Ds creative 07

So who grabbed a prize in our big Christmas competition

CHRISTMAS WINNERS

We turn our spotlight on toreality and talk to Paolo Ciccone

reality

The magazine for DAZ Studio usersDS creativeThe magazine for DAZ Studio users

Issue 07 January 2015

PAINTMARY VANASSCHE

TUTORIALS

REGULARS

FEATURES

28 • Save As OverviewDesign Anvil explains all those save options.

52 • Background PlantsWWe look at how to create background plants by using transparency.

66 • Composition for BeginnersSanyel Jacksons introduces us to the rule of thirds.

72• Obj’s to PropsWWe explain how to turn that obj file into a prop in your content library.

05 • NewsdeskA look at the news from the world of DAZ Studio

12 • General Gallery All the best artwork from the DAZ community.

32 • 32 • Competition WinnersJust who gets what in our big Christmas competition.

58 • Competition Timeit’s time for good versus evil in our first competition of the year.

08 • VENDOR SPOTLIGHTIn the first of this month's vendor spotlights we talk to Ozichick

24 • ARTIST SPOTLIGHTThis months artist spotlight and cover artist is LeAndra

44 • 44 • SPECIAL Q&AWe put a set of questions to Reality creator Paolo Ciccone

54 • VENDOR SPOTLIGHTIn the second of this month's vendor spotlights we talk to Adam Thwaites.

Volume 2 • Issue 7

creativeds

creativeEDITOR

Camilla [email protected]

PRODUCTION DESIGNERPhil Thompson

[email protected]

NEWS EDINEWS EDITORMatt Allgood

[email protected]

PROOF READERSanyel Jackson

[email protected]

TUTORIALS CO-ORDINATORSamir Rouabhi DeleuzeSamir Rouabhi Deleuze

Contents

DS CREATIVE MAGAZINE • January 2015 • 03

Phil Thompson • SENIOR PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Welcome to 2015 and our seventh issue!My how time flies!So with a new year comes some changes; all the usual features and articles are still here, but as we are going through a process of refining the overall visual look of the magazine, small graphic and typographical changes may appear throughout with more to come over the next few issues. We also want to introduce a new regular gallery that focuses on renders created with Reality.

One thing we are on the constant lookout for is artists who would be interested in being featured in the Artist Spotlight One thing we are on the constant lookout for is artists who would be interested in being featured in the Artist Spotlight feature, which is typically a multi-page feature about you and your artwork along with several images and most importantly your artwork on the cover of the issue. This really is the best showcase for your work so if you fancy it get in touch at the usual email addresses we've provided or by PM over on Facebook.

Camilla Drakenborg • EDITOR IN CHIEF

We have reached 2015! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday & are ready for the New Year?We managed to get out 7 issues & I truly hope we get out at least 7 more! But I must remind our readers again that without your contributions of both art & tutorials we won’t be able to do that. The team of DS Creative, are not DAZ pros, we all have different skill & knowledge levels just like among our readers & just like you we have our lives to live but our love for DAZ & art drives us to work hard each month to bring you gifts & inspiration but we need your help to do so!So I urge you & plead to you especially that haven't sent in or only once or twice, please send in more! Even if you think So I urge you & plead to you especially that haven't sent in or only once or twice, please send in more! Even if you think your knowledge may not be what someone is looking for, let us be the judge of that, even if you only just started doing artwork in DAZ show it to the world & even if you may think this magazine is not good enough for your tuts or art, share your talent to inspire!And for those of you that contribute every month, thank you so kindly for your amazing support, we could not have done it without you guys!So come on readers! Let's put our heads & heart together & create another 7 issues & while we are at it, why not go for 12?

DS CreativeIssue seven of

ToWELCOME

YURdigital – Create Like You Mean It !!www.YURdigital.com

YURdigital is a dedicated digital art brokerage site where exceptional digital artists can make money selling their products. We are well respected in the digital art industry and have a long history of building positive relationships with artists, software developers, educators and industry leaders. Trust and mutual respect are extremely important to us and are the key to bringing the best of the best together to buy anand sell exclusively through YURdigital.

All computer art content is 100% professionally tested prior to release, including free 3d models and textures. YURdigital has a money back guarantee that each and every product will work as advertised. Stop by YURdigital and check out the amazing product offerings these two very talented teams have to offer. You won’t be disappointed!

YURdigital is honored to be able to offer Sixus1 Media and The Darker Side of Art products along with products from many other talented content creators to digital artists, indie game developers and animators around the world. We look forward to featuring more of their unique 3D models in the future.

is very excited to announce two of our newest content developers, Sixus1 Media and The Darker Side of Art. These very talented content developers produce high quality 100% original DAZ Studio models and Poser figures. Sixus1 Media creates some of the best 3D horror models and fantasy figures available on the market. Based out of Cincinnati, Ohio, the team consists of three very talented individuals, Les Garner, Rebekah Garner and Killian Garner. Most of their offerings are created using a combination of zBrush, Maya and Poser. Les has been creating since he was nineteen years old and has worn just about every hat the world of digital art and animatioanimation has to offer: character designer, technical director, lead and production model and texture artist, director, and co-owner Sixus1 Media.Now, with his son Killian joining in the modeling process, and Rebekah doing the wrangling, they continue to produce content that will take your breath away.

The Darker Side of Art creates amazing one-of-a-kind, toon style 3D figures. Based out of Bronx, New York, Carlos Rivera produces content using many different applications such as Maya, 3DS Max, Blender and Wings 3D depending on what he is trying to achieve. Carlos has been involved with the 3D industry since 1993 and has proven to be one of the most creative artists in the industry.

