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Not if they are nonstandard shaders. (You can do that with geoshells, though that has some quirks that lead me to creating Blendy)
With Iray Uber shader, the shader can activate different options depending on selection, like Metallicity vs. Specular/Glossiness, and Top Coat: Reflectivity, Fresnel, Weighted, Custom Curve. Other components, like Emission, are shut off when not used. By shut off, this basically means the code for it is removed when the shader goes to the renderer, allowing it to render, I believe, slightly faster.
Custom shaders generally don't have that flexibility. So Blendy is locked to Metallicity and Top Coat: Fresnel.
The special thing that Blendy does is it adds an additional parameter for a number of things, like the base color; there's now Base Color and Base Color 2.
Base Color is now part of 'first layer' and Base Color 2 is part of a 'second layer.'
Then there's a black and white Blend Mask which tells the shader which layer dominates; where the mask is white, it uses the values for the first layer. Where the mask is black, it uses the values for the second layer.
Then there are some handy things to manage the mask; Invert Blend to easily invert the mask, Blend Sharpness which takes the values and raises them to a power, which can blur out the mask or sharpen it, depending on values. (Note that if you 'blur' it by using values lower than 1, the image resolution may come into play; you might want to use a 16 bit mask if you are doing this)
So, for example, in this promo:
There is an included preset mask for Genesis 8 male that paints in around the eyes. In this example, one layer is black, so it shows wherever the mask says.
But you could use different stuff. The black could, instead, be plaid. Or a dirt pattern. Or rust. Or small pictures of monkeys.
Or you could make the layer around the eyes glow:
Got it yesterday.
It's great to creat new coats for dogs (or other animals) like dalmatian or spots.
Oh yeah! One of the strengths is that you can yoke back on the blend, so you can have subtle or dramatic spots.
Also good for dust/dirt/blood
Is the user able to create additional preset masks for use with the utility? (Forgive me, still very new and have significant room for growth in understanding the settings for surfaces.) Are the mapped presets a option in the settings that allow me to select a different b/w created file as a mask? I bought it, just haven't had time to try it yet.
The mask is just a grayscale image, like you have for cutout opacity and many other parameters. You can use anything, really.
There are presets you can click on in the product directory to apply different masks.
I heartily encourage users to come up with or adapt masks of their own. For example, with the centaur above, I just used the transparency map that Centaur 7 uses for the geoshells as a Blend Mask instead.
There are free/cheap 3d paint programs, or you can try to create masks in Photoshop (or GIMP or Paint). It can be tricky depending on what you are trying to do, but if you add an existing texture as a layer reference, you can do a number of cool effects.
For example, the 'weird forehead sigil' mask preset is just something created in FilterForge and plopped in roughly the right spot in Photoshop (though I had to move it a few times until it was in a spot I liked)
well..i bought it, but I'm so lost i think it might be a return. i find i know nothing of iray, shaders, structure, or all the stuff you talking about. guess its a learning opportunity.... where to start really?
There's documentation for Iray that may help:
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/surfaces/shaders/iray_uber_shader/start
I purchased this product and can't figure out how to use it. I read the PDF, it describes what the product does, but it doesn't contain any step by step instructions as to how to actually use it. I think the instructions assume knowlege I don't seem to have. Perhaps it's above my skill level. I may have to return it, but I'm not giving up just yet.
Image removed
The product can be used on anything from Genesis 8 Male figure to dragons to large churches, so there's not one focused step by step instructions.
But if you are applying it to a figure, the biggie would be to make sure Blend Mask is set properly for whatever you are doing.
For bodies, best approach:
Select all the skin (first four templates in 'default templates' is easiest), apply Oso Blendy.
Now select the proper area you want to apply a mask, like 'arms and fingernails', and then apply the appropriate preset for the mask, like Gloves or Right/Left Glove.
In the above example (which looks like it will be removed for nudity), it looks like you applied the gloves preset to the entire surface.
Or you can set Blend Mask to something else, like checkerboards or whatever.
you have gotten much farther than me
thanks...i just watched a video on this..vague, but this will round it all out pretty nicely. Need to just plug in nodes and see what they do. then I'll try Blendy ... I like the things that can be done with it a lot... jus tneed to learn the mechanics.
I could see this working on some wings !!!
The most obvious uses, imo:
Using an AO or curvature map to create a variable (with Blend Sharpness and altering the Blend Mask overall weight) dirty crevices, rust, worn edges, and similar.
Random dust/grime/dirt over a surface
Weird skin transitions (using presets), zombies, mages, etc.
