Trying to set up an MCM (morph controlled morph) but ....

RAMWolff

BUT the doku page is for an older version of DS. Link here:

http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/assembling/tutorials/creating_morph_controlled_morphs/start

I can probably figure it out if I can get past that they are referring to older DS setup.

The doc refers to the Property Editor which I think was done away with.... so now all I can find is the Property Hierarchy but can't find the Grouping/Settings so kinda feeling lost now as I think both, now split, sectors of the old Property Editor, come into play to make this work.

So does anyone have any idea where the Grouping-Settings are hidden or not hidden? Can't be referring to the Tools> Geometry Editor> Groups??

Help please??

Thanks!

Richard Haseltine

The "left side" in the doc is the Parameters pane in Edit mode, the "right side" is the Property Hierarchy.

RAMWolff

Still not understanding.

What I want to do is use one morph that kicks in when the figure is in a crouch position so that would include all ... bend, twist and side to side. I tried my own thing and it was a failure. All this stuff makes my head hurt..... LOL JCM's area dream compared to this. DAZ sent me a little love note saying my request was closed because it was fixed. No the document is still the same old document. Not fixed and still confusing. Josh did contact me via YouTube and admitted he had not done one so I'm not thinking there's going to be a YouTube tutorial any time soon.....

RAMWolff

Here is a screen grab. You mentioned while the Properties pane was in Edit mode. I use that function all the time so here is what I'm looking at right now.....

SickleYield

That's covering an awful lot of different movements. I don't think you're going to easily be able to set that up under one morph, but if you want to try it:

See that word "Controllers" over on the left there under your MCM? Leave that up.

On the right, in your parameters, go to the left thigh of the pants (you will need to select it in scene tab or the 3D window).

Drag the bend, twist and side-side from parameters over to that controllers heading on the left.

Now the morph is controlled by those bends; but you need to set their scalars properly. The scalars do not appear until they are in controllers, so they're not in your pic yet. They will all be set to 1 by default when they need to be at .1666 or so.

When that is done you will need to do the same to the right thigh. You will have 6 controllers in all. You may need to set one set of scalars to -0.16 instead of positive and I want to say it's the right side, but double check it.

This will result in the morph turning on slightly when any of those bends is on, but only at 100% when all six are on. I don't know of a way to have it not activate when only one or two bends are on, which is why PA's generally don't set up JCM or MCM that cover more than two movements at once.

Richard Haseltine

SickleYield said:

I don't know of a way to have it not activate when only one or two bends are on...

Set up a hidden morph that goes from 0 to 1 as the bend goes from 0 to max for the second and third bend (order shouldn't matter, just go 1, 2, 3 arbitrarily), then add the first bend with a scalar and multiply by the two 0-1 parameters instead of using the bends directly. That won't give the same result as simply adding, but it will require all three to be non-zero and should be reasonable if the combined morph works at all.

RAMWolff

SickleYield said:

That's covering an awful lot of different movements. I don't think you're going to easily be able to set that up under one morph, but if you want to try it:

See that word "Controllers" over on the left there under your MCM? Leave that up.

On the right, in your parameters, go to the left thigh of the pants (you will need to select it in scene tab or the 3D window).

Drag the bend, twist and side-side from parameters over to that controllers heading on the left.

Now the morph is controlled by those bends; but you need to set their scalars properly. The scalars do not appear until they are in controllers, so they're not in your pic yet. They will all be set to 1 by default when they need to be at .1666 or so.

When that is done you will need to do the same to the right thigh. You will have 6 controllers in all. You may need to set one set of scalars to -0.16 instead of positive and I want to say it's the right side, but double check it.

This will result in the morph turning on slightly when any of those bends is on, but only at 100% when all six are on. I don't know of a way to have it not activate when only one or two bends are on, which is why PA's generally don't set up JCM or MCM that cover more than two movements at once.

Hi hon,

Thanks. The picture of the exact bends for the pose are below.... Not sure how that would be set up but your info is greatly appreciated.

I was under the impression that more than one morph or what ever could be plugged into an MCM? I guess the main action happens in the Thighs but when the Shin is bent it, of course, pulls the mesh more so new poke throughs happen. So thought it might be smart to try to set up some sort of a MCM... unless you have another suggestion. I have JCM's for all the side to side, bend and twist but for what ever reason they don't seem to do enough when all three are stressing the mesh. :-(

HUGS,
Richard

SickleYield

As always, the kitty knows. ;)

RAMWolff

HAHAHA.. .. your a keeper! :-)

RAMWolff

RAMWolff said:

SickleYield said:

That's covering an awful lot of different movements. I don't think you're going to easily be able to set that up under one morph, but if you want to try it:

See that word "Controllers" over on the left there under your MCM? Leave that up.

On the right, in your parameters, go to the left thigh of the pants (you will need to select it in scene tab or the 3D window).

Drag the bend, twist and side-side from parameters over to that controllers heading on the left.

