Separate dForce timelines?
marble
Posts: 7,498
I tend to avoid using the timeline for dForce simulations because the animation timeline is then "contaminated" shoulld I wish to actually animate the figures in the scene. However, I have not yet found a way to simulate a dress with the figure sitting on a chair without using an animation because the figure needs be well clear of the chair at the start of the simulation.
So my questions are:
[1] What is the best way to simulate with a chair without involving the timeline?
[2] Is it possible to run separate simulations in the same scene using the animation timeline? I ask because I have more than one character in a scene, both require dForce simulations but I want to pose them and run each simulation independently.
From my point of view, these problems expose the severe limitations of both the dForce and the animation toolsets.
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Comments
save many scenes and merge
use Dforce2Morph on the clothing unfitted on the best sitting frame and save the matching pose
You an address the second issue using the Freeze Simulation button in the Parameters pane, in the Simulation group. Just freeze all but one, simulate, freeze that, unfreeze the enxt, adjust settings and simulate - rinse and repeat as needed. You an also just select the items involved (dyanmic items and colliders) and use the Simulate Selected command from the Simulation Settings option menu.
Thanks for the suggestions, Wendy. I have dFroce2Morph and have used it in the manner you describe but I don't find it helps my workflow. I think I might need to try the merge scenes approach although, in line with my above comments, it says to me that there should be a more efficient way of working with multiple simulations in the same scene.
on the same figure certainly but I still save consecutive scenes as all will reset even frozen items if you need to from an explosion
I kind of do something similar already but when not using the animation timeline. Although, instead of freezing, I just make one figure invisible and use the Simulate Selected option. For some reason, that didn't seem to work as expected with the timeline though but it is possible that I got some part of the exercise out of sequence.
if someone could create a bake timeline simulation script like Optitex freeze does with keyframes
I had a few Optitex garments but didn't use it extensively however I seem to remember that it had some features that would be handy in dForce. Likewise the VWD plugin had some nice features that dForce lacks. I do have a major dislike of the DAZ Studio timeline though. I'm not an animator like you are but I would like to see a move towards Non-Linear Animation which, if I understand it correctly, would solve some of the issues I've been describing here.
[1] As per my exp., in DS only there's no better way other than using timeline to simulate 'sitting cases' in terms of result. Another workaround is: as a Marvelous Designer user, I simulate some of the complex cases in MD.
[2] Yes, the simplest way is: Ctrl + Select the character and garments that you wanna simulate, then click 'Simulate Selected' command. The unseleted characters / items won't be involved in simulation.
Sure, with [2] I make the other character[s] invisible (CTRL plus the eye icon) before I hit Simulate Selected. This is because I had a number of unexpected results which probably boil down to the fact that I had a script (dForce Companion) installed which does not play nicely with the regular simulation commands. Anyhow, I uninstalled that and it remains in the script graveyard along with a bunch of others that I have tried for a while and abandoned.
I have a quite old version of MD (which is the CPU version before the GPU simulation was introduced) . Even so, the old MD simulation is orders of magnitude superior to dForce but I never felt comfortable swapping in and out of my DAZ Studio scene so I somewhat masochistically struggle along with dForce.
Oh... not sure of the issue you have with dForce Companion. I own the plugin as well and I frequently use it for a long time, so far so good, except for its conflict with Bone Minions...
I think this was discussed in another thread and I think the recommendation is: don't use dForce simulation commands (such as simulate selected or freeze, etc.) while the Companion plugin is active. At least, I have experienced weird results in those cases so I eventually decided that I am more comfortable with the original dForce commands than with the set offered in the Companion, so I disabled the plugin. Basically I had trouble, for example, keeping track of what is and is not selected or "visible to simulation", etc.
When I use dForce, I almost always create a new scene with just the figure and prop, starting the figure from a known pose, easing into the seating position. Export as .obj and import as a morph. For animated sequence, the simulation timeline starts the anim at frame 50, giving plenty of time to place the figure. Then I export 50 to end as mdd, import into Blender, export again as an .obj sequence. Then in the main scene, import them all as morphs one frame at a time (can write a script to do that part).
a script of sequenced obj imported morphs that zero each one prior to the adjacent frame would be very useful
there is one by Casual I have never gotten to work
as for export Sagan does obj series so you can skip the Blender step
I do it painfully using puppeteer dots in edit mode advancing one frame at a time matching poses, I have a 30 frame on the spot walk cycle for the Morphing fantasy dress I did this for with dforce2morph,
dresses not showing feet one can actually record puppetering if skirt only dforced
As far as I experiment and confirmed with RiverSoftArt, the latest version of dforce2morph can only work if the figure is at the position of X,Y,Z - 0,0,0, and everything will be reset 1st... So I always have to export / import obj files. Can it work all well on a timeline ?
no, it's destructive, I painfully reloaded a saved scene 30 times to create 30 morphs
at least now I have 30 sequenced morphs on the MFD I can make a circle of dots of and puppetteer if I hide the legs
OK, got it! Thanks!
This is exactly how I work.
But then again, I never worry about "other things in my scene" because there never is anything but my character - unless that character has to intersact with something or someone, in which case I already know that, and simply set that all up before ever simulating Anything.
That little hamburger menu in the Simulation Pane is my pal! Thanks for turning me on to those handy tools! Use them all the time!
Just selecting the character and the clothing and object that you want to interact is helpful. Just select them (the figure, individual clothing items and props), right click on the Simulation Settings tab and hit Simulate Selected.