YURdigital

NEW SDESKDS Creative


THE PROTECTORCAMILLA DRAKENBORG

HOW DID YOU GET INTO 3D MODELING & HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IT?I first got into 3D modeling back in 2002, when I picked up a free copy of Poser included in a PC magazine at the local supermarket.

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?I'd say I get inspiration from anywhere and everywhere really. It seems to be connected I'd say I get inspiration from anywhere and everywhere really. It seems to be connected with things that are happening in my life and the things I come into contact with usually. Stuff can even pop up from years ago and inspire me too though, so it's hard to say.

WHICH PROGRAM(S) DO YOU CREATE YOUR MODELS IN?I mainly use Poser, DAZ Studio, Z-Brush, and Blender.

WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT DO YOU FIND THE MOST CHALLENGING TO CREATE?Definitely realistic looking hair. It's so hard to get hair to look good.

TYPICALLYTYPICALLY HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FROM INITIAL IDEA TO FINISHED MODEL?It depends really. Sometimes I can have an idea and I get it finished within a few days or even a few hours. Other times it takes longer. Mostly around a week to two weeks though.

Adam Thwaites

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

08 • January 2015 • DS CREATIVE MAGAZINE

http://www.most-digital-creations.comVisit Adams store at:

You can be sure that I'll always be working hard to improve the quality of my products though and I'll be keeping them as affordable as possible for everyone too.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU WHEN CREATING A NEW PRODUCT?I'd say creating the promo renders is one of the most challenging things. I always feel like I could improve my promo renders and I always try to do that too.

HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLES ARTWORK MADE WITH YOUR PRODUCTS? I feel unbelievably honored when someone enjoys using my I feel unbelievably honored when someone enjoys using my artwork to create their own artwork. It's a joy to see how my products can be used so well by people in so many different ways.

CAN YOU GIVE US A HINT OF WHAT IS TO COME?I don't even know myself what products I'll be releasing next :) I usually just wait for an idea or a bit of inspiration and then follow that and see where it takes me.

There are far too many other great vendors to mention here though.

IF YOU COULD ADD ONE NEW FEATURE TO DAZ STUDIO, WHAT WOULD IT BE?Dynamic clothing that you can create with any 3D software (like Poser dynamic clothing).

WHAT ONE PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE STARTING OUT CREATING FOR DAZ STUDIO?Be as passionate about it as you can and always try to do the best work you can possibly do.

WHICHWHICH 3 ARE YOUR PERSONAL FAVORITES OF YOUR OWN PRODUCTS? I always try my best to improve the I always try my best to improve the quality of my products and make them the best I can each time I create a new one, so I'd probably say I like my latest three products the most. Mia for V4, V5 and V6, LTW Lighting for Poser and DAZ Studio and Genesis 2 Female Shapes: Kristen.Genesis 2 Female Shapes: Kristen.

WHICH ARE YOUR 3 PERSONAL FAVORITE VENDORS?I really think Aeon Soul, Stonemason and 3DUniverse are amazing artists.


http://4eyes.code66.se/dsc/HannahHeadMorph.zip


SURFINBELLATRYX NOIR

creativeds

creative

ANGEL MINE

ANGEL MINEDebbie GoreckeUSA

SPOWKYEdwing MuñozNicaragua

RELAXINGRELAXINGJefferson FerreiraBrazil

Gallery


RELAXING

SPOWKY


creativeds

creative

STALKER GIRL

STALKER GIRLSandra BauserUSA

CREME ELLEElle WalbyUSA

SOMER 2.2SOMER 2.2Charles McDonald


SOMER 2.2

CREME ELLE


creativeds

creative

SADIE DREAM ART

SADIE DREAM ARTTina LouiseUSA

WOULD HAVE BEEN BALL GOWNCenturionWalls

THE DREAMErik WinboErik WinboNew Zealand


THE DREAM

WOULD HAVE BEEN BALL GOWNDS CREATIVE MAGAZINE • January 2015 • 17

creativeds

creative

NEVARIAN QUEEN

NEVARIAN QUEENSandra BauserUSA

UNDER GLASSVicki LeversedgeCanada

DON'T WANT TO HURT YOUDON'T WANT TO HURT YOUAstuce ManFrance

Gallery


UNDER GLASS

DON'T WANT TO HURT YOUDS CREATIVE MAGAZINE • January 2015 • 19

creativeds

creative

HITCHING A SLEIGH RIDE

HITCHING A SLEIGH RIDEPenelope ChaputUSA

AMYSzark BWCUK

WHEN CANVAS STARTS TO BURNWHEN CANVAS STARTS TO BURNMarcos (DK) PrietoSpain


WHEN CANVAS STARTS TO BURN

AMY


If you would like to submit your favourite five just follow the format above, 5 items with links plus your reasons they are must haves, also include a short bio and a piece of your artwork and send it to:

[email protected]

TellUs

Your Five

FAVORITE

There are some scenes that come out flat and uninteresting no matter what I do! Open Reality, play with the materials and lighting and it comes out so much better! It's not for all my scenes, but won't be without it in my toolbox!

http://preta3d.comwww.luxrender.net

LUXRENDER/REALITY 2.505

Shaders! Can't live without them! Fisty, Mareiah, Khory D, Dimension Theory, Age of Armour! I think I change just about everything I can in a scene with shaders. I have absolute tons of really old content that has no real oomph! No bump or dis-placement! With the way Studio and Poser have changed and with the advent of Reality and Lux Render, you really need to try and make your textures POP!

http://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-shadersSHADERS!04

Out of Touch's new Render Spots for DS and Poser, scenes like the MPC with matching lights, ready made easy to use!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/?vendor=248824OUT OF TOUCH'S RENDER SPOTS03

His newer set has both Occlusion and IDL!http://www.daz3d.com/predatron#PREDATRON'S LIGHTS!02

There are so many sets for this and the Millenium Environment, that you can do scenes from all over the world and even in space. It's simple, easy, lightweight and still great after all these years!

http://www.daz3d.com/multiplane-cycloramaMULTIPLANE CYCLORAMA01 Mary VanAssche

I am a married 64 year old retiree living in the U.S., with three adult children and 4 grandchildren.

