Now in store: Super Dress & Leggings + 2 expansions. [Commercial]

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Comments

  • Bruno AcciolyBruno Accioly Posts: 22
    edited January 2014

    ...

    Post edited by Bruno Accioly on
  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    Hello,

    I bought the Super Dress. It looks great. One problem. When I pose G2, the dress does not move. Am I doing something wrong? I used the Super Dress pose controls to compensate, but skin is always poking through. I tried setting object->geometry->apply smoothing modifier, but that generated an error: "The following nodes were unable to have a smooth modifier applied: Super Dress"

    Bottom line, when I pose Genesis 2, I expect the dress to follow. Alas it is not moving at all.

    Thanks,
    Jim

    Dress_not_moving.jpg
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  • RenpatsuRenpatsu Posts: 828
    edited December 1969

    jsdaz said:
    Hello,

    I bought the Super Dress. It looks great. One problem. When I pose G2, the dress does not move. Am I doing something wrong? I used the Super Dress pose controls to compensate, but skin is always poking through. I tried setting object->geometry->apply smoothing modifier, but that generated an error: "The following nodes were unable to have a smooth modifier applied: Super Dress"

    Bottom line, when I pose Genesis 2, I expect the dress to follow. Alas it is not moving at all.

    Thanks,
    Jim


    The dress is not rigged to follow the legs. Basically there are different rigging techniques, some follow the legs and some provide handles. This is the latter case. Both rigging techniques got advantages and disadvantages, but with mid to long dresses I very much prefer the handles as a dress following the leg movement like trousers often looks very odd - unless specific morphs are provided to counter that.
    Screen_Shot_2014-06-27_at_12.50_.26_AM_.png
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  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    Wow, Thanks so much for the fast reply. I have been working on it a bit. I see now that smoothing is on. I bumped up the iterations from the default. It is working.

    It will take a bit of time to get speedy with the adjustments. When I get them right, it looks great. I seem to have a problem with the rendering as well. The black leather is coming out gray. Pretty sure that is my fault, not the dress.

    Thanks again.
    Jim

  • RenpatsuRenpatsu Posts: 828
    edited December 1969

    I think it is a very nice dress :) Overall it needs a bit getting used to, if you only experienced a dress to always follow the legs. Usually with small movements I use the morphs on that dress and use the handles when I absolutely need them :)

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  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    Late here. Will spend more time tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Thanks again. Jim

  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    I worked with the dress and found something interesting. The leather material is excellent with one tiny modification. The default reflection for "13 Leather Black" material is set way too high. Running it down to 0 seemed best although more experimentation might improve it. You can see how the reflection setting makes a big difference. The Eliminator on the left is included for a comparison of the black leather look I wanted. The scenes are rendered with a single white distant light.

    The dress is great. I will use it a lot.

    Jim

    Super_Dress_reflection_50%.jpg
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    Super_Dress_default_reflection_25%.jpg
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    Super_Dress_reflection_0%.jpg
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  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    PS. 0%, default 25% and 50% reflection settings in order from top to bottom.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,419
    edited December 1969

    Good that you are getting results you like. I noticed, though, that your posted test images don't show anything in the scene to be reflected in the leather dress. It would be interesting to see how it looks with an environment sphere or large scene surrounding the character wearing the dress, to give the high reflection percentage something to reflect (unless, of course, the reflection is mapped rather than raytraced).

  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    Here you go. First is a baseline. Second is with an environment sphere on at 25% reflection. Third is with 100% reflection and the environment sphere.

    If I understand the documentation correctly (http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/software/dazstudio/reference/st_reflection) selecting a reflection image in the strength parameter will over-ride ray tracing in favor of the reflection map selected. If there is no reflection map, then ray tracing is on. Notice a slight bright spot on the left side of the dress for the environment examples. This is a large object just off camera reflecting back on the dress.

    100%_reflection_with_environment_sphere.jpg
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    25%_reflection_with_environment_sphere.jpg
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  • jsdaz_5811013940jsdaz_5811013940 Posts: 118
    edited December 1969

    Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I always get great help in here.

