FIGURES, CHARACTERS, AND AVATARS: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO USING DAZ STUDIO TO CREATE BEAUTIFUL ART ™
Les Pardew
Course Technology PTR A part of Cengage Learning
Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ® Studio to Create Beautiful Art Les Pardew
Publisher and General Manager, Course Technology PTR: Stacy L. Hiquet Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella Manager of Editorial Services: Heather Talbot Marketing Manager: Jordan Casey Senior Acquisitions Editor: Emi Smith Project Editor: Jenny Davidson Technical Reviewer: DAZ 3D PTR Editorial Services Coordinator: Jen Blaney Interior Layout Tech: Bill Hartman Cover Designer: Mike Tanamachi DVD-ROM Producer: Brandon Penticuff Indexer: Sharon Shock Proofreader: Sara Gullion
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This book is dedicated to all the great people at DAZ 3D who have come together to make a great tool for artists.
Acknowledgments This book was created by the combined efforts of a number of people. I want to thank all the people at DAZ who have patiently worked with me on this book. Thanks also go to the editors and staff at Course Technology for their contributions to the book. Last but not least, I thank my family and good wife who have supported me in all my efforts, including putting up with me while writing this book.
About the Author Les Pardew is a video game and entertainment industry veteran with over 22 years of entertainment industry experience. His work in the industry includes more than 120 video game titles, 12 books, and numerous illustrations in magazines, books, and film. He began his career in film animation and later moved to video games where he has found a permanent home. Pardew currently serves as president of Alpine Studios, which he founded with Ross Wolfley in the Fall of 2000. Pardew is a prolific artist who loves to work on the computer and with traditional media. On the computer, he is an accomplished 3D artist, creating and animating characters for many video games. In traditional media, his first love is drawing followed closely by oil painting. His favorite subject is people. He can often be seen drawing a portrait or designing a character for a game in his sketchbook. Pardew loves to share his knowledge with others, teaching business and art classes at the university level and authoring several books on art, animation, and game design.
Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1 Introduction to 3D Graphics
1
3D Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Inside a 3D Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 How 3D Graphics Are Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Motion Pictures/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Illustration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Video Games. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Avatars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Fine Art. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 2 The Scene
11
Installing the Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Registering DAZ Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 DAZ Studio Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 How to Get Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Understanding Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Loading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
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Chapter 3 The Camera
25
Orthogonal Cameras. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Focal Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Pathways. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Chapter 4 The Figure
47
Selecting Parts of the Figure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Parts of the Figure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 The Hip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Bones of the Hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Morphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 5 Clothing
57
Applying Clothing to a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Surfaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Advanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Premade Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Contents
Chapter 6 The Head
vii
69
Parts of the Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Head Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Head Morphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Facial Expressions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 FaceShop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Chapter 7 Posing the Figure
91
Posing a Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Getting the Right Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Natural . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Emotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Anger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Surprise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Happy (Joy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Sad (Dejected) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Authoritarian (I’m the Boss) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Only a Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Chapter 8 Non-Human Characters
109
Quadrupeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Winged Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Finned Creatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Other Non-Human Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Chapter 9 Avatars
119
Customizing Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 LOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Using LOD Versions for Avatars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Exporting an Avatar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Chapter 10 Props and Sets
127
Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Character Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Environment Props . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 The Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Full 3D Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Bryce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Building a Scene in Bryce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Chapter 11 Advanced Posing
147
Power Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Head and Hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Creating a Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Puppeteer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Edit Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Preview Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Record Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Contents
Chapter 12 Lighting
ix
155
Light in Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Light and Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Setting Up Lights in DAZ Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Lighting a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Preset Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Chapter 13 DAZ Studio and Traditional Media
167
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Using DAZ Studio for Reference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Posing for Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Action Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Problem Poses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Chapter 14 Animation
175
3D Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Bouncing Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Character Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 aniMate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Chapter 15 Lip Sync
185
Animating a Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Mimic Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Chapter 16 Emotional Characters
193
States and Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Animating Reactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Anticipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Key Reaction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Let Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Animating Emotional States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Surprise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Fear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Anger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Gallery
205
Index
220
Introduction Unlocking the 3D Artist in You In its basic sense, art has always been about depicting the artist’s vision in tangible form. Whether it’s the early cave drawings depicting a hunt, Michelangelo’s masterwork of the creation of man on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or the latest special effects for a science-fiction movie, all were the result of an artist bringing his vision forward in a way that can be shared with others. In the past, those who wanted to be artists had to spend years, if not a lifetime, developing skills in painting, sculpture, or some other media to express his artistic vision. While these skills will always be important to the artist, they have limited the creation of great artwork to those who were able to master them, limiting artistic expression to the mechanical ability of the artist. A new wave of computer graphics tools like DAZ Studio is starting to break the barriers restraining the artist and open the path to amazing artwork even for those with limited painting or drawing skills. It is important that I state here that learning to draw is an important skill for any artist and the benefits of good drawing skills will be worth every hour the artist spends developing them. The benefits of learning to draw go well beyond just learning how to create beautiful drawings. Learning to draw is a process of learning to see, and learning to see is essential in developing artistic vision. Artistic vision enables the artist to see life, the world, and himself in a way that transcends how most other people perceive these things. If you would like to know more about the benefits of drawing, I suggest you look at one of my other books, Everyone Should Draw, which covers this subject in detail. This book, however, is not about drawing, but instead is a book about creating amazing 3D art. This book will show you how to unlock the 3D artist in you using the incredible power of DAZ Studio and some of the other great tools created by DAZ 3D. In these pages, you will learn how to build sets and populate them with amazing characters. You will learn how easy it is to move and pose characters. You will learn about lighting and how to make your art look real. You will learn how to create your own movies with real 3D characters including making the characters talk. You will learn how to use DAZ Studio to improve your drawing skills. Finally, if you work through all of the practice exercises and learn the program, it will make you a better artist and bring your artistic vision to life.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
DAZ Studio is a very powerful art program, but unlike paint programs like Photoshop or 3D programs like 3ds Max, DAZ Studio is designed to give the artist the ability to compose beautiful scenes using a vast library of existing characters, props, and sets. This enables even a beginning artist the opportunity to create beautiful realistic art. The simple tools allow the artist to set up an environment and then populate it with characters or creatures that can move and act. Below are just a couple examples of what can be created in DAZ Studio.
Pretty amazing, isn’t it? These pictures are just a sample of some of the exciting things you will be able to do with DAZ Studio. Soon you will be creating art that is similar in quality to these pictures. Can’t wait to start? Turn the page and let’s begin.
1 Introduction to 3D Graphics Welcome to the world of 3D graphics and DAZ Studio. This first chapter will introduce you to how 3D graphics are used for motion pictures, video games, art, and on the Internet. If you are unfamiliar with how 3D graphics are created, you might not understand what the term 3D graphics means. Many think of 3D movies where you have to wear special glasses to see art that looks three-dimensional. But for the purposes of this book, I will use the term 3D graphics as it relates to the use of computer-generated 3D models and animation.
3D Models 3D models in computer-generated 3D graphics refer to three-dimensional data that is mathematically calculated using a computer. This data is represented on the computer screen as an object that the viewer is able to turn and see from any angle as if the object existed in real space. In fact, some 3D objects are so lifelike that they are virtually indistinguishable from real objects on a movie screen. Look at the Figure 1.1. Is it a photograph of a real scene or a computer-generated 3D object? Actually, the scene is a computer-generated 3D graphic. It looks pretty real, doesn’t it? Computer graphics have matured to the point that they are regularly used in motion pictures, TV shows, and other media interchangeably with real characters or scenes. This has given rise to a whole new generation of graphical effects in motion pictures and TV shows, allowing directors to shoot scenes that a few years ago would have been impossible. It has also given rise to a new generation of video games that seem almost lifelike.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 1.1 Is this real or computer generated?
Inside a 3D Model 3D models are made up of a mesh of simple geometric shapes combined to form a very complex object. It is a little like a cut diamond for a piece of jewelry. The diamond has many facets or flat planes that form its shape yet as a whole the diamond can be almost any shape the jeweler desires. A 3D model uses the same concept of combining many flat shapes to create a more complex shape. On a 3D model, these individual flat shapes are called polygons. The basic unit of a 3D model is the polygon. A polygon is a simple flat plane with three or more sides, as shown in Figure 1.2. The point on the corner of a polygon is called a vertex or vertices for plural. The vertex is the mathematical point in space that a computer software program calculates.
Note I won’t get into how to plot these points in this book. If you are interested in the concept, you can gain a better understanding from math.com at the following address. http://www.math.com/school/subject3/lessons/S3U2L1GL.html. For now all you really need to know is that 3D software programs like DAZ Studio keep track of all the vertices in a 3D model for you.
The lines between vertices are called edges. If you started with one three-sided polygon and added another vertex, you could form another polygon having a common edge with the first, as shown in Figure 1.3.
Chapter 1 ■ Introduction to 3D Graphics
Figure 1.2 The polygon is the basic unit of a 3D model.
3
Figure 1.3 Adding a fourth vertex creates a second polygon.
Vertices and edges make up what is referred to as a wireframe mesh. Figure 1.4 shows a complex wireframe mesh of a character commonly used in DAZ Studio. As you can see it takes a lot of individual polygons to create a realistic 3D model. So a polygon is made up of three or more edges connecting three or more vertices to form a flat plane. The flat plane of the polygon is called a face. When we look at 3D models in video games, motion pictures, or other applications we are generally looking at faces and not at vertices and edges. Figure 1.5 shows the same model as Figure 1.4 with the faces showing instead of the wireframe mesh. In this example, all of the faces had only a single color, so even though the 3D model looked good, it still was lacking in detail. Polygons can also have textures mapped to them. Textures are 2D pictures that are attached to a polygon. Figure 1.6 shows the model now with textures. As you can see, the texture adds the detail that was missing in Figure 1.5.
Figure 1.4 A wireframe mesh can have many individual vertices and edges.
Figure 1.5 We usually see the faces of a 3D model.
Figure 1.6 Textures on 3D models give the appearance of greater detail.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
I have just given you a very simplified overview of how 3D models are constructed. I have purposely been brief so as not to bog you down in the many complex aspects of creating 3D models.
How 3D Graphics Are Used Because of their increasing versatility and graphic quality, 3D graphics are being used in more and more industries. You can find 3D graphic artists in almost every industry from motion picture production to landscape architecture. There are 3D graphic artists creating amusement park rides, cars, video games, virtual reality simulators, Internet games, and movies. “In fact there are probably fewer industries without 3D artists than there are with them. With all of this activity in 3D graphics let’s take a closer look at some of the fascinating career opportunities that are available for 3D artists.
Motion Pictures/TV Industries that are commonly thought of when people think of 3D graphics are the TV and film industries. Most people are familiar with movies like Shrek, Toy Story, Cars, and other fully animated 3D motion pictures. What you might not be familiar with is how extensively 3D graphics are used in live-action movies. The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, 300, and the later Star Wars movies made extensive use of 3D graphics with live action. But even movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Bourne Ultimatum, Babe, and others made use of 3D graphics in their production. 3D graphics for motion pictures range through almost anything you might see on the screen, but some of the basic jobs available to the movie artist are as follows: ■
Scenes and Sets. The 3D artist may create a small part of a set like a historic building that no longer exists, or an entire set. Set artists specialize in the creation of interesting and sometimes spectacular settings for movies.
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Characters. Characters can be anything from a large crowd to an individual person. A character could be the main star of the show or a background character to fill out a scene. Character artists specialize in the creation of articulated actors. These actors range from the very stylized cartoon to the ultra realistic human character.
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Animation. Animators move 3D characters and objects on screen. They are the ones who are responsible for any motion that takes place in a movie. (Animation is listed separately because many times the animator and the model builder are two different individuals. Animation is the simulation of movement and is more about how a 3D model moves rather than the building of that 3D model.)
■
Special Effects. Special effects cover a wide range of specialized visuals like rain, smoke, explosions, water, specialized lighting, and almost anything else that might be added to a film to enhance a particular scene.
Chapter 1 ■ Introduction to 3D Graphics
■
5
Storyboards. Storyboards are visual instructions used by motion picture and TV directors to guide the shooting of a scene. Storyboards traditionally are sketches but more recently 3D graphics are being used especially in situations where very specific effects or angles are needed. 3D graphics allow a director to more fully visualize complex shots saving time and money on the set.
DAZ Studio has many tools and features that will help a beginning artist understand and utilize many of the above-mentioned 3D models and effects. If you are interested in a career in motion pictures as a 3D artist, you will find a wealth of resources in DAZ Studio to help you get started. In Figure 1.7 and 1.8 are some examples of DAZ Studio used in motion picture production.
Figure 1.7 The above DAZ character was used in a motion picture production.
Figure 1.8 DAZ Studio is used to visualize a movie scene.
Illustration Illustration is the field of commercial art that creates visual images for print material like magazines, billboards, books, advertisements, products, etc. More recently, illustrations are being used on the Internet in web pages, banner ads, and other electronic media. Illustrations are static images that enhance a message by explaining it in visual form like a picture or diagram. For example, a book illustration helps tell a story. A product illustration helps explain a product. An advertisement illustration helps sell a product or idea. In a way, illustration can be thought of as working art. It has a communication purpose.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Illustration is traditionally thought of as a two-dimensional media; however, DAZ Studio has given rise to a whole new way of creating stunning lifelike illustration. Through the power of 3D, artists are now able to set up scenes; populate them with characters, objects, or whatever else they need; and render them with specialized lighting. Figures 1.9 and 1.10 are examples of DAZ Studio being used for illustration.
Figure 1.9 DAZ Studio helps the artist create a strong 3D environment.
Figure 1.10 DAZ Studio is used to illustrate an idea.
Video Games Electronic games like video games have increased in popularity over the years to the point that the video game industry is one of the largest entertainment industry segments in the world. Billions of dollars are spent to buy and play video games every month. To support the demand, an army of 3D artists work to create the worlds, characters, and other game elements required by this ever-growing industry. A single video game can require the services of 20 to 30 artists working full-time for more than a year to produce. 3D graphic production for video games is similar to that of movies requiring many of the same job functions for developing scenes, characters, animation, special effects, and storyboarding. The main difference between the two disciplines is that video game
Chapter 1 ■ Introduction to 3D Graphics
7
graphics have very strict technical guidelines pertaining to model complexity and number in order to work within the requirements of the game system. As game systems have become more and more powerful, these technical limitations have increased, giving the game artist more and more freedom. Even with advances, however, 3D graphics still have upper limits that the artist has to maintain to allow the game to run at a decent speed. Video game artists use DAZ Studio as a tool to help them visualize scenes and test out characters. Figure 1.11 shows a video game scene visualization.
Avatars Related to video game art development is the development of avatars. Avatars are characters or objects that represent a person in a video game, online community, or within other applications. Figure 1.12 shows a group of avatars that were created in DAZ Studio. An avatar represents an individual; therefore, having an avatar that looks like the person or expresses the person’s personality becomes important. Massive multi-player online role-playing games or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and others make exten-
Figure 1.11 DAZ Studio can be used to visualize a video game scene.
Figure 1.12 Avatars created in DAZ Studio.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
sive use of avatars. Online communities like Second Life also make use of unique avatars. As the need for avatars has increased so has the demand for 3D artists to create these characters. An avatar can be something as simple as a static picture to something as complex as a completely articulated 3D character. The more complex the character, the higher level of 3D expertise needed to create that character. DAZ Studio is a tremendous tool for creating avatars because it already has a huge library of pre-built characters available from humans to animals and even fantasy creatures. These characters can be imported into DAZ Studio and modified to fit the specific look that the artist wants for an avatar.
Design The word design is a nebulous term and covers 3D graphics as they are used in the design of everything from toasters to skyscrapers. Almost everything we use from the homes we live in to the books we read was designed by someone. Designers are the ones who decide how an automobile will look or how a toy will be put together. They are known by names like graphic designer, architect, and industrial designer. They often combine the skills of an engineer with that of an artist. Designers probably make up one of the largest groups of 3D graphic artists in the world. With the power of 3D graphics, designers are able to design virtually before they have to go through the trouble and expense of building their design in real life using real materials. This freedom allows the designer the opportunity to investigate multiple designs in a relatively short amount of time, increasing his creative output. DAZ Studio is a great tool for the designer because it allows him to visualize his product, building, or whatever he is designing in a setting with characters as if it were in a real environment. Figure 1.13 shows how an architect might use DAZ Studio to visualize a scene.
Fine Art Last but not least, 3D graphics have made their way into the world of fine art. More and more fine artists are discovering the flexibility and versatility of 3D graphics and 3D graphics software in their art. Whether the artist works in traditional media like painting, drawing, or sculpture, or directly on the computer, there are many ways a fine artist can use 3D graphics to improve and enhance her work. With a 3D program, the fine artist can set up a scene with whatever her subject matter might be and experiment with lighting, view angles, and frame sizes until she finds exactly what she likes, then use the scene to create her art. Figures 1.14 and 1.15 show two examples of fine art created in DAZ Studio.
Chapter 1 ■ Introduction to 3D Graphics
Figure 1.13 DAZ Studio is used to show an architect’s vision of a building.
Figure 1.14 Beautiful art created in DAZ Studio.
Figure 1.15 DAZ Studio can be a great tool for the fine artist.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Many fine artists have found DAZ Studio to be an indispensible tool in their studios. With DAZ Studios artists can develop complex compositions to use for reference in their paintings. Rather than hiring an expensive model to experiment with compositions and poses the fine artist can work all of that out beforehand saving valuable model time. Fine artists can also use the program itself for creating amazing art.
Summary I hope this introductory chapter has helped you to see the creative possibilities of 3D graphics and many uses of DAZ Studio. With the tools available today, even beginning artists can create amazing quality art. Skilled artists will find the program of immense value to sharpen their skills and extend their creativity. In the next several chapters I will unlock the many fascinating features of DAZ Studio and give you a chance to experience for yourself some of the inspiring things you can do with this software. If you are ready to start, turn the page and let’s begin.
2 The Scene This chapter will start you on your way to creating amazing art with DAZ Studio. It will cover installing the software, basic layout of controls and tools, and loading and setting up scenes. You will also have a chance to create your first picture with a simple stepby-step tutorial. You will see just how easy it is to use DAZ Studio. Everything you need to start creating beautiful pictures is right at your fingertips.
Installing the Software There is a version of the latest DAZ Studio on the DVD that comes with this book. It was the latest version available at the time of this book’s publishing; however, the program is updated regularly so I recommend that you take a look at their site, http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/?&_m=d to see if there is a new version available. To install the version on the DVD, insert it in your computer’s DVD drive and, when prompted, click Install DAZ Studio. Installation is easy and all you will need to do is follow the onscreen directions. If you happen to have an older version of DAZ Studio on your system, the installation program will ask if you want to remove it. The older version has to be removed before you can install the new version, so click Yes. Once the program is installed, take the time to read the readme file. It will help you with any new issues with the software that you might need to know. When you are ready to begin, start the program.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Registering DAZ Studio When DAZ runs for the first time, you will be asked to register the program with a serial number. If your computer is connected to the Internet, you will be able to receive your serial number right away just by clicking on the button shown in Figure 2.1. Figure 2.1 You can register online when the program first comes up.
Once DAZ Studio is registered and activated, it will load with a 3D character model in a beach scene, as shown in Figure 2.2. The character’s name is Victoria and she is DAZ’s free gift to you to help you start learning the program. Victoria is one of DAZ’s premier models and can look near lifelike when rendered correctly. DAZ has another free gift for you as well. If you look at the right-hand side of your screen, you will see the word “Free” in the New at DAZ tab. Under it is the 3D Bridge Starter Pack. This is a free package of 3D models to use in DAZ Studio. It has a variety of 3D models from characters to animals. If you were to buy these models separately, it would cost you more than $200. Why would DAZ just give away this valuable model package? Because they want new artists to be able to start creating amazing art right away. The 3D Bridge Starter Pack gives you a full set of models so you can start creating. If you want the free models, all you have to do is click on it while your computer is connected to the Internet and you will be taken to the DAZ online store, as shown in Figure 2.3. From here, you can not only get the 3D Bridge Starter Pack but you can also take a look at the hundreds of other 3D models available from DAZ.
Chapter 2 ■ The Scene
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Figure 2.2 Victoria will load the first time you open the program.
Figure 2.3 The 3D Bridge Starter Pack is available free through the DAZ online store.
DAZ Studio Basics DAZ Studio takes a different approach to creating art than other computer art programs such as Photoshop, Maya, and 3ds Max. Instead of drawing and painting or building 3D models, DAZ Studio is more like a virtual photography studio. In DAZ Studio, the artist uses existing 3D models to create art. The program also allows the artist to modify 3D models resulting in almost limitless possibilities.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
In DAZ Studio, the workflow generally goes as follows: 1. Load a scene file. A scene is a 3D file that contains an environment. For example, a scene might be a city park, a beach, or even a room. 2. Load characters and props. Characters and props are 3D models that are used to populate a scene. For example, characters can be humans, robots, animals, or any other model that animates. Props are nonanimating objects like furniture, cars, and buildings. Props can also be objects like guns, backpacks, and cell phones. 3. Accessorize the characters. Once the scene elements are loaded, the artist can modify the characters in the scene by changing or adding accessories and/or clothing. For example, the artist may want the model to wear a different outfit or add items like sunglasses or a hat. 4. Arrange the scene. The next step for the artist will be to arrange the scene. In this step, the artist moves the loaded elements around in the scene until everything is where it should be. 5. Pose characters. Because characters can animate, the artist can pose them in any position he chooses. 6. Set up lighting. When the scene is ready and all elements are in place and posed to the artist’s satisfaction, it is time to set up the lighting. In this step, the artist adds lights to the scene. 7. Position the camera. The last task to complete before rendering the scene is to position the camera for the camera angle that the artist wants for the scene. 8. Render the scene. Rendering the scene is where you take the picture of what you created. Renders can be a single picture or multiple frames of an animation sequence. This is a simplified list of a common workflow for using DAZ Studio. It isn’t necessarily how all artists work, and it can be much more complex, but the value in understanding the common workflow as a beginner will be that as you work in DAZ Studio, you can do so in a workflow that makes sense. I have organized this book so it follows this workflow taking you through each aspect of the above steps. Understanding the workflow will also help you to understand why the interface is set up the way it is. Let’s move on and take a look at the DAZ Studio interface.
How to Get Around DAZ Studio has a nice clean layout that is easy to learn and use. It is organized to help the artist quickly perform tasks. Once you get used to the layout, you should have no problem locating any tool or feature you might need.
Chapter 2 ■ The Scene
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General Layout DAZ Studio’s layout is designed to make it easy for the user to set up scenes. The main work area is in the center of the screen shown here in Figure 2.4. Think of this area as the stage. It is your view of the world you are creating. Figure 2.4 The center part of the screen shows the scene you are working on.
In the upper-left corner of the viewport, there are several tools that are used to help you work in the scene. They control display modes, camera views, and light views. We will cover these tools later in this chapter. To the right and left of the scene are panes. The left-hand pane contains information about what is in your scene and what is available to put in your scene, as shown in Figure 2.5. There are two tabs at the top of this pane: Content and Scene. The Content tab shows all available content. DAZ has a built- in system for automatically organizing available content to make it easy for you to find your 3D models. The pane on the right has two tabs. We have already used the first tab, showing you how to get more content from www.daz3d.com. This tab is labeled New at DAZ and is used to let you know if there are any special deals from www.daz3d.com on models that you may want to add to your collection. The second tab is labeled Parameters and is shown in Figure 2.6, with the model’s hips selected.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 2.5 The left-hand pane displays what is in the scene and what can be in the scene.
Figure 2.6 The Parameters pane is located on the left side of the screen.
Parameters are used to help you place models within the scene and adjust the shape of the model. For example, with her hips selected, if you go to Rotate Y and pull the slider to the left, you will rotate the model as shown in Figure 2.7. Click on the Pose/Animate tab in the upper-left corner of your screen. You will notice that the right-hand pane changes, as shown in Figure 2.8. This is because the right pane Figure 2.7 The Rotate Y parameter rotates the model.
Chapter 2 ■ The Scene
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Figure 2.8 The right pane changes for the needs of the current process.
is used to hold special functions and tools that are used at different times in your work process. The tools that are often used to pose or animate a model in the scene appear when the Pose/Animate tab is selected. There are three Activity Tabs at the top left of the screen. These tabs correspond to the usual workflow. The first tab is the Load tab and is the default tab when you start the program. This tab has specialized features for loading 3D models into the scene. The second tab is labeled Pose/Animate. It is used for posing and animating models within a scene. The third tab is labeled Render. It is used when the artist is done with the scene and wants to render it to a 2D image. If you think of DAZ Studio as a virtual photography studio, you can break it down into scene setup, posing the model, and taking a picture.
Main Menu The main menu is at the top of the screen on the left-hand side. It contains the following menu items: ■
File—Allows for loading, saving, importing, and exporting files.
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Edit—Has functions for undo/redo, deleting, copy settings, backdrops, audio, preferences, and customizing the program.
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View—Contains functions for customizing the interface layout and tabs.
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Render—Contains the Render function and settings.
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Create—Allows the user to add a number of common objects to the scene including cameras, lights, and primitive objects.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
■
Tools—Contains tools to help the artist in the creation of her scene.
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Help—Contains DAZ Studio online help and information.
Below the three main tabs, as shown in Figure 2.9, is a toolbar full of useful actions and tools to help the artist quickly perform many functions without having to search for them in the menus. Figure 2.9 The toolbox lets the artist quickly access common tools.
As you can see, the interface is relatively simple. Don’t let the many powerful features of DAZ Studio intimidate you. You don’t have to know every function and every tool to start creating. You can learn the basics and then expand from there. If you follow the instructions in this book, you will know the functions and tools you need to create beautiful art and a good deal more.
