I found the problem, which was the idiot driving the computer.
Because DS was (seemingly) working just fine, idespite I didn't have "My DAZ 3D Library" connected to DS's content manager (much less diffeomorphic).
Really strange that DS could still (partially) load lots of content from My DAZ 3D Library (but not always all of it). E.G. Genesis expressions weren't working, though clearly I could load Genesis, despite them all being in that directory.
After connecting it all up (correctly, this time), things seem to move more smoothly.
Not sure what you could've done more to prevent me from making that mistake.
Hey DAZ/Diffeo users, I spent quite a lot of time on this, so hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful ;-) , I am in progress of making a tutorial site. In the first installment I cover all the basics. It is written from the standpoint of the noob (which I am when it comes to Diffeomorphic, haha) , so it forgoes all the technicalities of Thomas (excellent) explanations in favour of a more guided and focused approach.
I am looking into what the next step will be, so input is surely welcome, my own thoughts are probably something on lighting, textures or posing. Hope there is some use for it! I also don't mind constructive criticism, especially if my english is not clear enough.
Would love to help with this. After using Diffeo for many hours now, I would be more than glad to share what I've learned.
3 small suggestions to start -
Maybe start a separate thread for this subject, it probably deserves it's own.
Keep each link focused - what is it, why should I use it, how do I use it, what is the practical application. For example, merging rigs is cool and all, but why should I merge rigs? What is a rig and why is it there? How can I use it to make stuff? Thomas has done an awesome job in his documentation and I refer to it often. I still learn something new pretty much every time I read something on there...but having a Diffeo for Dummies (like me) would be a great addition to what Thomas has already done.
Don't reinvent the wheel. There are many tutorials on how to do stuff in Blender, but not nearly as many on how to get Daz assets into Blender and make them look good. This is what many of us are looking for because that information is so sparse.
Long time user of Diffeo, but just getting around to see if anyone has this same issue. In the most basic usage, I can import a character with a simple dress on, merge rigs, but when I pose it, the simple dress does not deform the same way it does in Daz. I mean, noticeable different. Example attached below -- see the strange moprhing under the armpits. Question is, am I doing something wrong or is this the expected result? Thanks for any advice.
Attachement - white background is the Daz Figure + Pose in Daz Studio
Attachment - dark background, same exact figure and outfit, imported into Blender (Import, Merge Rigs, pose arms), and this is what I get.
Would love to help with this. After using Diffeo for many hours now, I would be more than glad to share what I've learned.
3 small suggestions to start -
Maybe start a separate thread for this subject, it probably deserves it's own.
Keep each link focused - what is it, why should I use it, how do I use it, what is the practical application. For example, merging rigs is cool and all, but why should I merge rigs? What is a rig and why is it there? How can I use it to make stuff? Thomas has done an awesome job in his documentation and I refer to it often. I still learn something new pretty much every time I read something on there...but having a Diffeo for Dummies (like me) would be a great addition to what Thomas has already done.
Don't reinvent the wheel. There are many tutorials on how to do stuff in Blender, but not nearly as many on how to get Daz assets into Blender and make them look good. This is what many of us are looking for because that information is so sparse.
Look forward to helping however you need.
hi Krampus, thank you for your feedback! And thanks for the offer of assistance, I might surely need that. And yes, that is indeed my goal : The core of the tutorials should indeed be how to get Daz Assets into Blender and make them look good. So lots of practical stuff geared for certain goals. I probably start a new thread next time I work on this.
Hey DAZ/Diffeo users, I spent quite a lot of time on this, so hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful ;-) , I am in progress of making a tutorial site. In the first installment I cover all the basics. It is written from the standpoint of the noob (which I am when it comes to Diffeomorphic, haha) , so it forgoes all the technicalities of Thomas (excellent) explanations in favour of a more guided and focused approach.
I am looking into what the next step will be, so input is surely welcome, my own thoughts are probably something on lighting, textures or posing. Hope there is some use for it! I also don't mind constructive criticism, especially if my english is not clear enough.
Good on you for doing this... this is going to appeal to many people. I'd only suggest that you start with a nice HTML template instead of writing it from scratch. Someone has already done the work of making an aesthetically pleasing page, while you can just provide the content.
I have a problem with the imported dforce's hairs. I can only see the hair wire when I import it a character with dforce hair, but it is not seen in the Blender render, neither eevee nor cycle. I'm very noob, am I missing something? Any help is very welcome, Thanks!
