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Tried a different approach to the foam. The geometry doesn't look as good, but at least the normals are correct. I need to declare this part of the project officially done so I can move on to something else.
Got latches and a thumbprint scanner. Just the straps left, and then I can start actually doing something with all this. I also need to check these textures under proper lighting at some point, to see if I've actually wasted all this time trying to build procedural textures.
The problem with being me is that I absolutely know that I'm doing this the hard way, but I am powerless to stop myself from continuing to pursue this path.
Textures aren't 100% there, but it's done enough that I can start setting it up for dynamics, and then finally actually animate the figure.
And here's what it took to make that case. See, Houdini is fun!
After banging my head against the wall trying to solve a problem that, if I'm being honest, didn't really need to be solved, I'm feeling pretty unmotivated to work on animations and am temporarily adjusting my focus. I've started shooting footage for a series I've wanted to start for a long time, going in-depth about language, especially as it relates to politics and current events.
Dipping my toes back into 3D by spending WAY too much time converting Chinatown to Arnold, even though I have no immediate plans for it. I did start building a scene with it, though, so I may post my first proper render in well over a year.
Oh, I'll check back in a year or so
Thanks for sharing, much of it reminds me of my struggles to convert stuff to 3DL PT shaders. I need proper heightmaps like the desert needs the rain lol, but most new sets seem to be basemaps, roughnessmaps and normalmaps...often coupled with suspect topology.
Great stuff
Thank you. That's actually a frustration I have with Stonemason sets: very few surfaces have more than base and normal/bump maps, and some surfaces don't even have a normal/bump.
Started working on a proper scene, so here's just some stage setting.
Reframed it, added DOF and played around with the settings to try to get more interesting bokeh but was ultimately unsuccessful, and added some light bloom.
I think what you are doing is so interesting @Gordig!!
I am loving all the amazing animations!!
Getting Cyberpunk Subway Station set up in Houdini with Karma, having to re-learn a bunch of Houdini's idiosyncracies.
Gordig,
Great work! As someone who's also in the bring-Daz-stuff-into-Software-XYZ-and-then-get-it-to-render-there movement, I'm urging you to keep at it. I understand the satisfaction that comes with that kind of work.
Cheers!
DS has been little more than a platform for getting Daz content into C4D and Houdini for a year or two now.
Unfortunately, there isn't a train to go with the Cyberpunk Subway Station, so here's an interior and exterior shot of Subway Tunnel Environment in Arnold, before again converting to Karma.
Got the train set up in Houdini, but I haven't quite worked out the formula for getting a clean render with the darker, moodier lighting I achieved in Arnold. The tunnel is suffering this weird bug where I can only get one section to appear in renders, even though the whole thing is visible in the viewport, but it's fully textured.
I'm clueless about Houdini, and this is the first I've ever heard of Arnold, but I love the moody subway renders!
A couple of years ago I watched a documentary about mysterious phenomena in the London Underground. It was really atmospheric with fun camera work, and your renders remind me of some of the shots from that.
Arnold is Autodesk's rendering engine, so anyone working in Maya or 3DS Max is probably rendering in Arnold, but it's also available for C4D, Houdini and others. It's my favorite rendering engine I've used so far, and I've tried quite a few.
The tragedy of those renders is that after several hours setting them up, they'll only be on camera for a couple seconds in the larger project I'm working on. I'll also have a moody limo render soon that fortunately will take up a bit more screen time.
Figured it was time to introduce the team:
4Syt - Elf decker. She's the de facto protagonist of this story, as probably evidenced by the fact that she's almost the only one I've named, despite dealing with these characters for quite a while. Due to trauma and survivors' guilt from losing her entire previous team on a run (as seen in Geeked), she insists that she's only a temporary member of the current team as she tries to remain distant. Despite this, her top-shelf decking skills make her an indispensable part of the team. She travels light (but don't worry, she's got subdermal armor to keep her safe) and doesn't like using a gun, so she relies on her incredible agility and cyberarm to incapacitate enemies.
