WIP RigControl for Dawn 2.0

[Ken1171]

** ControlRig for Dawn 2.0 **

This is a Python script for Poser 12 that allows controlling all of Dawn2's facial rig by just dragging the red dots with the mouse. No need to hunt for dials!

Dawn 2.0 facial rig is not finished yet, and my beta version of the figure has only the left side of the face working. By now I only have controls for the face, but the final version will include controls for the breasts, metacarpals (hands) and metatarsals (feet). There are also some global facial controls on Dawn 2, but they are not finished, so I can't add them to the tool just yet. This will offer full control of all of Dawn2's ghost bones from one place, where we just drag the dots to pose them. We can also reset any control by just right-clicking them.

I am making the interface a native WX panel, so it can be docked seamlessly into Poser, as seen above. Works as floating or docked, and it remembers its size, position, and docking state next time we run it.

I am excited to work on this because I know it's something I will want to have when working with Dawn 2. ^___^

 

[Ken1171]

Made some progress, now adding control to all of Dawn2 ghost bones. I have organized the interface using tabs, so we can switch to different parts with just a click. I have replace the mouse dragging control with a new one that is smoother. Since we don't have much control while dragging things with the mouse, it offers 4 levels of fine control. If we just drag the mouse, things move fast, which is good for some cases, but not others. By holding down the SHIFT key, precision increases by 40%. If we hold CTRL, 60%, and if we hold ALT, 80%. This gives precise control options for every occasion.

The interface (so far) is mostly visual, with only tabs at the bottom to switch between the control areas. I have tried making the WX tabs match the Poser colors theme, but they (apparently) don't respond to color changes. It's the same with the WX radio buttons - they don't respond to skinning. Nonetheless, the minimalistic interface is pretty much WYSIWYG.

We can only control 2 axes with the mouse, so I have chosen the 2 most important axes for each body section, where usually the 3rd one is almost never used anyway, like twisting the eyes or the jaw, which doesn't even make sense. So dragging things with the mouse is very visual and intuitive, but it has this kind of limitation.

Here's the face tab. The current D2 beta face rig can only be posed on the left side, so I will add the other control points later.

Here's the chest tab, where we can control the breast movements individually. As it is with all Poser/DS figures, left and right sides have inverted rotation orders, so dragging has to be done accordingly. It's easy to get the hang of it. If we make a mistake, we can always RIGHT-click the dots to reset the respective joint.

Here's the hands section, where we control the metacarpals. I am thinking on flipping the hand here, so we have left side on the right in all tabs for the sake of consistency.

And finally, the feet section, where we control the metatarsals.

There will also be global facial controls, but they are not working in D2 at the moment, so I will add them later. I want to try adding more controls to the hands and feet, but I am still not sure how feasible this is. Like controlling each finger and toe as a whole. I will try and see if it can be done, but these kinds of controls will be already present on the figure, so I am concentrating on the ghost bones for now. I can always add more later. ^____^

 

[MEC4D]

Perfect Ken .. love it
I am doing my facial rigging guide for Dawn 2 in DS , easy click and slide too .

 

[Ken1171]

Perfect Ken .. love it
I am doing my facial rigging guide for Dawn 2 in DS , easy click and slide too .

That is awesome, since my tool will only work in Poser. Do you have a thread on that one we can see to follow the progress?

 

[MEC4D]

That is awesome, since my tool will only work in Poser. Do you have a thread on that one we can see to follow the progress?

Not yet , but main will be easy not as yours , more for people that create facial pose expressions packs

 

[Ken1171]

Not yet , but main will be easy not as yours , more for people that create facial pose expressions packs

Makes me wonder how many on the DS side would be interested on D2. It appears that the Poser side is the one more in need of quality figures and contents. Usually need dictates the demand.

 

[MEC4D]

Makes me wonder how many on the DS side would be interested on D2. It appears that the Poser side is the one more in need of quality figures and contents. Usually need dictates the demand.

I am sure a lot of my customers will want my new characters , so this means D2 are gonna be a lot in DS as in Poser, here is a lot of DS users in this forum that use Dawn , and I can speak only for myself here as I know my own customer base .
I asked them the other day in Poser forum .. they said everything but pin-up styles for characters and clothing , everyone is tired of it already.

 

[Ken1171]

I am sure a lot of my customers will want my new characters , so this means D2 are gonna be a lot in DS as in Poser, here is a lot of DS users in this forum that use Dawn , and I can speak only for myself here as I know my own customer base .
I asked them the other day in Poser forum .. they said everything but pin-up styles for characters and clothing , everyone is tired of it already.

That's good to know, Cath. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Rae134]

While I do use Poser (usually for to do promos or testing for other people) I consider myself a DS user (I just click with it better) so I really want the new D2's in DS. (Especially after what I see Mec4D doing!)

 

[MEC4D]

While I do use Poser (usually for to do promos or testing for other people) I consider myself a DS user (I just click with it better) so I really want the new D2's in DS. (Especially after what I see Mec4D doing!)

Thankfully D2's are for both platforms , that why I love it , nobody will be left behind !

 

[Ken1171]

The HW guys are from DAZ, so they do everything in DS first, and then make a Poser version. However, even though I have supported both sides from the beginning, only 8% of the DS users supported me back, and later this number has dropped even more. It would be nice to see these numbers change.