I have a problem with the imported dforce's hairs. I can only see the hair wire when I import it a character with dforce hair, but it is not seen in the Blender render, neither eevee nor cycle. I'm very noob, am I missing something? Any help is very welcome, Thanks!
Make sure you're not in Particle Edit mode when you render...
I have a problem with the imported dforce's hairs. I can only see the hair wire when I import it a character with dforce hair, but it is not seen in the Blender render, neither eevee nor cycle. I'm very noob, am I missing something? Any help is very welcome, Thanks!
Make sure you're not in Particle Edit mode when you render...
Thanks! It seems Dforce it's not compatible, I need to convert it. I can do it thanks to Diffeomorphic (has a conversion tool in the same pluggin for hair). I just can say, this pluggin is wonderfull. Now I can work in blender with that hairs!!
Hey DAZ/Diffeo users, I spent quite a lot of time on this, so hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful ;-) , I am in progress of making a tutorial site. In the first installment I cover all the basics. It is written from the standpoint of the noob (which I am when it comes to Diffeomorphic, haha) , so it forgoes all the technicalities of Thomas (excellent) explanations in favour of a more guided and focused approach.
I am looking into what the next step will be, so input is surely welcome, my own thoughts are probably something on lighting, textures or posing. Hope there is some use for it! I also don't mind constructive criticism, especially if my english is not clear enough.
Wow, so glad that you are taking on this task. I would echo everything that Krampus said and also Donald's comment about a nice HTML template. I might add that these are the things I find difficult to grasp and I assume that others who are not at the level of expertise of say, Padone, might find difficult.
How to drape clothing (or is it even possible)?
How and where to find the material surface adjustments - perhaps links to more information on how to tweak them.
The differences between Eevee and Cycles.
Maybe a little about viewport navigation because Blender is not like DAZ Studio. In Blender, we don't view through the camera like we do in DAZ Studio so this can be confusing to noobs (and still is for me even though I've watched the tutorials).
How to pose. Whether to pose in DAZ Studio and import the pose (how to do that) or whether to pose in Blender. Of course, we are then back to the clothing drape issue.
Rigging (maybe this should be at the top of the list). Differences between rig options and which is suited to which purpose.
Morphs - I am utterly in the dark when it comes to all the different types of morph (custom, JCM, etc.) and how to import and apply them and how to manipulate the imported custom morphs (Shape Keys in Blender).
Geografts and Geoshells - do they work? Should we merge the geometry? If so, how and what does that mean? Will the geograft morphs still work in Blender?
Hair. A subject in itself due to all the different hair types and the fact that there are other import/conversion tools. I know nothing about hair technology.
Many of the things on that list have resulted in me abandoning all hope of ever understanding how to work with my DAZ content in Blender. I hope you have some success in simplifying the process for us.
I would also concur that many of the things on that list have tutorials online already but very few address working with imported DAZ content in mind. Thomas has done an incredible job of doing a lot of the work for us but many will not grasp how to take advantage of the tools provided.
Hey DAZ/Diffeo users, I spent quite a lot of time on this, so hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful ;-) , I am in progress of making a tutorial site. In the first installment I cover all the basics. It is written from the standpoint of the noob (which I am when it comes to Diffeomorphic, haha) , so it forgoes all the technicalities of Thomas (excellent) explanations in favour of a more guided and focused approach.
I am looking into what the next step will be, so input is surely welcome, my own thoughts are probably something on lighting, textures or posing. Hope there is some use for it! I also don't mind constructive criticism, especially if my english is not clear enough.
Wow, so glad that you are taking on this task. I would echo everything that Krampus said and also Donald's comment about a nice HTML template. I might add that these are the things I find difficult to grasp and I assume that others who are not at the level of expertise of say, Padone, might find difficult.
How to drape clothing (or is it even possible)?
How and where to find the material surface adjustments - perhaps links to more information on how to tweak them.
The differences between Eevee and Cycles.
Maybe a little about viewport navigation because Blender is not like DAZ Studio. In Blender, we don't view through the camera like we do in DAZ Studio so this can be confusing to noobs (and still is for me even though I've watched the tutorials).
How to pose. Whether to pose in DAZ Studio and import the pose (how to do that) or whether to pose in Blender. Of course, we are then back to the clothing drape issue.
Rigging (maybe this should be at the top of the list). Differences between rig options and which is suited to which purpose.
