Non-DAZ format content?

marble

Most of the content I buy is either from the DAZ store or Renderosity. I have occasionally looked at general 3D content including some really nice clothing and props but they tend to come in either OBJ or FBX format and I am not really sure how to turn those into content I can use in my scenes as I would the purpose-made stuff I buy from DAZ. I know that others use these non-DAZ alternatives quite successfully so I wonder whther there is a guide somewhare that expalins how to convert them?

felis

I can't remember having seen any tutorials in how to import an obj (or fbx) file, for clothing items.

Sickleyield has one for objects.

But what you want is to import the obj, and assuming it fits the base character, you can use transfer rigging, with the character as donor.

But you must be aware that an imported obj, will not have any adjustments e.g. morphs, and materials is very simple and will have to be redone in Daz Studio,

Ascania

marble said:

I know that others use these non-DAZ alternatives quite successfully so I wonder whther there is a guide somewhare that expalins how to convert them?

Import the asset into an empty scene.

Optionally set up its textures and shaders in D|S.

Save it to your library as a prop.

Congratulations! You just converted it.

marble

felis said:

 

But you must be aware that an imported obj, will not have any adjustments e.g. morphs, and materials is very simple and will have to be redone in Daz Studio,

 

Yeah, this is what has been putting me off. I don't have the skills to get into creating UV maps and I have done very little by way of rigging but I am ok with creating morphs in Blender. I am assuming that other complexities such as weight-mapping and making JCMs and FBMs would also be necessary and, again, I don't have those skills. All of which explains why I buy from the DAZ store. I was hoping that I was missing something and someone might have found or created a more simple workflow for importing and converting these objects.

marble

Ascania said:

marble said:

I know that others use these non-DAZ alternatives quite successfully so I wonder whther there is a guide somewhare that expalins how to convert them?

Import the asset into an empty scene.

Optionally set up its textures and shaders in D|S.

Save it to your library as a prop.

Congratulations! You just converted it.

That's for a prop and is probably enough but clearly not for clothing. Also settting up textures is not, to my knowledge, trivial.

Gordig

What kind of tutorials you'll need will depend on the type of content. For static props, nothing is really needed except to save it as a prop in DS (File -> Save As -> Support Asset -> Figure/Prop Asset). For rigged props, you'll need to redo the rigging inside DS, so you'll want to look up some rigging tutorials. For clothing, you'll do whatever fitting and reshaping needed to make it fit your preferred character in Blender, then import into DS. You can try rigging with a donor figure, as Felis suggested, but I'd recommend just using the Transfer Utility. I've got a tutorial that is potentially useful for two of these problems:

marble

Gordig said:

What kind of tutorials you'll need will depend on the type of content. For static props, nothing is really needed except to save it as a prop in DS (File -> Save As -> Support Asset -> Figure/Prop Asset). For rigged props, you'll need to redo the rigging inside DS, so you'll want to look up some rigging tutorials. For clothing, you'll do whatever fitting and reshaping needed to make it fit your preferred character in Blender, then import into DS. You can try rigging with a donor figure, as Felis suggested, but I'd recommend just using the Transfer Utility. I've got a tutorial that is potentially useful for two of these problems:

Ok thanks - that's a start and I really should learn more about rigging ... how hard can it be??

As for textures - I already use shaders a lot so I guess I could apply those but I would need to, at least, create material zones and probably a UV map which is something I imagine to be daunting.

Gordig

If my experience creating props to use in DS is any guide, getting the props in with their material zones intact requires giving every desired material zone a distinct material, preferably with the name of the desired material zone. OBJ doesn't appear to care about whatever polygon groups you might have created in the source app. If the prop comes with textures, it's probably already been done for you, but that's no guarantee. As for UV mapping, that might also have been done for you by whoever created the prop, but if not, it's less daunting than you might think, and I imagine Blender's tools for UV mapping are pretty easy to use (as easy as anything in Blender is to use).

marble

Gordig said:

 As for UV mapping, that might also have been done for you by whoever created the prop, but if not, it's less daunting than you might think, and I imagine Blender's tools for UV mapping are pretty easy to use (as easy as anything in Blender is to use).

From what I have read in the past, Blender's UV unwrapping was not that well-thought of but I have noticed that more development has been going on lately so it might be worthwhile having a look. Most on this forum seem to recommend purchasing a specialist UV Unwrap application or, maybe, 3DCoat. I'm not going to spend all that money on something I may only use very occasionally.

felis

I am only using blender to unwrap UVs, and while it could have more features it does the job. I don't use smart UV, but places seams and unwrap, so I am in controle of where all seams are. And that work out fairly ok.