Brand new user requesting help
osvathdenes
Posts: 0
Hi!
So, I need the help of someone who's been using this software a while, please!
Thing is, I'm an amateur character artist, having worked mostly with traditional tools making comics characters, and I have a fairly solid idea as to what I want to achieve when it comes to the amazing realism provided here.
- The ability to create unique characters with their own body shapes, sizes, hair, in the case of males facial hair.
- The ability to create and manage a decent wardrobe of about 5-10 outfits per character if possible. (Do I have to make individual versions dressed up or can they be dressed easily right before a render?)
- The ability to create and manage accessories such as hand-held objects, jewellery
- To import / export objects from and/or to Maya, if that's possible.
- To create scenes with assets created the above ways.
So basically what I'm asking is, what tools/plugins/resources should I be investing in to make the best of Daz3D?
Obviously I'm intending to spend only so much as necessary to be able to create ... stuff. (That's a technical term, right?)
<456 Thank you
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Comments
Hi and welcome!
1) You can create characters that are unique. First you choose what generation character, with Genesis 8 or G8F (female) and G8M (male) being the latest and most realistic. Size and body shapes are mostly being handled by morphs which you can dial in. There are a few that come with the program, but for more variation and creativity you might want something like https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-body-morphs
Same goes for the face, you have face morphs and shapes you can "dial in" and products and packages, an example : https://www.daz3d.com/200-plus-head-and-face-morphs-for-genesis-8-male-s
If you have something like Zbrush, Blender or Hexagon you can also sculpt faces, but it takes some technical know-how. But there seem to be tutorials around.
2) Dressing is pretty easy and you have the ability to save presets with a few clicks. So right before a render you can have different outfits and even different textures (like a wound, or dirt or something)
Making clothing is also a possibility, but again you'd have to create one in 3D and texture it yourself.
Since you are a traditional artist, some clothing products come with texture templates so you could paint together something for a unique look.
3) With jewelry, same same, you can create it yourself or buy them. It's pretty much a time vs creativity vs money aspect. If you want something truly unique you have to do it yourself and have a time investment.
4) There is Maya bridge now, no experience with it, so others will probably chime in on that one.
https://www.daz3d.com/daz-to-maya
5) You don't need a lot of tools to get started. Ofcourse Blender is free and can do it all. Some people argue it's hard to learn, but I don't agree with that. Hexagon is an option https://www.daz3d.com/hexagon-2-5-download-version and I think they started development on it again. The current free version feels a bit clunky to me, but hey it's free! and let's see what the devs will do with it. This is the link to the beta https://www.daz3d.com/hexagon-beta
There are many commercial programs : Maya, Cinema4D, Zbrush, Marvelous designer (clothing) . 3DSMax ... thats up for you to research if it fits your budget and goals.
But if you want to get started quickly, buying from the DAZ store is obviously the least time consuming and saves you a lot of time, which is worth the price IMO.
Thank you! I saw that there are plugins to make clothes and hair within Daz itself. Thoughts on those?
Welcome! Consider joining the Platinum Club before you start purchasing items in the Daz Store. It can save you a lot on products that have "Daz Original" as the product vendor, and it has other perks and weekly free and discounted items for members. Whether it is worth it to you will depend on what and how much you purchase. There is always a link to Platinum Club information in the Daz store rotating banner, so you can read about all the details.
I suggest downloading some of the available free items in the Daz Store and playing around with those, before you make a large investment, to be sure you enjoy using the program. Download all the free items that come with Daz Studio itself, like the character starter essential packages. That will give you some characters, clothing and hair to try out. Sort the store by Price Low to High to find other free items available.
Learn what is compatible with what, so you don't buy things that don't work together. Remember that Daz has a 30 day refund guarantee if you make a mistake or in case a product turns out to be unsatisfactory.
Render a few scenes to get experience with the two built in render engines - Iray and 3Delight. Get some experience with how long it takes to render your scenes, and check to be sure that you have adequate computer hardware to handle the job.
Understand that Daz Studio is not a modeling application. But you can import objects that you create in other modeling applications, like Maya, Blender, Hexagon, etc. into Daz Studio. I don't recommend trying to create clothing or hair inside Daz Studio. The LAMH (Look at my Hair) plugin hasn't been updated for years and is crash prone and frustrating to use for creating hair, in my opinion. I would not recommend that to a new user.
There is an overwhelming amount of information available in the Daz Forums and in various YouTube videos, so snoop around.
Amazing advice, thank you! I suppose the above Maya Bridge will be my best friend then. I also use Blender to some extent. How's Daz's compatibility with Blender? Is there a preferred software that Daz likes more than others?
I'm relatively new as well but I have made good use of primitives and Iray shaders which add a lot of variety.
To the point about jewelry, there are some primitives that you can load from the main menu and there is also an enhanced primitive set in the store for a decent and price you get a variety, Daz can use .obj as well so if you have blender you can make primitives there as well and also in Hexagon which is a free companion modelling software Via Daz 3d just search it in the shop and add it to your cart (is free) there are also free primitives you can get via google.
For me, I bought some Iray shaders which can be found on the site for metals and gems etc, and basically, you can put together primitives to create jewerly and apply metal shaders or glass and gem shaders to your creations make your own jewelry, move said jewelry to your model and parent it in place where you want it. Only your imagination is the limit.
I use Maya and have the bridge and it works well, as for Blender and Daz, they play well with .fbx and the .obj is good as well.
Below are some quick rings made with just the primitives and the ornamental Iray Shaders and gemstone shaders in the marketplace. Simple in form but the shaders make them look great.