Digital Art Zone

Okay, this is a repost from the old forums but I thought it would be helpful to put here. It is not as illustrative because you cannot post multiple pics in order anymore in the new forum (or I have not mastered that trick) so I placed the links to the images there for you.

Once I get 4.5 working on my system, I will see if it needs updating but if anyone can tell me what has changed, I would appreciate it.

Enjoy!

Creating a Genesis Full Body Morph for DAZ Studio Pro 4 and 4.5
by RKane_1

with GENEROUS assistance (They wrote most of it and I copied it from the DAZ forum where we had this discussion) from josephquick & RAMWolff and finally, last but not least, Richard Haseltine whose the author (I think) of the original document that can be found here: Tweaking A Figure Skeleton for a Custom Shape (WIP)

For this Tutorial, I used :
• DAZ Studio 4 Pro or 4.5 Pro
• Hexagon 2.5

Both were gotten for free during the giveaway that DAZ had in February through April of 2012 but the cost currently is uncertain.

Exporting and Modelling Genesis

1. First make sure Genesis is at its lowest subdivision level and in its zero position.

2. Export Genesis out as a .obj file in DAZ scale.

3. Open the Genesis.obj file in your modeling app. (In DAZ Studio Pro, you should be able to just go to File>Go to Hexagon and these first three steps will be done for you if you are Using Hexagon. Same for Go to ZBrush for ZBrush users.)

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/03_SendToHexagon.jpg

4. In the modeling program you’ve chosen, change the figure to your heart’s content BUT DO NOT change the total number of Vertices. This means do not subdivide and leave it subdivided or use any tools which add vertices to your model. It must remain the same number of vertices from export to import.

In Hexagon or ZBrush, there are certain tools that will add vertices. This is a no-no as it will prohibit the object from being imported as a morph and make it so your morph won’t… well… morph.

In Hexagon, you should be safe with the simple tools that modify Scale, Position, and Rotation as well as Bulge, Smooth, Pinch, Bloat and my favorite Tweak. Never change the Subdivision levels permanently. If you are doing a morph that will change both sides of the Mesh in the same way but mirrored, you use the Symmetry function on the “X” axis.
Zbrush has a very rich palette of tools as well, moreso than Hexagon however the cost is much steeper. Most of the brushes will work fine without any issue.

In this example, I have lengthened the palm of Genesis for some monkey like hands I wished to make.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/04_ModellingInHexagon.jpg

Returning Genesis back to DAZ Studio
 
5. Export the model making sure to utilize DAZ scale (If you have Hexagon, use File>Go to DAZ Studio or, if you have ZBrush, the GoZ bridge should be there as well for you) and bring in the model back into DAZ Studio. If you have Hexagon and the Hexagon Bridge, this is an easy step. After making your changes in Hexagon, you simply to go to File-> Send to DAZ Studio, though you may wish to save your work In Hexagon for use in the future.
With ZBrush, the same information applies.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/05_SendToDAZStudio.jpg

6. Apply the model as a morph to the Genesis figure that usually loads when opening DAZ Studio 4. In the Morph Loader Pro box presented, you can change the name of the morph by clicking on the name “Morph” and choosing a more descriptive name for the morph. In step #15, it will be helpful to name your morph something with an odd letter that is not often used as it helps locate the morph in the ERC freeze stage because you have to scroll through each individual morph that Genesis contains so, word to the wise, steer clear of “J”, “M”, and “V”, if at all possible. (Helpful Hint: Use a dash “-” to start the name of your morph. You can always chage it later and during the ERC Freeze portion of the tutorial, it will be very helpful and quick to find your morph.)
If you are NOT using a bridge, you will need to open Morph Loader and then locate the .OBJ file you intend to use as your new morph after opening DAZ Studio 4. THEN follow the directions above.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/06_CreateMorph.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/06a_CreateMorph.jpg

You should get the following message after you click “Accept”

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/06b_CreateMorph.jpg

and then just click “OK”.

