what is the most common modelling program to create daz content?
Drekkan
Posts: 460
For vendors or really anyone else who creates Daz content whether its charracters or buildings or props.. what is the most commonly used and best program you people use for this? I understand how you should use what you are used to using and most comfortable to create content blah blah blah but what is generally considered the overall best and most generally diverse? I was told Blender seems to be THE main one the majority or at least a lot of people use. Is this true?
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seems to be zbrush and 3ds max think it depends if yoo making architecture or organics
I don't personally sell my 3D models on the store - however I use the following programs when making content for DAZ Studio for personal use:
I heard Hexagon is still something people like to use, mainly because it is easy and efficient when doing basic tasks.
3D Max and Modo are popular amounts us PA's. Silo is also widely used. I use SIlo and Modo. Keep in mind that Modo and 3D Max will cost you over $1000 and SIlo is only $125 to buy it outright.
I use Hexagon for vertex modelling and 3D-Coat for sculpting. Both easy to use and inexpensive although Hexagon is buggy as hell and in desperate need of an update.
Any poll on modeling programs is going to end up all over the map. Whatever works.
I use Blender for modeling, sculpting, and texture painting with Krita/Paint.Net for touching up the textures as well as xNormal for normal map generation. I can't afford all these fancy programs y'all use.
I have almost all major modeling programs. I was a PA years ago. I mostly use ZBrush and Lightwave for modeling. I have 3ds Max and Maya but rarely use them for modeling. For texturing I have the latest complete Adobe and Corel suites. I use mostly Adobe Photoshop with several different plugins.
You can use any modeling software you want to make Daz content from completely free to super expensive.
I use Wings3D (free), Hexagon (got it dirt cheap for less than two bucks many moons ago), Silo (bargain priced for what it does), Blender (free, of course). 3DCoat (goes on a really nice sale around the beginning of summer every year - Northern Hemisphere summer...lol), Marvelous Designer (the Steam version is a lot cheaper than the perpetual license).
There is also a Modo Indie version that goes thru Steam and it's 15 dollars a month if you'd like to go that route. There are some limitations tho.
You can use whatever software you feel comfy with that exports to the file format you need for DS. Your options are wide open ;).
Laurie
I use Carrara mostly, but also Modo Indie.
zBrush and Hexagon. The reason? The provided bridges between those applications and DAZ Studio.
Silo is a fantastic starter modeler. It has a lot of the same features as others have. Hexagon and Silo are very similar in what they can do. I use to be a stickily Silo user and opened Hexagon for the first time and was able to use it without problems so they are very similar
I use Silo, & Hexagon for modeling/morphs.
Modo and ZBrush :)
All the MODO love makes me super happy! I work for a experimental media company, and any day I end up in MODO is a good day!
Modo is a fantastic modeling program. I just can't afford it. LOL. But I rented the indie version for a month and I really liked it ;).
Laurie
Silo personally. Hex for 3D text.
I'll wave the Blender flag. It's completely free with no strings attached (https://www.blender.org/) With half a million (!) downloads a month it's wildly popular and users have created thousands of free tutorials, many of them of excellent quality. There's even a free instructional version ( https://blendersensei.com/?doing_wp_cron=1421621126.6905400753021240234375 ). If that wasn't enough, the community is making a set of rigged figures free (of course) which will include clothes (http://www.manuelbastioni.com/manuellab.php).
Aaaaaand Blender doesn't just do 3D modeling. It's a 3D composter with motion tracking and an excellent video editor. It's free and open architecture mean that users can write their own plug-ins to extend it. It's updated every five seconds (or so it seems) and there's numerous vibrant communities who are all about openly and enthusiastically sharing knowledge. I'm proud to be part of a world wide team of both professional and amateur anthropologists using Blender to reconstruct fossils from high resolution CT scans (http://arc-team-open-research.blogspot.ca/2012/11/taung-project-3d-forensic-facial.html). Blender isn't just kid stuff.
Blender isn't only a program, it's a phenomenon.
Oh, I almost forgot...Sickleyield has tutorials on using Blender with Studio.
I think it works one of two ways...
1- For whatever reason, you find yourself in some sort of school or big building with teacher people and you are required to use certain programs before you can escape or "graduate"... If you pass these trials and live you are rewarded with the bones of your enemies and the knowledge of how to control that program... Usually a high end program, none of that affordable nonsense... Being that you have mastered it you stick to that one (or two)...
2- For whatever reason, you decide you wish to make content... Usually it involves a curse, hex or angry warlock, but eventually you end up asking a bunch of well meaning strangers which program to is best for this endeavor... Unbeknownst to you, they are all loonies... Okay, most of them are, the rest are real normal and straight laced... (I assume this involves corsets)... But either way, basically they tell you there is no right or wrong program to use... It is a matter of which one you are most comfortable with... Finding no simple solution you decide to try them all and either find one you like or go mad...
At this point one of two things can happen...
1- Having mastered the program you chose, you are wildly successful and become a multithousandaire and live the sweet life happily ever after.
2- Having gone mad you retreat to the abandoned toilet factory on the hill where your tortured cries haunt the cold night air for all eternity.
