Hello!  Just a quick question looking for other 3D enthusiasts opinion here...

I've been working throughout the years to become less dependant on marketplace items to provide the exact right items I need for my scenes.  First, I started with becomming less reliant on morphs and props, and so I learned ZBrush/substance painter so that I can create my own props and modify them as I like.  Then, I picked up Marvelous Designer to handle all of my clothes.  I basically only use clothes that I've made myself or edited from assets purchased from other stores.

Now, however, I'm running into an issue with hair.  I do know that I can get realistic results going strand based, and that there are industry standard tools that help me to create dynamic hair based on curves, but I'm more interested in creating hair the old fashioned way.

I don't intend to move away from DAZ (which, understandably, some of you may suggest) because I like the "asset management" and how simple it is to set up scenes, but I do want to move to a place where I can create my own hair styles and have full control over them.

Does anybody know what kind of process the popular card-based hair vendors use to get their results?

Alternatively, does anybody know of a way that I can create more dynamic hair, like in ZBrush, but have it saved out as an asset (with textures) that I can then import to my scenes as a prop or something?

Essentially, I want to keep using DAZ for my overall scene management and setup, but I'm looking for software to learn to free myself from the need to rely on vendor-created hair in every situation.

Please note, I support our vendors and am not looking to cut them out of my own workflow, but for main characters and such it's nice to have a little more control over what I can produce...

I'm interested in your thoughts!

No, DIM and Connect can't be "disabled" you either use them or not. If you use DIM and Connect then the metadata will be installed. You can stop the CMS with "content library > menu > stop CMS", this way the metadata will not work and you have to autofit by hand.

But installing by hand is not time-consuming at all, you just unzip and copy in the content folder. The DIM is not faster, rather the opposite since it also have to deal with metadata and the CMS.

So, I recently started using Daz3D. And I can't figure out to export hair to blender.
I Have look around on the internet for about 2 days now.
Things I have tried.
- Diffeomorphic (current result)

- DaztoBlenderBridge

- Import the hair separate

- And change materials/shaders.

We need USD Plugin for Daz3D, to Import and Export options, how we can ask them to made it for us?

In general it is a very bad idea to keep everything installed, because apart slow speed you may get conflicts, that the turbo loader will not help with. Personally I manual install what's needed for the current project. Not using DIM or Connect is much easier so you don't have to maintain the metadata, which may conflict/slow down as well.

barbult said:

I managed to get the soft body plugin installed using the download file in my Product Library. I can open the Soft Bodies tab OK. I will submit a ticket none the less.

Daz has been having a hard time preparing DIM packages correctly for about the last month. There have been numerous problems reported here in the forum about packages not showing up in DIM at all, manifest files that are wrong and prevent correct installation, file paths that are wrong, etc. I've been wondering if they are trying to use AI to do this or something. They've definitely lost the touch. Metadata has also taken at hit. The percentage of incorrect metadata is on the rise again.

I can see that my product is not the only one. 

I managed to get the soft body plugin installed using the download file in my Product Library. I can open the Soft Bodies tab OK. I will submit a ticket none the less.

Daz has been having a hard time preparing DIM packages correctly for about the last month. There have been numerous problems reported here in the forum about packages not showing up in DIM at all, manifest files that are wrong and prevent correct installation, file paths that are wrong, etc. I've been wondering if they are trying to use AI to do this or something. They've definitely lost the touch. Metadata has also taken at hit. The percentage of incorrect metadata is on the rise again.

UncannyValet said:

Bejaymac said:

Never import a shader into the SM that wasn't built in it, and of the shaders DAZ supply with DS4 only AOA's SS shader was built in it.

Other shaders either wont import, or you will get a rough representation of the shader, which always has major issues when you apply it back to a surface.

Oh, could you explain that further? How are shaders for DS built if not in the Shader Mixer? 

Directly coded in RSL or MDL, or for 3Delight (RSL) using Shader Builder.

Bejaymac said:

Never import a shader into the SM that wasn't built in it, and of the shaders DAZ supply with DS4 only AOA's SS shader was built in it.

Other shaders either wont import, or you will get a rough representation of the shader, which always has major issues when you apply it back to a surface.

Oh, could you explain that further? How are shaders for DS built if not in the Shader Mixer? 

It sounds like it's important to try and figure out exactly what went wrong. If the drive letter being reassigned broke Smart Content then it sounds like you also had your CMS path on that drive. In which case I would make sure that the CMS path is set to the correct location in both DIM and Daz Studio. If this had reset then what potentially happened is that the CMS could not find it's database files since the path was no longer there and thus created a new empty database. This would explain why you can see the files in Content Library but Smart Content is empty.

Hopefully, restoring the path to the correct location and then potentially restarting Daz Studio should bring it back.  However, if all else fails, you can rebuild the Smart Content by going to COntent DB maintenance and selecting reimport metadata. This will read back in all the Smart Content as per the installed files from Daz - you will only get any custom changes you may have made if you backed up your UserData.

Diomede said:

Yes, if the creator of the content included lights and cameras with the product, then they are generally available in Carrara.  There may be exceptions, like 'ghost lights,' but most generic spotlights and similar should included if they were included in the set.  The same is also generally true of older Poser scenes, I believe.  If they are included in the saved scene file, then they should be available in Carrara in general.  In practice, most single props and figures do not include lights and cameras.  

A Poser scene file is in pz3 extension while a single figure is cr2 extension.  I just did a quick test of trying to save a simple Poser scene with an additional camera and an additional spotlight.  I loaded it in Carrara.  Not only did the additional camera and spotlight come through, all of the default lights and cameras came through as well.

