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Everyday props idea

Seven193Seven193 Posts: 1,080
edited May 2019 in Product Suggestions

I'm looking for a prop set that contain all sorts of cables, wires, like power, video, audio, and computer cables. Both organized and messy, coiled or uncoiled, in various household sizes, mostly for electronic stuff. Like something you might find near an electrical outlet or a power strip. Thanks.

Post edited by Seven193 on

Comments

  • macleanmaclean Posts: 2,438

    Morphing Cables is on my 'to-do' list, but I have no idea when I'll get to it. One of the problems is deciding which cables would be most useful, how to morph them, US or EU plugs, etc. Every user will ask for different things, so I've never really nailed down an approach, which is why I still haven't tackled it.

    Sorry to be so unhelpful, but someone else may come up with a better answer.

  • frankrblowfrankrblow Posts: 2,052
    maclean said:

    Morphing Cables is on my 'to-do' list, but I have no idea when I'll get to it. One of the problems is deciding which cables would be most useful, how to morph them, US or EU plugs, etc. Every user will ask for different things, so I've never really nailed down an approach, which is why I still haven't tackled it.

    Sorry to be so unhelpful, but someone else may come up with a better answer.

    Maclean, if you create a basic set, I think you will find some customers will create their own addons to suit their particular needs. After all, how hard is it to create a plug from primitives? Admittedly the wall plate would be a little harder, but that just promotes ingenuity.

    For me, a cable that bends realistically (and easily) is the most important part, especially if I can hide the ends for added versatility. I can then make - or fake - plugs for power, computers, etc as needed.

     

    Dave230 said:
    I'm looking for a prop set that contain all sorts of cables, wires, like power, video, audio, and computer cables. Both organized and messy, coiled or uncoiled, in various household sizes, mostly for electronic stuff. Like something you might find near an electrical outlet. Thanks.

    Dave, there are various cables, strings, ropes and so on available, but the ones I've seen tend to have too few segments, so when you bend them they just look like a series of straight sections joined end to end, and many require you to pose each section one at a time. A few are 'Easypose' but those tend to be too specialized.

    Ideally, what I'd like to see is an Easypose cable that can be dFormed after posing to better conform to the layout of your scene. One day, maybe?

  • macleanmaclean Posts: 2,438

    Dragonfly,

    I'm sure that's true for many customers, but I'm also sure I'd get complaints if I didnt include plugs.

    Re Easypose - This is a decision I've already wrestled with. Some time ago, I made a couple of test cables and made them posable figures (Easypose). Well, it is possible, but the number of body parts required to make them look good is way too much. For a basic 3 meter cable, I ended up with over 200 sections. I've abandoned that idea for now, although I may do a couple of short ones as figures, but I think most of the movements will be done with morphs. Yes, it limits what you can do, but they're far more managable.

  • Seven193Seven193 Posts: 1,080
    Some ideas:

    image
  • frankrblowfrankrblow Posts: 2,052
    maclean said:

    Dragonfly,

    I'm sure that's true for many customers, but I'm also sure I'd get complaints if I didnt include plugs.

    Re Easypose - This is a decision I've already wrestled with. Some time ago, I made a couple of test cables and made them posable figures (Easypose). Well, it is possible, but the number of body parts required to make them look good is way too much. For a basic 3 meter cable, I ended up with over 200 sections. I've abandoned that idea for now, although I may do a couple of short ones as figures, but I think most of the movements will be done with morphs. Yes, it limits what you can do, but they're far more managable.

    Thanks for the explanation. My only experience with creating freebies that are static props and billboards (from 15 years ago), so I didn't know how complex Easypose is.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,225

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/234851/a-guitar-lead#latest

    in the meantime this might do

  • frankrblowfrankrblow Posts: 2,052

    Thanks Wendy_Carrara, I'll check it out.

