MY WORK IS TRAPPED INSIDE DAZ3D. HOW DO I GET IT OUT?

chris_340dad5b

The Daz Photoshop Bridge stopped working mid-project.I have asked repeatedly for help and nobody has any solid suggestions and it's been two months since I heard from the "technical staff" at DAZ, who only asked when in the process did it fail, so I must live with the fact that my beautiful renders will not port naturally to Photoshop. So I ask the question -- what is the absolute best way to get the highest quality TIFF or JPG out of Daz3d if you do not use the photoshop bridge?

chris_340dad5b

The Daz Photoshop Bridge stopped working mid-project.I have asked repeatedly for help and nobody has any solid suggestions and it's been two months since I heard from the "technical staff" at DAZ, who only asked when in the process did it fail, so I must live with the fact that my beautiful renders will not port naturally to Photoshop. So I ask the question -- what is the absolute best way to get the highest quality TIFF or JPG out of Daz3d if you do not use the photoshop bridge?

Cris Palomino

Other than the bridge would allow you to open the image in Photoshop, I don't see why rendering and saving an image in Studio and then opening in Photoshop (or other image editor) would be any less quality. I always saw the bridge as a mere convenience.

Rafael

Do not use JPG. Use PNG.

crosswind

From my PoV and exp., PNG format is good enough for 99.5+% cases..

crosswind

100% agree with Cris and Rafael...

Cris Palomino

Merged identical threads.

chris_340dad5b

When I finish a render inside DAZ and save it, the results are NOWHERE near as good as the basic output of the DAZ Photoshop Bridge which looks SO sharp and SO clear, I am stunned by the results. But for some damn reason, as soon as I try to use the bridge, I get this  "Cannot UpdateScene" message.

Richard Haseltine

chris_340dad5b said:

When I finish a render inside DAZ and save it, the results are NOWHERE near as good as the basic output of the DAZ Photoshop Bridge which looks SO sharp and SO clear, I am stunned by the results. But for some damn reason, as soon as I try to use the bridge, I get this  "Cannot UpdateScene" message.

What image format? It may be your colour profile settings, if opening an untagged file and sending a file over the bridge are handled in different ways.

chris_340dad5b

Let me explain the workflow I have used successfully since the Photoshop Bridge was created over a decade ago (I used it with Daz 3, all versions.)

1. I finish assembling and lighting my scene in Daz 4.21. Now I want to port off to Photoshop.

2. I go to File>Send to>Initialize Photoshop 3d Bridge. I don't use the 3dBridge camera which pops up. I chooses the camera I want to use..

3. I open Phostshop CS6 64-bit.

5. I choose File>Automate>Daz Studio 3d Bridge. The menu pops up in the upper left.

6. I choose Preview Image. I set the width and height and select "Save to New Layer."

7. The render begins. I can switch back to DAZ3d and follow the render. When it finishes (or I finish it manually) after a few minutes an AMAZINGLY CLEAR copy of the render pops into Photoshop.

BUT FOR THE LAST TWO MONTHS

Go back to step 6. When I press "Save to New Layer" a white empty page pops up on the screen and a box entitled Daz Studio Bridge Error show the message Unable to UpdateScene in Daz Studio and that's it. Nothing else ever happens.

I wiped the computer cack to original install, I installed a new version of Windows 11 AND Daz 4.21 AND the Photoshop Bridge. I have tried it in 32 bit with 32-bit versions and NOTHING ELSE ever happens.

Oh, and the GTX 2060 Nvidia board is woking fine. The computer is working fine.

It's as if I have been cursed.

 

vectorinus

Did this start happening in Daz Studio 4.21 only? What was the version of the program before this failure?

WendyLuvsCatz

while I use png, if I render something fancy like an 8K 360 panorama with the spherical lens I save it as tiff to convert to Radiance HDR format or exr in Gimp so imagine Photoshop it would be the same

Seven193

chris_340dad5b said:

 

I wiped the computer cack to original install, I installed a new version of Windows 11 AND Daz 4.21 AND the Photoshop Bridge. I have tried it in 32 bit with 32-bit versions and NOTHING ELSE ever happens.

 

You shouldn't have to re-install Windows just to fix a bridge issue.

