I am new so bear with me please...

elidaman198

I have a few questions before i sink my teeth into daz3d and come with somewhat of digital artsy background...(i would consider myself beginner level in this discussion..)

1. So is Daz Studio the all it platform.. can I mod/texture/render/animate in it or do i need another 3d platform like blender houdini cinema4d etc...

2. I know this aint 3d max etc.. does it have limitations or pretty much can do most of anything you would want once you buy assets etc...

3. What i want to do isa  mini storybook animations game where you have multiple choices and different animations playout... can it be done or what other resources will i need aside from a game engine platform (recommend any here lol)

Thank you :)

Richard Haseltine

1. Although Daz Studio can create primitives and has some simple mesh editing tools it isn't a modeller, so if you want to create custom models or new morphs you need another application. Similarly, although it is possible to create procedural shaders most materials are heavily reliant on maps and those need to eb created in an external application if you wish to make or modify your own. I usually say DS is like a page layout application, it takes content largely created in external applications and stitches it together to give the final result.

2. If the assets mor-or-less meet your needs then it should be fine - there are some tools (dForms for pulling the mdoel around, Push Modifiers for srhinking and expanding, dForce for draping geometry like fabric, and so on) which enable a degree of customisationand issue fixing within the application.

3. Yes, that should be doable - and people have done things like that.

elidaman198

Richard Haseltine said:

1. Although Daz Studio can create primitives and has some simple mesh editing tools it isn't a modeller, so if you want to create custom models or new morphs you need another application. Similarly, although it is possible to create procedural shaders most materials are heavily reliant on maps and those need to eb created in an external application if you wish to make or modify your own. I usually say DS is like a page layout application, it takes content largely created in external applications and stitches it together to give the final result.

2. If the assets mor-or-less meet your needs then it should be fine - there are some tools (dForms for pulling the mdoel around, Push Modifiers for srhinking and expanding, dForce for draping geometry like fabric, and so on) which enable a degree of customisationand issue fixing within the application.

3. Yes, that should be doable - and people have done things like that.

So just to reitterate or confirm...

If lets say i buy ONLY daz3d models and plan to use them only to morph etc within the studio.. can i use those models to animate and render within daz studio the final animation... thanks for patience

Richard Haseltine

Yes, probably - I'm sorry not to be definitive but it does depend to an extent on the content used and the way you use it, occasionally things can be pushed further than the built-in tools can handle and it becomes necessary to call on an external application but for the most part I would expect that to be unneeded.

margrave

elidaman198 said:

I have a few questions before i sink my teeth into daz3d and come with somewhat of digital artsy background...(i would consider myself beginner level in this discussion..)

1. So is Daz Studio the all it platform.. can I mod/texture/render/animate in it or do i need another 3d platform like blender houdini cinema4d etc...

2. I know this aint 3d max etc.. does it have limitations or pretty much can do most of anything you would want once you buy assets etc...

3. What i want to do isa  mini storybook animations game where you have multiple choices and different animations playout... can it be done or what other resources will i need aside from a game engine platform (recommend any here lol)

Thank you :)

Daz is not an "all-in-one" platform. You can texture and render, but its mesh editing capabilities are very limited. You would need to use another program like Hexagon (also owned by Daz3D) or Blender. And while Daz can do animation, I find its animation abilities extremely unpolished and not worth the effort. If you're just doing a simple animation of a character standing in place and waving their hand or something, it'll (probably) be fine. Anything more complex, you should do it in Blender. If you're dead-set on using Iray, you can export each frame of animation as an OBJ and re-apply the materials inside Daz Studio.

If you want to do a visual novel, Ren'py is your best bet.

Ostadan

Really, 'Studio' is a very good name for the product.  You put together backdrops, actor/models, costumes, lighting, props, start the camera (render), and if you did it right, out comes a nice picture.  The prop department, costume construction, backdrop painters ... that work happens somewhere else.

elidaman198

so i guess the best thing is to start using it to its max capabilities and see what it can do based on given tutrils from there can judge on how to proceed.. then can understand better how do i animate and render my animation.

so i guess you can export all the setting etc from studio to blender or any other 3d program to do the post production.. thought you could do it all in one based on online animations ive seen (again nothing AAA there but there is diff degress)

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Daz Studio, for my money, is still far and away the best character creation platform there is. I won't enumerate the others, but I'm sure you know what's out there.

That being said, the problem a question like yours always has is that people are going to react emotionally and irrationally defend Daz Studio when that facts are clear: as good at it is for character creation, it is equally as bad for animation. None of the proper tools that professional animators refer to and use are there. Simply count the number of animation projects that use Daz Studio for animation and let that small number speak louder that the one or two success stories that speak more to the creators' tenacity than to how good Daz Studio is.

If you are serious about making quality animations, rather than simple, short, or amateurish looking shots, do yourself a favor and invest in yourself. Learn:

1) How to get Daz Studio content out of Daz Studio and into a bona fide animation app, like Blender. I think the best way to do that is with the Diffeomorphic plugin, and/or Sagan.

