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I don't get why DAZ doesn't appear to get this. With very little development effort, DAZ could have the best of both worlds. The casual user who wants to stay in DAZ Studio is happy. The more ambitious users can export via USD to whatever app they want and they are damned well happy, too. The price is just a USD exporter. To be honest, the only thing I use DS for at all is as an auto-fit server because I haven't figure that out yet.
But the main point is that this has not decreased the amount of money I give DAZ every month. If the process were easier, I'd buy even more from my 4 or 5 favorite PAs instead of the other sources.
I don't understand why this relatively cheap win-win is not taken advantage of.
I totally agree. If DAZ Studio does eveything you need, stick with it; if you need more, go Blender.
I've switched over to working in 2D and using DAZ Studio mainly for creating 2D assets for animation. I think at this point the only thing that would pull me back into 3D animation is if DAZ finally licensed the 64-bit Mimic engine and fixed the sound import issues in DAZ Studio. We'll see what DAZ Studio 5 brings to the table, but I'm not holding my breath.
-- Walt Sterdan
Can't argue with any of that, Walt.
Interestingly, or perhaps not so much, the most common first reaction I get from pro animators when I mention DAZ is "Those guys are still around?" I get the feeling that they maybe evaluated DAZ Studio many years ago and have been disregarding it, suitably condescendingly, ever since. They have no idea how flexible a G8.1 is, how good its topology is, how well the authored JCMs work, etc... I have come to understand that the idea of creating a character via sliders is anathema to a true artist (what a non-artist like myself considers tedious is actually the fun part to a true artist), they do get how fast it can be done. For them time equals money in a very real sense. So telling them that that time advantage will be negated by the time it'll take to get the content out and perfected, voids any reason I have for saying much further. I'm not a genius but I know the canonical definition of "Missed Opportunity". If it were just a mouse click, sparks would fly.
DAZ is competing from free assets, already available, some in the pipeline, and some to be devised in the future, mainly Unity and UE/Epic. I think ultimately they'll loose but the number 3 choice is still potentially a lot of sales. Even as recently as 5 years ago DAZ models were not a consideration for the overwhelming majority of UE/Unity customers but now it's comparatively straight forward.
Blender/Maya/and the others are not even competing against DAZ or vice versa.
I agree, they should give DAZ Studio animation a new look. I do a lot of animations in DAZ Studio and I never thought learning another piece of software just because "everyone uses Blender".
Blender is ATROCIOUS in my humblest opinion. The interface is all scattered around and honestly its animation tools, even if they feels more "complete" are a true mess. I once tried to change the orientation of a camera on an empty scene with the starting cube. I spent half hour trying to figure out why I couldn't simply select the camera and rotate it... I now
I'm animating in DAZ Studio since years and I'll animate for years from now, hoping DAZ Devs will finally fix the bugs in the animation tools.
Do not forget geo-grafts. This DAZ feature is something, I have not heard of anywhere else and it cannot be praised enough.
The ability to stick anything seamlessly to a figures geometry is a big win.
Too true. For free software, there's a huge amount of pretty neat features, just not everything for everyone. Though I'm not too interested in moving DAZ assets to another 3D program to work with, I truly appeciate that they've always made the effort to try and help customers use their assets elsewhere, starting with their efforts to help Poser users when Genesis first came out; it helps underscore who their customers actually are.
As discussed above, USD should be their next step, fingers crossed.
-- Walt Sterdan
Same. I basically only use DS to create characters, then it's off to C4D (through the bridge) or Houdini (brute force) for everything else I need.
Agreed. DAZ Studio is the only option for some purposes. I'm not an animator but I like to dabble. I even bought a quite expensive course on Blender animation but it involved far too much work for the little projects I might need to play with so, despite all its limitations, I went back to the DAZ Studio timeline. I bought and tried Poser a few years ago but couldn't get on with the strange viewport so that ended with me returning to DAZ Studio too.
Perhaps if USD brings true inter-operability, then I might start exporting to Blender and try that animation again. But it must be able to accommodate Geo-grafts which seems to be a show-stopper for most of the bridge products.
I have successfully used the Daz to C4D bridge to import characters with functioning geografts, although it is admittedly mercurial as to whether it works or not.
getting frustrated about not knowing how to do everything in a new software is par for the course. I literally ragequit Zbrush today because a succession of things i didnt know how to do kept thwarting me at every turn. Mentally, you have to perservere through the software's UI iodsyncrasies.
I probably got frustrated at Daz too.
To imply Blender is somehow a bad or user-unfriendly software because youre new to the software is kind of reaching. There are literal children on youtube doing blender tutorials...
...yeah put me on the list of those content to stay with Daz as the primary software..
I don't bother with animation so that iis one major concern I don't need to deal with. Most of why I am in this is for creating high quality single frame illustrations as well as for graphic novel development.
As to using other software I have Blender (2.92 which is the last to support W7) and got into it mainly for what was originally its core purpose, modelling. It is more stable than Hexagon (even the 64 bit version) and doesn't cost an a couple bodily appendages/organs like other the other pro modelling software. The fact they adopted a pointer based UI was also a big help in finally getting me onboard. For 2D and texture work I primarily use GIMP (which I've worked with even longer than I have with Daz) and PSP (both also support PS brushes).
