may be because i’m a geek and it’s cool and requires no human interaction but mostly I think it’s because I can take my time and get the exact results I want, how I want. It’s my process and it works for me!
Nude of The Week – Fanboy Vs Artboy Concept Render
This is the first of my concept renders for the upcoming exhibition I’m in at Artboy Gallery. The focus of this exhibition is games and fan art and I’m delighted to be a part of it! I will write more later, but for now this is the concept as it stands, it’s really fun to work on something so challenging and different. it will be painted in my usual style, but it’s so different from anything I’ve done!
I morphed all the characters from scratch, referencing the characters from their in-game art. I can tell you that some parts involved quite a bit of speculation! I don’t have a lot of experience with multi character pieces, but I love classic composition so I had a lot of fun, I went back to my art history roots for inspiration.
For those who don’t know, these characters are from my favorite game World of Warcraft. over the entire warcraft saga there has been a bit of a love story woven around the characters Jaina Proudmoore, Arthas Menethil and Thrall. I could write more about my feeling about these three characters, but you will probably be seeing this piece in development so for now I will focus on the render.
There were a LOT of products used in this! I spent a day morphing each character. that’s a day *per* Character!
Thrall is made with Freak 4 (FREE for a limited time!)
Michael 4 morphs++
Sol Elite Skin with custom coloring
Cuffed Tail 2
and the Beard (I was particularly proud of this as I don’t have any beards, fitting this was a challenge!)
Gabriel Hair
Arthas
Michael 4 *free*
Michael 4 morphs++
Sol Elite Skin
Reby Sky Elite Hair (sorry Reby)
Jaina Proudmoore
Victoria 4 *free*
V4 Morphs++
Eve Skin
Sienna Hair
Hey Big Spender… Why the Platinum Club at Daz is worth it
so it’s that time of the year again, for me anyway, it’s time for the Platinum Club anniversary at Daz3D. what does that mean? well, for one, it’s when my renewal comes up for grabs. I’ve been a platinum member for almost two years now. not as long as many but when I realized what a huge boon to my work Daz Studio was (and when they released Daz Studio advanced) I decided to take the leap. at first it was monthly, but last year when I got caught up in the October festivities I took out an annual membership and have never looked back!
The PC club rewards you all year around, you get a $5 voucher every month, a special category of $1.99 items (many of which are absolutely brilliant) that are added to every week, special competitions, a 30% discount on Daz originals, extra discounts on new items as they come out and if you are lucky you can become a member of the (shh!) Ninja Squad. the beta testers of the company.
in October however, they pull out all the stops. this year it’s the 8th anniversary, so all club items are discounted to $1.88, we get a 40% discount rather than 30% for this month, 8% back on all purchases and if we renew we get so much free stuff! (if you get an annual membership you get a $30 voucher and up to 80 free items!!!!!)
so why am I doing a sales pitch to you? a lot of people have started reading this blog looking for tips on Daz, finding content and hopefully starting to make 3D art. I will be writing much more on the subject (your emails have not gone unheard!) but lots of people have asked me about finding content and getting the best bang for your bucks. this october is the best way, hands down, to get a collection of 3D items for your runtime for a fraction of the cost.
Next week starts my favorite part as well.. the $1.99 voting! more on that next week…
Even more free nude models!
free nude models at Daz|3d
Update to my free nude models (and other stuff) post – Daz are now offering all of their base models for free!
go here for all the free models you could want for artistic reference.
for the bundles including morphs, characters, hair, clothes and more check out this link
Personally I am very excited about this because it gives me the opportunity to start looking at a series I am interested in pursuing in protest of the new legislations currently under debate in Australia. that’s right, no sooner do I start one series that another pops into my little pea brain and I get all excited about that one instead! don’t worry, I am still painting my burlesque series.
and no amount of free will be cheap enough for me to clog my runtime with The Girl.
you have your free nude models… now what?
Consternation reference image
All those zip files that you downloaded in previous weeks are probably languishing away. expand them to your content folder in the main Daz|Studio application folder. you want the runtime folders to merge into your main runtime category so to do everything automatically it’s easiest if you set your expanding program to merge the contents and preserve the folder structure.