I've been registered at DAZ since I've been registered at DAZ since about 1995 and actually using DAZ Studio since 1997 when I got a computer that would run it. I started working with graphics with Paintshop Pro and noticed all these new tubes that looked so real! I had to find out how to do that and to find out how to do that and someone mentioned Studio as being free. After that, well, it was Hello Studio, then Poser, then Bryce, Vue, Carrara, Hexagon! I settled on mainly Studio as being easier for me.

I'm just a hobbyist with this and my I'm just a hobbyist with this and my children keep asking me what is it good for if I don't make money with it, so I give them a good smack on the head and tell them, "It makes me happy"! Enjoy!

Five Runtime must havesFAVOURITE FIVE


http://4eyes.code66.se/dsc/BWCDS-freebee.zip

OIL DRUMPresents

BWC-4Eyes & Totte Alm

“Recently, I've gone back and forth

between Daz Studio and Poser.”

WHICH ARTISTS INSPIRE YOU THE MOST?I have a very long list of artists that inspire me. Dan LuVisi, Tsuaii, Paul Kwon, Christopher Lovell, Stanley Lau, Linda Bergkvist and so, so many more. My DeviantArt watchlist is full of amazing artists, I couldn't possibly name all the ones that I love.

when I had next to no idea what I was doing was a nightmare! While I worked with Poser 4 and Bryce, my skills with Photo-shop grew as well, especially during my 3D break (for about five years). Recently, I've gone back and forth between Daz Studio and Poser, using either one depending on the image or my mood. And always, always Photoshop!

HOW DO YOU FIND INSPIRATION?I find inspiration usually by just taking a glance through my Ref-erence/Inspiration folder. I have collected many, many images over the years, from photographs of rundown buildings to brilliantly colored digital art. Inspiration comes from many sources outside of that as well such as video games, music and even just seeing a product. If I'm not set on a style or color scheme I want to work with for a particular image, I usually buildbuild a piece of art around an object or clothing I'd like to use. Then it goes from there!

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET STARTED INTO 3D ART?OneOne of my first tastes of 3D was discovering the Poser 1 or 2 disc lying around, popping it in and then just moving body parts. At the time, I had no idea that it could be used to make art. Instead, I turned to Bryce. Some of my very first works of art were that of ball and water renders; everyone's first Bryce renders! I eventually returned to Poser with version 4 and started to painstakingly import Victorias and other figuresfigures into Bryce, since that was what I knew how to render with. Having to apply every single material by hand

Homepage: http://www.leandradawn.com

Leandra

Artist SPOTLIGHT


Once I've gotten everything relatively satisfactory, I render at about 3000px at the max height or width. If I need any other render passes, I'll then do those. Afterwards, it's into Photoshop where I work on effects, lighting, materials, hair and whatever else the image calls for. My best work is when I am in Photoshop, making things pop or playing with Depth of Field with Lens Blur. Depending on the image, I'd say the 3D partpart almost always takes longer. And I recommend that you get your base image as perfect as you can before moving into postwork. It makes everything so much easier if you have a good base to work from. After many hours or days, my last steps are typically to run a Lighting Effects layer, sharpen and of course my signature!

WHAT ARE YOUR THREE FAVORITE VENDORS?My top three favorite vendors are Littlefox, Orestes Graphics and Val3DArt. And a handful of others that I don't want to leave off: Anna Benjamin/Secretheart, Bad Kitteh Co., Lilflame, Mihrelle, Fabiana, Arki, Stonemason and Mortem Vetus.

WHWHAT ARE YOUR TOP THREE PRODUCTS YOU USE CURRENTLY?In Daz Studio, I cannot make any images without Age of Amour's (AoA) Advanced Studio Light Bundle, DimensionThe-ory's Advanced Light Presets for AoA's lights, and Dimension-Theory's Subsurface Toolbox for AoA's shader.

WHAT GOES INTO A PIECE OF ART FOR YOU?First, it starts with an idea or just an urge to play around in DS. It is honestly far better to already have an idea before you start. But that's not always the case, especially for me. I typi-cally set up my figure and scene first so I know what kind of character I'm working with. Clothes will usually come next, maybe hair and then the lights. Then lots and lots of adjusting: materials, characters, scene arrangement, etc. Lately, I have beenbeen really trying to keep everything relatively consistent. In other words, make sure everything makes sense in the scene and even relate back to the character in some way.

“First, it starts with an idea or just an urge to play around

in DS.”




ELFMARCIUS HESS

ERIK WINBOX2

THE CHRISTMAS COMPETITIONSo once the Christmas competition drew to a close, we realized that we had a few prizes left over so we decided to pick out our 6 favorite images from the entries and then they win a second prize. so over the next few pages you can see all the winning images.

