Freelancers claim issue with Daz character suitability
dkhanchandani
Posts: 6
Hello there,
I am a director looking to create an animated short using Daz3D character, prop, and environment models, some other ready-made and library prop models, and freelance animators. My target is a more "realistic" style (like Final Fantasy, only much, much lower budget and using stock assets).
I have no 3D package experience myself (except for having done a basic tutorial on Blender and watched some Daz3D videos on YouTube).
A number of freelancers I've approached (who are using packages ranging from Maya to Cinema4D to Blender) have suggested that I have characters created from scratch instead of working with Daz3D characters. Their reasons are varied and range from:
- "These characters' mesh flow isn't quite right for rigging and animation"
- "The facial characterization is not good enough for production. We won't be able to emote them well."
- "It'll take as long or maybe even longer to customize Daz3D characters as create our own from scratch."
I'm having a hard time believing these comments because from what I can see:
- The character models are quite high poly, and if IK rigging is done right I don't see why it should be a problem animating with them.
- The faces seem good enough for an animated short - more than enough polys to use something like Blender's pitchipoy facial rig or even just exporting blendshapes and using those (with the tons and tons of face "poses" available as morphs in the Daz shop).
- I don't see how creating complex humanoid characters from scratch would be easier than having a solid base character from Daz and then doing the required scars, skin tone, etc. using customized materials, textures, skin shaders, sub-surf scattering, etc.
Again, like I said, I don't really have much 3D modelling/animating experience, so if anyone can shed light on the freelancer comments above and explain to me where they're coming from, I'd be very grateful.
Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on the above and any helpful advice you can provide.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Cork-sniffers. In the guitar world, we call these screw-counting freaks (relating to the number of screws in Fender pickguards through the years). In the art world, these are the traditional analog medium snobs who think if it isn't organic it's not real. They also think you just click a few buttons and turn out masterpieces. Put them to the test, however, and they n00b it up.
Most people avoid them and their holier-than-thou attitudes.
Did these people build their own computers? Not just slap the parts together, but assemble the components, like transistors and capacitors. Did they hand-mill the cases? Did they code the OS and software themselves? No. Because these are tools to do a job.
Daz provides tools to do a job that are basic humanoid figures. The artist makes them into characters. The writer and mocap actor gives them character, just like any other self-made/custom-made 3D actor.
I'm guessing they would prefer for you to pay them to create a custom character... which they will probably build from existing meshes they already have.
The only one of those reasons they gave you that I agree with is:
- "The facial characterization is not good enough for production. We won't be able to emote them well."* (* for some expressions)
So if they have (a) production ready template(s) that they can alter for you personally cheaply and that emotes well ask them. Otherwise the costs for you to hire them will be stratospheric; well on a budget that the typical 3D hobbyist has, stratospheric.
They might have reasons other than what they are telling you why they don't want to use DAZ:
1) They likely have a non-DAZ library of templates of their own, including animation templates they can re-target, that they'd use if you hired them.
2) They don't know DAZ or own any DAZ products.
3) They will have to buy the DAZ products needed to do the work you hired them to do because you aren't allowed by the EULA to export your DAZ products and let them use them to do the work you want done.
4) They look down on using commodity 3D art work to do their work.
Otherwise DAZ is good enough and tell them so.
Yep, that sounds about right.
They claim to have their own specific "modelling and rigging pipelines" and they cannot work outside of the process they've developed. I find that hard to believe, though, since Daz3D models export directly to Maya (using the new plugin), Blender (using mcj scripts), and others via FBX, OBJ, etc. I'd like to know what pipelines they have that cannot use these files!
The thing I find most hard to believe is their claim that it would cost just as much to use a Daz3D character which has a mesh and textures that are already 80-90% there as it would to build something from scratch. That part makes no sense to me.
If they already have meshes, like Daz meshes but their own, does it save them time in rigging or something? Because I was under the impression that if they modify a mesh they have (in Maya for example), they'd have to re-rig it anyway, right? In which case why not just use the Daz mesh?