Understanding Scenes A scene in DAZ Studio is the work area where you will place your background objects, characters, and props. It also contains poses, lights, cameras, and anything else that you import or use to make up your art. Let’s take a quick look at the scene that loads with DAZ Studio. Click on the Scene tab on the left pane as shown in Figure 2.10. Figure 2.10 The Scene pane shows everything in the scene.
Chapter 2 ■ The Scene
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The Scene tab contains everything that is within a scene. A quick look at the list in the Scene pane will show you what you have to work with. For example, in this first scene you will notice that there are seven lights, five spot lights, and two other lights. Each of these lights helps to make the scene look and feel right. In Figure 2.11, I deleted one of the lights. Notice the difference (as compared to Figure 2.10) one light can make to a scene. Figure 2.11 The scene with one light missing.
Figure 2.12 Items in the list are hierarchal.
Some of the items in the list have a small + sign next to them. This means that you are not looking at a single item but rather a group of items tied together in what DAZ Studio calls nodes. For example, in Figure 2.12, I have expanded part of the Victoria model’s node. You will notice that some of these are nodes within nodes. Nodes are hierarchal, meaning that if you select the first item in a node, all of the items below it are also selected. If, on the other hand, you select the bottom item in a node, only that item is selected. Think of the list like a tree. If you shake the trunk, all of the branches will shake as well. If you shake one of the end branches, it will shake by itself. The Scene list is an easy way to select specific items without having to find them inside the scene. However, items can also be selected by clicking on them in the scene. DAZ Studio allows for both types of selections.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Toolbar In the upper-left corner of the scene is a set of tools that can be used to modify the scene. Let’s go through each tool so you become familiar with them. Figure 2.13 shows the tools with their labels. ■
Indicator—Indicates the type of scene element the tools are working with. It also allows you to move the tools to any corner or minimize them.
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Rotate—Rotates the scene.
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Pan—Pans the scene parallel to the view.
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Zoom—Zooms in and out of the scene.
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Bank—Banks the scene around a central pivot point.
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Frame—Frames the selected object in the scene.
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Reset—Restores the default view.
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View Selection—Changes the view camera.
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Draw Style—Changes draw style.
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Options—Option selection menu.
View Selection
Draw Style
Options
Tool Position Rotate Pan Zoom Bank Frame Reset
The tools on the left arranged vertically are activated when you position the cursor over the tool and click and hold down the left or right mouse button. Hovering over the tool will bring up a tool tip window. When you move the mouse, the tool will take effect. For example, in Figure 2.14, I used the Pan tool to raise the scene so that the volleyball is visible. The tools along the top are actually drop-down menus that let you select options. Figure 2.15 shows the View Selection drop down menu. Notice the icons in the menu. Views are indicated by the grid icon, cameras have a camera icon, and lights have a light icon. DAZ Studio lets you position all of these scene elements using the toolbar.
Figure 2.13 The toolbar in DAZ Studio.
Chapter 2 ■ The Scene
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Figure 2.14 The Pan tool is used to raise the scene.
Figure 2.15 The View Selection menu.
Experiment with each of the tools to see what you can do. Also, try the different menu selections to see how they affect your scene.
Loading You add scene elements by loading them into a scene. This is done from the Content tab on the left side of the screen. Scene content can be organized by list, tree, or category. Go to the Content tab and the content options, as shown in Figure 2.16.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 2.16 Use the content options to change the Content tab to select View Folders as Tree.
Change the content view to tree then go to the File menu and click New to bring up a new empty scene. Now you are ready to start adding content to your scene. In Figure 2.17, I have added a dragon character to my scene. This dragon character is available through the DAZ store at www.daz3d.com. Figure 2.17 A dragon is loaded into the scene.
First, I found the dragon in the DAZ Dragons folder within the Figures folder. A picture of the dragon then appeared in the lower pane. The dragon was loaded into the scene by clicking on its picture in the lower pane, dragging it into the scene, and then releasing the mouse button. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. Additionally, you can double-click on the icon and it will load into the scene. You probably noticed that the dragon didn’t look the same as the picture. That is because it is missing a texture. Many DAZ 3D objects have multiple choices for textures or they
Chapter 2 ■ The Scene
23
are specific texture types that are only supported in DAZ Studio. The textures for the dragon are located in the Studio folder, as shown in Figure 2.18. To apply the texture to the dragon, simply drag the texture you want onto the dragon model, as shown in Figure 2.19. You can also double-click the texture icon with the dragon selected in the viewport to load the texture. If you downloaded the free model packs supplied by DAZ, you should have several models that you can experiment with. Try loading them to see how they look in the scene. Figure 2.18 The dragon’s textures are located inside the Studio directory.
Figure 2.19 To apply the texture to the dragon, drag it from the icon to the model in the scene.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Summary In this chapter, we looked at DAZ Studio’s interface to understand its layout and how it is organized. We also took a closer look at the toolbar tools. These tools help you move about your scene. We also looked at the Scene tab and the Content tab. The Scene tab shows all elements loaded into a scene. The Content tab shows any available elements that can be loaded into a scene. The last item covered in this chapter was loading DAZ 3D elements into a scene. In the next chapter, we will cover cameras and view ports.
3 The Camera Most people are familiar with a camera and the process of taking pictures. We have compared DAZ Studio to a photography studio, so it should seem natural for it to have some cameras lying around. Simply put, a camera in DAZ studio is a view of your scene. Think of it as if you were holding a real camera looking at the scene. If you want to see the scene from another angle, you move to a different place and then look at the scene through your camera there. Cameras in DAZ Studio work in a similar way to real cameras, except that in a virtual 3D world they are much more flexible. DAZ Studio can have as many cameras as you want. In fact, there are a number of cameras in DAZ Studio already set up and ready to use. The predetermined cameras are called views. You can look through any of the preset views by changing your view selection. The View Selection menu is part of the Viewport Toolbar, as we already discovered in Chapter 2. Figure 3.1 shows the default menu. You will notice that there are seven views and one Default Camera. The seven views are very useful in setting up a scene. Each camera is set up in a way that gives the artist quick access to viewing models.
Orthogonal Cameras DAZ has six preset orthogonal cameras. There are six cameras to cover all six of the cardinal directions. Think of dice. We know they have six sides because they are numbered 1 through 6. DAZ Studio has placed a camera looking in at the scene from each side as if looking at the sides of a die. To better see how this works we will need to modify our beginning scene. Select the beach as shown in Figure 3.2. Then press Delete to remove it from the scene. This will remove the object from the scene so we can better see how the orthogonal cameras work.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 3.1 Change your view by using the View Selection menu.
Figure 3.2 Select the beach so it can be removed from the scene.
Now we have our character Victoria standing by her volleyball without the backdrop. Go to the View Selection menu and change the view to front, as shown in Figure 3.3. Notice how the view changes slightly. We are now viewing Victoria from the direct front. Now let’s look at her from the back. Change the view to the Back View, as shown in Figure 3.4. Now your view is directly behind Victoria. Next let’s look at Victoria from one of the sides. Change the view to the Left View to see her from her left side, as shown in Figure 3.5.
Chapter 3 ■ The Camera
Figure 3.3 Change the view to the Front View.
Figure 3.4 Victoria as seen from the back.
Note Left and right orientation in DAZ studio is based on the 3D scene not the physical left and right of the screen. Therefore, if you look at a scene from the Left View, you will be looking at Victoria’s left side.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 3.5 Victoria as seen from her left side.
Now let’s take a look at Victoria from the top. Go to the Top View, as shown in Figure 3.6. As you can see, by using the orthogonal views you can quickly inspect your creation from several angles to ensure you are posing your characters and positioning them correctly within your scene. Figure 3.6 Victoria as seen from the Top View.
Chapter 3 ■ The Camera
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No Perspective There is one other aspect of an orthogonal view that is important for 3D artists to understand: orthogonal views are flat views of the scene. This means the view shows all objects in the scene at their actual size, regardless of how far they are from the camera. For example, look at Figures 3.7 and 3.8. Even though these two views are looking at the same scene they are very different. Figure 3.7 The scene as viewed from the Front View.
Figure 3.8 The scene as viewed from the default camera.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
The orthogonal views of the scene are isometric, meaning that there is no reduction in size like we would associate with how we see things in real life. The orthogonal views are more like drafting views used in product design or architectural drawings. They are useful in setting up scenes but are not generally used for finished renders. Because of the isometric nature of the orthogonal views, you should also notice that some of the tools in the toolbox are grayed out. This is because rotating or pivoting the camera will take the view out of its orthogonal position.
Perspective View One of the views is a perspective view. This view simulates how we see things in real life. This view is useful in showing what your final picture might look like. Let’s move around in the scene to see how the camera works. In Figure 3.9 I have rotated the camera to my left using the Rotate Tool, offering a view of the right. As you can see from this view, the scene takes on a more dimensional look because it is being viewed from an angle instead of flat. In Figure 3.10, I have used both the Rotate and Pan tools to view the scene from more of a top-down angle. Here I swung the view to my right and up, then rotated it so it was looking down. As you can see, moving the perspective view around in the scene is very easy using the toolbar. Figure 3.9 Rotating the camera gives a different view of the scene.
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Figure 3.10 Here the view is higher looking down.
Cameras In addition to the perspective view there is also a default camera. Cameras are different from views because they are actual objects in a scene and can be animated where views can’t. The default camera is normally the camera that you use to view your scene for your final picture. It isn’t so much that you can’t use the perspective view it is simply that it is easier to keep the views for moving around in your scene and then setting up the camera to exactly where you want it for the final picture. This way you can use the perspective view to move around your scene making sure everything is perfect and then switch to the default camera to see how things will look for the final picture. The default camera works in much the same way as the perspective view. In fact, it starts in the exact same place and uses the same tools. You can move the default camera around in the scene the same way you move the perspective view.
Artistic Angles The most important aspect of the camera is to use it to compose your pictures. Having a movable camera allows you to not be tied to one position but rather lets you move around the scene to find views that are interesting. Let’s take a quick look at some possibilities then move on to talk about picture composition in more detail.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
In Figure 3.11 I have added a character to our scene. She is the Victoria model wearing some appropriate clothing for the setting. The composition of the scene isn’t bad from the default position but it is rather flat. Figure 3.11 The default position leaves the final picture flat.
To make the scene more interesting and the composition stronger, I have one of two choices. Either I can move the elements in my scene or I can move the camera. The easiest by far is to move the camera. In Figure 3.12, I have moved the camera to more of a 3/4 view of Victoria revealing some of the dimensional qualities of the scene and creating a stronger composition. In addition to building a stronger composition you can also tell a story in your pictures. For example, in Figure 3.13 we see what Victoria is looking at a shiny new sports car. By moving the camera we can see both Victoria and the sports car. Try loading one of your scenes and moving the camera around to see if you can come up with some interesting views. Because DAZ models are so detailed you can get as close as you want and still have a good picture. You can also move the camera back and take a more distant shot.
Chapter 3 ■ The Camera
Figure 3.12 Moving the camera can create a more interesting view.
Figure 3.13 Pictures can tell a story.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Composition For someone who is new to art composition might seem like a mystery, but like organizing anything, from your taxes to your daily schedule, organizing a picture is understandable if you know a few fundamental principles. ■
Purpose
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Focal points
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Placement Balance
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Pathways
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Purpose Every work of art can and should have a purpose. The purpose might be as simple as seeing something interesting and drawing it. Or the purpose might be that the artist has a message or feeling to express. In commercial art the purposes are almost always well-defined. The purpose is part of the assignment the artist is given. Sell this car. Convey this thought. Draw this building. Express this feeling. Draw attention to this product. All of these things are parts of the challenges for the commercial artist. In fine art the need for a purpose is still there, but the artist generally determines what that purpose is. The purpose might be a feeling, such as serenity or excitement. It might be to capture the lighting of a scene, or it might be to express a personality in a portrait. There really is no limit on the types of purposes for art. One of the intrinsic values of art is that almost anything can be expressed through visual media. Often beginning artists will limit the scope of their expression to drawing or painting exactly what they see and never going beyond that to see what they express in their work. They get too caught up in the mechanics of art and never move on to the vision of art. It is wonderful when an artist can replicate an object with exactness. It is a worthy skill but in and of itself, it doesn’t necessarily make the picture a work of art. Art comes from the artist adding his own personal vision to the work. Creating art using DAZ Studios is almost like pure vision. The artist is freed from having to draw or paint the scene and can focus all attention toward the final image. This makes having a purpose for a picture even more important.
Placement Placement is the arranging of pictorial elements within the picture frame. It is not merely the placement of objects; rather, it is the placement of all elements of a picture, including lines, planes, patterns, values, and objects. The artist has to be able to look at not only the subject of the picture, but also the individual elements, such as lines, contours, and values. The way each of these elements is placed in a picture determines the pictorial composition.
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When working with 3D images it is easy to get too involved in 3D space and forget that the final picture will be a 2D rendering. Think of the pictorial elements as the building blocks of the drawing. Look at them in their final 2D state in the default camera carefully to determine if all of the elements make up a good composition. You can break any picture down into shapes and lines. By visualizing these two elements in your pictures, you will be able to see how to develop better compositions. Let’s take a look at a new scene to show the lines and shapes in it. Figure 3.14 shows the scene from the default camera position. Figure 3.14 Pictures have shapes and lines that are important in composition.
First we need to break up the picture into shapes. We will start with the leopard lying in the grass. Figure 3.15 shows the leopard’s shape. While the leopard’s shape is complex it basically forms a triangle. The next shape is the second leopard as shown in Figure 3.16. Notice that this shape also forms a triangle. By breaking the two leopards down into their basic shapes it become easier to see how they fit into the composition of the picture. These two shapes are the main subject of the picture and are positive shapes meaning that they overlap the forest shapes below and behind them. For there to be a positive shape there also has to be a negative shape. Negative shapes are the shapes that make up the area around the positive shapes. In Figure 3.17 the black is the positive shape and the white is the negative shape.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 3.15 The first shape is the lying leopard.
Figure 3.16 The two leopards form two triangles.
Figure 3.17 Pictures have both positive and negative shapes.
It is a good practice in picture composition to break down the picture into its positive and negative shapes to see if the shapes are interesting and convey the message you are after. Lines also play a major role in a picture’s composition. While there are not real lines in nature there are plenty of edges. Edges of objects in a scene form the basis for lines in a drawing. In some ways they are the edges of the shapes and if all we drew were the shapes’ edges then we would have a number of lines in our pictures. In Figure 3.18 I have broken the scene down into lines. Figure 3.18 Breaking a scene down into lines helps to clarify the composition.
By breaking down your picture into lines you begin to become aware of some of the dynamics in your composition. For example, lines tend to have a directional quality that moves the viewer through the picture. In a way it is like looking at a roadmap. Your eye will tend to follow the lines of the roads on the map. Figure 3.19 shows some of the more prominent movement lines and directions in the picture. Now that you understand a little about breaking down a picture into shapes and lines we can move forward and talk about how to organize the shapes and lines of a picture.
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Figure 3.19 Like a roadmap the eye follows the lines in a picture.
Balance Basic to composition is balance. If a picture is out of balance, it will feel uncomfortable to the viewer. In Figure 3.20 the character is way off to the left. It creates a large, uncomfortable empty area in the middle and right side of the picture. Figure 3.20 The picture is off balance.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
A good way to think of picture balance is to imagine that the picture is perched on a triangle. If the picture feels like it would be heavier on one side than on another, the picture will seem off balance as shown in Figure 3.21. Figure 3.21 The picture seems heavier on one side than the other.
Granted, this illustration is exaggerated for purposes of this lesson. But even pictures that are just a little off balance can be uncomfortable. If a person is uncomfortable with a picture, he or she will tend to not enjoy looking at it and will probably move on to other pictures. In most cases you will want to keep your pictures in balance.
Formal Balance One way to solve the balance problem is to use formal balance. Formal balance is a system of balancing a picture by subdividing it into equal portions so that one side mirrors the other. Formal balance feels comfortable to us because many things in life have symmetry. Most animals are symmetrical, as is the human body. For compositions in which the artist wants to have a feeling of dignity or majesty, formal balance or symmetry is a great approach. Figure 3.22 is an example of how a picture can be subdivided to achieve a formal balance.
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Figure 3.22 Formal balance is symmetrical.
Not everything needs to be mirrored from one side to the other, but there should be a sense of equality in the masses from one side to the other for a picture to have formal balance.
Informal Balance Objects or characters in a composition don’t have to be equal in size or mass to balance a picture. Artists can use the principle of the fulcrum lever in compositions to create a feeling of balance even though the objects are two different sizes. A fulcrum lever is like a teeter-totter, as shown in Figure 3.23. Figure 3.23 Fulcrum lever.
The center of the teeter-totter is the fulcrum. A heavy person can teeter-totter with a lighter person by moving closer to the fulcrum or having the lighter person move farther away from the fulcrum. By placing a larger object or character near the center of the picture and placing the smaller object farther from the center, the picture will have a sense of balance. This approach to balance can add more drama to a picture. Figure 3.24 uses this method to balance the character in the foreground with the window in the background.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 3.24 The character is balanced with the window.
Focal Points Have you ever noticed that while looking at a picture, your eyes tend to be drawn to a specific area? It’s almost as if that part of the picture is screaming, “Hey! Look at me first!” That doesn’t always happen by accident. In fact, many artists spend a great deal of time planning how you will view their picture. They create focal points and pathways in their work. A focal point is an area in the picture that calls for attention. The call can be blatant, like a noisy child in a quiet classroom, or it can be gentle, like a bubbling brook in the mountains. Figure 3.25 shows a picture with a strong focal point. Figure 3.25 The focal point is obvious in this picture.
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In many pictures there is more than one focal point. The artist builds a chain of two or more focal points, with the major focal point demanding the most attention and each succeeding focal point diminishing in importance. A picture with two equally demanding focal points can be frustrating to the viewer.
Linear Focus One of the most effective methods of creating a focal point is to use the lines in the picture to point to the focus point. This is called linear focus and it is derived from the viewer’s tendency to not view lines or edges as static images. When viewing a picture, your eyes will tend to slide along a line. If many of the lines converge on a single point or area of the picture, a focal point is created. In this picture, you can see how the lines of the picture converge on the character, making it the focal point of the picture. The overlaid lines indicate the general direction of the convergence. Figure 3.26 Lines in the picture converge on the character.
Contrast Focus Another excellent way to create a focal point is to use value contrast. Value is the quality of light or dark in a picture. In Figure 3.27, the focal point is the girl’s head. Notice how quickly your eyes are drawn to the focal area. Contrast focus in a picture is more likely to catch the viewer’s eye than any other focus method is. Value is one of the most powerful tools an artist has. To create a focal point using value, the artist places the highest contrast between light and dark at the focal point. All other images in the picture will have less contrast between light and dark.
Detail Focus Detail in a picture will create a focal point. The eye is naturally drawn to areas of the picture that have greater detail. In Figure 3.28 the detail of the head and hand draw more attention than the background.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 3.27 The dark of the background next to the girl’s head have the most contrast.
Figure 3.28 Detail in a picture draws the viewer’s attention.
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Color Focus Another very effective way to create a focal point is to use color. In Figure 3.29, the reddish orange of the dragon’s eyes are accentuated by the bluish green that surrounds them. Figure 3.29 The eyes contrast in color from the surrounding area.
Color contrast is usually achieved by placing colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel next to each other. These colors are called complementary because they tend to appear brighter next to each other. A similar effect can be achieved by placing an intense color next to muted colors.
Action Focus Action and movement are very strong attention devices that are often used in motion pictures, video games, and the Internet. Because pictures don’t generally move, the application of action as a focal point is somewhat difficult. Instead of having something move in the picture, the artist has to imply movement. Implied movement is movement that is about to happen, such as when you capture a dynamic moment during a dramatic action. Figure 3.30 shows an impending action, which focuses attention on the dinosaur and the girl. Impending action is a powerful attention-grabber. If the subject in a picture looks like she is about to do something, it naturally calls us to look to see what she is about to do.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 3.30 This picture seems poised to have something happen.
Most of the these examples are extreme to illustrate the different ways that lines, value, detail, color, and action can be used to focus the viewer’s attention on a point in the picture. In practice, the artist should use judgment in the methods used to focus attention. The danger in being too heavy-handed with compositions is that when any technique or method of composition becomes too overbearing, the viewer can feel manipulated. Composition techniques should be used in such a way that they seem natural to the viewer, not contrived.
Pathways Sometimes, rather than a single focal point in a picture, the artist might want to have a series of focal points connected by pathways. A pathway is usually a line or values that connect one focal point to another. In Figure 3.31 you can see a blatant pathway between the shapes in the picture. The curved line show where the stronger pathways are. While this picture does illustrate the concept of visual pathways, it does seem a little staged. A more challenging concept for the artist is to build pathways that seem natural to the viewer. In Figure 3.32, pathways are part of the elements of the picture. Even though it may seem like a simple portrait there are still pathways. If there are natural pathways in the picture, the viewer will be able to comfortably scan the picture, moving from focal point to focal point.
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Figure 3.31 Our eyes travel on pathways in a picture.
Figure 3.32 Can you trace the pathways in this picture?
When designing pathways in your art, you should always try to lead the viewer to the main subject of the picture and then back again. Pathways that loop out from the central focus and back again tend to keep viewers looking at the picture longer, while those that lead away from the focus will cause the viewer to spend less time with your picture. Try to recognize paths that lead out of your picture and eliminate them whenever possible.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Summary This concludes our discussion of camera. As you can see the camera is one of the most important tools you have as an artist in creating your art. I hope the concepts covered in this chapter will help you as you plan future pictures. You have just covered a number of composition concepts in a single chapter. I added composition to this chapter because it relates very much to the camera. Knowing how to move the camera about is not as important as knowing why you should move it about the scene. I hope that composition is not such a mystery for you now. A very good way to test yourself is to take an art history book and see whether you can find some of the concepts covered here in the art that you find in it. In the next chapter we will be taking a look at the 3D figure models used in DAZ Studio so you can gain a better understanding of how they work and how you can use them in your scenes.
4 The Figure One of the most exciting aspects of DAZ Studio is the ability to load a character and then pose the character in any way that is needed for your final picture. This means that if you want to create a fantasy picture with dragons and heroes all in the act of confronting each other, you have complete freedom to express your vision. On the other hand, if you want to create a spy scene with your character sneaking into a building, you can do that also. DAZ has gone to great lengths to create characters, sets, and props that are so lifelike that they are nearly indistinguishable from real life. Their library of 3D models is continually increasing, giving the 3D artist an ever-expanding source for creative development. In order to really understand how to use DAZ Studio and the great array of models you can use to create your artwork, you first need to understand a little about how 3D characters are put together. In this chapter we take a closer look at the 3D model.
Selecting Parts of the Figure To begin with let’s look at our beginning scene with Victoria on the beach. If you need to load this scene, you can find it in your Content tab in the Studio > QuickStart > Scenes directory, as shown in Figure 4.1. Once you have the scene loaded, go to the Pose/Animate activity tab, and change the left-hand panel to Scene, as shown in Figure 4.2. In the above figure, Victoria 4.2EZ is selected. When any part of a 3D model in DAZ Studio is selected, it will appear highlighted in blue in the list and in the scene with a white box outline. There are three easy ways to select parts of a 3D character in DAZ Studio. The first is by using the scene list. Open Victoria’s list by clicking the boxed plus
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 4.1 Load the beach scene.
Figure 4.2 Change the activity tab to Pose/Animate.
symbol next to her name in the list. This will bring up her hip. Click on hip to select it, as shown in Figure 4.3. Notice that the box now is just over her hips in the scene. A second way to select a body part is to select it directly in the scene. Move the cursor over the model. You will notice that as you move the cursor, a yellow box outline will appear over the different parts of the body that the cursor is covering. If you wait just a bit, a black box will appear describing the body part, as shown in Figure 4.4. To select the body part in the scene, just click on it in the scene.
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Figure 4.3 Select Victoria’s hip using the list.
Figure 4.4 You can also select the body part directly in the scene.
The third easy way to select a body part is to select it in Power Pose. Power Pose is a special posing tool in DAZ Studio that speeds up the posing process. It is on the right-hand side of the screen and shows a miniature version of our model with several green dots on her. These green dots are used for selecting and moving different parts of the body. Select the green dot over Victoria’s left thigh, as shown in Figure 4.5. Notice when you select it her left thigh is also selected in the scene and in the list. You might wonder why there are so many ways to select body parts in DAZ Studio. Part of the reason is that some artists prefer one way and others prefer another, but the main
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 4.5 Select her left thigh in Power Pose.
reason is that while working on a pose, selections can become difficult. Having three different ways to select body parts speeds up the whole process.
Parts of the Figure Now that you understand how to select body parts, it is time to look at the different moving parts of a figure. The human figure is an extremely flexible and complex system. One look at a gymnastics meet and there should be no question about the range of movement possible with the human figure. In order to simulate the incredible range of motion of the human figure, DAZ characters need to have the same freedom of movement. Therefore, DAZ character models are divided into parts very similar to our own human skeletons. These parts are connected together by a system of, you guessed it, bones. That is why the little icon next to the hip in the list looks like a small bone. All of the bones of a model are joined together to form a skeleton. While the skeletal structure of Victoria isn’t exactly like our own skeletons, it is very similar, allowing the artist to move her limbs about in the same way we move ours. For example, in Figure 4.6 I used Power Pose to open Victoria’s stance simply by dragging the mouse to the right with the left mouse button pressed. Any position that can be achieved by a normal human being can be simulated in DAZ 3D models. The models are automatically set up to not bend past normal limits. For example, the elbow and the knee won’t bend backwards. It is best to pose all of your characters within these limits, but if you need to have more than human flexibility the limits can be turned off.
