Newb issues and questions
brett_8f9d97128e
Posts: 0
The first time I installed Daz 4.6 and Genesis starter essentials, It seemed to work for the most part. I could bring up a figure and do some poses and I could get a few of the clothing articles to work. I would go to files and I could select and edit a character, then I could go to products and Genesis starter essentials would be there. I would select it and then all kinds of lighting, clothing, and accessories would show up. I could get a few of these items to work but most of them did nothing.
So I thought I must have missed something in the installation. I uninstalled everything and reinstalled Daz 3D Studio 4.6 with content manager service, and genesis starter essentials. Now I have no content at all; even the Genesis stuff doesn't show up. It shows the genesis starter essentials icon when I select products, but when I click on it and select "product", I get nothing, There is nothing at all under files and nothing under products. I have a firewall block but I have Daz Studio and the content manager service enabled. Under My Documents, I have what appears to be the normal directories in the Daz3D/Studio/My Library. I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times but get the same results; no content displayed.
-Why did I loose my content when I reinstalled the first time? Could I have a directory wrong? Is there something else I need to install or activate? Task manager says the content manager service is running. What am I missing here? I have Daz installed on my second laptop and it seems to work like it did originally on this machine. Not sure what could be different; it was installed the exact same way on both machines.
-When my content was working, why would the majority of the genesis starter essentials show up, but not work? I could select them and sometimes I would get an error but usually they would just do nothing.
-Are the content items editable in Daz3D, i.e. can I change the size and shape of say, an article of clothing?
-Are the figures editable in Daz3D; i.e. can I change the size and shape of a figures head or legs, etc.?
-If figures and content are not editable in Daz, what could I use to edit them? I have access to several other programs of this type; Poser Pro, Maya, Mudbox, Modo, ZBrush and a few others.
I'm sure I'll have other questions in the future after I get all this sorted out. Thanks in advance...
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Comments
DIM installs content to C:/Users/Public/Documents/My DAZ 3D Library and not to My Library unless you tell it to. Here is my DIM only DS content installed and paths set properly. SEE Below.
Also many things you might have tried were TEXTURES for items, they only load If the item is loaded, and selected when you use them.
Yes, figures generally do contain some morphs that you can use to change their appearance. More morphs are available for purchase from the store (depending upon the figure you are using), and you may also be able to find free ones at places like sharecg.com. The more morphs you have access to, the more flexibility you will have in terms of how you can reshape the figure in DAZ Studio. Which figure or figures would you like to use?
DAZ Studio is not a modeling program. Several of the other programs you mentioned are. You can export DAZ figures to a modeling program and sculpt them there, then re-import to DAZ Studio. There are "bridges" from DS to ZBrush and to Hexagon, two modeling apps, to streamline this process. Relative to using morph dials, sculpting a figure in a modeling program may be more labor-intensive, and it's certainly more challenging, but it also affords more flexibility.
Okay, getting very frustrated here... I cannot figure out why Daz works on my other laptop but not this one. I still get no content. It will show the basic starter figure when I start the program and I can edit the figure but none of the content shows up. If I go into the directory and open up something in the content, say the shirt.duf or briefs.duf file, it will open up Daz and show the item. But none of the basic or genesis content shows up. My directory is set up like this:
C:\Users\Brett\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library
And the "My Library" has these directories:
aniBlocks
Animals
Camera presets
Data
DAZ Studio Tutorials
Light Presets
People
Props
Runtime
Scenes
Scripts
Shader Presets
Uninstallers
Is this correct? It's the default installation... I haven't changed anything. What am I missing here? I even turned off my firewall block to make sure that wasn't messing me up.
That's correct if C:\Users\Brett\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library is selected as a DAZ Studio content directory, which it should be by default. Go to Edit>Preferences>Content Library tab and click the Content Directory Manager button to check. Also, make sure you are looking in the Content Library pane to check content availability - not appearing in the Smart Content pane can have other causes.
Okay, got it working. As you suggested, I looked in the content library pane, and it was set to Poser formats or some such thing. As soon as I selected Daz studio formats, everything suddenly appeared. So, many thanks for that. I knew it had to be something simple.
