Hi, I downloaded Daz Studio just last week, and so far I love it. I mean I absolutely love it. I downloaded the MayaDoll basic from free stuff, just so I could get a good idea of what can be done in Daz Studio. It's a Basic model though, so it's not so different from the included limeted Victoria 3. Still, it has the files as they are and not in Daz format, so I was able to explore the cr2 file in notepad and get some idea of how things like the hierarchy work. Unfortunately I've had, more or less a week of banging my head against the wall(not as much fun as it sounds). See I have this app called 3d anim8or, and it's pretty awesome in as much as I can use it to model, import, and export, in several formats including .obj. Here's where I'm completely lost though, and would very much appreciate any links I can get(standard google searches just aren't paying off for me:( ) Has anyone come across a tutorial for how to create the groups in a .obj file so that the character, creature, or even prop is, well, poseable once in Daz Studio? Also has anybody come across a tutorial that explains cr2's and how to make your own? I've managed to figure out this much, that there are at least 2 native file extensions for Daz Studio, the ones I have figured out(a bit) are .daz and .dsb. I have managed to wrap my brain around the fact that if you load a .obj/.cr2 based model into Daz Studio you can save it as a .daz file, and I've figured out how it saves poses in Daz Studio native format(sort of, I mean I couldn't begin to write an app that does everything for you:) I'm not good enough in c++ yet to do anything even remotely complex). Since I used the Maya Doll Basic as a guinnea pig I'm not entirely sure which parts of the .cr2 I would have to change or how, in order to make a .cr2 that would work with the characters or props I'm working on making. Also I'm in the process of figuring out how to make hair for characters, not the simple hair that just sits there but poseable, styleable hair. I'm sure it's a matter of making a seperate model for each piece/section of hair. Now because Daz Studio doesn't use ik at all, I have figured out that if I want to make these "wigs" I will have to make them in groups, example being something along the lines of creating or alterring a model(Mr. Maya encourages us to do what we want with the Maya Doll so long as we provide him with a copy of our finished work and also(generally) make the results free. So for the hair, I would make a sketch of a hair style, then wherever there's a bend, that would be the equivelant of a joint. Then grouping those seperate models in a type of hierarchy, i.e. nape1>nape2>nape3>crown1>crown2...etc. etc. I'm sure it will be much more complicated than that, but still I'm thinking it can be done and without the use of an ik or magnets. So basically, I need to find a tutorial that explains making and editing a .obj with the models and their parts groupd and linking up properly so that they will work in either Daz Studio or Poser(since some Poser files do work in Daz Studio), then I'll need a seperate tut that explains how to take all that info and create a .cr2 file that will then make the .obj poseable and morphable in Daz Studio. Part of my reasoning is that clothing files are customizable, for example once you load a blouse or dress, you can often times adjust the settings so that where the dress is the bust looks larger or smaller, and the breasts higher or lower. I think that if I can get these tuts I can then make models that are as customizable as the clothing. I don't expect any of this to be fast or easy, I just want some good tutorials, tutorials that explain things, from the ground up. Where the writer, didn't just assume that the person reading the tutorial is allready familiar with several aspects of what they are trying to learn. For some reason regardless of the app, or whether it's 3d or 2d many writers of tutorials seem to think that we all have read and understand the particular manual or help file they are talking about(in the case of Poser I don't have that app, so I haven't). See the tuts for the total newbie, I went through those really quickly. I know how to fit props and clothes to the model(easy when you think about it), and the basic interface etc. I'm needing something that will get to the nitty-gritty in easy to understand language(English, but without words that make no sense unless you allready know what the person's writing about and if you allready knew you wouldn't need the tut, get it?). That was long and rambling, I apologize, but it's the teensy little window for writing posts, gives you no idea of how much you have allready typed.:) Any links and help will be greatly appreciated and thanks.:)

Attached Link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0240519299/keindesign-20?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_cod

There are some really good tutorials for creating conforming clothes on Renderosity and on 3D Commune. I use UV Mapper to map the polygons to the bones in the .cr2 for the figure, Morph Manager to remove the morph channels from the body parts and then edit the .cr2 in Wordpad to remove any extra code (Morph Manager doesn't seem to do this completely). I'm sure it would be easier with Poser, but finances don't allow that right now. :)

Hm....since you don't have Poser, that will be a bit tricky. You could start with the good o'le Gingerbread Man tuto: http://www.jabberdoggy.com/Tutorials/Gingerbread/GBMatrix.html . It works with Anim8or, UVMapper and Phi builder - each of them are free downloads. Dunno for the last part of the tutorial, cause he uses Poser for it. You might find a Poser3 free on some older 3D magazine, though.

I've listed some steps for creating in Wings3D too, http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1198444, but at the end I use a free version of Poser3 too for the finishing up.

Then there is "Model Me Elmo" for Amapi user: http://rendervisions.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=196 . Go to the main Amapi forum listing for the next steps.

Maybe you get an idea now, how it works. You also might want to check out the Poser forum here and the tutorial section too or do a search through all forums. This theme is an ongoing always-again asked thing, so you are bound to find some useful informations at R'osity.