Daz Studio 2.2.2.20

2.3.3.15 is just too darn crappy! It crashes time after time when I try to do something as simply as reorganizaing the catalog. I really couldn't stand it any more. So I am rolling back to the 2.2.2.20 and see if it's any better.

Used 2.2.2.20 for several hours. No crashing ... good ...

Big mistake with Daz Studio 2

I found out, today, that I made a big mistake regarding to organizing my Daz Studio resources. Instead of putting all my content files in Daz Studio's main content directory (under Program Files), I put them in the Q drive of my desktop machine. My rational was that it will give me flexibility of detaching the content from the main application, in case I need to rebuild the OS partition.

The problem is that by doing so, it makes backing up the whole Daz Studio environment difficult. After I installed the application, I started to use the Daz Studio database to organized my content. So now some reference in the database pointed to C: drive while others are pointing to Q: drive. That means if something goes wrong, and I need to replicate the environment, I have to put some content in C:, and then some content in Q:.

I also realize that it's impossible to consolidate folders. If you move the folder, Daz will lose track of your content, and all the work you did on organizing the content will be lose.

So now I kind of have a mess on hand, which is really not the end of the world, but I definitely will do it differently if I can do it again.

Taking back my words :-<

After trying it a bit more, a realized that Metasequoia 2.4.8 really isn't as Tablet PC friendly as I expected. Oh well.

Metasequoia 2.4.8 ,,,, Tablet friendly!

Most of the 3D modeling application I used so far has some serious problem with Tablet PC. Navigation on the screen (like move, scroll) usually goes crazy when I use stylus. That's why I was slightly surprised to find out that Metasequoia 2.4.8 does not have that kind of problem. Sure I need to play a bit more, but it seems very promising.

Metasequoia + Texture mapping = knocked me out for 10 hours

I fell into sleep because was the struggle with a 3D application called Metasequoia. Getting it to do basic modeling it's OK. In fact it's almost fun. However, I have major hardtime using it to do Image mapping. After struggling with it for more than half a day yesterday, I decided to roll back from the current version (2.4) to a much older version (2.1 beta). At least there are some tutorials online that I can follow for the older one.

Rendering

Here's I am testing various way of casting shadow.

Finding clothes for Gina

It all started when I found a 3D model that looks very much like my friend. So I wanted to pose some scene using that model called Gina. That's when I realized that the model is derived from Daz Milliumn PreTeen model, and that model does NOT have a lot of ready made hair, clothing and props to use with.

I resolved them problem by using Aiko 3's hair, and then decide NOT to apply "Fit To". That allows me to free to adjust the positioning of the hair. All I need to do, at the end, is move the hair to the head level of hireachy of the model and then all becomes fine.

Next, I need to make some clothes for Gina. Luckily, there's a software called CrossDresser 2.5.1. So I can use the tool to convert clothing form "Aiko 3" to "Preteen Girl". The conversion is not perfect, and it's a bit like trial and error. But at least there is a way. Each conversion takes from 15 seconds to 4 minutes.

After some twisting here and there, I got a ballet scene setup. But after I rendered, I found that there's no shadow casted on the floor, which makes the scene looks very strange. That's when I realized that I need to adjust the "Shadow" setting of my distantlight source. I picked "Raytraced(Software Only)" as Shodow Type and found that it takes A LONG TIME to render a scene. In fact, it took 20+ minutes to render the scene, and it doesn't look particular better than the "Deep Shadow Map version", which takes much shorter time to render.