The Amazing Predatron!
This Show was a Blast!!! Thanks to All Who Came!!!
I truly Love teaching people useful techniques that make their experience easier, better, and a lot more fun. I think I did that today with demonstrating many ways to create our own Iray materials using our Legacy Poser content - using Predatron's amazing legacy catalog to illustrate the instruction.
Lorenzo and Loretta should truly scare No one!
I've shown how easily we can work with them in quick situations without even converting to Iray shaders, later illustrating some of the reasons why it's actually a lot better in the long run to actually use Iray material shaders - for Iray's sake.
Other things, like most legacy Poser content comes into Iray looking like shiny ceramic/porcelain statuettes.
With just two simple slider adjustments according to our eye as to how the figure should look, we're now ready to make a much more accurate conversion using nothing more than the free Daz 3D Iray Uber shader, which is a beautiful and instantaneous conversion.
For Animation Corner I began with how to build, frame, and render walking crowds using Lorenzo and Loretta LoREZ, rendering to Alpha as to have total control in post over the final outcome.
The outcomes I shared were nothing more that a basic composite without any special treatment or even color grading.
Then for the backdrop, which also had to be rendered through the entire animation because the camera was following their feet, used the same LoREZ folks using entirely different appearances and animations and were, instead, rendered directly within the background scenery - Polish's Cyberpunk Back Alley, which has gorgeous puddles upon the filthy streets. So perfect!
Did I say Simplicity?!!!
In Epsiode 002 of the Creative Cart - Pestryakov and the SubDragon - we've seen how cool the MysticShard/SimonWM Millennium SubDragon aniBlock Collection is for quickly adding motion - character motion - to our beloved fantasy Wyrm.
Just for kicks, I tried them on Predatron's Moorland Dragon. I didn't have a lot of time so I didn't test (yet) any further than the "Flying" animation I wanted to use - and it Worked!!!
It turns out looking fine, but the legs get crossed with one another. As simple dial of "Legs - Splay" fixed it - just like that!!! :)
I also added some additional head/neck and tail motions to better match what I was after. The aniBlock didn't work fully for all things - of course, but getting the gist of the animation was a real surprise! I mean... it looks pretty cool, doesn't it?
The grand finale was a good look at the Moorland Dragon Bundle - first the morphs and supplied presets - the endless supply of different looks - next using the Millennium SubDragon aniBlock collection, by MysticShard and SimonWM to get animation data into the joints of the beast. Then using the incredible control dial that Predatron so kindly included with all of his figures to correct the joints throughout to make cool, unique animations from something that, by rights, shouldn't even work.
The result is in the promo - the Moorland Dragon flying.
After that I demonstrated how I created my Iray materials for it - with hints regarding how to thing these things through - instead of copying what I do, create the look You want - and these are some of the key things that can help you make that happen... it was a real Rush to get all of that content done within the one show - whew!!!
Takes a Lot of work though - but I love it.
Below - a character made quickly, strictly using only the presets and control dials that come with the Lorenzo LoREZ product. Lorenzo LoREZ is like getting a Massive Mega-Bundle of Content that is All Made to Work Together - what a Treat!!!
Thanks Predatron!!!
Models of environments, vehicles, people, creatures, animals, and props along with collections of poses and lighting setups... from his back-catalog of legacy products to current offerings, Predatron oozes imagination in a very cohesive, efficient style that we can always trust.
If that's not enough, he and his other half, Diane, have produced an excellent e-book: "Dream It, Plan It, Make It" - an immersive guide to becoming a professional 3D artist along with the story around their struggles with getting into all of this themselves.
It's a worthy read whether we're looking to become a published artist or are just fascinated with what all goes into these things.
I Love It!!!
Lorenzo comes as a Massive bundle for making a plethora of different types of person - all in one package!
Ethnicity skin tones for African, Indian, Hispanic, Oriental, and various Creature skins along with an assortment of Caucasian options.
There is also a good selection of clothing types to choose from - and all of it is easily editable simply by clicking options from the content library!
Skin options are only just the beginning, for Lorenzo also comes with a huge assortment of shape-changing morphs!
From drastic changes to transform him into a creature to simple face shape differences to make different looking human face and body shapes - Lorenzo LoREZ has a very complete package right out of the box!!!
Don't need to change shapes? There's also an option to load Lorenzo without any of the shaping morphs, with further options to add them later if we change our mind!
Each of the Ethnic options include a really nice selection of options to further tweak the details of your new character.
With out without hair (face and/or body), add a mustache, perhaps a goatee, a beard - each available at various age groups. The exception being that the Youth option doesn't include the facial hair.
Within the morphs mentioned above, there are several for working with the hair on the head and/or face - such as bigger hair, longer beard, or a thick mustache.
The Caucasian option includes a range of hair colors to choose from. Blonde, Brown, Red, Grey, and partially Gray, and Black.
I cannot say enough about how flexible Lorenzo and Loretta are for making various types of person, from a small child to grand parent. Thin and scrawny or beefy and muscle-bound. Human, Elf, Goblin, Zombie, Alien... there are So Many options!
Furthermore, their LoREZ (lower resolution figure) nature is not only easy on the system resources, they can be set to render nearly immediately!
We'll look at options for converting their materials over from 3Delight to Iray, and I'll also show how well they work in Iray straight out of the box without changing a thing!
Want to use Lorenzo or Loretta a little closer to the camera? We'll explore that as well!!!
With exception of the Creature-style morphs and skins, most everything said about Lorenzo also applies to Loretta.
