Hello,

I am a neophyte when it comes to 3D design, my creative pursuits and career involve creative writing. I am a terrible visual artist.

That's why I am excited to get into the world of Poser and/or Daz. This allows me to conceptualize characters like never before.  These programs may also actually allow me to do some of my own art on projects. A very alluring and heretofore unrealized dream.

But I have questions: 

I have downloaded DAZ and have played around with it.  I have purchased various items such as clothing and characters (the Victorias). The clothing and items I have downloaded do not seem to work properly and some do not work at all. I have downloaded these from the DAZ store itself so it is puzzling why they do not function. I am sure there is some tweaking that can remedy this BUT......

I have seen Poser and the features it contains (like the clothing room!) and wow that's perfect for someone with a limited skill set like myself.  In edition it seems that DAZ products are complicated, this thing is used for Victoria or Aiko or something else whereas Poser items are just billed as "X version and up."

It seems to me if I plan to buy other aritist's work regularly Poser would be infinitly easier. Is this a safe assumption?

Lastly, suppose I purchase a figure designed by an artist and use it in a work, would I owe residuals to that artist? Is it even worth it to buy other artist's work. I have read Renderosity's legal page and it seems that, of course, the artist retains ownership, but I purchase a license; does that license allow me to use artist created puchased content in a creative for profit work?

Thanks for any help you can lend!

Daz3 was easier then Daz 4.6 in my opinion. Poser has alot to offer

 I have all 3...Poser I use Daz V4 and M4 characters..

Suggestion...If you have a partitoned drive good to load your

runtimes there instead of hogging up your main HD.

Your free to use any image rendered in either Poser or Daz Studio for any purpose even commercially with any items purchased through either the Daz Store or here at Rendo. Some free items may have a caveat for personal use only.

I personally find the Daz experience easier then Poser but it really is a personal thing I guess. I used Poser 4 a long time ago and still have v10 installed. I just prefer the Daz Studio Ui and the ease of install with DIM. The figure compatiblity for clothes extends across both apps.

its hard to say which app would be best for yourself as it usually is a bit of a feel thing. I just find some the Poser interface to be awkward but ive spent quite a lot time familarising myself the the daz studio ui. But you wouldnt have to look far to hear someone say the exact opposite :)

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I have downloaded DAZ and have played around with it.  I have purchased various items such as clothing and characters (the Victorias). The clothing and items I have downloaded do not seem to work properly and some do not work at all. I have downloaded these from the DAZ store itself so it is puzzling why they do not function. I am sure there is some tweaking that can remedy this BUT......

It depends on what sort of not working, but one common problem is tying to apply materials, which change the appearance of the clothes once they are loaded and selected, instead of loading the clothing. You may even have a set which is purely materials, requiring another product (which should be listed on the product page) for use.

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It seems to me if I plan to buy other aritist's work regularly Poser would be infinitly easier. Is this a safe assumption?

No.

You didn't describe:

1. What you bought.

1. What figure you bought the clothing for.

Until you do, I don't think anyone can really help you.

For example if you bought the Victoria 4 character and tried to apply morphs from Victoria 6 or clothing from genesis, the clothing is not going to work as each figure is set up and rigged differently. Basically you are dealing with over 8 years worth of tech between 3 DAZ figures; some things will work and some won't. 

You will enccounter the same problems if you buy something for the wrong figure and attempt to load it in Poser. 

There are a lot of figures available for you to use; you have to do your research into what you want to do to decide what to purchase and use.

@vitachick yes I do have a partioned drive thank you. Another vote for poser thanks

@razor42 Thank you yes I would imagine it has a bit of "what one is used to" in it. If you were coming at it tabula rasa though would you drift to one or the other?

@RHasteltine Yes I would imagine there would be certain elements of the tech I would not understand in regard to purchased items? My question would be in regard to poser are there less requirements and such when purchasing things and is the "applyability" more fluid with poser than DAZ

@Malemedia wow you followed me here to post the same hostile drivel as from poser forum...are you some unstable stalker type? Do I need to be worried that I picked up a new "friend" from two innocous posts in a forum?

