Placing characters away from the world center

retiretomaui

I usually do very small renders so this is literally the first time this has popped up. I'm now doing a very large scene. The action is off in the corner. However, whenever I try to add characters and props, they appear at the world center, requiring tons of manipulations to get where I want them in the little corner scene. Is there a way to set Daz so that added props and characters appear in the active viewport where I'm working?

 

Thank you!

 

Bob

Richard Haseltine

Instead of double-clicking to load drag the item from the content pane while holding down alt (opt for macs) - that will show a target icon on the floor, when you release the mouse and then the key DS wil load the content as if that target was the origin. It won't help with vertical placement, however.

retiretomaui

That works, thank you!

DDCreate

NICE!! Good tip!!

tristanthorne1997

Wow, thank you! 

Syrus_Dante

Cool feature - but next you load a pose and the figure jumps back to your world center - in the best case.

• you can also select the figure go to Main-Menu: Create>New Group or press Alt+C+G and select "Parent Selected Item(s) to New Group". Next you can move the Group to place the figure(s). You can also switch off Parent Items In Place then Change Parent (use the action or drag&drop in the Scene pane - but careful drag&drop can lead to glitches with the scene list view if you have to scroll) to let the figure / item of choice automaticaly snap to the new location of the item it gets parented to. Maybe use some Null(s) as markers on the floor where the figures should be placed with this method. The advantage is you can also rename the Null(s) to organize yourself. Also you can turn on Parent Items In Place again and unparent the figure to make the location (transformation property values) global again.
• you can also move everything in the scene until the world center is where you want it - right-click the Viewport Select All go to Main-Menu: Create>New Group or press Alt+C+G and select "Parent Selected Item(s) to New Group". Next move this Group until the world center is where you want it in the scene.

How about to extend this feature where you can have maybe Alt+Ctrl pressed and everything in the scene moves to define the new world center where you placed the added item?

Just some suggestions I can think of - interesting topic btw.

 

Edit_1: go to Main-Menu: Create>New Group or press Alt+C+G - I've corrected that shortcut info from Alt+C+C for creating a new Camera to Alt+C+G for creating a Group - dont release the alt key - keep holding it down while pressing the letters.

Richard Haseltine

Syrus_Dante said:

Cool feature - but next you load a pose and the figure jumps back to your world center - in the best case.

That shouldn't happen, the offset from loading is applied to the figure (like a placement pose) and pose-poses should nto touch that, any offsets needed (to keep feet on the gorund or to position for a multi-figure pose) should use the hip bone.

DDCreate

I used this technique in a scene a few nights ago. The Env was a fitness facility with large bay windows. I wanted to show foot traffic and cars passing by outside. I did the ALT+Drag to the street, posed them and then positioned them where I wanted them on the street (sitting at a bus stop, driving a convertable ect) and had no issues with them reverting back to center. I'm so happy I saw this thread! I was getting tired of wearing out my mouse wheel.