Private Commission

My first private commission. After studying the lighting of the situation, I think I have found the problem with the lighting. Danie and Malforno set up the lighting in one of their Pz3 scenes to overpower any shadows.

But it's my first commission!!
*smile*

The Difference between DAZ Studio and Poser

Before we begin mastering DAZ Studio, we have to understand the other side of the Poserverse: Poser itself. DAZ Studio is developed as an entry, or gateway product, into the wonderful world of 3D Art. Poser was originally designed to help artists draw in traditional media.

Poser costs anywhere between $100 dollars (being sold through DAZ 3D of all places) to $250 dollars (sold through Smith Micro). Poser bills itself as a "high end" program. Not at all good for hobbyists. DAZ Studio was produced for the Hobbyist in mind.

But both DAZ Studio and Poser can load poser content. But because there are subtle differences in the way that DAZ Studio can handle Poser Content, not all Poser Content will work with DAZ Studio. This problem is compounded by the fact that most sites that sell for Poser will not SELL for DAZ Studio. Most items you see at Renderosity, Runtime DNA, and other sites have wonderful items that will work -- but they don't come prepackaged with DAZ Studio shaders. People who work with DAZ Studio will have to realize that they are often treated as "the guys down the street your mother warned you about" by vendors at other sites other than DAZ 3D.

However, some stuff from Runtime DNA and Renderosity will work with DAZ. You just have to work with DAZ shaders to get them right (often times that takes man hours on your part). If you don't want to deal with it, you often have to buy stuff at DAZ 3D. Although, Aery Soul and Danie and Malforno both sell items at DAZ 3D, and will often give support to DAZ Studio after a fashion.

There is one thing about DAZ Studio that makes it stand out from Poser. It's like having your own indoor Photography Studio. The 3D models cost less than a real model these days. And Computer Graphics technology has progressed to the point where the difference between real and CGI is blurred for the layman.

The Master Series will use Theatrical terms such as "blocking" to help you form your scenes. This is mostly because of my theatre background, also it fits DAZ Studio's intended purpose.

Mastering DAZ Studio, Introduction

So, you know shaders, you know magnets, you know lighting, you know all about the Cyclorama. You know where your content is, you know how to search for content on your other drives and use other runtimes. You feel confident with DAZ Studio, for you understand it enough to customize your interface and create art. So maybe. . . just maybe. . . it's time to master it to create really powerful ART.

Mastering DAZ Studio is a series of tutorials and projects that are designed to teach you to create stunning scenes with the tools you have, or don't have. These tutorials and projects help you to take advantage of all of DAZ Studio's features. From cartoon rendering, to powerful shader effects like poseworks' Effects. All of these are designed to help you take the next step and to create art on your own.

The first project is something that will test DAZ Studio's rendering time to create the scene below:



It's a scene from classic fantasy that is appropriate for such wonderful Campaign Settings such as the Judges Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Conan's Antediluvian world, the Ancient Classical World, Gor, and Greyhawk.

And I'm going to put together a tutorial that will help you to build it. So, whet your whistle true believers, it's time to Master DAZ Studio and create the ART you want.

How To Use Magnet Fits in DAZ Studio

I learned this trick from Adam Thwaites when I downloaded his "bubble butt" magnets. He included a small tutorial that makes magnets work. After using the Tutorial a couple of times, I believe I can include it here based on my own experience using it. So, I will be using a magnet set included in this tutorial that is commonly available at DAZ 3d. The V4 Muscle and Creature Morph Magnet Fits by Lyrra Madril. Believe me, at $14.95 American currency, it's a STEAL!

DAZ Studio handles magnets differently than Poser. In Poser, they are magnets. In DAZ Studio, they are deformers. The way magnets work in DAZ Studio is that they are turned into deformers. This allows for some adjustments (although not all adjustments on clothing or figures is necessary).

Okay, the very first thing you want to do is load up DAZ Studio.



1). You load up the clothing in DAZ (or figure) that you want. Right now, lets use the super sexy Gear Punk V4 by Orion1167.



2). Load up the magnet set for the figure you want to conform the clothing to. If it's A4, you load the A4 body magnet set. We, however, are using the V4 Muscle and Creature Morphs magnet set in this tutorial. Gear Punk can already conform to A4. Watch the clothes conform to the figure. We are going to use the Olympian morph in this instance.
3). Go to the scene tab, and click "Select All" to select everything in the scene.



4). Click on D-form in Pose/Shape and then click on "Spawn Morph" for each of your clothing. Type in a name for your new morph (like Olympian). Click ok.
5). Click on the scene tab, and then click "Select: All Deforms."
6). Right click (for a mac, it's ctrl-click) on one of the deform objects, and then select "remove all items from scene." This will delete all the D-forms from the scene.



