Daz to Blender: Where do we stand?
marble
Posts: 7,500
I don't want to repeat so many threads but I'd like to see a consilidated account of where we stand with all the various scrips and add-ons. From memory these are what we have at the moment but I have no idea whether any of them are fully or only partially operational.
1. DAZ to Blender Official bridge software from DAZ.
2. Diffeomorphic DAZ Importer for Blender.
3. Sagan alembic importer from DAZ Studio to Blender.
4. Hair Converter from @Cinus. I know this is not an importer but it handles the hair we use in DAZ Studio after exporting to Blender usng Diffeomorphic.I'm not sure which types of hair though.
5. An as yet unamed and unreleased bridge similar to GOZ for ZBrush which will make it easier to send an OBJ file from DAZ Studio to Blender for sculpting morphs. @DaremoK3 is developing this and might have something to try by year end. This will be very welcome for those of us who can't afford ZBrush. (no thread but a comment here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/6255481/#Comment_6255481 )
6. I think there is an IRay materials converter in the works too?
Any others? Any ideas on the best workflow using a combination of the above. Are some better than others for certain goals such as animation, for example? Do some handle geografts / geometry shells and others not? What about HD? Is there anything that will export from Blender back to DAZ Studio?
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Comments
It would be useful to others if you also add the links to the official (or unofficial) pages of the resources you reported there.
As for me I use diffeo exclusively. Will try the @Cinus hair as I get some time but only to eventually help for diffeo improvements. As a side note diffeo hair was improved to support sbh in the latest release.
I updated the OP with links to the relevant discussions.
How much need is there for a Diffeomoprhic manual? I found the information by Thomas quite complete, but I could try to see if I can make a PDF for the latest version. I have a bit of experience in the field (even though my grammar and spelling is not always 100% :)
While it is geared to work with Blender's specific idiosyncrasies, Sagan is known to also work with Marvelous Designer, Houdini, Maya, Motionbuilder, 3DStudio Max, C4D, and UE.
... are not ...
No, seriously, that would be great. Clearly Thomas and @Padone are leagues ahead of me in the technical understanding of what is going on so something aimed a little lower might encourage others to give it a try.
Did you sort out the tricky bits with geografts? I know that you don't use them yourself but they are important to some users (myself included). Or do we continue to hide the relevant bits as you recommended previously?
I haven't forgotten about it @marble, it'd be selfish of me not try to figure it out. But the stuff I'm doing for Padone is first in line right now, and I've had limited time for fun stuff lately. I promise I'll get back to it, I just can't promise that I'll be able to figure it out. To be honest, how it works from even the user's point of view is a little confusing.
No problem, I just wanted to know where we are and what might be coming up. I'm sure we all appreciate you all doing this stuff for "fun". :)
@Paintbox I have no time for docs myself, but I'll be glad to help with advice for what I know, if you need any.
What I'll do, is probably from the end of the week is doing a reinstall of the latest bridge / blender / etc. and documenting my steps to create some sort of user centric manual / stepguide. Thanks for the offer so I can turn to you for clarification.
Well, I guess I now know who should proofread my work ;-)
I would love this. Yes please.
Now this is community.
Some detailed instructions would be kickass lol. I haven't really had much time to mess around lately. One of the reasons I like good tutorials, I have very fragmented free time. I start learning to do something new, then get a chunk of work and have no time, then back to square one because I haven't cemented my new knowledge into practice yet.
I'm not so sure. I'm not formally educated - I just read a lot.. I have written a couple of technical manuals long ago but I always had someone who actually knew the rules of grammar there to check my work. I just go by what I've picked up from reading so much.
In this case, I don't think anyone will really care about the grammar so long as we can follow the steps. So often I read a technical guide where the writer assumes that the reader is at the same level of technical expertise. I always think - if so, why would we need a manual? It seems to be a trait among experts, unfortunately. Better to assume nothing and write an idiot's guide.
If a grammar review is truly wanted, I'll volunteer to aid there. I know many, perhaps most, of the rules of English grammar, though from the American idea. For questions, I also still have my grammar books from college. I do agree the level of technical knowledge for the target reader may be more important than whether passive voice is used.
Hey all...