Morphs - I am utterly in the dark when it comes to all the different types of morph (custom, JCM, etc.) and how to import and apply them and how to manipulate the imported custom morphs (Shape Keys in Blender).
Geografts and Geoshells - do they work? Should we merge the geometry? If so, how and what does that mean? Will the geograft morphs still work in Blender?
Hair. A subject in itself due to all the different hair types and the fact that there are other import/conversion tools. I know nothing about hair technology.
Many of the things on that list have resulted in me abandoning all hope of ever understanding how to work with my DAZ content in Blender. I hope you have some success in simplifying the process for us.
I would also concur that many of the things on that list have tutorials online already but very few address working with imported DAZ content in mind. Thomas has done an incredible job of doing a lot of the work for us but many will not grasp how to take advantage of the tools provided.
Hi Marble, that's exactly my goal, to make DAZ content practical within Blender. On the templates, I probably move over to blogspot as well. When it comes to the tutorial I'll probably try different approaches that are goal oriented and above all be practical, or have FAQs were applicable. You make some good points to tackle! Thanks!
Hey DAZ/Diffeo users, I spent quite a lot of time on this, so hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful ;-) , I am in progress of making a tutorial site. In the first installment I cover all the basics. It is written from the standpoint of the noob (which I am when it comes to Diffeomorphic, haha) , so it forgoes all the technicalities of Thomas (excellent) explanations in favour of a more guided and focused approach.
I am looking into what the next step will be, so input is surely welcome, my own thoughts are probably something on lighting, textures or posing. Hope there is some use for it! I also don't mind constructive criticism, especially if my english is not clear enough.
Unlike my failure in helping with the C++ testing, I know I can do this. I'm more than willing to be a tester of "here's how to do x" articles. There are several things I've not been able to do, despite the Forums' best efforts.
@jeff_someone The struggle with diffeo is that the user gets to do everything by hand, step by step. This allows for tremendous customization and flexibility for the advanced user, but it's also a pita for someone who just wants something to work fast.
@jeff_someone The struggle with diffeo is that the user gets to do everything by hand, step by step. This allows for tremendous customization and flexibility for the advanced user, but it's also a pita for someone who just wants something to work fast.
I like this idea although I think that "easy" might not be quite easy enough for some of us (ok, me). Could you explain this, for example:
if there are geografts import the geograft morphs (only pose, not actor) and merge geografts
Not sure what is meant by the part in parentheses.
On a related question, has anything been done with cloth simulation? Is it possible (or practical), for example, to imitate a dForce drape once a clothed figure has been imported into Blender?
@jeff_someone The struggle with diffeo is that the user gets to do everything by hand, step by step. This allows for tremendous customization and flexibility for the advanced user, but it's also a pita for someone who just wants something to work fast.
I like this idea although I think that "easy" might not be quite easy enough for some of us (ok, me). Could you explain this, for example:
if there are geografts import the geograft morphs (only pose, not actor) and merge geografts
Not sure what is meant by the part in parentheses.
On a related question, has anything been done with cloth simulation? Is it possible (or practical), for example, to imitate a dForce drape once a clothed figure has been imported into Blender?
Yeah, you can cloth sim anything you bring over from Daz. Click on the clothing and go to the vertex groups in the menu on the right, go from object mode to weight paint and scroll through the vertex groups already made. Once in awhile you'll get lucky, more so with hair than clothes, and one option will be perfect. Take note of which it is for later. Otherwise, you'll have to make a new vertex group and weight paint it which I usually just select gradient from the options and go top down halfway. Then make the mesh a collision, then make the clothes cloth sim. Go down to shapes and pin to the vertex group that you want to use and go to collision and type 0. That's the basics of it, then bake it in cache and you should be good to go. It's the same process for non strand based hair to simulate it as well.
@marble Actor morphs are generally not needed for animation since they define the shape of the figure and are already baked in the dbz. As for simulation afaik it is not possible now to convert dforce parameters into blender parameters, so you'll have to tweak. But the weight maps should be imported fine so you can start from there, as Bennie says.
I'm brand new to this and to Blender. I've read my way through this whole thread and really like what's going on!
I'm still very green at this but I've successfully brought my character into Blender and saved it after importing morphs and such, but without doing any rig conversions yet.
