D-formers does not work on Daz Studio 4.9

juanjoharo

I've created some deformers in differents objects but now it seems not to work, anyone is have this behaviour?

DigiDotz

adding a new deformer works ok  for me

I dont have any scenes with deformers from the previous daz studio to test though

 

Dushka

D-formers work O.K. on a primitive, such as DigiDotz shows, but it doesn't work on any models I have tested so far. With a legacy figure such as Aiko 3 you successfully get as far as the "Spawn Morph" stage, but when you hit "Spawn Morph" absolutely nothing happens. When you load a Genesis figure, select a body part and then try to create a D-former, you get the message "This action requires an item in the scene, with geometry, to be selected".

I hope there are plans to fix this, as D-formers can be such a powerful tool.

stump3point1

Genesis is the mesh. When adding a deform you must select the figure not the body part as this is not part of the Geometry. It's always been the case when using the dformer on genesis. When you do get on then you have to move the field to the body part you want to morph and resize to the area you want affected. It still works for me, even in 4.9. Also after you are finished and satisfied make sure you select the figure before you spawn and not the deform as it won't do anything unless the object is selected and not the former. It will ask if you want to include other morphs before it creates the morph and the dial. That's when you know its working my friend.

sriesch

I can't remember the details, but there's some issue with position of objects and deformers.  Like you can't move it after deforming it, or before deforming it, or something or the field isn't where you expect it.  You could try a quick test with your object loaded at the default or zero position and see if that changes anything?

Robinson

stump3point1 said:

Genesis is the mesh. When adding a deform you must select the figure not the body part as this is not part of the Geometry. It's always been the case when using the dformer on genesis. When you do get on then you have to move the field to the body part you want to morph and resize to the area you want affected. It still works for me, even in 4.9. Also after you are finished and satisfied make sure you select the figure before you spawn and not the deform as it won't do anything unless the object is selected and not the former. It will ask if you want to include other morphs before it creates the morph and the dial. That's when you know its working my friend.

This can't be true.  Watch this tutorial. She clearly adds a d-form to the abdomen, i.e. the abdomen is selected in the scene.

AndyS

Hi Robinson,

did you have a look at the date of that video?
Did you notice the program version?

In the current versions (4.7, 4.8, 4.9) you have to select the object containing the geometry, i.e. the character itself.
And I don't know about the clothing object she used. The D-Former was applied to the clothing - not the character. Perhaps this makes the difference.

SpottedKitty

Dushka said:

When you load a Genesis figure, select a body part and then try to create a D-former, you get the message "This action requires an item in the scene, with geometry, to be selected".

That sounds like the difference between Genesis figures and anything before that. The earlier figures allowed you to apply D-Formers to body parts, because the body parts were separate pieces of mesh. Genesis figures aren't made of separate parts, they're all one mesh. You need to apply the D-Former to the base part of the figure, not a body part.

L'Adair

sriesch said:

I can't remember the details, but there's some issue with position of objects and deformers.  Like you can't move it after deforming it, or before deforming it, or something or the field isn't where you expect it.  You could try a quick test with your object loaded at the default or zero position and see if that changes anything?

I was using D-Form just yesterday, in the current, 4.9.3 release. I was frustrated because the red-to-yellow dots indicating strength of the controller on the object wasn't displaying. I started moving the field around and discovered the dots were no longer centered in the field circles. They were above it. So when I moved the field below the object I was working on, I was able to position the dots where I needed them to be. Everything else worked as I expected, including spawning the morph by selecting the top level bone of the object, (i.e. Havoc Belt.)

I have no idea if this change is deliberate, in an attempt to make the tool easier to use, or if it's unintended and waiting upon a new release to be fixed. Just remember to center the field on the x and z axis then move it down (y axis) until those dots appear.

Also, I saved the scene I was working on and copied the duf file to my render computer. All the D-Form spawned morphs were right were I expected.

Richard Haseltine

L'Adair said:

sriesch said:

I can't remember the details, but there's some issue with position of objects and deformers.  Like you can't move it after deforming it, or before deforming it, or something or the field isn't where you expect it.  You could try a quick test with your object loaded at the default or zero position and see if that changes anything?

