Importing DAZ Studio Content Into Mojworld 3.0

Author: gmon

Tools Needed

• DAZ Studio
• DAZ Gorilla LE
• Mojoworld 3.0 Pro/LE

This tutorial is an introduction to importing content from DAZ Studio into Mojoworld 3.0. It focuses on selecting, setting up and exporting content with DAZ Studio. Then selecting a planet and a specific location on the planet in Mojoworld 3.0. Loading, resizing, repositioning imported content are then dealt with. Then adjustments of camera view, rendering and, finally, saving your imported model as part of a planet file itself.

Load Gorilla LE into DAZ Studio and set it up as you wish.

Go to File > Export and save to OBJ file as if you were exporting to Bryce 5. Mojoworld will read the obj format OK. For ease of access later, I saved the Gorilla LE to my GorillaLE sub-folder which I'd setup in my DStudio2MJW folder.

At this point, you can close DAZ Studio. Then launch Mojoworld 3.0.

When Mojoworld initially launches you are presented with a default empty planet. From here you can create a planet from scratch, but for our purposes we will be using a pre-existing planet file. To access a pre-built planet, go to File > Open Using Browser.

This will launch the Library Importer - planets folder. Using the browser option the planets are visible as thumbnails. Left clicking once on a particular thumbnail of a planet will launch a larger view and description on the left side of the browser window. Double left-clicking or selecting OK in the top right of the browser window will launch your selected planet.

With the selected planet now loaded, you will see a Real-time-render (RTR) which is less detailed that a photo-realistic (final) render. Standing still in one location can improve the viewing quality though. The RTR is mainly for exploration and is produced using your Video Card. The photo-realistic rendering is produced using your pcs CPU.

There is also the smaller Zip renderer in the upper left corner. This provides a much smaller but photorealistic preview. Right clicking in the zip renderer will also enhance the preview render.

To move around in Mojoworld there are many options. The two I'm highlighting in this tutorial are RandomCam and Jognav. Both of these can be accessed via the strip of tools along the bottom of the main view window, the RTR view

The randomCam is a a fast easy way to move between locations on the planet. Clicking on the 6 dice face will transport you rapidly to random locations on the planets surface. Clicking the 2 dice face will show random views in the same basic location. Clicking the + will add views to a stack of possible locations which can by accessed later.

Great for rapidly exploring a planet and getting an idea of the general terrain and views. Plus the store Cam views option mean you can continue to look for better locations even if you find somewhere that is sort of OK.

The second way to explore the planet surface is via the jogNav this is a directional control pad which when you right-click and hold down on a directional arrow in the jognav. This allows you to go forwards, backwards, left and right, according which arrow you've selected. Click > hold on the cross in the centre. In the top arrow position this you circle vertically forwards and round. The bottom arrow position and you circle vertically backwards and round. Click > hold on the left arrow position and you rotate horizontally sideways to the left, Click > hold on the right arrow position and you rotate to the right.

Theres also an altitude control to the right side of those other controls. Click > hold on up arrow and hey presto you ascend. Click > hold on the down arrow and you descend.

For quick altitude adjustments there also a 10 km autojump option and a 2m auto-jump option.

These controls allow you to navigate and select direction and height you want travel and view from.

The arc above with two lines on is also control for adjusting camera angle so you can use that to zoom in and zoom out the view.

Using the Jognav you access locations by manually directing movement across the planets surface. Using the Randomcam you access random locations at the virtual roll of a dice.

Whichever method you choose when you've found an ideal location for importing your DAZ Studio content to, its now time to move on.

To import your model into Mojoworld 3.0. From the CREATE > primitives selection area on the left. Chooose the teapot. Not to make a cup of tea, but to import your obj.file. Right Clicking on the teapot will highlight it in red and will also launch an import window. Obj is an automatically supported format, so simply find your import content and rightclick to select and then click Open. This will initiate the launch of your import into MJW 3.0.

