dForce String Lights - How To Pose Them?
Xenomorphine
Posts: 2,421
This product is something I'm presently turning back to, for obvious reasons:
https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-string-lights-
But does anyone know how to pose them? I'm assuming it must be capable of doing so, because of the promotional images! I'm wanting to curve the tinsel around a specific path, around objects on the ground, then simulate the gravity, but the usual method for these sorts of products (selecting a number of individual segments and then rotating them) is not possible, because it's a single object.
The same goes for the string of lights. You can select and turn the individual bulbs, but not the cable which they're attached to.
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Comments
They're dForce. You need to use dForce simulation to pose them. You can use the timeline to help out with more complex poses, I believe.
How is that achieved? I don't recall anything about posing in the simulation tab, just gravity strength, etcetera.
Are they rigged at all? I would hope they would have at least a few bones so you could move them where you want and add bends and curves where needbe before simulating.
No, just a single object. I'd assume, because of that, that you can only drape them down in straight lines, but the promotional images show them curving around.
...wonder if you can use the rigging tools to rig them.
ICK...no wonder they were free, lol. I haven't tried to use them, but that's kinda crazy they aren't rigged at all. Do they have any helper morphs?
I do have these, and they are fully rigged...not dForce, but you can do anything you want with them because of the extensive rigging. Plus the wires look more like wires. https://www.daz3d.com/strings
No morphs I can find. I'm just frustrated at not having any clear way to pose them, because the promotional images clearly do show they are posed!
Yeah, I have that other set, too. But it doesn't include tinsel and I was looking forward to using dForce to naturally drape these over various things.
In addition to the straight line, there is a large loop and a small loop if that's what you mean? But otherwise all the promos look like what you would get with dforcing the strands.
*For instance, in the last promo, that looks like three of the small loops and one big loop.
It looks like the more complex squiggles might have been done with dForce Magnet. (I'm not very good at dForce so I didn't try to do more than one squiggle.)
Nonetheless, they are fun:
No, not the loops. The lines. How does someone use dForce to curve things around? Like the promotional image of several lines of tinsel all uniformly curving together? Or the black and white unrendered image, where the lights are chaotically all over in different directions?
Possible, I suppose! I don't have that, but it doesn't mention it's required, either. It's bizarre that this was not rigged.
I'd like to know how to make these figures from the promos, too, because I also thought the lights were rigged!
Yeah, I used them for a pic a while back and I remember the no rigging being a stumbling block. I didn't even think of using the magnet or the timeline for it at the time and ended up cutting plans to have some piles of them on the floor.
I think it might be possible to get a similar effect just using the timeline, by moving the item itself back and forth over maybe ~60 frames. I'm not at all practiced with doing this kind of thing so someone with more dForce magic can correct me if I'm wrong, but you could maybe scrub back and forth seeing where it goes as it simulates and choosing a position at each keyframe that would force it to move in a circle.
For the smooth tinsel arc, you could maybe take a sphere primitive and set it halfway into the floor with the string in front of it, and then use the timeline to push the sphere forward a little. The item should get pushed in front of it as it moves and wrap slightly around the sphere.
@nemesis10, awesome pic! :D
I just tried.
If you use animated timeline, and then place a "helper" (I was using a sphere, but similar to magnets) in each end or where you want to hold the string.
Then somewhere in the animation move your helpers to where you want them.
Added picture for example.
I don't do animation. Why would moving the timeline back and forward cause a dForce object to reposition like it's been rigged?
dForce always works as a simulation i.e. things that are dForce achieve their final position by going through intermediate steps. It is much like when you create an intermediate pose between two poses that you have purchased; you animate the timeline and reder the single frame that combines the aspects of the poses you like.
But how would that affect posing? This product can't apparently be posed. I don't understand why the timeline would affect that.
Not moving the timeline, moving the object itself over time. You can still turn the straight line in different directions in space. So if you start with the strand you want positioned over an item like a box (or sphere), and apply the simulation, it will drape over the object. Then, if you don't want it visible, you can hide the object when you render.
This is a good introduction to how dforce works. Don't be intimidated by the number of pages, the first post has been updated with links to various specific examples.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/208141/how-to-use-dforce-creating-a-blanket-draping-clothes-on-furniture-and-much-more-commercial/p1
I should've explained better, but in the simulation settings under Frames to Simulate, if you create an animation and choose Animated (Use Timeline Play Range), instead of running the simulation on a single frame it'll simulate according to the motion in the animation. That's how the dForce Magnet works; you attach it to a dForce object and move it around to create an animation, and the item it's attached to will follow the magnet when you run an animated simulation. Unfortunately I have an amazing talent for getting simulations to explode immediately for no obvious reason, and my brain is not well equipped to predict where I should move things in relation to where the item ought to move next, so my ideas here are mostly based on what I've seen other people accomplish.
I got this as a freebie (last year?) and I guess it's staying uninstalled, because I have never figured out dForce. I thought it was also rigged.
And this isn't a good time for me to learn either dForce or rigging
They're pretty easy to use if you just need to drape them over something like a mantlepiece. :D Just position the light string above it, go into Simulation Settings panel, and hit "Simulate" and they'll floop onto it. It's a good idea to turn off "Simulate from memorized pose" in the same panel if you have characters and stuff in the scene and your computer isn't a beast, or they'll all revert to their original poses and slowly move back into them as the sim runs. That can take a while.
As mentioned by others, you can easily drape the linear string over two cylinders, two cubes, or any prop(s) to get a draping as shown in this image. This uses dForce current frame simulation with a stabilization time of 2 (so ends of lights hang down). Top set shows how to set it up, bottom shows after the simulation.
If you want to tangle them, add two small 6 inch primitive spheres. Attach them to spots along the string at frame 0. Set up an animation timeline and move them to a new position at frame 10 (of 30). Run an animated dForce simulation. Note: you can get explosions with this method if the spheres move too far apart as they will stretch the mesh.
A few tutorials on my dForce thread that might help:
If you want to wrap the string around a person or a tree, you would do something similar to this: 37 - Mummy Wrappings
Thanks, I will give it a try. Maybe if that goes well, I will have the courage to try @RGcincy's tips. :)