Writer25 said:

Alberto said:

Jovanni said:

Has anyone been able to import openvdb from blender to daz3d? :D

If you have vdb files of simulation of liquids, the vdbs are probably level sets, these can be transformed to meshes using remeshing in Fluidos II. But for smoke, fog, explosions, the current version (V2.1) cannot read these vdbs, but the plugin ABAS can do it (see https://youtu.be/FfGlaJyXXVo).

Hey there,

 

I've been trying out your plugin and I defintilty see potentional in this, since it works great when you make the fluid sims nativily in DAZStudio. However I'm running into an issue when I'm trying to import external .vdb liquid files from Blender.

When I've import them, I try to remesh them as described in the manual. I rename them as fluid00000x, set them in a bakefiles subfolder designated in the fluidos domain, and try running the remesh option in the simulator... Only this doesn't seem to work, as the simulator seems to go through them immediately, and doesn't convert the .vdb files into the required.ply.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? The long-term plan is to use this plugin to render the externally made .vdb's in DAZstudio... so I hope that it can be resolved.

Greetz!

The vdb file must be of Level set type. Could you upload one of the vdb files so I could examine it? 

Alberto said:

Jovanni said:

Has anyone been able to import openvdb from blender to daz3d? :D

If you have vdb files of simulation of liquids, the vdbs are probably level sets, these can be transformed to meshes using remeshing in Fluidos II. But for smoke, fog, explosions, the current version (V2.1) cannot read these vdbs, but the plugin ABAS can do it (see https://youtu.be/FfGlaJyXXVo).

Hey there,

I've been trying out your plugin and I defintilty see potentional in this, since it works great when you make the fluid sims nativily in DAZStudio. However I'm running into an issue when I'm trying to import external .vdb liquid files from Blender.

When I've import them, I try to remesh them as described in the manual. I rename them as fluid00000x, set them in a bakefiles subfolder designated in the fluidos domain, and try running the remesh option in the simulator... Only this doesn't seem to work, as the simulator seems to go through them immediately, and doesn't convert the .vdb files into the required.ply.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? The long-term plan is to use this plugin to render the externally made .vdb's in DAZstudio... so I hope that it can be resolved.

Greetz!

It's the whole process that is being presented to new users that's essentially bound to create problems.

At DAZ site, they are given a link "Download Studio", which doesn't download DAZ Studio, but offers to install DAZ Central instead.
When the user has installed DAZ Central, downloaded and installed DAZ Studio and the assets that come with it and starts DAZ Studio the first time, the user is presented with a dialog asking for login credentials in a way that one thinks they should be given.
Having given the login credentials to DS and permission to go online, DAZ Connect within DS starts updating the metadata and 'bugging' the user that the content has not been installed (with DAZ Connect) and makes the user think it has to be installed again, which DAZ Connect does to an other location, taking twice the space on users C-drive (default location)
As any content installed with DAZ Connect takes priority over the installations made by other methods (DAZ Central/DIM/Manual installation), even when DAZ Connect installed content is corrupt, the user ends up with content that does not work and no way to figure out why...

There is no warning or notice explaining that logging in to DAZ Studio, is only needed when one chooses to install content with DAZ Connect within DAZ Studio and if one does choose to do that, there is no point in using the other installation methods.

If one doesn't want to use DAZ Connect within DS to install content, one should set the Startup options in DS preferences as in the attached sample.

There arescripts which mayb help with organisation:

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/metadata/list_products_used/start
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/file_io/file_zip_extract_each/start
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/remote_operation/extract_data_from_products_used/start

MacTire said:

So 3rd party assets cannot be searched?

