Digital Art Zone

The plugin mode of FaceShop 7 Pro (bought from the DAZ store) simply does not work for me, and I’ve tried two machines and different versions of DS; the FS starts when invoked from the DS4 edit menu but then it simply hangs forever after I pick an image file to open.  And FS help has not been any help.

So, maybe I could run FaceShop standalone and use the morph loader.  I’ve tried that - created an obj with FaceShop with the Genesis option selected, and imported it onto a Genesis figure in DS4.  But all the morph does then is to scale the genesis figure - if I slide the morph to 100% the genesis shrinks to less than a pixel.

I saw another thread suggested the FS manual might specify settings to use in loading the morph.  But not true - the only manual I can find is completely silent on this.  And FS help has not been any help.

Please, does anyone here know exactly how to import a genesis-based obj from FaceShop into DS4 as a morph, and have it work in the way it is supposed to… and if so please tell!

thanks!

It sounds as if you used the wrong preset when importing the morph - I’m not sure which it wants, but check the manual and it should say.

Ask wendycat, she uses it on regular basis, I gather.

Skiriki - 14 June 2012 03:58 PM

Ask wendycat, she uses it on regular basis, I gather.

I think she uses FaceGen

Richard Haseltine - 14 June 2012 03:27 PM

...but check the manual and it should say.

As I said, there is not one single word in the FaceShop manual about how to do this. It describes only plugin mode for DAZ Studio, the illustrations are for DS V3, and the plugin *will not run* in DS4. 

Sorry, frustration, but “RTM” is not helpful when the manual is featherweight and I already explained it does not help me.

I do use facegen on Genesis but have faceshop6EZ for DS3, the morphs transfer over to Genesis using GenX but personally I never found it easy to use unlike Facegen which is pretty accurate.

fixmypcmike - 14 June 2012 04:07 PM

Skiriki - 14 June 2012 03:58 PM

Ask wendycat, she uses it on regular basis, I gather.

I think she uses FaceGen

Ah yes, darn the similarity of names. I stand corrected.

thetom56 - 14 June 2012 05:48 PM

Richard Haseltine - 14 June 2012 03:27 PM

...but check the manual and it should say.

As I said, there is not one single word in the FaceShop manual about how to do this. It describes only plugin mode for DAZ Studio, the illustrations are for DS V3, and the plugin *will not run* in DS4. 

Sorry, frustration, but “RTM” is not helpful when the manual is featherweight and I already explained it does not help me.

I was hoping that telling you what setting was needed would let you search and find it. Since it isn’t there, what preset are you using in morph loader?

If it becomes less than a pixel, I’d try the Poser preset.
However it is possible the morph wasn’t spawned correctly, e.g. Genesis head may not have exported properly.

well for facegen you export the whole Genesis mesh as an obj unsmoothed and unsubvided to use to create the morph target
so perhaps you need to do the same for faceshop.

Thanks to all who chipped in with suggestions etc. to try to help me out here.

I was trying to use png files in FaceShop, because the FS program had simply refused to open several jpg files that I tried (I still don’t know why; for some it was silent, for others it just said “The image file is wrong”).  The exact problem I first posted on here, I finally found was caused by selecting a png file with an odd number of pixels per raster (i.e. with x-dimension mod 2 == 1).  However there seem to be additional problems with png files, and finally I was informed that they are not supported, even though png *is* one of the choices on its file open dialog.

There were some things in FaceShop that I really liked, but the difficulties I experienced trying to use it exceeded my level of interest, I have given up on it. 

I will note that if someone often finds a need to model a face from multiple photos including partial profiles only (no 90-degree head shot) FS7 profile process allows you to free-rotate the head and this might conceivably work well for someone who was committed to it.

thetom56 - 24 June 2012 07:54 AM

Thanks to all who chipped in with suggestions etc. to try to help me out here.

I was trying to use png files in FaceShop, because the FS program had simply refused to open several jpg files that I tried (I still don’t know why; for some it was silent, for others it just said “The image file is wrong”).  The exact problem I first posted on here, I finally found was caused by selecting a png file with an odd number of pixels per raster (i.e. with x-dimension mod 2 == 1).  However there seem to be additional problems with png files, and finally I was informed that they are not supported, even though png *is* one of the choices on its file open dialog.

