News about the DAZ Studio and Poser software

Category Archives: Companion software

New Blender-to-DAZ scene export plugin, free

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Do you have a scene made with the free Blender, that you want to render complete in DAZ Studio? Silvio has written a new Blender plugin that claims to do that…

“I have written a plugin for Blender 2.6.2 bridge, to DAZ Studio 3.1 or up. It exports the 3D geometry to DAZ Studio, via [Blender’s] Collada export, and it exacts camera animation positions, rotation, dolly, zoom, DOF…”

Probably not textures, though, if it’s a Cycles scene. I know from experience that nothing on earth will export one of those with textures.

Here’s his detailed 24-minute video tutorial…

New set of DAZ-to-Blender scripts

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McjTeleblender is a…

“new kit of scripts designed to quickly export DAZ Studio scenes, even animations, and render them in Blender using Blender’s GPU-accelerated ray-trace renderer named Cycles.”

It’s early days, and the scripts are still being patched. But it all appears to work and offers yet another (and free!) option for high-end raytracing from DAZ Studio scenes.

DAZ to Unity – detailed technical overview

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DigiTech has posted a lengthy new whitepaper/tutorial on pipelining customised character assets for the popular free Unity game engine, based on DAZ Studio exports…

“This tutorial presents an asset pipeline, and design and code analysis information, to support the character customization workshop project download [available] for Unity game engine. […] The character customization workshop provides a foundation for a startup individual or small team of developers to begin introducing character management to their games.”

New 3DXchange 5 converts DAZ to iClone, auto-rigs

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The new 3DXchange 5 Pro conversion tool is out. Here’s how to convert and auto-rig a DAZ Studio character, for use in the real-time software iClone…

This new version of iClone converts to the standard iClone format, so characters can accept all standard motions files. A version that can also convert for facial animation will be available soon.

iClone special discount codes – up to 35% off

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Are you interested in real-time animation, using animation software that runs on a videogame engine? My other MyClone blog for iClone now has special discount offer. Get the superb real-time machinima software called iClone 5 at 30% off, or the iClone 5 Pro Bundle at 35% off.

To get these discounts, simply enter the special discount codes that you’ll find via my sidebar links over at the main MyClone blog. Offer ends 30th June 2012.

Brianorca Ocean – a new Carrara plugin for sea simulation

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A new ocean-simulating plugin for DAZ Carrara 8 users, just released. Brianorca Ocean ($15) has been developed from someone who obviously knows the maths and science of how oceans move and behave. It’s also said to be more efficient than existing sea-sim options…

“It can cover a larger area than the built-in Carrara 8 Pro ocean, using about the same memory, and maintaining fine detail in the center. Uses different grid resolution for render and preview, speeding your work. There is a float modifier, to make your boat float.”

See also: my recent survey of ocean / seal-life content for DAZ and Poser.

Using Poser with Keyshot

Posted on by Posted in 3D Renders, 3D Utilities, Companion software, DAZ Studio, Lighting, Poser 3 Comments

A very cool set of Poser / Keyshot renders by David Constantine…

The workflow is…

1. Export a posed character as a FBX (DAZ) or Collada (Poser) file.
2. Import to Keyshot and stand your character against your chosen background.
3. Apply the background’s matching HDR light.
4. Render.

Keyshot is blindingly quick at rendering, at least with single objects against a 2D background. Keyshot ships with a range of background images that have matching HDR lights. These lights help the objects look as though they belong in the scene (as you can see above).

Sadly Keyshot is aimed at engineers and commercial product-photography people, rather than hobbyists, and so costs $1,000. Which does at least mean it’s blissfully simply to use, and can be fully learned in an hour. This is because it’s designed for those who are unfamiliar with 3D software, and who run screaming from the ludicrous interface complexities of software such as Blender. But the cost of Keyshot will put off many. It’ll cost even more, if you want an add-on HDR Light Studio pipeline (the latest version of this can apparently make a matching HDR from any background that you feed it).

Still… Keyshot is certainly one to consider, if you’re looking for a tax write-off and you want an alternative render engine for still images of Poser figures. Just keep in mind that you’ll need to fix eyes and eyelashes on Poser faces after import, and that Keyshot only ships with one skin material that takes ages to render.