Now the morph is controlled by those bends; but you need to set their scalars properly. The scalars do not appear until they are in controllers, so they're not in your pic yet. They will all be set to 1 by default when they need to be at .1666 or so.

When that is done you will need to do the same to the right thigh. You will have 6 controllers in all. You may need to set one set of scalars to -0.16 instead of positive and I want to say it's the right side, but double check it.

This will result in the morph turning on slightly when any of those bends is on, but only at 100% when all six are on. I don't know of a way to have it not activate when only one or two bends are on, which is why PA's generally don't set up JCM or MCM that cover more than two movements at once.

Hi hon,

Thanks. The picture of the exact bends for the pose are below.... Not sure how that would be set up but your info is greatly appreciated.

I was under the impression that more than one morph or what ever could be plugged into an MCM? I guess the main action happens in the Thighs but when the Shin is bent it, of course, pulls the mesh more so new poke throughs happen. So thought it might be smart to try to set up some sort of a MCM... unless you have another suggestion. I have JCM's for all the side to side, bend and twist but for what ever reason they don't seem to do enough when all three are stressing the mesh. :-(

HUGS,
Richard

So do I each controller slider to the negative? Like the Bend is at -74.68 or rounded -75.00 or is my thinking on that wrong??

Cayman Studios

RAMWolff, it looks like you have given the three rotations for the Right Thigh, so I would guess that the Shin Bend is about 115°. That's four rotations creating the poke-through problem, on the right side alone. So you need to create two separate MCMs, one for the right leg and one for the left.

As a preliminary to this you need to have already created four individual JCMs for the rotations for each leg, three for the Thigh and one for the Shin. If you feel that you do not actually need a JCM for one of the joint rotations (because on its own it causes no problems) you should still create an empty JCM for that joint rotation. (To create an empty JCM for, say, the left shin bend. select the pants, go to the Parameters tab in Edit mode, right-click in the morphs area and select "Create New Property". Name it, for example, "JCM_Shin_Le" - 'e' for empty, make it Hidden with Minimum value of 0 and Maximum of 1, and check "Create as Empty Morph". You now allocate it to the left shin ZRotation, with a scalar of the reciprocal of the number of degrees in the rotation, i.e. 1/150 = 0.0066666666666667).

This is how I would create the MCM for the right leg:

1. Pose the right leg only (as shown in the attachment), make sure your figure is scaled to 100%, then export, separately, the pants and the figure as OBJs.
2. Open the modelling software. Import the OBJs, then model your morph as required.
3. Export the morph as a new OBJ. Call it something like MCM_Crouch_R.
4. In DAZ use Morph Loader Pro to load the morph against the pose as shown. Locate the MCM, and in the Parameter Settings uncheck "Use Limits" and "As Percent". Set the value of the MCM temporarily to 1 to check that it is working as you want, then reset back to zero.
5. In the Property Hierarchy for the Pants, go to Bones > Right Thigh > XRotate, and expand it to the 1st Stage Sub-Components. Now in the Parameters section locate your MCM (MCM_Crouch_R) and drag-and-drop it up into the 1st Stage Sub-Components area which you have just expanded. You now have to add the scalar. In another thread I gave the formulae for two- and three-joint MCMs. A four-joint MCM (which I did for the first time yesterday!) has scalars as follows:

For joint A (angle x), Joint B (angle y), Joint C (angle z), Joint D (angle w)
MCM scalar for A = 1/x * 1/4 * (JCM scalar for A * JCM scalar for B * JCM scalar for C * JCM scalar for D)/(x * y * z * w)
MCM scalar for B = 1/y * 1/4 * ditto
MCM scalar for C = 1/z * 1/4 * ditto
MCM scalar for D = 1/w * 1/4 * ditto.

To make the calculation easier I will assume that the JCM scalars are actually the reciprocals of the angles given for the crouch. This may not be the case, in which case you can adjust the calculation accordingly. So the MCM scalar for the Right Thigh forward bend is
(1/74.68) * 1/4 * ((1/74.68)*(1/26.8)*(1/30)*(1/115))/(74.68 * 26.8 * 30 * 115) = 0.013390466
And because the angle is a minus, the scalar has to be a minus, too, i.e. -0.013390466.

In fact, if the MCM angles are identical to the JCM angles, you can skip the last part of the equation because it equals 1. A rule of thumb is that the MCM scalar equals the reciprocal of the angle divided by the number of joints. You will need the above formulae where the JCM and MCM angles deviate for a more "accurate" morph, but I dare say, for the most part the difference will not be that jarring.

6. Repeat for the other three joint rotations.

7. Now locate the four JCMs in the Parameters section and drag-and-drop the MCM_Crouch_R into the 2nd Stage (Multiply) Sub-Components area. Your MCM will now only kick in when all four rotations are in use.

8. I think that covers most things. :lol:

RAMWolff

WOW.. thank you so much. You and Sickle, stars! I'll have to digest this a bit as I'm more of a visual learner but I thank you so much and for posting an example of the finished MCM's at play! NICE! :-)