Easy Import DAZ

The Import DAZ tool is a general tool for importing DAZ Studio scenes, but almost always we must perform several more steps before the characters are ready to be posed. It may be difficult to know exactly which tools to use and in what order. The Easy Import DAZ tool is intended to solve these problems. It is further discussed in the blog posts Easy Import and Favorite morphs and easy import.

A file selector opens where we select the duf file that we saved in DAZ Studio. The options allow us to select how the character is imported and which tools are applied to after it has been imported.

• Mesh Fitting: Method used for fitting meshes to morphs. This is the same option as the Import DAZ tool.
  • Unmorphed Shared (Environments)
  • Unmorphed Unique (Environments)
  • Morphed (Characters)
  • DBZ File (Characters)
• Material Method: This is the same option as the Import DAZ tool.
  • BSDF (Cycles Only)
  • Extended Principled
  • Single Principled
• Viewport Color: The viewport colors assigned to materials. Since the viewport color never appears in renders, this only affects the viewport appearance, not rendered images. Method used for fitting meshes to morphs. This is the same option as the Import DAZ tool.
  • Skin
  • Clothes
• Merge Materials: Merge identical materials.
• Eliminate Empties: Delete non-hidden empties, parenting its children to its parent instead.
• Merge Rigs: Merge all rigs to the main character rig.
  • Create Duplicate Bones: Create separate bones if several bones with the same name are found.
  • Non-conforming Rigs: Also merge non-conforming rigs.\n(Bone parented and with no bones in common with main rig-
    • Never: Don't merge non-conforming bones.
    • Face Controls: Only merge face controls.
    • Always: Always merge non-conforming bones.
  • Convert To Widgets: Convert widget mesh to bone custom shapes.
• Make All Bones Posable: Add an extra layer of driven bones, to make them posable.
• Merge Toes: Merge separate toes into a single toe bone.
• Use Favorite Morphs: Load a favorite morphs instead of loading standard morphs.
• Favorite Morphs: Path to favorite morphs. Only visible if Use Favorite Morphs is enabled.
• Units: Import all face units.
• Expressions: Import all expressions.
• Visemes: Import all visemes.
• Head: Import all head morphs.
• FACS: Import all FACS units.
• FACS Details: Import all FACS details.
• FACS Expressions: Import all FACS expressions.
• Body: Import all body morphs.
• JCMs: Import all JCMs (Joint Corrective Morphs).
• Flexions: Import all flexions.
• Baked Correctives: Import all custom correctives for baked morphs.
• DAZ Favorites: Import DAZ favorite morphs.
• Use Adjusters:
• Transfer To Face Meshes: Automatically transfer shapekeys to face meshes like eyelashes, tears, brows and beards. Can be disabled if face meshes will be converted to particle hair.
• Transfer Shapekeys: Transfer shapekeys from character to clothes.
• Merge Geografts: Merge selected geografts to active object. Shapekeys are always transferred first.
• Merge Face Meshes: Merge separate face meshes (eyelash, brow, tear, beard) to character.\nIneffective if there are unmerged geografts. Shapekeys are always transferred first.
  • Lashes
  • Tear
  • Brows
  • Beard
• Convert Hair: Convert strand-based hair to particle hair.
• Optimize Pose For IK: Optimize pose for IK.\nIncompatible with pose loading and body morphs
• Rig Type: Convert the main rig to a more animator-friendly rig.
  • DAZ: Original DAZ rig.
  • Custom Shapes: Original DAZ rig with custom shapes.
  • MHX: MHX rig.
  • Rigify: Rigify.
• Mannequin Type: Add mannequin to meshes of this type
  • None: Don't make mannequins.
  • Nude: Make mannequin for main mesh only.
  • All: Make mannequin from all meshes.

Using the settings above, Aiko is imported, with a single armature controlling both body, hair and clothes. Eye-lashes and geografts have been merged with the main mesh. In the DAZ Importer tab panels for controlling Expressions and FACS appear, since those where the kind of morphs selected above.

Both the character itself and the clothes have corrective shapekeys, since the JCMs and Transfer Shapekeys options were enabled.

In the Easy Import options, we can select the kind of morphs that we want to include. However, the options only include standard morphs, which are supplied by DAZ as part of the DAZ Studio distribution. We may want to add other morphs to the character, made by DAZ or by other vendors, or we may want to add morphs to clothes or geografts. Such custom morphs can be added during Easy Import, if we include a link to a file with favorite morphs. Such a file can be specified in the field just below the Easy Import DAZ button. This option is located here because a file selector can not be opened from within another file selector.

Now we import Aiko again with some other options. When Use Favorite Morphs is enabled, the file path to the favorite morphs appear, without the folder button to the right this time. Also the individual standard morphs have disappeared. We set the Rig Type to MHX and the Mannequin Type to All.

This time Aiko is controlled by the MHX rig. The mesh appears dirty because of the mannequin meshes. The morphs specified by the favorite morphs file appear in the panel, both standard and custom morphs.

Here are some of the custom morphs.

The mannequin is a collection meshes that are parented to the individual bones instead of an armature modifier and vertex groups. It can be used for rough posing since it has better performance in the viewport.