Convert ANY V4 Long Dress to Genesis! (TUTORIAL)

wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
edited February 2013 in Daz Studio Discussion

Oh yes, it can be done folks! I've done it.

YOU WILL NEED:

DAZ Studio 4.5.1.56+
The Victoria 4 shape for Genesis http://www.daz3d.com/v4-and-m4-shapes-for-genesis
The Morphing Fantasy Dress for Genesis http://www.daz3d.com/morphing-fantasy-dress-for-genesis

First Step:

LOAD the Victoria 4 Dress you wish to convert.

EXPORT the Victoria 4 dress to Wavefront OBJ.

Delete the dress, and Import the OBJ you just exported.

Load Genesis.

Apply the V4 shape to Genesis.

Select the Dress OBJ and goto: EDIT/OBJECT/TRANSFER UTILITY

A dialog box will appear

The source (on the left) Scene Item will be GENESIS the source Item Shape will be CURRENT

The TARGET (on the right) Your imported Dress Obj

Hit SHOW OPTIONS:

Select REVERSE SOURCE SHAPE FROM TARGET

ENABLE: Add Smoothing Modifier

Hit ACCEPT

Now, your dress should look relatively clean, but may have a few folded polygons.

IN your Parameters Tab (under General)

Change Smoothing Type to: GENERIC (from Base Shape Matching)

I always set the SMOOTHING ITERATIONS to 100 at this point. But you can experiment till you see the dress polygons look good enough.

NOW: DELETE GENESIS

The dress wiill now assume the Genesis default shape.

Export the dress AGAIN to OBJ.

Delete your dress

Import the NEW Dress OBJ

Call up the Genesis Morphing Fantasy Dress

Select your OBJ and go back to the Transfer Utility

The Scene Item is the MFD, the shape is CURRENT and the Target is your NEW dress obj.

applying a smoothing modifier is not necessary, but I do anyway.

DO NOT CHECK "Reverse Source Shape from Target" as you did the last time.

Hit accept.

Delete the MFD

Your dress SHOULD work now, and have no real issues other then the possible need to adjust the bones and the weight mapping.

goto SAVE AS/SUPPORT ASSET/FIGURE/PROP ASSET (this is for any new TriAx Weightmapped Object you create)

Save your dress

You are done. You can call it back up now, fit it to Genesis, and with Genesis selected: Save as/Wearable Preset

Post edited by wancow on
«1

Comments

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited February 2013

    I believe this will also work for an Aiko4 dress, but I have not tested it. To do so choose Aiko 4 as the morph instead of Victoria 4.

    I had a method here for getting morphs specially created from the original to the Genesis dress, however, I had not thought it out properly and it does not work... so I will have to test more...

    OF NOTE: I have come up with a new dress rig that, using this method (instead of the MFD) I have had mixed results with.

    The dress rig is available here:
    http://www.sharecg.com/v/67408/browse/21/DAZ-Studio/New-Dress-Rig

    Post edited by wancow on
  • IanTPIanTP Posts: 1,326
    edited December 1969

    thread bookmarked, thanks so much :)

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    Sounds good Wancow...one question do you still get any mesh distortions on the front and back of the skirts or crinkling around the hem?


    Is it possible to get some pcs?


    Cheers

    Pen

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited February 2013

    You mean screanshots? Or renders? I'm rendering the JYou44 dresses now.

    And NO, IF you export the mesh first, you don't get those horrid distortions.

    Post edited by wancow on
  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    wancow said:
    You mean screanshots? Or renders? I'm rendering the JYou44 dresses now.

    And NO, IF you export the mesh first, you don't get those horrid distortions.

    Actually I'm interested in both...particurly renders of the skirt mesh so I can see what the meh looks like.

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Jyou44 Dress 4 modelled by Jenna :)

    jend4.jpg
    314 x 800 - 107K
  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Jyou44s dress 6... forgot to add materials, but here be it.

    jend6.jpg
    314 x 800 - 93K
  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited February 2013

    And finally, here is Jyou44's Dress 5

    I do NOT ever use Victoria 4, by the way. I've only ever loaded the figure when I have problems getting a pose file to work with GenX... All my renders are with Genesis.

    jend5.jpg
    314 x 800 - 101K
    Post edited by wancow on
  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    Very nice tutorial!