I was using D-Form just yesterday, in the current, 4.9.3 release. I was frustrated because the red-to-yellow dots indicating strength of the controller on the object wasn't displaying. I started moving the field around and discovered the dots were no longer centered in the field circles. They were above it. So when I moved the field below the object I was working on, I was able to position the dots where I needed them to be. Everything else worked as I expected, including spawning the morph by selecting the top level bone of the object, (i.e. Havoc Belt.)

I have no idea if this change is deliberate, in an attempt to make the tool easier to use, or if it's unintended and waiting upon a new release to be fixed. Just remember to center the field on the x and z axis then move it down (y axis) until those dots appear.

Also, I saved the scene I was working on and copied the duf file to my render computer. All the D-Form spawned morphs were right were I expected.

The field acts on the zeroed pose, so if the model is not in that state the field will not highlight as expected. This has been true, as far as I recall, for the whole 4.x series so far.

tomfoeofboredom

I can get the yellow and red field intersect dots to show, and the little deformer thing with the handle to show, but it never deforms anything! If it worked it would be simpler than the old trinity of field, base and handle, but no luck so far. And the old stuff worked great!

donovancolbert

The field acts on the zeroed pose, so if the model is not in that state the field will not highlight as expected. This has been true, as far as I recall, for the whole 4.x series so far.

That explains a lot about my frustration with DAZ and D-Formers doing what L'adair describes above. 

The problem is... I won't know that something needs a d-former until I pose it and there is something wrong with one of the Meshes I want to hide or move around. 

That makes D-Formers a lot more difficult to work with. 

donovancolbert

It would be awesome if you could just show the grid view and clip off geometry you didn't want to show in the final render. 

Richard Haseltine

tomfoeofboredom said:

I can get the yellow and red field intersect dots to show, and the little deformer thing with the handle to show, but it never deforms anything! If it worked it would be simpler than the old trinity of field, base and handle, but no luck so far. And the old stuff worked great!

I'm not sure I undrstand the difference - the field is the default way of setting strength, as shown by the red and green dots, the base sets the centre for any scale or rotation effect, and the dForm sets the desired affect by being adjusted relative to the base. It is possible to use a weight map instead of the field, but the base and dForm are as before.

donovancolbert said:

It would be awesome if you could just show the grid view and clip off geometry you didn't want to show in the final render. 

Geometry Editor, select the polygons, assign to a surface and make them invisible (or assign to a group, make that the selection group for a new bone, and turn visibility off for the bone).

Hamfast

Richard Haseltine said:

The field acts on the zeroed pose, so if the model is not in that state the field will not highlight as expected. This has been true, as far as I recall, for the whole 4.x series so far.

Ridiculous logic here by the DAZStudio developers. In most cases the problems with geometries that need to be deformed (because of pokethrough etc.) only appear once the figure is posed. In most cases the problems do not manifest in the zero pose. A very short-sighted way of designing the way D-Formers work. They should work -dare I say it like the old Poser used to do. At least that was logical!

L'Adair is right, the field is there but you have to move the field way up or down to make it visible.

 

onix

It may happen because your deformers do not reach your object.

in general, deformers are pretty useless for rigged figures because they can be applied only in the zero pose.

trying to use them on other poses will end with strange results because they will be manipulating imaginary zero pose figure 

onix

Hamfast said:

Richard Haseltine said:

The field acts on the zeroed pose, so if the model is not in that state the field will not highlight as expected. This has been true, as far as I recall, for the whole 4.x series so far.

Ridiculous logic here by the DAZStudio developers. In most cases the problems with geometries that need to be deformed (because of pokethrough etc.) only appear once the figure is posed. In most cases the problems do not manifest in the zero pose. A very short-sighted way of designing the way D-Formers work. They should work -dare I say it like the old Poser used to do. At least that was logical!

L'Adair is right, the field is there but you have to move the field way up or down to make it visible.

 

To avoid that problem you should use weight maps instead of deformer fields, as this way result is similar as using ZBrush.