7. Go to the Parameters tab and turn your Morph on to 100%. in the Parameters Tab, you should find it under morphs if Genesis is Selected. If you used Morph Loader Pro, then it will be under that heading. If you are simply doing a cosmetic morph where the rigging is not changed, you are pretty much done and can skip to step #17. You can save the morph and be done by saving the figure. If, however, you have completed a morph that changes the Rigging on the Genesis Figure, a little more work is needed. I will still go through these steps as you never know when you may have modified a figure and accidentally moved the wrong vertices. You don’t want to find that mistake down the line after doing all these other steps.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/08_TurningUpMorphInParametersTab.jpg

Adjusting Rigging to Shape
 
8. Select the Joint Editor tool from the Tools pull-down menu at the top left section of the DAZ Studio 4 Pro screen.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/09_JointEditor.jpg
 
9. The rigging of the figure should now be visible.Then bring up the Tool Settings tab.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/09a_JointEditor.jpg
 
10. Click the thing up in the left hand corner of the tab or Right click on the bones (really anywhere on the figure) and choose “Edit > Adjust Rigging to Shape” option.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/11_AdjustRiggingToShape.jpg

11. Make sure the last option “Adjust Orientation” is clicked so that an orange check-mark appears there and click “Accept”.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/11a_AdjustRiggingToShape.jpg

12. A Dialog A dialog box Calculating Mean Value Weights will appear and finish loading. The next step is to do the ERC Freeze to the new rig shape especially if you are saving it as a DSF or DUF file or the rigging will convert back to the original rigging….

ERC Freeze

13. In the Property Editor tab, right click on the name of Genesis in the Hierarchy section and click ERC Freeze.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/14_ERCFreeze.jpg

14. In the ERC Freeze Options dialog box, select Genesis for Figure and Node should auto-populate.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/15_ERCFreezeSettings.jpg

15. Now, click on the Property bar and on your keyboard, type the first letter of the name of your morph from step # repeatedly until you find the name of your morph. (Yes, this can take a while, unless you followed my hint and used a dash “-” at the beginning of your morph name). If it’s not there then you will need go back and save it out as a new DSF or DUF file and do it all over again which means going back to step #6

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/16_ERCFreezeSettings2.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/16a_ERCFreezeSettings2.jpg

16. DO NOT CLICK ACCEPT until you UNCHECK the “Restore Figure Rigging” check box. That is VERY important or you will have to start over at step #14.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/17_ERCFreezeSettings3.jpg

 
Placing your Morph in the Hierarchy

17. To place your morph in the appropriate place so that you or others in future can find it in the shaping or posing tab, go to the Property Editor Tab and find your morph. It will be in one of the folders title “Morph” depending on how you brought it into DAZ or it may be in the main Morph file. If you used ZBrush and the GoZ interface, then it will be in a folder titled “ZBrush” Most others are in a folder titled “Morph”.

18. Right click on the the name of your morph. This is also a good opportunity to change the name of your morph if you like by right clicking on the morph and selecting “Label”. This will change the name of the morph as it shows to you and others in the Shaping or Posing Tab. You may also change the items you may have forgotten to change in the presentation editor earlier such as Minimum and Maximum value and whether your morph should me measured by value or percentage. This info can also be changed by clicking the little gear icon in the Parameters or Shaping tab at the top right side of the morph and then clicking “Parameter Settings”.

19. Before grouping your morph in the Hierarchy, make sure you know the exact location where the morph will be as you will be confronted with a lot of options. Just choose what you feel is most logical. right click on the name of the morph as before and now select Grouping. A large window will open and out of this list, you need to find the intended folder you want to put your morph in.

Determining if Auto-Follow is needed on your Morph

20. Auto-Follow either makes clothing and hair that is Auto-Fitted to your figure change according to your morph too.. When Auto-Follow is on, the morph will also change clothing and hair and props auto-fitted to the Genesis model. This can, however, change nearby props in an unwanted way such as a ripple in the hair if there is a morph on an eyelash and the hair drapes the face. The nearby eyelash morph will skew the bangs that are over or near the eye. For minor facial morphs that don’t really change the shape to a major degree, then Auto-Follow is not necessary, but if your morph was extreme enough to warrant using Auto-Adjust Rigginbg to Shape and ERC Freeze, then it is likely that turning Auto-Follow on will be required.
To turn Auto-Follow on or off, you need to right click the morph in the Property Editor and then choose the menu item “Auto-Follow”

Saving your Morph as a Support Asset Morph file

21. Turn your morph to zero before saving. If you do not, every time you load Genesis, it will load with that morph on.

22. Under the File menu, choose Save As→ Support Asset (at the bottom) -> DSF Morph File…

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/18_SaveAs-SupportAsset-DSFMorphFile.jpg
 
