Posing ropes, braids, whips, etc.

jathatch_2238341

I happen to be posing a character with the whip pack, and it looks terrible so far; any rope-like prop I use gets bent into crazy, uneven, or jerky shapes. Isn't there a utility or something to make posing objects with so many bones easier?

Thanks!

Herald of Fire

One thing that you can do to get smoother shapes with ropes is to select an individual segment where you want the bend to start via the scene tab. What you can do then is right-click and choose 'Select Children' which will select all subsequent parts of the object, whether it's a whip, a tail or a rope. Bend them and twist them via the parameters tab (You should notice a number beside the 'Bend' sliders indicating how many objects are selected) and every link in the chain will inherit the same bends, giving you very smooth movements.

You'll want to tweak it a bit for maximum effect, but it will greatly speed things up when you want a curve.

jathatch_2238341

Thanks for the tip :)

Szark

Some tails. whips and ropes etc have easypose parameter settings like Bend, Twist and Side to Side All after or before a selected bone but to be honest there is no substitute for zooming in on it and doing it bone by bone. But that is me as I don't mind spending the time. :)

FelinaLain

Actually there could be a substitute, in the form of a script.
I found one that sounded absolutely amazing
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=59669
But I then discovered it was a Python script and it couldn't be executed with Daz3d, which suck, really...

Sertorial

HeraldOfFire said:

One thing that you can do to get smoother shapes with ropes is to select an individual segment where you want the bend to start via the scene tab. What you can do then is right-click and choose 'Select Children' which will select all subsequent parts of the object, whether it's a whip, a tail or a rope. Bend them and twist them via the parameters tab (You should notice a number beside the 'Bend' sliders indicating how many objects are selected) and every link in the chain will inherit the same bends, giving you very smooth movements.

You'll want to tweak it a bit for maximum effect, but it will greatly speed things up when you want a curve.

I have tried this, but don't see what you mean. When you bend a single bone of a rope, cable etc. all the children move anyway (they remain in a straight line). Selecting all the bone's children before you make the bend has exactly the same effect, ie all the children still move while remaining in a straight line.

So it makes no difference whether you "select children".

jestmart

In the Parameters tab click on the active pane options (little box with triangle and lines) and make sure Consolidate Properties is checked, Show Sub Items also needs to be checked.

Herald of Fire

Sertorial said:

I have tried this, but don't see what you mean. When you bend a single bone of a rope, cable etc. all the children move anyway (they remain in a straight line). Selecting all the bone's children before you make the bend has exactly the same effect, ie all the children still move while remaining in a straight line.

So it makes no difference whether you "select children".

It works if the properties are consolidated, which I believe Daz Studio does as the default setting. Click the context-sensitive menu in the parameters tab and ensure there is a tick by it.

If it works, you'll see a number beside the shared properties like Bend, Twist etc. The number indicates how many of the selected objects share that property. Pics below as an example.

Sertorial

HeraldOfFire said:

It works if the properties are consolidated, which I believe Daz Studio does as the default setting. Click the context-sensitive menu in the parameters tab and ensure there is a tick by it.

If it works, you'll see a number beside the shared properties like Bend, Twist etc. The number indicates how many of the selected objects share that property. Pics below as an example.

Nope. I have "properties consolidated" checked. Still not working (see screenshot)

Richard Haseltine

You need to uncheck it, not to check it.

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

You need to uncheck it, not to check it.

Herald of fire and jetsmart said it should be checked.

But it doesn't work if I un-check it either.

:(

Sertorial

AHA! I have found it!

You have to un-check "Display separate items"

And jetsmart and Herald were right, that "consolidate properties" must be checked

Richard Haseltine

Sorry, yes - I forgot which of the two it was to uncheck, I just remembered they mustn't both be checked.

Sertorial

Richard Haseltine said:

Sorry, yes - I forgot which of the two it was to uncheck, I just remembered they mustn't both be checked.

this is quite a discovery, I must say! It's going to make life a great deal easier!

Herald of Fire

Yeah, the 'Display Separate Items' tickbox means just that, it will separate everything you've selected into its own sub-heading in the parameters pane. You can still select all of these and change properties that way by shift-clicking multiple objects in the pane, but it's obviously not as quick.

christopher-2607496

I've done several renders with the Morphing Python and the way I do it is to manually select all the bones I want to smoothly curve in the scene tab (by shift-clicking), then in the parameters tab I select them all again (by clicking the one at the top and then shift-clicking the one at the bottom), and then using the bend / side-to-side sliders.

You can also apply a smoothing modifier to smooth out any extreme poses if it looks kinked.