Monday 20 January 2014

Easy 3D images: Alternatives to Daz Studio and Poser

by BBBen

AIF players are increasingly expecting images in AIF games. I don't personally think you need images to make a good AIF game even now, but a lot of aspiring authors might wish to do so but be put off by the challenge. While the creation of such images can be difficult, time consuming and expensive, there are some alternatives options out there that are actually very viable and (so far) not widely used. These are a few tips to get you started designing (hopefully good quality) 3D images for games without the trouble or potential expenses of making them in a 3D image design program like Daz Studio or Poser.

3D Sexvilla 2 or The Klub
The Klub

3D Sexvilla 2 is a game that allows the custom design of male and female sexual partners, and then putting them in scenes and situations that allow an extensive array of positions, outfits and certain other variables. The game allows you to take pictures, so you can use it to custom design characters for your AIF and then illustrate your game. The Klub is an illegally hacked and then extensively modded version of the game, which is distributed freely. I have to be honest – for the sake of your game you're probably better off going for the Klub, as it's got more content available and is more up to date. I will not, however, provide a link here to a pirated product, so if you want it you'll have to find it yourself. In addition to the Klub itself you'll want the additional content packs – at time of writing there was a mega content pack available that should give a lot of options.

I won't bother going into the process of using these programs as they are actually very easy to use, and you might as well play around with them and have some fun while you learn the ins and outs, so to speak.

Pros:
  • The biggest advantages to using one of these programs is that they are fundamentally designed to show sex. They come built in with a wide array of sexual positions, slutty clothing and...
  • The content works relatively well with unrealistically proportioned people. Note in the image above how the bikini tops actually fit the enormous breasts – it's actually hard to make that happen in a lot of programs.
  • Easy to use and quite fun.
  • Quick to get started.

Cons:
  • The program is quite limited in some respects. You're not going to have massive freedom of art design, and you can't create anything that looks truly spectacular.
  • It's great for designing pictures of busty bimbos getting pounded, but not so great for subtle storytelling.
  • Not all the pics look as good as the screenshots I've included – those are unusually good.
  • People might just say, "hey, that's a screenshot from 3D Sexvilla!" and then go off to play it themselves.
Also from the Klub – note that the character models are clipping through each other at a few points.

Skyrim and Oblivion
From Skyrim, with Caliente's Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition -CBBE-

For fantasy settings, believe it or not your best bet might be to actually set up scenes inside The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. You'll have to mod the games first, of course, but that's relatively easy and you'll find there's a whole range of pornographic mods for the games, as well as substantial graphical enhancements for Oblivion. It may seem odd that I include Oblivion here, as it's quite an old game now, but in fact there is so much high quality (and recent) content available for it in the modding community that it might actually be the better choice, at least for now. If you need further persuading that these games can be turned to the purpose of porn, take a look at this Oblivion video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreiOJ8M9Ms (Note: you need a number of mods to make that kind of thing happen). There's lots of this on Youtube if you just search for "oblivion bbb".

Pros:
  • Great for fantasy as there's lots of content already built in, and still all right for non-fantasy, as Oblivion in particular has a lot of outfits and some mods that suit a more modern setting.
  • Mods are free and not too hard to install.
  • Standards of quality can be quite high.

Cons:
  • Even more than the Klub, using these programs saps you of a lot of your own originality and railroads you along certain predefined lines.
  • Mods can still be hard to make work in the way you want.
  • You have to have the games, of course.
  • Not really suited to a non-fantasy setting, despite what I noted above.
  • People might just say "hey, that's a screenshot from Skyrim!"

From Oblivion, with HG EyeCandy Body

Mods you will need:
  • Naked character models for both males and females (presuming you want both).
  • Facial models (the base faces in Oblivion in particular were hideous).
  • Sexual poses/interactions (if we're doing this the easy way).
  • Outfits.
  • Hi-res textures (optional – watch out, some of these can be surprisingly demanding on your computer).

Where do you find these mods? http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/
Note that you will need to sign up to the site in order to access the adult mods section, but you won't be disappointed with the number of adult mods available.

From Oblivion, the DMRA BBB Cardigan and One-piece mod, this shot also demonstrates some of the drastic character design changes you can make. Characters do not have to look like this, of course.

The process:

Conclusion:

One last tip – the most time consuming stages in the process are generally going to be setting up your programs/content, learning to use them and then designing your characters. Actually posing them and taking pictures is quite quick and easy.

Anyway, I hope this has given you some ideas and encouragement on what can be done in 3D image design without any particular technical skill or resources. The truth is that the ability to create impressive, illustrated AIF is within just about everyone's grasp these days. You just need to take the time and effort to do it.

I've been considering making a small project using the Klub myself. Do you think you'd use these methods for image design? Or do you have anything you can add? If you've got any further suggestions for other alternative picture creators, or just on ways to best use the ones outlined here, go ahead and post them in the comments below!

19 comments:

  1. Even though I have a lot of experience in DAZ Studio and a wealth of assets to use in the creation of a game, I do hope that today's AIF player base doesn't have a collective expectation of an experience filled with graphics. As a player/reader of interactive and non-interactive fiction, I have always enjoyed painting the pictures with my imagination. Hopefully others still feel the same.

    In the project I'm currently working on, I have opted to use a single image of my main character (female) as a title screen.

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    1. "I do hope that today's AIF player base doesn't have a collective expectation of an experience filled with graphics"

      If it's any consolation, I agree with you. Unfortunately, we've reached the point where authors feel the need to apologise for the absence of graphics (or raise money to add them: http://offbeatr.com/project/sex-talk-a-tf-tg-porn-game-35972639207).