Thats it, there is pretty much no other way... Well... Once there was this one guy who used the blindfold and dart method to choose his modeling program... He lived an amazing life and traveled the world using his experiences to inspire him to create astounding content while honing his alcoholism to a fine edge... Eventually he collected a lot of cats and moved to a mansion in Key West Florida and... Wait... No, that was Ernest Hemingway... Never mind... Or was it the guy who got bit by the radioactive spider?...
Forget it, it's just those two ways... I suggest trying as many programs as possible until you go mad... It's delightful!
It doesn't matter which program you use, as long as it can export an obj that can be imported into Studio, and every modelling program does that. I'm up to 10 licensed content creation programs, and I still use Hexagon a lot.
the only app i know of that checks for out of range verts is uvmapper
I do most of my external modelling in Lightwave3D. It's just the most intuitive UI for me to do 3D work in. I've tried others, but they always seem (more) frustrating. I do my texture editing in Photoshop, Paint.NET, etc. Lightwave isn't cheap, but it's not outrageous either.....Educational discount can go quite low (have seen it as low as $50), full license is around $700. Sometimes you can find older versions for sale cheap (I'm still on Lightwave 3D 9) but it's tricky to vet them......
Carrara doesn't get the love it deserves.
You can model in it in a bunch of different ways, UV wrap, 3d paint, create really complex shaders in a very easy UI, and so on, and it's often available for $60 on sale.
It's also better documented than some stuff, like Daz Studio (low bar, I know).
Don't use the most commonly used; try em all, pick what feels right and gives you the results you want.
All of em take time to learn.
I use Silo and a very old version of Marvelous Designer. Wish I could afford ZBrush.
While there might be a "most used" program, I doubt any single program is used by more than about 20% of the PA's.
Zbrush is used by almost anyone who can get it, mostly because it's not neccessarily used to CREATE geometry (with a few exceptions), it IS used to REFINE geometry, make morphs, create textures, etc etc.
Otherwise, you have:
With such a wide variety of potential tools, it's no wonder there's plenty of PA's for each proggy. They have different strengths and weaknesses, different learning curves, and overall different design philosophies.
Seems as though ZBrushCore hasn't caught on yet. Is there a reason for this? I'm guessing that it is still more expensive than 3D Coat and probably not as capable but I don't use anything other than Blender to push a few polygons around for clothing morphs. ZBrushCore doesn't support GoZ either so that might be a reason.
I tried the trial version of 3D Coat but I didn't understand the voxel concept and how that relates to DAZ content. There are tutorials for using DAZ Studio content with Hexagon, ZBrush and Blender but then the well runs dry when it comes to the rest. I didn't really give 3D Coat enough time during the trial period though.
I'll just take this opportunity again to repeat my wish for a Blender bridge.
Voxels let you build a model without worrying about polygons, then you convert to a polygon mesh (or use the retopology tools in 3D Coat to make a nicer mesh), UV map it, use the sclupting tools to create shapes for morphs, texture, and export as OBJs (not that I have done all that with 3D Coat, but the tools are there).
I asked for a show of hands at a PA summit once. I got one Maya, one 3ds Max, two Silo, and about fifteen Hexagon (nobody else but me used Blender). I don't remember if I asked about Modo (Modo, Mudbox and Lightwave are popular with Daz's in-house artists). There are many programs that can handle base meshing and UV just fine, many of them much cheaper than the big suites.
Almost all of us, on the other hand, use Zbrush and/or Substance Painter and/or 3d Coat for some steps in the process.
One thing I think to keep in mind is what you ultimately intend to do with your skills...
If you have hopes of one day going professional or working for a company... Then maybe the industry standards are something to consider...
Programs like 3DS Max, Maya, Modo and Lightwave tend to be the ones people look for... Mostly the first two... Although it does seem like a lot of independent studios are open to Blender...
If you are interested in just making content for DAZ... Then any program is fine...
One thing that I have been thinking about recently, and I don't know how people will take this, is... There are some older programs, that don't seem like they will be updated anytime soon... Hexagon is one... And I feel Silo may be another... If anything ever happens with future OSs, Mac or Windows (especially Mac) that breaks the program... You may end up SOL... Granted, it's not that hard to move on to something else, but it would suck to be used to doing something a particular way and having it just break... Mac is particularly bad with that, it's just like "so what, that's progress", so what if stuff doesn't work anymore... I've had that happen a few times and it's not fun.
I think if I could go back in time, I'd tell past me to take the time to learn Blender... It's not much harder to learn then flying a wingless space shuttle on fire, blindfolded while reciting the entire constitution backwards in Latin... But once you get it, it's worth the effort... Actually, it's not that hard at all... I really think it's a matter of just forgetting anything you know about other programs and focusing on it... It's pretty damn good at pretty much everything it does... And hopefully one day they'll make the GUI a little more fun.
Also, not everyone sticks to one program... Some people switch back and forth between programs, based on what they are making.
modo for modelling, zbrush for UV extract, modo + zbrush for morphs.
and Photoshop for texture, rarely use substance designer + substance painter :)