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    Thanks...looks good.

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,626
    edited December 1969

    It's a good method! Thank you for sharing it. :-)

  • KalisxKalisx Posts: 112
    edited December 1969

    Very useful :-)
    THANKS

  • scal.64.psscal.64.ps Posts: 140
    edited December 1969

    big up for you Wancow, the thread is bookmarked and i'll check your method tonight after workday... sounds good

  • WilmapWilmap Posts: 2,917
    edited December 1969

    Oh well done wancow. Great tutorial. Will have to try this out.:-)

  • KinnieMKinnieM Posts: 130
    edited February 2013

    Very well done. Excellent and clear instructions on how to do this. Thank you for sharing this information with us. :-)

    Post edited by KinnieM on
  • BejaymacBejaymac Posts: 1,835
    edited December 1969

    One tip, any conformer (clothing, hair etc) that you make/convert for Genesis should ALWAYS be saved using "Figure/Prop Asset", use anything else and you risk losing your work.

    "Figure/Prop Asset" means your asset files are stored in "data/author/product/item" and if done correctly your DUF file will be a "wearable", which means it will auto-conform (fit to) to Genesis on load even if your not a CMS user. To do it correctly you need to set the "Content Type" in the asset save window to "Follower", this does require you to be using the CMS, if you don't use the CMS, then make sure the item is fitted to Genesis, and selected in the scene tab before saving as DS will then tag it as a "follower" for you.

    Scene, Scene Subset and Wearable Presets will all save your items for you, but it will all end up in the big melting pot that is the "data/auto_adapted" folder where it is at risk of being overwritten.

    Wearable Presets are TBH best left to your own Poser content, it saves you from having to export a CR2 for something that wont leave your hard drive.

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Bejaymac said:
    One tip, any conformer (clothing, hair etc) that you make/convert for Genesis should ALWAYS be saved using "Figure/Prop Asset", use anything else and you risk losing your work.

    Okay, WAIT! I need this explained to me then. I put it down as Scene Asset, which I was lead to believe was the TriAx version of Figure/Prop asset.

    Are you saying this is incorrect?

  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    It doesn't get saved in auto_adapted unless that's where you specify. However an asset should never be saved in a user-facing area anyway, so the data substructure is the correct location. Using the Figure/Prop Asset forces that path, using the Scene Asset let's you break that path.

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    OH!!! Okay...

    This is for when I'm creating new content, correct?

    Adam, what about when I create a custom morphed character? Like one that has a GenXed morph. I've been having good luck saving those as a Scene Asset, then saving them as a Scene Subset after I've added hair and clothing. Would you recommend saving those as figure/prop assets as well?

  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    Not sure I really understand what you're asking. I'm going to ponder it a bit. I own GenX but other than playing with it I really haven't gotten much use out of it. A shame I know.

    Anyway, here's the Sojourn V4 dress converted to Genesis and then Genesis morphed to G4 proportions. I wanted something extremeish to see how it would hold up. It did quite well (booties were only auto-converted, but I may try your methodology with similar boots designed for Genesis to see if I can get a better result when I can find some time).

    sjdress_test_bg.jpg
    1200 x 1200 - 316K
  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited February 2013

    I developed this in hopes that I'd be able to get my new dress rig onto other dresses... however, for a new user, the new rig is simply too touch and go with the Transfer util. It requires a lot of tweaking to get it to work right on a different mesh, especially something like the Jyou44 dresses, upon who's original rig my rig is based. I kinda miss blend zones that can be adjusted... I don't even know if we have those in DS for standard rigs...

    Anyway, I'm REALLY happy it worked well on that dress, Adam!

    Post edited by wancow on
  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    It did an excellent job, about the only "complaint" area is the neck spray thingy. No clue what you'd call that but it's slightly distorted but it looks good despite that distortion IMO. :)

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,626
    edited December 1969

    adamr001 said:
    It did an excellent job, about the only "complaint" area is the neck spray thingy. No clue what you'd call that but it's slightly distorted but it looks good despite that distortion IMO. :)

    That might also be a rigging issue - with a high collar you're going to get things auto-rigged to the head when they should really follow neck only. When that happens with a dress sometimes I just flat delete the head bone.

