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Daz 3D Forums > 3rd Party Software > Maya Discussion

Dex (DSON Exchange) plugin for Maya

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Comments

  • dexplugindexplugin Posts: 8
    September 2018

    Singular3D: It's funny: I was thinking of using the term Joint-Controlled-Joints (or JCJ) as well. I just wasn't sure if there was a formal name. What you've done for Cinema 4D sounds very interesting. I don't have a whole lot of experience with the Cinema 4D SDK beyond the basics, but I hope to learn more about it.

  • gavincroutgavincrout Posts: 28
    September 2018

    I actually prefer HD morphs and I'm an animator trainee. Because of the way the Genesis 3/8 figures were made, the base mesh's teeth really suck even when you manually subdivide it in Maya, and I'm too lazy to edit all my figure's teeth lol, so I'd rather just influence the SubD1 mesh. I like using normal maps (especially for pores) a lot but some people want their character's to have more depth in their wrinkles and veins. Displacement maps are an option for sure, but it's time consuming and not super reliable from what I've experienced because of the multiple UVs, you might get seams. I'd rather just animate my figure via SubD0 (base mesh), and pull out the HD SubD1-3 once I'm ready to render, saves so much time. And I encourage people to figure out a method to use their HD morphs for animation because you PAID for it, I certainly wasn't going to let it sit in Daz Studio.

    Also, it's very possible to mix your SubD mesh and animate it in Maya, I do it all the time. Some characters only need their head to be subdivided, the rest of the body most likely doesn't need all of those polys, normal/bump maps are admittedly good enough for the lower portion of the body

  • Singular3DSingular3D Posts: 308
    September 2018 edited September 2018
    dexplugin said:

    Singular3D: It's funny: I was thinking of using the term Joint-Controlled-Joints (or JCJ) as well. I just wasn't sure if there was a formal name. What you've done for Cinema 4D sounds very interesting. I don't have a whole lot of experience with the Cinema 4D SDK beyond the basics, but I hope to learn more about it.

    I'm a beginner with the SDK as well, but a long time C4D user and C/C++ programmer. I tend to do the plugin this time with Python though. I sent you a PM with the link to a document that might be interesting for you.

    What you do for Maya is wonderful and I wish you would do it for C4D as well.

    Post edited by Singular3D on September 2018
  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,168
    September 2018
    gavincrout said:

    I actually prefer HD morphs and I'm an animator trainee. Because of the way the Genesis 3/8 figures were made, the base mesh's teeth really suck even when you manually subdivide it in Maya, and I'm too lazy to edit all my figure's teeth lol, so I'd rather just influence the SubD1 mesh. I like using normal maps (especially for pores) a lot but some people want their character's to have more depth in their wrinkles and veins. Displacement maps are an option for sure, but it's time consuming and not super reliable from what I've experienced because of the multiple UVs, you might get seams. I'd rather just animate my figure via SubD0 (base mesh), and pull out the HD SubD1-3 once I'm ready to render, saves so much time. And I encourage people to figure out a method to use their HD morphs for animation because you PAID for it, I certainly wasn't going to let it sit in Daz Studio.

     

    I think we should clarify the difference between subdividing a base res mesh at render time and the Daz Proprietary "HD" morph system
    that is only available to Daz PA's.

    You cannot not actually  export " true Daz HD" only your  chosen level of subD (1,2,3)
    As an animator I am a strong advocate of using the nondestructive subdivsion, in my output program, at render time in fact it is an industry standard practice AKAIK.

    I was suggesting to Dexplugin that trying to implement the Daz Proprietary "HD" morph system in a DSON based  Maya plugin is likely a wasted effort Not only because the  DAZ HD Morph system is proprietary DAZ  IP,( thus not exportable) But frankly not needed for High detailed final renders  in Maya  or C4D,LightWave etc.

