More Clothing/Purchase Issues # I want to throw things at stuff
I have been in a 36hr battle with Daz 3D Studios. I give them money and DIM says it gave me the products. And while I guess it "sort of" did, I don't have them in any way that is useful. Here is what I'm looking at...
Purchased: Dynamic Martial Arts Gi
DIM refused to install it. So I unsuccessfully tried a manual download. Then, after I cried on the forum about it and DIM was satisfied that I looked foolish in front of my new Cool Friends, it finally agreed to install this purchase. Sort of. Some how I was able to get the Large and Medium sizes to appear under Wardrobe but when I try to apply them to my characters, the clothes look like parkas and snow pants. No one does Karate in parkas and snow pants except maybe really angry eskimos which my characters are not! Also, I can only apply one piece of clothing. Either the pants or the jacket. If I try to add another, the window pops up like it's reading the file but then disappears. Also, this product has various different color combinations for the jacket, pants and belt. None of which are listed under Wardrobe for me to apply. I can find/see them on the right side of the screen under My Library but I can't get them to actually apply to the characters from there. I tried right clicking and making them appear in Smart Content. They populate in that area but again, refuse to apply to my character and don't stay saved there. So in frustration, I gave up on the Dynamic Martial Arts Gi for now.
Purchased: Fight Uniform for Genesis 2 Female
DIM installed this purchase but did not make it available under Wardrobe or in My Library. The items were nowhere to be found. So! using advice from other threads, I was able to locate it on my Hard Drive (C/User/Public/Documents/My Daz3D Library) and move it to the folder that a tutorial told me to place things in. Viola!! They appeared under Wardrobe. But when I tried to apply them, an error message came up saying "Nooo we can't find that file in the folder you just moved it from, even though when it was there we acted like we didn't see it." So I then COPIED the folder, put it back in the original place DIM put it. At this point I was able to apply the clothing. Certain parts of their bodies where visible through the clothes (bleeding? is that the right term?) but they were already posed when I applied the clothes so maybe that was why. Either way, it was minimal and easily patched using GIMP. Not the right fix but I was running out of hair to pull at this point so whatever. Also, as I stated above about the Dynamic clothing, the various different material colors were viewable on the right under My Library but did not appear under Wardrobe on the left and could not be applied to my characters.
So there is the history of my struggle. When I got into this, I was (and am) prepared for a steep learning curve. Lights are going to take me time, getting accustomed to pose control and their options, camera placement ect... but I did not forsee it would be this hard to purchase material and have it available for use. That part should be the easy part. I did download some things from Renderosity and was prepared for a little push back in DS since it wasn't organic content. I was NOT prepared for DAZ/DIM to have a "Yes. No. I don't know. Maybe." attitude when it come to content purchased on the site. I know this is probably the 179th remake of "Ballad of the Noob" but seriously, isn't that an indication that something is rotten in the state of Denmark? Should it be this difficult? At the moment the only thing I can say that IS easy is asking questions in the forums because at least you guys understand why there is head blood on the wall by my computer.
Maybe I'm 180 off and am causing all my own problems or shouldn't trust DIM to install Daz Content. I don't know. I'd say to hell with it but after seeing some of the things that people make here, I see whats possible and want to be able to do the same. One day. You guys came out on the other end of this thing so I'm pretty sure I can too. But as of this day, I can't even dress my characters. If there is anyone out there that can shed some light on this or tell me what I'm doing wrong, it would really help. But more than anything...I just want someone to hold me and tell me that everything is going to be okay.
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Comments
I'm not holding anybody, but everything will be fine. eventually. Sometimes using the Content Library directly is more efficient than Smart Content for finding stuff. Smart content relies on metadata, the content library simply has everything installed in there. Keep at it. It will all start to make sense.
I already answered this in your other thread : http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/65129/can-t-install-clothing#latest
DIM installs ALL content by default into C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library and you cannot just move certain items into another folder and expect them to work I'm afraid. The large 'box' that you were seeing in one of your images was because DS could not find the 'data' folder which holds information that it needs to load the item.
Since you have a 'My Library' folder, I assume that you had content installed earlier without using DIM (My Library was the older library name, My DAZ 3D library is the new one) You can install everything into My Library if you so wish (instead of My DAZ 3D Library) but it means adding that path to DIM, and making sure that it is selected when you install any content. I have never seen DIM refuse to install anything, and I believe that you mentioned the Photoshop bridge? The PS Bridge is not required to install, load or save content, and has nothing to do with the running of DAZ Studio. It is only of use if you have a recent version of Photoshop installed, and want to send finished renders there to work on them, otherwise it plays no part in anything.