EDIT:  I haven't opened Poser in who knows how long except when I was trying to get my copy of VWD working for Carrara.  Have completely forgotten almost everything.  Haha.  Had not even added my Runtime library folders since my reinstall.  Trying to do so now.  

OK, thanks.  I only rarely import a pz3 file into Carrara, almost always props and figures, so don't get cameras or lights.  And yeah, if I do open Poser, it feels like its in Greek.  But it does make me happy about Carrara's ease of use.

SofaCitizen

quote "This is what happens if you log into your Daz account within the Daz Studio application. On start-up it will download metadata for all your installed products and save these as json files in the DazConnect/cloud/meta folder - I think there is a message at the bottom left of the screen when this is happening. It will also download Product thumbnails and put them in a different folder under DazConnect/cloud and re-write the path to these in the database so Daz will no longer use the ones that DIM puts in runtime/Support.  This is one of the reasons why, if you use DIM or Central to manage your product installs, you should never sign into your account within Daz Studio."End quote. 

----ah! Big Duh!  I start up a DAZ Studio session automatically defaulted to "connect" to store as I assumed it was just to make a bridge to the store.  I will change that to "work offline", save a ton of space on my C drive, too. 

Thank you for your patience in explaining this to me. Now I know I have a choice, and where the heck those json files came from.

You can save out Daz animations as a Image series (individual frames) ,  and then apply any type of filter or effect to the output.  Then you reassemble those by importing the frames into a video editing program.  Or import the frames into a gif creation program. 

Very doable.

Bejaymac said:

Never import a shader into the SM that wasn't built in it, and of the shaders DAZ supply with DS4 only AOA's SS shader was built in it.

Other shaders either wont import, or you will get a rough representation of the shader, which always has major issues when you apply it back to a surface.

I know, but i have been quite lucky tweaking the uber shader so far. I don't have the knowledge make my own shaders from scratch and simply not enough free time to learn.

Never import a shader into the SM that wasn't built in it, and of the shaders DAZ supply with DS4 only AOA's SS shader was built in it.

Other shaders either wont import, or you will get a rough representation of the shader, which always has major issues when you apply it back to a surface.

jergenoman_b33d4209f8 said:

If i import the shader into the shader mixer and then immediately apply it to the surface again the shader is corrupted.

Do all the settings of the Shader still look the same as that of the surface you imported into Shader mixer? it's just the preview that isnt showing correctly? 

Hello

I stumbled upon an annoying problem: I used the über shader dial in a volumetric water material that i am quite pleased with but i need to customize the volumetric behaviour a bit. However the shader mixer doesn't seem to handle the über shader well. If i import the shader into the shader mixer and then immediately apply it to the surface again the shader is corrupted. The preview is wrong, the volumetric behaviour is gone, etc...

Is this normal behaviour? I have tweaked the über shader with my own MDL scripts many times using the "PBR Metallicity Base" node with good result. I can't see any obvious problem with the shader in the shader mixer. Everything is there including the "PBR Specular Base" node. All connections seem ok and valid.

/Jörgen

Actually there's still another way out, if you happen to know Marvelous Designer... Export the robe to MD, simulate + drag (with Pins) and import back to DS as a draping morph...if plus Blender as well, you can make lots of morphs + subtle changes that you have no way to make them in DS ~~   For instance, this Sheer Robe was just made with MD. Though you don't have the project file, you still can simulate it in MD... as below ~~

IceScribe said:

I checked the "My DAZ Connect" folder today dated as of yesterday  There is nothing in the folder except a folder labeled "data", and that's empty.  A few days ago, it had 2 kinds of records, one being json other meta. I don't know what was going on there, how those files got to My Daz Connect, and how did they vanish? Perhaps, those are the files I saw being uploaded which I tried to stop unsuccessfully. I think around 12,000 files! I have lost some thumbnails in Smart Content panel, but that's no big problem for me. I can rebuild new paths back to my local folders.

This is what happens if you log into your Daz account within the Daz Studio application. On start-up it will download metadata for all your installed products and save these as json files in the DazConnect/cloud/meta folder - I think there is a message at the bottom left of the screen when this is happening. It will also download Product thumbnails and put them in a different folder under DazConnect/cloud and re-write the path to these in the database so Daz will no longer use the ones that DIM puts in runtime/Support.  This is one of the reasons why, if you use DIM or Central to manage your product installs, you should never sign into your account within Daz Studio.

Xandyr78,

It would be a welcome feature to apply filters to that degree of precision. The best I've come up with is  to tick of "N/A" in the "Figures" panel when I'm at the "Your Search Results for" page. Still, without hiding the items I own, I come up with 3191 items, mixing in tutorials, sceneries, environment sets, flora, faura, vehicles, etc. A lot to sift through, yes.

Hopefully some greybeard in the community could come up with better tips.

Cheers!

Xandyr78 said:

Is there ANY way to filter the product library to specifically find tutorials, plugins, and/or utilities?  The site/store has a "hide items I already owned" option, so why not add a "show items I own" option?  I've purchased a great number of tuts, plugs, and utilities over the years, but it's often hard to narrow down what I still need to grab (if anything).
 

Maybe there's an easy workaround I'm just not considering. Anyone else interested in something like this...or have any ideas how to use it?
I use a product manager for DAZ Studio, and it's an amazing product, but not every tutorial, plugin, or utility has that word in its name/metadata.