crosswind said:

I tried this Zoren Hair but have not seen such an issue. I used the latest DDI - 1.7.1.1566 and DazHairConverter 2.1.2

You may first try Easy Import or update to latest DDI ... 

Were you using the MHX rig? 

I tested zoren hair and for this one keyshaped bone works fine but the head bone doesn't. 

PerttiA said:

melissaberg said:

PerttiA said:

So, you used DIM to install all your content?

Do you log in to Daz Studio?
If you do not log in to DS, that eliminates one can of worms.

Attached you can find instructions for manual installation, which will give you better understanding on where the stuff should be.

I will try this. In case it is different from how I did it. I just looked at the file nesting system and looked for the same in my content location. That didn't work either... I have been logging in to Daz in both the DIM and in Studio. So I should not do this? 

Also, I get the can't find warning when I try to load the character preset that is included in the downloaded files, if I simply hit OK it loads David 5 without the Gunner Morphs, tho it has the Gunner Materials. I have also tried loading David first, and then the Gunner Shape file, it acts like it's loading something, but nothing actually changes, and I don't get the file complaint. So everthing appears to be in their correct locations, and all my Head and Body morphs from Evolution are showing up in Shaping, so I definitely have everything. I will see what happens when I follow the instructions for manual and don't log in to DIM or Studio :)

Thanks again for all the help, I learn a little more each time.  

Logging in to DIM is fine, but when you log in to DS, you are allowing Daz Connect inside DS to 'update' metadata and complain about files not having been installed (with Connect).

If the user doesn't know what Daz Connect inside DS does, it is better to never log in to Daz Studio and set the start up options for DS as in the attached sample.

Ok, thanks. I am also running on a mac, but essentially the same process for manual installation is what I already did. The main difference is unzipping the file, and just navigating to the correct folder itself, and then dropping the files where they belong. I have all the content on an external drive and I work with my models in blender after creating/posing them, so I am familiar with the file system for connecting materials, etc. Incidentally, the main character I had created a while ago, and thought was using Gunner is only using David, so crisis averted. But it would have been nice to use Gunner for a new character as it has a slightly different look. It might be time to make a newer purchase ;) I appreciate all the help.

melissaberg said:

PerttiA said:

So, you used DIM to install all your content?

Do you log in to Daz Studio?
If you do not log in to DS, that eliminates one can of worms.

Attached you can find instructions for manual installation, which will give you better understanding on where the stuff should be.

I will try this. In case it is different from how I did it. I just looked at the file nesting system and looked for the same in my content location. That didn't work either... I have been logging in to Daz in both the DIM and in Studio. So I should not do this? 

Also, I get the can't find warning when I try to load the character preset that is included in the downloaded files, if I simply hit OK it loads David 5 without the Gunner Morphs, tho it has the Gunner Materials. I have also tried loading David first, and then the Gunner Shape file, it acts like it's loading something, but nothing actually changes, and I don't get the file complaint. So everthing appears to be in their correct locations, and all my Head and Body morphs from Evolution are showing up in Shaping, so I definitely have everything. I will see what happens when I follow the instructions for manual and don't log in to DIM or Studio :)

Thanks again for all the help, I learn a little more each time.  

Logging in to DIM is fine, but when you log in to DS, you are allowing Daz Connect inside DS to 'update' metadata and complain about files not having been installed (with Connect).

If the user doesn't know what Daz Connect inside DS does, it is better to never log in to Daz Studio and set the start up options for DS as in the attached sample.

I tried this Zoren Hair but have not seen such an issue. I used the latest DDI - 1.7.1.1566 and DazHairConverter 2.1.2

You may first try Easy Import or update to latest DDI ...

ho...

The tiles are accessible in Substance, if I import the obj in Blender it's still fine, tiles are visible again but where can I access the tiles in DAZ UI then? Surface only shows one whole material without any tile reference.

wsterdan said:

Sven Dullah said:

wsterdan said:

The second part of my lip sync test: 

-- Walt Sterdan

Great stuff, Walt!

I've a OT question for. you, since you are on a Mac:

So quicktime player has a limit of 1 min. when opening and saving image series? It does not seem related to file size, am I right?

Can you import image sequenses straight into something like daVinciResolve or Final Cut, without limits? Need to improve my workflow, thanks:)

Thanks!

