I think the Daz model line and accessories, not to mention many 3rd party accessories, are absolutely first rate. You go to many sites where somebody has posted a render of a new human model they have made and, while I'm sure they've put a lot of work into it and are very proud of it, the truth is that almost nothing out there short of the work being done for feature films and high-end games comes even close to the Daz work. Anothor unfortunate truth, however, is that there is a crying need for simple and reliable export/import for Daz models into popular 3D programs. I use Cinema 4DXL7 on the Mac, and have had some success with using V3 in it (via Poser and the XL7 plug-in), but it is really like pulling teeth with all the back-and-forth, and now I've been wanting to switch over to 4D8 on OSX, but there is no OSX plug-in for C4D, nor is there, I suspect, a simple way to work with Daz models in many other applications. I really think that Daz would do itself a huge favor, and would see an explosion of interest and usage--and of course, sales--if it concentrated on making available the use of its models into the broader world of 3D software.

Allowing that Daz have relatively recently got into application creation and provision it's unsurprising that they've not looked before at this sort of issue. In the past Daz were purely a content provider and that was partly due to contractual obligations to Zygote when they broke away. For the first while of the Daz company's existence they weren't allowed to compete with their home company Zygote who are general 3D providers. Daz were "just" Poser content. Now that Daz have grown and I presume the limitations placed on them has expired we're seeing a bit more growth in other directions. It wouldn't surprise me overly to see a set of filters become available over the next 12-18 months for Daz content to be used in other apps. It's entirely possible that they'll tie those filters into Studio. This depends a great deal on costs to make compatible plugins/filters for other software. It's relatively certain that they will provide a Lightwave filter either similar to the Bryce one they just released or tied more integrally to Lightwave. 3DMax, Cinema 4D etc may follow later. This depends on a few things. The demand for a type of filter, availability of programming knowledge to create it, cost, licensing, whether any of the brokers who can program are going to work on one, ability of the Studio SDK to integrate with other software and probably a dozen things I haven't thought of. In all honesty this is something that should probably be brought up in the Daz forums, or emailed directly to the development team at Daz. They have/had a survey for 3D software that people use, I assume as an effort to see the kind of spread of demand that's likely to be needed for filters. Currently there are obvious limitations to what Daz can achieve as most of their stock is Poser oriented and doesn't use the extra features that will become available in/for Studio. There's no "simple" way to work with Daz models in any software really, but that depends on whether you mean just setting up and rendering or animation. Setting up models for other software will always be a pain because cameras and lights operate in as many different ways as there are 3D applications. This results in those things being non-transferable between apps. Similar problems arise with texture mapping. Max does things differently to Cinema, which is vastly different to Rhino as it is to Truespace and Lightwave. In that respect, setting up a model in Poser or Studio and then transferring it to another application creates unique and often troublesome problems in assigning materials correctly, changing highlights and specularity, interpreting reflection, bones and joint parameters etc. etc. I agree with you that it would be nice if it could be made easier to use Daz models in other applications - especially alteration of poses or animation. I personally find it annoying as heck to go through the routine of sucking a model into Cinema and then finding I have to alter the pose. The curious labs plugin is nightmarish as it constantly references files it shouldn't need to reference and there's no way to dynamically alter a model and have that update in the second screen. If Daz can find a way around that problem alone I'd be a very happy camper, but I don't see it happening soon. If Studio manages to consistently export objects with correct texture references and paths then things will start to become easier as fix/export/import is speeded up. But it sure would be nice to just dynamically work with one app and have it update across to the render app. Perhaps when they finally figure out neural processing and we can all jack into the computer things will be easier. :)

(laughing) Thanks Questor, I'll be first (or second) in line for that jack. I am really talking about animation, not just posing and shooting--I think there's real potential for the Daz models for animation. Thanks for a little insight into the history and issues. I hope you're right about Daz making making some filters for us!

I hope I'm right as well, it would be pretty damned nice. I don't do very much animation - almost none in fact, but I can see a wide variety of bonuses to being able to animate Daz content in other applications. I don't think we'll be seeing Daz content models rigged for other applications though. Allowing for how much work is involved in rigging a humanoid figure the cost of development or perhaps resale would be prohibitive for many. One can hope though. Alternatively if they can figure a way to translate existing rigs from either Poser or Studio to other applications that would be acceptable. Looking at the way Messiah integrates with Lightwave and the animation abilities of that program it would be rather cool to see Studio heading in that kind of direction. Until then I guess it'll just have to be done the hard way.