23. Enter your name or company name as the Author Name and a unique name for this morph as the Product Name. Future morphs you can save under this same name if they are grouped together, as this is the name of the folder under your My Library -> data -> DAZ3D -> Genesis ->Base -> Morphs -> (name of the author) -> (name of the file you just made) folder.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/19_SaveAs-SupportAsset-DSFMorphFileSettings.jpg
 
24.Click open the Figure Properties hierarchy and find your morph. If using ZBrush, it will be under the ZBrush heading. Likewise for Hexagon. Morphloader will load it under Morph menu. click the check box next to it. Do not check the body parts, just the morph. CHECK YOUR MORPH AND YOUR MORPH ONLY. Then Click “Accept”.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b238/RKane_1/DAZStudio4Pro/DazTutorials/20_SaveAs-SupportAsset-DSFMorphFileSettings2.jpg

25. You are done saving your morph. Now it will show up whenever you open a fresh Genesis and can be distributed!

Any input you give is helpful.

Please feel free to ask question about this and the process here in this forum post.

Common problems

“When I save a morph, the base Genesis loads with the morph applied 100%. It’s no big deal to Zero the Character, just an extra step. But is there a way to Fix this ??”

Yes, Open Daz and zero the figure, the go to save the morph again in a zeroes state. When you save a morph with it on, it will autoapply it everytime when you open up the Genesis figure. If you save it in a zeroes state, then you won’t have to.

Also, mjc1016 added a way to do it in a text editor if you prefer just a few posts down.

“My morph seems to change nearby clothing/hair in an unwanted way. OR Clothes don’t change when I morph them.”

Auto-Follow may be on an undesired setting. When Auto-Follow is on, the morph will also change clothing and hair and props auto-fitted to the Genesis model. This can, however, change nearby props such as a ripple in the hair if there is a morph on an eyelash and the hair drapes the face. The nearby eyelash morph will skew the bangs that are over or near the eye.
To turn Auto-Follow on or off, you need to right click the morph in the Property Editor and then choose the menu item “Auto-Follow”

Thank you for reading my tutorial.

Using ZBrush with DAZ Studio for Morphs

YouTube Tutorials and videos for ZBrush Users

Using ZBrush to make Morphs

DAZ Studio 4 Pro - GoZ

DS4Pro-GOZ-ZBRUSH Import and Export Full Body Morphs

Using Morph Target in ZBrush to remove part of Morph in DAZ Studio by ezhexagon

dazgoz

dazgoz II

Using Polypaint for Texture and Displacement Maps

Zbrush 3.5r3: Polypainting on Victoria 4

V4 Displacement Maps by sixus1

Also general info on ZBrush and how to use it can be found here:

ZClassroom

CG Society

Working in ZBrush

1. Send the model to ZBrush via GoZ

2. Click in the middle of the screen and drag to create one figure but do not click more than once. If you accidentally click and get more than one figure then CTRL - Z (Undo) til only one appears.

3. Click on Edit button so that you may actually modify the figures mesh shape.

4. Click “x” or go to Transform menu to Activate Symmetry on X axis if you intend for modifications you make on one side to be changed on the other.

5. Sculpt the desired effect making sure to never use methods which add vertices to a poly model. Most of the brushes such as the Standard brush,  Smooth, Inflate, Magnify,  and Clay brushes are all safe. Snakehook brush rarely yields changes that adapt over well, however. It won’t change the vertices but does change the surface so drastically few changes made with it will port over well. NEVER increase the poly count or use the Make Polymesh3D tool.

6. Once you have the sculpt you want, make sure you have a Genesis figure in the DAZ Studio app which should still be open and click on Zero Figure in DAZ to ensure the figure you are importing the morph to has no morphs turned on and that it is in an undeformed state by morph or pose.

7. Back in ZBrush,  click on GoZ button and it will return to DAZ Studio. It may give you the option of importing a new figure or using the importing figure to make a morph of the one open in DAZ if they are a similar mesh. It is important to know that you should go. this should put you back in the Returning Genesis back to DAZ Studio section of the tutorial above.

Navigation inside ZBrush

When in Edit mode, anytime you hold down the left mouse button outside the figure, you will be able to rotate the figure by dragging the mouse.

Hold on Shift key and drag outside of the figure and it will snap to a 45 degree angle of your viewpoint when you hold down Shift.

Hold down Alt key and drag outside of the figure and you will be able to move the figure.

Helpful Hints

-Click on Polyframe button or hit Shift and “f”. The poly frame will now be visible for your Genesis figure.

