Start at the bottom of the page and check out the titles of the videos. They'll lead you to where you want to be. Some of them are all about this stuff.

I agree with Crosswind. No idea why the need for the multidimensional morph script. But then... I don't even know what that is... Expand All, maybe?

One thing about making clothes: I've heard that tight-fitted clothes give the biggest nightmares for making them work across many figure shapes.

Also - when working with making clothes, always use the base shape. That's what the software (Daz Studio) expects. 

Save results as a product BEFORE applying any shaping morphs to the figure wearing them. 

Load in the 'product' from the library and test shapes. 

Try to work everything out without mesh smoothing turned on. If it's needed in the end... fine. But try working things out without it turned on so you can tell that you're not making the mesh impossible to smooth out (too shrunk, for example)

It's been a couple of days ... got sidetracked with 1-Click-PBRSkin and character creation, but it's time to do a render or two for this thread.

This one features Summer Italy Street and Kuj Dforce Korean Casual Style Outfit For Genesis 8 And 8.1 Females, but also includes a pose from Z Together And Apart Couple Poses For Genesis 3 And 8 and both characters were created as G8 mats that were subsequently converted to PBR with 1-Click PBRSkin. (As all of my recent new characters have been, they're Face Transfer characters with texture files created from the same source images with FaceGen.)

Hmm... have you tweaked the weight or already fixed the pJCMs? Why there's a poke-thru on left thigh when right thigh bends...?

I don't get you for Problem 1... what script? why do you need to create a 'multi-dimensional' morph... what's that?

Generation3dx said:

The great thing about Daz and working with morphs is that, often, like in this case, you start out trying to copy another character or real person, but end up being "inspired" by it, and create something entirely new. Attached is my "Maryam" character, as a result of this. I used RareStone's Face Morphs Collection for Genesis 8 and 8.1 and Genesis 8 Female Head Morphs based on FWArt's "Dayana" figure. Her hair is Morgan Hair, her skin from JASA's "Flynn" figure and her eyes from Victoria 8.1.

Indeed ~ and she looks great! I roughly made a new one by using four character's head morph + Rs' Face Morphs Collection + some sculpting. Though it could be further refined, now it's already hard to tell which characters form the 'Base'. So that's the magic of Daz - controllable while having much more potentials...

Thanks for taking the time to reply.  That's a lot of videos. I'll pick through them as I go. In the meantime, I"m talking about the DAZ scrips Mada thoughtfully put out there with permission from DAZ. One of them is a script to create a multidimensional morph. 

She's got a long list of tutorial, tips and trick videos that I've been going through. So far many are things I know, but being as I learned through the back door there's a lot I don't. The first video in her list has a link to the dropbox that holds the scripts. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2SdKrOTXeXA1qMgNE84AsM8_Wq63gOBF

It seemed like it was working, and sure it kind of does for later things. But the earlier morphs end up completely messed up.  And her technique of ERC freezing on a joint doesn't always work either. I've been manually going into the parameters tab and putting things together myself so they'll behave as I wish. Some are simple morphs. But for some I've had to learn keying, somewhat. I think I only have a fraction of an inkling on how that works.

What I need is to be able to create complicated morphs for when, say, a right thigh bone has two rotation or (currently) two different thigh bones have to do two different things. Or (inthe future) two thighbones and a shin bone. 

Where would you suggest I begin on your list? Can't hurt to look at other things in the meantime.

Problem 2: It's looking like for THE FIFTH TIME!!! I have to restart a simple pair of PJ bottoms I've been making.

I do well until I get to the end, the final combo morphs, and suddenly things go wrong. Vertices go in odd directions. The object won't drape without going in odd directions. It doesn't matter how many times I restart DAZ, reset... I've even tried removing morphs... and it's always the same. I actually will have to reimport the mesh and start from complete scratch, which I am beyond sick of doing.

I've been going through all the numerous morphs, checking each one, to see if anything is wrong. I have no idea.

What do I do here? This is just too much over the top!!

Problem 1: Yes, it's all very nice this script from DAZ to create multidimensional morphs. Huzzah. I'm going to attach a picture of the mess it makes.  Does anyone remember how to simply do it by hand or have access to a step for step tutorial on how to do it by hand? A linear step by step, minus the director's notes? I've picked apart the messes the script makes and have tried to fix, and sometimes I get lucky. Sometimes. 

A simple Thigh to Side morph to a 45 degree angle has to be keyed to tell it when to stop. Which doesn't always work. 

So sick of having to start all over again. Does anyone have any answer?

f.boschanski said:

Hello everyone!
I just stumbled upon this challenge and although i am pretty late to the show, i thought i might give it a try.

I am usually not the render guy. I mainly use DAZ to (try) create my own printable models. Make them printable in Blender, that is...