2) The basics of modeling in Blender. You will often need to do simple corrections for various reasons, e.g. to fix poke-throughs or to make cloth simulations work better.

3) How to retarget animations in Maya. If you're an independent, Maya can be gotten for less than $300 a year, and there is simply nothing better for retargeting animations to your characters and just generally fixing them.

Again, anyone who says any different should be challenged to show how their response is not based on an emotional response as opposed to simple facts about animation. My take is that your knowledge and skill should increase over time to meet your creative ambitions rather than your creative ambitions being capped by the limitations of the easiest to use app or one's own unwillingness to learn the best tool for each job.

Good luck!

elidaman198

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

Daz Studio, for my money, is still far and away the best character creation platform there is. I won't enumerate the others, but I'm sure you know what's out there.

That being said, the problem a question like yours always has is that people are going to react emotionally and irrationally defend Daz Studio when that facts are clear: as good at it is for character creation, it is equally as bad for animation. None of the proper tools that professional animators refer to and use are there. Simply count the number of animation projects that use Daz Studio for animation and let that small number speak louder that the one or two success stories that speak more to the creators' tenacity than to how good Daz Studio is.

If you are serious about making quality animations, rather than simple, short, or amateurish looking shots, do yourself a favor and invest in yourself. Learn:

1) How to get Daz Studio content out of Daz Studio and into a bona fide animation app, like Blender. I think the best way to do that is with the Diffeomorphic plugin, and/or Sagan.

2) The basics of modeling in Blender. You will often need to do simple corrections for various reasons, e.g. to fix poke-throughs or to make cloth simulations work better.

3) How to retarget animations in Maya. If you're an independent, Maya can be gotten for less than $300 a year, and there is simply nothing better for retargeting animations to your characters and just generally fixing them.

Again, anyone who says any different should be challenged to show how their response is not based on an emotional response as opposed to simple facts about animation. My take is that your knowledge and skill should increase over time to meet your creative ambitions rather than your creative ambitions being capped by the limitations of the easiest to use app or one's own unwillingness to learn the best tool for each job.

Good luck!

Thanks and undestood so dazstudio is more like an asset store where for the rest in the work need the big guns like studo max etc... is there no animation program that loads straight up daz models textures evironment so you can do all the post work in it ...

Gordig

Some Daz assets (I can't speculate on the percentage) have files that are native to different programs, like Max, Maya, C4D and Blender. In the store, filter by Software and select your preferred program (NOT the Daz to ____ bridge) to find the items with native downloads for your app.

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

Daz Studio, for my money, is still far and away the best character creation platform there is. I won't enumerate the others, but I'm sure you know what's out there.

That being said, the problem a question like yours always has is that people are going to react emotionally and irrationally defend Daz Studio when that facts are clear: as good at it is for character creation, it is equally as bad for animation. None of the proper tools that professional animators refer to and use are there. Simply count the number of animation projects that use Daz Studio for animation and let that small number speak louder that the one or two success stories that speak more to the creators' tenacity than to how good Daz Studio is.

If you are serious about making quality animations, rather than simple, short, or amateurish looking shots, do yourself a favor and invest in yourself. Learn:

1) How to get Daz Studio content out of Daz Studio and into a bona fide animation app, like Blender. I think the best way to do that is with the Diffeomorphic plugin, and/or Sagan.

2) The basics of modeling in Blender. You will often need to do simple corrections for various reasons, e.g. to fix poke-throughs or to make cloth simulations work better.

3) How to retarget animations in Maya. If you're an independent, Maya can be gotten for less than $300 a year, and there is simply nothing better for retargeting animations to your characters and just generally fixing them.

Again, anyone who says any different should be challenged to show how their response is not based on an emotional response as opposed to simple facts about animation. My take is that your knowledge and skill should increase over time to meet your creative ambitions rather than your creative ambitions being capped by the limitations of the easiest to use app or one's own unwillingness to learn the best tool for each job.

Good luck!

While you're certainly not wrong about the limitations of animating in DS, I feel like it wouldn't take THAT much work to make it an excellent animating tool (though, not being a programmer myself, it's quite possible that I'm underestimating the work it would require). I think PowerPose is the best and easiest way to pose figures that I've tried, and dForce, for its flaws, is a pretty good simulation engine for what it is.

margrave

elidaman198 said:

Thanks and undestood so dazstudio is more like an asset store where for the rest in the work need the big guns like studo max etc... is there no animation program that loads straight up daz models textures evironment so you can do all the post work in it ...

If it's an environment, you can just export it as an OBJ. If it's a figure (i.e. it has rigging), you can export it into Blender with either the official Daz bridge (although it's not finished yet) or the third-party Diffeomorphic bridge. The Diffeomorphic bridge used to be a pain to set up, but the most recent version includes shortcuts that remove a lot of the hassle.

TheMysteryIsThePoint

elidaman198 said:

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

Daz Studio, for my money, is still far and away the best character creation platform there is. I won't enumerate the others, but I'm sure you know what's out there.

