Sculpt in SubD
duckbomb
Posts: 585
Now that we can easily transfer rigged characters to Blemder, is it possible to sculpt directly on the subdivided character in Blender while retaining the rigging, even if this means you cannot import back into DAZ?
Im sorry if it's a silly question, I'm unfamiliar with Blender or what it can do, but I know it does a lot.
Comments
Yes, as long as you don't make too drastic of changes, like moving the eyes or other facial features, otherwise you will have to modify their rig a bit. That said it's about a million times easier to modify the rig in blender over daz.
Wow that's amazing! I posted this twice on the other forum and nobody answered, so thank you so much for your response.
For HD details, they are usually super fine details that don't change vert count or order (obviously) but just add little features, so I won't be moving too much. So I can't import this BACK into DAZ, right? But I can just do it in Blender and so long as I keep the character in there the rig will be good to go?
Oh that's amazing!
Yes sculpting works.
What I would recommend is creating (in effect a morph), if at all possible.
On the right had side in Properties is the Object Data Properties. Both Vertex Groups and Shape Keys are very useful.
If there is nothing in Shape keys click the plus, this will give you basis; this is the original mesh. click plus again and select the key that appears; any sculpting/changes to the mesh will be placed in that key; you turn it on by setting to 1; this is the equivalent of a morph in Studio. If there were shapekeys present already, then press one to add one you want to make; you can edit existing ones if there are any, but I would avoid altering any pre-existing.
As posted previously, too much may cause issues. I haven't tried adding a multi-resolution modifier yet for sculpting on a Daz character, which is what I would reccommend experimenting with. It's getting some lovin in Blender 2.9 too. Just backup before you start.
If you don't like what you've done on the shape key, just delete it.
You could import back into Studio (Daz is confusing as they are a company with many products).
One way would be to just copy the materials from the obj you import back; provided all the material zones are the same you would get something reasonable. I render in Blender as I consider Iray a resource hog - and a cash hog, so I don't see the point any more.
Don't double-post, or bump post.
You can't import HD details back into Daz, just whatever is captured in the base resolution. However, you can bake a normal map with your HD details you sculpted in Blender and use that to add the details back to your character in Daz (but I'm like you, my computer can't handle iray so I render most things in eevee).
And I definitely second your suggestion to sculpt using shape keys! It's like using layers for sculpting. I haven't bothered trying the new addon yet based on the reviews, and the fact I already have mitchy's Daz to Blender 8 which appears to be the same thing, but I think the Daz 3D version is missing the option to export shape keys as morphs you can bring back into Daz, which is a big advantage of the paid add-on.
Nevermind, I'm out.
To everybody that actually helped, thank you very much. I have my answer, it's helpful to me going forward, and I appreciate the time!
I agree with this comment. It works perfectly.
Of course you can, you just can't apply them to the characters provided by Daz; you can import the object they were sculpted on. I've done it, although its ages ago now, there is no reason it wont work. If the charcter is in the pose you require, it should work, for me there wasn't much effort at all applying the shaders, but that might not always be a given.
I was happy to pay for DazToBlender8, but I consider Diffeomorphic to be a far more complete package. I haven't used Mitchy's product for months.
ah yes that's true. I've never wanted to import an unposable figure back to daz though lol. I still use Mitchy's plugins when I'm making morphs or clothes/hair because it's easier to import back to daz and I get less issues in blender for some reason, but for anything that lives in blender I end up using diffeo.