-In the side menu, click on the menu Polygroups and then Autogroups with UV then hold down Shift and Ctrl and click on the head. This will hide and mask off the rest of the figure so you may concentrate on the face without fear of moving or disturbing anything else such as the teeth or eyes or even the toes which can happen if you are using a brush at an odd angle. It is HIGHLY recommended to use this method so you don’t finish with the PERFECT lip morph and then realize you screwed up the teeth behind them.

-If you make a series of morphs, often times, you may want to make a morph which uses several of them and use ZBrush to tweak it altogether BUT make SURE you do NOT incorporate copyrighted morphs into your creation unless it is strictly for personal use and not commercial. Your morphs are okay to sell, others repackaged are strictly a no-no.

Making Mirrored Morphs in ZBrush

Sometimes, especially for expression morphs, you will want to make a morph and have the exact mirror of it on the other side BUT not in every instance. I want to arch the eyebrow on the left side only, as an example. It is possible to make an identical morph on the opposite side of a figure using this method.

Some of this tutorial developed from helpful info VERY neatly laid out by ShannonHoppe in a thread about Making Two Symmetrically Mirrored Morphs in ZBrush but to paraphrase:

1. Once you have imported Genesis into ZBrush via the Bridge and are in Edit mode, click on Morph Target menu on the right of the screen and click the Store MT button.

2. Make sure that Symmetrical is turned on. The shortcut for this is ‘x’ You will need to start out making the same morph on both sides.

3. Sculpt what you want.

4. Make sure the figure is facing you at precisely a 45 degree angle by using the Shift key and dragging outside the figure until it faces you.

5. It is suggested you also have Polyframe on so you can find the exact center point easily to use as a guide. You can do this with the ‘f’ key shortcut.

6. Mask the half you want to keep by holding down the Ctrl key as you drag outside the figure directly down the middle section of the figure.

7. Use morph brush to return the unmasked area to original form prior to GoZ. Send the model back to DS.

8. Use GoZ to export the morph side into DAZ Studio and save the morph in DS.

8. Go back to ZBrush (via the OS, NOT via GoZ. Just change the active application window).

9. Use Undo in ZBrush to go back to the figure before the use of the Morph Brush which will negate the change just made with the Morph brush.

10. Follow the above procedure now for the opposite side masking the other side and applying the morph brush to the opposite side being as precisely identical as you can.

11. Hit GoZ to return to DS.

12. You should now have two morphs which do the identical change to opposite sides of the face. Mozeltov.

(Thanks, ShannonHoppe)

Removing Unwanted Parts of a Full Body Morph

Every once in a while you may find a morph where the face is perfect but maybe the rest of the body just looks weird to you, of visa versa. You may wish to “dial down” that area but since Genesis only truly has Full Body Morphs, they may be linked. ZBrush can fix it.

1. Load Genesis into ZBrush WITHOUT the morph and

2. Click on the menu area to the right of the screen on the section labelled Morph Target and click on Store MT.

3. Then you load the morphed Genesis figure into ZBrush from DAZ GoZ.

4. You can view either version by going to Tool>Morph Target>Switch.

5. Use the Morph Brush to paint back those areas that you want restored to the original mesh utilizing mask if need be OR just use the mask and the slider in the Morph Target menu if you like.

6. Then you can save it out as a morph with all the other places restored to the original Genesis.

Special thanks to RAMWolff for really beating the bushes to find the solution to this last one. You rocks, Rammy!

ALSO special thanks, of course, also to EZHexagon who posed these on YouTube as well.

*reserved*

As with my other tutorial,

I was just wondering if anyone had used this tutorial and if you were happy with it?

Was everything clear and step-by-step for you or should I clarify anything?

As always, I appreciate your input.

worked for me, i do have one issue after the mesh is re-imported from sculptris. for some reason when i dial the morph in DAZ i also get a xyz translate of the character. the morph works fine, no scale issues just as i dial the morph it also moves to a diferent x y or z location and is different with each morph.

when i import the obj into sculptris i have very little control over the placement and this may be the issue, do you know a workaround to remove any zxy translation from the morph?

I am not familiar with Sculptris and only recently purchased ZBrush (Wow…. just…. wow.) but perhaps another helpful person here might chime in with an answer who knows OR checking the Sculptris forum might help too.

Sorry, I was not more help in this BUT if you find the answer, PLEASE post it here for all to learn more about it.

