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SimTenero Shape Reprojector - no manual, documentation or product thread?

CybersoxCybersox Posts: 9,277
edited July 2016 in The Commons

Sigh... This product LOOKs like it could be incredibly useful, but the description on the catalog page is so brief and vague as to be almost useless, there's no documentation page and nor is there a thread that I can find in any of the forums.  Would it REALLY have been so hard to publish at least a link to the manual, guys?

That said, what I SEE is something that looks like it could be incredibly useful for creating realistic indentations in beds, sofas and other "soft" items of furniture and for creating realistic indentations of things like a hand on part of a figures body... not to mention creating the bases for some really interesting props.  However, the info presented doesn't even say if these morphs can be saved permanently, let alone what kind of restrictions there are... can, for example, this used to be create two different morphs on the same object on the same time, or can they be saved off an layered one on top of each other?     

Post edited by Cybersox on

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 40,077

    I am also wondering if morphs can be saved as support assets and used in Carrara 8.5 which reads duf files.

  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854

    Looks like the tutorial is considered part of the product .. and some PAs actually sleep so expecting a thread as soon as something is released is not always logical.

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019

    It's in the ReadMe section: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/33193/start

    http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/33193/33193_shapereprojectorguide.pdf

  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,581

    When I saw this I wondered how easy it would be to use it to create Genesis 1/2/3 clones for some of the lesser supported original figures.

  • joseftjoseft Posts: 310

    i wonder what limitations there are....like geometry wise etc. As in the promo images, i can see this would be useful for simulating collisions - but it begs the question is that morph that you create embedded into the base mesh, or into the level of subdivision that you have active.

    I'd love to be able to simulate clothing constrictions on the skin, or skin deformation when you have a hand with a tight grip on an arm for example

  • metrantormetrantor Posts: 10

    A little testing could have helped to get a working application. Unfortunately every shifting of the bounding box results in a studio crash. Bad job! I will remember the authors name :(

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 108,056
    metrantor said:

    A little testing could have helped to get a working application. Unfortunately every shifting of the bounding box results in a studio crash. Bad job! I will remember the authors name :(

    Which version of DS? What is in the scene? What are your system specs?

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019
    metrantor said:

    A little testing could have helped to get a working application. Unfortunately every shifting of the bounding box results in a studio crash. Bad job! I will remember the authors name :(

     

    The Manual says that if you experiences crashes, it is best to save the item and reload it. It also has a few other suggestions, but that would depend on the Problem. Have you checked the Manual to see if any of your Problems are described there?

  • stagwolfgaragekitsstagwolfgaragekits Posts: 20
    metrantor said:

    A little testing could have helped to get a working application. Unfortunately every shifting of the bounding box results in a studio crash. Bad job! I will remember the authors name :(

    SimTenero is an AMAZING vendor, his utilties have always worked extremely well for me...and he attempts the kinds of wild stuff that makes me love this hobby.  If you're having crash issues you should definitely put in a ticket, he wouldn't release a "broken" product, and I doubt anything fundamentally wrong would have gotten past the Daz QAing either.

    These kinds of utilities CAN be "fussy" they may not work the way you think they should, the trick with these kinds of utiltities is you need to work within the limitations.  Sometimes your specific project can make it feel like you're using a pair of pliers to turn a screw, but in a world where no one has invented a screwdriver yet....these pliers are still amazingly better than trying to do the work bare handed.

    I'm dying to get home and fire this up!

  • RobotHeadArtRobotHeadArt Posts: 917
    joseft said:

    i wonder what limitations there are....like geometry wise etc. As in the promo images, i can see this would be useful for simulating collisions - but it begs the question is that morph that you create embedded into the base mesh, or into the level of subdivision that you have active.

    I'd love to be able to simulate clothing constrictions on the skin, or skin deformation when you have a hand with a tight grip on an arm for example

    I am going to guess that they only work on base meshes since creating morphs on SubD is reserved for the PA only HD tool.  That's why GenX can't transfer HD morphs so I would think it's a similar story here.

