3D printing, I am waiting
WendyLuvsCatz
Posts: 37,954
Is DAZ going to start doing 3D printing of custom projects anytime soon or should I be looking to purchase my own 3D printer?
Also is there going to be more information on the topic as promised or has Iray taken all their attention.
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Before purchasing a printer, might want to check out some of the local 3D print services. They seem to be popping up in many a mall.
Before purchasing a printer, might want to check out some of the local 3D print services. They seem to be popping up in many a mall.
that is where the DAZ EULA becomes a problem.
I would arrange to print out all my favourite DAZ characters tomorrow if it were not for that.
There certainly are a lot of printers around, thanks to google I now get ADs for them on every AD supported site I visit.
that is where the DAZ EULA becomes a problem.
I would arrange to print out all my favourite DAZ characters tomorrow if it were not for that.
There certainly are a lot of printers around, thanks to google I now get ADs for them on every AD supported site I visit.
Taken directly from the EULA on the link from the help page :
The creation of three-dimensional physical representations (3D-print, molded copy, CNC-routed copy, and the like) of Content or any three-dimensional art derived from the Content is permitted only for personal, non-commercial use by the User. Additionally, the user may not grant other entities or individuals the right to produce such physical representations of the Content except for the sole purpose of providing the print to the User for their personal use.
If your goal is to just get someone else to print them for your personal use, it seems legal from that wording. You just can't sell or even give them to a friend.
I believe the act of re-distributing the model(s) for a 3rd party to print it is the issue, not printing it yourself for personal use.
My choices would indeed be for my personal use, that is not the issue but as said redistributing the mesh to a print company could be.
DAZ could just clear all this up too.
That is one of the reasons I was happy to pay DAZ to print them for me, the cost would outweigh any profit anyway so reselling was never a consideration.
It would also BTW make it easier to gift to another person through DAZ if they did decide to allow that.
I may come tax time simply buy a 3D printer anyway as I have Zbrush and want to sculpt models entirely of my own.
Am still studying the market, the reels of resin certainly do not come cheap.
Last I checked its not possible to export a model and print it.
3D printing requires a water tight model, and what we produce with daz models is pretty much unusable. We have infinitely thin clothing a distance away from the body of a model. Hair meshes of no thickness floating off the body. It takes a huge amount of time to manually clean up models to be printed.
What's needed is a simple (as in 'make art' button) method to convert an OBJ file into a printable model. I hope that is what Daz is doing.
The last piece of the puzzle is resolution. Most 3D prints have crap resolution so they are almost unusable. Miniatures printed this way can't be painted. I've noticed that few vendors will actually show the best quality prints they can do.
As I understand it the system used by DAZ is a full colour (or color if you prefer) Sandstone printing, and as I understand from my limited research this means that the colour is actually part of the printing process. These products do not seem robust as the various 'plastic' prints available but are fully coloured.
It would seem that the printers that do this are professional models and very expensive, as in thousands not hundreds of pounds/dollar/groats or whatever is your local currency, There is more info here: http://www.shapeways.com/materials/full-color-sandstone
Please note that the above is based on some quick and unprofessional research I did when DAZ first announced their 3D Prints, and may be wrong in numerous ways, so please check the facts for yourself before making any expensive choices.
Note that the company above (Shapeways) is apparently working on a full colour plastic printing system, there is some info here: http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140814-shapeways-rolling-out-full-color-plastic-material-for-3d-printing.html
As for "easy convert"... well, it kinda is moderately easy if you have ZBrush, and a modeller capable of baking out maps, such as 3DS Max or Blender.
1 ) Load the finished model into ZBrush. Ramp the subdivisions up until you have about 1 - 4 million polys or more.
2 ) Use Dynamesh at a moderate to high resolution, like about 512 - 768, to create a single, solid mesh from this.
3 ) (Optional) Use ZRemesher to retopologize this new mesh to a density to your liking (remember, up to 1 mil polys can be read by, as an example, Shapeways).
This will give you a single, manifold surface you can print in any method. If you want a color print, continue below:
4 ) Use UVMaster under tools to create a map for this new shape - it can be pretty much automatic, and a "readable" UV map isn't important.
5 ) Save this under a NEW NAME. You do not want to overwrite the original OBJ.
6 ) Load both the original OBJ and the new OBJ into your baking program of choice.
7 ) Bake the textures of the original to the new OBJ
8 ) Re-export the new OBJ into a format the printer recognizes for color prints (in the case of Shapeways, it's VRML or X3D.
I realize this isn't "click a button", but it's simpler than it would be without ZBrush.