I'm trying to bring in an animated pose and have tried the following:
Select Armature
Import Action
Name the New Action
Select the animated duf and import
There's a subtle change (noticeable inthe hands rotation) on the first frame, but no pose or animation (althought there are key frames added for the whole length).
I think I'm doing something wrong in the setup. When I go to Pose mode, everything seems locked.
Thanks in advance for any direction for this total Noob!
@Dartanbeck Diffeo can't import aniblocks, apart that it should work. If the animation is using morphs you have to import them first for the animation to work. For example most pose controls are morphs.
I think I know my mistake - will test in a bit. I forgot to export my animated pose file to Blender using Export to Blender!!! Argh!!!
I'll get this down - I will. I'm just such a noob at Blender that I can't even figure out how to aim the freaking camera yet! Why does everything have to be so Different?!!! LOL Just kidding on that last. I'm sure it's easy as pie once I get to grips with it. I love how flexible it is already.
Strange though. There's a render settings and render output panel. In the latter I have dimensions set to 1080p dimensions, and lookingthrough the camera (which I translated, rotated pains takingly by hand into position) and the render does not use 1080p not the same aspect ratio as that - not does it reflect what I see through the camera! Argh!
No need to answer any of that, just trying to illustrate how "New to Blender" I am.
..and Thanks for the rapid response, by the way. I really appreciate it, and all of the hard work you and Thomas (and community) put into all of this!
If you want to use aniblocks, you have to bake them to studio keyframes and it should transfer okay. Also I've found that if you use the power pose tool, those typically get brought in wonky, mainly for the arms and legs, so just stick to dials or moving the arrows and all should be a-okay as well.
Best way I found to aim blender camera, it's kinda a pain to get down at first for sure. To pan, select the camera while looking through the camera, and hit G button and use mouse to pan. To move camera in and out like go closer or farther if that makes sense, hit G then doubletap Z. Mousing toward top of screen goes closer, and towards bottom of screen backs off.
Rotating is finicky, probably a better way to do it that I don't know lol. If you want to rotate it like it's on a tripod, R then Z. If you want to rotate the camera around an object, I suggest clicking the object you want to rotate around, then right click, cursor to selected. Then reselect the camera, and change the pivot point to the 3d cursor. R Z will now rotate around that point. You can even get really specific with the cursor placement if needed, and go into edit mode on the object and move the cursor to a specific vertex. If you want the camera to do a barrel roll, then R doubletap Z.
One other tip I forgot about, if you like the way the perspective camera works..... If you go into the view tab, there is a checkbox "camera to view", if you check that, you can move the camera you are looking through using the same view controls you use to get around the scene with perspective view.
..and Thanks for the rapid response, by the way. I really appreciate it, and all of the hard work you and Thomas (and community) put into all of this!
If you want to use aniblocks, you have to bake them to studio keyframes and it should transfer okay. Also I've found that if you use the power pose tool, those typically get brought in wonky, mainly for the arms and legs, so just stick to dials or moving the arrows and all should be a-okay as well.
Cool. Yep, I always bake to timeline anyway. I Always have to tweak aniBlocks before actual use. I simply forgot to Export to Blender after saving the pose. I believe you did that in your (awesome!!!) video. Thanks for that too, btw!
Best way I found to aim blender camera, it's kinda a pain to get down at first for sure. To pan, select the camera while looking through the camera, and hit G button and use mouse to pan. To move camera in and out like go closer or farther if that makes sense, hit G then doubletap Z. Mousing toward top of screen goes closer, and towards bottom of screen backs off.
Rotating is finicky, probably a better way to do it that I don't know lol. If you want to rotate it like it's on a tripod, R then Z. If you want to rotate the camera around an object, I suggest clicking the object you want to rotate around, then right click, cursor to selected. Then reselect the camera, and change the pivot point to the 3d cursor. R Z will now rotate around that point. You can even get really specific with the cursor placement if needed, and go into edit mode on the object and move the cursor to a specific vertex. If you want the camera to do a barrel roll, then R doubletap Z.
One other tip I forgot about, if you like the way the perspective camera works..... If you go into the view tab, there is a checkbox "camera to view", if you check that, you can move the camera you are looking through using the same view controls you use to get around the scene with perspective view.
Cool. I'll have to try those above options. I did the last one you said and it worked as far as looking through the camera is concerned, but I'm not getting the camera view in my render. Different dimensions, one had a orange grid over it....
I'll get this. I just need more experience with it.
Well, exporting the pose to Blender (dbz) still doesn't work.
