Blender Blenders assets free download site

[peppeppina]

Hey there, i'm a newbie to blender.
I was wondering if among you , someone knew some websites that collected 3d models, textures and other stuff for rendering that should be payed, but instead has that secret MEGA link that saves you 200 $. I know piracy shouldn't be the way, but sometimes when you just want to be a hobbist and learn from tutorials that use payed assets packs, would be nice if the nice internet could help you with that.
I also found several alternatives, like normal sites that offer you freebies. But as I know for other programs there is this possibility, maybe there is also for Blender

cheers!

 

[Papa Ernie]

Hey there, i'm a newbie to blender.
I was wondering if among you , someone knew some websites that collected 3d models, textures and other stuff for rendering that should be payed, but instead has that secret MEGA link that saves you 200 $. I know piracy shouldn't be the way, but sometimes when you just want to be a hobbist and learn from tutorials that use payed assets packs, would be nice if the nice internet could help you with that.
I also found several alternatives, like normal sites that offer you freebies. But as I know for other programs there is this possibility, maybe there is also for Blender

cheers!

A couple of these sites post Blender files: About F95zone and How to Find Game Assets on the Internet.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

for Safe for work stuff there is

You must be registered to see the links

huge collection (I think under new managment as of last week, since the previous creator is too busy)
fore not safe for work,

You must be registered to see the links

is the neat stuff (while some custom stuff, has SFM and Daz conversions as well, but only a year old site so only a dozen so pages)

are you using 2.8 or 2.79, 2.8 is easier to learn and now is officially out as of mid last week, I'm swapping over to it.

You must be registered to see the links

(for objects, enviorment, not people) here.
for HDRI world textures you can go

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(site was originally posted at these forums, neat fact )
Some stuff at blender market, but mostly paid for stuff, I also use CG trader and Turbo squid if I want to buy stuff.

if you go to the nsfw smut base, and use the very flexible build a bod file near the end of the list, it is very customizable, but it is actually a daz model exported with the default body shaping addon. So the character is uv mapped and has good topology, however, as far as I know blender uv mapping isn't nearly as good as Maya's and doesn't do characters very well, so I have swapped over to a workflow that uses paid for daz character and morphs to do the initial character design, and move everything to blender for its higher flexibility. as you may be able to guess, I am one of the more active blender users on these forums, or at least in the development sub sections. feel free to ask me any questions related to blender most other users use Daz, and I think Papa Ernie is one of the more pro daz users/guru, he's around here a lot. I mostly use daz for prototyping or if I want characters that are easier to swap in and out (avoiding topology issues from custom character models), many users will recommend using daz due to being easier and more about productivity, how it saves time to spend a bit of money, and while nothing is inherently bad or good, I know for a while I could not spend money so I explored options. Others with more experience like myself would say, continue with blender, if nothing else, it is one of the most powerful tools to keep under your belt if not for its amazing flexibility and ability to adjust and customize characters beyond any other program (I also find the animation system way easier and the rendering higher quality and in less time, and further modifications can further improve speeds).

Best of Luck

 

[Synx]

Just to add to Saki post.

I started creating a new character in blender without paying a dime (I just didnt wanted to spend money on learning a program as a hobby, not knowing how long I would be interested in it) a couple weeks ago, and should finish somewhere next week. I had some background in 3d programs from architectural view, but not much from character creating. This was my workflow/assets/tutorials followed. Its a bit long, but if creating characters is your goal, its a good base to start with.

I started with a Daz3d genesis8 base model. its pretty common to use that as a base model. Just going through some of the assets on the sites linked above, most of them seem to start with the same model. I followed a tutorial on how to import it, but honestly all you need to know from what was like a 30 min video was this:

Install DAZ, open it, load up the base genesis8 model (Left side click figures, genesis 8 starter essentials, figures again, generic 8 basic model), remove the eyelashes as they dont export nicely (right side open the genesis 8 female or male layer, and right click genesis 8 eyelashes and just remove then), change the resolution from HD to basic or the export mesh will be to large in blender (parameters at the right side, scroll down to resolution level), and then export it as an obj (make sure the axes are corresponding)

Import it and now you can start making your character. I would look up some basic meshing tutorial online (there are ton of them) to get the basics understanding. Some personal tips: Put on x-mirror why you are in edit in the tools (shortcut N), and add a subdivision modifier (look it up how to if you don't) to make your mesh look more smoother. I personal cut the model into pieces, which isnt completely necessary but can help if you got an old pc.

