new and need info on programs/stores
handyman4545
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in New Users
This discussion was created from comments split from: Renderosity vs Daz shop?.
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I'm brand spankin new to this field, maybe 20 hours experience so far.
I'm an author of a Sci-Fi series of books and I have in mind to add images to the books and to perhaps, create a graphic novel or visual animation of the stories.
As such, I'm spending low doe bucks to experiment on a hit & miss basis.
Can someone briefly explain Poser vs Daz vs Rendo
If this thread would be better suited someplace else, direction would be greatly appreciated.
"Handyman4545"
Daz Studio does Pretty much the same as Poser, Poser came first but DS is becoming very much the more complete and advanced program. Poser costs money. Daz Studio is free for the program and base neccessities, can then be added to with paid add ons to improve and extend it..
Daz came out of a company called Zygote, who were making, amongst other things, content to be used in Poser including some of the Poser base models. They then set up shop on their own, first of all primarily as a store, adding other features later.
Daz3D and Renderosity both have stores selling products that can be used in DS or Poser. Daz is the older, as it started life as a store without forums or galleries whereas Rend started life as a 3d art community and started a store to finance the community. Daz 3D added the forums in 2003 for the benefit of it's customers as part of the 1st Anniversary of it's Platinum Club.
Edited to correct a typo
First distinction, Daz 3D is the company, their 3D rendering and animation software is called Daz Studio. It is comparable (and in my opinion superior) to the Poser software from Smith Micro. Both allow you to place 3D content into a scene and render it to a JPG or PNG file. They also both support creating animations using that same content. Mostly, tbh, the choice of tool is preference on which one "feels" more intuitive to you. The big advantage for Daz Studio, of course, is that it's free. :)
As for the stores, the Daz 3D store is generally easier to use because their content can be automatically installed to use in Daz Studio (either via the Daz Install Manager or the Connect feature of Daz Studio). Unit prices tend to be cheaper at Renderosity, but (again my opinion) the quality of items varies more than it does in Daz. There are some great vendors at Rendo who create high quality work. And some who sell at both Daz and Rendo. I've just found that going outside the "big names" is more hit and miss over there. Your mileage may vary. Also, content purchased from Rendo has to be installed manually by you. You'll have to unzip it and copy the files into your content library yourself.
If you're going to get into this, and use the Daz store, I highly recomment you purchase the Platinum Club membership for at least one month. The club provides additional weekly free content, monthly coupons for $6 off, and access to a large section of the store where you can buy items for $3 - $6 per item. It's well worth the investment.
Also noteworthy in DS vs Poser: Genesis 3&8 won't (and a lot of other related DS content) work natively in Poser, and the same is true for Iray shaders - you'd need to buy content for a different render engine or adapt the surfaces yourself, and while there are some workarounds for getting the riggigng of G3&G8, G8 will lose some functionality.
Fantastic assistance guys. Great thanks to all of you for chipping in and to others that may also add their ops and knowledge.
If my goal is to create graphic novel content (for resale) for the books that I write (published), the bottom line is that...
I would use Hexagon software to design my 3D sets and props and then to add the colors and textures to them.
Then after importing into DAZ...
With Daz I have all I need to set up the models, the scenes and the renderings and videos?
I am still stumped on the clothing part.
I need uniforms (custom outfits) for my models. Some available (free and for purchase)will work but most will not.
Can I create an outfit from scratch with DAZ (and or Hexagon)?
Can I modify an existing, available outfit with DAZ (and or Hexagon)?
Modeling in Hexagon and rigging in DS is pretty straight forward. Sickleyield has a good tutorial on Youtube about rigging a door. It takes you through all the basics. Also, if you don't mind using pre-made stuff, there's the Free Modular sci fi kit by sfman by sfman on DeviantArt.
There are Youtube tutorials for creating outfits in Hexagon and rigging in Daz. There are lots of tutorials for ZBrush, Blender and others, but Hexagon is free and pretty easy to learn.
You can modify an existing outfit for your own personal use and renders. You just can't sell or give them away since they're based on someone else's work.
Kit:
Thanks for the time and info. Greatly appreciated.
I may in fact, use some of the premade "sci-fy" stuff. It meets my basic needs and I'm assuming I can modify them to meet my more specific needs as I learn more about Hexagon/DAZ.
In addition, it saves me a great deal of time and work.
While I'm not opposed to buying useful software, I'm not interested in spending money on redundant software.
If Hexagon and DAZ (and Photoshop CS2 which I still have) will meet my needs, I see no reason to purchase any other software.
What I think I need to do with my money now is buy a new 32" HD monitor to replace my SONY SD 32 and maybe bump my system clock speed up to 3Ghz.
I'm more interested in selling and or giving away my own prop designs than in the outfits and or clothes. No problems with that infringement issue.
To that end I think I'm either gonna need to contract with someone who can and does do this work or figure out how to do it myself.
I'm open to offers.
It seems to me that if Hexagon can create the outfit, PS-CS2 can color it and DAZ can rig it and render it, I have all i need to accomplish my goals?
I've purchased and fooled around with Bryce a little as well and I like it too.
I'll admit I haven't tried that free scifi construction kit, but I did try another freebie by that same guy and it was pretty decent quality. One of these days I'll get around to trying it, but I've got a pretty long todo list already.
I can agree with you there. This is mostly a hobby for me, so I'm not trying to spend a bunch of money on professional grade software. Dzfire says he does most of his modeling in Hexagon and rarely has crashes, so I'm pretty sure it's good enough for me. If it crashes that probably means I did something dumb.
I think Hex and DS are enough to do basic stuff. People say Hex's UV mapping is terrible, and I'll admit it is kind of a pain, but I've never used anything else, so I'm ok with it.
You might take a look at Blender also for your toolkit. Its free and very powerful 3D tool. It might have a hard learning curve but there are tons of video tutorials out there. Also GIMP is a free alternative to Photoshop ... because you will probably need some postwork on your final art renderings.