Digital Art Zone

Mec4D - 09 September 2012 08:24 PM

also returning to the geo-grafting , it is good if you are going to do your own creation something that can’t be reused without editing , as geo grafted figures not always allow you to reuse them on different shapes due to the textures that will never match , for stuff like horns or wings and tails using the half way of geog rafting is better , I was working the other day on a fish tail , and was for plan to full grafting the figure but then come to conclusion that no one can use different body textures to blend

Hmm, you’re not the first person to say that, but I don’t understand the problem, can you post pictures showing the problem?

I bought the Rigging Original Figures in DS4 Pro tutorial yesterday. 

I found this one http://philosophersegg.com/resources/SparkysDS4ProRiggingTutorial.pdf  for free. 

But I bought the Rigging tutorial anyways. 

I have to say the Rigging tutorial here at Daz was well written and easy to follow.  Only thing so far that was confusing was taking away polys in the polygon group editor you have to start to draw the lasso and THEN hit alt and it will take them away.  That was driving me crazy especially after switching from zbrush.

But I had a question for any zbrush users -  I broke my model into polygroups where I wanted my groups to be in DS4, but then I had to regroup everything in the poly group editor in DS4.

Is there a way to change the names of groups in DS4 or Zbrush?

EDIT -  I just found out all you have to do in DS4.5 is double click on the face group name and you can rename it!  How stupid of me.  So from zbrush you can polygroup, then pull it into DS and just open the polygon group editor and rename the polygroups by double clicking on the names. 

I polygrouped the model in a couple of minutes, but then it took almost an hour to regroup and rename everything in DS…

and then the bones came in completely shifted on my obj so I had to rearange every one of them (on one side in any case). 

The whole process took about 2 and half hours for about 60 bones!  I still haven’t done the weigfht mapping yet…

not to complain about the PA that did the tutorial at all -  This information should be in a manual -  It’s not that hard and the tutorial is quite simple to follow (that is a compliment for a well written tutorial it’s not easy to explain technical things so clearly). 

ReDave - 13 September 2012 03:25 AM

Mec4D - 09 September 2012 08:24 PM

also returning to the geo-grafting , it is good if you are going to do your own creation something that can’t be reused without editing , as geo grafted figures not always allow you to reuse them on different shapes due to the textures that will never match , for stuff like horns or wings and tails using the half way of geog rafting is better , I was working the other day on a fish tail , and was for plan to full grafting the figure but then come to conclusion that no one can use different body textures to blend

Hmm, you’re not the first person to say that, but I don’t understand the problem, can you post pictures showing the problem?

I think an example would be the four arms add on, or RawArt’s Cyclops/Triclops grafts. Or indeed the male genitals. They all need their own textures, which need to blend smoothly into the textures applied to the rest of the body. Since the geeomtry is a hard join, at the moment that means that there needs to be a custom map, although a masked blending area using the LIE might well work as long as the tones and level of detail (photo-relaistic with lots of pores vs more painterly) were close.

I found a MUCH faster way of weight mapping a character in DS4.5

I spent almost 3 hours working and selecting face groups and then filling them in and trying to paint a little extra.  I was not even half way done after 3 hours - and it looked HORRIBLE.

Then I figured out how to do this in about a half hour.  The model here is not perfect - I just took a model I sculpted, cut down the subdivisions and created a 15,000 poly model for testing to see if I could rig this.

The first pic is what I brought in.  The next two were quick and dirty poses.  But they are smooth.  They can still be tweaked…

All I did was in the weight map brush right click in the screen and select “Fill weight by selection sets”.  This fills all the maps for all the group faces with red.  This saves at least an hour.

Then I just posed the dino.  Then I went to each of the maps in the weight map brush that were effected by the pose and smoothed them - with the smoothing brush with a .8 sensitivity.

Just ran the brush over them until they looked good.  A few places I had to work on some other parts of the body, but mostly I just painted on the maps where I selected.  It was incredibly quick and painless.  I did several different “poses”  (just dragging parts) and smoothed until they looked good from every angle.

Now, when I get my real model in there I will paint more detailed - one joint at a time. But filling in ALL the selections at once is much faster.

Oh and here are a couple more pics just because the tail looked kind of kinked in the last picks - it was actually quite smooth - it’s just shadows and extra bends.

Here is another angle - the tip of the tail is badly sculpted from the lost subdivisions…

Now if I can just learn to bring in the Uv’s I did….

namrettek - 13 September 2012 02:46 PM

I found a MUCH faster way of weight mapping a character in DS4.5

I spent almost 3 hours working and selecting face groups and then filling them in and trying to paint a little extra.  I was not even half way done after 3 hours - and it looked HORRIBLE.

Then I figured out how to do this in about a half hour.  The model here is not perfect - I just took a model I sculpted, cut down the subdivisions and created a 15,000 poly model for testing to see if I could rig this.

