Uzobono's Lessons :).

[Uzobono]

Hi all, I've been a *shortime* fan (I should be knocked silly for *not* knowing this place existed >.<) and mostly been pawing through the free stuff so far!

Anyways my future goal is to be a regular contributor to MCComix, *but* in the meantime...I have a loooong way to go. I've recently purchased Daz Studio and Poser (though models are trickier o.o) and hoping to have something done in a few weeks time.

In the meantime....does anyone know any useful tutorials/tips/models (hopefully free?) that I can use to start out with?

I'm fairly proficient in 3DSMax so I'd have no trouble modeling my *own* stuff (except figures, yeesh).

[Uzobono]

Well, started on the ever frustrating Poser >.<. I made a small thumbnail of the cover I wanted to make, and here I go...

[Uzobono]

More Poser learning today (grr frustrating!) but I did manage to whip up the starter model of the enslavement device of "The Division" .

[sohta123]

Wow! I can't wait to see the finished product.

[Uzobono]

Thanks ! I finished *most* of the chair today (now for textures!)..now a Poser test and to see if I can figure out how to put a character on it :/.

Edit: Posed a character, but poor results .

[finister]

Very cool model!!

The 'Pro' versions of Poser can import 3ds models.. not sure about 3dsmax version models.

Fantastic work on the contraption!

[Uzobono]

Thanks finister! That's what I did with this model yes (imported as an obj).

I've really hit a wall with Poser though, I can't seem to load anything I've downloaded with success and posing V4 is extremely aggravating at the moment. Going to give Daz a shot .

[Uzobono]

Well today I figured out a *little* bit more Poser and modeled a conversion chamber (a *little* inspired by Convert Another)

edit: Finally figured out Poser! (I think....)

[MindChanger]

Doing great there, Uzobono.

You can try to check out the daz 4 pro also, as an alternative to poser, they released it for free lately and people tend to be pleased with that software.

Keep up the good work, maybe one of our writers will be needing another artist soon

MindChanger

[Mr. Cryptic]

When I first started doing this, I started with Poser 7 (which I'm still using). Poser 7 comes with figures, but I quickly decided for my female characters (~97% or why I'm doing this )I wanted to get DAZ's Victoria since it just seemed like I could do more with her. I spent around $100 to get the big bundle (and DAZ Platinum membership). I don't usually spend that much at one time on runtime, (in the last year and a half I've hardly bought any new runtime. I have no spare money, and I can usually work with what I already have).

I wasn't sure whether to get V3 and focus on her, or start with the very brand new V4. I started rendering at almost the exact same time V4 debuted, by coincidence. V3 was very well established and had (and has) so many accessories available, so I thought maybe I should choose her. But, I figured it made more sense for someone just getting started to start with the newest model. In retrospect that was a good decision, since V4 is as well supported now as V3 was when I started rendering. Now that I've been doing this for several years with V4, I'm not going to switch to V5 anytime soon, just like the V3 artists I admire so much have frequently not switched to V4. So, if I was a new artist, I would start with a newer figure, and get in on the ground floor with something like VIctoria 5 or this Genesis figure that DAZ offers now. I'm not specifically recommending those since I know zero about them (switching away from V4 is just not an option for me right now). I would assume based on my experiences with V4, and waht other artists have done with V3, that V5 will be really good too. I'd read up on what artists think about V5 and Genesis. The female characters are 95% of what we're doing, so it's kind of a big choice which figure you specialize in.

For myself, I use V4 for all of my female characters. DAZ offers a Stephanie figure designed for more petite women (Victoria is suppoosed to be around 5'9", is my understanding). However, to vary the height of my characters, I simply change their overall scale (e.g. Ishtar is 100% (5'9"), Brickhouse is I think 90% (about 5'2"), the new American Goddess is I think 88% (about 5'). I know that as human height increases, body shape usually changes too (e.g. head should be relatively smaller, etc.), but just changing the scale seems to be good enough, and having to work with multiple figures would just make the work of setting up a scene a lot less efficient.

