Feature length production possible with Daz3D?

dkhanchandani

Hi guys,

I was wondering whether it was feasible to produce a full-fledged feature film of 90-100 minutes (indie production) using only bought in models and props from Daz3D and other such sites.

If so, what workflow would be best? I was thinking something along the lines of Daz3D export to Blender, rig with the pitchipoy body and face rig, animate using a mix of mocap (from perception neuron/iClone) and keyframing in Blender, then render using Cycles. Does this pipeline make sense?

If the idea is not feasible, then it'd be great if someone could outline why not, i.e. what are the barriers to and/or issues with doing so? Also, are there "cost-effective" workarounds that fit within an indie budget?

Note: I'm a cinematographer and director and have very little experience with 3D packages (save for a Blender basics tutorial and some Daz3D youtube videos).

Thanks for any help you can provide with regards to the above questions.

 

DrNewcenstein

I see no reason it can't be done.

See this:

 

Using dForce for dynamic cloth (and hair to some degree), and AniLip for speech animation, Iray rendering, various scripts from mcasual, and some voice actors and mocap data, DS should be able to do quite a bit. You won't turn out Animatrix or LOTR, but depending on your skill level and the quality of items used, you should be able to do it all in DS.

fastbike1

@dkhanchandani

@DrNewcenstein "I see no reason it can't be done."

By someone who really understands all the bits of the various programs very well AND has an extremely powerful PC. 

wolf359

dkhanchandani said:

Hi guys,

I was wondering whether it was feasible to produce a full-fledged feature film of 90-100 minutes (indie production) using only bought in models and props from Daz3D and other such sites.

If so, what workflow would be best? I was thinking something along the lines of Daz3D export to Blender, rig with the pitchipoy body and face rig, animate using a mix of mocap (from perception neuron/iClone) and keyframing in Blender, then render using Cycles. Does this pipeline make sense?

If the idea is not feasible, then it'd be great if someone could outline why not, i.e. what are the barriers to and/or issues with doing so? Also, are there "cost-effective" workarounds that fit within an indie budget?

Note: I'm a cinematographer and director and have very little experience with 3D packages (save for a Blender basics tutorial and some Daz3D youtube videos).

Thanks for any help you can provide with regards to the above questions.

 

I have 49 minutes   of completed footage of my feature length movie.

rendered in maxon Cinem4D with all Daz content.

 

 

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/94651/the-official-galactus-rising-wip-thread#latest

DrNewcenstein

fastbike1 said:

@dkhanchandani

@DrNewcenstein "I see no reason it can't be done."

By someone who really understands all the bits of the various programs very well AND has an extremely powerful PC. 

Time or power, whichever you have more of. A VCA would help.

wolf359

For a feature length movie  you are better of exporting 
Daz figures& content to another more full featured application
Even Carrara would be better then attempting such a project  in Daz studio.

particularly if you plan on creating a  real movie with a full cast  and multiple enviroments
if you plan on doing  only Nudie/semi girls in an empty universe, then Daz Studio will  suffice. 

Also you must know film editing ,sound engineering,lighting
Shot framing and have a viable solution for your voice acting.
This means having knowledge of other  Disciplines outside of the 

Daz prefab, click,load & render universe

A five minute sample from my current full length film below.

DrNewcenstein

Galactus! Sweet.

Nothing wrong with click-load-render. These are base tools just lke hammers and nails and boards. Any monkey can pound a nail into a board. You have to know what you're doing to build a house. Jack White (of the White Stripes) drove two nails into a rotted 2x4 and hand-tied the ends of a guitar string around each one, and nailed a pickup to the board. Plugged it in and it made sound. Was it as good as a National Reso-phonic? No. Could he have recorded a hit song with it? By all means.

It's not the arrow, it's the Indian.

dkhanchandani

@DrNewcenstein

DrNewcenstein said:

I see no reason it can't be done.

See this:

I did see Rosa, and I thought it was great! The two issues I had with it were that, firstly, it's a very short video, under 10 minutes, and if that took a year to make (as Jesus Orellana himself says), then my feature would by that calculation take 9-10 years! Secondly, there isn't much in the way of heavy dialogue scenes, which a feature length film would inevitably have.