  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    Good idea. :)

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    Bejaymac said:
    One tip, any conformer (clothing, hair etc) that you make/convert for Genesis should ALWAYS be saved using "Figure/Prop Asset", use anything else and you risk losing your work.

    "Figure/Prop Asset" means your asset files are stored in "data/author/product/item" and if done correctly your DUF file will be a "wearable", which means it will auto-conform (fit to) to Genesis on load even if your not a CMS user. To do it correctly you need to set the "Content Type" in the asset save window to "Follower", this does require you to be using the CMS, if you don't use the CMS, then make sure the item is fitted to Genesis, and selected in the scene tab before saving as DS will then tag it as a "follower" for you.

    Scene, Scene Subset and Wearable Presets will all save your items for you, but it will all end up in the big melting pot that is the "data/auto_adapted" folder where it is at risk of being overwritten.

    Wearable Presets are TBH best left to your own Poser content, it saves you from having to export a CR2 for something that wont leave your hard drive.

    Thanks Bejaymac...I have been looking for a clear explanation of this for a while!

  • PendraiaPendraia Posts: 3,591
    edited December 1969

    adamr001 said:
    It doesn't get saved in auto_adapted unless that's where you specify. However an asset should never be saved in a user-facing area anyway, so the data substructure is the correct location. Using the Figure/Prop Asset forces that path, using the Scene Asset let's you break that path.

    Adam is there more information on this anywhere about what auto_adapted? I understand now why we need to use Figure/Prop but would like to understand more about it.

    Thanks

    Pen

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Pendraia said:
    but would like to understand more about it.

    me too, three, four, five and six!

  • BejaymacBejaymac Posts: 1,835
    edited December 1969

    When you save a scene/subset/wearable anything in your scene that doesn't have DSF asset files is saved to the auto_adapted folder, so all of your non Genesis content will end up in there as DSF asset files, they get stored in pretty much the same way the DSO/DSD/DSV files from the old .DAZ format, ie in a folder called "mesh name_vertice count".
    DS also uses that system when you rig something for Genesis, the second it starts the conversion there is a DSF file containing the mesh/rig/WM written into the auto_adapted folder, if you then save your finished item with either scene/subset or wearable then the rest of the asset files get added to that folder. The "fun" then starts the first time you load the original Poser version, because saving that will get it added to the auto_adapted folder, right into the same folder that it saved the converted one into, and it just so happens that all of the asset files created from the Poser version have the same names as the ones created for the Genesis version, and you can guess what happens next.
    Now you see what I meant by risk losing your work.

    Scene Asset is a bit of a cluster**** of a save type, it basically saves everything in the scene just like a subset, but saves the assets in a user selected location rather than "auto_adapted", it also saves a "scene" DUF, and in a sub folder a DUF for every item in the scene that didn't already have asset files. Great for someone like Stonemason, but pretty worthless for most users.

    Figure/Prop Asset saves one selected TriAx figure or unrigged prop, to a user defined location, the big difference here is that if your a metadata user then this is where you start making it, because with the CMS running you have all of the options open to you to create it. I don't use the metadata and you wont even find the smart content tab in my DS4.5 (I delete the plugin every time I upgrade), but I do use the CMS when making content as it gives me access to the "Content Type", set your conformers to "Follower" and it will auto conform to Genesis on load even if you don't use the CMS, which is something that's quite new, as before it was use the CMS or drag & drop to get stuff to conform on load.
    Ever heard of "Smart Props", well you have the option to create them as well with Figure/Prop Asset.

  • MattymanxMattymanx Posts: 6,878
    edited December 1969

    How is this any different from what Autofit does?

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,626
    edited December 1969

    Mattymanx said:
    How is this any different from what Autofit does?

    Autofit produces what most of us consider an unacceptable distortion in the middle of the skirt. This does not.

Sign In or Register to comment.