Making an original figure woes: All woes resolved

ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
edited November 2013 in New Users

Well I decided to take a stab at rigging a figure so I made a very simple Chibi figure what I am attempting to rig. So far everything has been going much better than expected. I've got the weight maps looking halfway decent but there is one thing that's rather annoying.

I named the bones the same thing that the Genesis figures bones are called (Right Shin, Right Thigh, Left Shin, Left Thigh, etc etc) in the hopes there would be some degree of animation and pose compatibility. I can pose the figure manually just fine but when I go to apply a pose to it that was made for Genesis the only bone that seems to move is the hip bone.

Any idea why this is?

It does create a rather comic effect when an animation is applied and the figure bounces around the screen in its T-pose, but that's so not what I'm going for.


EDIT: Ah ha! I had made errors in the name of the node and it looks at the node name not the label. Fixed them all and now they're working properly.

Post edited by ghastlycomic on

Comments

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    Okay, now I have a new problem. I got my figure rigged and and it's working great but now I'm having problems when I create a full body morph.

    For some reason the neck, abdomen2 and hip bones are doing a 360 degree spin when I apply the morph.

    I applied the morph. Adjusted the rigging to shape, and did an ERC freeze just like I do on Genesis figures, but for some reason these bones in my figure are going nuts.

    Boned_female.jpg
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  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,075
    edited December 1969

    Do they have the correct base rotation order?

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited November 2013

    All the bones are XYZ for rotation order.

    I've noticed that with the base shape if I adjust rigging to shape it flips the hip and the abdomin 2 by 90 degrees but not the neck. If I click on those and align the node it snaps back into place.

    [EDIT]Okay... I think I might have fixed it by changing all the vertical bones to YZX

    [Double Secret Probation Edit] YES!!!! Thank you! That did the trick. I will have to remember now to make all vertical bones YZX

    Post edited by ghastlycomic on
  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    I have a new woe on my hands now. I have to redo all the weight maps again because of the new orientations of some of the bones.

    Is there a way to just do weight maps for one half of the figure and then have those weight maps apply to the other side.

    I thought Weight Map Symmetry would do that but I run the symmetry from right to left for the entire figure, but then I go and check the left shin against the right shin and they're not the same.

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    I'm making a new figure and encountering a number of problems in the process so I'm just going to use this thread to address them them all rather than make a thread for each problem that comes up.

    I've got the rigging done, and the weightmaps and all that seems to be working fine.

    It's a chibi toon figure. I'm going to use texture maps for the face and I decided to make the head earless and then use separate ears fitted to the head so that I can make bunch of different ears for the figure, since it's a toon it won't matter that they're not part of the figure.

    The only problem is I've been noticing the ears don't stay put when fitted to the head. In some poses they sink into the head. I can fix this by applying a smoothing modifier but is there another way to fix this problem?

    chibi_14.jpg
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  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,075
    edited December 1969

    One option would be to GeoGraft the ears, but if it's posing and not morphing that's causing the problems it should, in theory, be possible to fix it by adjusting the weight maps.

    ----------------------------

    The first axis in the rotation order should be the twist axis, the one that goes "along" the bone. The last should be the one that's most likely to hit ninety-degrees, to reduce the likelihood of gimbal lock. For most figures that would make the torso bones yzx, since there's usually more play in bend than in side-to-side.

    ----------------------------

    You might have been able to adjust your weight maps by copying one - say x - to another, unused map, then copying y to x and z to y before finally copying the old x map to z. Fiddly, but not as bad as repainting. However, I haven't tried this to make sure it works.

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    What is the difference between geografting and just using the transfer utility to fit something to a figure?

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited November 2013

    When I've got my figure selected and I'm in the Shaping tab I can see all my morphs for the figure. But when I select a joint on the figure all the sliders disappear from my Shaping Tab (applied morphs stay in place).

    With other figures the sliders stay visible when joints are selected. How do I make this happen with my figure?

    Post edited by ghastlycomic on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,075
    edited December 1969

    A GeoGrafted object is made so that its edges match a patch of geometry on the base item. When you fit it to the base the interior area of the base is hidden adn the new item's edges are welded in place instead, so it is a fully-integrated part of the base figure as far as posing is concerned. That's not without penalties - you need to map the replacing area to match the replaced if you want to avoid texture anomalies and then grow the new mesh from the middle of the replacement piece - and it doesn't remove the need to get the weighting nearly right, but it does make the fit more robust.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,075
    edited December 1969

    When I've got my figure selected and I'm in the Shaping tab I can see all my morphs for the figure. But when I select a joint on the figure all the sliders disappear from my Shaping Tab (applied morphs stay in place).

    With other figures the sliders stay visible when joints are selected. How do I make this happen with my figure?

    Are the morphs set up in the Actor group? I must admit I don't sue the Shaping pane, so I've not noticed the behaviour.

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    When I've got my figure selected and I'm in the Shaping tab I can see all my morphs for the figure. But when I select a joint on the figure all the sliders disappear from my Shaping Tab (applied morphs stay in place).

    With other figures the sliders stay visible when joints are selected. How do I make this happen with my figure?

    Are the morphs set up in the Actor group? I must admit I don't sue the Shaping pane, so I've not noticed the behaviour.

    Yes, the morphs are in the Actor group.

    Actor/Anatomy
    Actor/Universal/
    Actor/Universal/Male
    Actor/Universe/Female

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    A GeoGrafted object is made so that its edges match a patch of geometry on the base item. When you fit it to the base the interior area of the base is hidden adn the new item's edges are welded in place instead, so it is a fully-integrated part of the base figure as far as posing is concerned. That's not without penalties - you need to map the replacing area to match the replaced if you want to avoid texture anomalies and then grow the new mesh from the middle of the replacement piece - and it doesn't remove the need to get the weighting nearly right, but it does make the fit more robust.

    That sounds interesting. I'll have to give that a try sometime. I think I'm just going to fix the ears with a smoothing modifier since the results are perfectly acceptable.

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited November 2013

    Arrrghhh!!!! Soooo close to being able to share this figure if I can just figure out why the morphs don't show up in the shaping tab when you have a joint selected and only when the whole figure is selected.

    Is there something in the Daz software that only lets this work with official Daz content maybe? I notice that Kururu's morph controllers also disappear if you select a joint. The same goes for Dawn.

    Post edited by ghastlycomic on
  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited November 2013

    I've never done A Joint selection only. For morphs I have always had the Full figure selected. The only exception is the Head.

    EDIT: I see what you mean. Even with a joint selected I still have all morphs listed. Hmm...

    EDIT two: As you Rigged and weighted in DS it should function I believe. Was your Figure Object converted to Triax before you Rigged?

    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited December 1969

    I modelled the figure then converted it from an Object to a Triax figure then began rigging from there.

    Morphs only show up if the root for the figure is selected. As soon as a joint is selected all the morph sliders disappear until I select the whole figure again. Going through my figures Genesis and Genesis 2 are the only figures where all the morphs show up in the Shaping tab regardless of which joint is selected. Even Dawn's morph sliders disappear from the shaping tab if anything but the whole figure is selected.

  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Well no clue, at least your figure seems to work like all others then. Still wonder why only G1 and G2 work fully though.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,075
    edited December 1969

    Have you used the Polygon Group Editor to create Regions?

  • ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
    edited November 2013

    Have you used the Polygon Group Editor to create Regions?

    No. I have no regions. Should I create a region for each surface group or each face group?

    [EDIT] YES!!!!! That's done it! I created regions that were the exact same as face groups and it works!!! THANK YOU!

    Post edited by ghastlycomic on
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