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Isolate Textures/Geometries on Figures?

marcelle19marcelle19 Posts: 171
in Daz Studio Discussion

Hello. I've appreciated all the great help I've gotten on these forums, and I have another question:

If I wanted to isolate the geometry/texture (bear with me, I'm an idiot with all things PC, pretty much), so that I could make separate parts of the hand, or face, transparent on a figure, how would I go about that? I've tried different things, but nothing has worked, and a friend told me that they do this in another application, but didn't know how in Daz.

As always, all help is greatly appreciated.

 - Bill

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,468

    Two options: if you want a sharp break and if the place you want the break lines up with the polygon edges on the model then you can just make a new surface group; if the break needs to be softer or if it doesn't line up with the divisions of the model then you need to use a mask to control the materials.

    To split into two materials, use the Geometry Editor tool to select the polygons you want to treat differently, then right-click>Geometry Assignment>Create Surface from Selected. Note that this will affect all characters in the scene that use the same base figure, so you may have to reapply the base shader to the new surfaces on the others and then copy/paste the settings.

    A mask is created in an external application - an image editor or a 3d painting tool. Black for the areas you want to have one effect, white for the other areas, with a gradient between if desired. You can then use that map in the surfaces pane to control certain properties (e.g. the metaalic/Specular to get completely different effects) or you could use a custom shader in Shader Mixer and use the map to control which of two different sets of bricks applied, completely transforming the two areas.

  • marcelle19marcelle19 Posts: 171
    edited June 17

    Richard Haseltine said:

    Two options: if you want a sharp break and if the place you want the break lines up with the polygon edges on the model then you can just make a new surface group; if the break needs to be softer or if it doesn't line up with the divisions of the model then you need to use a mask to control the materials.

    To split into two materials, use the Geometry Editor tool to select the polygons you want to treat differently, then right-click>Geometry Assignment>Create Surface from Selected. Note that this will affect all characters in the scene that use the same base figure, so you may have to reapply the base shader to the new surfaces on the others and then copy/paste the settings.

    A mask is created in an external application - an image editor or a 3d painting tool. Black for the areas you want to have one effect, white for the other areas, with a gradient between if desired. You can then use that map in the surfaces pane to control certain properties (e.g. the metaalic/Specular to get completely different effects) or you could use a custom shader in Shader Mixer and use the map to control which of two different sets of bricks applied, completely transforming the two areas.

    Hi, Richard, and thank you for your response.

    This is all new ground for me. I've never used the geometry editor, or made a mask to use in the surfaces plane.

    I'm not quite ceratin how the new surface group makes the current surfaces in the model transparent in the first example?

    Also, could you explain how to bring that mask into the surfaces plane (I assume the mask is simply as  you described it, but I am not sure what format to make it in, or how to bring it into Daz to use in the surfaces plane after I create it)?

    Thank you.

    -Bill

     

    Post edited by marcelle19 on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,468

    Once you have separate surfaces they can have any material you liike applied, so as long as the effect you want is possible with one of the existing shaders (or if you can implement it in Shader Mixer) that is the issue settled. However, as I noted this gives a sharp edge and is limited to the actual polygon edges in the model.

    A maks can be applied to a control channel (e.g. the Strength for Diffuse Overlay to seelctively recolour areas, or directly to Opacity to have different values in different areas) through the image selection menu - the little tungbnail to the elft of any mappable property. The image seelction menu also gives access to the Layered Image Editor  where yiou can add another map/solic colour on top of the base map and then use the mask to control the layer's visibility.

  • marcelle19marcelle19 Posts: 171

    Richard Haseltine said:

    Once you have separate surfaces they can have any material you liike applied, so as long as the effect you want is possible with one of the existing shaders (or if you can implement it in Shader Mixer) that is the issue settled. However, as I noted this gives a sharp edge and is limited to the actual polygon edges in the model.

    A maks can be applied to a control channel (e.g. the Strength for Diffuse Overlay to seelctively recolour areas, or directly to Opacity to have different values in different areas) through the image selection menu - the little tungbnail to the elft of any mappable property. The image seelction menu also gives access to the Layered Image Editor  where yiou can add another map/solic colour on top of the base map and then use the mask to control the layer's visibility.

    Thank you, Richard Haseltine.

    Sadly, much of what you say in this and the last post is beyond my understanding. I can follow some of it, but in order to implement it I think I would have to be able to understqand all of it.

    Thank you, however, for the help you've given.

    -Bill

  • felisfelis Posts: 4,267

    Here is an old thread for adding surfaces with Geometry editor https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/42088/tutorial-adding-surfaces-in-ds-with-the-geometry-editor-tool/p1

     

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