How 'easy' is it to create for Daz 3D?
steve23eris_570cfb27fa
Posts: 22
Hi all,
I'm sorry if this comes up a lot, or is a daft question, but I would love to be able to create stuff in DAZ and have looked at buying some tutorials, but I can't help thinking that if it was that easy, everyone would do it ! I'm not much of an artist, so imagine that would be a hurdle for starters (arty types tend to understand colour and light so much more etc). Tech wise I can usualy learn whatever I set out to and I have a lot of spare time, but as said, I still imagine this will be beyond me - any thoughts appreciated :-)
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Welcome to the forum!
Define "create"... are you referring to "creating 2 D images" or to "creating 3D content"?
The latter is not possible in DAZ Studio; you'd need a modelling program like Hexagon, Blender, Carrara...
The first... there are some built-in tutorials in DAZ Studio that guide you through the first steps. Also, there are free video tutorials, which give you a good first impression. http://www.daz3d.com/help/help-daz-3d-video-tutorials
The rest, it's building up on what you learned in th ose beginners tutorials, and experiment a lot. In the beginning, it's extremely overwhelming, and frustrating, and you just can't seem to get it right. Then you get the OMG! That's Hhow it works! type of experiences, and make baby steps. Me, Im learning for three years now, and are still at the "baby steps". At least, thats how it feels, especially when look at what others do.
Ask questions if you don't understand something. Check out the threads here in the forum - there's always something new to learn. Experiment. Participate in the New User contests - you will get first hand help on your images, and they go through various topics. Don't feel ashamed about your image "not being good", the user contests are meant to build up your skills. They really help. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/categories/new-user-contests-and-events
Hi and thanks for the reply,
I mean create 3d stuff (im aware - in a vague way - that i need other stuff for this like Hexagon)
And yes, certainly learning a lot off the forums :-)
Well... you first need to understand (at least the basics) of modelling in whatever modelling software you use (blender is free, and has many free tutorials, but the UI is somewhat of a learning nightmare)...
Once you have mastered the software, and modelled things, you need to learn how to texture them. If you want to use them in DAZ Studio, they need to be exportet there and the surface has to be fuine tuned for either Iray, or 3Delight. If you have something with moving parts, the moving parts need to be rigged, and weight painted. You have to create Metadata so smart content will find things.
Those are the things you need to master. It will need a lot of learning, and a lot of time investment.
Making 3D contents takes time, and patience. You need a modeller, there are free ones and bought ones, some more expensive than others. Loads of tutorials out there, lots free, but old, and many in stores to buy. I would recommend Fugazi's Digital Tailor as a starting point. He mainly makes things for Poser and uses Silo, but the basics are the same which ever modeller you use, and rigging for Daz can be found in other tutorials in the Daz Store.
Once you start to learn you must just keep practising until you have an item that your customers (paying or free) will want.
Took me a couple of years before I was confident enough to put my free items on the web.
Hope this helps.
If you are serious about 3D modeling start with Blender and then DAZ/Hexagon will seem to be mostly the same thing with different approach and different UI to do the same thing you taught yourself in Blender.
a) Down Load Blender: https://www.blender.org/
b) Set as desktop background or print Blender Keyboard Shortcuts (see attachment)
c) Do Blender Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/DarrinLile
d) Do DAZ Studio Tutorials (not near as comprehensive but good for what is taught): https://www.youtube.com/user/WWWDAZ3DCOM/playlists?sort=dd&view=1&shelf_id=0
e) For the DAZ Tutorial only the first 3 in the first row are somewhat recent (DAZ 101 / IRAY / Animating in DAZ Studio)
Thanks for that - had a good look at Blender and it looks interesting ! Bit daunting to think that I have to learn that before I approach Daz though.
I shall investigate further :-)
Well if you are looking to create a product with a minimal learning curve to make money than creating Pose Sets for DAZ characters would let you avoid that. You could also teach yourself how to make iRay (MDL) shader presets.
Going through and doing those tutorial is 6 months at most and that's including even if you repeat some of the tutorial but they will bring you fast and far for you to decided what you want to do in DAZ Studio. You may decide you like Blender and stick with Blender.
Don't feel bad about repeating/hunting down tutorials for Blender...several of the tutorial producers admit that they have to hunt down things/watch other tutorials.
Hi, yes nonesuch00 I did think about doing pose sets, they look simple enough (bet that remark will bite me later !) but then if they are, why are we no awash with pose sets for sale ?
There is a lot of stuff that I want that does not seem out there - clothing items, poses etc, which on the one hand made me start thinking as to can i make my own, but on the other makes me think it must be quite hard, otherwise everything would be done and I would be able to buy all the stuff I need already :-)
Hexagon is free with purchase of one of the new releases today, by the way.
Thanks for that info Bee, just picked it up for free (with some hair) and can at least have a play with it - cheers :-)
Both Hexagon and Carrara are produced and sold by Daz 3D, and have active forums here (scroll down the forums list a little. Have a look around and see what's going on. Hexagon is argualby the more feature-rich modeller, whicle Carrara is arguably a better all-rounder. Carrara can create everything, from landscapes to oceans to trees, plants, volumetric clouds and atmospherics, soft body & bullet physics, polygon modelling, spline modelling, metaballs, and on and on. It natively handles Poser content and Studio content with support for Genesis and Genesis 2 (not 3 yet, although you can import the figures as static mesh). Hex and Carrara have similar interfaces (at least, compared to Blender), so switching between them is not a huge deal.
Carrara is pretty much never free (not that I've seen anyhow), but with a PC+ Club discount it can often be had for a few tens of dollars. Go for the Pro version - it's 64-bit and comes with a ton of extras including V5 and M5 Pro bundles.
There are PAs using both programs to produce content for the store.
BTW, a word of warning: pose sets have the reputation of being notoriously difficult to sell (to the Daz product selection team, I mean), perticularly for a new guy. I don't make poses, so I'm not trying to beat down competition or anything like that, it's just what I hear. If you think you have something killer that's going to wow them, then go for it. You don't really need a separate modeller to make poses.
And again, if you think you've spotted a market that isn't being tapped, go for it.
My best recommendation initially is, pick a program and start to make some stuff. Don't worry about getting it into the store, just make it the best you can and (a) see how easy/hard it is, and (b) see how well it comes out. Both the Hex and Carrara forums are full of helpful people who can get you unstuck as and when.
The Carrara forum also runs monthly challenges to try and improve skills. It involves a bit of modelling, a bit of scene design, shader work and some imagination (all skills you'll need as a PA). There's a newcomer prize too!
Most of all, get stuck in and enjoy yourself.
Short answer, not very. But it's doable. Persistence and a willingness to keep learning are the only two virtues, surpassing inherent talent or experience. Talent is a great starting point; experience may help you go faster; but without persistence and willingness to constantly learn new things you will give up and not accomplish much over time.
Based on my own experiences, I would rank content creation in terms of difficulty, lowest to highest, as:
simple morphs>
complicated morphs>
full characters with textures from merchant resources>
props without moving parts>
props with moving parts>
skintight clothes>
clothes with any kind of coat/skirt/kilt>
full characters with textures composited from photos/brushes
I don't include scripting/programming on this list because I've never successfully done a product with it, so my inclination is to rank it on the top end. I would tentatively put hair before or after skirted clothes (same reason), but someone who has done both would have to chime in on that (I've never published a hair).