How to expose joint controls on main figure?
If I select the Right Forearm Bend bone on a character, it has the Bend control that I can dial in. However, I would like to be able to adjust this slider when selecting the main character in addition to being able to do it when selecting the joint itself. Is there a way I can expose this control in a custom category on the main figure so I can adjust it in both places?
Now, I know I can create another morph that is linked to this joint, so that it can control it from the main character. BUT, this is only one way communication, so while it can control the joint from the main figure, if I then adjust the joint itself, it will get out of sync with the figure version of the morph. Is there a better way to create a direct link so that the forearm bend always keeps the same values in both places? I.e. something like creating an instance of the morph, or having the same morph showing up in both places?
Basically, I want to create a custom category at the top level of the character so that I can quickly pose the most commonly used bones without having to select the bones themselves. I want to set this up permanently for my local version of the G8 figure.
Thanks!
Comments
I think you need an alias, but I have no idea how to create one.
Yes..., however, AFAIK, Property Cloner cannot create Alias for joint rotation properties. I'm afraid you have to manually replicate and create an Alias for it on Genesis figure root node and put the dsf file in Base Pose sub-folder in "data" path.
For instance, Right Forearm Bend - Bend already has an Alias on Right Forearm Twist, replicate "alias_rForearmTwist_YRotate2.dsf" as "alias_rForearmBend_YRotate3.dsf" in "data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 8\Female\Morphs\DAZ 3D\Base Pose" and edit the dsf file accordingly. As attached...
It's not exactly what you're looking for, but have you used PowerPose?
Thanks, yea aliases is what I want. I'll play around with these and see if I can get what I need. It looks like you can drag morphs into the intended bone in the property hierarchy to create them easily as aliases, and it does work on joints. From my initial playing around, it looks like controls like hand grasp are already stored on the g8 figure, and the alias is on the hand, while the joint bend is on the joint bone, and needs to be copied as an alias back to the figure.
Oh yeah ! Property Cloner doesn't work but dragging with Property Hierarchy works ! Thanks !
I noticed you also have to be careful the property isn't actually an alias already. For example, if you select the shoulder joint, it has Bend/Twist/Front-Back, but while Bend and Front-Back are real morphs, the Twist there is actually an alias, the original Twist morph is actually on the shoulder twist joint. So you need to copy 2 of them from the shoulder bend joint, and one of them from the shoulder twist joint. If you mess it up, it'll look like it worked, but when you reload the figure, the alias of the alias will disappear, which is very confusing until you figure it out.