DAZ / Poser 3D Freebie Hunter

OK so you got the free software (comparable software $500.00).  Well if not, go get it at DAZ Studios.  Now what?  Before you start loading the rest of the freebies on to your computer, stop and think about why you want the 3D program in the first place.  There are thousands (no joke) of freebies available to you.  Be selective and make sure that your downloads meet your 3D goals.  Does your computer have 75-200 giga-bites to contain the thousands of freebies?

NOTE: Information for DAZ version 3,

I have not made it work on DAZ version 4 yet. 

FILE SETUP

I recommend that you make a “DAZ-Poser Freebies” sub-folder in your “Downloads” folder and subsequent folders as such:

DAZ-Poser Freebies

New ZIPs

Base Jointed Models/Figures      These are “Characters”

Animals Realistic

Animals Toon/Stuffed

Creatures Humanoid

Creatures Monster

Creatures Toy

People Realistic

People Anime/Toon

Clothing                                               Maps & Textures

Name of figure the clothing was made for

Props                                                    Non-Entity Items

Jointed                                           These are “Characters”

Static                                               These are “Props”

Parented                                        Fitted for a character

Name of figure prop was parented to

Character Remaps                          Change to a Base Figure Morphs & Textures

Name of base figure remap was made for

Textures                                             Non-Entity Picture Files

General Use

Ground

Brick Pavement

Sky

Water

Backdrops

Sci-Fi

Fantasy

Rooms

Unpacked ZIPs

Use same subfolders as above in “New ZIPs”

Content                                                          Extract ZIPs Here

Promo Pictures                                     A Catalog Photo of Product  (JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, ect)

ReadMe’s                                                 Text Related to product (TXT, DOC, PDF, ect)

Applications                                          sub programs related to DAZ that assist DAZ. (advanced stuff for later)

***NOTE: DAZ will have extra files in its studio area, you won’t have these in your staging area. Leave them alone, unless you are sure of what you are doing.

***People

***data

Runtime

Geometries                  OBJ    OBZ    Files

Libraries

Camera                    CM2    CMZ   Files

Light                         LT2     LTZ     Files

Hair                          HR2     HRZ   Files

Face                         FC2      FCZ    Files

Pose                         PZ2      PZZ    Files

Props                       PP2     PPZ     Files

Character               CR2    CRZ     Files

Scenes                     PZ3     Files

Textures                     Picture Files; Map, Skin & Surface (PNG, JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, ect)

NOTE I do not own a MAC and cannot help anyone who does, sorry. I hope its similar to this. Files that look like ._filename.ext or a folder called ._MacOS or something similar are for MAC’s; if you have a PC, you can’t use them, so erase them.

Find many free open source programs for a vast variety of objectives at Source Forge. 7-Zip at Source Forge will allow you to open RAR compressed files as well as others. Opel GL OBJ Loader, SketchBoard, PatchOBJ, BlenderCAD, Wings 3d, K-3d, and Mandelbulber at Source Forge may be of help and interest to artists. You may want UVmapper, The Gimp, & Bryce (DAZ) also. CNET is another excellent site for free programs.

THANK YOU to all artists, programmers, and websites that have contributed to this vast 3D treasure trove!!!

Basic DAZ Folders. What goes were? (Structure found in DAZ/Poser Freebie Hunter)

File Extension Folder

.CM2 .CMZ camera

.CR2 .CRZ Character

.FC2 .FCZ Face

.HD2 .HDZ Hand

.HR2 .HRZ Hair

.LT2 .LTZ Light

.PP2 .PPZ Props

.PZ2 .PZZ Pose

.PZ3 Scenes

.MC6 materials

.MC7 materials

.MT5 materials

.MT6 materials

.MT7 materials

.OBJ Geometries

NOTE: if a DAZ installer put it there, leave it alone! If you look in a folder and find one of these items with other stuff such as pictures, I recommend placing the whole folder inside the designated foder without separating the items; the DAZ menu uses the pictures as a visual selection reference. You might get something like Aardvark.cr2 along with Aardvark.png the DAZ menu will show the Aardvark.png as a thumbnail for selection so don’t erase or remove it. The ThumbNails provide an excellent reference when looking at folders from Windows Explorer. Folders with subfolders such as Chan Vis or Channel Vis, and Deltas should go in Pose if it wasn’t placed by a DAZ installer.

Advanced DAZ Folders requiring additional free software.