I wasn't  aware of a one-minute limit on Quicktime image import, as all my clips are shorter (I think the longest is about 48 seconds). I occasionally did have an issue where Quicktime couldn't load the full sequence and kept stopping at the same place, but by either restarting Quicktime and sometimes closing all other apps it then imported the full sequence. I know you have a lot more memory than I do, but you could try that just to check.

daVinci Resolve (https://jayaretv.com/tips/import-image-sequence-in-davinci-resolve/) and Final Cut Pro can both import sequances of images. I've never used either, but there are lots of tutorials that show how.

Resolve is great. It's what I use to stitch together render sequences, it's got very powerful postprocessing and especially color tools, and can even work with 3D models (though I haven't quite figured out how to do that without crashing the program).

wsterdan said:

Sven Dullah said:

wsterdan said:

The second part of my lip sync test: 

-- Walt Sterdan

Great stuff, Walt!

I've a OT question for. you, since you are on a Mac:

So quicktime player has a limit of 1 min. when opening and saving image series? It does not seem related to file size, am I right?

Can you import image sequenses straight into something like daVinciResolve or Final Cut, without limits? Need to improve my workflow, thanks:)

Thanks!

I wasn't  aware of a one-minute limit on Quicktime image import, as all my clips are shorter (I think the longest is about 48 seconds). I occasionally did have an issue where Quicktime couldn't load the full sequence and kept stopping at the same place, but by either restarting Quicktime and sometimes closing all other apps it then imported the full sequence. I know you have a lot more memory than I do, but you could try that just to check.

daVinci Resolve (https://jayaretv.com/tips/import-image-sequence-in-davinci-resolve/) and Final Cut Pro can both import sequances of images. I've never used either, but there are lots of tutorials that show how.

A neat little free app for working with videos is Adapter (https://macroplant.com/adapter), which will also import image sequances. I use it a lot when I want to take larger files and squish them down for messaging and such. 
Let me know what you wind up using.

-- Walt Sterdan
 

Looking into it, tks! 

Updated to 1.7 and the import is better. I might like it better.

DaremoK3 said:

@function :

Thank you, for the explaination.  I was wrong in my assessment  --  I believed you were retrieving specific data from Rob's scripts, but now I understand you fire those first and then your script kicks in.

And, I was incorrect regarding 'include'  --  I do so much code study, and haven't had time to go back to code for Blender for so long (coding for DS), I was conflating BenderPy 'import' with all the C++ code study with 'include'.

Also, not to dissuade you, but I believe Daz has decryption capabilities we users do not have access to  --  They created the way to encrypt, so logic is they have the reverse, so they can vet the scripts solicited to the store, new wanna-be PA's, or rogue freebie creators, to make sure they are in compliance.

Daz Studio must be able to decrypt, if it couldn't it wouldn't be able to run the script at all.

Regardless, thank you, function, for all your hard work  --  I hope to see you continue creating scripts for DS.

Take care...

Ken

@function :

Thank you, for the explaination.  I was wrong in my assessment  --  I believed you were retrieving specific data from Rob's scripts, but now I understand you fire those first and then your script kicks in.

And, I was incorrect regarding 'include'  --  I do so much code study, and haven't had time to go back to code for Blender for so long (coding for DS), I was conflating BenderPy 'import' with all the C++ code study with 'include'.

Also, not to dissuade you, but I believe Daz has decryption capabilities we users do not have access to  --  They created the way to encrypt, so logic is they have the reverse, so they can vet the scripts solicited to the store, new wanna-be PA's, or rogue freebie creators, to make sure they are in compliance.

Regardless, thank you, function, for all your hard work  --  I hope to see you continue creating scripts for DS.

Take care...

Ken

atoxic said:

Alright. I couldn't get rid of the trapped faces in the figure. So I used my old approach and modelled glass and screen of the console as separate meshes.
At the moment his is a kind of beta status, only a static prop, till now no moving parts or animation. But it fits well in some (retro) SF scenes.

Coming along nicely.

Some ideas:

If one has transparency toggled on, then one can select mesh "through" mesh.

One can squish some mesh together so it's not visible where you don't want it.

How to make moving parts - can depend upon which program you plan to use next and also how you plan to rig them. If I recall correctly, the levers for examples, could be separate meshes [export out one by one] then grouped together on the scene tab in D/S. Some dials on the Parameters tab can be renamed if desired. Save each piece as a prop, THEN, select the root and save as a scene subset.

