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Daz Blender Tutorial DAZ to BLENDER basic setup + guide (feat. Diffeomorphic)

tragant

New Member
Nov 30, 2023
6
80
DAZ to BLENDER GUIDE FOR DUMMIES

Written by tragant
Last updated 23.03.2024

Why?
DAZ3D is awesome for ready-made 3D models from the DAZ store, Renderotica, etc. But the IRAY renderer used by DAZ3D is very intensive compared to Blender's Cycles renderer. You can do renders in a fraction of the time it would take on IRAY, and even do high-res rendering (4K and above) if you have a mid-tier GPU. Cycles also supports CPU only rendering, which is helpful for potato rigs.

What?
This is a step-by-step guide from downloading Daz and Blender to making your first 3D render. The basic idea is that we set up our scene in DAZ, export to Blender, and render with Blender.

Guide:

Installing Blender and DAZ3D


1. Download . You need this version specifically. Download "blender-2.93.18-windows-x64.msi" for Windows users.
2. Create an account at daz3d.com if you don't have one already. Then, download
4. Install DAZ3D InstallManager to a new empty folder. Launch DAZ3D InstallManager.
5. Login with your credentials from the account made on daz3d.com. Account can be added under "Add account"
6. You will be prompted to Download DAZ3D Studio. "Install DAZ Studio components" must be checked ON. Scroll down and you will see some optional modules selected by default (e.g. DM's Memorial, Genesis 2 Starter environments etc.) - turn all these OFF.
7. Press Start Queue
8. Things will download and Install. If Windows asks anything, say Yes.
9. After everything is done, check if DAZ Studio is installed in the start menu.
10. Open DAZ Studio once. You might be prompted that they found a "new content directory". Just say Yes. Close DAZ when it loads.

Installing Diffeomorphic
Diffeomorphic is an addon that acts as a bridge between DAZ and Blender. As such, it needs to be installed as an addon into both Blender and Daz.

11. Download Diffeomorphic from . Download repository.
12. DON'T EXTRACT the zip file just yet.
13. Open Blender. In the top left, select Edit > Preferences
14. Select Addons in the left pane.
15. Select Install in the top right, next to Refresh
install_addon.png
16. In the file explorer browse to the downloaded ZIP file, and select. Install Add-on.
17. Turn on the checkbox for "Import-Export: Daz Importer"

19. Open Daz install manager from Start menu.
20. It will ask you to login, check "Work offline" and press Start.
21. Select Settings cog on top right, select Basic settings
cog.png
22. Click the file path on "Content base path" -> this will open in File Explorer.
content_base_path.png
23. Save this location, you will need it to install DAZ content. Add to Quick access.
24. Inside the unzipped file, there is a folder called "to_daz_studio"
25. Copy the Scripts file inside to the Content base path saved in step #23
26. Open DAZ Studio
27. In the left section, you should see a tab called "Content Library" under "Smart Content" and above "Draw Settings". Select.
content_library.png
28. Select "Daz Studio Formats" > My DAZ 3D Library > Scripts > Diffeomorphic
193060794-content-lib.png
29. Double-click "Save root paths". In the file explorer, save this .json file to a memorable location like My documents.

30. Double-click "Setup menus"

31. Exit DAZ Studio.

32. Open Blender.
33. Mouse over the Workspace area (where you see the cube), no need to click anything. Press N.
34. In the opened sub-menu, select "DAZ Setup".
daz_setup.png
35. Select "Global Settings"
36. Select "Load root paths". In the file explorer, select "import-daz-paths.json" that you saved in step #29.

37. Addon should be installed, yay!

Let's test if it's working!

38. Open DAZ Studio.
39. In the left pane, select Smart Content.
40. Turn off the checkbox "Filter by context" in the bottom-left.
41. On the left, select Figures > People. Double click "Genesis 8 basic female" [comes pre-installed]
42. This will load a figure into the Workspace.
43. In the Scene menu on the top right, Highlight "Genesis 8 Female"
44. Back in Smart Content, Select Hair > double click "Toulouse hair"
45. Now Genesis has hair. Let's add some clothes.
46. In Smart content, select Wardrobe > double click "Bardot Outfit"
47. Now Genesis is dressed up, let's pose her.
48. In Smart content, select Poses > Double-click "Base pose walking A" [or any, as long as its not G9, as we are using Genesis 8]
49. Now Genesis is posed, let's save the scene.
50. In the top-left, select File > Save as > Scene. Save in a separate folder. Name it Genesis. Press Accept when Daz throws a menu.
51. Let's export to Blender now. In top left, select File > select Export to Blender. This must be always done AFTER saving as a scene.
52. Save in the same folder location as step #50. Wait for confirmation, press OK.
53. Close Daz Studio, Open Blender.

