Hiding Surfaces
marble
Posts: 7,500
I have a prop - spectacles - which I want to modify by hiding the ear-pieces (the ends of the spectacles' arms which hook behind the ears). On this prop they tend to stick out too much or show as penetrating the ears.
Unfortunately the ear pieces are not selectable so I can't turn off the opacity. I've checked the forum for tutorials and found a way to hide them using the Geometry Editor but I can't figure out how to save the prop with the new Selection Sets which allow them to be hidden. In fact, saving the prop makes everything worse because the saved prop no longer fits to the G8F figure as before. Nor does it retain the morphs which allow the arms to be folded, etc.
All I want to do is to save the prop with those ear-pieces having a surface that can be turned off (made invisible).
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I don't like using the Hide Geometry function either. There's... side effects.
What I do is Create a new Surface from the Selection and make the Surface transparent.
Alternately, you could use a 2D image program or the layered image editor to make a transparency map. Pretty easy to do if you've got the Template image or if you can figure out where the regions are at by looking at the Diffuse map/Base image map
Also alternately, you could create a D-Former or 2 on there and bend the prop until it fits the way you want.
This is what I thought I was doing too but I see that I was creating a Selection Set from the selection. How do I save the new surface?
By the way, do you mean that you switch off visibility for that new surface or that you set the material opacity to zero? Again, I have done as you suggested and created the new surface but I do not know how to make that permanent so that when I lod the prop again it will have the new surface.
[EDIT] Ok, so I did that - created a new surface. I saved as a prop (Figure/Prop Asset) and was able to load it again. Now it does not automatically parent itself to the figure so I have to do that manually. So it does seem to lose something when saving as a new prop. I think the original is a wearable but I don't know how to save a wearable. I've just attempted it and it saved the G8F figure complete with the prop which is not at all what I want.
The prop doesn't have any texture maps - just materials. I've looked before at how to create UV maps and that looks far too complicted for my simple needs.
Is it a prop or a figure?
Not sure I know the strict definition. For me, a pair of spectacles is a prop but it is a freebie I downloaded and it fits itself to G8F when loaded. I don't remember where I saw "wearable" but I know that after I saved the modified prop (after hiding the polygons) it no longer loads parented to G8F. So I am not sure how else I should save it other than as a Figure/Prop Asset.
A figure has bones, a prop doesn't - justa single node. The Scene pane icon also varies, a prop is a single cube while a figure has a stack of cubes (separated by dotted lines for weight-mapped figures or solid lines for parametric rigging). That does appear to bea DzFigure, so creating new groups for the parts you want hidden and then using the Joint Editor to add dummy bones and making the new groups the Selection Groups for the bones would be the most effective way to hide them and keep them hidden.
If the item is parented when you save a Wearables preset it should reparent itself on load.
Just goes to show how little I know after all these years of using DAZ Studio. I have never really paid attention to the little icons in the scene pane. I'm assuming the "stack of cubes" is the one that looks a bit like a little honeycomb to me. The "prop" does have bones (for moving the arms of the specs) so I guess it is a figure and it does have that little stack of cubes icon.
I don't know what I did wrong when I tried to save as a Wearable but it would not let me save it without selecting the G8F figure (even though I had only the spectaces selected). So when I loaded the saved wearable it loaded a G8F with it - clearly not what I want.
Here are the specs, by the way. I always have to modify freebies in some way but these are perfect for the look I wanted.
For saving a "Wearable" the person what is wearing that has to be selected. You will get then a check list with all clothes and props parented to that person. Now you can tick on/off all what you want to include in the preset and it will load all together next time.
So saving as a wearable means saving the character plus the wearable item? OK, thanks - I didn't understand that. I just wanted the spectacles to load fitted to the character, like clothes do (and like the original, unmodified prop does).
No, you don't need to include anything but the item.
If the glasses already have bones for the arms can the bones not simply have their visibility switched off? If not, select the geometry and create a new group from it fro each arm, then with the Joint Editor active the tool Settings pane open you can use the Selection group button in the pane to select the matching group for each arm - that will enable you to select the arms by clicking on them, and to turn the bone visibility off to hide them.
Well, I tried again saving as a wearable and it will not let me save just the glasses. I have to select G8F in the first tab (the rest of the tabs have only the spectacles listed).
I don't want to make the arms invisible, just the ends of the arms which you can see in the screen shot shaded white.
Are the glasses parented to the figure? A wearables preset will save only the parts that are parented to the figure, fitted but not parented will be ignored.
To hide the ear pieces create a new group containing them, create a new bone with the Joint Editor, and assign the mesh as the new bone's selection group. None of this will affect the rigging, selection groups matter only for selection and visibility (and can be used when editing weight maps)
I really don't think that I am getting through with my explanations of what is happening despite posting screen shots, etc.
Saving Wearables: the problem I had was that DAZ Studio gave me an error when I tried to save the glasses as a wearable. It demanded that I select G8F as well but if I select G8F the wearable that I save is loaded with a new G8F figure when I try to load it into a scene. That's crazy - I don't want to load a new G8F every time I save a wearable so I am missig something basic when it comes to saving wearables. Yes, the glasses are parented, by the way.