I created the genetelia myself, but I would highly advice you just to copy one from one of the free models on Sakis post. I didnt knew that site exited

After that I created the face stuff, like hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows. I deleted and created new eyes as well, but I dont know if thats really needed.

I followed this tutorial for the hair:

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And this one for the eyes (its really fast and I struggled to understand it, but the result is great and everything he uses is free and linked under the video):

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. Transparency settings has slightly changed in 2.8, and requires you to change the blend and shadow mode to alpha clip for both the eyes and the iris material, in the material settings of the eyes, and enabling screen space refraction for the eyes material as well in the same settings.

After that I start sculpting in the small details (like wrinkles, pores, scars, pimples, etc. Very small details), which is required for texturing. To do this copy your whole mesh (not the eyes, hair, etc, just the base mesh), apply the subdivision modifier, go to edit mode, select everything and subdivide it a couple times so you get a stupid amount of faces. After that go to sculpt mode, and start sculpting. I would just look up some sclupting tutorials, which goes over all the basics. (I didn't really used any particular one, just picked up some stuff from all of them)

Then texturing the skin. I used this tutorial for this:

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. It requires you to have a low poly mesh, and an high poly sculpted one. Just follow the tutorial, its very clear and has great results in my opinion.

After that its rigging time. I think there is a way to export bones from Daz3d for the body, but honestly rigging the body is easy and pretty fast in blender. Just follow this tutorial:

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. The addon used in that tutorial has been updated in 2.8 to include face bones, but they dont really work at the moment so remove them.

Face rigging is a completely different story though, and its prob the hardest part to do. I'm halfway through this, following part 15, 16, and 17 of the same tutorial used for the body rigging.

And that's it for a naked, fully textured, fully rigged character. I havent started with clothes though, which properly takes much longer then I hope it does .

Edit: this doesn't take several weeks btw, I fucked around a lot, especially early on. I think if I streamline everything, I would be able to do in 30-40 hours. And if I understand how blender works, you can somewhat easily just change the mesh to a completely new character, as long as you don't add or remove parts (just change the shape of your existing mesh)

 

[peppeppina]

Guys thanks so much for the support ! I'm not a noob to daz, even tho I used it always as a hobby, and I think I have to learn the work flow from daz to blender well. For example , except the basic mesh, would you export the textures from daz or create new ones in a separate program, or In blender ?
I will check the hair tutorial ! Thanks for that one , unfortunately now I can't access my studio, cause is in a different house than my hometown , where my pc isn't that good , but in few days I'll give it a go !
Also what about clothes? Do you export it from daz? And how do you attach them to the mesh in blender?
And last question : is it possible and how do you create sliders for bodies in blender? So when I find a nice preset is easy to modify

Guys thanks so much for the support! And if you have any of your work online or you just wanna send me in private I'd like to check it out

 

[Synx]

I didnt export the textures from Daz, for the simple reason I had zero experience with Daz. I had no idea how to change them, and honestly wasn't interested in learning it. I created textures from scratch in blender with photoshop support (you can use the free program GIMP instead) using the tutorial I linked above. It was easier then I expected, and it looks pretty much the same as Daz texture, but with much more flexibility for like small imperfections, which really makes a large difference in realism. What the tutorial explains is how to create the different maps (like pictures you plant on your model) from your mesh.

Clothes you can export from Daz for sure. You would just need to scale them to your changed mesh, but its not much of a problem. Another option is just making your own. Especially simple shirts, jeans, etc. are pretty easy to do. Just select the part of your mesh that matches the shape of the clothing your making, duplicate it (shift - D), separate it to its own object (P), and scale it up a bit. Then remove some of the body details you wouldn't see in the cloth (like nipples, abs muscles, little crooks, etc), maybe add some details (like sowing edges), and you got a cloth piece. For textures Blender 2.8 actually got a pretty great inbuilt texture library, which has 60+ different cloth fabric texture, most of them easy customizable. You just got to enable it in the Edit - preferences - addons menu. Its called blenderkit

Applying to your mesh is easy as well. You just link it to the same rig you used for your body (the bones in your body that allow you to change poses), and copy the weight values (what part of your body is affected by each bone in your rig) from your mesh to the clothes. The result is your clothing will always follow your body changes. This tutorial explained it pretty well:

You must be registered to see the links

. For lose clothing (dresses, scarf) there are ways to simulate cloth movement when you move your mesh around. This might be interesting to dive in if you want to make animation in the long run, to create natural flowing cloths.

