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The Creative Cart: Rawart, iReal and Animated VDBS

The Creative Cart: Rawart, iReal and Animated VDBS

  • $29.99
    • The Creative Cart: Rawart, iReal and Animated VDBS by: Digital Art LiveDartanbeck, 3D Models by Daz 3D
      NEW
    • $29.99
    Artist:
    Dartanbeck Digital Art Live
    Compatible Figures:
    N/A
    Install Types:
    Manual Install
    SKU:109730

    Optional License Add-Ons:

    $1.99
    What is this?

    *Unless otherwise specified, no discounts or offers will apply to License Add‑Ons.
    Artist: Dartanbeck Digital Art Live
    Compatible Figures: N/A
    Install Types: Manual Install
    SKU:109730

    Optional License Add-Ons:

    $1.99
    What is this?

    *Unless otherwise specified, no discounts or offers will apply to License Add‑Ons.

  • Details

    Join Dartanbeck in this extended two-part video tutorial celebrating RawArt, one of DAZ 3D’s most legendary and imaginative character creators. Across more than four hours of hands-on demonstration, you'll explore how to bring RawArt’s fantastical creatures, mythic monsters, and expressive humanoids to life in animated cinematic scenes using DAZ Studio.

    From nostalgic nods to M4-era beasts to cutting-edge Genesis 9 builds, you’ll discover how to blend RawArt’s expansive catalog with modern tools like VDB effects, ghost lighting, aniBlocks, and shader tweaks to create visually rich, emotionally resonant storytelling moments.

    Whether you're crafting dynamic animations, atmospheric stills, or building a custom character lineup, this tutorial bridges the gap between inspiration and execution—offering a complete workflow that leverages both legacy and modern assets.

    What You’ll Learn:-

    - Character Creation & Customization
    Watch Dartanbeck build and morph Genesis 9 characters like Rosie 9 and Zilla G1 using RawArt assets, combining morph packs, expressions, and Iray previews for sculptural detail and emotion.

    - Legacy Meets Modern
    See how older RawArt content (Genesis 1 & 2) integrates seamlessly with newer tools and figures, including custom kitbashes, walk cycles, and retro creature updates like Forest King, Grandpa Vampire, and Medusa.

    - Scene Building & Animation
    Create cinematic environments using Jungle Ruins, Sector 15 Redux, NeoTokyo, and Jurassic Forest. Animate characters using aniBlocks, ghost lights, and camera tricks (rule of thirds, handheld motion, depth of field).

    - Visual FX with VDB & iReal
    Master real-time volumetric FX using DimensionTheory and Josh Darling’s VDB Essentials. Add fireballs, shockwaves, animated grass, bees, haze, butterflies, and even dandelion gusts—all in DAZ Studio.

    - Post-Production Integration
    Export animated renders into DaVinci Resolve, composite over VDB backgrounds, and learn camera alignment techniques for believable layering and visual polish.

    - Toolkit Highlights
    Utilize Code 66 Toolbox for asset management, Epic Lens Flare by ThePhilosopher for cinematic lighting, and limb posing tools for natural motion—plus project structuring tips to streamline your creative library.

    Included in This Product:-

    - Complete two-part video series (~240 minutes)

    - Step-by-step walkthroughs of scene assembly, animation, lighting, rendering, and FX

    - Creative workflows featuring assets by:

    - RawArt (M4 to Genesis 9)

    - DimensionTheory & Josh Darling (VDB Essentials)

    - ThePhilosopher (iReal FX, Epic Lens Flare)

    - KindredArts (Jungle Ruins, Deep Sea, NeoTokyo)

    - Enterables (Aztec Platform, scenery)

    - Code 66 (Toolbox utilities)

    Plus:

    • - Create tribal, dark elf, Wookiee, and android-inspired characters with texture painting and morph workflows

    • - Animate magical sequences with fire sprites, dynamic winds, and VDB auras

    • - Celebrate May the 4th with a full Jedi-themed animation —built using DAZ-native assets and creative posing

    About the Presenter:

    Dartanbeck began his digital art journey creating game tiles for tabletop fantasy games and soon became a texture artist for 3D game characters, earning several Hall of Fame awards. This led to his passion for digital animation, which he's pursued ever since.