Now, a solution would be to have more people involved in the production process, but I'm having some serious issues with freelancers in just producting a short test, let alone the entire feature! See the parallel thread on this matter here:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/228516/freelancers-claim-issue-with-daz-character-suitability

So, given the above, it seem that a feature would be unfeasible unless I have 9-10 years or I can somehow bring in more people to help?

Using dForce for dynamic cloth (and hair to some degree), and AniLip for speech animation, Iray rendering, various scripts from mcasual, and some voice actors and mocap data, DS should be able to do quite a bit. You won't turn out Animatrix or LOTR, but depending on your skill level and the quality of items used, you should be able to do it all in DS.

Thanks for the list of plug-ins - the pipeline certainly seems useable to get a "first cut" of the animations done.

I think Rosa used Blender in addition to Daz Studio, and I am considering a general 3D package as well. Blender, Maya, maybe even Cinema4D...

Also, Rosa was the heavily "post-produced" (i.e. special effects, color correction, etc.) which gives it its unique feel, and I'm looking at the Adobe CC suite with some plug-ins for that.

Any other package/pipeline suggestions that could help?

dkhanchandani

@wolf359

For a feature length movie  you are better of exporting 
Daz figures& content to another more full featured application
Even Carrara would be better then attempting such a project  in Daz studio.

Thanks - that helps. I'm currently looking at Blender and Maya. The former because it's free, and the latter because it's an "industry standard" and since I may need some help from freelancers to complete the project, it would be good to use an industry standard. A lot of people are recommending Cinema4D as well because of easy export (DAE or something?) and because it's the "easiest to learn" 3D package out there. So my question here would be, which package do you think is most suitable?

particularly if you plan on creating a  real movie with a full cast  and multiple enviroments
if you plan on doing  only Nudie/semi girls in an empty universe, then Daz Studio will  suffice. 

The idea is based off the books I've written (and self-published on Amazon). I have quite severely cut down the production scope (going from 85 characters to just 11, also 59 environments/locations to 18, etc.). So, yes, it would be more in the "real movie with a full cast and multiple environments" category than just nudes :)  Even after the reduction in story and characters, though, it ends up being a hefty first project!

Also you must know film editing ,sound engineering,lighting
Shot framing and have a viable solution for your voice acting.
This means having knowledge of other  Disciplines outside of the 
Daz prefab, click,load & render universe

I have done cinematography and direction on small budget TV commercial stuff, so framing, lighting, editing, color correction, sound editing, voices, etc. are all the easy part for me. I can either do those myself or arrange them externally (e.g. voice actors). I'm not worried about rendering either, since I have access to a friend's 4 x 1080 Ti workstation that renders Iray scenes super-quickly (since Iray can use all four GPUs), e.g. close up of Victoria 7's face with HD materials rendered in approx. 1 min 45 seconds, and a body length shot rendered in just under 40 seconds.

One of my worries was actually with freelancers telling me that Daz3D meshes weren't good enough. See the parallel thread on this matter here:
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/228516/freelancers-claim-issue-with-daz-character-suitability

Based on your experience working on the Galactus Rising project, what would you say about the Daz3D meshes? Are they working well enough for your dialogue scenes? Are they able to emote well enough (especially in close-ups)?

Another concern with regards to a feature length production is the time and effort involved in actually getting the animations done. It seems like a massive undertaking. How long have you been working on Galactus? How many hours of your time would you estimate it takes to do 1 second of finished animation?

nonesuch00

Personally I didn't like the video. It's good technically in that he processes and edits the video to hide rendering and animation limitations which is what a good editor should do but I've seen plenty of video made by forum users that were more difficult to make and more interesting to watch. They just didn't obscur their limitations as much via editing their rendered results as much as that video.

wolf359

Hi I am on the road posting froma mobile device ..buggers!!! I shall respond at great length. This afternoon NYC Time. I do suggest. You request. The Daz mods merge your two. Similar threads...later