That being said, the problem a question like yours always has is that people are going to react emotionally and irrationally defend Daz Studio when that facts are clear: as good at it is for character creation, it is equally as bad for animation. None of the proper tools that professional animators refer to and use are there. Simply count the number of animation projects that use Daz Studio for animation and let that small number speak louder that the one or two success stories that speak more to the creators' tenacity than to how good Daz Studio is.

If you are serious about making quality animations, rather than simple, short, or amateurish looking shots, do yourself a favor and invest in yourself. Learn:

1) How to get Daz Studio content out of Daz Studio and into a bona fide animation app, like Blender. I think the best way to do that is with the Diffeomorphic plugin, and/or Sagan.

2) The basics of modeling in Blender. You will often need to do simple corrections for various reasons, e.g. to fix poke-throughs or to make cloth simulations work better.

3) How to retarget animations in Maya. If you're an independent, Maya can be gotten for less than $300 a year, and there is simply nothing better for retargeting animations to your characters and just generally fixing them.

Again, anyone who says any different should be challenged to show how their response is not based on an emotional response as opposed to simple facts about animation. My take is that your knowledge and skill should increase over time to meet your creative ambitions rather than your creative ambitions being capped by the limitations of the easiest to use app or one's own unwillingness to learn the best tool for each job.

Good luck!

Thanks and undestood so dazstudio is more like an asset store where for the rest in the work need the big guns like studo max etc... is there no animation program that loads straight up daz models textures evironment so you can do all the post work in it ...

Well, that will depend on what you consider "the rest of the work" to be. If it's just a single frame of a posed character you want, there's really no reason to leave Daz Studio; it's exceptional at that.

But I'd say that if you want any type of animation beyond blending between poses, simulation, and other visual effects, then yes, you're going to want to use another app. Nothing else will just load up a .duf, but the Diffeomorphic Daz Importer for Blender is pretty close, and if I were you, that's what I'd look at. The author himself and the guy that did the material conversion are active here in these forums.

The apps I use personally are Maya Indie for retargeting mocap and clean up, Houdini Indie for hair simulation, Marvelous Designer for most cloth sim, Embergen for fire and water, and Blender to tie it all together, and Davinci for compositing. I keep meaning to experiment with Cascadeur for cleaning up mocap, but haven't gotten around to it. Each of these apps does something important that is just not possible in Daz Studio, and it all begins with getting content out of Daz Studio.

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Gordig said:

Some Daz assets (I can't speculate on the percentage) have files that are native to different programs, like Max, Maya, C4D and Blender. In the store, filter by Software and select your preferred program (NOT the Daz to ____ bridge) to find the items with native downloads for your app.

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

Daz Studio, for my money, is still far and away the best character creation platform there is. I won't enumerate the others, but I'm sure you know what's out there.

That being said, the problem a question like yours always has is that people are going to react emotionally and irrationally defend Daz Studio when that facts are clear: as good at it is for character creation, it is equally as bad for animation. None of the proper tools that professional animators refer to and use are there. Simply count the number of animation projects that use Daz Studio for animation and let that small number speak louder that the one or two success stories that speak more to the creators' tenacity than to how good Daz Studio is.

If you are serious about making quality animations, rather than simple, short, or amateurish looking shots, do yourself a favor and invest in yourself. Learn:

1) How to get Daz Studio content out of Daz Studio and into a bona fide animation app, like Blender. I think the best way to do that is with the Diffeomorphic plugin, and/or Sagan.

2) The basics of modeling in Blender. You will often need to do simple corrections for various reasons, e.g. to fix poke-throughs or to make cloth simulations work better.

3) How to retarget animations in Maya. If you're an independent, Maya can be gotten for less than $300 a year, and there is simply nothing better for retargeting animations to your characters and just generally fixing them.

Again, anyone who says any different should be challenged to show how their response is not based on an emotional response as opposed to simple facts about animation. My take is that your knowledge and skill should increase over time to meet your creative ambitions rather than your creative ambitions being capped by the limitations of the easiest to use app or one's own unwillingness to learn the best tool for each job.

Good luck!

While you're certainly not wrong about the limitations of animating in DS, I feel like it wouldn't take THAT much work to make it an excellent animating tool (though, not being a programmer myself, it's quite possible that I'm underestimating the work it would require).

Even if that were true, I don't see Daz pursuing that. If they did, I would love to not have to give Autodesk another penny.

I think PowerPose is the best and easiest way to pose figures that I've tried,

For static poses, sure, you're probably right.

and dForce, for its flaws, is a pretty good simulation engine for what it is.

While I'd be the first to say that you can often get nice looking static results with it, I think it's only "pretty good" until you compare it to anything else. It sometimes compares well to Blender's cloth sim, but even then Blender has the added advantage of also being a competent modelling environment so one has a large toolbox of tools to "fix" sims that blow up in Daz Studio. Houdini's Vellum has the benefit of Houdini's unbelievably powerful nodes to do things like decimate the model, take its convex hull, expand the result by an offset, and deform the model so it doesn't self intersect, and simulating that. And then there's Marvelous Designer, which is just Black Fricking Magic. It's amazing how tolerant it is, and how well tuned the presets are to look absolutely realistic.