In Daz Studio, if you click Edit -> Preferences -> Bridges, this should show you the path to your bridge executable.

I always had a issue with the ZBrush bridge, since it hid the path, so wasn't configurable, but I do see some others like Bryce and Hexagon, that do show the path, and are configurable. If the bridge path isn't visible or configurable, then it's a poorly designed bridge, imho.

chris_340dad5b

Seven193, the photoshop bridge does not show up in Edit>Preferences>Bridges. It is installed correctly as it launches from both directions but somehow. when I try to get ti to work, it cannot tell the render to commence.

 

Seven193

Does the bridge menu run in Photoshop or Daz Studio?  If it runs in Photoshop, then, I guess you won't find any settings in Daz Studio. Does the bridge let you configure it or see any paths from the Photoshop side?

chris_340dad5b

None of the controls will result in anything other than "Cannot UpdateScene in Daz Studio from the Photoshop side.

cain-x

Did you update Photoshop recently? Probably an update broke something.

Again, the workaround might be to just render it out from DAZ first then opening the render in PS (noting the same resolution of both projects).

chris_340dad5b

I would completely forget the DAZ 3d Bridge to Photoshop except for the fact that the renders are spectaular. Crisp, sharp and oh so much better resolution that I have ever achieved just rendering in DAZ, saving as a tiff or a jpg and then opening in Photoshop. It has always been my process. And the results are magnificent.

Richard Haseltine

The image resolution will not be different, compression may affect it and the treatment of the lack of a colour profile may also be an issue (check your settings for missing profiles in the Photoshop Preferences).

chris_340dad5b

One year ago, my photoshop bridge just stopped working. I keep getting the message "Unable to UpdateScene from Daz Studio" when I hit "preview" on the photoshop bridge link. I have asked and asked Daz for help but they just ignore me. I am using the most up-to-date version of Daz and Photoshop Bridge. It just stopped working after years of wonderfully transferring the work to photoshop.Does anyone know anything about this? It has ruined my business.

barbult

I probably can't help, but it might be useful to list specifically what version of Daz Studio and Photoshop you are using. Saying "latest" is a little ambiguous, because there is a release version and a later beta version of Daz Studio. As time goes on, the meaning of "latest" becomes even less helpful to people reading this thread. In Daz Studio. go to the Help menu and look at the version number reported in About Daz Studio to get the full version number. Are you using Photoshop CC or an older version like CS6? It will probably help to give the exact version number of your Photoshop. Hopefully that info will help another Photoshop bridge user help you.

chris_340dad5b

Barbult, thank you for the comment. This problem has plagued me since May of last year, when I was using the most up-to-date version of Daz. Currently, I am using Daz 4.22.158 Public Build and I have Photoshop versions CS5, CS6, CC and Photoshop 2024 installed. The transfer no longer works on any of them. Additionally, I totally backed up my computer a few months ago, re-installed Windows 11 and Daz and Photoshop and STILL I get this message.

The photoshop bridge worked perfectly for YEARS, delivering crystal-sharp renders into my computer (A Dell 8470 with 64Gigs of RAM) and suddenly, when I went to transfer/port a small object to Photoshop CC,it failed, gave that message and has never worked since. It's as if someone flipped a switch and killed its ability.

vectorinus

What is written in the "Help -> About installed plugins" menu next to dz3dbridge.dll? Loaded or Failed? There is a specific photoshop bridge for each version of daz studio.
Maybe you need to download the latest plugin from there? https://www.daz3d.com/3d-bridge-for-photoshop

mwokee

You can try calling Adobe technical support. You may need to create an account with them. Had a problem a few years ago, they connected remotely and fixed the problem.

chris_340dad5b

Vectorinus, I have the most up-to-date bridge and it is loaded properly, saccording to Help - Loaded plugins.

mwokee I have tried to get help from DA and Photoshop. They never reply.

vectorinus

Chris, in one of your posts you said: "When I finish a render inside DAZ and save it, the results are NOWHERE near as good as the basic output of the DAZ Photoshop Bridge which looks SO sharp and SO clear, I am stunned by the results."
This is not difficult to do inside Photoshop. Use the Levels tool to increase contrast. Then add some saturation in the Hue/Saturation tool. Or using the Shadows/Highlights tool (which is actually a combination of the two mentioned above). All these tools are in the menu: Image -> Adjustment... Most likely, Photoshop Bridge improves the image in approximately the same way when transferred from DAZ to Photoshop. Essentially, it first increases the contrast and then adds some saturation to the image. Don't be discouraged if you have to do this manually. Over time, you will forget the Photoshop bridge.