There were some things in FaceShop that I really liked, but the difficulties I experienced trying to use it exceeded my level of interest, I have given up on it. 

I will note that if someone often finds a need to model a face from multiple photos including partial profiles only (no 90-degree head shot) FS7 profile process allows you to free-rotate the head and this might conceivably work well for someone who was committed to it.

Please no PNG files!!!
Laslo

I purchased Faceshop 7 in order to compare results with FaceGen.

So far, having very poor results with Faceshop and hoping someone can give me some pointers so I can make usable characters (otherwise will return this over the next few days).

Problems:
1) I’ve tried to create a character (based on .bmp images, no .png’s) about 6 times.  About half the time, when FaceShop sends me back to DAZ, the top and back of the model’s head if all scrunched in and crushed while the face looks relatively normal and has new texture applied.  This has happened both with the Classic and non-Classic method (just dots) used inside of faceshop.

2) The Lips of the model and the texture for lips don’t seem to line up very precisely, so when I open or close the mouth (which I’ll be doing all the time since I want these characters for lip synching), the model is unusable.

3) The nose texture is sometimes way out of alignment with the model’s nose - again making model unusable.

4) After going through adjusting all the dots and clicking next, the textured face is shown.  If not satisfied with this, you have to go back to the beginning and readjust all of the dots - not just trouble areas - and you still have no idea if it’s going to work at all until you click next again - so you can’t incrementally improve your figure - just seems very hit or miss to me.  Am I doing something wrong with my approach here, or is that a limitation of the program?

Thanks for any replies.
I’d love to get this working since it does let you work on generation 3 & 4 figures as well as Genesis, but so far it’s proven unusable in my hands.

Please watch some of the “how-to” and workflow videos at:
http://www.abalonellc.com/watchdemovideo.html

Also, we do have a tech support:
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
or call 650-302-0894.

My suggestion is to email me a screenshot of the issues, or also send me the original photo so I can give you some pointers.
Laslo

Hi Laslo - thanks for the reply.

I have watched all of the videos and generally understand how the process works - but even if I outline the lips for example (using the classic method as opposed to simply placing the dots) - the texture for the lips do not line up exactly with those of the model - therefor when I open the character’s mouth to speak, it looks weird (sufficiently weird that I couldn’t use it in an animation, let alone a still shot).

I’ve also had problems with the two dark areas for the nostrils showing up on the character around the lower part of the model’s nose, but not lining up with the texture for the nose (this, I imagine, could be handled by taking the texture into Photoshop).

The problem I’m running into now is that your plugin isn’t working for the DAZ 4.5 Beta, and I need that beta installed for my Genesis content to show up properly in Carrara 8.5 beta - so everytime I want to test Faceshop it means uninstalling DAZ Studio 4.5 and reinstalling the previous release.

Reading through the Daz 4.5 beta release, it recommends against installing both the 32biut and 64 bit version on same system.

I do have DAZ 3 Advanced still installed - but I think FaceShop requires DAZ 4 - I’ll go double check that since it would be an easy solution to testing things.

As for the original image, I’ve tried with a few, both .bmp and jpgs between 500 and 1000 pixels,and I’ve tried both with images that have the mouth open and one that I closed the mouth ahead of time in another program.

I guess I was hoping someone could provide me general pointers for getting the lips to line up properly or to confirm that that is a limitation of the program and requires a lot of manual tweaking.

If you can provide any info on that end, that would be great.

If not, I may have to see how FaceGen goes (limitation there is it’s more expensive and (at least for the limited version I’m looking at), it’s only geared for Genesis - not any of the generation 3 or 4 characters). 

So I may end up having to remove DAZ 4.5 beta and go back to earlier version, in which case I can send you some pics of the problems I’m running into.

Thanks

Mosk,

Thanks for calling on the support phone line. As I explained, we should be able to help you.
All I need right now is the photo you want to use (prefer NOT open mouth photo).
Pls. send it to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Laslo