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Sorry dHandle that is has been such a trying time for you. Don't know if this will help but here goes.
There are several different types of content structures. I will talk about two of them.
First Poser
Poser expects all of the content to be in a file folder called Runtime, Under Runtime there should be at least three folders, Geometries, Libraires, Textures, Their might be more, like python script folders, Poser Scene files, reflection maps and other things. The important thing to remember is that Studio can only see the first three I listed. Studio is blind to everything else with respect to identifying content. So Poser and Studio expect to see only obj or obz files in the Geometries directory. The next folder, Libraries, Poser and Studio expect to see files like cr2, hr2, lt2, cm2, p2z, pp2, hd2, fc2, and mc6(or 5) depending on the version of Poser the file was written to. For Poser and Studio each of these file types must go in their respective folders. Character, Hair, Light, Camera, Pose, Props, Hand, Face, Materials. You put a mc6 file in the character folder and Studio won't see it. The last folder is Textures and in here go bmp, jpg, png files.
Now Studio
Studio has its own file structure and can read and understand Poser structure. Studio file structure incorporates the Poser runtime structure. So in a Studio directory there are two required directories, data and Runtime. If you want to use the content then you will need to see folders like People, Props, Environments which contain duf, dsa, dsb. But if you wanted to you could just dump all these types of files into the root folder of your Studio content directory and Studio can sort everything out. To confuse you even more unlike Poser that says if there ain't no Runtime, there ain't no content. Studio does not care what you name the content directory. You just need to tell it where to look.
In conclusion on folder structure.
You must maintain the predefined Poser Runtime structure.
You must have a data and a Runtime folder in your Studio directory.
You can name your Studio directory anything you want.
You have to tell Studio what that directory is.
Thank you I will have a look at those when I get home later tonight or tomorrow
Well I have a couple of ideas for this months contest that I hope to start putting together this weekend. I have to go to my niece's football game tonight (marching band not on the football team lol). If I get home early enough will get started
This is help to get your content recognized within Studio and for you to find it.
So if you have followed all of the rules that I previously listed. You have named your Studio content directory something like My Library and under that you have Runtime and its required structure. You are now ready to set up Studio to see your content. Studio has many ways to see content. All of the ways or as I call them views are contained within a database. It is this database that you will have to help Studio create.
For Studio to create and maintain the database it has to be told where content is. This is done under the Content Directory Manger. It is here that you say look in this folder and this folder and this folder and so on and so on. So when you open the Content Directory Manager (while in the Content Library tab left click on the upper right corner arrow with 4 lines, select Content Directory Manager) you will see an unexpanded list of Content sets. The subsets are DAZ Studio, Poser and other. If you select the arrow and expand the subset list you can see where Studio will look when told to do a search. Key point DAZ Studio does not always refresh the database automatically. Just because you added content especially non-Smart Content does not mean that Studio will be aware of it existence. If you are using DIM then it stages Smart content information for you in readiness to import into the database when you want it. Review the list and add any directories that you have content within.
Have Studio search these places for new content. To do this, click on the upper right corner arrow and 4 lines and look for Content DB Maintenance. The options to do this are scan known locations or search hard drives. I use scan. I run this script every time I install new content. I stage the installation and usually put about 100 items in the content library at a time. Less tedious then doing it every time. I don't use Smart content but if you do, you should also select Process the Metadata queue (Only do this if you have unchecked the box "Show Metadata Import Page" under the Startup tab of Edit ->Preferences).
Now Studio is aware of your content. The database has been populated. The database has several views that Studio can access. One view is Smart Content. This view displays only content that has "meta data" associated with it. What this means is that the content records have been filled out for you and that the associated fields are filled that link a content product to another product. Like assigning a Genesis dress to Genesis. Most free content does not have meta data and none of the Poser only content has meta data so going to the Smart Content tab will not produce access to that content.
The next set of views are under the Content Library tab. You have the DAZ Studio Formats, the Poser Formats, Other Import Formats, Products and Categories.
The Products view is driven by meta data so it should look like what you see in the Smart Content tab but is content listed by product name view.
DAZ Studio and Poser Formats views show the folder structure for each type. For the Poser Formats the folder called Libraries is used. Inside Libraries are the predefined folders Poser knows contains content. You will see that list. If you put a .pp2 file in the Character folder, which should only contain cr2 or crz files, Poser will not see it nor will Studio. So this is where your Poser content will be seen. Nelly and Suki files will be located in this view.
If we were to go to the DAZ Studio Formats we will see everything that ends in a .duf, .dsa, or .dsb format. Studio does not look for content of certain types of files in specific named folders. It just looks for these file extensions. So however your Studio directory folder format looks that is what you will see when you click on DAZ Studio Formats.
