To anyone using Daz content with Newtek Lightwave3D...
wolf359
Posts: 3,867
Hi
This is a general request to anyone who is importing Daz Characters into Newtek Lightwave for rendering (LW 11to LW2015)
How exactly are getting Daz/poser style transmaps to render
correctly??
I have tried every possible setting in the surface editor to no avail
the same problem persists with the hair from imported Iclone iclone
Characters via FBX or Alembic.
And yes ... I have already looked at youtube videos by
"Dreamlight" who uses Lightwave,
however IMHO,
he spends too much time in his vids
banging on about how Vicky4 is
"the greatest 3D character model ever created"
instead of explaining surface settings
Anyone here successfully rendering Transmapped hair in Lightwave
I would love to know how you are accomplishing this.
Thanks
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Comments
0 out specular and make transparency 100%
Hmm not working for me
merely makes the hair dissapear.
However thanks for the input nevertheless.
You can use either the clip map or a texture in the transparency channel. Try using the transparency channel. You have to click on the T, set projection to UV, set UV Map to your object UV. For Image, select (load image) and load the same transparency image that's in your "Cutout Opacity" texture DAZ Studio for the same surface. Click "use texture'. You may have to copy the texture and smooth it out some. For rendering, in your light properties, set Shadow Type to Ray Trace. In Render Globals, turn on Ray Trace Shadows.
https://www.lightwave3d.com/learn/article/transparency-map-tutorial-using-clip-maps/
When you export to FBX, you can combine your color and opacity textures together. You can then use this texture in the node editor. In theory, it should just work, but I can't get it to show up correctly in modeler. Maybe it renders correctly though. Not sure. I'll try again tomorrow.
Hi thanks
I shall give these settings a try.
After I finally complete my current film project,
I am looking to replace my aging version of Maxon C4D, with my
Lightwave 2015 as lightwave has much better built in VFX tools
and supports my .obj/MDD workflow from Daz & Iclone pro
however conversion of materials thus far has been a show stopper.
Really hoping to get this sorted before the years end.
I gave it a shot in 2015 and the OpenGL view is buggy. I installed 2018 and it's also buggy, but in an inconsistent way. It's very likely that it renders ok. I haven't tried it. But the OpenGL Texture view to work, you first need to turn on transparency and specular (if you use that) in the OpenGL settings (Edit/Display Options/GL tab). So if you export to FBX and you combine color and transparency, it should work. But it doesn't show up correctly. So I used node editor to send color to the color channel and alpha to the transparency channel. The color is fine. But the alpha is completely random. It usually just ignores it.
I have sent a bug report to Newtek. There's a nice built-in bug and feature request wizard in the app now.
However, if you don't combine transparancy with colour on export, you can load the transparency texture manually into surface editor in Lightwave and it'll show up correctly. You'll also have to add a transparency layer in the specular channel or the transparent areas will have glossiness.
I find you might have to blur the transparency maps in an image editing software if the hair renders to thin.
edit: Oh, and the GLSLShaders don't display correctly. It only shows up correctly with the new PBRGLSLShaders in 2018.
Thanks for taking the time mate
off to experiment.
I never really looks into lightwave before .So I went it checked it out its looks pretty good, lots of goodies to play with. but after checking the prices. @ $995 for a new customer even the 2015 version,.... wow they sure get alot for great software anymore
Good luck wolf I can't wait to see what you do with it
I rendered this in Lightwave today. I used transparency on the hair and some of the clothes. I also used clipmaps on the leaves in the tree and the ivy.
Go to https://eraldegold.deviantart.com/art/Wishing-Well-749596307 to see what I did.
Hi Ivy you have to put that $995 in perspective
of other alternatives with similar feature sets.
for less than $1000 USD I now have access to a
more Powerful hollywood film qualityVFX tool set than C4D has even today and as My 32 bit C4D is way too old for any upgrade pricing.( ten years)
I am looking at $3500 USD to move to the current release
of C4D and $700 per year to get upgrades without paying all over again
And light wave has a near realtime View port rendering engine that resolves even faster than Blender cycles no my system as opposed to C4D which is bloody horrible..nonexistant.
Thus my first year cost of new ownership of C4D R19-20 would be
$ 4200 USD and this excludes the cost of buying modern equivalents of all of the plugins I am using to fill long standing gaps in the C4D native VFX tool set.
I refuse to go the Autodesk rental scheme or Lie about having some fob of a student status to get the 3 year Student version of MOBU & Maya.
I already have a complete & portable Character animation solution
that includes cloth simulation,Lipsinc with Iclone Pro & Daz genesis.
Even a new person wanting to move up from Daz studio to pro
level Character animation and VFX and rendering. could today Spend
$250 USD for the complete Iclone Pro 7 /3Dxchange bundle
with full native Daz Genesis Support.
Add lightwave3D and have a complete Character& VFX solution for less than $1300 hundred dollars.
