With your donation, Marcel, I was able to get my hands on this Amazing pack by Josh Darling and DimensionTheory!

VDB Essentials - Prep and Animate Bundle is an Incredible setup!

For starters, it's a special (and very convenient) new shader set up especially for the realization of animated VDBs within Daz Studio.

A special Wizard is included to guide us through loading VDB sets from our own collections in a step-by-step process, taking the guess work and learning curve out completely.

Next, that main pack comes with a great set of VDB files to get our feet wet with as easy-to-load presets! Just double click and they're ready to place, scale, and render!

The next two packs are from the author of the example VDBs that come with the main pack - the master of it all: DimensionTheory!!!

Both Wind and Fire packs come in this awesome bundle - I'm So Excited!!!

A Labor of Love!

It's truly incredible to look back on January 2025 and see how hard I've worked and how much sleep I've lost creating the content that it took to put this massive Creative Cart episode together - all of them, actually!

I'd like to go back and resource all of the materials I've created for each of the episodes and put together additional videos for each episode, as well as to create videos containing the content from all of them - perhaps also an Anniversary Edition video - stuff like that.

This month's promo videos and episode materials were really tough.

Daz Studio updates have made it impossible to render the full animation sequences all the way through. They'd render quickly, but after 200 frames or somewhere thereabouts (different every time) Iray would drop Cuda, which means that it would no longer use the Graphics card!

So I would either stay awake (not always intentionally) to babysit the renders, or I'd wake up after just a few short hours to restart Daz Studio and start the render again.

As if that wasn't enough of a burden, I didn't find out until two or three days before the show that my screen capture software appeared to capture everything that I did on screen, but then the file would show that it is way too short to have actually done so. Sure enough, vital parts of the performance were not recorded! So I ended up using Windows 11's Snippet tool, which actually works very well!

If any of the above sounds like a complaint - I must have said it wrongly.

These were roadblocks that made the creation of the episode very tough - but it didn't take away from the Rush I get from making these things - not in the Slightest!!!

I was overjoyed that I thought to include PD Howler into the show - for that is my Go-To software for editing and creating texture maps. I hope to show more of that process in future episodes as well!

It's -7F where Slater and I live today, with a windchill dropping lower than -30F, so it was the perfect opportunity to begin this adventure with this most recent of the Creative Cart episodes - whose materials are still hot-off-the-press!

Please enjoy this fun video including several snippets from the show, the stitching together of two of the storylines hinted at in the two promo videos (Rosie's endless loop of genre teleportation - this time via The DigiVault's Project Eden), and some animation renders and music that were made specifically for Episode 010, but didn't make it into either the show or the promo videos.

This truly is a Labor of Love, and I have Paul Bussey at Digital Art Live to Thank for All of This!!!

Thank You Paul!!!

Digging into Cascadeur

I've been dreaming about this software since I first heard about it and started looking into it.

(Special Thanks to Crosswind, for making me aware of it!!! Thanks, my friend!!!)

Well now I (finally) have the Pro version, which allows me to export directly to Daz Studio!

Even with limited-to-no time available these days, I absolutely had to start testing the waters and get a feel for the workflow - and it's Awesome!!!

Animating with Cascadeur

The Numerology of Color

Martha Delancey

PRINTED IN FULL COLOR!

Open your eyes to the wonders of color numerology and see the world around you in an entirely new light!

Includes:

• How to Attune Yourself to the Color of the Day

• Color Profile Pages for Each Color-Number:

• days of the month

• month of the year

• precious stones

• pigments & dyes

• symbolic flower

• musical note

• goes-with-anything hue

• key food

• Common Foods for Every Number and Color

• Harmonious Meal Ideas for Each Color-Number

• Common Edible Flowers

• Color Swatches

• Harmonious Color Combinations

• Color Chords: Musical Chords Illustrated in Color

• The Fibonacci Sequence and Lucas Numbers Illustrated in Color

The pages within are enchanted portals that offer boundless possibilities for the curious mind. Kindle the fires of imagination, conjure a kaleidoscope of possibilities, and discover the universal flow of creative energy embodied in the wonders of color numerology.