The last view under the Content Library tab is the Categories view. This view is highly configurable. Everything, Poser files, Studio files and Smart Content are in this view. You can add, delete, rename, move, do all sorts of stuff. I think this is what Sonja11 was talking about when she said she customized her content. This is what I use to find my content. I am a freebie junkie, so I have 100's of Gigabits of content. Keeping it organized is very important to me. Categorization is a highly personal process, your brain does not function like my brain. I like to put my stuff this way you like to put your stuff that way. Both work because we both know how the system works and we are successful in finding our stuff. I can show you an example of what I do but do not take it as the right and only way.
After a scan is completed, Studio does not know where you want to put things. It creates a folder called Default. Inside the Default folder Studio creates a set of folders that are from the smart content records. It also creates a folder called Unassigned. This contains all of the content that does not have smart content. It is here that you will find Poser files and non-Smart Content Studio files
Studio now knows where all of the content on your computer resides. You can now decide where you want to put this information. You can create a new category, add the content to an existing category, add the content to several categories using either the right click on the folder name and duplicating the folder to a location in your category tree or by right clicking on the content file and choosing Categorization. Once you have done the categorization the information disappears from the Unassigned folder and shows up where you chose to put it.
Below is a screen cap of the structure of my V4 model resources. As you can see I have a folder called character that contains all of the character presets and morph packs for V4, a clothing folder that if you were to click on has folders for accessories, bodysuits, dresses, top and pants. Another folder for hair and below that folder are folders for short, medium, long, fantasy and updos. And lastly a folder for poses which has folders below identifying standing, sitting, mixed, partial and action. How you use the category view is all up to you and how you remember things. You could just as easily put things under creator names like Stonemason, AprilYSH. Nothing is wrong as long as you can find you stuff.
LOL. I sympathize with having to plow through the content system. Can be frustrating. But I also have a lot of fun rediscovering stuff I forgot i had, so it levels out.
Ninjette has been redressed, wardrobe malfunction fixed, and reflections amped up. The Samurai is next, I guess. My buddy Droid gets a new head, and some armor pieces at shoulder and hip. He'll only be seen as a reflection, so I just have to get the outline of his body to say "Samurai", I don't have to sweat any real detail. Then I have to kitbash a rooftop together, and I think we'll have a scene....
So, any advice on getting the suit nice and black, but still getting a high detail reflection? Would I be better off under a skydome, or using IRay's environment settings?
Is the reflection a reflection map or a "real" reflection of the scene around it?
Greetings! I need a ruling on the acceptability of the attached image. If it is suitable, would love some feedback. Thanks!
Hall of Stone, 18"x24"
From what I see you actually have some sky which is reflecting in the suit so the problem you have here is more one of lighting. What I would try is to get rid of the sky. She is in a box? if not put her in a box and make a good old doorframe setup for the samurai with light coming from behind him pointed at her.
If on the other had you actually have a reflection map make a different render of a samurai silhuhette maybe give it some more contrast in Gimp/photoshop... and put it up in the reflection map.
The nakidness shouldn't be a problem as these people are not in skin tones (that how I understood the ruels).
As for feedback there are two things in the stone that to me look irritating. This looks like a roght stone surface from what I get on the girls bodies but a rough surface would (to my limited experience) not work to give all the detailed folds of the guys skin, so I think you need to either smoothen the stone surface or smooth away some of the folds and let the roughness of the stone do the effect. Same is true for the sitting girls hair, standing girls hair works for me. Do you have a "raw Hair" for that? that might work better than the defined single strands.
The other thing is the two standing persons seem to be from the same stone with the same orientation, lying girl the orientation has changed. Problably the orientation always takes to zero position as basis, than you could expot the hole thing as object an reimport it and then put the shader on (never have done that myself so just guessing here), Otherwise think about giving the slightly different stone shaders to begin with.
Guten Tag Linwelly und danke sehr! I will experiment with your suggestions. I actually was going for a "rough" stone look, but will explore others. Ciao!
I agree with Linwelly on the direction of the grain. It should be more vertical on the standing figures and horizontal for the one lying on the floor.
Here is a website of stone sculptures. Most of the stone being used does not have any visible graining but some pieces do and as you can see the grain runs vertical.
http://www.thesculpturestudio.com/stone.html
I have no idea but this is super cool! LOVE the cats as the contrast of warm bodies against the cold stone. Great idea!
What are the rules on postwork for this contest? How much is going to be acceptable.
This is what I am working on. this is very very basic with minimal light. Just basically have all of the items in the scene. Not posed where I want them just yet. I did work a bit on her hair and her clothes, changed the colors of the outfit and put a texture on the dragon and his armour. But still in the very basic stages.
Others have already given good advice so I'll just give a personal opinion, so please feel free to ignore me.
I really like the concept. Good work there. The things I noticed about the statues are that the left woman's left foot is in the air and the right woman's left leg also seems to be that. I would think that a statue would have these parts connect to the ground for more stabilty. Perhaps even make a base for them to stand on? Or even have them "melt" into it to give a feeling it's all cut out from one block of stone. Also, the left cat's pose looks to me like it's sharpening its claws on the statue, which I doubt it would try to do on stone.
