Digital Art Zone

Szark - 16 January 2013 12:19 PM

Sorry about the dely, had a visitor, went for a short walk to the shops then had to prepare the evening meal.

Yes we can manipulate a mesh with the D-Form tool but like I have said before I can take you through the process as I don’t have access to Daz Studio at all. I know you don’t like English Vidieos but doing a google search is the only thing I can suggest unless others know of some written tutorails on the D-Form Tool.

Google Secrch for Vids

Pete I have absolutely no prejudice with video tutorials as long as the guy takes into account that to follow his explanations he must speak slowly , make sure there is no echo in his room (there is one such case on youtube where you cant understand a thing because the voice is covered by reverberation of the room’s bad acoustics).

Here an example of a video whioh should have been re-recorded because of the very bad sound quality. (
http://youtu.be/GoGqfV8E7Co )

I know there are restrictions on videos length on youtube and other equivalent site, I have used them ; my 2007 hike in Bryce Canyon is on Dailymotion (Down the grand Staircase), but better to make 2 videos for one subject that only one at the speed of light speech-wise! lol.

What I don’t like is to read a paper on the screen because it tires my eyesight, so in that case I prefer a printed tutorial. But for instance I downloaded all the DAZ videos tutorials, the problem in this case is that they are not updated to the 4.5 version and mostly are from version 3. I use also Photoshop Elements video tutorials by Rick Peterson from St Paul (Minnesota) who is a remarkable teacher and speaker. (his site : http://www.essential-photoshop-elements.com/about.html ). He should be an example for many others.

Anyway I’ll check again as I did that this morning but found mostly ads for DAZ! Not exactly what I was looking for.

I finally found the video I was loooking for done by carnite. carnite is very clear and precise..though it is Daz Studio 3 based all the info contained is valid and is translatable to DS4.5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SEBV2GHJHA

About 1.30 in to the tutorial carnite shows how to d-form a plane. But watch it all the way through. Yes it will take you time to get to grips with the d-form tool to apply it/them the way you want and you may have to use a few d-formers on the one plane to get your shape. I have used 6 deformers on one mesh at one time, deforming different areas.

Szark - 16 January 2013 04:34 PM

I finally found the video I was loooking for done by carnite. carnite is very clear and precise..though it is Daz Studio 3 based all the info contained is valid and is translatable to DS4.5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SEBV2GHJHA

About 1.30 in to the tutorial carnite shows how to d-form a plane. But watch it all the way through. Yes it will take you time to get to grips with the d-form tool to apply it/them the way you want and you may have to use a few d-formers on the one plane to get your shape. I have used 6 deformers on one mesh at one time, deforming different areas.

I agree with Szark. This is the best Tut for what you wish to do. Also keep in mind it also applies to all deformers when used on other items.

Szark - 16 January 2013 04:34 PM

I finally found the video I was loooking for done by carnite. carnite is very clear and precise..though it is Daz Studio 3 based all the info contained is valid and is translatable to DS4.5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SEBV2GHJHA

About 1.30 in to the tutorial carnite shows how to d-form a plane. But watch it all the way through. Yes it will take you time to get to grips with the d-form tool to apply it/them the way you want and you may have to use a few d-formers on the one plane to get your shape. I have used 6 deformers on one mesh at one time, deforming different areas.

Yes this is the same video I found; there were others but In German and I don’t speak enough the language to get it; my knowledge of geman is sufficient only to understand Wagner’s Ring of Nibelungen!!!!l Although he was a precursor in his field he did not use D-forms to set the 4 operas!!!!LOL! How unwise of him!

Have a nice day

jvdesuit1 - 17 January 2013 03:34 AM

Szark - 16 January 2013 04:34 PM

I finally found the video I was loooking for done by carnite. carnite is very clear and precise..though it is Daz Studio 3 based all the info contained is valid and is translatable to DS4.5.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SEBV2GHJHA

About 1.30 in to the tutorial carnite shows how to d-form a plane. But watch it all the way through. Yes it will take you time to get to grips with the d-form tool to apply it/them the way you want and you may have to use a few d-formers on the one plane to get your shape. I have used 6 deformers on one mesh at one time, deforming different areas.

Yes this is the same video I found; there were others but In German and I don’t speak enough the language to get it; my knowledge of geman is sufficient only to understand Wagner’s Ring of Nibelungen!!!!l Although he was a precursor in his field he did not use D-forms to set the 4 operas!!!!LOL! How unwise of him!

Have a nice day

May be this other link could be of use to you or others on this forum although it’ s done with an older version DAZ . I made a word file of it with the pics that I can send you if you wish. beware there are 2 chapters.

http://www.sharecg.com/v/18771/pdf/word-doc-tutorial/Character-creation-using-the-Daz-D-form-tool 

Hi Pete and Shohole.

I’m trying to follow your advices and after a good lot of time searching with google I looked into the Google Sketchup 8 folders and in the wharehouse! Hurrah! or I should say mini-Hurray!

I found around 10 elements of the ruins of Pompei; in fact I should have one on my disks as I have their use in one of FlightSimulator addons.

I found also a video tutorial explaining how to transfer the object from Sketchup to DAZ via Blender . It took time as of course none of the 3 programs mentioned were used, with their actual version and lot of changes occurred in the meanwhile since the demo was made.

