Jay Versluis

Jay is a medical miracle known as Super Survivor. He runs several YouTube channels and websites, and he's also live on Twitch sometimes. To support him on his mission to make the world a better place, you can support him on Patreon or buy him a coffee.

How to switch Photoshop from Timecode to Frames

by

The Photoshop Timeline is a mysterious tool. You can open it from Window – Timeline, or you can open an image sequence/video clip and it’ll dock itself at the bottom of the viewport. By default it displays a sequence in a timecode of sorts, but it’s not the SMPTE or EBU timecode we’ve come to know and love. Instead, it’s something along the lines of seconds and frames, in a format like 02:02f or in other words, something NOBODY in the world would ever use.

But hey, they’re Adobe, and by default they can do anything they want (while extorting money from casual users). I don’t use Photoshop for physical film or video editing, but it’s a nice tool to have when converting rendered image sequences into video clips. I’ve described how to do this here.

When I work this way, I’m more interested in the frame count rather than some made up timecode-thing. I’ve found out how to change this in Photoshop CC, and thought I’d share it with you.

Read more

FIXED: Creative Cloud reports “out of space” although there is enough

by

I’ve recently migrated my cloud files over to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. I’m currently getting 20GB of space without device limitations. I made the move because Dropbox recently introduced a limitation of the amount of “new devices” that can be linked with a free account, which meant I couldn’t link my new Z600 and Z800 workstations on my render farm.

All of a sudden I see this notice that some files could not be synced anymore, telling me I’d have to clear up some space in Creative Cloud. No problem I thought, several image sequences had been converted into videos so I deleted them. My Finder window reported a correct 9GB of used space, but the Creative Cloud app still reported in excess of 20GB. What was going on?

Turns out when you delete files from Creative Cloud, they go into an invisible Trash – not on your local computer, but – you’ve guessed it – “in the cloud”. That space counts towards your quota, and unless this is deleted, new files won’t sync across your devices.

That’s different from Dropbox, where deleted files could be accessed outside the storage quota for 30 days, before being deleted permanently. With Creative Cloud, we’ll have to do this manually (but of course, nobody tells you this)… now that I’ve found how how to do it, let me show you how.

Read more

Rendering with Blender from the Command Line

by

I wanted to put some of my (old) computers to good use by helping them render animations. Everyone is stronger when we work together as a team, no matter if we’re built on carbon or silicone. Sadly though, Blender doesn’t start its GUI via RDP, which means it’s not so easy to speak to the application – unless you employ clunky workarounds.

That’s where the command line interface comes in handy. We can issue a text command to Blender, telling it which file we’d like to render, where to render to, and which frames of an animation to render.

Before I forget how this works, I thought I’d best write it down.

Read more

Shattering my Logo in Blender – 3D Shenanigans #15

by

On this week’s live stream I’ll take my 3D Shenanigans Logo and shatter it into pieces, to build a creepy backwards animation using the Cell Fracture add-on in Blender 2.79. I’ll start by explaining how the tool works, then we’ll move on to building the logo from scratch, add materials, and then we’ll build something …

Read more

Creating Animated Fog with Carrara – 3D Shenanigans #14

by

In this live event I’ll create animated volumetric fog with the highly underrated Carrara. I’ll show you around the app and explain how the programme works, introduce you to some of its features, and then I’ll animate good looking fog. Once exported as a transparent image sequence, I’ll try to animate it live over my …

Read more

How to switch game modes in Subnautica

by

I’ve had a few computer glitches recently while experimenting with a new graphics card. Unfortunately this lead to some random crashes, which in turn damaged my Subnautica game files. Suddenly my save games didn’t tell me how long I had been playing, and what type of game I was playing anymore, and instead only showed …

Read more

Using Iray Canvases in DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #13

by

In this live event I’ll tell you everything I know about Iray Canvases in DAZ Studio. It’s a huge topic, and admittedly I don’t know everything about this subject, but it will cover how to get started with multi pass rendering and the principles of creating separate images from your scene. About Depth Passes There’s …

Read more

Where does Subnautica store Game Saves?

by

Subnautica game save files can currently not participate in any “cloud save” options as far as I’m aware. As such, to transfer files between systems or to make backups, we’ll have to dig deep inside a system folder to find said data. The exact path depends on which marketplace you purchased the game from. Steam …

Read more

TurboTax and QuickBooks Self-Employed – what’s the best deal?

by

This is a slightly longer than usual story, but I thought I’d share it nonetheless – maybe it’ll help someone who’s in a similar situation than I was in April 2019, just about to file my tax return in the US. Grab a coffee and take a trip around some Intuit products that helped me transform the way Julia and I do our taxes.

Read more

Animating Numbers with Blender and DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #12

by

In this live event I’ll show you how to create 3D Text Objects in Blender 2.8, then bring them in to DAZ Studio to animate and render. We’ll animate a single number first, then apply the same animation to the other numbers and add small variations using aniMate. Other than that, I’m happy to answer …

Read more

DAZ Studio Test Scene – share your Iray Render Speeds

by

I’d love to see a decent Iray render speed comparison between the current NVIDIA graphics Cards, specifically for DAZ Studio performance. All we need is some data from a static test scene, render it on a variety of systems and compare the results. Well here’s such a scene! Please download it and render it on …

Read more

About OBS Scenes, Collections and Profiles

by

When I first started using OBS Studio, I was tremendously puzzled about its use of Scenes, Collections and Profiles. It all makes sense if you know what these mean, which I guess eventually you’ll find out – but I wish someone had explained this philosophy to me instead.

Let me help you with that in this article.