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Figure 4.6 Limbs of the model move similarly to those of a real person.
The Hip The base or root bone for the figure is the hip. All other bones in the skeletal system are either directly connected to the hip or are connected to other bones that eventually connect to the hip. The hip has three bones directly connected to it in a human character, the lThigh (Left Thigh), rThigh (Right Thigh), and Abdomen. Click on each of the three bones to see the changes to the selections in the scene and in Power Pose. The three bones that connect to the hip also have bones that are connected to them. To better see how this works let’s examine the Power Pose, as shown in Figure 4.7. Figure 4.7 The green dots in Power Pose correspond to bones in the model.
As you can see, there are 21 green dots on the figure: four on each arm and leg and five through the body and head. Each one of these bones is attached either directly to the hip or through other bones to the hip. The bones are important because they make up the moving parts of the body. The way they are connected to each other is important because it dictates how they all can move. For example, select the hip dot in Power Pose and slide the mouse to your left with the left mouse button held down. Not only does the hip rotate, but the entire model does as well because they are all connected from the hip. On the other hand, select the abdomen and rotate it similarly to the hips and you will notice that the hips don’t move but everything above the abdomen does.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Bones of the Hands Some bones are too small to work well in Power Pose on the main figure. These bones are located in special subsets of Power Pose. They can be accessed by clicking on the green dots in the upper-right and left-hand corners of Power Pose. The one on the right accesses the bones of the head and the one on the left accesses the bones of the hands. Figure 4.8 shows the head. Notice that the upper-right corner now contains the figure. There are four green dots on the head: one for the neck, one for the head itself, and one for each eye. Each one can be moved to modify how the head looks. The two orange triangles are tools for use in moving both eyes at the same time. Figure 4.9 shows the bones of the hands. Figure 4.8 Power Pose shows the bones of the face.
The hands have 16 bones each, three for the thumb and each finger and one for the wrist. Having this many bones in the hands gives the artist complete control over the hand, one of the most expressive parts of the body.
Morphs In addition to bones, another important aspect of a DAZ figure model is its ability to change its shape. DAZ models have Morph sets that allow the artist to adjust the models in many ways. Morphs are changes to the model geometry that change the look of the model. Figure 4.10 shows the morphs associated with the QuickStart Victoria model. They are located in the Parameters tab at the very bottom of the list. You may need to scroll down using the scroll bar to find them.
Figure 4.9 Power Pose shows the bones of the hands.
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Figure 4.10 The morphs controls are located in the Parameters tab.
In this instance, I have opened the full body morphs. As you can see, there are three morph sets with slider bars. The slider bars allow the artist to fine-tune the model to exactly the shape desired. For example, in Figure 4.11, I’ve made Victoria more muscular by sliding the BodyBuilder slider to the right. If I want to have our character put on a few pounds, I can use the Heavy slider, as shown in Figure 4.12. Play around with the morph sliders and see what kind of character you can come up with. Figure 4.11 The BodyBuilder slider can be used to make the character more muscular.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 4.12 Using the Heavy morph, you can have your character gain some weight.
Morphs in DAZ Studios are very powerful tools and you should check them out for each model. Many DAZ models have extensive morph systems that not only deal with the body in general but often with individual parts of the body. This is particularly true for a character’s head, where morphs are used for creating expressions and even making a character look like she is talking. Select Victoria’s head in the Scene tab, as shown in Figure 4.13. When you scroll down to the morph section in the Parameters tab, you will notice two subsets: Morphs Shapes and Morphs Expressions. Figure 4.13 The head has two subsets of morphs.
Under Morphs Expressions, you will see two more subsets: Base and Visemes. Base is a set of expression morphs that allow the artist to create an amazing array of facial expressions. If you open it, you will notice an extensive list of morphs. In Figure 4.14, I changed a few parameters and now have Victoria looking very tired in the middle of a yawn. Try making up some of your own expressions. The amount of control available for morphs in DAZ Studio makes it possible to give your characters any expression you can think of.
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Figure 4.14 Here Victoria looks tired.
Summary In this chapter, we have taken a closer look at a DAZ 3D character model. It is very important for you to understand how models are put together so you can learn to pose them for your pictures. DAZ models are as flexible as our own human bodies. They can move into any position that a normal human can move into. DAZ uses a skeletal system similar to our own skeleton to control 3D character movement. Also introduced in this chapter is DAZ Studio’s Morph system for changing the shape of the model. Morphs in DAZ Studio can be used to change a character’s body shape or they can be used to give the character facial expressions. Most of DAZ’s models have morphs. In the next chapter, we will cover dressing character models in DAZ Studio.
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5 Clothing One of the coolest aspects of DAZ Studios is the wide variety of clothing that a character can have. If you take a quick look at DAZ Studios’ website, you will see that they have some of the latest fashions along with many specialty outfits that range from uniforms to high fantasy. This variety allows an artist to create almost any type of character he can imagine. Clothing for models are 3D and created specifically for each model, which means that clothing created for Victoria will not likely fit Michael and vice versa. It is a little like the clothing you buy at the store. You try your clothing on and buy what fits. In DAZ Studio, the clothing is made to fit a specific model. When shopping for clothing, make sure you buy the right clothing for the right model.
Note Some clothing items can be shared between models just as sisters sometimes share clothing in real life, but there are no guarantees that they will work. Often clothing for one character applied to a different character will have problems with the model poking the clothing or not animating correctly; however, you can adjust some clothing using the morphs to make up for these problems in many cases.
In the QuickStart scene, Victoria is dressed for volleyball on the beach. She is wearing three articles of clothing: V4 TrainersDS, Sports Bra, and Boys Shorts, which I have selected in Figure 5.1.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Figure 5.1 Victoria is wearing three articles of clothing in this scene.
You will notice that the articles of clothing have small plus symbols next to them. When you expand these, you will see that they follow a similar pattern as that of the Victoria model. In Figure 5.2, I have expanded the shoes to show the hierarchal connections from the hip to each foot. While only the shoes are visible, the bones from the hip to the feet match those of Victoria. In this way, the shoes can follow Victoria’s movements. The bone structure is another reason that clothing is created specifically for each character model. If even one Figure 5.2 Clothing has bone structures similar to character models.
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bone is different between the clothing and the character, it can cause problems like the clothing not animating correctly or parts of the character’s body showing through the article of clothing.
Applying Clothing to a Character Clothing a 3D model is as easy as putting on a shirt yourself, except that the model doesn’t have to button it up. There are several ways to add clothing to your character; some of them require you to load the article of clothing and then fit it to your character while other methods fit it automatically. The easiest way to add clothing is to have it fit the character automatically.
Automatic Fit Most clothing objects automatically fit to a character if two things are in place. 1. The character the clothing is to fit is already selected so DAZ Studio knows which character to fit the clothing to. 2. The clothing was created for the 3D character. Let’s assume that Victoria is done playing volleyball and is ready to go home. She has a top and pants that she brought along to wear over her volleyball outfit. In Figure 5.3, I have added her top to the scene by first selecting Victoria from the scene list and then dragging the top icon in the Content tab over the model. As you can see, the top comes in already fit to Victoria. Select the top in the scene list and look at its parameters. If you look under Misc in the Parameters tab toward the bottom of the list, you will see an item titled Fit to. In the box below it reads Victoria 4.2 Figure 5.3 Victoria’s top is added to the scene.
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
EZ. This means that the clothing item is fitted to the Victoria model. You can check the status of any clothing item by looking at its Fit to status in the item’s parameters. Also, if you made a mistake and didn’t have Victoria selected when you loaded her top, you can select it using the pull-down menu in Fit to. There are several ways to add clothing to a character. Dragging the item over a selected character is just one of them. Another way is to simply double-click on the article of clothing or you can right-click on the article and wait for the menu to appear. On the top of the menu will be an option to Import or Load the article of clothing. Now let’s add her pants. In Figure 5.4 the pants are added to the scene fitted to the Victoria character. Figure 5.4 Victoria’s pants are added to the scene.
Bleedthrough problems
Victoria’s pants have a problem, which I have indicated in the figure above around the waistline. The top of the pants are wider than the bottom of her top causing the pants to show through the top. Unlike clothing in real life, clothing doesn’t just naturally fit over underlying 3D objects. For this reason, problems like that can occur quite often. However, they are easily fixed if the model has the right morphs. Select the shirt because it needs to fit over the pants, and then open the Manual Adjustment section of the morphs in the Parameters tab. The second item is FitPants. By moving the slider to the right, the shirt conforms to the pants, as shown in Figure 5.5. Not every instance of a show-through problem can be fixed with a morph, but many can. Morphs are the first place you should look if there is a problem with show-through in any of your character’s clothing. This particular top has a number of morphs, as you can see in the list. The morphs are there to help you get a better fit to the model. Some
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Figure 5.5 The top has a morph to conform to the pants.
of them also correspond to morphs in the character, so if you use a morph to change the shape of the character, you can also change the shape of the character’s clothing. Magnetize Pose
DAZ Studio has a feature that adjusts clothing morphs with any adjustments to the character morphs. It is called Magnetize Pose. Magnetize Pose automatically adjusts the clothing to match any morphs used in the character, if the clothing has a morph that corresponds to the same morph on the character. For example, Figure 5.6 shows the Figure 5.6 The clothing is conforming to the shape of the character.
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same set of clothing on three different figures with different morphs. As you can see, it handles the different body morphs very well. Even though you may only have one character model and just a few outfits for that character, by using the morphs, you should be able to create an extensive variety of characters.
Surfaces Every model in DAZ Studio will have surface qualities or attributes. Just like in real life, surfaces have qualities. For example, you can tell the difference between a shiny metal car and a wooden fence just by the surface properties. The car’s surface is smooth and reflective, while the wooden fence has a rough surface. DAZ Studio gives you some control over the surfaces in your scenes in its Surface tab found in View > Tabs > Surfaces, as shown in Figure 5.7.
Figure 5.7 You can access the Surface tab through the Main Menu.
The Surface tab has a number of parameters specific to the 3D object that you select in the upper portion of the Surfaces tab. The parameters are shown in the lower portions of the Basic and Advanced tabs. In Figure 5.8 I have selected the model’s and opened the Basic tab. The Basic tab has two subsections: Common and Smoothing. Under the Common section, you can change
Figure 5.8 The Surfaces tab has two tabs: Basic and Advanced.
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the Color, Highlight, Shadow, and Opacity. In the Smoothing section, you can turn Smoothing on or off and adjust the angle of smoothing. You may not understand how each of these affects the surface of the model, so let’s go through them one at a time.
Color The color of the object is the object’s natural color without any modification from any lights in the scene. It also means any patterns or textures on the surface. You will notice there are two boxes under Color. The top box has three numbers in it. These numbers correspond to the RGB values of the currently selected color. RGB stands for Red, Green, and Blue and they are the color values used in computer displays. If you click on the box, it will bring up a color selector where you can change the surface color. The lower box controls the surface’s texture. If you click on the small black arrow on the right, you can select a new texture for the surface. Figure 5.9 shows the available texture to choose from. Figure 5.9 Here is a list of available textures for the pants.
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Opacity Next, let’s take a look at Opacity. Opacity controls how transparent a surface is. Opacity can be used in a number of ways, like creating transparent-like veils or sheer material. Any surface in DAZ Studio can be made transparent as a whole just by using the slider bar, but the Opacity controls are more powerful than just a simple blanket opacity setting. You can also add an opacity map to any object. An opacity map is a 2D grayscale image that tells DAZ Studio what parts of the surface should be transparent and to what degree. This gives the artist the ability to have very fine control over any surface. In an opacity map, DAZ studio reads white as 100% opaque and black as 100% transparent. Ranges of gray are partially transparent. Figure 5.10 shows a black and white opacity map. The top of the map is white and the bottom of the map is black. Figure 5.10 This opacity map is split into completely opaque and completely transparent.
By applying this map to the character’s pants, I can change what she is wearing from pants to capris, as shown in Figure 5.11.
Highlights The Highlight function is used to adjust the color of highlights in the scene. Changing the highlight color can result in some interesting effects. A colored highlight gives the impression of a colored light hitting an area. Figure 5.12 shows an extreme example of changing the highlight color.
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Figure 5.11 The character is now wearing capris.
Figure 5.12 The pants now have a red highlight.
Shadow The Shadow function gives a surface a general weak light that mimics ambient light in the real world. Ambient light is reflected from all of the objects around us, allowing us to see objects in shadowed areas. Changing the color of a shadow will give a surface a general color, as shown in Figure 5.13.
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Figure 5.13 Red shadow puts a general red tint to the surface.
Smoothing 3D objects are usually made up of flat polygons. The Smoothing function blends the flat polygons so they appear to be a rounded surface rather than multiple flat surfaces. Smoothing is on by default. To better see the effect of smoothing, just turn it off. Figure 5.14 shows the pants with smoothing turned off. Figure 5.14 When smoothing is turned off, you can see the flat polygon shapes.
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As you can see, without smoothing, the flat polygons of the pants are noticeable. It would take millions of polygons to give a rounded look without smoothing. Even though DAZ models are quite detailed, they still need to have some smoothing done to give them a completely natural look. The angle of the smoothing will determine the amount of smoothing between polygons. The default is 90 but it can go up to 180 and down to 0. If you need greater smoothing on an object, you can increase the number, and if you need less smoothing, you can decrease the number. For almost all instances, 90 works fine.
Copy/Paste At the bottom of the Surface tab are two buttons labeled Copy and Paste. These buttons allow you to copy the surface settings of one 3D object to another.
Advanced The Advanced tab has greater control over the surface areas. The functions in the Advanced tab break down those in the Basic tab to give the artist more direct control over each function. It also adds a few extras like Bump and Displacement, which affect the surface by giving them the appearance of roughness. These advanced features are designed for the more advanced user and require significant knowledge in 3D modeling; however, they are simple to use and even a novice can learn a lot by doing a few simple experiments.
Premade Surfaces Many DAZ 3D objects come with a variety of ready to use surfaces. For example, the pants and vest that we used for much of this chapter have several colors and a few advanced textures that can be found in the Content tab. Whenever you purchase an object from DAZ Studio, it will tell you if the object comes with different surface options and where you can locate them for use with that object. To use a new surface on an object, first load the object and then load the new surface with the object already selected.
Summary This chapter was about clothing your characters in DAZ Studio. It covered two major topics: clothing objects and surfaces. I included surfaces here because the clothing is the most common objects where surface variation is used. Clothing objects in DAZ Studio are 3D objects similar to characters. They are made for specific characters and have bone structures that match those characters. Sometimes clothing objects need to be adjusted to fit properly. Usually adjustments are made by
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using morphs. DAZ Studio uses a system called Magnetize Pose to automatically adjust clothing morphs to match character morphs. DAZ Studio has a number of functions that affect the surface qualities of an object in the Surfaces tab. These surface functions allow the artist to have a great deal of control over the look of any 3D object in DAZ Studio, including color, texture, shininess, opacity, and smoothness. In the next chapter, we will take a closer look at character faces.
6 The Head If there is a character in a picture, the most likely center of attention will be the head of the character. If there are many characters in a picture, the head of one of the characters will likely be the center of attention, and the other character heads will be secondary centers of attention. While this rule is not 100% true, it is generally the rule. It is natural for us to look first at any face that appears in a picture. In life if we want to know how a person feels, we don’t look at his feet, we look at his face. Even small children train themselves to know when mom and dad are happy or angry by looking at their parents’ faces. Even small movements of an eyebrow or lips can have a major impact on conveyed feelings. Therefore, one of the first places we focus on when meeting someone in the real world is her face. In this chapter, we will look at the many possibilities available to the artist when using models in DAZ Studios for expressive art with a character’s head.
Parts of the Head The head is a complex structure containing many smaller structures, called features, that in themselves are also complex. To help make things simple and easy to understand, we will first look at what you can do with the face as a whole and then take a closer look at individual features.
Head Construction In real life, the human skull is made up of a number of bones. These bones can be split into two groups: the skull and the jaw. The skull is the rigid bone structure that makes
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up the majority of the head. It has no moving parts and is designed to give structure to the head and protect the many delicate organs of the head. The jaw is the only movable part of the face, and it is hinged to the skull just below the ears. Because the jaw has a simple hinged motion, its functions are very broad in nature and the only subtleties are those of how far open or closed it is. The majority of facial expressions don’t come from the movement of the jaw but rather movement of the many muscles that cover the skull and head. For example, the muscles around the mouth are very flexible and can control a wide range of expression. Other muscles in the cheek and brow can have a wide range of subtle motion. Models in DAZ Studio are made to mimic how our bodies work. If you look at the Head tab in Power Pose shown in Figure 6.1, you can see that there are only four green animation icons to work with: one for the head, one for the neck, and two for the eyes. The two triangle icons are for moving the eyes in unison. Because of the head’s complexity, fine facial movement is controlled by Morphs rather than bones because Morphs can animate in ways that are similar to the muscles of the head. Working from large motion to small, an animator will generally position the head first and then work on the expression. General movements of the head are controlled by animating either the head or neck bones. The head bone pivots at the base of the skull and has a wide range of motion, as shown in Figure 6.2. The pivot point for the neck is right at the base of the neck and has a wide range of motion, as shown in Figure 6.3. Because it is easy to move the head and there is such a wide range of motion, the animator has to be careful not to overdo it and pose the head to a greater angle than what might look natural. The eyes are actually separate objects inside but attached to the head. They both can move independently or you can move them together using the tools in Power Pose. This freedom of movement allows for extreme variation, like making the character cross–eyed, as in Figure 6.4. Even though the eyes are separate objects from the head, they still influence the eyelids around them. Try rotating the eye and you will see that the eyelids adjust to accommodate the movement of the eye.
Figure 6.1 There are only four green control points on the head.
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Figure 6.2 The head pivots at the base of the skull.
Figure 6.3 The neck pivots both the neck and the head.
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Figure 6.4 The eyes can move independently.
Head Morphs The head has a number of Morphs attached to it for creating facial expressions and lip sync animation. With Victoria, there are two major groups of Morphs: those that change the shape of the head and those that are used for facial expressions. Shape Morphs include Hair and Male. Yes, you can change Victoria’s head shape to a Male head. There are three male head Morphs: Paul, John, and George, and they are shown in Figure 6.5. That was a little scary. You can use the male Morphs to change Victoria into a male character but an even better use for the male Morphs is to just put a touch of them in her face so you can create slightly different female characters. The hair Morphs are for changing the shape of the head to include hair shapes. I usually never use these Morphs because I always add hair as a separate object.
Expression Morphs Morphs for creating expressions have two subtabs: Base and Visemes. Base Morphs are used for crating facial expressions and usually only affect a small part of the face like the corner of the mouth or an eyebrow. Visemes, on the other hand, are used in lip-sync settings when you want your character to talk or say specific words.
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Figure 6.5 There are three male Morphs.
When you open the Base tab, you will notice a very extensive list of Morphs. Unlike the Male Morphs we looked at earlier, you will notice that these Morphs do not start all the way on the right of the scale. They are lined up in a variety of places. Their alignment is what gives Victoria her specific default look or 0.0% position. Sometimes the 0.0% is halfway through the slider bar scale and sometimes it isn’t, as shown in Figure 6.6. Figure 6.6 Slider positions vary in the Base Morphs.
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Some of the Morphs sliders are morph groups and some are single adjustments. For example, the first morph on the list is BrowUp-Down, which influences both brows up and down. If you move the slider, you will notice that not only does the percentage number change for BrowUp-Down but for several other slider bars as well. Brow
The brow can be very expressive, denoting all kinds of emotions. A slightly raised brow can mean surprise. A lowered brow can mean anger. There are 10 separate morph controls for the brow to give an almost endless variety to the different emotions that might be expressed. Figure 6.7 shows just a few of them. Figure 6.7 These are examples of brow Morphs.
Eyes
As noted earlier, the eyeballs are separate objects that are animated using DAZ Studio’s bone system. They also have some influence on the eyelids and area around the eye. The areas around the eye can also be animated using Morphs. There are 10 different Morphs sliders for the eyes. These Morphs can be used to make the eyes blink, squint, wink, etc. Like the brow, there are morphs that control both eyes at once and others that only work on one lid of a single eye, allowing for great flexibility in posing and animating the eye, as shown in Figure 6.8.
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Figure 6.8 These are examples of eye Morphs.
Nose
The nose only has two different Morphs: NoseWrinkle and Nostrilsflare. These two Morphs work best in combination with other facial Morphs, but examples of them without other Morphs are shown in Figure 6.9. Figure 6.9 The nose only has two Morphs.
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Cheeks
The cheeks are the major fleshy parts of the face and house many of the muscles that affect the other facial features. Because of their location and the muscles they house, they often change shape when other areas like the mouth or eyes are animated; however, they do have significant personalities of their own. There are 11 cheek Morphs in the base head Morphs. Figure 6.10 shows some of the cheek Morphs. Figure 6.10 The cheeks have 11 Morphs in the base Morphs list.
Mouth
The mouth is the most flexible feature on the face. It is capable of great ranges of movement because it is connected equally to the skull and the jaw. The mouth bay has far more Morphs than any other facial feature, totaling 30 if you include the jaw and lip Morphs. DAZ Studio splits the mouth animation into three groups: mouth, jaw, and lips. The mouth and jaw groups total 17 morphs. An example of the mouth Morphs is shown in Figure 6.11. Lips
Although the lips are a part of the mouth, DAZ Studio has a set of 13 different lip Morphs. They are part of the mouth but are more focused on the lips themselves like the ones shown in Figure 6.12.
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Figure 6.11 There are several Morphs for the mouth.
Figure 6.12 The lip Morphs focus specifically on the lips.
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Tongue
The last set of Morphs for the head is those for the tongue. The tongue is seldom seen, but being able to animate the tongue when needed is very handy for some situations, like licking lips or blowing a kiss. It is also an intrical part of speech and necessary for any lip-sync animation. Figure 6.13 shows a couple tongue Morphs. Figure 6.13 The tongue also has several Morphs.
The long list of facial Morphs can become confusing, but having such a huge variety of Morphs for the face does give the artist extreme control. While there are many Morphs for the head, it is important to understand that facial animation requires that the artist think of the face as a whole and not just several separate parts. Movement of one part of the head on a normal human head affects other parts of the head. Seldom can you achieve the full impact of an expression with just one morph. Usually you will need to adjust several to get the right look.
Facial Expressions When creating a facial expression, you should first know what the expression should look like. Set up a mirror next to your computer so you can see yourself while you are working. Make some faces to see how your expressions change. When you smile, what happens to your eyes and cheeks? When you’re angry, what happens to your brows? Go through several emotions and see how your face changes. DAZ 3D has created collections of facial expressions that you can buy and use. They were created by professional artists and are great for quickly plugging in an expression to give your artwork more emotional impact. Figure 6.14 shows a few expressions from one of these collections.
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Figure 6.14 DAZ 3D has several expression packs available.
FaceShop FaceShop is a plug-in for DAZ Studio that expands its already formidable set of tools for the creation of custom characters, even allowing the artist to create characters from her own photographs. FaceShop Basic is a free download from DAZ3D. It is easy to install: just use the DAZ installer and it will be placed in the DAZ Studio Edit menu. Let’s take a look at how the plug-in works. 1. Load Victoria into DAZ Studio and center the screen, as shown in Figure 6.15. 2. Bring up the FaceShop Loader from the Edit menu. 3. Give the new Morph a name in the top text box of the Loader dialog box. 4. You can specify a texture for your character in the lower text box in the Loader dialog box, as shown in Figure 6.16. 5. Click Accept to open FaceShop.
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Figure 6.15 Load Victoria into a blank scene in DAZ Studio.
Figure 6.16 You can specify a texture in the loader.
Note There are two versions of FaceShop: Basic and Pro. Basic is a free plug-in, while you will have to pay for Pro. But the added features of Pro are worth the money because it gives you greater resolution for your pictures and extensive tools to fine-tune your characters. I will be using Pro in this demonstration.
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6. FaceShop will bring up a dialog box to load your photo, as shown in Figure 6.17. You can also choose the resolution of your texture. Figure 6.17 Load your picture.
7. Once the picture is loaded, you can adjust the picture with the tools provided just below the picture shown in Figure 6.18. Figure 6.18 You can adjust your picture with the tools provided.
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8. The next step is to set up the face. You start by just placing three points on the face. All you need to do is click on the outside corners of the eyes and on the center of the chin, as shown in Figure 6.19. The small window in the upper-left corner of the screen is a guide for where the guide points should be placed. 9. This will then bring up a number of guide points, as shown in Figure 6.20. Figure 6.19 Place points on each eye and on the chin.
Figure 6.20 Several new guide points will appear.
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10. Move the guide points to show the program how to apply the photo to the character’s face, as shown in Figure 6.21. 11. The program will first modify the geometry of the face, as shown in Figure 6.22. 12. Next the texture is applied, as shown in Figure 6.23. Figure 6.21 Use the guide points to show the program the facial features.
Figure 6.22 The geometry of the face is changed to match the photo.
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Figure 6.23 The texture is applied to the 3D model of the head.
13. A new set of tools will appear in the upper-left corner of the screen. These tools can be used to further enhance the model and make it look more like the photo. In Figure 6.24, I have mirrored the head’s right side to the left. While not always necessary, mirroring can help to make the head more symmetrical. Figure 6.24 Mirroring one side of the face to the other helps make the head more symmetrical.
