Daz has just released version 3 of their popular Studio application. Daz Studio is very similar in use and capabilities to Poser. Both have their strenght in character scenes, and both provide a good entry point for aspiring 3D artists for their fairly shallow learning curve and ease of use.
I haven’t used Daz Studio much in the past preferring to stick with the more familiar Poser, However as of late Poser has been gathering some dust for me as I’ve moved on to a few more full featured modeling tools. A few times now when I’ve needed to create a character for a scene I’ve opted for Daz Studio and feeling more comfortable with the interface.
Up until version 3 Daz Studio has always been a free application, with the release of version 3 Daz has now introduced a “Pro” version which is no longer free but at a very reasonable price, currently on sale for $50 and some change. A slightly toned down version is still available as a free download.
Several enhancements have been added in the areas of animation, texturing, and character morphing. They have also improved the rendering, which bottom line, while all the other things are important and useful, nothing is more important in my view than the final output. So I downloade the 30 day trial of the pro product and thought I’d do a test project. The results are the image below:
This was straight from Daz Studio with no real post work performed. Some like to do renders that have a cartoon or drawing like look, I much prefer to do images that are as lifelike as possible. I thought this came out close to achieving that goal. Her eyes don’t quite have what I would call a natural quality but that has more to do with the texture rather than the render engine. All in all I think its decent.
Back when I bought my first 35mm SLR camera, I made an attempt to soak up as much information about how to take good photographs as I could. In one magazine I read an article that suggested the way to learn how to take great pictures was to practice taking pictures of doorknobs.
At that time nearly everyone who used photography as a form of artistic expression worked in black and white. I still love black and white photos as I feel the art has so many subtleties that are often lost in color. However I digress, I mean to be talking about doorknob photography.
The idea behind this exercise was to take a subject that is really not all that interesting or complex all by itself, and pay more attention the framing of the subject, the angle of the shot, the way light and shadows play together. A good photograph pays attention to all of these elements.
Today I was thinking back to that article and how really it does apply to the core of what becomes stunning art. Some times the special effects, the cool animation, or content itself become the focus. But really all of those elements are wasted without the perfect light or the correct point of view. It’s interesting to me now matter how complex something becomes, its always the basics that make the difference.
I have been using the new version of Photoshop for about a month now. Of course there are several new features for Adobe to boast about, generally more support for 3D objects including 3D paint, auto alignment of layers, auto blending of images, content aware scaling, and fluid canvas rotation among others.
What is my favorite new feature? By far, by far and away my favorite new feature are document tabs. I remember the first time I used Firefox and found I could have several web sites open at the same time without multiple browser open at the same time through the magic of tabs.
And now this awesome technology has come to Photoshop and I couldn’t be more excited. If you are like me, you frequently have several images open all at the same time. It used to be Photoshop on my screen looked like some sort of scrapbook with images scattered about. And woe be to me if I should ever minimize one and try to find it again. Now its just a click of a tab, thanks Adobe!
I’ve been using Daz Carrara for 3D modeling for the past few months, really just scratching the surface on how to use the tool. The past week or so I started working with Hexagon which is also from Daz. I received Carrara with an issue of 3D World magazine and picked up Hexagon last year during a leap year sale practically dirt cheap.
Both of these products are considered hobby level applications within the 3D modeling community yet both are also powerful enough to accomplish many complex tasks. Both also have a reputation for being buggy within the forums that I frequent. I suppose that it a sure sign that I’m still novice because I haven’t noticed any of the bugs yet.
Lately I’ve been thinking investments in 3D modeling tools. Of course there is the financial investment but there is also the investment of time. I am trying to decide if I should just stick with Carrara/Hexagon or if I should be looking towards something that is the next level up.
There are the pro level tools such as Maya and 3ds Max, but those are mega bucks as in needing to apply for a mortgage in order to buy them. However there are some mid level tools that I could afford by setting some money aside for a few months.
The major thing Carrara has going for it besides the fact that I already have it, is that it works very well with Poser, its fairly easy to move object from one product to the other. On the downside is the lack of formal training material, there are not many books and unlike the pro level applications, I know of no classes where Carrara is taught. Not to mention the bugs that I have not yet discovered.
The biggest risk of all is vendor support. Carrara 7 was just released however I have to wonder if some time in the near future Daz decides to drop the product. In today’s economy these things do happen, and at the core of why I am still looking for my tool of choice.
I have been spending most of my time the past few weeks learning, it’s a entirely new level of satisfaction to have created an entire scene or animation with materials created from scratch, and that’s the place I want to be. I’ve done a few quick projects and a couple of other things that I am working on by request. And still having a blast with it all.
A 3D render created in Poser and post work in Adobe Photoshop. The skin textures were custom by me. I wanted to do something a little outside the norm for this one. It’s interesting to me that things that I’ve always thought were magic in the form of presentation are not so magic after all. Yet it is so much to create that magic.
