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Null Magic - Trick for placing characters on uneven ground

wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
edited December 1969 in Daz Studio Discussion

I just discovered a new use for Nulls that makes placing characters in the right spot (and on the ground so they're not floating above it) absolutely simple.

In two steps.

Load your set. I'm using DzFire's amazing Old Warehouse. The trouble, is not only does it have many levels, but the base ground is uneven.

Place a NULL where you want the center of your scene to be. zoom in on your null, and set the Y Translate value so that the null is exactly on the ground, so it's just beginning to disappear into the surface of the ground.

Save that file.

Start a new file, and build your scene with the characters you wish to render in that set. Once you have done that, create a NEW null, and parent all those characters to that null. You might also set up a camera and parent that to your null as well.

Now merge the set file into your scene. Parent the Character Null to the null you placed on the ground in the set. Select the Character Null.

SEt the XYZ Translate value to ZERO!

Voyolay: instantly, your characters are exactly where they are supposed to be!

Comments

  • DzFireDzFire Posts: 1,473
    edited December 1969

    wancow said:
    ...but the base ground is uneven.

    What?!? I'm gonna have to get with the contractor. That slab was supposed to be level.

    Cool quick tutorial by the way ;)

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited February 2013

    To be fair, DzF, I did disable your displacements :) that might have something to do with it... I dunno. It's still the coolest set I have.

    Did some other alterations as well to materials. I made the Staircase and the Railing its own material set so I could clean the place up. I have to tell you, it is my #1 favourite set. It just took me a while to get all the pieces in place to use it the way I wanted to. The upper level now has an apartment on it, and the lower level has an office/changing room... I'll post some renders of it to show you what all I did :)

    The point of this tutorial is also about various levels, which the Warehouse has several of. Placing Nulls all over it allows a scene to be made in the default center of DAZ Studio's... studio... and instantly place those scenes of interacting characters where they need to be without having to move things around tediously by hand. It royally sucks when you have to do that with a populated scene. This way, you can hide all under your null, zero that null out, and have your characters exactly in place instantly.

    Post edited by wancow on
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    DzFire™ said:
    wancow said:
    ...but the base ground is uneven.

    What?!? I'm gonna have to get with the contractor. That slab was supposed to be level.

    Actually, I believe they installed it according to 'code'...which specifies a certain amount of pitch to prevent standing water...so before you start complaining...double check. (Makes a good excuse, anyway... :-) )

    (Nothing is more frustrating than getting a slab poured and having the code inspector come in and say it is too flat...been there, done that in RL...my boss could have cheerfully throttled the guy).

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Here are a few renders of this perpetual work in progress...

    http://wancow.deviantart.com/#/d5ti1pe

    http://wancow.deviantart.com/#/d5ti1m1

    http://wancow.deviantart.com/#/d5ti1fu

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