November 3rd 2013 Fixed mcjBlendBotForCarrara which was unable to invoke addCamera from the mcjBlendBot module September 10th 2013
the mcjUseMatLib.py Blender python module was corrected - if the use-mat-lib option is in effect,
but the material-library doesn't contain a given material, a cycles node tree is built anyway -
this is not a perfect patch since it breaks compatibility with non-cycles renders
April 7th 2013 11:42 am
Blender Version 2.66.3 and up uses different node names, this effectively prevents proper loading of the scene please download the package named mcjBlendBotForBlender2663AndUp.zip found in the attachments install it in the scripts/modules folder of your Blender 2.66.3 and up
February 17th 2013
fixes : the materials were not smoothed when rendering animations,
fixes : DS1,DS2 materials didnt get the gloss factor when exporting animations
in the download section, there was a confusion between mcjTeleBlender.zip and mcjTeleblender.zip
February 14th 2013
the "blender scaling factor" which should be 1% ( and not as previously believed, 2% ) is now applied to the positions of the cameras and lights
February 10th 2013
fixed error introduced in the feb 8th version
February 8th 2013
modified mcjTeleblender's "Fix .mtl file for Blender" it now replaces the "mat_refl" keywords with "refl". This was needed because blender's obj importer as of version 2.64 does not support the "mat_refl" tag. This repairs mcjTeleblendere's ability to have "mirror effect" surfaces.
October 22nd 2012
modified mcjBlendBot which failed when the base .blend scene contained un-applied subdivision modifier
October 18th 2012 modified the mcjAddMappersToTexImgs.py module to correct incompatibility arising from changes in version 2.64 of blender (my fault actually),
the new version is part of the mcjBlendBot package named mcjBlendBot_October_18_2012.zip
modified mcjTeleblender, the batch file created when wou press the "Export/open current frame" button used to be useless, it can now be used to (re) launch the render process of that one frame.
when exporting animations, the surface smoothing options were not enabled, which goes to show that almost nobody uses mcjTeleblender for animations :)
june 29th 2012
added a note in the manual about problems that occur when the lib_ trick is used and "collect maps" option is in use
june 26th 2012
mcjBlendBot new material-library system. Texture images tiling
april 20th 2012
fixed a problem with paths that include spaces
april 17th 2012 added Multiply node to the bumpmap node, only one file in the mcjBlendBot.zip package needs to be updated
march 8th 2012 fixed mcjBlendBot.py for Blender 2.62
feb. 20 2010 release
Introduction
A fantastic GPU-accelerated ray-trace renderer named Cycles has been added to recent versions of Blender.
McjTeleblender is a kit of scripts designed to quickly export Daz Studio scenes, even animations, and render them in Blender using Cycles.
mcjteleblender free Kit of scripts to render Daz Studio Scenes in Blender 2.6x ( Cycles )
Credits
In mcjBlendBot.py, the method to load .obj files was derived from "MeshStreamer" by Tom Harding
Daz Studio 4 users don't need this since DS4 exports as fast as the DS3 plugin
The sample scene
The sample Daz Studio scene roma.daz, contains an animated dancer. Total faces count: 102,000
Transfering a Daz Studio scene in blender
Launch mcjTeleBlender
if you installed it correctly it should be found in your daz library in Studio / Scripts / mCasual
Specifying the export file
In the Export section, click on the first "Browse" button,
Specify the location and name of the file that will be used to transfer the scene.
In the example below, i created a folder named roma in my F:\ disk
I specified i want the export file to be named roma.obj
Warning : since this file will contain the whole scene it can be quite big ( example: 30 MB )
Specifying the location of Blender
n the Export section, click on the second "Browse" button,
Specify the location of Blender.exe
On a typical machine, that's C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender.exe
Adding Environment Lighting
in the "World Environment" section, check-mark the "Use This Color" check-box change the color to
light cyan and the Strength to 0.33
To Blender !
