Q - for a Daz pose-a-holic

father1776

This is a shot in the dark but is there some option I can choose that freezes

a posable character in place in such a way where if I grab a limb to manually move it,

only it moves and nothing else ?

I know I can move limbs that way from the side menu.

I want to know if I can isolate a moveable section on a character, easily, so the universal tool would be more useful in posing.

Currently when I use it, it tends to yang everything out of place, not just the limb I grab.

Richard Haseltine

Select the first thing or two that you want to stay anchored and use the pin icon on the viewport gizmo to pin both rotations and translations - but note that if you pull beyond the limits of what the free items can achieve the whole figure will move.

gederix

I recommend use the active pose tool for that, in combination with the tool settings pane (for applying/removng the active pose pins and establishing pin rigidity). Its really great for drag and pose type posing, but you will usually need the parameters dials in conjunction.

For ex posing the arms/hands:

Select active pose tool.

Click on figures chest.

In tool settings pane change pin option from 'pin at origin' to pin at both for maximum rigidity of the chest pins.

Click 'toggle pins'.

You should now see a set of red pins appear on the figures chest. Chest is immobilized, but only when using the active pose tool. (If you switch to the universal  or rotation or translation etc they will ignore the active pose pins.)

While still using the active pose tool, pose the arm by clicking on the hand etc and dragging them into position. When happy with a  body part's position pin that, grab another body part and drag into psoition, pin that, rinse repeat. As previously mentioned use the parameters (or powerpose panel) for rotating body parts, and/or rough 'approximate' posing.

For fine posing, for ex on hands, say grabbing someones shoulder, I find it best to focus on the palm first, maybe pose the hand in a partial grasping pose so the fingers are kind of how they will end up, drag the hand into position, use the parameters dials to refine the twist of the shoulder, forearm, hand, drag hand back into place, check the angle of teh dangle etc, when happy pin the palm with 'pin at both' then grab the finger tips one by one and pull them (or dial them or whatever) where you want them, pin and unpin them as needed. Leave fingertips pinned, unpin palm and pull it into a slightly more dynamic pose relative to the fingers, maybe adding tension and flex, whatever. You can then while the hand and chest are still pinned grab the forearm or shoulder and drag them about, fine tuning for the requirements of your scene, camera angle, etc. The cool thing about active posing is you can achieve things that simply cannot be done just with dials and powerposing. In my subjective opinion anyway. 

If you require some flexibility in the posing, try 'pin at end' or 'pin at origin' and dragging the nearby body parts will move the pinned parts somewhat, and sometimes that works best for what youre doing.

Genesis 2 figures work fairly well for manual active pose drag and pose but be careful of distorting a figure, G2 fingers for ex can pull the carpals way out of position; pinning a chest and then pulling an arm out and down can pull the collar bone wayyyy out of skeletal possibility.

G3 figures are much better at this, the hands for example are very easy to drag and pose finger by finger without influencing each other (G2 fingers tend to affect their neighbor, pull the ring and the pinky moves to due to the carpal rigging I guess. The g3 figure in general is much less prone to going all 'hinky' while click-and-drag posing. G2 can be a bit fiddly, and distort in ways that cannot be undone without backing out of it (cntrl-z).

I used to use the universal tool a lot until I discovered active pose -- its pins are more crude and unforgiving (and do not persist thru saves), however there are some things it can do that the active pose cannot, like say pinning the feet and then rotating the hips.

good luck!

PS: for the sake of clarity of active pose work flow methodology, while active pinning/posing you will constantly be clicking on individual body parts and them framing them in your viewport by clicking on the 'frame' icon so your view snaps to whatever you heve selected, then using the view zoom, rotate and pan tools to swing your view around the item to examine things from all angles as you pose, then going back to camera view to see how things look, then jumping back to perspective, adjust, move on to next body part, frame, swing view around to get a feel for what youre looking at, rinse repeat. Its busy but the results are worth it imho. Posing is an art unto itself really.