Making morphs work for ds

[LadyRaine]

Hi

Just started using Ds and I'm trying to make stuff that works with both Poser and DS
how do I convert or make my morphs work in both currently I go between poser and zbrush then use binary morph editor to do the inj rem pz2s. can I get these to work in ds or do I need to go into ds to make the morphs for ds any help would be greatly appreciated Thanks

 

[DigiDotz]

If you do redo them in Daz its quite easy using morph loader, as long as you import the morphed obj at the right scale.

 

[LadyRaine]

Ok I'll give it a try Thanks Digi

 

[Pendraia]

There is also a transfer morphs in the utility transfer...I have in the DS section a tutorial on transferring morphs from poser to DS that I use when I've bought characters that are Poser only. If you have the original objects it's very easy to load them up through morph loader pro though. Pro will allow you to upload multiple morphs in one hit. You can also edit as your uploading them the name and also the parameter path which I find useful as it can save having to do it in the parameters tab

 

[LadyRaine]

Thanks Pendraia I'll go read that and bug you for help later then

 

[Ken1171]

If all you want is to transfer morphs from Poser to DS, the most reliable way is to export them to OBJ from Poser, and then load them back as morph targets in DS using Morph Loader Pro. The only catch is to make sure the exported OBJ has the same number of vertexes as the original figure, or else it will fail. In addition, make sure the base figure resolution in DS is set to "Base" instead of "High Resolution" to make sure the vertex count will match.

 

[Pendraia]

I would export them as objects from the modeller...mainly because I read somewhere that Poser object export on one of the versions was slightly off...That's why I export from DS if I need to do that.

 

[Ken1171]

That's true - sometimes the figure LOOKS reset, but it's not. Even the default pose may contain rotations, like it was with Vicky4. But as long as we reset the figure, and then apply the morph, the OBJ export should be Ok. I used to have scaling issues with OBJs exported from ZBrush, so I can rarely rely on that.

 

[Pendraia]

I haven't had problems with Zbrush unless you count human error when I use the wrong scale to import or export from DS.

 

[Ken1171]

I don't know why - whenever I export OBJs from ZBrush, Poser never accepts them as morph targets. Either the poly count or the scaling are different, and the operation fails. In my last attempt, I have examined the OBJ exported from ZB, and noticed all the grouping data was gone, so maybe that was the issue. The poly count was like a thousand verts smaller than the Poser model, like maybe GoZ exports an unwelded model, and then ZB welds it back when exporting.

I have also tried exporting models from Poser to ZBrush using GoZ binay format, but there again, the poly count and scale don't match when it comes back. So I can only rely on the mesh returned by GoZ. Everything else I tried have failed.

Maybe you know what I am doing wrong?

 

[Pendraia]

To keep the grouping you need to do a manual export...GoZ seems to wipe it out. With creating morphs in DS grouping isn't so important.

 

[Ken1171]

I have manually exported OBJs from ZB, but Poser claims the vertex count is different. Is there a configuration for that that preserves poly count?

 

[LadyRaine]

I use goz for that reason when using goz make sure body parts are checked also to preserve the poly count stick with the move tool and topological move pretty much everything else will add polys

for some reason I can't use goz with ds

quick question how are inj and rem files done in ds?

 

[Ken1171]

Thanks for the hints. I actually find GoZ more useful in DS, because it allows us to update existing morphs instead of always creating a new one like Poser does.

As far as I can tell, DS doesn't support injections because it uses morphs in a completely different way. Morphs are always available after installed. They don't have to be injected, but instead just installed. As opposed to Poser, DS will not attempt to load all existing morphs into memory at once, but instead will only load the ones you have dialed on the figure. The others will remain untouched until you actually use them.

Hope this helps. ^^

 

[LadyRaine]

yep it does lol I'm pretty much a total newbie (or should that be new bee) when it comes to ds

 

[Ken1171]

I know it can be confusing at first, since Poser does its thing in completely different ways. It took me quite a while to understand the file structure in DS, how it handles morphs, UVs, general rigging. I am still not a 100% comfortable with DS materials as I am in Poser.

