DAZ Studio as a viewer

I have followed Robins excellent instructions here /109/20/78145/1.html#post928807
for using DAZ Studio and managed to load the SL_av.obj file. However is there a way to position (pose) the avatar in DAZ in the same way Victoria 3 can be posed. Clicking the bone button doesnt seem to do anything.

Also. I am trying add a piece of clothing which is a .tga file. But I cant seem to.

Thanks

Bobby, DAZ does have a posing plugin. It is a free download. However, I don't know if the SL avatar can use it?

To upload clothing into DAZ you must save it as a tif or tiff file. I use an old skin template I picked up to make my model look more human like. I just place it as a lower layer in the article file I am working on.

Jen

Heya Bobby,

Robin's tutorial explained importing the female OBJ avatar into DAZ which is fine for just a simple T-pose preview of clothing. If you are looking for a pose or even animation to see your stuff in action you will need to import the file SL_Female.cr2 file instead. The OBJ file alone does not contain any bone/skeletal info for posing and animation and this is why.

1. Open DAZ Studio or create a new scene.

2. Go to File -> Import. Choose the SL_Female.cr2 file and Open it.

3. You may get a message about unable to locate a particular file. If so, click the Locate button and then choose the file SL_Female.obj, then click Open.

4. By now the avatar should be inside the viewer and ready for action. For setting up a pose first select the SL_Female object in the Scene tab to the left side. What this does is designates a skeletal node selection to import a pose/animation onto.

5. Go to File -> Import again. Locate a BVH pose/animation file to import. I chose female_avatar_walk.bvh for my example. The BVH I am using comes from a collection of standard Second Life poses/animations package provided publicaly. (http://secondlife.com/downloads/avatar/bvh_files.zip)

6. BVH Import dialog comes up. Leave it at default, as far as I know, then click Accept.

7. You should be able to now see your avatar posing or if it was an animation you would click the Play button at bottom right to see it in action.

This is how I have been doing at least and it seems to work just fine. I wasn't able to use the DAZ Studio content poses though for some reason. Not sure why. I just used the SL pose/animation package which was fine.

As for the clothing part, Jennifer is spot on about that. I save it as TIFF myself and works like a charm if you follow Robin's instructions closely.

One thing I am trying to figure out with DAZ is how to keep the camera from being keyframed when I want to orbit around my character for a full preview. I know with Poser you can select the camera and uncheck the Animation option. Not finding anything like that with DAZ Studio.

If you are not sure about something just ask.

I am a long time user of DAZ, and I am experimenting with possibilities of SL
crossover. I imported the sl av cr2. which asked for the obj. located it and work
great. I have a number of preset poses that I bought for daz chars
and have tried the ones for V3 so far, and they work great.
Although some minor adjustment is necessary arm going through head etc.
On the other point of viewing around the av, I know poser has a auto-revolve
sort of orbiting view option. In daz at least in still pose you can just use the
manual control in the "view" control window.

I hope this has some bit of relevence.

Shade and Infiniview, welcome to both of you to Second Life and the forums. This information on DAZ is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Jen

Daz is kinda making poser obselete since it can export to bvh in an earlier update lol. The thing is you can do the same stuff in daz as you can in poser if you know what to do . It's tricky something but it can be done

Thanks for the help Shade and co. I have managed to actually get some results.
I am still not sure if I can pension Poser off yet but it looks like its getting there.

While I have been lurking around these forums, I have not yet posted. I hate to make my introductory post a stupid question, but here goes...

I have been using DAZ Studio as a viewer, and I thought things were going great. I had been using the SL_av.obj file to view my creations as I was working. For instance, I was attempting to get a very "square" cut for along the breast area. It was a lot of trial and error and I found myself taking strange angles to get the cut to go in a straight line across the breast (which is expected when taking a flat image and making it 3D)... But after a bit of work I was successful and quite pleased.

Then, I decided to use the SL_Female.cr2 file so I could pose my little lady and I became very frustrated... All the tweaking I did became pointless. The textures mesh completely differently. Ugh! The top was no longer straight across. The various angles I had to draw to get it straight on the SL_av.obj file remain ugly angles on SL_Female.cr2.

So here is my question. When using DAZ as a viewer, which file is a closer representation to the shape inside SL? I want to ensure I know my bits and bobs will be in the right place before I start spending hours on a single piece of clothing and uploading it to the world.

Hi all, Back to the original question. How do you get clothes uploaded to DAZ?

I tried saving my clothing as a TIF, but DAZ does not recognize TIF. I have DAZ 1.3.1.0, which I think is the latest version.

I've been through almost all extensions. Help!

LUV SUZZ

Suzzanna, Basically, when your SL avatar is in DAZ you click on the upper or lower body section, in the left hand window. This is the tree window. You then browse for the file you want and open it. It will open on to the avatar.

This link by Robin explains it in great detail.

/109/20/78145/1.html

Jen

Hi Cyanide,

I was going to upload a screenshot of what my end looks like using the *.cr2 file. Unfortunately, I don't have attachment capabilities nor have webspace to put it. It looks aligned up for me as far as I can tell. I can offer a suggestion that might help narrow down your issue though. Apply the default templates(the colorful wireframe looking ones) onto the DAZ character . Be sure it "looks" aligned and that you are not seeing some false representation.

