How to PROPERLY save a WIP so sliders/dials stay intact for further work? Scene? Or some other?

FastestDogInTheDistrict

I am currently tinkering with DAZ3D, browsing some Merchant Resource morph slider packages I bought, with the aim of making a character/character morph. I am hoping to do a little at a time and save my efforts as WIP's along the way so I can keep the sliders where I put them & go back later & tinker with them if I need to (or simply as a "Restore" point in case something goes wrong), prior to exporting a fully baked result for display & possible release.

 

As a test, I did this & did the "Save as... > Scene", which seems to be the advised method HERE.

 

I found that "Save as... > Scene" did not actually save my work properly intact. It did not look like the work I had done, as though many of the sliders were simply not registering at all as part of a scene save.

 

(Edit: I have repeated this a couple more times with fresh attempts, same result)

 

As the title says - what is the best & proper way to save a character so that this does not happen?

 

If it helps, the morph packages I was using at the time are the various EmmaAndJordi G8 face morphs Merchant Resource - "EJ Face Morphs And Details for Genesis 8 Female(s)", and the various Handspan Studios / Thorne  "Genesis 8 Female Head Morph Resource Kit"s.

 

(Is this actually the right place for such a query? How likely is it to be fully responded to here? Would there be a better place to post it with a higher chance of being solved?)

SixDs

"I found that "Save as... > Scene" did not actually save my work properly intact"

It should. I have done this countless times for character WIPs that I'm working on, and I have never had those scenes fail to reload without the character appearing as it was where I left off. I cannot for the life of me understand why this would be happening to you. You're not creating the morph slider and trying to save that as part of the scene, are you? I'm just grasping at straws here.

FastestDogInTheDistrict

Hi SixDs! No, I have not created the morph slider yet - I am at the WIP stage of moving sliders around, making my character. I save the scene, hoping that I can come back later when I have more time. But, the mesh looks very different to where I left off when I load the scene.

 

This does not seem to be happening with ALL sliders. I am using several Merchant Resource morph packs together, as each contains sliders that adjust the same areas in slightly different ways. For example, the test WIP I was saving earlier had been playing with various nose and mouth sliders. When I reloaded the saved scene, some work seemed to have been saved but not all - the G8 mesh in the viewport looked a mess where I had edited the nose.

 

SixDs

Ah. that may be the key to the problem. I, too, have many morph packages for G8F and I have found that some play nice together, others not. I haven't had particular problems with nose morphs, but I have with those for the mouth. In fact, I have made a habit of trying out mouth poses before saving anything, since that will usually reveal any issues. If I find something, I then need to go back and isolate the problem sliders through trial and error. As a rule. I usually try to avoid using more than one slider for a particular effect, although I know how easy it is to inadvertently duplicate things. I have even found instances of where I dialed up a feature with one package and then later dialed it down with another. I cannot say for certain that it is the combination of sliders that is causing your issues. It could be something else, but I cannot think of anything offhand, sorry.

Cris Palomino

You can look through Xenic's tutorials on character creation.

FastestDogInTheDistrict

Thanks SixDs & Palomino for your help!

 

I have tried something a little different - I was originally using the default G8 model, and I had earlier held down CTRL+Z to clear edits I did not like the look of, rather than loading a fresh figure. This had introduced that weird eyelash glitch, which I then hit "Re-do" to clear (I re-did to undo the undo. Yes.). I don't KNOW if this played a part, but you never know...

 

For this fresh attempt I loaded the G8 devload figure, which I prefer as I can see what I'm doing a little better. Before doing anything I saved the scene. As a test, I messed around with sliders for a while making something that looked good, making sure I used sliders/dials from the different packs I have. Saved scene, closed DAZ.

 

I re-opened the scene, all was as I had done and looked just fine. I then applied the overall "Nose Shape [number]" dials 1 2 and 3 from HSTW Head Morph Kit 2 to further shape the nose. Saved scene, closed DAZ.

 

I re-opened DAZ, re-opened the scene, and the mesh was deformed again like it was earlier. I went to those HSTW Nose Shape 1 2 3 sliders, and un-applied them (set to 0). The mesh returned to normal in the viewport. Moved the sliders again - in particular, Nose Shape 3, and the nose deformed the same way it had earlier. The problem seemed to be that the strength of the slider was changing - when I applied it the first time & saved, its effect on the mesh had been fairly subtle and good for fine tuning (which is why I had chosen to use it), even though I had set it to 100. When I applied it this time, the effect on the mesh was far more dramatic - set to 100, the effect was far stonger. I set these sliders to 0 again, saved scene, closed DAZ.

 

As a further test, I opened DAZ, loaded a fresh G8F devload figure, saved scene, and this time applied ONLY HSTW Head Morph Kit 2 Nose Shape 03, 100% - which results in only a slight change to the nose shape. Saved scene, closed DAZ. Re-opened DAZ, re-opened scene, and the nose was again not what I had made. This slider may be broken.

 

(The good news is this effect CAN be removed if the slider is set back to 0 and the scene saved. I do not know if this does any permanent damage to the mesh however)

 

Genesis 8 Female > Actor > Head > HSTW Head Morph Kit 2 > Nose > Nose Shape 03 dial

 

*This sliders location in the drop-down list is the default as installed by DAZ Installer. I have not edited it.

 

EDIT: Slider still has the same behaviour even if only set to 50% & saved. If the scene is then re-opened, and the slider moved to 100, the nose shape is the same different shape I was seeing in my mesh earlier. I tested this on a fresh G8F devload figure & save.

 

EDIT: What is the best way to notify the vendor of this so they can take a look? Does DAZ do it? Do I?