Daz importer for Blender
Scarecrow
Posts: 170
So I just recently discovered that there is an importer for Blender that allows you to import Daz content of all kinds, even complete characters with morphs and expressions. And it works with all versions of Genesis characters. It has also recently come to my attention that people think Blender is complicated and difficult to learn. I admit I have even been intimidated by it's interface in the past, but once I decided to go for it, I quickly started to love it. The best way to say it is like this, when I'm working in Carrara there are things I wish it could do that it can't, different ways of selecting or viewing things, just things to help speed things up. Blender does all these things, the workflows are intuitive and fast. After barely 2 weeks I'm pretty much up to speed with where my Carrara skills were at, and I have so much more room to learn and grow! And I've even started buying Genesis 8 content.
The importer works pretty simply once you get it installed, you have to install a custom extension in Daz Studio, it adds another command in the file menu that exports data that Blender needs that isn't included in a DUF file. It's really easy to do and the instructions were clear and easy to follow for me. After that just set up your character or whatever you want to import in Daz Studio save it as a scene, then you go back into the file menu and click the new button you made and then you're done in Daz Studio. Now in Blender the Daz importer shows up in the properties tab in the right side of the viewport. Just click "import Daz file" and navigate to your duf file and open it up. If it's a character you have to do a few more steps after this, attach the clothing, and import any morphs and expressions you want to use. Then you're done and you have your Daz character ready to use and animate in Blender.
The image I attached is a Genesis 2 female, the only shaders I changed on the character were the hair and the metal on her outfit. Everything else (Skin, leather, sword) is just as imported, no tweaking. The lighting is HDRI (free HDRI's at hdri haven) and it renders much faster than Carrara's HDRI. The shield didn't want to import with the character, so I did it separately and I did have to edit those shaders.
Overall I'm loving the switch to Blender from Carrara, I feel like I can use more of the Daz content I have in Blender than I ever could in Carrara, big upgrade, everything just works!
There's a great getting started tutorial series on Blender's channel on you tube. Check it out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.
http://diffeomorphic.blogspot.com/p/daz-importer-version-14.html
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Comments
Blender rendered this at less than 5 minutes per frame on my machine, a lesser quality render in Carrara would have taken over 30 minutes per frame.
https://youtu.be/kzGe2UiN8cM
Very cool! Your excitement reminds me of how I felt when I first got Carrara! It took me a bit to get used to it, but overall I was able to do the things I needed/wanted to do without having to jump through hoops, importing, exporting, tweaking this and that... I just pretty much had to build the shaders and I was good to go!
Congratulations!
I'm still getting everything I need from Carrara - but I'm looking forward to giving the new Blender a test drive. Who knows, maybe I'll get the bug to switch too? I kinda doubt that but we never know 'till we try, right? So when I install and try Blender, thanks to you I'll begin by getting the importer installed and some files ready in Daz Studio first. This is so cool!
Once again Scarecrow, my friend - Congrats on the cool new workflow! Looking forward to seeing more!
These renders of Rosie 5 were taking about 2.5 minutes per frame with these rather low render settings. The star ship and environment at the very beginning was taking less than a minute in Carrara - even with all of those vehicles, which are actual duplicates (not replicated).
One thing about your video above is that the shadows are very stark and sharp for such a hot, bright environment - but I'm sure that's just a learning curve in the new render engine and lights that can be tweaked as you get deeper into it
Yes my excitement for 3D is renewed, like when I first discovered Daz Studio and started learning. I was recently on the Carrara users group on Facebook and people were looking for alternatives to Carrara because it's not supported anymore and it won't run on the newer Mac OS. Everyone on there seemed to think that there was no easy way to import Daz content into Blender, they said things like "Poser and Daz Studio are pretty much your only option". Well that is just not true, the Daz to Blender impoter I shared a link to here makes it easier to get content into Blender than it ever has been to get content into Carrara from Daz Studio. At this point I'm feeling like Blender and Daz were made for each other actually, Blender is the software that Daz lacks and Blender doesn't have any content of it's own. I thought I should share that news here in case anyone else is looking for alternatives and aren't aware that Blender is a really good one. I personally have not been having any luck with Carrara for a while now, it crashes constantly, I tried to do the same animation as I posted above and the legs would go all wonky and move to places they shouldn't be, even if I put a keyframe in every single slot. So finding a new platform that has higher quality tools and also allows me to keep using all of the content I have already invested in is very exciting indeed. Every tool I ever found myself wishing for in Carrara already exists in Blender. I feel set free.
I didn't really spend any time at all on the lighting and render settings in the animation above, It's just an HDRI, that's it. I was just so excited that everything was working, and even better than I expected..
Each year for several years, I choose a week and make a fresh attempt to adopt Blender. Hasn't clicked for me yet. I'm told the new interface makes a big difference. Maybe this year will be the year it sticks.