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14. Next, I click the Front button on the tools. This will bring up the interface shown in Figure 6.25 that I can use to add more detail to my model. Here, I can use several lines to designate the exact dimensions of the face. First, I draw a line along the edge of the face as shown by clicking along the edge. Figure 6.25 Draw a line along the edge of the face.
15. Repeat the process of drawing along the edge of the face in the right-hand screen of the model. The two lines help the program to match the photo face and the 3D model. 16. I also create lines around the bottom of the nose, as shown in Figure 6.26. 17. Next, I repeat the process for the ears, as shown in Figure 6.27. Click next when you are finished. 18. Now click the Profile button on the tools. It will bring up an option for a new photo. If you have a profile view of the person, you can load it here. The profile view is then loaded, as shown in Figure 6.28. An orientation screen will appear with the profile view that you can use to make adjustments to your photo as needed. When you feel the picture looks right, click Next. 19. The 3D model will be superimposed over the profile. Use the left mouse button to rotate the model, the middle mouse button or wheel to scale the model, and the right mouse button to move the model so it fits the photo, as shown in Figure 6.29.
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Figure 6.26 Supply information for the bottom of the nose.
Figure 6.27 Provide guides for the ears as well.
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Figure 6.28 Load a profile photo of the person.
Figure 6.29 Fit the model to the photo.
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20. The guideline interface will then appear. Create guidelines for the profile view similar to how you did for the front view, as shown in Figure 6.30. When you are finished with the guidelines, click Next. 21. Click the OK button and the model will be transferred to DAZ Studio. Figure 6.30 Create guidelines for the profile view.
Figure 6.31 DAZ Studio allows you to create a great variety of faces.
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Summary As you can see, there is a lot you can do with faces in DAZ Studio. Not only can you use the existing models to create a wide variety of faces and expressions, but you can also create your own faces by using FaceShop. In this chapter, you learned about using morphs to modify the model’s face. You also learned about creating facial expressions and using preset facial expressions on your model. We also went through a tutorial on using FaceShop to change the 3D model’s head to match a photograph. In the next chapter, we will talk about nonhuman 3D models in DAZ Studio and how to work with them.
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7 Posing the Figure One of the most important skills you will be able to develop by using DAZ Studio is how to pose a character. Whether you just want to create still pictures or make animated movies, learning how to pose a character will be essential to your artistic development. In a still picture, you have to capture all of the emotion of the character in a single pose. In an animated movie, you create a series of poses called keyframes that guide your character through his actions. In this chapter, we will examine how to pose a character in DAZ Studio and then we will look into what makes a good pose. As with anything artistic, it is important to understand the basic principles so you can better express yourself.
Posing a Character So far, you have learned a great deal about how DAZ characters are built and how to modify them by adding clothing or morphs. Now it is time to make your character move. Figure 7.1 shows the same character in two different poses. The first one is the standard open arm pose that the characters are imported in. The second pose has the character standing in a more natural stance. Do you see how dramatic the difference between the two poses is?
Movement Moving a character in DAZ Studio basically requires the movement of one or more bones. When we examined the scene in Chapter 1, we saw that a character has many bones and those bones are connected in a hierarchal manner. In 3D language, these bones have parent-child relationships, as shown in Figure 7.2.
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Figure 7.1 Posing the character can have a dramatic effect on the picture. Parent Child
A parent is hierarchal above a child; therefore, when a parent is moved so is the child attached to it. In Figure 7.3, I only moved the shoulder, but as you can see, the rest of the arm moved as well. That is because the other joints in the arm are attached as children to the shoulder joint. This parent-child relationship is very important to understand when posing characters in DAZ Studio because often it is easier to start from a parent and flow out to the children when posing.
Posing and Positioning in the Work Area DAZ Studio allows for direct manipulation of a character in the work area. This means that you can select bones directly on the character and move or adjust them as necessary for your pose. The main tools for manipulating the character directly are the Active Pose, Rotate, Translate, and Scale tools found in the Toolbar just below the main tabs, as shown in Figure 7.4.
Figure 7.2 Bones have a parent-child relationship.
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Figure 7.3 When the shoulder is moved, the rest of the arm moves too.
Figure 7.4 The pose tools are located just below the Main tabs.
Active Rotate Translate Scale Pose Active Pose
The most advanced way of manipulating a character is to use the Active Pose tool. The Active Pose is a child-to-parent tool that allows the user to move a child affecting the up-line parent bones in a string. For example, in Figure 7.5 I used the tool to pull the forearm up and to the side. Notice how the up-line bones of the arm and torso are affected. Also, notice how the down-line bones of the hand react as normal. To get the same type of pose movement as seen above with the other tools would take the adjustment of several bones. By using the Active Pose tool, I am able to do it with just one selection. The Active Pose tool is ideal for roughing in the basics of a pose because of its freeform nature; however, it is often difficult to get exactly the pose you want. This is why many artists will start by setting up the basic pose using the Active Pose tool and then refine it using the other tools.
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Figure 7.5 The Active Pose tool is a child-to-parent manipulator.
Note As you move the character using the Active Pose tool, you will notice that many of the joints will only move so far. The models in DAZ Studio have constraints on their joint movement to coincide with our own bodies. These constraints keep knees and elbows from bending backwards, making the body move in a natural way.
Rotate
The most common tool used for posing in DAZ Studio is the Rotate tool. This is because almost all joints in the body are rotation joints. Some joints like the hip are ball and socket joints; others, like the knee and elbow, are hinge joints. No matter what kind of joint it is, it will have a pivot point around which it rotates. For example, in Figure 7.6, the hip joint is rotated lifting the model’s leg to the side. You will notice that when the Rotate tool is selected, a manipulator tool appears at the pivot of the joint. This tool has three rings in different colors. Each color represents an axis. If you click on one of these rings, you can limit the rotation of the joint along that specific axis. If you just click on the tool without clicking one of the rings, you can rotate freely.
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Figure 7.6 The Active Pose tool is a child-to-parent manipulator.
Translate
The Translate tool is seldom used in manipulating body parts. In fact, there are no translate options in the parameters for most bones, and when you select them, no manipulator will appear on screen. The only exception to this rule in most characters is the hip joint. This is because the hip is the root joint and can be used to move all the other joints connected to it. If you wanted your character to crouch like in Figure 7.7, the hip bone is lowered. The main purpose in posing is to position the character rather than moving body parts. Scale
The Scale tool is very seldom used in posing. It is more of a character set-up tool. In fact, the Scale tool will only appear when the base model is selected. Selecting the bones has no effect. In real life, our arms and legs don’t suddenly get longer or shorter, so there is really little need for that to happen when posing a model. Figure 7.8 shows the model scaled smaller. The Scale tool can scale in all three axes or it can scale in one at a time. This is useful in a case where you want the figure to be a dwarf character, as shown in Figure 7.9.
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Figure 7.7 The Translate tool is used to position the character.
Figure 7.8 The Scale tool scales the character bigger or smaller.
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Figure 7.9 The Scale tool can be used to create a dwarf character.
Pose Sets In addition to posing a character yourself, there are a number of pose sets available from the DAZ store. These pose sets contain many common poses that can be used right away. Figure 7.10 shows a number of poses from the General Poses pack. Using a readymade pose is very easy. All you have to do is find the pose you want to use in the content folder and then import it into the scene with the target model selected.
Figure 7.10 There are a number of readymade poses available for many DAZ models.
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Now that you have some idea of posing a character, let’s move ahead into what makes a good pose.
Getting the Right Pose The human body has an expressiveness that communicates through an unspoken language often referred to as body language. As an artist, you have to learn this language and become as expressive with it as the writer is with words. How you want to pose the figures in your art is determined by the purpose or goal you have in mind. It begins with the creative germ of an idea that is developed sometimes well before a scene is created. Sometimes the idea is developed wholly by the artist, although many times the artist has influence from outside sources like in the case of commissioned work or commercial art. Another aspect of posing a character that is very important is the physical association of the body with the environment. Because we live in a physical world, our bodies are subjected to a number of physical forces not the least of which is gravity. A pose that is off balance or ignores the effects of gravity can often make for an awkward looking picture. Maybe the most difficult aspect of posing the figure is also the most important. That aspect is the expression of emotion. Being able to express a feeling or emotion simply by how you pose your character is the difference between a want-to-be artist and an artist.
Purpose There are a lot of elements that go into determining the pose for a picture, but they all begin with the artist’s purpose. The fundamental question is “Why am I creating this piece of art?” The purpose might be to make a beautiful scene or it might be to promote a product. Whatever the purpose is, it will form the foundation for developing the work to completion. Having a purpose for your pictures gives you direction. It gives you a goal. A goal will give you a starting point for judging your work.
Natural One of the great advantages of a software program like DAZ Studio is that it has almost unlimited possibilities for posing figures. Not only can you pose the figures in almost any position possible with the human form, but you can change the figures themselves for a huge variety of looks from fat to thin, from muscular to frail. A variety of costumes and facial expressions for the virtual characters are also available. But with all of this freedom, there is also a danger because the figure may not look natural or like it fits into its environment.
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In a real world situation, we have to follow natural laws like gravity. In a virtual situation, the artist has to remember these laws and simulate their effects. If the artist doesn’t plan for the effects of natural laws, then the pose can look odd or even uncomfortable to the viewer.
Balance and Weight For a character to look right with its surroundings, it needs to have balance and look like it has weight. One of the problems with posing a figure in a virtual setting, is the fact that it is easy to pose a figure that looks slightly odd or out of place. There could be a number of reasons for this but the most common one is that the figure may not look like it fits in the setting. The perspective could be off. The lighting might be wrong. More likely than not, the character might not be completely balanced or there is a lack of weight to the figure. Balance
If the character is off balance, the viewing will be uncomfortable for the audience of your picture because there will be a feeling of an impending fall. In Figure 7.11, the character is leaning to one side. She looks as if she is about to fall. The viewer may feel the need to try to catch her.
Figure 7.11 In real life this
Because artificial environments don’t have gravity, you character would fall because there is too much weight to her have to compensate by learning how to keep your charleft side. acters balanced. You do this by locating the center of mass of the body and then determining if it is supported by the figure. To find the center mass, look to the person’s hips. Even though the chest or upper torso of some characters may be larger than the hip area, the hips are what really determine the balance of a figure. Here is an example of how you might check the balance on your figures. 1. The first step is to pose the character that you want to draw. Figure 7.12 is a sample figure in a balanced pose. 2. Draw a circle centered on the character’s hips, as shown in Figure 7.13. The circle locates the center of mass for the character. 3. Now draw a vertical line that dissects the center of the circle, as shown in Figure 7.14. While the line may not fall directly between the figure’s feet, it does fall between them. Most poses have more weight on one foot than on the other so it will rarely be in the exact center.
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Figure 7.12 Pose the figure.
Figure 7.13 Draw a circle around the hips.
Figure 7.14 Draw a vertical line through the center of the circle.
4. Now draw the action line that shows the line of motion for the character, as shown in Figure 7.15. Compare the action line with the vertical center of mass line. A balanced standing character’s action line and center of mass line will be roughly the same. The closer these two lines are, the more evenly distributed the body will be between the character’s legs. This method of checking the balance of a figure is a good way to understand whether or not your picture will look right. Let’s see how it works for a figure that is off balance. Look at Figure 7.16. I have drawn in the center of mass line. Notice how it is shifted to the left of her feet. The figure looks like she should be leaning on something. When the action line is drawn in, you can see that it leans to the left, as shown in Figure 7.17. The more deviation the action line has with the center of mass line, the more likely the character is out of balance. It is worth mentioning that you need to examine the character from several different angles. Characters exist in virtual 3D space. From one angle, it may look like your character is in balance, but from another it may not. Being off balance is not always a bad thing. If you are working on an action drawing, you can use balance as a point of action. Say, for instance, you are working on a picture
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Figure 7.15 Draw in the action line.
Figure 7.16 The center of mass line is shifted to the left.
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Figure 7.17 The action line deviates from the center of mass line.
of a person while running, as shown in Figure 7.18. When a person runs, her weight is shifted forward in an off balance position. Standing still in that position would likely cause the runner to topple over. The viewer recognizes the off balance position of the person and interprets it as part of the running motion. Weight
Every figure in life has some weight unless it is floating in outer space. Weight is closely related to balance in that without weight, balance is not an issue. A character’s weight is a combination of mass and gravity. Gravity is constantly pulling on a figure toward the ground. The figure’s skeletal and muscular systems work together to help the figure to stand, move, and, in essence, fight the effects of gravity. When working with a virtual figure in a virtual setting, you will find that the model will often seem to not have any weight. This can be a problem if you are working toward a realistic picture. When posing a figure, you have to take weight into account. Figure 7.19 shows a figure in the act of lifting an object. There is a sense of weight to both the figure and the object. This is because the figure is firmly planted on the ground and its body is bent in such a way as to indicate that there is tension in the arms and legs.
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Figure 7.18 Some poses are off balance on purpose.
Figure 7.19 The pose shows weight by how the figure interacts with gravity.
In essence, the figure needs to look like it is interacting with gravity to give it a sense of weight.
Emotion Our emotions are often expressed through our body language. Close observation will show that there are unique characteristics to almost any emotion. When we react to an emotion, our reaction takes on these characteristics. While not every reaction will be the same, there will be similarities. As you explore the different characteristics of each emotional reaction, you will start to notice that there will be a flow or overall directional movement. This is very important to pick up on because the major flow of the body is the most likely aspect of body language for emphasizing an emotion. Let’s take a quick look at a few of the more common emotions and how you might try to depict them in your work.
Anger One of the most powerful emotions that an artist has to depict in a character is anger, as shown in Figure 7.20. Anger is also one of the easiest emotions for the audience to interpret.
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Figure 7.20 Anger is shown by tension in the limbs.
Anger is indicated by a stiff gesture, with many muscles straining against one another. The stance often looks like two upward pointing arrows, one over the other. Some general characteristics of anger are as follows: ■
The joints in the legs and arms are locked, and the muscles of the limbs strain against one another.
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The feet are firmly planted on the ground, and the hands are tightly clenched.
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The head is often lowered forward, with the shoulders raised.
Surprise Surprise, as shown in Figure 7.21, is a common emotion in animation. It is used often because it involves a lot of drama and has an impact on the audience. Surprise is an open gesture that recedes from the object of the surprise. It is characterized by a very strong curve in the character. Some general characteristics of surprise are as follows: ■
When a person is in the midst of recoil from a surprise, the hands are opened with the palms forward and the fingers and thumb are bent back.
■
The arms and sometimes one of the legs are bent.
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Figure 7.21 Surprise is seen often in animated productions.
■
There is a strong action line that curves dramatically from the foot through the body to the head.
■
The eyes are usually locked on the object of surprise.
Happy (Joy) Joy is a happy expression of gleeful contentment, as shown in Figure 7.22. It is a strong contrasting emotion from anger and dejection. Animators often exaggerate happy emotions to emphasize the character’s feelings to the audience. It is a sweeping gesture that pulls the eye upward from the feet to the head. Some general characteristics of happiness or joy are as follows: ■
The arms often form a diamond shape, with the elbows spread wide.
■
The hands are either laid flat against the body or clasped.
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Sometimes, the arms are brought in, and the hands are clasped just below the chin. However, this could be confused with the action of pleading.
■
The feet and legs are usually close together.
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The head is almost always at an angle following the arch of the body.
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Figure 7.22 Animators often exaggerate happiness.
Sad (Dejected) Sadness, as shown in Figure 7.23, is another powerful emotion. It resonates with the audience because it is a common emotion that promotes sympathy for the sad character. The general action line of a sad character is hooked with the head down turned. Some general characteristics of sadness are as follows: ■
Drooping shoulders characterize sadness.
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The arms and legs are held close to the body as if the character wants to recede into itself.
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The head is down cast.
Authoritarian (I’m the Boss) The animator will often want to show that a character is in charge by putting a character in an authoritarian posture, as shown in Figure 7.24. This type of stance is filled with pride and arrogance.
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Figure 7.23 The head turned down often shows sadness.
Figure 7.24 This character seems very arrogant.
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The arrogant character has a very strutting posture with strong lines leading to the person’s head in a “look at me I am important” kind of feeling. Some general characteristics of an authoritarian or arrogant character are as follows: ■
Strong directional motion toward the character’s head.
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Chest puffed out with the hips tilted forward.
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Head slightly tilted back so the character is looking down his nose.
Only a Sampling These are just a few of the many emotions. This book is not long enough to list every emotion and some of its general characteristics. In order to cover the ones we did, I had to generalize a great deal. The emotions presented in this chapter were meant as an example only and not the only way that a particular emotion is expressed. We have so many ways to express emotions that there are no hard and fast rules. Your best aid in understanding emotions is to observe natural reactions in real life.
Summary Posing characters in DAZ Studio is easy with the many tools available. We have only touched on a few, but with the basic knowledge from this chapter, you should be able to create about any pose you can dream up. An important thing to remember when posing your characters in DAZ Studio is that they need to look right for the purpose you have in mind. Characters need to have weight and they need to be balanced. Expression of emotion in body language is also important. In the next chapter, we will take a break from human characters for a moment and show how DAZ Studio deals with non-human characters.
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8 Non-Human Characters If all DAZ Studio did was create scenes with people, it would be a great program, but it does so much more. DAZ Studio also works great with non-human characters like dogs, cats, and other pets. There are fantasy creatures, prehistoric dinosaurs, mechanical robots, and many other non-human characters that can be imported into DAZ Studio. All of these characters can use the same tools available for human characters including animation tools, Morphs, and others. In this chapter, we will explore many of the amazing things that can be done in DAZ Studio with characters that are not quite human and some that are definitely not human. First, we will cover four-footed characters and how they differ from bipeds when posing them. From there we will look at winged characters and finned characters. We will wrap up the chapter with a look at some of the great variety of characters available for use in DAZ Studio.
Quadrupeds One of the biggest differences you may run across when working with non-human characters is that many of them use four feet instead of two. A creature that walks on four feet is called a quadruped. Quadrupeds still require the same considerations for posing that human characters do but instead of their weight balanced on two legs, it is distributed among four. Because the weight is distributed on four legs, quadrupeds move differently than two-legged characters or bipeds. For one, their bodies are primarily parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular. The head of a quadruped extends out from the shoulders rather than resting on top of the shoulders. The joints in the legs are different from those of a human character. Figure 8.1 shows the DAZ Millennium Dog model with some of the major differences indicated.
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Head extends forward from shoulders Body is parallel to the ground
Figure 8.1 The artist needs to understand the difference between a biped and a quadruped.
Leg joints bend forward rather than back
Probably the biggest difference an artist will initially face when dealing with a quadruped model is understanding the structure and movement of the legs. In reality, the number of bones and their order isn’t much different from a human skeleton, but the bone length, usage, and placement is different. Look at Figure 8.2 that shows how the two differ.
Thigh Knee Heel Toes
Quadrupeds walk on their toes as shown above.
Quadruped Movement Understanding quadrupeds’ movement dynamics is essential to creating believable animation or accurate poses. Figure 8.3 shows the DAZ Millennium Dog model. When working with four legs, think of them as two sets of two legs. When a dog walks, the front and back legs walk in sync with each other, but they are moving opposite of each other. Figure 8.4 shows the dog in a walking motion.
Figure 8.2 There are many similarities in the biped and quadruped leg structure.
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Figure 8.3 Think of the four legs as two sets of two legs.
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Figure 8.4 When a dog walks, the front and back legs move opposite each other.
It is almost like two bipeds walking one behind the other, as shown in Figure 8.5. There is a good reason for a dog to walk the way he does. For a quadruped to stay balanced, two feet have to stay on the ground. Having those feet be opposite each other gives the dog more stability. All quadrupeds walk in a similar manner with just slight variations. Not only does this counter movement between the front and back legs affect the legs, but it also accounts for the counter movement in the hips and shoulders of quadrupeds. When the dog’s chest swings toward the right, his hips swing to the left, as shown in Figure 8.6. Figure 8.5 The front and back legs are like two bipeds walking one behind the other.
Figure 8.6 The dog’s hip and chest swing in opposite directions when walking.
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The motion of a dog and other quadrupeds changes dramatically when running. During a run motion, the dog’s front and back legs work together with very little separation. Figure 8.7 shows a four-frame sequence of running dog animation. Notice how the front and back legs work with each other. Figure 8.7 In a run, the front and back legs work together.
There will be variations between quadrupeds in how they move. For example, look at the differences between a horse running and a dog running, as shown in Figure 8.8. Figure 8.8 A horse’s run differs in some ways from that of a dog.
We don’t have the space to cover all of the variations between quadrupeds. The best way to learn how animals move is to observe them in nature. Also, try watching movies where you can pause the picture frame by frame.
Changing Breeds DAZ models for animals are often very flexible and allow for a great deal of variety for the artist. Like the human characters, they also have Morphs that can be applied to change the look of the model. In addition, many of the models have multiple textures for even greater variety. For example, the DAZ’s Millennium Big Cat collection can take the lion model, as shown in Figure 8.9, and change it into several other big cat breeds, as shown in Figure 8.10.
Winged Characters The most common winged characters are birds. Birds are technically biped creatures; however, they differ significantly from human bipeds in how they move and the fact that instead of arms they have wings and fly through the air. Birds come in all shapes and sizes, from large ostriches of the African plains to the tiny humming birds in your back yard. Some of the bird 3D models from DAZ are shown below in Figure 8.11.
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Figure 8.9 This lion model is part of the Millennium Big Cat collection.
Figure 8.10 The Big Cat model can Morph into several big cat breeds.
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Figure 8.11 These are just a sample of bird models available from DAZ.
Wings play a big role in the movement of birds. They are the main means of movement while the bird is in the air. On the ground, the wings are usually tucked up next to the bird’s body unless they are needed for balance. In addition to birds, there are several other types of 3D models that have wings. These models include insects like those shown in Figure 8.12. Flying insect wings are made from thin membranes that are often transparent; however, some wings are colored as in the case of butterflies and moths.
Figure 8.12 Here are some samples of winged insects.
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Flying creatures don’t have to be real; they can also be fantasy creatures in DAZ Studio. For example, Figure 8.13 shows a couple dragons in battle. Figure 8.13 Dragons are also winged creatures.
Finned Creatures Another type of non-biped character group is those that live in the water and use fins instead of arms and legs. Creatures like fish that live in the water need something that will efficiently move them through the liquid, and what better appendage than something that is flat and thin like a fin? Figure 8.14 shows several finned creature models that can be used in DAZ Studio. Most aquatic animals use their fins to help them navigate through water, but the most dynamic motion is their flexible bodies. Their tailfins do the majority of the work, powered by the strength of their body whipping it back and forth. There are many types of aquatic creatures like those shown here in Figure 8.15. Whether they have fins, tentacles, shells, or stingers, each aquatic creature is uniquely adapted to life under the waves.
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Figure 8.14 Fins help aquatic creatures move through water.
Figure 8.15 Here are some examples of aquatic animals.
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Other Non-Human Characters As you can see, there is a wide variety of non-human creatures available for use with DAZ Studio. This variety can give your imagination a wide range when you are searching for just the right characters for your next picture. In addition to the characters we have already mentioned in this chapter, a few more are shown in Figures 8.16 and 8.17. You can also go sci-fi with a wide variety of robot creature models, as shown in Figure 8.18. These pictures are only a small sampling of the many non-human models available online at www.daz3d.com. Almost anything you want is there for you to try.
Figure 8.16 There are many prehistoric animals available for DAZ Studio.
Figure 8.17 There are also a number of imaginary creatures.
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Figure 8.18 Go sci-fi with robots.
Summary In this chapter, we looked at non-human characters that can be used in DAZ Studio. The most common non-human characters are four footed or quadrupeds. Quadrupeds move differently from bipeds. Their leg movement is similar to two people walking one in front of the other but opposite in step. We also looked at several other types of non-human creatures like winged, finned, imaginary, and even sci-fi. In the next chapter, we will look at how to use DAZ Studio for developing avatars.
9 Avatars An avatar is a representative character. It can be anything from a symbol to a fully animated character. Avatars are used in many online worlds where the player is represented in the virtual world by an avatar. In many of these worlds, the character can customize his avatar or even import his own avatar creating limitless opportunities for unique avatar characters. In this chapter, I will explain how to take your DAZ characters and customize them for use in other applications that allow imported avatars. I will also go through the process of exporting an avatar into another application so you can become familiar with the process.
Customizing Characters When preparing a character for use as an avatar in other applications, there are a few important considerations. For one thing, you will first need to see whether the application accepts imported avatars. Many virtual worlds only use internal characters and do not allow the user to import her own characters; however, more and more are beginning to allow importing. Importing means that you create your character in a program other than the virtual world’s character creator and then through an importing process load that character into the virtual world. The importing process usually includes some specific requirements for models to work as avatars in the virtual world. These require a file format that the virtual world can read and a limit on how complex the models can be. DAZ Studio has created some systems and tools for preparing DAZ models to become avatars.
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Resolution As you have probably noticed while working in DAZ Studios, many of the models have lifelike detail. This realism comes at a price and can cause problems in rendering or realtime displays. 3D models are made of polygons. Polygons are flat, three- or four-sided planes defined by points called vertices. Displaying a polygon on a computer screen requires mathematically plotting the polygon in 3D space. If you have ever used math to plot an object, you will understand how complex the calculations are. Now multiply those computations by the number of polygons in a character and you begin to see the complexity of displaying even a simple object. A high degree of detail in a 3D model requires a massive number of polygons. Figure 9.1 shows the polygons used to create Victoria’s head. Figure 9.1 Many polygons are used in a detailed 3D model.