7). Select your clothes in the scene tab, and then go to the Parameters tab to search for the morph you spawned and dial it up!
8). Load your figure.

Alternatively, you can save your new morph to its parent CR2 using the Morph to CR2 python script, made to work in DAZ Studio.

Judge the results for yourself. This is the result of adding the Olympian Morph Magnets.

True Friendship

Songs have been sung about it.

Wars have been fought for it.

People have made sacrifices for it.

However, truly, people don't understand true friendship. Nor do they understand what truly fuels a friendship -- Love. Love is probably the most misunderstood emotion in all of human experience. People don't know what love truly is, so they often associate other things with the word love (like sadism and masochism). Sometimes, love can be falsely felt -- or be mistaken for some other emotion like desperation. But this is the Truth about Love: it is totally accepting the others for who they are and what they do.

My own deep experience with one person that I love deeply has taught me this. True friendship is not greed oriented, or oriented on one's needs to for one self over the expense of others. It's based in love and fueled by love. True acceptance of one's own Self and others.

Commonly, people express love through the joy of sex. Sexual fulfillment, sexual pleasure, and sexual conjugation is very important to relationships if they are to survive. Sex is the glue that holds a relationship together: it can better relationships -- as people who have sex every day can often attest. However, there is an equally powerful way for a relationship to build. This is true friendship. A true friendship is one without limits: no blood ties. No law of any kind can forbid it.

It is also for these reasons that true friendship is also dangerous. It lives without limits. There is no limit to a true friendship: nothing can stop it from being expressed. No blood ties can break it, no limits of the law can smash it, no cannon law can damn it up. Death cannot end it.

Take me for instance. I love a woman; even though she is my first cousin and the wife of another man. She inspires me to aspire to be my best self. She really exalts me, and has me thinking more of exaltation than of damnation. She increases every attribute inside of me that is good, and inspires me to succeed as a man. You can say that she is, and I consider her to be, my best friend.

Since she is married, I can not explore the sexual dimension of our relationship. It's off limits, and if I were -- some unwanted, and undesired, consequences would follow. So, I chose to go the way of true friendship. At least my part in our relationship will be true friendship. Friendship without limits, no blood ties, no law can stop it. Everything that I have is hers, if she wants and needs it.

This is the way I choose to express my love for her. It's not the wrong way to express it. :)

Was John Norman a Misogynist?

Lately, a lot of feminists have fought against the publication of the Gor series of novels, and often won. The term "slavery" punches our buttons. Slavery is indignation, unrighteous, and how slaves are treated in the books -- an outrage!

But please, let us understand why the books were written in the first place. John Norman is the philosopher came up with the anti-feminism philosophy that a woman's place is naturally submissive and the man is naturally dominate. Although it is true, to use slavery to present that view -- and to present it in novels rather than open debate really proves how sick our culture has become.

John Norman isn't misogynist, he's simply trying to present a different point of view. Misogyny is a label invented. I never even heard of the word before until it was used against me at one point. What John Norman argues through the book that Man and Woman are who they really are. No matter what is done to remake us, we are what we were intended to be.

Not one person invented Man and Woman. Reading all about John Norman's drama with his rights being violated has given me a sense of indignation. After all, truly, no man has ever been maligned so much by misconception and false authority. Save perhaps the Master of Masters -- Joshua ben Joseph of Nazereth -- and Joseph Smith.

Truely woman was made for a true purpose as a daughter of Eve. In our world, in all of humanity there is nothing more beautiful or more prized than a woman. Helen had the face that launched a thousand ships. When she was stolen away by Paris of Troy, her husband demanded her back and a thousand ships were launched -- bringing about the downfall of the Trojan Empire. An epic moment that would be remembered as an event at the end of the Bronze Age.

John Norman does not hate women. Nay, his poetic verse says much about the man. "By their fruits, ye shall know them." The next segment, I'm going to talk about friendship: true, pure, real, and best.

The Biguana

Meet the Biguana (another product produced by Digital I Designs and sold through Digital Art Zone 3D). In Atlantis, the Biguana provides the transport over the desert lands of the Mountain Kingdoms, and the grassland prairies and savannas of the Disputed Lands. In in Atlantis, horses are treated like gold, or like superstars. Only the rich can own a horse, so the Atlanteans "bred" [genetically engineered] transport that is cheap and relatively easy to maintain. The Biguana.

Concept Art for the Atlantis graphic novel.

More concept Art.

