momodot opened this issue on Apr 24, 2005 ยท 17 posts
maclean posted Mon, 25 April 2005 at 3:07 PM
Momodot,
This might help you with understanding content in studio. It's from a help file for the DS version one of my products.
Daz studio is a very different program from poser, and in many ways it's much more flexible. Apart from obvious things like the interface, there are some fundamental differences between studio and poser which are important. Firstly, in terms of library content, anything at all in a scene is treated as an object. This means figures, props, hair, lights and cameras. Studio doesn't treat figures and props differently, (nor does it assign them fixed numbers, other than to identify them in the Scene pane). Of course, each type of object has it's own properties. Figures have bones, props don't. Lights shine and cameras see. But every item in the document window is an object, and all these objects can be added to any library you like.
Secondly, studio only has two main types of file - one for content (.daz scenes) and one for presets (.ds scripts). Scenes can be saved with single or multiple figures, props, hair, lights or cameras (objects), or entire scenes with all these elements. Presets are saved as materials, poses, lights or cameras, but the file type is the same for them all. When you choose the type of preset, all you're doing is telling studio which part of the scene you want to save. And by selecting individual lights or cameras, you can save only the ones you want.
One of the benefits to the user is improved file and library management. For example, it's no longer necessary to follow the old poser system of having all your figures, props, hair, lights, cameras and poses in separate folders. In studio, you can create one folder per character and put all related files into it. Of course, since studio has unlimited library capacity, you can make as many folders as you want, and nest them ten-deep if you like.
A more important benefit is in scene-building. Studio scenes aren't like poser .pz3 scenes, which you can only open one at a time. In studio, each scene is added to (merged with) the document window you're working in. A library scene file can contain a single figure, prop, light or camera, or all of these things in any combination, and when you double-click it, it's contents will be added to the current document, instead of replacing it. In other words, all content is saved as scenes, regardless of type, and in any combination you like. All presets are one file type, and you only need to tell studio which part to save. And both scenes and presets can go into the same folder. I've kept scenes, props and presets separate in this pack, but that's only because there are a lot of files.
One function in studio which makes a big difference, is the ability to select multiple objects. By using ctrl + left-click, you can select multiple items in the Scene pane or the document window, and move/rotate/scale them together. This function can be very useful with multiple body parts which have the same properties. For example, in a room with several doors, you can multiple-select the doors and open them all at once.
mac