      From that point of view it's certainly a good idea to highlight the existance of 'easier' options. I'm pretty impressed by how much by how much The Klub doesn't look like SexVilla.

      But from a more curmudgeonly, "things were better in my day", point of view I think it would be better if audiences lowered their expectations to more realistic levels.

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    2. As it happens I have another half-written article on the subject of this debate; the dilemma of whether or not images are necessary. I only didn't post it right away because I wanted to give the first article a bit of time to breathe. It looks like that might make a good discussion.

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  2. Great post! I think that the AIF player base these days does expect images, and having some ideas about easy ways to get them will reduce the perceived barrier to being able to work on these sorts of games.

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  3. I tend to agree that people's expectations are higher now then ever before. I would like to point out that the best AIF games are written and coded well first. They are so well written that they paint an image in the player's mind for themselves and offer intuitive progression that doesn't get stumped on grammar. The difference in writing between the instant gratification flash games and a good AIF is what keeps people playing them.

    All this being said, from an artist's point of view, I appreciate the information on alternatives and look forward to seeing them in something but you know I'll keep doing things the old fashioned way to get everything just right ^^.

    I think the 3 biggest drawbacks to making your own renders are:

    1. the expertise / learning curve to do it well
    2. the downtime/processing power required of your machine while rendering something
    3. the expense for the software (3ds, poser, photoshop together is big BIG $$$)

    regards and thanks for the post :D

    Phinn
    -

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    1. I very much agree with those drawbacks, although I haven't had too much trouble with #2. #1 and #3 are big concerns, however. Still, working in the "old fashioned way" is going to get you the best results.

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    2. #2 reminds me of The Miami Voyeur, as one of the reasons why the author tried to crowd-fund it was because he wanted to hire a render farm. I can see why you might want to do that if you have animation, but that seems like overkill in most circumstances.

      Anyhow, that made me check the website (http://www.tmvoyeur.com/), which was actually updated in November after 8 months of silence, so TMV might see the light of day after all.

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  4. Photo manipulation (if you know your way around Photoshop) or just flat-out using real photos of women without manipulation are two more options. Obviously using pics from Playboy or something might get an author into some copyright trouble, but then again it's possible, considering the niche nature of our community, that no one would ever be the wiser. An even easier option might be to make use of the gazillions of naked amateur selfies you find on the web these days. Seems like a quick and easy way to go.

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    1. "might get an author into some copyright trouble, but then again it's possible, considering the niche nature of our community, that no one would ever be the wiser"

      While it's unlikely, it's not impossible (and indeed has happened in the past). Also, at the risk of being sententious, appropriating someone else's creation is still illegal, no matter the likelihood of being punished. As an alternative, given the number of naked images people are willing to post of themselves, it's not impossible that if you asked nicely you'd get people willingly offering their photos (which again has happened in the past).

      More practically, I think photo manipulation potentially has the same recognisability issues as the two options listed in the post above. Nothing takes me out of a game quicker that recognising the model, especially if he/she is better known in a completely different context to which they appear in the game.

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    2. I have to agree, having worked extensively in photo manipulation I would say it holds no real place in AIF. It's one thing getting a professional picture done to convince people you were on the pitch at Old Trafford or Shaking hands with a Superbowl team but, convincing people that a main stream model was really in that environment is entirely another. Don't get me wrong if you wanted to use say Dolly Parton in a funny game then that's great because people would see it for just that, a funny game, I love creating mental images while playing a game, it makes it more personal somehow or even a perfect GoblinBoy render is great because it fits the context of the game, as for photo manipulation?? Mmmm we will soon find out one feels. I got my screen name through photo manipulation I would take a photo and then 'Doctor' it 'Realgood' and then paid, the nickname has stuck ever since. Great blog by the way.

      Dr Realgood

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    3. A key reason why I wouldn't (and didn't) include photo manipulation in the article was that it requires relevant software and the ability to use it. Depending on the shot it might not take a lot of ability, but I believe it can still be quite intimidating.

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    4. I agree that using images of recognizable models/actresses/whatever isn't a good option. Even in a manipulation and especially in regards to faces.

      To be clear, the sort of photo manipulation I'm doing is taking photos of two or more models (never well known subjects, usually a face from one source and a body from another) and combining them seamlessly to create something new. Then I add/subtract elements and change/morph features to create something totally unique whose original sources the player will almost certainly not recognize.

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    5. Just remembered that Goblinboy used images of Alison Angel for the Princess in GOP2. Strangely, it didn't bother me and AFAIK there were no repercussions for his appropriation of the copyright material.

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  5. Another source for great pictures would be Second Life.

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    1. That's a good point - I don't play Second Life but from what I know of it there's a huge amount of customisation and plenty of possible sexual situations. I can't say I'd know what the results would look like, but it's potentially a good idea.

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    2. In a similar vein, The Sims is another possible source of images (and potentially animation). For example, http://www.adultgamereviews.com/a-date-with-simone.

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    3. Another good one. In fact it would be good if someone with the Sims 3 and Second Life were to write up a few notes as a sequel to the article. Otherwise I might just have to put in an edit to note those two options without detail.

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  6. Images aren't obligatory, but are a nice addendum.
    I'm happy if i like and love my girlfriend, but if she is also hot i don't complain.
    For photo manipulation i think to agree that it's not the better choice for AIF, but i'm waiting to play emily - sister attraction before saying that for sure.

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  7. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Artificial Girl 3, or other similar Japanese games. AG3 has extensively customizable figures, hundreds of mods, and many thousands of costumes. Plus, of course, they're made for sexual poses. See hongfire.com for much more on these games.

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