Should I focus on Blender or Daz first?

Drakenfel

I have both programs and am planning on learning both Daz for setting up scenes and Blender for making any assets I cannot find by other creators so I am willing to put in the work for both programs but I'm having troble deciding which I should focous on first and if I should become completly profisient at one before moving onto the other what are your thoughts which program should I focous on first as a noob at both?

StrangeFate

Daz,

Creating stuff will be more difficult, especially without understanding how it has to be done for it to work in Daz.

 

Clay_Stoneham

What Strangefate said.

I would add that in order to get really proficient and efficient at either, let alone both, one needs at least a few years of non-stop practice to get good at just one, and a whole lot of spending cash to become pro at either, let alone both.

My experience: I started with Poser, learned that for one year, and then started with DAZ Studio and the Genesis figures, which was/is different enough that I felt like the new kid at school all over again.

It took me 2 years of non-stop practice and a four-digit amount of money spent on assets and training over the 2 years before I started making my own custom character head and body shapes that didn't come from the DAZ Store or other stores, and impressing my friends and family with my custom characters.

It took me another year of practice before I discovered the best tools for creating clothes, then hairstyles, and then other accessories for my custom DAZ Studio characters, and it took me another 2 years of non-stop practice and another 4-digit amount of money over those 2 years to get good enough at those tools to get satisfied with my work... kind of.

I will say the longer I stuck with this "hobby," the more I learned, and the more I learned, the more I made, and the more I made, the more curious I got about tools that could enhance DAZ and Blender work outside those two applications, and the more I started to enjoy what I learned and what I made after learning.

But that's just me.

Your mileage may vary.

TL:DR: DAZ Studio will get you acquainted with the basics of manipulating models and creating 3D compositions with premade stuff. I'd start with DAZ if I were you, spend a couple of years on that at least, and while learning DAZ, cruise YouTube and other such sites for tutorials on DAZ and Blender workflows for what, specifically, you want to make if you're curious.

But learn those fundamentals first. DAZ Studio is easier for learning those.

crosswind

If you're keen on composing your scenes with the assets on hand and having them rendered ASAP, your first priority should be focusing on DS as it's much easier than using Blender to get the final results.  Well, you still can learn Blender at the same time, especially the essential skills of modeling and sculpting, which could multiply your capability of enhancing the scenes in DS. However if you're not in urgent need of getting renders in DS, you may certainly focus on Blender first.  There's a pretty good add-on, Diffeomorph Daz Importer, which can import assets from Ds to Blender. So you can compose your scenes and have them rendered in Blender efficiently.  I've seen quite a few guys are doing so in here... They don't really use Ds but just Daz assets and manipulate them in Blender most of the time.

I'm a Blender user as well, 6+ years with Daz, nearly 2 years with Blender, but I always regret that I should‘ve learned blender earlier. Still, it depends on the preference of your own eventually. In general, go for the software you really like,  then you'll have momentum and enthusiasm to have 'happy learning and happy rendering'.  IMHO...

Rafael

My two cents.

It sounds like Daz and Blender are similar programs. "Both do 3D stuff". But they are not. You made a distinction yourself.

Daz for setting up scenes and Blender for making any assets

So focus on that, setting up a scene with Daz, and Blender for making assets. You do not need to be "proficient" in any to move to another, you use them as you need them.

The truth is that the strongest point of Daz is very specific: You want a scene with one character you like, with some cloth and hair you like, set up the pose, camera, and light and you have a scene. It is like hiring someone for a photoshoot. If you want to focus on that, do it.

(Another similarity to a photoshoot is that you need to pay for the actor you like, the hairstylist, and the cloth designer you like, but there is also some fun in hunting special discounts)

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Blender on the other hand could do that, but you learn that the actor does not speak the same language, and the clothing does not fit, and the actor does not know how to pose, and you need to do a lot of things before getting a descent scene. But also with Blender, you can construct everything, the house, the person, the clothing, etc. If you want to be an architect, anatomist, cloth designer, or industrial designer, do it.

I would say that as a hobby Daz is more fun. So my first recommendation would be, have fun. Make something interesting with what you have.

And start learning Blender with specific goals in mind. Blender is so vast that you can get lost in the road.