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Personally I think it comes down to something really simple...
How many people would cross the street to see stuff that I produce? Even though I might be so impressed I figured out how to do a cloth sim, or some cool Iray lighting, or even modelling something and doing some fancy texturing in Substance Painter. Most people would look at it and say, um, well, okay, it's a person, so what?
So if somebody who's part of a team that makes the next awesome Disney flick or Dreamworks or whatever looks down their nose at my use of DAZ Studio, I"m pretty sure it's not the DAZ Studio they're concerned about but rather the junk I produce. Just because I do something, and I enjoy it, doesn't mean I'm good at it. I downloaded a free app and made some content. Doesn't mean I know how to make something that someone is interested in.
Personally I respect someone who actually went to school and learned about art and all of this 3D stuff, which I never did. And they actually do it for a living, and people pay them for it. Not something I could ever do. On the other hand, they probably can't do the stuff I'm good at. That's what makes the world turn, different people have different skills and talents. Why worry about it?
" No. So there is no compelling reason for a professional 3d artist to use Daz Studio (in a professional workflow) other than maybe storyboarding. Especially so for a modeler since DS isn't even modeling software. Everything compelling about a Daz model is necessarily connected to DAZ Studio and its mass production generic style workflow. This isn't to say you can't get professional quality results using Daz. IMO, this isn't the point. The point is, why would they even try?"
This is the part I'm trying to understand. While there are are "base meshes" available for free, most of them with any "base" realism cost a penny or two and none of them have the dial-in ability to help a creator get close to their desired shape/design of the character like Daz Studio does. You can simply drop a Genesis figure into Daz Studio, dial up the level of detail and shape you want that is close to what you would spend hours trying to achieve in your modeling software in a fraction of the time. Then simply take that "quick start" shape into the modeling program of your choice and use it as a starting point, rather than just the "base" mesh alone. This seems to me like it would save a modeler or animator TONS of time, even if they only use Daz Studio to do only that. That takes... minutes.
Or? What am I missing?
In a word; licensing. With the time investment to create a mesh from scratch being what it is, that's actually cheaper than negotiating special licensing deals to use the DAZ meshes in something other than a game.
The interactive licenses covers uses of DAZ models for media other than games and if it's a 2D representation missing the the mesh and copies of other original elements of the DAZ product they don't even need the interactive license.
As DAZ models improve I think the only reason not to use DAZ models is to differentiate one's products from the competitors but just look what they are doing without DAZ: stylistically and genre-wise they are copying each other over and over again. Well, DAZ products are an easy shortcut to that sort of workflow.
Follow through with their plans to update Hexagon then improve Studio's animation capabilities including improving the OpenGL rendering so it's suited for real time rendering.
The Daz Studio and Hexagon can be combined as Daz Suite a full function rendering/animation/modelling package that is modular.
...yes I am looking forward to a fully revamped Hexagon (as long as they keep the same elegant UI) with improved UV mapping. The only thing we would be missing is large scale environmental generation (Bryce/Carrara). It would be great to create environments for use in Daz.
I'm SO hoping that you'll be able to package your NPR algo/program. It's a real game-changer if you can manage to get it so that it's shareable or sellable!
Yeah fixinbg Bryce or including the lanscape generation tools in Hexagon would be great especially since I find the bridge between Bryce and Daz Studio is wonky as heck and most of the models in Bryce don't export well as objs (the textures are all messed up and trees are just a mess).
Maybe because the bridge was designed to take things from Bryce to DS, and not the other way round. Bryce trees are actually made from Bryce metaballs, and Bryce doesn't use textures as such, it uses mats, which are equivalent to shaders in DS or Poser
A decent module (or standalone) for UV Mapping would be awfully nice. Cobbling something together with primitives is all very well, but sometimes you want to use shaders that need to go in one direction or the other, or maybe apply, you know, an ctual texture map. And it doesn't always work without an underlying UV Map.
Yes I know that there are UVMapping programs out there. But I can't count on them running on a Mac without having to jump through hoops.
Hexagon?
