Slashdot Mirror


Free 3D Animation DAZ|Studio 1.0 Released

Thyme3333 writes "DAZ Productions, Inc. has officially released DAZ|Studio 1.0, a free 3D figure posing and animation software package. DAZ has a made a commitment to keep the DAZ|Studio core application free to the public for as long as possible by relying on the revenues generated by the purchase of content available in the DAZ online store. To obtain a free copy of DAZ|Studio, users must register for a free account on the DAZ website and agree to participate in the company's aptly-named "Tell-Ware" program, which asks that each DAZ|Studio user share information about DAZ|Studio and/or the DAZ website with at least two friends." Good to see that more companies are trying to keep their software free, but perhaps the Slashdot crowd could offer advice on a better business model than spam and merchandising?

19 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. To answer what will be 99% of people's questions: by PoprocksCk · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, it is not available for Linux. Windows and Macintosh only.

  2. Re:To answer what will be 99% of people's question by ch-chuck · · Score: 4, Informative

    and the next answer is that Blender has a pose mode.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  3. Re:To answer what will be 99% of people's question by CDMA_Demo · · Score: 3, Informative

    Another thing: DAZ and Poser work pretty close from the releases in the past that I've seen. I have had problems running both under windows 64 bit, and it was one of the reasons (besides Win 64 driver problems) that I had to switch back to Win XP 32 bit. I'd like to hear from people who can install both these packages under Wine/WineX under Linux 64 or on Win64.

  4. Boobs... by warmgun · · Score: 4, Informative

    All but one of the renders on the company's online gallery page features gratuitous cleavage. Just thought I'd throw that out there...

  5. A little competition is a good thing. by Odonian · · Score: 5, Informative
    DAZ started life as a content provider for MetaCreations' Poser software (now owned by Curious Labs); DAZ made (and still makes) human figures with superior morph capability and texture detail vs. what comes with Poser, along with other content from various independent modelers who use their site to sell their models.

    Lately they've been delving into selling actual applications; they bought the Mimic software for lip synching for instance which complements Poser by providing automated .wav to pose conversion to synchronize models' lips and facial expressions to a sound clip in an automated way.

    This latest offering will put them squarely in competition with Curious Labs, which I would say is a good thing. Poser is simultaneously one of the most amazing applications, and most annoying applications I've used. The program produces fantastic human figure graphics and animation, but is also incredibly buggy, slow, and memory/resource intensive. Still, it's much cheaper than the higher end competition which is priced out of the hobbyist market, so it is currently the only game in town. Having another choice in the low end would be very good, providing it's halfway useable.

  6. Re:free as in beer by RLiegh · · Score: 3, Informative

    Both are in the same general field, but having used both I can tell you that daz3d is light-years away from blender when it comes to good UI design and usability; also daz3d comes from an established (5+ years, iirc) content provider so there is a variety of pre-made materials and content that is ready to use with daz3d right now.

    I'm not a graphics professional (and maybe blender is more useful to someone who is), but from an ameteur's point of view, there's really no comparison to be made. daz3d is easier to use, and therefore more powerful, and there is a lot of ready-to-use content out there for it (with blender3d you pretty much have to roll your own everything as far as I know).

  7. Re:::Sigh: Learn a bit about economics... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It wasn't free for him to give advice because he was giving up the next best thing he could have been doing. There is *always* a cost to every decision. Didn't you learn that in Econ 101? Judging by your extremely high User ID, you're probably not even old enough to take it. Please refrain from posting until educated, thanks.

  8. Re:::Sigh: Learn a bit about economics... by b17bmbr · · Score: 2, Informative

    it's called marginal cost. learn the lingo. and, by the way, the "marginal cost" goes to 0 for most software. unless it's shrink wrap stuff, i.e. the books, etc. but even if it's downloaded, the marginal cost is the fraction of drive space and bandwidth. it matters not if it's free. where free software shines is in the "added value" of being to manipulate it. but, if I don't or can't use that feature, and make no mistake, it is a feature, than I don't necesasrily gain from software unless it is qualtatively equal or better. people don't necessarily choose free software because using it is not necessarily free.

