DAZ, Inc.
As we mentioned in our last article, DAZ is very well known as an amazing group of model makers, and their models are substantially more popular with Poser owners than any other model maker’s. In addition to their own models and add-ons, DAZ has a robust shop that sells skins, clothes, morphs, and utilities. In this article, we take a look at two of these offerings.
FaceShop Pro
For most filmmakers, we want to be able to create 3D versions of our actors for any emergency stunt sequences. For such a use, Pantomat’s FaceShop Pro is here to make things easier for you. Boasting a large number of customizations, FaceShop Pro will let you essentially create a skin of your actor’s face and a modifying .OBJ file to go with it from a single picture. Functioning similarly to Reallusion’s Crazy Talk in how it lets you map out a 3D face from a single image, it steps it up by actually making the texture for a 3D model.
You can use any photograph (or as the side picture proves, any painting) that you have. The higher the resolution of the image, the better results you will normally get for your model. Also, the more flatly lit and directly aimed the image is, the easier it is to map properly. However, FaceShop Pro does a pretty decent job of mapping faces even in situations where they are not ideally placed or positioned.
I found this program quite useful, although I did have about four issues with the current version of it:
- There is no direct legacy support for DAZ models prior to Victoria 4 and Michael 3. For folks who buy the Pro version, they can import customized objects like V3 heads, but it doesn’t create a V3 head map the way you’re used to. While it will work in Poser, I found that I had to retouch a fair amount of it in Photoshop to get the look I wanted when I imported an object. I would like to just see them include the official presets for the past legacy faces, so that it outputs these in a way we’re more familiar with. (At the very least, the ultra popular Victoria 3 needs to be included as a preset.)
- You can only use a single photograph. I really wanted to be given the option to use a front and one or two side photographs, but was limited to just one. While some creative folks have created 3 different faces with three different photos and then compiled them all in Photoshop, this is too much work for a program that’s designed to create the face for you.
- No “Control-Z” or back-step undo options. When you’re outlining your face and you really need to be precise, you often need to undo a mis-clicked node. Unfortunately, you do not have the option to undo a single mistake, but must instead press “Del” and delete the entire line you were drawing. This becomes very problematic when you’ve nearly completed a precise line of selections and must delete the entire line.
- Limited photo resolution ability. Currently, the most high resolution photo you can map in FaceShop Pro is 2000 pixel by 2000 pixels. While this is a decent size, there are a number of high-rez textures available that are at 4000 pixels by 4000 pixels. I would like to see an option just to set a custom resolution for future expandability and capability.
Additionally, I would like to see a future version of Face Shop Pro include an option to export a texture-referenced .OBJ to Photoshop CS3 Extended. While you can export out an appropriate object from either Poser or DAZ|Studio, I think most of us would prefer to touch up our face file before taking it into Poser or D|S. It would also be nice if they came out with a BodyShop Pro, which would allow you to create a photoreal body texture for your actor based on 3D guidelines.
Obviously, there are some improvements I would like to see in the future, but this is still a good value and gives you a decent starting place for creating a photorealistic versions of your actors. It’s cost is $79.99.
For additional information and tutorials on using this software (or to find out about the new 3D Studio Max version of this package) go to: http://www.abalonellc.com.
To purchase this package, go to: DAZ's Web Store
Millenium Deformers & Sarah Spriteling
When we started looking at the extremely talented artist Wyrmmaster from RuntimeDNA, we decided to also look at a few projects he created for the DAZ stores. (http://www.daz.com ) As you will read in our Runtime DNA section, Wyrmmaster has spent a number of years devloping complex magnetic deformer controls, rather than creating morphs through traditional morph channels. This has an extremely helpful benefit of allowing clothing to be magnetized, as well, so that any way the body of the actor or actress is deformed with these kits, the clothing matches suit. Additionally, the magnetic controls simplify things like animation, as body movements can often be controlled by a few magnets. (Despite the large use of magnets, for these morphs to work with a model, you must have all the official morphs. As such, this package won’t work with the free M3 base model, but require that you purchase the complete M3 model with morphs.)
The Millenium Deformers allow you to reform most of DAZ’s lineup of models from Michael 1-3, to Victoria 1-3, to Stephanie and Stephanie Petite into comic-book-style versions of themselves. These deformers are very helpful for folks who are interested in creating Conan the Barbarian/Red Sonya style films or for folks who want to create superhero films with characters of more heroic proportions.
Sarah Spriteling. If you need a fairie, pixie, or magical heroine, Sarah Spriteling’s deformers will allow you to turn Daz’s Victoria 3 into any of these creatures. Just like all the other Wyrmmaster deformers, all changes in acted to the models body can be reflected in their clothing.
These sets are earlier sets that Wyrmmaster created, so they are not quite as full featured as his layer SexySlayer packages, but they are still very good values. Additionally, the Millenium Deformers allows you to morph male characters and not just female characters. Both are available from DAZ stores, with Millenium Deformers going for $19.99 and Sarah Spriteling going for $9.99.
To purchase this package, go to: DAZ's Web Store