And a nifty big tip for making a bunch of pieces in Hexagon into 'one' mesh without loosing the uvmaps, is to rename all the pieces that are to be 'one' exactly the same. Select all those items and export out an .obj. In another session of Hexagon, import in that new .obj - it should be all the pieces now together as one group. If all went well, can then import said .obj into the working project and carry on. {for eg. to have all the bases for the levers glued to import/export as one with the console}

Gordig said:

I've never used Poser, so I don't know what you're referring to with the "has-buttocks philosophy". General weight mapping is what you want; I don't know that Triax is proprietary, but it's not how current figures are weightmapped. Since you're not specifying, I'm going to guess that you're importing as FBX? DS, to put it gently, doesn't have the best FBX import capabilities, so the best, and in the long run probably easiest, solution is to import an OBJ for your geometry, import the FBX for the rig, then set the FBX as a donor rig for the OBJ.

The "has-buttocks" thing is that from Mike/Vicky 1 to 3, and related figures, there was an extra body part between the hip and the xThigh, xButtock.

I'm loading them from a Poser runtime, not FBX. That's why I said I'm loading in Poser figures. They are not being turned into anything else along the way.

Sven Dullah said:

wsterdan said:

The second part of my lip sync test: 

-- Walt Sterdan

Great stuff, Walt!

I've a OT question for. you, since you are on a Mac:

So quicktime player has a limit of 1 min. when opening and saving image series? It does not seem related to file size, am I right?

Can you import image sequenses straight into something like daVinciResolve or Final Cut, without limits? Need to improve my workflow, thanks:)

Thanks!

I wasn't  aware of a one-minute limit on Quicktime image import, as all my clips are shorter (I think the longest is about 48 seconds). I occasionally did have an issue where Quicktime couldn't load the full sequence and kept stopping at the same place, but by either restarting Quicktime and sometimes closing all other apps it then imported the full sequence. I know you have a lot more memory than I do, but you could try that just to check.

daVinci Resolve (https://jayaretv.com/tips/import-image-sequence-in-davinci-resolve/) and Final Cut Pro can both import sequances of images. I've never used either, but there are lots of tutorials that show how.

A neat little free app for working with videos is Adapter (https://macroplant.com/adapter), which will also import image sequances. I use it a lot when I want to take larger files and squish them down for messaging and such. 
Let me know what you wind up using.

-- Walt Sterdan
 

wsterdan said:

The second part of my lip sync test: 

-- Walt Sterdan

Great stuff, Walt!

I've a OT question for. you, since you are on a Mac:

So quicktime player has a limit of 1 min. when opening and saving image series? It does not seem related to file size, am I right?

Can you import image sequenses straight into something like daVinciResolve or Final Cut, without limits? Need to improve my workflow, thanks:)

crosswind said:

If this 'size morph' is a partial head morph of the character, you need to fix the corresponding 'auto-triggered' morph in the hidden properties of the hair, e.g. rig the bone of the tail to the right position, export to obj,  Morph Loader Pro - Import back to the hair to overwrite the hidden 'size morph' as a delta...

When I use the hidden slider to scale, it does not break the hair rig. So I guess this is the root of the issue. I tried what you said and made a morph out of the scaled down and manually fixed hairs. Loading it back to the hairs without scaling but it doesn't solve anything. Not sure if I got you right. I can not use the morph to scale the hair, because the hair is fittet to genesis 8. -Scaling like this will never match the character. Can you be more detailed on the last part and on how to overwrite the 'size morph' delta please?
The size morph of the character is a full body morph

If this 'size morph' is a partial head morph of the character, you need to fix the corresponding 'auto-triggered' morph in the hidden properties of the hair, e.g. rig the bone of the tail to the right position, export to obj,  Morph Loader Pro - Import back to the hair to overwrite the hidden 'size morph' as a delta...

Since I am no shader mixer expert, I had set up my shader by just copying most of the Blended Dual Lobe shader.  I think the shader preset .duf file i uploaded earlier in the thread has the same structure as the one im currently using.