All the winning images will be displayed on the official DS Creative Facebook page from the 3rd of Januaryhttps://www.facebook.com/DSCreativeMagazine


EST MORTE

ALEX LEDANTE

TODD KOGUTT

SKYDADDYD

X2

Alex Ledante - 1 item from Sedor

Erik WinBo - 1 item from Sedor & 1 item from Lunchlady

Est Morte - 1 Winds of the Past & 1 Image Armada ultra edition

SkyDaddyD - 1 item from Pandygirl

TTodd Kogutt - $5 BWC


PENELOPE CHAPUT

HENRICO VISSER

SANDRA BAUSER

X2

THE CHRISTMAS COMPETITION

Henrico Visser - 1 item from Lunchlady

Penelope Chaput - 1 item from Pandygirl & $20 BWC

Sandra Bauser - 1 item from Pandygirl


MARY VANASSCHEASTROGAL

FANTAIL451

VICKI LEVERSEDGEX2

AstroGal - $10 BWC

Fantail451 - 1 item from chikako

Mary VanAssche - 1 DsICK SciFi Edition

Vicki Leversedge - 1 Hinkyhunks : Aleister & 1 item from FWArt


KAT LAMPMAN

THERESA HERLOCKER

DRAGONBREATH

X2

THE CHRISTMAS COMPETITION

DragonBreath - 1 item from Jack Tomalin

Kat Lampman - 1 item from Totte & 1 Image Armada Ultra edition

Theresa Herlocker - 1 item from bobbie25 store


LAMUSERIE

BELLATRYX NOIRKENDA

3DTOX

X2

3dTox - 1 item from bobbie25 store

Bellatryx Noir - 1 Gothic Impressions

Kenda - 1 Presly Heels for Genesis 2 Female(s) from Ozichick

LaMuserie - 1 item from FWArt & 1 item from bobbie25 store


CHAOTIC NEUTRALMAVROSH STRATIOTIS

A look at Preta3d’s latest offeringA NEW REALITY

TO REALITY AND BEYOND.So now we have Reality open in its own window and for our laptop users out there, the window has been arranged in a landscape format so hopefully nobody should be struggling with the window disappearing of the bottom of the screen.

Now the first impressions of the interface Now the first impressions of the interface TheThe Reality window is subdivided into 6 tabs with each one covering specific areas of responsibility, such as ren-dering, materials, lighting, and etc. I mentioned those 3 as they seem like the ones that I will be using the most. The layout on all of the tabs is nice and simple; nothing appears cluttered or cramped and more importantly, the logical layout makes navigation a breeze.

“The logical layout makes navigation a breeze”

a new scene. I want results and I want them now, so let’s load up a ready-made scene. Now the first thing to do was to remove all the DAZ lights, as I had already read on-line that Reality used its own lights rather than the standard DAZ Studio lights. With my lights gone it's time to add some Reality ones, so after a look at the available Reality light sets I added 2 mesh lights and an IBL sphere. TheThe mesh lights are very similar to a photographer’s soft box. In the mesh lights parameters under the shadow control section are switches to help you vary the shadow softness. To adjust the size of the mesh light, big light equals soft shadow, small light equals hard shadows.

So with my lights now added and positioned it was time to head into Reality,. Now if you have never used Reality before like me you may make the same mistake and look for Reality under the Render settings tab, so before you do, it's not there it is actually located on the Render menu.

o with the launch of the Reality 4 plugin for DAZStudio at the start of December, I wondered just

how easy it would be for a complete reality novice to get up and running with the Reality/Luxrender combina-tion.

FIRST INSTALLATION. When it came time to install Reality, I was pleasantly sur-prised at how painless and speedy the whole operation was. In no time at all the 64bit windows version was installed, as well as the openCL version of Luxrender.

DAZ TIME.Now the impatient person that I am meant no reading of the Reality user guide (RUG) just yet and no creating of

S


It sounded almost too good to be true! Load a figure into your scene and if your figure does not have sub surface scattering once opened in Reality it does. So straight away your figures look good.OnOn the left of the material tab is the list of materials in your scene all nicely grouped by the object they belong to. Select one and then right click on a material. This will allow you to change the material type or to apply a uni-versal preset.

RENDERINGSoSo our first stop is the Render tab; this is the Reality equivalent of the render settings tab back in DAZ Studio. On the left of this tab we have five sets of output options; accessing each of these brings up differ-ent options on the right hand side of the window. These options cover such things as the image and scene file name, GPU Acceleration modes, frame size and many more options.more options.

I don’t want this article to be about render times as that is really down to the hardware you have available, but I do want to say that there are two different modes of GPU support available; Hybrid and Pure. There are lim-itations with these modes and I do strongly suggest that you read the RUG for more information.

On a personal note I have been using Hybrid mode for most of my test renders as I have found that it helps with the stability on my crash happy machine.

LIVING IN A MATERIAL WORLDTheThe next tab I want to have a look at is the material tab. My biggest concern about Reality was that I was going to have to spend hours on end tweaking and adjusting every material in my scene to get a nice result. What really caught my interest in the pre-launch announce-ment was that there would be automatic presets for all the major figures from V4 up to V6, including such figuresfigures as Michael 4, Domina and Dawn and so many other figures will be improved.


“The lights tab this for me although simple is where the magic really happens.”

In my first portrait I wanted to adjust the materials on the jewelry, so one by one I changed the type to metal and selected from the presets offered; silver for the gemstones. I choose to change the type to glass, picked ruby from the list and that was it; no other material changes were required.OneOne option that is available is that you can turn any material into light emitting.Now for some reason some materials get automatically set to light emitting, which can be a little frustrating, but that issue aside the feature is really useful as materials can now double as actual lights.

AfterAfter a little bit of experimentation I found it was quite easy and quick to create custom materials.So in all the scenes I have rendered so far the amount of time spent adjusting materials really is minimal.


