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I will also check out Esha's content creation tutorials!
Prepping Meshes for DAZ and Substance Painter
A new video that looks at ways to optimize a garment made in Marvelous Designer for weight mapping in DAZ studio without the use of a secondary 3d editing tool. Also discusses strategies for creating meshes for use in Substance Painter to bake normal and occlusion maps.
@clcny20 - the newest video I posted deals with this topic. It's an invaluable idea I got from Esha's video but looks at how to do it in MD without a secondary 3D editing tool.
It's like Christmas morning when you post a new video.
+1
Wow!
Watched it right away. Another great video. Had no idea you could use a different versions of the mesh for weightmapping. Or if I did, I forgot long ago. Brilliant. And this video has a nice potential solution for Barbult's earlier questions about seams. Fantastic.
Thanks again.
In my Art Studio Forum thread here at Daz, I have been posting screenshot series documenting my workflows for various tasks. Easier for me to go back and find something than searching a video. One example was using Mada's method for a DForce dynamic add-on for thickness for DForce objects. Another is the steps in trying to implement videos by Jay Versluis and Mada for using the transfer utility for a character shape instead of base shape. Another was using Carrara's 3D paint to create opacity maps for geoshells. I hope you wouldn't mind if I post a similar series based on my attempts to implement some of the insights from your videos. I would combine it with what I have learned from sources such as MD's videos and a video by Jay and Fugazi in the Daz+ area and....
@Diomede I give credit where it's due - that technique I learned from Esha's video on Content Mastery - I only added onto it how to create the mesh in MD instead of another program like Zbrush (one of these days I should learn that!). And yes, post anything from my humble offerings you want- I'm all about sharing the knowledge! Thoughout the years I have learned so much from others who did the same.
Thank you so much! Going to watch now--excited!
I have a question about the normal map baking. At about 7:16 in the video, it shows baking normals to DirectX format and they look good in Substance Painter. But Daz Studio uses OpenGL normal format. Do you change from DirectX to OpenGL in Substance Painter at some point? I don't have Substance Painter, so I don't know the process.
Did you notice that MD 12 has a patch now? The topstitch works better with the UI in inches now. They acted on my bug report, although I reported it for MD 11, and I think they only fixed it in MD 12.
Substance Painter has a feature called export templates where the map is converted. If you don't have SP maybe others can chime in on any free or low cost / non-subscription tools they use to bake normal / occlusion maps - it would be the same concepts. Also - I haven't looked at the topstitch situation - glad to hear its fixed. And thank you for reporting it.
I tried the tight/loose scheme with the V9 Sloper, but I can't figure out how to do the process in the transfer utility, because the shape is V9, not the G9 Base. I assume since the transfer utility is involved, that the intent is to make a garment that is fit to the character and moves with the character poses.
Hiya @barbult - if you go back to the very first video at around 2:38 it covers importing the base G9 base morph into Marvelous designer - You need to "shrink wrap" to that G9 base. Then back in DAZ you'll load the Victoria9_body_bs_Body figure shape back in DAZ after you've done the transfer utility and your weight mapping. The rest of the first video covers that Hope that all makes sense. Lots of steps, I know. I'm working on yet another video on working with multiple shapes - you're always one step ahead of the game !
Also, if you are working with dresses, There are better projection templates in this product:
https://www.daz3d.com/sy-ultra-templates-for-genesis-9
I think these are all the steps now start to finish for creating a custom "couture" fit. There are extra steps from creating the pattern for the G9 Base Mesh. I'll update if I think of anything else. *Asterisk indicates any figure you want to create custom fit for. Avatar and Garment geometries absolutely must stay the same throughout. Simulate and drape before each MD export.
DAZ I/O
DAZ
MD
MD I/O
1
Export G9 Base Shape
2
Export V9* Figure
3
Import V9* Figure Avatar
4
Create Sloper
5
Modify Sloper to Pattern
6
Finalize Pattern
7
UV Mapping
Export Stitching Mask
8
Export Displacement Mask
9
Export V9 Figure Garment Victoria9_body_bs_Body
10
Import G9 Base Morph
11
Export G9 Base Garment
12
Create Tight Fit
13
Export G9 Tight Garment
14
Import G9 Tight Garment
15
Transfer Utility
16
Weight Mapping
17
JCMs
18
Update Base Geometry with G9 Base Garment
19
Morph Loader Pro V9 Shape Morph Garment Victoria9_body_bs_Body
If creating the project in DirectX instead of OpenGL, then I would go under Edit->Project Configuration and then change it to openGL before exporting any maps. (Or just make the project in OpenGL to begin with!)
I think the two OpenGL and DirectX 'converted maps' options at export are for converting/combining various mesh maps and channels such as height, normal, and displacement channels into a Normal map. So if you just wanted to bake purely the Normal channel into a Normal Map on export, you should change to OpenGL before export.
(I am not a Substance Painter expert, so someone correct me if wrong on that point)
Whew! I made it through most of the steps. I did not do any custom weight mapping or JCMs.
Here is the sloper on G9B, posed in Daz Studio.
Here is the sloper fit to V9 with her custom body morph, and posed in Daz Studio.
Yes, thanks for the new tutorial.
Unforunately, I had to delay upgrading to MD 12 because i had to buy a AppleCare Warranty for my MacBook Air while Apple still was holding a window open for me too but I will get to in January and then get to try these tutorials. Believe it or not, that AppleCare Warranty even covers if I spill liquid on it or drop it hard to the floor and break it! It's $69 a year or $199 for three years. Not sure if they'll let me extend past 3 years once I get that far with that laptop.
