Placing a character on a Elevated surface

Vijay Sridhara

Though I used Alt+Drag the character to the surface, which is above the ground level, the character still tries to stand on the ground, though at the dragged location. Any help is appreciated. Is there a way that I can set the cursor, and double click on the "artifcat" in the content library, that it falls in place at the cursor?

NorthOf45

I haven't found anything to do that while dragging into place, but you could try using the Align tab after you're close, or even not close. Select the part that you don't want to move, then ctrl-click on the part that you do want to move. Now, this won't always work 100%, but try aligning X and Z centers and stack Y Above. This will put the second object on top of the middle of the first object, based on the geometric bounding boxes of each. At least they will be close. If the target area is closer to the center, try aligning centers or origins on the Y axis. (Center is well, the physical center; origins are the object's Center Point as defined by the rigging).

Vijay Sridhara

But I feel the Characters center must be at the feet, right? it shouldn't be at the middle at the waist. Because I see the Scale works that way on the character. (Doesn't grow on both sides, up and down, while scaling).

My aim is to bring character from content library to a "elevated surface", for exxample, roof of a house. The character still stands on the floor of the house.

NorthOf45

It's just a convention of how the "center" is defined. In geometry, the center is pretty clear, it's in the middle. In DAZ rigging, objects and figures have "Center Points" and "End Points", which could, theoretically, be anywhere. They are initially defined when the geometry is imported into a DAZ Studio format, and can be seen and modified with the Joint Editor Tool. The "Center Point" is usually a significant location that is intuitive to use, as in a center of rotation, or scaling, as you have noted. With the Joint Editor tool, you will see the Center Point as a small green orthogonal axis system, and the End Point as red.

Genesis figures have the Center Point ("origin" in the Align context) at the bottom between the feet and the End Point straight up somewhere behind the belly button. A cube primitive's Center Point is in the middle of the bottom face, and the End Point is the middle of the top face (if creating a new primitive with Primary Axis Y-Positive). They would be on the left face and right face, respectively, if the cube was created with Primary Axis X-Positive.

Try with a simple cube primitive and a Genesis figure and you will get the hang of it soon enough. Try the different modes for Y and you will see how it works.

Gordig

Alt+dragging is a 2-dimensional operation.

Vijay Sridhara

Gordig said:

Alt+dragging is a 2-dimensional operation.

Oh... ok... what is the best way to place a character or object at a elevated surface, without translating their y coordinate after placing them?

Kerya

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjdroptotop

Have fun ...

Vijay Sridhara

Kerya said:

https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjdroptotop

Have fun ...

Thank you.. A 3D Cursor in Daz could be useful to place objects at desired place. I wish DAZ team adds such in forthcoming releases