Simple Creating Metadata for poses

In this first post I will explain how to create MetaData in DAZ Studio 4 for 3D human figures poses.

Install your product, as seen in this article, start DS4 and move to the Content Library pane. Here open the menu and click on Scan Known Directories for Files… as also shown in the image below.

In the new tab that will open, leave all the tree options checked and click on Accept.

Once the search is complete move on Categories > Default > Unassigned (Content Library tab) to find the content you just installed.

Now we need to create a product and categorize the content files, operations that serve to make available the installed content into the Products views and Files views of the DS4 Smart Content tab.

Create a product

To create a product, on each folder of the installed content (in this case Couples, Michael4 e Victoria4, as you can see in the image above) right click the mouse to open a menu in which click on Create a Product….

In the Product Name popup enter the name of your content (in this case is Its Dance).

Repeating the procedure on each directory you’ll get a warning of already existing product (see image below). Confim the adding of new files to the  product clicking on Yes.

Content categorization

Now it’s time to categorize the files to remove them from the Unassigned category. In this example we have poses that can be used with the 3D human figures Victoria 4 and Michael 4.

In Categories > Default > Unassigned > Pose > Its Dance go in the Victoria4 folder and select all the files.

Now right click with your mouse on the selected files, to open a menu from which select Categorize…

In the new window go to Default > Presets > Poses. Under Poses check if you already have a subcategory called Victoria 4 (below which will be placed all poses compatible with V4), otherwise made right click with the mouse and create it. New right click on Victoria 4 to create another category that we will call with the name of our product, Its Dance.

Under Its Dance create two additional subcategories, Couples and Single.
Check the Single box and click on Accept to assign al the files to this subcategory and remove them from the Unassigned category.

Now repeat the procedure with the Michael4 folder, creating below Poses the categories Michael 4 and Its Dance with the subcategories Single and Couples.

In Categories > Default > Unassigned > Pose > Its Dance > Couples are contained poses for both human figures. Select, then, only the files related to a figure, for example M4 (as shown in the image below) and assign them to the subcategory Couples of Michael 4 ( Default > Presets > Poses > Michael 4 > Its Dance > Couples).

Creating MetaData

Finishing the categorization, we can finally proceed to creating MetaData.

Move to Products > I > Its Dance.

Here open the menu and click on Content DB Editor…

This opens a new window where you can compile several fields.

• Store is the name of the shop where you purchased the content, but at the moment can not be changed and is only present DAZ 3D as option.
• Name is the name of the content and is already compiled.
• Token for content sold by DAZ 3D can be found in the product description (example sku 9929), while for other stores you can find it in the link of the page (example Store URL/?ViewProduct=12345).
• Description this is optional.
• Artists is the name or the names of the creators of the content. To add the name of the artist right click with the mouse on this field and click on Add Artist(s).
• Files are the list of files that make up the content. To add the files, helping with the ReadMe, right click with the mouse on this field and click on Add From Directory (Recursive) to select the folders that contain the various files. To avoid complications, you can also create a temporary folder where to unpack the installation files and then select directly all the files contained there.
• Scene IDs this data can not be altered from the Product editor. It automatically shows the scene IDs that have been assigned to compatibility bases declared by assets in this product.

After you’ve compiled the fields, move on Assets, where will be a list of all the categorized files and included in the product that we have created earlier.

Now we need to show to DAZ Studio what kind of content contains our product.

Select all the files and under Type choose Preset > Pose and click on Accept.

Then, for example, select all the files that can be used with V4  and move on the Compatibility tab. Here highlight the whole list and right click to open a menu from which select Add Compatibilities to Selected File(s).

This will open a new tab, from which we choose the object or figure that is compatible with our files. In this case the poses are compatible with Victoria 4, so go on Generation 4 and highlight  Victoria 4, then click on Accept.

Proceed the same way with the files compatibles with Michael 4 and once finished, click on Accept to create MetaData.

Now that we finished creating MetaData, remain only one last thing to do and that is to add a thumbnail of the product. You can build an image or use the product thumbnail available in the shop website, renamed with the name of the dsx e dsa files.

For new products, this image should be 114×148  or can also be 110×143 pixels.