A new feature scheduled for DAZ Studio 4 is Inverse Kinematics. Definition; In 3D animation, a technique that provides automatic movement of objects. It allows elements of an object to be linked, such as the parts of an arm or leg, and causes them to move in a prescribed, realistic manner. This new tool allows a user to manipulate a figure with very realistic results. So if you begin to move the wrist, the elbow will follow before the shoulder begins to move. Each joint will move in a much more realistic fashion than in previous DAZ Studio releases. Included in the IK is the ability to pin a joint to hold it in position. This is a great new tool when creating animations and posing. You'll see a manipulation tool to rotate, translate and pin joints. This is found in the top left corner of the viewport when an IK joint is selected. This tool will be changing in the coming builds. We are updating the universal manipulator to work on each joint which will lessen mouse travel and improve your workflow. The IK tool can also be turned off so you can use previous methods of manipulation. See the video for an overview of this tool.
The Shape tool (beta) is a new and exciting way to navigate the morphs on a figure. Rather than trying to find the morphs from a list in the Parameters Tab, you can now select your figure, and go to the Shape Tab and select the morph group to modify, then simply hover your mouse over the rendered image to see the morphs applied at 100%, or you can select the slider at the bottom of the image to dial the exact percentage you need to apply. If that's not enough, then drag the center box over the morphs to blend between shapes. But that isn't all...you can also drag each shape down into a collector (similar to the puppeteer tool), add as many shapes as you need, then open that mixer to move the shapes and then blend between your shapes. This is a very fast and easy way to create unique shapes. We've prepared a video to show this new tool.
How to make a 3d Christmas tree using Wings3d, Photoshop and Daz|Studio.
Part 3 of 3 - Shaders/Materials and Rendering.
In this final part we show how we set up some simple material settings to give the illusion of pine needles on our simple, low poly Christmas tree model.
These settings are nowhere near perfect but we thought they might be useful to new users of Daz Studio. This gives a general overview of some of the shader settings and possibilities.
Part 2 of 3 - Texturing.
How to quickly make a 3d Christmas tree.
In this part we go through the making of simple Alpha/Transparency, Texture and Displacement maps using Adobe Photoshop.
