MelonLord said:

I'd love to hear your experiences and insights on this. Is the switch to ZBrush worth it for a smoother workflow or should I stick with Blender and perhaps there's a workaround for the exporting-importing hiccup I'm facing?

First... it's only fair to mention that I am biased: I never really liked Blender and its annoying interface and/or default settings (like at one time insisting that the right mouse button should be used to make selections... tha heck?!) and well... eventually I had saved up enough to get myself a ZBrush license and it changed everything for me. Note: I don't hate on Blender or such, just making sure you understand where this is coming from, and my bias in favor of ZBrush.

So, first things first: the saying that "you get what you pay for" definitely applies here I think. See, it's not just the ease of use but also the rich feature set that ZBrush provides. Making morphs is one thing, but what to think about creating (fibermesh) hair assets? Or applying changes to textures? Polypaint for example is pretty awesome, though this does have its limitations; for example you can't apply textures to several parts of a mesh at the same time; it's either one texture for the whole lot or nothing. Texture sets such as those used with Genesis (or Substance 3D painter) aren't supported in ZBrush.

But back to the morphs...

As you said GoZ is awesome... I don't have to worry about anything other than making sure the figure or prop I want to edit is selected, I then "GoZ" them over, drag them into my canvas and hit 'Edit'. Now I'm ready to get some work done. Note that this works for bare figures but also figures which you already equipped. So, for example, a female figure with hair and clothing isn't an issue: the figure will be sent over 'as is' but after you draw it in it will be "divided" into so called sub-tools. This is a specific ZBrush feature (in ZBrush everything evolves around tools; so the mesh / figure you're working on is now referred to as a tool). Note that this won't hinder or change your workflow too much, but you can only work on 1 active (sub)tool at a time.

Then for the editing itself...  my experiences with other tools is limited, though I have been using Hexagon quite extensively before I moved to ZBrush. Still... I have seen plenty of YouTube videos and well..  bias or not but I'm really into the experience because one of the things I value the most in ZBrush is that I can always fully concentrate on my work, my figure. No matter what I do. For example... while sculpting is definitely a very useful and quick way to apply changes there's also something to say for hard surface modelling. In other words: focusing on the polygons, the lines and dots. In many other programs - as far as I am aware - (!) this means changing into a different 'mode' with all the strings attached. First your figure is neatly positioned where you're ready to edit, then it suddenly shifts into another location (doesn't matter if this move is slightly) and then you can do your thing.

In ZBrush all the editing is done using brushes, this also includes the hard surface modelling (for that you'd use the ZModeler brush). Yah, switching brushes is seemingless. No change in your canvas at all, which I always heavily valued.

Well... after your edits all that's left to do is sent your stuff back over into Daz Studio. Where I also want to mention that GoZ works both ways: while I usually use ZBrush to change stuff I also create some of my own assets. Yah... all I have to do to make that work is GoZ it over into Daz Studio. Remember me mentioning polypaint? It only takes clicking 1 option to create a texture out of my polypaint endeavours, and when I GoZ something over to Daz Studio this will include textures. Which makes adding a colorized object to Daz Studio pretty darn easy. Though a very important disclaimer is in effect here: you may end up with issues if you don't customize your surfaces settings afterwards, because the initial location for the used texture is in a dynamic location. In other words: it can end up deleted over time.

Also noteworthy... GoZ is very flexible. I can just sent the default selection back, I can focus on only sending the visible tools back or if I have parts of my work hidden I can force Zbrush to GoZ everything back.

If you did everything right then Daz Studio will pick up on the changes and suggest you create a morph for it, couldn't be easier. And best of all: if this isn't fully to your liking... just alt-tab back into ZBrush and work on it some more, then sent those changes over as an update.

I'd also like to mention that I heavily rely on this workflow to make incompatible clothing still fit a character. I have some awesome (IMO) clothing assets for Genesis (the first generation?) which "work" on G8 but it still look odd and out of place. So I GoZ that into ZBrush, use something like the "Move", "ClothMove" or "Move Elastic" brush and I'll have a properly fitting setup in no time. Also... if you do go this way: "ClothFold", "ClothNudge" and "Crumple" can be invaluable brushes to add that little extra touch to clothing to make it look even more natural or realistic. Maybe try to remember these names ;)

Last but not least... I'd also like to mention the interface.

Many people seem to dislike it but to be perfectly honest I don't quite understand why myself because it's flexible as heck. You can customize just about everything you'd like. In all fairness it definitely takes getting used to: for example you don't use your mouse scrollwheel to scroll between options but you drag such lists around. Takes getting used to but at the same time it's also way more reliable than a scroll wheel which tends to skip every once in a while.