 

[MEC4D]

The HW guys are from DAZ, so they do everything in DS first, and then make a Poser version. However, even though I have supported both sides from the beginning, only 8% of the DS users supported me back, and later this number has dropped even more. It would be nice to see these numbers change.

It will Ken , you will see

Most of us doing first DS version as it is easier to convert to Poser than vice versa , nobody from Poser company actually did any job on figures , it was all Zygote/Daz work from the beginning that start our movement and made Poser famous with their figures. So why not again ? our team is strong at this moment Ken, let's doing it ! and looking into the new future !

 

[Ken1171]

It will Ken , you will see

Most of us doing first DS version as it is easier to convert to Poser than vice versa , nobody from Poser company actually did any job on figures , it was all Zygote/Daz work from the beginning that start our movement and made Poser famous with their figures. So why not again ? our team is strong at this moment Ken, let's doing it ! and looking into the new future !

I love your optimism, Cath. D2 had so many improvements in every area that I don't even consider it the same figure anymore. And her legs to hip posing is 500% better than the original Dawn, even without JCMs, which is awesome. Most other figures pose poorly without JCMs, so this is not to be taken lightly. I love the new grouping in D2, like her neck, head, chest, hands and toes are now a single piece, which will greatly simplify posing and rigging outfits. In addition, her posing is already so great that JCMs will have little to do, which is how things should be. In DS she has plenty of competition, but on the Poser side, she will be the best figure ever. We just have to make sure people know this, so they will want to try her before forming opinions. After all, many of those who had poor opinions of the original Dawn had never even seen or used the figure. Her debut has to be impeccable.

 

[MEC4D]

I love your optimism, Cath. D2 had so many improvements in every area that I don't even consider it the same figure anymore. And her legs to hip posing is 500% better than the original Dawn, even without JCMs, which is awesome. Most other figures pose poorly without JCMs, so this is not to be taken lightly. I love the new grouping in D2, like her neck, head, chest, hands and toes are now a single piece, which will greatly simplify posing and rigging outfits. In addition, her posing is already so great that JCMs will have little to do, which is how things should be. In DS she has plenty of competition, but on the Poser side, she will be the best figure ever. We just have to make sure people know this, so they will want to try her before forming opinions. After all, many of those who had poor opinions of the original Dawn had never even seen or used the figure. Her debut has to be impeccable.

That's true , if that was not the case I would not even bother doing anything Ken.
When I do something then it is magic ! lol
I only think positive here ! and you should too , new era is coming , be ready !

 

[Ken1171]

That's true , if that was not the case I would not even bother doing anything Ken.
When I do something then it is magic ! lol
I only think positive here ! and you should too , new era is coming , be ready !

Sure thing, I will do my best to make it happen, starting with the control rig tool for Dawn2. For those who like chips, this should do the trick.

 

[MEC4D]

Sure thing, I will do my best to make it happen, starting with the control rig tool for Dawn2. For those who like chips, this should do the trick.

That is important thing Ken , most people have no idea models have facials rigs they go straight to morphs , it is going to be very useful tool as many others you created.

 

[DanaTA]

I don't have Poser 12, but I had a thought. With the facial things, can you make a "mirror" mode, where if you drag a dot on the right side of the face, it does the same thing on the left side? I think that may be helpful in some situations. Just an idea.

Dana

 

[Ken1171]

I don't have Poser 12, but I had a thought. With the facial things, can you make a "mirror" mode, where if you drag a dot on the right side of the face, it does the same thing on the left side? I think that may be helpful in some situations. Just an idea.

Dana

That's a great idea, Dana! I will give it a try. ^^

 

[Ken1171]

Made plenty of progress regarding community requests. The tool now has several new features!

Let's list the recent additions:

1. Optional real-time symmetry when dragging the facial rig. It can be turned on/off at any time.
2. Resetting control points will do it symmetrically when symmetry is enabled.
3. Symmetry can be inverted when enabled. This allows extra versatility when posing the face, like dragging the eyes can make them go the same, or opposite directions. Same for any other facial control point.
4. Added filters to control which directions we want to control. By default, all directions are enabled. For example, if we disable Side-Side, we can only move the controls Up-Down. This gives more precise control when we only want to affect one direction.
5. Created a new tab for face presets using familiar Poser memory dots. You can store up to 16 presets (I can expand this). We can also name them if you CTRL+click them, where the name appears as a tooltip when you hover the mouse over the dots. This makes it quick and easy to save and restore your expressions with a mouse click. This is not working yet - I am still thinking on how I am going to do this part.

I have also added "About" and "Help" buttons, where the latter will open the PDF manual when I have it created. I made them smaller and more discrete, so they don't get in the way of the interface.

 

[Ken1171]

Today I have added a new feature, where hovering the mouse cursor over a saved dot preset displays it's thumbnail. If none is available, it shows the default black one as seen on the left below.

For today's progress, the "Face Rig memory dots" are all coded and working now. We can:

• Click empty dots to save the current preset.
• Click assigned dots to apply them to the current figure.
• ALT-click assigned dots to empty them.
• SHIFT-click assigned dots to give them a tooltip description (as seen above on the right).

The only thing missing on the memory dots now is a way to generate a thumbnail automatically when a preset is saved. Poser auto-creates thumbs when we save items to the library, but here I am creating the file myself, since Poser Python doesn't know how to create just a face rig pose file. It only allows saving the entire body pose, or nothing. This means I end up without a thumbnail, so I will have to figure out how to create one myself. Almost there now! ^____^