dartanbeck.com - Adventuring The AntFarm

Episode 006 - Adventuring The AntFarm!!!

Episode 006 - Adventuring The AntFarm

Dartanbeck Explores some of The AntFarm’s Huge Catalog!

The AntFarm is an incredibly versatile digital artist known for creating an extensive array of 3D models that span across various genres, primarily focusing on sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, and dystopian themes.

His work includes highly detailed characters, creatures, vehicles, and environments that cater to both modern and historical settings!

The AntFarm’s models are super popular in the DAZ3D community for their creativity and attention to detail!

Get Your Copy Today!!!

As long as I've been using Daz 3D, I have been a Big Fan of the artist that goes by the name of: The AntFarm!

Imaginative, realistic-yet-somewhat-unreal 3D assets that are just as fun to work with as they look - and they look Awesome!!!

Having such a massive, long-running store at Daz 3D, in any single episode we can only explore a glimpse of what this incredible artist has to offer. Since I've loved these assets right from the very beginning, this episode will be adventuring through the years - looking at this and that throughout the history of the Daz 3D store - a little legacy, a bit of the newer, and everything else will be somewhere in between.

Rather than having such a historic adventure evenly spaced throughout the timeline, we're going to jump around a bit - not to be confusing, but to show how cool this stuff is - regardless of its date of release. For that is how I see these creations - Excellent Assets that are to Be Used As Needed - rather than even considering when they were made.

I think you'll agree once you see it that this is the better approach to take here.

What a Fantastic place to learn, share and absorb anything and everything Art!

Led by Paul Bussey, this fantastic place has a beautiful forum with an endless supply of topics - and we can join courses and training, or just hang out with the group and discuss and enjoy art!

Check Out Creative Cart

Check out Digital Art Live

Join Digital Art Live STUDIO for FREE

The Webinar is a Digital Art Live Experience!

Remember to head to Digital Art Live Studio forums where you can visit the special category for each Creative Cart episode as well as the general topic - ask questions, make suggestions, share your thoughts, your artwork... the resource is there For You!!!

The Friendly Moderators and Members love to interact about this amazing experience that we have as Digital Artists!

Creative Cart meets Smart Content!

Our good friend, TugPSX, has put together a very nice demonstration on how we can make All of our assets that coincide with The Creative Cart easily findable via the Smart Content system within Daz Studio.

Check it out!

...and Thanks TugPSX!

From CR2 to Triax Weight Mapped

From 3Delight to Iray

BioBotic is one incredible autonomous being - so I converted him from a Poser CR2 figure into a Daz Studio Triax (Genesis 1) rigged character, and have only just begun to try various options using Iray instead of Poser MATs that have been auto-converted to 3Delight upon loading into Studio.

Being saved as a Daz Studio asset, I'm able to use the practice of creating custom control dials as we do in Dynamic Character Animation for Daz Studio - making it nice and easy to adapt this Mixamo animation with very little fuss! *

It's amazing how different he looks with just a few surface value changes.

This one has the great eye lens being translucent and refractive, with roughly 30% of the color map being used for Luminosity to make it glow slightly.

* Just so you know, this figure works Great left in Poser format as well. I only converted it to see how fun it would be to make custom dials for - and I was right... It's a Blast!!! :)

In either rigging style, try aniBlocks and animated pose files made for Genesis or Genesis 2 - they work really well!!!

Here are some of the goodies we'll be exploring:

Star Hauler | M.O.A.B. Missile Silo

With the missile removed, we'll land the Star Hauler into the M.O.A.B. Missile Silo - just for a bit of fun! :)

I Love the "AntFarm-Unique" look of the Star Hauler, and I bought the M.O.A.B. Missile Silo not as a 'Missile Silo', but to be used for many cool environment situations - as I do with a Lot of The AntFarm's products.

Since working with it several times now, however, I do know that I'll also be using it to launch that Missile as well! :)

Star Hauler

M.O.A.B. Missile Silo

Is it a good idea to try and land a Star Hauler Freight Transport into a Missile Silo?

Of course it is!!! :)

Speaking of Environments, which we'll talk more about later as well, here are a few examples of kits that can be used Completely Apart from what they actually are - which is how I select, buy, and use them in my work. Check them out - the architecture can be used for all manner of different settings - Just input our Imagination!!!

