Jay Versluis DAZ Studio has a helpful constraints function called Point At. With it we can point eyes at the camera, point a light at an object and do all kinds of other things. Blender also has this concept, but it’s called something else: Track To. Let me show you (and my future self) how to set …
Read moreHow to point a light source at an object in Blender
I’ve spent some time this week putting Blender’s new Cycles X engine through its paces. The team have written about their plans, I’m excited about it and I appreciate the efforts it takes to make this work. I’m already very happy with the current implementation of Cycles, and with a bit of time on my …
I’ve had various requests and discussions with supporters recently about what might be a good configuration for a DAZ Studio and/or rendering computer. It’s a good question, and with so many systems and components on the market, I thought I’d compile this article as a starting point. Feel free to ask specific questions in the …
Read moreWhat’s a good configuration for a 3D/Rendering/DAZ Studio computer
A viewer asked me recently how to get the ZBrush to DAZ Studio connection going step. I’ve explained how to use GoZ in this article, but I’ve not mentioned the pitfalls of the installation process. I thought I’d put this quick article together with screenshots and all. Prepare Install Manager First of all close DAZ …
I’ve been having a hard time pasting in special characters from a script in Clip Studio Paint. I mean those that you don’t commonly find on a US keyboard, like German Umlaut characters or French accents. Although the characters arrive where they should via copy/paste from another app, the font does not match. I couldn’t …
Read moreHow to insert special characters with the Text Tool in Clip Studio Paint
To draw with symmetry, we can create a symmetrical ruler and start drawing with any brush we like. When we switch over to the eraser tool however, only one part of our line is erased. In other words, it won’t obey symmetry by default. It’s relatively easy to make that happen, albeit so unintuitive that …
Read moreHow to use Symmetry with the Eraser Tool in Clip Studio Paint
Photoshop has a neat feature that lets us make adjustments only to the layer directly underneath, rather than all layers on the stack. It’s called a Clipping Layer. Clip Studio Paint has the same feature, but it doesn’t work by ALT-clicking in between layers. Instead, right-click on the adjustment layer (left thumbnail, NOT the mask), …
Read moreHow to create a Clipping Layer in Clip Studio Paint
Image Layers can be rotated, flipped and mirrored in Clip Studio Paint. Choose the Object Selection tool (cube icon), then select the layer and take a look at the Tool Properties. There are two icons with arrows here, one to mirror the layer from left to right, the other to flip it upside down. Hope …
Sometimes it can be hand to turn anything that’s created via Blending Options into discreet and separate layers. Things like drop shadows, outer glows, pattern overlays, that sort of thing. That way we can process them separately or make adjustments or erase parts of those constructions that we otherwise couldn’t do. I keep forgetting how …
Read moreHow to turn Blending Options into independent Layers in Photoshop
I just got hold of a Clip Studio TABMATE controller. It’s a little Bluetooth gadget you hold in your left hand while you’re drawing on a tablet with the other (or vice versa). I always wanted one of those so I don’t have to stretch my arm to reach a bazillion shortcut keys, and to …
Read moreHow to pair and use your Clip Studio TABMATE Controller 😍
The default poses for Genesis 3 and 8 are different: 8 is using an A-Pose, while 3 is using a T-Pose (kind of easy to remember that way). I sometimes have to re-fit clothing from one figure to the other, and as such I need to tweak an A-Pose into the respective T-Pose or vice …
Read moreHow to turn the Genesis 3 T-Pose into the Genesis 8 A-Pose
I’ve been fascinated with the idea of using my Genesis 3 characters with newer Genesis 8 figure. There are some benefits and good outfits that are not backwards compatible without fiddling. So I came across two products that address this: RiversoftArt has various products that convert G3 to G8 and back, and then there’s the …
Read moreComparing G3 to G8 Character Converters for DAZ Studio
I just watched the above excellent one hour tutorial by Henning and Morten from FlippedNormals. It’s a great “getting (back) into ZBrush” tutorial that covers everything I keep forgetting when I give ZBrush a rest for longer than 6 months. Which is essentially every time I use it. While watching I took some notes so …
There appears to be an issue with the current version of DAZ Studio 4.15. With some hair products, when rendering with transparency (without a dome), hair strands appear sparky. It’s annoying enough on a wide shot, but even more so on a closeup. Take a look at the two versions of the image above and …
Read moreHow to fix trouble with hair and transparency in DAZ Studio 4.15
If you’ve ever made a custom character from existing morphs in DAZ Studio, you may find it easier to combine all those adjustments into a single slider. This makes it easier to use the character in new scenes without having to set it up again, and can cut down on the amount of morph product …