.BMP Textures The Gimp

.DLL Support Files DAZ uses some of these

.DOC Tutorials, Read Me’s Word (bundled most PCs)

.GIF Textures The Gimp

.JPG Textures The Gimp

.MP3 SoundFX Windows Media Player (bundled)

.MPEG Vidio Windows Media Player (bundled)

.OBP Bryce Geometries Bryce (DAZ)

.PDF Tutorials, Read Me’s Adobe Reader

.PNG Textures The Gimp

.PSD Textures The Gimp

.TGA Textures The Gimp

.TIF Textures The Gimp

.TXT ReadMe’s Word (bundled most PCs)

These Files are for other programs. You may be able to find a converter for them. In an attempt to cover many bases some ZIPs will contain these files which unless converted, are for the most part useless for DAZ. Look up other extensions at FILExt.

File Extension Program Company

.3DS 3D Studio Autodesk (AutoCAD)

.ABR Photoshop Adobe, Paint Shop Pro.

.B3D 3D Builder

.BB Art-lantis ABVENT

.BVH Biovision Motion File Poser

.C4D Cinema 4D

.CPP C++ Borland, Maya

.DDS DirectDraw Surface Microsoft, Photoshop

.DEF 3D Fassade Plus ADS Autodesk (AutoCAD)

.DXF AutoCAD Autodesk, 3D graphic

.FBX Kaydara Autodesk (AutoCAD)

.H Header ADS Autodesk (AutoCAD)

.LWO LightWave NewTek

.MAX PaperPort ScanSoft

.MB MapBasic MapInfo, Maya

.MTL Alias Autodesk (AutoCAD)

.OGG Ogg Vorbis Xiph.Org Foundation

.PCF Calyx Point Paint Shop Pro

.PMD PageMaker Adobe

.PRJ Project File 3D Studio

.PS PostScript

.PY Python

.RC Compiler Resource File

.RSR 4th Dimension 4D

DAZ does not use .rsr at all, Poser might I don’t know, so if you use DAZ erase these they are just taking space.

.RTE Fugawi Global Navigator Northport

.SIT StuffIt Smith Micro Software

.TARGA Truevision Targa Bitmap

.WRL Plain Text VRML

.X Alysis SuperDisk Self-extracting Archive

.XSI Softimage XSI Avid Technology

Why bother organizing?  Personally I don’t like scrolling through thousands of files to find what I want.  Use my recommendation or something that makes sense to you.

Why not just unpack the ZIP to your DAZ / Poser area?  Doing so will make an absolute mess of your DAZ / Poser.  Only about 1/3 of the freebies follow the standard format reiterated by Meshworks; look in their tutorials.  That means a LOAD of clean up!  Once everything is cleaned up, then transfer to your regular DAZ / Poser location.

Pay close attention to the licensing information found in the read me’s.  Many are for personal and commercial use, but some are for personal use only.  If it looks like a game, television, movie, or comic book character it is most likely for personal use only.  Some artists want a return copy of what you did with their model as in alterations, add-ons, and renders.

Most internet sites that provide free models require registration signup.  Many of them provide newsletters as to what new stuff they have available in their pay store.  As this is the main method of advertising these sites have and you are not paying for the freebies, allow them to send you a newsletter.  It is the polite thing to do!  Actually purchase a model or two, or even make a donation.  These sites cannot stay open unless money comes in from the users somewhere.  THANK YOU to all artists and websites that have contributed to this vast 3D treasure trove!!!

Special THANK YOU to Little_Star, who blazed this trail ahead of me allowing me to follow.

GENEROUS WEBSITES

Here I will try to list many websites that offer “freebies” along with their store. If I have missed your website, and you have “freebies” for DAZ / Poser, please e-mail me slimemold9@yahoo.com. If the site is in a language other than English please include instructions on how to navigate to the freebies; or to the sign up and then freebies; this is additional advertising for your site. I will not discriminate and censor in this article; I will leave that up to you, so yes some of these sites are ADULT oriented. I will not make statements as to the quality of the sites; make your own judgments. I am not promoting any site. I am merely letting you know that they exist. I will not reiterate the sites already mentioned above. I take a front door approach to linking, that means that I like to drop at the home page and not direct link as much as possible.

Many of these sites have a variety of Tutorials. People with a whole lot more experience with DAZ / Poser have written them; check them out.

AGAIN-!!! Most internet sites that provide free models require registration signup. Many of them provide newsletters as to what new stuff they have available in their pay store. As this is the main method of advertising these sites have and you are not paying for the freebies, allow them to send you a newsletter. It is the polite thing to do! Actually purchase a model or two, or even make a donation. These sites cannot stay open unless money comes in from the users somewhere.