It is the most logical choice for a major core package update/ migration
For me going foward.
I do totally get where your coming from, I wasn't knocking it Wolf. I was just stating how much high end software is cloud usage is even more if you add up the cost over time.
As I'm just a hobby gal it would be over kill for me. so really it be a waste for me to buy something like maya or lightwave. for the simple animations i do. But for a real professional like yourself I can see the investment being more than worth it ..
I did work with Lightwave and it was great. But currently I'm going with Blender because it also has built-in sculpting tools and a very good camera tracking solver. Not to mention that EEVEE will bring real-time features similar to iClone. Actually I do some beta test for Thomas for the purpose of matching materials with DAZ Studio and the importer is really good in my opinion. It even imports G3F G8F JCMs and they work great. You may want to give Blender and the importer a try.
http://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/
Hi actually I am using a fork of Blender called
Blender for Artists based on 2.79b
https://www.bforartists.de
Much more user friendly like a traditional 3D application,
On the matter of the plugin you linked /mentioned
I personally have a different Philosphy than most (apparently) regarding using Daz figures in other programs
IMHO Daz inc has truly Perfected the way their figures function in their native Daz studio environment.
I mean specifically regarding posing, morphing, joint deformation and clothing loading /comforming morph following.
Have a look around the world of CG Characters and you will find no other 3D figure platform that has such complete functionality within their native program
.Not even Poser.
Much like the DaztoMaya plugin, I personally do not see the logic
in performing all of that labor essentially trying to rebuild a DAZ genesis rig in another program.
It makes NO sense to me.
Rebuilding the JCM's, the facial rig etc etc for the purposes having it in that other program.
.
separated from its native content library separated from its native transfer utility separated from its native morph loader, separated from its native HD Detail morphs,separated from its native Lipsinc options separated from its one click skin changing options etc etc
And in the end ...you still do not have a truly 100 percent genesis figure with all of the figure functionality you had in Daz studio,for ALL generations and genders..Not just the latest Females!!
Now yes,, I am Reallusion Iclone pro user.
however I only bring my genesis figures into the intermediery 3Dxchange application to recieve the high quality Imotion data
to be exported back to Daz studio and applied to my full function genesis figures.
Only then, do I Export them as Full res textured .obj files( driven to movement by MDD data ) to other environments(C4D,Lightwave
for final renders because none of Daz Studio Native render options are suitable for my animation purposes.
You were asking for a good material conversion so I thought Blender and the importer could help. Also I believe that being able to import a rigged character in Blender gives you much more flexibility than importing a baked vertex animation. But I also understand your points and if your workflow works for you then it's all that matters.
So I took the time to put in a high quality bug report to show exactly what was going with their OpenGL view. The response was "OpenGL is never something to bank on." (that's a direct quote) Issue Closed. Go figure. So you have to render it or use PBR or Viper or whatever they have these days for the preview.
edit: Just got a response after I sent a reply. They'll put it through for assessment.
double deleted
Well I seem to have gotton it sorted
Many thanks to @AlienRenders
and @Grafx Studio
For their kind assistance in chasing down what I was doing incorrectly.
which primarily was combining diffuse and trans upon export from DS
as well as not inverting the trans channel in the Lightwave surface editor. some refinements still needed however my migration from C4D
to Lightwave3D as render environment looks set to be
going forward .
Now onto figuring out how to add subsurface scattering
to my Daz skins with LW node editor.
Cheers
I'm not familiar with how to do SSS in 2015. There are three skin nodes/shaders that come with 2015 and it has inputs for scattering. You could try those. In 2018, they added all sorts of new materials with different surface attributes that show up directly in surface editor. They have one specifically for skin. This lets you set properties for two layers of skin. See here:
https://docs.lightwave3d.com/display/LW2018/Skin
BTW, thanks for making this thread. I actually learned a few things along the way. So I got some use of this too. :)
Be aware that some figures work mainly with translucency. That's different from sss. For example the G8F skin is based mainly on its translucency colors. We got to match translucency in the Blender plugin while matching sss seems hard. Mainly because of the interaction between translucency and sss and also because of the not documented sss chromatic mode. So if you're trying to convert materials please let me know if you find a good way to deal with this. Below is what I found if it may be useful.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/258271/looking-for-some-help-for-the-blender-plugin
Indeed, it seems no one in the "Pro" Lightwave online communities
are actually using Daz content and were of Zero help when I made my inquiries there, although I find a fairly large number of people in the C4D community ,on the CG society forums ,who use genesis models.
Thanks for the link Padone
Despite a recent amazing Discovery By @3Digit that we can transfer G1 animation to G3/G8 natively in Daz studio,
I am still primarily a G2 user however it seems I better take a closer look at the skins I have been using to check for this issue you have raised so I will report my findings regarding convert SSS.
There is a DAZ Mocap plugin at Liberty3D that will help you to tranfer Genesis 2 characters to Lightwave