Click on the "Export/Open Current File" button
A few seconds later Blender should open with your scene ready to render
click to enlarge
Click on the Blender's Render/Image button
The result:
Transfering and rendering an animated Daz Studio scene in Blender
Launch mcjTeleBlender
Basic setup
As for the case of the still scene,
- specify the location of the exported files, i will use C:\roma\roma.obj
- specify the location of blender
- add environment lighting
Range of frames to export
In the "Scene-frames to export" section, specify the scene-frames to export
in this example, 30 .obj files will be created in F:\roma
roma0.obj, roma1.obj ... roma29.obj
This duration happens to be the duration of the dancing character's dance move.
warning: keep in mind that this fills up substantial space on your hard disk
Range of frames to render
in the "Export" section, specify the range of frames to render,
since the range of frames to export ( 30 ) is smaller than the range of frames to render ( 150 )
the animation will be looping every 30 frames.
Location of the rendered images
By default, Blender will attempt to save the rendered images in c:\tmp under the names 0000.png, 0001.png ... 0149.png
You can change this in the section titled "Location and type of rendered images"
Export scene-frames and create the render batch file
click on the "Export Animation" button
Each frame ( 30 in our example ) will take a few seconds to export
Rendering the animation
For animations, rendering ( in our case 150 images ) is done through the use of a batch file.
The batch file can be found in the same folder where the .obj files were exported
in our example, here it is, roma.bat in the f:\roma\ folder
Note how our 30 exported .obj files occupy almost half a gigabyte
launch the rendering process by double-left-clicking on the batch file ( roma.bat in this example )
You can follow the progress using the console/window shown below.
Using a batch file to render an animation has the great advantage of allowing you to pause the render using your keyboard's Pause button.
romalilanim.avi
Using and re-using a (.blend) scene file
To save time and disk space, we can create then use and re-use a blender scene file
creating a (.blend) scene file with the help of mcjTeleBlender
as our render engine we specify 'Cycles'
for our sample scene, we hide the dancing character
In the "Export" section, we specify we want the exported .obj to be F:\roma\romaScene.obj
we use the Export/Open current frame button
this opens our (static) scene in Blender
we can add lights, modify the materials, move things around, anything we want !
and we save it as F:\roma\romascene.blend
Using the .blend Scene file
In our Daz Scene, we hide everything except the animated character
In the "Render Engine" section, select "Scene File ( .blend )"
and specify the blender scene file we created in the preceding step
ready to render !
Using and re-using a (.blend) material library
The .obj/.mtl format used to exchange scenes between Daz Studio and Blender
is not completely adapted to the transfer of complex/sophisticated materials.
So mcjTeleBlender gives you the ability use a .blend scene as a library of materials
example:
we have a Daz Studio scene with Numan being carried by your average roboseat
when we export and render it in Blender it looks like this
Now we can tweak the materials until they are acceptable, which, yes indeed, requires reading tutorials like
ones found here http://www.blendercycles.com/
Now we delete everything which is part of the decor file ( romaScene.blend )
and we save this Blender Scene as f:\roma\NumanMaterialLibrary.blend
close Blender.
Back in Daz Studio, in the mcjTeleBlender's "Process Materials" section, select "Use mat-Lib" and browse
up to the .blend material library we created a moment ago, "f:\roma\NumanMaterialLibrary.blend"
Now when we render an animation or a still image, those materials will be used.
The result
numa00.avi
Using Blender's Internal renderer
In the "Render Engine" section, select the "Blender Renderer" option
in the "Process Materials" section, select any option except "Cycles Nodes".
Typically, use "Blender Fix"
Following the import of your scene in Blender, the suite of python scripts we supplied will fix the blender materials
If a material uses an opacity map, then the "use alpha" of this material will be set to False. This is because Daz Studio
uses RGB images for its opacity maps , whereas Blender expects to use the Alpha channel of an RGBA image
Unfortunately, so far, the eyebrows of Daz Figures like Aiko 3 don't render properly when Environment lighting is used
unless you turn off the "traceable" option of the material. But for regular lighting they render properly
If a material uses a Reflection map, then the material's "Mirror" option will be turned on, the reflection factor will be set to 1.
