My Biggest Gripe About DAZ Studio
Ken OBanion
Posts: 1,447
Actually, there are several, but Number One on the list....
When you save a scene, the one thing that DS does NOT save is the position/orientation of the Perspective View camera. Or any of its cameras, for that matter.
Every time I need to re-open a saved scene, I have to re-position the Perspective View camera to the viewpoint of the actual scene I want to render. Yeah, I could (and generally do) create a 'Scene Camera' from which perspective I do the actual render, but occasionally I forget. Or I save while the view is from the Perspective View camera. Then, when I re-open the scene, the camera is restored (which is the Perspective View camera), which means I have lost the framing that I wanted, and I have to re-create it. (Or switch to the 'Scene Camera', which I may or may not have created.)
DAZ really needs to steal a few more pages out of Poser's book, specifically: save the positions and orientations of all cameras; not just the user-defined, but the default ones, as well. When I load a saved scene into a new instance of Poser, I know that every camera -- even the default set -- will always be in the exact same position and orientation that I left them when I saved and closed the application. DAZ Studio cannot make that claim.
And it's annoying as all get-out!
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Comments
Hmm, don't have any issues with cameras not staying in place, then again, the perspective view isn't really a camera
Since I render in Luxrender, I have to create a camera based on the perspective view or I get a warning from Reality that there are no cameras in the scene.
Yeah, the perspective camera doesn't have any adjustments available for focal length and such, it's not a real camera - it's for posing and fine tuning without messing up the position of your rendering camera.
However, you can create a camera based on perspective and all is well.
Make DS create a Default Camera automatically whenever a new scene is created, it will replace the Perspective View "camera" so the scenes will always load with the Default Camera settings. The Perspective View camera is still there, it's just not the default camera anymore.
Ah, I was not aware of that.
And that brings up yet another "beef" with DS:
DAZ-guys, when are you going to get around to getting some decent documentation written for this application? The Twelfth of Never?
I thought we gave up on daz providing documentation years ago?
Are you familiar with the use of the word "soon" 'round these parts?
I think they were going to document the lack of documentation, but ... ;)
Well, I do remember that bit of dialog from Romancing the Stone:
"I'll send the boat for you soon."
"How soon, Ira?"
"Real soon!"
(Needless to say, the boat never arrived. At least, not before the cops got there....)
I don't have this issue. The Perspective View stays at the last view I used it for when last saved. Same with all camerea views.
thats not my experience, but again once you realize the perspective view isn't a real camera it's a non-issue.
I use the default camera for rendering and the perspective view as a sort of director's camera. I setup the default camera for the render I want and roam around the scene with the perspective camera making adjustments here and there.
But I started with Poser and in Daz Studio I really miss the face, posing, left hand and right hand cameras.
The obvious question is, if the persepctive camera with it's lack of adjustments is not meant for the final render, why isn't creating a default camera the default setting? (and why not call it the Main camera like Poser does?)
Yeah, instead the created a wiki and which they said we could go ahead and build ourselves...
You can turn it on so it will make a default camera if you want. Personally I don't want a default camera. But I can see it going either way. It wouldn't kill me if it defaulted with a camera, as long as you can turn that option off :)
Regarding naming convention, Main or Default are a tie. We don't need the poser name(why doesn't poser call it Default like Daz?). Just like Carrara calls theirs Director Camera. I rename my cameras anyway half the time.
Most of the 3D programs I use seem to start without a real camera, so I'm used to it. Add camera's as you need them.
I just think that MaIn Camera sounds more obvious as the one to use for rendering. Default just sounds like something you use because you haven't chosen one, if anything that's a more appropriate name for the perspective camera.
My biggest gripe by far...
The content library is thoroughly jacked up. It's hard to find things.
Question; How does on turn off that stupid headlight that's attached to the camera?
you mean the "camera" outline.
you can change the scale of the camera to 0 and make it invisible.
Select the camera, go to parameters tab, under Headlamp menu, Headlamp Mode.
This might be what I'm looking for. But basically, I've read from time to time that when a new scene is loaded into DS there is a light of sorts attached to the position of the camera. I suppose this is to prevent new users from pressing render and seeing nothing but a black screen because they haven't loaded any lights. I ws under the impression there was an actual toggle to turn it off, am I mistaken?
I'm going to try your suggestion, but I doubt it will end up being the solution. In theory, I have a new scene and I have added no lights so where is all the light coming from? I have included a screen shot of the render.
Rashad... depends on the render engine. Iray or 3DL?
Iray. Sorry failed to mention that. Thanks for any assistance.
It's the Headlamp setting under parameters, but I don't think you can turn it off on the default Perspective camera.
In 4.8, go to Render Settings and look for "Auto Headlamp" in the General section. If you set it to "Never" the headlamp will be switched off. This works in 3DL and Iray.
The default setting is "When no Scene Lights". If you use standard Daz Studio lights this automatically switches off the headlamp but some other lights, especially ambient or image based lights don't register. In Iray, mesh lights do not switch the headlamp off so you have to do it.
Peter Wade, Timbales, ben98120000, evilded777, StratDragon,
Thanks that was exactly the treatment. I cannot tell you how much that darned light has driven me insane as a casual skimming the surface type of DS user. Thanks again for your help.
Perspective is not really a camera, its more of a view, so I don't think it should be called default camera...(it is called perspective view actually for a good reason)
The naming convention is fine as it is. BTW it's only called default camera if you have that enabled. If you enabled it, you had to do so manually so you very well know what it is.
My cameras come in as Camera 1 etc and I rename accordingly. Shoulder Cam, Ceiling Cam, etc
I have it load a default scene - just a camera with the headlamp off, and a plane for use when position characters correctly. It is set not to render. My preferred render size is also set.
I've never noticed this as a problem, probably because I use a camera for rendering a scene important enough to bother saving, since I tend to want to move perspective view to make adjustments without losing my render viewpoint. In 4.8 I did have a default scene setup to turn off auto headlamp because I got sick of doing it over and over again. Having to turn on the eye cornea bulge morph every time kinda bugs me, but not enough to actually remember how to set it to always be on.
Blender's documentation is so lovely. Daz's introduction documentation was fantastic too. Then you work out how to place a camera and beyond that it's a hopscotch world of random entries written in alien that people sometimes link to despite there being no appreciable way to ever navigate between them.