This program is incredibly frustrating every time I try and use it. I figure there's a learning curve but I've learned how to use Xcode to write my own iPhone apps, I am learning Unity to make games, I've known Photoshop and simiar programs for years. ALL of these had a learning curve but at least there was a sense of small steps and accomplishments. Daz Studio has those as well but it really feels like "one step forward, three steps back". I installed the latest yesterday after not using this for awhile, In the past, I have used Poser and imported Daz assets, which worked somewhat but was cumbersome and buggy. So I thought that yesterday, I'd clear my old build, download the latest and see if anything has changed for the better. No, it has not! The Daz installer does not install what you need to run the program, you have to get an error message that it needs a "valid PostgreSQL CMS connection" So I found that and installed it, I installed the helper assets to run the tutorials and they did not show up in the file panel. I attempt to move around 3D space with the move, rotate and zoom tools and it is horribly jerky and cumbersome. I really CAN'T imagine working this way for an extended period of time. I decided to try a render and with the basic settings, half an hour later it was about 50% done and looked like grainy. Poser does a better job and faster.  I just don't get the appeal of this. I see the potential, many of the assets and models look great! It's just USING the tool that is such a constant nightmare. I don't believe it's a learning curve with this program, I think it is poorly built. I want to like this and want to use it but it seems like a constant uphill battle to do the most basic things. 

Going to take this in pieces: 

First the Install issues:

The Daz installer does not install what you need to run the program, you have to get an error message that it needs a "valid PostgreSQL CMS connection" So I found that and installed it, I installed the helper assets to run the tutorials and they did not show up in the file panel. 

Okay first, lets backup you and start Again:

First in the Download Filters Check the following:

• DAZ Studio 4.5+
• Install Manager
• General
• Software
• Plugin
• then your version of OS (Windows 32 or 64 | Mac 32/64bit

In the DIM do s Search for “PostgreSQL” and Install it if you haven’t already

then search for “DAZ Studio 4.”

You should see Only the DAZ Studio application and Plugins made for your OS

This should load all plugins for your version of Studio

Standard Plugins are: (If you don’t have the software don’t load the plugin)

• Photoshop 3D Bridge - Sends things to Photoshop
• Hexagon Bridge - Sends things to Hexagon
• GoZ - sends thing to ZBrush

Once the software is loaded, close down the DIM and Start Daz Studio

Now let's talk about your viewing and rendering experience.

I attempt to move around 3D space with the move, rotate and zoom tools and it is horribly jerky and cumbersome. I really CAN'T imagine working this way for an extended period of time. I decided to try a render and with the basic settings, half an hour later it was about 50% done and looked like grainy. Poser does a better job and faster.  

Okay Viewing first:

• Start DAZ Studio
• When the Welcome Dialog opens and prompts you for your Email and Password, Click on the Radio Button that says "Work Offline" for the moment.
• Then click Next and then Ok.
• In the upper right hand corner of the Viewport, you should find a Dropdown Box that reads “Perspective View”.
• To the Left of the Camera selection, is a sphear or a cube. 
• Click on that icon and pick “Texture Shaded” (If “NVIDIA Iray” is selected, the program will render the Veiwport with the Iray Render engine, Unless you have a very High powered video cart that will make the Viewport hard to control)

Now Rendering:

• Click on Render Settings tab
• if you have a Nvidia Video Card, then click on Advanced inside the Render Tab
• In the upper box you will see CPU and your Video Card
  • If the Video Card is not Selected, Select it.
• If you don’t see anything but the CPU then your Video Card does not support Nvidia’s Cuda platform.
  • If you are on a Mac OS System, then you might only have the CPU there, (unless it is an Older Mac)​

• If you are still having issues I'd like to know what your OS and Spec are.
  • System type: (Mac OS/Windows)
  • OS Bit size: (32/64)
  • CPU Make and model: AMD/Intel 
  • Video Card Make and Model: (AMD/Nvidia/Intel(CPU/GPU Combo)
  • System Memory (RAM) in GB:

I just don't get the appeal of this. I see the potential, many of the assets and models look great! It's just USING the tool that is such a constant nightmare. I don't believe it's a learning curve with this program, I think it is poorly built. I want to like this and want to use it but it seems like a constant uphill battle to do the most basic things. 

There is a Learning curve, and things are different than Poser. just like Mac OS is different than Windows or Linux.
But I would say, that in most cases you have more control with DAZ Studio then Poser and more choices.