  • laststand@runbox.com[email protected] Posts: 866
    edited December 1969

    Renpatsu said:

    The dress is not rigged to follow the legs. Basically there are different rigging techniques, some follow the legs and some provide handles. This is the latter case. Both rigging techniques got advantages and disadvantages, but with mid to long dresses I very much prefer the handles as a dress following the leg movement like trousers often looks very odd - unless specific morphs are provided to counter that.

    I just installed this product, and I too cannot get the skirt to follow the legs. I need a little help getting my arms around your reply. My question seems so stupid I hardly know how to ask it, so please excuse me in advance.

    How does one go about animating the G2 figure, if the skirt does not follow the legs? I cannot believe you have designed a product that is not suitable for animation - and if for some reason you did, I'm sure you would have stated so clearly on your product page.

    I'm new at this. Please tell me what I'm missing.

    Thanks.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,544
    edited December 1969

    Renpatsu is not the creator, merely a user explaining how to use the product. To animate you would need to animate the morphs or bones controlling the skirt.

  • laststand@runbox.com[email protected] Posts: 866
    edited December 1969

    Renpatsu is not the creator, merely a user explaining how to use the product. To animate you would need to animate the morphs or bones controlling the skirt.


    I would prefer a refund of my money, Richard. How can that be arranged?

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Help / Contact Us / Submit a Help Request / press the green button and fill in the ticket, using Sales Dept as the one you need.

    You have 30 days from date of purchase to do this

  • laststand@runbox.com[email protected] Posts: 866
    edited December 1969

    chohole said:
    Help / Contact Us / Submit a Help Request / press the green button and fill in the ticket, using Sales Dept as the one you need.

    You have 30 days from date of purchase to do this


    Excellent, chohole! Thank you!

  • DogzDogz Posts: 898
    edited August 2014

    OK., Having read the last few posts I can see people are having problems with the morph controls on the skirt,
    my reasons for doing it this way is simple, although its more fiddly, It looks more realistic than auto conforming to the thighs, which basically just rigs the skirt like a pair of pants, It moves with the left and right thighs but it doesn't know what to do with the area in between and results are not usually very good, (longer the skirt the worse it gets.) No amount of weight map editing can improve the situation either.

    However the animation argument is a strong one, I guess I didn't think that one through as its not what most are doing with DS. Of course it can be done (to animate with morphs) but its a massive pain in the butt - I know.

    So what ill do is this, (the same i did for Frivolous 40's,) I'll update the super dress with an additional version of the dress which auto conforms to the thighs, so users can load in the dress that suits them best..
    More Savy users will know that you can get the existing Dress to conform to the thighs by renaming the thigh bones to match those of Gen2F, but obviously a beginner will not know this.
    Anyway Ill get the dress updated for mid September. I ll also chase up a minor displacement issue I had reported one of the textures - some time ago now!.
    Thanks for the feedback.

    Post edited by Dogz on
  • laststand@runbox.com[email protected] Posts: 866
    edited December 1969

    I will resist the strong urge to preach, you'll be relieved to know.

    The simple fact is, "waist conforming" is jargon. New users don't know what it means. I didn't know when I bought the dress. When I first saw how it behaved, I thought I must be doing something wrong. After all, nobody would actually market a model like this. I learned differently when I bought a second non-conforming model from another vendor. That too is awaiting a refund.

    In the short term, the way to avoid disappointing other "not savvy" users is to voluntarily replace jargon with Plain English on your product page. I assure you that, had your product page said "Not suitable for animation. Intended for still image use only," I wouldn't have bought it.

    ....................................

    At least you hinted at your model's limited usability. The vendor I bought the second dress from made no mention of it at all.

    After many months of self-tutoring, and partly due to my discovery of non-conforming clothing, I am beginning to question the viability of DS as an animation tool.

  • DogzDogz Posts: 898
    edited August 2014

    Alright then, (not much else I can say with out repeating my self)
    Sorry the wording isn't simplified enough for new comers, but the animation problem is nothing a minor product update cant resolve. As its just as easy to make a thigh conforming version as it is to stamp "not animation friendly" all over it in big letters. lesson learned and in future I will include both versions of skirt rigging where applicable.
    Only small suggestion i have is that its often worth sending vendors a quick PM if you have a particular problem with a product, its possible to resolve alot of these issues that way. but if that's a step you do not want to take, a refund is your only real option.

