3rd party software to animate on DAZ3D?

Dartanbeck

I started trying to go the Blender route. The export/import tools are really pretty slick. I got hung up on hair. There were a bunch of other things that I'd have to work out before the renders would look even close to what I was getting from Iray and/or OctaneRender from Daz Studio.

Then I asked myself: Why are you wasting all of this time? Dart, you don't know Blender. You're far from having anything that beats what you've been doing in Carrara. Why are you doing this?

So I thought up a way to make animation in Daz Studio something that more closely resembles my experience in Carrara. What I ended up with is Much MUCH better than that, and I can bring my new method to Carrara as well, since it can read DUF files! Total Win!

crosswind

Dartanbeck said:

I started trying to go the Blender route. The export/import tools are really pretty slick. I got hung up on hair. There were a bunch of other things that I'd have to work out before the renders would look even close to what I was getting from Iray and/or OctaneRender from Daz Studio.

Then I asked myself: Why are you wasting all of this time? Dart, you don't know Blender. You're far from having anything that beats what you've been doing in Carrara. Why are you doing this?

So I thought up a way to make animation in Daz Studio something that more closely resembles my experience in Carrara. What I ended up with is Much MUCH better than that, and I can bring my new method to Carrara as well, since it can read DUF files! Total Win!

You don't need to go for Blender route as you've already built a pretty solid workflow with DS / Carrara...

But one point is -: Blender can also read DUF files, with DDI addon.

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Dartanbeck said:

...and Houdini is vastly beyond my home studio budget. Yikes! If I claimed to be a qualifying student, I'd be lying. To go that route, I'd want the full version. 

I use dForce for most cloth dynamic and Rosie and Dart's hair (and some others), and VWD Cloth & Hair for some other cloth and all of Rosie's (and others) soft-body physics. Works great!

3DS Max, Modo, Maya, Houdini... all well out of my financial reach.

You can get Houdini Indie for less than $300 per year. It's the same as the full version. You'll owe SideFX something moreonly if you make more than $100K from 3D, I think. I don't remember the amount, but it was something that represented an imminent danger :)

Gordig

Dartanbeck said:

...and Houdini is vastly beyond my home studio budget. Yikes! If I claimed to be a qualifying student, I'd be lying. To go that route, I'd want the full version. 

I use dForce for most cloth dynamic and Rosie and Dart's hair (and some others), and VWD Cloth & Hair for some other cloth and all of Rosie's (and others) soft-body physics. Works great!

3DS Max, Modo, Maya, Houdini... all well out of my financial reach.

Houdini is free to use, and "only" $269 a year (or $400 for 2 years), and Maya has a similarly affordable option available. It's not nothing, but it breaks down to about $22.50 a month.

Gordig

marble said:

But to me, that's part of the problem that I, as a hobbyist, faces. I'm just someone who tinkers with animation from time to time but so far we have had Blender, Unreal, iClone, Cascadeur and now Houdini put forward as solutions. Then there's the various bridges to take scenes or figures from DAZ Studio to 3rd Party software - if they exist and if they work for "extras" such as geografts and even clothing. I'm not a professional and I don't have the resouces of a studio nor the unlimited time to learn half-a-dozen applications just so that I can animate a character sitting down on a park bench or getting into a vehicle. Indeed, if I were such a professional I would probably do everything in one of those sophisticated applications but that's a daydream - in reality I don't have a clue what a procedural workflow even means.

If I ever get back into a tutorial-making headspace, I'll make that series of videos introducing Houdini to DS users.

Dartanbeck

crosswind said:

Dartanbeck said:

I started trying to go the Blender route. The export/import tools are really pretty slick. I got hung up on hair. There were a bunch of other things that I'd have to work out before the renders would look even close to what I was getting from Iray and/or OctaneRender from Daz Studio.

Then I asked myself: Why are you wasting all of this time? Dart, you don't know Blender. You're far from having anything that beats what you've been doing in Carrara. Why are you doing this?

So I thought up a way to make animation in Daz Studio something that more closely resembles my experience in Carrara. What I ended up with is Much MUCH better than that, and I can bring my new method to Carrara as well, since it can read DUF files! Total Win!

