Using ZBrush Core and Daz
MJW
Posts: 539
I thought I had asked this, but now I can't find the thread so it may have not gone.
I followed a series of tutorial videos by Hatton Slayden which suggested making a figure into an object, working on that object in ZBrush (I am using ZBrush Core, but it seemed to function similarly) saving the morph as an object and then importing it using Morph Loader Pro. It worked beautifully - I thought. But any movement of the figure (eg posing it) resulted in bizarre distortions.
Is it some setting I am missing? I cannot use GoZ because it does not work with Daz. Perhaps it could be explored as a plugin, since it functions (I presume) with the expensive ZBrush program.
Any help will be welcome as I was pleased with my experiments until they went wrong.
Thanks
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Comments
You probably need to set the morph, then use Edit>Figure>Rigging>Adjust Rigging to Shape. if that seems to work zero the pose, you should have just the moprh (at 100%) and the rigging adjustments active, then right-click in the parameters pane and make sure Edit Mode is checked, then right-click on your morph and select ERC Freeze. In the dialogue box check that the only things checked as sub-components are rigging adjustments (centres and endpoints), if that's OK click Accept, check it's still working, and save.
I can get as far as "right-click on your morph and select ERC Freeze" but that is not an option offered as I see it. Zeroing the figure, incidentally, does not put it back at original zero, but the new zero created as the morph installs, which happens to be to the right of centre. I'm not clear how to set 'just the moprh (at 100%) and the rigging adjustments active' incidentally. I did manage to get the figure to morph and change stance once, but when I removed the morph (as you do) the figure distorted! Then I couldn't get it to reform. Now it simply will not play ball even if I start from scratch with a new figure.
I can apparently do it some of the time if I zero the pose of the figure before each morph and then do the adjust rigging thing, but that seems a lot of work.
To add insult to injury, I saved the character when I did get it right, but then when I tried to reload it, all I had was the standard original figure without the new morphing options in parameters. I tried saving it as property and shape too. Not going to help me if I have to adjust everything every time.
One thought - am I adjusting rigging for object or figure?
You are right-clicking on the figure, not on the morph (in the Parameters pane).
I'm not sure what you mean by saving the character - don't use File>Save as>Support Assets>Figure Prop Asset.
I'm not sure why I need to click on the morph in the parameters pane. I assumed that applying a morph to a character meant that if you then save that character it includes the morph.
I have cracked imprting and creating the morph(s) (I think) but I want to be able to save the resulting morphed figure as a new character so that I can reload it any time without having to again load the morphs in the way you described.
I saved the morphed figure as a character (Save as/character) but the shaping does not follow the saved item, and neither fo the morph sliders. In addition, when I loaded the saved character it distorted again. I did the Edit>Figure>Rigging>Adjust Rigging to Shape and it returned to 'natural'. I have not found the ERC freeze thing. I don't understand 'In the dialogue box check that the only things checked as sub-components are rigging adjustments (centres and endpoints)' - which dialogue box?
You need to save morphs, otherwise they are only available on the character you saved as a scene or subset; don't recall any disappearing when saving them like that, but I could just have forgotten.
Assuming it does, you can save as a scene, scene subset, or a character preset - but the character preset has to be used to load a new figure to bring your morph in (double-click with nothing selected, or in the dialogue choose new figure rather than modify existing). If it's a morph you want generally available you can also use File>Save As>Support Assets>Morph Asset and select your morph, it will then be available on all future loads of the base figure and its characters.
Just found this Richard. The check boxes at 5 include z, y znd x origins and ends (there are loads of them), but no centres. sample shown.
I have tried saving the morph, and will check later, but during it there are loads of files being loaded as in the second image. Should that happen?
Sorry, Origin is what I should have said instead of centrepoint.
Yes, those files are all the properties of the figure. DS doesn't load the deltas, the actual changes in mesh position, until needed but it does have to read the morph (or controller or whatever) file in order to know that it exists and how it triggers or is triggered by other properties.
Sorry, but now I am finding problems with the imported morphs being described as "Warning: Geometry did not match, failed to create morph."
I am perhaps forgettng something, but I export the figure as an object and then export as an object from ZBrush, before trying to use Morph Loader Pro to morph the original. It doesn't even match if I simply export, import in ZBrush, export without change and try to load in Daz.
