DAZ Studio Export Collada Import to Vue?
Fauvist
Posts: 2,152
I'm making a real effort to use DAZ Studio, but everything I try to do ends up frustrating me.
All I want to do is create a scene in DAZ Studio, then export it as a .dae Collada file, then import it into VUE 8, and be able to reposition the figure.
I used 3 objects - Victoria 3, a Jersey Dress, and Sylphiad Hair. I clicked "export". Then in Vue clicked "import", and this is the result :roll:
V3 is either transparent or colored metallic silver - none of the textures were retained on any of the objects. V3 head imported, not on her neck, but wedged between her thighs, upside down. The hair grew enormous and flew up into the air. The V3 figure did retain the rigging for posing.
I've found over and over again with DAZ software, whether it's DAZ Studio or Carrara, that there are insufficient instructions available.
If someone knows the correct export settings for DAZ Studio 4.5 for a .dae file of the scene, please please tell me what they are, or point me to where they are on the internet.
If anyone knows the correct import settings for VUE 8 - that's even better. I've been fooling around with this for 5 hours and can't get it to work.
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Comments
What you are seeing there are two separate problems. Neither of them is entirely caused by DAZ Studio, I have seen them with Collada from other sources too when importing to Vue. One problem with Collada is that the "standard" isn't much of a standard and it is interpreted and written differently by different applications. The two problems you see are the following:
1. 100% reflection. This is easy to fix and all textures are actually there. Just select the object in Vue, click the material preview and select "edit all". Now go to the reflection tab and set "global reflectivity" to zero. The textures will look normal now and can be adjusted as usual.
2. the other problem is more difficult. It comes from certain conforming objects that cause body parts to be translated in some weird way. In your case the head got shifted down between the legs (that is the reflective ball you can see in the image you posted). The only way to fix this that I know, is to remove the conformer that causes the issue (in your case almost certainly the hair) and export with out it. You can then export this part separately and add it in vue as separate object, move it into place and group it with the rest.
Ciao
TD
Are you animating this in Vue if not why not use the saving as OBJ route and when exporting from Daz Studio select "Save Texture Maps" (I think as I can't get to Daz Stduio for a while so I can't take screenshots for you). But as long as you select the right export settings you should get better texture retention with mimimal surface adjustments...but you will always have to make some adjustments to the surfaces from Daz Studio to Vue. Since finding what you have found I always save as a static OBJ, once posed in Daz Studio of course. :)
THANK YOU! :lol: You knew exactly what to do right. The textures came back from being silver, and her head was in the right place. And I was able to pose the figure in Vue! And she retained the morph settings making her into a character.
The dress - I don't know what the problem is. It seems to conform to her and fit properly, but her legs are sticking through it. And I can't seem to change the texture of it from this weird red pattern. The VUE users manual isn't very thorough.
I'm not animating the VUE scene, but I am posing the DAZ figure in the VUE scene, not posing it in DAZ Studio. I'll try exporting an OBJ from DAZ Studio and see how that works. Thanks!
Wow! I found that the Jersey Dress actually had a skeleton with bones and joints in it - and that it was poseable! Maybe in VUE, clothing doesn't instantly conform to the position of the figure, maybe you have to pose it on it's own.
I imported the Sylphiad hair (preposed in DAZ Studio) separately. It imported about 8 times larger than V3's head, and was down around her ankles. So I resized it and repositioned it on her head. The textures for the hair seem to be unchangeable like the dress.
Your Deviant Art VUE gallery is incredible, by the way.
Your Deviant Art VUE gallery is incredible, by the way.
Thanks! Vue is my main tool for the past 7 years or so. I am on Vue 11 Infinite currently.
You already discovered the separate skeleton of the dress. If you want the dress to follow the pose of the figure, you can go into the Collada export options in DAZ Studio and select the "Merge Skeletons" option. This results in one skeleton that also poses the conforming items. However it is a bit hit and miss how well it works and depends on the clothing item. One needs to experiment.