• DAZ Studio is got a Real World Scale. (1cm) not PNU’s.
  • Exactly how big are those, 8' 8.5' 8.6' I can tell you that reguardless of what the Poser people think it is it is 8'.
  • Anyone wanting to contest that, I have a few Models and renders to show you.
• Things made in most modelers will maintain their scale, they were created in.
• The various bridges allow you greater abilities and you can easily makes changes to a mesh or textures.
  • Export Genesis 3 Female to Zbrush and modify the mesh.
  • Transport it back and create a Morph, without issue.
• I find DAZ materials easier to understand and you have Iray and 3Delight Materials.
  • And there is LIE so add decals to material images
  • Place a Tattoo on the arm, a wound across the chest
• Sliders instead of dials, but they do the same things.
• Camera placement is from the same Zero Point as everything else, not from some other reference.
  • If you want the Camera 200cm from the origin point, you can and 170cm above the ground, you can have it there.
  • You can look though lights, like a camera (But you can't render from them)
  • There are more choices in inport and export to and from other 3D applications and formats
• and the list goes on those are only the ones I can think of off the top of my head

I hope this is helpful, and you get up and running without issue.

I was still playing catch up with this thread after taking most of the last month off to write.  Lots of great pictures.  I was going to post my Sawyer image but then Novica already linked it so here is a render using a GypsyAngel fellow that I did last year.  I like how it turned out considering it was my first render with Terradome 3.  The handsome fellow is Merrick.

This handsome fellow is Ragnar without the scar on his face.  I think he's cute.  Such an excellent morph GypsyAngel made there.  :)

I know I've rendered a few of the girls, too, but I'll be darned if I can find them.  They are probably on the old hard drive when I had the big computer crash last year.  I still haven't transferred all of my scene files and renders from that yet.  I have all but 15 GypsyAngel's products.  I really like her characters.  I haven't managed to pick up Brahm and Ronan, yet, but they are definitely going to find a home in my library as soon as possible.  Eventually, I'll get everyone.  I really like how Elish and Roxanne look, too.

I'll have to see what I can do about rendering some of the girls in my library this week.

Oh, I thought I'd tell what I'm using for my desktop backgrounds.  On my main setup in Linux, I'm using one of my latest renders.  I just like how it turned out.  You can see it in my gallery here.  And, on the little drive when I'm in Windows because I still haven't managed to get everything working in Linux quite yet, I have this one set as my desktop background.  It was a 3Delight experiment and I like how it turned out, too.  I don't get a whole lot of good renders out of 3Delight, yet, and I love it when I get a great one.

Hey, that sorta fixed it !!! At least it transferred the morphs...

But in the process it really distorted much of the clothing mesh. I added a smoothing modifier in the transfer, and that helps a bit if I crank it up, but still it's really different from the obj clothing. 

Perhaps I'm missing another setting? Thanks.

"Why wouldn't DAZ 3D want to make it easier for 3D artist to make 

more diverse content and sell it in their store for the pitiance of extra 

costs of hosting it on their servers and a bit of minor bookkeeping, both 

of which they already are paying for. The biggest added expense would 

be more QC"

The plugin ,that is the subject of this thread,has nothing to do with 
making it easier to create Daz content and sell it  in the store
anyone with a decent polygonal modeling app and skills can become
a  DAZ PA. 

"If you say that DAZ is satisfied with what they and that's enough well that is good enough answer for me but it's the sort of thing that one associates with a mom & pop shop and not a modern business seeking to expend their market eg MCS. Both have their places."

Daz is seeking to expand their market in ways that  they control such as the Morph 3D store & MCS figures.

 

"Unity 3D has indeed paid authors of 3rd party hacks that made Unity 3D better for those hacks and integrated it directly into Unity. When one looks at DAZ's business model and Unity's business model they really aren't so different."

Unity has done this After those third party add ons were proven to be a useful addition to ***UNITY*** 
Just as Daz has licensed third party add-ons as included parts of ***Daz studio**( AniMate lite,mimic, IRay) 

Unity has not paid any third party hobbiest in advance to create plugin to move unity assets over to Blender as this does not help build unity itself.

 

"Speaking of industry formats since I am just a hobbyist I already forget the name but there is a somewhat new bit of research that is implemented in SW already of eliminating these 'JCM' bend problems and such. It is newer and better technique than dual-quaterion or what ever it's called, unfortunately I don't remember the name"

Perhaps you refer to "implicit skinning"
There is already funding in place to bring this tech to Blender

Isaac Newton was a hobbyist too and really how much have the professionals in Hollywood and these places actually come up with that is 'professionally original'? When you answer that question you'll realize hobbyist is not a term to use so dismissively.