@barbult - Great job! Yes, there are a lot of steps, but once you've done it once, doing it again will be much easier. Once you have the avatars and slopers, you have even fewer steps so it actually goes quickly, though it may not seem like it now. Thanks for all you dedication!
Great job, @barbult. Keep showing the way! What an inspiration.
Thanks again, Bohemian3, for these videos. You are a treasure.
As I consider becoming a content creator for DAZ I was feeling overwhelmed by all the morphs and files that are needed so I decided to try my hand at scripting the process. This video will be mainly of interest to others who are currently content creators or considering it like me.
In this thread I learned a great deal about exchanging animations between (thanks all for your contributions) and am now using the Sagan Alembic Exporter, info linked below.
Even if you don't use Marvelous Designer to create your shape morphs, the chapters on using a JSON file to drive your import process may be of interest. The scripts linked below are not encoded and you can adapt them to your pipeline and workflow.
Core Workflow
The import process script imports the morphs using reverse deformations, clamps to 0 - 1 values and colors the property display to aqua so you can find them.
I look forward to any insights you all have on improving and simplifying this process. Thanks.
Links:
Sagan A Daz to Blender Alembic Exporter
DAZ Scripts Used in these videos
This looks interesting. I saw my name in there! I wonder how well the final morphs mix together. I've had some problems with that in the past when using MD draping to generate FBMs. Each one looks good, but when I mix FBMs. they become somewhat of a mess sometimes. It may well have been a lack of skill on my part.
I look forward to your first release as a new PA.
I'm working on perfecting this issue as well - I take a screenshot of the back and front of the original and when I create the drape for the morph I match it up as close as possible, using weft-warp, steam positive and negative. The order that the morphs are created is important too - I'm still working on the order. This technique may not work in the end, but I thought I'd get put it 'out there for some feedback. Thanks for yours - always invaluable and insightful as ever.
Do you reset the avatar to the base shape between morphs? The video discusses a keyframe before and after the morph keyframe, but I didn't understand what the before and after shape was.
No, I don't reset. The before and after is a keyframe of the shape dialed down to to 0 eight measure before and then eight measures after the "100%" dialed up '30' mark so it will blend into the next and previous shapes better. It's a work in progress, trying to transition between morphs with the least amount of shifiting of the fabric. So far I've found the more gently the garment settles on the figure while recording the animation instead of abruptly, it remains closer to the original shape and the better chance blending more smoothly with other shapes. (hence running the sim half or quarter time) I'll be sharing the results of a freebie showing this soon.
** Also I updated the scripts in the zip file - be sure to download again if you've already downloaded them.
This is also what I worry about too. I think this method that bohemian has put forth should work well for very low poly and tight garments where interference from the other FBM morphs when mixing would be minimal.
for higher poly shapes and looser fits, i can imagine that the particular folds or drape from a given body could interfere in unwanted ways, and this would probably be an inherent problem. I kind of ran into this problem when i experimented with making pJCMs in marvelous designer (which perhaps is an easier problem for making non interferencing morphs than the FBM problem since pJCM only affects one area where FBM affects the whole garment).
Im just spitballing, but I guess you could do this method as a first pass, and then maybe try to further tweak the FBMs to adhere to a standard drape with less risk of incompatibility when mixing. This would be a hybrid approach of getting a physical sim from MD and then shifting it toward a perhaps less-than-ideal shape but something still better than the autogenerated FBM.
I would also wonder how you could survey every combination of FBMs when doing QA checks to make sure they all mix well.
I guess the beauty of the approach bohemian proposed is its simplicity and once you start tweaking and doing further adjustments then it becomes as annoying and complicated as the manual way. That said, i think the bulk import of FBMs is very clever and will help stay organised. I didnt watch the video or dl the script yet, but did it include pJCMs?
Also, i wonder if we add Solidify to the garment in MD to retain the shape before doing the simulation whether that could help keep the FBMs compatible.
@lilweep - great insights as always. I'm still struggling with how to deal with FBMs that don't play well with others - but I have a few ideas on the way and your possible solution is an interesting one. I'm working on a similar script to import JCMs no matter which software you use to create them. Very similar to the create shapes morphs script, only the JCM pose needs to be loaded for reverse deforms. I'm using the createMorph function in the included code library that also clamps the morph to 0 and 1. I'm going to add hiddenTrueFalse and color fields to both the JSON and function to control the parm display as well.
This is the function definition so far:
function createMorph(oNode, fullPathFileName, morphName, reverseDeformationsTrueFalse, propertyGroup)and here's a single JSON example entry that 'drives' each morph for now. It could be modified for whatever morph you want to import, as long as the figure on the keyframe matches the deformation you're bringing in.
"ShapeName": "Minerva9",
"MorphName": "Minerva9_body_bs_Body",
"MorphPath": "Actor/Full Body/People/Feminine",
"KeyFrame": 210
Thanks again all so much for your insights and sharing your experience. I'm learning so much.
Oh, I hope you decide to become a vendor. Win - win. You would get some recompense for your skill and efforts, and the community would get very high quality content.
So, how is your project of creating FBMs and JCMs coming along? Was lilweep's suggestion of Solidify helpful? I've been curious about all this.
Meanwhile, I tried a skirt design from my 1949 Dress Design book.
Hiya @barbult - the Holidays and the busy start of a new semester took me away from it, but I'm back on track - I look forward to showing results soon - it's been an interesting journey. I've gone a slightly different route using attach to measure and freeze - I should have a video soon. Thanks for checking in.
I really like the skirt - Perhaps a little more thickness around the waistband Maybe sorta? - How did you handle the closure ? the hands covering it. Great job on it. And that simple fold gathering creates nice visual interest with the plaid pattern.
So in the meantime, to be continued ...