Auroratrek said:

Lack of a good lip sync option is why I don't animate with Daz anymore. I used Mimic Pro for over a decade, as the only option, but it was never updated in all that time. With some work, it actually did a decent job, but finally gave up hope Daz would ever come up with a good solution. I still use a lot of Daz assets, but I export them to compose in iClone, which has great lip sync capability. 

This is an excerpt from a section of my latest series that I'm working on: 

 Looks fantastic, as always. I loved the first part that you posted earlier and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

For me, I'm only doing simpler toon stuff and even the ancient Mimic Pro is good enough for me; I'd decided when it first came out that I'd use it for the simple animations that I wanted to do and now that I finally have time to animate, it still does what I need except now I need an older computer to do it on, I can no longer hear audio in DAZ to fine-tune anything and I can't output a movie file with or without sound. I don't mind exporting individual frames but it's two more steps, one to merge them into a movie file and another step to add the audio. What originally was (for each audio file):

1. open a scene
2. apply a lip sync
3. render out scene

is now:

fire up old machine

open a character; for however many audio clips I have, repeat until done:

• apply lip sync
• save pose preset of just the head
• undo
• apply lip sync
• save pose preset of just the head

Transfer pose presets to new machine

For each audo file/pose preset, repeat until done:

• Open scene
• Apply pose preset to character
• Render out individual frames
• Open Quicktime, merge frames to make .mov
• Open .mov and add audio track
• Render out .mp4

I've give up on waiting for DAZ Studio 5 to do my little animations because literallly years were passing by. I'm enjoying 2D animation, quick, clean and if I wanted to put in a 40-hour "work" week I could probably have 15-20 minutes of animation done each week (I still have lots to learn, mind you, but I can see most of what I need to fix, so it's fun and I'm learning and will hopefully get better).

I still have hope that DAZ Studio 5 might bring back the features that I lost when it went to 64-bit, I'm just not waiting for it.

My hope with this thread was to find out what DAZ owns or doesn't own and what they might be *able* to do with Mimic. No one's jumped in to correct how I *think* everything works license-wise, so as far as I can guess DAZ could release a 64-bit plug-in for sale without violating any licensing (as they did with the Windows-only Mimic Live). I'd be happy to pay for it.

-- Walt Sterdan

 

The facial morphs are not in the user-facing folder but in Parameters pane, select your figure, search by: FCE. You may then expand the groups on the left to see there the morph(s) belong to.

Think I've got it so the V3/A3/GV3/IV/M3/F3/H3?/GND2 character can morph safely between figure shapes. This means, I think, we have reached the point where a Generation 3 character now has most of the benefits of the Generation 7/8 characters (apart from the joint quality, but at least it's no worse than when the characters were first created). Obviously Generation 3 characters don't have the facial rigging bones of Generation 7, 8 or 9, and are more limited than those base figures, but at least Generation 3's range can be expanded and the chief frustration of limited clothing availability can be addressed.

The last pieces of the puzzle were importing a morph of the different Generation 3 character shapes (already available as Obj files for the clothing autofit clones), changing the rigging to suit that morph only, then freezing the change and saving the revised character. This procedure allows V3 to morph into A3 or M3, and probably could be used for Melody and Micah if they are only morph based changes to A3. Not having either Melody or Micah, I am unsure exactly how their shapes are generated.

The process (in words, no images) is as below, assuming a V3 morph is to be added to A3:

1. Open up Morph Loader Advanced using menu item Edit| Figure| Morph Loader Advanced... and select the V3 morph. Give the morph a different name from the autofit clone of V3, so something like 'A3 as V3' and press the 'Accept' button
2. A new morph will appear in the parameters. Edit the parameter to give sensible limits, make sure the 'Type' is 'Modify/Shape' and check the 'Auto Follow' tickbox. Press the 'Accept' Button.
3. Zero the figure using menu option Edit| Figure| Zero| Zero Figure
4. While over the parameter slider, right click and select popup menu top option 'Edit Mode'. The look of the parameter sliders will change slightly. 
5. Set the 'A3 as V3' parameter to 100%
6. Now select menu item Edit| Figure| Rigging| Adjust Rigging to Shape 
7. Go back to the parameter and right click, select popup menu 'ERC Freeze'
8. Right click and select popup menu top option 'Edit Mode' to turn edit mode off.
9. Now save your modified character with the V3 morph included as a library item in accordance with this post: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/8377596/#Comment_8377596

Points 1 to 7 can be repeated as many times as necessary to add all the Unimesh character OBJ files that you want, and at the end always save it with point 9 after turning Parameter Edit Mode off. I will say that M3 shape wearing V3 high res texture looks distinctly unusual.