DIM installs to the default folder, but it does NOT put the path to that folder into DS for you, you have to that yourself, and I believe that I saw that you had it there in a previous post? What you seem to be using is 'Smart Content' which relies on Metadata being installed for it to work properly. The Content Library pane shows ALL of your content whether it has Metadata or not, and you can find out exactrly where it was installed to by looking in DIM.
Go to DIM, select the Installed tab, find the item you want to know about, right click on it and select 'Show Installed Files', that will give you a list of links to where the content was placed (and they are clickable links).
I cannot find any 'Fight Uniform for Genesis 2 Female' can you give a link please?
To recap, if you install to My DAZ 3D Library, you cannot just move certain items to another folder and then expect it to work correctly. You would first uninstall the complete item from there, and reinstall it to where you want it to go. DIM loads the Metadata for you when it installs products, if you install them yourself, you have to use the Re-Install Metadata option for the drop-down menu in the Content Library pane.
Did you run the simulation to drape the clothes? Those are dynamic clothes, they don't work in the same way as regular conforming clothes which will adjust to your figure pose right away.
The colors are materials you add to the clothes, not full clothes. Load the main clothes (the ones under wardrobe) and select one of the pieces, you sould see the materials appear in smart content. The you can apply them to the clothes.
DIM default install path is not listed as a content directory in DS by default. Either change the install path in DIM (there's a gear icon which enables you to change DIM options) or add the DIM folder to the list of your content directories in DS (go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library and select "Content Directory Manager" Look in "Content Sets"-->"Current Directories", add C/User/Public/Documents/My Daz3D Library to DS format and Poser format sections).
Hi. Let's see if I can help with at least some of your problems. I'll let the experts explain your DIM installation woes because, frankly, I have my own problems with DIM don't wish to influence whether someone uses it or not. So, let's start with the Dynamic Martial Arts Gi. Any clothing item that uses the word Dynamic in regards to clothing needs to be used in conjunction with the Dynamic Clothing Plugin. I'm pretty sure that there is a light version of this that ships with DAZ. To find it right click on the edge of one of your window panes and a pop up menu will, uh, pop up. Select add pane and Dynamic Clothing will be in the list. Or you can find it through the menu bar at the top under "Window>Panes (Tab)>Dynamic Clothing". This Dynamic Clothing Tutorial should help to get you started. I'm also including a link to an excellent tutorial on using Dynamic clothing intended for one model and using it on another. FYI, all dynamic clothing looks like parkas and snow pants when first put on the model.
Materials - After you have your clothing on the model, make sure the clothing item is selected then click on the materials folder. In a perfect world, all of the materials associated with the highlighted clothing item should appear in your smart content. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case, but that is how it should work. On the off chance that it doesn't, click on your article of clothing so that it is highlighted. Go to your product library where you found the item of clothing then right click on the pretty icon picture for your clothing and select "Explore associated files". This should take you to a window inside your tab that says the name of the clothing item and has two options, "Helps customize..." with a bar and the number of files associated with the item and "Is customized by..." click on this tab and all of the material options (even from third parties if the metadata is correct) will appear in the window for you to use.
Bleeding - The term you are looking for is Poke-thru. The first step is to click on the clothing item to highlight it then go to the Parameters tab to see if the product creator helped you out with some fit and movement morphs. I always try these before doing anything on my own. For Poke-thru, you usually want Parameters>Adjustments. There might also be Move and Style options.
I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference because I have applied clothing before and after posing, but I usually try to do all character clothing and modifications while the character is in T-pose. It just makes life simpler. As far as your "Ballad of the Noob" goes, there were a couple of funny bits. I hope you found something useful in my advice. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable tha I am will pop in shortly.
edit: I forgot to add that even once you get your model all set, you might still need to go in and tweak clothing after posing, as well.
Holy Cavalry!
Jimmy, you're the man. I know you tried helping me in my earlier thread and that was the only reason I knew where to find the files in the first place. And brother, believe me, I wouldn't be messing around moving files if I didn't have to. DIM can put them where ever it wants as long as I can use them. But since I found that I can't expect them to work in whatever folder it chooses either, I sought other alternatives. It's not that I thought I was smarter than DIM. I'm dimmer than DIM and that's saying something because I am starting to think DIM is pretty dim too. I don't know what the PhotoShop error was about but it stopped and I was able to download so that's all set. I didn't install any path though because I wasn't aware that was a thing until you just said it. But I'm going to take what you wrote and see what I can find so I know what to do in the future so I really appreciate it! And here is that link for the uniforms.
http://www.daz3d.com/fight-uniform-for-genesis-2-female-s
I think I might just uninstall/delete everything since I may have made a mess out of it and start from scratch with these procedures.
