***** DISCLAIMER ***** I do not condone the sharing of copyrighted material, this is a tutorial method to share within your household or personal usage.
***** WARNING ***** This method will not work with jcm's or the jcm's will not work properly. The user will have to create a separate CHARACTER/SHAPING PRESETs and zero out these morphs before completing these steps (Like the Growing Up Morphs or some 3DU character morphs that use jcms - joint controlled morphs). Once you have created your DSF file then you can add back in the other shape preset for these types of morphs to be use correctly.
***** HOW TO: WORKING IN DAZ3D STUDIO to CREATE ONE SLIDER CHARACTERS FROM MULTIPLE MORPHS (Loaded Characters) ***************************************************************************************************************
This is a comprehensive tutorial on how to get your characters to work together and clean up loaded down characters with multiple morphs.
Let's get started!
Begin with loading your character and all its morphs.
* Make sure you do not pose it, place expressions on it or anything.
* It has to be in original "A-POSE g8f or 8.1/ T-POSE g3f" just like when loading any DAZ character (Base Loading Pose).
If you have a character that is NOT in base pose (in a large or small scene) then:
* Select the character and zero pose only, then delete everything else in the scene. READ BELOW
*** WARNING BEFORE ZEROING: If you have limbs that you modified (x/y/zScale or scale) or any body parts you need to make sure you lock them or they will revert back to the original size if you zero a character in your scene that is not in the base pose.
****VERY IMPORTANT**** No other objects can be loaded in scene no matter what it is: Examples, no clothes, no props, no hair, etc.
**** HOW TO CHECK if everything is out of your scene:
Go to Surface Tab and make sure you select View All Items in the options box that is attached to the Surface Tab (Small box with 4 lines at top with an arrow - Right Click for options). Now you should only be able to see your character. NO GENZ or BROWS or LASHES should be in the scene, ONLY the base character.
****Next load a flat plane (Create / New Primative / Type / Plane / Accept) it will be loaded and zeroed on the ground.
* Select the Plane and Dial in 152% on the yTran.
* Your characters shoulders must barely be touching the underside of the plane. (it can be touching a little.)
* With your character selected, SCALE YOUR CHARACTER up or down to align under the plane. The reason you are doing this is because the stock g3/8/8.1 shoulders are this height. MAKE SURE YOUR CHARACTER IS DROPPED TO THE FLOOR EVERY TIME (cntl + D). Sometimes characters will move even after you scale them, so make sure to keep dropping to the floor until it lines up.
DELETE the PLANE obj
........Next go up to your character resolution (PARAMETERS TAB: Select Character/General/Mesh Resolution), and RESOLUTION LEVEL to BASE, and zero out the two dials below it.
Do not worry about the bones.
.....EXPORT YOUR CHARACTER via OBJ. Make sure it is on DAZ for the export and touch no other settings. NAME THE OBJ WHAT YOU WANT THE CHARACTER TO BE CALLED and save the file to a location you can easily find it.
ok close your daz.
THIS WILL CREATE TWO FILES: .OBJ FILE and it will create a .MTL file. KEEP THESE FILES TOGETHER.
**** Close your DAZ Studio.
THESE ARE THE FILES YOU NEED TO CREATE A CLEAN ONE DIAL SLIDER CHARACTER or TWO SEPARATE DIALS FOR HEAD AND BODY (ADVANCED):
*** The .OBJ FILE and it will create a .MTL file with it so include it in the file when you need to create a the new character.
********************************** ADVANCED STEPS *********************************************************************
Learn the correct way to load a OBJ and correct the bones before ERC (Freezing / Locking) the character before saving the DSF file.
.....LOAD NEW DAZ.....
......Load a fresh G3F/G8F etc....
***Important*** Either Delete the G8 Eyelashes or Brows if they were loaded when you loaded the character, or HIDE THEM. I always delete them just in case.
****VERY IMPORTANT STEP*****......Go and place your character in BASE resolution(same as before), and zero out the 2 dials below..
........So up to MENU - Edit / Figure / Morph Loader Pro....
This will load a separate window.
* Make sure it is set to DAZ format.
* Go down to Choose Morph Files (Click): This will open Window browser and then find the OBJ file you exported and Open the file.
* In the bottom box you will see the loaded content, Click on the small arrow to see the items listed.
- Name: Obj name - you can change this here if you like.
- Delta Tolerance: dont touch
- Property Group: This is where it will be placed in the character once loaded - will discuss later. dont touch
- Create Control Property: dont touch
- Reverse Deformation: CHANGE THIS TO YES - Right Click - Select Yes
- Other Steps I will explain in another tutorial if you want to separate the Head and Body as separate morphs. (SEND ME A MESSAGE OR CHAT)
****NAMING*****
Please make sure when you are naming your characters you place a specific ID before or after because it might interfere with other characters that are named the same way. Make sure it is unique to you. Like Mary. Name it like USER-Mary or ???-Mary or Asf-Mary or whatever your call sign is and it isn't used by others. I have run into issues with people who don't really care about this and it causes issues. That is why there are two boxes (after creation in properties of the morph in parameters tab) in the character box when naming one is an ID and the other identifies the character name (displayed name). Message me if there is an issue with this.**** Press ACCEPT *****
This will load the morph in your Morphs / Loader Pro folder on your character.
There should be no errors just as long as you did the resolution correctly when you OBJ the file and no other items were in the scene.