Read more

Filed under: Categories 2D Tagged as: Tags

Where does OBS Studio save settings?

by

I genuinely like what OBS has to offer – especially the new OBS 23. In fact I like it so much that I’ve decided to support Jim and his the entire project through their Patreon Campaign. Today I’ve “refreshed” my Windows system, which is the system that I use OBS on primarily, and after every …

Read more

Filed under: Categories 2D Tagged as: Tags

Building a Creepy Corridor Scene in DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #05

by

In this live event I’ll build a creepy “survival horror” type scene: an unsuspecting janitor is working the night shift, while a bunch of super intelligent bugs have escaped and try to take over the facility. I’ll start by modifying the stock corridor to make it longer, then I’ll setup a camera with an extreme …

Read more

Converting older Skin Shaders for use with Iray in DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #04

by

In this live event I’ll explain how we can use an existing Iray skin shader and apply it to an older character like Staci. In my last stream I’ve shown you how to apply existing Iray materials from the library to various surfaces, and this time we’ll create a whole shader (almost) from scratch. I’ll …

Read more

Using Older Content in DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #03

by

In this live event I’ll show you how to utilise some of your older content in DAZ Studio and make it compatible with the NVIDIA Iray render engine. Specifically, I’ll take two 3D Universe characters from 2004, pose them in a brand new set by Danie and Marforno and create a riveting Sci-Fi scene. I’ll …

Read more

Where does DAZ Studio save Morph Files

by

I have recently explained how we can create morphs for DAZ Studio assets with external applications, and how to apply them to characters and clothing using Morph Loader, or something like the GoZ Plugin. You can watch those videos here and here.

One of my viewers was asking – quite rightly – what to do with the applied morph, and how to save it. The answer to that question is a little in-depth, and depends on what you’d like to do with said morph. I thought I’d expand on the answer I gave Scott in one of the above videos with this article.

Read more

How to use Reference Images in DAZ Studio

by

In this episode I’ll show you how we can use Reference Images in DAZ Studio. This is not a built-in option, but with the help of a Plane Primitive and a dedicated camera we can use references to help us build scenes, poses and shaders. We can create as many planes and cameras as we …

Read more

How to “transcode” FLV into MP4 files with OBS

by

By default, OBS Studio likes to record files in FLV – for a reason that’s absolutely beyond me. I easily forget to change this setting into something more sensible, which means I frequently end up with FLV files that contain my material. At that point I have no way to edit those properly.

This means I’ll have to transcode my files in order to make them useful.

Or do I? Well, yes and no. Let me explain a bit more about this dilemma.

Read more

Creating Depth of Field in Photoshop

by

In this episode I’ll show you how to create an artificial depth of field effect in Photoshop, using the Blur Gallery. This can be useful for cutting down on render time, or to apply to images that have been taken with small fixed focus cameras (like the GoPro). This technique is similar in style to …

Read more

About that Denoiser in DAZ Studio 4.11

by

There’s an article by Phil Miller that explains NVIDIA’s philosophy about the new interactive Iray Denoiser.

Thanks to deep learning, NVIDIA’s own DGX-1 AI Super Computer and a lot of trial and error, this machine developed an algorithm that can predict how accurate the final result will look like when only a limited amount of ray bounces are available.

In a nutshell, their Artificial Neural Network went ahead and compared a partially finished render with a finished one, and each time it made a prediction that was not looking handsome, it learnt from it. Eventually they came up with what’s currently integrated in the latest release of Iray, which has made it into DAZ Studio 4.11, and that in turn is available for us to beta test right now.

I’ve run some tests with this new toy, and I’m excited to share those with you today.

Read more

Building an Indoor Pool Scene with DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #02

by

In this live event I’ll build a scene with the Hotel Indoor Pool product from DAZ and Imaginary 3D (available for free this week for Platinum Club Members). I’ll explain how to walk through the scene to explore the the whole set, pick a good camera angle, convert existing objects into light sources and add …

Read more

DAZ Studio 113: Using Cameras

by

In this episode I’ll tell you many interesting things about how to use cameras in DAZ Studio. It’s a rather complex topic, which is why this episode is a little longer than usual. We’ll create a simple scene together from the latest Platinum Club Freebie product, frame up a shot, and create a couple of …

Read more

Creating a Turntable Animation in DAZ Studio – 3D Shenanigans #01

by

In this first Live Event I have planned for y’all I’m going to explain how to create an easy turntable animation in DAZ Studio. We’ll dress up a character, pose him (or her), set some lights and create a 360 degree slow spinning animation of it. This technique is a nice way to show off …

Read more

How to create DAZ Studio Morphs with ZBrush

by

In this episode I’ll show you how to create morphs for DAZ Studio using ZBrush, thanks to a free plugin called GoZ for DAZ Studio (it’s like a ZBrush Bridge). I’ll also explain the prep-work necessary for GoZ to work properly and how to install it. For Allan. https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1901-DAZ-to-ZBrush.mp3 Podcast: Download (Duration: 12:48 — 11.7MB)

DAZ Studio 112: Content and Smart Content explained

by

In this episode I’ll explain the differences between the Content Library Tab and the Smart Content Tab. I’ll also show how to bring content into your scenes, and touch on the different types of content (for example, a shirt fits on a figure, but a material preset fits on a specific shirt). https://www.versluis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1906-DS-112-Content.mp3 Podcast: Download …

Read more

Creating a round cutout mask for OBS Studio

by

I like the way my PlayStation 4 adds a soft round cutout mask to the PlayStation Camera Feed when streaming gameplay. I wondered how I could best recreate this effect in OBS Studio for a consistent experience, no matter which device I decide to stream from.

Here’s how I did it, with a little help from Photoshop – feel free to use the resulting asset without any need for further fiddling.

You can download the mask further down (anchor link).

Read more