Morphing Genesis to fit an .obj mesh

kristofor.mccarty3_40894dbb1f

Hi all,

This is a rather unusual request for assistance but one I’m sure you guys will be able to help me on.

I’m a researcher who is interested in perception of body shape and at the university where I am based we are able to body scan people using what is essentially a bunch of Kinect sensors. This creates a sealed mesh that’s saved as an .obj file. Our plan of action was to use a series of genesis morphs to create that body shape and then manipulate the weight slider to show that body either plus sized or negative. This has posed several limitations, most notably time, it takes forever to tweak and sometimes the results aren’t quite right.

I’m writing to ask whether there is some kind of semi-automated way to do this whereby you could use the mesh as some kind of limit and the figure would then morph up until it hit the limit of the mesh thus creating the shape. If this can be done in another program, can you let me know what it is?

Also if there are any other recommendations, these would be much appreciated. Of course the plan is to be able to morph the resulting model up and down in weight convincingly, just like you can using Genesis in Daz.

Thanks guys,

Kris

Richard Haseltine

Various modellers have the ability to constrain to a background shape, which might work (the main issue would be making key points lined up on the Genesis and scanned mesh, I think). What - if any - 3D modelling or sculpting applications do you have available?

kristofor.mccarty3_40894dbb1f

Hi Richard,

To be honest we are open to ideas software wise. Do these modellers use something like ZBrush or something? forgive my naivety here, we are quite new to this stuff. any suggestions welcome

Richard Haseltine

I think ZBrush will do it, load the scan shape and the base mesh as subtools, make the Genesis whatever mesh active, possibly use the Move tool to line up the landmarks (facial features, joints, breasts on a female, and then use the whatever-it-is tool to push the mesh into alignment. You'd probably want to hide the eyes and mouth parts on the genesis figure to avoid problems. I do have ZBrush, but I'm woefully out of practice - there used to be a video on this process, not with humans but the general technique, in ZClassroom.

Pendraia

Richard Haseltine said:

I think ZBrush will do it, load the scan shape and the base mesh as subtools, make the Genesis whatever mesh active, possibly use the Move tool to line up the landmarks (facial features, joints, breasts on a female, and then use the whatever-it-is tool to push the mesh into alignment. You'd probably want to hide the eyes and mouth parts on the genesis figure to avoid problems. I do have ZBrush, but I'm woefully out of practice - there used to be a video on this process, not with humans but the general technique, in ZClassroom.

Hi, you can load 3D scans into ZBrush. I haven't done it but you often see people mention that they started with a 3D scan and I believe that you can project these onto Genesis...but I'm not absolutely sure how it's done as I'm still learning myself. I think they use projection master...

Richard is right that you can do it by having both the scan and genesis in zbrush but that would be very fiddly. If I was doing it I would use a variety of brushes like move, inflate and also the standard brush.

How are you using the final mesh? Would it be possible to rig the scans and then morph the scans?

Richard Haseltine

Pendraia said:

Richard Haseltine said:

I think ZBrush will do it, load the scan shape and the base mesh as subtools, make the Genesis whatever mesh active, possibly use the Move tool to line up the landmarks (facial features, joints, breasts on a female, and then use the whatever-it-is tool to push the mesh into alignment. You'd probably want to hide the eyes and mouth parts on the genesis figure to avoid problems. I do have ZBrush, but I'm woefully out of practice - there used to be a video on this process, not with humans but the general technique, in ZClassroom.

Hi, you can load 3D scans into ZBrush. I haven't done it but you often see people mention that they started with a 3D scan and I believe that you can project these onto Genesis...but I'm not absolutely sure how it's done as I'm still learning myself. I think they use projection master...

Richard is right that you can do it by having both the scan and genesis in zbrush but that would be very fiddly. If I was doing it I would use a variety of brushes like move, inflate and also the standard brush.

How are you using the final mesh? Would it be possible to rig the scans and then morph the scans?

I've no experience with crating scans, but from what little I know I think the mesh from two different scans would not be identical to function as a morph. It probably depends on the software used - something like FaceGen would output matching mesh, I believe, but a general purpose scan to mesh might well not.

I'm not sure how helpful it will be, but this is the sort of thing I had in mind http://zbrush.wonderhowto.com/how-to/project-3d-details-from-one-mesh-another-zbrush-63892/

kristofor.mccarty3_40894dbb1f

Thanks for these replies guys, they are really helpful in getting my head around the problem. the video link looks great but i think you are right, it might be difficult to match them.

Am I right in thinking it could be possible to export a genesis character to zbrush and once we morph it into the shape of the body scan (if it is possible to morph it into the shape of the scan mesh that is) we could then export it back to DAZ etc so it could take advantage of the morphing sliders in studio and render it?

