The Adventurer for Dusk

[Ken1171]

This outfit was modeled by @sanbie and she had trouble rigging it. I am taking over the rigging part, and soon realized the automatic grouping had more holes than Swiss cheese. Some parts around the neck would break and holes showed up when posed. There was just no way to rig that, so I have fixed the grouping, which creates a new OBJ, and now I have to start over with the weight maps.

In addition to the automatic grouping, there were also body parts that had no continuity with the next ones in the skeleton hierarchy, so I had to add them manually. All this is common things from either exporting things from DS, or relying on automatic grouping created in Poser or DS, though DS is more lenient than Poser about it.

Below we see that the forearm was not included in the collar weights, so I have to add them manually. We can also see the neck is all spiked out and needs fixing. The neck and collars tend to be the most challenging parts, so I always start with them. Dawn and Dusk have 2 neck joints, which doubles the work on this part.

The outfit has 4 parts, and the shirt is the first one in my list. This outfit Sanbie has modeled is too cool to be left like this, so will be working on it in my spare time, and will post the updates here. Wish me luck! ^^

BTW, the outfit will have a different name when ready. Of course we cannot use "Tarzan" on it.

 

[Ken1171]

Finished the preliminary shirt rigging - looking good now! ^___^

 

[Glitterati3D]

Yeah, I came across the same thing myself with a recent DS conversion. You're exactly correct that Poser's auto grouping doesn't do any better than a DS conversion, either.

 

[Miss B]

The outfit's looking good Ken. It reminds me of something Indiana Jones would wear on one of his adventures.

 

[Lyne]

This is a really cool outfit with plenty of potential!

 

[CWRW]

Oh cool! Looks great! Thanks so much for doing that Ken! Our Dusk boy needs all the cool clothes he can get

 

[Ken1171]

Yeah, I came across the same thing myself with a recent DS conversion. You're exactly correct that Poser's auto grouping doesn't do any better than a DS conversion, either.

After this long, I have noticed the double-jointed neck in Dusk and Dawn can be quite problematic with automatic grouping in both Poser and DS, because they tend to create a group for each on small and narrow geometry such as a shirt's neck, and this causes all sorts of rigging and posing problems. The shirt here was a perfect showcase of that situation. The shirt neck gets cut across an odd angle by automatic grouping, which causes a smoothing discontinuity when posed. This has happened to my own outfits in the past, but now I know how to handle them properly.

The outfit's looking good Ken. It reminds me of something Indiana Jones would wear on one of his adventures.

Oh yes, definitely Indiana Jones! Just missing the whip and satchel!

This is a really cool outfit with plenty of potential!

Couldn't agree more. I ought to rig it and get it out! But after rigging comes the morph support, and that's another time-consuming challenge.

Oh cool! Looks great! Thanks so much for doing that Ken! Our Dusk boy needs all the cool clothes he can get

He definitely needs more clothing, and this one can double as an Indiana Jones atire. ^^

 

[Glitterati3D]

After this long, I have noticed the double-jointed neck in Dusk and Dawn can be quite problematic with automatic grouping in both Poser and DS, because they tend to create a group for each on small and narrow geometry such as a shirt's neck, and this causes all sorts of rigging and posing problems. The shirt here was a perfect showcase of that situation. The shirt neck gets cut across an odd angle by automatic grouping, which causes a smoothing discontinuity when posed. This has happened to my own outfits in the past, but now I know how to handle them properly.

Abdomens as well - getting them in a continuous line can sometimes be daunting. The further away the clothing item is from the figure, the worse the randomness becomes. I think the grouping modules just start "guessing" at that point. Watch the abdomens in that vest.

Even Auto Group Editor had a field day with the groups on this cape. I ended up doing almost every group by hand, but yes, the neck was the worst.

 

[NapalmArsenal]

Awesome guys!!! I wish I had some of your skills for this!! Sanbie did make a kewl outfit!! Oh yes I can see Indiana!! =) Working on a little something roughly based on Raiders of the Lost Arc scene.
These heads where sculpted by Chris some time ago, and I'm hoping with the right textures they can be incorporated to go with the outfit and I do have some other uses for them.

 

[Ken1171]

Abdomens as well - getting them in a continuous line can sometimes be daunting. The further away the clothing item is from the figure, the worse the randomness becomes. I think the grouping modules just start "guessing" at that point. Watch the abdomens in that vest.
Even Auto Group Editor had a field day with the groups on this cape. I ended up doing almost every group by hand, but yes, the neck was the worst.