54. Click the cube and press Delete.
55. Press N while hovering over the workspace.
56. Select DAZ Setup > Easy import DAZ
57. Select the file saved in step #50 from file explorer. Select "BSDF (Cycles only)" on the right menu. Click Easy import Daz.
58. Genesis should now be loaded. You can hide the black lines [bone overlays] by toggling off "Show overlays" at the top-right of the Workspace area
show_overlays.png
59. Center on Genesis's face by selecting the green -Y axis button on the top right. Move the view around using the Hand tool.
y-axis.png hand.png

60. Once that's done, press Ctrl + Alt + 0 on the numpad to align Camera to this view. You can exit Camera view by clicking the small Camera icon. You may need to zoom out with the mouse to get Genesis in frame, then press Ctrl + Alt + 0 again to re-frame the Camera.
camera.png

61. We need to add some lights to the scene. Let's add some HDRI lighting.
62. Go download an HDRI from
63. Let's download this one for . Select 4K, HDR [NOT EXR] on the top right. Download.
64. Back in Blender, in the bottom right pane, there are many icons stacked vertically. Click the red colored Globe icon [World Properties]
world_properties.png
65. Click the small yellow icon before "Color" in the Surface submenu.
66. Select "Environment Texture" under "Texture"
67. Click open, and load the HDRI file downloaded in step #63. Set Strength to 2 for ease.

68. In the bottom right pane, there are many icons stacked vertically. Click the second one from the top, showing a Radio icon (Render Properties). Select Cycles. Select GPU Compute under Device [if you have a good GPU, else use CPU]
render_properties.png
render_engine.png
69. Scroll down and under "Film" -> Select Transparent. This disables the HDRI background and tells it to give light only.
film_transparent.png
70. Press F12 to start Rendering.

If everything went according to plan, your first render should be done. Congratulations!

Attached is a 1080p render I made following the same steps, CPU rendering only on an i5-7300HQ. It took 4 minutes and 37 seconds.

View attachment cpu-04m37s.webp
 
Last edited:

mime95

Newbie
Feb 1, 2019
35
48
Thanks so much for putting this together!

I think I set up a few things incorrectly, which made it not work perfectly, but I'm going to walk back through this.

Edit: After going back through things, it seems that some of the content didn't get fully installed. Worked better once I got that installed. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
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revolutioncom

New Member
Apr 28, 2018
4
0
why we need to use Blender 2.93 LTS instead of blender 4.0 or Blender 3.6 LTS?
They dont work or transfer everything with Diffeomorphic the same way that version 2.93 ?
 

tragant

New Member
Nov 30, 2023
6
80
View attachment AlcinaSummer-webp-2h5m.webp

Another 8K render, this time with 3 actors. 2 hours 5 minutes render time, with a 6GB RTX 3060.

For more complex renders it is very important to use Scene Optimizer to reduce the texture map size for environment and non-subject actors. Using a lot of 4K+ texture maps will overload your VRAM. This has to be done before you export to Blender, so run the Optimizer script -> Save as Scene in Daz -> then export to Blender via Diffeomorphic.

It is a good idea to organize as you work - save the subject character, background actors, environment etc as separate scenes. For example, in this project, I saved Alcina as a separate scene in DAZ, without using Scene Optimizer, then exported to Blender. We want the subject to have maximum fidelity.

Each dog and the background house are saved as individual scenes, after running Scene Optimizer to reduce the texture map to 512. The other benefit here is that each item is loaded separately in Blender, and you have better control. Each dog can be moved around independently.

The scenes are then loaded into Blender with Diffeomorphic import one by one.

Once you've framed the shot in Blender, make sure to Hide all the parts of the Environment that won't show in your Render i.e. cannot be seen in the Camera view. This is done by Shift+Clicking on the small Camera icons you see in the Outliner [top right by default, list of all elements in workspace]. Otherwise, a lot of VRAM will be wasted.
 