Sorry if this is a silly question (I'm a real noob) - by production ready template for emoting, you mean a generic mesh they would have with blendshapes already built in? In which case, you're right, I can definitely believe that as a reason for them not to use Daz, i.e. they already have a pipeline in place which includes not just the character creation but also blendshape names and characteristics that their animators are familiar with, and learning Daz blendshape (morphs) would take longer, adding time and cost.
They might have reasons other than what they are telling you why they don't want to use DAZ:
But can these animation templates be applied to Daz? I believe the bones/joints re-targeting would need to be done just once or twice, e.g. from their existing rig to the Genesis 3 and Genesis 8 rigs, and their library should be useable.
All of these are great points and I will most certainly be bringing these to the freelancers' attention! Thank you so much!
you probably get what you pay for as far as that goes
Max, Maya, C4D animators would source jobs through CGsociety and Polycount etc
DAZ studio users etc on this forum most likely except there is no dedicated job forum
you could try listing the job in art studio maybe some may have a portfolio of work that meets your needs
I am not in the 3D modeling business but I think they would have, with enough freelancing & experience not 2 models fit all like DAZ does with G8M & G8F but maybe a couple of dozen models fit all & then when they get a request for a bespoke character they are good & fast enough with z-brush to make your character.
They have auto-rigging tools now and various standardized rigs they use too.
Also, I bet some of them have built a pipeline around using Blender or similar, MakeHuman, maybe FaceGen Modeler, and bespoke sculpting with zBrush given time is money.
You should ask these freelancers the pipeline they use and tell us, out of our hobbyists curiosity.
I once paid $200 for a zbrush sculpt and it was done amazingly fast and high quality. It was too high poly and the expression too engrained to retopo it, say for use in DAZ Studio, but the highly realistic & bespoke expressions they are quickly able to sculpt in zBrush are what they mean by DAZ 3D model's limited expressiveness compared to their work I think. You should ask for visual examples of such facial expressiveness in their work.
Hi
On the matter of the freelancers reluctance to involve in a collaborative
project using Daz assets:
First Do not be so quick to dismiss it as pure "snobbery/cork sniffing" as some have suggested.
If people already have an established pipeline it does not really matter if Daz can export to /obj/FBX etc.
On a Film production every animator will have to have their own licensed copy of every Daz figure/prop/texture/morphs
used in the project.. who pays these costs?
Also they will all have to install Daz studio and learn its
somewhat unconventional content management system.
Now assuming you find all Blender users or all Maya or C4D users
and you want speaking/emoting genesis figures rendered in those applications.
who will Pay to ensure they ALL use the exact same transfer / face riggin/joint control morph implementation
for a constant production value over the length of the project.
You admit to being a "noob"
Lovely mate... how exactly will a "noob"manage/Direct experienced
people who will depend on you to make decisions about how to preceed
in highly technical application specific areas
(Cloth solving ,Environmental lighting, rendering with Cycles or Arnold or Redshift ??)
Well that is why studios hire "TD's" or technical directors.
Do have an Actual $$$budget$$ for all of this??
It's not unreasonable to assume that such content creators would have a library of base figures that they can customize quickly to suit a client's needs, rather than building each one from the ground up. I mean, Humans are pretty much all bi-pedal and walk relatively upright, have a front and back, and relatively the same facial structure (2 eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc), so turning a generic blob guy into Bruce Willis or Bruce Dern or what used to be Bruce Jenner should be a quick task for them.
However, as Wolf said, each person involved will have to have their own copy of DS and each figure.
I misread your initial post, I thought you were merely discussing it with colleagues who use Maya and such, not specifically requesting their services. That's a whole 'nother ball o' wax.
Basically you're trying to get brain surgeons to work with chainsaws.
You're either going to have to enlist their services or enlist the services of the 3 or 4 people on the planet who actually can do all that in DS, and they have to have all the same content (or at least good enough skills to make V4 look like G8).
We don't have enough information to comment on their statements.
I will say though, that they will have assets ready in some form (if they are serious about it) that they can alter per the customer's requirements; generally they will fit their personal requirements, skills, experience and preferred workflow.
For those you spoke to, they didn't use Daz's figures; that is not true of all, as Daz's figures are used commercially.