Visualising Depth of Field in Daz Studio (and other updates) (Patreon)

Hello supporters 😍

Today I have a couple of little updates for  you, the first one being a new early access clip in which I'll show you  a neat trick that lets us visualise the focal plane of our cameras in  Daz Studio. This will let us place the focus exactly where it needs to  be, no matter how our camera is pointing at the subject we frame up.  This is a slightly hidden feature in Daz Studio, thanks to CakeOne for  bringing this to my attention!

I have a German version of this video here.

It's  been a busy week, and I can't quite believe it's over already. Like  Perry Mason said back in 1965, "the person who invents 30 hour days will  be a rich man". Sounds like the Time Vacuum isn't a new phenomenon. I  got a lot done though, so I feel very fulfilled. Not every week is like  that: sometimes you work super hard, and there's nothing to really show  for it. I like having tangible things to point to. I'll spread those  "assets" out into several posts and just give you a quick overview of my  week in this post.

I've managed to hammer out the concept  and scene for the Daz mini series I mentioned last time. The idea is to  have a selection of products and a small "getting started" tutorial to  accompany them. Unlike the big Masterclass, this mini series is geared  towards brand new users, giving them a ready made scene as part of the  product. Rather than having to load each element separately, they get a  pre-built scene with dressed characters, lights, environment and  cameras, and I'll show them how to play with it. Like the "barefoot  dancer on steroids" (it's a default starter scene that comes with the  Starter Essentials). I'll also show how to build it from scratch so  users can create their own sequential story workflow. I'll share some  renders with you when they're ready.

It's a big responsibility to get this right, and I'll share it with you before I submit it (if I'm allowed to do that).

This  Saturday I'm planning an additional stream on the Daz channel at 4pm  EST, in which I want to build a custom Genesis 9 male character, as a  partner for Greta 9 whom we've made last Saturday. The stream is more of  a "fun surprise", so there wont' be an email announcement for it. Stop  by if you're free, I always have time for questions. Which reminds me, I  need to make a thumbnail for that stream after I post this.

Speaking  of the weekend, it looks like Daz have put the finishing touches on my  Masterclass landing page and it might get released next week! The plan  was to make it public before the Genesis 9 release, and since we're  running out of October, it may even happen over the weekend. I've  uploaded all episodes to the channel (in 4K), added a special YouTube  intro and outro, Julia added the thumbnails and descriptions, and the  public part is ready to roll. As soon as the Daz+ landing page is ready,  we'll hit the live button (that's where Part 2 and 3 will live, while  Part 1 will be free to view their YouTube channel). I'll see if we can  premiere the episodes next week, it's always fun to hang out and chat  while we watch things together.

Oh and before I forget: YouTube  rolled out an interesting new feature this week called Handles. Those  are unique across the platform and they make it easy to mention and  refer to channels. As an example, there are multiple channels called WP  Guru and Daz, and they all have unique (unmemorable) channel URLs. With  handles however, there's only one @WPguru and only one @Daz_3D. I made  sure to lock those in. Now I have a new channel URL that'll work in  addition to the old one. Observe please:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMhv8E4GMw6erC-9iiYtNFg (genuinely difficult to remember default URL)

https://youtube.com/TheWPguru (custom URL)

https://youtube.com/@WPguru (new snazzy handle URL)

The  other nice thing about Handles is that you can mention other channels  in titles, descriptions and community posts. If I wanted to shout out  one or Brian's or Roy's videos, I can now use the @ handle to notify  them of a mention, and viewers will get a handy dandy link to their  channels too.

That's it for now. I've managed to record  several videos that I'll share with you as soon as they're edited - some  by me, some by my new editor Ray. I really enjoy working as a team, and  it's fun to delegate tasks so we can all be more productive together.

Have a great weekend, thanks for reading, and I hope I'll see you next time 👋