How do you transfer like-materials from Blender to Daz3D along with the model?

logicaldensity

I made a simple model in Blender of a picture frame with a picture. Naturally one of the materials for this model is made of an image texture. While I can seem to export-import the model itself from Blender to Daz3D just fine, I don't know how to recreate the materials in Daz3D that I made in Blender. How do you do this?

All I know to have done:

1. Everything is UV unwrapped like it should be; the model looks just fine in Blender.
2. My image texture is in the same directory as my .obj/.dae/.fbx (I tried them all), .blend, and .duf files.

Enchanted April

I'm really sorry to tell you: you can't! DAZ seems not to be able to import the textures of anything maked outside. You have to do it by hand: import your frame file, select it, go to parameter tabs, choose surfaces, click the frame name to open all the material zones (I guess you have two - frame and picture), click picture and put your picture .jpg, .png or whatever in the base color (iray) or diffuse (3delight) To do so click on the grey square and choose "browse". For the frame you could choose from your shader presets if it is okay to have a simple wood or painted frame. You can play with the tiling options to make it good looking. If you have some other textures for your prop, bump or displacement p.e. put them all in the right channels and make a test render. Good luck.

 

Richard Haseltine

You may need to reapply the image through the Surfaces pane in DS - open its Editor tab, select the surface for the picture on the left, click the little icon to the left of the colour bar for the Base or Diffuse colour (depending on which shader is applied), and select Browse...

logicaldensity

Nm, I may have figured it out. I didn't know about the Shader Mixer. After playing with it for a while, I got the image texture to appear on its intended surface.

For those who might run into this problem coming from similarly deficient knowledge – i.e., coming from intermediate/advanced Blender know-how and entering the new mystifying world of Daz3D – there's actually a Shader Mixer, which seems analogous to the Shader Editor in Blender, and it's located (as of this writing in 4.12 in Windows) at Window > Panes (Tabs) > Shader Mixer.

You'll be presented with a 2-node Default Material. But just go to File > New Shader in the Shader Mixer pane, as approaching the 2-node Default Material from a Blender perspective didn't get me anywhere when I tried to add nodes. Name your material and click Accept. Now a 14-node material will appear. I placed my texture image in the "obvious" Base Color locations. Non-obviously, you'd have to click the drop downs next to the RGB values first.

Now I just have to see if I can get my normal maps to work. Will post a new topic if I can't.

logicaldensity

Thanks a lot all! I just responded to my own post because I figured out the image texture part. I didn't see your responses at the time I started writing it.

Enchanted April, thank you for the tip on choosing shader presets for the frame.

Richard Haseltine, I didn't know about the Surfaces > Editor tab. That seems much more what I was looking for than the roundabout way I ended up going. Tysm

andya_b341b7c5f5

Daz Studio will in fact import diffuse textures that are exported with a model from Blender using OBJ format.  As long as you check the Write Materials option on export from Blender, and the Read Materials on import into Daz Studio.  The .mtl file will record the path of the image texture(s), although there may be issues if any path contains spaces.  However, other 'channels' in the Daz Studio materials seem to be unsupported in the OBJ format.

Padone

The obj importer can't read a path containing spaces. You need either to edit the mtl file to get the path within quotation marks, or place your textures in a path name without spaces.

I reported the issue with ticket #249997 on August 18, 2017. It is currently in open status. I guess fixing the obj importer is not a priority for the daz team.