{"id":5478,"date":"2010-10-25T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/?p=5478"},"modified":"2010-10-21T20:51:52","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T18:51:52","slug":"making-a-posable-crate-for-daz-studio-and-poser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/?p=5478","title":{"rendered":"Making a posable crate for DAZ Studio and Poser"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, I’ve succeeded with something I set out to do, which was much harder that I first thought. Much harder because I didn’t have the right tools and didn’t fully understand the intricate file structures of a posable poser file, but, here is how I did it, using the tools at hand, mostly DAZ Studio3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

First, I created two, or really three textures using my FilterForge<\/a> filter metal rim crates, <\/em>which I also gave a little love for the bump and normal map generation. I then started OmniGraffle<\/a> and layed out the textures like this. The one without metal is for the inside, and the small piece is for the crate rim on the lid.<\/p>\n

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Now, I exported this out as a .jpg image, and did the same thing for the bump maps. This is how it looks not in a screenshot, shrunk down to fit the blog though.<\/p>\n

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I created a box and a lid in Carrara 8<\/a>, and then I created a shader for the texture, here rendered on a box in test mode, just a part of the texture.<\/p>\n

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And here is the UV mapping, still with a text texture, just the metal frame.<\/p>\n

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So, I’ve started to map, and I did learn that you can move the pivot point by holding caps-lock down while dragging it, much like you now can in Cheetah3D<\/a> by selecting move pivot point. Here you can see the open crate for the first time, like a newborn to me, this was a happy moment.<\/p>\n

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Now, I just had to test render with the bump map in place to see how it looked.<\/p>\n

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A little too bumpy, but nothing that couldn’t be adjusted with lowering the bump value. So, now I export this crate as an .obj file and a .mtl file. The texture maps are already in place in the Runtime:texture hierarchy so I put the .obj and .mtl file in the Runtime:Geometries \u00a0hierarchy, everything in a subdirectory named 4EYes, what else? Now, I leave Carrara 8 and jump into DAZ Studio3, where I in a fresh empty project goes to the Skeleton Setup tab. This is only available if you have purchased the add on for this, which was one of the reasons I failed before. The add-on is worth the money, I promise, if you are serious in making posable things.<\/p>\n

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Now, add the model (.obj) file to the Geometry List, where we can have one or several different .obj-files, for real complex models. Here you can see the segments, bones. This procedure is known as rigging an object. I moved the lid to be a child of the Crate. I also set the crate to not rotate or bend at all, while the lib can only rotate in one direction. I thought that would be enough, but learned later on that there are much more to rigging that first meet the eye.<\/p>\n

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Now, I just do add Figure, and the figure will be added to the current DAZ Studio3 worksheet.<\/p>\n

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OK, here you can see that it opens correctly, but I found that it still might rotate in all directions (before I edited the skeleton to prevent that).<\/p>\n

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So, using the Property editor, I could finally disable the rotates I didn’t want for the lid, and also turn limits on.<\/p>\n

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Then I used the Limits…<\/strong> command to actually set limits on the lid rotation, and the Label…<\/strong> to change the name of the property.<\/p>\n

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So, limits set so the lid can swing back but not down into the crate. And the name is set too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Much better to have a slider named Lid Open than Rotate X. So, almost done. The last part is exporting the figure from DAZ Studio as a Poser .cr2 (character) model, using the same set of very good tools.<\/p>\n

Now, I quit DAZ Studio3, and reopened it (a while later in fact), and added the 4EYes crate prop to the scene.<\/p>\n

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As you can see, only one rotation handle visible now. I will make the crate available to you all, but I will add some more props first, as I’ve got a free license for the BitRock multi platform installer builder (the very same that DAZ 3D uses for all DAZ 3D files now) from the very nice people at BitRock. I must say that the installer is good to work with, I’m learning and I’ve built a few test installers. But as the overhead is between 6 and 11 MB, depending on platform (Mac OS \u00a0X with both PPC and Intel is the largest<\/em>) making an installer for just a few MB seems to be too much overhead. But I will make more stuff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I promised to push for them, they go great software and gave me a free license to use for 4Eyes. Go visit if you are serious in installation thought, they do really good stuff. This was a very long post today, I need some rest now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, I’ve succeeded with something I set out to do, which was much harder that I first thought. Much harder because I didn’t have the right tools and didn’t fully understand the intricate file structures of a posable poser file, but, here is how I did it, using the tools at hand, mostly DAZ Studio3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[39,12,36,13,10],"class_list":["post-5478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapmaking","category-tools-of-the-trade","tag-carrara-8","tag-cheetah3d","tag-daz-3d-studio","tag-filterforge","tag-omnigraffle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5495,"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478\/revisions\/5495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/4eyes.code66.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}