Is it possible to delete body parts/anatomical assets from the base model?

Grey_001

Hi again,

This time I have a question about the possibility (or not) to delete body parts/anatomical assets from the base model.
I'd like to try to create something similar to Barret from FF7 or a hand similar to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (see attached images for a better undertanding).
The only thing I seem able to do is shrink or enlarge some body parts with the "scale" option in the "parameters" tab, but I can't find a way to simply delete them from the model.
While the fingers scaled down to a minimum don't look very good, but are somewhat passable for my initial goals, the forearm at minimum scaling just doesn't work.

So, to go back at my main question: Is it possible to delete only specific assets?

I'll be grateful for any knowledge you can share.

Richard Haseltine

It can be done, but it's tricky 9and likely to leave seams in the maps). The old creature creator morph eliminated one finger by shrinking it and moving it inside one of the remaining figners, locking its bends (by multiplying them by 1-the morph value) so that it couldn't mess the look up. On recent figures you could also use a geoGraft to replace the unwanted body parts with a cap or other concealer.

BeeMKay

If you just want to make them "disappear", you can also go into the scene tab, select the bone in question, and klick on the eye in front of it. They are still there in their natural shape, but won't show up in a render.

Grey_001

Thank you both for your help.

Geografting seems to be still a WIP thing (http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/terms/geo-grafting/start), so I'll have to understand how a noob like me can implement it.

It seems that the creature creator morph still hasn't been updated for Gen8 (i can see previous versions for Gen3 and below in the shop), but the idea of shrinking it and moving it inside one of the remaining fingers locking the bends seems like a nice solution.

As for the disappear, thank you for that hint. Unfortunately I was not able to locate the bone (as I think they are hidden by default) and went the long way using the "geometry editor", i then manually selected the polygons I didn't want to see and used hide+delete hidden to get a similar result.

After trying this roundabout way, I got a slightly cleaner result on fingers and a better result on the arm.
With time I'll have to figure out how to place a cap on the forearm.

As for the fingers, the "scale" option in the "parameters" tab seems a bit quicker and wouldn't need to use caps on the missing fingers.

@richard_haseltine: since you mentioned the "locking the bends" option, I was wondering if there is the possibility to do that without the creature morph addon. If I use the scale option to a negative value (which sends the finger inside the plam of the hand) I end up with the seams/rims you see in the sideways hand picture from my previous post.

Thanks again for your kind help.

BeeMKay

The bones are not hidden, you just have to go through the hierachy. Anyway, Geografting is not WIP, it's been around for a while.

I dug out this tutorial, maybe it will help you. It's for DS 4.7, but I think that the controls have mostly remained the same. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/24555/tutorial-starting-out-with-geo-grafting-repost

Grey_001

Thanks for the info about the bones, and thanks a lot for the link!

I'll check it out.

Richard Haseltine

To lock the joint, you need to have your morph that will trigger the lock (obviously).

1. Right-click in the Parameters pane and select Edit Mode (assuming it isn't already checked)
2. Right-click in the pane and select Create New Property
3. I named mine HiddenConstantOne, set the path to Hidden, set the Minimum to 0, set the Value and Default Value to 1, and make sure that use Limits iss et to on. I didn't, at this stage, set the Hidden switch to Yes as it's easier to handle the set-up while the control is visible
4. Right-click on HiddenConstantOne Parameters pane and select Show in Property Hierarchy.
5. Expand the triangles under the HiddenConstantOne entry until you can see Controllers>1st Stage.
6. Find your morph in Parameters and drag it onto the HiddenConstantOne>Controllers>1st Stage
7. Click the triangles to expand until you see the list of Attributes
8. Click ERC Delta Add to highlight, then a second time to get a list of types and select ERC Subtract
   
   Now, as you slide the slider for your morph up to 100% the value of the HiddenConstantOne property shouldd rop to zero.
    
9. Now, for each rotation (or other transform) that you wish to lock, find its entry in the Property Hierarchy, expand the triangles to get to controllers>Second Stage, and drag HiddenConstantOne in to the list

When your morph is zero the transforms will act as normal, when your morph is at 100% they will be multi[plied by 0 and so effectively locked.

You can now hide the constant by clicking the gear icon on its slider, selecting Parameters settings, and checking the Hidden box.

 

Grey_001

Thank you for the detailed, step by step, guide and for your time.

I'll try it on a real morph tomorrow, to see if I can get it to work.

I've tested it on "scale" which isn't a real morph per se, and it didn't seem to change anything.
Also once I hit 0% on "scale" the body part simply stretched upwards for various meters (at 0.01% it still appeared attached, albeit very small).

I've attached a screenshot just for showing the funny result.

Richard Haseltine

Scale wouldn't work, since 0% is vanished and 100% is no change - it should work for rotations and translations.

Grey_001

Hi again,

I just got back from work and I tried to apply the HiddenConstantOne settings on a translation after reducing the size of the finger with scale (otherwise the palm isn't big enough to accomodate the whole finger).
I still need to get the correct numbers patched in, but the end result looks much cleaner compared to my initial attempts.

Thank you for helping me out!