For the dress texture: Can you show a screen shot of the color tab for that material in Vue? That way I can probably tell you what is going on. Which dress is it? I might have it.
Ciao
TD
Thanks for the information about "merge skeletons" - I'll try it. Here's a screen shot of materials tabs for the dress which is called Hongyu's JerseyDress.
Thanks!
Ok, the problem is that this dress seems to use shaders in DS/Poser in combination with the texture/bump maps to generate the look it has on its Renderosity page (I do not have that one, but I checked the product page). Vue cannot interpret that correctly and thus you get what you see. Basically Vue tries to imitate the look by using the gray texture in the texture channel and then blending it with a color (dark red in this case) via the color correction/overall color function. That doesn't work very well because the black/gray in the texture does not mix well. I would recommend the following: Switch the color to procedural mode and choose a red of your liking as the color map. Then plug the gray texture inbto the bump channel and adjust the bump strengths to taste. That should look decent (also adjust the highlights, they are usually wrong). Alternatively you could also use a procedural bump with a fabric node.
Ciao
TD
Ok, the problem is that this dress seems to use shaders in DS/Poser in combination with the texture/bump maps to generate the look it has on its Renderosity page (I do not have that one, but I checked the product page). Vue cannot interpret that correctly and thus you get what you see. Basically Vue tries to imitate the look by using the gray texture in the texture channel and then blending it with a color (dark red in this case) via the color correction/overall color function. That doesn't work very well because the black/gray in the texture does not mix well. I would recommend the following: Switch the color to procedural mode and choose a red of your liking as the color map. Then plug the gray texture inbto the bump channel and adjust the bump strengths to taste. That should look decent (also adjust the highlights, they are usually wrong). Alternatively you could also use a procedural bump with a fabric node.
Ciao
TD
I really appreciate you helping me with this. I'll do what you suggest and see if I can make that work. Thanks! :-)
Thanks thd777 - that worked well. I'm going to have to go through the VUE manual and figure out how the program textures things and experiment with the settings. I'm so used to just clicking a MATpose in Poser without having to think about anything.
No problem. Feel free to ask questions if you need help. Vue materials are very powerful and once you get the hang of them there is almost nothing that you cannot do. However, they do require some time and effort to learn how to set them up efficiently and how to achieve what you are looking for. The Vue manual is quite good, but it is a reference manual and doesn't have much in terms of "How to" in it. A few things that helped me where the following books (They are from Vue 7, but apart from some interface differences they are still very useful):
http://www.amazon.com/Vue-From-Ground-Official-Guide/dp/0240812263/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357563289&sr=8-1&keywords=vue+7
http://www.amazon.com/Vue-Beyond-Richard-H-Schrand/dp/159863884X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1357563289&sr=8-3&keywords=vue+7
Another great source of info if you lie video tutorials are the free resources from geekatplay.com. For examppe their Materials series:
http://geekatplay.com/vuemat.php
Have fun!
TD
Thanks for pointing out the books and the website. I'll check them out.
Hello.
I've been trying to export figures to vue, looking all over the internet, and I got to this thread. So, has you seem to know a lot about, can I ask you some things?
I just started to work with vue now, so really don't know to much. But I'm having huge problems with with my first step: importing files from daz.
When I try to import a collada file vue just crashes immediately... :(
I tried with obj files. First they always got no materials (I select collect materials in the export). Then once it asked me where the materials where before open the file, and everything worked out well. This is the result:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=243737172470451&set=a.219898341521001.1073741838.193211907522978&type=1&theater;
As you see all materials are perfect... Not to good lighting and atmosphere, but I was just happy that I could import a scene...
Than I made another seen, tried to import in the same way... and didn't work out again... everything was without material again... really don't know what to do...
OH WAWWW....
Loved your deviant art gallery!!! please help me, I want to do thing like that to :D
Really want to be able to export daz studio characters to vue....