a handful of daz questions, and some requests
I'm sorry to be posting in here again...I'm such a newbie to daz studio.
I want to ask a few questions and request some things. First off, I want to make my own character with Genesis 8. In Poser I saved it to the library once it was finished with hair and other attachments so I didn't have to redo everything.
How can I do something like this in Daz? How do I save a figure I've made to the library?
One of the chars I made in Genesis 2 had to have custom sculpting done in Blender to the face. In Poser, I would export the head as an OBJ and then load it as a morph target back onto the head. What is the equivelant of this?
Is there any way to change the runtime location of the main DAZ folder? It's in a really annoying to get to place, plus I have all my poser stuff on an external hardrive because I don't want to fill my main drive up with content.
What is the best render settings for iRay for good, mostly grainless images?
Is there a way to put female morphs on males and vice versa?
And finally my request...What are the best products for making my own face? Something like this is what I'm looking for https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-head-morph-resource-kit
I just need as many dials as possible to edit the face because I like my characters to be perfect.
Comments
File -> Save As -> Wearable preset with the main figure selected. If you also want to save the morph and/or textures, you can also use Character preset under the same menu.
Edit -> Morph Loader Pro. You'll need to export the entire body with no attachments, at base resolution (under Parameters -> General -> Mesh Resolution, set Resolution Level to Base), and, if you're editing G8/G8.1, you'll also need to delete the eyelashes (and tear for 8.1).
Edit -> Preferences, Content tab, Content Directory Manager. Go to Daz Studio Formats and either add a new directory or change the existing one, depending on your needs.
There's no one answer to that question; the best render settings will depend on your scene, but increasing time and/or samples will let the render run longer for better convergence.
Yes, although I don't remember how. SickleYield has a tutorial for it on DeviantArt, I believe. My most recent experiments with doing that have resulted in failure for reasons I haven't been able to discern, so that's the best answer I can give for now.
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-head-morphs and https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-head-morphs are essential, and https://www.daz3d.com/200-plus-head-and-face-morphs-bundle-for-genesis-8-female-s-and-male-s gives you a lot more options.
In Poser saving a figure back to the figure library creates a new CR2 that has everything included in the CR2, the figure, any conforming items, props and poses, to do the same thing in DS you save as a scene subset.
I prefer to save a complete character with textures, hair and clothes as a Scene Subset.
I am having trouble with rigging a model that has multiple parts. I only want one part to move in relation to all other parts. I have tried importing the parts separately and rigging just the part I want to move, but after doing the final step in which weight mapping is assigned, and then creating a group from it and the other parts, the rotation I set does not work.
Then I tried importing the entire model with all parts combined into a single .obj. After converting it to a figure, I used the material zones to create the Face Groups; two of them, with the part to be moved being one, and all other parts being the other. After working with the Joint Editor to do what was needed, assigning the child bone after it was created and repositioning it to where it was needed, I worked with the Geometry Editor to assign the Face Groups to the different parts they were created for. Next I go to the Weight Mapping Tool and assign the correct Face Group to each part. This should facititate the movement I want, but for some reason it doesn't.
The problem is that I have not found a tutorial that tells me how to rig a multiple part model, that gives good instructions on how it is done. So I need some help from people that know how to do it, and can relate it in a way that is fully understandable. By that I mean instructions that leave not even the smallest detail out. Is there anyone that can do this for me? I seriously want to learn.
I am not aware of one comprehensive guide that covers all.
There are a number of tutorials which can help on the way.
The object you are trying to rig, is that discrete object (like a door) or soft objects (like an arm)?
I usually save characters that are dress and tweaked as required as a scene subset. I can then merge that subset into any other scene.
Grouping does not automatically assign weights - it can be useful when editing, for targeting the edits (including filling by selectuion groups from the right-click menu), and it allows a bone to be selected by clicking in the Viewport. You didn't mention assigning any weight in the case where you had the single mesh, did you do so? Are you setting the joint centres (to where you want the pivot point) and rotation order (first axis is the twist axis, then you get the two bends - the first should be the one that is least likely to hit 90 degrees, to reduice the odds of gimbal lock)? Without more detail about what you are tring to rig, whether it is meant to move rigidly or bend smoothly etc., it's tricky to give any real advice.
I would save as a Scene Subset instead.