Happy rendering.
I have only ever used Daz Studio and Carrara and now Blender. I'm finding this version of Blender very comfortable, like anything the differences take a little getting used to, but it's really been an easy natural transition for me. I can see from watching tutorials that they have made some changes between 2.79 and 2.8. , but I don't have any experience with any earlier versions of Blender. This starup tutorial series is pretty great https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa1F2ddGya_-UvuAqHAksYnB0qL9yWDO6
I hate new version of Blender. It's slow and clumsy. I still work in 2.79. I use Blender for almost all my work from 2015.
I must admit, as I have above... Carrara gives me what I need, so looking to other options is fairly difficult. But I still tried 2.79 and earlier a few times and it just wasn't for me. Again, however, mostly because I didn't 'need' to find another option.
On that note, ever since I got news that other companies were going to invest in "improving Blender" into a more modern GUI with an easier to understand interface, I've been hyped about seeing what they'd come up with.
I'm always so very busy with my short time I get on a computer - working/playing in Carrara and Howler and my other usual software that I forget to look at other things. At this stage of the game, I don't really feel up to being a professional modeler. I just enjoy building my scenes and animations from content, and building a model here and there to get what I need.
Up until recently, I didn't even want to bother much with Daz Studio - except that I did alwasy feel an urge to try and get to know it better. When I picked up some of PoserMoCap's Genesis 3/8 aniBlocks which also come in BVH, I tried DS for converting the BVH files (brought in on Genesis 1) to aniBlocks, and it worked well enough for how I work with aniBlocks in Carrara. Some things get wonky since the rigs are so different, and I could probably use the awesome tools in aniMate 2 to fix them, but the wonky bits have never been something that I was after in the first place out of the motion capture - so I just left them alone.
Anyway, so that's where I doubt I would mind making Daz Studio conversions for Blender if I could do like I do in Blender what I do in Carrara. But I guess I'd need an aniBlock importer for Blender then too, because there's no way I'm converting my entire aniBlock collection to BVH! Nope. Not gonna happen!
But then there's the other thing that always ocurrs to me when I get hyped about another option besides Carrara - I realize how much I LOVE CARRARA!!! LOL
I still want to try this whole thing out! I feel like I'd be cheeting myself if I don't at least have a look.
Well to each their own. The tools are secondary to the art.
I am just happy to have found a software solution that is working (very well) for me, and it's still supported and evolving as this technology develops into the future.
I didn't make this post to try to convince people they should be doing this or that. I only wanted to let people that are looking know, that with this importer, blender is another option. As I said before, on another Carrara forum, the people there thought that Daz Studio and Poser were your only options if you wanted to use you Daz content with something other than Carrara.
May all our creative visions be fulfilled!
...and I agree. I do a LOT of cheerleading for Carrara because it's such a brilliant tool for me. But I'd never down anyone for choosing to use something else. I'm just SO grateful that you brought this to our attention! With Carrara being pretty much left to collect dust in the development room, it's important to keep future options open. Trust me, Scarecrow, I'll be trying this out Soon!!! Thanks again!
for some reason Cycles and Eevee want to use my CPU
I have these settings
no idea why it says no openCL device when it has a choice of graphics options
(tried ticking each and both BTW)
it used to work a few Nvidia driver updates ago
But you have the CUDA tab selected when you render in Cycles, right? I believe Cycles will always use CUDA, and EEVEE will always use OpenCL, if I'm not mistaken.
yeah Eevee ends up using my CPU
Cycles now I am unsure, I know it definately did use my 980ti previously
cannot test as maxing out my RAM with the bridge, learnt fast a fox girl with 9 furred tails was a bad choice
she did import fur and all but my PC frozen
(trying one tail now)
is using my 980ti for viewport rendered view
all of it
and my RAM too
Try switching the viewport from render preview mode to material or object preview mode. Sometimes my renders fail if I'm previewing in render preview mode.
I only enabled it to test t, I don't even use textured otherwise
and yes Cycles at least does use my 980ti
others find Blender so easy to navigate around in, for me I just get constant freezes and busy mouse spins
everything I try
I posed her a bit but it was a struggle flatshaded
I might add on this computer!
my old one seems cope OK not that I used Blender much
and I am getting so frustrated, get some error trying to add keyframes
it does not render what I have in the camera view
I never had these issues earlier Blender versions with the awful UI
Not quite. G3-G8 jcms work fine, but G1-G2 triax can't be imported so deformations are lost. You get anyway a good base to work from.
Diffeomorphic can import animations but they need to be backed to the timeline first. Aniblocks can't be imported.
If you can't see your card as opecl device try reinstalling the drivers. Also I'd suggest you to use diffeomorphic instead of daztoblender. Since diffeo is better in many aspects, from materials to rigging to hair conversion.