If a material has a Ambient map, the material's "Emit" option will be set to ON
The cycles materials
Process Materials : Cycles nodes
Cycles renderer expects node-based materials, the kit of python scripts you installed earlier takes care
of converting the imported materials into node-based materials.
Here's the node tree for a simple material
In Daz Studio, this surface has a full-white Specular Color
If you apply an image map to the Reflection channel of a material in Daz Studio
it will be made reflective in Blender-Cycles
if you apply a texture map to the Diffuse channel of a material in Daz Studio
it will be used in Blender-Cycles
if you apply a map to the Specular channel of a material in Daz Studio
it will be used to modulate the glossiness of the Cycles material in Blender
In the example below a map was used to keep the skin glossy but not the jeans material
If you apply an Opacity/Transparency map to a material in Daz Studio
it will be used to modulate the opacity of a BSDF-Transparent node in Blender
Important note: in the example below,
the cornea is made semi-transparent by the use of a transparency map
without this, the cornea would be opaque
we would not see the iris and pupil.
If you want the cornea to be 100% transparent,
apply a fully black transparency map to it in Daz Studio
added june 26th 2012
texture coordinates / mapping
the Blender script package now contains a script named mcjAddMappersToTexImgs.py
mcjBlendBot.py calls one of its functions, which adds the nodes needed to do texture tiling
added june 26th 2012
another way to re-use custom materials (.blend files )
After importing a scene/file ( .obj ), the mcjBlendBot suite of scripts
will go through the list of materials in the scene.
If a given material makes use of an image file named with the prefix "lib_"
then the script will attempt to import a similarly named material
from a similarly named .blend file.
For example, I created a material and named it lib_cornea
i applied it to a simple plane ( Add / Mesh / Plane )
I saved it under the name lib_cornea.blend in my F:\Roma folder.
In thesame folder, i created a black image and named it lib_cornea.jpg.
In Daz Studio i applied this black image as the opacity channel of Aiko's cornea
Now when i render this scene using mcjTeleBlender,
the material lib_cornea located in the file f:\roma\lib_cornea.blend
will be applied to Aiko's cornea
Warning: if by accident the file lib_cornea.blend does not exist
the whole import process may fail.
WARNING : if you are using mcjBlender's "Collect maps" option
then your lib_xxxxx.jpg images will end up in the "Maps" folder
along with the other texture images in the scene.
So mcjBlendBot will not be able to find the corresponding lib_xxxxx.blend file.
So you have 2 choices
1 - not use the "Collect maps option"
2 - not use the copy your lib_xxxxx.blend file to the "Maps" folder
on june 29th 2012 i uploaded a new version of the mcjBlendBot kit of scripts - it doesnt solve this problem but at least it doesnt interrupt the loading of the scene, when the lib_xxxxx.blend files cant be found.
Cycles Render Engine Settings
When the Cycles Renderer is in effect, the default settings are chosen to work on any computer
Feature set: Supported Device: CPU
if your computer is equipped with a modern NVidia graphics card, you'll probably want to use
Feature set: Experimental Device: GPU Device: CUDA
if your computer is equipped with a modern ATI graphics card, you'll probably want to use
Feature set: Experimental Device: GPU Device: OpenCL
if check-marked, the texture maps files (images) will all be placed in the "Maps" sub-folder
in the same folder where your .obj/.mtl files are located.
Default: OFF
Export / Single .mtl file
this option is only effective if the mcjGeoSender plugin is installed
All the exported .obj file will share the same .mtl file.
Default: ON
Export / Fix .mtl file for Blender
Daz Studio's .obj/.mtl exporter may specify paths to images like this
/Maps/image.jpg
or like this
"c:\folder\image.jpg"
which would cause Blender to refuse to load the scene
When this option is check-marked, mcjTeleblender will modify the .mtl file to make it Blender-compatible
( You may want to un-check this option if the target importer is not Blender )
Default: ON
Export / Export Current Daz Camera
When this option is check-marked, mcjTeleblender will transfer the position,
orientation and focal length of the currently active camera to Blender.