Leana/Knittingmommy
No I didn't run the simulation to drape and the reason is because I don't know what that means. I may have bit off more than I could chew by messing with Dynamic clothing so early. Honestly, I purchased it because it looked awesome and I read "Dynamic" in the same way I read "Flame Broiled" "It's Toasted!" and "Ribbed for her Pleasure!" does it really make a difference? I dunno. "Dynamic" just sounded exciting. But Knittingmommy got my back with those tutorials so that'll help! And you both clued me in on the materials thing. I did think that Red Pants would be listed along side White Pants. But the materials thing does make more sense. Having a sperate item for every variable would be pretty space consuming.
So THANK YOU ALL! I'm going to take everything you told me and tell it to DS and see what it says next. I've only been doing this for a week and I am TERRIBLE at almost everything but there are 3-4 things that I can say I am proficient at and you guys are a HUGE help.
Oh and if anyone else reads this and thinks of anything that hasn't been mentioned or just might be a good tip, lay it on me! Please!! I'll make you proud one day.
You crack me up!!! Too funny, but sometimes very appropriate. Dynamic does just sound cool!!
You will figure it out! And probably quickly lol. I felt the same way just a few short weeks ago. Its starting to make sense though. The people on these forums are a Godsend! I never use Smart Content and am workign on organizing all of my content the way I want it so I can find it easily. There is a thread here somewhere let me go and grab the link for you. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/64485/taming-the-content-library-beast#latest ; . This is where I finally figured out how to organize my content my way. And the best thing is, you can put both Daz AND Poser files together here. You arent actually moving anything you are basically making links to the content. For instance, I have a genesis category. Under genesis I have characters - clothing- hair- poses etc. Under clothing I have women - men - kids. Under women I have dresses, outfits, outer wear, cloaks etc. So if i want the genesis morphing fantasy dress I go directly to my categories tab, genesis, clothing, women, dresses, and voilia there it is. And after each dress I have materials files so I can find all of the textures for each piece of clothing without spending three hours trying to find the ones that match that particular item.
Good call Sonja and thanks for the encourgement! Most of my frustration is born of ignorance. The other posts today on this set me straight and I walked away with more good info than I expected. All my clothing woes have been allayed. I actually started a "How to..." binder for reference (literally, printed out in a binder) and I do have the Content Beast post in it. Along with a few others. I hit a few stumbling stones again this evening but was able to figure them out without asking questions or reading posts. Looking at my stuff now, I know it's shyt but looking back 1 week ago when I started with the "Barefoot Dancer" tutorial, I am leaps and bounds a head of where i thought I would be. So yup, it's mostly just elbow grease!
You should come over to the newbie contest thread. We start a new one on Monday. Each month they focus on a different area of doing a scene. It was incredibly helpful and I learned a HUGE amount of stuff not just about atmosphere (this months focus) but a bunch of other things as well. And we are all new so its not quites so intimidating lol.
Since you requested it in your PM to me, I thought I would post some photos of what the Dynamic Martial Arts Gi looks like before and after draping and give you a few tips that I've found helpful. This particular outfit is a little more finicky than most. I don't know why. Follow the tutorial that I posted. The tip in there of scaling up is especially good. It is useful with this item. Or you can just go ahead and use the large size gi. Make sure that you pose your figure before you start draping. You will have to redrape everytime you change your pose. I have found with this article of clothing that it is helpful to have the female wear a tank top under the Gi top or you might have breast showing (which is against the TOS for DAZ) if you have to drape more than once consecutively to get a good drape because the top tends to slide off the female's should exposing the breast. One thing I found useful for this particular article of clothing. Pose and drape each figure separately. Pose one character, save as a scene subset and then do any other characters and save each as their own scene subsets separately as well. You can then move your characters into the scene later. As long as the actual pose doesn't change, you can move the characters where ever you want without needing to redrape the figure. The more props and figures you have in the scene the more likely the draping process will have clothing leaving your figure and going through the floor. I have no idea why.
Hi @Knittingmommy , the draping issue with more items in the scene I'd because the dynamic clothing plug in defaults to having every single item in your scene as a collision item, I've had cloth shoot off in all sorts of bizarre directions before spotting it!! As long as you make sure you only have the figure and anything else like a chair if a sitting figure as collision items this should sort out the weird draping behaviour.
Good to know. I'll have to try that the next time I'm playing with it. Thanks, @KA1 !!