general use of daz
JustPlayNoName
Posts: 0
Hello all,
I have not yet fully understood the concept of daz. It would be nice if someone could give me a link to an article or answers.
Does daz work like a lego set, where I have to buy several bundles to put something together?
Are there any free bundles? I found some websites on google that offer free daz art. But is that legal? Or is it only allowed to buy from the original daz shop?
To what extent can I create a bundle myself? If I design a piece of clothing in blender. I have a static object, can I simply transfer this to daz? Daz has a lot of advantages, for example that the clothing adapts to the character, which my blender design wouldn't have automatically. Or do I need the right script for this, which I can apply to my work?
There are bundles to buy in which you can morph the body. From a certain
repertoire, you can create your own character (at least in terms of shape) very freely?
So would it be enough to create a character with the right 3,4 bundles, similar to MakeHumans, and then transfer it to Blender and rig and create poses yourself?
So how much do I really have to buy to finally create my own individual characters? Or is this simply not intended for this and you are supposed to buy and adopt entire art parts from other artists?
This brings me to my last question, the legal use.
With all the bundles you can pay extra for licenses. If I buy the part, can I legally use the characters or objects in my game?
And if I don't buy the licenses but create my own character from a purchased bundle by bodymorphing and using my own material, for example. Can I then call it my art and use it legally free?
i hope someone knows what the correct reading is for this topic, or even takes the time to answer me personally.
thank you in advance
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Comments
There is a fair bit of freee content included - all of the base figues (Genesis #) have a Starter Essentials package, with the figuer, at least oen hair, and at least one outfit, plus soem props and there are also a number of eady-to-render scene collections. The freebies forum here also has quite a bit of free content. Any site offering content from Daz or another store for free is almost certainly offering warez, for which the crator has received at best one sale's worth of income 9and quite possibly not that if they used stolen card details to purchase). However, there are people - most of whom are likely to post on one of the main sites - offering their own created freebies.
Yes, you can ceate your own content - the only bits not available to the general user are HD morph import (but we can use normal maps and displacement) and dForce Hair (strand-based dynamic hair - we can make non-dynamic strand-based hair, and we can use the dForce cloth engine on hair made from polygons). For example, with your clothes you could either rig them using Edit>Figure>Transfer Utility - set teh figuer as the Source and the imported model as the Target, ideally you should model around the base shape but there are ways to handle morphed figuers) or you coudl apply a dForce modifier (from the Simulation Settings pane option menu) and just simulate to get the draping.
You can buy morph sets (e.g. the basic Daz Head and Body Morph sets for the figure) to create characters, or you can use a modelling or sculpting application to create your own then use Edit>Figure>Morph Loader to import as a new morph - this has to be made on the base figure, no SubD active and no add-on parts). You can use an image editor or 3D painting tool to create textures.
What sort of game? For a game with 3D data that is used on the host machine to generate the user experience you do need the Interactive License, but for a game that needs only 2D images (e.g. most Visual Novels, or RPG Maker games with 2D sprites) the standard license is enough.
I'll tell you maybe the best description of what Daz is that I've ever read. It's pithy and accurate but not entirely fair or complete: "Daz is a useful program for dressing dolls." I don't remember where I read that but it is somewhat apt. I as a former glamour photographer choose to see it as a really good camera with models who work cheap. Maybe that will give you a useful perspective.
Daz's strength is in it's focus on transferring a character rig to anything the character is wearing. That is something of an oversimplification, but if you take it at face value you'll be on the right track.
And trust Richard. He's easily the best forum moderator I've ever dealt with.
Causam3D: Easy to use, sophisticated assets for Daz Studio
That is one use, but it can also render complete scenes where the humans are relatively minor elements.
Yes that's true, but I was speaking of the strength of Daz, what makes it unique.
Just keep in mind that...
Daz targets mostly hobbyists and it's a great program for users who are taking their first steps into the world of 3D. DAZ doesn't charge for the software and has created a catalog that can be directly accessed through the program, making it easy for the user to start assembling scenes by purchasing premade assets and combining things.
Yes and no. Generally characters are sold as basically the naked figure with skin, eyebrows and eyelashes. Some may come with expressions for the face, most won't. Some may come with options for different ages of the same character (particularly Daz's own characters). Clothing, hairstyles, accessories and other character related items such as makeup, skin detail modifications such as freckles tend to be sold seperately. Morphs to change the body shape are also sold separately.
Sets, such as street scenes, buildings, landscapes, come complete as you see them. Same with vehicles, animals, etc. There are also tools for creating landscapes, scattering objects, optimising renders, you name it. Daz has it's own language (Daz Script) which isn't a million miles away from javascript if you're familiar with that but it's poorly documented.
If you can model in Blender you can make anything you're capable of, export to a format like .obj or .dae and import your creations. You can make whatever you want really. Making your own clothing is a long and complex topic; if you want to do it to a high standard it will take you some time to fully understand and master this aspect.
You can buy whatever you want from wherever you want, import whatever you want from free sites. There are no restrictions. Be aware that products from stores that don't check and validate Daz content may not work as you might want them to without a lot of additional effort. Most are fine.
There isn't really any scripting as such involved. Studio will create that for you. However, there is a learning curve in understanding how clothing models are applied to figures. A quick Google search will show up many videos on YouTube that walk you through how to create clothing from scratch in Blender, Cinema 4D, Modo, Maya, Max, Zbrush, all the usual suspects. What most of us lack is the ability to create said clothing (!) so if you have this talent, you will be happy with Daz Studio.
Daz Studio's main function is to create. pose and render custom figures. I don't see the point of exporting this out to Blender unless you want to use the real-time renderer. You can create poses yourself by manipulating every joint in a skeleton yourself. Pose sets are also available to buy but they will need adjusting if you morph the character away from the base.
This one really is 'how long is a piece of string'. If you can create morphs yourself in Blender and import them into Daz (this too can be complex - many free tutorials available) you won't need to spend anything. If you can create hairstyles and clothing yourself, you won't need to buy anything. However, the Daz store often sells items ridiculously cheaply. Really, really cheap. Look every day - there will be something for a few dollars it would take you tens if not hundreds of hours to make yourself. So cheap that it would be pointless to spend a lot of hours making your own. If you want 'instant character' - you'll have to spend something. Pick your choices carefully and it won't be a lot.
Yes, it's your art with no additional licenses needed as long as you don't use the actual 3D model in something like Unity or Unreal and rig it there. You'll need the interactive license for that. That useage is still really, really cheap compared to what you'd pay for a quality character in the Unity Asset Store or the Unreal Store. If you render in 2D, it's yours, you can use it in whatever you like, including commercial applications or games. For example, you can create (and we have) a complete point-and-click adventure in 2D using Daz and homebrew assets, some animations and, sadly this is the bit that puts it beyond the realm of the average hobbyist renderer, an indepth knowledge of something like Unity or Unreal and C sharp or C++.
I run a small company of 5 people. We make interactive adventure/mystery games using Daz (and a couple of other tools) on the Android and IOS stores. We make enough to support all of us very comfortably. People think of it as a hobbyist's tool but if you put the effort in, you can get successful commercial results out of it. There are people who do book covers, illustrations for books, comics, visual novels, games, all sorts of artwork.
Daz Studio is not a toy or a throwaway 'amateur's' package. It can be used like that but it offers so, so, so much more if you're prepared to learn.
Hope this helps :)