On the bright side, I think DS has improved greatly over the Poser experience, since it was basically mimicking it until version 3. The content creation tools have a zillion more options than Poser, and I find the way it handles morphs a zillion times better than Poser. It shouldn't be surprising, since DS came out so much later than Poser, and had over a decade to improve on top of it.

Conversely, I still miss the Morphing Tool and the power of the Cloth Room, Material Room and the Hair Room whenever I am in DS. Both programs have plenty of pros and cons, and as I see it, none if completely better than the other in all possible ways. ^__^

 

[LadyRaine]

Thats so true I've been using poser since p5 and though ds is confusing I'll admit it has gotten better over the years and handles some things better

but poser is just sooo familiar in its workings its hard thinking "ok how will this work in ds" now

lol I suppose that could be put down to I'm old and set in my ways too

 

[Ken1171]

In my personal experience, DS was only hard to figure out up to the point when I started to understand the file structure and how the morphs work. I believe these are the major differences from Poser. First thing you will like about DS is how it handles conforming in a much superior way than Poser. Everything conforms better in DS, which shouldn't come as a surprise, since DAZ are the one who create the base figures, so they know better than anyone how to handle better conforming. You see, SMS doesn't make contents - they only make the program. Conversely, DAZ is primarily a content creator, and they also make the program. I think that's where the better conforming comes from - content creators working together, helping the programmers to understand how it should be.

 

[Pendraia]

I have manually exported OBJs from ZB, but Poser claims the vertex count is different. Is there a configuration for that that preserves poly count?

That sounds like a resolution or sub d issue. In DS I have to dial the sub D to base before exporting. Is there a way to do that in Poser? I would imagine that a manual export from Zbrush would need to be at the base level. Should still retain the other levels but I'm not sure as I normally use the bridge for most things and that's in DS. I haven't even tried using GoZ with poser.

I use goz for that reason when using goz make sure body parts are checked also to preserve the poly count stick with the move tool and topological move pretty much everything else will add polys

for some reason I can't use goz with ds

quick question how are inj and rem files done in ds?

Once you've loaded your morphs into the figure you need to save them. You can do this by going to File/Save As/Support Asset/Morph(sorry not 100% of the last name but it's the only one with morph in it) A new dialogue box will pop up. Add your product name and vendor name the tick the boxes where your morphs are and click accept.

This will create a file in the data folder under Hivewire 3D/Dawn(or whatever you figure is)/Base Morphs

In the Base Morphs folder there should be a folder with your vendor name on it and inside that if you named the product it will have a folder with that name with your morphs inside. This is the files you need to provide for people to use your morphs.

Some stores also prefer you to have a preset file. To create that dial in your morphs then got to File/Save as/Shape...

Hope I got the menu names correct as this is from memory. The presets should be saved under People/Dawn/Characters/Your product name. Textures would also go in that folder. Some people do a sub folder inside that called Materials or depending on the textures they may break it up more.

 

[Ken1171]

That sounds like a resolution or sub d issue. In DS I have to dial the sub D to base before exporting. Is there a way to do that in Poser? I would imagine that a manual export from Zbrush would need to be at the base level. Should still retain the other levels but I'm not sure as I normally use the bridge for most things and that's in DS. I haven't even tried using GoZ with poser.

By default, figures are not subdivided in Poser - that only happens in DS. In Poser there is no such things as "figure resolution". We first have to convert the skinning to Unimesh, or else subdivision is disabled by default. This is to make sure contents will always be backwards compatible.

It's easy to know when the issue is with subdivs because the polycount gets absurdly higher, like at least 4X the original. In this case with ZB, the resolution comes out around 1,000 faces less than what came in, like ZB has imported Poser groups, but then welds them just before exporting. I have asked DarkSeal and he said the same happens to him. I bet this has something to do with the skinning meothod differences between Poser and DS. Since version 4, all DAZ figures now use Unimesh skinning by default, and that's also why they already come subdivided by default. In Poser, all figures use Poser skinning by default, which doesn't even support subdivs. We can convert figures to Unimesh skinning in Poser, but that is only for internal use, and cannot be exported. All morphs I get from GoZ work perfectly, but any other ways seem to fail, and I think it might be related to the skinning method.