New to Daz (and 3d in general), couple of questions...

gederix

So far I am having wayyyy more fun than I expected messing with Daz, kind of addictive once you get past learning the interface, and I am wondering if it is possible to do certain things within Daz or if it would require another program.
Basically, is there any way to edit/modify objects within the scene to do the following:
1 - break objects, say the haft of a spear being broken in a fight, or a chair breaking over someones back, etc. Or the lid of a coffin being broken open, etc. Or cutting a rope in half.
2 - deform clothing, someone pulls on anothers shirt, stretching it out between their hand and the persons neck, for ex.

If this is not possible in Daz, if anyone could explain how to go about this or point me in the direction where I could find info to get me started figuring out how to do these things I would greatly appreciate it.

I tried to find out the answer myself but all my searches for distorting objects resulted in discussions of people trying to fix distorted clothes etc when I am in fact trying to do the opposite, but in a controlled fashion.

thanks!

sriesch

1. Technically no, you would need to modify the object using some other application. However you MIGHT be able to cheat under certain circumstances by hiding polygons, if the object is built in such a way that there are polygons in the area/shape you want to hide. For example, perhaps you could make one end of the spear invisible, load a second copy of the spear at a slightly different angle, and make the opposite end of the copy invisible, so it looks like one spear that broke in half. (Of course if it has polygons that stretch the full length of the spear this way won't work.)
To select individual polygons and create a new surface: Tools > "Polygon Group Editor".
In the viewport, click on one poly to select it then hold Ctrl down and select any other polygons you want (or optionally you can select with a rectangle). Right click and choose Polygon Assignment > Create Surface from Selected. (you can also TEMPORARILY hide polygons here with "Polygon Visibility" > "Hide selected", but this isn't saved with the scene.) Give the new surface a name. You will then see a new material zone in the "Surfaces (color)" pane. You can set it to 0% opacity to make it permanently hidden.
One could also simulate holes or hidden areas via an opacity (transparency) map instead of trying to hide specific polygons.

2. Use DFormers. (from the menu bar, select Window > Panes(Tabs) > Dform .) Basically you select a node in the Scene pane, create a new Dformer on it, move/scale the dformer field around until it covers the area you want to deform, then move/scale/rotate the dformer to distort the part of the object that lies within the field. You will will benefit from a little practice on a junk copy of your scene or even just a cube or something to see how it works. There are also a few tricks I haven't quite memorized yet myself, I think there's something about wanting the deformed object at the zero position during deformation for best results, and saving the deformer result before moving the deformed object, do a bit of research on that if it doesn't work as you expect right away.
Also check the object you are deforming to see if it already has morphs built in for what you are looking for. Doesn't sound likely for your specific example, but some clothing and hair items have wind blowing or other morphs for simulating outside influences.

gederix

You are awesome, thanks for the fast reply!

Off to learn about Polygon group editing and Dformers....