3D art question

[SilentThief]

Unless I'm totally wrong on my assumptions for this stuff (and its entirely possible), If I did some templates for character skins and/or props then I can make my own characters.

To me it gets really confusing with the naming conventions they use, like "flattop for conforming hair for chelsey for victoria", as in the original character with some changes to make a new character with a hair set specially made with a specialty hair for that set.

I want to make a variety of characters in fantasy clothing (arms and armor, as well as clothes) to populate the cities with.

ST

[manikus]

I think you are confusing the terms 'template' and 'texture' in your post. Which, I guess proves your point.

Textures are a good first step towards an original character, but you also really need a morph or two (not necessarily new, perhaps using someone elses) to make a distinct character. Think about this way- if you go and get a tan and put on bright pink lipstick, it's still you would be laughing and pointing at.

Now, there is a completely "graphics" alternative to morphs, which is using displacement mapping (it's a more complex form of bump mapping). But, in my opinion, it's the hardest thing I've tried with 3D

So, who and/or what do you want to make your own textures for, ST?

[SilentThief]

Well its just that if I make all the guys look the same and all the girls look the same, then ppl will think there's some kind of wizard conspiracy for magical cloning going on (sounds like an interesting plot line...) And hence, I'm asking about this. Perhaps the question is wrong, since I've found out that deformations exist for making your characters look different. Again, I'm still new at this


ST

[manikus]

If you want a good male character (I would say probably the best male character), check out Apollo Maximus by Anton Kesiel. AM is an amazing figure, comes with a lot of character morphs built-in. There are also a lot of very high quality clothes available from the creator. They're all free, too.

The only warning is, once you go Apollo, it will be very hard to go back M3 or H3 until you get all of their morphs and a bunch of textures and a bunch of clothes, and then you'll still find yourself using Apollo a lot.

If you get Apollo, note that all of the zips are password protected, but the password is on the page above.

[SilentThief]

Coincedently, I just DL-ed apollo yesterday and haven't yet opened up the zips.

ST

[manikus]

Don't forget to jot down the password from the website...

He is definitely one of my all-time favorites. There are a couple of Poser characters (that are for sale by the same company that sells Poser), that I'm fond of, but they're not as versatile as Apollo. V3 is probably the best free female model, mostly b/c she has so much stuff available. There is a female character/model called "K" that is very good, but has almost nothing for her, so I don't use her much.

[SilentThief]

Just wonderin', do PSD or PS3 files work in DAZ?

ST

[manikus]

I don't know what ps3 files are - maybe from the newest photoshop?
I think that psd might work, but maybe not...not sure. I know that Poser handles them fine.

[SilentThief]

AAARHGH! Sometimes this is so frustrating. I understand what is going on, but it is still causing me to DL stuff and then delete it regularly. Here's the situation: DAZ studio is a poser imitator (a poser poser? ) , its good but it doesn't have the full functionality that poser does. Then some of these people who had good intentions but forgot to include files and/or use standard files that poser uses or has availabile and DAZ works with so it gives error messages and does not load. I have seen that a bunch of the poser stuff not rated for compatibility DOES work for DAZ and that is part of the problem not knowing which works or not.

For example, I DL-ed some freebies (thats my problem... not enuff $$$ so I can go buy the fully functioning Poser), which do not apply correctly or at all. There is an awesome dog morph (? still dunno my terms) called "ThylacineFreebie" in Renderosity stated as a free character. I DL it and nothing. Apply it to Millenium dog and he takes the correct pose, but still is the standard millenium dog.

So how do you apply textures and materials to a character? Becuz after DL and install the "ThylacineFreebie", it places diles in both those directories so I figure there is something there to apply to the file.

ST
ps, deleting all the stuff now that don't work. But I am amazed by the apollo char.

[manikus]

The only poser files that do not work in DAZ Studio are the mc6 files. Dynamic clothing will work, it just won't look like the the pictures - you won't be able to do any of the cool stuff.

ThylacineFreebie:

Originally Posted by Renderosity Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, character/texture set for the Millennium Dog. It includes a lores texture map for the pelt and a morph inj pose. You must have the Millennium Dog Light, and Millennium Dog Starter Bundle to use the character morph, and Poser 6 to use the material preset.

So, I'm guessing from this bit of the readme that there are two things keeping you from using this freebie. The first is that the morphs for the Mil Dog are in the starter bundle or in the Mil Dog full version (which you probably don't have since it's not free). The second is that it is using mc6 files instead of pz2 to apply the textures. (This one has textures, but sometimes they don't- just shader settings.) You can manually apply the textures if you want, or you can make your own pz2 file from the mc6 file. Here's how and it's pretty easy to do.
1. open the mc6 file in a text editor (they are in runtime:libraries:pose OR runtime:libraries:material)
2. find the word "mtlCollection" on the 6th or 7th line (depending on blank lines above it) - it will be the only word on the line.
3. delete mtlCollection and replace it with "figure" for a figure file OR "prop name:2" where name=name of prop as it appears in Studio in the scene tree.
4. save file as same name, but extension .pz2.

You now have a completely usable mat file that works in Poser and Studio.