Some content creating questions

MightyMite

---think I fixed this item--- but not the artifact one below

MightyMite

another Issue that I'm having pertains to some funky clothing artifacts that I'm finding....

While testing my clothes on a figure, I used Urban Model 02 pose. The shin is pushed up into the thigh. The point at which the pants shin crosses the Thigh's pants leaves crumpled look.

I turned the body off to see it better

Is there any way to fix this?

Wilmap

Try tweaking the Collision iterations. That sometimes helps.

Richard Haseltine

If that's from the upper leg then as Wendy says it's the collision iterations - turn them down if you can, or try getting by without using a Smoothing Modifier at all.

MightyMite

thanks!!! Going to try the collision iterations right now.

I've got another one.

The Toes of my boots are bending funny. I tried to do the Node Weight with little success. Here's a picture of it.

MightyMite

It turned out to be something with the Smoothing Modifier... but I will always keep in mind the Collision iterations in future because I just learned something new that I need to read about. Thank you both of you.!!!

 

Richard Haseltine

Spinach Chin said:

thanks!!! Going to try the collision iterations right now.

I've got another one.

The Toes of my boots are bending funny. I tried to do the Node Weight with little success. Here's a picture of it.

Getting boots to bend smoothly is often tricky. You probably need to smooth out the weight maps, but in many cases you will want to reduce the number of bones that affect them (depending on how rigid the sole would be).

MightyMite

Thanks. I'll try smoothing first but I'll look up how to reduce the bones and try that too. to see what happens.

MightyMite

I'm having trouble figuring this out... here's the image.

Image removed for nudity.  Please see this thread for info:  http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3279/acceptable-ways-of-handling-nudity

First: Is there any way to keep the belt from squashing as much while bending the figure?

Second: The Buckle is a Parented Prop onto the belt that I then made into a Wearable for G3. For the most part it works as expected. However In this pose the buckle is poking into the figure. Is there any way to prevent this. Is this the Collision mentioned above? If so can you direct me to better documentation either on DAZ or on Yahoo that may help me out.

And what is the exact proper term for this so I can search it properly 

Thanks again.

 

MightyMite

I was able to fix the belt by assign "Rigid Follow Note" to the belt... but still trying to figure out the sqishing... some is alright but I'd like to reduce it some

Richard Haseltine

I can't see the image (please repost with a figure that lacks skin, or take your screenshot in smooth shaded preview) but that's probably a tradeoff between making the weights across the belt uniform (and getting poke-through) and letting them vary (and getting squishing). The trouble is that the figure's mesh won't respond to the clothing as flesh would to a hard item like a belt.

MightyMite

Richard Haseltine said:

Spinach Chin said:

thanks!!! Going to try the collision iterations right now.

I've got another one.

The Toes of my boots are bending funny. I tried to do the Node Weight with little success. Here's a picture of it.

Getting boots to bend smoothly is often tricky. You probably need to smooth out the weight maps, but in many cases you will want to reduce the number of bones that affect them (depending on how rigid the sole would be).

Any chance you can point me in the right direction for documentation about reducing bones in the boots? DAZ's documetation center is blank and I can't find anything useful. Is this an easy procedure?

thanks in advance

Richard Haseltine

The Joint Editor tool right-click menu should have the commands you need.

MightyMite

I've tried to remove bones but not sure if I'm doing this correctly because I keep getting mangled results. Which bones should I generally target  first?

1) First Image is what I start with. I'm trying to flatten the toes and sole.

2)Here I've identified the boot's bones

3) Going to delete

4) result crumple

5) Delete more

6) all toe bones gone

 

Is there a certain set of bones I should remove? I've tried "remove unused bones" to no result.

Do I need to set some variables to the bones? If so is there documentation on the best settings results?

Thanks for your help

 

 

MightyMite

I tried this multiple ways and even thought about using the node weight  to smooth it out with no luck. I can't accept that making boots is this hard. I've got to be missing something crucial.

Thomas Windar

You are probably making a simple mistake. 

1. First of all - make sure the character is standing in Zero Pose. Go to Window -> Panes (Tabs) -> Tool Settings. Dock that window somewhere where you have access to it. 

2. What figure is this Boot for? If Genesis or Genesis 2 - There should be a bone called "Left/Right Toes". Remove all of its children in the boot. 

3. Go into the Node Weight Map Brush and look in the Tool Settings. You should see the maps you have there when you click on the "toes bone" in the Scene tab. If you see X, Y and Z Rotation maps - its TriAx. If you see one "General" it is General Weight mapping. 

4. Select the "Toes" bone of the boot in the Scene tab. Click on one of the maps (you will repeat the proces for each map) and Paint a red area over the part that will move uniformly (a.k.a - it should be solid when moving with the fingers).

5. Select the Smoothing brush in the Node Weight Map Brush pane. Paint the area that bends blue. Now have the "Toes bone" bend. If the bending is weird - smooth out the area to make it look better. You will be checking, painting, checking, painting a lot now with the smooth brush to nail it.

 

Additionally, make sure that the boot has enough room to host the toes. Smoothing Modifier often changes the shape of the object, trying to adjust it to the source figure. Rigid items usually should not have it. 