  • gavincroutgavincrout Posts: 28
    September 2018

    You cannot not actually  export " true Daz HD" only your  chosen level of subD (1,2,3)

    wait, what's "true Daz HD"? Educate me because I thought the HD were just regular subdivided static mesh.

    I never used their HD morph system because I'm not a PA, but it seems like the PAs just import their High Poly OBJ and Daz automatically assigns the materials and calculatively creates other Static SubD with lesser or higher polys than the original "HD" OBJ (Mult/Div by 4). "HD character" is just a fancy name, brilliant marketing. But the details do retain when you export the mesh via OBJ, MDD or ABC.

    I was suggesting to Dexplugin that trying to implement the Daz Proprietary "HD" morph system in a DSON based  Maya plugin is likely a wasted effort Not only because the  DAZ HD Morph system is proprietary DAZ  IP,( thus not exportable) But frankly not needed for High detailed final renders  in Maya  or C4D,LightWave etc.

    I agree it's impossible to directly export all of the SubD levels using the DSON method (I assume, hope I'm proven wrong). But if someone knows how to influence a mesh with the same UVs, recreating this system would be very simple, I know because I'm doing it right now with someone else's plugin in Maya. I could easily add on to the plugin I'm using and make a similar "HD" morph system, only thing that needs to be added, is for this plugin to automatically copy the base mesh's materials to the SubD 1,2,3 

    From what I gathered from my testing, I feel like I need the subDs because normals look incomplete on a realistic human figure (unless it's for pores, or it complements the displacement map or SubD mesh). And displacement maps create seams on Genesis 3/8 characters if you look closely. But it's all personal preference, I'm using normal maps on my background characters for crowd simulation and it seems like your style of art handles normal maps pretty well

    Your definitely right about it being industry standard, I don't usually have good luck with it regarding the Genesis 3/8 teeth, so I stay stick with the HD mesh. Rendertime will be the same, so I don't bother with Render engine's subD if I can get better/faster results just grabbing the holy poly HD mesh compared to making Displacements and using the Render engine's subD system.

    I think we can both agree that "HD" morph system is not worth the trouble of making for Michael, Daz Users need to figure this out themselves.

  • BeyoownbossBeyoownboss Posts: 0
    September 2018

    What's the estimate date release of this amazing product?

  • joseftjoseft Posts: 282
    October 2018

    I am curious if this plugin is still being developed?

     

    certainly hope so

  • asduma20asduma20 Posts: 1
    November 2018

    I am looking forward to the release

  • gavincroutgavincrout Posts: 28
    December 2018 edited December 2018

    I had to come back to this to eat my words, there is certainly a way for Michael to add a SubD slider for Daz characters as shown in this video that I made 

     

    It was around 1:48 where I used the SubD slider. Seems a little bit better than the Daz Studio SubD slider because the Daz Studio slider ruins the teeth when it's set to SubD0 (at High resolution)

    Post edited by gavincrout on December 2018
  • TheMysteryIsThePointTheMysteryIsThePoint Posts: 1,647
    December 2018

    Does anyone know what happened to this amazing plugin?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 69,787
    December 2018

    I am told it is still being developed.

  • joseftjoseft Posts: 282
    December 2018

    Good to hear it is still being developed, i had assumed it was abandoned. I will certainly be buying this when it is released

  • Leonides02Leonides02 Posts: 1,246
    January 2019

    I have my eye on this very promising product!

  • joseftjoseft Posts: 282
    January 2019

    Every time there is a reply to this thread i get a tiny bit excited that it may be something from the developer with some news, but alas, life is full of disappointments!

  • drzapdrzap Posts: 779
    January 2019 edited January 2019
    joseft said:

    Every time there is a reply to this thread i get a tiny bit excited that it may be something from the developer with some news, but alas, life is full of disappointments!

    Rest assured, he's working on it.  It's coming.

    Post edited by drzap on January 2019
  • geaguirre80geaguirre80 Posts: 3
    January 2019

    This product is a game changer for a lot of creators! you should start a Patreon page and get some extra funds.

