DAZ Studio Basics
What is DAZ Studio/DS?
Daz Studio (also called DS) is similar to Poser in many ways. It is used for the same purposes including 3D illustration, drawing reference and animation (with the release of the Animate plug-in in 2008). Most Poser content is compatible with DAZ with some adjustments (particularly to the materials/textures).
History
DS is distributed by DAZ Productions, Inc (also known as DAZ 3D) which was founded in 2000 and is located in Draper, Utah. It is a market leader in creating 3D software and content. The company's model library is renowned for containing high-quality 3D content at the industry's most competitive prices.
While they started out producing Zygote figures for Poser, today they produce some of the most popular figures available including Victoria and Micheal along with Aiko and Hiro (now in their 4th incarnations) who are the most used and supported figures in the Poser/DAZ Studio industry. They also develop software applications that support the content they make (DAZ Studio, Carrara, Bryce, Hexagon and Mimic).
In 2005, they released their first version of DAZ Studio and are currently on beta version (available to DAZ 3D forum members) 2.3.3.89. There are rumors that version 3 is in the works and will be released perhaps later this year.
All information above is from their website.
Terminology
When talking about DAZ Studio and the company itself, it can be quite confusing since people use the terms DAZ to mean both. To avoid confusion, please refer the the information below (thank you to rbtwhiz on the DAZ 3D Fourms for explaining this so clearly!).
To start off with, DAZ is an acronym (Digital Art Zone), and, therefore, should always be capitalized.
DAZ 3D, or DAZ Productions, and occasionally even just DAZ, refer to the company.
DAZ Studio, or DS, and occasionally even just Studio, refer to the application. Formerly it was called DAZ|Studio or D|S, but these have officially been dropped.
So, to put it simply DAZ or DAZ 3D is the company and DAZ Studio or DS is the software. Using DAZ to refer to the application is technically incorrect and can be confusing for people who have been around for awhile.
To find out more about DAZ Studio you can visit it's official site at DAZ 3D.
To read more about DAZ Studio in general this page is a good place for information.
