Blender to DAZ tutorial
gaumaugher
Posts: 27
I am very new to DAZ3D but have done some homework on finding suitable prop creation software. Blender seems to fit the bill as it is very similar to what I used for aircraft creation for MS Flight Simulator. Whiles using Blender is well documented, exporting objects to DS 4.6 does not seem to be. It seems everyone has found out how to do these simple things but I haven't. Can someone guide me to a tutorial which explains how to export a textured object, lets say a table, created in blender and successfully import it into DS 4.6. A mention of pitfalls might be nice also.
I am using Windows 7, DS 4.6, and Blender 2.68a.
Thanks for helping the new guy.
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It will depend on how you textured the object in Blender. If you didn't UV map the object and just used a procedural texture you will need to map it and bake the procedural texture to an actual texture map first.
I plan to use UV mapping. So assuming I have a UV textured mapped object in blender, what are the steps to creating a set of files that will import into DS?I have the information on blender. I haven't found a step by step on how to create an export package from blender and how to import those files into DS and have them work. That is the tutorial I am looking for.
In Blender, export .obj & .mtl floes
In DAZ Studio, Import wavefront .obj
Well hi there! I'm always glad to hear from fellow Blender users getting into DS!
First of all, whenever I say My Library, assume I mean "wherever your DS data, People, Vehicles and Props files are actually installed."
Setup steps:
1. Make sure you have at least one material zone created; DS cannot read objs that don't. Double-check directions of normals (they need to be pointed outward).
2. Import a character into Blender for scale and rescale your object relative to it. You can export a copy of Genesis, M4, V4, etc. from DS using file--export--wavefront obj and using Poser scale (not Blender scale, which will defeat the purpose). Necessary because Blender's scale is factors of 10 larger and your object can import vanished off the screen upward.
3. Save your textures, bump maps, etc. externally to .jpg format. The shader won't transfer, so there's no point in worrying about that. They need to be somewhere in your My Library--Runtime--textures for DS (or Content--runtime--textures, etc., depending when you installed DS and how) to easily find them; convention is under your name/product name below that. Remember that in DS gray values are zero, white is positive and black is negative when it comes to your bump and displacement maps.
4. Use Blender's .obj export. If you want to create a .pp2 prop (which can be used in Poser as well), you will need to create a Runtime/geometries/yourname/yourproduct folder. If not, it doesn't matter where you export, because the final item in .duf format will have geometry packed and will not use the .obj.
These are the export settings I use, and have saved as a preset:
Checked:
Selection Only
Include Edges
Include UVs
Write materials (you won't use the mtl as such but DS can't read the mat zones otherwise)
Polygroups
Keep Vertex Order
Scale 1.0
All else unchecked/unchanged. Some of these may not matter; the selection only, polygroups, scale and materials definitely do in my experience.
5. Import into DS using file--import--wavefront/obj. Navigate to the location of your exported file and import it. It may or may not look as if it has your textures on it, but you still need to go to the Surfaces tab and reassign them to the paths in Runtime/textures to make sure it's the right setup. You will probably need to do some fiddling with settings to recreate a good surface shader, but that's a much longer subject than I can handle here.
6. Now decide, .pp2 or .duf? Entirely up to you. If you have no concerns about supporting Poser users, just save to .duf with file--save as--scene assets--figure/prop asset. Put in your screen name and the product name where prompted. This determines the location of your data files in DS's setup - if you put in vendor name Me, Product name Plane, and item name Plane01, then plane01's data files will be located in My Library/data/Me/Plane/Plane01. This will prompt you to choose where to save the main library files; My Library/Vehicles/YourName/YourProduct is convention for planes, cars, boats, etc.
If you choose to save to .pp2, you'll need this script: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=127437&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Double-clicking the script preset in your Scripts folder in the content library (from the DS interface) script lets you choose where to put the files. The geometry should go in runtime/geometries/yourname/yourproduct. Convention for pp2 props is that they go in My Library/Runtime/libraries/props/yourname/yourproduct. Texture locations will not change.
And now you have saved presets!
To save materials, create a subfolder in the folder of your main product's .duf entry called Materials. When you can see this in the content library (you may need to right-click and refresh folders on the main one to see it), click the plus sign at the bottom of your content library interface and choose Material to save your shaders and texture paths (basically your Surfaces tab settings).
Saving poser materials from DS is problematic and is best done from Poser if you end up wanting to support that program.
