Bending problem with self-modeled skirt

XoechZ

Hello!

I have created a very simple tight and short skirt for Genesis2Female. Done in Hexagon. Back in DAZ Studio I rigged it to G2F. All without problems. The skirt fits her well and follows all shaping morphs. Very nice.

But there is one big problem:

As soon as I bend her legs it looks awful. The skirt does not follow the bend as it should. Have a look at the pic to see what I mean.

Now, what can I do to avoid or cure this probelm?

Thanks for your suggestions!

SickleYield

You need to manually smooth the thigh groups on the X axis in particular but probably on all of them. It copied rigging directly from G2F, which has a gap there where the skirt has geometry.

This is done with the Weight Group Brush: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/tutorials/weight_map_brush/start

Just using the Smoothing instead of the Painting option. It's the second from left at the top of the Tool tab with this tool active.

Another option is to create morphs that improve the fit when the leg is bent, also called JCMs. If you're interested I can go into that as well.

XoechZ

Thanks for your answer!

So, either Weight Brush or morphs. Hm, depends on what is easier to do and what looks better. I have already tried the Wight brush from the Tools menu, but nothing happened when I used it. Maybe I did something wrong. I have to take a deeper look into that. Would the morph solution look better, or is it easier to do? I already have some experience with morphing. I made a shape morph for G2F in Hegagon, just for fun and testing, and that was not hard to do.

Omg, I just followed your link for the Wight Mapping explanation. That seems to be really complicated. So maybe you could be so kind and tell me more about the morph solution.

Thank you!

SickleYield

It's not simpler than the weight mapping.

XoechZ

But maybe more fun :-) And better control of the "flow" because morphing is done in the modeler (Hexagon in my case) and I simply love modeling. Much more than fiddling with joints and bones and stuff in DAZ Studio :-)

SickleYield

KK. Here's what you do. I normally create three main JCM on a shorter skirt: left thigh, right thigh, and both thighs.

For the left thigh:

Delete Genesis. Only your skirt should be in the scene.

Bend the skirt's left thigh to 90 degrees.

Export it as an obj.

Import that obj into Hex and smooth it out. I have exported Genesis with the thighs bent separately and together for use with this.

Export from Hex again with a name like "Bend L Thigh" or "Left Thigh Bend Helper."

Select the skirt in DS and activate Morph Loader Pro. Navigate to your new morph to load it. Give the group a name like Morphs/JCM and turn reverse deformations ON before you click Accept.

Now when you turn on that morph with the thigh bent, it should correct the bend.

Turn it to 0, unbend the thigh, and repeat with just the right thigh bent and then with both thighs bent. You can turn on the morph to different degrees to help with different amounts of bending.

XoechZ

Thank you, this is very useful info! I will try that.

But please let me ask another question. Since I have already played around with morphing and the Morph Loader Pro, I know how that works, but:

- can I create many different morphs for one object (like the skirt) without problems? Means, just add all morphs in a row, and then save the skirt in DAZ Studio as an object? Are all the morphs saved along with it?
- my morphs always appear under Parameters - morphs. How can I make them appear in the Shaping tab? Because thats where they should be (and where they can be found on most products).
- is there a way that I can make the morph dial in automatically? Means, that when I apply the skirt on Genesis and bend a leg, so that the bend morph goes along with it and I do not have to dial it in seperately? (hope you know what I mean with that :-) )

Thanks again, you are very helpful!

SickleYield

You should save morphs using File--save as-- morph assets. If you just save the object some settings can be lost.

You can load multiple morphs together but not if they are the JCM variety. Those need to be loaded separately because each one needs to have deformation reversed versus a different bend in the figure.

I don't know the answer to the Shaping tab question because I pretty much just use morphs from Parameters. Maybe someone who uses that tab can help you.

You can freeze ERC on the JCM but it will tend to work badly at intermediate values, which is why I don't recommend that. If you want to try it, though:

Do as instructed previously to load a JCM onto a bent mesh with deformations reversed.
Open Properties or Property Hierarchy (if you have the latest version). Right-click and open ERC freeze.
Select Figure--your skirt and Node--the thigh (or whichever bone is bent).
Choose Property--your corrective morph.
Click Accept.
Set the morph and bend to 0 in the skirt if necessary.

That should do it. Try bending the joint to see if the morph triggers automatically now. Then save it.

XoechZ

Ok, I understand.

Thanky you very much! I will try that as soon as I have time for it. Seems to be much work and its all quite new to me. But it seems to be very interesting and fun to do.

XoechZ

Ok so far. There is only one question from above that is not answered yet. So I allow myself to ask again :-)

How can I make a self created morph (listed in Parameters - Morphs) be available in the Shaping Tab for this item?

Thanks in advance!

Richard Haseltine

Makes ure you have its Type set to Modifier/Shape in the Parameter Settings dialogue.