You don't need to go for Blender route as you've already built a pretty solid workflow with DS / Carrara...

But one point is -: Blender can also read DUF files, with DDI addon.

Perhaps... but what about my wonderful dForce Hair?!!!

Yeah... I really like my groove!  DS ROCKS!!!

marble

Gordig said:

Dartanbeck said:

...and Houdini is vastly beyond my home studio budget. Yikes! If I claimed to be a qualifying student, I'd be lying. To go that route, I'd want the full version. 

I use dForce for most cloth dynamic and Rosie and Dart's hair (and some others), and VWD Cloth & Hair for some other cloth and all of Rosie's (and others) soft-body physics. Works great!

3DS Max, Modo, Maya, Houdini... all well out of my financial reach.

Houdini is free to use, and "only" $269 a year (or $400 for 2 years), and Maya has a similarly affordable option available. It's not nothing, but it breaks down to about $22.50 a month.

Sorry, I don't follow your wording: how is it "free to use" if it costs $269 per year (actually still far too much to pay for my meagre requirements).

[EDIT] - Ok, I see. The Apprentice version is free, the Indie version is $269.

marble

Dartanbeck said:

...and Houdini is vastly beyond my home studio budget. Yikes! If I claimed to be a qualifying student, I'd be lying. To go that route, I'd want the full version. 

I use dForce for most cloth dynamic and Rosie and Dart's hair (and some others), and VWD Cloth & Hair for some other cloth and all of Rosie's (and others) soft-body physics. Works great!

3DS Max, Modo, Maya, Houdini... all well out of my financial reach.

 

I bought VWD (still have it as an installer somewhere, I think) and I liked what it could do but it kept crashing DAZ Studio for me. I spent several hours with the developers on the Rendo forum (and privately) but we couldn't  figure out why it was constantly crashing. DAZ needs a soft-body solution too but if they do it themselves we will end up swith something akin to dForce which is painfully slow.

crosswind

marble said:

Dartanbeck said:

...and Houdini is vastly beyond my home studio budget. Yikes! If I claimed to be a qualifying student, I'd be lying. To go that route, I'd want the full version. 

I use dForce for most cloth dynamic and Rosie and Dart's hair (and some others), and VWD Cloth & Hair for some other cloth and all of Rosie's (and others) soft-body physics. Works great!

3DS Max, Modo, Maya, Houdini... all well out of my financial reach.

 

I bought VWD (still have it as an installer somewhere, I think) and I liked what it could do but it kept crashing DAZ Studio for me. I spent several hours with the developers on the Rendo forum (and privately) but we couldn't  figure out why it was constantly crashing. DAZ needs a soft-body solution too but if they do it themselves we will end up swith something akin to dForce which is painfully slow.

Same to me... I bought it years ago and DS always crashed with running it... Then this product discontinued. I gave it up...

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Gordig said:

marble said:

But to me, that's part of the problem that I, as a hobbyist, faces. I'm just someone who tinkers with animation from time to time but so far we have had Blender, Unreal, iClone, Cascadeur and now Houdini put forward as solutions. Then there's the various bridges to take scenes or figures from DAZ Studio to 3rd Party software - if they exist and if they work for "extras" such as geografts and even clothing. I'm not a professional and I don't have the resouces of a studio nor the unlimited time to learn half-a-dozen applications just so that I can animate a character sitting down on a park bench or getting into a vehicle. Indeed, if I were such a professional I would probably do everything in one of those sophisticated applications but that's a daydream - in reality I don't have a clue what a procedural workflow even means.

If I ever get back into a tutorial-making headspace, I'll make that series of videos introducing Houdini to DS users.

And I'll be the first person to watch it! I need all the Houdini help I can get. :)

Dartanbeck

I hope that VWD hangs in there a little longer for me - like... forever?

It already doen't work with the latest RTX drivers - so I have to use CPU.

Here's some Wonderful 3rd Party Software for Studio - Win Only though: PoseRecorder!

Wonderful job of capturing performance of the face - Amazing! Here's the result of the real Rosie breathing in before delivering her line. Anxiously awaiting the rendered result so I can add the sound and see how it looks! :)