Ron's Vintage Backgrounds and Overlays
mlolya
Posts: 35
Recently purchased [Ron's Vintage Backgrounds and Overlays] this product, which looks like it would be a great addition to my work, but I installed it and have no idea where it is and how to acess it or use it. Naturally there are no instructions whatsoever about how this product is used and of course Daz provides no means of contacting the creator, or at least I've never found a way.
Does anyone know where this product can be found in the content library and how to use it. Based on the product page I assumed that it would be easy to simpply load a background or overlay to my image, but so far I haven't been able to find anything.
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Comments
what you paid for are just jpg. Images. Nothing more. That's in the description.
It says... 2 for 1 deal... if YOU invert the image in Photoshop.
There's nothing you can load in 1 click in Daz. You have to create your own plane, with the same dimensions as the image. And texture the plane by yourself.
I could be wrong as I don't have the bundle. But the product's details seem clear enough to me. Although sold on the DAZ store (???) what you get are just pictures...
First thing to install on Windows : Voidtools Everything.
It indexes all your hard drives in the blink of an eye. Then you organize the indexation by modified date (or Created date). And Install your DAZ bundle.
The created files will appear in Everything at the top of the list. Because they've just been created during installation.
This way you'll never wonder where is what anymore.
Most of Ron's (Deviney's) products are for use in Photoshop, or usually any comparable image editor though you will need to specify a location for Photoshop in Install Manager if you want to install through that - they will usually go in a sub-folder of the folder you choose for the application.
I understand that the product provides 40 jpg images, what I didn't realise is that these images cannot be used in Daz. I have purchesed other 'backgrounds' here that are simply loaded in Daz as a backgroud in a Daz creation and I assumed these were the same kind of thing. It would have been nice if there was some sort of indication that altough these were being sold on Daz they couldn't be used in Daz. I wouldn't have wasted $18.95 if there was a little more explaination.
Remember that background isn't hdri. The product does give a complete description of what it is:
What's Included and Features
You can load a primitive plane, rotate it in the Parameter setting 90 degrees in the x axis and move it back in the z axis. Load the appropriate jpeg in the Surface tab, make glossy black, load the image in the emission channel and make it's color a dark grey. Add DOF and render.
I did that here with a different jpeg:
I understand that this is my own fault for not being knowledgeable about what can and cannot be used is a Daz creation. The product clearly states what it is. I was just working on the assumtion that if a product said it was a background that it could be used as a backgroud in Daz Studios. My mistake. I'm sure it's a great product for what it is.
You can also load the plane with Z Positive as the axis and it won't need rotatiing.
I don't own that product, but you should be able to load any JPG image as a background in Daz Studio, including those. You do so in the Environment pane (Not the Render Settings Environment section). If you don't have the Environment pane in your layout, go to menu Window/Panes (Tabs)/Environment to load it. In the Environment pane, change the Type from None to Backdrop. Then in the Background section, click the little square and select Browse. Navigate to the place where the JPG images are stored and select one. It should now appear in your viewport as a background. If your viewport aspect ratio is not the same as the JGP image, your background may appear squished in the viewport. You can change the viewport aspect ratio to match the background image if the squishing is not acceptable. Use the Environment pane's context menu ("hamburger" menu) to do that.
I made some screenshots for you, but the forum will not let me upload them now. The forum has been broken like that, off and on, for days. I'll try later. Edit: Screenshots are uploading again. I attached them.
You can submit a help request and ask for a refund within 30 days of purchase, if you don't want to keep the product.
Here is a quick look of using one of the jpg's as a background in the render pane/environment pane:
HOLY MACARONI!! That works!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do all that! You've opened a whole new world for me. I tend to do the same thing all the time in Daz. I've become comfortable with the tools I know and tend to avoid trying new stuff. As a result there is so much still to learn even after having used the program for so long. Thanks for teaching me!
There are some corollaries or additional twists here - like rendering WITHOUT a backdrop - you can use a suitable image editor to mate up the main object as a layer with "nothing" behind it, with various different backgrounds. Experiment a bit to realize the best composition and relative sizes for what you want, or for what looks best.
If you use a JPEG on a backdrop plane in D|S that plane may optionally take a shadow (or shadows) cast by objects in front of it. Or not. And if you render your main figure(s) or objects without a background you can go to your image editor add a drop shadow or glow or other edging to accentuate certain things. Or the edges of the main forward object(s) could have a different degree of blur/lack of focus, relative to the background.
Rotating or sliding the backdrop plane (or "curving" it if it has morphs, or you can "bend" an .OBJ file in Hexagon) allows further distortions. And the main stuff can have a different tint relative to the backdrop, and vice-versa.
It's also wise to save to disk in stages; I've encountered a thing where if I touch or alter the backdrop in any way in D|S, from that moment onwards I lose all of my ability to render without a background. To go back to "transparency" as an option I've got to re-load my "untouched" version of the scene. I'm not sure why that is.