Saved as Character Preset, but figure is missing when I open the preset file.
FaxMisher
Posts: 102
I'm seriously dissapointed after opening a file I was working on for several days, only to discover that the several hours work I had put into reworking the figure today was gone. As was the entire figure except for the beard I had but on him. I even checked the png that had been created when I saved the file, and sure enough, the figure was there along with the beard. What gives? This is really bumming me out, and hopefully someone can help me understand how to go about getting the figure I worked so hard o create back. Anyone?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
A little more info - when I open the file in Daz, the beard loads along with - apparently the leftovers of the figures rig. In the scene panel there is a listing for the beard with a drop down. Parented to the beard is a hip, and everything from the hip up to the beard. But the only actual geometry that loads is the beard itself. Anyone else ever have this issue with a Gensis 3 male figure?
I'm wondering if you've saved the beard as a scene subset rather than having saved everything you'd done as an entire scene file?
It may be worth checking your saved preset folders to see if that's what has happened - if you've got a save file in one of the other folders that's just the beard, it may be what has happened. Also worth checking your saved scene files folder to see if there's an earlier save or temp you can restore to? I tend to save in numerical variations as I go along as I've made enough mistakes to (almost have learned) to keep back ups incase I save over something or make an unfixable mistake.Also, just in case, have you checked your "Scene" tab to ensure that everything's visible? I often turn off visibility on figures or clothing and forget to turn it back on then wonder where something's gone.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the idea @Scorpia, but I've been saving the figure as a character preset. As far as I know, I haven't had this problem before. I've been saving along the way and trying to save a brand new character preset file with a numerical indicator, and putting them all in the same folder. I have an earlier version saved, but I lost 3 hours worth of work if i can't get back the figure. It's really strange, like I said, the little .png thumbnail that gets generated with the save shows the entire figure, just like i saved it. But when I open the file, it's gone.
Yeah, just tried to recreate the problem and I was able to do so. @Scorpia, I think you were right. I must have had only the beard selected in the scene tab when I saved as a character preset. *Facepalm* Welp, hopefully that's a tough lesson learned.
Actually the thumbnail isn't showing "the entire figure" that you saved, it's showing what's visible in the Viewport.
Also, the Character Preset can only save exactly that, the one character that you've selected in the scene. If you want to save a complete figure with clothes, hair, accessories, weapons etc. included, the best thing to use is a Scene Subset.
True. I wrongly assumed that what was visible in the .png would be saved. That's what confused me when I opened up the file, I expected to see what was in the .png, which showed the beard and the upper half of the figure. If the thumbnail had just shown the beard, I would've probably understood my mistake sooner.
I'm just starting go deeper into Daz's options for saving different types of files - characters, poses, morphs and the like. I expect I'll make more mistakes, which is part of the learning process.
What Daz does as a software package is pretty impressive, and there's a lot to learn and experiment with. The complexity of the platform is a double edged sword because all the various options invevitably means there's a lot of mistakes to make too.
Maybe it would make sense to revise the software so that the .png that gets saved with the different file types truly represents what gets saved. In this case, apparently I had the beard seleced in the scene tab and mistakenly saved the file as a character preset, thinking that what was visible in the viewport at the time I saved, would be saved. Seeing anything but the beard in the .png wouldn't make sense then, as the beard and the attachment point to the rigging were the only things saved.
I can appreciate the time and energy it would take to revise the software, and I'm not sure if the benefit would outweigh the use of resources. In terms of accurately recording the contents of a saved file for reference use, it's certainly something to consider.
Glad you got it figured! I've done the same myself, many a time.
SpottedKitty's suggestion is a great one - I use scene subsets a lot now as you can choose which elements of the entire scene you want to save (characters/lights/cameras etc..).
I usually save as a "Scene" while I'm working and if I'm happy with something specific, like the lighting or the camera, I'll save as a scene subset.
If you want to get really into it - save any morphs you're really happy with as a "Shape" preset and any common materials you use on a character as shader/material presets. I tend to use the NGS shaders on all my G3 characters and have distinct favourites when it comes to metal shaders so I created a new Preset folder that compliments my workflow for all the things I use most often.
It'll normally look like Character -> Camera -> Lights -> Materials/Shaders -> Render Settings
Good luck :-)
You can replace the thumbnail by rendering what you want it to look like and putting it in the same folder as the file with the same name (you can see the existing ones).
I think the script product SuperSave would do something like what you want although you'd still have to set up the viewport properly.