"Why wouldn't DAZ 3D want to make it easier for 3D artist to make 

more diverse content and sell it in their store for the pitiance of extra 

costs of hosting it on their servers and a bit of minor bookkeeping, both 

of which they already are paying for. The biggest added expense would 

be more QC"

The plugin ,that is the subject of this thread,has nothing to do with 
making it easier to create Daz content and sell it  in the store
anyone with a decent polygonal modeling app and skills can become
a  DAZ PA. 

"If you say that DAZ is satisfied with what they and that's enough well that is good enough answer for me but it's the sort of thing that one associates with a mom & pop shop and not a modern business seeking to expend their market eg MCS. Both have their places."

Daz is seeking to expand their market in ways that  they control such as the Morph 3D store & MCS figures.

 

"Unity 3D has indeed paid authors of 3rd party hacks that made Unity 3D better for those hacks and integrated it directly into Unity. When one looks at DAZ's business model and Unity's business model they really aren't so different."

Unity has done this After those third party add ons were proven to be a useful addition to ***UNITY*** 
Just as Daz has licensed third party add-ons as included parts of ***Daz studio**( AniMate lite,mimic, IRay) 

Unity has not paid any third party hobbiest in advance to create plugin to move unity assets over to Blender as this does not help build unity itself.

"Speaking of industry formats since I am just a hobbyist I already forget the name but there is a somewhat new bit of research that is implemented in SW already of eliminating these 'JCM' bend problems and such. It is newer and better technique than dual-quaterion or what ever it's called, unfortunately I don't remember the name"

Perhaps you refer to "implicit skinning"
There is already funding in place to bring this tech to Blender.

Due to extensive hard drive space required to download and utilize anything and everything Daz3D, my local C drive has now been dangerously limited.  However, my local D drive does have plenty and far more space available.  Is it wise to uninstall Daz3D from the C drive, first, then re-install it to the D drive; OR more importantly is there a way to just redirect or transfer program files from C drive to D drive without having to uninstall anything?  The dilemma being, I do have custom characters already made and saved to the C drive.  :/

Any recommendations or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you!

Individually you can click the gear icon at the right-hand end of the slider, select parameter Settings, and edit the path (you can also edit the path when importing the moprh, though for GoZ I think you have to turn on the advanced options in Edit>Preferences>Bridges). To edit a multiple morphs into the same location, right-click on the parameters pane and set it into Edit mode, then use the standard click/shift-click/ctrl-click methods to select the morphs, right-click on one of them, and use the Set>Property Group command.

Thanks - Once I've created my own group and subgroups and moved them around I assume I nned to re-save them as morph assets for that grouping to hold across characters?

Darn. Frustrating. I did exactly that, erased everything but the base figure (no clothes or anything else), saved the OBJ, then tried to morph load on the exact same figure with all poses and shapes zeroed. But I got an error that the geometries don't match and it couldn't generate the morph.

Is there some magic setting on the OBJ export or Morph Loader import that makes it work?

Thanks. 

I have found a leather texture in a clothing product I already own.  That texture is currently on a skirt.  Is it possible to export that same leather texutre to use elsewhere...? on something larger like a sofa...?   If, by somehow expanding / enlarging this texture I can actually re-apply it, can you list me the work flow steps required using the least expensive available software?    Keep in mind the sofa-couch I want to re-texture is already a working model, just with a cloth texture.  So I'm looking for the workflow and software requirements to remove, expand, and refit a texture to some other model.  Both models involved in the intended transfer are made for the DS environment.       and thxs in advance for your time....

Probably not, but it depends. Often the textures on clothing will not be a basic fabric pattern set to tile but will be shaped, perhaps stretched, and probably have added detail such as stitching to fit on the skirt. That doesn't mean you can't try - use the Surface Selection tool to click on the skirt, File>Save as>Shader preset, then use the Surface Selection tool to click on the sofa and apply the preset (by double-clicking on it in a content pane or by using File>Merge).

The solution that worked for another user was to hide everything but the base figure, export as OBJ, Edit>Figure>Moprh Loader Pro, select and load the exported OBJ - that gives a one-slider morph for your compound shape. Now when using the Transfer Utility select that new morphs as Source Shape. Don't save the nwe morph, it's just a tool to use when rigging.

I have found a leather texture in a clothing product I already own.  That texture is currently on a skirt.  Is it possible to export that same leather texutre to use elsewhere...? on something larger like a sofa...?   If, by somehow expanding / enlarging this texture I can actually re-apply it, can you list me the work flow steps required using the least expensive available software?    Keep in mind the sofa-couch I want to re-texture is already a working model, just with a cloth texture.  So I'm looking for the workflow and software requirements to remove, expand, and refit a texture to some other model.  Both models involved in the intended transfer are made for the DS environment.       and thxs in advance for your time....

