DAZ Studio... Wow. I like it a lot now, used to really hate it.
MGCJerry
Posts: 28
Warning:
Rambling incoming...
I've been in and out of 3d for a number of years... My 3d creativity comes in waves.
This most recent abscence lasted awhile. Genesis was 'new' and people were complaining like they always do. Recently I had the urge to check out and see what carrara 8.5 offered. It was on sale and cheap without any PC benefits so I got it. Impulse buys at their finest, thanks DAZ. :p Carrara 8 is much improved over 6.5 and runs great. I didnt install *anything* else, even the install manager (ugh, install managers... usually install to their location not where I want the files), but seen it came with Studio 4.8 (ugh DS, I viewed it in a horrible light, kind of like acrobat...) and a bunch of genesis content which I forgot about.
Last several days, I was doing some programming and updating some of my old php scripts, as a result I was looking at a lot of my old Poser 6 renderings I created in 2008-2010. So last night I decided to load up Carrara and play around with the characters I assembled in Poser and check for any updates. I also loaded up Poser 6 to play around too. While looking around on DAZ I remembered I didnt install any of the bundled stuff and the thought of installing all that stuff manually scared me (order history, Im looking at you). So I installed the manager and downloaded all the necessary stuff I didnt download when I got Carrara. I found I could tell it to install my apps into a separate location. Cool... I dont install ANYTHING into "C:\program files"... C: is for Windows and Windows only (thus is a small 29GB partition & its a SSD). All my apps get installed to D: (main apps) & E: (3d stuff). Managed to kick around the files a little bit to get the genesis stuff where it will load in Carrara (until it decides to say "there was a problem loading -" in which I have to restart Carrara).
Today, my girlfriend started talking to me when I just happen to be on the forums so I happened to show her the DAZ homepage. She knows a little about my graphics history in which I mentioned that DS was free, and she seen the fancy pictures. I didnt like DS but I still pointed people to it. DS was never friendly to my content back in the 1x & 2x days so since then I avoided like the red-headed, albino, step-sister's, cousin's, father's, former roommate. Carrara 5 wasnt cooperative, but I managed to make my stuff work in Carrara 5 (along with a number of bug reports regarding poser content). I chuclked and decided to install Studio 4.8 for the hell of it see what its all about and to show her the program. She doesnt have much of an interest in 3d or any kind of CG. Wow, it was responsive in loading my old stuff just fine. It even loads my old "Crash" (10 clothed and textured figures) scene in seconds (13). It takes Poser a good minute or five to chew on it and navigates like crap. So I was even able to start rearranging the workspace. Played with the rendering. Almost everything I have works... Except for the new Genesis stuff. none of it loads, but it loads in Carrara. The more I played with it, the more I liked it...
Poser...? whats that? I think I'm a Studio user now... :)
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Comments
Yep, DAZ Studio is awesome! I do prefer the more advanced workspace over the default "beginner" interface.
LOL, yeah, I am a poser only user that uses DS mostly now. I still keep Poser installed for the dynamic cloth, file format conversions and other odds and ends.
Welcome to the promised land!
heh
I was quitting smoking after 23 yrs and thought I would do some rendering/posing to get my mind off of things, so I fired up my "other 3Dprog," loaded my char...Grrayhh!!, went to pose my character..Fuuuuuuu!! Apply/make materials...Grrraggh!! %3&^$ shut down my other 3Dprog and fired up Daz Studio 1.2...To my delight, I was able to select a hand, and actually orbit my camera around the hand! I went to bend my character's arm...In real time at 50fps to boot, vs my Other 3D prog @ 4fps!
Flash forward to 2015 9 yrs smoke free, I am an exclusive Daz user, hell, I even paid for Daz Studio Pro, before it was made free, and never regretted it at all! So yeah, I do the bulk of my composition/rendering/animation in Daz, and yeah, I even have Carrara 8.5, but am stuck in Daz studio by default! No other 3D hobbyist program has both the power and level of customization that DS has, and am still finding out new features, mainly because they don't believe in properly documenting these features, but even so, I'm still addicted to this program!
I've had a simular change of heart as the OP did. Updated DS when I thought of it and fooled around a bit, but never "got" it. Went back to Poser and did most of my work there. Until El Capitan! (da da DUM!!) Poser crashed more often than I care to describe. But DAZ Studio Pro 4.x was stable. I was thinking about going all-in with being a content creator and this Poser-crash issue really gave me a pause. I thought about a number of things that has always bothered me about Poser: The fact that it needs Flash to operate. Found that out when I got rid of all things flash and started up Poser and it whined about needing flash. So I re-installed Flash and Poser worked. Then there's the Library scrolling, using an Apple Magic Trackpad, scrolling was iffy at best. I try to srcroll just a teeny bit and BAM! I'm at the bottom of the list and had to scroll all the way up. Big slowdown. Little interface elements I found tedious (jumping from Pose to Materials, etc and having to repeat the scrolling fun yet again) I kept in mind.
So, given an opportunity, I explored DS and found out that I really like it. After a bit of exploring, I found that I could pose figures much more quickly and with better results than with Poser. I was so happy that I soon joined the PC and made back my investment with things I would buy anyway. I even got Reality (which has... issues... with Poser & Mac OS X 10.11) for DS. Most importantly, I got away from the (and apologies for treading on sacred ground here) the Kai-Like interface, which is too cutesy (imho) and slow for me to use.
So, for me as a end user, DS is just better, more fun and I can get more done.
Now if only Bryce would work on OS X 10.11...
Yes, even though I have an above average 4gb GPU, Poser's entire UI crawls to a snail's pace as I'm forced to type in my poses rather than dial them in, and the frustrating way that you have to "non-mouse scroll" the entire material list was the last straw for me, I cannot even set up a baked OBJ scene without rage-quitting because of that archaic interface...You can't even rotate the scene via right mouse, like every other 3D prog out there, without having to set up a stinking dolly camera!