Expanding an object like a bracelet over clothes?

stripe6499_9253833ae8

I've noticed that some jewelry type items don't respond well to the "Scale" slider, either badly distorting and/or going off to weird places. I was trying to use Mesh Grabber to morph the item one quarter quadrant at a time and pull it outward. The mesh seemed to distort in all kinds of odd ways, even though I tried to make sure I only had the surfaces on one side selected and hadn't accidentally picked up extra surfaces from elsewhere on the bracelet.

So, is there a way to use mesh grabber, select the entire object, and expand it outwards in one go? (I couldn't find such a feature, but then I'm still learning it) Or is there another/better way to expand an object if the scale slider doesn't work?

I'm suspecting that Blender is the answer, but I haven't used that app yet.

felis

I don't think you can use mesh grabber to expand it, as it will expand it in one direction.

With Universal tool selected, have you tried to open Tool Settings and change the Coordinates when scaling?

In blender you can import the item, go to edit mode, select all and scale. If the item is uneven, then first place the 3d cursor in the center of the object and use the 3d cursor as pivot point. You can then reimport in DS and create a morph.

Richard Haseltine

Why not use a dForm? If it's a fairly circular bracelet it should be quite simple to set the Field to give a uniform weight to all parts (and you can always use the Edit Curve button in the dForm pane to even the relevant region more), place the base at the centre point, and scale the required axes on the dForm itself. For a more irregular shape you might use a weight map, selecting all of the geometry from the NodeWeightmap brush too right-click menu then filling with 100% so that the model scaled uniformly.

hejjj12

Maybe this one would work?

https://www.daz3d.com/fit-control-bundle-for-genesis-8-females-and-males

 

stripe6499_9253833ae8

Thank you all for the suggestions. One thing I failed to mention, is that it's a pair of bracelets (left and right) not a single bracelet, which makes it a little more complex as it seems that DFormer won't work as normal on each bracelet, only on the object as a whole. However, I did manage to create a morph using the Universal Tool suggestion  and the Dformer suggestion. It's a bit clunky, but it does work.  Wow, there is so much to learn about Daz. I see it could be a degree subject.

Lyrra Madril

Another solution in a completely differrent direction is to hide one bracelet, export as an obj, repeat on the other side and then bring them both in as separate props.  All the mats and things ought to keep working just fine. Then you can scale, move and do anything you need to the bracelet and parent to the forearm.  Bracelets really don't need to follow the figure's morphs much at all which is the only reason to make them rigged items these days.

hejjj12

stripe6499_9253833ae8 said:

Thank you all for the suggestions. One thing I failed to mention, is that it's a pair of bracelets (left and right) not a single bracelet, which makes it a little more complex as it seems that DFormer won't work as normal on each bracelet, only on the object as a whole. However, I did manage to create a morph using the Universal Tool suggestion  and the Dformer suggestion. It's a bit clunky, but it does work.  Wow, there is so much to learn about Daz. I see it could be a degree subject.

If there are two items you can also just duplicate the items. Then hide one of the two on each. Then there will be two seprete item. You can hide parts of figures with the cutout option or geometry editor. If you like to look it up there are tutorials on yt. Then you can modefy each one sepretly. If you don't do the object solution above.

Richard Haseltine

Positioning the dForm field would allow it to affect only one bracelet, as woulds using a weightmap with a dForm. The  you could use another dForm for the other arm.

stripe6499_9253833ae8

TY Richard. I'll need to experiment with DFormer to understand it more.

 

TheMysteryIsThePoint

If you're venturing into this kind of changes, you've outgrown DAZ Studio. Instead of devoting time to learning the hacks that attempt to make DS in to a modeling program, why not invest in yourself and learn the process of getting content into Blender, and back to DS?

It would probably take less than 30 seconds to do this perfectly in Blender.

 

stripe6499_9253833ae8

Richard Haseltine said:

Positioning the dForm field would allow it to affect only one bracelet, as woulds using a weightmap with a dForm. The  you could use another dForm for the other arm.

That worked even better, and much simpler. Thank you so much.

Richard Haseltine

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

If you're venturing into this kind of changes, you've outgrown DAZ Studio. Instead of devoting time to learning the hacks that attempt to make DS in to a modeling program, why not invest in yourself and learn the process of getting content into Blender, and back to DS?

It would probably take less than 30 seconds to do this perfectly in Blender.

Using the simpler tool that is built-in is often faster than using a complex tool in another application.

WendyLuvsCatz

Richard Haseltine said:

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

If you're venturing into this kind of changes, you've outgrown DAZ Studio. Instead of devoting time to learning the hacks that attempt to make DS in to a modeling program, why not invest in yourself and learn the process of getting content into Blender, and back to DS?

It would probably take less than 30 seconds to do this perfectly in Blender.

Using the simpler tool that is built-in is often faster than using a complex tool in another application.

one could always send to Hexagon too

I myself would just delete one with the geometry editor, centre the other one to 0,0,0 and under edit rigging turn it into a prop 

TheMysteryIsThePoint

Richard Haseltine said:

TheMysteryIsThePoint said:

If you're venturing into this kind of changes, you've outgrown DAZ Studio. Instead of devoting time to learning the hacks that attempt to make DS in to a modeling program, why not invest in yourself and learn the process of getting content into Blender, and back to DS?

It would probably take less than 30 seconds to do this perfectly in Blender.

Using the simpler tool that is built-in is often faster than using a complex tool in another application.

My point was that new vistas open up when you stop seeking the "fastest" tool and start seeking the "best" tool.

And beside that, one of two funny things always seems to happen: What one previously thought of as complex, becomes the most intuitive and easiest, or thinks really start to sink in and you discover a way that gives results much more like you had originally envisioned.

 

Saxa -- SD

Blender is not the "best" tool.  It's a good tool.  For some more-so. For others less-so.

Used it extensively for a year and found it unintuitive. 'Hated' the UI/names/logic layout. Bears repeating - again.

Not everyone needs all the supposed features of Blenders.  DS has alot of cool features/ui etc too.  And could be argued some features are better.  That's another thread.

Agree complex will become intuitive and simpler.  But is very important to stress it takes tons of time to achieve that. Not everyone has time nor interest in that.

Getting back to OP's thread:

Hexagon with its native bridge and following Wendy's instructions works just almost instant, when you get familiar with it.
Most morph-making is so fast in Hex.   Or use zBrush, or other 3D app.

Or just use internal DS dFormers, like Richard lays out.