When I applied my textures I used the Surfaces tab and setup each UV Map area (head, upper body and lower body). These mappings should already be available for setting up in this tab window. You just need to specify the correct texture to use. You can find the Surfaces tab at View -> Tabs -> Surfaces.

Hope this helps. If not, then let us know.

Shade,

Thank you for your reply and advice. There is definitely a noticeable difference to me when comparing textures on SL_av.obj and SL_Female.cr2. Thankfully, I do have webspace so here is a screenshot of Robin's upper body template... The top picture being the .obj one, and the bottom being .cr2.

http://www.cyanidekisses.net/secondlife/DAZcomparison.jpg

I'm actually surprised this hasn't been brought up before. So now, let's toss a coin (teehee!)... Which one is better to use when viewing textures during the creation process?

I see what you're talking about now. I do notice the slight difference in the lines. Doesn't seem drastic though. In this case, I would suggest uploading the default wireframe template to SL and getting a snapshot of it, in-world, then comparing it in your photo program with the DAZ shots. That's all I can think of since I never ran into this before and experienced it myself. Sorry, hope this helps.

Hi Cyanide!

Sadly, the answer to your question is: neither one will show you whether the lines on any given avatar in SL will be straight or not.

The .cr2 file uses the .obj file as the mesh, so really they are exactly the same, as I understand it. The UV Mapping is identical to the UV Mapping in SL; but the shape of the mesh is not. So even if you use a 3D paint program to paint a perfectly straight line onto the models we have, that line will not be anywhere near straight in SL. (I was bitterly disappointed to find this out, about a year ago.) The male model is much worse than the female, but neither one matches the model in world.

To complicate matters, even if the shape were exactly the same as the "Ruth" shape, people in the game use the sliders to change that basic shape. So a line that looks perfectly straight on one avatar will look all crooked and messy on the next.

Add to that the fact that, when avatars move, the polys slide all over the place. So something that looks straight one moment can slide out of shape the next, as the AV moves its arms, or even "breathes."

I think that's what you're seeing, in the images you posted. Notice that the arms are slightly lower in the .cr2 file, and the model is leaning slightly to one side. As the model moves, you'll see these differences. Try moving the model, or wearing the UV Suit in SL, and trying out different animations, to see what I'm talking about.

This is particularly noticeable around the shoulders and collarbones. There is, quite literally, no way to make straps or collars that lie straight over the shoulders all the time. It simply cannot be done.

The good news is, because it can't be done, people don't really expect it, and our brains all learn to edit out the weirdness.

So, my advice is to make the lines straight on the "templates", instead of trying to compensate for the curvature of the model, and make sure that everything matches on the front/back seam. I've found this gives me results that are "as good as they can get" in world. It's really the seam matching that shows the care and quality of the work, more than anything else, IMHO. And you can use the models we've been given for that, very successfully!

Hope this helps!

Robin,

Thank you for your advice and templates (and thank you for the tarot deck I've used on many occasions, teehee).

I completely understand the shape of models will differ inside SL. However, after my experimenting in DAZ Studio I've come to the conclusion there is a difference between the shape of .obj and .cr2. This goes beyond slight changes of pose. If the differences my screenshots demonstrate were caused by differing poses, there would need to be joints within the breastplate. Which, as far as I can tell, there are not. I've tried contorting her in many ways, but I've yet to discover a way to make the cleavage area change and stretch with a pose.

And yes, it is disappointing to hear neither match the default female in SL. Now I'm uber frustrated as I've seen plenty of garments in SL with square cuts along the breast that don't seem to change as dramatically in that all important cleavage area as my garment does when switching between .obj and .cr2. Perhaps the garment needs to hit either higher or lower on the breast... I'll keep experimenting. Any advice on where to have the garment hit for the best results would be appreciated.

Hi Cyanide!

You're very welcome, on all accounts.

I just exported the .cr2 from Poser as an .obj, and compared it with the .obj file in LightWave (where I can superimpose the two meshes, and see what's really going on.)

They are identical, except for the position. The .cr2 has been moved quite a bit, but the mesh hasn't been deformed, except for the normal deformations that happen between the groups when you move them.

(I took screen shots; if you want to see them, just let me know. )

By the way, there is a joint between the abdomen and the chest, as well as joints in the collarbones. But I'm assuming that you know that already.

Remember, whenever anything on the avatar is moved, all the polys around it stretch or squish to accommodate that movement. So when the chest is tilted to the AV left, as it is in the .cr2, the polys on the AV right become slightly elongated to compensate. It's messy, but it's the best we can do at the moment.

Anyway, as I said before, considering what happens when you take the texture into SL, it's all moot (even though it's interesting, from my POV. )

Especially in the area of the cleavage, the texture warps considerably.

I don't really know what look you are trying to achieve, so I'm not sure how to advise you on placement. "Square cuts along the breast" can mean lots of different things.

Try just making it look square on the "Template," and see how that looks in SL, though. As mentioned, I've had more luck with that than trying to compensate for the warping.

Hope this helps!