Richard Haseltine

Yes, you'd use Morph Loader pro or the GoZ bridge (File>Send to ZBrush) to load the mesh as a morph - but make sure that you set the resolution to Base before exporting the OBJ from DS, and that you either don't divide the mesh in ZBrush or that you reset the division to 0 before going back to DS (if you do divide the mesh in ZBrush make sure you set the SMT button to off or things like the fingers and teeth will be distorted).

You may, depending on the morph, need to adjust the bones to the shape to get it to pose nicely. Set your new morph to 1 and try posing the figure - especially the areas that have had their "along the bone" dimension changed or the origin of the bone moved (for example, there's a fair chance the legs will be shorter than default). If there are problems, still with the morph set to 1, go to Edit>Figure>Rigging>Adjust Rigging to Shape. If that fixes the issue you will want to link the changes in the rigging to the morph, so they are triggered automatically. Remove any posing, leaving just the morph and the rigging changes (Edit>Figure>Zero>Zero Figure Pose), then in the Parameters pane right-click and select Edit Mode (if it isn't already checked), then right-click on the slider for your morph and select ERC Freeze.... In the dialogue that opens the morph should be listed at the top as the controller, and in the scrolling list at the bottom there should be a longish list of joint centres (if there's anything else, uncheck it). Assuming all is well click Accept, which will rest the base rigging and link the changes to the morph. Make sure everything works, then zero your morph and save it as a morph asset (File>Save as>Support Assets>Morph Asset)

Pendraia

Richard Haseltine said:

I've no experience with crating scans, but from what little I know I think the mesh from two different scans would not be identical to function as a morph. It probably depends on the software used - something like FaceGen would output matching mesh, I believe, but a general purpose scan to mesh might well not. I'm not sure how helpful it will be, but this is the sort of thing I had in mind http://zbrush.wonderhowto.com/how-to/project-3d-details-from-one-mesh-another-zbrush-63892/

I've recently seen an image of a dynamesh sculpt projected over on to Dusk. The result didn't carry over all the little fine details according to the poster but it did do a really nice job with the shape. I was actually surprised that it could be done I would have thought the mesh had to be the same.

Pendraia

Richard Haseltine said:

I think ZBrush will do it, load the scan shape and the base mesh as subtools, make the Genesis whatever mesh active, possibly use the Move tool to line up the landmarks (facial features, joints, breasts on a female, and then use the whatever-it-is tool to push the mesh into alignment. You'd probably want to hide the eyes and mouth parts on the genesis figure to avoid problems. I do have ZBrush, but I'm woefully out of practice - there used to be a video on this process, not with humans but the general technique, in ZClassroom.

If she mainly uses the topological move brush it should just move the the section she is working on...if she is using goZ she can get the uv groups by going to Polygroups/autogroup with UVs. If you merge similar groups the arms will be done at the same time when you ctrl/shift click to make things disappear.

Feel free to ask if you need any help. I'm not an expert but I do know how to do basic morphs in Zbrush using goZ.

ebukaozoemenam

Richard Haseltine said:

Yes, you'd use Morph Loader pro or the GoZ bridge (File>Send to ZBrush) to load the mesh as a morph - but make sure that you set the resolution to Base before exporting the OBJ from DS, and that you either don't divide the mesh in ZBrush or that you reset the division to 0 before going back to DS (if you do divide the mesh in ZBrush make sure you set the SMT button to off or things like the fingers and teeth will be distorted).

You may, depending on the morph, need to adjust the bones to the shape to get it to pose nicely. Set your new morph to 1 and try posing the figure - especially the areas that have had their "along the bone" dimension changed or the origin of the bone moved (for example, there's a fair chance the legs will be shorter than default). If there are problems, still with the morph set to 1, go to Edit>Figure>Rigging>Adjust Rigging to Shape. If that fixes the issue you will want to link the changes in the rigging to the morph, so they are triggered automatically. Remove any posing, leaving just the morph and the rigging changes (Edit>Figure>Zero>Zero Figure Pose), then in the Parameters pane right-click and select Edit Mode (if it isn't already checked), then right-click on the slider for your morph and select ERC Freeze.... In the dialogue that opens the morph should be listed at the top as the controller, and in the scrolling list at the bottom there should be a longish list of joint centres (if there's anything else, uncheck it). Assuming all is well click Accept, which will rest the base rigging and link the changes to the morph. Make sure everything works, then zero your morph and save it as a morph asset (File>Save as>Support Assets>Morph Asset)

I really need a help on how to rig a morph, pls help if you can.