Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Poser File Editor...
One of the best buys I have ever made as a Poser user is the PFE... As a merchant, w/i the few months I have owned this great utility, it has saved me countless hours of work, scripting, coding, or poser hacking anyone would rather swim an ocean of squid to avoid doing... If you have Poser and need a way to edit your files, the PFE is the way to go...
Make conforming outfits in moments, make FBM's, make INJ/REM poses from morphs, extract geometry from figures and props, edit materials, and a host of other things... The Morph Editor alone is worth double the price, and the ease at which you can fix Poser files makes this a MUST HAVE.....
I am always finding new ways to take advantage and exploit the toolset, I can not stress enough that ANY merchant who develops and creates content for Poser should own this...
Sneek peek =P
I'm very excited about my new project, it's a biggie =) Versatile is too limiting, and to say that everyone would want it is an understatement... So simple it should be a shame, so complex it should be illegal =P
But you'll just have to keep watching for more info and shots =)
Hit a snag, nothing I can't fix... Would have been ready to start the textures, I'm very pleased w/ the tests results and the mapping... But this fix, while "easy" will take a bit of time, I may do it later this evening... But after that, the textures and then the wrap up =)
But you'll just have to keep watching for more info and shots =)
Hit a snag, nothing I can't fix... Would have been ready to start the textures, I'm very pleased w/ the tests results and the mapping... But this fix, while "easy" will take a bit of time, I may do it later this evening... But after that, the textures and then the wrap up =)
Sunday, May 29, 2011
TzunCet Xomotron: My Second life Persona.....
Does anyone remember something called Adobe Atmosphere?!?
Anyways...
Some of you may have seen my floating abouts here and there talking about Second Life, Carrara, Collada, Blender and a host of other things Second Life (or SL) related...
Second Life is a virtual community, even better, it is 3D. You control an "avatar" which you use to communicate and interact with throughout the SL world/environment. You can custom design this avatar to your likeness, or to your hearts desire. You can make "inworld" purchases, or buy things from their online marketplace store using "Lindens", which is a system of virtual money. Mind you, it is virtual, not fake... You need to buy Lindens with REAL money, using either a credit card or Paypal account. You can use or buy Lindens to purchase inworld real estate, custom designed virtual world content such as furniture, architectural stuctures (called "pre-fabs"), scripts, animations and poses, and even textures, which you can use custom style your own creations or that correspond to SL's default character avatars, much like the way we purchase skin textures for Victoria4 or Michael 4 from Daz3D. You do not need Lindens or money to have/own or access a Second Life account. You can have fun with the inworld games and role playing communities, or join in on "live entertainment concerts"...
Currently, their custom content creation system is limited to objects called "prims", which are native to the SL environment. These start off as simple -primitive-objects, which users can then manipulate using the SL prim modifying tools... Don't get me wrong, some very interesting and unique things can be done with prims, but ultimately, any artist would understand that you want to shape and mold things "your" way, and this is why people are eagerly awaiting the Mesh system to go live...
The Mesh Viewer is in an open beta stage, and Linden Labs (LL) strongly encourages users to test this awesome software out to get a heads up of the system before it goes live. I myself have been taking advantage of this time to familiarize myself with the system, and have had great fun exploring it's many possibilities. To upload custom designed rigged or textured objects (or "meshes") they simply need be exported in the Collada .dae format.....
Sadly, that is not as easy as it sounds... Many content creators and developers have become frustrated in trying to establish a pipeline or workflow, in order to set a foundation of guides, rules, do's and don't s, best and worst practices, and everything else under the sun that goes into the wondrous content that fills the virtual environment of Second Life... Collada, the file format of choice, is still in its experimental stage. The Mesh Viewer is also in its beta stage, and to compound the trouble, the programs that can export a working Collada .dae file are slim, as those programmers and developers struggle as well over the new format... I call this a 3 point combo system for failure, but hopefully, together, as a community, we can work through this. Currently, a working pipeline has been established for 3D Studio Max, Maya, and Blender...
