Quick tip for getting your Daz character to look at you automatically.

Kaze

I have been a long time user since about 2008, and I think it's time for me to start sharing some of the things that I have found.

Some newcomers might not know that the Point At feature can be set on an eye to have the pupil looking directly at an object. If your object is a camera then the eye looks directly at you when you possess the camera. It will find the perfect eye rotation and since the modern Genesis figures have joint controlled morphs for the eyes and defined limits it makes it so that all you need to worry about is the position of the camera. Or in other words where you are standing if you think about it like you were the camera man.

Just select the eye in the parameters tab, click on the constraints section, and set Point At to the camera you are possessing.

You can also have them looking at a simple primitive that you create to be like a guide that you can place to directly control where your figure is looking. When you are ready set the primitive's visibility to off.

Kaze

Keep in mind that when your figure becomes complex with clothes, hair, and props that this may eat at your resources when you move your camera. Best to do this when you are closer to rendering.

chris-2599934

That's a handy tip, but has its limitations. It'll move the eyes, but not the eyelids, nor (of course) will it turn the head.

I massively recommend using this product instead: https://www.daz3d.com/look-at-me-ii-pose-control

It's a whole stack of tools for getting characters to look at things, cameras and each other. I use it in every single scene I make, and can't imagine working without it.

Kaze

That is definitely true. This technique has its limitations and if someone wants the advanced tooling definitely a good product.

I find on G9 that there are some neat pose controls for the eyes that do change the eyelids in a convincing way for me. The pose controls look to be joint controlled to the eye rotations so it works out quite well.

I attached some images to show what it looks like. The only thing I changed was the position of the object the eyes are looking at.

 

 

Zicon

chris-2599934 said:

That's a handy tip, but has its limitations. It'll move the eyes, but not the eyelids, nor (of course) will it turn the head.

This was true for generations older than G9. On G9 the lids will follow the eye movement.