I think its possible to create sliders, but I have no idea how. But I dont think you really need too. Those sliders in DAZ changes the form of the body, by altering the shape/size/place of all the faces the body consist out. In DAZ you cannot change them yourself without those sliders. In blender you can. So if you for example you wanted to increase the hips wide a bit, you would just select the faces that make up the hips, and make them bigger. No need to make a bunch of fancy sliders.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

would you export the textures from daz or create new ones in a separate program, or In blender ?

If you have daz, I recommend exporting as fbx "binary" and automatically in the right side column there should be a checkmark for textures included. There will also be a check mark for make clothes static, this may need to be turn off. But yeah, you can export texture, clothes, and shapes (mostly).

There are two main issues, however. you lose automation and organization.

Automation: so in daz there are two things automated that you will have to do by hand in blender (or make animated). Posing the character, if you raise or lower the arms, you will notice that it looks good and smooth, the arms rotate in a way that makes sense, you can not break the model by making the arms bend strange. If you rais the arms, not only do the arms twist naturally, but the shoulders lift up. the arms and shoulder are two different bones that control the mesh. when you load into blender you only get the mesh, textures, and raw armature rig. the rig will not have any automation, so you can lift the arm and the shoulders will stay put, the arms will not automatically twist to be natural and you can easily bend joints the wrong way (backward knees), not only that but you will also see some other strang thing, joints that bend do not look quite right. This has to do with the second thing that is automated.

when you use an armature rig to deform the mesh to move things around an animate, they are very simple, they move vertexes around using linear techniques, you are not acutally moving flesh over muscle and bone (specialized programs however do focus on doing this), so what happens is the joints do not deform like real life. now you can fix this with smart weight painting, and the Daz team did an excellent job, however, it is not enough. To really make joints look natural without having to run an expensive program or simulation, you can use what are called corrective morphs. these are like, re sculpting the knees to look natural after being bent, and then automating it so that the morph is applied when ever the knee is bent. Daz uses this all the time, and you can even buy better morph packs from their store, however, with blender, not only do you have to export them all (type in the name of the morph and add it to the fbx exporter list) which there are upwards of more than 100, but they are no longer automated, you would need to set that up. (same for clothes, dresses will tear apart because they heavily relay on corrective morphs.

now you could be crazy and try to export all the morphs and corrective morphs but then there is the next issue. Daz is well organize, however, blender is not. everything gets thrown into a section called shape keys. so you have to scroll through well over 100 to 200 sliders to tweak the model. you could write code to make an interface but then you are just remaking daz, so why not just do most of it in daz.

another issue is that, in daz when you reshape it can also rescale things (bones), but this kind of shaping does not work in blender (atleast not with a simple slider right out of the box every time).

prototype basic models in daz, use the free stuff, port to blender.

if say, you resculpt the character a bit, and want to save the shape as a slider in daz, you can, (so long as you did not delete or add any vertexes in edit mode, just reshape the mesh don't edit the mesh).

export an fbx of the default daz character (male or female). export the base character you want to start with and import to blender, reshape in blender.

when you are ready, import the default character and reimport a clean version of the base character. on the default mesh, you want to do join as shape for both models, both the base character shape and the reshaped character shape. If you apply the reshape and subtract the initial clean character base, what you get is your sculpting, applied to the shape of the default geneses body. you need it to be applied to the default mesh for this to work, you can then export the reshaped default and import it back in as a new morph in daz. Or atleast that is the idea, it took several tutorials for me to learn this process and it would be an easy essay to write, but I'm not up for writing said essay.

 

[peppeppina]

Thanks so much guys! I'm getting to understand it ! Then probably best is try this advices and later on when I meet some difficulty I can check some tutorials !

Btw would be nice to see some of your work if you have so I can get an idea of what you can do with blender

 

[Synx]

Sure. This is a fast render of the char I'm working on at the moment. Still fussing around with the skin a bit, and the eyelashes, eyebrows + eyes need some work, but overall pretty happy with it so far. Especially the hair came out nice.

Spoiler: Image

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[Saki_Sliz]

here is some of my earlier blender stuff before I started to play with daz
https://f95zone.to/threads/blender-vs-daz3d-whats-best-for-you.25357/ (an unfinished article but neat discussion piece)
it takes a while to load in the 3 images (most of them here).

there is of course my profile pic, a robot like girl (the room from blend swap), and I have other stuff I am working on currently as well. I like the blender system so much, I use it for 2D animating as well, similar to Live2D (most of my examples are with other art however that I can't really show off)

as well as I reccomend checking out this brief about lighting https://f95zone.to/threads/core-con...-the-3-point-light-system.29149/#post-1826291

Also, for posing, it helps not to have the camera pointed at the character, but to the side, you'll notice I did this with most of my images.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

OH right, 2.8 came out last week, or 2 weeks ago such excite!