The Victoria model from DAZ has more than 60,000 polygons. This means that in a realtime view of Victoria, it takes more than 60,000 mathematical polygon-plotting computations to display her on screen. And, because video displays refresh at a rate of 30 frames per second, the computer is doing 1.8 million polygon-plotting calculations per second. That is why it doesn’t take very many characters to start having DAZ Studio begin to be a little sluggish.
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Most computers max out at about 200,000 to 300,000 polygons in a scene, although some of the more advanced systems may be able to handle more. This polygon plotting and rendering limitation is very important in a virtual world setting. Virtual worlds often will have dozens of characters and any number of objects and setting elements. To keep the world from becoming sluggish and unresponsive, each world will place a limit on how many polygons can be used for each avatar. Those limits may be quite severe, limiting the polygons to 1,000 or less. Some worlds may go up to as many as 5,000 or more. In either case, it is a long way from the 60,000 used for Victoria. In order to solve this problem, DAZ 3D has developed a system of reducing the number of polygons in a model based on its location in a scene. This system is called LOD or Level of Detail.
LOD In perspective view, a model will reduce in size on the screen the farther away from the camera it is positioned. There isn’t much point in plotting a lot of polygons if the model in the scene will only be a few pixels high. At that distance from the camera, most of the detail is lost anyway. Therefore, if models with a lower polygon count are used, the farther they get from the camera, the more characters you will be able to work with in a scene. LOD systems swap out models of characters and backgrounds based on their distance from the camera. That means that if I have two models, one close to the camera and one far away, the close model might have the base high polygon model while the one far away will use a lower polygon model. DAZ Studio’s LOD system uses multiple versions of a 3D model and automatically swaps the models based on distance from the camera. This helps the scene to be more responsive during creation and faster during rendering. Figure 9.2 shows several different versions of the Victoria model with the highest resolution on the right and the lowest on the left.
Figure 9.2 Victoria has several different LOD versions.
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To add the LOD models to your character, you need to first locate them in the Content folder. They will be located in the Studio subfolder under the name of the model. LOD for Victoria is shown in Figure 9.3. With the character selected, load the LOD. This will bring up a new parameter in the Parameter tab. Figure 9.4 shows the available LOD model versions and options for Victoria.
Note Not all models will have LOD versions. LOD is a recent feature of DAZ Studio and many of the older models were created before LOD became available. However, most of the new models will have LOD versions. Clothing and hair will also soon be forthcoming with LOD versions. Eventually, most models will come with LOD versions.
Figure 9.3 LOD for Victoria is located in the Studio folder.
The LOD versions for Victoria include a 1K, 2K, 4K, and 17K designation. These numbers correspond to the number of polygons in each model. The 1K version has about 1,000 polygons. The 2K version has about 2,000 polygons. The other options for the LOD are for setting up the LOD system in DAZ Studio. The Use Dynamic Setting function turns on the LOD system. The Edit Dynamic Settings function lets you set up the distances and model versions for the LOD system.
Figure 9.4 Victoria has four LOD versions besides the Base model.
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Using LOD Versions for Avatars LOD versions of character models are perfect for avatars in other programs because they retain a high degree of detail and have superior textures compared to most avatars. They also retain many of the custom Morphs available for the model, allowing for fine customization of your character. Let’s say, for example, you wanted to have your character have a larger head. You can use the Morphs to change the head size and then use the LOD to change the resolution. Figure 9.5 shows the 1,000-polygon model with the enlarged head. Figure 9.5 Morphs work with the LOD versions.
Exporting an Avatar Once you have a character in DAZ Studio that you like, and it meets the resolution requirements for the virtual world, the next step will be to export the avatar model in a format that works with the virtual world. Not all worlds accept imported models but a few do. Those that do support imported models will likely have a specific file format that they accept. Unfortunately, native DAZ Studio files are unlikely to be supported. You will need to export your character using DAZ Studio’s Export feature located under the File menu.
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When you click on Export, an Export File dialog box will appear. In the Save as type pull-down menu, you have a choice of four file formats that you can export your model in. Of these file formats, Collada or .dae files are the most likely. Collada was developed originally for Sony’s PS3 game system for transferring 3D files. It is a good file format that is becoming increasingly popular among 3D developers. Many 3D applications and virtual worlds support it. DAZ 3D added Collada support to DAZ Studio to make exporting characters easier. Check with your virtual world importer to see if it supports Collada files. Once you pick a file name and location to save your exported file, the Collada Export Options dialog will appear, as shown here in Figure 9.6.
Every virtual world requires specific parameters for their imported models. I will only be able to give you general guidelines for what options to select. Refer to your virtual world import requirements for the exact parameters you need.
Figure 9.6 The Collada Export Options dialog will help you export the right options.
Under the General tab, shown in Figure 9.7, leave Scene Options as Y Up unless specifically stated otherwise in your requirements. Figure 9.7 The General Tab has many important options.
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Under Materials, checking the Copy Images to folder options is important so you can find all the texture files you need. Try using Invert alpha images, as this will make the transparent images work with most worlds. Unless your virtual world requires you to import your own animations and you have the animations loaded as part of the export, leave the Animation Options section unchecked. Miscellaneous Options are clean-up options that help remove unnecessary data from your model. Check these only if you are having trouble with your file being too large. Check the Merge Materials by Diffuse Map if your Virtual World asks for it. Under the Morphs tab, shown in Figure 9.8, include Active Morphs only and Bake them into the geometry. Figure 9.8 Include active Morphs in your export.
The LOD tab shows what level of detail model you are using. You can leave the UV Sets tab alone as there are likely not parameters there you will need to change. Once you have everything ready, click Accept and your avatar will be exported in Collada format. Your avatar is now exported. You should have a .dae file and a folder containing the model’s textures. Use these exported files to import your character into your chosen virtual world.
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Summary This chapter was mostly about avatars, but it also covered LOD. Avatars are characters that represent you in a virtual world. Many virtual worlds are starting to accept imported avatars. You can use DAZ characters for your avatar in a virtual world, but you will have to reduce the number of polygons in the model. LOD offers several versions of the model, some of which are small enough to work in a virtual world setting. DAZ Studio supports exporting in the Collada format, which is gaining wide use among virtual world programs. This chapter showed how to export an avatar using the Collada Exporter. In the next chapter, we will take a look at props and background.
10 Props and Sets Props and sets are used to enhance your pictures. A prop is any non-character object that is used by a character and includes things like chairs, cars, umbrellas, and swords. The main difference between a prop and a set is that a prop is something that the character can use. A set is a setting or environment in which the character will be placed. Sets in DAZ Studio can be a simple backdrop similar to those found in a photography studio or they can be a complete 3D model of an environment. In this chapter, I will explain how to import and use props with your characters. I will also go over several different types of sets. To finish the chapter, I will discuss how to create your own sets using another great tool from DAZ Studio called Bryce. This program is specifically designed for the creation of incredible 3D environments.
Props Sometimes it’s hard to know what is a prop and what isn’t. Technically, anything other than clothing can be called a prop, including hair; however, for this book we shall define props as items used by a character or in a scene that are not fit to the character.
Character Props Character props are props that a character carries either in her hand or attached to her body or clothing. A jewelry prop is shown in Figure 10.1. Character props can also be things like weapons, as shown in Figure 10.2.
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Figure 10.1 Jewelry items are character props.
Figure 10.2 Weapons are also props.
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Weapons like guns, staffs, swords, etc. can be carried in a holster or sheath, but, as shown in Figure 10.2, often they are held in the hand. To get a weapon to fit in a character’s hand and to move with the character, you will need to follow a couple of steps. 1. Look for the prop that is labeled for the hand you want to use. It will be labeled similar to the one shown in Figure 10.3. The gun is for use with the right hand. Figure 10.3 This prop is for use in the character’s right hand.
2. Make sure the character you want to have the prop is selected before you load the prop. DAZ Studio needs to know which character to apply the prop to. If you don’t have a character selected, the prop will just be loaded unattached. It is only attached to a character when the prop is loaded to a selected character.
Environment Props Environment props are props that are part of an environment and not carried or held by a character. Some examples of environment props include things like park benches, lampposts, furniture, etc. Figure 10.4 shows some of the variety of environment props available for DAZ Studio. Figure 10.4 There are many types of environment props.
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Unlike character props, environment props are not attached to a character but rather are placed in a scene. Props will load into the scene centered and scaled to work well with most DAZ characters. Once in the scene, they can be adjusted using the Rotate, Translate, and Scale tools located on the toolbar along the top of the screen. Many sets available for DAZ Studio come with a number of extra props that you can place in the scene as you like. For example, in the scene shown in Figure 10.5 there are several prop objects like traffic cones, fences, and other objects that help make the scene seem more realistic. You can also add other props that don’t come with the scene, as shown in Figure 10.6. DAZ Studio lets you mix and match props with total freedom. The beauty of DAZ Studio is that as you extend your library of objects, you increase the options for creative opportunities. As your library grows, your options for picture content grows as well.
Figure 10.5 Many of the environment props in this scene came with the scene.
Figure 10.6 The car in this scene came from another model set.
The Setting A setting in DAZ Studio is the stage upon which you create your artwork. It can be as simple as a backdrop or as complex as a full 3D environment. The beach set that comes up with the Quick Start scene is a backdrop. It is a picture of a beach applied to a simple 3D model. Figure 10.7 shows the scene with the camera pulled back so you can see the entire set.
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Figure 10.7 The beach set is a simple 3D model.
Notice how the set is made specifically for the camera, pointing to the center, as shown in Figure 10.8. The Set only works if viewed from one direction. It is truly like a stage where the audience is in the front. Figure 10.8 A backdrop is designed for viewing from only one direction.
One advantage of a backdrop is that it is simple. Backdrops do not require the high polygon count 3D models that a full 3D environment requires. This is a great advantage when rendering a scene because it will render much faster. High polygon counts can cause rendering to be extremely slow and in some cases slow down the editing functions in DAZ Studio. Even though DAZ Studio is optimized to run as efficiently as possible, if you crowd a scene with a number of high polygon count 3D models, it will bog down and become unresponsive.
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Full 3D Environments The most accurate and believable settings for your character in DAZ Studio is a full 3D environment. A full 3D environment will give you the most accurate three-dimensional rendering because the lighting will be accurate and the distances will be consistent with your models. Full 3D environments give your characters a full range of movement capabilities. You have a lot more freedom for camera angles because you are not limited to only one direction. The down side to full 3D environments is that they take a massive amount of polygons and texture data. They tend to create very complex scenes that often take a long time to render. Figure 10.9 shows a full environment scene. As you can see, this scene is very complex even without characters. Even on a fast machine, this scene took almost two hours to render with shadows. Another important element to remember when dealing with 3D environments is that you will have greater freedom in moving things around and customizing the set up of your scene. In the scene in Figure 10.9, each of the buildings, trees, chairs, lampposts, and other objects is all separate. With enough elements, an entire city could be built. Figure 10.9 Full 3D environments give a more accurate feel to your art.
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DAZ has a huge variety of 3D environments that you can use for sets. Figures 10.10 and 10.11 show two more 3D environment sets. Figure 10.12 shows the Mediterranean geometry from a distance. Notice that there are several locations where you can position your camera in a 3D environment set.
Figure 10.10 This 3D set is a modern-day rundown city street. Figure 10.12 This view shows the entire environment.
Figure 10.11 This 3D set has a Mediterranean look.
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Some environments from DAZ cover large areas and allow for multiple camera positions. Other environments are more limited. In this next section, we will take a look at how you can create your own environments for use in DAZ Studio using another DAZ tool called Bryce.
Bryce Bryce is a software program specifically designed for the creation of rich environments. With it, artists can quickly create realistic environments including mountains, oceans, landscapes, cityscapes, and a host of other settings. It includes a number of functions for creating trees, buildings, rocks, and other geographic features. Figure 10.13 shows a view of the Bryce interface. Figure 10.13 The Bryce interface contains many useful tools. DAZ Studio Create Toolbar Preview Render Camera Controls Render Options Scene View Advanced Options Selection Icons
The center part of the interface contains the scene view, which is your window into the world you are creating. You can use the camera controls to the left of the scene view to change or adjust your view. The upper-left corner of the screen shows a small preview render window. Along the top of the screen are toolbars for creating and manipulating scene objects. Along the bottom of the screen are animation tools and selection icons. The right side of the interface contains a collection of advanced options.
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In Figure 10.13, the top toolbar contains the create tools. These tools are used for bringing new objects or lights into a scene. There are two other toolbars that occupy the same space depending on what you are creating. The three toolbars are Create, Edit, and Sky & Fog. Figure 10.14 shows the Edit toolbar with its several edit tools. Figure 10.14 You can modify objects in Bryce using the Edit tools.
Figure 10.15 Sky & Fog tools are used for creating atmospheres.
Figure 10.16 The bottom controls toggle between selection and animation.
Figure 10.15 shows the Sky & Fog toolbar. The tools in this toolbar are used for creating atmospheres for your scenes.
In the bottom-left corner of the Bryce interface is a small circular icon. This icon toggles between the full animation controls and the selection icons. The Animation controls are shown in Figure 10.16.
Building a Scene in Bryce Bryce is a full 3D scene creation program and contains a number of tools and functions that we will not be able to adequately cover in this book. Instead, we will take a quick look at how the program is used to create a simple background. DAZ has a complete set of reference and tutorial documents that you can refer to for more information on using Bryce. When Bryce first comes up, it will already have an infinite plane and a sky—an infinite plane with a repeating texture that extends infinitely to the horizon. Figure 10.17 shows a rendering of the default scene. You could just use the infinite plane and place your DAZ characters on it for the ground, but it is not very interesting. Instead, let’s build some scenery elements. First, we can add a terrain. Clicking the terrain icon, the one that looks like a small mountain, will load a terrain object into the scene, as shown in Figure 10.18. The terrain is a little small for what we want so we need to scale it up to take up more of the scene. Switch to the Edit toolbar by clicking Edit at the top of the interface. Use the Scale tool, second from the left, to enlarge the scene. Notice that the terrain scales from the center so some of it will appear to go below the infinite plane. Use the Translate
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Figure 10.17 The infinite plane extends endlessly to the horizon.
Figure 10.18 Add a terrain to the scene.
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tool, fourth from the left, to lift the enlarged terrain above the infinite plane. Figure 10.19 shows a rendering of the enlarged terrain in the scene. Figure 10.19 The new terrain is rendered in the scene.
As you can see, the new terrain looks like some rugged snowcapped mountains. These mountains look cool but they are just the start. There are several possibilities for creating mountains.
Editing the Terrain Along the bottom left of the terrain are a number of icons shown in Figure 10.20. These icons are used to bring up tools for editing your terrain. Figure 10.20 Tools for modifying your terrain are located near its bottom left.
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Select the Icon with the E on it to edit your terrain. Figure 10.21 shows the edit options for changing the terrain. Figure 10.21 There are a number of options for editing your terrain object.
Terrains in Bryce are created using a height map. The height map for this terrain is located in the upper-left corner. In the upper-right corner is a view of how your terrain looks from the side. Below the side view, along the right of the screen, are modifying options for changing the look of your terrain. Clicking on a button and dragging left or right on these options will add or subtract that option from your terrain. In the above figure, I eroded and lowered the overall height of the terrain. Figure 10.22 shows the new terrain rendered.
Changing the Texture Next, we will change the terrain’s texture to give it a more tropical look. Select the M icon to bring up the Materials Lab, as shown in Figure 10.23. The Materials Lab has a number of controls for letting the artist create an infinite variety of materials for use in Bryce objects. There are also a large number of premade materials that you can use in your scenes. Rather than going into how to use the material editor, we will just use a premade material. On the left-hand side of the editor is a small window that shows a preview render of the material on the terrain. If you are using Bryce and it doesn’t show a terrain view, you can change the view to terrain by clicking the triangle just below the window and selecting terrain from the pull-down menu.
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Figure 10.22 The new terrain looks more natural.
Figure 10.23 The Materials Lab is used for changing textures on terrains and other objects in Bryce.
The triangle to the right of the preview render window will bring up the material selection window shown in Figure 10.24. The default material selection will be architectural as shown in the figure. Select Terrain from the drop-down menu accessed by clicking the triangle in the lower-right corner of the window.
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Figure 10.24 Bring up the material selection window.
There are five categories of terrain types listed below the preview render—HeightMap, Plains, Rocky, Snowy, and Vegetation. Choose Vegetation. You should now have a selection set that looks like the one shown in Figure 10.25. Figure 10.25 Choose the vegetation terrain set.
You can preview each terrain in the preview window. For this scene, I chose Heavy Foliage as shown. Figure 10.26 shows the new texture rendered in the scene. Now I need to change the view of our terrain so the infinite terrain doesn’t show up behind the terrain. Using the tools for modifying the current view, I rotate the horizon down and pull the terrain closer. Figure 10.27 shows the render. There are many more things I could do with this scene, like adding rocks, trees, buildings, and things but we are limited on space in this book. What we do want to go over is how to bring a DAZ Studio model into Bryce. Figure 10.28 shows a posed dragon model in DAZ Studio that we will be importing into Bryce.
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Figure 10.26 The new texture is added to the terrain.
Figure 10.27 This is a better angle of the scene.
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Figure 10.28 This model of a dragon will go into our Bryce scene.
In DAZ Studio, go to Export in the File menu and change the export type to .obj format. The option screen shown in Figure 10.29 will appear. Go to the Advanced tab and check the options shown. This will export the DAZ Studio file into a format that Bryce can read. Figure 10.29 Make sure the Convert Maps (for Bryce) option is checked.
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Back in Bryce, import the DAZ Studio file using the Import function in the File menu. The dragon will appear in the scene, as shown in Figure 10.30. Figure 10.30 Import the dragon model into the Bryce scene.
The dragon is now a Bryce object and you can use the Edit menu to scale, rotate, and move it around the scene.
Note Objects in Bryce do not have the bone system and Morph systems that are present in DAZ Studios. The model should be posed prior to exporting.
In Figure 10.31, I have moved the dragon closer to the camera and rotated it to face us. Now I want to add a little atmosphere to the scene to separate the mountains from the dragon. In the Sky & Fog toolbar, I use the Fog Height tool to raise the fog, as shown in Figure 10.32. Figure 10.33 shows the scene rendered with the Fog. I have only lightly touched on some of the creative possibilities available in Bryce. There are many parts of the program that I wasn’t able to cover. However, I am sure you can see its usefulness in creating backgrounds for your art.
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Figure 10.31 The dragon is coming at us.
Figure 10.32 Raise the fog height to give the scene some atmosphere.
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Figure 10.33 The scene now has some background fog.
Summary To build a full scene for your characters in DAZ Studios, props and environments are essential. In this chapter, we covered different types of props and how to attach them to your characters. We also covered backdrops and environments showing how each is used in DAZ Studio. In the last section, we covered a different program called Bryce that allows the artist to create his own unique environments. Hopefully you were able to glimpse in this chapter the great variety and creative opportunities available for creating beautiful settings for your art. In the next chapter, we will take a look at some advanced posing tools in DAZ Studio.
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11 Advanced Posing Getting a character to look natural in a scene is a time-consuming process. Because of this, DAZ Studio has added some specialized tools for posing characters. In Chapter 7, we covered some of DAZ Studio’s posing tools. In this chapter, we will look at Power Pose and Puppeteer, two very powerful plug-ins included in DAZ Studio. Power Pose is an easy-to-use system for selecting and animating body parts. Puppeteer is a tool for blending poses and creating animations.
Power Pose Power Pose was developed to help the artist’s workflow by creating a powerful interface for posing the character. It speeds the process of posing the figure by giving the artist a clean, easy interface for selecting and moving body parts. It is shown in Figure 11.1 on the right side of the screen. The cute little girl 3D model in the scene is called Sadie. She is available through the DAZ Store. If you look at Power Pose, you will see a silhouette of a figure with several green dots representing various moveable body parts. These dots make it easy to select any body part no matter how your character is currently posed. The basic premise behind using Power Pose is to select a body part by clicking the green dot that represents that part and moving the body part by moving the mouse either up and down or left and right. The movement of the mouse and the mouse button pressed determines the type of movement the body part will make. For example, with Sadie’s left shoulder selected, I can use the left mouse button to pull her arm down by pulling the mouse toward me. I can also move her arm forward or backward by moving the mouse right or left, as shown in Figure 11.2.
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Figure 11.1 The default location of Power Pose is on the right side of the screen.
Figure 11.2 The arm movement is controlled by mouse motion in Power Pose.
Power Pose has a guide for the body part movement that corresponds to the mouse movement at the bottom of the Power Pose tool in case you ever need a reminder. It is a good idea to watch the guide because it will change depending on what body part is chosen. In Figure 11.3 notice that the guide is quite different when the abdomen is chosen. Figure 11.3 The guide changes when a different body part is chosen.
Constraints As you move body parts, you will notice that the movement has limits, stopping the movement from going farther than the natural motion of the joint. In animation these limits are called constraints, meaning the movement of the joint is constrained to a preset limit. Figure 11.4 shows forward extent of movement for Sadie’s left leg.
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Constraining the joints helps to prevent unnatural poses that go beyond how the body can normally move. Constraints are set by the artist who created the model. Some models will have very limiting constraints while other may be looser. For example, compare how much farther Victoria can move up her leg to Sadie’s leg movement constraint in Figure 11.5.
Figure 11.4 Joints are constrained to the natural limits of movement.
Figure 11.5 Constraints are set in the model.
Head and Hands There are three panels in Power Pose: one for posing the body, one for posing the hands, and one for posing the head. You can access the other panels by clicking the head or hands icons in Power Pose. Clicking on the body icon in the other panels will bring you back to the body view. These extra panels are for better access to smaller body parts like fingers and eyes. Figure 11.6 shows the hands panel. As you can see, there is a lot of detail to posing a hand, and having all of these dots on the main body panel would be impossible. It is much easier to work in this enlarged view. Figure 11.7 shows the head panel where you can get better access to the eyes. Figure 11.6 Hands are complex to pose.
Figure 11.7 You can move the eyes from the head panel.
In the body panel, there is a small icon on the bottom right that is used to select the entire model for placing it in the scene.
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Creating a Pose If you are ready, let’s use Power Pose to create an original pose. Rather than starting with Sadie’s default position, it is often easier to start with a predefined pose that is close to the one you want to have as a finished pose. In this example, we will start with a pose that has Sadie with her hands on her hips in a scolding attitude. Our objective will be to have her switch to a pose where she is shaking her finger at us. Figure 11.8 shows the start pose. 1. Select Sadie’s right forearm in Power Pose and with the left mouse button pressed, drag the mouse to the right to bend her arm out straight, as shown in Figure 11.9.
Figure 11.8 We begin with a predefined pose.
Figure 11.9 Bend her arm out straight.
2. Now, select her shoulder and using the left and right mouse buttons, swing and twist her arm forward, as shown in Figure 11.10. 3. Now we need to have her point her finger. The hand is already open so the first task will be to bend the other three fingers in while leaving her index finger out. Start with the knuckle closest to the palm and bend it in followed by the middle knuckle and then the end knuckle for each finger. Figure 11.10 Swing her arm forward. 4. Next, flair the thumb out and straighten the index finger a little. Your end result should look similar to Figure 11.11. Moving the camera in closer to the hand will help you in your posing.
5. As a finishing touch, bend her arm upward just a touch to make the pose a little more dynamic, as shown in Figure 11.12.
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Figure 11.11 Put her hand in a pointing position.
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Figure 11.12 Bend her arm up to finish the pose.
As you can see, posing a character using Power Pose is easy and takes very little time. Learning the mouse controls allows you to select and move body parts quickly and effectively.
Puppeteer Puppeteer is an effective open system for creating animation and developing new poses without having to go through a lot of individual posing. It is especially effective if you want to use predefined poses for your art and have your character move between them. There are three modes in Puppeteer: Edit, Preview, and Record. Figure 11.13 shows the Puppeteer tool next to Sadie. The three modes are shown in the top of the tool. Below them is a grid. This is where you will set up your pose points, or key frames as they are called in animation. Figure 11.13 Puppeteer has three modes.
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Puppeteer is an animation blending system that blends between two or more poses. In Edit mode you set up your poses. In Preview mode you can see how the poses blend. In Record mode you can make a movie.
Edit Mode In Edit mode you can place pose points or key frames in the Puppeteer grid. Figure 11.14 shows DAZ Studio with a pose point set in Puppeteer. To set a pose, just pose your character and then with the character selected, click on any location on the grid. A gray dot will appear on the grid where you clicked. This dot is a pose location on the grid and stores the pose data from your character. In Figure 11.15 I have set a second pose for Sadie.
Figure 11.14 Sadie’s pose is set in Puppeteer.
Figure 11.15 A second pose is set.
Preview Mode With two poses set, you can preview how Puppeteer blends between the two poses. Change the mode to Preview and slide the cursor between the two poses, as shown in Figure 11.16. Puppeteer goes beyond just blending two poses. The program blends between every pose on the grid. In Figure 11.17, I have added a third pose. Now when I slide the cursor in Preview mode the blending takes place between all three poses, as shown in Figure 11.18.
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Figure 11.16 Slide the cursor between the two poses in Preview mode.
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Figure 11.17 Set a third pose.
Figure 11.18 Puppeteer blends between all three poses.
Record Mode In Record mode, I can record the character’s animation based on how I move the cursor. It is very similar to Preview mode with the major exception that you are recording the character’s movements. In this way it is very easy to make a movie of your character. Puppeteer is very useful for creating quick movies of your character and is only limited by your imagination. It is also very useful for creating a series of still images where you want your character to change poses in the same background. All you need to do is set
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up the background and then place your character in each pose. As you pose your character, you can save your poses in Puppeteer. Then all you need to do is select the pose point in Puppeteer to get the right pose for your picture.
