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Having trouble Importing expressions

josiahmora20josiahmora20 Posts: 80
in Blender Discussion

(Sorry, I know I've been in this forum alot the last few days)

I read through the Diffeo documentaion and I can't seem to get expressions to import. 

My intended workflow is to import my character to blender with Diffeo then create poses/expressions (basically scenes without the landscape, just characters) in Daz, then import the poses and expressions through Diffeo onto my character A-pose.

Diffeo has both "import pose" and "import expressions." Pose import works great. I just save as a pose preset in daz and import it. But the pose preset should contain the expression and doesn't. I tried importing the pose preset through the expression import button but that doesn't work either. What am I missing?

If I were to delete the character in blender each time and re-import through easy importer it transfers over the character with the pose and expression, but this isn't going to work for me because I'm spending time modifying materials and creating physics for my character's in blender and dont want to have to redo it every scene.

Comments

  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,688

    Works fine here. In daz studio a "pose" may include both bones and morphs, so be sure to import in blender the morphs you're using for the pose, if any. Then you can import the pose with the "affect morphs" option. Be aware that body morphs are incompatible with IK, so if you use body morphs for the pose then you can't load the pose in a IK rig as MHX or rigify, the daz rig will always be fine.

    steps:

    1. In daz studio strike your pose, using bones and morphs.
    2. Export as pose preset, be sure to include in the preset the bones and morphs you're using.
    3. In blender import the figure with the necessary morphs, for example body morphs and expressions or face units or FACS if you need them..
    4. Load your pose preset with the "affect morphs" option.
    pose.jpg
    175 x 435 - 23K
  • josiahmora20josiahmora20 Posts: 80
    edited March 22
    Padone said:

    Works fine here. In daz studio a "pose" may include both bones and morphs, so be sure to import in blender the morphs you're using for the pose, if any. Then you can import the pose with the "affect morphs" option. Be aware that body morphs are incompatible with IK, so if you use body morphs for the pose then you can't load the pose in a IK rig as MHX or rigify, the daz rig will always be fine.

    steps:

    1. In daz studio strike your pose, using bones and morphs.
    2. Export as pose preset, be sure to include in the preset the bones and morphs you're using.
    3. In blender import the figure with the necessary morphs, for example body morphs and expressions or face units or FACS if you need them..
    4. Load your pose preset with the "affect morphs" option.
    Thanks so much for the thorough response! I think I see the step I missed- So you're saying that when I first import my character I have to tick the boxes for expressions, vismes, facs, etc then when I import a pose it will use those morphs to create the expression on my character? But it makes sense to import the character in A pose then apply poses and expressions as I go for each scene of my comic, and in A pose she doesn't use the morphs for a smile for example, so do I just need to write down which morphs created a smile in Daz after making the expression, then import the morphs by navigating to the Daz library where they're stored? I think I'm still missing something.
    Post edited by josiahmora20 on
  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,688

    You have to import a figure with morphs, because poses use morphs. If you don't import the morphs then the poses won't work. Sorry I can't make it more simple than that if you still don't understand may be someone else will explain it better.

  • josiahmora20josiahmora20 Posts: 80
    edited March 22

    Sorry for the trouble, I guess I'm a visual learner

     

    I made a quick video showing what I'm doing, maybe you can tell me where I'm going wrong? 

    Post edited by josiahmora20 on
  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,688
    edited March 23

    In your example, since you use the CXCM morphs to make an expression, then you save that in the daz preset. Thus in blender you have to import the CXCM morphs for your poses to work. The CXCM morphs can be imported as "daz favorites" in easy import, or as "custom morphs" after easy import, if this is what you miss.

    Be aware that, if you want in blender the exact same deformations as daz studio, then you also have to import jcms and the figure custom morphs. The easy way to do this is to use "baked correctives" in easy import.

    https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Import/Easy Import DAZ

    p.s. Another way, if you don't want to import morphs, is to bake to bones in daz studio, with edit > figure > bake to transforms, this way you can save a pose preset using bones instead of morphs. But this will only work for expressions using bones, it will not work for expressions using shapes as FACS for example. This basically means this works for G8, but not for G81 G9 which use FACS.

    Post edited by Padone on
  • josiahmora20josiahmora20 Posts: 80
    edited March 23

    Padone said:

    In your example, since you use the CXCM morphs to make an expression, then you save that in the daz preset. Thus in blender you have to import the CXCM morphs for your poses to work. The CXCM morphs can be imported as "daz favorites" in easy import, or as "custom morphs" after easy import, if this is what you miss.

    Be aware that, if you want in blender the exact same deformations as daz studio, then you also have to import jcms and the figure custom morphs. The easy way to do this is to use "baked correctives" in easy import.

    https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/wiki/Import/Easy Import DAZ

    p.s. Another way, if you don't want to import morphs, is to bake to bones in daz studio, with edit > figure > bake to transforms, this way you can save a pose preset using bones instead of morphs. But this will only work for expressions using bones, it will not work for expressions using shapes as FACS for example. This basically means this works for G8, but not for G81 G9 which use FACS. 

    Ook, thank you! I think I'm finally following. Honestly though, you might consider adding the feature to import the pose with expression ontop of the character without use of morphs. Clearly Diffeo is capible of doing this as I can import a character from easy importer with the pose AND expressions. If you're not using an expression on your a-pose but want to later it's such a hassle to go back and search for all the sliders you used and then import each one.

     

    I appreciate your help with all of this!

    Post edited by josiahmora20 on
  • PadonePadone Posts: 3,688

    Well working in blender is a different thing than daz studio. In daz studio you get a gazillion morphs from many PAs but you don't want to import all of them in blender. You carefully choose a subset that you need to animate then you stick with it and import that in blender, all the rest as actor morphs is baked from the viewport when you export since you don't need them for animation.

    Also, though it is possible to import daz poses and animations, the intended workflow is to pose and animate in blender.

  • josiahmora20josiahmora20 Posts: 80
    Padone said:

    Well working in blender is a different thing than daz studio. In daz studio you get a gazillion morphs from many PAs but you don't want to import all of them in blender. You carefully choose a subset that you need to animate then you stick with it and import that in blender, all the rest as actor morphs is baked from the viewport when you export since you don't need them for animation.

    Also, though it is possible to import daz poses and animations, the intended workflow is to pose and animate in blender.

    Good point, yeah I think I'm just trying to use it for something it wasn't intended for. Thanks again for all your help!
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