My renders so far have only been quick and dirty ones. Just to put a picture of the base concept into each folder.

But you know... never hurts to try improving another skillset on the way.

-------------------------
For this, i challenged myself to only use the free DAZ assets from the current and last month. And all-time DAZ freebies.

However, as i was unsure about what morphs would be eligible to use, i decided to use a free figure shape from another place.

In hindsight, i could probably just have used the base G9 female.

And i am not finished yet. But i thought better have my items and pic checked early. Not to waste time to find out last minute that my entry does not qualify.
Anyways, here are the things i used (so far):

DAZ  Freebies

an attached flower from the Flora Sprite Dress (https://www.daz3d.com/flora-sprite-for-genesis-2-female-s)

earfins from the dragonling as leafs (https://www.daz3d.com/millennium-dragon-2-dragonling)

3D bubbles (https://www.daz3d.com/3d-bubbles)

Pose (slightly modified left arm/hand) (https://www.daz3d.com/daily-ease-poses-lite)

Outfit (https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-dancing-queen-outfit-for-genesis-9)

Hair (dForce MK Hime Cut Hair for Genesis 9 Lite)

(https://www.daz3d.com/street-vignettes--calle-pintada) - not sure about this one. i know i assigned one of the render options of this asset. but i do not know if a later used package overwrote the settings.

Sky+Dome+Floor (https://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-economy-redux--volume-1-lite)

DAZ Studio Regulars

G9 female

Daz Studio primitives

DAZ Studio other

Essential Iray Shaders (https://www.daz3d.com/essential-iray-shaders) i thought it was a regular freebie that DAZ Studio provides. Turned out to be part of the anniversary megapack `22, that i got when i joined DAZ last year. While I did not pay anything for this one, i would assume it falls either under paid or neutral.

Otherplace freebie

Vickie 9 Character Morph for Genesis 9 (https://www.renderhub.com/marissko/vickie-9-for-genesis-9)

 

i hope this information is sufficient. i might add more to the list later. Depends on time and afterthoughts
Let me know if this isnt good enoughfor a "gardening" theme... She raises flowers though  ;)

EDIT:

paid asset: Vintage light overlay for photoshop - it was within a huge graphics package in some humblebundle package. One of thousands of files. Nothing but a shortcut for things one could do without using a paid image. and i might even decide to remove it or use another one in the final version. but i thought i better mention it. No link though.. Sitting in my library for years.

EDIT 2: after playing around a bit in photoshop, i am realy tempted to let it go. I am sure, there is a lot of room for improvement, but i kinda like it already.
EDIT 3: just a tad more... maybe need to get rid of some of the lower edges. i might sleep over it
________________________________________________________

for the test version 2 i rendered a second pic without the bubbles and primitives. and i removed the background flowers. then melted the pics with 2 masking layers and the vintage overlay. Just to get an impression how it would work out at current stage. (needs to be balance though. main reason to do this: i want a bit more of her reflection and her slightly more outstanding - but its already too much atm)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...and her heart and soul were pure.So pure, that anywhere she would walk, flowers would blossom.
As if nature stood up, to bid her welcome.

.

.

I don't see any glaring errors in your choices. Everything seems to check out. Please finish your render so you can enter the challenge. It's always good to see new people! Just post when you are ready to get the official approval to move over to the Entry thread and I'll check everything out again.

plarff said:

crosswind said:

plarff said:

crosswind said:

Slow saving is another issue. If a 90 seconds' saving happened when you saved the scene file to your NAS, you should then test a saving on a local disk, e.g. C drive.

My assets are saved on the NAS. My actual scenes/duf files saved to a M.2 drive. 

Hmm... that's strange. As all the objects in a scene are in RAM, it should be pretty quick when saving the duf file to an M.2, as long as there's no great deal of geoemetry data in the scene (e.g. dForced results on a long timeline...)

 

I agree... it is strange. My only conclusion is that having many assets installed to whatever location, slows down a lot of things for DAZ. Clearing scenes are also a laborious process it seems for DAZ now. 

Nah... the number of intalled assets does not impact file saving but only what's in the scene does. The number of installed characters really impact figure loading / scene opening speed, however, as long as there's no duplicate formulas error and not too many formula links check, the loading / closing could be also fast. I've installed 1.1K characters, nearly 28K character morph files, it only takes appr. 30 seconds to load a G8.1F base figure, with zero error, zero warning.

To confirm, the promo artist confirmed that it is not Amelia. (In fact, it's a Genesis 8 morph, not Genesis 9).