  • DAZ_RawbDAZ_Rawb Posts: 767
    January 2019

    Our team over here is working with this Maya plugin developer.

     

    There is still plenty of work happening, but since have our team working with them including sharing some internal SDK's the feature list of the final plugin has definitely grown so there is still more work to be done.

     

    No estimates of when it will be complete, but if you have worked with Daz in the past you might understand that we try not to announce any release plans in advance, so you'll just have to watch the store to see when it pops up.

  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 9,724
    January 2019
    DAZ_Rawb said:

    Our team over here is working with this Maya plugin developer.

     

    There is still plenty of work happening, but since have our team working with them including sharing some internal SDK's the feature list of the final plugin has definitely grown so there is still more work to be done.

     

    No estimates of when it will be complete, but if you have worked with Daz in the past you might understand that we try not to announce any release plans in advance, so you'll just have to watch the store to see when it pops up.

    i was going to dismiss this thread since the likelyhood of myself or many other users having access to Maya is slim to none, but now that I see DAZ is helping with it's development and endorsing it I guess I need to start saving (or sell a kidney)

  • joseftjoseft Posts: 282
    January 2019
    FSMCDesigns said:
    DAZ_Rawb said:

    Our team over here is working with this Maya plugin developer.

     

    There is still plenty of work happening, but since have our team working with them including sharing some internal SDK's the feature list of the final plugin has definitely grown so there is still more work to be done.

     

    No estimates of when it will be complete, but if you have worked with Daz in the past you might understand that we try not to announce any release plans in advance, so you'll just have to watch the store to see when it pops up.

    i was going to dismiss this thread since the likelyhood of myself or many other users having access to Maya is slim to none, but now that I see DAZ is helping with it's development and endorsing it I guess I need to start saving (or sell a kidney)

    they do trials/student licenses so i would try before you buy! it can take quite a long time to become proficient with high end software like Maya. Particularly when you have not learned similar software suites before, it seems like the more you learn the more you realise how much more you dont know.

    This plugin already looked promising, but hearing that Daz are this involved in its development and the feature list is growing as a result is very good to hear.

     

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,168
    January 2019

    but now that I see DAZ is helping with it's development and endorsing it I 
    guess I need to start saving (or sell a kidney)

    Maya is the worlds number one Character animation program
    all of the epic battle scenes in last seasons "game of thrones" were done with Maya.

    If you do not animate your Characters, then the only advantage of G8 in Maya is to use the
     Arnold CPU render engine or perhaps Redshift and hope all of your Daz IRay texture convert over with fidelity.

    Do you really want to pay Autodesk a monthy fee  just to render your still images in Arnold??


    but since have our team working with them including sharing some
    internal SDK's the feature list of the final plugin has definitely grown
    so there is still more work to be done.

    Many Iclone animators  use Daz content( it is much less costly)
    If Daz could somehow copy some of the Maya human IK tech and bring it to studio
    They would have an influx of new customers coming to studio for Character  animation as Daz does not 
    make you pay extra to import /export.

  • joseftjoseft Posts: 282
    February 2019
    wolf359 said:

    but now that I see DAZ is helping with it's development and endorsing it I 
    guess I need to start saving (or sell a kidney)

    Maya is the worlds number one Character animation program
    all of the epic battle scenes in last seasons "game of thrones" were done with Maya.

    If you do not animate your Characters, then the only advantage of G8 in Maya is to use the
     Arnold CPU render engine or perhaps Redshift and hope all of your Daz IRay texture convert over with fidelity.

    Do you really want to pay Autodesk a monthy fee  just to render your still images in Arnold??


    but since have our team working with them including sharing some
    internal SDK's the feature list of the final plugin has definitely grown
    so there is still more work to be done.