I'll have to work on the rig, I suppose.
She's a Genesis 1 character with custom shapes applied via GenX2. She came into Blender just fine. Rig looks good, I think. She just won't move. I haven't done any of the rigging options in Diffeo yet.
..and Thanks for the rapid response, by the way. I really appreciate it, and all of the hard work you and Thomas (and community) put into all of this!
If you want to use aniblocks, you have to bake them to studio keyframes and it should transfer okay. Also I've found that if you use the power pose tool, those typically get brought in wonky, mainly for the arms and legs, so just stick to dials or moving the arrows and all should be a-okay as well.
Cool. Yep, I always bake to timeline anyway. I Always have to tweak aniBlocks before actual use. I simply forgot to Export to Blender after saving the pose. I believe you did that in your (awesome!!!) video. Thanks for that too, btw!
Awesome! Glad you watched the video I did, I hope it helped in some way. So much stuff in the tool has advanced since I did that, but the foundation is still there. I've been so swamped, I want to do one soon for cloth and hair sim, especially now with the make hair option but I need to crack what the heck is going wrong for me with strand based hair. I can get it to work but Blender crashes when I try to render it. Any other hair works wonderfully with no crashing. It took me two weeks to figure out this much, maybe two more lol. Good luck with your animation!
I never hit the "Make All Bones Posable" option. That alone fixed it!
I was trying like crazy to figure out a way to get Linday's dForce Classic Long and Curly hair in, and either rigging it to work with a Wiggle modifier or....
Not able to sleep over it, I decided to try my hand at making Particle Hair that resembles it - and I did it!!!
Rendering my first test animation now, which reveals how little I can figure out about rendering in Blender. Nothing is made simple and intuitive as far as I can tell. For example, I have no freaking idea how to get HDRI lighting. It looks like there's one in there, but how to view what it is or how to change it seems to be some hidden mystery handshake.
So I get Octane installed and it has more stuff in its tab, but nothing about setting up the environment, which I imagine is hidden with the rest of Blenders environment settings.
I'll get this. It's just Noob pains.
So my test render is really crappy! I had no idea that Cycles had the ability to render such a horrible image! LOL
Comments
I found the problem, which was the idiot driving the computer.
Because DS was (seemingly) working just fine, idespite I didn't have "My DAZ 3D Library" connected to DS's content manager (much less diffeomorphic).
Really strange that DS could still (partially) load lots of content from My DAZ 3D Library (but not always all of it). E.G. Genesis expressions weren't working, though clearly I could load Genesis, despite them all being in that directory.
After connecting it all up (correctly, this time), things seem to move more smoothly.
Not sure what you could've done more to prevent me from making that mistake.
Hey DAZ/Diffeo users, I spent quite a lot of time on this, so hopefully this will be the start of something beautiful ;-) , I am in progress of making a tutorial site. In the first installment I cover all the basics. It is written from the standpoint of the noob (which I am when it comes to Diffeomorphic, haha) , so it forgoes all the technicalities of Thomas (excellent) explanations in favour of a more guided and focused approach.
You can find it here :
[EDIT : site moved to https://daztodiffeo.wordpress.com ]
I am looking into what the next step will be, so input is surely welcome, my own thoughts are probably something on lighting, textures or posing. Hope there is some use for it! I also don't mind constructive criticism, especially if my english is not clear enough.
@Paintbox
Would love to help with this. After using Diffeo for many hours now, I would be more than glad to share what I've learned.
3 small suggestions to start -
Maybe start a separate thread for this subject, it probably deserves it's own.
Keep each link focused - what is it, why should I use it, how do I use it, what is the practical application. For example, merging rigs is cool and all, but why should I merge rigs? What is a rig and why is it there? How can I use it to make stuff? Thomas has done an awesome job in his documentation and I refer to it often. I still learn something new pretty much every time I read something on there...but having a Diffeo for Dummies (like me) would be a great addition to what Thomas has already done.
Don't reinvent the wheel. There are many tutorials on how to do stuff in Blender, but not nearly as many on how to get Daz assets into Blender and make them look good. This is what many of us are looking for because that information is so sparse.
Look forward to helping however you need.
Long time user of Diffeo, but just getting around to see if anyone has this same issue. In the most basic usage, I can import a character with a simple dress on, merge rigs, but when I pose it, the simple dress does not deform the same way it does in Daz. I mean, noticeable different. Example attached below -- see the strange moprhing under the armpits. Question is, am I doing something wrong or is this the expected result? Thanks for any advice.
