Text from Hex to Daz
richardgaray_c9b7eb2acb
Posts: 0
Is there anyway to get text created in Hex into Daz without the characters getting screwed up? It looks great in Hex, but once in Daz extra faces/planes are created that make it all but recognizable.
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Yes there is but it involves another program to create the initial tex in another format. Import that format into Hexagon and then export out an .obj for to import into D/S.
Found it: http://www.armanisoft.ch/webdesign/elefont/Elefont.html
Otherwise it's a rather labour intensive exercise to manually make each letter workable by adding tessellation lines, fixing face normals, etc and checking it via the smoothing actions.
Think somebody posted an alphabet over at sharecg.com too.
Thanks Patience, both of your suggestions are great resources.
Maybe a stupid question... but shouldn't the txt function in Hex work perfectly in Daz?
Not a stupid question at all. Text works in D/S from other modelers [or so I've been told] but Hexagon is well, Hexagon.
It doesn't do Boolean functions in "an acceptable for use in D/S" manner either.
Hi Patience:)
The problem is that Hex makes the text faces N-gons, which Studio doesn't know how to read - Hex's text works perfectly well in all my other applications.
Even after triangulating the N-gons in Hex I get artifacts in Studio, which I don't get in other apps.
Patience is spot-on about Elifont - it makes nice clean text:)
Hi chaps yes those artifacts were bothering me too.
I have seen this question asked time and time again, I had the same problem with it at first. Hexagon can create perfectly good text that will work in Daz Studio, all it requires is a little thought, if we tell it to make a poor model it will, likewise a good one. Hexagon gives us the power to create but it will not create for us.
Props in Daz are not always made of one part, so I would view a text model in the same way.
Just give this a go and see if it makes a difference. please excuse if I over simplified..or confused.
1. In Hexagon create your text, the nature of fonts are nice smooth edges so crank up the tessellation to max.
2. Ungroup it all to the root, make sure all the letters are selected then weld all together.
3. Select all the front and rear faces of your text and extract them. I find it easier to use wire frame mode and the top window with a right click rectangle mode select to do this in one go.
4. With your new face object selected triangulate the nonagons.
5. Maybe name and give the objects some colour using shading domains.
6. Select all the objects, send to Daz.
7. In Daz create a new null, call it something like Text and parent your font objects to it. then feel good about your lovely smooth text model, created in Hexagon :)
EDIT: How to get images in order ?? just look at the last one first :)
Tapioca Tundra, Not sure if I did it exactly like you described, but it seems to work.
What's the purpose of ungrouping, then welding?
Then parenting to a null?
ragaray
For simplicity, the ungrouping to be able to select and extract the faces of the text objects, it will not work the same if they are grouped I find. To do it inside the group, after selecting your faces use The Dissocate command and directly after the Extract command, or the faces vanish :)
The welding to keep things fairly simple here as well, in my above explanation, you should end up with just two objects to manage. It can be done in the same manner without welding, you will end up with as many objects as you have letters plus the the same amount of front and rear faces, the faces will come paired as one object per letter if they are selected all at once, if it would be more useful for you to keep them seperate like that, then go for it, just more work to manage all the letters and faces.
When you send to Daz the letters and faces will arrive as seperate objects, in this case the null encapsulates them as one object so as to position etc. in your scene. You can create a null then drag your objects into it like a folder if you wish.
I will add that depending on font choice it will pay to adjust smoothing in the surfaces tab, the flat faces do not need it so it can be switched off for them, with the main text it appears ok but on closer examination sometimes is over smooth leading to "burn marks" so you can drag the smoothing way down to about 10 or 15 to get a nice solid model for rendering.
I hope this is clear enough.
Okay ... so those nasty things are called N-gons ... and wow! I'll have to try that new recipe.
I have tried other work around but they were extremely labour intensive and quite frankly not worth the time involved. That or they also created unworkable surfaces.
edit: ... fast test worked! Thanks :-)
@TapiocaTundra
Very elegant solution, thanks for sharing:)
I too was wondering at the purpose of the nul object, seeing that Studio imports all multiple-mesh .obj's as a single entity.
I only ever use it for morphing and rigging, so aren't well-versed in its finer points, but I consider that one of Studio's big drawbacks for animating models - each bit of a multiple mesh object has to be imported separately to be able to move it independently.
In Carrara, for instance, you can choose whether to import a multiple-mesh .obj as a single entity or keep each mesh separate - I don't see anything similar in Studio, so am a bit puzzled at your explanation - care to elaborate?
@ Patience55 thanks, you are welcome, I hope this method is not a work around though ;-)
@ Roygee, cheers. Looking around the Daz forum, I have to give myself a very low rating of expertise in the software, the only reason for the nul is because of the Hex/Daz Studio bridge I presumed :} that the title of the thread was sort of pointing in that direction. It brings all the objects over separately you see, (edit)..so the null groups them as one,.. do you not use the same procedure for morphing? The bridge in Daz side is always asking me to create a morph first, I find it annoying to have to switch it, sometimes I forget to,
I have never really concerned myself with Studio's inability to bring in a multiple .obj file, sounds a bit odd to me, there must be some easy way to do it ? :)
I am not 100% certain but I feel after a little more testing that there is more control over the smoothing if the objects are brought in via the bridge rather than import.
No, that wouldn't be a work around!
As I recall, I had tried extracting mesh from lines, remaking the face normals. But found I had the same issues in D/S so there was no point. Then I tried manually tessellating each letter ... that was too much work lol ...
I knew of the triangulate option however it hasn't been my first choice for tessellating as it has also caused holes in some other converted .obj files I had been trying to fix.
My book is finished and uploaded ... now I'm going to see if I can make some text for it :-)
Thanks again.
AAH..now I get it...sending over the bridge does keep them separate, so it makes sense to use a nul to parent the bits. Thanks for the explanation:)
I'm so used to working in .obj, I never even consider using the bridge one-way from Hex to Studio - not that I have any reason to because morphing is a two-way journey.
Cheers
Interesting, are you designing your own font? what other tools will you be using? I use Inkscape a lot, I believe there is a new tool included to help with that included in the latest development Version.
Interesting, are you designing your own font? what other tools will you be using? I use Inkscape a lot, I believe there is a new tool included to help with that included in the latest development Version.
Oh no, nothing that fantastic. The book has lots of mesh so one can make morphs on the pages, was thinking along the lines of those pop-up books, or where people say that the text flew off the page at them! Just a little something for fun.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/19361/