Using D-formers on figures
barnabet14_6e3228f4c2
Posts: 74
I tried using D-formers on figures, even parenting them to bones, and the field appears around the SCENE origin instead of the figure or bone origin. It means the field sphere and the actual influence map are not at the same spot. Am I doing it wrong or is it a bug?
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I have the same problem. I usually just live with it or move the figure back to scene origin if it's too tricky to get the influence map where I want it. Seems like a bug.
It's the way DForms work now, not a user-error or a bug. Using a weight map (Create>New DForm Weight Node) allows more precise control.
Parent the D-Form field to the D-Form root. If you then parent the D-Form root to the bone and 'zero selected item' by right-clicking on the Parameters tab, it should adopt the bone's SRTs. If it doesn't snap to the bone, there's a script in Script>Utilites called Snap-to-Parent (first select the bone and then Ctrl-select the D-Form root in the scene tab to have them both highlighted - select in that order).
thanks for the advice but it only works in the zero pose: if the figure is moved, the field stays related to the scene origin, while the actual influence map stays on the bone.
Not if you parent the field to the D-Form or bone. Or at least I'm sure that works for me.
The trick I use is to add a new "zeroed" clothe for visual help. I move the field sphere around the "zeroed" clothe and the impacted vertices appears on the clothe with D former right where I want. When it's OK I delete the "zeroed" clothe
At least it works for my needs and certainly not as smart as Jimbow solution :-)
Oh I see what you mean! It's low tech but definitely clever.
ah please let me jump into the theme with a simple question. In my current scene I have more then 20 D-Formers. 3 of them does always get deleted when I close the scene. Means that they are not more existing after reload. It happens only at 1 object, which is a T-shirt out of the M7intimates. So my question is if there is a limit of D-Formers per object or if it happens possibly because the prop is morphable ?
As I once started with D-Formers I had that moment too where I firts thought something is wrong with these things and they dont work like poser magnets do.
The D-Former influence sphere needs to be positioned in relation to the base figure shape and zero T-pose I think. Or you switch the spheres Influence to WeightMaped after that the position of the influence sphere can be ignored.
This can be very irritating if you add a D-Former to a existing scene with a posed/morphed figure.
If I use D-Formers I first go to timline frame 2 and create a keyframe to memorize the figures current state - then I go to timeline frame 1 and zero the figure to base shape/pose. Within this frame you can position/rotate/scale the influence sphere more precisely and then tweak the settings of the D-Former in some other frame.
@ harrykim
Wow 20 D-Formers the time you set these up you could have learned how to use another program to do the morph shape you want. Did you once think of spawning the morphs (btw there is a D-Form pane for doing that) - but maybe its faster to export the resulting shape geomerty as an OBJ-file and load it as a morph with Morphloader.
D-Formers are great to have and the only thing in DazStudio that you can actualy create precise morphs with - but maybe they are intended to used once and to delete them after spawning the morph to the figure/object.
Using the D-Former with WeightMap - Influence Mode (found in the parameters of the influence sphere) and painting the weight maps with the Node Weight Map Brush tool feels almost like sculpting with eg. ZBrush if you first had made some settings to the D-Former.
thanks Syrus for your response. I will need a few more readings to understand what you suggest. But you ( and the discussion before ) focused me on, that using D-formers can be made with way more concept then I do so far. I have extracted from your response that there is no limit on the amount on d-formers and that my problem does have nothing to do with that I used the tool on a morphed object. For my current project I will keep it as it is and replace the lost morphs befor I do the final render. Thanks again
Maybe there is a limit of D-Fomers in a DS scene file - I dont know - never reached that number. But with the D-Formers set to weightmap influence you maybe can use far less D-Formers to archive the shape.
Using DFormers with Weight Map (Influence Weights)
Did you know that you can switch the dformer influence field from the default sphere to a weightmap influence?
Maybe not everyone knows about - so you have to select the DFormer Influence Field go to Parameters pane look for "Influence" and switch the "Influence Mode" from "Sphere" to "Weight Map". Then go to "Tool Settings" > "Node Weight Map Brush" and under "Unused Maps" you will find the "Influence Weights" channel you can now add with the button "Add Map". The new weight map gets the initial gradient of weight paint we have seen as shpere influence before.
no, I realy used the tool the simplest way so far. It has its limits but is so cool. Thank you for your tip !!