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Upgrading poly count of figure permanently

misamisavie98misamisavie98 Posts: 19
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hi,

to make art I use a combination of DAZ and Blender to do some sculpting to my characters. Problem is, base plygon count of gen 8 characters is usually too low to do anything creative with sculpting.

Of course morph loader pro won't let me apply morphs if I export a subD-ed character into Blender and back, so I wanna know: how do I apply subD to a gen 8 character, save it as "CharX - High res" or something and use

it as a regular gen 8 character but with more polygons to play with?

 

Thanks

Comments

  • TimberWolfTimberWolf Posts: 288

    Tutorial here:

    Essentially you set the sub-d level of the character as you prefer in Studio, export that character as an .obj, import and sculpt in blender, export back to Studio as an .obj. Transfer the rigging of a base G8 character onto your new high-res model and finally adjust the rigging to fit. Follow the video through - it's a very straightforward process.

    Subsequently, all poses and clothing will load/fit. No morphs.. not a single one... will be available on your new character so make sure you export your character with all the morphs you may want to use dialled in first.

    You're basically creating a new base character with the skeleton of a G8.

     

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,941

    Just bear in mind that the riggind and shape are designed for the lower resolution mesh, applying them to higher rsolution mesh you are likely to get crunching on the inner angles of bends, where the edges are packed very close together and can easily look ugly.

  • TimberWolfTimberWolf Posts: 288

    It's an unsophisticated, brute-force technique that has the potential to cause all sorts of issues which then need fixing in turn. It's also all there is if you absolutely, 100% want to use higher-poly sculpts and are not a PA.

    @misamisavie98 - are you sure you couldn't get what you're after with normal or detail maps?

  • misamisavie98misamisavie98 Posts: 19
    edited September 2023

    TimberWolf said:

    It's an unsophisticated, brute-force technique that has the potential to cause all sorts of issues which then need fixing in turn. It's also all there is if you absolutely, 100% want to use higher-poly sculpts and are not a PA.

    @misamisavie98 - are you sure you couldn't get what you're after with normal or detail maps?

    I'm not sure. from my understanding, normal maps really give the "illusion" of detail, right?
    Because I'm trying to make a sculpt involving 2 characters, I'm guessing there would be some clipping.

    After making a few tries with Diffeomorphic and the blender bridge (and struggling tbh lmao) I'm settling for exporting the figure as a high-res obj, sculpting, and importing back as .obj.
    This is not optimal as I can't change the figure anymore (when it comes to clothing and stuff) and there seems to bring issues with the eyes surfaces, but for now it's the best workaround I found.

    I haven't yet watched the video you sent, though.

    Post edited by misamisavie98 on
  • TimberWolfTimberWolf Posts: 288

    Normal mapping is a technique that dates back to the earliest GPUs and it works precisely as you imagine. You create a high-poly object and then export and use the normal map on a lower poly version of that model. Unless you're positioning a camera millimetres from your character it should be convincing.

    I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where placement of two models would be so critical that using normal maps would create geometry clipping issues but you're right - technically it could happen. What are you trying to create?!

    You will be able to change outfits, materials and so on once your HD character is rigged but no further morphs will be available. That's the trade-off. You shouldn't have any problems with any of the surfaces either.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,941

    TimberWolf said:

    Normal mapping is a technique that dates back to the earliest GPUs and it works precisely as you imagine. You create a high-poly object and then export and use the normal map on a lower poly version of that model. Unless you're positioning a camera millimetres from your character it should be convincing.

    I'm struggling to imagine a scenario where placement of two models would be so critical that using normal maps would create geometry clipping issues but you're right - technically it could happen. What are you trying to create?!

    Normal (and bump) maps change the way the surface responds to light, they don't move the geometry at all.

    You will be able to change outfits, materials and so on once your HD character is rigged but no further morphs will be available. That's the trade-off. You shouldn't have any problems with any of the surfaces either.

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