Points To Note When Using Vroid Studio Figures In Poser

Vroid Studio anime-style avatars may be exported in OBJ format. Using a geometry editor, I split the unjoined parts apart, and found that the hair, The clothes and shoes, and the figure may all be separated. They are very low-poly, so I suggest that after importing into Poser, use subdividision on the geometry.

Furthermore, the material zones for the imported OBJ Vroid figure are designated as numbers while the bodyparts are name. It is therefore not immediately obvious as to which part of the figure they belong to.

I have figured that out. Here is the reference:

2021 January 22 - Adapting T-pose clothing for Apollo Maximus Figure in Poser

Specifically, T-pose Dynamic Clothing with sleeves in Poser 12 (will probably work with Poser 11 as well).

Most Poser Figures come in T-pose as default. The indie-developed Apollo Maximus figure, was at launch in 2005 pretty advance technology for its time. However, his default pose not a T-pose, but a "Gimme Me A Hug" pose. My work-around is to use the Poser Low Resolution Male.

1) Load Apollo Maximus. Zero the figure. This should be in Frame Zero of the animation time-line

2) Load Poser Lo Res Male. Zero the figure. This should also be in Frame Zero.

3) In the last frame of the 30-frame animation timeline (the Poser default), Pose the arms of the Lo Res Male to approximate Apollo's arms.

4) Load the Dynamic Clothing Prop and adjust it to fit the Lo Res Male in T-pose. Drape and simulate to Frame 30. The clothing prop will now approximate the Apollo figure's arm pose.

5) Apply Morph Brush to pull out cloth prop away from the Apollo figure, if there are poke-throughs.

6) Export the clothing prop at frame 30 and only as a single frame.

7) Import the saved OBJ and adjust to Apollo figure in Frame 1, if necessary. You may now run a new simulation using Apollo and the clothing.

8) Don't forget to save the Frame 1 of the imported adjusted clothing prop to your Prop Library.

Getting an anime-style palette for 3D rendered images

2021 February 27

I tried various methods to achieve an anime-style colur palette for my 3D CG renders in Poser software and in Daz Studio Pro. Of course these are software with photorealistic render engines. One may also use a limited toon-style render, which is not what I want. Neither do I want to use shaders to achieve a celshaded appearance. My objective is to get a result like the Anime Lightroom Presets. It is quite difficult to edit the colour and tone of the rendered image using RawTherapy, or DarkTable. I only use Lightroom on my mobile device, and I find moving the rendered images from PC to mobile device a clumsy operation. I found a way using Krita software.

In Krita, there is an option under filters called Colour | Colour Transfer. Krita asks the user to select a reference image and it will transfer the colour style over to the image being edited. So basically, I make a copy or screengrab of an anime image for colour reference, and apply this procedure to my rendered image.

Update 2021 February 27

I found that GIMP can do colour transfers using G'MIC plug in. The results are less than satisfactory.

I also found a Youtube video by Davis Media Design which provides detailed instructions on how to transfer Colour Grading (not gradient) fromone image to another. It seems like a suitable approach but it has many steps and part of the relies on user judgment in picking up highlights and mid-tones. The URL for the video is: https://youtu.be/8oZ5xOegS-s

Photomanipulation for Anime Colour Tones Using iOS apps

My notes

2021 March 06

My primary mode of showing images I create is online dsplay, and I do not need print-image quality file sizes. Also, many computer screens around the planet are calibrated differently; although professional-use monitors have high standards, but monitors used by casual viewers may be vary in calibration. I threfore do the best I can with my own equipment and software.

Recently, I have returned to photomanipulation of my 3D renders and photographed images. My PC-based staples are Clip Studio Paint EX, GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape (and less frequently, Paint dot net and Alpaca). I not some Artificial Intelligence-enabled colour style transfer functions appearing in Clip Studio Paint, Krita and GIMP. The results still require adjustment.

I have explored iOS apps for achieveing the same purpose. I have found that iBisPaint X works as a downstream pipeline solution for my 3D rendered images. As for manipulating images from real camera, the Foodie app and Lightroom app appear to have been used by others to create Anime Style recipes or presets (the respective nomenclature for each app).

I learned how to import 3rd-party Anime Style Preset DNGs into the iOS Lightroom and how to use install them. I also learned how to manually replicate them from instructional YouTube videos.

As for 3rd-party Foodie recipes, most of the Anime Style ones are published as images from which to manually copy the changes in values to the various controls in the app.

After playing around with settings, recipes, presets and individual cotrols, I observe that for the Foodie app, the reason why all the so-called Anime Style "recipes" always produce an orange-y tinge, is because there is no control for pink. In comparison, LightRoom app on iOS has a pink colour control, which makes it much better for creating anime colour styles.

There is a quick way to make anime-style photo manipulations if you use Remini and PicsArt apps, but may I mention that there is a limit on image size for PicsArt, and output image quality is limited in the free version. Remini may be replaced by any app that can make a pinterly version of your image, but anyway, I will simply note this here as an alternative but will not use it myself. (Do a Youtube search for a video with this title: PicsArt ANIME STYLE EFFECT | Editing Tutorial Video | QUICK EDIT In PicsArt).

Update 1: I found a 5-step image manipulation procedure by Kyoshiro Studio (Japanese video tutorial).

https://youtu.be/QtO3D2D4Tz8

This is by a Japanese illustrator. No over-painting is required, but you willl still need a good eye because a lot of decisions are based on judgement. It is a 5-step technique for photomanipulation to create anime-style scenes. You need to enable English subtitles in Youtube, because this video is in Japanese. Creator says GIMP would work if you don't have PS.

Update 2: I found a Youtube tutorial by Bricoleur, a Shibuya-based professional studio currently under re-organisation as part of a larger data analytics company. (They produced this tutorial but artistic folk still complained it was too difficult to follow. In response, they made a commercial PS Action which automates 70-80 % of the image manipulation from photo to anime style image.)

https://youtu.be/udlOU2GiIJk

So, back to image manipulation. Often, additional over-painting of the manipulated images is done - but that's not my purpose, because I make no claim to be an anime background painting specialist.

Increasingly, 3D CG backgrounds are being used within rendered sequences. A static painted or photomanipulated background may no longer suffice. The anime production studios GoHands and Polygon Pictures have made some pretty credible 3D CG anime series. Many of their scenes are 3D. Please see Scar On The Praeter by GoHands, and Pacific Rim The Black by Polygon Pictures.