Quote - @RHasteltine Yes I would imagine there would be certain elements of the tech I would not understand in regard to purchased items? My question would be in regard to poser are there less requirements and such when purchasing things and is the "applyability" more fluid with poser than DAZ

Yes, the systems are pretty close. Both applications, in their current versions, have various kinds of conversion tool that can help with using content fro one figure on another, though they cover different aspects to different degrees (Poser, for example, doesn't have any built in option for swapping the mapping so that you can use textures from figure 1 on figure 2; DS does offer alternative UV sets that allow some swapping, with additional options available in the store). However the distinction between settings and content is common to both - whether you find the DS system, for native formats, of having the settings in a sub-folder of the folder with the models or the Poser system of splitting the content across different libraries is going to be a matter of taste, and perhaps of how the other software you use handles similar issues.

Quote - > Quote - @RHasteltine Yes I would imagine there would be certain elements of the tech I would not understand in regard to purchased items? My question would be in regard to poser are there less requirements and such when purchasing things and is the "applyability" more fluid with poser than DAZ

Yes, the systems are pretty close. Both applications, in their current versions, have various kinds of conversion tool that can help with using content fro one figure on another, though they cover different aspects to different degrees (Poser, for example, doesn't have any built in option for swapping the mapping so that you can use textures from figure 1 on figure 2; DS does offer alternative UV sets that allow some swapping, with additional options available in the store). However the distinction between settings and content is common to both - whether you find the DS system, for native formats, of having the settings in a sub-folder of the folder with the models or the Poser system of splitting the content across different libraries is going to be a matter of taste, and perhaps of how the other software you use handles similar issues.

Thats good to know, the wisdom I am getting here is that DAZ is free and worth a push or two to see if I can actually get it to work for me and feel comfortable with it.

Thanks for the help!

Of course this a little like posting in the Moggy lovers forum and pooches pals forums asking whats best dogs or cats? :)

Its kind of obvious which way the answers are going to go in each forum.

If your looking for some rough and ready comparisons try some of these links(Some may be a little dated and some may be slightly biased one way or the other but should give you a little more understanding in the fundimental differences):

http://thinkdrawart.com/poser-daz-studio-carrara-which-one-should-i-use

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/33150/

http://forum.runtimedna.com/showthread.php?63771-Daz-Studio-Pro-Advanced-vs-Poser-9-Pro-2012-Initial-Comparisons

http://mymindismyenemy.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/dazstudio-4-pro-and-poser-pro-2012.html

Imho one of the major things to consider is that Daz 3D makes both content and the actual application Daz Studio, so generally there products are better supported and have better implementation. Poser is made by a company that focuses primarily on software and has a much smaller inhouse content providing establishment(3rd party is by far the largest poser content providers). Most of the newer figures you will be using in Poser were developed first for Daz Studio and then ported to Poser. Use of any of the Genesis figures will require a porting module known as DSON to work in Poser.

As far as any product issues your having,where happy to try to sort them out if you have a few more specifics regarding the product and what its not doing that you feel it should.

I use both Poser and DS (Carrara as well). There are some things Poser does better, and some things that DS does better, and features in each that the other does not have. But for the most part, your preference between the two is predicated on your needs, interests, and which interface works most closely with the way you think.

It's very easy when you start with 3D to think that the grass is greener on the other side. It's also very common to feel that "free" software isn't as good, or as easy to use, as software you pay for. But DS is a very capable piece of software for using and rendering premade 3D content. There is a rather large learning curve when you first begin to use 3D software, and the recommendations you have been given regarding learning DS first are very sound. It will give you a chance to learn the basics, and decide if you are really interested in putting forth the effort to learn to create 3D art. As you learn more about 3D, you may decide that you want to explore Poser, or that Poser has features that you really want to use.

For example, Poser has the cloth room which will enable you to make your own dynamic clothing (requires modeling and other skills as well). Something that you can't really do in DS (though there is a bit of a hack), but you can use premade dynamic clothing designed specifically for use in DS. Dynamic hair is a feature included in Poser, but there are two Dynamic Hair plugins available for DS at very reasonable prices.

The render engine in DS, 3Delight, has been used for rendering animation and special effects for Hollywood films (i.e. Happy Feet Two, Resident Evil, etc.), but some of the great FX rendeing functions aren't easily used in DS. Poser uses Firefly, which is only in Poser, but is a very capable renderer, and seems to be a bit faster than 3Delight in DS (though you can export your scene from DS and use the free stand alone version and rendeing is faster). The one area where Poser falls short is that firefly doesn't support caustics, which can make getting realistic glass, water, crystals, etc. very difficult (3Delight does). Of course, if you need caustics, or an unbiased render engine, Poser has plugins for LuxRender and Octane Render (DS has plugins for these as well).

