Rigging in DS

[trumarcar]

Finally felt brave enough to try tackling rigging in DS., partly because it is supposed to be easier than Poser rigging and can be imported to Poser(?). I am working on a long dress for Baby Luna, which will need weight-mapping. The very, very basics of rigging are there, but I have no idea about the subtleties. A crash-course in DS rigging would be sooooooooo welcome if anyone knows of one?

 

[Glitterati3D]

Trumarcar, my understanding is that it's just as easy to rig in Poser and import to DS. I've been told that most of my Poser rigged Baby Luna freebies convert in DS without much effort. Of course, I don't use DS so can't give you specifics, but that's my understanding.......

 

[3WC]

I'm coming from the opposite perspective. I've never rigged in Poser, so don't know. Rigging in DS--I wouldn't call it easy, necessarily, there is definitely a learning curve. But if everything is done right, conversion to Poser usually goes without a hitch.

Weight mapping is still a pain, though. You might be well off just sticking with what you know, if you are already used to rigging in Poser. But you can check out the official documentation at Daz.

Rigging [Documentation Center]

 

[Pendraia]

Use the transfer utility to get started but you will probably need to do some fine tuning on your skirt. Smoothing mode is your friend...edited to add: Dvl_Lvd has some projection templates over at sharecg which would also help you if rigging for Dawn. It's harder with Baby Luna as she doesn't have any projection templates yet.

 

[trumarcar]

Thank you for all the help.

I had a look at the DAZ site and most of that I have sorted, but it is the fine-tuning and weight mapping I want to learn. It is so much easier when you are used to Poser rigging to do it there (I find weight mapping quite soothing in Poser - we all have our little foibles!), but can't help feeling it would be useful to know how to do all this in DAZ.

I really like the transfer utility, Pendraia - it saves a lot of time and as you said, the dress was almost ready, but the skirt definitely needs re-rigging and weight-mapping. The latest versions of Poser have the same sort of thing and the same applies - lots of time saved.

Projection templates would be GREAT!

 

[Pendraia]

If there were templates for the skirt it would have been a lot closer. Using Dawn's templates makes a huge difference for skirts...it would be great to have them for all of the Hivewire models and make creating clothing a lot easier.

 

[Lorraine]

Yep, surely would. It would make it so much easier to convert from Poser to DS even if you are not creating clothing. Lully's dynamics for instance. They convert nicely to DS conforming items with the help of templates. Not quite as successfully with Luna just yet. I made a projection template using Glitterati's gown and that did help.

 

[Pendraia]

You are such a smart cookie Lorraine...

 

[Lorraine]

I don't know about that, Pen, I was just following Paul's advice, I'm good at that . When someone makes a dress for Luna that's been made for DS and properly weightmapped in DS, I think then we might be able to get a good template out of it. Fingers crossed.

 

[Pendraia]

Oh yeah...one day!

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

I don't know about that, Pen, I was just following Paul's advice, I'm good at that . When someone makes a dress for Luna that's been made for DS and properly weightmapped in DS, I think then we might be able to get a good template out of it. Fingers crossed.

Just out of curiosity - how is weight mapping achieved via rigging in DS? The only rigging tools I'm familiar with (at the moment) are the transfer utility. Sickle's projection templates help immensely, of course, but her templates are only good for the Genesis line of figures, and I can't imagine they would work well for Luna or Dawn or Dusk. LOL

The reason I ask this, is because I've got a WIP little dress in progress for Luna... as a freebie item, but it's been at a stall over 1) uvmapping and 2) rigging, as I have no idea how to add skirt handles or anything like that to make the skirt usable in posing.

 

[Pendraia]

The transfer utility is one way...the other is to use the weight brush and you have a number of ways to apply the weights or even tone them down. Sickle's wonderful templates only work with the specific model they have been made for so won't work with the Hivewire characters. You would get a good base by using the transfer utility but would need to modify the skirt. IIRC you can change the leg bones into skirt handles. I may have the tutorial Sickle did for me somewhere but won't have time to search for it this morning as I have to go into work to set up my classroom. I just had a thought but I'm not sure if it would work. If you loaded the dress onto Dawn used Dvl_Lvd's templates to weight map it and saved it as a figure could you then use the transfer utility to copy the weight map to your Luna size dress? I'm not sure if it would work I will have to give it a try later...