Licensed to Sell

Laura Paisley Beck

Agent life is dangerous. Disasters at every turn! You, as Agent Jones, must navigate many ethical dilemmas. 

Spy suspicions. Tasty temptations. Fraud feelers. Smarmy marketing strategies. Alluring acronyms like ENM. Itchy investigations. Heavy happy hours. Perilous puns. And so much more! 

In a world where business consultants must master ethical decision-making, you, Agent Quinn Jones, are a local insurance agent acting like a secret agent. You seek a fantasy life, but you must overcome a conniving client, mysterious adversaries, and your own mental health problems to succeed. So which is it, Agent Jones? 

Are you going to land on your feet, supremely successful and on top of your lover? Or will your life self-destruct? The journey is yours. Licensed to Sell is an Interchangeable Action Novel© – a page-jumping collection of bedtime stories for adults with multiple endings. 

Many stories are inspired by Beck’s decades of award-winning sales experience in various Midwest industries. Others, her imagination runs wild. Immerse yourself in your own empathy and inclusive perspectives within the tangled tales of this gender neutral novel. Add Licensed to Sell to your stack of must-read books today! 

PRAISE FOR License To Sell 

“A truly original romp through an absurd, hilarious, imaginative, sexpositive, sales-positive world set in the surreal American business landscape. Beautifully and humorously written in bite-sized chapters that split into a million paths - it’s a million novels in one. In my opinion, an original work of genius.” - Barry Wayne Callen, author and recovering ad executive 

Slow Normals is always on the brink of new discoveries through music, circuit bending, and making music through circuit bending!

His music is quite unique and highly inspirational - and it's an absolute Blast when he releases something new to escape into!

Check it Out!

Slow Normals at Bandcamp

Here are some of his albums:

Dartanbeck's Amazing 2023 Year!!!

I had quite a year in 2023 - enough to deserve a commemorative page in celebration!

Join me on a tour through My 2023!

After a year like that, I'm hoping for an AMAZING 2024!!!

More Fun in the pages of Dartanbeck's Journey - CG Filmmaking

There's a Lot of exciting things going on in the world of Dartanbeck Animations right now so I try to break into my news thread when ever I can to report about all of this absolute Glee I'm feeling each day as I animate, simulate, and render my story elements.

Being a Daz + Member has its benefits - a Lot of them.

In a very short time with some Amazing back-to-back sales events, Daz + members can really score big without having to empty that pocketbook.

With just a few well-placed purchases it's amazing how much falls into place for next to nothing. I feel very fortunate because I don't have much of a budget at all. 

Daz + really helps out!

Difficulties with a dForce simulation? 

Try thinking outside the box - Get Simple

An article I've started as a thread in the Daz 3d forum so that you can ask questions and I can answer them. Or you can share your experiences as well.  

We can all learn and work together - which is a lot of fun and very rewarding!

I've been adding more dForce fix-it adventures to the thread. I think I might just keep that up - turn the thread into a nice 'dForce - Advice in Action' interactive Q&A/info spot. Like I said above, we can work together on this stuff if we need to.

click here to join the fun!

Special Thanks to Daz 3d!

Along with the newly revised Daz+ Experience and Daz+ Cloth Frenzy pages comes an updated and ready-to-grow Thanks to Daz 3d page, which again will become a lot more pages. 

After the generosity, patience and kindness they've given me over the Many Years I've been a Member, there simply isn't enough time, nor enough words to properly convey my appreciation to this Amazing Art Zone. So the least I can do is to sponsor:

Thanks to Daz 3d!!!

Finally getting my hands on Kibaretto's Beautiful Astromaster starship, I really wanted something different for its interior. The new supplemental Cockpit kit is Gorgeous. It really is. But it doesn't really fit with the look of any of the interiors I'd like to use for other parts of the ship. I already knew what I wanted, so it went together like a dream!