And this means, animated cameras too!
Default: ON
Export / Export lights
Lights with the same color and positions will be created in the Blender scene. ( animated lights too )
all lights will be treated as point-lights
Default: ON
Export / Scale
Daz Studio uses a scaling of 1 unit = 1 cm
Blender uses a scaling of 1 unit = 100 cm ( note for a long time this was erroneously stated as 50cm )
so when Blender is the target importer, we use a scale of 1%
Default: 1
Export / no progress bar
if checked, no progress bar will be displayed during the export of an animation.
This is possibly needed when exporting figures animated using Animate.
The disadvantage is that it prevents you from halting the export process
Default: OFF
World Environment / Texture
If the renderer is Blender-Cycles, this texture will be used an an World - Background - Environment Texture
Otherwise, this texture will be added to the World, the texture will influence "Blend" and "Horizon"
and "Environment Lighting" will be turned on
This gives you Image Based Lighting ( IBL )
Note that there's problems with Blender-Render's "Environment Lighting" and materials with transparencies.
you could solve this by turning the material's "Traceable" option off.but you lose transparency shadows
Default: OFF, Strength=1.0
mcjBlenderBot.py / Gamma Fix
Blender's internal .obj importer lightens up the material colors, this fix darkens them using the equation
color_out = color_in * color_in ( component values in the [0..1] range )
Default: ON
mcjBlenderBot.py / Edge Split
An "Edge Split" modifier will be added to each object in your scene/.obj
This way, object like cubes retain their sharp edges, while characters bodies remain smooth-looking
Default: ON
mcjBlenderBot.py / Set Smooth
The "smooth" option is applied to all the objects in your scene/.obj
Default : ON
For Daz Studio version 1.8 Users
The good news is, you can use mcjTeleblender to export Studio scenes for render in Blender
The moderately bad news is, for each scene/Frame export, you have to click the "OK" button on the export settings panel
To get proper scaling, Select the "Poser" preset, but change the scale to 2%
You only have to do this once.
When things go wrong Let me illuminate to you the precarious situation i which you have found
yourself. I am the one they call when things go wrong, and things have
indeed gone wrong.
-- Mister Cobra Bubbles in the movie Lilo and Stitch ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExPEjMMYlg )
missing image textures
Sometimes the .obj/.mtl exporter refers to images that no longer exist on your hard disk.
In a case like that, Blender's obj/mtl importer will refuse to load the .obj/.mtl files.
Or the .mtl file will refer to a file named "example.bmp" as "example.jpg" and therefore
Blender will be unable to locate the image.
In such a case you should check-mark mcjTeleBlender's the "Collect maps" option.
this may be enough to solve the problem
else, inspect the .mtl file to find the problem
Also make sure you are not specifying a non-existing image for World-Environment
running out of memory due to large images / geometries
Sometimes the image files are so numerous and large ( example 4000x4000 pixels ) that they fill
up your graphic card's memory. The cycles renderer will either crash or render a black image
In such a case you should check-mark mcjTeleBlender's the "Collect maps" option.
then go in the /Maps/ folder ( located in the same folder as the .obj/.mtl/.bat/.py files )
and, using a paint program, resize the big ones.
If you are willing to suffer the speed penalty, changing the Cycles Render engine to
"SUPPORTED" / "CPU" may solve the problem
Sometimes the geometry of the objects in the scene is too large ( example: a scene with many characters )
and it doesnt fit on your graphic card's memory.
here too, changing the Cycles Render engine to
"SUPPORTED" / "CPU" may solve the problem
invalid paths
depending on the chosen options, there's 6 places where you have to specify paths to files on your hard disk.
make sure they point to valid locations
Wrong version of Blender
This software suite was developped for Blender 2.61, the official release, it may work with Blender 2.5x
