"Shaders for Dummies"?

mosjeschwartzman

Here's a real n00b question: Does anyone know of good "3Delight Shaders for Dummies" type of resources?

I've been using Dazstudio for a couple of weeks now and I got intrigued by a lot of different aspects of 3D modelling and rendering. It's good fun and I made a couple of nice renders – well, I think they're nice, but I'm a n00b... ;-)

Anyway, I was looking into Shaders (particularly 3Delight because my Mac is realy, realy slow with iray – no GPU) but I don't get them... I'm looking for resources that can help me understand Shaders; the concepts, what Shaders can do, how to use them in Dazstudio, how they can improve renders or change materials. Realy from the ground up.
You see, I've been going back and forth on Google and these forums but all I got is a lot of hits on content and resources that expect at least an intermediate level and I'm only just beginning! Heck, even the official AoA surface shader documentation is going past me... I really have no clue what they're saying in it (to give an idea of my n00b level on the subject).

If anyone now feels that my not understanding the AoA surface shader documentation is a good indication of the fact that I will never get it either I would like to hear that too! At least then I will know not to venture furher and leave Shaders for they are... Shaders; usefull to others...

Thanks!

Lyoness

I really do understand how confusing all this new terminology can be.  Once we become vendors, we have a really hard time explaining anything simply.  A Shader changes a surface to a different color or material (like cotton, silk, jersey).  If you are just starting out, you can stick with the supplied materials that come with an outfit.  They're well done and will work great.

I wish you happy rendering and that you have as much fun as I have.

 

mosjeschwartzman

Thanks Lyoness! I did get that much though ;-) That it defines what a surface is and how it looks in renders and that's exactly why I'm so curious to how it works... To see what happens if you'd turn the surface of, for instance, a tree to glass or ice... Or to be able to apply 3Delight shaders to objects that only come with iray shaders or change them all together. Maybe even create content some day – been doing that for Second Life and OpenSim for years now. I could maybe even move my SL/OS content to Daz/Poser when I get the hang of things.

Truth of the matter is, to be honest, I'm alround plain curious and I can't stand not getting something. But I have a hard time finding good resources to help me get going on Shaders from the bottom up. Right now I'm just messing about somewhere in the middle and it doesn't work; I'd like to give it a more responsible go..

Lyoness

well, you stressed that you were a n00b!!

there are several wonderful shader makers here at daz that worked with 3dl,  some of which I still use now.  I know that I use Khory's and DestinyGarden's a lot.  Make sure you go far enough back in time so that they are 3dl and not iray shaders. There also was very recently a 3dl shader set released.  So go hunting here: http://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-shaders and have fun!!

BeeMKay

This might be interesting: http://www.daz3d.com/shader-mixer-tutorial-i

There's this thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/55128/3delight-laboratory-thread-tips-questions-experiments/p1

You can try the old tutorial videos: http://www.daz3d.com/help/help-daz-3d-video-tutorials

They are for 4.5, but the 3DL stuff mostly remained the same.

Also useful: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/207530713-General-Glossary

mosjeschwartzman

Thanks BeeMKay! This will get me through quite a few hours of self-learning... ;-)

DDCreate

Any advice on Shaders in the store? I'm pretty new to them too but I prefer Iray to 3DL. I have an outfit that I always thought would look good as silk/satin and would love to try it! I'm just not super shader savvy. So is there one that's easier to work with than others?

BeeMKay

DDCreate said:

Any advice on Shaders in the store? I'm pretty new to them too but I prefer Iray to 3DL. I have an outfit that I always thought would look good as silk/satin and would love to try it! I'm just not super shader savvy. So is there one that's easier to work with than others?

http://www.daz3d.com/dg-shader-essentials and http://www.daz3d.com/leather-factory-shaders-for-daz-studio were one of the first shader packages for 3DL I bought back then, and they has always served me well.

I'd buy some basic packages, see how they work, and learn from there. Once you get the hang of it, and start experimenting a couple of weeks, it's getting easier.

IceDragonArt

Destiny's Garden is doing a mini class on texturing over in the Art Studio. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/74272/texturing-with-destinysgarden#latest ; Come over and join us.  She is very good at explaining things so those of us that are still new can understand and you will learn a lot about the whole texturing and shading stuff. We are texturing some objects from the ground up.

nonesuch00

DDCreate said:

Any advice on Shaders in the store? I'm pretty new to them too but I prefer Iray to 3DL. I have an outfit that I always thought would look good as silk/satin and would love to try it! I'm just not super shader savvy. So is there one that's easier to work with than others?

Also, don't hesitate to explore what you already get free with DAZ Studio once you download the essentials. In the content library under Shader Presets under DAZ Uber there is Fabric - Silk Blue & Fabric - Velvet Red as well as rubbers, metals, glasses, wax and so on.

There is also nVidia MDL Examples in the same IRay folder with Walnut Semi Gloss, Porcelain, Stucco, and others.

Ruri

Hi, Hope you don't mind me borrowing your thread to ask some shades question. 1.when you apply non Iray material with the Uber Iray base shader, it merely adds default Iray parameter to the material. Is that the way to explain it? It seems that way from my experiments. Daz doesn't know if a wood material needs to be rendered as wood. 2. If I apply the mahogany wood Iray on material, it applies both texture and Iray parameter on it. 3. I tried doing the hold ctrl and get the pop up and I selected ignore, but the original texture still get overwritten. Am I doing it correct or some shaders doesn't allow this trick. Thanks all.

mjc1016

If the either one is a procedural (doesn't use image maps, but makes use of math functions in the shader code) then it won't work...

Ruri

Hi mjc, If I manually copy the Iray mahogany parameters to other material, that should do the trick? Assuming I got it work, how do i save it so I can reuse on other wood like material.

mjc1016

I would probably just switch out the maps manually and then save each one.

Ruri

Hi mjc, You meant I should find the parameter that gives the wood texture, remove it, then save the shader into a new file? Not sure how to do that yet... Shall experiment when home.