 

[peppeppina]

Nice that's so cool guys thank you! Yes I am learning 2.8 ! I'm getting the hang of it and honestly I'm getting really addicted to the pbr world :O hopefully I can sooner or later make a nice pbr character ! That would be my goal !
I'm not sure if in daz you can also do PBRs !

And I got interested in blender also Cause my daz renders , even if I'm careful with the lights, always look quite flat if I insert the character in an environment... Whilst with blender my environment look always more deep and I feel is more versatile! I know this has nothing to do with pbr. But do you have any raccomendations also for daz tutorials or articles that talk well about the render engine and how to make nice renders or so ? Not only the light but also cameras, effects, post production and stuff like that ? Maybe I'm asking for too much but maybe it exists

 

[Saki_Sliz]

So daz by default uses Iray, made by Nvidia, whereas blender use cycles. these are the names of the rendering engines. Iray has become the industry standard for ray tracing, but that does not mean it is good or the best. from what reports and test I can find, iray is designed for speed and designed to be used everywhere. it is a pbr system, used in programs such as substance painter, the go to tool for most texture creation, such as for game worlds and stuff, trees, objects, even characters. it generates the albedo, normal, and other maps needed for game engines and pbr engines. However, as I said, iray is not the best. I have seen some reports and test that show that there are engines that perform better, either offering better render times, or better quality with more time, or in the case of cycle, better quality given the same time. What may be the issue you are having is the LUT, look up tables. blender uses the 'filmic' look up table which accurately accounts for a wide range of light intensities, however, iray being more game oriented and more streamlined, uses the standard 8 f stop mathmatics that comes with our current color resolution (16 bits color data for high-quality images) to help make the engine speedy and even real time in certain applications, but it means bad light sensitivity. f stops is a measurement of light sensitivity, or the range of light you can handle. a shity disposable camera is 12, a good camera may be upwards of 24 f stops, and the human eye, because it can adapt to dark rooms or bright outsides, is about a 32 (no camera can compete with this, but high dynamic range imaging techniques could handle this), so iray f stop is worst than the cheapest camera due to how it limits itself when calcualating light, blender's cycle engine had the same issue until the filmic LUT was made, and I am sure other engines for daz also hold similar work arounds (the lut table can allow for better f stops to better replicate the image) such as octane ore some other graphics engine for daz. So looking for other engines may be the solution, but as I currently understand things, cycles is the more powerful engine than the default daz iray, able to produce better quality in the same amount of time. plus I speed things up by only allowing rays to bounce 3 times, and limiting indirect bounce intensity to 5(dark rooms, a bit less noise) or to 0.1 (bright situations, no noise), I think daz denoiser may still be in the beta builds only, while blender's has been around for a while and improved). I also use branch path rendering to improve the shadow quality of the art work so it is less harsh. but it is exponentially much more work, I limit myself to 3 branches per bounce (with three light bounce) at 200 AA samples, so that is already about 1800 samples per pixel, whereas with just normal path tracing, a sample rating of 120 is usually good enough for no noise. I also find, the more light sources you have, the more samples you need to better reach the target. so about 60 samples per light source. and more if you are doing low light situations (think bed room being lit up only by the light from the hallway that slips under the door). I would give you some good settings to try, but it really depends on the style you are going for, such as for the big hero 6 movie to get the ambiance they wanted with soft lighting they had to do 25 bounces to get the indirect lighting to be as strong as they wanted, but took hours to render a frame. I tend to go for 3 styles, realistic, pixar, and graphical (kind drawn like). you can kinda see realistic and my graphical, but I havent done much with my pixar like style, but you can kinda get a sense of it with the image of the red head. but different render settings help with speed and style. If it helps, I do have a skin shader you can use. the idea of it is so that you can have skin without having any textures, just a skin color, and it auto generates the normal map texture, freckles, blemishes, subsurface blood, etc. but it is for 2.79b and I need to update it to 2.8. but it also enhances current textures, however, I need to rework the style of it, make it simpler. Actually, the image of the girl with the red hair was my initial test subject for this skin shader. But now adays I use a newer technique that looks about the same and runs faster, but doesn't have as many features. I think I just went on a ramble not sure what point I was trying to make with all this.