Year: 2017

How to run Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 in 2017

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I had some editing to do the other day that, for one reason or another, I wanted to do on my Windows machine. I tried several open-source utilities, but none of them can cut the mustard like Adobe Premiere Pro can.

However, the only legitimate version I have is Premiere Pro CS3, vintage 2007, purchased for good money back then (which I’ve all made back, thanks to a three-day editing job I got for BBC interactive, literally a week after I bought it). Those were the days before Full HD video was commonplace, and way before anyone dared to mention the idea of 4K. But I digress.

So I tried to install Premiere under Windows 10, and to my surprise all worked rather well – until the registration part came and told me that this app could no longer be activated. 

Let’s see how we can bring this version back to live in 2017.

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Handy Keyboard Shortcuts in Adobe Premiere Pro

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Here’s a list of handy keyboard shortcuts for Adobe Premiere Pro. I keep forgetting these little helpers every 6 months or so…  By no means an extensive or complete list, here are the ones that I like using: Timeline SPACE – Playback at 100% K – Stop J – Play 100% backwards (multiple presses accelerates …

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How to fit DAZ Clothing using Marvelous Designer

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In this episode I’ll show you how to use existing items of clothing and re-fit them to a other characters in DAZ Studio, using Marvelous Designer. Although auto-fit does work in many cases, it can also give extremely ugly results, and by having Marvelous Designer re-fit clothing, this can be greatly improved. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/How-to-fit-DAZ-Clothing-using-Marvelous-Designer.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: …

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How to create a turntable animation in DAZ Studio

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Turntable animations show an object or a collection of objects from all sides. They’re usually rendered as a loopable image sequence. The above is such an example of Michael 7, assembled as a GIF image. He’ll keep spinning forever!

Let’s see how we can create something like this in DAZ Studio.

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How to import an object as Shape Key in Blender

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Blender stores Morph Targets as Shape Keys. Those can be accessed and created in the palette that resembles the Flux Capacitor icon (it reads Data when you hover over it).  To store one object’s shape in another one as a Shape Key, do the following: import both objects into Blender SHIFT-select both objects make sure …

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How to fix obstructed Viewport Controls in DAZ Studio

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In this video I’ll show you how to fix the partially obstructed or occluded Viewport Controls bug in DAZ Studio. I’ve experienced this problem when I have the Shader Mixer tab docked somewhere, but it stands to reason that other docked panes also have the potential of causing this bug. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Obstructed-Viewport-DAZ.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 4:29 — …

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How to create a Bokeh Effect in Photoshop

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Photoshop has an interesting set of filters that let us turn ordinary images into fascinating Bokeh Effects. Those can be useful as a nice alternative for gradient backgrounds due to the elements of randomness they can bring, or for foreground effects akin to those created with plastic cameras. 

The above uses a Bokeh Effect as additional foreground pattern. Let’s see how it’s done.

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Exporting assets from DAZ Studio to Blender (and back)

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In this episode I’ll show you how to export assets from DAZ Studio to Blender and back, at a consistent scale and orientation. The default Blender export preset in DAZ Studio is broken, hence the workflow requires a bit of tweaking and knowledge on how Blender thinks about units and scale (which I’ll also show …

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How to create dramatic lights in DAZ Studio (Iray)

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In this episode I’ll show you how to create a string side light in DAZ Studio 4.9. The default light looks very soft and does not create a dramatic effect, so we’ll see how to remove those first, and then apply our own parametric spotlight. In addition, we’ll add and tweak the default IBL to …

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How to aim left/right in Mass Effect Andromeda

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Ryder goes into cover automatically when you enter cover. However, by default he/she only aims to the right. That’s no good when your enemies are around the left corner.  So how do we change that? If they had only told us during the tutorial, ey? On PS4 and Xbox, it’s the R3 button (i.e. press …

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How to mute the mic when recording a voice over in Premiere Pro

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I recently recorded a quick voiceover in Adobe Premiere Pro CS 5.5, but I ran into an issue for which the fix wasn’t exactly obvious. Here’s the problem: When you mark a track to record some audio and start the recording, the full mix is being played back through your speakers (or headphones). This includes …

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How to open and convert multiple raw images in Photoshop

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Opening several JPG or PNG images in Photoshop is the easiest thing in the world: just select several in the Windows Explorer or in the Mac Finder, right-click to choose Open, and Photoshop brings in each image as a new document.

But when we try the same with raw images, it won’t work: although Photoshop shows us the raw processing dialogue for all our chosen images, and lets us make individual changes, as soon as we hit Open at the bottom, only the current image is opened as a new document.

What gives? How can we open and convert several images at once?

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How to draw with an image in Photoshop

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Sometimes we want to reproduce an image using a brush stroke. It’s a handy way to replicate a 2D object along a path for example. Using the standard brush for this though, we’ll find that we can only reproduce a single colour image. But what if we want to reproduce all colours in our image?

Enter the Mixer Brush Tool. Here’s how to sample an image and draw with it in Photoshop.