Attachement - white background is the Daz Figure + Pose in Daz Studio
Attachment - dark background, same exact figure and outfit, imported into Blender (Import, Merge Rigs, pose arms), and this is what I get.
hi Krampus, thank you for your feedback! And thanks for the offer of assistance, I might surely need that. And yes, that is indeed my goal : The core of the tutorials should indeed be how to get Daz Assets into Blender and make them look good. So lots of practical stuff geared for certain goals. I probably start a new thread next time I work on this.
Good on you for doing this... this is going to appeal to many people. I'd only suggest that you start with a nice HTML template instead of writing it from scratch. Someone has already done the work of making an aesthetically pleasing page, while you can just provide the content.
I have a problem with the imported dforce's hairs. I can only see the hair wire when I import it a character with dforce hair, but it is not seen in the Blender render, neither eevee nor cycle. I'm very noob, am I missing something? Any help is very welcome, Thanks!
Make sure you're not in Particle Edit mode when you render...
Thanks! It seems Dforce it's not compatible, I need to convert it. I can do it thanks to Diffeomorphic (has a conversion tool in the same pluggin for hair). I just can say, this pluggin is wonderfull. Now I can work in blender with that hairs!!
The deformations will not be the same if you don't import jcms too. Then some outfits may have custom morphs too.
steps
Wow, so glad that you are taking on this task. I would echo everything that Krampus said and also Donald's comment about a nice HTML template. I might add that these are the things I find difficult to grasp and I assume that others who are not at the level of expertise of say, Padone, might find difficult.
Many of the things on that list have resulted in me abandoning all hope of ever understanding how to work with my DAZ content in Blender. I hope you have some success in simplifying the process for us.
I would also concur that many of the things on that list have tutorials online already but very few address working with imported DAZ content in mind. Thomas has done an incredible job of doing a lot of the work for us but many will not grasp how to take advantage of the tools provided.
Hi Marble, that's exactly my goal, to make DAZ content practical within Blender. On the templates, I probably move over to blogspot as well. When it comes to the tutorial I'll probably try different approaches that are goal oriented and above all be practical, or have FAQs were applicable. You make some good points to tackle! Thanks!
Thanks much, I'll give that a shot!
@jeff_someone The struggle with diffeo is that the user gets to do everything by hand, step by step. This allows for tremendous customization and flexibility for the advanced user, but it's also a pita for someone who just wants something to work fast.
https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues/396/easy-mode
Easy mode would be great for dopes like me :P
I like this idea although I think that "easy" might not be quite easy enough for some of us (ok, me). Could you explain this, for example:
Not sure what is meant by the part in parentheses.
On a related question, has anything been done with cloth simulation? Is it possible (or practical), for example, to imitate a dForce drape once a clothed figure has been imported into Blender?
Yeah, you can cloth sim anything you bring over from Daz. Click on the clothing and go to the vertex groups in the menu on the right, go from object mode to weight paint and scroll through the vertex groups already made. Once in awhile you'll get lucky, more so with hair than clothes, and one option will be perfect. Take note of which it is for later. Otherwise, you'll have to make a new vertex group and weight paint it which I usually just select gradient from the options and go top down halfway. Then make the mesh a collision, then make the clothes cloth sim. Go down to shapes and pin to the vertex group that you want to use and go to collision and type 0. That's the basics of it, then bake it in cache and you should be good to go. It's the same process for non strand based hair to simulate it as well.
@marble Actor morphs are generally not needed for animation since they define the shape of the figure and are already baked in the dbz. As for simulation afaik it is not possible now to convert dforce parameters into blender parameters, so you'll have to tweak. But the weight maps should be imported fine so you can start from there, as Bennie says.
Hello all,
I'm brand new to this and to Blender. I've read my way through this whole thread and really like what's going on!
I'm still very green at this but I've successfully brought my character into Blender and saved it after importing morphs and such, but without doing any rig conversions yet.
I'm trying to bring in an animated pose and have tried the following:
There's a subtle change (noticeable inthe hands rotation) on the first frame, but no pose or animation (althought there are key frames added for the whole length).
I think I'm doing something wrong in the setup. When I go to Pose mode, everything seems locked.
Thanks in advance for any direction for this total Noob!
