Modeling in Blender for Daz 3D Blender 2.74 and Daz3D 4.8 (4.8.0.55) (Summer 2015)
“Size...Does...Matter!” There is, unfortunately, no standard when it comes to 'size' in the 3D world. What each program sees as a unit (or metre) can be wildly different from what other programs see. Something made in most 3D programs will open in Daz3D almost too large to see. English Bob's site (http://www.morphography.uk.vu/index.php) has an excellent tutorial on this and you can see that Daz3D is by far the smallest. Daz3D items are itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny. If you import something made in Blender (or most other 3D programs) it will be massive, and in fact might even be too big to see leading you to think that the import didn't work. If you see the item listed in the Hierarchy pallet but there's nothing on the stage, scale out, and keep scaling out until the item appears. Conversely, an item imported from Daz3D will open up in Blender almost too small to see. I exported a basic figure from Daz3D as an obj file, imported it into Blender and saved it as a .blend file. I use this as my reference as everything we build in Blender (for Daz3D) is to a human scale. (This same import-export dance can also be applied to stuff you've made in Blender for use in Daz3D). The following sequence will give you a standard figure that you can use in Blender as a size reference, Overview... -export a figure from Daz3D as an .obj file, -import this figure into Blender, -decimate and simplify the figure, then save it as a .blend file for reference. -export it as an .obj file (just to verify), -import this second .obj file back into Daz3D to ensure you've gotten it right.
A 'gizmo' I made in Blender for use in Daz3D. Rigging was a bear but it opens and closes just fine. Note: yellow highlighting indicates selections in various dialogue boxes.
Exporting From Daz3D... Open the Genesis 2 figure (for example) and export it as an .obj file with the options as shown, (File-Export-(give it a name and select (*.obj) as type)), the option dialogue box then appears). When you select 'Write Material Library' it changes the 'To' box to 'Custom'. The material library (.mtl file) is required in Blender.
Importing Into Blender... When importing the .obj file into Blender, note the following obj file import options. 'Forward -Y' and 'up Z' will put your figure on stage standing upright and facing forward. When we save him (or her) as a .blend file then export it as a .obj and re-import it into Daz3D it will open in Daz3D in exactly the same place and size as the original figure. In Blender you'll notice that we now have all of the figure's parts as separate objects. Since we only want it as a size reference we can dumb it down by joining all the separate parts into one object. We can then simplify it (if desired) by a combination of the decimate modifier and 'un-subdivide' in 'Mesh-Edges'. Mine still has 10,000 faces and could be simplified much further by deleting the mouth, eyeballs and teeth. I fiddled with this and got the mesh down to 6,300 faces. I also deleted the numerous materials and added one simple skin material and texture. Save the figure as a Blender file (.blend) and ensure you give it a name you'll remember. Exporting from Blender... Export the figure (or your completed item) from Blender as an .obj file by selecting 'File- Export-Wavefront (obj)'...
The following options are chosen and can be saved as an Export preset. Take note of 'Up' and 'Forward' selections. This becomes important back in Daz3D.
Importing into Daz3D... In Daz3D we import the figure (or our item) with the following selections. Note the scale (5000%) and the Axis Conversions. Select 'Lateral' as X and 'Vertical' as Y. Ta-Da! The figure opens in exactly the same spot and at the same size as the original exported figure. I've moved the imported figure to show both figures. By following the given sequence of import/exporting, you can ensure that anything you build in Blender will show up in Daz3D at a usable size...as long as it was built in Blender correctly sized in reference to our figure.