  • UthgardUthgard Posts: 878

    Before anything else: wow! This functionality was sorely missing and this is going straight into the cart.

    Now, for the inevitable caveats: The readme states it won't work with parented objects, is there any way to overcome this limitation? As the promo shows, punches are one of the main uses I can see for this, and boxers tend to... well, punch. With their gloves. Which are usually parented and/or fit to their hands.

    Secondly, is there any way to automate the process for animations? I can only imagine how tedious this would be if we had to dial each and every morph for any given frame and it is a pity, because this is the kind of thing that could make an action sequence really stand out (and for the more adult artists that use Studio... well, that's one less uncanny valley to cross--"valley"... oh God, the puns).

  • KA1KA1 Posts: 1,012
    Uthgard said:

    Before anything else: wow! This functionality was sorely missing and this is going straight into the cart.

    Now, for the inevitable caveats: The readme states it won't work with parented objects, is there any way to overcome this limitation? As the promo shows, punches are one of the main uses I can see for this, and boxers tend to... well, punch. With their gloves. Which are usually parented and/or fit to their hands.

    Secondly, is there any way to automate the process for animations? I can only imagine how tedious this would be if we had to dial each and every morph for any given frame and it is a pity, because this is the kind of thing that could make an action sequence really stand out (and for the more adult artists that use Studio... well, that's one less uncanny valley to cross--"valley"... oh God, the puns).

    It sounds like you are given new morph dials to use which should be straight forward to key frame for animation?
  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943

    SimTenero is in ... new thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/101056/simtenero-shape-reprojector-commercial

  • simtenerosimtenero Posts: 383

    Hi all!  I just spun up a commercial thread here:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/101056/simtenero-shape-reprojector-commercial

    I'll try and answer some quesitons for you, let me know if I'm missing anything smiley.

     

    Cybersox13 said:

    Sigh... This product LOOKs like it could be incredibly useful, but the description on the catalog page is so brief and vague as to be almost useless, there's no documentation page and nor is there a thread that I can find in any of the forums.  Would it REALLY have been so hard to publish at least a link to the manual, guys?

    That said, what I SEE is something that looks like it could be incredibly useful for creating realistic indentations in beds, sofas and other "soft" items of furniture and for creating realistic indentations of things like a hand on part of a figures body... not to mention creating the bases for some really interesting props.  However, the info presented doesn't even say if these morphs can be saved permanently, let alone what kind of restrictions there are... can, for example, this used to be create two different morphs on the same object on the same time, or can they be saved off an layered one on top of each other?     

    Once a morph is created, it can be saved as a morph preset or exported as an obj, it also saves along with your scene file.  You can definitely create multiple morphs, in fact, I recommend it! :-)  The biggest limitation is the available geometry.  For example, if the surface of the bed you'd like to show an indentation in only has 4 faces, it doesn't really have enough polygons to reflect the indentation.  Shape Reprojector doesn't create new geometry, it modifies what's there, so that'll be one of the biggest limitations to keep in mind.

    Sad said:

    I am also wondering if morphs can be saved as support assets and used in Carrara 8.5 which reads duf files.

    I don't have Carrara to test this in, but the morphs can be saved as .duf morph presets.  Hopefully someone with Carrara will be able to chime in and let us know if it works :-)

    Khory said:

    Looks like the tutorial is considered part of the product .. and some PAs actually sleep so expecting a thread as soon as something is released is not always logical.

    Thank you Khory :-D

    Havos said:

    When I saw this I wondered how easy it would be to use it to create Genesis 1/2/3 clones for some of the lesser supported original figures.

