Easy/Fast method to convert dialed expressions to bone'd expressions?

Brugan

Long time without posting here, sorry :)

 

I think I've asked this before but is there a quick method to convert a dialed expression to bones, and then save that as a pose preset of just the face bones?

I did some experimenting this morning and expressions using bones saved on 8.1 appear to work fine on 8.0 and this appears to work in reverse as well. So I figure if I apply dialed expressions on 8.0 and save the bones, then I can convert those dialed expressions with a little work and patience.

I swear I've seen some tool in Studio before that does just that but I've never used it and can't remember the method.

Thanks in advance :)

Matt_Castle

Most dialled expressions are either primarily morphs or heavily rely on morphs, which can move vertices in ways that bones can't, so an exact transfer is impossible.

Brugan

Even expressions dialed from the individual face dials?

I know some PA's do full face morphed expressions (very rare) but I thought the base DAZ dials on the face moved the bones?

Will have to look deeper into this thanks :)

Matt_Castle

I thought the base DAZ dials on the face moved the bones?

They do, but not quite in the way you're imagining. They're primarily morph based, and the morphs also update the positions of the bones in order to keep them in the correct place to match the morph. (You wouldn't for example want the bone for the corner of the mouth to stay in its default position in a smile morph, because if a user then tried to manipulate that control, it would pivot from the wrong place).

Naturally, as the bones are following the morph, simply inputting the exact same bone positions will roughly emulate the expression, but will lack the morph component and will not be an exact match by any means.