Nevertheless my wits improving thanks to you guys, I succeeded at last to view the object in DAZ! Again Hurrah!.....but there is a but… which you’ll see in the following picture in the scale parameters: THEY ARE HUGE!!!! So huge that the Y coordinate is at its maximum in the translate set and can’t go up further. After being under ashes for 2000 years my Palestra is well under the floor of DAZ Studio! One reason perhaps is that in reality the Pompei Paslestra is really huge. Pompeians used to come here for athletic games and sports. The area is 130 by 140 m and had a pool surrounded by two rows of trees which provided relief from the sun.See also the picture below. I noticed when I imported the final obj file, that the scale factor in the DAZ import options was already at 5000 and the palestra looked very small so.

If I reduce the scale to a normal 100% I would get something like a pin!

What should I do????? Is there a solution to the damn exasperating problem?

I’ll check your replies when I come back this late afternoon. Thanks in advance.

jvdesuit1 - 18 January 2013 08:56 AM

I found around 10 elements of the ruins of Pompei; in fact I should have one on my disks as I have their use in one of FlightSimulator addons.

Out of curiosity, and maybe off topic - which of the add-ons, for what version?

I came to Poser 4/DAZ trying to get a good low-poly “pilot”  for my aircraft models ....

Felix/FFDS
(Freeflight Design Shop)

FelixFFDS - 18 January 2013 09:48 AM

jvdesuit1 - 18 January 2013 08:56 AM

I found around 10 elements of the ruins of Pompei; in fact I should have one on my disks as I have their use in one of FlightSimulator addons.

Out of curiosity, and maybe off topic - which of the add-ons, for what version?

I came to Poser 4/DAZ trying to get a good low-poly “pilot”  for my aircraft models ....

Felix/FFDS
(Freeflight Design Shop)

This one Felix; “pompeii_italy.zip” it has been uploaded quite recently December 12/2012 in the Library of AVSIM.com. It is a photorealistic addon using those models with the author’s permission. Link here http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=c43d601ca42af553dfd89dd71a555b12&ct=mdrm

Sorry but what problem do you have this this cool prop?
Scaling?
Can’t you use the Scale Slider and reduce the scale to suit. I see the Scale is set to 20449.70% Just reduce it to suit your needs.

Szark - 18 January 2013 10:37 AM

Sorry but what problem do you have this this cool prop?
Scaling?
Can’t you use the Scale Slider and reduce the scale to suit. I see the Scale is set to 20449.70% Just reduce it to suit your needs.

As I said Pete, If I reduce it I get a small object with no comparison with what its scale should be, for instance the skeleton would appear to be a giant whose feet would be as high as the walls of the Palestra. For some reason I cant increase the scale, I suppose there is an upper limit in DAZ studio and to the level I have reached I can’t even move upwards the object, it seems blocked on the Y coordinate.

Of course it’s a cool prop and all the others are great and correspond to what I need and moreover will blend perfectly in the movie when I’ll dissolve from 3D to reality. So I’d like to solve this stupid problem but how?

Take the OBJ file into Hexagon and Resize it then Save it out again. Then load the New Larger version into DS.

Ummm….try this.

You have it in DS at whatever scale it is…so, go and Export > OBJ…then select the Daz Studio option on the exporter.  Then, when you import the new OBJ, use the same option on the importer.  This effectively resets the scale to the current value = 100%. 

You’ll have the full range after that.  It looks like you imported it at a much different scale than it was saved at…

I just tried it, using the Blender scale (after swapping the y/z axis) and it imports with a vertical height of almost 38 feet (a little over 11.5 meters)...

Another problem with it, is that the origin is not in a corner or centered, so it’s going to load off in the distance, somewhere…

mjc1016 - 18 January 2013 02:11 PM

Ummm….try this.

You have it in DS at whatever scale it is…so, go and Export > OBJ…then select the Daz Studio option on the exporter.  Then, when you import the new OBJ, use the same option on the importer.  This effectively resets the scale to the current value = 100%. 

You’ll have the full range after that.  It looks like you imported it at a much different scale than it was saved at…

Ok I’ll try that. I’ve discovered that the guy who did this model had also done the 2 sides of the street I was looking for and where is the fountain, and for some reason has closed the download option! A pity!

mjc1016 - 18 January 2013 02:11 PM

Ummm….try this.

You have it in DS at whatever scale it is…so, go and Export > OBJ…then select the Daz Studio option on the exporter.  Then, when you import the new OBJ, use the same option on the importer.  This effectively resets the scale to the current value = 100%. 

You’ll have the full range after that.  It looks like you imported it at a much different scale than it was saved at…

I just tried it, using the Blender scale (after swapping the y/z axis) and it imports with a vertical height of almost 38 feet (a little over 11.5 meters)...

Another problem with it, is that the origin is not in a corner or centered, so it’s going to load off in the distance, somewhere…

You were right.now with the same scale we had before the size of the buil is tripled and begins to look more realistic; I should do once more or perhaps twice. Thanks. As I have video shots of the Palestra I think I’ll do my scene here to begin the movie.

This is what I get now 4430% from the 100% reimported. The next step is to age those walls and columns! The textures are too smooth and new; it must look like it is now after having being immerse for hours in burning ashes and eroded. I have really a lot of fun with this. And you’re all great helps, I hope you don’t find me too intrusive.

Hi again,

I’m advancing step by step but there are mysteries I do not understand; I’v checked the forum for this particular one but it seems that this particular problem was not treated.

I found in the freebies of Renderosity.com a roman tile which I want to put in the middle of the Palestra which floor is now covered with grass.
I installed manually (there is no installer with the tile addon) the files and it shows properly in Pozer formats/My Library/Props/!!!Gandolfs with 2 files RomanTile.png and RomanTile.pp2

I double clicked on the icon in my Content lbrary and it transfered to the center of the Palestre, but nothing shows although there should be a nice roman mosaic there!

Any idea what could be the problem and how to solve it?