How to keep character consistency between scenes (like Unity Prefab)?

oppai-man

Hi folks,

I'm used to creating games using Unity3D engine, and they have a core feature called "prefab" that works like this:

1. Create a character in Scene 1;
2. Save character as a prefab
3. Bring character to Scene 2;
4. Modify character prefab;
5. The change will be applied to both Scene 1 and Scene 2.

This way I can keep character consistency between all scenes. If I make a change in a later scene (say Scene 8), the change will reflect back to Scenes 1 to 8.

How do I achieve that behavior in Daz Studio?

RD2ART

I believe I have read somewhere if you save the model with the character preset function you can change the orginal model that it was saved with and load the character preset and the character will change in the new scenes that was saved with the character preset file. I don't believe it saves assets with the character. Just charcter skin and morph changes. I havent tried it, I usally just use a subset save and updated the character with different versions. That way I can go back to a pervious file if I make a mistake.

nonesuch00

If you mean hair, skin materials, clothing, and whatever the character is holding, as well as their pose then as a Scene Subset. When it prompts you uncheck all items you don't want save. Then when you want to use again, choose Merge & then navigate to the scene subset you saved.

kenshaw011267

nonesuch00 said:

If you mean hair, skin materials, clothing, and whatever the character is holding, as well as their pose then as a Scene Subset. When it prompts you uncheck all items you don't want save. Then when you want to use again, choose Merge & then navigate to the scene subset you saved.

This is the technique I use.

I create base characters, no clothes, jewelry etc., and then when I need them dress in a specific way for a series of images I create that and save it as a scene subset and just merge it into the new scenes as needed.

It does not change the scenes already created though. You can get around this by opening the scene, copying the existing figure, merge in the new bersion, paste the figure pose onto the new one and move it to the same position as the old one and then delete the old one. Once you get used to it it can take a couple of minutes per scene.

fred9803

kenshaw011267 said:

This is the technique I use.

I create base characters, no clothes, jewelry etc., and then when I need them dress in a specific way for a series of images I create that and save it as a scene subset and just merge it into the new scenes as needed.

It does not change the scenes already created though. You can get around this by opening the scene, copying the existing figure, merge in the new bersion, paste the figure pose onto the new one and move it to the same position as the old one and then delete the old one. Once you get used to it it can take a couple of minutes per scene.

That's exactly wht I do too. But the OP seems to want a solution to having to do that. I suppose you could do it with multiple instances of DS running (can we do that?) but don't ask me how.

nicstt

I have all characters I own (bar the ones I missed converting), which my own customised textures and NGS2 tweaked shader applied, with a load of favourites flagged and some additional items added; they are then saved as subsets ready for use. The more you save in it, the longer it will take to load.

... Of course, once that's done they languish in the 'ignore this folder' Folder which I called Base Characters

(Although now as I render in Blender, I'm actually visiting that folder occasionally now, so I may need to call it something else.)

Note that merging the character in the scene is the only time it is added. Changing the character and resaving as subset wouldn't update any characters already merged in. Nor should it; the two softwares have different processes.

RD2ART

kenshaw011267 said:

nonesuch00 said:

If you mean hair, skin materials, clothing, and whatever the character is holding, as well as their pose then as a Scene Subset. When it prompts you uncheck all items you don't want save. Then when you want to use again, choose Merge & then navigate to the scene subset you saved.

This is the technique I use.

I create base characters, no clothes, jewelry etc., and then when I need them dress in a specific way for a series of images I create that and save it as a scene subset and just merge it into the new scenes as needed.

It does not change the scenes already created though. You can get around this by opening the scene, copying the existing figure, merge in the new bersion, paste the figure pose onto the new one and move it to the same position as the old one and then delete the old one. Once you get used to it it can take a couple of minutes per scene.

I use about the same process. I create a base character and name it "Genesis 8", then if I need to change that base character I name it a different version like "Genesis 8.1". When I start a new scene I will save the character with the scene name "Genesis 8_Pool" if I update the character then I just resave under that name. That way when the scene loads it should load the new character changes each time.Then when I have added all the assets I will create a wearable save, that way if I want the oufit on an another character I have it. With the different wearables saved I start to have a "closet" of prefab outfits that can be generated based on the need with little amount of overhead. Also yes, bring back multiple windows. My workflow included me working on the character as I was developing the scene. I would save the character as a subset and then add it to the scene. Allowing only one window at a time is slowing down my workflow.

PerttiA

At first I thought it couldn't be done in DS, but RD2ATS's message got me thinking...

If you save your character as a morph asset (just like the store bought characters), you can update those assets later on if the need arises, and each time you open a scene that uses that character, the latest version of the character is used.