Is there a way to save morphed characters as standalone new character

barcgwcc

If I load G8F, use a lot of different morphs on it, then add mats (skin, freckles, moles) and want to save it as a new character that I can load like any other charcter withou have to keep all the morphs in my library, can that be done?  I assume I have to bake the mats as well.

felis

If you want to have the character without the original morphs, you would need to recreate the morph by export/reimport the character.

But that is not recommended as you then will loose all the correctives in the original morphs.

You must also be aware if you do so it will not be your character, as it is based on others morphs.

My recomandation is to either save as a character preset or persona preset.

barcgwcc

These are morphs that come from DAZ Orginals morph packs (such as G8F Head Morphs).  And it is for personal use only.  I'm not trying to share or sell them.  I just like making my own characters and then keeping them without being dependent on always having to keep whatever morph I used also installed.

 

 

lilweep

Baking down these morphs can be a few steps and as said above, you will no longer have any correctives the PAs provided which are being driven by those morphs. Many characters or shaping morphs dont have correctives, but many do.

Anyway

1. export at base res

2. load by morph loader pro

3. re-rig the morph (you can use the automatic adjust rigging to shape option)

4. link the rigging changes to the morph so they are dialled in when morph is dialled in (e.g., by using ERC Freeze to link rigging changes as subcomponents to the controller morph)

5. Save out the morph as modifier asset

For materials, I guess, collect all the used maps into a folder. Then set up the materials using those maps. Then save material preset.

All this seems like more effort than it's worth with limitations like loss of correctives.

Character preset seems better.

barcgwcc

export to where?  Hex?  Blender?  Or just export to an .obj file on my harddrive?  And the materials has me stumped.  PAs create new characters all the time.  Most start with the base G8/9 figure and use blender or Max to customize and maybe add in photoshop to create a skin (either from scratch or using merchant resources) and package it all up in loadable formats (duf, dsf, etc) with runtime (textures), data, and people/character folders.  I'm pretty sure DS can do this with the tools that it has (other than the actual scuplting).  Or am I wrong?

lilweep

barcgwcc said:

export to where?  Hex?  Blender?  Or just export to an .obj file on my harddrive? 

obj

 

   and package it all up in loadable formats (duf, dsf, etc) with runtime (textures), data, and people/character folders.

 Saving out a material preset makes a duf wherever you decide to save it.  That is all it does.

A material preset does not need to write out any files in the /data subdirectories of a content library.  It is not data asset.   Presets like 'Material Preset' and 'Character Preset' and 'Wearable Preset' dont write out any files into /Data or /Runtime.  They just make .DUF that either calls existing files from their respective locations (data assets or texture maps), or they embed the necessary files into the preset itself.

So you need to ensure any shader definition assets are already in the content directory (which if youre using default shaders they will be) and any textures are in /Runtime before setting up and saving out the material preset.  

If you insist the textures be called from a /runtime folder, then I shall amend what I said in my previous post:

For materials, I guess, collect all the used maps into a /runtime folder in your relevant content directory. Then set up the materials using those maps. Then save as material preset.

 

 

  I'm pretty sure DS can do this with the tools that it has (other than the actual scuplting).  Or am I wrong?

Yes, if you are savving something like a data assets, Daz will ask you which product and content directory it is for, and then based on that information it will automatically write out all the necessary /data files for that asset.  For example, when you are saving your morphs, it will ask you which product and which content directory, and then write the morph files into the /data folder for that content directory and product.

Material Preset is not an asset, it's a preset, so it will not ask you anything except where you want preset to be saved.

Daz cannot write out texture maps to relevant locations. You need to do that manually where you want them to be called from.

 

barcgwcc

Thanks lilweep.  Very helpful