    --
    My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
  9. Re:3D will be free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ok, some examples:
    Pre-viz for some of the scenes in SpiderMan 2, for example: the fight with Doc Oc.

    Another: first feature film that used Blender for the 3D effects (Friday or another day ("Vendredi ou un autre jour"))

    http://www.softanim.com/vendredi/index.html
    Blender in use here:
    http://users.skynet.be/mume//vendredi/blender.html
    http://users.skynet.be/mume//vendredi/fx1.html

    Plus I personally know several people who use it professionally.

  10. Open Source 3d figures by stew77 · · Score: 2, Informative

    In the opposite direction, Zygote, Sixus 1 and e Frontier have released "open source" 3d figures under the name of "project: human", which is more or less competition for DAZ' core business.

    Project human figures can be found here:
    female
    male
    and here:
    http://www.project-human.com/

    Feel free to have a flamewar about whether or not the license is GPL compatible...

  11. blender = anurism by Brigadier · · Score: 2, Informative


    I tried using blender once a while back. Now even though I had worked with 3DStudio, Lightwave and Maya I got an anurism trying to figure out blender's interface.

  12. Re:This is all a sham. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    There is plenty of free stuff available for use with the program including clothing, hair and lots of props. There is also 3 models available in the store that at this moment are free too.

    What is wrong with creating Art from "unoriginal content"?? plenty of people do it, especially the stuff you see in london exhibitions.(and they get a lot of money for doing it)

    I have only been using 3d programs for 6 months and this one is the easiest I have found to use. I have started creating my own textures and displacement maps from the freebies that people with a heck of a lot more talent than me have produced.

    BTW I am female and aint no perv and I will be sticking to using this great free program.

  13. Blender and 3D Canvas by Sundroid · · Score: 3, Informative

    Blender (http://www.blender.org/cms/Home.2.0.html) is totally free, as in open-source, no-strings-attached free.

    3D Canvas (http://www.amabilis.com/products.htm) is a fun introductory 3d software for beginners.

  14. Try this for outragous 'free' then by cruachan · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, at least DAZ is giving it away up-front. Came across this the other day - http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/op ensrc.htm - the company appears to be offering to make the 'next' version of their product open source if people will donate $200,000 to the company 'Open Source' fund beforehand.

    Please someone correct me if I've misunderstood this, but it seems totally outragous.

    1. Re:Try this for outragous 'free' then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It's a speciality modeler, not something that most people would ever bother developing. KLevel tried to go the pure free-from-the-start route and wound up totally dead in a few months; this way it stands a much better chance.

  15. Re:This is all a sham. by Pseudonym · · Score: 2, Informative
    What kind of 3d software:
    1) has no modeling tools

    Most of them. Games, for example.

    2) lists 'rotate, translate, and scale with visual feedback' as a fucking 'feature'?! Or 'multiple views' I mean this is 3D SOFTWARE, right?

    I think you're missing the point.

    DAZ is not trying to create competition for Houdini or even Vue d'Esprit. That would be stupid. There are plenty of players in that market already who have a head start.

    DAZ is trying to do something new: 3D clip art. Clip art sells well for a reason. This program is going to take that into 3D. They want people to be able to use 3D models as easily as they use ring tones. It's actually a pretty grand vision and, unlike most dot coms, it's not so dumb, since it plays right into modern remix culture.

    We shall see if they succeed or not, but if anyone can do it, they can.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  16. Re:I remember seeing an article once by blackbear · · Score: 2, Informative
    One of the tenets was that anything of value must be paid for.

    I think he missed a basic point in Objectivist Philosophy. Nothing is free. "Free" demos are just payment for a potential buyer's time and attention while considering a purchase from the demo provider. If you consider your time more valuable than the receipt of a free demo, then the demo is over priced and you won't "buy" it by downloading or participating in it.

    Rand was making the very important point, that to compel someone to provide goods or services without a fair exchange of value is an immoral and usually criminal act. That when perpetrated by a government, constitutes tyranny. She was not saying that you couldn't have sex with your spouse without either first receiving payment, or a reciprical orgasm to satisfy the fair value of the exchange.

  17. Re:Blender is Better by LocoMan · · Score: 2, Informative
  18. Re:Blender is Better by spiderworm · · Score: 2, Informative