I'm trying a Belldandy Morph on Aiko 4. I'd like you to judge the results. I'm using my Belldandy look alike to play the part of the wife that gets sold into slavery in my Atlantis graphic novel. Really cool on it's own, but it works out like clockwork. I also have a Naru morph for my Amazons. She gifts herself into slavery, and the protagonist is forced to buy her to save her.

What if Hasbro gets itself out of the RPG business?

So, what would happen if the D&D brand fails and the RPG development department is suddenly out of a job due to Hasbro's corporate bullying and draconian tactics to protect its D&D sales? One thing for sure, people won't stop playing Dungeons and Dragons. Plus, a lot of talent from WotC will look to find work doing what they do best: create games.

Dungeons and Dragons is forever. There would be no official supplements, but it will be subsumed into the community. The community of gamers will support Dungeons and Dragons on the web and the internet. And various companies will fight to become top dog.

One person hopes that if WotC tanks due to Hasbro mis-management of the D&D brand, it would be sold to Iron Crown Enterprises and the Rolemaster revision of the game would be the 5th incarnation of the Game. Since wizards did everything to make D&D not D&D, Dungeons and Dragons is just a marketing brand if nothing else.

Just something to ponder . . .

Although, if WotC does tank due to mis-managment by the PARENT company; I do hope that D&D is sold to a company that understands how the D20 System and the OGL worked for Dungeons and Dragons. OR . . . even better . . . make it totally open sourced and COPYLEFTED; allowing anyone to produce work for the game with a simple game license like the OGL was.

Unconfirmed Rumor

The GSL may stand to being revised. Note this is an unconfirmed rumor floating around Enworld and other D&D sites (such as Necromancer Games). But there is an unconfirmed report that certain people have seen a draft copy of a revised GSL.

So, what is the GSL? Compared to the OGL, nothing short but Corporate bullying. It's one of the major reasons why I steer clear of D&D 4e.

New Atlantis Concept Art

New Concept Art for my Atlantis Comic. I'm working out concept art for Atlantis. The best part about being a CGI artist is that you can work in 3D and you can create characters using skins, morph dials, and so forth. This character was created using the Shi-na skin and body injection from Heromorph. The base injection is Aiko 4.



The character is an Atlantean slave or kajira. Such slavery is a concept from John Norman's Gor. The series philosophy has been compared to Nazism. Although some aspects of the philosophy is very Darwinistic in nature, the Gorean philosophy is more complex than Nazism. But try as they might, critics have compared the philosophy to Nazism. Has no bearing on Atlantis at any rate.

What is Dungeons and Dragons anyway?

Greywulf's latest rant about WotC's policies has gotten me thinking. What is Dungeons and Dragons anyway? Dungeons and Dragons, at it's very core, is what you would call a "Gestalt" game. For Dungeons and Dragons to be successful, or any other roleplaying game, you need the collective energy of many creative people. Dungeons and Dragons requires the Creative Gestalt of its fans and 3rd party developers in order to thrive and be successful.

According to Greywulf's post, Wizards of the Coast has gotten itself some trouble over defending it's game: Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. It seems that Wizards has taked on 3rd party developers for developing items for 4th Edition D&D. I have only one thing to say to Wizards of the Coast about this behavior: BAD FORM!

Copyright and trademarks aside, Wizards of the Coast, nor Hasbro, does not have the right to tell anyone how they report their feelings on their products. This behavior, which I call Corporate bullying, is clearly against our Constitutional Right that guarantees free speech. There is nothing in U.S. Copyright or Trademark Law that proscribes this behavior. A company may justify such behavior by invoking these laws, but these laws were set up to protect both the Producer (Wizards of the Coast/HASBRO) and the Consumer (the Fans).

It is not stealing or infringement for fans to report on how they use Dungeons and Dragons privately in a semi-public venue (such as a Web Log, like mine right here). Not one trademark is used, and your Copyright is not violated. Like I said before, a game like Dungeons and Dragons depends on both fans and 3rd party developers to thrive, grow, and be successful. The Open Game License allowed the 3rd incarnation of Dungeons and Dragons to thrive and grow.

Take away the rights of the fans to talk about Dungeons and Dragons on the Internet; and you effectively kill your fan base. TSR, inc. failed in 1997 because it aggressively defended it's trademark, the Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition logo. And they did it right. But at what cost?

TSR, inc.; through its actions, FAILED to endear their target audience to their company. The fans completely became disloyal and TSR started to die. WotC, it seems, is playing the same game again. They are aggressively defending the D&D Brand -- which is what TSR had done. But instead of looking for actual culprits they are hitting the fanbase for some thing as inconsequential as this. Actions like these can actually estrange a company like WotC from its fan base. Something no company can AFFORD to do.