Daz 3D vs MikuMikuDance

Daz Studio is 3D software for creating characters, scenes, images, and animation, available for macOS, Windows, and the web. Its Genesis creator supports rigged figures, mix-and-match clothing and hair, and morphing between figure shapes. The Daz store contains tens of thousands of premade models and assets, including environments, props, wearables, textures, shaders, lighting, and animation kits. Daz identifies Genesis 9 as its latest figure platform and describes it as enabling billions of combinations. For movement and rendering, Daz Studio uses dForce for cloth and hair simulation with the NVIDIA Iray render engine; the maker also describes a Filament-enabled viewport and render engine for real-time rendering and animation. Bridges transfer content to Blender, Unreal, Unity, Cinema 4D, Maya, and 3ds Max. Daz cautions that its Blender bridge may not be compatible with the latest Daz Studio version. Daz Base is free and includes Daz Studio, Starter Essentials content, free monthly Legacy content, and cross-platform exporters. Daz+ costs $69 a year, while Daz Premier costs $199 a year and includes Premier tools and content while membership is active.

MikuMikuDance is a tool for choreographing a 3D Miku model and exporting AVI files, described by the Vocaloid Promotion Video Project as part of its tools for making Vocaloid-series promotion videos. The Multi Model Edition can move two or more models and use the Bullet physics engine, though the site identifies it as an older edition for Windows XP machines. Separate DirectX 9 and 64-bit versions are described for PCs running Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 10; the 64-bit edition is for 64-bit systems. If those Windows versions fail to run, the site advises installing Microsoft Visual C++ redistributable packages and the DirectX End-User Runtime. For Kinect motion capture, the DxOpenNI driver reads joint positions and can be used as a MikuMikuDance plug-in. MoggDxOpenNI can capture neck, wrist, upper-body, lower-body, and ankle motion. The site links an English tutorial document and operation tutorial videos. Pricing is listed as a free plan with paid access from 7.99 one-time.