Something I learned from FInister is, it really pays off to use a photo editor like Photoshop or Corel Paintshop Pro to clean up the errors (mainly pokethroughs) in your renders. I had figured photo editors were mainly for adding word balloons. However, it might take you an hour to get a bra to fit just right so that there in no pokethrough, without the bra hovering off of the skin. But with a photo editor, you can fix small pokethroughs in just seconds using a clone brush or similar tool. I don't think there's any need to buy the full feature photo editors that cost maybe $500 or more (e.g. the full version of Photoshop). You can get Photoshop Elements for less than $100, and I think that would give you what you need. I bought Corel Paintshop Pro when it was on an after-Christimas sale (I don't remember exactly, but I spend significantly less than $100 for it). Uroboros said he uses Corel, and if it was good enough for him it was good enough for me .

[Mr. Cryptic]

I wrote my last post without actually reading what came before.

For posing, I have found buying and using premade poses to be very helpful, and almost always use them to get started. I rarely use a vendor made pose unmodified, however. I find premade similar to the pose I need, load it, then change it as needed. The part of the body that is in contact with the ground, chair etc. I usually don't change much, but I'll usually move the head to look at whetever they are supposed to be looking at, and move the hands to wherever is appropriate. That's a lot easier for me than making a new pose from scratch. You don' t spend a lot of money for hundreds of poses, but a few standing, a few sitting, a few walking, a few running poses are good. And of course, you can save any modified pose you make to your runtime to expand your library of starting poses.

I like to keep an eye out for pose sets on sale. I don't usually need any one particular pose, but having a bigger library to choose from is nice. I recently bought a set of V4 walking poses, because the V4 General Poses only has one or two walking poses, and I don't really know how to easily pose legs for walking so that it looks right.

[Mr. Cryptic]

Hi - One other note about you frustration...

When I first bought Poser 7, it was because I had been spending by entertainment money on computer games, mainly role-playing games. I realized what I really wanted to was make stories about characters, not play characters in a game. I figured Poser was about the cost of five PC games, but I would get a lot more out if it.

When I started working with Power, it was fun, but also frustrating. I would go through long periods where I more interested in playing games than in rendering. But as I became able to do more things more easily (and also acquired better runtime, as I discovered where I needed it), it got to me more and more fun. Now I sometimes think about buying a game, or joining an online game, but I always come back to the realization that I'd rather have the creative freedom to make my own story, with art that is usually prettier than animated game characters.

So, my point is, as you get more practice, it will be more fun .

[Uzobono]

Thanks for the support! My alter ego is actually a modeler for a game company (that shall not be named ;D) so I have a ton of experience *modeling* but almost none in animation/rendering or anything outside of modeling stuff .I've been hounding Finister and Trishbot in order to figure out Poser. I did download Daz but it seems a little harder to use (or it's just I really haven't used it enough).

I spent quite a bit buying V4 elite + the morph++ (I think that was the elite bundle), the muscle pack, the V4 bodysuit and a whole lot of freebies, though it still seems I need *tons* of material to get to the quality you guys are producing.

I'm trying to put together my free comic here...and I've got one character almost done (kind of, still needs a "personailty" if I can figure out face morphs. But every time I do figure something out another wall seems to form .

For example, currently I'm working on this texture....and I wanted it to look a little shiny (plastic/latex) but when I a latex material on and replace the diffuse with my texture..I get this..

(the first is my default texture on the V4 bodysuit, the second one is the latex material that went wrong)

[Uzobono]

I wanted to post this in the free area but I can't figure out *quite* how to do it. So here it goes .

[Northern Chill]

Nice work, Uzobono!!

If you're looking to create a number of mc themed pieces of art and want to post em in the free galleries, send Dr. Robo a PM outlying what you're looking to do and such.

Good luck learning the ins and outs of Poser/DAZ...I'm strictly a writer but I would suggest checking the usual places for freebies and such. Oh, and I understand from the artists here that boots on 3D figures can be a real pain at times...be forewarned...

Northern Chill