Is it possible to transfer UV maps to new figure?

kaotkbliss

[Is it possible to transfer UV maps to new figure?] What I've done is:

loaded a geograft to a character, deleted the original geometry of the figure where the geograft goes.

Sent the figure and teh geograft to Hexagon and welded the 2 together

Sent them back to Daz studio and transfered the rigging.

 

The problem is, when I welded the pieces in Hexagon, it destroyed the UV information

Since all the vertecies and polys are in the same locations as the original figure, is there a way to simply transfer the wrapping/UV (whatever it's called) from the original to the new figure?

Richard Haseltine

Using another modeller, which wouldn't necessarilt destroy the UVs, would be better. I don't know about Blender - I'd use modo, but that is definitely not free. Still, there are tools for transferring UVs (modo has one, but I am not sure how tolerant it is).

crosswind

....Maya - attributes transfer may be the optimal way...Search on youtube

 

lilweep

Cant you use diffeomorphic to bring character and geograft into Blender, and then click the merge option?  Someone correct me if wrong.

lilweep

Blender also has a Data Transfer modifier which can theoretically work based on nearest vertex in 3d space, so can copy UV that way allegedly

kaotkbliss

So it is theoretically possible, thank you. I was using diffeomorph in blender in blender at first, but I'm not at all familiar with blender and find it very confusing. Also it tends to change the size of things so getting the model back into DS at the correct size for rigging and morph transfer is a real pain, which is why I'm trying other routes. With the DS to UE bridge,  animations are a breeze to incorperate into different UE projects, and the DS characters just look so much better too. I'll poke around Hexagon some more and see if it doesn't have a UV transfer thing, if not I'll look into modo and maya.

Thanks again

crosswind

In last thread, already showed you the flawless way of creating the merged single mesh with Merge Fitted Geomety in Daz Studio and it's already the perfect way of both welding the geometry and reserving the correct UVs for the merged parts. I really don't understand why you have to do it Hexagon. Certainly you can do it with DDI but doing it in DS is much simpler and easier. Though I'm a Blender + DDI user, I won't go that way either.
Besides, even if you want to transfer UV to a merged object, you still need to first of all have a mesh with the correct UVs, which is just the result of Merge Fitted...

kaotkbliss

You mean exporting as object part? To be honest I kinda glossed over that because I just assumed it wasn't doing a true weld and once ported over to UE would cause issues. But since you have brought it up again, I will definately give it a go. Sorry I was being thick-headed :(

ShelLuser

I'm a little confused with the question above... what are you actually trying to accomplish by messing with the UV maps?  To me this sounds like a rather pointless thing to do..

So if I had to guess; are you by any chance trying to apply the textures of one model to another?  Because if so then there are much better ways to do this: focus on the texture maps themselves, optionally use a graphics editor to copy & apply parts of one onto the other. Within Daz Studio you can find these using the 'Surfaces' pane (optionally in combination with the surface selection viewport tool).

For example... for a fantasy project I've been experimenting with applying the looks of the Lord of the Abyss to FW Ash; for example the torso texture even though these don't match at all. For example Genesis 2 includes the ears with its torso texture, and that doesn't apply to 'LotA' or any other of the modern Genesis generations. 

My solution?  Don't bother with UV mapping itself, but edit both texture maps and do some manual copying / plastering to make it work. However, I don't necessarily rely on stuff like Gimp or, my personal favorite, Photoshop Elements myself. Instead... Substance Painter & Designer. If you want to "mess" with textures, no matter how specific or bizarre, then I kinda doubt that anything can top this "monster" combo.

See, just focusing on the texture might not be enough, though this does depend on the model you're working with of course. If you check 'Abyss' for example you notice that it's surface presets use several texture maps:

• Base color
• Translucency color
• Dual lobe reflectivity
• Base bump
• Normal map
• Top coat color & bump (both use the same texture as base bump)

So if you want to try and really copy that look you're going to have to do more: bake / mix the whole thing together so to speak: applying the effects of all those individual 'channels' and then somehow "transform" that to the format you're using (once again: this is within the context of my example: applying HD / MDL towards RSL based textures).

But this is exactly why you won't want to mess with UV Maps; just make sure you can apply the texture (or parts of) from one figure to the other.

For example; one feature of Photoshop Elements is the ability to create "fill layers" which can also use a pattern for that. So... grab the pattern from the original texture, use that as a fill pattern and then use that on the 'shape' (or.. "UV map") for the other texture. Of course I'm over-simplyfing this here, but I don't see why this couldn't work, depending on context.

Hope that this can give you some ideas.

 

Richard Haseltine

He's trying to weld a geoGraft and the base figuer into a single object, but doing that in Hexagon wipes the UVs so now he needs a way to restore them (or a better way to weld the two parts).

kaotkbliss

Yep :(

The thing is, I like the result I get from merging the 2 objects in Hexagon, except for the wiping of the UV textures

I like that Blnder's diffeomorphic can merge the 2 without losing the UV maps, but getting it back into DS at the exact correct size is a pain and I have not figured the correct import scale yet.

felis

kaotkbliss said:

but getting it back into DS at the exact correct size is a pain and I have not figured the correct import scale yet.

I don't know how you have tried, but blender unit is 1 m, while Daz Studio is 1 cm, so a factor 100 in difference..You must correct either when exporting from blender or when importing into DS. 

kaotkbliss

felis said:

kaotkbliss said:

but getting it back into DS at the exact correct size is a pain and I have not figured the correct import scale yet.

I don't know how you have tried, but blender unit is 1 m, while Daz Studio is 1 cm, so a factor 100 in difference..You must correct either when exporting from blender or when importing into DS. 

I use blender to open DS's .duf file directly, merge the geografts, then export as an obj leaving the default size at 1. Which I then try to import the obect into DS but it almost seems as if when blender opens the duf, the width and depth of the model is scaled a slight bit more than the height (the character doesn't quite look the same)

Also if I can get the model imported back into DS at the correct height, the ears don't look to line up with the original model.

I wonder if I should try exporting as an obj from DS, then import that to blender instead. 

 

*edit*

I think I got something that will work, although around the merged area isn't very smooth when posed.

I finally got the export as object without writing seperate groups working so I just exported as obj, reimported as obj, converted to figure (maybe I should have used general weight mapping instead of Triax?), then transfered rigging and morphs.

kaotkbliss

Well, I had an epiphany last night and tried it...

It seems the sizing issue with blender was due to the morphed character. Apparently some of the morphs weren't being applied when opened in blender. I think I should have everything straightened out now.