Company:DAZ 3D
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| Type | Software and Content Developer |
|---|---|
| Founded | Utah (2000) |
| Headquarters | Salt Lake City, Utah, United States |
| Website | www.daz3d.com |
Daz Productions, Inc., commonly known as Daz 3D, is a 3D content and software company specializing in providing rigged 3D human models, associated accessory content and software to the hobbyist as well as the prosumer market. Originally a part of Zygote Media Group, a general purpose, application-agnostic 3D content broker, Daz 3D split off as "Digital Art Zone"[1] in 2000[2] to focus on supplying content for the Poser market.
Daz 3D continue to focus on 3D content development, but also began to expand their own 3D software offerings as well, with purchases of several notable 3D applications:
- Bryce, a fractal-based landscape modeler and renderer acquired from Corel by DAZ in 2004.[3]
- Hexagon, a 3D mesh modeler originally developed by eovia, acquired by DAZ in 2006.[4]
- Carrara, a general purpose 3D modeler/animation package also acquired from eovia in 2006.[5]
Additionally, Daz 3D developed their own scene creator software, Daz Studio,[6] as an alternative to Poser.[7]
In 2016 Daz 3D spun off Tafi, a 3D content company intended to focus more on the game developer space.[8]
Free 3D Software
In 2012 Daz 3D shifted their strategy from selling 3D software and content to one of giving the 3D software away for free[9] and focusing more on the selling of the content. This began with offering Daz Studio for free in 2012, which gave customers the ability to render images and video and expanded in 2017 when Daz 3D added Hexagon to the list of their free software products and added the ability to do 3D modeling to that mix.
Figure Technology
Daz 3D has had many versions of its human figures and characters, but in 2011 they launched a significant change in the underlying technology. Instead of each figure being designed individually, Daz 3D moved to their Genesis platform, in which figures were derived as morphs from the base mesh. Two of the key differences that this technology created were: The ability for characters to be blended into a huge variety of shapes, and since these shapes were all derived from a common base, add-on content like clothing, hair, and additional morphs would not only work on all characters, but could actually change with the characters.[10]
The Genesis platform has gone through several versions since the launch in 2011:
Genesis 2
One of the shortcomings of the Genesis platform was that although it allowed extremely flexibility in the shape of characters and clothing, it also toned down some of the elements of what made a male or female figure unique. Genesis 2, released in 2013,[11] changed this by splitting the Genesis base figure into two separate base figures: Genesis 2 Male and Genesis 2 Female.
Genesis 3
Up until Genesis 3 the Genesis figures had been using TriAx Weight Maps, where many other industry platforms were using Dual Quaternion. This changed in Genesis 3, released in 2015,[12] to allow Daz 3D figures to be more compatible with other 3D software platforms as well as Game Development platforms.
Genesis 8
The jump in version naming from Genesis 3 to Genesis 8 was in order to address confusion in naming conventions. Although Genesis had reached its fourth version, most of the Daz 3D flagship characters were now on their eight versions. In order to avoid the confusion of Victoria 8 or Michael 8 being Genesis 4 characters, Daz 3D shifted the versioning of Genesis to match with the character versions.
Genesis 8 also includes significant changes in the figure's backward compatibility with previous generations and their content as well as Joint and muscle bends and flexing and facial expressions.[13]
References
- ↑ Harvey, Tom (March 28, 2012). "Utah company counts on big giveaway to boost bottom line". The Salt Lake Tribune. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=53801962&itype=CMSID. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
- ↑ "Daz 3D Company Profile: Valuation & Investors | PitchBook" (in en). https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/52704-73.
- ↑ "DAZ acquires Bryce from Corel". https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/daz-acquires-bryce-from-corel/article1134134/.
- ↑ "DAZ Productions Acquires Eovia US Corp.; Deal Bolsters DAZ's Commitment to High-Quality, Affordable 3D Solutions and Ensures Solid Future for Eovia's Widely Acclaimed Software" (in en). https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20060425005245/en/DAZ-Productions-Acquires-Eovia-Corp.-Deal-Bolsters.
- ↑ "DAZ acquires Carrara maker Eovia Corp." (in en). https://www.macworld.com/article/1050518/daz.html.
- ↑ "DAZ Studio" (in en). PCWorld. https://www.pcworld.com/article/260280/daz_studio.html.
- ↑ "Daz3d Studio Pro Review - January 2018" (in en-US). NATIVETELECOM. 2018-01-18. https://www.nativetelecom.org/daz3d-review/.
- ↑ "Reality Revolution: Virtual reality is ready to take Utahns to new landscapes - Utah Business" (in en-US). https://utahbusiness.com/reality-revolution-virtual-reality-ready-take-utahns-new-landscapes/.
- ↑ "Utah company counts on big giveaway to boost bottom line" (in en-US). The Salt Lake Tribune. http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=53801962&itype=CMSID.
- ↑ "Daz 3D introduces Genesis technology for 3D human models : GraphicSpeak" (in en-US). http://gfxspeak.com/2011/06/02/daz-3d-introduces-unimesh-technology-for-3d-human-models/.
- ↑ "Victoria 6". DAZ 3D. http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-6. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ↑ "DAZ 3D Announces Launch of Victoria 7" (Press release). Salt Lake City, Utah: DAZ 3D. PRWeb. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
- ↑ "Review: DAZ 3D's Victoria 8 - DigiSprawl" (in en-US). DigiSprawl. 2017-06-20. http://www.digisprawl.com/blog/review/review-daz-3ds-victoria-8/.
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