Strange behavior. Which version of Blendsr are you using?
I am working with 2.83.2 (E-Cycles fork) and have no lags here... (2 years old Notebook with 1080 inside)
While posing, go with eevee, don't forget to lock your camera to view to catch up your cam...
So, I install the Daz to Blender plugin but get nothing in Blender addons as to a Daz to Blender bridge. Is Daz assuming everything is on the C drive again? Because NONE of my software is on my C drive (other than things that won't let me change their path). I have a very small SSD for the C drive.
Edit: I THINK I have this figured out. Maybe. Stay tuned. LOL
ReEdit: That would be nope...not figured out.
Re-ReEdit: Searched the entire damn computer for the Blender Addon Install File...found it. What a mess.
@ Padone - I'm changing my workflow from Cinema 4D to Blender and incorporate Diffeo in my workflow in future. Just wondered, how Daz to Blender and Diffeo fit together. Reading your post, I understand that they are different.
- Any idea regarding HD morph support in future. At the moment I try to use only SubD Level 1 and incorporate the higher levels based on Displacement and Normal maps.
- I saw that there is an Open Source solution for skin in Blender 'Dermis' that looks quite promising, as it is based on the Anders Langlands shader. I had some great results in Vray's alSurface shader that is based on the same open source shader. Is there a plan to add a skin conversion to this shader as well?
Keep up the great work. Unfortunately I only have limited time resources. Otherwise I would love to join in to add features in Diffeomorphic after the extensive investigation that I did in 2018 about how G3 posing works.I wrote some Daz scripts and Cinema 4D importer scripts in Python to get additional data over that were not supported by the FBX. Nevertheless I will follow up the Diffeo road and if the open source Daz 2 Blender plugin has some new features, we can leran from them. At least it is open source and shall be licenbed under Apache as far as I understood.
well I lost such a huge amount of space and am having a lot of fun chasing down the files to uninstall
the temporary ones in application data, the ones in documents
and still space gone
I cannot afford to lose so much space on my C drive and have it show red
it seriously needs a purge facility for stuff you don't want to keep
@ Padone - I'm changing my workflow from Cinema 4D to Blender and incorporate Diffeo in my workflow in future. Just wondered, how Daz to Blender and Diffeo fit together. Reading your post, I understand that they are different.
Hi Sing :) - don't forget to install Discord, I can share my experience/impressions with you over there in our native language. Will test the maps this evening with Dermis as discussed.
So... we have a blender importer that eats disk space and cannot import anything other than G3/G8 and clothes/hair. Um, yay?
Best approach is to proper set up all your paths. Blender is fully configurable, but it needs time to do so if you are not acquainted with Blender. There are tons of tutorials, discord channels and opportunities. It is easy to get lost.
So there are a bunch of great places to go first
- Blenderartist: https://blenderartists.org/
- Blendernation: https://www.blendernation.com/
- Blender - latest builds: https://builder.blender.org/download/
Beginners Tutorial,
- Jaynams Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs5J4GVRB8s2P4hE-O0izrg
- Peter Stammbachs Youtube Channel coming from Modo: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ2NYo3MqqKi96TqQyl5_jQ
- Master Xeons Page: https://masterxeon1001.com/
Umm, why you want import other assets? Blender is perfect to build HQ ones, have a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSzxJbjhc_Y&feature=emb_logo
This course is available on various platforms, all you need is a vanilla blender copy and some free addons.
I found the addon for Blender. It was just put in a place I wouldn't have thought of looking. Took time to find it. It does however make Blender REALLY laggy and so far it's kind of a non-starter.
Laurie
I am still trying to add it to my scripts in the beta
editing customactions.dsx didn't work
I really don't want to use my release build with Octane render as it is a PITA waiting for that to load everything first
Yes, I do know Blender, but I don't necessarily want to build everything myself all the time. Or I might want to combine assets from Daz with own builds...
But ultimately the Daz to Blender limitations aren't that much of a problem anyway, since there are always Diffeomorphic and Teleblender.
yes I can even import props to Blender
even FBX rigged figures
this is usefull for the fact they are rigged with the correctives etc ready to pose
Depends which render engine you're using.
Have a look over at Mitchys thread at Blenderartists, the Author of the tool: https://blenderartists.org/t/daz-to-blender8/1177588
We were wondering why he has stopped the sales of the addon. Now it is clear :)
I am pretty sure this won't be the last update. Personally I like how Thomas (diffeomorphic) handles all the files. (DazImporter 1.5). You can selectively import what you need, add custom morphs, and in combination with shape keys+ (free addon), this is a Godsend.
Btw, link to DazImport over at Blenderartists: https://blenderartists.org/t/daz-importer/684697
And that's with the DAZ importer? So any idea on what it does and doesn't import? Or just try and see what happens?