    As a Daz 3D Published Artist, Dartanbeck has released multiple environment kits for Carrara, designed for animated movie makers, along with two character animation packs.

    Currently animating with Daz Studio and Carrara, he enjoys sharing his workflow to help others succeed. His toolkit includes plugins for Daz Studio, Carrara 8.5 Pro, PD Howler, Affinity Photo, DaVinci Resolve, HitFilm, and Magix MusicMaker Premium.

    Based in a small Wisconsin fishing city, Dartanbeck also works in custom stonework and is a performing musician.

    What's Included and Features

    • The Creative Cart: Epic Animation with RawArt and VDB FX
    • Video 1 : 2 hours and 2 minutes (.MP4)
      • 00:00 – Introduction to Episode 12 of The Creative Cart with Dartanbeck, spotlighting legendary DAZ creator RawArt. Learn how his work evolved from the early Poser era through to Generation 9 figures, with a focus on unique creature design and storytelling.
      • 04:00 – Learn Dartanbeck’s custom character workflow using Genesis 9 figures. Watch how he builds a new version of "Rosie" using RawArt’s Albana, morph packs, and artistic adjustments to face shape, eyes, and expressions—all sculpted live using morph dials and the Iray preview.
      • 08:00 – Learn how Dartanbeck manages character presets and saves iterations during the creative process. He shares tips on preserving keyframes, morph adjustments, and scene subsets to avoid rework and maintain creative flexibility. Rosie 9 Albana’s look is refined further with eye spacing and height tweaks, and pose shaping.
      • 12:00 – A nostalgic moment as Dartanbeck compares the original DAZ Wyvern 2.0 with RawArt’s powerful Raw Wyvern update. See the dramatic visual leap and get insight into RawArt’s sculpting mindset—delivering monsters inspired by classic cinema, with storytelling appeal baked into every design.
      • 16:00 – Explore RawArt’s expressive characters like Grandpa Vampire, ideal for both horror and comedy scenes. Dartanbeck demonstrates how simple morph tweaks can dramatically shift tone. Also includes a walk cycle remix using Havanalibere's animation set to craft a "laboring walk" with personality.
      • 20:00 – Dive into the power of Genesis 1 and DAZ Studio 4.0’s legacy tools. Learn how RawArt fully embraced this figure’s flexibility with shape mixing, UV swapping, and geografting. Includes scene building tips using the Primordial Barbarian set and a character animation demo inspired by Sinbad-style adventure.
      • 24:00 – See how RawArt’s Gorgon and Gorgon X-Treme packs can be used to quickly build Medusa characters with layered morphs and snake poses. Includes tail customization using morph dials, head/hair coordination, and preset saving for fast reuse—blending old and new DAZ content seamlessly.
      • 28:00 – Dartanbeck shares workflow tricks for hand posing and facial expressions, plus tips on creating reusable icons using MikeD’s Icon Creator Pro. Then, the foundation is laid for a custom Godzilla-inspired build using RawArt’s creature assets, leading into a RawArt Kong-style cinematic setup.
      • 29:00 – Learn how to creatively kitbash creature characters using RawArt’s Tyrex and Stegolian assets. Dartanbeck shows how to dial in aggression, shape displacement maps for a bumpier surface, and apply Iray material tweaks to mimic a Godzilla-like creature dubbed Zilla G1.
      • 33:00 – Fine-tune materials by adjusting translucency and specular settings using Stegolian’s maps. Dartanbeck walks through creating subsurface effects on skin, teeth, and nails, before saving Zilla G1 to the library—while sharing a valuable lesson on using the correct preset type.
      • 37:00 – Animate Zilla G1 using a walk cycle and introduce DimensionTheory’s Windy Fire VDB asset for added realism. You’ll learn how to use HDRIs to bring out dramatic lighting and why rendering icons in square aspect ratio helps create professional asset previews.
      • 41:00 – Take a tour through Dartanbeck’s legacy RawArt collection for Genesis 1 and 2. He assembles a monster group photo with classic characters like Forest King, Satyros, Medusa, and goblins—showing how even older content can still produce epic scenes with speed and charm.
      • 45:00 – With humor and heart, the monster lineup gathers for a group photo—motivated by Rosie 8’s arrival. Dartanbeck shifts to Genesis 9 and showcases RawArt’s BlutStone gargoyle. He draws inspiration from the 1972 film Gargoyles to build a richly atmospheric scene.