Sonja11, I like the concept you got going there. Looking forward to see how it shapes up.
As for my own project... After finally picking up all the pieces of my exploded brain I made this. I've used the lights that comes with the set (DM's Stones of Graith) which is four spotlights with different colours and the AtmoCam for Iray for the background atmosphere. I've adjusted the skin according to step 2 in this guide but haven't applied the water layer as that is not the look I'm going for. I also applied the emissive shader to the wings of the Mystikoi but that didn't seem to do much.
I need to do something about the hair, as it kind of looks like it's painted. Any other suggestions and tips are much appreciated. (Working in Iray)
(Seems my original render file was too large to attach, so this is a scaled down version)
Thanks DollyGirl!
This and your other post have been very helpful.
I have been using the DIM since I started. I don't seem to have too much trouble with content that I buy through the DAZ store. The trouble comes when I am supposed to load freebie content, like the stuff you wanted us to find for this project.
For example, the Kyoko hair for this project. I thought I it put it in the right folder, but when I went looking for it, I couldn't find it anywhere. (This happens a lot!) Part of the problem stems from artists who insist on locating files in folders with their name on it, or some other cute filename. You would think that Kyoko Hair would be found in a folder called Kyoko hair. It's not. You first have to somehow know or accidentally stumble on the folder with the artist's name. In this case, Kozaburo.
The backdrop is found in a folder named Fleshforge. At least the .obj with no textures or materials is. I have no idea where textures for that backdrop are.
If it's obvious that I'm still doing something wrong, please straighten me out! Looking through hundreds of folders for content is not my idea of enjoying this hobby at all!
Still, your explanation has given me hope that I may be able to make some headway. Someone mentioned they enjoyed finding products they had lost or forgot they had. HA! I know I have lost stuff. I will keep plugging away.
Thanks!
Thanks KA1,
The Hair is found under Poser Formats, in the Figures folder. (See attachment 1)
There is no Textures folder. (see attachment 2) (there was a textures folder when I unzipped it into the My DAZ 3D Library folder. Is this the right place to put it? Everything else seemed to go into the correct Poser folder.)
I looked in the Materials folder for Kyoko materials and for the artist's name...no joy.
: (
Ok...I went back and looked for the textures for the Simple Backdrop. Found them in the Props folder in the Fleshforge folder. Why would these not be in the textures or materials folder?
It makes no sense to me that files for a product aren't somehow automatically associated with that product, and easily found all in one place. I'm afraid to move things around or rename folders for fear of losing the files or messing the file structure up worse than it already is.
At least I found these.
Progress!
: ).
Check your messages I tracked them down in my files and gave you directions on where they ll are.
I'm going to try to do this as "real" as possible, kind of like I did in the attachment of the freefall shot. I like the way the reflection comes out much better than when I've tried mapping them in. Still, I may render the samurai separately and HDRI it onto a primitive so I have a little more control. The final shot will have a completely different sky setup, leaning now towards a skydome. I would go for the box, but I'm gonna have multiple reflections working, and I don't want to do it in post, so the skydome seems the way to go.
Finished the model for her sword, wrestling hexagon for the UV's so I can texture map it.
Hall of Stone, 18"x24"
Thanks to all for feedback and suggstions. Image on the right shows current progress, "stone" is intentionally cooler to enhance cat contrast. Backdrop changed to add greater interest. Additional comments and feedback most welcome. Again, thanks!
@ giovannipaoloartist: I really like the subtle use of the volumetric dust on the floor. Not overdone at all, and adds a sense of depth and age to the shot.
@ Sonja11: anytime you're looking for materials that seem to be hiding, check the "Pose" folder for that directory in the Content Manager. As a holdover from Poser, I think, a lot of mats still end up there.
Very useful! I will have to try that myself on some kinky grass I have in one of my scenes.
Thank you! :-)
Well, I got everything installed aside from the "Pookie Bear". It appears that the Website has closed new registration :-(
Thanks Sonja11. I checked my messages, and haven't received anything from you yet. I sent you one to make sure it's working from my end.
One of the projects I want to use is to recreate a space suit for M4 or Genesis as shown in the following photos. Not really sure where to start? Should I use a "bodysuit" and then create a new texture (light blue)? It looks like I will need a Bump or Displacement map, or both to get the ribbed texture of the suit.
Thanks! I wasn't the one who couldn't find them I actually hvae my entire library organized in the categories section, I know pretty much exactly where everything is. And while figuring out how to that I became very well aquainted with where things can wonder off too lol! I had actually loaded the different things then found them and sent him /her a list of where to find each thing. But I really appreciate your willingness to help! I still sometimes find things in odd places! I just knew in order for me to be able to do anything I had to get a handle on the content thing. Took me three weeks to organize it on both the laptop and pc. It is a bit intimidating. Especially when the item is in Daz and the mats are in the Poser files.
Wow! I never even knew about this! AWESOME!!! ;-) "DS Creative" I have some catching up to do!