Hiding the polygons: I don't really care how I hide them so long as I can hide those tips of the arms on the spectacles. I am not sure why it is better, following your logic, to create a new bone in Joint Editor when hiding works with surface selection in the geometry editor. Perhaps, using your method, I would not need to go into the geometry editor every time I load them into a scene? This is why we need tutorials - I have been using this software for 15 years and the fact is that such basics are a mystery to me (and others, as can be seen in the current thread discussing Tutorials in the Commons forum).
The logic of adding bones per Richard's instructions is that this allows the polygons to be hidden using the eye icon in the scene view, which also means that they can be UNhidden at a moment's notice, without having to go back into the surface editor.
Hiding via the surface requires the geometry to be sent to the renderer, making a group invisible via a bone doesn't - even if you set the surface to be fully invisible it will still have an effect (e.g. it will make noin-rendering lights visible). It's probable fine here, but its less effective as a general solution.
Please poist a screen shot of the wearables preset with the glasses parented.
Thank you both for confirming why it is better to use the added bone method rather than hiding surfaces. I did suspect that was the reason.
Richard, I'm not sure what screen shot you are looking for as I posted a few above while I was in the process of attempting to save the wearable.
The screen shots don't show the glasses parented to Genesis 8 Female (or one of her bones), as far as I can tell.
Use Geometry Editor, select the areas you want to hide
Right-click in the viewport and select "Geometry Assignment->Create Surface from Selected"
Now you get a new surface in Surfaces tab, onto which you can copy the material from an other surface (check that the shaders match) and use the Cutout Opacity to hide the new surface
If you now save it with Edit->Save As->Wearable(s) Preset, the hiding of the surface is also saved
Is your G8 parented to a group or something else? That would make it visible while selecting the wearable items to be saved, otherwise the figure where the items are fitted/parented does not show in the popup selection window.
Attached is what I see when saving a Wearable Preset on a scene with nothing else than Genesis 8 Basic Female and the glasses loaded and the G8 not being parented to anything
Ahh now that is interesting. You don't have G8F there in that window. How did you manage that?
In the heirarchy tree you can see two versions of the glasses parented to the head. The first one (display turned off) is the original prop which automatically parents (but is not fitted) to the G8F figure. The second (2) is my saved Figure/Prop which I have to manually parent to G8F's head. Then, when I try to save it as a wearable, I get the window shown where it has G8F as the primary selection even though I have the glasses selected in the tree.
Perhaps the original RoundGlasses is not a wearable after all but then how is it saved so that it is automatically parented to the head?
Have you tried unchecking Genesis 8 Female? The white check mark doesn't mean locked - it means some of the child nodes (the glasses) are selected and some (eyelashes) aren't, but it should be changeable. I can't check just now but I think the first click may check all of the children and the figure, the second clear everything - then check the glasses directly.
Edit - actually, are you sure Genesis 8 isn't itself parented to something else? I was able to test and with Geneis 8 female not parented and selected I get just the children - from your dialogue it looks as if there is a parent for Genesis 8 female, and the wearables preset you are saving is for that - you can't select the glasses and not the figure because it's part of the chain for (not shown) root figure to the glasses.
Hers's what I did.
Loaded a base G8F.
Loaded the original glasses (the went directly to the G8F head as they should).
Loaded my saved glasses with the surface modification to hide the parts of the arms.
Made the original glasses invisible by clicking on the Eye icon.
Went to File>Save As>Wearable Preset.
Now I see something odd. I think that there must be something odd about this freebie prop because Save As>Wearable does not show the glasses under G8F unless both the original and my modified prop are loaded and parented. If either are loaded without the other, neither show in that first window of the save dialogue. If both are loaded, you see the window as in the screenshot above whcih shows G8F with Roundglasses below.
To be honest, Richard, it looks like this is not a good example with which to figure out how to save a wearable. I think I will give up on this one. Maybe I can find something else to try with.
When you are saving Wearable Presets, before you start, you have to select the figure where the items are fitted/parented.
In your clip you have the glasses selected.
Yes, I did try it either way. If I had the G8F figure selected the weable was saved with the G8F figure which is why I was asking the question here. As I said above - either there is sometning wierd going on or I am totally misunderstanding the advice I'm getting.
Please post a screen shot of the Scene pane, with as much as possible collapsed but showing where the glasses are.
Here are 4 screen captures. One with the original parented modified glasses. Next with those glasses and the "Save as Wearable" dialogue. Next with both the original glasses and the modified glasses, manually parented to G8F's head. Lastly with the original glasses removed. As you can see, only when both are parented is there an appearance in the Wearable dialogue of the glasses. As I said - something wierd going on.
Duplicate Post
By the way, if you want to try with the actual freebie, it can be downloaded from here:
Round Eyeglasses for Genesis 8 Female DAZ Studio by amyaimei on DeviantArt
When saving wearable presets you must have the parent (G8F) selected, not the item(s) that are parented/fitted to the parent. In all of you captures, you have the glasses selected instead of G8F.
Well, to put it politely, dammit! I would have sworn on my mother's grave that I had tried that several times and every time it resulted in saving the G8F along with the glasses. I cannot tell you how I was doing it differently but this time I did as you suggest and it worked: parent the glasses, select G8F and save as wearable - bingo!
To use an old English expression, I'm gobsmacked.