To Accomplish This, What do I Need to Learn?

CathyM

Sorry about the strange thread title, couldn't think what to call it without running on too long! Anyway, I have several models that don't work in Daz the way I need them to - I am wondering, is it possible to change this?

Example 1: I purchased a fantastic model to use in Daz, however it was designed for the new poser and doesn't work correctly in Daz. What do I need to know, what programs do I need to use, in order to get this model to do in Daz what it does in Poser? (I will need to Re-rig it - in order to do that, would I need to be an expert, or could a newbie accomplish this?)

Example 2: I have a city scene that doesn't seem to sit on the ground - it doesn't have a slider or y adjustment, so while I can move it left to right and forward and back, I can't move it up and down. How can I fix/change this? Is it possible? (Drop to floor/ground doesn't work, either.)

Example 3: I have a coat model that is fantastic, except that my character needs to be sitting while wearing it. Is there a way to accomplish this? It's a Genesis model, and a Genesis coat, but there are no sit morphs.

Thanks for any help or advice anyone can offer! -Cathy

Kattey

Hello, Cathy

To answer your first question it is better to know what model do you mean. Poser dynamic clothes, for example, won't work in the same way in DS even with rigging, although, depending on clothes, they still might look nice.
As for rerigging, providing we speak about clothes, I re-learnt DS rigging in a couple of days with help of tutorials on Youtube and from other users. I had a previous experience with cr2 rigging so maybe it was faster for me, but it doesn't look difficult. Simple clothes, like pants and tops can be rigged quite easily, difficulties came to me when I tried to rig long flowing skirts and draping parts.

Some links (proving you mean rigging for DS 4.0 and 4.5)
DAZ3D Content Creator basic tools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cV3VaC7eIs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k52wwyv234U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIIM1oAan7o
Smay tutorials
http://smay3d.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=b6f123e6caba491db07030bf35bdd0a8&topic=53.0
Forum thread with many useful links
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/12921/
Rigging a skirt (old DAZ3D forums, takes a while to load)
http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=3251538
And another great thread here, with many helpful advices from Patience
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/2174/

Example 2: Try to unlock "Show hidden properties" in DS. While you in Parameters Tab, go the that small icon on left top corner of it (in my layout it is sort of between main window and parameters window just over "Parameters" tab). If Y translate opens (it might be grayed out and not very noticeable in your layout), try to use that.

Example 3. Well, if you have ZBrush or Hexagon you can use GoZ plugin or send it to Hexagon and create a custom morph (in Hexagon you need to learn only selection, soft selection, and move/rotate/scale). It might take a lot of tweaking, depending on your application, clothes and pose you need or might be quite easy. In DS you can also use DFormers (which will require some severe (?) tweaking). If it was an older cr2 + obj sort of thing, I'd also suggest to ask somebody with Poser to clothify it (i.e. make it into a dynamic Poser clothes) and save the morph for you but it isn't really possible with Genesis yet. It is probably possible to do the same morph in Blender or other external modelling applications without help of bridges like GoZ plugin but I don't know how easy it would be.

wancow

let me offer this, Kattey has some good suggestions, but I'll add.

Example 2: Place your item on the ground, and pay close attention to scale. Find something that is a known dimension and scale the whole scene till that item is properly sized. 1 Unit in DAZ Studio is 1 Centimeter. 1 inch = 2.54 cm.

CathyM

Hi Kattey!

Hurray, bless you and thanks for your quick answers :-)

Your answer to example 2 saved my day :) I've been working on a park render but was having so much trouble with the park floating above the ground I was beginning to think it was hopeless, but the show hidden properties is a trick I never tried before, and now I have it written down so I remember to try that whenever I'm having problems.

Example 3 which is needed for the same picture, I will have to learn - I've never done morphs myself before, but I do have Hexagon and will try some tutorials and see if I can manage it.

Example 1, well, that one is actually Sixus1's Dragonz model, (I hope I can mention that now - didn't add any links or pictures) Rebekah, the wife of the creator of this model, explained that when they had to choose between modeling for Daz and modeling for Poser, they went with Poser, I don't fault them with that as it's what they know and have worked with, but I would really love for this model to work in Daz as well. Rebekah said that they would be willing to discuss and perhaps work with someone who wanted to try rigging this model for Daz Studio, so that it would be available for all of us, I was going to post here about it but with the recent changes thought I'd better not. I'd still like to try learning myself if it's something a "regular" person can do, who isn't experienced with modeling. I have Hexagon but am just starting to learn how to use it, I do not have Zbrush or anything else like that. I have Daz Studio 4.5 and Poser 7 (however no real experience with Poser as of yet.)