I have been trying to establish such a workflow for Carrara 8 Pro, my weapon of choice, but sadly, the rigged Collada files will crash SL Mesh on import =( Static models import great, textures intact and all. I have done some terrains and simple objects, and for rigid models the process is quite simple: create your object, map it, paint it, export as .dae file..... The weight map/painting however seems to be an issue, I have tried but no luck... But I don't think it impossible, error or problem could very well be my inexperience in the process, so more testing is in order, I will try to keep you posted through this Blog =)
Having seen Second Life on CSI: New York, the 3D artist/graphic designer I am couldn't resist. I downloaded it the next day, and was "turned off" from it for about 2 years... Just fumbling through some programs and having been in a good mood with a bit of patience, I opened it up again, and just kept with it... I started to enjoy it, it's like a video game without the speed rush (I suppose I am getting old =P), and once you start looking around, you find some quiet spots that actually allow you to appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship of the environment. Once you get used to the controls, custom design your avatar, and listen to some of the awesome music streams, you're hooked =)
It wasn't until after I became familiar with the controls that I learned about the Mesh Viewer, and as a content developer, couldn't resist at the opportunity to explore and exploit a possible and exciting new market... I personally, can not wait for Mesh to go live and is finally released... Not only as a content creator, but as a SL resident who owns real estate on the mainland, I believe it will immensely increase the quality of the Second Life experience.
You don't have to take my word for it, but why not try it yourself. It's free, and no obligation will be set upon you...
Anyways...
Some of you may have seen my floating abouts here and there talking about Second Life, Carrara, Collada, Blender and a host of other things Second Life (or SL) related...
Second Life is a virtual community, even better, it is 3D. You control an "avatar" which you use to communicate and interact with throughout the SL world/environment. You can custom design this avatar to your likeness, or to your hearts desire. You can make "inworld" purchases, or buy things from their online marketplace store using "Lindens", which is a system of virtual money. Mind you, it is virtual, not fake... You need to buy Lindens with REAL money, using either a credit card or Paypal account. You can use or buy Lindens to purchase inworld real estate, custom designed virtual world content such as furniture, architectural stuctures (called "pre-fabs"), scripts, animations and poses, and even textures, which you can use custom style your own creations or that correspond to SL's default character avatars, much like the way we purchase skin textures for Victoria4 or Michael 4 from Daz3D. You do not need Lindens or money to have/own or access a Second Life account. You can have fun with the inworld games and role playing communities, or join in on "live entertainment concerts"...
Currently, their custom content creation system is limited to objects called "prims", which are native to the SL environment. These start off as simple -primitive-objects, which users can then manipulate using the SL prim modifying tools... Don't get me wrong, some very interesting and unique things can be done with prims, but ultimately, any artist would understand that you want to shape and mold things "your" way, and this is why people are eagerly awaiting the Mesh system to go live...
The Mesh Viewer is in an open beta stage, and Linden Labs (LL) strongly encourages users to test this awesome software out to get a heads up of the system before it goes live. I myself have been taking advantage of this time to familiarize myself with the system, and have had great fun exploring it's many possibilities. To upload custom designed rigged or textured objects (or "meshes") they simply need be exported in the Collada .dae format.....
Sadly, that is not as easy as it sounds... Many content creators and developers have become frustrated in trying to establish a pipeline or workflow, in order to set a foundation of guides, rules, do's and don't s, best and worst practices, and everything else under the sun that goes into the wondrous content that fills the virtual environment of Second Life... Collada, the file format of choice, is still in its experimental stage. The Mesh Viewer is also in its beta stage, and to compound the trouble, the programs that can export a working Collada .dae file are slim, as those programmers and developers struggle as well over the new format... I call this a 3 point combo system for failure, but hopefully, together, as a community, we can work through this. Currently, a working pipeline has been established for 3D Studio Max, Maya, and Blender...
I have been trying to establish such a workflow for Carrara 8 Pro, my weapon of choice, but sadly, the rigged Collada files will crash SL Mesh on import =( Static models import great, textures intact and all. I have done some terrains and simple objects, and for rigid models the process is quite simple: create your object, map it, paint it, export as .dae file..... The weight map/painting however seems to be an issue, I have tried but no luck... But I don't think it impossible, error or problem could very well be my inexperience in the process, so more testing is in order, I will try to keep you posted through this Blog =)
Having seen Second Life on CSI: New York, the 3D artist/graphic designer I am couldn't resist. I downloaded it the next day, and was "turned off" from it for about 2 years... Just fumbling through some programs and having been in a good mood with a bit of patience, I opened it up again, and just kept with it... I started to enjoy it, it's like a video game without the speed rush (I suppose I am getting old =P), and once you start looking around, you find some quiet spots that actually allow you to appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship of the environment. Once you get used to the controls, custom design your avatar, and listen to some of the awesome music streams, you're hooked =)
It wasn't until after I became familiar with the controls that I learned about the Mesh Viewer, and as a content developer, couldn't resist at the opportunity to explore and exploit a possible and exciting new market... I personally, can not wait for Mesh to go live and is finally released... Not only as a content creator, but as a SL resident who owns real estate on the mainland, I believe it will immensely increase the quality of the Second Life experience.
You don't have to take my word for it, but why not try it yourself. It's free, and no obligation will be set upon you...