The figure is at base resolution, and is just the figure(if you are using Genesis 8 does not have lashes or eyebrows, and for any figure no clothes or hair)? Do you mean exporting, via OBJ, or sendign via GoZ?
Thanks. I export from DAZ because it does not have a GoZ function for ZBrush Core, which is all I am able to justify at this point. I am using G8, but I had a vaguely similar thought so I tried G3 with the same problems arising. Mind, I am having problems loading G3F because I get told there are "duplicate formulas", so it may not be ideal to use G3F. So I then tried G3M and G2F with the same results (not duplicate formulae).
SO:
I export the figure from Daz
I import the figure into ZBrush Core
I export the figure from ZBrush Core (having altered it or not)
I open Edit / Figure (or Object) / Morph Loader Pro
I “Choose Morph File” - the object file I have saved from ZBrush
I accept
I get a warning: Warning: “Geometry did not match, failed to create morph.”
I have managed to import and use the system on a couple of occasions, but I can’t remember doing anything differently.
Sorry. Call it an old age thing.
I intended to add an image showing the export from Daz settings, but the attach file/choose file/uploading is not working. GRRRR!
And yet, there is the image - twice
You are sure you are setting the resolution to base before exporting? Mesh Resolution in the Parameters pane.
Is this in ZBrush Core or Daz? If in the former, then I believe so, but if in the latter, no. Will try that. How does that affect HD figures, though?
Right. I now have morphs allegedly transferring into Daz without the issue of geometry failures, but when I use the morph in the sliders of Parameters the figure shrinks by hundreds of percent and the shape remains the same. In the (hopefully attached image, I have G3F with the morph attached and the object I created standing like the Colossus of Rhodes, over it.
Then, here is the G3F figure between the feet in the previous figure. As you may notice, something odd is happening to the interior of the mouth (I think) which is showing on the face.
Please remember not to post nude figures showing textures..
That means you used a different preset in the OBJ export option dialogue and the morph loader dialogue - probably one was using a 1 unit = 1m scale and the other was 1 unit = 1cm.
Sorry to offend. Difficult to show otherwise, but I take the point. I will look into dimensions presets
Switching the viewport to Smooth Shaded mode (the little sphere icon at top-right, just to the left of the camera/view picker button) would allow you to take a safe screen shot.
Thanks. I'll try to remember.
Another issue now. When I load a morph the figure jumps to the right (assuming front view) but the adjustment thingy stays at the zero position. This means that if I try to (for example) Y rotate the figure it does a circle with the focal point at the zero position (assuming I have not moved the figure elsewhere, when the focal point is still offset.)
It doesn't happen with all my ZBC morphs, which is even more confusing....
If you use File>Import to load the OBJ file where does it appear in the scene? Make sure you are using the same preset as for importing your morphs as morphs.
It jumps to the same position - but not every morph seems to do it. I have also been having issues with eyes bulging and departing from the sockets when I pose them - but that also seems to be occasional, as if I am forgetting a stage in the loading of the morph.
The jumping to the side probably means the model was moved - before you exported it from DS, if you used a different one, or in ZBrush Core itself.
The eye issue is probably related - if a morph markedly changes the shape of a body part then the joint centres need adjusting, otherwise it still pivots from the old position. Is the eye issue happening in shapes that don't move the body (or head) around, or only in thsoe that do?
I don't know if the model moved before exporting from DS as an obj, nor if I moved it in ZBC. I can zero in DS and try again, but I don't know if I can or how to zero the position in DS, nor can I apparently simply zero the morphed character in DS.
The free-fall eyes happen with some morphs being applied or when heads are scaled but it is intermittent.
Right, well scaling would affect the eyes -they are still trying to rotate around their original centres, but those are now below and beside them so they describe an arc rather than rotating. Edit>Figure>Rigging>Adjust Rigging to Shape, make sure the results work, then zero the pose and any other shaping - just leaving the morph and the joint adjustments - and right-click in the parametrs pane, select Edit Mode (if it isn't already checked), right-click on your morph's slider, ERC Freeze, make sure only joint adjustments (centre adn endpoint) are listed in the lower section, and click Accept - that links the adjusted centres to your morph, so that they kick in automatically..
Thanks Richard. I will try. I thought I was doing these, but I am renowned for my folly.