      • 49:00 – Dive into visual effects setup using VDB Essentials – Prep and Animate. Dartanbeck demonstrates replacing static flame props with animated VDB smoke and fire, lighting the scene with ghost lights, and fine-tuning shader density to balance atmosphere and background HDRI.
      • 53:00 – See a full effects sequence come together with ground explosions, shockwaves, and a descending fireball. Dartanbeck coordinates motion, layering effects with precision using AntFarm’s Planet Killer core and animated VDB flame loops to build a dynamic, cinematic blast zone.
      • 57:00 – Fine-tune flame visuals by adjusting density multipliers for realism, ensuring visual clarity over the background HDRI dome. Get frame-by-frame insights on how these effects interact and layer together for a high-impact final animation sequence.
      • 59:00 – Learn to time VDB effects like explosions and shockwaves using frame offsets, syncing them with impact moments for maximum dramatic effect. Dartanbeck also discusses viewport performance when using multiple VDBs and praises DimensionTheory’s efficient optimization.
      • 01:03 – Discover how to use iReal Animated Clouds by The Philosopher to add smoky depth between your scene and HDRI background, enhancing realism. Dartanbeck animates the arrival of RawArt’s Legendary Demon using ghost lights and layered effects.
      • 01:07 – Dive deeper into RawArt’s Ape World collections across generations, from Michael 4 to Genesis 9. The session showcases integration of Daz Dog 8, animated props from iReal, and scenic sets like Jurassic Forest and Old Stone Walls to build Skull Island vibes.
      • 01:11 – Watch as King Kong meets Rosie! Learn the trick for properly scaling massive characters like the Ape World Gorilla for Genesis 8 Male and how to fix D-Force hair by multiplying strand width. Includes camera angle tips using rule of thirds and depth of field to enhance scale.
      • 01:15 – Dartanbeck animates Albane and Albana exploring Skull Island with torches. He uses Jungle Ruins by KindredArts and demonstrates how to align entire environments to character feet using MCasual’s scene origin script—great for animation and camera tracking.
      • 01:19 – See how walk cycles are used to animate "In-Place" character movement onto the environment. Learn how to extract hip movement data and invert it to create the illusion of walking through a large scene like Jungle Ruins.
      • 01:23 – Replace static torches with animated flame props. Dartanbeck scales and positions new VDB flame effects to match light output. He praises Jungle Ruins’ built-in HDRIs and explains performance trade-offs when rendering heavy animated effects.
      • 01:27 – Export your animated render into DaVinci Resolve and learn a fast method to layer character animation over a VDB effects background. This segment also includes a brief peek at tribal makeup options for Genesis 8 characters and sets up a new Rosie experiment.
      • 01:29 – Dartanbeck transforms Rosie into a dark elf using RawArt textures, tribal face paint, and Kadis outfit. He renders the look and introduces Synthoid (Genesis 8) materials via hierarchical surfaces.
      • 01:33 – A second character variation is created by applying just elf ears to Rosie, triggering a full body morph. He uses cones to push back simulated hair before ear morphs apply, discovering a working method for combining D-Force hair with morph-based transformations.
      • 01:37 – Two successful elf versions are demonstrated: one with full Dokkalfar morphs and one with Rosie’s original shape and only the elf ears. Dartanbeck reflects on how powerful RawArt kits are for character customization and recalls seeing early teasers in the Daz forums.
      • 01:41 – A new scene is built with Jurassic Forest HDRIs, showing how to use RawArt Impsimian's included tail pose dials and expression morphs for creating adorable gremlin-style characters. He layers stock haze renders and VDB fire over the scene using simple post-production tricks.
      • 01:45 – The Tropical Falls animated scene is enhanced with animated ocean water and distorted VDB desert wind effects. He shows how to creatively adjust density and scattering settings to control volume behavior for realism, even when using experimental approaches.
