[Half Life]

I got this program (DAZ Studio Pro 4) as part of the free promotion they are doing right now (http://www.daz3d.com) -- it's been a really long time since I looked at Poser or it's spin-off ilk... I was very surprised to see the quality of this software and particularly the Genesis figure. I'm impressed particularly with the hands/feet and face.

They already have a unbiased plugin solution they call "Reality" based on the Lux render engine -- but I thought "I can do better with Maxwell"... but I think it would be very cool if the people at Maxwell made a plugin for DAZ Studio because I think it could have application for people who don't have the time (or skill) to work in ZBrush (or similar) but want good results.

Obviously here I'm just playing(hence the title), trying to get a feel for the capabilities -- using OBJ output workflow right now and not really digging the limitations... for instance I cannot figure out how to export some of the better textures like bump maps and specular maps (All I have here is diffuse for the most part) -- still I can see alot of possibilities for this software pairing.

v5_test1.jpg

Best,
Jason.

[Asmithey]

+1

[JTB]

Looks really nice...
Btw, Octane guys are already searching for beta testers for their DAZ plugin... Especially after the successful promotion that you mention, NL should start the DAZ plugin.

[Half Life]

Yes, I forgot to mention the Octane plugin -- it certainly does seem like a situation that would be good to have a Maxwell plugin... it meets all the base requirements (as far as I can see) -- it does some animation, has OK cloth simulation, it also has links to other programs like ZBrush for more refined work.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

v5_face.jpg

Playing with the hair material here -- the ThinSSS "Ghost" technique always gets alot of use whenever I'm doing people... makes short work of skin and hair textures IMO.

I'll be the first to tell you there are some severe flaws here -- the jacked-up export process introduces quite alot of limitations/problems... for instance the texture mapping for the ear was messed up somehow. I mean the texture file has the ear coloration there as it should -- but somehow the UVs are not allowing it to show up... which means we get bad "manikin" ear (gotta manually select the triangles and regroup in Studio = bummer).

That said, this still shows alot of potential to me -- give me access to the specular/bump/displacement maps this model can have inside DAZ Studio and I could make this really nice... add in the fact that I can take it into ZBrush at any time and modify anything I want makes this something I will probably use far more often than I first thought when I downloaded it.

I don't have a ton of time to play, but I want to set aside a a little time each day to try something and see if I can't work out the kinks on this. If anybody else has anything using DAZ Studio/Maxwell feel free to post it here too -- maybe we can share ideas and work out the kinks together.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

I gave up on trying to get the Specular/Bump/SSS/Displacement maps to export from DAZ Studio -- I just copied them over from the "Runtime" folder and set them up in MXED... I'll look more for the "right" way to do it later.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

v5_studio2.jpg

So I did some of the needed triangle grouping because of crappy export (ugh!) and got the maps straightened out for the most part. Then I stuck a studio background behind her and used the HDR Light Studio plugin to set up some custom lighting.

I'm pretty happy with how things are going here except the hair looks like a wig -- I'll try changing the color first, and then maybe a different hair altogether... and of course the low poly OBJ output is showing its ugly head at the edge of the shoulders, legs, etc.

Since DAZ Studio uses subdivision surfaces this should not be happening, but I'm not sure how to export the high-poly model out of Daz Studio without a plugin... I'll definately have to look into this some more. There are some other oddities I'll look at as well, and try to have a new version for tomorrow.

Just to throw this out there one more time... I think this software should absolutely have a Maxwell plugin -- even if it's only a "stand-alone" plugin like the new one for SketchUp. At $99 I think these people would eat it up...

Best,
Jason.

[m-Que]

The last one looks absolutely awesome, Jason
The only thing that spoils it is her hair.

[Half Life]

Yeah, wicked wig looking hairdo -- might work for a historical piece back when they wore wigs like that (usually white though from the powder).

This is pretty cheap hair -- I've got a better 'do to try but I wanted to see how far I could push things as Daz Studio spit them out (using OBJ export). You know me, always looking for some new toy to test with Maxwell

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

I tweaked just about every material and dropped the displacement mapping (for speed), I also made a slight adjustment to the Lighting in HDR Light Studio -- here's the raw output from Maxwell:

V5_studio_new_raw.jpg

Here's the same after a bit of post:

V5_studio_new_post.png

I know the postwork doesn't do any favors for the hair but the skintones look better to me and that's what really matters (to me) here.

I'm going to start over with FBX export this time (and maybe try Collada as well) to see if I can't get the higher-poly content out of DAZ and into Maxwell.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

Here's a follow-up, FBX export works but the mesh is a disaster in Maxwell Studio and unusable -- and Collada export produces errors (in DAZ Studio) and fails (in Maxwell Studio) every time... so for right now it seems the only option for Maxwell is OBJ export.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

After changing some settings under OBJ export I was able to get the full-rez geometry out -- although for some reason it is impossible to get it to export at the real-world scale (with full resolution)... so after some trial and error I found the appropriate scale in Maxwell Studio is 0.0395 (on all axes).

I've got to redo my triangle groups now and I'll post a new render tomorrow.

Best,
Jason.

[zdeno]

[Half Life]

Here's the raw final output (SL22):

V5_tester1.jpg

Here's the same after a bit of post:

V5_tester1_post.jpg

I've learned quite a bit about how to get the best results from the combination of DAZ Studio and Maxwell -- and I think I will call this piece done at this point.

Some things I'm not crazy about:

1. The cornea was not modeled correctly so it does not catch the light realistically and therefor causes the eyes to render a bit "flat".
2. The sides and overall "hairline" of the hairdo contribute to a "wig" look -- I could modify the textures to help minimize this but I wanted to see what could be achieved using only the stock textures and models first... the only place I broke this rule was I created a simple custom anisotropy angle map for the hair "curls" texture.
3. This has the same problem I have with most 3D people which is it has no sense of gravity -- there is no evidence of gravity acting on, or the body fighting against it in the details... and those types of things really spoil the realism for me.

But overall I think this software combination has alot of potential and can be a very useful tool for alot of the type of work I do... obviously the manual nature of the workflow minimizes the convenience, and a well designed plugin would help considerably (in terms of speed and ease of workflow) -- but it is doable, and not really any less convenient than a ZBrush to Maxwell workflow.

Best,
Jason.

[Half Life]

After posting this yesterday I realized I forgot to add some Simulens effects for the "glamour shot" look I was after so here's the final (optimized for sRGB).

V5_final_simulens2.jpg

Best,
Jason.