New and need a little help

mackvison500

Hello. I think I have gotten the basics sort of figured out. However I do have a few problems that I can not seem to figure out. First off since it might help....
I am running Windows 7 with a dual core E5500 2.8GHz processor and 4.0GB of RAM.
Daz studio 4.7 and have installed the Cat Girl Genesis and Visual Style shaders.

My first problem is I double click on either clothing or a prop and it does not add it to the scene. The boxes come up like it thinks about it, but nothing happens or I get an error that it can not read the file. An example is changing the color of the hair or clothing. So I save my work, close Daz down, get an error it is not responding. Restarting Daz usually clears the problem up. Do I not have enough processing power or ram for it to run smoothly?

My second problem is illustrated in the file I uploaded. I can get the cat ears and tail set and posed, but they will not take any of the color choices. Which is slightly annoying, though I would like to make them a different color than the three included. I don't need stripes for the character so if I could just give them a single color that would be perfectly fine.

My third problem which is likely from not doing it right is with the shaders. I had thought just double clicking on the one I wanted would apply it to the render but since that does not do anything... Could someone explain to me how to get the shader to work?

Thanks in advance for any help.

JimmyC_2009

My first problem is I double click on either clothing or a prop and it does not add it to the scene. The boxes come up like it thinks about it, but nothing happens or I get an error that it can not read the file

First of all, are you sure that the item you are trying to load is Figure or Prop, and not just a material pose file? What items exactly are you having problems with?

My second problem is illustrated in the file I uploaded. I can get the cat ears and tail set and posed, but they will not take any of the color choices. Which is slightly annoying, though I would like to make them a different color than the three included. I don’t need stripes for the character so if I could just give them a single color that would be perfectly fine.

Select the item that you want to change the colour of in the Scene pane, then go to the Surfaces pane, and change the 'Diffuse' colour to the one that you want.

My third problem which is likely from not doing it right is with the shaders. I had thought just double clicking on the one I wanted would apply it to the render but since that does not do anything… Could someone explain to me how to get the shader to work?

To apply a shader, you first need to select the object to apply it to in the Scene pane, then you MUST select the Surface in the Surfaces pane, then double click on the Shader preset in the Content Library.

Note that you will probably not see much change in the Viewport, as shaders are calculated by the render engine at render time, and you will only see the correct result when rendered using the 3Delight render engine.

I know that using 3D graphics programs is not easy, we all had to start somewhere. There is a lot of help available in the Help menu in DAZ Studio, with links to interactive tutorials which may help a lot. In the meantime, don't be afraid to ask on the forums here.

mackvison500

Mainly the clothing and hair is what gives me the most problem. I have made the mistake trying to load the material first instead of the base item. For instance the above render, I got the underwear and hair selected and fit to the model, but it took several attempts to get both to change from the base to what is in the photo. Either it gives the error or simply does nothing.

So I select Aldora hair from the hair menu. Auto fit it to Genesis so it will move with the model when I pose it. After it is auto fit, I go into the materials and in this case select Aldora06_DC which is blond. Now it either errors and says it can not read the file or it simply does nothing. If I save and exit, then restart it will change the material the first time I try it. The same thing happens with clothing, load and auto fit the prop, then try and change the material.

Alright, found the menu you were talking about for changing the color and getting the shader to work. Still a lot of tweaking to do and learn, but that was a big help. Thanks.

mackvison500

Okay, got one more question. Is there a way to get the cat tail to work with Genesis 2 figure? The auto fit doesn't seem to work with the tail, but it works fine with the ears.

Steven-V

I've not used the tail or ears props, but my experience with auto-fit is, if it is not a typical, standard item, like a shirt or pants, it will warp or mutate when you try to auto-fit it. The better option is to just load it into the scene without the character selected, and then parent (but NOT fit) it to the appropriate part of the figure (in this case, I suppose hip or pelvis). In theory, once parented, the object *should* follow the part of the character's body to which it is attached.

However, even there, I have seen issues with long/thin props like swords. You will probably have to do some manual adjusting if you have her move in very extreme ways (standing with a slight bend like you have pictured will not be an issue, usually).

Herald of Fire

To be honest, I'm actually surprised even the ears worked out. The Catgirl set is actually a geograft for Genesis. A geograft actually replaces the geometry on the figure and tries to act as if its a part of the model rather than a separate entity. For that reason alone, autofit has a really hard time trying to get them to work since the geometry on Genesis and Genesis 2 differs significantly.

As Steven said, your best bet may be to simply parent the tail to the figure's pelvis or alternatively use a tail designed specifically for Genesis 2.

JimmyC_2009

So I select Aldora hair from the hair menu. Auto fit it to Genesis so it will move with the model when I pose it. After it is auto fit, I go into the materials and in this case select Aldora06_DC which is blond. Now it either errors and says it can not read the file or it simply does nothing. If I save and exit, then restart it will change the material the first time I try it. The same thing happens with clothing, load and auto fit the prop, then try and change the material.

First of all, Genesis and Genesis 2 are completely different figures. You say you are auto-fitting Aldora hair to Genesis, but you must be using Genesis 2 as the Aldora hair fits correctly to Genesis and there is no need fro the Autofit menu to appear. If you want a perfect fit for clothing or hair, then use the hair that is made for the model you are fitting it to. Autofit does it's best, and works well with most things, but it is only ever a workaround.

Genesis is one figure, also known as Generation 5, Genesis 2 comes in both Male and Female versions (2 different figures), and is also known as Generation 6 or G2M and G2F.

I can change the material on Aldora hair easily, even when it is Autofitted to Genesis 2 Female, but you MUST select Aldora Hair in the Scene pane before double clicking on the Material file, then it will work.

mackvison500

It worked so well on the ears that's why the tail confused me so... And while knew they were different, I did not think they were that different. Oh well, little more surfin the forum and playing around is the only way I am going to learn.

And Jimmy you are correct, I got the two backwards in my post.

Thanks for all the responses. Now to fiddle around with the things you have helped me with and go from there.

jestmart

Genesis and the Genesis 2s aren't that different in the since of the mesh (genesis 2s have have more polygons in some areas) and rigging, but all 3 are different figures so that triggers Auto-Fit. Auto-Fit works by projecting the figure's bones/rigging to the item being conformed or Fit-To it, in the case of items that have a bone/rigging set-up completely different then the figure these item get mangled by Auto-Fit.