Summary In this chapter, we covered two very useful plug-ins for DAZ Studio: Power Pose and Puppeteer. Both of these programs are useful in posing your DAZ characters. Power Pose makes selecting and moving character body parts easy. Puppeteer blends between poses and extends the variety of poses you can achieve without having to hand pose every frame. Puppeteer also has a Record mode for creating movies. In the next chapter, we will show you how to set up lighting in your scenes.
12 Lighting Lighting is one of the most important things to consider when setting up a scene for a picture or animation. In life as in virtual settings, we need light to see. Without it, everything would be black. Light is what defines our visual world. In this chapter, I will cover lighting as it relates to creating pictures in DAZ Studio. To do this, I will first give an overview of how light works in the real world. Having a clear understanding of light in life will help you to simulate it in your art. I will then explain how to add lights to your scenes in DAZ Studio.
Light in Life One of the first things that you need to understand about light is that it travels in a straight path. As light leaves an emission source, it does so as a ray that travels in a straight course until it strikes an object. When hitting an object, light will reflect from the object in a direct angle from where it struck and continue its course until striking another object, as shown in Figure 12.1. It is important to understand this nature of light because much of what we see in life is because of reflected light. Figure 12.1 Light reflects from an object at a direct angle from where it hits an object.
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Light and Shadow When there is light, there is also shadow. A shadow is an area of diminished light because the object is blocking some of the light from entering. The light and shadow of an object help show its shape and dimensions. Let’s look at how light defines a three-dimensional object. We will start with a simple shape, such as a sphere. Figure 12.2 shows a simple sphere shape. Figure 12.2 A sphere gives a good example of how light works. Highlight Core Shadow Reflected Light Raking Light Diffused Edge Drop Shadow Twice Reflected Light
Highlight The highlight of an object is the area that directly reflects light from the light source to the viewer’s eyes. The highlight is located on the brightest area of the ball, as shown in this picture. The highlight area is at a direct reflection angle from the light source.
Raking Light The area that surrounds the highlight where the light is not as directly reflected is called raking light. The name comes from the way the light skims across the surface and hits it at an angle. This area extends outward from the highlight and gradually gets darker because the surface of the object is turning away from the light.
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Light Area The area that contains the highlight and the raking light is the light area of an object. Most objects can be defined as having a light area and a shadow area. Because the light area receives the most light, most of the detail in a picture is in this area.
Shadow Area As the surface of the ball turns away from the light source, it no longer receives light directly from the light source. All of the area that does not receive direct light from the light source is called the shadow area. The shadow area generally receives the least amount of detail in a picture because there is less light to define this area. In situations where there is only one light shining on an object, such as a ball, roughly half of the ball will be in the shadow area and half will be in the light area.
Core Shadow There is a band of shadow that separates the raking light from the shadow area of the ball. This shadow is called the core shadow. The core shadow runs along the edge of the object that is directly past the influence of the light. It is a very important shadow for the artist because the core shadow, more than any other shading, defines the form. The core shadow is the darkest shadow on the ball because it receives the least amount of light.
Reflected Light The shadow area does not receive direct light from the light source, but it does receive indirect light. Indirect light is reflected from other surfaces onto the ball. In the picture of the ball, the light that hits the table and reflects back to us also reflects back toward the ball. The reflected light gives definition to the shadow area of a picture.
Cast Shadow Because the ball interrupts some of the light traveling from the light source to the table, there is an area of shadow on the table. This area of shadow is called the cast shadow. Cast shadows are not just flat shadows. They have unique characteristics that an artist must understand to make them look correct. As the shadow becomes more distant from the object, the edge becomes less distinct. This happens because there is more chance for reflected light to reach the shadow area. The shadow has a diffused edge. There is also a slightly lighter area just beneath the ball. This area is the twice-reflected light area. The light that is reflected to the ball bounces off the ball and into the cast shadow area, giving that area a small amount of light. This is one reason why some cast shadows seem to be lighter near the middle.
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Note When setting up lighting in DAZ Studio, you need to make sure you are accounting for both the major light sources and also for reflected light. Most pictures with a single light source in DAZ studio will look unnatural. To get a more natural look, think about how light will be reflected on your scene and add a few subdued lights to simulate reflected light.
Multiple Lights Many times, objects we see in life have more than one light source. This is particularly true of characters or objects that are in interior settings. A single room inside a building might have many lights illuminating a character or object from multiple angles. Each light will have an effect on how the character or object looks. This can often be confusing for the artist who has to track the direction of the lights to understand the angles of the lights. Figure 12.3 shows the ball with three lights. Notice the multiple cast shadows.
Light and Color Each time a light strikes an object, only part of the light is reflected while some of it is absorbed into the object, thus diminishing the intensity and color of the light with each collision. The specific light reflected from an object is what determines the object’s color. Let me explain how this works.
Figure 12.3 Cast shadows help to show the location of multiple light sources.
Light that is visible to our eyes varies in color based on a full range or spectrum from red on one side to violet on the other, including all other colors in between. A good example of the full spectrum of color is a rainbow. White light is the purest form of light and contains all colors in the spectrum in equal measures. When white light strikes a red object, some of the light is absorbed into the object and is converted to energy, while the rest of the light is reflected from the object. The light that is reflected from a red object makes up the red portion of the spectrum. Thus, the red object becomes a red light source and we see the object as red. A white object reflects white light and absorbs the least amount of energy, while a black object absorbs the most energy. That is why wearing a black shirt in the sun is so uncomfortable. The black absorbs the light from the sun, converting it into heat, while a white shirt reflects most of the sun’s energy and is more comfortable.
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Roughness in Textures Every surface you see in real life has some degree of roughness. Some surfaces, such as glass or polished metal, have such a low degree of roughness that it can only be seen using a microscope. Other surfaces, such as a rock wall or gravel, have noticeable roughness. The rougher a surface is, the more it refracts light. Refraction is the scattering of light when it hits an uneven surface. Figure 12.4 illustrates how light is refracted from a rough surface. Figure 12.4 Refracted light bounces off an object in multiple directions.
Light Refracted Light
Transparency in Textures In nature, not all surfaces are opaque; some surfaces are transparent. A transparent surface allows some amount of light to pass through it, making it possible to see through the surface. For example, the glass of the car’s windshield allows light to pass through it, as shown in Figure 12.5. Figure 12.5 Light passes through the glass of the windshield.
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So what would happen to the lighting of the ball if it were transparent? Look at Figure 12.6. Notice how some of the light passes through the ball. This makes it so you can see both the front and back of the ball through the ball. It also makes it so you see the table on the other side of the ball, including the shadow of the ball. The highlight, core shadow, reflected light, and other aspects of light and shadow don’t go away just because the object is transparent. In DAZ Studio, you can control the transparency of an object in the Surfaces tab, as discussed in Chapter 5. The Surfaces tab also controls many other aspects of a surface, like reflectivity, roughness, and color.
Reflectivity in Textures
Figure 12.6 The ball is transparent, allowing us to see through the ball.
Reflectivity is related to roughness in textures. The more even and polished a surface is, the more it will tend to reflect light directly back to the viewer. A reflective surface acts like a mirror, reflecting its surroundings. If you have reflection for higher than 0 in the Surfaces tab, your object will reflect its surroundings. The higher the strength, the more reflective your surface will be. Figure 12.7 shows the car with reflection strength set at 33%. Figure 12.8 shows the same scene with reflection strength set at 100%. Notice how the car seems much shinier in this picture.
Figure 12.7 The car reflects its surroundings.
Figure 12.8 Higher reflections make the car seem shinier.
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Setting Up Lights in DAZ Studio When you first set up a scene in DAZ Studio, it will have the default lighting. Default lighting is designed for use in working with 3D models in a work environment and is not meant for the final lighting of a scene. For example, Figure 12.9 shows a scene rendered with the default lighting. Notice how flat everything looks. If you create and place your own lights in your scenes, you will be able to get the exact look you want for your art. Placing lights in DAZ Studio is easy and only takes a couple minutes, but it will make a big difference in your final render. The tools for adding lights to your scene are located in the toolbar along the top of the screen, as shown in Figure 12.10.
Light Tools
Figure 12.9 Default lighting doesn’t work well for rendering.
Figure 12.10 The toolbar contains tools for adding lights to your scene.
DAZ Studio has three types of lights that you can add to your scene: spot lights, distance lights, and point lights.
Spot Lights A spot light is a light that emanates from one location in a cone shape. Spot lights are great for when you want a specific area of your picture to receive light while the rest of the scene receives less light. Spot lights are often used when you want to emphasize a specific part of a scene.
Distance Lights A distance light is a single light source used to light a large area. Distance lights simulate the light from the Sun. Distance light is directional and lights an area from one direction. Distance lights are often used for outdoor lighting.
Point Lights A point light is a light source that lights outward from a single point in all directions. They are similar to an incandescent light bulb and are used primarily in indoor settings.
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Lighting a Scene In this next section, I will show you how to light a scene. I will start with the scene shown in Figure 12.9. 1. The first step to lighting a scene is to add a light. This is an outdoor street scene so I will use a distance light to simulate the light from the sun. Clicking on the Add Distance Light icon on the toolbar opens up the Light dialog box shown in Figure 12.11. 2. I accept the default setting placing a new light source in the scene. The new light is also added to the Display Selection list, as shown in Figure 12.12. Figure 12.11 Open the Create New Distant Light dialog box.
Figure 12.12 The new light is added to the Display Selection list.
This is so you can look through the light while positioning it in your scene. I select DistantLight 1 from the list and now see the scene from the point of view of the new light, as shown in Figure 12.13. 3. Using the Camera Orbit tool, I rotate the scene so the light is coming from above the scene, as shown in Figure 12.14.
Figure 12.13 The scene is viewed from the light source.
Figure 12.14 The toolbar contains tools for adding lights to your scene.
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4. Now, when I render the scene as shown in Figure 12.15, I have a strong light from above. The ground is now illuminated; however, the raking light striking the buildings causes them to be very dark. 5. To get a more natural look, I need to simulate the reflected light in the scene. A good way to simulate reflected light is to add one or more lights to the scene. I add a second distant light to the scene and position it to shine from the bottom and to the side, illuminating the dark buildings as shown in Figure 12.16.
Figure 12.15 Using just one light will often cause part of a scene to be very dark.
Figure 12.16 A second light is placed in the scene.
6. In the new light’s parameters, I reduce the light’s intensity because reflected light is never as bright as direct light. I also change the light color to a light blue, as shown in Figure 12.17. 7. Now, when I render the scene, the lighting on the buildings is much better, as shown in Figure 12.18. Something, however, is still missing. Notice that there are no cast shadows. 8. There should be cast shadows to make the scene look natural. DAZ Studio supports cast shadows using a technology called Raytracing. Raytracing is a process where shadows are plotted based on the light’s position and the shape of the object. It is a very time-consuming process; therefore, it is turned off by default in DAZ Studio. I only want the first light to cast shadows, so I select it and turn Raytracing on, as shown in Figure 12.19.
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Figure 12.17 Change the second light color to light blue.
Figure 12.18 Now the buildings are more illuminated.
Figure 12.19 Turn on Raytracing for the first light.
9. I also set the Shadow Softness to 4.5% to soften the shadow edges to make them seem more natural. 10. The finished scene is now rendered and shown in Figure 12.20. The above example is very simple, having just two lights, but the process works for an outdoor scene. Often many lights will be added to a scene to get just the right feel.
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Figure 12.20 The lighting for the scene is finished.
Preset Lights Many DAZ models come with their own preset light. A preset light is lighting that was designed specifically for the scene by the artist who created the model. You can find preset lighting systems in the Content tab under Lights. It is often a good idea to look for and try out the preset lights before you create your own, to see how the artist intended the scene to be lit.
Summary Lighting is one of the most important and easiest ways to get your pictures in DAZ Studio to look great. Good lighting can make a virtual scene appear to be a real life setting.
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In this chapter, we covered a number of concepts about light, like how it reacts in nature and with objects. We also covered some ways that you can use the lights in DAZ Studio to simulate natural lighting. Setting up lights in a scene was covered, including the types of lights used in DAZ Studio and what they are generally used for. In the next chapter, we will explore using DAZ Studios as a reference for traditional media.
13 DAZ Studio and Traditional Media From this book, you can see that DAZ Studio is perfectly suited to the creation of beautiful art all on its own, However, for the artist who wants a more traditional approach to art, it also works well as a source of reference. In fact, short of hiring models and setting up a scene in real life, DAZ Studio is probably one of the best sources of reference for any artist. The same features that make it such a great creative art program for characters and settings also make it the perfect source for artistic inspiration.
Reference Reference is very important to the serious artist. While drawing or painting from one’s imagination may be a fun and creative experience, when it comes to depicting anything accurately in a work of art, having something to look at as a guide is a great aide to the artist. Most professional artists I know have extensive reference libraries. Not only do they like drawing and painting things, they also like looking at things. Artists work in a visual media. To understand how to draw something, we first have to understand what we are drawing. This understanding begins with observing. Professional artists often spend as much time observing and collecting references as they do drawing. They do this for two main reasons: accuracy and inspiration. While an artist may with time and practice gain mastery over a subject matter allowing for a decent depiction from the artist’s imagination, rarely will the artist be able to draw from imagination with the accuracy they could have, if they had reference to draw from. Often inspiration for an artist comes through closely observing something from nature.
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A beginning artist will often hear the term artistic vision. But what exactly does artistic vision really mean? In a nutshell, artistic vision is the artist’s ability to convey in visual form something that he sees. That vision is usually an interpretation of the observed and imagined. Either way, the image is first seen in the artist’s mind before it is committed to paper or canvas. Therefore, the more an artist sees and observes, the more visual information the mind has to work with to express the artist’s vision. DAZ Studio is a great reference tool for the artist whether beginner or master. The program is designed to let the artist explore creative possibilities rather than accept the limits of his own visualization of observation. There is no substitute for observing nature in real life. Although programs like DAZ Studio go to great lengths to simulate nature with all its subtleties, no software program can include every variation found in the natural world. On the other hand, nature is limited in what it can show. Lighting, placement of objects, and even weather conditions may conflict with what the artist really wants to portray. Artists who use DAZ Studio for reference for their work have a great advantage in that they can control every aspect of the scene allowing for a closer conformity to their own vision.
Figure Drawing One of the greatest challenges to confront an artist is drawing the human figure. Our bodies are infinitely complex yet intimately familiar, giving rise to a subject that is difficult to depict accurately yet judged incessantly. The human figure is almost overwhelmingly complex for the artist to draw. Figure 13.1 shows a front and back view of the human figure. The human figure is an organic structure that defies geometric simplification. It is composed of bones, muscles, and organs, all of which are covered by a flexible layer of skin. The body has many moving parts Figure 13.1 The human figure is a complex structure.
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that make it almost impossible to define as a shape. Within its skeleton are more than 200 individual bones. Attached to the skeleton and throughout the body are more than 650 muscles. There is a big difference between drawing a stylized character on purpose and drawing a figure poorly. Because we are so familiar with our own bodies, small mistakes in construction or even in lighting will be noticed even by the casual observer. Even a stylized or cartoon figure will look bad if it isn’t drawn well. Having a virtual model as reference can help to minimize mistakes in drawing.
Figure 13.2 This type of pose is impossible to hold in real life.
Although virtual models should not take the place of human models, they do add a valuable resource for the artist when real models are unavailable or the pose is unattainable. Often artists are faced with needing to draw a figure with no time, money, or availability of a model. Sometimes the pose needed for a drawing is something that can’t be held by a model, such as requiring dynamic motion in sports or other extreme physical activity like that shown in Figure 13.2. In these situations, artists in the past had to rely on their own visualization abilities. Now, however, artists can set up models in DAZ Studio and use them as reference for their artwork.
Using DAZ Studio for Reference DAZ Studio is a very flexible and useful tool for artistic reference; however, because of its nature as a virtual studio, care must be taken to make the reference as useful as possible. The artist must first determine his purpose for the reference. For example, if the only thing an artist needs is structural information on a figure in a specific pose, a full-lighted rendering of the figure may not be needed. On the other hand, if the artist needs lighting information, a full rendering with Raytracing will be important.
Structural Reference Structural reference is where the artist needs to understand how something is built but doesn’t need an extensive amount of fine detail. Say, for example, an artist is working on a cartoon drawing and needs to know how the arm looks in 3D space in a particular pose, like the one shown in Figure 13.3. Structural reference doesn’t need a highly rendered scene with full light and shadows. In fact, shadows can often obscure important structural elements. Figure 13.3 Structural reference is more concerned with structure than lighting.
For structural reference similar to how an artist might use a wooden mannequin, a real-time rendering right from the DAZ Studio preview window may be all that is needed.
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Detailed Reference Detailed reference is where the artist needs to have reference as close to the finished picture as possible. With detailed reference, the artist is using the lighting and texture information as well as the structural to understand how to paint or draw the character or an entire setting. The artist wants as much information as the reference can supply. The creators of DAZ Studio put a significant amount of effort into creating a program that simulates the real world as closely as possible. Their rendering technology is one of the most advanced ever developed. Their characters and settings are as lifelike and detailed as possible. A lot of work went into enabling the artist to create scenes as true to life as if they were photographed from the real world. For detailed reference, the artist will almost always need to render the scene with Raytracing for at least one of the light sources in the scene. For example, look at the two renderings in Figure 13.4. The one on the right was rendered using no Raytracing. The one on the left used Raytracing from the main light. Figure 13.4 Raytrace rendering produces a more lifelike reference image.
Notice the difference in lighting in the renderings. The hair and nose have distinct cast shadows. The rendering on the right seems to have more depth and is more dimensional even though there is no difference between the two versions other than the rendering. The raytraced images are more lifelike than other rendered images because they use a more advanced simulation of lighting. The problem with raytraced images is that they take a significant amount of time to render. The image on the left took less than a minute to render while the one on the right took more than 20 minutes to render. Having good shadow information isn’t just important within your character, it is also important within your scene. Notice in the two renders in Figure 13.5, the figure on the left seems to float above the ground and does not seem anchored to the earth. The figure on the right looks like she is actually in the scene.
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Figure 13.5 Lighting is important for any detailed reference.
In addition to lighting, another important aspect of detailed reference is the texture information. The artists and designers at DAZ 3D have gone to great lengths to create as detailed textures as possible. To the point that even things like small skin blemishes, skin pours, and even single strands of hair are as close to reality as possible. Figure 13.6 shows a close up of a character’s face. Notice the incredible detail in the skin. Figure 13.6 Lighting is important for any detailed reference.
Textures for DAZ models are larger and contain more details and layers than most other 3D models. Some models have multiple high-resolution images as big as 4000 pixels by 4000 pixels just for one part of the body. Textures for a character can reach as much as 70 megabytes of information. Not all models are that big, but some of the more
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advanced models are, and the number is going up all the time. DAZ is constantly trying to push the envelope for more and more realistic models for DAZ Studio. The down side to large texture maps on models is that it creates very long rendering times. Rendering time may not be a big issue for single pictures, but it can become a real problem when developing and rendering an animation sequence where hundreds or thousands of frames need to be rendered. Basically, the greater detail and more realistic you want your picture to be, the longer it will likely take to be rendered.
Posing for Reference One of the biggest challenges for the artist when using virtual models is to get them to look natural. This is true for both the artist whose finished product is rendered right out of DAZ Studio and for those who just use DAZ Studio for reference for their art. Whether you are using DAZ Studio for your finished art or just for reference, your work will suffer if you don’t follow good practices for posing your figure. If you have ever attended a life drawing class and worked with a live human model, you should be familiar with the term gesture drawing. A gesture drawing is a quick, sometimes 30-second, drawing of a model. Gesture drawings are used for helping the artist to reduce the model down to just a few simple lines. The reducing of a pose to just a few simple lines is an important concept for getting believable poses. The most important of these lines is the action line.
Action Lines An action line is the main line of motion in a pose. It will usually follow the character’s spine and one or both of the character’s legs. Figure 13.7 shows the action line for a character pose. In this pose, the action line is fairly easy to find because the legs are together and the spine is evenly arched. When the legs are separated and the curvature of the spine more complex, the action line will work a little differently. The action line will still follow the curve of the spine, but it then follows what is known as the power leg. The power leg is the leg on the character that has the most dynamic flow of movement. Figure 13.8 shows a more complex action line. Even in a more static pose like in Figure 13.9, there is still an action line. The action line of the body is important because it defines the dynamic nature of your pose. Whenever you set up a pose for your art, draw the action line. Poses with welldefined action lines will seem more dynamic and more natural than those that don’t. They will seem to have a consistent flow to the motion of the character and will have a stronger sense of cohesiveness.
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Figure 13.7 The action line follows the motion of the body.
Figure 13.8 The action line follows the power leg.
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Figure 13.9 Even static poses have an action line.
Secondary Action In addition to the main action line, there are also secondary action lines in most poses. Secondary lines are those that connect secondary dynamics with the primary motion of the body. Some of these lines are only slightly less important than the primary line. These lines are shown in Figure 13.10. Like the main action line, secondary lines should have a flow to them. On a good pose, the lines will seem to fit together to give the body an overall feeling of dynamics.
Problem Poses There is no way that I can list every possible problem pose that you might encounter, but I will give you a few suggestions to help you avoid problems.
Static Torso A common mistake of a beginning artist is to move the arms and legs but leave the torso static. This creates an unnatural, almost robot look to the pose, as shown in Figure 13.11. The human torso is a dynamic system that is constantly in motion. The spine has tremendous potential for movement.
Too Much Symmetry The pose in Figure 13.12 is an example of too much symmetry. The arms and legs are almost identical on both sides, giving the body an unnatural stiff look. In nature, we hardly ever stand in such a static position. Almost always, we will have one leg carrying most of our weight. Our arms are almost never exactly in the same pose.
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Figure 13.10 Secondary action lines tie the motion of the body together.
Figure 13.11 Static torsos lead to robotic-like poses.
Figure 13.12 Too much symmetry causes a stiff-looking pose.
Figure 13.13 Stay away from 90-degree angles in the arms and legs.
90-Degree Angles Like static torsos, arms that are at 90-degree angles give the pose a robotic look. Even with a dynamic active torso, the 90-degree angles of Figure 13.13 give the pose a stiff unnatural look.
Jerky Action Line Action lines should flow and have a strong primary arc. Some swinging of the arc or blending between two arcs can work nicely but too many can make the pose seem disjointed, as shown in Figure 13.14. These are just a few pointers for keeping your poses from looking unnatural. Combined with the principles found in Chapter 7, about weight and balance, you should have a good foundation for creating great reference poses for your art.
Summary This chapter was primarily devoted to the artists who use DAZ Studio for reference in more traditional art media, like oil painting or figure drawing. DAZ Studio is a great source for reference and inspiration for the traditional artist. It lets the artist have a highly realistic scene, including lighting and characters at the click of a mouse any time of day or night. In the next chapter, we will look at how to use DAZ Studio to create animated sequences.
Figure 13.14 Keep the action simple.
14 Animation Animation is the process of using a series of drawn or rendered pictures that successively show motion and displaying them to the viewer in rapid succession, giving the illusion of motion. When this happens, the slight differences between pictures give the illusion of movement. This process of showing pictures in rapid succession is the same method used in motion pictures, videos, and television. A motion picture camera does not record movement; it records a series of still images called frames. A frame is a single image in a series of images used in film video and animation. In motion pictures and television, the frames are presented so quickly that the normal human eye does not register that they are individual frames. In motion pictures, the normal rate of pictures projected on the screen is 24 frames per second, although some will go as high as 70 frames per second. TV and video run at 30 frames per second.
3D Animation 3D animation creates individual frames from rendering a virtual scene similar to how live action video is shot in the real world. 3D animation is kind of a blending of live action and animation techniques. The animator sets up the scene using animation-timing schedules, then shoots the animation as the 3D actors move about the stage. DAZ Studio has a set of basic controls, called a timeline, for the creation of animation. It has all of the basic features of a simple animation tool and can create some fairly sophisticated animation once you understand how to use it.
Timeline The Timeline tab is found under Tabs in the View menu. It is shown here in Figure 14.1. There are two configurations of the Timeline. The one shown here is the advanced
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Scale Timeline Scrubber Total Frames Current Range
Current Frame Frames Per Second Add Keyframe
Loop On/Off Go to Previous Back Play/ Ahead Next Move Remove First Keyframe One Stop One Keyframe to End Keyframe Frame Frame Frame Frame
set of tools. You can switch between advanced and basic by using the small black arrow in the upper-right corner of the tool. To understand how it works, you first need to understand its basic parts. The Timeline itself looks similar to a ruler with numbered tick marks along its length. The numbers represent frames. The frames are placed in order along the Timeline, from left to right, incrementing up as you move right along the line. ■
Scale Timeline is used for zooming in and out of the Timeline.
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Scrubber is the small gray inverted triangle that moves along the Timeline.
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Total Frames is a counter that indicates how many total frames are in the available frames on the Timeline.
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Current Range shows the range of frames currently displayed along the Timeline. The left box shows the frame number of the first frame and the right box shows the last frame.
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Current Frame is a counter that indicates the current frame displayed in the animation. It is also the current location of the Scrubber.
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Frames Per Second or FPS shows how fast the animation will play, indicating the number of frames shown each second.
Hint The number of frames per second is very important to the animator. Beginning animators often make the mistake of keeping the difference in movement between frames even. They do not take into account that faster movements have greater differences between frames, while slower movements have lesser movements between frames. However, movement between frames should not be sporadic, causing the animation to have a jerky appearance. Differences in movement rates should be smooth.
Figure 14.1 The Timeline tab contains DAZ Studio’s basic animation tools.