Read moreAdjusting skeletons for custom character morphs in DAZ Studio (ERC Freeze)
DMC files are used by Mimic and Lip Sync in DAZ Studio to make a figure move lips in response to an audio file. DMC stands for DAZ Mimic Configuration I believe, and each figure generation needs a specific file to make this work. Every figure including Genesis 3 had such a file in a …
The process of drawing panels for your comic might seem a little intimidating when you first try it out in CLIP Studio Paint. We all feel that way. Once you get used to it, you’ll be flying around. Let me show you how it works. You can create panels in two ways: either by using …
Read moreHow to draw panels and snap them to the Grid in CLIP Studio Paint
I’ve just worked out how to put Clip Studio Paint in full screen mode. This is in version 1.10.x on Windows (the Mac version behaves a little different). There are in fact two ways to make this happen. Head over to the Window menu, then at the very bottom there’s an option called Hide Title …
By default, some keyframes in the DAZ Studio timeline just don’t show up. Morph dials and any other options that appear on the Parameters Tab are such culprits. We can see their effect, but not necessarily a corresponding keyframe. I’ve just found out how to make those values how up and thought I’d make a …
Read moreHow to access keyframes for morph dials and parameters in the DAZ Studio Timeline
Sometimes it’s handy to have DAZ Studio render something in the background, while you’re working on the next scene in the foreground. Sadly that’s disallowed by design, even though it would be a super handy feature to have. Think how elegant the Poser Render Queue or Adobe’s Media Encoder implement such workflows. We’re busy people …
I’ve been playing with the new Genesis 8.1 figure in preparation for a project. Most things seem to be working OK, and as expected – including body morphs and may expression sliders. Something that did not show up was visemes. I use them quite often to create expressions, so they’re very important to me. I …
When you’re releasing a product for DAZ Studio, it’s a good idea to include instructions to give your users all the info they need to make the most out of your creation. You should also include a license that explains what users are allowed and not allowed to do with your product. This means you …
Read moreHow to add Documentation to your DAZ Studio Products
In this article I’ll explain how apply a Mixamo animation to a Genesis 8 (or 3) character, then export the animation to Marvelous Designer, animate a garment and bring it back into DAZ Studio for rendering. This will give us both the rendered character and the garment. There are so many steps to this process, …
Read moreMixamo to DAZ Studio to Marvelous Designer and back
The Slash and Spread tool can be used to add fullness to a garment. In the above image I’ve made a simple skirt from two squares (on the left), but after a few strokes with the Slash and Spread tool it looks much neater (on the right). Here’s a clip from when I discovered it, …
Read moreHow to use the Slash and Spread tool to add fullness in Marvelous Designer
In this article I’ll show you the steps necessary to export an animation as OBJ Sequence from DAZ Studio. There’s a script floating around the DAZ Forums by an unknown author, but sadly it’s stopped working after version 4.12. While I haven’t found a way to fix that script, there’s a workaround by importing the …
Read moreExporting an OBJ Sequence from DAZ Studio (via Blender)
I always forget how to do this: most viewports can be changed into full screen mode by hovering over a window and selecting CTRL + SPACE BAR. This works great for 3D and node views, less so for things like the timeline or the outliner.
I found out a couple of neat full-screen tips in Premiere Pro. One will remove the status bar at the top, the other one will make the editor window temporarily full screen. It works great, and I can’t believe I’ve never heard of these gems before. Remove the Status Bar in Premiere Pro Press CTRL …
I came across a mystery the other day. It had to do with sewing pockets in Marvelous Designer. I did this in a stream recently, and Christina was kind enough to give me some tips. One of the things that came up was Turned Sewing, and I found the principle a little hard to grasp. …
Read moreWhat is Turned Sewing in Marvelous Designer and when do we use it
This morning I’ve noticed that my measuring tool had disappeared from the 3D toolbar in Marvelous Designer. I was using it only last week. I could still get to it using Avatar – Measurement, but the icon had gone. How do we bring it back? And why did this happen in the first place? Thankfully …
Read moreHow to bring back the Measuring Tool Icon in Marvelous Designer
I’ve been making some thumbnails for my Stardew Valley streams on YouTube, using low-res pixel artwork to reference the characters. My thumbnails are much larger than the original artwork, so I had to resize them in Photoshop. However, when I did this, I’ve noticed that Photoshop was trying to “smooth” the pixels as good as …
Read moreHow to retain a pixelated retro look when scaling images in Photoshop