Therefore I have little interest in importing Daz assets into to other software other than a modelling ssoftware for kitbashing purposes and then sending the items back to Daz.
The one programme I wish Daz would have offered a bridge to was Carrara which is superior for working with and creating large scale environments. Sadly it appears to have been abandoned since its last major update several years ago. Grantes, as with bridges to other software, it would also need to allow import of features such as geografts, custom/HD skins (including those created with tools like Skin Builder/Anegenesis),HD morphs, overlays, and the such. Even though Carrara uses a biased render engine that is CPU driven the results can be near photo realistic. .
I guess that may be the reason why Daz is looking at Omniverse in ver 5.x, but if, as reported, rendering in it is very demanding on GPU resources that doesn't sound like a very good option unless it is integrated in a way that streamlines the process.
Of course if tools like the aforementioned Skin Builder along with GenX, XTransfer and such for older generations are not updated to the new SDK, then all bets are off and I'll stick with whatever the final version of 4.x is.
+1
The Blender interface is too different from anything else that has been released within the last 25+ years and that is the problem for people that have been working with computers (at professional level) since the 'beginning of times' and while keyboard shortcuts are good for someone that's working with Blender 8-16 hours every day, they are pain in the behind for anyone using Blender just every now and then.
Sure, toddlers can learn it, because they have no expectations on how the interface should work - It's like the people were delivered a Finnish language version of the operating system and programs, to us finns it would be childs play to use and understand them
I just find it takes 3 more not obvious clicks to do something in Blender's edit mode than it does in Carrara's vertex room
Hexagon which has a lot of similarities to Carrara takes at least one extra click too... the annoying Validate
we all have our preferences
...I prefer Carrara's Texture Room over Daz's Shader Mixer/Builder as being mildly dyslexic node based systems remind me of a bowl of spaghetti spilled on the floor..
I prefer working solely in DAZ Studio as well.
I have taken several free as well as even a payed Blender course and it´s not like I can´t get anything out of it. But everytime i find myself in a situation where i could need something done in Blender, I find excuses and workarounds because i simply prefer the ease of use that DS provides.
Don´t get me wrong. I don´t want to say Blender or any of the other Softwares (I can´t afford any payed ones) are bad. I just say it´s much much easier for me as a hobbyist to stay in DS.
I find that one can become accustomed to anything, if one just keeps using it. The kicker is when you realize that it is not poorly designed at all, and it is actually different for a reason.
Don't think there will ever be one software "to rule them all ".
That's another way of saying, getting accustomed by everyone is not likely.
Totally agree "different for a reason" is a good thing.
Extreme example but not, if authoritarians take over the world will everyone get accustomed?
DAZ jcms, ercs, geografts, different ui - seem like postive examples of plurality that should keep being developed and not rolled "into the one ring".
Tried for one full year to get used to Blender. Had printed out guides - spent tons of time following videos.
Usually get accustomed very fast. I just disliked blender more and more even after changing UI.
Sure works for many who think that way. Awesome it works for those that it clicks.
Like others i found it always needed another step or more, and that didn't click for me.
For example, found playing with 3d max for a very short time was more intuitive.
Whereas DazStudio just clicked every step of way and so quickly.
Don't think just because some circles say "oh DAZ is casual" doesn't necessarily make it the objective truth. Just in that circle.
Just because some users don't share their processes, like Blender world especially thrives on, though there are paid for add-ons too, from what i saw one in a while.
Look at certain political circles at work at present. Software is really no different.
Political preferences, or your mental affinities, are undercurrents there too. What is good for one, is uglier for the other.
Angela Jolie may be the up there as the ideation, but many could argue there are other options too.
Pushing for single use over plurality feels not so good for long-term health.
Or that's my vote.
I started out with Photoshop and rapidly decided that life was too short. I then looked at Poser but never got it to work properly. Finally, I tried Daz Studio and I'm still using it over ten years later.
As for Blender, I liked this so much I spent $300 on a Marvelous Designer licence. I really liked MD.
Cheers,
Alex.
Few programs (I think) are as quirky and weird as Wings3D, and yet it's the program I learned to model in and the program I keep going back to for modeling...lol. I've learned to work around at lot of it's strangeness ;). Most people go with what they know. Of all the software I've tried, I liked Modo the best, but I'm poor and it's costly, so Wings3D it is. LOLOL
...the one shortcoming with Daz, it isn't designed for polygon or vertex modelling, Blender is. Yeah, there's Hexagon (I even paid 75$ for it back in the day when it was still 32 bit) but to put things mildly, Blender still is more stable.
Actually, I never liked Blender back before the makeover as having to perform fine manipulation moving the cursor with the keyboard seemed awfully cumbersome when you've already been working in pointer driven UIs
I have very old version of MD and fell out of the loop for the upgrade discounts after I left my job and didn't have the spare finances to keep up with it . When it went to subscription, I lost interest.