The Content Library search goes by file names and will work on anything, the other content panes use the database and so require metadata - Daz content will (almost) always have that, soem third party content will have it though it will usually have to be imported, or you can add your own.

benniewoodell said:

I had the lagging happen all the time before, but now I import one version of the character with no clothes or hair, turn off the sub D in Blender, have nothing in the scene except basic cubes or whatever close that would resemble anything your character would interact with (like a table or something) and the lagging should stop for you. And then after I finish the animation, I append the armature into my scene file, go into the dope sheet, then the action editor and retarget my character to the animated rig and render. If this doesn't work, there's something else going on in your scene file that I don't know about. That lagging is super annoying. I just thought that's how things were in general because Daz can be that way too until I started taking animation courses and the rigs we're using in Maya are fast and stay that way, so then I started experimenting in Blender as I realized it didn't have to lag. Good luck! 

@benniewoodell

Great Advice

wolf359 said:

rilla said:

Doesn't Maya have the same retargeting capabilities as motionbuilder?
 

Debatable.

however the OP still needs to be able or willing to pay for a Maya subscription $1785 annually(nonsale price).
Just to create BVH files to import into Daz studio

I would be cheaper to pay the one time cost ofIclone 8/CC4 at $900 USD

or try to sort out that Cascaduere to Daz studio method Daz has show cased.

 

And there is always the option of just rendering his animation in unreal engine since that is where the retargeting seems to be working just fine.

There's still Maya Indie for less than $300/yr if the user lives in an eligible country, I believe.

I had the lagging happen all the time before, but now I import one version of the character with no clothes or hair, turn off the sub D in Blender, have nothing in the scene except basic cubes or whatever close that would resemble anything your character would interact with (like a table or something) and the lagging should stop for you. And then after I finish the animation, I append the armature into my scene file, go into the dope sheet, then the action editor and retarget my character to the animated rig and render. If this doesn't work, there's something else going on in your scene file that I don't know about. That lagging is super annoying. I just thought that's how things were in general because Daz can be that way too until I started taking animation courses and the rigs we're using in Maya are fast and stay that way, so then I started experimenting in Blender as I realized it didn't have to lag. Good luck! 

I used to think that DS just couldn't correctly read a simple BVH. While there may be some things with rotation order that it will sometimes incorrectly assume and produce nightmare fuel upon import, now that I've spent more time researching and trying different things, I now know what the real problem is: Orientation.

BVH as a format knows nothing about the Genesis framework. So it reckons angles from the un-oriented rest position. Daz Studio, of course, reckons angles from the oriented rest position. That's part of the reason why they deform so beautifyully. So the further you get from the hip bone, the errors stack. For example, change a G8's Left Thigh Bend. That's rotating around its local X axis. But notice that the leg does not rotate in a plane parallel to the YZ plane. It's angled outwards a bit. That's the Left Thigh Bend's orientation that the BVH file doesn't know about.

So DS is probably importing the BVH as best as it can, but there's only so much it can do, since whoever made you the BVH could not possibly have known about the bone orientations. It will never be perfect because BVH has no notion of orientation; rotations are always reckoned in the parent bone's space, precisely.

I think FBX does have a notion of orientation, I've seen the option in a Blender FBX addon, but although I've never tried, I don't think DS handles importing animations from FBX very well.

The tools @wolf359 and @WendyLuvzCatz are talking about, and the one I'm working on, know what bone orientation is, and do the math to correct for it.

PS - Well, actually, the other problem is that the BVH holds Euler Angles, and might not reckon the limits in the same way that Daz does, and again... nightmare fuel. A better, more modern solution is to use Quaternions, but a trip through the SDK forums show that there's a strong case saying that there's a bug in the way DS converts between the two, at least with Daz Script. *sigh*

Both Tiff and PNG are lossless, any difference would be down to the export or import process (Tiff is somewhat variable, while PNG is well-specified)

rilla said:

Doesn't Maya have the same retargeting capabilities as motionbuilder?
 

Debatable.

however the OP still needs to be able or willing to pay for a Maya subscription $1785 annually(nonsale price).
Just to create BVH files to import into Daz studio

I would be cheaper to pay the one time cost ofIclone 8/CC4 at $900 USD

or try to sort out that Cascaduere to Daz studio method Daz has show cased.