Another thing I'd like to point out is that you can assign keyboard shortcuts for just about everything as well. And every time you're puzzled about an option.. hover your mouse over it, press the control button and lo and behold: you'll get an extensive explenation.

And if you feel that you should be having multiple custom layouts to work on multiple ways of editing.... then you can just do so, and switch between them with one click of a mouse (or one press of a button). 

So yah... sorry for a long read (I'm passionate about both 3D editing as well as digital audio processing) but moving to ZBrush was one of the best things ever for me.

Oh.. right, before I forget: don't get it into your head that picking up on ZBrush will give you instant improvements in your editing. I'd even argue that the opposite could happen, at least at first! ZBrush has a rather specific workflow and a ditto interface (like having all the menus ("Palette's") sorted on alphabetical order?), and this implies a learning curve which will take some time to get into I think. Took me a while for sure.

But right now it's definitely my favorite 3D editing / sculpting tool and my #1 support asset for Daz Studio.  Bias or not.. I doubt anyone would regret picking up on this, but that's just me ;)

Hope this could help!

Just checked Genesis 3 based figure and with the same result.

I think, I will give up right now. It looks like it is by design.

If you need different characters in Unity,

just transfer also different characters from Daz Studio.

Sounds like a manual file transfer to a new computer (or similar) to me. 

I think there's a way to also transfer DIM knowledge (C > AppData or somesuch) and without transferring that as well, DIM will be lost as to what was done.

I rely on DIM as my content knowledge base. So when I did this, I ended up just starting over with DIM and reinstalled (including downloading) everything.

Of course, just recently I did lose everything (mechanical HDD failure) so I had to reinstall everything again. No biggie. DIM Rocks. I had a lot of fun with it. I just took my time over a few weeks - getting the stuff I wanted most first and moving onward from there. 

I also work in Carrara, so I still use an older Poser Runtime Structure type of content setup for Poser formats. That takes time to install, but makes it easier for me in the end.

Morph Targets. Nothing else.

Click Morph Targets from menu to get more options.  I guess most people would want to bring over only the morphs from 'favorites and subcomponents' ( I'm not sure if it automatically links up subcomponents tho, would need to check that).

You can multi-favorite morphs in Edit Mode of parameters tab.

Hi,

Using the Transfer Utility to move morphs ONLY

Just wondering if I want to move ONLY morphs over, no rigging, what boxes need to be checked and unchecked in the Transfer Utility?  

Thanks so much

Richard 

as the screenshot attached - :

BTW, pls make sure the morph is really a Pose Control morph, 'cause if you zero figure's pose, morphs in Pose Control path will be zeroed.

I know how to use morph loader to add a morph to a character.  What I would like to do is create a morph that appears as a slider in the head / pose controls section.  Is there a way to do that?

James said:

Using the G8F on a new scene, I can make it works now.
But I tried on my real scene and export a character in base resolution (I make sure), it failed still.

I used the standard export, I tried the script, import morph loader not working, still geometry not the same.

update:

Ok I think I know what causing the problem.
It seems the problem occurs, when a character have a graft.
When I deleted it, I can exported and did morph loader.
As far as I remember, it used to be no problem, am I wrong?

Yes, if so, geograft was the culprit... probably you were not wrong but that would depend. If you exported the selected figure with Geometry Editor activated, the result would be correct 'cause all grafts would be unfitted...

Therefore if you wanna export such a figure to obj, you may either activate Geometry Editor or unfit the graft(s) first before exporting...

When exporting the poly count has to be the same when brought back in, so the base geometry can be the only thing exported if you plan to bring it back in for a morph. Any extras added to it will throw off the poly count and will not work. Morphs have always been that way. I don't have that script so can't say exactly what is happening. If you look at your Daz Studio log you should be able to see the issue.

Xagrim said:

RiverSoftArt said:

Xagrim said:

During the process its dialed in. 

After the process if i dial it out/in on the new G8 the changes are minimal. 

Yes could be that its not coverted correct.

Maybe delete the Victoria 7 morph and try to convert Victoria 7 to get a new morph?

I have tried, delete all morphs and characters (Backup first)

And try to convert the original Victoria 7 (not HD)

It looks then like this:

Ok, this looks like you did a double conversion.  You need to make sure you have deleted the MORPHS, not just the presets.  The morphs always go in \data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female\Morphs under the first directory listed in the Daz Studio Formats section of the Content Directory Manager:

Using the G8F on a new scene, I can make it works now.
But I tried on my real scene and export a character in base resolution (I make sure), it failed still.

