Daz to Blender

KevinGrant

I've got Daz on a slow Windows machine and Blender on a faster Linux machine.  I want to set up for a movie render in Daz and then save all of the setup information in a file that's readable by Blender, and then transfer it to my Linux box and have Blender read in the file and do the more resource intensive full movie render.  Is this doable, and if so what are the basic steps?  If it's not doable, then is there another rendering engine that I can load into Linux and use the same way?  My problem here is that I don't want to go through all the hassle and expense of setting up Windows on my Linux box, and with my old business notebook it will take Daz days to render a 10 minute movie.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

Szark

you could try this http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/2877/mcjteleblender-daz-studio-scenes-animations-w-blender-s-cycles-engine/p1

mjc1016

Are you planning on rendering in 3Delight?

If so, you can render to RIB on the laptop...there are scripts to output animation RIBs.  Then install the Linux native version of the 3Delight standalone on the lLinux box.

Or you can install the 32 bit version of Studio on the Linux box with 'standard' WINE...

 

Black-Rain-Ninja

DAZ can export as a .u3d format.

That format can hold animation data as far as I know, Blender doesn't import this format by default but I think you can get a plug-in for it.

If your feeling up to it, It may be possible to just export everything into one big .u3d & using a plug-in import it into Blender, Then you can render from there...

 

I've never tried this, And I haven't dug too deep into Blender's animation uses to date so it may not work at all but could be worth a shot.

Joe Cotter

In short, no, it's not as simple as exporting out of DAZ and importing into Blender then rendering. A scene file can be exported/imported, but beyond that there are limitations.

One: anytime we go from one render engine (3DLight/IRay in DAZ) to another (Cycles in Blender) the objects need to be retextured/shaded. Blender and DAZ do have a render engine in common in Lux but materials for objects in DAZ are not natively set up for Lux and transfering the information from the DAZ environment to the Blender environment is not automatic even if the render engines are the same.

Two: Beyond basic object import/export there are a lot of caveats to transferring information between environments. something as complex as an animation file includes a lot of information that just isn't going to transfer easily.

The mcjteleblender script that Szark mentioned does a lot to try to move over information to Blender from DAZ on both previously mentioned points and considering the complications does a great job, but it does loose some in translation. How much depends on how complex your scene and materials are and what your expectations are.

In the end, I would try the script first and see if that will meet your needs. Beyond that, rendering in Blender will require a learning process as much work would need to be done in Blender after the export/import process. This is not a DAZ/Blender issue as much as it's an industry issue as to moving complex scenes, etc.. between any two environments, with exceptions.

Joe Cotter

There is another option. Portions of the animation can be done in Blender, such as the background, etc.. and portions in DAZ Studio (the characters) and the two can be composited together, but this is an advanced topic. If one is rendering animations, compositing is highly recommended and should be put on the 'to learn' list.