chris_340dad5b

I will try your ideas in the morning. Meanwhile, this is a sample of a render sent to Photoshop.

vectorinus

Nice render. You have good artistic taste and a sense of composition. Very pleasant and expressive faces. The relative position of the figures and their poses... I feel like I've already read several pages from your visual book.  Really nice! You should definitely get more into Photoshop. Many people believe that in order to use this program they will have to study all its enormous capabilities (and waste a huge amount of time). It's not like that at all. If you need a few of the tools of this program, then you can study only these tools and use only them. To quickly master the technique you need, you can use the website of the creators of Photoshop: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/levels-adjustment.html I would just like to note that your render is saved in JPG format. And that's not very good. JPG loses true information about the color of each pixel. Although it is almost invisible in your render. But in addition, Daz Studio saves the image in JPG format on a black background. And this color will distort the image histogram, which will have a negative effect when working in the Levels tool. But when saved in PNG format, the image has a white background when viewed, and in Photoshop it even has a transparent background, which is very favorable in all respects. In this case, you can even easily insert a new background instead of a transparent one. And also, images with a transparent background can be combined with each other into one composition and much more. Well, if you need the final output in JPG format, then you can entrust it to Photoshop. When saving, it will offer you several levels of file compression on which the file size will depend (with some loss of image quality).

chris_340dad5b

Victorious, Thank you for the lovely compliments and all of your input and advice. I have been a faithful Photoshop user since version 1 which my mother purchased for me based on advice from a guy at radio shack oh so many decades ago. I use Photoshop constantly in my work as a producer and consultant in the film industry. One of the things that I loved about the Photoshop bridge was that it allowed me to render directly from Daz 3D bypassing the render in the program and having the finished work go straight into Photoshop. The Daz 3D Photoshop bridge provides or should I say provided in my case, a crystal clear image on a transparent background if I was just shooting a character or the total render complete with all shadow work and lighting if I was doing a full scene. I posted the illustration as a JPEG in order to reduce the size. I do most of my work at 600 DPI and the files can be quite massive. I'm going to try the suggestions that you had in that I will render the work I do in Daz first and take it over manually to Photoshop as a PNG and see if I can make adjustments. I should point out that the render that I posted was exactly what came out of Das 3D into Photoshop without any post-work save hand painting extra shadows. That's the quality that you get using a Photoshop bridge. When it's working.

lilweep

chris_340dad5b said:

Victorious, Thank you for the lovely compliments and all of your input and advice. I have been a faithful Photoshop user since version 1 which my mother purchased for me based on advice from a guy at radio shack oh so many decades ago. I use Photoshop constantly in my work as a producer and consultant in the film industry. One of the things that I loved about the Photoshop bridge was that it allowed me to render directly from Daz 3D bypassing the render in the program and having the finished work go straight into Photoshop. The Daz 3D Photoshop bridge provides or should I say provided in my case, a crystal clear image on a transparent background if I was just shooting a character or the total render complete with all shadow work and lighting if I was doing a full scene. I posted the illustration as a JPEG in order to reduce the size. I do most of my work at 600 DPI and the files can be quite massive. I'm going to try the suggestions that you had in that I will render the work I do in Daz first and take it over manually to Photoshop as a PNG and see if I can make adjustments.

PNG?

I thought the whole point was you were fixated on quality. wouldnt you use EXR?

I should point out that the render that I posted was exactly what came out of Das 3D into Photoshop without any post-work save hand painting extra shadows. That's the quality that you get using a Photoshop bridge. When it's working.

The only way im buying this is with a side by side comparison.

chris_340dad5b

Attached are JPGS of the PSDs that came straight out of DAZ via photoshop bridge. They are so large they will not upload here. The first is the finished result with minimal photoshop touch up and a few painted on shadows. The other two are the raw output of the bridge, except for this forum, they will only accept jpgs or pngs. The shoots come out with the white background transparent.