DAZ Importer

DAZ importer is a tool for importing native DAZ Studio files (DAZ User File *.duf, DAZ System File *.dsf) into Blender. It also contains some tools to make the assets more animation friendly.

The script has mainly been tested with DAZ Studio 4.9 - 4.15 and Blender 2.79a and Blender 2.80 - 2.91 on Windows 7, Windows 10, and Linux.

It is this DAZ Importer that will likely get the most attention here.

Definitely follow the above link and explore the manual. There is a Lot that we can do with this addon to help us with our Blender experiences with Daz figures.

Although I'm still very new to all of this, I intend to test various features of this amazing suite of tools in order to better understand the benefits/drawbacks of different rigging options for various workflows.

As a total newbie at this point, I can already see that certain options will be better suited for bringing in our animation files that we've already made in Daz Studio compared to creating our own animations from scratch with Blender's more powerful set of animation tools.

I'm truly looking forward to both workflows.

Installation

Installing Diffeomorphic DAZ Importer is a straight-forward process, but is much easier if we take the time to simply follow a specific order of instructions as follows:

  1. Navigate to your Daz Studio Library (default is [drive] > Users > Public > Documents > My Daz Library)

  2. In the Scripts folder, create a new folder called "Diffeomorphic"

  3. In the downloaded ZIP file is a folder called "to_daz_studio"

  4. Within this folder is another "Scripts" folder. Open that and drag the two files into the new Diffeomorphic folder we've just created.

  5. Open Daz Studio and go to Scripts in your Content tab

  6. Within Diffeomorphic, double-click "Set up Menus"

We can now close the zip file and start up Blender

In Blender go to Edit > Preferences and click the Addons tab

Click Install and navigate to your zip folder and double click the zip

While still in Preferences we should now see the addon in the window. Put a check in the box to activate it. If you don't see it, type "daz" into the search box. It should show up. Activate it and close the preferences window.

In Blender use the 'n' hotkey to open the side panel on the right. Go to DAZ Importer

Click "Global Settings" and add all of the various library paths for any content you need to bring into Blender from Daz Studio. Load these into the Root Paths section, and just keep "Add"ing them as your needs require.

Example - I use many "Runtimes" (old Poser habit) to organize my content. My character uses content from many of those runtimes, so if I want to bring her into Blender, I need to add all of those runtimes into the Root Paths section of Global Settings, or the plugin will not be able to find things from those paths.

Once you've completed all of the above steps properly, you're good to go and ready to start using this amazing set of tools!

Our First Test

Let's just check to make sure everything's working:

  1. Load your character with clothing and hair into Daz Studio

  2. Save the Scene (Scene DUF)

  3. With the saved scene still open, go File > Export to Blender - keep the name the same. This creates a new file of the same name for use in the DAZ Importer

  4. Now open Blender

  5. In the DAZ Importer tab ('n' hotkey to open side panel) click Import from DAZ and navigate to the scene file you've just saved. Be sure to double-click the duf file, not the png

In a short while, you should see your character in Blender along with some notes in a dialog about certain things - especially if you're using high resolution textures, which will really make for a heavy Blender scene.

Tip

Do we really need all of that resolution? I know that I don't. I've been reducing the size of texture maps for years simply because I really don't need to use up that much RAM on small things.

I use Irfanview's Batch Conversion process to reduce my texture images:

  1. Navigate to Textures folder in question

  2. create "New Folder" within

  3. Open one of the maps into Irfanview and then drag all of the maps into the new folder for safe keeping (I always keep the originals in the New Folder)

  4. Go back to the image opened in Irfanview and type the 'b' hotkey to open Batch Conversion

  5. Since I opened this from the original folder before moving them to the New Folder, I can simply click the "Use Current Look In Folder" toward the bottom left of the Batch dialog.

  6. In the right panel top, I see the New Folder, so I double-click that, then click the Add All button below it to add all images to the batch.

  7. At this point we need to check to see that all of the image files are of the same extension, like jpg for example. If not, remove any different files from the batch.

  8. Click the Advanced button on the left to tell the Batch Convertor what to do with the files.

  9. Set the size however you like and hit Okay - Note that we need to keep file names identical or our 3D software won't find them!

  10. Back in the main Batch window, make sure that the correct file type is selected on the left

  11. Start Batch Queue

Seconds later we have all of our files in a new size - done for this folder!

I do tis quite often immediately after buying certain products, just to make them lighter on their feet within the 3D software - especially useful for Iray and Blender!

Diffeomorphic DAZ Importer includes methods for reducing texture sizes, but I still feel that it's a good practice to get used to doing these sorts of things yourself. It keeps all original files intact in an easy to find location (the exact same folder, but within a New Folder) and we can custom tweak any single file by hand if we need to.

I mean, I've seen some products come with a simple single color map of black or white or some other solid color that was saved as a 4K image map! What?!!! It happens - trust me! Something like that can even be 128 or smaller - or simply replaced with an RGB or Gray value within the shader!