DAZ Studio is a free 3D design application - but it probably doesn't do what you think it does. Most 3D design software focuses on modeling objects. DAZ Studio's sister program, commercial Carrara, is a more traditional modeler. SketchUp is great for modeling buildings, Sculptris is for sculpting organic shapes, Silo is for general modeling... and DAZ Studio isn't really for modeling at all. With its heavy emphasis on posing and morphing, using DAZ Studio is almost like playing with dolls or action figures - you take ready-made, beautiful models, and just assemble and pose them to the scene of your dreams, a bit like what you can do with the Poser 3D character design application. See all: Software Downloads.
3D design software is notoriously complex, and DAZ Studio goes out of its way to be beginner-friendly. It uses interface presets that toggle parts of the application to suit the user's expertise. The beginner-friendly layout, Hollywood Blvd, uses large panes with lots of thumbnails and a clear, step-by-step workflow to take you from concept to render. The advanced layout, City Limits, collapses the panes by default and reveals the myriad toolbar buttons that inevitably come with 3D design.
What DAZ Studio lacks in modeling tools it makes up for in detailed models and morph controls. The most impressive model included is called Genesis. This is a human model with impressively detailed built-in morphs. When you just put it into the scene, it looks a bit like a featureless, androgynous mannequin. Want it to be a man? Just move a slider, and the anatomy morphs to a more masculine build. Should it be thin? Move another slider, and the whole body subtly loses fat. If you want it to be a body-builder, you can move yet another slider and watch as muscles appear and make for an impressively defined physique.
Genesis also comes with built-in poses, so it's easy to make your character sit or stand. For finer-grained control, you can use DAZ Studio's posing tools. Genesis and other models use inverse kinematics, which means that they have a virtual bone structure that moves in natural ways. If you pull a figure's hand forward, its arm will follow. Pull some more, and the figure will bend its back in a believable fashion. The same sort of control also extends to facial muscles--you can make your Genesis figure lift the outer part of its left eyebrow by moving a slider.
The only problem I've had with posing in DAZ Studio is that it is all too easy to push a character's arm into the floor, or into itself. In other words, when you push a surface against another surface, they intersect rather than collide. This makes it difficult to make your Genesis figure sit astride a lion in a believable way.
Clothing is another important aspect of DAZ Studio: You can dress characters up, and the clothes will automatically morph to fit the character's body shape and current position. Some clothes may not automatically adapt to morphs well enough, resulting in a phenomenon called "poke-through," which means you can see the character's skin poking through the cloth in strange ways. When this happens, DAZ Studio allows you to tweak clothes until they conform well.
For DAZ Studio to work well, it needs detailed models. You can get these from the DAZ online store, which features anything from people and animals, to vehicles, clothes, and environments. Right now, you can access the store using a Web browser, but DAZ Studio 4.5 Beta shows that the groundwork is being laid for accessing your DAZ account from within the application itself. This part isn't ready yet, so I couldn't test it.
Comments
3D Comic Artist said: When considering using DAZ Studio DS the first thing that any 3D artist will probably do is compare it to Poser DAZ Studios rival Both applications do almost the same thing but in different ways one more effective than the other The first thing one will notice about DS is that it is free which in itself is very very cool but dont be too tempted While DS might be free none of the useful content is Plus even though it might be free it doesnt mean it is a good package Opinions about this vary greatly but my personal opinion is that DS lacks majorly in the user-friendliness department plus a lot of what it offers is potentially great but kindof useless because of the lack of output modules The reason IMO is that DAZ is trying too hard and too fast to be really cool and as a result its very confusing A simple comparison would be the end result renders Renders is what both Poser and DS ultimately product thats what you buy it for You can use them for character setup but that is quite a nightmare in both of them But comparatively it is easier to make an awesome render in Poser than in DS It would involve much less steps in Poser especially since their Render engine is in-built and Posers UI hasnt changed for years and is still divided into simple main categories DS is all over the place and very confusing And with each DS version many things change Many DS users have protested against the new designThe other thing is the library navigation a user would already need to know a lot about the Runtime structure to use it effectively in DS In Poser it has been categorized for you and all categories remember your last location You need no more than thatOne thing I noticed when learning DS that made it obvious to me that is was badly designed is the fact that it comes with a pile of tutorials and you NEED to look at them or youll get lost I remember when I bought Poser for the first time I never needed to check the manual let alone a tutorial Within ten minutes I had a really nice render going In DS this is comparatively impossible primarily because the inbuilt renderer is no different than the preview rendering Youll need to download or buy an external renderer and add several more steps to your workflow not something youll want when you have to make 100s of renders But even then it doesnt guarantee nice results I have seen renders by professional 3D Artists that use DAZ external renderers and they just look like crap sorryGenesis is about the only good thing DS has to offer plus a few hundred obscure modules that can potentially do really cool things But before you get there youre several years older Genesis itself is rather overrated as youre limited to the Genesis configurations plus its yet another thing to learn that doesnt make things significantly flexible something you can easily get done with zBrush and GoZ unless youre into goblins and monsters I doubt that Id ever use a cross between Anubis and a human in my comics but some people seem to like that If you really wanna get serious youd make your own custom figure anyway and Genesis is rather pointless Plus DAZs seemingly permanent shift to Genesis figures is a very stupid move IMO effectively blocking out manageability of other popular figure types like V4 The argument sometimes goes that we have to move on but Genesis is not moving on its just a new figure like always Im sorry but has anyone seen the latest Homo Sapiens Human v20 No well thats because it doesnt exist Humans havent changed in well over a 100000 years and still DAZ seems to come out with a new human every two years why How about some improvements in these humans More detailed facial expressions facial controls detailed anatomies skin dynamics muscle movement hair control you know useful stuff instead of an extra arm a freakishly over-trained chest or a longer snout Some of these thing DAZ has already developed but its anything but standard and just try to apply it to a V4 and then save her the library This is about the only positive thing about DS I can say but theyre kindof obsure especially for a beginner 3D Comic Artist