It’s time to open up Daz|Studio and take a look around. personally when I get a new piece of software I like to play with it and learn by doing. It’s going to ask you a number of questions about how you want the program to look and what features you want activated. this is all your own choice and it’s very easy to change in the view menu. I use an advanced split screen setting but for now you may want to use one of the basic layouts until you get the hang of things.
When Daz asks if you want it to scan your database say yes. it’s going to take a look and find all of those new files you just added and will add them to the uncategorized section. the darker color and ! means that this is new content that you haven’t used yet. you can drag your new items around and categorize them so that you can find them later. this is all totally up to you, you can categorize by dragging and dropping or by right clicking and selecting categorize… it helps to take the time to do this on a regular basis. I have so much content it takes forever to find them if I don’t stick to my system!
Adding realism to your nude models
Now that you have the basic models you may have noticed they look a little.. blah. the skin looks plastic and fake, the figures are basic and not very expressive in themselves, you need to inject a little reality. while photorealism isn’t completely necessary for a figure reference, I find it helps to create the best reference possible. here are some basic things you can use to make your model more realistic.
Textures. textures are what bring the models to life. the same basic female model can look thousands of different ways just by adding different textures. the word texture is a bit of a misnomer – it’s the skin or fabric you place over your model so that it looks right. Bump maps are what cause actual texture, the pores in the skin, raised moles and so on. they often come with characters. textures are of no use whatsoever without the models but are incredibly powerful in themselves.
Luna Makeup for Victoria 3 Textures by Aery Soul
Luna Body for Victoria 3 Textures by Aery Soul
Boricua Texture for Victoria 3
Alisha for victoria 4
Characters: characters are the only thing that sometimes need a purchased component. they are a usually bundle of face and body morphs for your model to create a whole new shape. to apply the morphs you need to have the morph packs installed which unfortunately do cost money (keep an eye for them on sale! – I got a vicky 4 bundle with the morphs and characters for $20!) but are not critical. you can apply character packs without morphs to get the texture and bump benefits and makeup that is often included. there may be some slight figure and face alterations but you wont get the same face and body effects. I often work with Victoria 3 characters without the morphs and have no problems at all. My weakness is for characters, I tend to buy quite a few when they are on sale.
free faces for victoria 3 by Aery Soul (no morph packs required)
Verity Character by Tuulia
Sarra for v3
French Girl Maria for v3
Unique Faces for V3 (does not require morphs)
v3 Custom Morphpack (does not require morphs)
Renderosity freebie characters
Shaders. Shaders affect how the light reacts with the model. light hits different surfaces and bounces off them in different ways. Metal reacts differently to skin. different metals reflect and bounce light in different ways. different parts of the skin react in different ways. shaders allow you to make those distinctions instead of treating everything like plastic.
Studio Skin Settings Bundle for a3/a4/v3/v4/h3/m3
Kerwar Skin Shader Presets
Daz Studio Skin
Daz Studio Skin 2 – v4
Poses. in the most basic meaning, pose files position your model. however in Daz, pose files are also used to affect your model in some way. this may be as simple as posing her or it may be a file that automatically adds the texture or makeup or changes the color. a lot rides on pose files and they exist for automating these processes. this is important to know because of the way the content is sorted. you will find most of your files under poses. luckily now you can sort your content out in the most logical way for you
Renderosity Pose Freebies
Aery soul free poses 1
Aery Soul Free Poses 2
you can also download free lights, cameras, backgrounds and more. lights are predetermined lighting settings that can enhance your piece. they use color and intensity and sometimes several different sets of lights to create a certain mood or effect. Lighting is such a big part of what makes Daz the perfect medium for life drawing reference that I will cover it in depth later.
Free Nude Models! (and other stuff)
Victoria 3 and included updo hair
The key to using Daz Studio is the content. Daz makes use of created models, much in the same way poser does, but for free. the main models usually cost money, however you can get a surprising array of free content online. so much in fact that you never need to buy any if you don’t want to!
lets break down the type of content first. for ease of use and explanation I am going to deal specifically with the Daz created models and items created for them. there are other options out there which I will link to later but for now it’s best to work with the same thing. I am not going into clothing in this series of tutorials because I don’t really use it. we are looking at using Daz as an artist’s reference and I think clothes get in the way of that!
