Export hair from DAZ3D to ZBrush

jay_jay

Hey,

I have such a problem. I would like to transfer hair from Daz3D to ZBrush. Likewise, I know they need to be exported using a plugin, but every time I do it, the hair in ZBrush looks like it's made up of dozens of individual strips. Is there any way to export them as one cohesive whole?

 

This is how it looks now:

Richard Haseltine

That probably reflects the way the hair is made, as strands (possibly originally Brush Fibermesh hair) or strips.

jay_jay

And... is it any way to "remake" it as a solid?

Richard Haseltine

I don't know in geenral, but not via the Daz Studio export options.

nerradeelofgnosall

jay_jay said:

And... is it any way to "remake" it as a solid?

Yes, in zbrush use the geometry command - dynamic subdiv. You can give the strands thickness. This makes them 3d solids, because they appear to be 2d sheet. Once you have done this you my have problems texturing the hair. While the hair exists as 2d sheet it's easy to project a picture of lines (jpg) along its length, once you have turned it into 3d solid daz will not be able to do this. I only make the hair 3d if I'm going to print it.

ShelLuser

So, I'm a little late to the discussion at hand but.. yah, 2 of my favorite environments getting mentioned? ;)

jay_jay said:

I have such a problem. I would like to transfer hair from Daz3D to ZBrush. Likewise, I know they need to be exported using a plugin, but every time I do it, the hair in ZBrush looks like it's made up of dozens of individual strips. Is there any way to export them as one cohesive whole?

So, there's something I don't understand about your question... you say they look like individual strips, but that doesn't really mean anything; what do your subtools tell you? Because they're already exported in the way you intended them to be: one cohesive whole. See my attached image as proof for that...

Here I loaded teen Julie (based on Genesis; so a very easy to use figure) and applied the "Flippa hair". As you can see, I also highlighted this, the hair already is one whole. Sure it looks like strands, but that's just the nature of the beast so to speak: in the end it's still one whole part of the exported mesh.

(edit)

nerradeelofgnosall said:

Yes, in zbrush use the geometry command - dynamic subdiv. You can give the strands thickness.

Sorry, but that's not quite correct. First of all it won't change the fact that the mesh already is a "full whole". In fact, I'd argue that this will only make things look thicker, while I get the impression that the OP is looking for, well, editing actual hair props.

And that isn't going to happen because as mentioned: this is merely the nature of the beast so to speak...

I attached a 2nd image, here I focussed solely on 'Flippa' and this time exported it from Daz Studio as FBX, I then used the excellent "FBX Importer" plugin for ZBrush. Notice anything?

It (roughly) looks like the small individual strands you see in Daz Studio but if you look closer you'll notice that this is merely an illusion: a combination of material / surface settings, because in the end we're still left with thicker strands.

In fact.. lemme attach a 3rd and final image..

In my DS setup I loaded teen Julie (based on Genesis, so an easy figure to work with) and applied the flippa hair, then I applied a material preset to said hair. After that I loaded the hair mesh as-is and placed it next to Julie's head. I think this image speaks for itself.

In fact.. try this with any hair prop you'd like and you'll see that it's not the way you export things, it's just the way the mesh was build and how the "illusion" was set up with the material preset(s).