I use Blender for making morphs. I tried out ZBrush on another PC for a while (owned by the company I worked for) and I loved it but could never afford it (even less so now that I am retired). I tried Hexagon and liked it but it crashes so often (both on the iMac I had for a while and now on my Windows PC) that it is just sitting on my disk drive lonely and unused. I wonder why DAZ chose not to develop perfectly good software? Perhaps because there's no money coming from content for Hexagon or their other abandonware?
Anyhow, Blender has all the necessary tools when you know where to find them and how to use them. Sometimes the second part of that sentence is quite a daunting task though.
...still not as bad as Blender 2.4x was.
Yeah, a pity Daz let Hexagon fall by the wayside. particularly as it has a two way bridge to Studio. I had hopes for the 64 bit beta when it was released but even that freezes up like when smoothing is applied to meshes.
Same with Carrara, as I mentioned earlier, as Studio was never deigned to handle generating large scale environments, There are "cheats" to make a scene look bigger than it really is, a few of which I used.
In this one I scaled down individual buildings from several different sets the further they were away from the camera to give the illusion of being more distant. For example the one way in the distance with the radio mast on top would have taken up the whole viewport at 100% scale. The aeroplane in the sky was scaled down to around 5%. I also added a bit of depth haze
(note: this is an old image rendered in 3DL using UE and a skydome)
[click for full size]
Hex Freezing appears related in some form to Hex memory management and sculpting.
Have 128gb RAM and it's not even using close to using all of the RAM, when HEX slow down shows - then later freezing. My guess would be with Hex beta and smoothing or any mesh sculpting, the continuous deltas creation is overloading that program. Do find that the select vertex and soften works without issue by comparison.
As for sculpting, which is often mirrored, just use less and more vertex 3d-manip with soften. Way less ongoing deltas generated. Other workaround if sculpting lots is export moprh to DS via bridge, then close Hex and resend figure with new sculpted temp morph ON to Hex again. Don't have to use that process too often. Just seldom.
So have made oodles of Hex morphs and many are big. If you find a way to work with the program, Hex works great.
This is the case for a lot of Can Do Anything software, and it's why I still recommend Daz to artists who want to get into 3D and aren't necessarily interested in making their own assets--I know from experience that learning Blender is a great idea, but realistically a lot of people are not going to push through a process where they feel like a failure every step of the way.
While Daz Studio can drive me nuts at times with the things they do, their software is something I can actually look at not feel out of my league.
Blender's complete and total dependency on shortcuts is what kills it. Learning Blender doesn't mean actually learning Blender, no, it meaning learning the SHORCUT LANGUAGE that you need to speak in order to use Blender. If you do not learn the shortcuts you will fail. Period. No exceptions. I do not want to learn a new language.
Watch any Blender tutorial video. Almost instantly they start talking in shortcut speak. "Hit x + y to open this menu, hit q + c to toggle that same menu's function" and so on. Pretty much every tutorial for Blender makes an assumption that viewer already knows how to do something they consider basic. Um...nothing is really basic in this software.
With Daz Studio you do not need to know any shortcuts to use the software. Everything is in reach with a few clicks, and that is how my brain works. My brain simply cannot handle shortcuts. I have a better chance learning Chinese than Blender.
The end result was that Blender made me feel stupid. Blender made me feel like I cannot do this. It made me feel like I had no business even thinking about doing 3D. Let me tell you that is not a good feeling, no software I have used used has made me feel so helpless before. I had practically given up on the whole idea of 3D when I happened to come across this Daz Studio thing. It has its own learning curve, no doubt, but I was able to much more quickly understand how the software worked. All the presets you can get can help tremendously. If you don't know lighting, you get a preset for that. You can get a preset for literally anything, and get one easily.
You can get premade stuff for Blender and still not know what to do with it. Oh yeah, the camera is not even attached to the viewport for rendering, you got to um...use a shortcut.
Blender has improved its GUI since that time, but at its heart the software still requires the user to know an extensive library of shortcuts to get anywhere.
...again I only use Blender for modelling, something Daz Studio is incapable of (well unless you want to deal with the tediousness of using the Geometry Editor). I'm willing to overlook Blender's oddities (there is a pointer driven UI option) for far better stability than Hexagon offers.
Based on accidental/unintended hints, I think we may see DS 5 this year.
Agree with all of that although I only use Blender for making morphs (a kind of modelling, I guess). I tried to do stuff in DAZ Studio using the Geometry Editor and even bought Mesh Grabber but returned it because it was more cumbersome than exporting to Blender.
As for the UI - I get by without needing too many hotkeys but I know that I would work better if I learned a few more. The points made above about tutorials assuming that we all have the same add-ons or know all the shortcuts are the main reason I was put off and still am to a large extent. I've go used to the export/import procedure now but Blender devs are liable to change things without notice and throw the workflow into chaos. This happened recently with the new Wavefront OBJ import/export which had me scratching my head for a long while. I can't remember what I did to make sure it works with DAZ Studio OBJs so I just make sure I save all my preferences to each new release of Blender.