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Loop On/Off toggles looping on and off. If looping is on, once the animation finishes running the Timeline, it starts over again. If it is off, it just goes to the end of the Timeline and stops.
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Go to First Frame resets the current frame to the first frame of the current range.
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Previous Keyframe moves the current frame back to the last keyframe.
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Back One Frame moves the current frame back one frame.
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Play/Stop plays the animation. The function changes from a triangle to a square. Click the triangle to play the animation; then click the square to stop the animation.
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Ahead One Frame moves the current frame ahead one frame.
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Next Keyframe moves the current frame to the next keyframe.
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Move to End Frame moves the current frame to the end of the current range.
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Remove Keyframe removes a keyframe from the current frame.
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Add Keyframe adds a keyframe to the current frame.
Bouncing Ball Now that you understand the different features of the Timeline tab, let’s try simple animation. In Figure 14.2, I have loaded the beach scene and the volleyball. Figure 14.2 Load the volleyball into the scene.
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In this animation, the volleyball will bounce off the sand and up in the air. I start by setting a keyframe at the beginning of the animation sequence by clicking the Add Keyframe button on the Timeline, with the Scrubber located on the first frame of the animation. This will set the volleyball’s position in the scene. Now, whenever the Scrubber is at the first frame, the volleyball will be in the start position. When a keyframe is added, DAZ Studio records all of the scene information at that point. This includes not only the 3D objects in the scene but also any other objects like lights and cameras. To get something to move, all I need to do is go to a different frame number and move an object to a new location. I then set a second keyframe and DAZ Studio records the scene data for the second keyframe. Now when I scrub between the two keyframes, the scene elements that are different will move frame by frame between the two positions. DAZ Studio automatically calculates the position of the moving object from frame to frame. Figure 14.3 shows the Timeline with the Scrubber now at frame 5. Frame 5 is where I want the ball to hit the ground. The Scrubber is moved to the location on the Timeline where I want my next keyframe; then the Figure 14.3 I move the Scrubber to frame 5. objects in the scene are moved. This is very important. Don’t move any objects or change the scene in any way until the Scrubber is moved to the next keyframe location on the Timeline. Once I have the Scrubber at the new keyframe, I then use the Translate tool to move the ball down to the beach, as shown in Figure 14.4. Keyframes also capture Morph data in addition to placement data. If you look, you will notice the ball in the picture is squashed. The compression adds to the feeling of impact when the ball hits the ground. Using the Parameters tab, I scaled the X and Z of the
Figure 14.4 Move the volleyball down the beach.
Figure 14.5 Move the ball up in the air.
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ball up and the Y down to give the ball the compressed look. When I have the ball exactly as I want it, I add a second keyframe. DAZ Studio automatically calculates the progression of the ball from the first keyframe to the next. If you move the Scrubber back and forth between the two keyframes, you will see the ball move. Now the ball needs to bounce back up in the air. I move the Scrubber to frame 10 and then translate the ball up and to the right, as shown in Figure 14.5. I also remove the compression so the ball is round again. When the ball is ready, the keyframe is set. Selecting play on the controls will now show the ball bounce.
Character Animation We typically think of animation as characters moving about a scene. DAZ Studio handles character animation in the same way it does other animation. Keyframes capture character positions so all you really need to do to create a character animation is to create a series of poses that you can capture as keyframes at different places along the Timeline. In Figure 14.6, I have loaded Michael into the scene. Michael is Victoria’s male counterpart model from DAZ 3D. He is a relatively new model from DAZ, just released during the writing of this book. Michael is standing here with his hands up in a fighting pose. This is a good pose for the beginning animation. Figure 14.6 Michael stands in a fighting pose.
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The next keyframe is an anticipation frame. To make a motion seem natural, it is usually a good idea to do a slight counter motion just before the larger motion. I want Michael to throw a hard punch with his left hand. On frame one I have Michael twist just a little to his left and bring his left arm in just a little. I also lift his left leg as if he is just about to take a step. The movements are slight but important. See if you can see the difference in Figure 14.7. I create the next keyframe at frame 5 with the fully extended punch, as shown in Figure 14.8. A punch is a relatively quick action, taking just a fraction of a second, so we want to make sure it only covers a few frames.
Figure 14.7 Frame one is an anticipation frame.
Figure 14.8 The punch is a fast movement.
Michael then moves from the fully extended punch to a recovery position, as shown in Figure 14.9 at frame 10. While the total punch only took four frames, the recovery and return to the original pose takes 10 frames, as shown in Figure 14.10.
Figure 14.9 The next keyframe is the character’s recovery from the punch motion.
Figure 14.10 It takes 10 frames to return to the ready position.
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The total punch animation took a total of five keyframes to complete. There could be more but generally fewer keyframes in an animation results in a less jerky animation. Keyframes should be set at the apex of a motion, meaning the farthest point of movement in any one direction.
aniMate aniMate is an animation plug-in that helps simplify the animation process in DAZ Studio. Through it and its aniBlock technology that stores animation sequences rather than just keyframes, managing your animated sequences is easy. The heart of the aniMate plug-in is the aniBlock. An aniBlock is a set of animation frames for your character that are packaged together in a single editable block. They can contain a single movement or a series of related movements. It lets the animator treat animations as a single unit as opposed to a series of keyframes. The aniMate controls are in the aniTimeline shown in Figure 14.11. Once installed, the aniTimeline will appear in the View/Tabs menu. Available aniBlocks
Selected Character
Active
Offset Rotations
Move/ Slide Blocks
Playhead Controls
Figure 14.11 The aniTimeline can be viewed by selecting it from the View/Tabs menu.
Split, Combine & Crop Blocks
Timeline Loaded aniBlocks aniBlock Library
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Your selected character will appear in the Selected Character box or you can choose potential characters from the pull-down menu.
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The Timeline covers the central portion of the aniTimeline. It is numbered in seconds not in frames. aniBlocks are placed on the Timeline.
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Loaded aniBlocks are placed on the Timeline.
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aniBlocks are organized in the aniBlock Library.
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aniBlocks from any library folder are placed in the Available aniBlocks area when that folder is chosen. From this area, they can be dragged onto the Timeline.
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When the Active box is checked, that means the selected character is using the aniTimeline. When it isn’t checked, the selected character is not using the aniTimeline.
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Offset Rotation lets you use the DAZ parameters to offset joints on a character. It is a quick way to change the orientation of your character or some of the character’s joints.
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Move/Slide Blocks is used for changing where you want to put your aniBlock in the Timeline.
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The play head controls are similar to those of the DAZ Studio Timeline.
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Split, combine, and crop blocks are editing tools used to change blocks.
Using aniMate is easy. All you need to do is bring up aniTimeline, select the model you want to animate, and then drag an aniBlock from the available aniBlocks area into the Timeline. AniMate automatically applies the animation to the character. You can preview animations simply by resting the cursor over the aniBlocks in the available aniBlocks area. Figure 14.12 shows the boxing animation loaded into the Timeline. aniMate will blend between aniBlocks automatically, so to add a second animation like a kick after the boxing animation, drag the kick aniBlock onto the Timeline, as shown in Figure 14.13. Figure 14.12 Drag aniBlocks onto the Timeline to add animation to your character.
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Figure 14.13 A second aniBlock is added to the animation.
If you want to adjust an aniBlock in the Timeline, simply click on it in the Timeline to select it. Once selected, you can change the length of an aniBlock by using the arrows on either side of the block. aniBlocks don’t scale, so when you change the length what you are really doing is saying how long you want that animation to play. If you set the length to longer than the original animation, it will loop and start over again. If you set the length to shorter than the original animation, it will only play the animation to the point you set, then move on to the next aniBlock. The black diamond below the selected aniBlock on the Timeline is used for setting the blending length between aniBlocks. The default length will usually work well, but you can use the diamond to fine-tune your animation. You can use the Split tool to split your aniBlock into two aniBlocks by selecting the aniBlock and then moving the playhead to where you want the split and clicking the Split tool. The two aniBlocks contain the entire animation, so if you lengthen either block, the rest of the animation will appear. The Crop tool, on the other hand, will crop the animation and each aniBlock will only contain the cropped animation. You can also use the Combine tool to combine two aniBlocks into a single aniBlock. Just place the playhead above where the two aniBlocks join and click Combine. You can buy aniBlock animations from DAZ 3D in their store or you can create your own. To create your own from the animations you build in the DAZ Studio Timeline, create the animation or import a DAZ Studio figure compatible BVH file. Then in the
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aniTimeline, choose the Create aniBlocks from DS Keyframes option from the Options menu. You can then save the animation as an aniBlock. For more information on using aniMate, check out the Wiki at http://artzone.daz3d.com/ wiki/doku.php/azproduct/7822.
Summary Animation in DAZ Studio is fun and easy. You can create simple object animation or complex character animation with just a few simple commands using the Timeline tool included in DAZ Studio. The Timeline lets you save poses as keyframes and then play them back as a completed animation. For added animation fun, you can also use the aniMate plug-in. aniMate makes animation easy and fun with its aniBlock technology. aniBlocks store entire animation sequences as editable blocks. In our next chapter we will take a look at how you can animate your characters for speech using Lip Sync.
15 Lip Sync Animating a character isn’t complete unless you are able to make your character talk. Talking animation includes subtle movements of the head and the formation of facial mouth animations for the words the character is speaking. Usually a character will talk with a prerecorded audio track. Matching the audio track with the word animations of the character is called lip syncing because you are synchronizing the motion of the lips with the audio. DAZ Studio comes with a plug-in, aptly titled Lip Sync, which makes the complex task of animating a talking character relatively easy. You can find the Lip Sync plug-in under Tabs in the View menu. It is shown here in Figure 15.1. Figure 15.1 The Lip Sync plug-in is found in the Tabs menu.
Load audio files Record new audio Listen to audio Analyze recorded audio Open Timeline Audio file Text of Audio Record Text Model configuration
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The Lip Sync plug-in has several features. Following is a brief rundown of some of its features: ■
Load—Click the Load button to load a new audio file. DAZ Studio supports .wav files for Windows and .aiff files for Mac.
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Listen—Click Listen to play the loaded audio file.
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Record—Click Record to record your own audio file. Click Stop when you are done recording.
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Analyze—Click Analyze to apply head and lip movement animation to your recorded audio file. Analyze is used for newly recorded audio.
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Launch Mimic Pro—Mimic Pro is a specialized lip sync software package that automates many lip sync functions. It will be covered later in this chapter.
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Open Timeline—Click this button to open DAZ Studio’s Timeline tool.
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Sound File—This window shows the currently loaded audio file.
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Text File—This window shows the transcribed text that matches the audio file. Lip Sync saves text for audio files when it saves the audio file. For Lip Sync to work correctly, text for audio files should be written phonetically. This means the words should be broken up into syllables instead of words.
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Record Text—The box just below the Text File is for writing your own text to match your own recordings.
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Model Configuration—This window is where you tell Lip Sync what model you are using.
We will get into how to use Lip Sync a little later. For now let’s talk about animating a talking character in general.
Animating a Phrase In typical lip sync animation procedure, the animator will adjust the character’s face and gesture to match the sound track. This is a painstaking process where facial movements and gestures have to be precisely timed to the audio. Often the animator has to move back and forth through the animation sequence to time each movement. If you have ever watched a movie where the audio is slightly ahead of or behind the video, you will understand how accurate you need to be with lip sync animation. If it is off even just a little, it becomes almost comical. There are two basic aspects of lip sync animation: gestures and speech. When a person talks he rarely stands perfectly still. He will shift his stance, use hand motions, and move his head about. These small gestures can often communicate as much to the viewer as listening to what the person has to say. Speech is the actual movement of the mouth as it makes the sounds of the dialogue.
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Gestures Gestures are body animation, both large and small, that accompany the person’s speech. They are similar to any other gesture animations, so we will not go into them in detail in this chapter. The important thing for you to remember is that once you have the facial animation matching the soundtrack, you also need to have your character perform gestures that also communicate the message of the verbal. For example, if the character’s speech is emotional, include gestures that convey the same emotions.
Speech Animation DAZ Studio provides several ways to create speech animation. Many DAZ models have built in Morphs called visemes that you can use to hand animate your characters or finetune animations created in the Lip Sync tool or Mimic Pro. Figure 15.2 shows Victoria with the Lip Sync tool, Timeline up in the work area, and the Visemes Morphs in the Parameters tab. If you want to animate the facial speech animation by hand, load the audio track into the Lip Sync plug-in but don’t analyze it. This will load the audio so it will play in the Timeline. From there you can position the play head exactly where you want it and use the Morph sliders to change the facial animation and set keyframes like any other animation. To load the audio, just click the box to the right of Sound File with the three small dots on it, browse to the file you want, and load it. The file’s path will appear in the window below Sound File. If there is a text file associated with the sound file, it will also be loaded below Text File in the Lip Sync tool, as shown in Figure 15.3.
Figure 15.2 The Visemes Morphs are in the Parameters tab for the character’s head.
Figure 15.3 Load the Sound file into Lip Sync.
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Once the audio is loaded, just move the play head to where you begin to hear a word. This is where you will place your first keyframe. Adjust the Visemes to match the sound and set the keyframe as shown in Figure 15.4. The Visemes give you very fine control over how much change in expression you want for each sound. Some people hardly move their mouths at all when they talk, whereas others are very expressive. The ranges of motion are also useful for animating a whisper or a shout. In addition to the Visemes Morphs, some DAZ models will come with a pre-made set of phonemes. Phonemes are facial animations that match specific phonetic syllables. Unlike the Visemes that are located in the Parameters tab, phonemes are treated as content and are loaded into the scene the same way a preset pose is loaded. In Figure 15.5 I have loaded a hard Eee sound.
Figure 15.4 Set keyframes along the Timeline.
Figure 15.5 Phonemes are loaded like poses.
The procedure for loading Phonemes for speech animation is similar to using the Visemes Morphs with the exception that instead of setting keyframes for Morph sliders, you set a keyframe where you load the Phoneme. You can use the Visemes Morphs to adjust the Phoneme if you want, but be warned that the process is additive, meaning that you will need to zero out the Visemes when you load a new Phoneme.
Using Lip Sync Lip Sync automates the speech animation process and gives you a way to create long animation sets without hand animating every animation change. While it is not perfect, and you will need to go through a touch-up pass over the animation, it does get pretty close to a final speech animation. To fully utilize the power of Lip Sync, you first need to set up the model configuration. You do this by loading a configuration file for the model. A configuration file is a file that accompanies the model when you purchase it. Not all models will have it, but all
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of the new Millennium models have them. Click the Load box under Configuration File in Lip Sync and browse to the one that matches the model and version number that you have loaded. Load the file as shown in Figure 15.6. The configuration file contains animation information for speech Phonemes for the model. Lip sync matches the Phonemes to the text file and to the timing of the sound file. To have Lip Sync work, you have to have all three files loaded. If you don’t have a text file with your sound file, you can write the text phonetically in the larger edit box below where you loaded the text file. You can see in Figure 15.6 how phonetic writing works. Basically you leave a space for each syllable. With all three files in place, click Analyze and Lip Sync goes to work animating your model. When you play the animation, you will notice that not only has Lip Sync animated the Phonemes, but it has also added some head movement as well. In a few seconds, you can have a rough pass on minutes of conversation. What a time saver! As with other processes in DAZ Studio, you can go back in and modify the animation to get things perfect depending on how accurate you need your animation to be. You can also add personality to the animation by adding some expression Morphs like the one shown in Figure 15.7. With Lip Sync, speech animation becomes very easy. Try some of your own and see how easy it is to animate your characters.
Figure 15.6 Load the model’s configuration file.
Figure 15.7 The lip sync animation is combined with an expression.
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Mimic Pro Mimic Pro is a standalone program that you can use in conjunction with DAZ Studio that gives you complete control over lip sync animation. It takes many of the features of Lip Sync and expands them. It also allows for fine editing of the phonemes, gestures, and other aspects of animating someone talking. With Mimic Pro you can have the program automatically animate the most complex voice tracks and then go in and fine-tune it with specialized tools that make animating the character’s head easy and quick. Mimic Pro works much the same as Lip Sync does using a sound file in conjunction with a text file; however, the text file is optional because Mimic Pro can work just from a sound file. Mimic Pro also has a feature where you can load a video file and then animate your character frame by frame using the video as a reference. You can launch Mimic Pro within Lip Sync by clicking the Launch Mimic Pro button or you can open the program on its own. When you open Mimic Pro you will see the Session Manager window shown in Figure 15.8. This tool allows you to set up your session by giving Mimic Pro the important information it needs to work properly. Like Lip Sync you can load a sound file, a text file, and a configuration file. You will also need to tell Mimic Pro what character file you want. And if you have a video that you want to use as reference, you can do that as well. If you don’t have a sound file, you can record one from the Session Manager by
Tip For Mimic Pro to use the text properly, it must be word for word what is said in the audio file. For best results, write the words phonetically.
Figure 15.8 The Session Manager helps you set up your animation.
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clicking the microphone and using your computer’s mike system. If you don’t have a text file, you can make one and save it by using the disk icon. At the bottom of the Session Manager is the Gesture feature. Here you can tell Mimic Pro what gesture animations you want to include. Mimic Pro can automatically add gestures to your animation to make them look more lifelike. The items that are checked will be animated. To the right of gestures, you can set the frame rate. If Analyze Sound File is checked, Mimic Pro will analyze the file and automatically set up the animation. It is a good idea to set up your animations in the Session Manager before you start, but if you forget something you can bring the Session Manager back up from the File menu. The real power of Mimic Pro is in its editing tools. Once you are in Mimic Pro, you will be able to see your character in the Display window, as shown in Figure 15.9. Figure 15.9 Mimic Pro has a number of great editing tools.
To the right of the Display window is the Video window. You can load video here and use it as reference for frame-by-frame comparisons. To the right of the Display window are the Phoneme and Expressions palettes. Here you can choose from a number of phonemes and expressions to add to your animation. Below the Display window is the Timeline. You will notice that the Timeline in Mimic Pro has several sections. From top to bottom there are Frames, Text, Phonemes Track, Expressions Track A, Expressions Track B, Audio and Gestures Track. The Frames section measures the length of the animation in both time and frames. It also has playback, scrolling, and magnification tools to help make the process of animating easier.
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The Text section contains the text of the speech in the audio file. It is written in words. The Phoneme section is where you can edit the phonemes used in the animation. Here you can insert, delete, replace, and split phonemes from the Phoneme palette. You do this by selecting the area on the Phoneme Track you want to edit and then selecting the phoneme from the Phoneme Palette and using the Edit menu to select the function you want to perform. There are two Expressions Tracks. This allows you to have overlapping expressions or the blending of two expressions. You can edit the expressions in the same way as phonemes using the Expressions Palette. The Audio section shows the wave file from the sound file. It is very useful in setting up precise animations. The Gesture Track has a gesture list that you can use to add and modify the character’s speaking gestures. This list is populated with the gestures you selected when you set them up in the Session Manager. Clicking any gesture on the list will bring up its Timeline. Deviation from 0 in the center of the Timeline indicates how much strength the gesture has. You can edit the strength of a gesture by moving points on the Timeline or by selecting a point and typing a value in the Key Strength window. As you can see, Mimic Pro has a number of great features for the serious lip sync animator. Files from Mimic can be saved and imported into DAZ Studio. So if you have a character that you want to talk and you need the lip sync to be accurate, Mimic Pro is the best tool for working alongside DAZ Studio. A trial version of Mimic Pro is included with this book so you can test it out.
Summary Lip sync animation is one of the most demanding and time-consuming animation tasks there are. To help artists streamline the process and automate lip sync animation, DAZ Studio comes with a great plug-in called Lip Sync. Lip Sync can automatically add lip sync animations and gestures to your characters based on audio and text files. Mimic Pro is a standalone product from DAZ 3D that gives the animator an incredible suite of tools for creating complex and accurate lip sync animation. With Mimic, the animator has almost unlimited control over a complex animation process. With these two tools, DAZ 3D has taken a difficult and complex animation process and made it easy for anyone to use. The next chapter is the last chapter in this book. It deals with giving your characters greater emotion.
16 Emotional Characters In this last chapter, we will be looking at concepts for improving your art through understanding emotion in characters. Character emotion is arguably the most difficult aspect of character animation. This is due to the huge variety of emotions a character can experience and the subtle differences between them. In this chapter, we will explore the range of motion that describes an emotional transition. For example, if you are going to animate a character being surprised, you can’t just show a surprised expression; you have to lead into and out of the surprised expression so that the animation blends with the other movements. To truly understand how to depict emotions in your characters, you have to understand the full range of that emotion. I will only be able to cover a few emotions in this chapter; however, by pointing out how to break down an emotion in several parts, the hope is you’ll learn how to animate all emotions.
States and Reactions Emotions in animation are shown in basically two ways: emotional reactions and emotional states. An emotional reaction is a short display of emotion, while an emotional state can last for a long period of time. Some emotions like happy, sad, shy, and content are more likely to be emotional states. Emotions like surprise, shock, stun, and chagrin are more likely to be reactions. In this chapter, we will be dealing with transitions between emotions. These transitions are the points where the character is moving from one emotion to another. Changes between emotional states can be slow and gradual or they can be abrupt, while emotional reactions are almost always abrupt.
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Animating Reactions An emotional reaction, no matter what it is, can be broken into several component parts, as shown in Figure 16.1. These parts are anticipation, building, key reaction, and letdown.
Figure 16.1 Every reaction has to flow through several component parts.
Anticipation Anticipation is usually the quickest part of an animation. It is usually a slight counter motion that is used to emphasize the major action. Anticipation lets the audience know that something is about to happen. It is only a small movement but maybe one of the most important aspects of a reaction. It is like contrast in a picture; it makes the major movement more pronounced when there is a small counter movement just prior to the first reaction. Figure 16.2 is an example of the windup for a punch, which is much like the anticipation phase of a reaction animation.
Building In the building step of animating an emotional reaction, the character is transitioning from one emotional state to another. This transition is also a short animation like the anticipation phase. Its length depends on the type of reaction and the intensity of the reaction. For example, surprise is usually a fast reaction, while confusion is slower. In a fast reaction the building phase may only be a couple of frames. A slower reaction may take a couple dozen frames. The building phase of a reaction starts at the end of the anticipation phase and goes until the key reaction. It is the most dynamic of all of the movements
Figure 16.2 Anticipation is the slight counter movement just before the main action.
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in the reaction because it is traveling from the character’s current emotional state to a new one. Because it is the most dynamic of the motions in a reaction, it needs to be well plotted in both distance and timing. A good way to make sure the animation looks right is to plot the course of the movement of the character’s head, as shown in Figure 16.3. All movements from anticipation to the key reaction should be in arcs, meaning that you should be able to draw an arc that follows the path of the motion as shown in Figure 16.4. Arcs are important because humans and animals have skeletal structures based on pivot points or joints. Using arcs when plotting animation not only makes the animation seem more natural, as explained in Chapter 11, it also helps to make the character’s movements flow from motion to motion better. Because the human body is an organic system that moves based on pivoting joints, there are no completely straight movements. If your animation runs in a straight line during the building stage of a reaction, it will appear stilted or mechanical.
Key Reaction The key reaction phase of an emotional reaction is probably the most important phase of all. It is the defining aspect of the reaction that should stay in the mind of the audience well after the reaction is over. In a still illustration, the key reaction is usually the best pose for your character to express an emotion. The key reaction, as shown in Figure 16.5, is the period of time that the character is fully engaged in the emotional reaction. All other phases of the reaction are building to
Figure 16.3 Plot the movement of the character.
Figure 16.4 All motion should follow an arc.
Figure 16.5 The key reaction is the most important phase of an emotional reaction.
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or receding from this key moment. Technically, it is just one frame but because it is so important, animators will often hold the phase for several frames to emphasize the emotion in the audience’s mind. To emphasize emotion, animators will often exaggerate the key reaction phase by over shooting what it might naturally appear like in the real world. For example, if a character in a surprised reaction would have his mouth open, the animator might extend the mouth opening far beyond what is humanly possible. If the reaction is embarrassment, the character might recede into itself far beyond what a normal human might be able to do. This technique of emphasizing the emotion by exaggerating it helps show a feeling that the audience can identify with. If you are going to exaggerate any part of the reaction, the key reaction phase is the one you want to exaggerate.
Let Down The let down, as shown in Figure 16.6, is the phase of the reaction that transitions from the high emotional state of the key reaction to a more constant emotional state or to another emotion. That is not to say that the character isn’t still experiencing the same emotion, just that it is not as intense. Where the key reaction is an explanation point, the let down is a period. During the let-down phase, the animator should keep several things in mind: ■
The let down should pull the emotional state back to something that is sustainable.
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Look to the future to see the next change of emotion so the let down can move the character toward that state.
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Constant high emotion can be overwhelming to the audience. The let down gives the audience a rest, letting them prepare for the next one.
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The let down is the longest phase of an emotional reaction, sometimes longer than all of the other phases put together.
Figure 16.6 The letdown phase relaxes from the high emotion of the key reaction.
Animating Emotional States When animating an emotional state, the animator is not just dealing with one short moment of emotion, but rather a state of being for the character. This means that the character may perform a number of tasks in a scene while in the emotional state. For example, if the character is bashful, the bashfulness is not a single emotional moment, but rather something the animator has to incorporate into all of the movements and actions of the character. A bashful character will move differently than a confident character. The bashful character will hang his head and seek not to be the center of attention while the confident character will be comfortable with his surroundings and not be afraid of attention. As you can see, the expression of these emotional states are conveyed over time and must be part of the overall animation of the character.
