Why can't I apply materials to items??

fullspectrum2

Okay, I bought the Leather Jacket for Genesis. I can load the jacket just fine (even though it doesn't show up in smart content which is annoying), but I CANNOT get any of the preset materials to load onto it.

I make sure the jacket is selected in the scene

I find the materials in the content library and double click, nothing. Try dragging them onto the jacket, nothing.

I open the smart content window and go to surfaces and surprisingly in the presets they are there, double click...nothing!

I guess coming from 3ds Max I'm used to being able to apply a material to ANY object in a scene, the rules regarding materials seem so incredibly strange in Daz. I've figured out that I can apply a shader to ANY object by selecting it in the scene, going to surfaces and then going to editor. This has helped...but why can't I apply any material made for any object to any other object? Or in this case why can't I at least apply the ones actually made for the object? I am baffled.

JimmyC_2009

Is it this one : http://www.daz3d.com/leather-jacket-for-genesis

If so, see my reply on this thread : http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/43446/

The jacket is in the Content Library pane under

My DAZ 3D Library > People > Genesis > Clothing > smay

but the materials for some reason, are under

My DAZ 3D Library > People > Genesis > Materials > smay

You wont see most of the colours properly until you render, but they do work.

Herald of Fire

fullspectrum2 said:

I guess coming from 3ds Max I'm used to being able to apply a material to ANY object in a scene, the rules regarding materials seem so incredibly strange in Daz. I've figured out that I can apply a shader to ANY object by selecting it in the scene, going to surfaces and then going to editor. This has helped...but why can't I apply any material made for any object to any other object? Or in this case why can't I at least apply the ones actually made for the object? I am baffled.

In 3DS Max you generally work on one material at a time (with a handful of exceptions), while in Daz Studio you work with material presets.

A material preset tells Daz Studio which surface requires which material. Rather than it being one single material, it's often multiple materials with different settings which is why a preset will only work on the intended object. It directly references the surface names on that object, so any object with different surfaces will not be able to use that material.

One other important difference is that copying a material does not actually copy the material, but rather the material settings. This is an important distinction because it allows you to copy the settings from one material onto a different shader. But, at the same time, neither does it give you a quick way to duplicate a shader.

First, apply the base shader onto the target surface and then perform the copy and paste. This will ensure that the material settings, and the shader type, are fully preserved.