@Dartanbeck Diffeo can't import aniblocks, apart that it should work. If the animation is using morphs you have to import them first for the animation to work. For example most pose controls are morphs.
OMG, I am So Sorry!!!
I think I know my mistake - will test in a bit. I forgot to export my animated pose file to Blender using Export to Blender!!! Argh!!!
I'll get this down - I will. I'm just such a noob at Blender that I can't even figure out how to aim the freaking camera yet! Why does everything have to be so Different?!!! LOL Just kidding on that last. I'm sure it's easy as pie once I get to grips with it. I love how flexible it is already.
Strange though. There's a render settings and render output panel. In the latter I have dimensions set to 1080p dimensions, and lookingthrough the camera (which I translated, rotated pains takingly by hand into position) and the render does not use 1080p not the same aspect ratio as that - not does it reflect what I see through the camera! Argh!
No need to answer any of that, just trying to illustrate how "New to Blender" I am.
..and Thanks for the rapid response, by the way. I really appreciate it, and all of the hard work you and Thomas (and community) put into all of this!
If you want to use aniblocks, you have to bake them to studio keyframes and it should transfer okay. Also I've found that if you use the power pose tool, those typically get brought in wonky, mainly for the arms and legs, so just stick to dials or moving the arrows and all should be a-okay as well.
Best way I found to aim blender camera, it's kinda a pain to get down at first for sure. To pan, select the camera while looking through the camera, and hit G button and use mouse to pan. To move camera in and out like go closer or farther if that makes sense, hit G then doubletap Z. Mousing toward top of screen goes closer, and towards bottom of screen backs off.
Rotating is finicky, probably a better way to do it that I don't know lol. If you want to rotate it like it's on a tripod, R then Z. If you want to rotate the camera around an object, I suggest clicking the object you want to rotate around, then right click, cursor to selected. Then reselect the camera, and change the pivot point to the 3d cursor. R Z will now rotate around that point. You can even get really specific with the cursor placement if needed, and go into edit mode on the object and move the cursor to a specific vertex. If you want the camera to do a barrel roll, then R doubletap Z.
One other tip I forgot about, if you like the way the perspective camera works..... If you go into the view tab, there is a checkbox "camera to view", if you check that, you can move the camera you are looking through using the same view controls you use to get around the scene with perspective view.
Cool. Yep, I always bake to timeline anyway. I Always have to tweak aniBlocks before actual use. I simply forgot to Export to Blender after saving the pose. I believe you did that in your (awesome!!!) video. Thanks for that too, btw!
Cool. I'll have to try those above options. I did the last one you said and it worked as far as looking through the camera is concerned, but I'm not getting the camera view in my render. Different dimensions, one had a orange grid over it....
I'll get this. I just need more experience with it.
Well, exporting the pose to Blender (dbz) still doesn't work.
I'll have to work on the rig, I suppose.
She's a Genesis 1 character with custom shapes applied via GenX2. She came into Blender just fine. Rig looks good, I think. She just won't move. I haven't done any of the rigging options in Diffeo yet.
Awesome! Glad you watched the video I did, I hope it helped in some way. So much stuff in the tool has advanced since I did that, but the foundation is still there. I've been so swamped, I want to do one soon for cloth and hair sim, especially now with the make hair option but I need to crack what the heck is going wrong for me with strand based hair. I can get it to work but Blender crashes when I try to render it. Any other hair works wonderfully with no crashing. It took me two weeks to figure out this much, maybe two more lol. Good luck with your animation!
I got it, in thanks to watching your video again!
I never hit the "Make All Bones Posable" option. That alone fixed it!
I was trying like crazy to figure out a way to get Linday's dForce Classic Long and Curly hair in, and either rigging it to work with a Wiggle modifier or....
Not able to sleep over it, I decided to try my hand at making Particle Hair that resembles it - and I did it!!!
Rendering my first test animation now, which reveals how little I can figure out about rendering in Blender. Nothing is made simple and intuitive as far as I can tell. For example, I have no freaking idea how to get HDRI lighting. It looks like there's one in there, but how to view what it is or how to change it seems to be some hidden mystery handshake.
So I get Octane installed and it has more stuff in its tab, but nothing about setting up the environment, which I imagine is hidden with the rest of Blenders environment settings.
I'll get this. It's just Noob pains.
So my test render is really crappy! I had no idea that Cycles had the ability to render such a horrible image! LOL
Hey, thanks for everything! You folks ROCK!!!
I'll get this!!!