One of my very first purchases at Daz 3d, when I bought Carrara, was Kibaretto's Commander - Starship Interior Solution.

This has been my favorite starship bridge to date, although I do like many others as well. 

I could tell before getting Astromaster that it was going to be considerably smaller than the Massive Commander, so I was thinking I'd use the Geometry Editor to carve parts away and move stuff around a bit. You know... having fun with a good ol' kit bash!

I think my life has changed permanently now. MeshGrabber is such a blessing for Daz Studio. I can't thank ManFriday enough for creating this amazing tool! 

I'm usually using MeshGrabber on cloth and making corrections to hair simulations - which it's amazing for, by the way - but this time I had to be careful... symmetrical. 

I took my time making my selections. Having two starships overlapping each other doesn't make selection processes easier. The really nice falloff adjustments for how the rest of the mesh behaves is fantastic. Several smoothing options for the falloff range too. Sweet.

Commander has these really cool corridors that lead out of the bridge deeper into our imagination - one on each side and another in the center. Above that center doorway is a balcony leading to the lift - again... imagination time. 

The main fuselage fit pretty darned nice right away, but the rear corners by those corridors stuck out just too far, so I trimmed them back a touch with Geometry Editor, but the cool Sci-Fi décor was able to stay - all of it!

Those three rear corridors are pretty long (Commander is an amazing setup!!!) so that was my first attack zone for MeshGrabber. Going back and forth with the falloff, I was able to shrink those corridors right down, which gives a really nice dimension to the Astro. Still a work-in-progress, the lift will take us up and out the airlock (which I'll have to make) and down to the lower deck.

It's my plan to use Petipet's Sci-Fi interiors (various collections) to stage events in other parts of the ship. Being three times larger now, AstroMaster (now Astro Commander) has some room for breathing. We can stage some long distance adventures with this thing - and so we shall!

Another early purchase of mine was Kibaretto's Star Carrier, which is equally as amazing. It's a massive launch bay, but there are all kinds of nooks and crannies throughout that are fully detailed and beautiful  - perfect for staging nearly anything. 

Rounding out the image is The DigiVault's Stardomes, which I've performed some Iray magic to. Check this out:

In the Surfaces pane, click the main texture map to see where it is in the list, then select None for Diffuse, and set the color to black.

Now load that map into the following: Translucency Color (first set Translucency Weight to 1.0), Gloss Color (probably don't need that one) and in Emission Color. 

Load a nice HDRI into Iray's Dome (I use JoeLeGecko's HDRI Photoshoot) and then blast the Emission Luminosity with a few extra zeros to bring up those levels until you get a good match for your Dome. I didn't make the dome visible in render, but I'm sure you could. It would certainly add to the background. 

The Digivault's Stardomes have some really nice options. I'm really glad I grabbed it. 

Then I did my color grading, motion blur and signature using Project Dogwaffle Howler. My goto for artistic 2D!

HDRI Photoshoot, by Joelegecko, is the lighting solution you see on most of my work over the past couple of years. He's a master, that's for sure. He's the one who does some of the best promo art we see at Daz 3d. 

This set has over twenty HDRI and their mirror, so some 46 or 48 HDRI altogether. There are a lot of HDRI packs out there, and I have quite a few. When it comes to rendering my characters (using an alpha (invisible) background for compositing over backplates layering in other elements along the way) I always use this. 

That dark blue and red from my Rosie 2023 Demo was almost always number 21 and its mirrored version. Rotate the dark to the front and let the light seep in over each shoulder - red contrasting to blue. Fun! I love number 21!!!

The medieval video that followed almost exclusively used 22. Right now Rosie 8 is enjoying quite a few, but her Base scene is set up with number 10, rotated to have a subtle bit of sunshine coming in from behind her on one side with a cool blue center, and a sunrise pink over the other shoulder. 

It's really fun because rotating the dome around gives a limitless supply of excellent character lighting - like my new starship! :)