Explanation of Export Settings, -Selection Only This allows you to deselect lights, cameras, and other items in the blend file that are not needed. -Apply Modifiers. Not all Blender modifiers work with this option so it's best to apply them manually in Blender, making this redundant. Still, it can't hurt. -Include UV's. This is the UV data that was created when you made UV maps. -Write Materials. This creates the .mtl file that references the materials. -Objects as OBJ Groups This creates the necessary groups in Daz3D. -Keep Vertex Order. This is crucial if you're creating morph targets. -Path Mode - Auto (from drop-down dialogue)
Settings not used ... -Animation. Not needed. -Include Edges. This will include edges that are not attached to any faces. Your model shouldn't have any of these as it's a sign of sloppy modeling and they will cause problems in Daz3D. -Smooth Groups. Optimizes low polygon models for game engines. -Bitflag Smooth Groups. Sort of the same as above. -Write normals. Not needed as Daz3D calculates it's own normals. -Triangulate Faces. This converts quads to two triangles and is not needed. -Write Nurbs. Write out nurbs curves as OBJ nurbs rather than converting to geometry. -Polygroups. Write faces into OBJ groups based on the meshes vertex group. Some modelers enable this when exporting models with multiple groups. In my limited experience it didn't make any difference in how the model imported or showed up in Daz3D. -Objects as OBJ Objects. -Material Groups. -Forward and Up. Leave at default settings. -Scale. Leave at the default setting of 1.
Additional notes on normals... When I couldn't see some of the geometry in Daz3D, I found that going back to Blender in Edit Mode and selecting 'Mesh', 'Normals', 'Recalculate Outside' cleared up this problem once the model was re-exported and re-imported back into Daz3D. Others have experienced the same phenomenon. When examining the obj files for signs of the normal information I found that numbers in the 'F' tag displayed differences. (Renderosity forum post. It discusses Poser but Daz3D works much the same.) “Poser doesn't use OBJ normals on import. It builds (new) normals from the winding order of the OBJ. Reversing Normals in a modeler changes the direction of the polygons (and also changes the winding order). The winding order tells Poser which direction the polygons face. None of my models over the last 10 years (freebies and products) have normals in them and in fact, it's best to leave them out for final meshes (intended to be Poser content). It was more so (IMHO) an issue in Poser 4-5 to have obj files with normals in them. I don't know if issues from normals preset are still there but I don't export them (and if the mesh is exported from Poser, I remove them in uvmapper pro). For one, it keeps the mesh significantly smaller to remove the normals. I don't know if it handles them differently now than it did in the old days, but I suspect it doesn't use them at all. The reason I say this is that techniques like smoothing normals has no effect in Poser. If Poser did utilize normals then smoothing the normals of a mesh to 90, 180, 360 (degrees) or whatever would have an effect in Poser. It doesn't. Poser uses the crease angle parameter instead. I think you'd probably still need to reverse normals or whatnot in Blender because that's the only way that it would also reverse the direction of the polygons (guessing there). However, if the whole thing is being inverted and not just polygons here or there, there are a lot of ways to reverse it outside of Blender. UVMapper Pro can do it (can't speak for the free version, I don't know), Poser can reverse them too, I believe either or import or using the grouping tool (don't quote me there because I don't have poser open ATM but I'm sure there are a few ways to do it).”
Modeling for Daz3D, -While making your model ensure you have no overlapping geometry. -avoid N-Gons, minimize triangles, quads are preferred. -group items that need to be separate items in Daz3D such as parts that will move. -assign materials to groups. They don't need to be anything fancy as you'll be making better ones in Daz3D. -make UV maps and export the templates. -check normals for proper orientation (generally 'outside'). -before exporting your model apply modifiers, and Scale & Rotation. Don't apply Location as it will move the part. Object centers don't matter as Daz3D will not respect them and instead seems to place each object's center in the middle of it's geometry. The origin (object centers in Blender) can be moved with the rigging tools in Daz3D
Links...
English Bob. Some excellent tutorials and information on the obj format and what happens to it when saved in various programs. http://www.morphography.uk.vu/index.php
Modeling for Poser by Stefan Kotuziak. For eight bucks it's a good read and provides some interesting and well researched insights into errors to avoid when making 3D items for Poser. Has information I've not seen anywhere else. Applicable to Daz3D. http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/modelling-for-poser/82834/