Blender vs. Hexagon for creating smart props

krisdesrochers

I've found some threads that are several years old.  Wondering if anything has changed now that Daz3D has bought Hexagon.  Still not finding many tutorials for Hexagon.

I'd like to be able to create smart props and prostectics that adjust to the bone they're parented to like clothing does, but still maintain thier shape.  Like, if you had a wrist gauntlet with blades (Shredder - TMNT type thing).  I want it to conform to any character's wrist, but I don't want the blades to go all wonky.

In trying to decide which software to invest time in learning, I've been looking for tutorials for both for stuff like this, and I'm not fiding any.  Plendy for making things like cups and other objects.  Plenty for making clothing, sheets, curtains, and stuff like that.  But, none seem to cover smart wearable props.

So, I guess my question is twofold: Which software has better tutorials for this, and where can I find them?

 

StratDragon

not many Hex tutorials out there, it has a fraction of users compared to Blender. If you model in blender and bring it in to Studio you can do most of your setup for figures in Studio. For simple props once you get used to Blenders interface making props is pretty straightforward, and the number of prop generator scripts simplify (majority of which are free) that to single clicks. I don't think Hex has changed much since Daz bought it. Sheets, curtains, cloth; hands down Blender blows Hex out of the water with this. Blender is getting support from production studio and hardware developers so there's little to compare between them any longer.

krisdesrochers

Ok, so Blender is the way to go!  Would you happen to know of any good tutorials for accomplishing what I'm trying to acheive?

StratDragon

Simple props tutorials can be found all over. For the Studio stuff you'll need to make the prop in blender, and the bring it into studio to fine tune it for "smart" behavior. Start small, jewelry, earrings, etc. make the prop in blender, export to some format; I prefer OBJ, import into Studio, scale it, parent it. Once you get comfortable with that you can use surfaces and UV maps to fit textures. If you are going to use the Iray or 3Delight shaders in Studio there is nothing that needs to happen with the surfaces in Blender outside of selecting the area you want to have it's own surface and define it with that surface name. Texture mapping will require you to use the UV tools in blender, get familiar with modeling a bit before you jump into UV mapping IMHO, otherwise you may overwhelm yourself when you're getting exposed to the basics, you can expand from there.

there is simply no shortage on the web
Andrew Price is my go-to, if you search for him +Blender you'll get back thousands. He was the guy that pushed for the UI change and suggested what those changes should look like so the Blender interface no longer resembles NASA Mission Control in 1963

Blender guru is another good search. there is stuff all over you-tube that is hit or miss. If you find someone with a series I'd look at their shortest videos first and see if they are usable. some people make assumptions about what you should know and a key step is not explained making tutorials undoable, this is the exception, not the rule. and there are a ton of blender users here you can ask.

 

Mattymanx

Blender would be the better option.  Even I had troubles finding good Hex tuts years ago.  But try them both, to each their own.

 

Even if you are making the props for personal use,  it would still be a good idea to save them as DS props so that it keeps all your surface settings.  Its longer to set up in the shortrun but will save a ton of time in the long run as you wont have to set them up every time.

ShelLuser

I've been using Hexagon a lot over the past years (though still occasionally) and I can definitely confirm that there weren't major changes. I suppose the biggest change was the introduction of the beta version (they somewhat rebooted development as far as I could tell) but after trying the beta once (if I recall correctly) I still kept using the older version.

Personally I love Hexagon and dislike Blender with a passion, so.. I'm kinda biased, but I'd still suggest Blender as well. You'll have more available documentation, I think that there's a much larger userbase to talk to and well...  IMO it's bound to have a better learning curve. I don't speak from personal experience, but base myself on my own experiences when I moved away from Hexagon and started using ZBrush instead: maybe an unfair comparison but it made a night & day difference for me.

With Hexagon I spend hours on creating some very basic props (knives, tires, scepters, sticks). With ZBrush I can have a crude setup ready within an hour or so (and the only reason it takes me some time is because I'm still learning ZBrush). I can only imagine that the same will apply to Blender, considering that it also provides more methods of 3D editing than merely messing around with polys.

nicstt

I've been a Blender user for years, and liked the old interface; I like the new one too, but prefer shortcuts.

I tried Hexagon when I first started using Studio because of the bridge, but it is a long way from a reason to use Hexagon.

Now, there are folks producing great items in Hexagon. As ever, find a tool that suits you, but one needs skills and experience to use any tool; some suite us more than others.

krisdesrochers

StratDragon said:

Simple props tutorials can be found all over. For the Studio stuff you'll need to make the prop in blender, and the bring it into studio to fine tune it for "smart" behavior. Start small, jewelry, earrings, etc. make the prop in blender, export to some format; I prefer OBJ, import into Studio, scale it, parent it. Once you get comfortable with that you can use surfaces and UV maps to fit textures. If you are going to use the Iray or 3Delight shaders in Studio there is nothing that needs to happen with the surfaces in Blender outside of selecting the area you want to have it's own surface and define it with that surface name. Texture mapping will require you to use the UV tools in blender, get familiar with modeling a bit before you jump into UV mapping IMHO, otherwise you may overwhelm

I think this is the part I was missing.  So, you basically just make a "dumb solid" in Blender and all of the "smarts" are added in Daz?  If that's the case, then it explains whey I'm not finding tutorials for doing it in Blender.

I use Solidworks a lot.  Wondering if I could just create things in it and export them to an .stl file, then convert it to .obj.  Or, I think there are exporters that so to .obj directly. I'm sure Blender is better suited, but this may be less of a learning curve to accomplish what I want to do...

BlueSirius

With Hexagon one thing that I like is the ability to flip models back and forth between the two without needing to worry about scale and things when making morphs for free props I pick up etc.

Some things were hard to learn as Hex does not work like other modelling packages I am used too, for example to join objects (with differant material zones) you name them all the same and then save to Object and Load. There should be a menu item to do this but there are choices in the saving and loading that are useful. Do you merge identical points which will collapse the UV mapping or do you not merge which will preserve the face and point count.

I've never touched blender but hear it has a learning curve. I have made some props I am happy with in Hexagon and it has been pretty stable lately. Call it one crash in a few days. I incrementally save and save scenes each time I get an outcome I want.

I'm sure blender has an advantage in that lots of peopel use it, there will be things the package is really good for. Also it has more capability in general.

In my opinion Hex also has some strengths, once you know it the tool is simple and good for quick tweaks of assets. I would suggest learning both and if one drops off the useful rotation then that is the choice made.