The image was mistakenly chosen out of the individual promos by the advertising team (they don't have any special insight into how submitted promo images were made), but they were informed and the main Pro bundle promo image has now been replaced.

marble said:

crosswind said:

....

ets if needed

At last the light is beginning to dawn on me. So that's where the geoshell comes in - it is not exported to Blender but is used to take the maps created in Blender. I still thought that something had to have an actual mesh to be saved as a figure/prop or wearable so my confusion is still not quite resolved.  

So now the next question: would that saved wearable conform to any charater shape (I have my own character creations in all shapes and szes)? Or do I Ineed to do something to transfer rigging and/or FBM/JCMs, etc? Oh, and how would I add further morphs as I assume the wearable geoshell can't be edited in Blender?

You don't need to do anythying to the geoshell in terms of morphing or shaping... as I mentioned above, a geoshell is a dummy facet geometry fitting on the figure, just like a 'second skin', so it follows figure's shape change. Then you just need to make morphs on the figure if needed.

Thanks again. OK, so the wearable is a geoshell with texture maps and it behaves like any newly applied geoshell, right? 

That's right ! 

Just export the dForce garment on the last frame to obj, clear the simulation, and import obj back to the garment as a delta morph and dial it 100%, then go for a quick saving... Is this that OP wanna get?

crosswind said:

....

ets if needed

At last the light is beginning to dawn on me. So that's where the geoshell comes in - it is not exported to Blender but is used to take the maps created in Blender. I still thought that something had to have an actual mesh to be saved as a figure/prop or wearable so my confusion is still not quite resolved.  

So now the next question: would that saved wearable conform to any charater shape (I have my own character creations in all shapes and szes)? Or do I Ineed to do something to transfer rigging and/or FBM/JCMs, etc? Oh, and how would I add further morphs as I assume the wearable geoshell can't be edited in Blender?

You don't need to do anythying to the geoshell in terms of morphing or shaping... as I mentioned above, a geoshell is a dummy facet geometry fitting on the figure, just like a 'second skin', so it follows figure's shape change. Then you just need to make morphs on the figure if needed.

Thanks again. OK, so the wearable is a geoshell with texture maps and it behaves like any newly applied geoshell, right? 

....

ets if needed

At last the light is beginning to dawn on me. So that's where the geoshell comes in - it is not exported to Blender but is used to take the maps created in Blender. I still thought that something had to have an actual mesh to be saved as a figure/prop or wearable so my confusion is still not quite resolved.  

So now the next question: would that saved wearable conform to any charater shape (I have my own character creations in all shapes and szes)? Or do I Ineed to do something to transfer rigging and/or FBM/JCMs, etc? Oh, and how would I add further morphs as I assume the wearable geoshell can't be edited in Blender?

You don't need to do anythying to the geoshell in terms of morphing or shaping... as I mentioned above, a geoshell is a dummy facet geometry fitting on the figure, just like a 'second skin', so it follows figure's shape change. Then you just need to make morphs on the figure if needed.

Seven193 said:

joanna said:

According to this thread, it was customized on Kiko 8.1.

I don't see any similarities.  Kiko's nose is very slim and narrow and her eyes are very wide.  No match for me.

... if should you know there're sort of product - morph packages, e.g. 200 Plus, RareStone's Face Morphs Collection, HSTW Head Morphs, etc., and sort of software, e.g. ZBrush or Blender...  that we always use for custmizing our characters...

For most of the cases, one or several blended characters are only used as a 'Base'... Even a user can well use the above-mentioned to heavily customize a character, let alone PAs... I've seen quite a lot works from them offline, so no need to doubt that...

crosswind said:

marble said:

crosswind said:

Yes, it's tricky... Geoshell has 'geometry' indeed but it's a sort of derivative dummy facet of its parent, so that's why it can collide with other figures / objects. It has no mesh of its own so there's no way to create morphs on it, while it just derives mesh resolution and SubD from the figure. If we need 'morphs on it', we create morphs on the figure.

Well, technically a geoshell can be sculpted in Blender but normally we just use Genesis figure to do so (as well as painting / texturizing), as FenixPhoenix mentioned. We may use derivative UV set from the figure on the geoshell garments or create unique UV set for them.

 

So using the figure itself, how to achieve the slight distance from the surface for a clothing item? Use a push modifier before export or is there a better way in Blender?

 

Not in that way. Actually geoshells adopt all the UV sets from the figure, so we just need to create texture maps for them rather than 'on them'. The normal workflow is -
- export Genesis figure to Blender or Pt, etc., you paint texture on it and bake the maps, or you create texture maps based on the UV templates (from Genesis figure or unique ones you made) in Photoshop or Gimp, etc.
- Load a geoshell on Genesis figure
- Assign texture maps to the corresponding surfaces of the geoshell
- Save the geoshell as a Wearable preset, as well as Material presets if needed

At last the light is beginning to dawn on me. So that's where the geoshell comes in - it is not exported to Blender but is used to take the maps created in Blender. I still thought that something had to have an actual mesh to be saved as a figure/prop or wearable so my confusion is still not quite resolved.  