And there is always the option of just rendering his animation in unreal engine since that is where the retargeting seems to be working just fine.

bishbosch said:

Is there up-to-date documentation for the new (and old) FBX export settings? The environment I'm trying to transfer to Unreal as an FBX is exploding, with parented things like windows and doors scattering, which wasn't happening before.

I can't export anything to Character Creator 4 anymore. I have tried all sorts of combiations in the new FBX dialog and CC4 still blows up on import. 

5. Draping a Chain

Create a longer chain than in examples 2 and 3 and then free drape it as well as drape it around a cylinder and arm.

a. On the Fisio pane, set Scale to 0.25.

b. On the Fisio pane, click on the button Create Fisio Material node… and accept the recommended name. For this example we will be using the default material settings to start.

c. Create a torus that is Y-positive, 1 inch major diameter, 0.2 inch minor diameter, 64 segments, and 16 sides.

d. Make a copy of the torus by clicking on DS main menu and choosing Edit/Duplicate/Duplicate Node(s). Rotate the new torus 90 degrees and move it along Z-axis so the two tori are interleaved.

e. Hide everything in the scene except for the two tori. Using the DS main menu, select File/Export. Type in a name (like chain link) and check that wavefront object .obj appears in the drop down box below the name. In the next dialog box pick To: Daz Studio.

f. Using the DS main menu, select File/Import. Select the file you just created. In the next dialog box pick From: Daz Studio. You now have an object with the two tori linked so you can more easily create instances with UltraScatter Pro.

g. You can hide or delete the original two tori now that you have a copy.

h. On the Fisio pane, click on the button Create Fisio Material node… and accept the recommended name. For this example we will be using the default material settings.

i. On the Fisio pane, click on the button Assign Rigid Bodies… On the popup window click on Update Selections. Click on the chain link and then the Accept button.

j. There will now be a Fisio Rigid section in the Parameters pane. With the chain link selected, click on Collision Material and select Fisio Material. Scroll down and find the parameter Collision Shape Type and choose Mesh. Set Enable and Selectable to On and Fixed to Off.

k. Next we will make copies of this link with UltraScatter Pro. Select the link, then run the USP script. Select matrix style and in the Rows area set X and Y to 1 and Z to 20. Set Z spacing to 4.

l. Select the Instances group and break it apart by selecting from the DS main menu Edit/Object/Instances/Break Instance Group.

m. Select the chain link object (not an instance) and then from the main menu choose Edit/Instances/Duplicate Node Hierarchies to create a copy. Move this to the right end of the chain and position it to be interleaved with the first object. Go to parameters and set Fisio Fixed to On. This link will hold the chain up so it doesn’t all just fall straight down.

n. Run the Simulation. The chain will drape from the fixed link. It holds together until frame 15 when it begins to separate.

Frame 15:                                                                     

 Frame 24:

o. Change the Fisio Material parameters to Cohesion 20.

p. Run the Simulation. The chain will now drape until frame 34 before breaking.

Frame 32:                                                Frame 34:

q. Create a new X-positive cylinder, 2 feet long, 6 inches in diameter, 24 segments, and 16 sides. Position it just under the chain at about half its length.

r. On the Fisio pane, click on the button Assign Rigid Bodies… On the popup window click on Update Selections. Click on the new cylinder and then the Accept button. Then in the Parameters pane click on Collision Material and select Fisio Material. Scroll down and find the parameter Collision Shape Type and choose Mesh. Set Enable, Fixed, and Selectable to On.

s. Run the Simulation. The chain will drape around the cylinder and not break (simulation was run to 46 frames, image shows frame 30).

t. Load a figure (I used G3M) and position it so its left arm is located where the cylinder is. Hide the cylinder. Repeat step r but for the figure this time.

u. Run the Simulation. It will be similar to step s. You’ll notice it doesn’t fit tightly around the arm but projects forward and looks as if the cylinder is still there. It is, even though it is hidden.

v. Select the cylinder and turn the Fisio parameter Enable to Off. Rerun the Simulation. Now it wraps around the arm.