    Many Iclone animators  use Daz content( it is much less costly)
    If Daz could somehow copy some of the Maya human IK tech and bring it to studio
    They would have an influx of new customers coming to studio for Character  animation as Daz does not 
    make you pay extra to import /export.

    To be fair, its not just Maya that they used for Game of Thrones. Its probably the tool they use the most, but they would also be using other programs for different things. Maya is not the best at doing everything, so the big studios will have pretty much every tool that is the best at some part of CGI/VFX. For example, you can be certain they would use Nuke for compositing, and probably Houdini for the bulk of the particle effects. 

    Also, access to different render engines is not the only advantage to gain by using Daz characters in Maya if you are not animating. There are many other things you can do.

    Maya can handle much much greater poly counts without slowing down, so you can navigate bigger scenes easier. Simulation tools, not just for cloth but plenty of other things. Fluids/soft body/collisions. soft body/collisions is probably a good one, those can be very useful making a still image look more realistic. General mesh manipulation tools, can be used for a variety of things. Like fixing small geometry errors like pokethrough etc that you either need clothing morph products, goz/zbrush or export/import as morph to do inside DS. Or working on a HD/subdivided mesh, something that only daz PA's can do inside Daz, and by my understanding being able to do this directly in Maya is much more effective than the way it works inside DS. Direct UV editing. You even mentioned something from maya that you wish Daz had - FK/IK systems, not just good for animation but makes posing for still images easier too. I could go on, but you get the point.

    Is all of that worth the cost if not animating? well thats a different story and each person will have a different answer. For the average person, probably not. 

    This is in no way a dig at Daz, its just the reality of what each program is intended for

  • gaoanimatesgaoanimates Posts: 9
    February 2019

    Maya animator here, been doing this for more then a decade, this would blow my blow if it comes out. There's just no comparing the animation tools in Maya vs Daz. I'll gladly pay all the monies if it does everything as advertised!

     

    eg: this is one of the tools that recently came out for anim support in Maya

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=43&v=VAgPvYEhHvE

  • marquismmarquism Posts: 7
    March 2019 edited March 2019

    I hope it's affordable or open to Patreon for plugin+updates. Right now I have a whole lot of models using another method [g84maya+studio library], but don't want to ruin my flow if I commit to a transition to this here.

    The plugin is very beautiful, and really do hope it comes out soon or have a BETA for us to try it out. Cause this unique idea has struck my interest. But need to be sure if it's a workflow I can rely on. Since I start modifying in Daz and animate in Maya.

    Post edited by marquism on March 2019
  • hollabackhollaback Posts: 4
    April 2019
    This tool looks amazing and is something I need/ am willing to pay for. Does anyone know the latest status and/or timeline for launch?
  • joseftjoseft Posts: 282
    April 2019
    hollaback said:
    This tool looks amazing and is something I need/ am willing to pay for. Does anyone know the latest status and/or timeline for launch?

     

    There was a thread a couple of weeks ago asking for testers, so i guess you could call that being in its beta phase

  • hollabackhollaback Posts: 4
    April 2019

    Thanks Joseft.  Wonder if I can still get in on that.  Would you happen to have a link to the thread?

    Thx

  • ragamuffin57ragamuffin57 Posts: 58
    June 2019

    Any news on time frame of when this plugin might be released ??

  • DAZ_RawbDAZ_Rawb Posts: 767
    June 2019
    ragamuffin57 said:

    Any news on time frame of when this plugin might be released ??

    Some harder to kill bugs are currently being exterminated, but it is getting close.

  • Leonides02Leonides02 Posts: 1,246
    June 2019

     

    DAZ_Rawb said:
    ragamuffin57 said:

    Any news on time frame of when this plugin might be released ??

    Some harder to kill bugs are currently being exterminated, but it is getting close.

    Fantastic! I have my eye on this very promising product!

  • kubanis_8a0e350186kubanis_8a0e350186 Posts: 1
    October 2019

    Pretty amazing! I can't wait please when it's going to be released?

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