Free High Res Content for DAZ Studio

I'm back on my graphics kick again, and just spent some time in DAZ 3.0, an unbelievable free piece of software. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of 3DWorld magazine, and the October issue came with a CD with hundreds of dollars of software and resources, including a copy of DAZ 3 and a neat, high res image of a brain courtesy of Flat Pyramid.

The brain comes in a couple of formats, and the .obj was easily imported into DAZ Studio. I was impressed with detail and size of the object. In the image I created below using DAZ's Aiko Character, and I had to reduce its size to 0.03% to get it to fit into her head.

The texture comes in at 2048x2048 jpg file. Nice and slimy looking. A great piece for your 3d scientific imaging needs.

I've got a bit of free time, so I'm off to either play some Warcraft 3, or do some more rendering!

Enjoy!

Anime Hottie in Outerspace - Free 3D Models

I created this last night from free stuff from DAZ. The flier in the background is actually quite large, and shown here at 10% its original size. Its called the Stinger and is currently bundled in the Anime Star Fighter set, for FREE!.

The background is actually Cargo Bay Doors by Stonemason, which I think was a freebie at one point but I wasn't able to find it in the DAZ3D catalog.
The figure is Aiko3 Base, with skin and XinXin shape and morph as well as the Sailor outift and hair from Made In Japan, which also comes with the free Anime Uniforms bundle. The Made In Japan bundle alone costs $49.95 so this is a totally amazing set.

Keep your eyes open, because there is always lots of free material available from DAZ but also lots of excellent models, props, outfits and other great resources. Join the ArtZone and look for me as Tigerrune. I also have some images of a slightly more scantily clad XinXin available on Flickr.

Leave a comment if you're interested!

The Ice Queen Cometh

I just got this in my mailbox and it looks incredible...

Just available on DAZ now, check out the Ice Queen, aka Frostbite:


The sword? Hailstorm - The Sword of Ice.
The throne? Freaking awesome.
The queen? Well, she speaks for herself doesn't she? Comes with 10 makeup options, 8 eye colours, including tear option!
The armour looks pretty sweet too.

You just can't pass up a deal like this. Now available at 65% off for a limited time! Also includes a coupon code for 20% off your next purchase. Amazing!

Catch Frostbite now!

Who will win the 3D war?

So there are some interesting options out there for 3D viewing:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16582-format-war-looms-over-3d-tv.html

The question is which will win out? At the moment, the technology of polarized images being sent to each eye requires either the wearing of special glasses or it appears that now screens are being created that do the polarization for you. This will probably be at least one possible winner. I cannot see the average consumer being accepting of wearing special glasses just because they want to watch a show or sporting event in 3D.

Kind of makes me wish I was somewhere like Japan where I'd have more of a chance to see some of this technology before it hits mainstream in Canada.

Other than that (and the cold), living in Canada is pretty good :)

Movies in Second Life

This looks like a great film, and I was so impressed with the Windlight file that I used it myself for some great pictures in Second Life.

This one is a steampunk machinima created in Second Life.

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2008/12/joy-of-mescalin.html

Free 3D Models

I've posted a couple of videos to YouTube and the comment that is always seen with Daz|Studio videos is "Where do you get the models?". Well, the simple answer is that the software does come with some free models but occasionally, great free models become available at Daz.

At the moment, a full model of a human male, with a basic texture (its still very nice though) known as Michael 4 or M4 is available.

Other characters include Victoria (human female) and Aiko (a female anime style character for manga) and many others.

Make sure you check out Daz3D for more free models as well as other sites that I post here on occasion. A future post will include a list of sites where free 3d models are available for Daz|Studio and other 3d modeling and rendering packages.

Great community with DAZ3D Artzone

I've finally found some time with this crazy schedule of mine to get back into using DAZStudio and Terragen. If you haven't heard about Terragen, I simply can't say enough of it. I've been a fan for years, and maybe I'll get to post some tutorials here. It can create photo-realistic landscapes like this one:




I absolutely love DS, even though my computer has always been underpowered to really run it, and I've never had the right video card. Hopefully I can make some extra blog money somehow to get a nVidia graphics card, instead of always getting stuck with an ATI Rage the way things are now. But I digress...

I've gotten myself back into Daz because it is one of the only things that I find relaxes me... even with the occasional crashes, and the fact that I can't use the newest characters and have to create imagery with stuff I downloaded 2 years ago, or old Poser models.