Thanks for all the links as well, I am going to check into them - I've worked through the Hexagon tutorial by Fugazi1968 that's available here ( http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-starter-kit ) and was so thrilled with myself :cheese:

I guess that you've answered all my questions except for the first one, since it's not clothing but an existing creature model - I suppose I need to learn rigging and maybe that's done in Daz? Or Hex? Do I need to somehow take apart the model? I guess what I am really asking is whether it's something a newbie can do, who has no experience, or whether it's extremely difficult and best left to the experienced modelers. Thanks for your help! -Cathy

CathyM

Hi wancow,

My problem was I wasn't ABLE to place my object on the ground, it was a whole city block floating in the air, however with the hidden properties showing it now has a slider to allow it to move up and down. yay!

I hadn't thought about the scale of it however, would it be different if it was originally modeled for Poser? Thanks for bringing that up, I will be paying more attention from now on as to whether models appear to be the correct size in regard to other models in the scene. -Cathy

WendyLuvsCatz

well it is already rigged, just for Poser
I do not know much about using Daz studio figure set up tools but know in Carrara it is usually a matter of adding ik restraints to joints.
I imagine you can do the same with the figure set up tab.

Kattey

Hey, Cath :)

Glad that Y Trans helped - remember that small button, it function changes depending on what tab you have open, but each time it has a bajillions useful uses. It has a counterpart on left side of the main window (in my layout) full of yet another useful functions.

As for Dragonz - looking into list of features from RDNA page I, from the level of my knowledge can say that, Advanced Proportion System analog was in DS for years and is certainly possible in DS 4.5 as you can see with Genesis which changes from baby to troll easily. It may not be not possible to translate it directly from Poser but it is possible to create something like that in DS. I think Properties Editor tab has something to do with it but I'm not 100% sure about it. Full Body morphs will probably work as they are. Nothing new here for years. I know that Remove Control analog feature is possible in DS 4.5 and was possible for a long time but again it isn't exactly my area of expertise, it might translate from Poser easily or you might need to look in ERC and Properties Editor tab.
Ghost bones are possible to make in DS 4.5, if a bit clunky.
Subdivision is possible in DS. Just find that left useful button with your scene tab open and object selected and Turn to Subdivision or apply smoothing modifier. Displacement, normal maps are working in DS, but you might need to link and adjust them manually. ERC should work in DS or you can make your own.

What DS doesn't support is that capsule rigging that was featured in Poser a bit ago, dynamics and complex shaders but for the last part you can try to learn Shadow Mixer to replicate the effect. Things like poser weightmapping and lights might work differently or not at all.

Did you try to use DragonZ in DS? What the main problems you encountered?

P.S. you can give links as long as it is not to promote the product specifically but to reference it talky-naturally.

wancow

Cathy_Mod said:

Hi wancow,

My problem was I wasn't ABLE to place my object on the ground, it was a whole city block floating in the air, however with the hidden properties showing it now has a slider to allow it to move up and down. yay!

I hadn't thought about the scale of it however, would it be different if it was originally modeled for Poser? Thanks for bringing that up, I will be paying more attention from now on as to whether models appear to be the correct size in regard to other models in the scene. -Cathy

Cathy, you might not need to adjust the scale. It depends on the model and how much the creator paid attention to scale. I've found that often I do have to pay attention to it.

Thankfully, DAZ Studio has an absolute scale we can pay attention to. 1 unit = 1cm. In poser we didn't have that and for years we were guessing as to what to use as a base scale. I can't tell you how much that sucked when nobody had any standard to adhear to!

CathyM

Hi Kattey, I think you must be correct in comparing it to being like Genesis - able to change from baby to troll - as the dragon as pictured changes from full grown to adorable baby to skinny, starved looking creature in the latest version of Poser.

With the model loaded in Daz Studio, there are sliders for these and other morphs or shapes, however, if you use them at value of 1, they deform the model severely. (The baby has thick legs, eyes that are popped out of the head, etc.) (The skinny dragon also deforms, and it's eyes sink into the head.)

I think I will need to just do more reading and learning to work around this. As Wendy suggested, there is probably some way, I am just not familiar with trying to morph or change models myself outside of what they are made to do by the creator.

That show hidden properties also helps with this model as well, since I can now manage to get the eyes back into the head of the baby dragon. I'll just keep working with it - thanks for the help and suggestions :) -Cathy