Lyrra's products at HiveWire

[Lyrra Madril]

I'm happy to tell you all that the Tack Conversion kit for the HiveWire Horse is out!

Tack Conversion Kit for HiveWire Horse - A LyrraMadril Creation at HiveWire 3D

I think most of us who use horses at all in renders end up with a collection of tack items for one horse model or other. A bridle for this one, a saddle for that one .... and the one thing you really want to use for a certain picture is never for the horse you want to use is it?

Well if you want the challenge .. I've made a set of poses and magnets/dformers to help you convert tack items to the HiveWire Horse from the DAZ charger horse, the Poser 4 horse, the Millennium Horse and the DAZ Horse 2.

I'm afraid this isn't as easy a set as my other Fitroom conversion kits are - there are a lot more variations on horse tack than human clothing. So if you are new to using magnet based conversion kits you might want to try one of the other ones first, and get the feel for the methods before jumping into the deep end.

Anything else ..... oh the DAZ Horse 2 Kit is DS only, as the Horse2 is a DS native model. The other sets are in poser format, but worked fine in DS when I checked them. If you use them in DS, make sure you follow the DS instructions at the end of the tutorial.

I tested these out on a bunch of models - you can see those in the development thread here
Development thread - Harry Fitroom Kit

For the most part, you should be able to convert most conformers made for the various horses without much more adjusting of the magnets. Keep an eye out for sets with the following: parented props, parented conformed figures (stirrups, reins), and dynamic cloth

If you guys have any questions I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for anyone who gets stuck while using this set

Tack Conversion Kit for HiveWire Horse - A LyrraMadril Creation at HiveWire 3D

Lyrra

 

[Lyrra Madril]

 

[Alisa]

This is a very cool product. As Lyrra said, it requires some knowledge and also patience - there are more basic tutorials you can find for all the tools that are used in this product, and you'll be able to use that for this and other things down the road!

Thanks, Lyrra, for being available to help anyone needing some tips!!

Here are some tools to help Poser users:

Chuck (Nerd3d), who does wonderful tutorials, has done a few videos, and we have this webinar in the store:
Mastering Magnets in Poser - A Digital Art Live/Nerd 3D Creation at HiveWire 3D

4 Tutorials from Smith Micro (Chuck did these) - this is part 1 - you can click on Smith Micro's name and find the other 3.

There are also ones on the Setup/Fit room

Haven't looked but I am sure there are DS ones out there for the DFormers and the Transfer Utility

 

[Daio]

I'll have to get this and see what I can do with my native costumes and wild rose (after fixing the head not bending error).

Question - If use this anddo the conversions myself, assuming I can -I know there are problems with the reins and whatnot- can I distribute the converted figures?

 

[Lyrra Madril]

Hi Daio! your wild rose set worked just fine ... I converted it and then set the headpiece back to not bend. Just caught me by surprise while I was testing that's all *lol* I'm pretty sure you should have very little trouble converting most of your sets. The trickiest conversions are Charger to Harry because the size difference is pretty extreme, so I think milhorse to Harry should be a snap.

Like any of my other conversion kits, I just make it easier to convert. The copyright of the final item still rests with the original maker.

If you are the maker of the set, yes you can distribute it, sell it, whatever you like

If you converted a set you don't own and want to redistribute you will need to A) arrange licensing with the maker or B) encode it so that it needs the original to decode and thus does not infringe their copy rights.

LM

 

[Daio]

Thanks Lyrra. I've been wanting to convert them but wasn't sure where to start. This will make it much easier.

 

[Lyrra Madril]

Well I know Lyne and a few others are looking forward to refitted versions of your sets, so I'm glad I could help

 

[Dracorn]

Hello, Lyrra!

I just picked up your Conversion Kit for use in Daz Studio. Thank you for making this - it means I don't have to try to do it myself!

Unfortunately, I'm having some problems and would like some help.

I'm trying to convert the DH2 Ceremonial Horse Armor to Harry and am following your tutorial. I have just completed importing my saved deformer object. when I click on the deformer object (named Tack Conversion Kit) in the Scene tab, Daz Studio crashes. I have tried this several times, and even repeated the steps to convert and reimport. No luck.

 

[Lyrra Madril]

Dracorn

A quick check of the steps ..... Make sure to export just the tack item you wish to convert - not the deformers, the horse or anything else. Also, make certain you are exporting it as an obj, and not as one of the other formats.

When you import that, it should come in as a solid un moving prop. Is this where it crashes?

The next step after the import is the transfer tool but it sounds like you are not getting that far. Mine hasn't exploded like this (yet). Has anyone else run into this issue?

LM

 

[Dracorn]

Ah - I was confused because the instructions said "Export just the conformer in obj format." I thought this meant the deformers.