Sorry, I don't know how to do it, other than the export obj/import as morph method, which you've already considered but rejected as too cumbersome. You could submit a help request and as Customer Service for suggestions.

https://www.daz3d.com/hfs-fantasy-shapes-for-genesis-3-bundle

There's a dog morph in there Lyrra :).

Laurie

I learned some basic Unity a bit ago.. I found it and Daz share a lot of simiilar interface designs.  I found it very easy to transfer my Daz knowledge to Unity, so perhaps the reverse is true.

Thanks. I tried Current, but the same problem...the clothing exploded.

The problem with selecting the morph I used is that it's a bunch of morphs I dialed manually, not just one. 

I even tried zeroing the clothing shape after fitting it to the character, but that didn't work. Neither did "Clear Generated Morphs". 

Any other ideas? Thanks much.

In Transfer Utility set the Source Shape to the morph you used (or Current, but people have reproted an issue with that). Then in the options check reverse Source Shape from Target.

Well now I've got my final clothing, all rigged via the Transfer Utility, sitting on my morphed character, and it looks fine. It's just not fitted to the character. HOWEVER, as soon as I fit the clothing to the character, the clothing inherits the character morphs and explodes. I guess it adds the character morphs to the existing morphed shape.

So I guess the question is...is there some way to Fit clothing to a character without having it inherit the character's morphs? That would fix my immediate problem

Thanks.

Okay, I successfully exported a MORPHED G3 character out of DAZ Studio as OBJ, brought it into Blender, made a clothing object and did a nice cloth sim on it, then exported as an OBJ. Keep in mind I built the clothing over a morphed character, not the base character.

Now I brought it into Studio and it fit perfectly on the morphed character. I then did the Transfer Utility to automatically rig the clothing (selected to fit to character as a post operation), but the result was a mess. It looked like the clothing had double morphs applied or something.

So I then tried to first zero the character shape, apply Transfer Utility, and then restore the character shape, but again the clothing was grossly distorted.

I'm guessing that the Transfer Utility doesn't like that I'm applying clothing that's already morphed. But the problem is that I need to do a cloth sim over the final morphed character, otherwise it doesn't look right.

Anyone have an idea what I'm doing wrong? Maybe I need to make two cloth-sim'ed clothing objects...one over the base character, then one over the morphed character, and then do a Transfer Utility with the base clothing and load the morphed clothing as a morph target? Or is there an easier way?

Thanks.

Older Jennifer Connolley tweaks:

First get Andromeda byMRL

OLD JENNIFER CONNOLLEY-

Some of the settings  are a little goofy because this was a work in progress from a year ago.

Like why even have a “heavy” body setting if I’m just taking it away again with a high “Thin” setting?

I don’t know.

This makes a FANTASTIC Wonder Woman, by the way.

Morph ++

Full head and Face

Old .364

Face long   1.324

Face full   -.376

Nose depth   -.600

Nose height   1.416

Nose width   -.372

Lower face

Cheeks sink   .376

Morphs /Expressions Base

Eyes squint   .535

Eyes open-close  -.016

Mouth smile simple   .124

Makeup

Andromeda 5

Eyes

Andromeda 03

BODY

Fitness .116

Thin .656

Young .228

Voluptuous .492

Heavy  .236

ANYBODY WHO TRIES THIS, LET ME KNOW IF IT WORKED!

Hi everybody! Here are my Jenniffer Connolley tweaks I sent to a nice fellow who sent me a message, but I forgot to share them with the group.

Did I forget? I backtracked and couldn't find it.

First get MRL Andromeda

All I did was make the face more fleshy, turn the nose up, and provide an expression which helps with shaping. The mouth doesn't need to be open.

After observing young Jennifer, her mouth is often slightly open and she has a blank look which translates to sweet and innocent.

The expression tends to make the mouth a little smaller, and the nose might be a little wider in the tip and nostril area. I hope I got that in.

Tweaks for young Jennifer:

Make sure you have DAZ Morphs ++ and MRL Andromeda morph applied. I'm not sure how urgent that one is, but do it anyway.

I used DAZ Long Story hair, but you might have better idea.

Nose flesh full .580

Face full .580

Nose tip up/down .848

Expression:

Brow up-down .212

Brow outer up-down .560

Brow inner up-down -.482

Eyes squint .440

Mouth open .552

Lips part .660

Lip top up-down .448

I hope this works. I've never done this before.

Old Jennifer is also a must-have, and I'll get to it right away.

MRL Andromeda provides some expressions, but haven't used

ALMOST FORGOT!

Part 2, body tweaks-

Not usually useful if the body is clothed.

Young .228

Voluptuous .492

Heavy .236

DAZ Natural Gravity Morphs for V4 could come in handy.