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Smoothing shoulders (+ solution for how to export hires fbx)

TrexTrex Posts: 37
edited June 2019 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hi everyone

I'm looking for suggestions on how I can smooth just the shoulders on a character.

As you can see (and most of us are used to), the shoulders have this weird angular blocky-ness to them.

I know switching to a higher subdivision level solves it, but like to use the lower resolution base model if possible.

I've tried using the zone smoother product, but it really doesn't work right in this case. Adding enough iterations to smooth the shoulders means they also go weird and low down.

Can ayone offer any other suggestions on how this could be done?

Post edited by Trex on

Comments

  • Cris PalominoCris Palomino Posts: 11,670

     First, I would render and see how it looks since the OpenGL preview is not what you should judge by. Second, render her against the background you intend to use to get a better idea of how your final use of the model will actually look.

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    Cris Palomino said:

     First, I would render and see how it looks since the OpenGL preview is not what you should judge by. Second, render her against the background you intend to use to get a better idea of how your final use of the model will actually look.

    Thank you for your response, but I should probably clarify a bit. :)

    I'm aware that when rendering the bocky-ness with disappear, but this is actually so I can export the model (with smoother shoulders). 

  • felisfelis Posts: 4,673
    edited June 2019

    You can't smooth more than what the geometry allows. So in order to smooth more you must add more geometry. And that can be done with subD level; but that will affect the whole character - not "just the shoulders".

    If you intend to use it for export, I would suggest adding the extra geometry (and smoothing) in a modelling program.

    Post edited by felis on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,718

    Does the target application support SubD? If so just apply that to the model after import.

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    Richard Haseltine said:

    Does the target application support SubD? If so just apply that to the model after import.

    Sadly it doesn't seem to (application is Unity3D).

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    felis said:

    You can't smooth more than what the geometry allows. So in order to smooth more you must add more geometry. And that can be done with subD level; but that will affect the whole character - not "just the shoulders".

    If you intend to use it for export, I would suggest adding the extra geometry (and smoothing) in a modelling program.

    Yeah, I guess I was hoping there was a product that subdivided a part of the figure, but not the whole one.

    I'm playing with 3dsmax now and seeing if I can manage something useful.

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    edited June 2019

    I've been experimenting with hexagon to see if that could be a solution.

    I can see that hexagon has the ability to create subdivisions and smoothing. I transferred the figure over to it and got the shoulders smoother, but I can't see a way to transfer it back to daz studio, specifically with things like morphs.

    EDIT : I feel I should also request that if anyone knows how to export the higher res subdivision levels to unity correctly to unity3d, I'd also rally appreciate that. I know how to export the higher res version as an fbx file and get it into unity, but the skin has errors as soon as I apply the animation.

    Post edited by Trex on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,718

    You cannot load higher-resolution mesh as a morph in DS (the Daz tool to do so exists but is available only to PAs for creating store content).

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    Richard Haseltine said:

    You cannot load higher-resolution mesh as a morph in DS (the Daz tool to do so exists but is available only to PAs for creating store content).

    Thanks. Yeah, the fbx export with hi res doesn seem to be the source of the issue. Still going to try and finds a workaround though.

    I can export the hi res Genesis 3 in obj format, them use mixamo to generate a new rig. It works well in unity3d. The only problem is that I lose all morphs.

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    edited June 2019

    Success!

    OK. If you want to export the high res version of a character (one with a higher subdivison level), as an fbx file for Unity3d or other game engines, this is what you do.

    - Get you character into daz studio. Set it to the default t-pose.

    - Find the parameter SubDivision Level. Lock it at the level you want it to be (in this case 1).

    - Export the character as an obj file. Use the daz studio preset.

    - Unlock the subdivision level.

    - Import the obj character you just exported.

    - Open the transfer utility tool. Select your regular character as the source. Select your obj figure as the target. For general options, only have Weight maps selected (if you want to transfer morphs too, select morphs). Have nothing selected in Post Transfer options. Hit accept.

    - Voila! Your obj file now has the bones of your character, but with a a high resolution mesh. Export it as fbx, import it into Unity3d (I assume this will work Unreal too if you're using it).

    Important note : This works very well with Genesis 2 figures. Genesis 3 figures only about 95% work though. For some reason the shoulders go weird and high up for me.

    If anyone who has more experience with the Transfer utility can explain how to fix this, I'd very much appreciate it!

     

     

    Post edited by Trex on
  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,590

    Did you export the Joint Control Morphs (JCM) that keep the figure in shape? (The shoulders being the most noticeable result)

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    prixat said:

    Did you export the Joint Control Morphs (JCM) that keep the figure in shape? (The shoulders being the most noticeable result)

     

    Do you mean when I export to obj? Sadly there's no option to include morphs (unless I'm wrong).

  • RobinsonRobinson Posts: 751

    Just fyi, Unity supports Catmull-Clark Mesh Subdivision.  It's in the asset store (Free).

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    Robinson said:

    Just fyi, Unity supports Catmull-Clark Mesh Subdivision.  It's in the asset store (Free).

    Thank you for the suggestion.

    I gave it a go, and sadly it seems to be an asset that just subdivides meashes after you import them. It's the importing (or possibly exporting from DS) that creates the problems.

  • TrexTrex Posts: 37
    edited June 2019

    Success again! Thank you, Prixat, your advice was along the right lines.

    The key is to transfer the shoulder morphs with the transfer utility tool, but there's some extra hoops to jump through first.

    The tool will only transfer morphs which are listed under 'Actor'. The JCM shoulder morphs are under hidden.

    So, find the morphs pJCMShldrDown_75_R and pJCMShldrDown_75_L. Click their parameter settings (the cog on the top right). In their path name, change hidden to Actor.

    Now, under the actor parameters, find them. Mine had gone under 'Correctives'. Favourite them.

    When using the transfer utility, have morphs targets ticked. Under 'from source', select favorites. Transfer.

    You should now have your 2 shoulder morphs on your obj model. Set them to about 75% to remove the strange shoulder warping.

     

    Post edited by Trex on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,583

    The usual practice for using FBX in games is to keep it low resolution and use subdivisions in the game in levels of detail 

    what you actually need to do is create normal maps based on the high resolution obj and use that, xNormal will do it but you need a single UV not overlapping, that’s where it gets trickier with DAZ content 

    texture atlas is one way you could do this or create a new single map UV and use map transfer

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