YOU CAN WIN A COPY OF REALITY 4 IN THIS MONTHS COMPETITION ON PAGE 58

GET REALITY4 FROM THE FOLLOWING:WWW.Preta3D.ComWWW.DAZ3D.ComWWW.RuntimeDNA.Com

OVERALL.TheThe results that come from Reality/Luxrender are cer-tainly impressive, but for me that’s not the surprising thing; what’s really surprising is how easy it is to learn. The user guide is nice and clear, there is a really helpful forum over at RuntimeDNA, and there are videos on Preta3D’s YouTube channel. If something isn't quite going to plan there is always help at hand.

So would I recommend it? Yes certainly.

MY CHALLENGES.AsAs an artist who works in more than DAZ Studio, the biggest limitation for me with DAZ has always been glass & gemstones. I have struggled and searched for the best answers to the glass and gemstones issue for a long time so I had to see just how Reality dealt with a big chunk of glass. I modelled a big square twist vase, imported it into DAZ and set it up as glass in Reality. The onlyonly lighting was an HDR from hdrlabs.com and 2000 samples later I have to say I was very impressed. It cer-tainly was the best glass I had ever seen that had come from DAZ even if it came through Reality/Luxrender.

Gemstones, that’s another challenge for another day time permitting that is.

LIGHTING THE WAY.TheThe lights tab, although simple is where the magic really happens. Each Reality light in your scene shows up here and there isn't really a lot to do. Yes you can adjust the power of each light but I haven't done that yet, but what I always do in here is if I am using the IBL then typi-cally I pick a new HDR from the ones I already have from hdrlabs.com. The most important thing I do in this tab is toto select each mesh light and I give it a unique Light group name, so that once my render is underway I can play around with the strengths of each light individually, so that I can perfect the light balance as I go.This for me really is the magic, no rendering for an hour or two and then thinking “Damn, that lights too bright!” I can just tweak it as I go.


WHAT PART OF THE CREATION OF REALITY 4 POSED THE BIGGEST CHALLENGEThatThat would be the reliable conversion of materials from the host to the Reality internal format. One of the distinctive features of Reality is that it converts the original materials from the host to its own format, and it does that job very well. That is not easy to make happen. It literally takes months of testing, adjusting, and fine-tuning. The Reality material editor is also a very complex system. With it you can create complex materialsmaterials that have multiple layers of textures. Writing that material editor has been a big challenge.

“To my surprise, I found out that at the time nobody else was talking about connecting Poser or Studio to LuxRender.”

DOES CREATING 2 VERSIONS (POSER/DS) OF REALITY AT THE SAME TIME MAKE THE PROCESS EASIER OR HARDERItIt is hard, because the two programs don't share a single thing when it comes to the underlying technology. On the other hand 98% or more, of Reality is either in the user interface or in the underlying services, which are common between the two editions. The challenge was to come up with a technology that allowed Reality to present at the same exact interface regard-less of what host application – Poser or Studio – is used. Devel-oping for two hosts requires a lot of time to test the same scenario in two different applications.

WHAT CAME FIRST IN YOUR LIFE 3D ART OR PROGRAMMINGII started programming about 31 years ago, so it was program-ming. My first steps in the wonderful world of digital technol-ogy were done while programming mini-mainframes before the first IBM PC came out. Since then I've been lucky to have explored almost every new technology that has been invented since the advent of the Apple II. I worked with the very first PC, I saw the birth of the Macintosh, tested the first version of Windows, OS/2 and every other piece of software that changed our life. I watched with lust the development of 3D technology, but I could not access it because at the begin-ning only programs like 3D Studio where available, and I didn't have the money to buy it. Then in 1999 Blender was released to the public and that was the start of my 3D life. After that I started working with Poser, ZBrush, DAZ Studio and others.

WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR REALITY COME FROMII very much like Blender and, in 2009, decided that one of the reasons why the program didn't have a larger installed base was that it was very hard to find good introductory documen-tation for it. So I started a series of video tutorials, thirteen in total, called "The Blender Survival Guide" or BSG for short. While working on the BSG I found this wonderful renderer called LuxRender. It was love at first sight. After becoming familiarfamiliar with LuxRender, the idea of bringing that technology to the Poserverse, I use that term to include both Poser and Studio, formed quickly. It was a logical conclusion but, to my surprise, I found out that at time nobody else was talking about connecting Poser or Studio to LuxRender. So I started writing the code and the first version of Reality for Studio was released on August of 2010.

We put a selection of question to the man behind Reality 4 Paolo Ciccone

PAOLO CICCONEDS CREATIVE Q&A


HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL WHEN YOU SEE ARTWORK THAT HAS BEEN CREATED BY REALITY USERSThat is one of the best perks of my job. Every day I'm amazed, surprised, and delighted by what Reality artists create with the software. It's truly an honor.

ONE OF OUR READERS WANTS TO ASK WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL COMPUTER RIG THAT YOU USE FOR RENDERING IN REALITYLetLet me say first that the needs of a developer are not typical. As a programmer writing 3-D software I need a lot more horsepower than the average 3-D user. My current rig includes a Mac Pro with 12 cores, which use hyperthreading and so resulting 24 threads of rendering, plus another Mac Pro eight core, hyperthreading as well. To that I just added a laptop, a MacBook Pro, for the Windows builds. The main machine has 3232 GB of RAM and the processors run at 3.3 GHz. In the course of development I need to compile Reality in seven different versions. This includes the Macintosh, Windows, Poser, and Studio edition. All at 32 and 64 bits. So all in all, it means seven different programs that need to be compiled out of a code base that is about 205,000 lines of C++ code.

Once the program is ready it needs to be tested, and I typi-cally render hundreds if not thousands of images during a single development cycle.

“It will all depend on how RenderMan will be released. I'm keeping an eye

on it.”