THANK YOU to all artists and websites that have contributed to this vast 3D treasure trove!!!

3d Menagerie     3D PMR     3dUniverse     3eme Cercle     Antonia      Arc’s Pinup Studio

Arduino 3d resource  XXX      Baumgarten Enterprises     Cadalyst      Childe of Fyre

Chocolate     Combat Bunny     Content Paradise      Dacort      Dark Anvil     DAZ Community

DAZ Studios      Digital Creations     Eclectic Guild      Fantasy 3D     Got Candy Wraps

GreyLight     heroineism XXX     Heromorph     Jan the Village Weaver     Joe’s Art Gallery

KCTC     klopfholz     lab108     Library of Congress Vast 2D resource     LittleDragon

Lovely Lady     MalePoserotica  XXX     Mankahoo     Maya Studios     MDP     Mint3d

Mystic Nights     Nerd3D     Nike’Image     Painted Pixels     PhilC Designs     Porsimo

poseAtier     Poser Doll     Poser Universe 2     Psionic’s 3D Game Resources     Qraffx

Realm of Savage     Rendererotica XXX     Renderosity     Runtime DNA     Ruten Ryojo

sarponita     Second Life     ShareCG Keep coming back     Shop Wicked

Sixus1 Professional     smay3d     Stefan Leng     STK Productions Ether Forge

Synful Mindz     Toucan Virtual Museum     TrekkieGrrrl      TurboSquid

Vanishing Point     Yagami’s     Yohuland Riddokun Poser     Ziggies Model Emporium

AGAIN!!! Special THANK YOU to Little_Star, who blazed this trail ahead of me allowing me to follow.

AND!!! Special THANK YOU to Meshworks; for “Creating Compatible Zip Files”, © Krown Products Ltd. 2009 – All rights reserved.

More About Me:

Paul Anderson (Facebook w Pictures) AKA HsiWangMu (Look her up), Slimemold (My E-Mail), & Gyia (My blog w pictures and short stories).

Please link to this article here. You have permission to distribute this article as long as it is retained whole and unedited. If you need some pre basic pointers for 2D figure drawing, I have 2 short lessons here: Drawing-Pre-101

Glossary

Bump Map- 2d black and white artwork used for texturing a surface. A bump map is usually an 8 bit grayscale image of an object or substance. It tells a rendering engine how far away any given pixel in the image is supposed to be. Shades of gray depict the pixel’s elevation. White is closest. Bump maps provide the information necessary to give surfaces a bumpy look. The artist must provide their own coloration. Bump maps can have any picture extension; such as: .bmp, .jpg, .png, .tif, .gif, ect. Definition in part from 3D Millennium.

Bundle- A grouping of programs as part of a package savings.

Character- A 3d element with moving parts. This could be a person, creature, or any item as long as it has moving parts.

Hi Res- A 3d element with many polygons is considered Hi Res. Most of the polygons of a Hi Res element are triangles. This provides an increase in detail. Hi Res elements make the best focus elements for your 3d space.

Lights- Lights are elements in the 3d space that lighten the other elements like a real light would in the physical world.

Lo Res- An element with fewer polygons make better background items. These are important because average PC’s crash when too many Hi Res elements are used.

Polygon- Lines that connect to vertices of a mesh and enclose a 2d space on the same plane form Polygons.

Pose- Someone moved around a character and decided that a certain positioning of the character had artistic relevance and meaning. That person then saved that positioning as a pose. Poses help artists save time by providing various character start positions. Most people like characters start in a standing erect with arms straight out to the sides position.

Post Work- The finishing touches that make you almost final render, final. These are usually 2d elements used to doctor problem areas.

Prop- A 3d element without moving parts. Any type of item without moving parts; if nothing on the person moves, it is a prop.

PSP Tube- 2d layered artwork usable in Photo Shop Pro.

Render- The 2D final or almost final piece of art. It could have several 3d or 2d elements combined together from multiple computer programs or sources.

Surface Solutions™- An improved form of bump map for rounded objects. Full definition at 3D Millennium.

Template/Mesh-3d elements are built at first by linking lines and vertices with 3 coordinates together in a framework.

Texture- Using color and shading in 2d art in a way to make it look the way it might feel: bumpy, furry, hairy, soft, hard, ridged, stony, plastic, metal, shiny, earthen, rough, smooth, ect. Textures are provided in 3d art to give models a more realistic look.

UV Map- An advanced mesh.