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
Learning a lot about snake scales. ;)
Did you know scales are translucent white, with a blue-scattering effect? The color comes from the skin underneath. So green scales are actually yellow skin + blue scattering, which is one reason they have such intense hues.
So now, of course, I'm making myself nuts trying to figure out if I can capture that effect...
Also on many snakes there are visible gaps between scales, where the underlying skin shows:
I'm thinking of also having a morph to 'fold' back the eyeteeth fangs to more capture the effect of pit viper fangs (they can fold back independently, huh). I'm increasingly thinking I need to create my own 'forked tongue' effect to capture the look of the tongue tines, too. I may also try to create a hood morph.
Maybe some day I'll try to capture the skin of these guys:
(There are a wide variety of snakes like this with wild color patterns)
Another thing:
Vipers typically have 'keeled' scales, like the last image -- somewhat pointed scales with a raised line down the middle. Boas/pythons tend to have smooth diamond-shaped scales.
Wow! That purple guy looks like an alien! lol So cool!
It's awesome the wonderful diversity, even in the same species, that we have on this planet. Even us humans have such amazing diversity. The tallest person on record was 8 ft 11.1 inches tall. Nearly NINE FEET tall! Wow! And the shortest man was less than TWO FEET tall! One of the skinniest people alive is a 24 year old 6 foot 3 Brit who weighs only 66 pounds. One of the fattest people alive is a 6 ft 1 Mexican who weighs 1,100 pounds. Species diversity is incredible.
Thanks for the info about the scales. I had no idea that they were translucent and only colored because of the color of the skin underneath mixing with the blue-scatter color. That's really neat!
Also, most snakes can't blink but rather have a specialized transparent scale over each eye. Huh
Ooo. I THINK I figured out a way to make snake textures that can also work for legged dragons. (Wings are a no-go, alas, other than with a shell)
Making progress.
My viper head, wyrm body, thin tongue. The head is then further shaped using the https://www.daz3d.com/daz-dragon-3-morphs
(I'm probably going to rename Viper Head as Snake Head and then use the existing morphs to push it toward various vipers and boas)
Have you tried the Bone and Scale shaders sold here: https://www.daz3d.com/bone-and-fantasy-scale-iray-shaders
Or are they not realistic enough? :)
They are great, but not a merchant resource, so...
Ahhh True that.
Wait ...is that a render? If so that looks AWESOME! Well done!
Yep!
Right now I have about 3 different scale types, planning on having a few for each type.
I just need to work out a 'boa/python head' dial and I should be ready to pitch it.
Wow! VERY cool! You're getting so good at this!
Make that two scale types. One wasn't really panning out. ;)
It's been a lot of make and break as I basically build the road under me.
I'm looking forward to seeing them! I think this is going to be a winner product.
I have some other kooky dragon ideas (for other projects).
I was struck with the idea of transforming a dragon into a pterosaur... I could modify the wing _somewhat_, but it falls apart with the legs; pterosaur wings extend down the leg, and there's a bit from the leg to the tail. That would require... rather a lot of finesse.
I might try to incorporate something _sorta_ like it in the future, who knows.
(I also am struck with seeing if I can modify the wings to be like fairy wings, for pixie dragons or whatnot)
Pixie Dragons! DAWWW That would be awesome! And bonus: Cute definitely sells! :)
And, again, 3DL. This time with the keeled scales; vipers typically have keeled scales, which is to say having a raised centerline. I have skins for keeled scales, diamond, and fishscale.
Also working on poses. Which is challenging because dragons have probably 1/3 the number of bones they 'should' have to properly twist and turn.
You know, poking at doing faery wings, I have to say that the good old Universal Back Wings work just fine ( https://www.daz3d.com/v4-creature-wings )
I had some ideas on how to edit wings to get them to look like, say, butterfly wings, but it's just easier to add new wings on a wingless dragon. Which I might do at some point. mmm.
The snake/dragon is looking good. I wouldn't have thought it was rendered in 3Delight.
3DL is honestly capable of some amazing things, if you know what you are doing. It's just ... finicky.
One of the big perks is that it handles displacement WAY better.
Also, poking at universal back wings some more, it could really use an update, so that's back in my thoughts. ;) It uses 4000x4000 image maps, which is great, except the actual images are small and packed in so are effectively fairly low resolution.
One project idea I've been kicking around is basically bio 'parts,' like wings, eyes, etc that can be added to ... any figure.
I love scales. I know, I'm weird lol. Yours are coming along beautifullly, they are some of the most realistic ones I have seen
Wow, I regard that as fine praise! Thank you.
I wonder if Daz will actually accept Genesis 2 or Genesis 1 stuff. Hmm.
Among other things, most of my texturing tools just can't deal with UDIM.
Thankfully, a lot of other stuff, like dragons and animals, have easier UV set ups to deal with.
Most welcome.
I guess all you can do is ask. I still use both - heck I buy stuff for V4 all the time.
Among the many (MANY) ideas I have for projects, one thing I'd love to do is an alien planet... complete with flora and fauna drawing from existing models.
So, like, Genesis figures for a bunch of things, then Daz Horse 2 for a bunch of others, maybe AM's squirrel, MilDog, MilCat...
Well, sent it in. Fingers crossed.
I think the next thing I might work on is some modular insect wings. V4 was a long time ago, and I think it might be cool to have a higher resolution, modeled version of wings.
Edit: Hmm, looking at the store... there seems to already be a bunch of options for wings like that. Editx2: though most are fairly low resolution. hmm.
My fingers are crossed for you, as well.
And yeah, I think most of the wings in the store are a bit on the aged side and not very highly detailed or Iray ready (least the ones I've seen). Though I did see a couple of really nice angel type wings get released recently. I haven't seen like fairy wings, dragon wings, bat wings, dragonfly type wings, etc released since I started here about a year and a half ago. A highly detailed wing pack would be really neat, IMO. I'd love to see a bat or dragon type wing with like the thin membrane so that you can sort of see the veins and stuff beneath the skin. That would be really cool, I think.
BTW, how good are you at making textures? Like human skin textures? Do you know of any good tutorials on how to do that? Also, how good are you at like creature textures (like fur-ish type textures)? I need to either team up with a couple of really good texture artists (I'm already taking to someone who might be one of them) or I need to learn how to make better textures. It seams to be really hard (at least how I'm doing it), so I wonder if there is a good tutorial you can recommend?
Still catching up on the forums after a hiatus, so I'm just now coming across your snake study. Interesting stuff to follow along with - thanks for taking the time to post it, Will. Good luck with your submission!
- Greg
Diva: tolerable, I think, particularly if it's 'weird,' but I can only work with Genesis 2 and previous; Substance Painter 2 can't handle the UDIM format of G3 and G8
Here's a quick G2F experiment. Note that to do it 'right' would involve going through and carefully masking different densities of scales and maybe an underlying skin texture showing through in palms/belly or whatnot.
That's pretty cool. It would be very cool for the underlying skin texture, and maybe do that on her face as well so the scales sort of fade into a human skinned face. Those scales, though, really, seriously awesome, I really hope that they accept them!