Loading...
> >

Transfer Utility for hat? - withOUT expressions?

WinthrodWinthrod Posts: 66
edited December 1969 in Daz Studio Discussion

I'm working on a hat for Genesis. But in using the Transfer Utility to fit it to Genesis I can't seem figure out how to isolate the hat from being morphed by the expressions for Genesis. If anyone has a solution for this I would greatly appreciate their sharing it!!

I've modeled the hat and imported it into DAZ and created Face Groups and Surfaces. As far as I can tell it's ready for the transfer utility.

I realize that I could just parent it to the head, and this might be the solution but I haven't tried it yet. I'm working on sets of hats that I'd like to sell, if just parenting to the head will allow morphs for the different characters (basic male, M5, M5 Heroic, H5, etc) is the way to go I'll go that route.

I would very much like to hear from artists who have created hair or hats and how they have gotten around this.

I've tried None, Short Hair and Long Hair for a Projection Template. And no matter which one I choose when I change the expression of the Genesis base figure it morphs the hat.

For the General Options I've tried just about every combination that there is and still the hat gets mucked up when expressions are changed.

Anybody out there have a solution for this? I can't believe that with all the hair out there that there isn't a way to deal with expressions not affecting the headpiece/hair.

I've even tried comparing how the hat from Adventurer for G2M works with bones and weight mapping without any luck.

Additionally, does anyone know if DAZ is planning on updating the documentation page for the Transfer Utility, since Transfer Utility... documentation page is not current? I've included a screen shot of the current Transfer Utility dialog box.

trans-util.png
485 x 573 - 1M

Comments

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,644
    edited May 2014

    Props do not autoconform to morphs. Figures absolutely will pick up face morphs. There you have the dilemma of the hat-maker.

    When I do head items, I usually do a figure for close-fitting crowns or circlets, and a prop if it's a true "hat" that needs not to deform oddly. A prop will scale up to big heads like Hiro's, remember; the user will have to adjust the position, and there's no way around that, but it's usually the better solution. Savvy prop-makers will add morphs to a prop to expand the sides separately from the front and back, so that they can be made to fit better to heads whose proportions and not just size are very different; and it's good to add a morph to widen or narrow the top vs. the bottom of an item for the same reason. At this point the users mostly understand how to adjust a hat onto a head.

    Another option is that you can create a figure and then use rigidity maps to limit where it picks up autoconform morphs. This is tricky with hats because once again, if you make the area around the face rigid there's not much point in it being a figure to begin with; it might as well be a prop.

    Post edited by SickleYield on
  • KeryaKerya Posts: 10,943
    edited December 1969

    Stupid question (it just came to my mind because of the hair/elf ears thingie) ...
    would it work to autofit and then make hidden parameters visible and then lock/set the parameter limits of the expression morphs to 0 and then resave the hat?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,285
    edited December 1969

    Another option is to create new properties with the same name as each of the expressions so that DS won't create its own. Right-click on the Parameters pane, select Edit Mode, then right-click again, Create New Property. You can get the names of the expression morphs from their Parameter Settings dialogue, opened by clicking the gear icon on the slider.

  • WinthrodWinthrod Posts: 66
    edited December 1969

    @SY - Thank you for your input, you provide food for thought! Love your stuff! But there has to be a way! Otherwise all the hair out there would have the same issue, and the DA Festive Hat and the G2M Adventurer Hat do not seem to have rigidity groups - but admittedly I could be missing them.

    @Kerya - I think you might be on to something. When I first started fiddling with this I remember that when I chose one of the hair options it didn't pick up on the expressions. I'm not sure exactly the process I used to get that result. I'll have to try maybe not fitting to the source figure when I use the transfer utility and then fit to Genesis with a hair fitting.

    @Richard - that's an idea, but again, I have a hard time believing that all the hair out there has to go through the same process - that's an awful LOT of work. But I suppose it's possible and definitely something to look into.

  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,644
    edited December 1969

    Yeh, that's why I didn't mention that. That's an awful lot of dummy morphs to make.

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited May 2014

    i remember reading something about an 'add to favorites' option? where it will only transfer the morphs in the favorites?

    can't remember, been through so many tutorials the last couple of months.
    was prolly a video tutorial.

    Post edited by Mistara on
  • WinthrodWinthrod Posts: 66
    edited December 1969

    I found a process that seems to work. The attached picture is the same figure and hat, just character morphs and expressions changed.

    This is the process I used.

    1. Add Genesis base figure to empty scene
    2. Import hat obj to scene
    3. Setup Face and Surface groups
    4. Parent hat to head, with 'Smart Parenting' and as a headwear (see screenshot)
    5. Start new scene with Genesis Base figure.
    6. Add saved hat .duf to scene
    7. Test expressions - expressions do NOT morph hat! (and there was much rejoicing!! :-) )
    8. Use Morph Loader Pro for character morphs for M5 and M5 Heroic
    9. Test expressions on M5 and M5H - all looks good.

    It's taken more than two months of trying to figure out the process for creating hats for DAZ characters - the actual making of a hat takes a few hours, the rest of the time has been trying to figure out how to get DAZ to work right. It hasn't been easy and frustrations have hit epic levels at times. I'd like to think that by posting the process that I've found to work it might save somebody else the troubles I had.

    Now onto making more hats and seeing if they will sell! :coolsmile:

    asset_save.png
    523 x 467 - 733K
    F1_Hat_morph_express.png
    1158 x 702 - 3M
  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    edited December 1969

    thanks for the tip, never know when it'll come in handy.

    hats! i would luv a hat like Detective Foyle. d.c.s. Foyle

  • WinthrodWinthrod Posts: 66
    edited December 1969

    Misty Whisky said:
    thanks for the tip, never know when it'll come in handy.

    hats! i would luv a hat like Detective Foyle. d.c.s. Foyle

    Well, I'm looking at making at least two sets of three fedoras, and sets of others like top hats, and Detective Foyle's is fedora too. I see no reason why one of the sets couldn't have one like his. :coolgrin:

  • WinthrodWinthrod Posts: 66
    edited December 1969

    Actually, this wasn't quite accurate. It turns out that if you just parent a prop to a character it won't use any morphs that you made for specific characters, i.e. M5, M5H, H5. You have to 'Fit to' the prop to the figure. Aaaaaand once I fit the hat to Genesis expressions once again mucked up the hat.

    I submitted this question on making a hat/hair prop that doesn't pick up expressions to DAZ Tech support about a week ago and haven't heard anything back yet. :(

Sign In or Register to comment.