Dream Light at UserGuide 1 4 April23

8/8/2019 Dream Light at UserGuide 1 4 April23

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User guide V1.5Last Revised April 23 2010

Copyright 2010, Dreamlight AB


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Copyright 2010, Dreamlight AB, Waldmar Belwon

You may not resell or give away this ebook or parts of it modified or non modifiedin any form, printed or digital or any other shape unless given a written permissionfrom Waldemar Belwon, Dreamlight AB.


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Features and Restrictions

Features:

- Maps an image sequence on any surface property such as diffuse, bump,displace, specular, opacity, reflection, refraction, ambient and normal

- Automatically loops an image sequence

- Generates output for the full animation or selected play range

- Shows a draft or rendered preview from any frame of the output animation

- Generates an output image sequence based on the render settings

- Stores / retrieves mapping information from the DAZ Studio scene file

Restrictions:

- Will not map from an AVI file or generate an AVI file

- Image sequences can only be played forward

- Image sequences MUST have the numbers AFTER the filename

- Will not save output parameters to the DAZ Studio scene (prefix, targetpath, etc.)

Usage Endless Possibilities

So, what can we do with the Animated Textures (AT) plug in? There are tons ofanimated / filmed video clips and loops that you can purchase or find for free. Forinstance, you can spice up your DAZ Studio scenes with animated rain, movingfog, animated water surface, explosions, animated skies, rain, gun fire, bullethits, missile trails, engine exhaust, holograms, tv screens, backgrounds and soon. You can also mix live footage with 3D graphics. For instance add an ufovehicle to a live footage of the Arizona desert. The possibilities are endless.

WorkflowThe AT plug in can be used at any time during your workflow. You can add newimage sequences and change the current ones. Note that you MUST renderusing the plug in render button in order to animate the surfaces.


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Why no AVI read / write function?Normally, video files are compressed, which generates loss of quality. The AVI

uncompressed format is great, but will often result in a large single file. Thiswould restrict your workflow, in case you need to re-render parts of theanimation. Also, rendering a 1000 frames long animation is risky, in case DAZStudio should crash or if you would encounter a power failure. Saving imagesequences is much safer, more flexible and offers better quality.

A video read / write functionality might be added in a future version of this plug in.

The User Interface

To open the AT window, head over to View -> Tabs -> Animated Textures. Thestandard window can be docked and moved around as any DAZ Studio window.The AT plug is divided in two tabs, Setup and Output.

The Setup Tab

In the top section of the tab, Scene surfaces, you simply select the surface you wantto adjust. All scene objects with their surfaces will be displayed here. Note that youcan only adjust one surface at a time.

The middle window Properties of selected surface will then show the standard DAZStudio surface properties. This window will ONLY show the mappable properties.

You can then simply assign a series of images to any mappable property, such as


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Diffuse Color and so on by clicking on the small triangle next to a property andbrowsing to the first image of any image sequence. In the example above, weveadded a JPG sequence to the Diffuse Color property.

As soon as you have chosen an image sequence for a surface property, it will thendisplay in the third window: Animated elements. In the example above, we can seethat the plane objects default surface Diffuse-Color property will be animated.

We can also see a direct response in the DAZ Studio main preview window to theright. And thats how easy this plug in is to use! You simply browse and select imagesand youre done! The plug in does all the work of tracking the number of frames in animage sequence, looping them and keeping track of what surfaces that are mapped.

Your only work is to map the surfaces you want animated!


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The Output Tab

Select range, is where you choose what part of your animation that you want torender. Timeline will simply render the entire timeline, while Play range will onlyrender the frames you selected using the DAZ Studio timeline play range function.

Output parameters is where you select your render output. First index will be the firstframe, Last index the final frame and Filename prefix simply the name of the file.Padding is how many digits you want in the frame numbers. Frame 25 with paddingset to 2 will be 25. And with 4 it would be 0025.

Extension sets the file type. Some of these parameters are automatically changed

when you alter the render range from the Select range section. You can not overridethe First and Last index. They are controlled by the Select range setting and the DAZStudio timeline.