Mixed form transitions, like centaurs and mermaids. Right now a lot of such products must choose between blending the materials directly, which limits you to whatever provided skins are provided, or geoshell overlays, which works decently but geoshells can be tricky (they can clip through clothing or worn items, it's more geometry to render).
More functional 'I have two types of materials that I want arranged differently for doors/windows/walls/etc'
Yeah... I think this is going to be a return. I thought it’d be useful for something I wanted to do (seeing as Zev0 will never make a skin builder for male characters), but between super vague documentation and just how overwhelming it is... :T
The concept is great, though!
I wish I could return it to for similar reasons, unfortunately it was used to get the disount on the gift card which can't be returned. I can't even seem to get the presets to look like they do in the icons.
Mask presets:
Select the appropriate body surfaces (like Arms).
Click one of the presets for that surface (like Gloves).
That sets the mask right, now it's just a matter of choosing what the second layer looks like. You can click the Tattoo preset, which sets the second layer to a sort of unsaturated blue.
To get a look more like the promos, change Base Color 2 to a darker color.
That is exactly what I was doing, after trying to figure it out I've discovered that with the Torso Presets the Invert Blend needs to be turned to OFF to get the correct result.
I don't know if you meant to leave it to ON if you did it gives rather unsatisfactory results and is confusing for the user.
On or off is a matter of taste and which way you want the gradient to go.
I understand that it can be used either way its just that the Torso Preset is set to On and the results look nothing like the icon, it is this that has had me confused and ready to return the product.
Can we get the link to your PDF fixed. That may help answer some questions.
The store should fix the link, but this should be the document:
http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/56555/56555_osoblendytwolayershaderforiray.pdf
Will, is there a way to change the colour of the glowing eyes (loads as yellow) - I've tried tweaking any colours I can see in the surface parameters but can't work out how to change it to (say) red or blue. Help!?
By the way, like scorpio I noticed that some of the masks do load the opposite way to the thumbnails - easy enough to flip but a little perplexing.
The yellow color comes from emisson temperature; Emission Color 2 is set to white, then Emission Temperature set to 2500, giving it a temp-based color.
You can change temperature, to change within range of heat-based colors. Or you can set temp to 0 and change Emission Color 2 to whichever color you want.
(This is generally how emission works in Iray surfaces)
Ah, I forgot about emission temperature! Thanks for pointing out the obvious!
By the way, I'm having a lot of fun trying out various maps to put "tattoos" on my men...
OK this is what I did - I loaded the genesis 8 female. Then with G8 female selected I clicked on the half white - half black sphere icon (a red arrow points to it). Then I selected her arms on the surfaces tab. Then I selected 'G8F Gloves Mask (highlighted in yellow). The second image shows what I wound up with. What went wrong?
First, you only have to apply blendy to the arms, but this is ok.
I’m guessing the red is Layer 2. So for most of the body you can either set Blend weight to 0 or hit Invert Blend.
As for the arms, it depends on what you want; do you want the hands to be skin or layer 2? If you like it as is, done. If you want the hands to be skin, toggle Invert Blend.
You can apply tattoo or glow or gold to set the second layer, or set your own values.
@Oso3D
Does the first layer not tile independently of the blend mask? I tried to set up a brick wall with tiling (layer 1) and then a moss layer with tiling (layer 2). I used a simple gradient mask I had as a test. When I tiled the second layer, the moss layer, it tiled correctly and the moss was kept to the masked area. When I tiled the first layer though, the brick, it also tiles the mask.
In a response earlier in this thread to someone elses question about tiling you stated "You can tile the layers independently, sure!" I assumed this to mean the mask would be independent of the tiling of either layer. Is this not correct? Am I missing something?
Here is the example output when I tried to tile both layers. The brick texture is the first layer, which I tiled 5 times, hence the five sections of the gradient mask.
There are two Tiling parameters:
Horizontal and Vertical Tiling, Offset. This is tied to Layer 1 and Blend map
Horizontal and Vertical Tiling 2, Offset 2. This is tied to Layer 2.
No, the Blend map is not independent of both; I had to pick one or the other and it made sense to me to link it to the first (rather than have a THIRD set of parameters).
If you need to, you can go into image editor for the blend mask and change the tiling there.
Sorry about the confusion!
OK I got this far. So far so good, but I don't know apply another shader to the masked area. The instructions say ---" If you copy/paste a shader into Oso Blendy, the contents of the shader will appear in the first/default layer." I think I understand how to copy a shader, but how do you paste it? Where do you paste it?
Image removed - please clothe the figure or use soemthing in the sceen to obscure the groin and chest
Right click on the surface entry and it should be the option directly under Copy