Is there a better way to pose on top of an object

Realityshiftgames

We all know that utilities like move to floor and glue to floor can really help in setting up posing but I have a lot of difficulty in moving a model to collide with an object raised from the floor such as a stage, couch, chair or top of another model such as a truck's bed. In the past I have somewhat solved this by using the isometric views and zooming in extremely close to align the two objects. This is difficult as if you are just slightly above or below the plane you are tying to align to the image is distorted by foreshortening and is very time consuming and inaccurate. And should I change a pose or foot pose most likely it will have to repeat the process all over again.

I know I have to be doing this wrong. There must be an easier way or ding this like using the move to floor or glue to floor function on an object other than the floor grid. But if there is I have not been able to find it yet.

Richard Haseltine

One option might be to have a plane on the floor, parent the figure to that, then move the plane up until it is just barely visible through the thing you want the figure to rest on. Still eyeballing, but perhaps with less strain that tring to sort out an orhthogonal, wireframe view. Another option would be to use Measure Metrics and aim to zero the separation.

ebergerly

I think you can do that with the Align tab (one of my most used tools in D|S). I normally use it to move one object to another's location (I wrote a script to make that just a menu selection since I used it so often), but I recall you can select both objects and have the one object on top of the other...was it Y axis stacking or something? 

ebergerly

Yeah, that's it...select the stage or whatever, then CTRL-click the character or whatever, and in the Align tab under Y Axis select Stack from the dropdown. You can either put the character on the top or bottom of the stage object (+Y or -Y). Looks like it uses the character's feet to touch the stage, so if it has shoes that might be an issue. I use the Align so often I recall once I mis-selected from the dropdown and got a weird result cuz I had selected Stack. So after a little investigation I realized it was pretty cool. Which reminds me, I need to add another script...  

cajhin

there's a new product (script) that seems to solve that problem:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/478201/released-face-to-face-and-virtual-origins-commercial/p1

Select a face on the heel, select a face on your podium/pickup/whatever, tell the script to move your figure so both faces connect. That's how I understand it, I don't own it (yet?)

Kerya

Free script:

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

 

ebergerly

Oh yeah...he's got a Shoes on Floor script that seems to do what's needed. Forgot all about that.

Richard Haseltine

ebergerly said:

Yeah, that's it...select the stage or whatever, then CTRL-click the character or whatever, and in the Align tab under Y Axis select Stack from the dropdown. You can either put the character on the top or bottom of the stage object (+Y or -Y). Looks like it uses the character's feet to touch the stage, so if it has shoes that might be an issue. I use the Align so often I recall once I mis-selected from the dropdown and got a weird result cuz I had selected Stack. So after a little investigation I realized it was pretty cool. Which reminds me, I need to add another script...  

The ALign pane uses the bounding boxes of the objects, so it won't work if the surface to be aligned to isn't on the outside limit of the model.