I and the others who may go the Sculptris route will appreciate it.

it was user error on my part in sculptris on loading the obj file.

in the end it did not really matter anyway, if you use the “DSF Toolbox” (see daz store) one can automate the process of converting the exported obj from zbrush to a dsf morph file.

so i can save any amount of versions of the zbrush edits and batch convert to daz morphs in seconds all with my metadata loaded ( no need for morph loader pro or save as steps)

.

The tutorial looks good, although I haven’t tried it yet it does make some things clearer. I do have one question though. If I want to create a morph based on one of the DAZ bodyshapes, i.e. a character for the David 3 bodyshape, can I morph genesis before exporting and then somehow remove the DAZ bodyshape when creating the morph, or do I need to build the morph on the genesis base shape, return to DS and combine the morphs, then see what tweaks are needed? I want to create morphs for use with the premade bodyshapes, D3, V5, genesis male etc. and am wondering the best way to do this.

Hi meowl…

For some reason my cat calls your name every time he is hungry….

Hmmm…

Anywho.

Curiously enough there is a shortcut for it and the long way around.

The Long way around

The long way around is simply do all you need to do to make your morph.
Return to DAZ making a morph target on a fresh figure of the .obj file you had customized.
Turn your morph to 100%
Find the morph body shape your figure is based on and set it to NEGATIVE 100% (or negative the percentage you used in the original figure before export)
Export that again out as a .obj file
ONLY to turn right around and reimport it.

If the morph you were using won’t go to negative 100%, you need to change the parameter setting on the morph (The little gear in the top right corner of every morph open a window with that selection in it.)

The SHORT way works if you are using ZBrush and DAZ with the GoZ bridge.
Once you have made your modifications with ZBrush, Before you hit GoZ to return to DAZ, make sure there is a Genesis figure active in DAZ with the morph you used to base the customization off of turned up to the original percentage you used.
When you hit GoZ, the new morph will be there but it will have imposed itself as a morph of the difference between what you sculpted and the figure you imported it in on (The one with the David morph turned up to 100%, for instance) . You can then turn up your morph to test it and then turn down the base morph to see the result of what you did.

It is kind of funny, BTW, I found this out on accident and didn’t figure it out until I meant to replicate what I perceived to be an error. I also encourage you to take your morph, subtract the David Morph and then turn up, say, Michael 4 to 100%, export him and smooth him out and do some touch up, and then you will have a new Michael 4 character as well. Lather, rinse, and repeat with the whole slew of shapes you have. *smile*

My old cat did. The current batch just squeak.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

Updated the following info in the tutorial:

-Added a Helpful Hint regarding using a dash “-” on the name of your morph when importing into DAZ Studio Pro to make it easier to find during the ERC Freeze portion of the tutorial.

- with info regarding making sure to turn your morph to zero before saving it or Genesis will load with it turned on whenever Genesis is loaded.

If you have any questions or helpful advise regarding this process, please feel free to post it here so all might learn.

Thanks!

RKane_1 - 25 September 2012 05:57 PM

Updated the following info in the tutorial:

-Added a Helpful Hint regarding using a dash “-” on the name of your morph when importing into DAZ Studio Pro to make it easier to find during the ERC Freeze portion of the tutorial.

- with info regarding making sure to turn your morph to zero before saving it or Genesis will load with it turned on whenever Genesis is loaded.

If you have any questions or helpful advise regarding this process, please feel free to post it here so all might learn.

Thanks!

There’s an easy way to ‘fix’ the problem if you do save your morph ‘on’.

It takes a few seconds with a text editor to change the value in the dsf file.

Open the file in a text editor and near the top will be a section starting with channel.  The value you are looking for is in that section.  It’s called ‘current value’.  Change it to zero, save and you are done…

Thanks, mjc1016. I take it the same goes for the new DUF format or have you checked that yet?

it is same. I tweak morph dsf, manytimes ^^;

the morph file is not duf. (in future, if daz will change or not,, I do not know)
morph filie is dsf , in new DSON too.

and I think if the morph file is zipped (when you save the morph there is option, as same as other files)
you need to extrac the file by zip tool which can extract.
eg 7zip etc,,

Thanks, kit and mjc for that helpful information!

Okay, I have greatly fleshed out the ZBrush portion which is in the second post of the thread for your perusal.

I am not a Zbrush expert and I am just learning but if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and we will see if we can’t get them answered.

Bringing this back to the top.  The last two tutorials are just what I was looking for.  Thanks for taking the time to type all this out in easy to understand language Robert!