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How do you perserve/maintain volume when rotating a rigged tube/cord?

scott_lozanoscott_lozano Posts: 17
in Daz Studio Discussion

Hey guys,

Is it possible in Daz to maintain the volume of an object? On one of my props, I have a rigged cord and when I rotate the bone too far the shape will begin to collapse in on itself a bit. I am not experienced with rigging so I don't know if this is just a problem that comes with the territory so to speak. So far the only way I have to fix this is scaling the bone so it inflates the mesh a bit.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Comments

  • andya_b341b7c5f5andya_b341b7c5f5 Posts: 694

    So long as your weight mapping is optimal, it sounds like this is where Joint Controlled Morphs (JCMs) come into play.  As is reasonably clear from the name, they are morphs that are controlled by the rotation of a joint.  So you create a morph that fixes the mesh with the joint bent at the maximum angle, and then configure it to be applied proportionately as the joint goes from no bend to fully bent.  There are some resources online, including if I recall some Youtube videos by someone from Daz called Josh Darling.  Sorry, I don't have any links to hand.  There are many JCMs on products you buy in the store and on the free base figures which can be useful to study how they should look when set up correctly.  In the Parameters pane, choose to Show Hidden Properties and then enter '*JCM*' in the search field to see a long list.  In the Parameter Settings, under Controllers you can see what the morph is controlled by as 'ERC' (enhanced remote control?) links.  Some are also only applied when a certain other morph is also applied e.g. a full body morph.

    I have made a handful but don't have the process at my fingertips.  If you are familiar with Blender, they are conceptually pretty much like shape keys controlled by a driver.

  • scott_lozanoscott_lozano Posts: 17

    Thanks for the answer! :)

    Ill look into JCMs tonight.

  • Syrus_DanteSyrus_Dante Posts: 983

    The Joint Controlled Morphs (JCMs) are needed if you have a figure rigged with General Weight Map. In the past Daz figures used TriAx rigging where you can add so called bulge maps in the Node Weight Map Editor. You can paint them by hand but for rigged tubes/cords you would want some uniform bending and I have no idea how you would archive that. You can change the rigging of the figure here Edit>Figure>Rigging>Convert...

  • ForceXForceX Posts: 52

    Without something like dual quaternion skinning that can maintain mesh volume better than linear skinning, the best bet (probably fastest) is to simply pose your asset and create a correction morph after you have it in its final pose. Of course this assumes access to Blender (get 2.8) or Zbrush or some other external application where you can edit the mesh directly.

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