I used the standard export, I tried the script, import morph loader not working, still geometry not the same.

update:

Ok I think I know what causing the problem.
It seems the problem occurs, when a character have a graft.
When I deleted it, I can exported and did morph loader.
As far as I remember, it used to be no problem, am I wrong?

Try just importing the OBJ, (not as a morph with Morph Loader Pro) to see what the OBJ looks like. Just look at it compared to the original G8F. Can you see any obvious difference that gives you a clue about why the geometry is different? Looking at the imported OBJ will help confirm that the scripts you used did what you thought they would do.

I use another script to hide attachment.
I use ITF kit to export in base model in one click.
Standard exporter doesnt work too.

I've tried many times.

I use a new scene, G8F, even delete the eyelashes just to make sure, export, import morph loader, error
Here's the scene info:
Primary Selection :

Exported Imported G8F
Primary Selection :

crosswind said:

WendyLuvsCatz said:

my eyes wish they could fix the fonts and enable every piece of text to be highlighted not blend in with the background regardless of which colour scheme you choose

yes I know these are empty deltas with V4 but I have similar issues with EVERYTHING

some highlight yellow on my colour scheme but mostly when I mouse over nothing happens

 

That's the typical 'default' color of hidden properties. You may change Mid Color in Customize Style, but that'll also colorize the background... seems there's no otherway...

believe me I have tried every garish GUI colour combination and obviously I want to see the hidden properties for quite a number of reasons

especially legacy Poser content where I can seach for and add my morph injections of choice

(Powerloader helps initially but often I need another one and don't want to add everything)

they should with my choices highlight as yellow text moused over but it picks and chooses if it works at all

Carrara I get a tree menu for Genesis 1+ and clear sliders for legacy BTW

I will admit hidden don't appear but everything that does is perfectly readable

I haven't customised it yet on my Win10 reinstall since my C drive replacement but the font is choosable and resizable too

• my point is they add features nobody asked for but not basic stuff like GUI useability

Extracting the donor skeleton does not rig the new object. You have to add joint weights, whether using the method outlined in my tutorial or by using the Transfer Utility.

There's one from Gordig - https://youtu.be/6S-8PAXuRR4?si=Vpko57Tm7PEhK43V though it was manipulated on Dog 8

I assume you wanna rig a non-Daz figure with just a single mesh.... but you have to really 'rig' it rather than a simple parenting...

Personally I really don't suggest such a way. I myself use Wrap... wrap the target model with Genesis X figure then import back to Ds as a morph.

Has anyone with the F version of the Angeloi outfit found the bra/croptop version. I bought the bundle as I wanted the bra but I cannot find an option for this.

There are two top surfaces, for the under top and the over top, but both of these cover the entire torso.

I found a Hide Bottom morph in the Parameters of the Top, but this makes no visible change on my install.

Given it features in at least 50% of the promo images I assumed it came with the bundle but may be wrong.

OK, I've been at this for about 10 hours or more! There's not 1 tutorial here or on youtube; explaning how to Transfer a skeleton, and attach it to a new body properly! The screeshots below shows what I've done so far...

1. Extracted skeleton from a Default G8.1 model.

2. Deleted G8.1 model, and placed skeleton inside new body.

3. Animation test...

As you can see, the skeleton is NOT attached properly, and moving on it's own! I've already tried "parenting" the Donor Skeleton, and a few other things, but the same thing still happens!

How to export obj in DAZ 4.22 correctly?
A script I used to export in one click, now doesn't work well.
Using the other method, file > export doesnt work too well either.

When I import back using morph loader, the error says  Warning: Geometry did not match, failed to create morph.
Even when I morph loader the file that's just fresh exported.
The resolution, already the base res.
I have done this in DAZ 4.21 so many time.
But now, not working.
 

Richard Haseltine said:

crosswind said:

LudenUK said:

Decimator is broken as hell. Exported models were crashing my 3DXchange, finally opened one in 3DS Max and it's a mass blob of garbage. Trying to get a Genesis 3 char into Unity for a VR college project, even the base model falls apart. Requested a rollback from support, wish they would include an option in install manager to at least get the previous version, I was meant to get more of my work done over half term and now I'm stuck waiting for support to let me roll back to a working version.

@xop32 - if your models are decimated, this is probably why unreal is crashing!

with the latest Decimator plugin's update ?

How were you transferring the model? If the mesh looks good in DS then it may be the transfer method, or its settings at one end or the other, that is the issue.

I just tried Decimating Genesis 3 Male, it looked fine in DS and rendered correctly. Then I tried exporting to FBX and opening in Blender, it was drawn with a completely wrong vertex order I think - polygone were there, but formed by the wrong vertices. That looks, at a glance, like an exporter issue.