So I understand what I am doing here, let me list the steps:

1. Load Harry.
2. Load the tack (Harry is not selected).
3. Apply the pose to the first tack item listed in the scene tab, and all move over to Harry. (that's how it worked for me)
4. Select Harry and load the deformers.
5. Select the tack items and export them as an object.
6. (Do I delete the original tack items?)
7. Import the object (with nothing selected).
8. Select the object, Edit / Object / Transfer Utility.
9. Load Harry into the left side and the individual tack item into the right side. Accept.
10. Do I select each tack item to adjust it, or the deformers?

 

[Dracorn]

OK so I tried it according to those steps, and got everything to load without crashing - this time I used DH2's Western Saddle.

However, Harry looks kinda funny.

 

[Lyrra Madril]

Dracorn

Ok my edits are in bold here so they are easy to see Just a couple changes

1. Load Harry.
2. Load the tack (Harry is not selected).
3. Apply the pose to the first tack item listed in the scene tab, and all move over to Harry. (that's how it worked for me)
4. Select Harry and load the deformers.

Step 4 should be Select the conformer and load the deformers you need onto it. This should squish it into shape around the horse. Now is the time to adjust the deformers to make the tack fit the way you want it to.

5. Select the tack items and export them as an object.

You may need to turn off Harry and everything BUT the item you want to export, depending on your version of DS. I can see in this picture you exported Harry too .. that's why he looks all weird .. you have an all-white copy of the horse overlapping the colored one.

6. (Do I delete the original tack items?)

Yes you can delete or turn off the original tack items from your scene.

7. Import the object (with nothing selected).
8. Select the object, Edit / Object / Transfer Utility.
9. Load Harry into the left side and the individual tack item into the right side. Accept.

Remember you are doing each tack item, one at a time.

10. Do I select each tack item to adjust it, or the deformers?

The pose should have lined the conformer up with Harry (more or less). At this point the deformers can be used to reshape it, since the shape of the DAZ horse is not the same as Harry's. If the tack cuts into Harry, or floats away you need to adjust the deformers assigned to that area so the tack fits better. This should all have been done BEFORE step 5. After the object has been exported and imported it ought to be harry-shpoed and shouldn't need any more adjusting.

After you have used the transfer tool now SAVE this thing into your content folders. Its oh.. darn. The one all the way at the bottom of the save options list, as a support or clothing asset I think? Something like that. Just like saving a clothing item for a human figure. Once you've converted it and save it you won't need to do it again.

LM

 

[Dracorn]

Thanks Lyrra.

I was looking again at my Deformer notes - these were based on a tutorial I found on the Daz Forum. However, I don't see the word "conformer" used, and am not sure what you mean by that. The deformers only load when I have Harry selected. They load parented to Harry's pelvis. No doubt this is why Harry uploaded with them when I exported them as an object.

 

[Lyrra Madril]

A conformer is any rigged mesh object that conforms to a figure. Clothing, horse tack, most hairs, whatever. Anything that you load in and fit to another figure is a conformer, a conforming item. I could also say in this case: tack, bridle, horseshoes, barding .... all of that stuff That thing there which you are converting.

Conversely any non rigged item (no moving parts) that has to be parented is a prop.

Deformers are not 'real' mesh items. All they are for is to deform the conforming tack item to make it fit better. After they are loaded and adjusted if necessary, ignore them. They do not need to be exported. When you delete the old tack later, the deformers should vanish as well.

LM

 

[Dracorn]

OK, I think I have it now. I'll have to do some more experimentation.

By the way, is there a Daz Studio fit for the Millennial Horse to the Hivewire Horse?

 

[JOdel]

Would be very interested in seeing the Native costumes converted for Harry. I managed to bully it into position for one of my Tarot cards (Knight of Cups, I'm pretty sure) but I've NO idea what it looks like from any other angle than the one it was rendered from.

 

[Lyrra Madril]

Since the DAZ horse 2 is DS only, I had to make the conversion items in DS. However, the poses and magnets for the other horses should work just the same way in DS since Poser magnets load as dformers into DS.

LM

 

[quietrob]

Pinging for knowledge.

Also, The DAZ Horse 2 does work in Poser.

 

[Lyrra Madril]

eeehhhh ... I don't count DSON converted figures as working in Poser. Most of the functionality of Poser's inbuilt tools does not work on them. You are best off using them in their native environment. Also, DSON is a horrible RAM sucking kludge and brings almost everyone's system to it's knees. This is not a conducive development environment. Also you cannot use poser to rig to a DSON/DS figure. Explosions happen. It's not pretty.

LM

 

[Dracorn]

Since the DAZ horse 2 is DS only, I had to make the conversion items in DS. However, the poses and magnets for the other horses should work just the same way in DS since Poser magnets load as dformers into DS.

LM

Great! I will have to give it a try.

I'm curious, how would I go about using a DH2 texture on Harry? I have the Nightmare for DH2, but prefer Harry's unicorn tail, mane and fetlocks. I'm assuming I will have to try to fit the texture to Harry's template in Photoshop, but I haven't tried anything like that.