Frame 30:                                                                             Frame 40:

Key Learnings: (1) Use a small amount of cohesion to keep the chain links together. (2) If you have multiple Fisio Rigid Bodies in a scene but are only use one in a simulation, hiding the item does not remove it from a simulation as it does for dForce. You need to change Fisio Enable to Off.

adamb2011 said:

Hi All,
Thanks for the comments.
In the end I updated the plugin to 1.7, saved out my route paths throught the plugin ( so now I only have my E: drive which is correct) and also selected keep base meshes in the import, just to be sure.
Cheers
A

Has Diffeomorphic 1.7 been released already? 

The BVH format is used in the same way by all 3D softwares. There is no variant for DazStudio or Blender.
However, there may be a problem with the axes (X,Y,Z) because not all 3D softwares uses the same axis system.

A BVH file is always associated with a bone structure (an animated skeleton-armature), organized hierarchically.
In your case, you must verify that this hierarchical structure has not been modified during your process.
By using, Winmerge which I gave you the link, you can check this very easily.

In addition, you must check if during your process your BHV file has not been converted into another format during an import. Some 3D software, immediately after importing the BVH file, use their own native format to process animations (it must be understood that BVH is an old motion capture format, which is not well suited to recent developments in 3D. The Biovision company that created this motion capture format no longer exists)

A BVH import, followed by an export, is never neutral, due to the conversion to the native format made by the 3D software:
[import BVH]   >   [conversion in native format to process animations]   >   [export BVH]
During this double conversion BHV -> native format and native format -> BVH, the output BHV file may be different from the input BHV file.

It would be nice if a big company like Pixar or Sony Pictures Imageworks, for example, would create a new motion capture format that would replace the old BVH format.

witcherask_a3dd58a1c6 said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

sell a kidney and get MotionBuilder from Autodesk? 

 

see this thread too

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/250726/so-if-an-animation-is-saved-using-genesis-it-works-on-genesis-3#latest

wats difference between bvh from blender and motion builder.

Didnt saw anything regarding bvh in above thread

I thought it had been mentioned there that BVH import works on Genesis 1 and earlier legacy figures 

adding twist bones to Genesis 3 + broke it for DAZ Studio's importer 

I don't have MoBu but everyone who uses it confirms it works with D|S

I don't know anyone successfully using anything else directly

otherwise using G1 as the export/mport figure like me can work but needs a lot of tweaks such as moving the bone root, if you read through that thread

the best  BVH import results are actually with M4 and V4 and earlier 

Richard Haseltine said:

Window>Workspace>Select Layout, or if you want to reset only the menus Window>Workspace>Customise and use the Import button at the bottom of the dialogue.

Thank you Richard. That was much easier than I thought it was going to be 

Window>Workspace>Select Layout, or if you want to reset only the menus Window>Workspace>Customise and use the Import button at the bottom of the dialogue.

Willy2 said:

Your question is a bit weird. It implies that an animation could be imported into Daz incorrectly.
Daz correctly imports all BVH animations, in the same way.

There is no special menu to import animations which have been successively processed by different softwares.
Besides, a BVH file is in text format, so there is no mystery

At each stage of your process, you can export your BHV file and compare it to the original with the Winmerge software.

https://winmerge.org/?lang=fr

You will know if your BVH file has been modified and at what stage this possible modification occurred.

Problem is when i import animation it doesnt work properly in daz.

It works fine in blender when i preview it

Your question is a bit weird. It implies that an animation could be imported into Daz incorrectly.
Daz correctly imports all BVH animations, in the same way.

There is no special menu to import animations which have been successively processed by different softwares.
Besides, a BVH file is in text format, so there is no mystery

At each stage of your process, you can export your BHV file and compare it to the original with the Winmerge software.

https://winmerge.org/?lang=fr

You will know if your BVH file has been modified and at what stage this possible modification occurred.