I've enjoyed my first steps in 3D modeling in Hexagon I think it was v2.2 or something. Then I saw oh it isnt that compicated if you know what you are doing - but if not you could crash the program quiet easily in vaious ways. I think the last time I've tryed it was v2.4 but it didnt let me get started because it keeps crashing while loading. I've never used it since then - is this v2.5 update any better today?
I dont want to miss Blender while modeling you can have the scene view with the UV/Image Editor side by side and also edit on both sides even with almost the same keyboard shortcuts for Select & Manipulate like UnWrap [E] select edge-loop with some modifiers pressed then Add UV seams / Mirror Uvs / Pack UV Islands / [V] Stitch UV Islands / ect... had my fun to work with.
I haven't used the UV mapping inside Hex, but last time I looked you couldn't normalize the size of the islands (make them all the same size relative to each other). If I can't do that in Hex, chances are I'll never use it for uv mapping ;) I do indeed like it for modelling tho.
Laurie
...my issue with Blender is it's wonky UI which has its own fairly steep learning curve. Hexagon's just feels far more "natural" in comparison and within the first session I had a fairly good grasp of it. It is just all the crashes that I felt made learning the concepts of modelling very frustrating and discouraging. I really can't wait for the 64 bit update as that will do away with the tight memory cap which should also further improve stability.
Is Hexagon completely standalone? Can I install it on a secondary laptop, without having Daz Studio installed? I thought I might start playing around with it while my renders are going on my desktop.
Yes.
If I buy a desktop computer for myself personally am I allowed to install DAZ Studio, my DS plugins, and my content of it too?
EULA:
So it sure seems so.
Thanks!
Well the noun still has variation, and one aspect of it states a person has skill, which is not always the case; however, I grant that engaged in a particular profession makes one a professional from the strict definition, but perhaps the definition is beginning to lose its meaning in modern useage?
I'll drink to that -- and I don't even drink! ;-)
Yes. Put a civilized UI on Blender and it would SPANK its competition, instead of spanking the users.
I might take another look at Hexagon, now that DAZ has taken a renewed interest in it.
The one thing really handy about the Bryce trees is the leaves export nicely and really sculpting a tree trunk for them to sit around is pretty easy to do in 3D Coat. So it's a good way to make a mess of leaves.
"Duplicate formulas found"
Kill this thing dead, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so something must be installed off, but this can be done even when installing everything by the book. Whether there are duplicate files or not should have no relevance to how DS functions. It wasn't a big problem...until I tried using a batch converter. Now I have to press "ok" every.single.step of the process, dozens of times, over and over and over and over until the batch is done. That SUCKS. That sucks bad. Please stop sucking.
And it has happened to so many people that is clearly a major problem. It may not technically be a bug, but is so damn annoying it should be a priority. DS needs to be able to recognize that ok, there may be a duplicate file, but we don't need to flip out over it and take 5-10 times longer to load the file.
No. This is actually a very bad thing. It means your morphs are doubled up. The one that needs to go the crap away is "duplicate ids found" which harms the working of DS in no way whatsoever. Just stick it in the log file with the other unimportant errors.
EDIT: It looks like Duplicate Formulas might get triggered for completely benign reasons but it also happens when there are multiple copies of the same morph or morphs named the same thing as each other so they get controlled by the same dial and double up, something you definitely should be aware of.
As far as I know DS can cope with multiple files. Duplicate formulas usually indicate either a name conflict between two different morphs (as happened with the RareStone and 200 Plus sets for Genesis 8 Female) or an error setting up ERC within a single morph so that it has two (probably different) settings for its relationship with another property or properties. Either needs fixing, and the fix usually needs to be on the creator(s)' side.
Huh, you're right, it does somehow handle exact copies of a file fine. Only when they're actually different but named the same it throws a fit.
How about updating the Mac version of Bryce? Haven't been able to use it in years.
In my older age, I've gotten used to people rolling their eyes whenever I try to tell them about my hobbies and interests. I think my Dad just likes to tease me. I suppose it's easier to talk about my interest in Genealogy (Family History) than it is about 3DArt. But then people ask if I'm related to any famous historical people.... and I don't think so.