Digital Art Zone

When I first discovered DAZ Studio by accident a couple of years ago, I started looking at it because there was a free version available. I later paid for the full version of DAZ Studio which was still a lot cheaper than thousands of dollards for some of the other packages. 3D is a hobby for me, so I don’t need to invest in it the way other professional artists and merchants do.

Looking back at my purchase history at DAZ and other stores, I’ve ended up spending waaaaay more on content than I’d ever thought I would when I was first looking at DAZ Studio. That got me thinking - are there any pro suites out there (even if they’re horribly expensive) that include access to content or free content etc?

I’m just wondering whether long-term I may be better off buying something like that rather than giving all my money to DAZ for new content every month, paricularly with the Genesis content costs shooting up and the almost-worthless new PC coupons.

Thanks for the advice.

There are content markets for other programmes such as 3DS, but the prices will make you glad you picked Studio….  Take a look at http://www.turbosquid.com/ but be prepared to wince.

As with Studio and Poser, there are plenty of people making freebies, with http://www.sharecg.com carrying content for pretty much everything out there.

AS DWG said, you’re lucky you discovered DAZ3D. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper with a professionally made human figure that looks human. Or alien, or like a dwarf, or with fangs, horns and what-not. Anyway, you’d had to factor in the cost of your time spent making things work for you, and since these are professionals, they spend the 100’s of hours you’d spend on making props work, to create content, optimize it, making textures (or even shaders), so you don’t have to. Your concern is now to make pretty pictures with this stuff. Clothings in other places for 3DS MAx, as an example - let’s take a tally shall we?

3dexport: T-shirt , not rigged (but textured) $38, Human male high-detail $30 (this is a very low price, I’ve seen prices in the range of $290 for a human)
Exchange3D.com: High-heel shoes pack textured $59 (down from $79), Human male (textured, but not jointed, you’d need to rig it yourself) $79
Turbosquid: T-shirt (with normal-map, bump-map etc.) cheap price at $39, Human male (textured, but not rigged) at $49
The3DStudio.Com: T-shirt $15, Human male (textured, but not jointed) at $50

Are you seeing a trend here? Every other place are more expensive, and most are not even rigged…

Here at DAZ3D, the premier digital content vendor online, usually sell their human figures; textured, with morphs, rigged and you can export through FBX to other kinds of software. I (think) complained a lot, but that’s because I couldn’t use DS4P as I was not interested in being an unpaid beta-tester. Now I’ve set up and using DS4P, and there are errors, but it isn’t unworkable, and I can managed to prep old scenes with poses and set-ups, so I should be able to recreate easily from DS3A to DS4P.

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies. Wow - I hadn’t realized how expensive content was in general. I was hoping there was a toolsuite available that included content, but it appears not. So DAZ has the formula that works for me and my needs.

Cheers

if you spend lot’s of $$$ on content, remember after a while you have a full license for autodesk

fixme12 - 27 August 2012 03:10 PM

if you spend lot’s of $$$ on content, remember after a while you have a full license for autodesk

That’s what I’m getting at. So if I buy Autodesk do I still need to buy content for Autodesk as well or do they have a different model. I can’t figure it out from their site (maybe they also need a new website - I’ll recommend Magento).

cridgit - 31 August 2012 07:24 PM

fixme12 - 27 August 2012 03:10 PM

if you spend lot’s of $$$ on content, remember after a while you have a full license for autodesk

That’s what I’m getting at. So if I buy Autodesk do I still need to buy content for Autodesk as well or do they have a different model. I can’t figure it out from their site (maybe they also need a new website - I’ll recommend Magento).

Autodesk products come with NOTHING except the product and a demo project.  After that, you make it (content) yourself, or you buy it.  The same as with D|S.

EDIT:  I have Maya, AutoCAD, and Revit.

Kendall

cridgit - 31 August 2012 07:24 PM

fixme12 - 27 August 2012 03:10 PM

if you spend lot’s of $$$ on content, remember after a while you have a full license for autodesk

That’s what I’m getting at. So if I buy Autodesk do I still need to buy content for Autodesk as well or do they have a different model. I can’t figure it out from their site (maybe they also need a new website - I’ll recommend Magento).

You are confusing what both apps do. DS and poser are hobby software for rendering still or animations with premade content, While you can render and do animations in high end apps, they are mainly for asset creation. Most mesh can be used in any high end app, it’s transferring rigging and textures/shaders that is the biggest problem. I used to set up V4 scenes in 3DSMax to render in Vray or maxwell, it took FOREVER to set all the shaders and textures for the scene, got old real quick despite the superior lighting model..

If you want an all in one deal, Carrara is your best choice, uses premade content well, shaders/textures are easy to set up, it has good modeling capabilities, is very inexpensive compared to Max or Maya and has some great rendering assets.

FSMCDesigns - 31 August 2012 09:07 PM

cridgit - 31 August 2012 07:24 PM

fixme12 - 27 August 2012 03:10 PM

if you spend lot’s of $$$ on content, remember after a while you have a full license for autodesk

That’s what I’m getting at. So if I buy Autodesk do I still need to buy content for Autodesk as well or do they have a different model. I can’t figure it out from their site (maybe they also need a new website - I’ll recommend Magento).

You are confusing what both apps do. DS and poser are hobby software for rendering still or animations with premade content, While you can render and do animations in high end apps, they are mainly for asset creation. Most mesh can be used in any high end app, it’s transferring rigging and textures/shaders that is the biggest problem. I used to set up V4 scenes in 3DSMax to render in Vray or maxwell, it took FOREVER to set all the shaders and textures for the scene, got old real quick despite the superior lighting model..

If you want an all in one deal, Carrara is your best choice, uses premade content well, shaders/textures are easy to set up, it has good modeling capabilities, is very inexpensive compared to Max or Maya and has some great rendering assets.

Absolutely!  Well said.  Even though I have the “big boys” I still find that I use DS and Carrara way more than the others combined.

Kendall

You might want to check membership sites like PoserWorld. They keep adding new products which are free to the members as long as their membership is paid up. Very good deal for the money. At present there are a couple of thousand items in their collection. Lots of props and sets, quite a few clothing items. Not much for Genesis yet, but a lot of things for older figures. Some of them rather nice.