Daz users...what can i do in SL with Daz3D tools?

Hi there, While it was on sale, I picked up the Daz3d "Economic Stimulus Bundle" which includes a large amount of apps: Carerra, Hexagon, Bryce,Daz Studio and a gazillion other utilities. They were offering it for a steal for a while, but i think the deal ended (sorry). I have been enjoying making builds in high-resolution, but it sucks that i cant invite anyone in while im building

I know hexagon allows me to export SL sculpty maps, but wondering what other features I should look into for doing other things in sl, such as exporting baked textures, etc. animation? im clueless, really.


Thanks,

Court

(Im also a purchaser of zBrush which is making me feel 12 years old again) wheee

I have pretty much the same array of DAZ-provided tools. So far, here's how I use them:

DAZ Studio:
I create a lot of my building textures by modeling something in DAZ Studio, setting up my lighting as I want it, and creating a rendered image that I can then further refine in Photoshop. You should also be able to use it to create stop-frame animation sequences to import into SL.

Bryce:
I've only scratched the surface with this one. You could use it to create heightmaps for terraforming with .raw files. I use it for making foliage textures sometimes. As with DAZ, you can create things and then set up lighting as you want it, and create a rendered image that you can then further refine in Photoshop.

Carerra:
Should be able to use this to model things to place in DAZ or BRYCE rendered scenes, or to render directly in Carerra.

Hexagon:
This has a lot of promise, and is suposed to be usable to make original sculpties for SL.

All of these tools interact well with each other, allowing bits and pieces created in one to be used in another. None of them are particularly simple to use. But with some time and effort, it's a darned good creative suite.

the task of creating baked textures with daz sounds nice. is there a way of exporting the texture, or would i position the camera and then render?

thanks much for the response.

I haven't used it yet, but Daz Studio is a free download. It's Carrera that has the best renderer if you want to render a nice picture. It is also a modeler.

Hexagon was a product obtained when Daz purchased Eovia, and is as yet not being merged into Carrera. Hex is a better modeler from what I read in Daz's forums. It's a polygon modeler and has some high detail sculpties already built in. 64x64 mesh, I think. Hexagon has some basic 3d painting and baking tools. It's no Zbrush but it's a decent start for many basic applications.

There is a bridge to Daz Studio if you want to use Hex to model stuff for animations. There is also a Photoshop bridge.

Bryce: have not used, but it makes kickass landscapes.

I own Hexagon, and am working on learning how to use it. I will probably get Daz Studio for the rendering. I just purchased 3d-coat for painting while it's still 120 USD. The developer of 3d-coat is talking about putting in a volumetric modeling system which sounds pretty good for painting and sculpting more naturally.

You position your camera in any of these apps and render, making a .jpg or a .png image.

One neat trick: Since DAZ|Studio and these other apps can render *without a background*, you can do things like render a window or a tree and get a perfect transparency alpha map, by saving as .png.

great to know! thanks for the tips!

-Court

I am also new to Daz and I just got Hexagon 2.5
I am not an artist, so is there anyway I can use Hexagon to 'trace' a picture to turn it into a 3d sculpty in SL? Can I at least insert a picture behind the primitive so that I can use it as a guide to the final shape?

THx,
Bhakta