Using the Transfer utility to transfer bones from Genesis 8/9 to a prop

Matronius

Hi, I have a humanoid character created in Blender and I have imported it into Daz3d as an .obj file. Is it possible to use the Transfer utility, or any other products from the shop, to transfer the bones from a standard Genesis 8/9 figure to my prop? I need to rig this character but figure setup or manual creation of bones both seem painfully slow!!!

Thanks,

Cliffborne

Richard Haseltine

If its shape more-or-less lines up with the donor, yes - but note that, as a derivative product, it would not be distributable.

Matronius

Thanks Richard, this is fine, I do not want to sell the model, only to use it for my personal renders.

Could you please give me some additional information on the setup? Do I need to use Transfer figure or transfer object? Until now the command has failed to work, the prop just sinks in the floor and changes orientation, and that's it!!! :(

Richard Haseltine

Transfer Utility works on the mesh as imported, any transforms applied within the scene will be ignored. It sounds as if you at least need to adjust your OBJ import settings, or export adn reimport using the same preset in the options dialogue for both operations (which wil bake in the scene transformations).

Matronius

OK, this is what I did eventually. I loaded a Genesis 9 model. Then, I extracted its skeleton by using the command Edit>Figure>Rigging>Extract Donor Figure, which created a copy of the skeleton of the figure. I then converted my prop into a figure (Edit>Object>rigging>convert into figure). This created a figure with a single bone, which I then adjusted to make it similar to the bone of the donor skeleton. At this point, in the Donor Skeleton I selected the Pelvis bone and in the joint editor I selected Reparent Bone. I parented the Pelvis of the donor skeleton to the Hip bone of my newly converted figure. Daz gave me a warning, which I ignored. By doing this, the Pelvis bone and all the bones that were a child of it became part of my new figure. THIS WILL ONLY CREATE THE BONES OF THE LOWER PART OF YOUR FIGURE. Finally, I selected the Spine bone of the donor skeleton and reparented it, again, to the Hip bone in my figure. THIS CREATED THE BONES OF  THE UPPER PART OF THE FIGURE. Then I used the option Edit>Figure>Memorize>Memorize figure rigging. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS, ALL YOUR WORK WILL BE LOST WHEN YOU EXIT DAZ3d. Then, I manually re-adjusted the bones to fit the shape of my new figure.

Now, I need to set the weight maps and edit the limit, but I am not familiar with the process. COULD ANYBODY HELP ME PLEASE?

Thanks a lot,

Cliffborne

TimberWolf

Is your figure derived from the existing G8 or G9 mesh without changing the poly count? If so, import as a morph rather than trying to re-rig it.

If your figure is a complete standalone creation and vaguely resembles a base character then you can use the Transfer Utility (Edit -> Object -> Transfer Utility) to copy the skeleton from a G8 or G9 base present in the scene but you will probably encounter severe distortion when you come to bend the joints, even after you've adjusted the rigging to try to fit the mesh (Joint Editor Mode -> Right Click -> Edit -> Adjust Rigging to Shape). The corrections for this can be quite complex.

You will also have issues with no rig for the eyes/mouth in this scenario and will have to manually create them if needed. Generally, it's far, far, far easier to derive your new character from an existing base and create a morph with the added bonus that the morph *is* distributable, either free or commercially.

A bit more info is needed I think and a screen grab of your masterpiece wouldn't go amiss either if it wouldn't violate the forum rules.

Matronius

Thanks, my figure is a standalone creation that strongly resembles a Genesis 9 character. The command Joint Editor Mode -> Right Click -> Edit -> Adjust Rigging to Shape completely failed in this case.

Is there a way to select all bones and then translate them all together without moving the figure please? Or do I have to move them manually one by one??

Thanks again for your help!!!

Cliffborne

TimberWolf

Is there any reason why you're not using Transfer Utility? This does all the work for you. Make sure your imported character is at world zero, load a base figure and select it as the source with your own figure as the target when you run the utility. You're making hard work out of this! Extracting skeletons and converting figures, moving and parenting bones is heroic work but totally unnecessary unless I've missed something here.

Weight maps, limits et.al will be copied from the donor figure.

Transfer Utility. Edit -> Object -> Transfer Utility. Use that. Adjust the rigging to shape. Job done. Apart from eyes, mouth, correction morphs etc. You have picked a fairly brute force way to go about this and I would strongly recommend you use a base development figure if you want to do this again, unless you absolutely 100% need a higher poly count. That, I can't talk about, so officially you're stuck with the base resolution.

crosswind

As Wolf said, you chose a wrong way.. i.e. rigging a figure from very beginning 'cause that'll be a long journey to get the final usable result... Like the standalone figure - Mister Bobble, making it took much more time than making a common character starting from a Genesis Base figure.

In fact, rigging an OBJ with a donor skeleton is not really a big deal, but making corrective morphs is, if you understand how a typical Genesis figure works... So as others said, the correct way is to make / sculpt your character base on a Genesis X Base figure and import OBJ as morphs.

And I have to say even if you use Transfer Utility to rig it, the common workflow won't work in your case. You may refer to my posts in this thread to rig your Prop: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/8734511/#Comment_8734511

As the very first step after importing you Prop OBJ, align Genesis Base figure to the Prop as much as possible ! before going for the steps in that thread. Then Adjust Rigging to Shape, Posing, etc. will work, however, you still have no corrective morphs. Even if you can transfer morph targets of corrective morphs with Transfer Utility, you'll lose all ERC Links on them, then the workload of fixing them will be huge.

But if you can accept those ugly shapes around the joints after posing it, that may be all right ~~ Like the example I attached, I rigged a standalone Mervin Prop with TU, you can see there's no corrective morphs working on it... while even Bobble has nearly 50 corrective morphs...

 

 

 

 

Matronius

@crosswind could I use Wrap 2023 to wrap my model around a Genesis 8/9 figure with rigging?

crosswind

Cliffborne said:

@crosswind could I use Wrap 2023 to wrap my model around a Genesis 8/9 figure with rigging?

If you mean FaceForm Wrap, yeah, certainly. But it should be: wrap Genesis 8/9 Base figure (floating geometry) around your model (fixed geometry), and the floating geometry needs no rigging, an OBJ file will work.

You may check this thread - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/658421/question-for-the-wrap-app-users

If your model is not that "highpoly", you can even try Shrinkwrap modifier (or other Wrap add-ons) in Blender. Then refine it with sculpting.

Matronius

Thanks @crosswind. I have a license for Faceform Wrap, so I will give it a go and be in touch if I need any help with the workflow it that's OK! I will definitely check that thread too!!!

Best wishes