By checking the Daz site occasionally for inspiration (and free models!) I signed up for Artzone a couple of months ago and finally made an effort to check back on my profile. I'm able to post images, see other artists work, and its been one day and I already have 1 new friend!

Here are a couple of more images I've created, and you can see more at my profile at the Daz3D Artzone.

Great art on ShareCG

I was checking out some of the new features in Daz ArtZone when I came across a link to another site: http://www.sharecg.com/

A great user site with profiles, galleries and really talented artist. I was really impressed by the fact that it has a VR section, as well as tutorials in 2D and 3D art along with DazStudio, Bryce, Autocad, Photoshop... and probably tonnes of others.

Makes me wish I had:

1. More time to spend on this kind of work: I find it relaxes me and I enjoy it.
2. A better computer, to render more things!

Seriously, check out the site and find me in the ArtZone community. Stop by and say "Hi!"

3D collection of proteins and other molecules

A friend just directed me to this link discussing the usefulness of Proteopedia, a Wiki that collects interactive, 3D models of molecules, proteins.

This picture, by the way, is taken from the JMOL site, which is the interactive, 3D molecular visualizer used on Proteopedia... and OpenSource! Ooo... I'm getting ideas... yay!

We got on this discussion because we were discussing the creation of our own 3D viewing system (possibly using shutter glasses, that sort of thing).

Hmm, I'll have to get a picture of me in my VR helmet and post it on here. Garage VR was a favourite topic of mine back in the 90's and maybe I can dust of some old ideas and post them here. What was old is new again as they say!

Create 3d graphics with DAZ3D

I just got back from vacation so hopefully some of the wonders of Ireland will rub off on me and I can begin creating some Celtic-inspired work. The Book of Kells has been a big thing for me and I am about to check it out on CD-ROM so I can't wait to get started!

But what is REALLY great is that DAZ3D and the ArtZone Community have just made it even easier to work with 3D graphics. DAZStudio is a great product, and by joining the ArtZone community you'll get to read about amazing artists and get great tips and free 3d models. Sign up for the DAZ emails because every now and then some of items that are on sale are given away for free. And we're not going to complain about free models and textures are we?

When you get to the download page at http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/download?&_m=d&refid=391015437 , scroll halfway down to the Download.com links. The two bundle advertised at the top of the page are not required, you can find free models very quickly. Besides, DAZStudio comes bundled with a lot of free models to start with!

I'll get around to posting some of the images I've created with DAZ over the years and post them here. I'm by no means an expert, but I can help you get started in working with this great program.

Review: Google SketchUp

Google’s SketchUp is a great program to get you started with creating your own 3d virtual objects, buildings and worlds.

For months I had wanted to check out Google’s SketchUp application but never got around to it. I’ve been in love with 3d graphics for years but never spend enough time on it for my liking. With things at work getting a bit quieter for the summer, I found time to download and install the SketchUp Viewer and the free tool itself, but just had time to work on it today.

I was amazed! Even though the program runs a bit slow on my computer (due to either the problems I’ve had with Windows recently or the fact that I have a crappy video card) I was very impressed with what can be accomplished with only learning 2 design tools and 3 navigation tools!

When you start up SketchUp, you are provided with the “tips” screen, which they call the Learning Center. The first tip has a link to a model, so you should click on that link and it opens a “model” that has been designed as a multi-tabbed tutorial. Each tab of the tutorial has some information on how to use a given tool and you can actually use each tool from within the tutorial. In 15 tabs it shows you how to create a relatively complex object or building with only 2 creation tools.
The 3 navigation tools it introduces are the Orbit, Pan, and Zoom tools:

And the 2 design/create/edit tools are Square and Pull-Up:

The “pull-up” style of building a box from a flat plane is nothing new, as it is a common tool used in 3D graphics modeling packages such as Maya and Wings3D and others, but I’ve never quite had it explained so clearly and concisely before.

Google SketchUp offers a clean interface, helpful tutorials (which I will definitely check out) and an interesting Model Warehouse feature which will keep you busy for well…months! I’ll definitely be trying out some more of the program to see what can be created. At the end of the tutorial, I was able to create quite a complicated object considering it started with only 1 square shape. Click on the image to view a slightly bigger version:

Write a comment and let me know what you think about Google SketchUp and what other tutorials you’d want to see on the program, or any other tutorials you’d like to see. I’ll do what I can!