      • 01:49 – RawArt’s Nautilisian swims through KindredArts’ Deep Sea set. Dartanbeck syncs bubble timing with the creature’s animation using individual instances and morphs. Geometry Sculptor is used to reposition bubbles precisely without breaking the form.
      • 01:53 – Dartanbeck shows how a modeling error turned into a visually appealing oxygen stream. The entire setup is grouped for efficiency, and tiled animated surfaces are prepared for seamless use.
      • 01:57 – Using Morph Dials to simulate flowing water, Dartanbeck blends foam texture and leg movement to suggest underwater motion. He wraps up Part 1 of the celebration by praising Daz Studio, RawArt, and associated creators for enabling cinematic-quality effects without needing other software.
    • Video 2 : 1 hours and 54 minutes (.MP4)
      • 00:00 – Dartanbeck celebrates May the 4th by building a themed scene using RawArt’s Sasquatch for a Wookie-style character and Jarkeel as an engineer. He sets the scene in KindredArts’ Sector 15 Redux, drawn by its flexible lighting options. A short animation is created with the engineer springing to life behind the Wookie.
      • 00:04 – He switches to the Red Alert version of Sector 15 Redux and adjusts ghost lights for a dramatic alarm effect, syncing it with sound effects in post. Expanding the theme, he introduces Jazlyn Attire for Genesis 1 and RawArt’s Medolian character, noting the manually poseable tail with 12 bones but no easy-pose dials.
      • 00:08 – Using Code 66 Toolbox Volume 1’s Bend Manager, Dartanbeck adds pose controls to the Molon tail for smoother animation. The setup is rendered with neon lighting from Sector 15. He then starts a Protocol Droid design for M4's Tin Man using Project Dogwaffle Howler, crafting custom selections and storing wire shapes for use in a texture.
      • 00:12 – He layers wires in different colors using Howler’s subtract and invert tools, adding visual depth. Rivets are stamped in, and the Color Matrix panel applies gold shading. The result is a detailed wire-covered torso texture, which he prepares to bring into DAZ Studio for a robot-style character.
      • 00:16 – Michael 4 is loaded in DAZ Studio, and the Tin Man base is used to apply the new texture. Code 66 Toolbox Volume 3 hides unnecessary eye geometry. Emissive and base colors are added to create glowing orange eyes, and the face is reshaped with morphs and expressions to achieve a stylized android look.
      • 00:20 - Dartanbeck fine-tunes glossiness on the torso by adjusting spec maps in Howler, then reapplies them to DAZ Studio. He explains the importance of saving pose presets for shaped characters like this protocol droid and praises RawArt’s character preset folders as perfect storage locations.
      • 00:24 - The session returns to the jungle scene from where we left off in Part 1, featuring Princess Albana. Dartanbeck enhances the setting using Jurassic Forest HDRIs and ghost lights for backlighting. He adds the Aztec Platform from Enterables and emphasizes how ghost lights boost ground and structure detail.
      • 00:28 - He uses Code 66 Toolbox to hide textures quickly before placing large VDB torch flames. By duplicating and offsetting three flames with different shader timings, he creates visual variety. Ghost lights are tinted for warmth and the final camera setup reveals a richly lit tribal scene.
      • 00:32 - Next, he introduces the Ape World 2 Genesis 2 male figures inside KindredArts’ Mega Terrain Swamp Land. A null-parented camera mimics handheld documentary motion as apes dance. Animated depth of field and VDB haze from DimensionTheory heighten the cinematic feel.
      • 00:36 - Dartanbeck highlights the scattered nature of his content library and introduces a method for organizing favorite assets. He creates a custom "Dartanbeck's VFX" folder with subfolders for characters, aniBlocks, and tools, copying full directory structures without disrupting originals.
      • 00:40 - He demonstrates adding Rosie 8.25 and 9, as well as favorite aniBlocks and props, into this custom folder. He also includes The Digivault's Project Eden Volume Camera to make it more easily accessible. KindredArts content is also centralized to speed up workflow.
      • 00:44 - Returning to the scene, Dartanbeck loads ThePhilosopher's Epic Lens Flare and Starburst system. He aligns the Epic Lens Flare container to the camera manually and explains how to adjust its position and scale based on terrain. Dartanbeck loves how the instructions are viewable directly in-scene for guidance.
