Daz Studio 4.5 Rigging

[Finis]

I discovered that DAZ Studio 4.5 claims to have rigging ability for imported models. That is, you can import your characters modeled in TS, Hexagon, etc. and rig a skeleton for them.

So far I have imported a specially textured model from TS and produced bones in DAZ. I'll post details and what documentation I used later.

You have to activate the Figure Tab from some menu to do this.

TROUBLE POINT 1: Moving, aligning, connecting bones.
Arranging, moving, rotating, aligning, etc. can be done in DAZ with sliders or interactively, so they say. I have not been able to drag/manipulate bones with the mouse except to change their size and the sliders are unintuitive.
SOLUTION 1: Change scale when you import your model so that it is about the size of the Daz base figure. This makes the controls on the bone ends big enough to use. The snap and align tools put ends together and the bone hierarchy connects them.

Does anyone know about using DAZ Studio for this purpose? Feel free to share your knowledge.

Documentation Links so far:

Good starting place. Prepare your model for Daz.
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/s ... tion/start
Basic Rigging.
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/s ... ging/start

[jamesmc]

There are some nice instructional videos on Youtube on weight mapping and rigging.

I haven't done rigging in Daz Studio though, just watched the videos. heh

[Finis]

Thanks James. Videos helped.

Touble point 1, solved. See earlier post. My model (HearO) was much larger than the base Daz figure. I imported mine with a scale to match the Daz figure's size and the controls on the ends of the bones were much larger and could be used. Bones are connected by their parenting heirarchy and the snap and align tools put their ends together.

[Finis]

TROUBLE POINT 2: Names of bones. Default bone names, based on textured areas imported via obj from TS 7.6, are not useful. Renaming was not easy. Selecting bones or selection surfaces on the model does not highlight the corresponding items.
SOLUTION 2: Mouse over or select a selection surface on the model and note its name in the popup. Find the bone in the figure editor and change its name.

I have been using the strategy from the documentation linked earlier:
1. Make model in other software.
2. Create selection sets in other software. In TS that means apply textures to model areas for bones (chest, upper arm, lower arm, ...). These will become bones in Daz.
3. Export as obj (in TS export with groups by material).
4. Import model into Daz.
5. Daz Figure Setup tab: import geometry (same model file) and drag to "geometry" line in Figure tab.
6. Rename bones and Parent bones to make hierarchy. Click "Create" when done.
7. Arrange bones with Joint Editor tool and Scene tab.
Note: "Memorize Rigging" is important. Rigging may be lost on saving if you don't.
Note: "reparent bone" in Joint Editor is prone to crashing. Save scene first.
Note: "Node" means "Bone".

With all that done I realized that I'm supposed to be moving to Hexagon, which works with Daz anyway, as my main modeler but working on a TS - Daz workflow here. Also, I believe that it is simpler to just import your mesh and build the skeleton from scratch in Daz than to do the selection set = bone thing.

I think Daz may be useful for quick rigging for hobbyist work and posing them for still images like Splinters' Buddy World. I still intend to learn Messiah Studio.

So, I will suspend this project until I have some ability in Hexagon and then continue learning Daz rigging and posting it here. This end result will not be a tutorial but a getting started guide to whatever workflow I find works. Links to documentation will be provided for details.

It took about 12 hours to learn this much so start with the docs above and video links coming soon and you can do it.

Links to some official Daz video tutorials I found helpful soon.

[pugman 1]

I would say youd be better off learning blender for everything ,maybe not the modling

[Finis]

Pugman, I'm exploring options.

Blender is certainly on my to-learn list. Partly from poverty and partly since they are good tools, I'm moving to Hexagon/Sculptris/Blender for almost everything.

So far Daz rigging looks easy once learned but not intuitive.

Since I have Messiah Studio (from the super cheap offer) I'll pay the price of its poor docs and steep learning curve to get its power as one option. Probably I'll find that Blender is easier and more than powerful enough for me. Harder than Blender ... Messiah Studio claims a rare honor.

Modo is my dream program. Having that much money is a dream too.

[Finis]

Of course, I had to try more rigging. This time I just built the skeleton in Daz and didn't use their "selection sets" become bones feature. That was much easier. It didn't take long to put a few bones from HearO's chest to one foot and assign polygon groups to them. Polygon groups tell the program which bone to move when a user poses a figure. They're like handles. Still learning weight mapping but it seems not too difficult with a few tools.

[RAYMAN]

Once you got the skeleton up running its much easier to control your models inside Daz studio then in most other programs....
As far as I can tell you most people I know also used old versions of Poser with skeleton drag and drop functiomnality... to import
into Daz....
Look into that solution.... there are some old versions on fleebay..Poser models worked well in the older Daz studio versions..
havent used the newest one though...
Peter

[nigec]

Carrara might be another option, dig around for back issues of 3D world and 3D Artist mags, both had the pro versions for free, probably easier than DAZ to learn and some good tuts

It would be so cool if DAZ could take all the best qualities out of Bryce, Daz Studio, Carrara and Hexagon and make one killer piece of software
Carrara is almost there but its a jack of all trades and master of none

[Finis]

Thanks y'all.

Rayman, good to know that Poser stuff works with Daz. That means there are more possibilities for free clothes. Daz would be good for populating scenes with people like in architectural renderings but regular clothes would be needed. I'll look to Messiah and Blender for real rigging but I hope Daz can be a quick and simple method for simple posing. Now I'm learning how to do it from scratch but just transferring the standard skeleton and modifying would work for humanoid characters.

I have noted the lack of regular clothes as a business niche. You could make them for Daz, add decimated lower poly models, and promote that for more professional use. The semi normal clothes I've seen are still too stylish for that kind of use.

Nigec, Carrera is out since it costs money. It does look like a good deal though. Yeah, best of all those and master of something would make it really good. James has done stuff with Carrera.