I've been out of this scene since 2006 or so.

But I'm looking to get back into things.

Last night I re-installed my old copy of Poser 7, and then got the latest version of Daz3D, as well as found my info for Bryce and Vue (I left these at Bryce 7pro and Vue 6i it appears).

I have been completely out of 3D Art all of this time, not even following the artists I used to follow or any of the news.

A little unsure where to go to get back into things, but it looks like Daz3D is the ideal choice now (and if I decided on Poser later, I'd have to buy it anyway, and that money is first going to go for model updates).

Am I asking this stuff in the right place?

• What are my best tutorial sites / info on getting into Daz, especially if coming from Poser?
   
• I have a massive library of old content in assorted runtimes that is sitting on an old storage external drive... Can I use it directly from an external drive with Daz3D?

Can I keep my entire 'runtime' or whatever that is called in the Daz3D world, on an external drive? I've got a nice shiny new 3TB external sitting beside the old one that at present more or less has... a few random zip files and a copy of my iTunes music... as in: unused...

• Is there a good guide somewhere to doing this? I'd love to dedicate that drive to the purpose.
   
• If I get something like the Aiko Pro Bundle, can the items in it be used with any other Genesis 2 model? Are they are more intercomptable now than they used to be? They were just starting to work together better when I left.
   
• Does Daz3D work well with current versions of Bryce and/or Vue? Do I even need to care, as in; has the Daz rendering engine become so good that I wouldn't care about the other apps for many projects?
• Is anyone in the Platimum Club Plus and is it better than regular Platinum Club? I paid the bill on PC for about 4 years without using it after I'd left... before realizing the charge was there... But I do remember the discount was handy.
   
• Is there any specific important something I should really get aware of, that I'm missing calling out here?

Having been out of the scene so long... I'm not fully sure if I'm even asking the right questions. All I know is I stared at my newly installed copy of Daz for about an hour last night, looked at my old drive, and dreamed of doing art again... I've changed a lot in the intervening years... But I'm not really sure where to start.

I can answer a couple of questions - Yes you can tell Daz Studio to use an external runtime.  I have at least 6-7 runtime folders scattered across different volumes (HDs).

Old poser content works just fine.  I mainly use an older version of DS myself (probably new to you) Ver3 (it's up to 4.6.xxx now), but all of my old content works in either versions.

There are tutorials on the Daz3d site, YouTube (do a google search) and I'm sure many other sites.

For me, PC+ doesn't do much for me, I am sticking with plain old PC - it's a beta program anyway.  Weigh your spending habits agaist the 2  options to see what fits best for you.

You can send a render from Daz to Bryce, but not to Vue directly.  I don't use Bryce at all currently and haven't used Vue since Version 6.  I have used Daz with Cinema4D to some extent.  There are a lot more rendering options in Daz that make the need for these extenal app unneccessary for everyday rendering.

Others can probably answer your other questions better.

-AniMajik

I would suggest you go to the daz site forum they have a newbie section with all the info you need starting out.

hi, I was in the old Platinum club for a few months and found I was quickly bored with the stock, the $1.99 items although a lot were good,alot were old items and I was running out of things I liked. I have found the new pc+ more beneficial to me with the discount on premium artist catalogues and the stack up sales are very good.PC+ is only running until july 31st. Hope this helps.

Hello

As an old member of Renderosity i remember you,Arcady

Welcome again!!

Using Poser since version 2 (now Poser pro 2014) and DAzStudio since its debuts, i suggest you now to concentrate your learning on free DAZStudio pro 4,6 .Anyway all Poser stuff are working good with it. And the rendering is good with good lights  ;you can also use Reality plugin for Luxrender output

Using also Vue d'esprit infinite (version 2014 now) , i can say that it possible to import files from DAZStudio if export in another format (like obj) but i have variable results from this exportation-importation process .Poser files are more easily imported in VUE with some ajutment in bump and hightlight parameters of the materials. Even with Skin vue plugin for human characters, i think the Vue road to render is justified if you really need to have characters on the landscape not for just rendering

But i admit that Poser stuff are very good now and many excellent stuff from  RDNA site are principally for Poser .The DNA  Render Studio serie of products  is very good

Bonne chance!

Welcome back!

With regard to the Aiko 6 Pro bundle, yes, it "should" all be compatible with any other G2F figure. Depending on the clothing and the morphs used in the other figure(s), some of the cloths may not fit as perfectly as you would like, but in most cases this really isn't a problem (i.e. you might get some odd wrinkles/bends in some items from autofit, but this can often be made much better with the smoothing modifier).

That's is one of the great things about Genesis/Genesis 2, the cloths can easily be used on other figures. The only real problem area is trying to use shoes from other figures on Genesis or Genesis 2. The shoes designed for any G2F figure will easily work on other G2F figures, but Genesis(1), or V4 shoes typically don't easily work very well.

Well thanks folks.

I did also post in the Daz forum to get a good spectrum of replies.

I've since bought both the Aiko 6 pro bundle and the new Lee Pro bundle.

• Which gives me an odd mix of a cartoony female and a realistic male, but that's where the good discounts were when I bought.

I'm planning to start working on learning to use the volume light and such in Daz.

My Vue copy is ancient - 6 infinite. And I'm wondering if I should upgrade it or not but that's a topic for the Vue forum - where I'll have to take stock of my needs before I figure out what to ask there.

I've got some test renders going, but not much more yet.

I'm also noticing a version of the premium club here at renderosity that looks... tempting. But I'm going to jump into that AFTER I know more about what things I'll be needing for where I go with this. :)

(Though that said... I need to identify a good genesis 2 base female model, with a realistic face - soon. But before I can get there I need to mentally outline my initial plans more so I know things like what ethnicity to shoot for... :) )