In the Preview Scene you can view the entire filename (as selected in the Outputparameters). Below the filename is a timeline that you can scroll back and forth. It willautomatically preview the animation in the main DAZ Studio preview window. Notethat you can scrub the DAZ Studio timeline as well. You can also click on the Previewcurrent frame button to render a still frame in full quality.

The Create Animation section is where you enter the path to your render output andalso generate the animation itself, by clicking on the Create Animated Texturesanimation button. You can cancel the render at any time. At the bottom of the tab,you can find some additional scene information.


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A Typical Workflow

1. Obtain any video loop you want to use

2. Split the loop to an image sequence

3. In DAZ Studio, load your props and adjust the lighting.

4. Open the AT window.

5. Having the Setup Tab opened, select any surface from the list.

6. In the middle section, click on any arrow next to a surface property to browse for a

image sequence. Select the first image of the sequence.

7. If you want to add to several surface properties, repeat step 6. If you want tochange surface, repeat from step 5.

8. Open the Output tab of the AT plug in

9. Scroll the timeline in the center to preview your animation. In case youve gotseveral image sequences switching, please allow some time for DAZ Studio to loadthem at each frame. If youre not happy with your animation, head back to steps 5 / 6.

10. At the top of the Output Tab, enter the filename and choose a file format. Werecommend that you save in the BMP format to keep maximum quality. JPG will dofine in case youre ok with a slight amount of quality loss.

11. When youre ready to perform the final render, choose the destination folder in thecenter of the Output Tab and click on the Create AT Animation button.

12. While rendering, you can cancel at any time. You can also resume the render fromany frame(s), by selecting a play range in the DAZ Studio timeline and then selectingthe playrange setting in the AT plugins Output Tab.


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References

Heres a list of some useful links where you can find animated / filmed videos / loops:

www.istockphoto.com

www.footagefirm.com

http://www.detonationfilms.com/free_stuff.htm (Great quality effects, lots of free stuff)

www.pond5.com (amazing library of superior clips and loops. Over 334,000 clips)

www.showfootage.com

www.capitaldvstudio.com

www.motionloops.com (free clip each week for signing up to their newsletter)

www.digitaljuice.com (some loops for free)

www.magix.com (some loops for free)

www.animationsforvideo.com (some loops for free)

www.digitalhotcakes.com (one free loop per month for signing up to their newsletter)

Theres tons of similar sites out there, so use google and search for loops, video,animation, stock to find more.

Have fun!

AVI to Image Sequence Converter (and vice versa)

Since the plug in cant read AVI files yet, you need to convert your animated loops

into a sequence of images before using them in DAZ Studio. Heres where you canfind a free converters:

Video Mach:

http://download.cnet.com/VideoMach/3000-2194_4-10379917.html?tag=mncol

You can also use this software to convert an image sequence to a video file. The freeversion will add a logo during the first second or 30 frames.


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Video Converter 5.2.26:

http://download.cnet.com/1-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-10262951.html?tag=mncol

Video Converter has a trial mode that enables 50% of the video file to be convertedwithout a stamp.

More applications:

You can perform a search on your own at www.download.com to find additionalsoftware for extracting / merging / splitting images to / from video.

Editing software:

We recommend Sony Vegas PRO for editing. Sony also has a lite version, MovieStudio 9, which comes with a free 30 day trial. Its an outstanding high qualitysoftware with layers and effects well worth the price (around $55).

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudio


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Support & Links

Free Technical Supporthttp://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=2160832#2160832

Dreamlight Websitehttp://www.dream-lounge.com

Dreamlight 3D Club, DAZ Studio Online Training & Mentoringhttp://www.dream-lounge.com/dreamlight/dlc.htm

Dreamlight DAZ 3D storehttp://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/artistlist?artist=257762&_m=d

Credits:

Concept and Idea: Waldemar Belwon

Design: Waldemar Belwon / Attila Vamos

Coding: Attila Vamos

Copyright 2010, Dreamlight AB, Waldmar Belwon

You may not resell or give away this ebook or parts of it modified or non modified inany form, printed or digital or any other shape unless given a written permission fromWaldemar Belwon, Dreamlight AB.

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Dream Light at UserGuide 1 4 April23