Feature Interview: Architosh talks to DAZ 3D

Earlier this month I had a chance to talk to Dan Farr, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at DAZ 3D. He spoke to us about his company’s announcement to give away tons of free 3D software for one month. (see image 01) And he also spoke to us about why that strategy could lead to big things and how the company views its offerings and advantages.

DAZ 3D, for those who are not familiar, is the company behind the famous Victoria 3D software character. DAZ Studio Pro 4 is its flagship product for working with this character platform. It is a 3D figure illustration/animation application and is now known as Genesis in its latest technology advancement. The company has acquired other software tools from others along the way to support its core focus.

Most notable among these is Bryce, currently at version 7, which is a long-time leader in 3D computer-generated landscape creation. The other notable products in the hands of DAZ are Hexagon and Carrara, the latter being well known to those with experience in the 3D world.

Genesis is largely the reason why DAZ Studio rocks. The new character platform is endlessly innovative, allowing 3D artists of all types to explore body and figure shapes across a female-male spectrum (yes, you can actually create a human basically in between) and even create creatures. (see figures 02-03)

Dan Farr spoke to us about his company, its current plans and products, and his thoughts about mobile apps.

The Interview

AFR: (Anthony Frausto-Robledo) Why are you doing this now…giving away so much excellent software?

DF: (Dan Farr) Since the beginning of our business we have a history of sometimes going against convention. And when we have stepped outside the box–despite how scary it can sometimes be–it has always come back really positive for us.

AFR: What are you really hoping will happen by doing this?

DF: We are hoping to expand our Genesis platform, by tapping the growing market interest in 3D. We want to bring tools down to a lower more accessible point. There is such interest in people to learn 3D. But the challenge has always been the price tag. Sure, a possible solution to that problem is to go with something like Blender. But then another roadblock emerges–ease of use.

AFR: That is the classic problem to 3D adoption you speak of. People want to do amazing stuff, but both the complexity and the price of the tools makes it hard for new adopters. How will you reach this emergent audience for 3D…who are these people?

next page: Expanding market and Hexagon – interview continues

DF: The comic con shows are where we are having new success. Wizard World, the New York Comic Con…these industry trade shows. Over the past year we have been trying to go directly to the end-user venues.

AFR: So what is so new about what DAZ is doing exactly?

DF: A lot of people talk about trying to go down to the mass market. I’ve spoken to other companies, including Autodesk, but the same problems always appear. Our bet is that in our free software give-away we get 100,000 new users of the software who will then come back around and buy content.

[Editor’s note: The 30-day DAZ 3D software free promotion ends on 29 Feb 2012, so grab your free software today]

AFR: I understand that. How much content do you have exactly on your website?

DF: We have over 12,000 different content items on our website for sale.

AFR: But why give away the Pro versions, why not Advanced?

DF: We debated that too. The reason to give away Pro is because it allows users to branch out into other applications. It opens up the possibility of being truly creative and we are here to power the imaginations of people who want to be creative 3D artists.

AFR: And Hexagon?

DF: Hexagon is an updated code base of the Amapi application. It sits on the Amapi platform, which is very capable modeler that we are giving away free today and for anyone wanting to just have a great modeling application this is a great opportunity.

AFR: And people use it to create all manner of 3D form content for their projects?

DF: Exactly.

AFR: Why is Carrara left out of this special offer?

DF: Carrara is targeted towards the more professional and semi-professional market. People who user Carrara are more like the people who use Lightwave or Cinema 4D. It is not as robust as those professional applications but it is very close. Carrara has always had a very fast rendering engine and has great character support. Especially for DAZ characters.

next page: The Truth About Carrara – interview continues

The truth about Carrara is that it is one of the better kept secrets in the industry. We are going to be pushing the education market with Carrara because it is a full-featured 3D package but is easier to use than a lot of the professional tools.

AFR: What are your customers doing with Carrara?

DF: Pro users are using it for film, pre-viz type of work. Last year at this time there was a short written up in the Hollywood reporter, who used Carrara and AfterEffects. Search Vimeo for Modern Times. 80 percent of the people doing the work in TV and film could do everything they really need in Carrara.

AFR: Where did Carrara come from again? Can you recount that history?

DF: Sure. Carrara and Hexagon came from Eovia. Carrara originally came from MetaCreations, the people who brought us Poser and Bryce, along with Painter. MetaCreations was founded by Kai Krause.

AFR: Let’s talk a bit about Genesis so I understand it completely.

DF: Our Millenium and Genesis character lines are at the core of our business. Genesis is a state-of-the-art character platform and provides immense capability, backward compatibility with older content and forward-minded features that users really want and need. (see image 05 below)

AFR: Help me understand who uses these characters they create in DAZ Studio?

DF: Beyond the hobbyist there are top design illustrators who use DAZ  Studio to create characters for numerous illustration needs…from advertising to storyboarding. They are also used by graphic artists to create book and magazine covers for example. A year ago a character was on Wired on the cover.

AFR: What is the main advantage of DAZ Studio over Poser?

DF: Our Genesis character platform is like four or five generations beyond Poser. We have state-of-the-art weight mapping and a very powerful rigging system. We also have superior online and inline tutorials and as we stated before amazing content numbering beyond 12,000 items. And there are compatibility paths between Poser and DAZ Studio as well.

AFR: You are approaching the young, the comic venues the newbies to the world of 3D and making it easy and affordable. All very noble goals for expanding 3D in our world, creating artists, et cetera. But these younger users are also big-time adopters of mobile computing hardware. What are you plans in the tablet space for instance?

DF: We can’t share all our plans but we are expanding in the mobile apps market. Our first app went up this month in the Apple App Store. It’s called Emotiguy Barf and its a fun, free simple app for basic entertainment. We see the bigger opportunity is getting people up to speed sooner. 3D has always been so hard for people to learn. Even getting kids and teaching them how to learn 3D earlier is strategically advantageous for us. The mobile app market is a very important element in that.

AFR: I would agree with you.

DF: 3D is here to stay. Without a doubt. Anyway, check out a film called Rosa on Vimeo. It was created using all of our models and it is amazing.

AFR: Thanks for talking to Architosh.

DF: The pleasure was mine.

That concludes our interview. Be sure to check out the ROSA short in particular. It is beautifully done and visually intense to look at. Also be sure to download the free software from DAZ 3D. Even if you are not sure you want to work with 3D characters having Bryce 7 and Hexagon 2.5 as professional and semi-professional 3D tools is a nice thing to have.

To learn more about DAZ Studio, the Genesis character platform and other DAZ 3D software tools, including their free give-away at this moment please visit them here.

And again, please be sure to check out ROSA!