You should see a set of cross-hairs and the words 'Drag in RTR to Place Object'appear in the main view window (RTR). Right click and hold down the mouse button, then move the mouse to introduce the mesh into the scene. Moving your mouse forwards will increase the size. Moving backwards will decrease the size. At this point its a good idea to make sure you load the Import large enough to be easily visible in your scene. You can resize and reposition later.

With the model loaded, you will probably need to make some adjustments. You should see the new content with a purple bounding box around it. In the centre you should also see an X. Right clicking on the cross and holding you can quickly move your mesh around locally.

On the left is a group of tools called Transform. The first three:

the box

the circle with three arrowed lines

the dot with a three-quarter arrowed circle around it

These are the tools we'll focus on.

Right clicking the 'box' icon will activate the resize option. This is achieved by way of either grabbing a corner of the purple bounding box which should have lightbrown cube in it, or moving your mouse to one of the faces of the bounding box which should change to a yellowy colouring. Clicking on the corner and moving allows for resizing of the whole mesh. Using a face allows you'resize along the x, y or z co-ordinates.

Clicking on the 'circle with three arrowed lines' will active the movement option. and a three pointed gizmo should become visible (similar to DAZ Studio) Click/grab one of the pointy lines and you can move the imported content in the x, y or z direction. Basically forwards-backwards, side to side, up and down.

Clicking on the 'dot with three quarter circle around it' will provide access to rotational control again similar to in DAZ Studio {except only applied to the whole model not individual parts as in DS}

When you have your content positioned where you want it you can make adjustments to your camera view using a second option on the JogNav. This only becomes active when a mojo-primitive, light or model is present. Clicking on the centre of the imported content here, so that the purple bounding box is visible, makes that your current selection and activates this new option.

Now a new camera icon appears in the jognav at the bottom of the Viewing screen. You can now change the function of the JogNav by clicking on this camera icon. This changes the way the jog nav operates so that it becomes centred on the selected object. Using the Jognav now, movement is around the object. This can produce excellent new perspectives and views and allows you to fine tune, even further, the final view that your render will show.

This is a simplified approach to rendering in Mojoworld 3.0 Pro or LE. There are other more advanced approaches, but this is the way you will initially find easiest and most obvious to use.

So, with your preferred planet loaded, location identified, DAZ content imported and viewpoint finalised. You can now render your image.

This is done at the top above the RTR view. The render itself is started by clicking on the camera icon there. The render setting is selected via clicking on the arrow and three lines next to the camera icon. This launches a stack of options with 5 render quality settings displayed in the centre. These range from low to maximum. Low through to normal are automatically rendered without shadows and therefore are faster. However, your imported content may look odd or out of place, without shadows to ground it into the scene. High and Maximum settings have shadows on. They take longer to render but provide higher render quality and your imported content will look more at home as the shadows help integrate there.

Rendering directly via the low to maximum settings selection will output an image 857×523 pixels in size. (The resolution settings can be altered but for ease in this introductory tutorial I decided to go with the pre-set default)

This will launch a new render window in MJW 3.0. When the render finishes theres an icon in the render window which has been described before as 'a pile of pancakes' …lol.

When clicked, this will open a save render dialogue box. Here you can save your image in various formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, etc. The general preference is to save as PNG and for posting to galleries online - convert to JPG after postworking.

Finally, once you've gone to the effort of setting up content with DAZ Studio and loading it into Mojoworld. You might as well save the content within mojoworld itself, so you can easily re-use it later. To do this click File > save As and then in the new Library Exporter - Planet window choose your own name for your saved planet. You also get to save the last rendered image or do a new image. so you have a viewable thumbnail which will make accessing that particular planet easier with the browser used in step 3. You can also save a description too. So can add notes for yourself to remind yourself of the planets content when you view it again later.

Theres lots of other details for importing and using content. However my intention here was to provide you with a basic sequence from selection/setup of content in DAZ Studio to final render and then saving content on a planet in Mojoworld 3 Pro/SE.

I hope this has provided you with a primer to get you started using DAZ Studio and Mojoworld 3 together.

Happy modeling and rendering!