Daz 2.1 is Out!

When you run this it will prompt you for an uninstall of previous version(s) and may not remove all necessary file(s). I ran into an 'Error copying file' message with.pzs files, easily remedied by going to

C:/Program Files/DAZ/Studio/content/Runtime/WebLinks/DAZ Productions, Inc

and simply removing (deleting) the erroneous .pzs files in there.

ok, what is Daz and why do we care?

Well, a quick search would answer that easily, especially as this is the Animation Tips forum and it has been discussed quite a bit over the years, but here's the quick answer : DAZ|Studio is a free program that can very easily allow you to make animations for Second Life. It can use the same figure for SL animations as you would use in Poser, and in fact can use most Poser content.

It also has a much better user interface (in my opinion, at least) than Poser, with a smaller learning curve. While it's arguably not as powerful, it is for many people just getting into animations going to be much more productive much sooner than Poser.

For anyone still using QAvimator (a decent enough program in it's own right, but very limited) or the like, I would heartily recommend DAZ. If you are already a Poser pro, I doubt you'd be interested.

.

judging some of the Poser pros anims i have seen in game i would still highly recomend DAZ

Thanks Robby. I checked out the link, but from the first page it's not at all clear what the tool does, or even whether by "animation" it means a poser-type animation versus an animated graphic like a cartoon. Of course, it's not easy to capture what a multipurpose tool does in a short paragraph!

I'm still using Qavimator, so I'll check it out, as well as another program I saw mentioned here.

Has anyone used the new version and can recommend whether it is an improvement? I'm still using one from several versions back, that required a 3rd party plugin to produce proper SL bvh files. But I'm always worried that I'll swap something that works for me for something that will require a big effort to debug.

Galena, I haven't tried the new version yet myself, and am still using version 1.8 for my stuff. I have 2.0 installed on a couple of other machines, and it appears to work fine, but I'm still a little "gun shy" about the fact that a past update broke a couple of plugins I had purchased and haven't been brave enough to update my main machine with the new version

Unless they've added the ability to use Active Pose with rotations, I doubt there's any real compelling reason to upgrade. I don't remember seeing anything in the announcement thread about any features or bug fixes that I thought were especially important.

.

Checkout:

http://secondlife.dolphpun.com/daz3d/


EDIT: I just tested and it is Second Life compatible, it has a toggle switch for Second Life export. I followed the simple tutorial above then uploaded BVH to Second Life. The end result was smooth and nice.

Not sure but may have found a bug on this version. Somehow how after working on an AV, after a matter of seconds or a few minutes the AV disapears from the screen.

Has anybody experienced same problem?

EDIT
I fixed the problem by adding a backdrop image and switching to OpenGL Hardware accelerated........so far all looks brilliant! Made a full job with this version and uploaded the finished product at http://shop.onrez.com/item/603621

Would I recommend this new release? Definately!

That's very good to know, as that problem has existed since at least version 1.18, and drives me freakin' bonkers!

For someone like me, who uses 1.18 and gets along just fine so far, do you feel like there are any good reasons to upgrade? Is there anything new that's compelling, or is it mostly just stuff not applicable to creating animations for Second Life?

.

I never used previous versions of Daz, this is first time for me. I mostly work on Maya and 3dsmax.......so really can't suggest whether its worth moving. They both look the same to me......

Well, the fact that it works "out of the box" is pretty encouraging for those who also would be using it for the first time, as previous versions had problems with the built-in export not being 100% Second-Life compatible.

Thanks for sharing!

I did work with Qavimator for awhile but found it somewhat limiting to my likes, it had bugs too, but the transition to Daz Studio is well worth it. You'll get alot nicer work production workflow there.

yup, currently Daz Studio on on version 2.1.1.13

and yes, is SL compatable.

Made a few poses myself just in testing though, hadn't had time for personal projects yet.
Highly recommend looking into the Daz forum for any question you guys have and or ArtZone, also run by Daz, http:www.artzone.com

I have been working with Poser since version3, I've switched to Daz Studio because its not as slow as Poser for one, and another, Studio is always being updated, and is very customizable. It's also Free, big +++