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DAZ Studio Scripting for Absolute Beginners
Learn to create powerful, innovative and time saving scripts for DAZ Studio
October 8, 2023 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm BST
Are you a DAZ Studio artist or content creator? Do you often find yourself wondering about the capabilities that lie beneath the interface of your favorite 3D software? Whether you’re a published artist seeking efficiency or the ability to make new types of products, or just curious about the ‘magic’ behind the scenes, this course was designed specifically for you!
For the first time, we are offering an exclusive series of webinars crafted to give DAZ Studio artists the tools they need to take their work to the next level. This course promises more than just technical know-how; it’s about empowering you to take full control of DAZ Studio, optimize your workflow, and tap into the unseen potentials of the platform using scripting.
Here’s why this three week course is perfect for you:
Foundational & Advanced Knowledge: Whether you’ve always wanted to delve deeper into DAZ Studio’s mechanics, desire specific control over characters or scenes, or if you’re just caught up in a maze of repetitive tasks; this course has got you covered. Dreamt of being a PA or crafting script products? We’ll guide you there!
A Clear Roadmap: The thought of scripting can be daunting, especially if you’ve never dabbled in it or any other programming language. But worry not! This course starts from the absolute basics, ensuring you’re never left overwhelmed or lost. We’re here to illuminate the path, step by step.
Unrivaled Expertise: Learn from the best in the business! Mike D, your course instructor, boasts 5-6 years of scripting experience. Having crafted hundreds of successful scripts for DAZ Studio, his solutions have been game-changers for countless artists and PAs. Mike’s unique insights and practical know-how ensure that you’re learning from a seasoned expert.
Collaborative Learning: What truly sets this course apart is the community it fosters. Learn alongside like-minded artists, fostering an environment of mutual growth, shared creativity, and collaborative problem-solving.
In this age, efficiency is key, and understanding the depth of your tools is paramount to achieving it. So, if you’re ready to innovate, automate, and elevate your DAZ Studio experience, this course awaits you.
Dive in and revolutionize the way you see and use DAZ Studio!
See MikeD’s 3D content, scripts and plugins in the DAZ 3D store
Course Format
Three webinar sessions held each Sunday at 19:00 BST (London) starting on the 1st of October, with additional tutoring and progress within a private forum. Each webinar session will last between 1.5-2 hours.
Course Curriculum
Webinar 1 : Foundation – A First Look
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Scripting
- What is DAZ Scripting?
- Which application to work with (DAZ Scripting IDE)
- Object Oriented hierarchy
- Building an example “Partially lock a figure hierarchy for posing”
- Variables
- DAZ Objects documentation
- Constructors
- Properties
- Methods
- Signals
- Using DAZ objects syntax
- Global Objects
- Comments in script code
- Arrays How to a dd more elements.
- Accessing an array’s elements
- Loops – Documentation
- The “for” loop
- Functions
- Arguments
- Returned object
- Breaking the script Debugging and messaging
- Debug, Print and Message
- Conditional forms
- The if statement
- Create a second script Altering the above example to “Unlock a figurer’s hierarchy”
- Using Object hierarchy
- Using the skelenton of a bone
- Final Q&A session
Webinar 2 : Going deeper
- Modifying the lock/unlock script to “Lock everything else but the selected node’s
children”- Loop in loop (nested loops)
- Array’s functions-Focus on “Filter”an array
- Making a script to make visible/invisible every scene light but the selected current light’s influence on the scene.
- Use the scene object
- Check if the current node is a light using inheritance
- Using functions
- Using the “Data Item”
- A deeper look to “Simple Element Data”
- Using settings
- Set some values
- Get a specific value
- Using the Element’s ID as a unique identifier
- Take only the “root” node for each item in the scene having a “shape”
- Using the DzObject and the DzShape
- Take the materials (surfaces) of an item
- Use a material property
- Find the property
- Get the property’s value
- Set the property’s value
- Use the Color object
- Final Q&A session
Webinar 3 : Building a User Interface
- User Interface Dialogs
- Building a script to show a color’s hex name and vice versa
- Using a DAZ Sample
- Basic Dialog
- DAZ Objects used in dialogs – widgets
- Adding some elements to the dialog
- Horizontal and Vertical Groups
- Line Edit
- Push Button
- Color Widget
- Slots and Signals How to make our buttons active
- Code for the line edit s button to show the color
- Code for the color widget s button to show the color’s name
- Accept and Cancel buttons
- Code the Accept button to copy the color s name to the clipboard
- Code the Cancel button to exit the script
- Final Q&A session
Webinars 4/5 : VIP Members Only
Learn how to create a “Multi-Angles Render” script, which…
- Rotates the selected figure automatically in the scene according to some given angles,
- Makes the renders and saves them at the same time, without the user interference.
- This project involves a lot of scripting aspects and at the same time it can be used by a DAZ Studio user to make some renders used on some plain items in the scene (for example creating a crowd, minimizing the scene nodes) or by a Content Creator to automatically render some promos for their figure/clothing item from different angles.
Ticket Options
Free Ticket for introductory session
- Entry to the first 30 minutes of webinar 1
Standard Course Ticket
- Three 1.5-2 hour webinar sessions
- HD Searchable recording of all webinars
- Private forum for deeper learning in between webinar sessions
VIP Course Ticket
- All the benefits of the standard course ticket
- Two additional webinar sessions on how to build a “Multi-angles render script” (see above)
- Two scripts products (as bonuses) created by Mike D worth $50
- Icon creator pro : create icons for the assets (files) of the DAZ Studio Content Library of DAZ Studio
- Wireframe Render for Iray : builds the UV maps of figures and projects the wireframe maps over the existing textures
About the presenter : Mike D
Mike lives in Greece. He studied Chemistry/Biochemistry at the University of Ioannina. At the same time, he joined the Students Photographic Club of the university. After graduation, he worked as a Chemistry and Biology teacher at high schools. As the time passed by, he realized that the students preferred watching a visual representation of a topic rather than reading about it from an endless text. In order to meet their needs, he started learning about 3D and animation.
It was October of 2016 when he decided to design and program a website containing all the visual work he had done so far. So, www.mikededes.com was born. It contains a lot of photos, timelapses and 3D projects.
At the same time, after watching a lot of webinars, mostly from Digital Art Live, various tutorials and reading about advanced 3D techniques, he managed to create his own 3D commercial items. After a few months, he became a PA in DAZ 3D. In the next couple of years, he gradually reduced his teaching hours in order to devote himself to working as a full-time content creator for DAZ 3D. He has released a lot of products ever since.
Now, his main arsenal includes 3D Max, ZBrush, UVLayout Pro, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Photoshop and Marvelous Designer. He likes to create Props, Clothes, Environments, but mostly Scripts. “There is one or more scripts in almost every one of my products, to maximize the user experience, even if the user doesn’t even know about their existence!”, as he says.
In his spare time, he likes watching movies and playing a good PC game with his girlfriend. Photography remains his hobby till today.