    Making clones is definitely doable, but it may require multiple morphs and a little patience :-).  A lot will depend on how closely the two figures match starting out. If, for example, one figure has very different eye or nose sizes, it'll take some work to get them aligned.  I guess that's a roundabout way of saying "Yep, it's possible, but may not be easy for some figures" :-P

     

    metrantor said:

    A little testing could have helped to get a working application. Unfortunately every shifting of the bounding box results in a studio crash. Bad job! I will remember the authors name :(

    I'm very sorry to hear that!  Please feel free to PM me and I will do my best to get things working for you!

     

    stagwolfgaragekits said:
    metrantor said:

     

    SimTenero is an AMAZING vendor, his utilties have always worked extremely well for me...and he attempts the kinds of wild stuff that makes me love this hobby.  If you're having crash issues you should definitely put in a ticket, he wouldn't release a "broken" product, and I doubt anything fundamentally wrong would have gotten past the Daz QAing either.

    These kinds of utilities CAN be "fussy" they may not work the way you think they should, the trick with these kinds of utiltities is you need to work within the limitations.  Sometimes your specific project can make it feel like you're using a pair of pliers to turn a screw, but in a world where no one has invented a screwdriver yet....these pliers are still amazingly better than trying to do the work bare handed.

    I'm dying to get home and fire this up!

    Thank you stagwolf!!!!!

    RobotHeadArt said:
    joseft said:

     

    I am going to guess that they only work on base meshes since creating morphs on SubD is reserved for the PA only HD tool.  That's why GenX can't transfer HD morphs so I would think it's a similar story here.

    That's exactly right :-)

     

    Uthgard said:

    Before anything else: wow! This functionality was sorely missing and this is going straight into the cart.

    Now, for the inevitable caveats: The readme states it won't work with parented objects, is there any way to overcome this limitation? As the promo shows, punches are one of the main uses I can see for this, and boxers tend to... well, punch. With their gloves. Which are usually parented and/or fit to their hands.

    Secondly, is there any way to automate the process for animations? I can only imagine how tedious this would be if we had to dial each and every morph for any given frame and it is a pity, because this is the kind of thing that could make an action sequence really stand out (and for the more adult artists that use Studio... well, that's one less uncanny valley to cross--"valley"... oh God, the puns).

    I need to phrase that section better, it should work just fine with the boxing gloves.  In some circumstances, you may need to drag the gloves off the figure in the hierarchy to the scene's root (they will stay conformed to the figure).  I need to maybe rethink that if it ends up being an issue :-P

    The process can't be automated, however the resulting morphs can be keyframe animated, so you can hopefully get some interesting effects by creating 2 or 3 morphs and them keying them in and out.  Hopefully that'll do the trick :-)

     

    KA1 said:
    Uthgard said:

     

    It sounds like you are given new morph dials to use which should be straight forward to key frame for animation?

    Yep, exactly!

  • simtenerosimtenero Posts: 383
    BeeMKay said:

    It's in the ReadMe section: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/33193/start

    http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/33193/33193_shapereprojectorguide.pdf

    Thanks for sharing the link down, BeemKay!

  • linvanchenelinvanchene Posts: 1,386
    edited July 2016

    Thank you for sharing the link to the manual.

    Question removed by user.

    I will purchase the tool and experiment with it first...

    Post edited by linvanchene on
  • UthgardUthgard Posts: 878
    Good to know the parenting issue isn't that relevant. Regarding morphs and animation, while I'm obviously thrilled about the tool working perfectly for a straight punch, I was envisioning more of a "sliding grasp" situation, something like a praying mantis joint-lock in which the hand of the attacker makes soft contact along the forearm till it slides into position for the move. The way I think the script works, I would have to generate a morph for every frame in the sequence, which is doable but extremely tedious. Of course, I'd be glad to be corrected and I am buying this just for the other possibilities it offers (really, I had pictured a hand coming out of a screen so many times...).
  • Cris PalominoCris Palomino Posts: 12,478

    Also, SimTenero has opened an official thread here:

    http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/101056/simtenero-shape-reprojector-commercial#latest

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