What if I leave Something In?

inquire

I'm working on a G8M character face. I'm saving it out as a Shaping Preset. It takes a long while to go through all of the opitons and uncheck those not needed. I'm doing this over and over, because each day I make new choices and change things. Thus, I save the Shaping Preset again and toss out the previous version.

(There are some obvious one, of course, that are quick to uncheck.)

So, my question is, what if I include some characters, say, that I do not need, but am sure to include those that I do need. Does the inclusion of extra, unneeded options, harm the Shaping Preset? That is, will there be any distortion in applying the Shaping Preset to a new character, if there are items in the Shaping Preset that are not needed?

Richard Haseltine

Anything included will have its settings applied to the target. That isn't necessarily a bad thing - if you included everything it would zero any other shape when applying the preset, if you include only the non-zero values then you may get unwanted stacking of shapes. There is an option menu half-way down the right-hand edge of the dialogue which may help with selecting/deselecting settings.

inquire

@RichardHaseltine:

You wrote: There is an option menu half-way down the right-hand edge of the dialogue which may help with selecting/deselecting settings.

I think I understand what you are saying, but for further clarification: Are you referring to the Check Only --> Check All Modified, and/or the Uncheck --> Uncheck All Modified Options? So, if I have modified the shape of the head, I could simply choose the All Modified option, and the Shaping Preset would include those items? (Screen shots included.)

Richard Haseltine

That's the one.

inquire

@RichardHaseltine:

Now, I've already saved it out, doing as best I could before I learned about Check Only --> Check All Modified, but I still have the scene saved. What if I were to reopen the scene and again select to save as a Shaping Preset, and this time select Check Only --> Check All Modified, would that work?

In other words, what I'm asking is would DAZ Studio, with a reopened scene, be able to figure out which modifications were made to the base figure (a Michael 8.1 HD)? Or, would the Check Only --> Check All Modified procedure only work if that were done while the scene was still open, but after saving and closing the scene, DAZ Studio would "forget" which modifications had been made?

Richard Haseltine

As I recall All Modified selects the properties that do not have their default values. Aplying a Shaping preset dosn't chnage the defaults (a Character preset does) so I think you would get the same result, if I understood the question.

inquire

@RichardHaseltine: Well, OK, let's see how I can put this to be more clear:

(1) First, I'll start with a new scene file. (2)Then, I take the Shaping Preset that I've already done, and I use a new Michael 8.1 HD figure, and I apply that Shaping Preset.  (3) Now, I resave that Shaping Preset with a new name, but this time, I use the Check Only --> Check All Modified feature that I previously did not know about. (4) The result is that I have 2 Shaping Presets, one done with my best guesses as to which items to check and which items not to check; and the other done with the Check Only --> Check All Modified feature. (5) I've already done this, and they both appear to be the same when applied to new Michael 8.1 HD figures. (6) You cautioned, I believe that if I " include only the non-zero values then you may get unwanted stacking of shapes." 

(7) So, would this second saving of the Shaping Preset, with the Check Only --> Check All Modified feature work to avoid the possible "unwanted stacking of shapes"? In other words, which version of the Shaping Preset would be better? I now have two versions, and I can discard either one.

Richard Haseltine

My point was that if you select only the modified properties then if you apply it to a figure that isn't in the base state - if you had applied a different shape to it already - then the preset will not zero any proeprties that the prevciously applied shape set but which it doesn't use.