What 3D artist hasn’t had the desire to create a superhero? Either original or fan art can be fun; the problem has been that you have to create the textures for one of the bodysuits.
With DAZ 3D's DAZ Studio 4, there's a body model called Genius. The body allows you to create a superhero, and design either male or female human or no-human characters. That's a good start. DAZ 3D then released their 'Supersuit' with almost 300 material groups and lots of stock shaders. They also have several add-ons to help create superhero outfits. The suit alone should spark lots of ideas.
DAZ has released the Dynamic Supersuit Set 1 World's Finest. The set include a cape, cowl, hood and top.
Ripple and flow
What's great about the set is the fact that they use OptiTex’s dynamic cloth. This means if you have the OptiTex plug-in for DAZ Studio 4, you can make the cape ripple and flow when you create a superhero.
The minimum configuration is DAZ Studio 4.5 Pro and the OptiTex plug-in. You do not need the Supersuit, but the cape, cowl, hood and top are designed to work with it. DAZ also provides matching colour mats for the Supersuit.
Installation
Like all DAZ products, the cape is easy to install. I did have a hard time finding the Hide Ears option. Because I have a custom installation of my Runtime folders, I had to move the Hide Ears files to the folder where I have the Genesis body installed.
Here’s a quick rundown on how the cape and top are loaded:
- Highlight the generic Genesis body and load the body morph you want
- Load the Supersuit
- Select and hide the parts of the Supersuit you don’t want showing
- Load the cape you want
- Load the pants texture you want
- Set the dynamic cloth settings
- Add wind to move the cape away from the body
- Click Drape in the Dynamic Clothing tab to conform the cape and top
- You’re now ready to render
A tool for pros
This product is not for beginners. I found it takes a lot of playing around to get the top to fit correct. I had to spend several hours relearning how Dynamic Cloth works in DAZ Studio.
Be sure to watch the video they provide. The fit of the top and the ripple of the cape are rewarding once you master Dynamic Cloth.
Contributor: Russ Terrell
Russ Terrell is a 3D artist and designer.