I finally finished the morph settings presentation color on the advanced morph import dialog that I have been working on for the past couple of months for the morphing bridge addon today, so I thought I would share an update on the Daz Studio side.
There is still a lot of work to do, but I am making good progress.
The import dialogs come in two flavors -- The quick and dirty Basic Dialog, and the more bells-n-whistles Advanced Dialog (both linked to one another).
* The current Basic Figure Morph Import Dialog :
* The current Advanced Figure Morph Import Dialog :
* Here is an earlier single dialog version that gives you an idea of how it works -- You can see how much it has grown with the images above :
* Link to working GIF for non-working inline GIF above :
https://gifyu.com/image/4Mvx
Any questions, comments, critiques welcome...
* EDIT : Still would like to know why some can post animated GIFs like the ones in the render thread, but others still can not...
@DaremoK3 ... can't wait for this script - it will be sooo useful in my workflow. Yeah, I know, I'll have to wait.
First question I can think of - I don't see an option in either the basic or advanced version for Reverse Deformations - one of the options in Morph Loader Pro. I hope I'm doing the right thing but I always make sure I set that to "Yes".
By the way - could you quickly explain when and why we would select ERC Freeze? I've never understood what that does.
Hear hear.
This particular forum is the best example of how Open Source is supposed to work. Everyone is engaged, and I'm loving the "all hands on deck" atmosphere.
@ marble :
Yeah, I haven't gotten that far yet, but the Reverse Deformations is on my TODO List. I am not sure if it is even doable since Morph Loader Pro is a closed-source plugin -- I will have to see if any of it is exposed through the API, so I make no promises that I can implement it, but I would like to.
Regarding ERC Freeze, I can only illustrate why it is needed with Adjust Rigging To Shape, and an example when one would use the checkbox before using auto-save morph checkbox in the script -- When doing this in DS, you have to perform both steps; First ARTS, and then ERC Freeze, but the import morph script automatically takes care of both for you when you check it.
A simple test case -- Elongated body deformation...
* Morph imported, and fully engaged (set to 1) - No ARTS/ERC Freeze :
* Adding Adjust Rigging To Shape to the morph -- Bones adjust to the morph :
* Morph fully disengaged (set to 0) -- Bones, although adjusted, do not follow the morph :
* After adding the ERC Freeze to the fully engaged morph and after performing ARTS -- Morph set back to zero - bones now follow the morph properly :
This is just a simple quick example. This is only added as an extra for quick jobs needing ARTS/ERC before auto-save. Extreme cases might need bone adjustments at the ARTS stage before locking them with ERC Freeze -- In these cases, I would recommend users to not use auto-save morph and to maually do the work before saving the morph asset.
However, It's possible to write a separate script that will go along with the main one to aide this work with ARTS and both ERC Freeze/Thaw, and the auto-save morph asset tied to the settings you set in the main script.
Example of someone probably using the ART/ERC Freeze work-flow on a regular basis would be RawArt and all his extreme morphed characters.
There are tutorials on Youtube that will show you step-by-step the work-flows...
Thanks for the explanation - I can see the need for it with your elongated example.
With regard to Reverse Deformations - if there is no way to include it in your scripts - is it still possible to apply it after the import or is it a setting which affects the import itself (which is how I have always thought of it). If not, what is the drawback of not being able to apply it?
Sorry, marble, for the late response. I have been very busy...
To answer your question; I have been looking into the Reverse Deformations via the SDK, but am still unsure if implementation outside of the MLP plugin is possible -- I am not saying no, but I can not say yes at this time. I was hoping for a simple plug-n-play with the correct command statements -- I have much more studying to do...
However, there might be a way just using the vector data with DzVec3, but I am not that adept with the math, so it would take a lot of effort on my part to figure it all out with reverse matrixs' and such.
As far as can it be done after import; No, it has to be done at import time when creating the new morph -- The morph deltas need to written with or without the exclusion of other deltas at that time. It is how the MLP plugin works -- Reverse Deformation strips out the deltas included in the base pre-new morph delta information.
I will work on it, and I hope to be able to include it, but I can make no promises.
I am still working on the auto-ERC right now for the auto-ARTS, and have a few other issues to tackle before I can seriously look into the Reverse Deformations.
Thanks for the update, the explanation and for all of your efforts. Much appreciated.