Dawn in Blender?

[eclark1894]

Not sure where to post this question either, but didn't want to start another useless thread so, Any chance of Paul rigging a version of Dawn to work in Blender? I am being serious here, by the way. I'm not going to lie. That would open up some possibilities that no other Poser figure has.

 

[Miss B]

I don't know if Paul would do another rigged version of Dawn, but I do know that Blender rigging, and Poser rigging, don't get along. IOW, you can't rig a new character in Blender, and expect the rigging to transfer to/work in Poser, and I'm assuming vice-a-versa is true as well. Having both rigging systems compatible would make things a lot easier, but I don't suspect that's every going to be the case.

 

[RAMWolff]

It's really a shame at this point of the game, so to speak, that someone hasn't figured out a script for converting Poser or DAZ Studio rigging over to Blender. Just seems strange to me. I wonder if Jacques could do it? He's a brilliant coder. Most know him at the DAZ forums as Casual!

 

[Miss B]

Yes, I have a ton of his scripts. I think if anyone could do it, he could, or come pretty damn close.

 

[eclark1894]

I don't know if Paul would do another rigged version of Dawn, but I do know that Blender rigging, and Poser rigging, don't get along. IOW, you can't rig a new character in Blender, and expect the rigging to transfer to/work in Poser, and I'm assuming vice-a-versa is true as well. Having both rigging systems compatible would make things a lot easier, but I don't suspect that's every going to be the case.

Well, yeah, I know the rigging isn't compatible. Although, I think it is possible to re-rig Dawn IN Blender, which I might give a try. I'd love to use Dawn in a Blender animation.

 

[Miss B]

Oh that would be cool if you can manage it.

 

[eclark1894]

Oh that would be cool if you can manage it.

I think that's quite manageable. the problem will be how to save and transfer that rig to more than one figure. I have to find if there's some way to do that. Also, I just asked and had answered that it is possible to import a rigged figure into Blender using the FBX format. I'm going to give that a shot and I'll let you guys know how that works out.

 

[Miss B]

Oh, of course. I totally forgot about FBX. Definitely let us know how that goes.

 

[eclark1894]

I tried, btw. It DID NOT work out.

 

[Miss B]

Bummer.

 

[eclark1894]

I'm not saying that it can't be done. Just that I can't do it.

 

[Miss B]

Ohhhhh.

 

[Darryl]

It seemed the final word in this thread was that "I can't do it" so I thought I'd post this. Dawn imported into Blender using Collada with rigging and textures. I moved a couple bones including the jaw just for testing. I hope the fig leaves suffice to keep me good with the TOS, but if not I'll redo the images more modestly. What i know about Blender rigging, or Poser rigging for that matter, can fit in a thimble so this is a proof of concept more than anything. You can see the bones in the right hand image. It actually imported better than another figure I'd tried.

In another post, maybe on this site, maybe not. It was mentioned that Collada will import bones whereas FBX imports morphs. At this point it seems you have to do both and somehow move the shape keys from the the FBX to the Collada figure. There are a number of option on Poser export and some on Blender import. I went with the defaults. It would be nice if Smith Micro added Blender presets to the list that mostly has Maya's.

What I would like to figure out is if the imported rig would make it easier to modify with Blendrig or if the rigging needs to be tossed in order to do a more complete one.

 

[kobaltkween]

It was mentioned that Collada will import bones whereas FBX imports morphs. At this point it seems you have to do both and somehow move the shape keys from the the FBX to the Collada figure.

If they're the same mesh, you can definitely copy them one at a time. Select the shape key that you want to transfer, then shift select the item you want it transferred to, and use the triangle pull-down menu in the Shape Keys panel to Transfer Shape Key.

It would be nice to do this with all shape keys at once (except Basis), but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that right now. I'd bet it could be scripted, though.