I like to thank SickleYield for stepping in so I didn't have to over work my poor little brain. A few points. DAZ Studio scale is based on one Studio unit = 1 centimeter. Blender scale is generally accepted as one Blender unit = 1 meter. When exporting a project based solely on Blender scale to Studio Studio's import scale should be 1000%. Studio does not need the mtl file to read an objects material zone since they are also defined in the object file. And lastly, leaving edges and vertices that are not connect to faces is bad modeling practice. Select in Edit mode has option to find stray edges and verts so they can be cleaned up (deleted), the Include Edges should not need to be checked.
You're welcome!
Always checking for loose verts is a good practice. That's good to know about that setting.
Scale use is a matter of preference, and I should've clarified that. I import and export at Poser scale on every project, because that's what I've got used to. This means I have to scale up 10x to do cloth simulation because Blender can't handle the collision at tiny sizes, but eh, I'm used to that, too.
Thanks for all the help. Unfortunately I was slammed yesterday and had no time to attempt any of this. Maybe tonight I will be able to finish texturing my test object and trying an export/import to see if I have it right. So far I really like Blender but like all good 3D CAD systems, it has a steep learning curve on the operator interface. The concepts are all identical to what I have been doing but the terminology, menus, dependencies, etc. all take time to learn. Hopefully tonight I will take another bite of elephant.
I should have been clearer on the DS (DAZ Studio) Blender scale issue. The import and export Blender Scale settings in Studio are wrong. The import scale should be 1000% not 5000% and the Y axis and Z axis should not be swapped. Conversely export scale should be 10% not 2% and again do not swap Y and Z Axis.
I am confused on one point concerning scale. Is it better to develop the props in Blender that match with DS objects (import a DS figure into Blender and build to match) or make the object in blender scale and adjust the scale at import? Or does it matter? I want to do it the best way right from the start rather than having to change after I created a stack of items.
If you're building props meant to be shown with people (with seats, or other directly interactive areas or objects) then you should always import and build to match. This is my practice. On the other hand, I don't do a lot of vehicles or large props (mostly clothes, smartprops, and figure utilities, which are directly interactive with Genesis and G2F).
If you're building to make mostly character-less scenes, it doesn't matter.
Working with correct scale in blender and importing with one of the preset I mentioned above will work, and if working with real scale is your habit then it will be easier doing so. You can also rescale in DS afterwards that's up to you and which method suits you most. If you need to adjust the prop position relative to a DS character I'd advise to import a figure in Blender to do that.
Thanks for all the information. I did my first import and it worked. I do have a few hundred questions but I will figure it out in time. For now I have two issues.
I don't see how to do this step. After clicking on the surfaces tab with the object selected I didn't see anywhere to reassign the textures to my path. Where/how is this done?
The second question is that this process brings the object into my DS scene but I want to keep this object for future use. How do I make this prop show up in my content for reuse?
I don't see how to do this step. After clicking on the surfaces tab with the object selected I didn't see anywhere to reassign the textures to my path. Where/how is this done?
The second question is that this process brings the object into my DS scene but I want to keep this object for future use. How do I make this prop show up in my content for reuse?
First question:
Make sure you have the "editor" tab selected in Surfaces.
On the left you should see a list of materials comprising those you set up in Blender.
Clicking on a single material lets you edit that material's textures.
On the right you wil see Diffuse Color, Diffuse Strength, Bump Strength, etc. - these are what you want. Clicking on the small downward-pointing arrow next to one lets you navigate to the location of a .jpg texture to add it in that channel. The colored bar with three numbers in it is the shader's color assigned to that channel (it's probably gray depending on how much you tried to do with the materials in Blender). Clicking in the bar starts a popup that lets you change the main color in that channel (separate from the map).
Second question: Don't make me retype step 6, I already did it in detail in my original post. :p
Ok, I'm really confused. As a test case I created a triangle in Blender. Simplest possible object, right? Export to .obj, import in Daz. So far so good. But I cannot move the triangle in the Y dimension. If I try Y-translating it, it does not move; if I rotate around either the X or Z axes, it disappears. I can translate in X and Z, and I can rotate around Y. What am I doing wrong?
Edit to add: Ok, I should have poked at it a bit more. If I don't exchange the Y and Z axes on import, it works as I expect - rotatable and translatable in all three dimensions. Still don't understand why that should make a difference, but anyway it works now.