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The fundamental difference between animating an emotional reaction and animating an emotional state is that when you animate a reaction, you are actually animating the emotion. On the other hand, when you animate an emotional state, you are incorporating the emotion into all of the animations of the character in which that character is feeling the specific emotion. One problem that beginning animators have is that they don’t consider emotion when animating their characters to the full extent that they should. Animating a character without incorporating an emotional state is kind of like cooking without any seasonings. The animation lacks spice. If you leave emotion out of your animation, you are leaving one of your greatest tools unused. A good practice of an experienced animator is to use emotion to help develop the personality of the character. When you are planning your animation, make notes to indicate your character’s emotional state. If the state changes, indicate that in the notes so you know when to change the emotion. This will help you to keep track of your character’s emotions and add the spice that will make your character lifelike. Now that we have gone over how to animate emotional reactions and emotional states, let’s move on to animating some.
Surprise Surprise is almost always an emotional reaction. It is also a transition emotion. A character that is surprised usually will transition into an emotion that is spawned by whatever the object of the surprise encompasses. For example, if a character is surprised by a surprise birthday party, the character will be surprised for a few moments and then transition to a happy emotion like glee or joy. If, on the other hand, the character is surprised by a tragic event, sadness and despair may follow. A scary surprise will be followed by fear. While surprise is a short-lived emotion, it is a very dynamic emotional reaction and is used often in animated shows because of its emotional impact. Surprise is a universal emotion that is common in our lives. We have all been surprised so we all can understand a character who is surprised. There are several things to remember when animating a surprise reaction. ■
Surprise works best if there is a strong anticipation phase.
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Make the reaction fast. A long surprise isn’t really a surprise is it?
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Emphasize the key reaction with a pause or a vibration.
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Make the let-down phase the longest of all phases in the reaction.
With the above list in mind, let’s get started animating.
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1. First you need to pose the figure in the start phase, as shown in Figure 16.7. The start pose is the beginning pose a character is in before the emotional reaction. 2. Once you have the model in a natural pose, you need to set a key so the program will remember the position of the model at this frame. 3. Go to frame 4 and change the pose of the figure to an anticipation pose, as shown in Figure 16.8. 4. Now go to frame 6 and create a pose for the building phase. This is an important step because the program will interpret the motion in a straight line for the inbetween motions. You want the motion to arc or swing rather than move in a straight line. The building phase needs to be at the apex of the arc for the hands, as shown in Figure 16.9. The character will also be taking a step to the side for a wider stance, so in the building key I lifted the character’s right foot for the step. 5. Now it is time to move to frame 8 and create the key reaction frame, as shown in Figure 16.10. You will want the animation to pause for three frames at this point to emphasize the phase, so once you set the first key, move to frame 11 and set a second key there also. 6. After the key reaction frame, you need to create a let-down keyframe at frame 18, as shown in Figure 16.11. Here the character is catching itself from the surprise reaction. He steps back with his right foot. 7. The last key for this demonstration is the standing frame similar to the first frame in the animation, as shown in Figure 16.12. That is it. Try playing the animation a few times to see how it works.
Figure 16.7 Pose the figure in a start pose.
Figure 16.8 Set a keyframe for the anticipation frame.
Figure 16.9 Place the building key at the apex of the motion arc.
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Figure 16.10 Create the key reaction keyframe.
Figure 16.11 In the let-down keyframe, the character is catching his balance after the reaction.
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Figure 16.12 The last frame is similar to the first frame.
Fear Fear is usually an emotional state. It may begin with a scare but continue with the character showing traits like shaking or other tentative actions. When a character is scared, he tends to show reluctance in his movements. He will close in on himself, holding arms and legs close to his body. In severe cases, the character will turn and flee from the object of his fear. We show fear in a number of ways, and there is no specific action that is universally thought of as a fearful pose. The following example is just one way to show a fearful emotion. Once you have completed this exercise, try creating a few variations. You may be surprised with the variety of ways that you can show fear. 1. You can use the same animation that you used to create a surprised reaction, just increase the number of frames to 60 in the frame counter. Click on the counter and change the number to 60. Move the arrow to frame 24, and you are ready to begin your next animation. 2. You will want the standing pose to pause for just a moment, so move the frame counter to 28 and set a key at that frame. 3. Move to frame 32 and change the pose to an anticipation pose, as shown in Figure 16.13. 4. In the building frame, the figure is backing away and beginning a crouch to be ready to run, as shown in Figure 16.14. Set the building frame at 36.
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Figure 16.13 Create an anticipation frame at frame 32.
Figure 16.14 The character begins to crouch ready to run away.
Figure 16.15 Set the key reaction frame at frame 40.
5. The key reaction frame is at frame 40. Here the figure is crouching with one hand up for protection and the other raised to his face, as shown in Figure 16.15. 6. Instead of immediately going to the let down, have the figure look around a little to make sure everything is okay. Set the keyframe at frame 44 where the character looks to his right, as shown in Figure 16.16 and a look-left keyframe at frame 52, as shown in Figure 16.17.
Figure 16.16 Have the character look around at the key reaction phase.
Figure 16.17 The look left takes more frames because the character has farther to travel.
Figure 16.18 The character begins to relax at frame 56.
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7. With relief, the character relaxes in the let-down phase on his way back to the standing pose. Set the let-down keyframe at frame 56 with the character lowering his arms and beginning to straighten back up, as shown in Figure 16.18. 8. The last frame is frame 60, where the character goes back to a standing pose like in the beginning. Now you have two emotional reactions, one after the other in an animation sequence. Play the animation to see how you did by pressing the play arrow in the play controls. If you see anything that doesn’t look right, you can go back and edit the keyframes until the animation looks right.
Anger Anger is another strong emotion that is also an emotional state. Anger is usually shown in a character by clenching of the jaw and hands into fists. Everything about the character should be tense, including the muscles of the arms and legs. Movements will be stiff and clipped, and usually short and fast. When a person is angry, he is sometimes irrational so his movements will tend to be that way too. Sometimes the person will wave his hands or shake a fist. Sometimes he will kick things or pound things with his hands. All of these actions are part of anger and can be included in your animations to emphasize the emotion. Like fear, there is no specific sequence of movements that typify anger. People show anger in a number of ways. Some people will be very vocal and loud in their displays of emotion, waving arms with extreme gestures. Other people will be very minimal in their reactions showing small signs like clenched fists or a stiff walk. In the example that we will be showing here, the character stiffens and points at the object of his anger. This is just one way to show anger. Once you have completed this exercise, be creative and try a few reactions of your own making. Maybe you can animate how you react when you get angry. 1. Start the angry emotion at the end of the fear animation that you have already created. Change the total number of frames to 100 so you will have 40 frames of animation to work with. 2. Go to frame 64 for the anticipation key. Here the character takes a deep breath coming to his full height, as shown in Figure 16.19. 3. In the building key on frame 68, the character begins to raise his arm on his way to a stiff standing pose, as shown in Figure 16.20. He also takes a step to the side to get a wider base. 4. The key reaction frame is set as frame 72 with the character’s arm pointing sharply and the off hand clenched in a fist. The whole pose is stiff and dramatic, as shown in Figure 16.21.
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Figure 16.19 The anticipation key has the character standing to his full height.
Figure 16.20 The character builds to an angry pose.
Figure 16.21 The character shows a dramatic angry key reaction pose.
5. Pause the pose about 5 frames for dramatic effect, setting a key at frame 77. 6. The let-down phase will be a little longer for an angry emotion because anger is not an easy emotion to come out of. Set the let down key at frame 87 using a full ten frames. Pose the figure so he is relaxing from the stiff angry pose to a more casual standing pose, as shown in Figure 16.22. 7. The final frame can be set somewhere around frame 97 with the character returning to the basic standing pose. This has only been three examples of creating an emotional transition. There are many ways to animate emotions. Hopefully these examples will guide you in the right direction. Figure 16.22 The let-down frame transitions from the keyframe to the base frame.
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Summary Breaking down an emotion helps the animator and illustrator understand how a character moves when experiencing the emotion. In this chapter, we covered how to break the emotion into four distinct phases: anticipation, building, key reaction, and let down. A number of emotion transitions were shown in the chapter as examples of how breaking down the animation helped to show the emotion. All good things must come to an end, including this book. I hope you have enjoyed learning about DAZ Studios and some of the other programs from DAZ 3D. The book was intended to help you get started creating your own incredible art by using DAZ Studio and the beautiful content available from DAZ 3D. I tried to cover as many features of DAZ as I could in such a short book. Obviously, there are still many aspects of DAZ Studio that were not covered fully. For more information on other DAZ Studio features and other DAZ products, you can find a wealth of information at www.daz3d.com. I encourage you to visit and explore their site. Good luck in your art.
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Artist Name: Kerry Maffeo, Fantastic Visions; Name of Picture: Pixie; Date Created: April 2008; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.2; fantasticvisions.blogspot.com
Gallery The Gallery is a collection of art created in DAZ Studio by people like you who are using it now. See for yourself how versatile and exciting the artwork is. As you can see, there is almost no limit to what you can create.
Artist Name: CC Rogers; Name of Picture: Eye-catching; Date Created: January 16, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.99
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Artist Name: Lilyart; Name of Picture: Space Police; Date Created: January 16, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.89
Artist Name: Livia Zita; Name of Picture: The Ranger; Date Created: January 15, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.146 Beta Release;
[email protected]
Gallery
Artist Name: Lilyart; Name of Picture: Mother Nature; Date Created: January 21, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.89
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Artist Name: Michael J. Ambruso; Name of Picture: Broken; Date Created: January 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.146;
[email protected]
Artist Name: Matthew Gillespie; Name of Picture: Minuet in DAZ minor; Date Created: January 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3
Gallery
Artist Name: Michael J. Ambruso; Name of Picture: The Ranger; Date Created: January 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.146;
[email protected]
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Artist Name: Michael J. Ambruso; Name of Picture: 11; Date Created: January 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.146;
[email protected]
Gallery
Artist Name: Angela Newman; Name of Picture: Geneveve; Date Created: November 30, 2008; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.99;
[email protected]
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Artist Name: Popeslattz (JoeE); Name of Picture: TRIUMPH; Date Created: January 21, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.2;
[email protected]; http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeyowxu/improvisedrituals/
Gallery
Artist Name: James Bong; Name of Picture: Control; Date Created: September 23, 2008; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3
Artist Name: Chrys Jare-Bjornson (aka: FeralFey); Name of Picture: That Which Is Forgotten; Date Created: July 9, 2007; Version of DAZ Studio: unknown;
[email protected]
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Artist Name: James Bong; Name of Picture: Self Aware; Date Created: January 20, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.5
Gallery
Artist Name: Alice Wang (elusis); Name of Picture: A Quiet Street at Sunset; Date Created: January 16, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.138
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Artist Name: Coralie Fox; Name of Picture: Pillar of Wings; Date Created: January 25, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3;
[email protected]
Gallery
Artist Name: Thomas Edward Rice; Name of Picture: The Witch King; Date Created: November 16, 2008; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3.3.89;
[email protected]
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Artist Name: Mike Kruczek; Name of Picture: Humphrey the Happy Guru; Date Created: January 15, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: Originally created using DAZ Studio version 2.1.1.13 on 05/28/08. Re-rendered to meet contest specifications using DAZ Studio 2.3.3.146 (Beta Release) on 01/15/09.;
[email protected]
Gallery
Artist Name: Louvette Solidum Escuadro; Name of Picture: Fol-de-rol, Fol-de-rol; Date Created: August 3, 2008; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.2.2.20;
[email protected]
Artist Name: Ava Von Goth; Name of Picture: Stone Woman; Date Created: January 16, 2009; Version of DAZ Studio: 2.3;
[email protected]
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Index A
B
abdomen, 51 action focus, 43–44 action line, 172–173 Active Pose tool, 93–94 Advanced tab, surface area controls, 67 ambient lighting, 65 Analyze option (Lip Sync), 186 anger emotion, 102–103, 201–202 angles, camera, 31–33 aniBlock animation frames, 181–183 aniMate tool, 181–184 animation 3D models in motion pictures/TV, 4 aniMate tool, 181–184 bouncing ball, 177–179 character, 179–181 Timeline tool, 175–177 aniTimeline control, 181 anticipation reaction, 194 aquatic creatures, 115–116 arrogance, showing through pose, 105–107 artist skills, 8, 10 audio. See talking animation avatars. See also characters; figures 3D models and, 7–8 basic description of, 119 exporting, 123–125 LOD versions for, 121–123 resolution preparation, 120–121
Babe, 4 Back View, 26–27 backdrops, 131. See also sets balance composition techniques, 37–39 expression of emotion, 99–101 formal, 38–39 informal, 39 Bank tool, 20 Base Morph, 72–73 Basic FaceShop version, 80 beach set, 130–131 birds, winged characters, 112, 114–115 body language. See emotions body parts eyes, 52 hands, 52 head, 52 hip, 51 selecting, 47–49 BodyBuilder slider, 53 bones, 51 bouncing ball animation, 177–179 Bourne Ultimatum, The 4 brow, facial expressions, 74 Bryce software program building scenes with, 135–144 Create toolbar, 135 Edit toolbar, 135 infinite plane, 135–136 interface, 134–135 Materials Lab, 138–139 Sky & Fog toolbar, 135 terrain in, 135–141 Bump function, 67
Index
C camera angles, 31–33 orthogonal view Back View, 26–27 description of, 25 flat view, 29 Front View, 26–27 isometric nature of, 30 Left View, 26–28 Top View, 28–29 as viewed from default camera, 29 perspective view, 30 positioning, 14 Camera Orbit tool, 162 Cars, 4 cast shadow, 157 characters. See also avatars; figures 3D models in motion pictures/TV, 4 accessorize, 14 animation, 179–181 applying textures to, 23 clothing, 59–62 dragon, 22 loading, 14 orientation, 182 pose, 14 props, 127–129 cheek, facial expressions, 76 clothing + symbols next to, 58 applying to character, 59–62 automatic fit, 59–61 bone structure of character model, 58–59 Magnetize Pose tool, 61–62 shared between models, 57 Collada files, 124 color lighting and, 158 surface, 63 color focus, 43 Combine tool, 182
composition techniques balance, 37–39 focal points, 40–44 lines, 36 pathways, 44–45 placement, 34–36 purpose, 34 constraints, 148–149 Content tab, 15, 21–23 contrast focus, 41–42 copying and pasting, 67 core shadow, 157 Create menu, 17 Create toolbar (Bryce software), 135 creatures. See non-human characters Crop tool, 182
D .dae files, 124 DAZ Studio common workflow operations, 14 general layout, 15–17 installation, 11 nodes, 19 toolbar, 20 design, 8 designer skills, 8 detail focus, 41–42 detailed reference, 170–172 Displacement function, 67 distance light, 161 dog-like characters. See quadrupeds dragon character, 22 Draw Style tool, 20
E edges, 2–3 Edit menu, 17 Edit mode (Puppeteer tool), 152 Edit toolbar (Bryce software), 135
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
emotions anger, 102–103, 201–202 anticipation, 194 balancing the character, 99–101 building phase of reaction, 194–195 fear, 199–201 happiness/joy, 104 key reaction phase, 195–196 let-down phase, 196 natural laws of gravity, 98–99 pride and arrogance, 105–107 reactions, 194–197 sadness, 105–106 sense of weight, 101–102 surprise, 103–104, 197–198 transitions between emotions, 193–195 environment props, 129–130 Export feature, 123–125 eyes, 52 eyelid, 70 facial expressions, 74 movement, 70, 72
F face, 3 FaceShop tool Basic version, 80 facial feature enhancement, 84–88 guide point placement, 82–83 installation, 79 loading picture into, 81 mirroring, 84 opening, 79 orientation screen, 85 Pro version, 80 profile view, 85 facial expressions brow, 74 cheek, 76 experimenting with, 78 eyes, 74 FaceShop tool, 79–88 lips, 76–77
Morph sets, 72–78 mouth, 76 nose, 75 tongue, 78 fear, emotional state, 199–201 figure drawing, 168–169 figures. See also avatars; characters body parts, 50–54 Morph sets, 52–54 selecting parts of, 47–49 File menu, 17 fine art, 8, 10 finned creatures, 115–116 fish-like creatures, 115–116 flat plane, 3 flying characters, 112, 114–115 focal point action focus, 43–44 color focus, 43 composition technique, 40–44 contrast focus, 41–42 description of, 40 detail focus, 41–42 linear focus, 41 fog, 143–144 foliage, 140 Frame tool, 20 frames, 176 Frames Per Second option (Timeline tool), 176 Front View, 26–27 fulcrum lever, feeling of balance, 39
G General Poses pack, 97 gesture drawing, 172 gestures, talking animation, 187 guide point placement (FaceShop tool), 82–83 gun props, 127–129
Index
H
K
hands, 52 Hands icon (Power Pose tool), 149 happiness, showing through pose, 104 head, 52 eye, 70, 72 facial expressions brow, 74 cheeks, 76 experimenting with, 78 eyes, 74 FaceShop tool, 79–88 lip, 76–77 Morph sets, 72–78 mouth, 76 nose, 75 tongue, 78 jaw, 69–70 Morph sets, 54 neck, 70 pivot points, 70–71 skull, 69–70 Head icon (Power Pose tool), 149 height map, terrain, 138 Help menu, 18 highlight, 64–65, 156 hip, 51 horizon, 140
key reaction, 195–196 keyframes, Timeline tool, 177–178
I illustration, 5–6 imaginary creatures, 117 implied movement, 43–44 Indicator tool, 20 informal balance, 39 installation DAZ Studio, 11 FaceShop tool, 79
J jaw, 69–70 jewelry props, 127–128 joy, showing through pose, 104
L layout, DAZ Studio, 15–17 Left View, 26–28 let-down reaction, 196 lighting ambient, 65 cast shadow, 157 color and, 158 core shadow, 157 DAZ Studio basics, 14 distance light, 161 highlight, 64–65, 156 light area, 157 multiple, 158 nature of light, 155 point light, 161 preset light, 165 raking light, 156 reflected light, 157, 160 refracted light, 159 scene, 162–164 shadow area, 157 spot light, 161 transparency, 159–160 lines, composition techniques, 36 Lip Sync accessing, 185 features of, 185 model configuration setup, 188–189 lips, facial expressions, 76–77 Listen option (Lip Sync), 186 Load tab, 17 Load window (Lip Sync), 186 loading characters, 14 elements into scene, 21–23 props, 14 scenes, 14 LOD versions, 121–123 looping, Timeline tool, 177 Lord of the Rings, The 4
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M
O
Magnetize Pose tool, 61–62 Materials Lab, 138–139 Mimic Pro program, 190–192 mirroring (FaceShop tool), 84 Model Configuration window (Lip Sync), 186 model rotation, 16 Morph sets, 52–54 Base, 72–73 facial expressions, 72–78 Visemes, 72, 188 mouth, facial expressions, 76 movement bouncing ball animation, 177–179 character animation, 180 quadruped, 110–112 movement pose Active Pose tool, 93–94 parent-child relationship, 91–92 posing and positioning within work area, 92–96 Rotate tool, 94 Scale tool, 95–96 Translate tool, 95
opacity, surface, 64 Options tool, 20 orientation, character, 182 orientation screen (FaceShop tool), 85 orthogonal camera view Back View, 26–27 description of, 25 flat view, 29 Front View, 26–27 isometric nature of, 30 Left View, 26–28 Top View, 28–29 as viewed from default camera, 29
N Narnia, 4 negative shapes, 35–36 New at DAZ tab, 12, 15 nodes, DAZ Studio, 19 non-human characters finned creatures, 115–116 imaginary creatures, 117 prehistoric animals, 117 quadrupeds, 109–112 robots, 117–118 science fiction characters, 117–118 winged characters, 112, 114–115 nose, facial expressions, 75
P Pan tool, 20–21 Parameters tab basic description of, 15–16 Morph sets, 52–54 Rotate Y option, 16 pasting, 67 pathway, 44–45 patterns, 63 perspective view, 30 phonemes, 188–189 pivot points, 70–71 placement, composition techniques, 34–36 plains terrain type, 140 point light, 161 polygon, 2–3, 120–121 pose 90-degree angle, 174 Active Pose tool, 93–94 character, 14 as expression of emotion anger, 102–103 balancing the character, 99–101 happiness/joy, 104 natural laws of gravity, 98–99 pride and arrogance, 105–107 sadness, 105–106 sense of weight, 101–102 surprise, 103–104
Index
General Poses pack, 97 jerky action line, 174 Magnetize Pose tool, 61–62 movement parent-child relationship, 91–92 posing and positioning within work area, 92–96 pose sets, 97 Power Pose tool, 49–50, 52 constraints, 148–149 creating a pose in, 150–151 as guide for body part movement, 147–148 Hands icon, 149 Head icon, 149 problem poses, 173–174 Puppeteer tool, 151–154 Rotate tool, 94 Scale tool, 95–96 symmetry, too much, 173 Translate tool, 95 Pose/Animate tab, 47 positioning camera, 14 positive shapes, 35–36 Post/Animate tab, 16–17 Power Pose tool, 49–50, 52 constraints, 148–149 creating a pose in, 150–151 as guide for body part movement, 147–148 Hands icon, 149 Head icon, 149 prehistoric animals, 117 premade surfaces, 67 preset light, 165 Preview mode (Puppeteer tool), 152–153 pride, showing through pose, 105–107 Pro FaceShop version, 80 profile view (FaceShop tool), 85 props. See also sets character, 127–129 environment, 129–130 jewelry, 127–128 loading, 14 weapons, 127–129
225
Puppeteer tool basic description of, 151 Edit mode, 152 Preview mode, 152–153 Record mode, 153–154
Q quadrupeds biped and quadruped leg structure, 110 changing breeds, 112 DAZ Millennium Big Cat collection, 113 DAZ Millennium Dog model, 109–110 movement dynamics, 110–112 run motion, 112
R raking light, 156 raytracing, 163–164, 170 reactions, emotional, 194–197 Record mode (Puppeteer tool), 153–154 Record option (Lip Sync), 186 Record Text option (Lip Sync), 186 reference detailed, 170–172 figure drawing, 168–169 gesture drawing, 172 importance of, 167 posing for action line, 172–173 problem poses, 173–174 secondary action line, 173 structural, 169 virtual model as, 169 reflected light, 157, 160 reflectivity in textures, 160 refracted light, 159 registration, DAZ Studio, 12 Render menu, 17 rendering the scene, 14 Reset tool, 20 resolution, 120–121 robot characters, 117–118 rocky terrain type, 140
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Figures, Characters, and Avatars: The Official Guide to Using DAZ Studio to Create Beautiful Art
Rotate tool, 20, 94 Rotate Y option (Parameters tab), 16 rotation as different view of scene, 30 model, 16 rough appearance, 67 roughness in textures, 159
S sadness, showing through pose, 105–106 Saving Private Ryan, 4 Scale tool, 95–96 scene. See also sets 3D models in motion pictures/TV, 4 arranging, 14 basic description of, 18 building with Bryce software, 135–144 fog, 143–144 items in, + sign designation, 19 lighting, 14, 162–164 loading, 14 loading elements into, 21–23 rendering, 14 selecting items in, 19 terrain, 135–141 Scene tab, 15 science fiction characters, 117–118 Scrubber, Timeline tool, 176, 178 secondary action line, 173 serial number, 12 Session Manager, 190–191 sets. See also props 3D environment, 132–134 3D models in motion pictures/TV, 4 beach, 130–131 city street, 133 Mediterranean geometry, 133 shadow cast, 157 core, 157 raytracing, 163–164, 170 reflected light, 157 shadow area, 157 surface, 65–66
shadow area, 157 Shrek, 4 skin blemishes, 171 skull, 69–70 Sky & Fog toolbar (Bryce software), 135 smoothing, 66–67 snowy terrain type, 140 Sound File window (Lip Sync), 186 special effects, 4 speech animation. see talking animation Split tool, 182 spot light, 161 Star Wars, 4 static torso, problem poses, 173 storyboard, 4 structural reference, 169 surface basic description of, 62 color, 63 highlight, 64 opacity, 64 patterns and textures, 63 premade, 67 settings, copying and pasting, 67 shadow, 65–66 smoothing, 66–67 transparency, 64 Surface tab, 62 surprise emotion, 103–104, 197–198 symmetry formal balance, 38–39 too much, 173
T talking animation animating a phrase, 186–189 gestures, 187 Lip Sync accessing, 185 features of, 185 model configuration setup, 188–189 Mimic Pro program, 190–192 phonemes, 188–189 speech, 187–188
Index
terrain, 135–141 Text File window (Lip Sync), 186 textures applying to character, 23 basic description of, 3 detailed reference, 171 reflectivity in, 160 roughness in, 159 surface, 63 terrain, 138–140 transparency in, 159–160 thigh, 51 3D Bridge Starter Pack, 12–13 3D environment sets, 132–134 3D models avatars, 7–8 in design, 8 in fine art, 8, 10 in illustration, 5–6 lifelike, 1 in motion pictures/TV, 4–5 polygon, 2–3 vertex, 2–3 in video games, 6–7 tick marks, Timeline tool, 176 Timeline tool, 175–177 tongue, facial expressions, 78 tool tip, 20 toolbar, DAZ Studio, 20 Tools menu, 18 Top View, 28 Toy Story, 4 Translate tool, 95 transparency surface, 64 in textures, 159–160
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V vegetation terrain type, 140 vertex, 2–3 video games, 6–7 view. See camera View menu, 17 View Selection tool, 20 Visemes Morph, 72, 188
W weapon props, 127–129 weight, expression of emotion, 101–102 winged characters, 112, 114–115 wireframe mesh, 3
Z Zoom tool, 20
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