Can I use a texture/material created using nodes in Blender in DAZ?

bhfineartist_2d42f5137d

Hey. I have been trying to decide which should be my main program for creating my digital or 3d art, whatever is the proper term, and I know a lot more about Blender though no expert by any means than I do about DAZ. I can't stand DAZ's interface or how you rotate the character around and move around he scene by having to put your mouse cursor over these stupid icons in the top corner. (Side question: is there a way to make moving around the scene more like in Blender and get rid of those damn icons?) (And I have downloaded some freebie genitalia stuff from Renderoticy but it won't show up in DAZ and I don't know what the instructions mean when they say 'merge the data file'...but that is also not what this post is about.)

Back on subject. I learned how to make this really nice snow texture just using nodes in Blender, I think they call it proceedural when there are no image textures involved meaning no photographs of snow involved. And I want to know how to use this texture in Blender on some snow environments that I bought recently to up the realism. I can, and have, exported the item to Blender and like nearly all models, xcept for the figures, I always have to make new UV's and retexture everything even if using the same image textures from DAZ because for whatever reason, except for the figures, the textures are always warped and stretched and I don't know that much about nodes to be able to understand the problem by looking at the complex node trees that get made/come over from DAZ ( I still can't get that eye gloss or the eyelashes to work in Blender so I just delete them.)

The reason I am asking is because I am old, this is just a hobby, I don't want my scenes to be forever to build, and I do not want to have to use many different programs at least not use them heavily if you know what I mean.

The main reason I am thinking about studying DAZ, I know very little about it except that I really hate the interface and how not intuitive it is, is that the human figures move more realistically in DAZ than I can get them to move with my own rigging in Blender. I notice this especially in G8 female. I built an IK rig for the g8 male that I had exported as an obj using the Poser settings and he seems to move all right. I've spent more time trying to modle a damn penis for him than posing him though.

So I guess I will be starting other threads with lots of questions. Lol.

 

And where is font size? I am having problems reading this text. Thank You for any help or links to tutorials.

 

 

andya_b341b7c5f5

I don't believe there is a way to transfer a procedural materials node setup from Blender to DS; it would need rebuilding (in Shader Builder) from scratch.  I imagine some very clever scripting in at least two languages would be required to transfer automatically and that no-one has seen enough benefit to attempt it.  The almost total lack of documentation on Shader Builder also makes the rebuild a tough ask.

A simple node set up for the eyelashes is shown in the attached image.  It's the inverting then mixing the Transparent BSDF that's the key.  Works in Cycles; probably works in EEVEE, but some scene setup required for transparency to work which I can't remember off hand.

Your other texturing problems need more information and you are probably better off posting a separate thread if you want help on those.

There is no way within the current version of Daz Studio to alter the font size (something about the UI toolkit I gather, which rather begs a question about toolkit choice).  If on Windows, DS will follow changes to the Windows font size, though of course that's not what you want if DS is the only application you want to change.  If you are on Windows, the builtin magnifier - though limited - may be your friend.

bhfineartist_2d42f5137d

Thank You andya_b341b7c5f5

So, shaders and nodes are the same thing right? I might play with that once I get to that point and know where they are in DAZ. I am starting with some simple basic DAZ tutorials on youtube and already have learned how to make the navigating around like in Blender which is great.

I can't see the names of the nodes in your picture. When I click it it opens small. I recognize the Princibled shader and a mix and the output and possibly the transparent and I guess the stretched one is some sort of texture.

This is fun learning all this stuff. I am learning more about DAZ and it is helping me reach some goals in how I want to do my art.

Richard Haseltine

Nodes in DS means "thinbgs" in the scene, in Sahder Mixer the objects are called Bricks.

andya_b341b7c5f5

bhfineartist_2d42f5137d said:

Thank You andya_b341b7c5f5

So, shaders and nodes are the same thing right? I might play with that once I get to that point and know where they are in DAZ. I am starting with some simple basic DAZ tutorials on youtube and already have learned how to make the navigating around like in Blender which is great.

I can't see the names of the nodes in your picture. When I click it it opens small. I recognize the Princibled shader and a mix and the output and possibly the transparent and I guess the stretched one is some sort of texture.

This is fun learning all this stuff. I am learning more about DAZ and it is helping me reach some goals in how I want to do my art.

Sorry, didn't realize the picture got scaled down when I posted it.  As it happens, the 2.80 RC2 has introduced an Alpha channel to the Principled BSDF, so you can get eyelashes to work as shown below.  It's probably not necessary to convert the eyelash image to black and white before feeding it into the alpha, but I think it makes sense to do it because the alpha only deals with grayscale.  I have made the base color of the lashes a bright green as it's easier to see them that way than if they are black/brown.  This set up works in Cycles, EEVEE and in the Look Dev viewport shading.

As Richard says, 'nodes' do mean different things in Blender and Daz Studio.  In Blender, they do refer to 'blocks' in the shader editor, but not just to shaders - inputs, outputs, textures, converters etc. etc. are all nodes.  There are nodes in other places too, and there is a development goal known as 'everything nodes', which is aimed at bringing node-based systems into other areas e.g. creating particles systems.