Blender Sculpting DAZ Characters help?
XtraDimensional
Posts: 509
I have tried searching the forum...a lot. Please forgive me if I've overlooked finding the right thread.
Does anyone know of a step-by-step tutorial for (or can explain simply) getting Blender Sculpt mode to work with DAZ characters (with the intent of making morphs)?
I've been up and down the internet but I am obviously not asking the right questions of search engines.
(To be clear, I have got the exporting at base res, and the importing into Blender, down pat. Just....I am not doing something right getting Sculpt mode to work. I know I need to not add or subtract geometry, but how do I do that with the Multiresolution modifier that is apparently necessary to get Sculpt mode changes to apply? Cue swirly eyes...)
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Which tools are you using? I am pretty certsain that there is some tools you can't use and keep vertex order.
Blender and Daz neither play well, nor easily, together. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.
My knowledge points me to one of 3 possibilities:
1) It's so ridiculously easy that no one has bothered mentioning it anywhere.
2) It requires intermediate, expensive programs, like Character Creator, or...
3) No one does it that way for... reasons...
I've been getting the impression that ZBrush might be better attached to Daz, but I really don't have that kind of cash lying around at the moment. Don't want to get in love with the trial just to have it close down in the middle of something.
ps. If you're trying to scuplt a charater rather than a Genesis base, there might be DRM involved. Some DUF files are encrytped and don't export much of anything.
I am wanting to use the Smoothing brush in Sculpt mode, at this particular time, but I'd like to know for the future how to sculpt my own morphs (and bake down higher resolution stuff into normal maps, which I think I kind of understand, but also hinges on getting the same right "make this work" steps in the beginning and some of the end.)
Maybe I am not fully understanding.
You can use smooth brush without multires.
And if you want to bake a normal map on top of your morph, I think you need to sculp your morph first, witout multires, so you have a base mesh you can export back to DS. And then do the sculpting you can bake as a normal map relative to your base.
You can USE the sculpting tools without multires, but they don't APPLY to the mesh outside of Sculpt mode. Or at least, I can't figure out how to get them to do so. This is why I am asking for a step by step.
Everything I can find on google searches says that to get the sculpt to apply to a mesh, you HAVE to use a multires modifier.
Hi :) I'm not sure I understand or explain correctly because I use a translator,
I'm not sure about the technique I rarely use blender, try this with a quick sculpting, use the "multiresolution" modifier, make your "sculpt" as you wish once done, apply the "apply base" option in the multiresolution modifier, then delete the "multiresolution" modifier, import in daz your morph and apply change the resolution of the character
When I hit "apply base", it makes the object all spiky, not smooth.
Hopefully these images come through in order. Slightly crumply ear is what I get in DAZ. Smooth side of the head is the Sculpt, and the weirdo spiky geometry is after hitting "Apply Base"
And this is what it looks like after deleting the modifier after using "Apply Base"
really strange i make a test, it's a 2 minutes rendering but we see the distortion even though the light is not ideal
edit : your problem looks more like an import or export error than a sculpt or modifier problem, a mesh problem or it's a problem present in blender 2.8 (I use blender 2.79).
You need to make sure any sculpt tools you use (regardless of software) only moves, and NEVER adds or takes away geometry.
Smooth and Grab are the two main ones I use with Blender. S key and G key.
You're probably safe using most of them, but don't select Dynotopology. As far as I'm aware, unless you select said Dyno, no geometry is added, but I've not used some of the sculpt tools so can't be certain.
Smooth was the only tool I used, no Dynotopo selected. None of the settings changed at all.
Ok, just tried with a g8f base without any other morphs applied, and I don't get these issues. Just where I'm trying to fix this doggone ear crumple issue on this one character.
I suppose I am being too ambitious.
I use about 10 or so tools, but as I said, if select Dynotopology, it will cause issues; actually it will stop you being able to use the model as a morph as it triangulates the model, so even without using a tool the model becomes worthless as a morph object; although if you have other plans, such as creating a high polly model, then it might not be an issue.
Hi! I use obj import/export even with subdivision for this exactly reason. The subD step has to always be done in Daz Studio for it to work out right for me - I've never gotten a good result out of letting Zbrush or Blender do the subdivision itself when it's a morph (it's been fine when subdividing for normal maps).
I have a tutorial on making morphs in Blender for DS:
Can you expound on the "obj import/export even with subdivision"? In the video, you export at base without subdivision.
(Also, thank you for the time both in making tutorials and replying!)
Just in case, this DazSculptorFree may be of interest. Once you have the basic G8F saved out to a folder, that step does not need to be constantly repeated.
And there was a recent update presumably to work with the most recent update for Blender.
If your aim is to make a morph that will smooth out some part of a figure, then the Multires modifier is not going to help you.
You need to smooth (or grab, inflate/deflate etc.) the geometry at base resolution. If you add a Multires modifier, then do some smoothing and Apply the modifier (different from Apply Base), either in the Modifiers panel or using the Apply Modifiers option on export from Blender, you have changed the geometry and won't be able to create the morph in DS. When you use the Apply Base option, as the tooltip describes this modifies the underlying geometry to match the displaced geometry i.e. the geometry as modified by the Multires. This is bound to look less smooth because there is only the base geometry to work with. I'm not sure whether this Apply Base option changes vertex order or not: if it does, then again you won't be able to create your morph in DS from the modified geometry even if you don't apply the Multires.
In some situations, it can be easier to use the Smooth Vertices option in the Vertex menu in Edit mode.
TL;DR - don't try to use the Multires modifier to sculpt morphs, but to make normal maps it's OK.
I think you'll find your normals are messed up around the ear. The mesh is probably fine, but when Blender renders the area, the crazy normal orientations make it look glitched.