How do I make a table solid

llewellyn_87a7cb8b6d

So I've been puttering with Daz for about a month. I can pose, cloth and do most things with a figure. I have a lot to learn though. But I'm stumped. When I try to pose a character interacting with a table chair — well anything really — the figure just passes into through or whatever. How do you make a surface solid so that when your figures hand touches the prop it doesn't just go straight through it? I need a clue as to what to do next. I'm really hoping the answer is not "you can't" as this would take this software out of the realm of usability for an amateur like me.

SixDs

You need to use the "collision" parameter to avoid the affect that you are describing. Essentially, it sets one object to collide with another instead of passing through it.

llewellyn_87a7cb8b6d

I've been able to do this for clothes but nothing else. The figures won't even collide with themselves. I tried setting a table surface to collide with V5 and it bulged out. So I set V5 to collide with the table and she just passed straight through. I'm missing something.

Herald of Fire

There is no magic 'make solid' button. That would require soft body physics which are currently not implemented in Daz Studio. You can use glute morphs to simulate the flattening muscles as a person sits down, and careful positioning to avoid objects passing through each other.

The collision parameter only serves to alter the smoothing effects. It will detect when two objects collide and then bend one item around the other to 'fix' the problem. The problem here is that each figure can only have a single collision object so it won't be ideal for every situation.

fixmypcmike

Remember that it's the points in the mesh that collide, not the faces of the polygons. If the table is one polygon them the surface of the table has nothing to collide with.

llewellyn_87a7cb8b6d

Interaction between what I'm posing and what is in the scene I'm trying to create is quite important for what I'm trying to achieve. I would have thought it essential for just about everything. I'm amazed that people can do what they can given this kind of limitation. It must take months to configure each little joint perfectly so as not to pass into objects.

Is there a software package that doesn't have this crippling problem? Does poser not have multiple collisions? Or am I simply expecting to much from the current level of software. I don't mind spending some money for this feature, but I'm not rich so things are looking grim.

Any advice?

SixDs

What you are looking for is an application that uses a physics engine. They do exist. Poser has physics, but it is a commercial application, although the basic version (Poser 10) is currently on sale until the end of the month. The full blown Poser Pro 2014 costs much more. Blender has a physics engine and is free, however many find the user interface daunting. Blender, unlike DAZ Studio and Poser, is an all-in-one 3D graphics solution and that is at least partially responsible for the complexity of the interface. Other solutions exist, but tend to be pricey by comparison.

kaotkbliss

I am completely confused by this thread. I've never had difficulty keeping items from passing through other objects and it takes almost no time.

Just keep an eye on your viewport as you are adjusting the bend of a joint, when part of the limb touches another object, then stop bending. Sometimes to get the look you want you have to go between a couple of joints bending back and forth, but it's really quite simple and doesn't take that much time.

Herald of Fire

kaotkbliss said:

I am completely confused by this thread. I've never had difficulty keeping items from passing through other objects and it takes almost no time.

Bear in mind that what seems easy enough for some may not always be so for others. Still frames may be simple enough, but it becomes a lot more complex when you're dealing with animations, especially in Daz which suffers from some unusual keyframing issues.

llewellyn_87a7cb8b6d

SixDs said:

What you are looking for is an application that uses a physics engine. They do exist. Poser has physics, but it is a commercial application, although the basic version (Poser 10) is currently on sale until the end of the month. The full blown Poser Pro 2014 costs much more. Blender has a physics engine and is free, however many find the user interface daunting. Blender, unlike DAZ Studio and Poser, is an all-in-one 3D graphics solution and that is at least partially responsible for the complexity of the interface. Other solutions exist, but tend to be pricey by comparison.

Thanks, this feedback helps. It sounds like I either have to zoom in and eye ball ever interaction or move to a package with a physics engine.

kaotkbliss

HeraldOfFire said:

Bear in mind that what seems easy enough for some may not always be so for others. Still frames may be simple enough, but it becomes a lot more complex when you're dealing with animations, especially in Daz which suffers from some unusual keyframing issues.

You just have to remember that all animation is, is a bunch of still frames. While I do admit animate does have it's quirkiness and does get frustrating often, if you set up your animation chunks at a time instead of trying to do the whole half-hour animation at once, it becomes a lot simpler.

Start with one object, set your pose for the first keyframe, move forward say maybe 5-10 keyframes and set the next pose. Then go back through those 10 frames and make sure it all looks good. Then move up 10 more frames and set your next pose, then check those 10 etc.

As you move on, it should become simpler as you get into a rhythm.

Fisty

Select the problem area (like the hand or the pelvis), switch to Perspective camera, there is a button by the camera control that will zoom in on it and make it the center of rotation for the camera you're currently looking through, it's the 2nd from the bottom.. looks like a square with a plus sign inside it. That's how you see things to fix them without spending ages on it. It gets easier over time. (left clicking and right clicking on that button do different things.. so play with it til you've got it down) It's also the easiest way to place and adjust spotlights.

Herald of Fire

kaotkbliss said:

You just have to remember that all animation is, is a bunch of still frames. While I do admit animate does have it's quirkiness and does get frustrating often, if you set up your animation chunks at a time instead of trying to do the whole half-hour animation at once, it becomes a lot simpler..

It's the 'tweening' which generally causes most issues. Sure, you can keyframe every single frame, but it's hardly a practical way to go about it, especially when you're dealing with potentially thousands of frames overall. Again, Daz's own keyframing system has some serious bugs, including unwanted movement of figures. To name but one, some movements continue AFTER the last keyframe in which they were changed, a perpetual motion if you will, moving at the same rate as the last tween despite future keyframes having them hold their position (they 'snap back' at the desired keyframe only).

That being said, I don't have the keyframe plugin for Daz Studio, so I'm talking about the vanilla options here. I'm not a serious animator by any means, but I've done enough of it to know my way around the system... along with its many quirks and bugs.

kaotkbliss

HeraldOfFire said:

It's the 'tweening' which generally causes most issues. Sure, you can keyframe every single frame, but it's hardly a practical way to go about it, especially when you're dealing with potentially thousands of frames overall.

That's why I mentioned just doing small sections at a time, like say 10 or so frames. You get your first frame set and your last of that group, let Daz tween the ones in between, then you can just quickly click through each frame that was tweened and look for any abnormalities and fix them.
Then you move on to the next group of 10 or so frames and do the same thing.