To get the omnihair brick, I just took the OmniHairBase.mdl from the Omniverse Create app.  If you download and open Omniverse Create, and go to Create>Materials>Omnihair, then on the right-hand sider under Outputs, you can find the drive location for this MDL and others.  It should be like:

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\ov\pkg\create-2022.3.3\kit\mdl\core

The OmniHairBase.mdl seems to import a few other .mdl files from other folders in that \core directory, so you will need to add a few paths to the directory manager in Shader Mixer so that the OmniHairBase.mdl can load properly.  Besides the OmniHairBase.mdl, i notice there are two others, omnihair and omnihairpresets which I havent looked into much, but I do notice they have much more sockets on the shader brick compared to OmniHairBase, so may offer some more solutions.

Anyway, I personally wasnt able to get Opacity nor Emission properties of the OmniHairBase MDL to work in render. 

DS has never been able to use Poser content "as is", everything has to be converted on import, it's what happens when you use completely different engines to try to do the same things.

In DS4 all Poser rigged content is converted into a poormans version of Genesis.

In Poser the mesh is split into "props" using the mesh groups,  these are then "parented" to the bones, DS4 turns this and any Parametric joint parameters into poor general weight maps.

Studio then uses "hidden helpers" to control how these "bend" giving the appearance that the figure still bends the same, Poser WM figures don't have enough Parametric rigging left for DS to convert, resulting in really poor bending and the odd strange behavior.

Basically you are looking at a complete rerig of the figure in DS.

PerttiA said:

I have barely scratched the surface with animation, but when I started with DS4, I tried to use the same methods telling my stories that I had used with Poser - Ie. using the timeline like a storyboard, but I soon found out that in order to keep finished frames from changing due to me doing something in later frames, I needed to create keyframes for every frame I didn't want to change, pinning everything (didn't realize the consequences yet) at least on the characters that were moving around. For one character that meant creating a memory point for the character, all of the morphs on the character, any and all rotational data (and morphs) for all the children of the character (fingers, toes, everything), even when the information had not changed. That alone is a huge amount of data, and if the character had body hair for different parts of the body, the keyframe was memorizing all the morphs on all the parts of the hair, the same with clothing and the hair on th the characters head - All of that for just one character.

I had a scene with maybe 25-30 keyframes and two characters in a tropical environment, the size of the savefile was over 3GB's before I lost it due to running out of space when I allowed DS to save the file while closing. Opening and saving the file took well over an hour... 
That is how I know what creating keyframes for 'everything' can do.

DS is a RAM hog and 32GB's may not be enough for what you are describing. I didn't think I was doing anything that heavy, but when I upgraded my 32GB's to 64GB's, I noticed the computer becoming more responsive as Windows didn't have to use virtual memory (disk space) to compensate for the missing RAM.

Thanks for the input, dude. From the sound of it, your work process is actually quite simular to mine (like using the timeline to storyboard, etc) so your info is extra useful because of that.

Things have been improving steadily will of this in mind. I've been taking the old fashioned phrase of "pencil milage" and applying to keying methods. When I star a new scene, I open a group for all the clothes, for the set, and for anything that is not typically going to move frame-by-frame, and put all the actors and moving doodads into a different group. Thus, when marking a frame I just need to select the latter group, selecty children, and mark the frame. It's still keyframing in bulk, but cutting the CPU/DAZ some slack while doing it.

Another process I've developed are pre-keyed zero-poses. --- I basically get G8 solo in a blank scene, make sure all their transforms/poses are zeroed, select all, keyframe about 10/11 frames on the timeline, and save the pose. This method allows me to pose the model freely without being concerned about whether or not making the keyframe is going to cause any stress. Also, if I'm using importable poses, I can have 2 G8's in a group, import the pre-keyed poses for each of them, and apply poses freely, perhaps moving the group if I need their placement moved.

It's working like a dream. It's just a case of finding tips and tricks to make the marking of frames as easy as possible for Daz, in my opinon. The lock-ups seem at their worst when CREATING a keyframe, but not adjusting or updating it, so that's what I've been attacking the issue from. Thanks again for your input, it significantly helped how I was approaching and understanding the whole thing! This is considerably less of an issue now.

- Doc

I've never used Poser, so I don't know what you're referring to with the "has-buttocks philosophy". General weight mapping is what you want; I don't know that Triax is proprietary, but it's not how current figures are weightmapped. Since you're not specifying, I'm going to guess that you're importing as FBX? DS, to put it gently, doesn't have the best FBX import capabilities, so the best, and in the long run probably easiest, solution is to import an OBJ for your geometry, import the FBX for the rig, then set the FBX as a donor rig for the OBJ.