I used to make things for Second Life, such as clothing and armor. What I am wondering is if I can use DAZ Studio to replace the rigging solution I had before. It worked very well, but was expensive (and subscription based).

Basically, what I would need to be able to do is to import a .fbx or .dae default avatar file with its rigging information intact, then import the .obj of whatever I was planning to rig, and use the Transfer tool to copy the rigging/weighting information from the former to the latter. For the item to work in Second LIfe, I have to be able to export a .dae from DAZ Studio with the full skeleton of the default avatar intact, not just the bones that influence the item I made (so if I make a shirt, it would still need the legs and feet in the skeleton information of the shirt when it was exported, or Second Life will not understand how to use it).

Can DAZ Studio do all of these things? If so, where do I learn how to do them? I'm already familiar enough with how to use the software to make renders, so it's just these more technical bits that I would need to learn.

Hi there Xatren

I can't answer all of this as I am not familiar with Second Life tbh there is a content rights issue I was not keen on. I also believe that Daz forbids the export of their characters and all meshes for use in Second Life as they are having none of it. This will need clarification and this would not stop you building your own Characters and Props, hopefully this can be confirmed by Rhaseltine oy Bhoins on here for you. I use UE4 and Unity (Both free these days unless you make a killing on your game which then you will be happy to hand over some cash :-)) With the avatars and skeleton intact I export out of Daz and convert from there, it heads out very nicely and can be set up to work fine in Unity etc or animation in iClone. I use Reallusion 3DXchange 6 for the conversion which gives options of 3ds Max Biped, 3ds Max Biped 2, Maya IK and DazGenesis4 profiles and I use a work around with pre Genesis Aiko, Victoria 4 etc which you would probably encounter issues with what you are doing on the early formats. You would need something like Hexagon 2.5 (which is convenient and cheap and has bridge and does have a Second Life toolset) and/or blender to complete the puzzle with the prop side and mesh mods since Daz is basically a 3D render engine with lots of extras not modelling software although the lines are somewhat blurred with this. Once you have worked on either of your own product bringing in and out of Daz should be no real issue. I use Nukeygara Akeytsu to rig and create the animation for characters that I need to create custom bvh for use in other software. I usually export props (ie weapons separately) Since you can export both FBX and OBJ I am of the thought you would have much trouble setting up your creations and using them in your chosen software.

There is not much you can't do with Daz with a few auxiliary programs hanging off the side my friend and best of all you won't be short of is tutorial and help to get you on the right path.

Now as I stated above the please research the Daz - Second life Lic. issue as it needs looking at but because you are suggesting your own Creations/Characters/Props this would be different but not give you full potential of the Daz software compared to using your products in other software/game development applications. IMHO check out UE4 and Unity they are big downloads but costs you nothing to get going, many tutorials and support plenty of free content and far less restrictions due to EULA.

LPR001 posted at 6:56PM Tue, 01 December 2015 - #4241867

IMHO check out UE4 and Unity they are big downloads but costs you nothing to get going, many tutorials and support plenty of free content and far less restrictions due to EULA.

Thanks for the info. What I mainly need is a way of auto-rigging mesh to the default Linden Labs avatars for Second Life. I was hoping DAZ Studio could do that because I would also like to get into developing content for it, once I establish some products in Second Life.

You can try it in Daz and Export in Collada or FBX there is some tools in the top tab as far as joint editors etc. When exporting anything in the scene except lights and cameras will go and you select all the preferences at export in the pop up panel it is all very straight forward. I know Second Life it has some compatibility with 3ds and Maya so there must be some conversion files around if not identical hierarchy obviously tweakable. Like I said probably be helpful to have Hex or blender for any major tweaks and modelling. As for auto rigging I just can't see it in the "straight to Linden Labs - Second Life format" when it is against their own EULA, I could be wrong as it wouldn't be the first time I was told I can't do something but here is the tools to do it anyway. First point is Collada so you could defo make your own custom character mesh in the Daz hierarchy then export to something like Reallusion 3DXchange or alternative as a gateway use the presets/adjust for Maya, 3ds or 3ds v2. it certainly would be a lot cheaper than going the Max/Maya route.

Call me crazy, but I think you're barking up the wrong tree here. Honestly, I believe that there are better alternatives to Rigging In DAZ, depending on your budget. Daz's rigging tools are less than stellar, in my opinion. They're not horrid in my opinion, but they're needlessly complicated for no reason. If you're not planning to use them in DAZ3D, then you're going to be better off using something like Blender which has far more support for SL than Daz. If you have access to Modo Indie, or you might consider something like Maya LT - You're going to have far better results. I don't know why you're choosing DAZ for the task --maybe because it's free and that's fine. But apps like Blender are also free. You can also get Akeytsu which is available in beta right now for free and $49 dollars for indie. And don't forget 3dxchange for Iclone 6 as some more robust alternatives to DAZ Studio when it comes to rigging for Second life.