WHAT ONE FEATURE WAS FOR YOU THE BIGGEST STEP FORWARD IN REALITY 4It depends from what point of view you're looking at it. For Studio users that would be the availability of many new textures and the new Skin material. For Poser users he would probably be the new Automatic Presets. For both it would be the new Universal Presets.

WHEREWHERE DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF REALITY GOINGI can't quite answer that, I don't want to give ideas to possible competitors :-). But I can tell you that there are many new features that I want to implement. The new, upcoming version of LuxRender is going to give us a lot of speed improvements that I want to integrate in Reality soon.

DODO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO EXTEND OUT TO INCLUDE OTHER RENDERING ENGINES SUCH AS RENDERMANI would love to do that! It will all depend on how RenderMan will be released. I'm keeping an eye on it.

OR TO EVEN CREATE OTHER PLUG-INS SUCH AS PARTICLE SYSTEMS OR PHYSICS ENGINES.ThereThere are some ideas but right now it's too premature to even talk about them.


CHRISTOPHER MARSON

G A LLER Y


HENRICO VISSER

PHIL THOMPSON


ASHLEY WALLACE

DAVID WARREN


Do you have a masterpiece that you have created using Reality and Luxrender

if so then we would love to display it here, all you have to do is to email your

artwork to us at: [email protected] and mark it Reality

DAVID WARRENKIM FRICK


SIDELINEDBOWSKI

Save your image in Plant image as Plantdiff.jpg (you will have auto-matically a white background)

Now it’s time for DAZ Studio In Daz Studio, create a new primitive plane with a size of 1m by 1m (a square), Change the X rotation to 90 and set the Y Translate to 50.With your plane selected head into the surfaces tab:Set the diffuse color with your Plantdiff.jpg and white colorSet the specular to white Set the ambient color to black Set the opacity with you PlantTrans.jpg

You're done; you can use this technique for more than just plants.

Now it’s time for the plant layersBefore we can work with the plant layers we need to turn off the Black and White layersNow, copy your plant layer 4 times and move the original plant layer to the top add a Gaussian blur filter with a radius of 2pixels to all of them except the top original layer.

Under your new white layer, add a new layer then fill it in fully with black.

Turn off the plant layer leaving only the black and the white layers. Save your image as PlantTrans.jpg, you now have your transparency mask

Now we need to select all the pixels in the image so if we right click the image thumbnail in the layers palette and then choose “Select pixels”, now add a new layer and fill your selection with white, then choose deselect

So you have made a nice scene in DAZ Studio, but now you need to populate your background, so what about adding some plants? But what if you realize that you don’t have the plants you need, well we could make some with this transparency tutorial, and the nice thing is it’s easy.

Firstly we need a plant textureOpenOpen your internet browser and go to www.cgtextures.com you will need to register to access the incredible texture library. For this tutorial I will use this plant: http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=107846&PHPSESSID=3k2svdtlqdh2p74uadjt15f9p4

I selected the small alpha masked image.AsAs you can see it's a .png file, which means that this image has an alpha channel. Now even as DAZ Studio supports .png, we will have better results if we use jpg format.

Firstly open the plant image in Photoshop or your preferred image editor. NowNow we need to make this document into a square the size is not really important as our plant is going to be in the background in our scene just so long as it’s square (something like 512x512) and re-size and center your plant.

How to use images to make background fillers by using transparency

PLANTS FROM TEXTURESTestedTested

DS 4.7

STUDIOSTUDIODAZDAZ


BANGBANGGIRL S.F.LAMUSERIE

HOW DID YOU GET INTO 3D MODELLING/TEXTURING & HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IT?I was introduced to 3D Texturing back in 2009 by a friend of mine while doing digital scrap booking.I was really nervous at first I didn't know a thing what to do, but after several trials and errors I finally found my way.I have been doing it now for 5 or so years and I can’t think of anything else I would I have been doing it now for 5 or so years and I can’t think of anything else I would rather be doing.

WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM?Weirdly enough EVERYWHERE lol, but especially my husband Michael, he has such a creative mind!!We could be out and about or lying in bed to go to sleep and he will yell out "Nikki grab a pen, I have an idea" and they flow from there HAHASo I have so many projects to do based on my list and that is forever growing.So I have so many projects to do based on my list and that is forever growing.

Ozichick

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT


WHICH ARE YOUR 3 PERSONAL FAVOURITE VENDORS?This is a really hard question to answer as there are so many talented vendors.But honestly, there are so many But honestly, there are so many vendors/pa that are so highly talented it is impossible to choose anyone 3 in particular.

IF YOU COULD ADD ONE NEW FEATURE TO DAZ STUDIO, WHAT WOULD IT BE?I’m sure many would agree with I’m sure many would agree with me, but if there was a way to reduce the lengthy render times that would be GREAT.Some renders can take 4-12 hours Some renders can take 4-12 hours depending on the quality of render and hair and so forth, for time consuming.

WHICH PROGRAM(S) DO YOU CREATE YOUR MODELS IN?I started with just Photoshop and Daz Studio, and then eventually I bought Poser 7.Now I use, Photoshop CS3 (Stick with my faves lol), Blacksmith3D, Poser 2014, DS7 & Hexagon.I am trying to get a copy of ZBrush but unfortunately it is out of my price range.

TYPICALLY HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FROM INITIAL IDEA TO FINISHED MODEL?I guess it always depends on the product I am working on, it could be a couple of I guess it always depends on the product I am working on, it could be a couple of months, days or even weeks, but on average maybe 2 weeks I would say.

WHAT ONE PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO SOMEONE STARTING OUT CREATING FOR DAZ STUDIO?Never be afraid to ask anyone for help, we were all beginners at one time or another.Go head first in and learn what you can, go to forums, YouTube or whatever places you can access.Don't ever give up, even when you find you're stuck just keep at it, it takes blood sweat Don't ever give up, even when you find you're stuck just keep at it, it takes blood sweat and tears to make a product at times but never ever give up on what you love.

