Can I import reference picture in DAZ studio?
pauljacob11
Posts: 203
I need to pose a scene against a background picture for final compositing in photoshop. In DAZ studio is it possible to import a picture so that I can pose characters where I want them against the picture?
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Go to Edit > Backdrop, and you will get a pop-up box allowing you to enter the name and location of your backdrop.
If that doesn't suit your purposes, you can also create a plane primitive, and use that, by applying your image in the diffuse channel in the Surfaces pane. See which one works best for you.
Thank you jimmyC for your prompt reply. I'll try the backdrop method, but I'd appreciate it very much if you would explain in a few steps how to create a plane primitive and how to apply image in the diffuse channel. TIA for your help.
Create a primitive, adjust it to where you want it, go to the surface tab and add the image to the diffuse channel
It's quite easy to do.
Go to Create > New Primitive, and select 'Plane' from the drop down menu.
Make sure the plane is selected in the Scene pane, go to the Parameters pane, and set the 'X Rotate' slider to '90'' to set the plane in the correct position (vertical)
Then (with the pane still selected) go to the Surfaces pane, and select 'plane' then go to the 'Diffuse Colour' area, and use the little triangle at the left and select 'Browse' to load you image onto the plane.
That is really all there is to it, if you need any more help, please ask.
EDIT:
XPost Frank :)
Create Menu> New Primitive from the menu just do a default plane of any size, you will scale it soon so real size not a issue.
Scene Tab select the New plane. Parameters menu do a X Rotate 90.00
With the Plane still selected go to Surfaces Tab in the Diffuse channel of the planes Default section do Drop down and Browse
Browse to the image you want on the plane. It will be stretched or squashed.
Go back to Parameters and now scale the Plane on X ans Z until the image looks correct.
Now move the plane were you need it.
LOL! So many cross posts... LOL.
Thank you very much jimmyC and Frank, and Jaderail, appreciate your help.
This thread is still very relevant. Thanks everybody for the question and the replies. This method would be the same one to use to create a custom morph of a base model, once you have the proper scripts. It's almost always better to build your own from a base that's close enough. As for faces, hairdoos and the like, you're almost always better off creating a face from scratch, and hair as well. If you wish to create a morph of a face, you can import the base face or the whole model into your modeling designer and then replace the face in order to create a morph object .OBJ file. Then you simply name the morph appropriately and set the settings right in the advanced morph creator, limiting changes to the area you morphed, and when you apply the slider, it will alter only that area, making your morph more transferable across other designs based on the same mapping (any model from the same base will work in almost every case).
If you are better and faster with your modeling program, you can usually put together a quick base body frame, without full chest or other gender distinguishing shapes. Gender distinguishing traits are best left to the end, where they can be added and modeled on their own, while fitting them to the rest of the frame of the body. Cylinders are a great start, boxes, and ovals. Generally, glutes and chest areas are best as spheres to start. Adding geometry slowly and methodically is generally easier than trying to adjust already existing geometry in a modeling program.
Sculpting is great for some things, horrible for others. When you're ready to work with finer details of hair, scars, skin marks, or finer edges of curvature (even gender defining details), sculpting is often more productive than modeling. It allows you to slowly make smooth adjustments to existing geometry as if it were clay, with the program handling the underlying geometry. However, the more you sculpt, the more geometry is added to make the changes over the old geometry, which can drastically increase the memory needed for that figure. So... ...Keep your first pass of sculpting to middle details, like gender specific areas, and curves of the body, or lines through hair. Save that geometry, use decimate to bring the count of polys down, save it again. On the second pass, you can make marks on the body and extremely fine details. After this pass, save a bumpmap instead of the geometry. Decimate and make sure you don't overload the map, and save the bumpmap again. A bumpmap can be placed on top of the original mesh to add markings and other fine details, without overloading the original geometry; it only uses a differential to affect the areas where the markings reside, preserving the original polys, and altering only a few to make the marks, resulting in a high quality image without all the excess memory usage.
Layering skins over the top simply paints the mesh with color fitted to the dimensions of the mesh. IF you wish to build your own model, you'll have to paint the different areas yourself. Some programs exist that allow you to apply paint to the models in 3D, then unfold it and save it as a new document.
The most efficiently detailed figures and skins utilize the bumpmap when painting. If you have GIMP or PHOTOSHOP, you can probably use a selection tool and paint your detail carefully onto the area needed. For some things, this means just burn and dodge, while others require more skill like pasting and molding of markings onto a figure. Other programs like Substance Painter allow you to separate the different body parts, and paint each one separately if you set up your model correctly when creating it. They allow you to paint different pieces effectively, but do require some getting used to. If you work with different pieces in this fashion, you still need to see your model, so it's often a good idea to use an adaptive program like photoshop to hold your full 3dfigure in view while you work in substance painter, that way you can see any color or diffuse adjustments in context.
This is just what I've gleaned from everybody else. I've tried some of it, but not all.
Generally, if you are trying to match a pose, and you are using DAZ, it will be more difficult to move body parts correctly, but you can use simple shape normals to hold up images around your model so you can adjust them to match the images as closely as possible. This is also a prefered method for adjusting base models to match real people. You just need to make your own head in a modeling program. I haven't seen this work well for heads, so you're better off starting from scratch, building it, then importing the base, and using some parts from it to finish, while matching the areas of the head to the base separations (the names of the differend areas). That will make your head morphable so you can create more models based on it later, or just touch it up a little. It will also make it poseable for expressions, based on the base model.
Anyone have a more up to date approach to adding backdrops? Is that option still available, cuz I don't see Edit -> Backdrop in DAZ 4.10
Nevermind, found the answer: The option to use a background image has been moved, as has the change background colour option.
You need to go to Window > Panes (Tabs) > Environment, and load the background image from there in the pop-up window.
Was in this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/49118
Since Daz3D 4.12's interface has changed in this context, to get to the bit where you load the image file:
Surfaces (tab) ► Plane ► Default ► Base ► Diffuse^ ► Reflection ► Base Color. The Base Color property then has the drop-down arrow allowing you to browse for the particular image file.
^ sometimes this property is greyed-out, but if you can't see Diffuse at all, right-click on the Surfaces tab and make sure "Show Hidden Properties" is ticked.
If a property is hidden it is because it is not relevant to the current context. This is very old thread to suddenly post to.