Now if I can just figure out how to create and/or edit some of the clothing accessories...
Can I export an accessory as an .obj file, edit it in some other program, and then import it back into DAZ and use it?
What kind of changes are you wanting to make? Adjusting the shape, you can indeed export as OBJ (in base resolution if the item has SubD applied - look for a Mesh Resolution group in the Parameters pane), move the points around in your modeller without adding or removing any, and load the new shape as a morph. If you want to remove bits of mesh that's better done by painting them black on the UV template in an image editor, making everything else white, and loading the image as an opacity map in the Surfaces pane.
I think we might be having a bit of language difficulty here — where you're saying "edit" from your experience of those other programs, DAZ|Studio users would understand this as "morphing" or "scaling", using dials in the Parameters tab. D|S also has its equivalent of magnets, which I'm fairly sure your other programs have, which adds a lot of flexibility to actually changing and moving around the mesh of an object. It's a bit tricky to get used to, though.
What kind of things are you wanting to do to your objects? There might be something already built in to them (or D|S itself) that would match what you're after.
I am thinking I want to edit some articles of clothing; pants, shirts, accessories, underwear, etc. to maybe create a different style. Say I wanted to edit some shorts to make them longer, something like that. I am wondering what would be the best software for that. As I said, I have access to several other programs.
I figured out how to bring up various items and apply textures, and I figured out how to export objects and I have used a program called Scuptris to edit them. I then export the item out of Sculptris as an .obj file and try to import it back into Daz. That's where I have a problem. It seems to accept the item and I even get the little 3D device to move the item around. But I cannot see the item. When I export an item out of Daz, what format is best; Daz Studio, Bryce, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Blender, etc? And then when I want to import back into Daz, which format is best for that? Maybe I should use a different program for editing than Sculptris...? I just use that because its so easy to use.
There's a chance it's invisible. Select the newly re-imported object, go to the Surfaces tab, make sure the object's materials are selected, and see what the Opacity Strength dial is set at. Should come in at 100% (solid), but now and then stuff will import at 0% (transparent). Shouldn't happen, but it does sometimes.
Another possibility, if you don't use the proper import preset you might get your object back in at the wrong size, scaled either to a dust mite or an aircraft carrier. Check the "Presets" drop-down at the top of the import dialog the next time you try that.
Okay, just figured out that they do show up but are just really small. Used a different scale when importing and then just increased the scale till it was the correct size, and all is well.... for now. I'm sure I'll have other questions. Thanks for all your help.
If I modify something, say an article of clothing, outside of Daz and then import the item back into Daz, should I still be able to apply the Daz textures to the item?
Yes, as long as you set the OBJ export options to use existing material names - by default it will append the node name, which will stop material presets from working (of course if there are two or more items in the exported scene with the same material, using the original names will make them a single materials with the same settings so that may be a problem).
Okay, one more thing and then I promise I'll go away for a while. I have a Daz character I am trying to install, but all it does is extract into a directory with a Content sub-directory and a manifest.dsx file. The content sub directory has Data, people and Runtime sub directories. How/where do I put these to make it work?
Merge the contents of the Content folder with your actual content directory - \DAZ 3d\Studio\My Library or whatever it is you use. Just select everything in the Content folder, ctrl-x to cut, go to the My Library (or whatever) folder, ctrl-v to paste, and say yes when asked if you want to merge folders.
Okay, simple enough. Then what hapens to the manifest.dsx file? And once I do this, the contents I just added will just show up in the content library?
The manifest file is needed only for the Install manager - if you are installing manually you'd don't need or want it.
The files will show in the Content Library, if you want them in Smart Content, products or Categories then you need to import their metadata (assuming they have any - check to see if there's a Runtime\Suport folder in the zip) - go to the Content Library pane and either click the menu button in the top corner or right click the tab to get the option menu, then click Content DB Maintenance and in the dialogue check Re-import metadata and click Accept - you will get a big dialogue with all your products listed, just deselect all then find and check the newly added content and click Accept.