Models. models are the 3D figures themselves. they can be humans, animals, fantasy creatures, clothing, hair, props but they are the backbone of what you are going to use to create. in their raw state they are white or have a basic texture applied. to add realism, you need to add texture.
Free Hair:
Flexy Hair for Victoria 4 and Renella Hair for Victoria 3
Fit Flexy Hair to Aiko 3
Fit Flexy Hair to Michael 3
Fit Renella Hair to Aiko 3
Fit Renella Hair to Michael 3
Hair fits enable you to use hair you have for one character on another. this really expands the use of your hair
Now you have all the models you need to start posing. you have men and women, different hairstyles and some posing props to create your life drawing virtual studio.
Week two in my series on using Daz 3d as a free artists reference
Update! Daz are now offering all of their base models for free!
go here for all the free models you could want
for the bundles including morphs, characters, hair, clothes and more check out this link
how to get a nude model to do whatever, whenever, for free
you know the situation, it’s 2am and you’ve just been struck with inspiration. but you need to work out the details, you need help to bring your masterpiece into fruition. you need a model.
but where are you going to get one at a moment’s notice at this time of night? and how much is it going to cost? you look glumly at your wallet and decide that the masterpiece must wait.
but what if you can get the perfect model, at any time? one that will pose for as long as you want, will stay there for hours while you change the lighting and fiddle with the angle. what if this perfect model is available to you 24/7 and what if this model was completely free?
Painting and drawing from life is very important. you need to understand the three dimensions of a figure to get it right. photographs are excellent resources but sometimes you need greater control over the angle and posing and sometimes you need to think of the figure in three dimensions rather than two.
Luckily, technology brings us the perfect blend of convenience and control. the ease of photographs with the necessity of the three dimensions and the minute control. 3D modelling has come a long way since it’s inception and it is now easy and fun to create lifelike human images to do your bidding. in fact, all the hard work has been done. models like Victoria and Michael are waiting for your inspiration. Daz Studio is a free 3d modelling program that works with human and animal figures to create beautiful and realistic rendered scenes.
Daz Studio comes with some basic models all ready to go. you can add additional models by paying, waiting until they are free, or finding freebies online. to those models you can add different skin types and makeup (textures), you can add hair and clothing and props to make your characters do anything you want. you can change their figures and faces, and buy add ons to increase your control over the appearance of your models. you can pose them in anatomically correct ways or you can turn of the limits and let your imagination run it’s full course. you can light your creation with many lights in different colors, control the shadows and angles then finally render your piece with all the reference you need to create your masterpiece!
over the next few weeks I will be writing a series of tutorials on using Daz 3d as an artist’s reference tool. I’ll cover how to find free content, how to pose and light models, how to morph and apply textures, what bump maps are and how they add to reality and how to use your images as references.
Obsession
I am becoming completely obsessed with 3D modeling in Daz|Studio. it started as a way for me to create, pose and light my ideal models then pick my angle for the image to paint. it is the best way for me to get the poses and angles I want, with the models I want and no back talk! it’s free, easy to use and as I am rapidly discovering, very very addictive.
It doesn’t help that there is a wealth of wonderful free or inexpensive content out there and I am a bit of a collection freak so I can’t help but download everything. I’ve spent the last few days trying to sort out all of my resources but it’s becoming a never-ending task! (not helped by the fact that I download almost as much as I sort..) I prefer D|S to Poser even though it isn’t as powerful, it’s substantially faster, and it suits my needs perfectly. plus it’s free.
I used to use myself for a reference or my own mind, but lately my poses and angles have been getting more adventurous, and harder to realize without reference. this provides me with a perfect opportunity to work at my own pace, and play with fun technology. now if only I could stop playing long enough to paint something!
I’d put in one of my images but I’m waiting for the render…
Recent Comments