Frost Zone Mining

Central City Sewer

Submarine Corridor Construction Kit

Here are just some of the parts that come with this awesome Submarine Corridor Construction Kit

Frost Mining Disaster?

Well, I'd say so!

The AntFarm's "Walker HD" for Genesis 1

Load Genesis 1 - just the main figure or select a character to add to
People > Genesis > Characters > Walker - Load the Materials and the Hair & Beard
Select Genesis, go to Parameters Pane, Select Actor, Type "Walk" into the search
Crank G1 Walker dial up to your liking - this one is 100%
Apply Pose or aniBlock made for Genesis 1 or 2
Set HDRI and camera angle
Render!

This chilling animation of a Walker will go in front of a render of Frost Zone Mining with some added snowfall and possibly some frost on the camera lens - purchased at Action VFX.

This amazing sculpt of Genesis 1 looks great with more 'human' skin surfaces as well!

I love this guy - dialed all the way up or even just in measured amounts - I enjoy using him in different situations - and some of those situations will be fairly prominent Guest Appearances in some of my future work.

That powerful chin starts to show itself fairly early when dialing this morph up - which just looks Fantastic!

Next is a set of six products that I collected as each product was released with the purpose of using them all with one another. It was really cool, because they weren't released near each other at all - but as I'd see one, I imagined how well it would work with the ones I've purchased previously. I Love it when That Happens!!! :)

Vertical Living Repair Shop

Vertical Living, Vertical Living U, and Sky Traffic - two partial frames of an animation rising through the unforgivable dystopian future

Controlling the surfaces of Vertical Living for Iray is a Lot of Fun - so many possibilities! Many of the lights have their own individual surfaces making it easy to alter them for color, brightness, etc., It's incredible how nicely this stuff is all laid out!

Some notes regarding the above:

Sci-Fi Hub goes far beyond any sort of 'building' set in that it's a modular setup that comes with presets - but it's a full construction kit for making different types of hub - even combination hubs. All of the various systems of the hub can be arranged in different orders, and each hub can house various sectors which define the purpose of that particular region of the hub - which is Really Cool for building stories, ongoing movies/TV Series and the like... very cool and very easy to work with!

Much of what I just said about the Sci-Fi Hub can also be said about the Sci-Fi Wall, but slightly less so, and without the ultra-convenient presets - but it's very easy to work with for building walls of Sci-Fi city expanse - perfect for extending scenes!

The Vertical Living series is Awesome! I remember when the first came out - I was amazed at how cool this thing works! I mean... vertical means vertical - we can stack these on top of one another to make really tall setups of sci-fi urban living exteriors - and then expanded upon by the Vertical Living U, which adds an inward corner to connect more instances of either the main Vertical Living or the Vertical Living U together - complete with a tunnel system for traveling into Vertical Living setups... it's all very cool how it works - and fits Beautifully with the Sci-Fi Hub and Sci-Fi Wall, which both came later.

The Vertical Living Repair Shop fits into Vertical Living so that we can actually travel to Vertical Living and meet up with this awesome interior in the same shot! This is a gorgeous stage for our Sci-Fi/Future character shots all on it's own, whether we use it with Vertical Living or not.

Sky Traffic Totally ROCKS!!! It's a collection of vehicles that don't require (or have) wheels - yeah... they can fly or hover or whatever we decide for them to do. Each comes in 1K and 4K versions, so we can really pack these things into a scene to make Huge traffic situations - which I've just done with them in a car chase through the cyberpunk streets again. These things are Awesome!!!

The AntFarm Vehicles really are something Fun to Collect.

I've been collecting them from the start. I don't have all of them... yet... but I will - one day. Beyond what I've already mentioned, here are some of the ones I do have - and I Love These Things!!!

Floating Junk

Here is some of the promo art for the incredible Floating Junk!

Heading Indoors

To help realize the interiors of the aforementioned Sci-Fi/Futuristic environments The AntFarm has us well-covered.

Space Blocks

A construction kit - but easier to use than most, Space Blocks assembles quickly, and can be done so in many different ways.

I've always love how wide these corridors are for filming (rendering) animations.

It's awesome! Slap a few of these together however we need our interior to tunnel through, and we even get side passages that come along for the ride - and Look Great!!!

The Rabbit Hole

Load in the Rabbit Hole and explore the options. A wonderful, fully realized space/Sci-Fi/Futuristic environment to explore with several options and animation/pose controls.