From Surface Designer → DAZ Studio (Possible?)

Ryselle-Ryssa

Hello out there,

I'm actually evaluating which programs to use in the future and stumbled across Substance-Designer (through a blender tutorial).

Question: Is there a way to create shaders/textures in substance designer and get them to use in DAZ Studio 10? I only discovered tutorials for substance painter.

Thank you in advance!

 

EDIT: Deleted code resulting from a buggy plugin

Richard Haseltine

It is, I believe, possible - but, unless they have managed to change it or you are very carefuo in your choice of bricks, you need (non-distributable) code from Allegorithmic to make it work. The .sdl files need to go in your MDL Directory (set from the Edit Menu of Shader Mixer, not the main Edit menu) then you can drag them in as Custom MDL bricks (if you alt/opt-drag them you will also get the parameters brick set up).

Ryselle-Ryssa

Richard Haseltine said:

It is, I believe, possible - but, unless they have managed to change it or you are very carefuo in your choice of bricks, you need (non-distributable) code from Allegorithmic to make it work.

Thank you, this seem to be a crucial information... Do I get this right, in some cases, the shaders I build won't work in iray, even if I manage to get them into the program?

The .sdl files need to go in your MDL Directory (set from the Edit Menu of Shader Mixer, not the main Edit menu) then you can drag them in as Custom MDL bricks (if you alt/opt-drag them you will also get the parameters brick set up).

So, the workflow would be:

[Substance Designer] New MDL Graph → Graph_Name → <Build Graph> → Save to <location>

[DAZ] Shader Mixer → Edit → MDL Directory Manager → Base Paths → Add → <location>

So... I now have, unter ▼Custom Bricks an item with the name of my MDL-File in the Brickyard...

I also have a Bricks (default) - Functions - MDL - Built Ins - Cusom MDL.

The first one, I'm afraid, doesnt do anything, I click it, nothing happens. The second one adds a node in the web of nodes of the currently open texture, but apart from this, also nothing.

Where did I went wrong?

Richard Haseltine

You need to drag (or alt/opt-drag) the MDL file into the Shader Mixer workspace, as I recall.

Ryselle-Ryssa

Thank you! One step more done.

I can paste the material in the Shader-Mixer, problem is, no informations seem to be transported

Richard Haseltine

Remy_Zeno said:

Thank you! One step more done.

I can paste the material in the Shader-Mixer, problem is, no informations seem to be transported

You don't get a Custim MDL brick, and a User Parameters brick if you held down alt/opt?

Ryselle-Ryssa

I'm afraid, no.

When I define a new material and drag-drop (doesnt matter if with or without alt), I only get the attached node, but no informations.

Thank you for your patience.

Richard Haseltine

Please post a screen shot. This isn't something I ave done, but those certainly aren't the results I would expect.

Ryselle-Ryssa

Sorry, I thaught, that I'd posted a screenshot (but copy and paste in the forum doenst mean, that a a screenshot appeared).

Screenshot is here.

Richard Haseltine

You should then drag a connection from that MT output to the MDL Surface root, as far as I know.

Ryselle-Ryssa

Ok... I got it, and I found my mistake - I used blocks in surface designer, which aren't grouped under "MDL" ressource.

Which brings me to my question: Is it only possible to use the bricks under the MDL-Panel? If yes, 80% of the tutorials I find can not be applied to a DAZ-at-the-end-workflow...

Richard Haseltine

I believe that is right, it is what I as referring to in my first reply about the need fotr careful choice of bricks.

Ryselle-Ryssa

Well, on one side, I'm disappointed, on the other side, you just saved me 300€ worth of money (which can be spend on march madness)... So it's a win, I guess...