The first pic is what I brought in.  The next two were quick and dirty poses.  But they are smooth.  They can still be tweaked…

All I did was in the weight map brush right click in the screen and select “Fill weight by selection sets”.  This fills all the maps for all the group faces with red.  This saves at least an hour.

Then I just posed the dino.  Then I went to each of the maps in the weight map brush that were effected by the pose and smoothed them - with the smoothing brush with a .8 sensitivity.

Just ran the brush over them until they looked good.  A few places I had to work on some other parts of the body, but mostly I just painted on the maps where I selected.  It was incredibly quick and painless.  I did several different “poses”  (just dragging parts) and smoothed until they looked good from every angle.

Now, when I get my real model in there I will paint more detailed - one joint at a time. But filling in ALL the selections at once is much faster.

Neat! thanks for sharing the tip.

Richard Haseltine - 13 September 2012 05:36 AM

ReDave - 13 September 2012 03:25 AM

Mec4D - 09 September 2012 08:24 PM

also returning to the geo-grafting , it is good if you are going to do your own creation something that can’t be reused without editing , as geo grafted figures not always allow you to reuse them on different shapes due to the textures that will never match , for stuff like horns or wings and tails using the half way of geog rafting is better , I was working the other day on a fish tail , and was for plan to full grafting the figure but then come to conclusion that no one can use different body textures to blend

Hmm, you’re not the first person to say that, but I don’t understand the problem, can you post pictures showing the problem?

I think an example would be the four arms add on, or RawArt’s Cyclops/Triclops grafts. Or indeed the male genitals. They all need their own textures, which need to blend smoothly into the textures applied to the rest of the body. Since the geeomtry is a hard join, at the moment that means that there needs to be a custom map, although a masked blending area using the LIE might well work as long as the tones and level of detail (photo-relaistic with lots of pores vs more painterly) were close.

With some experimenting I think the “shell” feature in ds4.5 should be able to help blending grafts to other textures.
I have a few ideas…but not for any project I am currently working on.

Richard Haseltine - 13 September 2012 05:36 AM

I think an example would be the four arms add on, or RawArt’s Cyclops/Triclops grafts. Or indeed the male genitals. They all need their own textures, which need to blend smoothly into the textures applied to the rest of the body. Since the geeomtry is a hard join, at the moment that means that there needs to be a custom map, although a masked blending area using the LIE might well work as long as the tones and level of detail (photo-relaistic with lots of pores vs more painterly) were close.

Hmm, I think I see what the problem is now. Thanks Richard.

Wow, this thread is amazing! I would like to thank all the contributors! I love stuff like this! I am looking to become a vendor myself, I know how to make stuff for my own personal use, it’s a whole different ballgame to make stuff for others though. I am shooting for a month or two to have my first scene finished, I plan on doing carrara versions for everything, as well and poser/DS versions.

RKane_1 - 07 September 2012 03:31 PM

smay - 07 September 2012 03:04 PM

My tutorials: http://smay3d.com/forum/index.php?board=5.0

Wow, Smay!

I got Bad Guy on sale and now I feel I owe you the rest of the money!

That was intense.

I wish there was a way to slow down Youtube videos. Does anyone know how to do that?

Thanks for recording your work. It is informative!

I use Download Helper to capture the videos and Videolan Player to play them back—VLC allows you to speed up or slow down the playback and to pause or take snapshots during playback.

I’m more interested in creating special effects in the GIMP like these:

http://superheroes-united.deviantart.com/gallery/?set=31006703&offset=96#/d3b6mll

http://superherorenders.deviantart.com/gallery/?set=28502609&offset=48#/d4xldxj

And energy surrounding the hands and such too, Heat Vision, things of that nature. Next to NOTHING like this stuff is available. :(

OK, this tutorial I put together is derived from notes from fivecat and corinthianscori:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/1866/P45/#140176

Knight22179 - 19 October 2012 06:03 PM

I’m more interested in creating special effects in the GIMP like these:

http://superheroes-united.deviantart.com/gallery/?set=31006703&offset=96#/d3b6mll

http://superherorenders.deviantart.com/gallery/?set=28502609&offset=48#/d4xldxj

And energy surrounding the hands and such too, Heat Vision, things of that nature. Next to NOTHING like this stuff is available. :(

As far as I know, GIMP and photoshop are a lot alike, right? Those kinds of effects can be done many different ways in photoshop. You have to learn about masking, and layer blending for starters. Those two skills alone, you can achieve a lot of great things with postworking. That is where I recommend starting at.

If you have parts of Genesis that you have morphed and don’t like it’s an easy fix via ZBrush: 

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/1866/P45/#141636

Hope this helps folks out! 

fixme12..have you checked out tutorials by Littlefox over at RDNA?  Littlefox covers everything about creating content, including tutes on learning rigging in Poser and DS.  http://www.runtimedna.com/Modeling-with-Littlefox-Part-Collection1.html  Her tutes only teach legacy rigging, not weight mapping.