Digital Art Zone

I’m trying to learn how to rig simple characters in D|S 4.5. I’m trying to rig a chain/rope. So far I have my groups, and I’ve added bones, and I’ve attached the bones to the selection groups, but the bones don’t seem to actually pose the model for some reason. I’m assuming it has something to do with a weight map? I’m not sure. I tried looking for tutorials,  but everything I found just kinda breezed over the area I’m at, and now I’m stuck :(

Sorry I’m not able to help, but I too am looking for good information on rigging in studio 4 pro (latest 4.5 actually) for a vehicle figure I have converted.  I have several parts such as hood, trunk, doors, wheels and would like to set them up so that I can have them either open or turn appropriately myself.  I am sure this is quite simple to do but since I have never attempted anything like this I need to start from the basics.

I have yet to finish my first weight mapped rig, so I doubt I’m any use, but I think smay’s video’s may be of help: http://smay3d.com/forum/index.php? (especially “Setup Snake character in DAZ Studio 4”  and “Rigging in DAZ Studio 4”)

Yes, you need to go to weight brush mode (click on the little paintbrush) and add a weight map to each bone and each direction that it has (x, y and z).  A shortcut is to right-click and choose “Fill Weight By Selection Sets.”  This sets all the weights to 100%.  They will appear red.  It sometimes works all right with smoothing on, but more often you will need to select all the faces in a group and right-click to choose smooth groups and smooth them a little (this adds areas of lower percentage at the edges of a given group).  If you do this they will appear more purple as they shade to lower percentages (a blue area is zero percent to the current group).

Hi guys. I’m a bit late to respond to this thread, but hopefully this is useful anyhow.

Daz has a few videos on youtube which takes you through the process of rigging in DS. They cover everything from adding bones, setting up poly groups and weight painting. The first one is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cV3VaC7eIs&feature=related and you can easily find the other ones in the ‘related’ section on the page.