>> Try Second Life <<
the fermentation of condenscending lust...
I'm still adjusting and getting used to having a laptop, it's great not being rooted to my desk anymore =P
I find my laptop comes off a bit brighter than what I'm used to, admittedly, I use a 10 year old IBM CRT monitor. For the most part, I will calibrate only before I'm about to print, but other than that, I find the process to be a pain.
Now, after calibrating my monitor for good practices purposes, I was forced to reset my monitor to it's default settings. I find the colors are "rich" and pale at the same time, as if under some type of ambient cartoon shading style. Too weird and technical for me to bother with, but I wonder how my stuff looks on others peoples systems...
That said, it's been quite some time since I've switched to Carrara as my main rendering program, yet, I am still apprehensive and reluctant to use my Carrara images for print or exhibits. There was something about Bryce that just clicked w/ me and my surrealism, and after going through my stock collection of framed worked, 7 medium, 4 small, i wonder if i should just "go back"... I do my modeling in other programs anyway, and as far figures, I suppose the Daz Studio bridge isn't so bad, so long as it's not buggy or crashes all the time, I should give it a go right?!?
I find my laptop comes off a bit brighter than what I'm used to, admittedly, I use a 10 year old IBM CRT monitor. For the most part, I will calibrate only before I'm about to print, but other than that, I find the process to be a pain.
Now, after calibrating my monitor for good practices purposes, I was forced to reset my monitor to it's default settings. I find the colors are "rich" and pale at the same time, as if under some type of ambient cartoon shading style. Too weird and technical for me to bother with, but I wonder how my stuff looks on others peoples systems...
That said, it's been quite some time since I've switched to Carrara as my main rendering program, yet, I am still apprehensive and reluctant to use my Carrara images for print or exhibits. There was something about Bryce that just clicked w/ me and my surrealism, and after going through my stock collection of framed worked, 7 medium, 4 small, i wonder if i should just "go back"... I do my modeling in other programs anyway, and as far figures, I suppose the Daz Studio bridge isn't so bad, so long as it's not buggy or crashes all the time, I should give it a go right?!?
Friday, May 27, 2011
uh oh...
Seems I have too much and too many projects that are in the "open"... You know it's bad when RMP testers email you saying "what's up w/ your upload"?!?
My second clothing/armor set is being thrown back in que, sadly, I am just not ready to fix after seeing how poorly sales of my Gamma Andromeda set have been selling... Apparently, I need to improve my texture skills for clothing sake, a bit different from my usual terrains and backdrops =D
But I WILL be updating Gamma Andromeda and fixing my Cyber Gear suit in the near future. With summer just around the corner, and a few shows I will be exhibiting in, not to mention other open projects that I know will do well, my experimentation in clothing and armor has come to an abrupt end...
My second clothing/armor set is being thrown back in que, sadly, I am just not ready to fix after seeing how poorly sales of my Gamma Andromeda set have been selling... Apparently, I need to improve my texture skills for clothing sake, a bit different from my usual terrains and backdrops =D
But I WILL be updating Gamma Andromeda and fixing my Cyber Gear suit in the near future. With summer just around the corner, and a few shows I will be exhibiting in, not to mention other open projects that I know will do well, my experimentation in clothing and armor has come to an abrupt end...
Thursday, May 26, 2011
----- Welcome to the 4th Dimension -----
Hello my friends =)
Many of you may know me as "MatCreator" from 3d/2d creations sold or showcased at the popular graphics communities sites and online galleries. I'm just your average graphics geek w/ a passion for 3D and art. I am self employed as an artist and graphic designer, so I am always finding ways to explore and exploit my creative prowess. I sell my prints in Gallery exhibits, flea markets and street fairs/ festivals and grab consignments from framing stores or antique shops, I snag freelance jobs and gigs here and there, all while promoting and creating 3D/2D content and presets for the graphics community. Currently my arsenal consists of Carrara as my main rendering program, Hexagon, 3D Coat and ZBrush as my modeling applications, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and related plugins and filters for my 2d work.
Many of you may know me as "MatCreator" from 3d/2d creations sold or showcased at the popular graphics communities sites and online galleries. I'm just your average graphics geek w/ a passion for 3D and art. I am self employed as an artist and graphic designer, so I am always finding ways to explore and exploit my creative prowess. I sell my prints in Gallery exhibits, flea markets and street fairs/ festivals and grab consignments from framing stores or antique shops, I snag freelance jobs and gigs here and there, all while promoting and creating 3D/2D content and presets for the graphics community. Currently my arsenal consists of Carrara as my main rendering program, Hexagon, 3D Coat and ZBrush as my modeling applications, and Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and related plugins and filters for my 2d work.
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