Free 3D Modeling Progams - Great to use with Xara

[Gare]

Fortunately, I don't think there's an Administrator on tg anymore, so I'm going way O/T here.

One of the things I go on about in books is using not one, but several different programs when an inventive solution is needed to visualize something you have in your head. Although the programmers have really stretched the bounds of what a vector drawing program should be able to do with a bitmap image, I think you still need a good bitmap editor every once in a while, even when your work is all vector-based.

Here's a gem of a shareware program ArtWeaver Free. The thing is almost literally Photoshop version 5. And it has two important functions: Threshold and Posterize, under Image|Adjustments.

Now, Barb started this thread with my encouragement (because "free" is a good software price, and these apps don't compete with Xara), so I thought it would be logical for her worser half to pick up the mantle...which is in our living room at the moment.

I created this image by first loading a character in DazStudio and rendering it. I took the render into ArtWeaver and selectively posterized areas so it took on a comic strip-like tone. This was deliberate, this is what I wanted from my approach. I then used Xara's Bitmap Tracer, did a lot of cleaning up...because so far, it's been the programs and not the artist creating this, and here is an approach to working with anatomy in Xara, starting with your free application.



The point is you choose the shortest distance to achieving your artistic goal by working between applications, and then you have more time for pure experimentation. And even if you choose not to use the vector conversion itself, I think a posterized copy of an anatomic pose lends itself to learning a lot about the shading and lighting of the human body.

My Best,

Gary

[guyke]

I downloaded the Daz3D files, but can't install them. They all have weird filenames like DAZStudio_4.0.3.47_Win64[1], BryceProContent_7.0.0.19_Win[1], Hexagon_2.5.1.79_Win32[1]. Where did I go wrong, as i see that other people apparently have no trouble downloading and installing...

[Gare]

I'm really going out a limb here politically, guyke. I don't really want to support DAZ products on TalkGraphics, a Xara-run forum, but here goes anyway, just this once ():

Your web browser might not have saved the files with the correct names. For example, if the Bryce content folder is 668,116, you did indeed download it but either your browser has stripped of hidden the file extension. Go to Control Panel, Folder Options, View first of all. *Hide Extensions for known file types* should be unchecked.



If an *.exe doesn't appear now for your download files, click to select the file name and then click to edit it, and they type ".exe" (without my quote marks!) at the end to label the property if the file.

If still no go, try a different browser, download to a different location, eh?

Sorry for this pause in Xara programming, folks!

—Gary

[guyke]

Thanks Gary, I had to add the extension manually, but then it worked.

[ankhor]

guyke, I had the same problem, right clicked on the icon, looked at properties and yes, blocked, so I undid the block.
renamed it with .exe on the end and it went fine after that. it had a mesage like "file is coming from a different computer, so it is blocked."
and I pressed the unblock button, but that didn`t do anything actually, which is weird, also that you got no message stating that a file was blocked. Ah wel, windows, that explains it all.

And Gare, I use my little toes for that it seems, my shins are usually fine.

[InfoCentral]

...I am happy with my virtual manikins for creating illustrations with Xara.

Actually that is what it started out as being with Poser. They keep a version alive for a while called Poser Artist for Artist who didn't care about the animation part and only wanted the digital posing manikin. DAZ originally only sold content to be used in Poser but around version 4 they had a big clash about slow development and licensing restrictions placed on the EULA. DAZ stated they were going to develop their own replacement and it would be FREE. They eventually started charging for what they call advanced and pro versions but they remained true to their word and always maintained a FREE version. Soon afterward they starting purchasing software and thus you have DAZ: Hexagon, Carrara, and Bryce.