    Post edited by Dogz on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,419
    edited December 1969

    Glad to see you back in the forums, Dogz!

  • DogzDogz Posts: 898
    edited August 2014

    Thanks Barbult, yeah it been a busy year in personal life so I've not been around much, I'm getting married this weekend. massively behind on work (daz products), and its summer Holiday for my 4 year old son, so barley get time to breathe lol. Such is life -but things will settle down.
    How are you doing?

    Post edited by Dogz on
  • SimonJMSimonJM Posts: 5,989
    edited December 1969

    Dogz said:
    Thanks Barbult, yeah it been a busy year in personal life so I've not been around much, I'm getting married this weekend. massively behind on work (daz products), and its summer Holiday for my 4 year old son, so barley get time to breathe lol. Such is life -but things will settle down.
    How are you doing?

    Congrats on the upcoming marriage! :)
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,419
    edited December 1969

    Dogz said:
    Thanks Barbult, yeah it been a busy year in personal life so I've not been around much, I'm getting married this weekend. massively behind on work (daz products), and its summer Holiday for my 4 year old son, so barley get time to breathe lol. Such is life -but things will settle down.
    How are you doing?

    Getting married! Wow, you must be hanging out here to distract yourself and calm the last minute jitters. No, seriously, congratulations! I'm glad to see you back and hope you will make more clothing in the future. Yours are still some of my favorites. I look forward to the Super Dress update to fix the displacement.
  • ShiftingImagesShiftingImages Posts: 67
    edited December 1969

    This is a well done outfit!

    Just wanted to add that if one would prefer a completely "animatable" clothing then one should choose Dynamic Clothing over Conforming ones.

    This set WORKS. Conforming skirts with handles does have its advantages over dynamic clothing as it gives one more control in posing the skirt over the figure.

    Just my two cents. This outfit is wonderful :)

  • DogzDogz Posts: 898
    edited August 2014

    Thanks for your kind words,
    I agree and I'd like to see more dynamic clothing too (for looser fitting garments anyway) and Its the only way we will see realistic motion and posing of skirts and dresses of a more modest length. Conforming works ok for micro-minis, but its god awful for anything that has a hem lower than 1/3rd down the thigh.
    We first really need an alternative to Optitex so we can finally make our own dynamic cloth items.
    I know Optitex plug-in works well and the Optitex guy is kind enough to offer to covert non commercial items when he has time, no complaints against him personally what so ever.
    But with users and content creators unable to make their own, its a pretty significant setback for Daz Studio.
    Does anyone know if there is anything in the works perhaps from a 3rd party?
    I'd love to make some dynamic clothing one day.

    Post edited by Dogz on
  • laststand@runbox.com[email protected] Posts: 866
    edited August 2014

    chohole said:
    Help / Contact Us / Submit a Help Request / press the green button and fill in the ticket, using Sales Dept as the one you need.

    You have 30 days from date of purchase to do this

    DAZ has refunded both of my non-dynamic skirt purchases for store credit. Thank you for your help.

    I've spent my time learning how to create and modify characters, and have only recently begun to explore animation. In a short time I have discovered not only the non-dynamic skirt, but the non-dynamic beard and the heel-walking as well. DS is a bit less the animation tool than it would like to be.

    DS itself is what it is, and I'm happy to have it. The vendors cannot be faulted for taking DS as an image render-centric tool, because that's what it is. The DAZ marketing people, though, would be said by some to be intentionally misrepresenting DS. They like to market DS as an animation tool. They control the website and the store, after all. A little more technical data and a little less razzle-dazzle would serve many new users, like me, well.

    Post edited by [email protected] on
  • laststand@runbox.com[email protected] Posts: 866
    edited August 2014

    Just wanted to add that if one would prefer a completely "animatable" clothing then one should choose Dynamic Clothing over Conforming ones.

    Of course. Animators need dynamic models. But one can only learn what these terms mean, within the context of DS, by trial and error.

    When I got to DS, the first thing I looked for was the glossary. But their isn't one. "What documentation?" :-)

    And, some (many) product descriptions make no reference to these characteristics at all.

    Post edited by [email protected] on
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