  • KitsumoKitsumo Posts: 1,216
    dragonfly_2004 said:
    maclean said:

    Morphing Cables is on my 'to-do' list, but I have no idea when I'll get to it. One of the problems is deciding which cables would be most useful, how to morph them, US or EU plugs, etc. Every user will ask for different things, so I've never really nailed down an approach, which is why I still haven't tackled it.

    Sorry to be so unhelpful, but someone else may come up with a better answer.

    Maclean, if you create a basic set, I think you will find some customers will create their own addons to suit their particular needs. After all, how hard is it to create a plug from primitives? Admittedly the wall plate would be a little harder, but that just promotes ingenuity.

    For me, a cable that bends realistically (and easily) is the most important part, especially if I can hide the ends for added versatility. I can then make - or fake - plugs for power, computers, etc as needed.

     

    Dave230 said:
    I'm looking for a prop set that contain all sorts of cables, wires, like power, video, audio, and computer cables. Both organized and messy, coiled or uncoiled, in various household sizes, mostly for electronic stuff. Like something you might find near an electrical outlet. Thanks.

    Dave, there are various cables, strings, ropes and so on available, but the ones I've seen tend to have too few segments, so when you bend them they just look like a series of straight sections joined end to end, and many require you to pose each section one at a time. A few are 'Easypose' but those tend to be too specialized.

    Ideally, what I'd like to see is an Easypose cable that can be dFormed after posing to better conform to the layout of your scene. One day, maybe?

    Here's a cable I uploaded in the Hexagon forum. It's rigged with 100 sections and you can make your own plugs to put on the ends.

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/4531096/#Comment_4531096

    Easypose is kind of hard to do. It requires editing each individual section to add the morphs for 'bend all after' & 'bend all before'. Maybe there is a way to automate the process, but I haven't found it yet. Plus the fact that you can select multiple segments and morph them all at once in DS makes Easypose almost obsolete.

  • Seven193Seven193 Posts: 1,080
    edited May 2019
    Kitsumo said:

    Here's a cable I uploaded in the Hexagon forum. It's rigged with 100 sections and you can make your own plugs to put on the ends.

     

    Cool, a cable with morphs, thanks!

    Small improvement.  I would suggest placing the morphs in their own folder.  Such as:

    "group" : "/General/Transforms",
    TO:

    "group" : "/Morphs",
    OR
    "group" : "/Actor",
     

    I like the SBendSide morph, it puts the cable into a snake-like shape.  But, I wonder if a script can make that pose a bit more random, like something to add a bit of randomized noise to the rotations. 100 nodes are lot to edit individually.

     

    Post edited by Seven193 on
  • KitsumoKitsumo Posts: 1,216
    Dave230 said:
    Kitsumo said:

    Here's a cable I uploaded in the Hexagon forum. It's rigged with 100 sections and you can make your own plugs to put on the ends.

     

    Cool, a cable with morphs, thanks!

    Small improvement.  I would suggest placing the morphs in their own folder.  Such as:

    "group" : "/General/Transforms",
    TO:

    "group" : "/Morphs",
    OR
    "group" : "/Actor",

    Yes, I still need to learn to fine-tune little stuff like that. Right now I'm happy if I can just get a prop working.

    Dave230 said:

    I like the SBendSide morph, it puts the cable into a snake-like shape.  But, I wonder if a script can make that pose a bit more random, like something to add a bit of randomized noise to the rotations. 100 nodes are lot to edit individually.

    I'm pretty sure it can be done with Daz Script, but I don't know Daz Script. It's on my to-do list of things to learn. I hope you enjoy the cable.

  • Seven193Seven193 Posts: 1,080
    edited May 2019
    The cable is a great starting point. I was just thinking, If random noise is added, then entire curve would have to smoothed out.

    Maybe the entire curve could be constructed from generating random points and then smoothed out, like this: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/37887/how-do-i-generate-a-smooth-random-horizontal-2d-tunnel
    Post edited by Seven193 on
  • macleanmaclean Posts: 2,438

    The recommended DAZ path for morphs in a prop is

    Actor/Adjustment Morphs

    To change an existing morph's path, in Parameters> Edit mode, select the morph, right-click and choose set> Property Group and paste in 'Actor/Adjustment Morphs'

    mac

  • KitsumoKitsumo Posts: 1,216
    edited May 2019
    Dave230 said:
    The cable is a great starting point. I was just thinking, If random noise is added, then entire curve would have to smoothed out.