MightyMite

This is for Genesis 3... But I'll try what you suggest. If it works for 1 & 2, it might for 3.

Thank you.

MightyMite

This sounds like it should work... I'm using Genesis 3. But there must be enough of a change in the feet bones that it's not.

For one thing, I found the Left/Right Toes and the bones that should children are on the same level as this bone. Left/Right Toes don't have any children. I  tried tio go ahead and remove what should be the children and go forward but nothing shows up for this bone under the "node weight map brush"

Richard Haseltine

Actually, when I said reduce the number of boens that affct the boot I was initally thinking of editing the weight maps to remove the influence.

Thomas Windar

Genesis 3 explains a lot.

Alright, so my first question:
Do you know how to use the Joint Editor, Geometry Editor and Node Weigh Map Brush? Are you accustomed with the "Tool Settings" pane? Depending on that, I'll have to give you more detailed instructions.

I'll try to guide you through the process. 

MightyMite

I'm becoming more familiar with these tools. But I'm a relative newbie

Thomas Windar

And here I thought I could just write it down.... But that would be a huge text dump that will take too much time.

Look - what you are trying to do is a more complex process than you think. You will have to look online for information on the following:
- What is a rig and what bones do?
- What are Weight Maps?

After that you have to read up on:
- TriAx Weight Mapping. 
- General Weight Mapping.

And once that is done and you get the gist of it, learn what these tools do:
- Joint Editor
- Geometry Editor
- Weight Node Map Brush

Make sure you have the "Tool Settings" pane open to see the options for the tools listed above. 

After you read up on all that, you will be able to fix the shoe. The main idea with the shoe is this:

1. Remove the bones for the toes, leaving only the "Left/Right Toes" bone there to affect the movement of the shoe.
2. Make sure the boot has enough room to host the whole foot inside.
3. Using the Node Weight Map Brush you will have the paint the tip of the shoe carefully so it is fully red. The area that should bend as you walk, should be smoothed with the smoothing brush, so it bends naturally.
4. Make sure only one bone affects the shoe tip bending, otherwise it will get weird. 

Writing the whole process down is just impossible.... Maybe a video would work out. You might find some tutorials on YouTube. 

MightyMite

Actually all of that makes sense.

I guess saying a newbie wasn't the right word. I'm not a tech genius pro.... otherwise I wouldn't be asking for help.

Thanks I'll give this a try. And let you know my outcome

MightyMite

well, I'd have to say this is a whole lot better. Thanks Thomas Windar!

I removed all the bones except the "main" one. Right/Left Toe. I upped the sensitivity of the brush. then I painted the toe red. It took me 3 tries to figure out how far up the toe I should paint but it got rid of all the funny remnants and stuff...

 

I think this is an acceptable fold.... I tried to find the "sweet" spot but took too much effort.

Does this fold  look good? Is it presentable for the public? Or would I need to work it out some more?

Not sure what  would be considered professional looking.

 

MightyMite

Oh.. and if anyone is following this. After Deleting the extra toes. I was left with either Right/Left Toe.... this bone did not have a map associated with it. So I had to add a General Map under the Weight Maps tab. The map did not auto show up. I had to click to another bone then go back to it for the new map to show up.

Thomas Windar

This is looking ok now.

Just use the smooth brush now to smooth the bend area (with a low sensitivity) and it should eventually end up ok. 

Mythmaker

Good job oin the whole. As Thomas said, more smoothing shall do.

 

I like G3 for simple characters, no need to deal with bulge maps. But oh the number of toes...

Here's a Allen Daz3D video showing the tedium of rigging shoes for G3, lots of userful info in there

After watching that video I ran away screaming and made note to self: avoid high heels for G3F actors! Just buy them or recycle whatever! lol

 

MightyMite

Thanks!  and Yikes. Good advice on the heels.

Does anyone know how to delete more than one bone at a time? I'm making a mask that doesn't need all the 150 thousand bones that are in the head that control expressions.

But these bones are affecting  the mask while making expressions. So I'm trying to delete them. but one-at-a-time is way too slow. I've tried shift and alt and ctrl... but no  luck. ARGH

mjc1016

Spinach Chin said:

Thanks!  and Yikes. Good advice on the heels.

Does anyone know how to delete more than one bone at a time? I'm making a mask that doesn't need all the 150 thousand bones that are in the head that control expressions.

But these bones are affecting  the mask while making expressions. So I'm trying to delete them. but one-at-a-time is way too slow. I've tried shift and alt and ctrl... but no  luck. ARGH

It's been a while...but I thought there was an 'unused' or 'child' option with the delete.

MightyMite

I've tried these two options (unused and child) and they won't delete.

You can even select all the children bones... but when you go to delete it just deletes one bone....

And for some reason it doesn't see most of the facial bones as unused even though the mask is only a domino mask.

mjc1016

Spinach Chin said:

I've tried these two options (unused and child) and they won't delete.

You can even select all the children bones... but when you go to delete it just deletes one bone....

And for some reason it doesn't see most of the facial bones as unused even though the mask is only a domino mask.

You have to break the connection to the 'main bone' before it's considered 'not used' and most of the facial bones are only one step down.