Like Lorenzo, Loretta LoREZ is a Massive Bundle even though it's only a single product. Truly Amazing... Truly Awesome!!!
The image on the immediate right shows a variety of the shapes and skins provided in the package, but there's an almost limitless number of options when we actually start working.
The image directly below is illustrating how 20 Loretta LoREZ figures are similar in scene weight (system resources) to a single High Resolution figure.
This begins to show how valuable Lorenzo and Loretta are to scenes that could do with more of a populace in the background.
Depending on what we're doing, these LoREZ characters don't always have to hide in the background, as we'll see in this episode!
Above to the right we see a small selection of some of Loretta's facial morphs - both for expression, speech, and shape - but there are a Lot More!
The images below show some of the clothing options. Again, these products are amazing at how they work. With just a click we can really do a Lot of changing before we ever even touch any of the many dials, so this is just a glimpse into what all we can do with Loretta.
Comics fan? Wow, have we ever got You covered!!!
LoREZ Masked Hero is very specifically designed around making it easy for anyone to create Super Heroes simply by loading a figure and clicking on options - but we can also take it a whole lot further!
I thought it might be fun, so I picked it up years ago, back when it first came out.
It turns out to be a lot more valuable to me than simply making fun heroes - since this all works off of Lorenzo LoREZ's base (not required) we can use them together to get even more diversity!
For example, I often use LoREZ Masked Hero to create my star ship crew, and Loretta has outfits that work well with the options I use - so I can build a nice LoREZ crew to fill out the bridge!
It's really cool to have this new "Hero" face! He has that cool little bit of hair coming down onto his forehead that really looks cool!
More Awesome LoREZ people by Predatron
In the promo videos above, Rosie is donning Predatron's incredible Heroine Fantasy Armour
Again, I use a Lot of legacy content in everything I do - and Rosie is the most diverse in that regard of all of my characters.
Heroine Fantasy Armour is made for Genesis 2 Female yet is really easy to use with any Genesis generation simply using Auto-Fit.
We could convert the materials to Iray if we want - it comes with a Lot of Choices! But for most of the materials I've been using Jen Greenlees' Elaborate Metals Iray Shaders, which is pretty much my goto when it comes to fancy, shiny metal Iray shaders. In fact, I use a Lot of shaders by Jen. It's easy and they Look Great!!!
Fantastic and Fantastical Scenery
Keeping an eye on a big installation is made easy with the deployment of these Monitor Bots.
Each Bot comes with a large surveillance camera which can retract and focus, there are moveable antennae and side fins. There are 4 textures included.
Keep your 14 MU facilities on schedule and running smoothly by keeping a few of these handy bots around to see it all through and report any issues along the way!
Simplicity at its Finest!
All of Predatron's figures have a nice assortment of pose control dials - which is what inspired the workflow that I represent in my Dynamic Animation course.
With just a few simple dial adjustments I was able to quickly make this writhing motion on the Giant Fantasy Snake!
Demons vs Droids Bundle
I actually bought all of these compontent individually over time, but now there's this Wonderful bundle to get a really nice collection of Exquisite models to fill out out Fantasty/Sci-Fi scenes!
Along with the three main products shown below, this bundle also includes:
Predatron's LoREZ Horse is a fantastic product loaded with everything we need to render horses. Well... he's just topped it!
LoREZ Horse 2 makes my jaw drop all the way to the floor.
After seeing this beautiful animal using the Iray viewport, I had to switch to Hidden Line view to see the wireframing. Sure enough. This is a very low resolution model - but you'd never guess it. Look at all of the details!
One fear that I had was whether or not the animations I have for LoREZ Horse will work with this one - and they DO!!! :)
As if the main pack isn't lovely enough, the textures add-on makes it even better!!!
Not only are these animals light on system resources, they're also incredibly versatile - as are all of Predatron's stand-alone original figures.
They each come Packed with possibilities right out of the gate. I bought the bundle, because I know I'll be needing any one of these as time goes on, and now I have them at my fingertips!
But each (and even more now) are available individually as well.
This pack includes:
Some highlights of this bundle
is a generic, base dog figure with 13 breed shapes built into it. But we can also mix and match to make unique animals to our whim.
16 breed texture presets help make any kind of canine we need.
Predatron has always been incredibly reliable for delivering easy-to-use products. The morphs are organized and named to be easy to predict. Like LoRez Lorenzo and Loretta (Human LoRez figures), these dogs come so packed full of options, it'll quickly become the Go To pup time after time.
As if the figure isn't enough, he also includes some nice LoRez props, like a dog house, bed, food and water dishes and, of course, some toys and treats to keep our best friends happy! :)
LoRez Pigs comes with texture and morph variations to create Piglets, Pigs, Boars and Boar Piglets!
LoRez Crow can be a crow, raven or a rook complete with pose morph controls for the beak, feet, wings and tail.
LoRez Rat comes with an easy-pose tail and just the right morph dials to bring life to these wonderful little scavengers!
This low resolution cat figure will be a great addition to your scenes. It's very easy on resources coming in at only 2584 polygons, so it's possible to have many cats in one scene, or use one cat and know it's easy to load and render along with your higher resolution figures..
Kitten!
It comes with a number of morphs to control the mouth, tongue, eyes and ears, as well as several to shape the body and turn the cat into a small kitten. The tail is set up with EasyPose dials.
There are eight great cat textures plus eight separate eye texture options. There are fourteen poses and one tail pose.
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!
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