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How to setup a Height Shader in Blender

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While we were discussing how to generate a terrain in my previous post, the next question is of course how to we give our terrain different colour values depending on its height. For example, at the very top of our terrain we may have snow covered mountains. Slightly further down we have yellowish rocks on …

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How to scale two axis at the same time in Carrara

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Sometimes we need to scale an object in two axis at the same time. Think of making a cylinder thinner rather than shorter at the same time, which would happen if we’d scale the whole cylinder. However, scaling the X and then the Y axis is cumbersome during modelling. Carrara has such an option: hold …

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Filed under: Categories 3D

How to apply textures in ZBrush

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I was trying to import a texture into ZBrush from an object I had created and UV mapped in Blender. The above shows an example of such an object, looking all nice and dandy in Blender.

However, when I imported it into ZBrush (after figuring out how to do that), I was shocked to see how ZBrush displayed my texture. Take a look:

That’s neither funny nor necessary. I’ve tested the same principle in DAZ Studio, Carrara and Poser and they all played ball, displaying the texture without a hitch. Only Hexagon wanted the texture flipped vertically, but – just like Carrara – offered handy tick boxes as to which direction an imported texture needed to be mirrored.

Zbrush also has such an option, but it’s not next to where you select the texture.

In this article I’ll show you how to import and apply a texture in ZBrush, to an object that has been created and UV mapped in another application. Let’s do this step by step:

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How to map a keyboard shortcut for Local View in Blender

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I’ve just learned that Blender has a wonderfully helpful function called Local View. This will isolate a selection, zoom in on it, and hide all other items in the scene. Using Local View again will bring back all items as they were seen before.

Thanks to Darrin Lile for this tip!

We can execute Local View with the default keyboard shortcut “Numpad /” (the division operator on your numpad) – but of course that only works if you have a numpad. On my Windows system I have one, but sadly on my Mac and my laptop I do not.

In this article I’ll show you how to map this shortcut to another key. Let’s get started!

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How to select every other vertex in Blender

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Hexagon had a really nice nth-selection tool (1 over n it was called). With it you could select every other vertex or edge or face, creating things like the star shaped pattern above. You’ll be pleased to hear that Blender can do this too! Rather than select every other point though, Blender likes to deselect instead. …

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How to install content for DAZ Studio

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In this episode I’ll show you how to install content you’ve bought for use in DAZ Studio. I’ll go through using Install Manager, DAZ Connect, and I’ll explain how to install content from ZIP archives (bought from marketplaces such as Renderosity or Hivewire). For Dwayne. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Install-DAZ-Content.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 18:37 — 17.1MB)

Creating Walk Animations in DAZ Studio

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In this episode I’ll show you how to use aniBlocks to animate a character, how to animate a camera around it like a dolly, and how to merge one scene with another. This is a kind of a “behind the scenes” walkthrough of the following walk animation I’ve rendered recently. I’ve received several comments on …

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How to create a drape effect in Photoshop

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It’s easy to create an effect of draped cloth in Photoshop, like in the image above. We can do this with the Gradient Tool. It’s the icon with an actual gradient on it, sometimes hiding behind the Paint Bucket or 3D Material Drop tool (if you don’t see it, left-click and hold for about one …

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How to run DAZ Studio on a remote machine via RDP

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I’ve been playing with Windows Azure the other day, specifically to hire rendering machines. My idea was very simple: if I have a long animation to render, why not pay a nominal amount of cash, but have the result back within hours rather than days?

So I created a Windows VM, logged in from my Mac via RDP (Remote Desktop Connection), installed DAZ Studio and some content… but sadly I couldn’t start DAZ Studio. I remember having had this problem before on my home network, where I have a similar setup.

This happens because DAZ Studio needs OpenGL 1.3 or higher, and with an RDP connection, only OpenGL 1.1 is supported. Quite rightly so, DAZ Studio throws an error message and quits. However, the app works just fine via RDP, so how can we circumvent it closing prematurely?

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What is the /data/auto_adapted folder in DAZ Studio

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I was setting up an animation on one system, then transferred the scene over to a more powerful rendering machine. Usually DAZ Studio 4.9 does a good job at installing required content automatically (thanks to DAZ Connect), but this time my scene showed up with several scary grey blocks instead of content. In addition, I …

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Getting started with ShadowBox in ZBrush

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ShadowBox is an interesting feature with which we can create 3D geometry from three intersecting masks. Let’s see how to get started with it step by step in ZBrush 4R7. Select any tool to begin, perhaps something that can serve as a starting point. I’ll use the Dog tool. To do this, hit the COMMA key …

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Filed under: Categories 3D Tagged as: Tags

How to download previous versions of Marvelous Designer

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Marvelous Designer (or Marvy D as some fans call it) receives frequent updates with a plethora of new features. With every round new version number, and upgrade fee is necessary – if you bought the software with a perpetual license (like I have, because I genuinely dislike the subscription model… but I digress).

This means that it is very likely that a new version passes you by, and you have the need to download an older version of Marvelous Designer.

Good thing you can: from the Download Archive.

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