Modeling for Daz
dragonsfirenh
Posts: 28
I love using Daz and creating scenes but more often then not the outfits, weapons or enviroments etc I have a vision for I can't find so I figure I should make my own. I have not modeled in 3D in some time but I used to use Lightwave in the way back Amiga days. Is lightwave a viable option for content creation or is there a better solution for Daz? Please do not say Maya as I do not have the coin for that :)
Thanks in advance
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Blender has fast become a strong Modeler for using to create Daz content it does have a bit of a learning curve but has come a long way from the 2.4 days. The interface is more user friendly and you can find many tutorials available to get you started as well as scripts for utlizing Blender's Cycle Redner and Scripts for using Blender to create morphs for most Daz figures. And Finally it is free. I know lightwave use also for modeling for Daz but not as fimilar with that tool to give any feedback on it.
Sure or you can look at
Cinema 4D
Carrara 8.5
Hexagon
There's also Modo, 3dCoat and my favourite Silo, which I use all the time.
Thanks for the feedback,I appreshiate it. Since it has been so long I will be learning all over again sounds like I should start with Blender, LW $995 Blender Free :)
Blender is probably a good starting point, but for what it is worth a lot of the older DAZ figures were made in LW (in fact some of the morph handling tools in LW were originally developed by DAZ). More recently modo was used, which has much in common with LW but is even more expensive.
Hiya.
Just FYI... you can get "MODO Indie" via Steam for about $20/mo. It has a 100,000 polygon "limit" (if you're building clothes I don't think you'll ever hit the cap), and can't use Plugins/Scripts (so no "GoZ"...much to my dissapointment). However, everything else you pretty much get. I've been learning MODO Indie for the last 3 weeks or so and I am quite happy with it. Paying $25 (canadian) per month means it will be somewhere around 10 YEARS before buying the full version would have been cheaper.
Hexagon, when it's not "in a mood" (re: crashing if you look at it funny...don't panic...it usually calms down after a day or two and you can get back to actual work), is an *awesome* program. A close second is Silo, which will set you back a bit more money...something like $110 last time I checked... but is very easy to use and get used to. Lightwave is powerful, but is VERY old. This is a good and bad thing. Good, because it is rock solid and has ALL the bases coverd. Bad, because it shows it's age in some operations and that it has a bajillion different ways to do something....but three-quarters of those bajillion don't actually work anymore because of tecnhology advancements (the coding is just too old ... like trying to talk to someone who time travels from 900AD England. They are still speaking "English", but it's so old and out of date that you can't understand them.
That said, if you are looking for lerning a 3D app without any prior experience, Blender is definitly worth a look. If you are used to useing "Ctrl-C" to copy, and "Ctrl-V" to paste, and using hotkeys to select Move/Scale/Rotate, and other "commonly accepted shortcuts", then you will likely have trouble with Blender. The most voiciferous and loud complaints about it come from it's (IMHO, absolutely over-stuffed, convuluted, confusing and just plain WTF?!? interface and hot-key defaults.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
I have looked at MODO before, I guess that is some of the Lightwave people and others that made it. It does look sexy
Blender has a learning curve but it also has a wealth of free resources to teach you ranging from very professional to absolute train-wreck in spite of good intentions. Despite a nonexistent price tag it is capable of most if not all of what can be done on software costing several thousand dollars. Because it's a very versicle package the interface can be a bit daunting (at first) and for the sake of not having an even more cluttered interface mastery of keyboard commands is a necessity
Silo can be cheap on steam. It's closer to $60 bucks with the steam version. It does have a 30 day trial. (not on steam)
I've used Silo exclusively for 10 yrs.It's a fantastic program that is easy and straight forward to use. I just got Modo so will be retiring Silo soon.
I like it because it is straight forward and focused on modelling. Very clean and uncluttered UI. Just need..more time...to practice...
You can get maya student version for free from their website
What qualifies you as a student to use the free student version?
to be enrolled in some program that requires you to have it.
that makes sense....Frank since you have used Silo for a long time can you tell me the best way to prep G2 and G3 to import to Silo? I find that once I get them there the program freezes and after a time I can't move or rotate the object. I understood there was a way to strip the materials or groups....?
I can't remember off hand. I'm in the middle of doing a bunch of renders but I'll look. I know there are some options you have to uncheck. Really the easiest way is to save it and delete the mtl file. That will get rid of all the groups and materials. Once in Silo select all and combine. What are you tring to do with it?
The website should say. I know that Max has the requirements listed.
Just to import it into Silo as a guide to make clothing
then scale would be the only thing that really matters. You don't need the figure to have materials then. when you export from Daz you can use the Silo scale option.
Yes that's what I wanted to know..how to export obj without textures or any other things not necessary in Silo to make the obj smaller so it doesn't use up all my memory as I find that after working in Silo with the model and the project I am making the program tends to freeze. I am just learning this modelling stuff and want to have a bare bones obj ( only what's necessary) imported into Silo. I did find a video on youtube on how to remove mats etc from V4 but wasn't sure how it all applied to G2 and G3.
I export G2F etc as Poser size with settings for Base resolution and no MATs. Works fine for me in Silo.
Hi Wendy, so when you load in Studio you set the resolution to base and subdivision to 0 ? and then in export options just check no materials and export for Poser? I find that when I try different options when I import into silo, G2 is either very tiny or very large..I guess as long as you use same settings for imort/export is what's important..all poser or all silo etc
When exporting G2 & G3, first go to the parameters tab and under Mesh Resolution set the reslution level to Base and the SubD level to 0
In the scene tab, expand from the head and select all child node under the head. With them all highlighted, go to the parameter tab under display, set visable to off
Attached is my export options plus the result in Silo. The OBJ file was only 992kb
Also, here is a list of Silo videos on youtube
Basic Tools in Silo:
Hard Surface Modeling: Teaching work flow with keyboard shortcuts
(Part 1 of 14 - incomplete series but still good)
UVs in Silo:
(3 parts)
Basics of modeling a Car: (watched this one before making my cars)
Tutorials by Glen Southern
Glen's Silo Fundamentals:
(11 parts)
Creature Modeling: Teaching basic tools
(part 1 of 5)
Glen Southerns Alien:
(9 parts)
Glen Southern's Minotaur:
(10 parts)
Model a head with good topology:
(14 parts)
Thanks mattymanx! I will try this as soon as I get home from work. I think I have watched all those videos at least a dozen times or more, the one thing I don't recall in any of them is how the paint tool/brush sculpting thing works unless I missed it along the way...I tried using it to change some facial features on G2 and couldn't get it to do much of anything, so I still am searching for help showing how it works
I've used Dreamlights Daz modeling products for a couple things, but I really don't have the patience for modeling, lol.
http://www.daz3d.com/daz-studio-modeling
Autodesk says the free version of Maya is for personal and education so as long as you have no commercial use ambitions for it you should be fine.
And if you render with Maya educational it you'll get a watermark
Followed your steps and exported my base forms and now I don't get the Silo not responding error so far...I am curious to know when would you want to export the base and include materials or groups? What would you include those options for?
Not for making morphs really. But if you were retexturing something it would be useful.
So if you were morphing a character into a new shape these are not necessary but if you are making a new skin for a character these would be required?