Daz studio for character artist?

D_Choi

I was looking at some works at ArtStation and I saw some artist created realistic characters with software called Daz studio. I don't think I've seen any character artist using it. From brief research it seems like creating characters with some presets. Can it be any good for character artist? like posing characters or reference or even for base mesh? Anybody using it in their workflow?

Steve Schulze

Generally speaking, not really. You're reposing and manipulating existing models rather than generating anything new. I used to work with someone who'd occasionally pull some simple base meshes out of Daz as a quick starting point, but I don't think it offered all that much of an advantage, really.

Ruz

I use it quite a lot. had some really fast turn around jobs where I quickly pose in DAZ, then zbrush over it

oglu

if there is no time for some jobs you have to use what ever is needed... we communicate that to the client...
this kind of work is impossible todo with that budget we have to take shortcuts and you get lower quality...
and there are a lot of clients out there they are fine with that... they only need a still for a illustration or something to paint over...
so why not...

Brian "Panda" Choi

Yeah, despite my initial misgivings about DAZ, as long as you can get the best results given restrictions, no real substantiative problems with using it.

I think most of the criticism applies to people who just use Daz to render, and that's it, when it's clear other renderers can get better results.

thomasp

if the focus of the job is something else and all you need is a quick decent looking character to go along with it, perhaps this will do. might also be quite helpful for dedicated zbrush sculptor types or concept artists.

but a dedicated character artist (games, film, etc) not obsessing over creating their own anatomy and topology? that's someone in the wrong career track IMO.

as for (modeling) reference i'd generally stay far away from man-made 3D models. they can contain unwanted stylisations or simply errors (e.g. muscle flow) that make the reference worthless.

D_Choi

I guess I should consider it as an emergency card for a quick start, may be I'll try it one day. I also was wondering if it somehow rig and pose characters from other tools but I guess that's not what it does. Thanks everyone sharing your opinion!

Ruz

yeah I don;t use them for any games related stuff or where I have to animate anything, but stil, a useful program IMHO
and its free( ish)
They have slightly weird shoulders though, always have to fill out the volumes in this area after posing

the posed model in the second shot above only took about 7 hours though so in this case it was the best tool for the job

kanga

Its perfect as reference. The base characters are scanned humans so having something to rotate around while sculpting is excellent. No real need to try and extract a base mesh from DAZ though. 

sacboi

I'm no character modeller by any stretch, so I'd personally have no qualms using DAZ or Poser to do the heavy lifting, whatever get's the job done really. An aside even plan on using a pre-made example from their library as a prop for a possible folio addition with further own sculpting tweaks on top of the base mesh.        

VelvetElvis

I always feel like I need to take a shower after going to the DAZ webpage......

Kwramm

oglu said:

if there is no time for some jobs you have to use what ever is needed... we communicate that to the client

amen. Out industry is moving so fast, you have to use all the tools available to deliver on time, on spec and on budget. Pretty much everyone in the industry is looking for ways to accelerate their workflows - be it tools (like DAZ), AI or procedural workflows.