Facial expressions (from pose libraries) and their unwanted (partial) stickiness
Facial expressions (from pose libraries) and their unwanted (partial) stickiness
This question may look familiar to a question I raised earlier this year but now I focus on a particular aspect of the problem: applying expressions to character’s faces and then finding out some changes won’t go away on reset or changing to a different pose (expression). Particularly the mouth is problematic, once open it (too often) stays open in subsequent poses even when these new poses (should) have closed mouths. The stickiness of mouth poses leads to hideous grimaces that cannot be zeroed and I usually wind up deleting the afflicted figure from my scene (wasting a lot of time on occasion). Similarly, eyes once closed tend to stay closed which is rather exasperating.
Sliders?
From my previous question I learned that probably one or more SLIDERS are responsible for the obstinate retention of (partial) poses, but even when tweaking the seemingly relevant sliders in “Currently used” I can never tweak them so as to establish the ZERO expression that the figure started out with, I often end up with a figure that looks toothless with a jaw line of a 300 year old etc.
Script to the rescue?
I can’t help expressing my utter frustration having spent thousands of $$$ in the DAZ shop that I can’t find a script that actually fully zeroes a figure’s expression. Many shop libraries have their own ZERO (script)tiles (including ZERO slider types) but I find they only focus on resetting the scope of attributes that that particular library includes/covers (which I guess makes sense). Some ZERO (script)tiles from certain vendors come close but none wipe out those revolting grimaces that affect some of my figures after I bombarded them with (subsequent) facial expressions from (let’s assume) multiple pose/expression libraries.
Undo
Can’t I just CTRL+Z undo my changes? Sometimes I have reached the end of my undo chain and I am stuck with an expression still horrific. Also, I would like to know if there is a (script) solution that NEVER FAILS zeroing an(y) expression.
Risk applying many expressions in succession?
I wonder might it be bad practice to apply many expressions from different expression libraries to your character just to find out one you like. Could this be a sure fire recipy for disaster because of expression residuals that won't vanish but get stacked on the next expression you apply. This sounds implausible but I think this is actually happening with the open mouth and closed eyes (but esp. the open mouth issue) examples I refer to.
Body poses: the stickiness of hand poses
With BODY POSES I now have a little more success on zeroing them although I may have yet to discover a script that ALSO zeroes the HAND POSES with the rest of the body, I often have to perform a specific HAND ZERO action to get those fixed (I do understand though that a particular hand pose may have cost you a lot of time to sculpt and you are glad it is not lost in a ZERO body reset, but I would like to know if any script(tile) ZEROES ALL, for instance ‘Genesis 8 Starter Essentials’--> ‘Genesis 8 xx UV Prep Pose’ seems to leave a posed hand [remarkably partially] unaffected).
Thx y'all !
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Comments
Try selecting the head and press Ctrl E. If that doesn''t work, you can select the head and do DAZ Studio>Edit>Figure>Zero Selected.
You can save a pose file to zero out. I'm not at a computer for me to tell what you need to save for it, but someone may answer. I'll check back when i'm on my computer again.
Riversoft makes great scripts. https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-zero
Impressive that you know these things from memory! Both suggestions took care of a few quirks within a scene I am working on right now. Still lots to learn about the DAZ GUI but you now have given me a good reason to explore it further. Thx!
Thanks for that tip. I have recently bought "Eye Clock position" and "Camera POV" from him, probably return Camera POV to buy the Camera Doctor Bundle if DAZ support allows me. Not sure if the ulimate-zero package has not already been covered by the DAZ Studio>Edit>Figure>Zero Selected etc. options that you just pointed out to me! Perhaps RiverSoft Art's solution is more rigorous and/or more granular. See a lot more RiverSoft Art solutions that I would like to get my hands on. Only a half year into my DAZ journey I realize with more knowledge I would have bought far less but far better stuff. Ah, well.
I would assume clever script libraries like the ones from RiverSoft Art at some point in time would cease to function (unless updated!) in new incarnations of DAZ studio. a risk that I am aware off from DAW and audio plugins and such. Some DAZ developers for instance stopped developing anything new when new generations came around, which is perfectly understandable but it does introduce the problem of things being future proof or not. Obviously not (even) talking decades here. As a beginner I am just speculating here, maybe the legacy issue is well taken care of in DAZ devs.
NP. Most scripters will attempt to keep scripts up to date and you would find changed ptoducts in DIM.
Bought RiverSoft Art's (1) camera doctor bundle, (2) Ultimate Zero and (3) Render Doctor on sale yesterday. Can't think too much about future proof when the utility in the here and now is compelling. Obviously, I can only hope efforts will be made to maintain these scripts by the developer.
@Federmann - Since I deal with making expressions, I can answer this question. (Sorry I didn't see it until now. I don't often wander out into the forums. I'm usually hovering over my latest set for the store.) The problem with expressions is that they're often saved differently than general poses are. So unless the pose creator is particularly scrupulous and has unticked all the relevant bones and expression sliders from the pose they are creating, applying a new pose will either add or subtract from an expression that is already applied to the figure.
Now, moving onto just expresson poses themselves. There is a distinct difference between the G8 (and lower) figure and the G8.1 figure in terms of how the expressions are saved. (Ironically, the bones for both the G8 and the G8.1 figures are identical but the way G8's expressions are saved as morph sliders whereas G8.1's expressions are saved as a regular pose with bones.) The same problem with poses getting saved with expression data trapped in them exists in expressions poses. And if you apply a G8.1 expression on G8 (which does work - it doesn't work the other way around, however) you will get horrific sticky expression parts that only get worse when you apply a new pose. (Ask me how I know!)
Contact me privately and I'll give you a copy of my zero expression pose presets for both G8 and G8.1 - unless you own any of my sets that come with expressions in them. I try to include zeroing (or returning to default expressioin positions) whenever I have expressions included in my sets, because I know how frustrating it is to apply an expression or a pose only to find that my expression gets warped.
I forgot to add - if you just want to clear out the expression and the pose (or whatever is applied to the figure) you can use the ctrl+shift+F and that will restore your figure's pose (and expressions) back to default. The other, quicker option (I have found) is to go to your timeline (usually located in the tabs at the bottom of the screen in DS). Go to the drop down menu (the four parallel lines on the far right as you're looking at the screen) on the timeline tab. Scroll down to "Clear Animation" (should be fourth from the bottom) and select the side menu. Chose "Clear Figure Pose". I'm not sure why this is faster because you'd think it's the same operation but across the timeline, but it is demonstrably faster to clear out a pose going this route.