I think this set of instructions can now be frozen into a PDF tutorial so others can follow it.

Regards,

Richard

Thank you, Wendy.  Great help as always.  The links get to the heart of the problem.  Anyone following along, here is the specific comment which attempts to explain how to get expression morphs included in the transfer utility.  Yikes!  Among the issues, the expression morphs are 'hidden properties' in Daz Studio.  Argh.

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/542249/#Comment_542249

Just ran into this same problem trying to create a conforming brow cover as a base to grow dynamic hair.  Ultimate use is in Carrara, but using Daz Studio transfer utility.  The expression morphs are a real problem.  Trying to follow the suggestion by kitakoredaz

you need to add the morphs also in the animation 

unlike the later figures with bones

there is an option in the transfer utility to add favourite morphs, just  icon the ones you need first in parameters

see https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/34706/viseme-morphs-in-beards-the-obvious

and https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/541750/#Comment_541750

 

Greetings.  I am creating some conforming props for the head of Genesis 2 Male to serve as bases to grow Carrara dynamic hair.  I modeled planar brows, mustache, etc and used the free plugin Daz Studio transfer utility to create the conforming brow and mustache.  To test, I dial-spun a G2M mixed character from morphs available at the 'actor' level.  My creations conformed as intended.  Yay.  However, the conforming props I created only follow some of  the morphs.  In the attached you can see that the brows did follow the 'alien' morph, but did not follow the 'dwarf brow' morph.  Booo.  I have not been able to identify a pattern, but sadly the brows are not following expressions.  Has anyone else encountered this issue?  If so, do you have a solution?

NOTE - In the attached pics, my conforming brow prop is the darker color.  I have created a shader domain of the mesh brow area and set it to a lighter grey.  Hopefully, that makes it easier to see that the my brow prop is following the alien eyebrow morph but not the dwarf eyebrow morph.

Yes, as a 'feature' Scene Subset saves all frames data on the timeline. Your case is a bit complex as there's a dForce simulation result. You may: (Save your scene file first.)

1) on frame 30, select the dforce garment, set its Resolution Level to Base. Export to wavefront OBJ file.
2) marquee select the key frames on frame 30, copy and paste to frame 0. Delete all other frames except for frame 0.
3) Import OBJ file to the garment with Morph Loader Pro (Reverse Deformations: Yes + Overwrite Existing: Deltas Only). Dial the imported morph to 100%.
4) Save to Subset.

* If there're multiple garments, replicate the same steps of export / import.

Morph: https://www.deviantart.com/magnus1781/art/V-Mortensen-902546992

Texture: https://www.daz3d.com/eros

hi all.

someone know if there is somewhere a morph or character for lance henriksen as "bishop" from alien 2 ?

i want to put it in a easter egg for a promo render (the scene from the movie, in the refectory when he play with knife and the hand of bill paxton)

thanks for you help.

Crios said:

Illegalissima, è si dovrebbe segnalare la cosa alla DAZ, così contattano il sito e chiedono di levare l'item.

Ne ha un bel pò nella vetrina... Un vero peccato, sono dei bei morph e fatti pure bene.

Mi domando perchè abbia deciso di infrangere il copyright e vendere per Maya invece di fare il morph e venderlo qui... A meno che anche il morph non sia stato rubato altrove!

Quanto a segnalarlo, come si fa?

Indeed, as TimberWolf mentioned... there'll be definitely distortion as long as one uses Clone to convert figure shape from G9 - G8 and vice versa. Where the distortion appear depends on the characters, worse in Stylized characters, but in most of the cases, there'll be distortion on eyeballs, especially Irisis, as well as eyelid expressions (Eyes Closed, Eye Blink...).  If you load Tears to G8.1, there'll be tiny distortion (a bit unfitted) as well. So better know at least one modeling / sculpting software for post fixing, e.g. Blender or ZB.