Thanks SickleYield. Everything works fine. Sorry about doing the tyoical engineer thing and reading the first half of the sentense of #6 and getting distracted elsewhere.
An additional note: I use the blended default for the input scale an it worked perfectly (1 unit = 50 cm). at that point my 1 meter cube came out looking exactly right size in DS. Thanks again for great help for the new guy.
Takeo.Kensei fortunately caught my math error. Gaumaugher, I believe you are making the same mistake that the DAZ employee that came up with the Blender Scale settings made. The default size of the cube in Blender is 2x2x2 not 1x1x1 Blender units thus throwing off an accurate one to one comparison.
Anyway, I'm glad you were able to find results that work for you. :-)
I caught my mistake also, the scale is 10,000, but kept forgetting to get back her to update this. I didn't want to lead others astray. Now to post my next problem. Thanks for the help.
i hate to hijack a thread or resurrect one that is done, but does anyone know a tutorial on using blender to create pose-able props and models into daz. I want to do cloths and props that can be manipulated in daz, and no tutorial i have found can tell me how to do so. thanks
Blender is the Mesh modeler, once you have the Mesh done you RIG (bone) in DAZ Studio. All the rigging tools are built in. There are Tutorials for sale on the Rigging in DAZ Studio in the DAZ Store.
http://www.daz3d.com/rigging-original-figures-in-ds4-pro
http://www.daz3d.com/advanced-rigging-in-daz-studio-4-pro
http://sickleyield.deviantart.com/journal/Tutorial-G1G2-Clothing-in-Blender-1-428585748
http://sickleyield.deviantart.com/journal/Tutorial-Creating-A-Smartprop-With-DS4-5-Pro-367622372
Even better... LOL. Adding to my Help links...
Correction here : correct scale import is 10000% and export scale is 1%. It correspond to Modo, Lightwave, C4D and Mirai presets which have the correct orientation too. Using one of these presets on import and export will always ensure good scaling and orientation
I haven't had too much trouble importing at 10000%, but I have to question jestmart's comment "and the Y axis and Z axis should not be swapped".
Every time I've forgotten to switch those when importing something from Blender, it winds up lying on it's side (or back if it's clothing), rather than standing straight up, as intended. Is there a magical setting when exporting from Blender that would nullify the need to do that when importing into DS (and I assume Poser)?
I haven't had too much trouble importing at 10000%, but I have to question jestmart's comment "and the Y axis and Z axis should not be swapped".
Every time I've forgotten to switch those when importing something from Blender, it winds up lying on it's side (or back if it's clothing), rather than standing straight up, as intended. Is there a magical setting when exporting from Blender that would nullify the need to do that when importing into DS (and I assume Poser)?
I use a method I call "using the Poser Preset instead and never, ever touching manual scaling or rotation numbers".
It is properly rotated and, while it is very small compared to Blender's grid, that's not unacceptable.
I haven't had too much trouble importing at 10000%, but I have to question jestmart's comment "and the Y axis and Z axis should not be swapped".
Every time I've forgotten to switch those when importing something from Blender, it winds up lying on it's side (or back if it's clothing), rather than standing straight up, as intended. Is there a magical setting when exporting from Blender that would nullify the need to do that when importing into DS (and I assume Poser)?
I use a method I call "using the Poser Preset instead and never, ever touching manual scaling or rotation numbers".
It is properly rotated and, while it is very small compared to Blender's grid, that's not unacceptable.
AHA!! Thanks SY, that's helpful. I've never considered using one of the other presets (such as Poser) when importing from Blender. I'll have to make a note, and I'll definitely try it next time. :coolsmile:
Poser preset ofcourse work, and I know many beteran user recommend the preset.
Then , I prefer C4D , Mirai presets which keep Axis correctly for blender as same as poser preset,
but with 10000 % scale. when import.as takeo mentioned already.
Because, when I check grids in blender ,,
exporting obj from daz as 1% scale, importing obj from blender as 10000% scale.
seems best fit for blender grids .(as default)
And If I use this setting, with metric option in data property panel ,
in blender, it show correct size of obj ,edge, face etc, as same as daz studio scale.
it is very useful, when make obj in blender for daz studio I think.
Of couse every user may decide their favorite preset, (or custom) which is best comfortable for us
I know.:)
Hi.
I made a prop in Blender, then exported as obj with all that boxes checked, as you said before. I import that to Daz, and everything is ok, but the UV, that is missing.
Thanks
You created a UV in Blender?