I find using DS a bit easier than Poser, and lighting is much easier for me in DS than in Poser (but Carrara beats both hands down for me - your milage may vary). I own every vesion of Poser starting with Poser 2, but have only really been using DS since DS3. I find getting renders I am happy with much easier with DS than with Poser, but others have the opposite experience.

I hope all this makes some sense, basically a lot of what you find/feel is best from software to figures to other content is really a matter of personal preference. Welcome to your new hobby and the often ambiguous world of 3D. 

@razor thanks for the links man! I'm really grateful.

@Dustrider I suppose I just need to read up more on DAZ products and exactly why they seem to not function properly or not at all I am seemingly using the models they are intended to be used for. I thought on the cloth room as a possible side step to this complication but it seems I just need to put a little mroe research in.

Later I'll get a detailed list of what is going on and maybe the fix is very easy as for I am walking out the door to an appointment

Thanks all!

Grexx, I have both DAZ and Poser 2012, and generally find DAZ much easier to use though it is a matter of preference.  I would make one observation though:  You never mentioned what kind of writing you did.  If you are writing about beasties acting like humans, DAZ is hands down the way to go since Genesis opens the doors to using your clothing items on pretty much anything that is Genesis based.

That's pretty huge if you have goblins, ogres and other mishapen beasts among yoiur characters.  If you are writng generally about humans, then either one would work, and Poser Dynamic items are better than the DAZ ones, where they even exist.

Quote - @Dustrider I suppose I just need to read up more on DAZ products and exactly why they seem to not function properly or not at all I am seemingly using the models they are intended to be used for. I thought on the cloth room as a possible side step to this complication but it seems I just need to put a little mroe research in.

Thanks all!

Exactly, you really need to understand what the programs are doing and how all the content works  together with each figure and that you are working with 3D mesh. The fact it even works at all is pretty amazing. It all seems so plug and play on the surface and in many cases it is depending on the app and the content. You really should play around with a free modeling app to understand what the content is made of and how it is constructed, it will give you quite a bit more undertstanding.

the cloth room is definitley not easier. Once you get the hang of it, it can become eaisier, but it takes more knowledge than what conforming clothing does to get good results.

I use both, but have leaned far to the DS side in the past few years because I find it makes more sense and has some features poser does not have that i find invaluable to my workflow.

Keep in mind there are products at both places that are not that compatible in the other app because of how they are designed and the core programming they use that is app specific.

Kind of late..but Im reading this and unless I over looked it you say something you purchsed doesnt fit or work correctly, but never do you explain what exactly is it that doesnt work correctly and on what or who are you trying to fit it on? I have been using poser since poser 4 (I now have poser pro 2014)..always seen daz always installed it and never really gave it a chance,always uninstalled it.

BUT

The pass I'd say 2 weeks I was getting kind of ticked off at the slight...lag i was getting in poser when the scene was full or when switching to other rooms while the render preview window was open..not to mention the rendering times..

so i said to myself..let me just give Daz Studio a crack at this scene I was creating.

and to be 100% honest..I'm sort of hooked...havent opened poser for 2 weeks all my V4 stuff conforms perfectly in Daz..change the UV on the fly to V4 so all my textures from poser are good..couldnt be happier.(minus some shaders and the some sss stuff but Daz has its own way of doing that anyway)

I wont get into rendering and all that because if you take your time to understand either program and with the right textures and lighting placements you can get outstanding results in either..

but anyway maybe  what you purchsed it isnt for whatever your trying to use it on. 

if it is then honestly i dont know what it could be because at the moment I'm applying clothes to genesis which was not made for her but automatically is fitted as if it were regardless if its a morphed out gen or not.

As a newbie stick to studio, until you get everything figured out. Its free.

Studio and poser can both use an external drive to store your runtimes/content.

Both of them state what other product requirements you need for a product on there store pages, dont just look for if its a poser or ds something and up.

They both can use and load most of the same figures and contest.

The exceptions are dynamic clothes,materials,shaders,and studio only genesis figures/content.

They both work basically the same, and everything has a learning curve.

First things to learn are

How to use the software interface

Learn about figures-the skins/charaters and clothes are figure specific, v4 items do not fit on other figures, charaters/skins apply to the figure-they are not stand alone items

Clothes/textures, you need to learn that textures only apply on to the clothes, so you must have the clothes first. Textures are not stand alone items

Second thing to learn is

Learn to load a figure,apply a character/skin, load clothes,apply a texture,then add hair,ect... and pose the figure.

And finally third learn about content/runtime organization before you download hunderds of things and end up with a mess.....lol