And no HD morph / shape could be converted by users, BTW.

As for texture maps, normally there won't be big problem when you use the product listed above and follow the PDF user guide accordingly...

@perlk - Thanks for being so enthusiastic about my gallery. I'm trying!  I really like G9 with two exceptions: that I practically always have to create a second eye morph for the characters I'm making (this won't affect DAZ users not interested in character creation). Another issue - often when I dial in a female body into the base model the clothing on it , especially around the breast area, gets crumpled. I also find that sometimes the weight maps don't work as they should (I'm talking about G9 clothing products).(Edit: Please see attached photos)  I have a sense that some products get rushed into the store nowadays. The crumpling issue is definitely something that should be adressed when body types are changed.

As for textures, I like the texture I created out of the female Asian base texture. I took it into Photoshop, cloned out the worst imperfections on the "skin", desaturated yellow and lightened it a bit and voila - I've got a perfect female, Caucasian skin.

If you want a set of 4 nice textures for a Caucasian male, then I suggest buying the Rogues HD G9 character. Lovely textures, don't look so great on the promos but they are the best I've come around so far and they are really good.

 

@nonesuch00 -  those big stars used to be fashion icons as well. Gary Cooper certainly was one of them along with Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Tyrone Power, so no wonder he looks like straight off a fashion magazine cover. But he was also a real Montana boy and would be a great Marlboro Man - which makes sense as he was a chain smoker which finally led him to die of cancer.

To do what - make the ribs, and other bones, more prominent? The base Body Morphs have a Body Emaciated morph. Both Twizted Metal and Vinme have a Ribcage Defined morph.

Hi. Is there a Morph [for ribs and bones for Genesis 9] to buy? Thanks for Support.

New Matt Damon morph available at RenderHub by bulldawg. He's also included skin textures but they need to be manually assigned to the surfaces
https://www.renderhub.com/bulldawg/m-damon-morph-g8m

Started with Poser at about 20 years ago. Got Bryce and Carrara before they were aquired by Daz. Changed to Daz with V4/M4. Soon changed to Cinema 4D and used Daz as source for figures and objects. Even wrote some scripts in Daz and Cinema 4D to correct the axis and transfer additional information like JCMs. This didn't work for HD though. When Cinema 4D switched to a yearly license payment, I changed to Blender. Now Diffeomorphic is my transfer tool. By the way: My first order was Victoria 2.0 in 2002

Hey all!

So I've been looking into the possibility of using a render farm for my bigger projects - it's a boatload cheaper than saving to build a new system.

I'm just wondering how it works. I know that I connect to a virtual machine, install DAZ on the created image, etc. But how does that work for content? Is there a certain way I need to save a project so that I don't have to install all the clothing/morph/texture files onto the virtual image?

Or is this a silly question and I'm missing something?

Demonslayer said:

FleetAdmiral01 said:

Demonslayer said:

I've been working with XCalpro's Gorn head, retexturing and creating morph targets.  :)
For anyone interested, I also have created a fan film called "The Gorn Imperative."
Please enjoy!

 

Out of curiosity have there been any new developments in this Gorn Project?

The film was released some time ago.  Here's a playlist on Youtube.  I'm sorry I thought I had posted it!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN_o8Y6W6Pb7Jz0SBc1GCwhs-eKCn71iS

Fun stuff! Well done, thanks for sharing. I'm just enjoying them now.

-- Walt Sterdan 

FleetAdmiral01 said:

Demonslayer said:

I've been working with XCalpro's Gorn head, retexturing and creating morph targets.  :)
For anyone interested, I also have created a fan film called "The Gorn Imperative."
Please enjoy!

 

Out of curiosity have there been any new developments in this Gorn Project?

The film was released some time ago.  Here's a playlist on Youtube.  I'm sorry I thought I had posted it!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN_o8Y6W6Pb7Jz0SBc1GCwhs-eKCn71iS