Seeking Advice: Tips for Finding/Creating 3D Render Assets

[edolce]

Hey everyone!

I want to reach out to the sub-community that uses Daz3D, Unreal Engine, or Unity for their renders. I was wondering if you have any advice on where to find assets to build locations such as rooms, hotels, parks, parking lots, and more.

I'm relatively new to this, so my question is to understand if there are more effective methods than others. I'll outline the ones I know/thought of, and please feel free to give me feedback or suggest other options:

• Searching for assets in the Daz3D store.
• Looking for external assets and attempting to import them into Daz3D (I'm not sure if this is possible, hence why I'm asking you).
• Exporting Daz3D characters and building the scene in Blender or Unity/Unreal.
• Creating custom assets in Blender.

Another question I have is, for those who have tried it, how difficult do you consider creating your own assets in Blender? I know it's an option, but I'm unsure of how feasible it actually is (I've heard the learning curve is average, with 1-2 months of practice, and maybe something decent can be produced, but in your experience, is it worth it?)

Looking forward to your insights and suggestions!

 

[Synx]

You can import non DAZ models to DAZ, but it kinda defeats the point of using DAZ to start with it. The main benefit of using DAZ above other 3D programs is their library. There models are made and set-up for DAZ and will work out of the box in it. It keeps everything somewhat simple so even beginners can get decent results without to much of a learning curve. It's good at what it does.

Using a ton of non-DAZ models in DAZ takes away this aspect without really giving any other benefit. You got to learn how to setup materials, maybe even learn other programs to fix UV-issues, etc. DAZ is good if you mostly use DAZ assets. If not I would personally advice against it.

For environments assets DAZ library is unfortunately a bit lacking. Its the main reason you see some assets used in most games, like the clothing boutique, or high school. There are just no other options.

If you want to stick with DAZ or maybe try another program will highly depend on what kind of assets your looking for.

As for making your own assets in Blender its not extremely hard (creating hardsurvace models like an house is way easier than a person for example), but it will take a lot of time nevertheless. And in my opinion is mostly not worth it. Unless you want something extremely specific, you can often just find what you looking for, or atleast something you can change easily to what you want.

For example for my own project I needed a nice looking Mansion. I found a building that has the style I was going for and just made a kitbash from that (like separate the doors, windows, details, walls, roof, pillars, etc.) and used that to make the mansion. All in all took 5-6 hours, while making it from scratch would have been a couple weeks most likely.

Learning curve in Blender in general is pretty steep though. But I will say after learning the basics (like how there texturing system works, basics on UV mapping, modeling, shortcut, etc.) most stuff shouldn't take to long to learn. Blender offers a shit ton of stuff, but you don't need most of it. I have been working with it for a couple years now and honestly have prob not used 75% of its toolkit. Just don't need it.

Anyway to summarise all the rambling; the kind of assets your looking for will highly alter what program/approach is the most suited for you.