Last edited:

hardwire666

Newbie
Apr 12, 2018
87
53
View attachment 3582072

Another 8K render, this time with 3 actors. 2 hours 5 minutes render time, with a 6GB RTX 3060.

For more complex renders it is very important to use Scene Optimizer to reduce the texture map size for environment and non-subject actors. Using a lot of 4K+ texture maps will overload your VRAM. This has to be done before you export to Blender, so run the Optimizer script -> Save as Scene in Daz -> then export to Blender via Diffeomorphic.

It is a good idea to organize as you work - save the subject character, background actors, environment etc as separate scenes. For example, in this project, I saved Alcina as a separate scene in DAZ, without using Scene Optimizer, then exported to Blender. We want the subject to have maximum fidelity.

Each dog and the background house are saved as individual scenes, after running Scene Optimizer to reduce the texture map to 512. The other benefit here is that each item is loaded separately in Blender, and you have better control. Each dog can be moved around independently.

The scenes are then loaded into Blender with Diffeomorphic import one by one.

Once you've framed the shot in Blender, make sure to Hide all the parts of the Environment that won't show in your Render i.e. cannot be seen in the Camera view. This is done by Shift+Clicking on the small Camera icons you see in the Outliner [top right by default, list of all elements in workspace]. Otherwise, a lot of VRAM will be wasted.
You don't need scene optimizer before exporting. Blender has tools for doing that built in. But yes Being mindful of texture size is important. Look under "Simplify" in the cycles rendering settings. You can also force blender do downsize maps for the viewport in the preferences.
 

Maswoo

Newbie
Game Developer
Jan 11, 2020
60
187
The version here is confusing me.
So in the screenshot you have diffeomorphic 1.7.4 installed in your blender but on the daz importer bitbucket main page the current version is 4.2.0 and the previous releases only go up to 1.7.3 then jump to 4.x.
When I install 1.7.3 blender warns that the plugin was made for blender 3.6 and it might not work.
If I ignore that and use the easy importer and tick to import the morphs blender crashes (which it doesn't do if I use blender 3.6) and it doesn't have the option to use the MHX rig in blender 2.93.
It actually did import normally the first time, then crashed the second time, and the time it worked came with an exception.

Diffeomorphic does have an older version (v1.5.1) but that's for blender 2.79, which is a different version again.

What is going on? Am I doing something wrong here, nothing seems to work at all. Even when using Blender 3.6 with diffo 1.73 where things are pretty stable random things like some morphs just don't import and nothing happens when selected.
 

Sunday95

New Member
May 15, 2018
13
8
As far as I know, since Blender 4.1 Diffeo version numbers correspond to the Blender release they were tested on.



What is going on? Am I doing something wrong here, nothing seems to work at all. Even when using Blender 3.6 with diffo 1.73 where things are pretty stable random things like some morphs just don't import and nothing happens when selected.
Morphs not importing could be morphs that drive other morphs, DAZ can do that but Diffeomorphic can't.
 
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tragant

New Member
Nov 30, 2023
6
80
The version here is confusing me.
So in the screenshot you have diffeomorphic 1.7.4 installed in your blender but on the daz importer bitbucket main page the current version is 4.2.0 and the previous releases only go up to 1.7.3 then jump to 4.x.
When I install 1.7.3 blender warns that the plugin was made for blender 3.6 and it might not work.
If I ignore that and use the easy importer and tick to import the morphs blender crashes (which it doesn't do if I use blender 3.6) and it doesn't have the option to use the MHX rig in blender 2.93.
It actually did import normally the first time, then crashed the second time, and the time it worked came with an exception.

Diffeomorphic does have an older version (v1.5.1) but that's for blender 2.79, which is a different version again.

What is going on? Am I doing something wrong here, nothing seems to work at all. Even when using Blender 3.6 with diffo 1.73 where things are pretty stable random things like some morphs just don't import and nothing happens when selected.
Can you try with Blender 2.93 and latest Diffeo (4.2.0)?

The latest build should work fine when it comes to Diffeo. When I wrote this guide, I think Thomas had marked the release as 1.7.4 then changed it to 4.x.

It's been a while since I tinkered with it, but it should work