As B.L. Render has said in her book, the problem with too many groups over a rather small geometry strip is that there is not enough space to create the "buffering"area Poser/DS require to separate a group from another, and give enough smoothing continuity between them. The double-jointed neck on Dawn and Dusk fall exactly in that category, where a shirt neck doesn't have enough buffer mesh to allow for 2 groups to exist there.

In your cape, I can see the problem with so many thin strips of groups piled on top of each other. That's the kind of thing I have learned to avoid nowadays. The new shirt groups have only a single group on the neck, which made the rigging much simpler, and it also poses better. I have learned this the hard way.

Awesome guys!!! I wish I had some of your skills for this!! Sanbie did make a kewl outfit!! Oh yes I can see Indiana!! =) Working on a little something roughly based on Raiders of the Lost Arc scene.

I will try to finalize the shirt rigging tonight, so I have move on to the next item. The shirt topology is actually pretty good, which helps simplifying the rigging work. The pants have some topology issues, but I will worry about that when I get there.

Oh yes, I think the very first scene on the 1st Indiana Jones movie was on a Mayan temple with statues like this all over the place. ^___^

 

[Glitterati3D]

As B.L. Render has said in her book, the problem with too many groups over a rather small geometry strip is that there is not enough space to create the "buffering"area Poser/DS require to separate a group from another, and give enough smoothing continuity between them. The double-jointed neck on Dawn and Dusk fall exactly in that category, where a shirt neck doesn't have enough buffer mesh to allow for 2 groups to exist there.

In your cape, I can see the problem with so many thin strips of groups piled on top of each other. That's the kind of thing I have learned to avoid nowadays. The new shirt groups have only a single group on the neck, which made the rigging much simpler, and it also poses better. I have learned this the hard way.

It actually turned out to be one of the easiest things I have rigged for Dusk. Until those fantasy eyelashes got in the way. Even that was easy to manage once I figured it out.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Awesome guys!!! I wish I had some of your skills for this!! Sanbie did make a kewl outfit!! Oh yes I can see Indiana!! =) Working on a little something roughly based on Raiders of the Lost Arc scene.
These heads where sculpted by Chris some time ago, and I'm hoping with the right textures they can be incorporated to go with the outfit and I do have some other uses for them.
View attachment 9533

Oh, that looks beautiful NA! I'd love to see it in a Jade as well.

 

[Ken1171]

It actually turned out to be one of the easiest things I have rigged for Dusk. Until those fantasy eyelashes got in the way. Even that was easy to manage once I figured it out.

First step for a good rig is to have clean groups. I can see that from your images. ^____^

 

[NapalmArsenal]

Oh, that looks beautiful NA! I'd love to see it in a Jade as well.

Getting there! There will be more options like statues that would be part of a ruin and that would shoot out poison darts as a booby trap. This is the basic pack, but I can possibly do an add on texture set once I learn more about the Daz Uber Base Shader.

The outfit also works well with the cowboy hat and CWRW's hat textures if you want kind of that Indiana Jones, Dr.Livingston or Panama Jack look.
I think that is CWRW's Joe morph in the first image.

 

[Ken1171]

Oh yes, the hat definitely goes well with the outfit!

 

[Miss B]

It certainly does, and if my memory serves me (and at my age there's always a 50/50 chance it won't) someone has a whip, hat, etc. for an Indiana Jones addon pack. I just don't remember who or in what store.

 

[NapalmArsenal]

It actually turned out to be one of the easiest things I have rigged for Dusk. Until those fantasy eyelashes got in the way. Even that was easy to manage once I figured it out.

BTW Traci, Sanbie said you have been helping her with some of the weight maps thanks so much for doing that!! I also love some of the items you have made for Diva!! They are really adorable!

 

[sanbie]

Finished the preliminary shirt rigging - looking good now! ^___^

View attachment 9504

Oh wow Ken...you have this looking so good now

 

[NapalmArsenal]

Jade for @Glitterati3D ! Possibly a texture expansion set! I have seams all over the maps in the back and under the chin.

 

[Lorraine]

This IS looking swell!

It certainly does, and if my memory serves me (and at my age there's always a 50/50 chance it won't) someone has a whip, hat, etc. for an Indiana Jones addon pack. I just don't remember who or in what store.

It's at Daz Relic Hunter Essentials | 3D Models and 3D Software by Daz 3D