Digital Art Zone

I recently was messing around with an outfit and a character model when I discovered that when I applied a smoothing modifier to make the outfit fit better, the jewelery that was part of the outfit was altered so that pieces or chunks were missing.  The only way I could get the outfit to fit was with the smoothing modifier, but no matter what, it still made invisible part of the jewelry.  Maybe on the next version, you can make it so there is a smoothing modifier that perhaps allows the user to select portions of whatever they are trying to apply it to, so that only portions that the user wants “smoothed” get smoothed, with an option to apply changes to other parts only to maintain connection with the parts that are being smoothed, or let the nonselected part not get smoothed at all.  If the way smoothing works prevents something like this, perhaps some other function could do something similar?  I posted 4 pictures with this to demonstrate what I’m talking about.  2 pictures show the outfit with the smoothing, one of the jewelry and one of the shoulder that was causing me to need to smooth it, and 2 without smoothing, showing the same items but without smoothing.

Out of interest what are your Smoothing and Collison settings?

Also mesh resolution plays a big part in getting good results. Genesis is no problem but the item you are using maybe too low for it to work properly. Go in to Wireframe mode and you will see what the mesh resolution is like. If the item is well made you may be able to use the SubD function to Subdivide the mesh more, making it a higher resolution mesh. I say well made as if the mesh is not joined properly the mesh may rip apart. But the good thing now is you can turn off the SubD off reverting it back to its base mesh.

Also, rigidity mapping. But that’s territory I’ve still yet to explore, but I was told it would solve some problems like this.

Szark - 11 July 2012 08:48 PM

Also mesh resolution plays a big part in getting good results. Genesis is no problem

Actually, I’ve found smoothing to produce very unsatisfactory results with Genesis. I’ve read that Genesis has a lower poly-count than V4, and I’ve found that it can’t tolerate the same degree of smoothing that V4 can—and I rarely smooth V4 over 4. Even that relatively modest amount leads to issues with V4’s expressions, and puts a nasty crease over her upper eyelids that has to be post-worked out. As happy as I am that I have the option of mesh smoothing, I’d love the ability to SELECTIVELY smooth, applying it where I need it and leaving it out where I don’t.

I find a smoothing level of 2 or lower to be better. DS4.0.3.47 had a defualt setting of 20. Now with 4.5 RC2/3 it is 2.

Szark - 01 August 2012 05:15 AM

I find a smoothing level of 2 or lower to be better. DS4.0.3.47 had a defualt setting of 20. Now with 4.5 RC2/3 it is 2.

I thought I noticed something different. The original mesh smoothing value WAS set to 20, with collision set to 3—with RC3, collisions are still set to 3, and smoothing is dropped way down to 2.

Its not you, it really isn’t. Ive had the same problems

It would be REALLY nice if Daz could break away from posers limited OBJ reading capabilities and actually have DS read and use the Smoothing group information contained in an OBJ.
Im pretty sure that both DS and Poser blissfully ignore all mesh smoothing group properties on imported OBJs.

Preping a mesh for the mesh smoothing modifier is tricky -especially where clean edges are concerned (as you can see from your screen shots), it involves adding extra geometry that you wouldn’t normally need. You need to have a tiny chamfer on all the sharp edges to prevent the smoothing from killing them.

A better solution for garments, would be a Vert Relax modifer rather than smoothing. With the exception of organic objects, applying uncontrolled smoothing to an entire mesh will almost always yeild bad looking results.

Two questions,
1) For the beads on the necklace, did you break the verts to get a clean edge? if so that wont work for mesh smoothing, all verts must be welded.
2) in your last screen shot im not quite sure what we are looking at, this one doesnt look like a smoothing problem, did it just conform badly to the figure? And If so did you use a ‘projection template’ in the transfer utility? That sometimes can cause this problem.