Orc Adept. Haven't worked out too much about him yet
Human Shaman. An Amerindian, speaks with a heavy Central American accent, very serious, gruff and cynical. She's a wolf totem shaman, so if she gets injured, she'll go berserk on whoever's closest, even a teammate.
Human Rigger. Hispanic American, jokes around with the shaman a lot but also finds her a bit tiresome. Very jocular and easygoing but dedicated to his craft.
Orc Samurai. The heavy guns. Takes his immense size for granted to his own detriment, and it's a running joke that he will get wounded any time he goes on a run.
White Death - Dwarf sniper. I don't have plans for her beyond the initial mission, so she might just be a free agent. So named both for the irony and as an homage to Simo Häyhä.
I'm not worrying too much about textures here, since these all have been converted to different render engines at least once. Some clothing is subject to change.
Quick and dirty render of an incidental character, a crime boss who gives the team a mission. After all the time I spent setting up the limo, I'm not sure how usable it's going to be due to UV and scaling issues. I guess if I just hacked together my own upholstery I could make it work, because even after trying to make a usable UV map out of the seating, it still looks pretty gross.
Could you ellaborate on the matter of UV issues, please? Was the limo UV-mapped or did you do it after import? I'm just trying to picture all the rabbit holes I'll fall into, if and when I decide to expand my digital universe...
That subway car in Arnold looks fabulous, btw. Also, nice bunch of characters;)
I'm using Polish's Long Luxury Limo. This is what the UV of the upholstery looks like when I import it into Houdini:
And here it is after using Houdini's AutoUV SOP:
Neither is ideal, but the AutoUV makes it much less chaotic, and better results than the other SOPs I've tried. I could always manually UV it, but I would just about rather die. Somehow the section takes a material alright in DS, where the UV looks like this:
I haven't spent much time with it in DS, so I haven't tried other materials, but I can't see how it would work.
Thanks!
Tried a different method of fixing the UV, and figured out that what was bothering me was less the UV than the normals. Here it is again:
It's much more usable now from a texturing perspective, but it's still oddly shaped and sized, as if Polish at no point tried putting human figures in the limo to see how it looked.
Fantastic, Gordig! Wow!
I love what you've already got going, but justb so you know, this is the Subway Train for that Cyberpunk Subway Station.
My trip is very much the opposite of what you seem to be doing. I've been converting Daz content for more than ten years and just plain got tired of it - especially after I saw my first try with Iray without making any changes to the product (Tean Josie 8) at all. My jaw hit the floor.
But no... I'm not trying to sway you... quite the opposite. You do You - especially if it makes you feel good!
Wow. I had no idea that, even modeling is node-based in Houdini? Wow. I bet I'd love that! Unfortunately after checking it out, it's just too steep for me - at least right now. I simply cannot do "Non-Commercial Only" versions of software, so I tend to simply shy away before I get hooked into something I truly cannot afford.
Whereas I started with DS and Iray and grew increasingly tired of their limitations. It's faster to get a decent look in Iray, but I have so much more control over a node-based shader like Arnold.
EVERYTHING is a node in Houdini. There are a lot of benefits to that, but I would never deny that it's quite a learning curve. Someday I'll make those tutorials. And Houdini indie is only $269 a year (or $399 for two years), so it's pretty reasonably priced. I get that it's hard to compete with free, though.
That really is a great price for Indie. And node-based is such a powerful way to work - so fluid. Yes, it's hard to get used to at first, but it's so recyclable, repeatable and efficient. I absolutely Love Fusion, though I'm still pretty green with it. I can use it well enough, but 'knowing what to do' is where I need a lot more experience, which I'm now starting to get.
Arnold being yet another cost. There's no way I could put up with those horrible watermarks - even for a single day. It would kill me.
Daz Studio also has that free tier for OctaneRender. I really liked that a lot. But if the internet goes out, guess who can't render? Me. So that's when I started learning more about Iray and I've been really happy with it.
Truly though... Kudos to your massive and wonderful adventure!
Wonderful exploration, Amazing thread! I'm glad I found this! :)
After....less struggle than I was expecting, if I'm honest, I figured out how to bypass the problem of geografts not exporting properly, so now my yakuza guard can have her cyber arm without Houdini crashing every time I try to load it.