What is the Best Way to Copy a Fully-Developed Character into a Different Scene?

swash1967

After adding hair, clothing, various textures and shading, and many other features to a character, I never do save the work with the character preset, because I will have to redo everything. Right now, I am saving them into scenes if I have added such varied details in the framework of my characters. But my question is this: Is there a way to USE the character preset so that all these extra details are saved along with the character? If not, is there a way I can more efficiently transfer the character from one scene to another without losing all of this work? 

I know that I have used grouping before with other objects. Do I have to do the same thing with Daz in order to make everything transport reliably into the next scene? Or is there yet a better way. The reason I am asking is because I am thinking about creating a comic book / graphic novel utilizing my renders. Any help anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. ;)

SofaCitizen

I have done this by saving them as a Scene Subset but there may be a more proper way

Torquinox

Save Scene Subset works pretty well for me, too. I have a growing library of saved subsets. Very useful!

marble

Same here. I always save my own custom characters in various stages as scene subsets (base, morphed, dressed, hair, etc.) and keep them in a personal character folder set in my Content Library. I actually never use pre-made characters "out of the box" - I only buy them for the skins or as a starting point to develop my own versions.

bohemian3

I save as a scene subset, really useful.  But first I create a group and parent the character to group, especially important if you are saving anything that's not parented to the character.  Then I zero out the group - Using the group pivot is really useful.  I even render out a thumbnail and replace it default one generated in the subset folder.

marble

bohemian3 said:

I save as a scene subset, really useful.  But first I create a group and parent the character to group, especially important if you are saving anything that's not parented to the character.  Then I zero out the group - Using the group pivot is really useful.  I even render out a thumbnail and replace it default one generated in the subset folder.

 

I also make my own thumbnails but I'm not sure what you mean by saving as (or in) a group. What else is in the group?

Pendraia

Add me to the scene subset group...I was under the impression it was meant for stuff like that.

Togire

Ditto for me. And you need to to "file>merge" the saved char in the new scene (Ctrl-Sh-O).

evilded777

Character preset, then wearable presets for clothes, hair, anatomy...shape presets if they have additional morphs...scene subsets are nice if everything is always the same and quicker than multiple presets,but I'm happy to load a character and then be prepared to load only head hair, or head and body hair or whatever based on what the scene requires with just a few clicks. And Turbo Loader is a godsend.

bohemian3

Hiya @marble - I usualy have a light rig and maybe a few props not parented to the character, depending on the character.  But more importantly, for my workflow of importing and exporting content over and over, I like keeping my characters transforms  zeroed out and doing all the Translation and rotation transformations on the group parent.  Also I'm all set if I need to add another character to the group and move them together. Last small thing, single click to hide the entire group instead of ctrl+click.  As scenes get large this grouping I find really useful to have this already built out in the scene subset.

I also make my own thumbnails but I'm not sure what you mean by saving as (or in) a group. What else is in the group?

lorraineopua

bohemian3 said:

Hiya @marble - I usualy have a light rig and maybe a few props not parented to the character, depending on the character.  But more importantly, for my workflow of importing and exporting content over and over, I like keeping my characters transforms  zeroed out and doing all the Translation and rotation transformations on the group parent.  Also I'm all set if I need to add another character to the group and move them together. Last small thing, single click to hide the entire group instead of ctrl+click.  As scenes get large this grouping I find really useful to have this already built out in the scene subset.

I also make my own thumbnails but I'm not sure what you mean by saving as (or in) a group. What else is in the group?

This is my method too...saves time when I need to hide a character instead of having to hide everything individually. I call the group something like say, 'Magician', then name the character say, '!Adam', then that name will appear at the top of the fit to menu and I don't have to go down the list.

marble

bohemian3 said:

Hiya @marble - I usualy have a light rig and maybe a few props not parented to the character, depending on the character.  But more importantly, for my workflow of importing and exporting content over and over, I like keeping my characters transforms  zeroed out and doing all the Translation and rotation transformations on the group parent.  Also I'm all set if I need to add another character to the group and move them together. Last small thing, single click to hide the entire group instead of ctrl+click.  As scenes get large this grouping I find really useful to have this already built out in the scene subset.

I also make my own thumbnails but I'm not sure what you mean by saving as (or in) a group. What else is in the group?

 

Oh, ok. I see.

I'm thinking more of my usual procedure when creating my own custom characters. I save a scene subset of the character with no hair or clothes, another with hair and others with clothing (various). Also with and without anatomical elements when necessary. I save them in zero pose and translation.

However, thr group idea might be worth investigating for me because I usually use CTRL-Click to hide a character and all clothing but the disadvantage of this is that un-hiding again with CTRL-Click also unhides things I want to remain hidden - especially for purposes of dForce simulation. I had a situation recently when this problem had severe consequences (crashed DAZ Studio) because there was some clothing with a special addon (I assume to help keep shape during simulation) that should always be invisible but CTRL-Click makes it visible and crashes the simulation - if not the whole DAZ Studio session.

swash1967

Thank all of you so much for taking the time to answer. I found out the best way for ME in MY situation was to merge one scene into the new scene. That way all I have to do is delete all the elements I do not need from the original / merged scene. There is a merge button on the interface that I pushed. And it worked like magic. Maybe this will be helpful for many of you guys too. I just thought I should share this info with all of you. Thank you again for kindly assisting me. :)