If it didn't load correctly, then you have to redo it unfortunately. YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE STEP EXACTLY.
Find your morph on the character - Morphs / Morph Loader
* Select morph and dial to 100%
*****OPTIONAL Advanced Steps: Reconfigure placement of morph
--- On the Morph select Top Right of box - Parameters Settings - this will load another window box.
--- Path: You can name your own by deleting all in this box and naming it whatever and this will place it on the same level as the characters main morph folders. Or place it in a folder you prefer within the character that you will easily be able to find it.
--- Change Colors of slider - Top box is left section of slider / bottom is right section.
*** Press ACCEPT - this will MOVE the morph to your location provided. Find the morph and make sure it is 100%.
**** BONES ****
HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SCRIPT FOR RIGGING BONES: This i recommend as it skips all the steps below and does a better job at rigging faster/cleaner.
or the FREE method
***** VERY IMPORTANT----make sure the bottom box is unchecked(adjust orientation)....
***** UNCHECK THE HEAD on the RIGHT box: If you fail to do this step, the bones in the head will not line up properly.
-----this should be the only thing you touch in here.
** Press ACCEPT **
*** CHECKING BONES ***
Select Character
Go up to MENU: Tools / Joint Editor - this will show the bones in the character and they all should be lined up. Sometimes the chest bones will not the lined up correctly to the nipples.
OPTIONAL ***VERY ADVANCED STEPS***
THE FIX for chest bones.
Select RIGHT VIEW (Camera)
Select character morph: (Right-Click) Go to EDIT MODE
Select BONE - once selected CENTER Camera then back it off until you can see the Red and Green Arrow clearly
Select : Green Arrow (top arrow) and move the bone up until the tip is touching the red arrow center dot.
IN Parameters Tab you will see Right Pectoral and then below that you will see a RIGGING TAB that is now visible (edit mode only).
Select Rigging and then look at the Y Origin - This is what you changed when moving the top arrow up/down.
SELECT Y ORIGIN numbers and round to nearest 100th. like if you see 133.5444 then 133.54 (REMEMBER EXACT NUMBER).
SELECT other pectoral bone and go to rigging in Parameters Tab and enter in the Y ORIGIN number you had on the one you just completed.
SELECT FRONT VIEW and select either bone and CENTER CAMERA then back it off.
Sometimes this will be already lined up but if the bone tip is not lined up to the red DOT then you need to either move the green X ORIGIN or Y Orientation in the Rigging.
LINE UP BOTH WITH THE EXACT NUMBERS for EACH SIDE. This will keep the bones in symmetry.
To hide the bones again just select a different tool (universal selector tool etc...)
***** SAVING CHARACTER ******
OK-----VERY IMPORTANT NEXT 2 STEP TO NOT FORGET---
MAKE SURE YOU DIDN'T MOVE ANYTHING - BASE POSE WITH CORRECTED BONES.
Go over to your morph dial, right click to open the EDIT, and Right-Click on the character (100%) and go down to the ERC FREEZE.
*** DON'T CHANGE ANYTHING IN ERC FREEZE BOX - JUST PRESS ACCEPT ***
***** MOST IMPORTANT STEP WHEN SAVING ******
**ZERO OUT YOUR MORPH
Go up to SAVE AS, and go down to SUPPORT ASSET, and then MORPH ASSET
* top-- Asset Dir: location for file (DSF file will be place in the data/daz 3d/genesis #/female/morphs/ folder of your selection)
* middle: --Vendor name (whatever you name this, like (YOURNAME), will place a folder in the directory above)
* bottom: --Product name (this is another folder placed after the folder above / example: G8 Morphs/??????/then the file saving.
TIP: I usually change the Middle Box to a main folder like i have setup in my character like G8 Morphs then for the bottom I leave it Base or Product. This way if i have multiple morph for the same category like G8 Morphs and i place Base as the second folder then ALL my morphs will be in ONE folder (Base Folder) and not create a ton of different folders (indexing nightmare). but if you have multiple characters then this is the box you want to specifically identify each individual character.
I always place my morphs in a similar folder that i created on the character itself so as no not be confused where my morphs are. This is important if you have to fix this later or SHARE/SELL them.
*** LAST VERY IMPORTANT STEP ***
If you mess this up then all your hard work will mean nothing.
***** You must SELECT the MORPH in the box on your character, if you do not it will NOT SAVE, and PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ONLY SELECT THE CORRECT FILE/MORPH in the list below. (REMEMBER YOUR MORPHS MUST BE ZEROED BEFORE SAVING THEM IF YOU DON'T THEN EVERY-TIME YOU LOAD A CHARACTER OR BASE IT WILL LOAD THE DIAL YOU CREATED AS 100% and will not show up in the USED MORPHS as it acts like a base morph)
Check nothing else.
** PRESS ACCEPT **
***** CONGRATS !!!!!!!!!! ***** YOUR MORPH(S) WERE SAVED OUT
Your file should save as a .dsf file where you can share/sell this as well.
THIS IS A SOUND method and this is what I like to refer to as the GenePool.
These characters bend better and are not loaded down with massive morphs and file sizes when saving.
I hope this tutorial helps. I am here if you need more information.
***** DISCLAIMER ***** I do not condone the sharing of copyrighted material, this is a tutorial method to share within your household or personal usage.