So now the next question: would that saved wearable conform to any charater shape (I have my own character creations in all shapes and szes)? Or do I Ineed to do something to transfer rigging and/or FBM/JCMs, etc? Oh, and how would I add further morphs as I assume the wearable geoshell can't be edited in Blender?

The imported mesh or face transferred morph won't be made using the base morphs, so comparing settings won't help. It's not soemthing I have doen but my suggestion would be to apply a push modifier to oen figure or the other, remove all maps, and set them to have contrasting base colours, then adjust the morphs to get as close as possible (so when the Push Modifier is off you see one model's colour and when you turn the Push modifier's offset up/down the other item comes into view more-or-less uniformly - that would tell you that the shapes were almost an exact match).

marble said:

FenixPhoenix said:

You export the character and paint the "clothing" onto that. You use displacement for wrinkles. Then you export all of that alongside a cutout opacity mask and set it all up in the geoshell. This is how I did it for Liloo's underwater: https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-nd-liloo-clothing-for-genesis-9

 

I assume you mean her underwear? The rest of your advice is exactly how I imagined it to be except that I want to manipulate the mesh a little more so that it doesn't, for example, disappear into the cracks and creases of the G8 figure (I don't have any G9 characters). -- [EDIT] Just noticed that you show and example of this as your NDLC shape preset. -- Also, did you need to create a UV map or did you use the original maps from the DAZ figure? 

So I guess I would need to import it back and rig it somehow in DAZ Studio? I have a lot of things running through my mind that I've read here and seen in various tutorials but I was hoping for some kind of definitive workflow. I've seen clothing sets on other sites which look like they have just been painted on the body but which are sold as separate clothing items.

Apologies, I meant underwear, indeed. I was typing on my phone, and autocorrect does whatever it wants lol. What I did for the crack was ask Nathy to do a morph on the figure to smooth that out. Then I saved all of that as a wearable preset that would apply the smooth glutes morphs to the figure and the geoshell textured-like underwear.

By the way, Nathy has a product that provides these types of morphs (helpful to smooth things for geoshell type of clothing): https://www.daz3d.com/nd-extra-morphs-breasts-and-glutes-for-genesis-9

If I was trying to re-create a non-Genesis mesh in Daz Studio, I would use something called R3DS, but it's crazy expensive. The basic idea, you can take the Genesis 8 mesh and fit it (or wrap it) around the mesh you're trying to re-create. Then you load that wrapped mesh into Morph Loader Pro, and create a morph from it.

Richard Haseltine said:

Hold down cmd/ctrl when clicking on the second - this is usually easiest to do in the Scene pane. Cmd/ctrl toggles selection of the thing clicked on without affecting other items, shift (in the Scene pane) selects a range of items from the last selected to the item clicked but clears any other selection (and cmd/ctrl plus shift should allow you to select multiple ranges of items, but sadly this doesn't work in DS - I can't recall what the reply to my bug report said but my guess would be this is a Qt issue).
 

crosswind said:

Ctrl + select

Thank you vey much! 

Seven193 said:

Are you trying to do the same thing as File -> Save As -> Shaping Preset ? Why can't you just save the shape of character A as a shaping preset, and then apply it to character B?

In fact, I am trying to recreate with Genesis 8 a character I created on MakeHuman. I imported the MH character into Daz as an help to recreate him with G8, and I also tried to use the face transfer plugin, but I didn't success to recreate my MH character yet... So, I wondered if there was a way to compare automatically the shape of the MH (or face transfered) and G8 characters to make it matches easier...

Here is the MH character I am trying to recreate:

Here is the one I obtained with the face transfer (after some fittings):

And here is what I obtained for now by modifying the Daz 's Yuzuru 8 model:

For now, I'm focussing on the head and face themseleves, I amn't trying to modify details like eye or mouth, but there are several parts I don't success to fit to obtain what I want, so, I hoped if there was a way to compare the MH or face transferd version with the G8 one, I could fit it easier... Do you think it's possible?

I have particularyly difficultied with this part, wich seems to "angular":

I tried to modify jaw and cheek, but I couldn't modify it... Would you have an idea how to make it closer from what I need?

I have also an image withe the MH character imported into Daz and the Yuzuru 8 I modified:

In red is the MH character, and in transparent is the Yuzuru 8 character I am modifying, so we can easily see the differences...

Thank you in advance for your advices!

I am actually doing this, saving dforce2morph presets for puppeteer
 

I don't use recod rather I click the corresponding edit dots for pose and saved matching morph each frame, it zeros the before and afters