WHICH 3 ARE YOUR PERSONAL FAVOURITES OF YOUR OWN PRODUCTS?This is yet another difficult one to answer as I do love all the products I make but I have a soft spot for some.Again though, it is hard, I have some coming up which I am totally in love with so you will have to wait for those.


http://www.daz3d.com/ozichick

CAN YOU GIVE US A HINT OF WHAT IS TO COME? Ohhhh maybe LOL, Some new characters and clothing are in the works so hopefully they will be available soon.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU WHEN CREATING A NEW PRODUCT?Making sure it’s of the highest quality and unique.When I have an idea I generally look When I have an idea I generally look to see if it has been done, most of the time it hasn't so that is a bonus.But as for modelling, I am still learning so most of my ideas for clothing go to other PA's until of course I can model on my own, one day lol.

HOW HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLES ARTWORK MADE WITH YOUR PRODUCTS?I love it, although in saying that I don’t see a lot of it at all, but when I do see it I am like WOW.I love seeing the different ways a I love seeing the different ways a product is used, I would love to see many more, I save everyone I see


Introducing The Country Garden Fountains. They are part of a fundraiser to help PandyGirl (Adria Kuntze) raise funds for more emergency dental surgery.

This pack is for purchase through said fund-raiser. For donating a minimum amount of $5 dollars to https://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/emergency-dental-for-adria/279330

You will recieve this pack.

All you have to do is msg Adria on Facebook https://wwhttps://www.facebook.com/adria.kuntze letting her know you donated and a link will be provided where you can pick either a Poser version or DAZ Studio Version or both.

We are trying to raise at least 7-9k to help her get her teeth taken care of before the gum disease eats away all of the bone in her jaw.

RAISERFUND

All competition submissions are to be sent to:[email protected]

All submissions must be new artwork and must not have been dis-played online beforeImages can be either portrait or landscape Deadline is 23:59 UTC on the 22nd of January-15For full prize Information and for full term’s and conditions visit our Facebook group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/dazcreative/

COMPETITION TIMEE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE THE INCREDIBLEIS MUNDANE, THE MIRACULOUS COMMON-

PLACE. IRONMAN AND BATMAN, SUPERMAN AND THOR. GODS AND HEROES, DEMONS AND VILLAINS.

THE WORLD NEEDS PROTECTORS, AS THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE OR SOMETHING THAT IT WILL NEED TO BE PROTECTED FROM. AND THIS, DEAR READER, IS WHERE YOU COME IN.

WE NEED YOUR HEROES, WE NEED YOUR VILLAINS, FOR THIS OUR SUPER HEROES AND VILLAINS COMPETITION.

SSEND US YOUR IMAGES OF YOUR HEROES OR VILLAINS, INCLUDING A SHORT BIO WITH THEIR SECRET IDENTITY, WHAT THEIR POWERS ARE AND HOW THEY CAME TO POSSESS THEM (MUTATION, EXPERIMENTATION, ALIEN BIOLOGY, ETC).

W


SUPERHEROES&

VILLAINS

“Some renders just seem to draw you in immedi-ately and make you just stare in awe at the compo-sition of the scene. ”

LET’S SEE A SHOT USING THE ROT:

NOW LET’S SEE A SHOT WHERE ROT ISN’T APPLIED:

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines of the grid, your photo become more balanced, and it’s been proven that when people are viewing images their eyes usually go to one of the intersection points, rather than to the center of the shot.

Now with the grid in mind, the ROT identifies the 4 important parts of the image, showing where you should consider placing your points of interest in as you frame your shot, where the lines intersect, plus the image shows that we focus more on certain intersections.

Greetings!ItIts your friendly neighborhood DAZ newbie Sanyel here, bringing you, our awesome readers, some info that we at DS Creative hope will be of some good use. We all know that you can use DAZ to create some pretty kick ass art. But do you know why some artists work draws you in more than others? Well while all artists are talented in their own special way, some renders just seem to draw you in immediately and makmake you just stare in awe at the composition of the scene and how everything in that particular scene works so well. Those particular works tend to follow a very special rule, one that all DAZ users, both new and old, should have at least a basic understanding of.That special rule is known as the Rule of Thirds (ROT).Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert on this subject, I'm learning more about this topic with every render I create, and practice makes perfect!So let’s begin shall we?Firstly, the ROT is one of the first things new photographers learn as a basis for well balanced shots and if it works for them then it will work for us also.HavHave you ever seen a movie or a scene where a photographer holds up their fingers to seemly frame a subject they are interested in taking a picture of?They’re following a basic ROT principle, where they imagine breaking down the image into thirds (both vertically and horizontally) so that they will have 9 parts.This is what it looks like:

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE RULE OF THIRDSWHY DO THIRDS RULE


HORIZON ON THE LOWER THIRD LINE

“Rules ARE made to be broken,

(ok, SOME rules are made to be broken).”

Now when it comes to using the ROT in landscape shots, a good technique is to position horizons along one of the horizontal lines, such as we can see below. DADAZ Studio can help with composition and the rule of thirds by providing you with a built in thirds grid it’s hidden away by default, but if you click the view icon in the top right corner of the viewport and select “Show thirds guide” then DAZ will overlay a ROT guide over the viewport ready to assist you in your composition.

LearningLearning the rule of thirds is a process; it comes naturally to some artists but with everything that is worth learning, time and practice will make it right for you. While learning the ROT, don’t forget to ask yourself some pretty important questions: What are the points of interest in this shot? Where am I placing my subjects?

