How do I do this in Blender...?

Sphinx Magoo

Hi all.

i have multiple questions so please be patient...

1) In DAZ Studio, I can select a bunch of shaders based off of Diffuse Color or Diffuse Map, Is such a thing possible in Blender?

2) I'm really interested in testing Blender's shaders on DAZ products. Let's say I have a Blender shader that simulates Gold, and I want to apply it to parts of an imported DAZfigure. What's the best way to do that?

3) A follow up to the above question: how would I apply the Blender shader but I wanted to preserve the DAZ item's Normal or Bump map?

This is just the start. I have so many questions! I'm excited to have this option for new renders. I just found out that Blender supports IBL so I'm excited to try some of the items in my Runtime.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

Krys Kryngle

Hi Sphinx,

1) I'm not sure about the question, probably because I don't use DAZ much.

2) DAZ shaders are made and optimized for DAZ.  Some shaders and materials may transfer well, some not.  Metals are actually quite easy to make in Blender.  You can also search on blendswap or the internet if you are looking for a particular shader for Blender.

3) The nice thing is that aside from base material settings (metals, plastic, glass, etc.), DAZ image maps will transfer over to Blender.  The easiest way is to use the Diffeomorphic plugin.  Thomas and Padone have done a great job with the material conversions.  If you look at the first screenshot I uploaded it shows an object direclty imported from DAZ to blender (this is a freebie - Jeweled Sai by Echidnaean).  As you can see all of the image maps are set up for you.  In the second image, I set up the normal and bump (height) map like you asked.  Using the Principled BSDF shader, I increased the 'metallic' slider to 1.00 since gold is a metal, reduced the roughness to 0.15 so it looks glossy, and changed the color based on some gold color samples found on Google.  

Hope this helps.  :)