    Maybe the entire curve could be constructed from generating random points and then smoothed out, like this: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/37887/how-do-i-generate-a-smooth-random-horizontal-2d-tunnel

    As long as the random noise is kept to a small amount, it shouldn't look too unnatural. Also, over in the dforce forum, they're experimenting with dforcing cables to get them to drape in a natural looking way. I haven't tried it yet, but the results look promising. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3729061/#Comment_3729061

    maclean said:

    The recommended DAZ path for morphs in a prop is

    Actor/Adjustment Morphs

    To change an existing morph's path, in Parameters> Edit mode, select the morph, right-click and choose set> Property Group and paste in 'Actor/Adjustment Morphs'

    mac

    Thanks. I looked at a few other people's products and they all did it differently, so I didn't bother moving the path. Now I know.smiley I'll change the cable when I get a chance.

    Edit: I tried dforce and it looks pretty promising for adding noise. I just set the weight map to zero for the ends and adjusted some of the other settings. The only problem is the cable buckles and has wrinkles in it. It probably needs to be made with fewer quads to hold its shape better.

    dforce cable test

    Post edited by Kitsumo on
  • PsyckosamaPsyckosama Posts: 495
    maclean said:

    Morphing Cables is on my 'to-do' list, but I have no idea when I'll get to it. One of the problems is deciding which cables would be most useful, how to morph them, US or EU plugs, etc. Every user will ask for different things, so I've never really nailed down an approach, which is why I still haven't tackled it.

    Sorry to be so unhelpful, but someone else may come up with a better answer.

    One fast trick might be make it so the plugs actually parent to the model. That way you only need to have one "cable" and have the pluts themselves as props that parent to the last bone in the cable. The "Plug" bones maybe? Plus it allows for some funny combinations and easy expansion.

  • Seven193Seven193 Posts: 1,080
    edited May 2019
    Kitsumo said:

    Edit: I tried dforce and it looks pretty promising for adding noise. I just set the weight map to zero for the ends and adjusted some of the other settings. The only problem is the cable buckles and has wrinkles in it. It probably needs to be made with fewer quads to hold its shape better.

    Yeah, how do you make tubing flexible enough to bend, but not collapse onto itself?

    If they could model tubing as a line entity, it would never collapse on itself, and they could adjust the elasticity any way they want. But, it would have to be a special object, as it would have no polys until it gets rendered.

    Post edited by Seven193 on
  • devineydesigns LLC.devineydesigns LLC. Posts: 141

    If need of some 3D/2D type I have some avalable in my store now take a look...

    https://www.daz3d.com/ron-s-cables-hoses

    Main.jpg
    1000 x 1300 - 465K
  • KitsumoKitsumo Posts: 1,216
    Dave230 said:
    Kitsumo said:

    Edit: I tried dforce and it looks pretty promising for adding noise. I just set the weight map to zero for the ends and adjusted some of the other settings. The only problem is the cable buckles and has wrinkles in it. It probably needs to be made with fewer quads to hold its shape better.

    Yeah, how do you make tubing flexible enough to bend, but not collapse onto itself?

    If they could model tubing as a line entity, it would never collapse on itself, and they could adjust the elasticity any way they want. But, it would have to be a special object, as it would have no polys until it gets rendered.
     

    In the link I posted above, they got good results using only 8 sides for the cable. This one took me about 3 hours to rig, so I probably won't make another one real soon. I've been trying to learn dforce clothing recently, plus starting to learn Daz Script. And now the DS beta has dforce strand based hair. Ugh, it's going to be a long (but fun) weekend.

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321

    There's always Tentacle Soup. https://www.daz3d.com/tentacle-soup
    Easy enough  to retexture.

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