Now, the problem is... I'm still not certain whether you can do this or not. It is a "destructive" method, meaning that the original geometry and textures cannot be re-extracted, nor can morphs, rigging information, etc. But the fact remains that the overall shape would be shared.
This baking out maps, I have tried that unsuccessfully with nVidia Melody a useless program that has never worked once, base genesis even crashes it.
You say Blender can do it?
Do you know of a tutorial?
And yes I have Zbrush, totally noob at it but think I can do what you described.
A new UV map at base resolution would work with map transfer in DAZ I have done that flattmapped and baked using texture atlas first
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Render/Bake
I will post this link here for my own use later as on android
I also want it for hopefully creating normal maps of HD morphs for Carrara.
well Valandar I did the first steps in Zbrush and it is indeed a watertight mesh
I exported the obj with displacement using the textures from carrara first to create an untextured obj that need no painting
bit concerned those strings on sheaves may be too fine so may need a different set of weapons and paraphernalia for a print
but was only testing process at this point
I would delete eyelashes and insides etc too.
this mesh is 619 832 polys
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/davinci-10-3d-printer/
is not likely to print anything of detail but more my budget :lol:
That's just not going to be printable.
You do need to clean up some of the meshes, like make them thicker so that can be printed and so they don't break. Thin bits in the wrists swords and straps are all unusable. A 100 micron printer will look really really lumpy as well.
It could work if you were printing in the 6 inch tall range.
Here's one of the first attempts at printing a 3D model from Daz;
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:23365
There are some excellent pictures showing what I'm talking about for resolution, and smoothness. The SLA version is pretty good. Slow... but accurate.
Here's a company that does it all (not with Daz). It should give you an idea about how large and clunky it needs to be.
https://www.heroforge.com/
You can also see how hard it would be to paint with a rough surface;
http://3dprintingindustry.com/2015/01/31/hero-forge-custom-3d-printed-miniatures-tabletop/
wendy♥catz: Just so you know where I'm coming from. I play a lot of role playing games of all genres, and I'd love to do some minis for the characters. I also play miniature games for which the minis cost a lot. So I'm avidly following what is going on, and I really do think that the gaming industry, via Daz/Poser, will be where 3D printing breaks through first. Its also full of people who have no issues with cleaning a mini, and doing detailed painting.
You can see here some of what I've done;
http://www.worldworksgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7073&start=25
The easiest methods to paint are dip jobs, and dry brushing which is a lot of what I do. Both will show any excess bumps in the print job.
Thanx for the links UHF, I am actually surprised just how detailed those are
I did say my example was not suitable and just a test of making watertight
I was planning filled in swords crossed in front most likely and sheaves snug to body no strings
and several of the shapeways minitures looked exactly like the pose and weaponry I considered
Jaderails hair will nead to be brushed down too.
I did not intend painting it hence the displaced surfacing if that is possible.
The costs were much lower than I expected too.
Well I gave in and ordered a Da Vinci 1.0 3D printer
I have also made a considerably more solid version of Jaderail with crossed swords too big to render, Blender struggled importing the obj and exporting the stl so hope not too big.
It is nice and watertight.
good luck with it! :)
I ended up with a very highpoly model, hope it prints
:O
Is it there yet?
Is it there yet?
Is it there yet?
Is it there yet?
Is it there yet?
Is it there yet?
...
Is it there yet?
No :long:
has to ship still but wanted something ready to print when I got it
then of course I will sit watching it slowly print no doubt.
Give me the stl files of your projects and I will print and send them to you if I think it is a good personal project I love modelling, I will do it for free if there is model content to trade and can do fairly big prints as I have a Wanhao d5s which for me is a good staring printer a only around 1400gbp
beautiful model.
LOL Misty, thats just a render the 3D model I want to print, well one of them, while waiting am trying out making watertight varieties of My DAZ figures to keep me occupied in anticipation.
If DAZ pulled their finger out and got their 3D print service up and running, I would still consider that too for coloured ones.
That is actually why I started the thread and others feel free to post renders of your dream models.
A DAZ person might even read the thread you never know.
Misty post your dream Gianni! . . . NO think maybe DAZ not doing REAL dolls lifesize skinlike rubber if thats what your hoping :lol:
:lol: my dream gianni might borrow me some trouble
not even naked vicki temple gallery here, the birthplace of vicki and all things naked in temples
I have to go to work, my unused laptop had too many updates to start printing and being Vista am not sure going to work anyway with drivers
but
I got my toy today
Sweeet :D
-- Walt Sterdan
new toys!!
Good luck with that Wendy!
Now you get to learn all about printing temps and the other joys of 3d printing.
I have a FlashForge Creator X, so I know there will be a learning curve.
ncamp