AlsoAlso, rules ARE made to be broken, (ok, SOME rules are made to be broken) but a firm foundation and understanding is essential before attempting to break them. Practice using the ROT on some of your art, then try more unbalanced shots to see what you get. The possibilities are endless!

WWell, that’s it for me. For more information on the ROT, a simple Google search will bring about a treasure trove of information. While Wiki isn’t a creditable source (because anyone can change it) it’s good for gaining knowledge, then going to other sites. I got my research from an article written by Darren Rowe on the Digital Photography School website. I hope this article was informative!


REST HOME

ALWAYS IN THE WOODS


creativeds

creative

UNTITLED

ALWAYS IN THE WOODSKevin Stamper

USA

REST HOMETotte AlmSweden

UNTITLEDUNTITLEDMarkus BaGermany


MOONLIGHT PRAYER

MOONLIGHT PRAYERMario HeyerGermany

PLUM TIREDWilliam FarrarUSA

NEW SHERIFF IN TOWNNEW SHERIFF IN TOWNMarcius HessBrazil

Gallery

creativeds

creative


NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN

PLUM TIRED


creativeds

creative

POSERPOSERChristopher HaigoodUSA

UNTITLEDLaura Hancock

ENTICINGFantail451Fantail451


UNTITLED

ENTICINGDS CREATIVE MAGAZINE • January 2015 • 67

creativeds

creative

DECORATING

DECORATINGTheresa HerlockerUSA

HIGH LADIES OF LITTLE AVALONKat TheriaultUSA

MAY LUMAY LUHenry PolisUSA


MAY LU

HIGH LADIES OF LITTLE AVALON


creativeds

creative

LAMIA X LYMERA

LAMIA X LYMERAKalinaj SindwellerRomania

THE MEETINGRichard GastonUSA

YOU WIN SOMEYOU WIN SOMEBowskiUK

Gallery70 • January 2015 • DS CREATIVE MAGAZINE

YOU WIN SOME

THE MEETING


TestedTested

DS 4.7

STUDIOSTUDIODAZDAZ

So on the File menu I go to "Save As/Materi-al(s) Preset" and this will be saved in my materials folder. Now with that material saved it's on to the next one,one, so back into the Surfaces tab, adjust the texture files and then I repeat the save materi-als preset procedure to save my second material preset. I repeat repeat this process for each material preset I wish to create.

When you click save DAZ gives you a dialog box of options but unless you wish to make specific settings you can just click accept.Congratulations you have just saved your prop! NowNow if you have multiple material options then we need to save our material preset.To begin, I am going to save the material setting I already have on my prop, then I will save my material presets in a subfolder inside my props folder.So my material presets will be in:Props/PGTDesign/Magazine/Materials.

As this is just a simple prop, we want to save it as a Figure/Prop Asset.So on the file menu we go to: "Save As/Support Asset/Fig-ure/Prop Assets." Now we can save this ideally in a subfolder within the Props folder, but since DAZ Studio is pretty forgiv-ing when comes to where we wish to saveI saved mine in Props/PGTDesign/Magazine.

The next step is to set up our surfaces. With my mesh selected I head into the surfaces tab, and one at a time I add the various texture files to their relevant surfaces after adding glossiness, specularity and any other settings I require. I have my initial prop created now it's time to save it!

Now it's time to import our .Obj file, so choose Import from the file menu and locate your mesh.Because of the differences between modelling packages you may need to adjust the scaling in the import dialog, but for me the desired scale is 30% and onceonce I click OK DAZ will import my mesh.

Firstly we are going to need a mesh. Here I am going to use a free model of a magazine that I got as a 3Ds file which I then converted to a .obj file. There are many programs that can convert to .obj files or save as .obj if you are feeling really creative and decide to model something yourself.MyMy magazine model also has 6 texture files, but because I want one material preset for each issue I actually have 21 files as I will be creating 6 material presets.So I have to place my texture files in a folder inside the runtime textures folder. For this project my textures are in: "Runtime/Textures/PGTDesign/Magazine."

ver wondered how to get a created or converted .Objfile into DAZ Studio, get it saved as a prop and maybe

even set it up with some different material presets?

Well good news! It's not actually that hard to do, so lets walk through it.

E

FROM OBJ TO PROPAnd beyond


CASTERKALINAJ SINDWELLER

CONTRIBUTORS


THE TEAM

Camilla DrakenborgPhil ThompsonMatt AllgoodTotte AlmSanyel JacksonBobbie Brundon JeffreyBobbie Brundon JeffreySamir Rouabhi DeleuzeGavin Wynford Jones

IMAGE CONTRIBUTORS

Kevin StamperKim FrickLaMuserieLaura HancockMarcius HessMarcos PrietoMarcos PrietoMario HeyerMarkus BaMary VanAsscheMavrosh StratiotisPenelope ChaputPhil ThompsonRichard GastonRichard GastonSandra BauserSzark BWCTheresa HerlockerTina LouiseTotte AlmVicki LeversedgeWilliam FarrarWilliam Farrar

IMAGE CONTRIBUTORS

Ashley WallaceAstuce ManBellatryx NoirBowskiCamilla DrakenborgCenturion WallsCenturion WallsCharles McDonaldChristopher HaigoodChristopher MarsonDavid WarrenDebbie GoreckeEdwing MunozElle WalbyElle WalbyErik WinboFantail451Henrico VisserHenry PolisJefferson FerreiraKalinaj SindwellerKat TheriaultKat Theriault

FREE GIFT CONTRIBUTORS

Adam ThwaitesOziChick

TUTORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

Design AnvilPhil ThompsonSamir Rouabhi DeleuzeSanyel Jackson

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