      • 00:48 - Using philosopher-supplied maps, he explains that we can customize the lens flare effect beyond presets. These effects are added atop the jungle scene with Rosie and Albana to simulate a cinematic camera feel. The toolkit allows him to add polish and realism without leaving DAZ Studio.
      • 00:52 - The Neo Tokyo kit from KindredArts is explored. Its massive city preset is ideal for cinematic backdrops, with versatile buildings that give a new look when rotated. Dart then begins building a new city scene vignette from the ground up.
      • 00:56 - Props and buildings are grouped for scene organization. Dartanbeck creates a bus stop area and tweaks building placements. He uses grouping and alignment tools to keep the scene tidy and easily editable.
      • 01:00 - He saves the vignette as a subset with render settings, loads a volume camera and Epic God Ray by The Philosopher, and demonstrates how to align it with the character using matching cameras and light parenting for cinematic lighting.
      • 01:04 - He highlights lighting the main character (Koyoteh) to ensure visual focus. By aligning the god ray with the camera view, he adjusts its angle for the best visual impact. Proper lighting positioning is emphasized as crucial.
      • 01:08 - Dartanbeck loads iReal animated grass and meadows, and shows how to get natural sway in grass and flowers. Using UltraScatterPro and animated aniblocks, he shows how to get natural sway in grass and flowers. DimensionTheory’s Sky of Economy HDRIs are applied to complement the animated environment.
      • 01:12 - He adjusts matte fog visibility, HDRI intensity, and loads animated bees into the meadow. Everything from bees to flowers moves subtly in sync, adding realism. He then demonstrates a setup for the animated iReal dandelion blowing in the wind.
      • 01:16 - Using limb stick and character posing tools, he synchronizes the character's breathing and hand position for blowing the dandelion. The animation block is precisely trimmed to fit the timeline. Final pose tweaks are made to fingers and head tilt.
      • 01:24 - Lens flare placement is refined. Dartanbeck demonstrates copying camera pose data for precise alignment. Adjustments to flare scale are shown to fine-tune its visual balance. He explores presets and emphasizes the value of subtle effects.
      • 01:28 - Birds and trees are added to the background for atmosphere. Using animated trees adds natural motion, and strategic positioning helps the scene feel alive. The lens flare is carefully placed in front of the tree for proper visual layering.
      • 01:32 - He places the tree near the character, finalizes positioning, and renders. Small animated elements like leaves and birds bring the scene to life. He reflects on how layering background motion builds immersion.
      • 01:36 - Butterflies are added, and their animation blocks trimmed. The shader selection is repeated for variety. Hero butterflies are given distinct coloring. He emphasizes matching butterfly motion to the character’s eye movements for realism.
      • 01:40 - Magic effects using animated VDBs are explored. A swirling fire effect is scaled down for magical impact. Adjusting density and emission settings tailors the look to suggest heat or energy rather than literal fire.
      • 01:44 - Dartanbeck continues using animated VDBs, showcasing their simplicity and power. He praises the intuitive nature of Josh Darling’s system and its preset-based usability, comparing it to older, more difficult-to-learn VDB workflows.
      • 01:48 - The session wraps up with a Jedi-themed sequence. A stylized dance animation is paired with magical wind and flame effects. Using custom presets and HDRIs, a ritualistic temple scene is crafted to celebrate the May 4th theme.
      • 01:52 - He completes the Jedi ritual scene by tweaking flame tints to match a lightsaber color. Final praise is given to DimensionTheory, KindredArts, Enterables, Josh Darling, ThePhilosopher and the Daz Studio Development Team for creating powerful, flexible tools that enhance storytelling in DAZ Studio.
    • Documentation: (.PDF)
      • Document 1
      • Document 2

    Notes

    • This product includes:
      • 2 General Installer
The Creative Cart: Rawart, iReal and Animated VDBS