Old Tech for Genesis 2 custom content - attach skeleton and morph in posed position

Diomede

I've been experimenting with using the Genesis and Genesis 2 figures in Carrara. One of my disappointments has been the difficulty (for me) of taking advantage of Carrara's ability to use the vertex modeler in the posed position in the assembly room. Within Carrara, I have not figured out how to edit the existing morphs in the posed position for content for Genesis and Genesis 2. Maybe it has something to do with the protected topology? Nor have I been able to edit content that I make myself and use Daz Studio to convert to a Genesis compatible wearable preset.

However, I have been able to use the "morph in the posed position" function for models that I attach to the Genesis and Genesis 2 skeleton. Perhaps just as important, I have been able to edit the bone influences of models that I have attached to the skeletons.

Bottom line - for some projects, I think that Carrara users will be able to take advantage of the Genesis and Genesis 2 figures' advanced shaping and bending features and still make custom content taking advantage of some of Carrara's modeling features. In the next couple of posts, I will show how to prepare a vertex mesh shirt, attach it to the Genesis 2 female, and use Carrara's modeling in the assembly room to fix some poke through.

This is old technology - just use the attach skeleton feature under the animation tab, and per usual make sure that you have created a morph in the mesh before the attachment. Another nice feature, you will also be able to edit the bone influences as another way to address poke through.

Diomede

OK, load the figure in Carrara. Insert a vertex object. Click the hand icon to vertex model in the assembly room.

-Shape a shirt around the figure. Once you like your shirt, still in the vertex modeling function, click on the morph tab in the properties tray. You need to select all of the vertexes and create a morph area. I named the morph area "whole."
- Use the drop down tab to create a new morph target. I named mine "morph whole." The mesh will turn green.
- Move some vertexes to create a morph. I selected all of the vertexes and scaled to 101%. Save the morph.
- Validate the morph and it will return the mesh to original and set the morph to zero.
- Return to the assembly room and exit the vertex modeler. Under the general tab in the properties tray, you should see the morph target that you made. It will be at 0. Set it to 1 and back just to confirm that it works.

Diomede

Next, attach the shirt that has the morph to the skeleton of Genesis2. Do this by

- Highlight the hip of Genesis 2 and the vertex model at the same time in the instances tray.
- Go to the top menu, pull down the animation tab and choose "attach skeleton."

The shirt will now be posed with Genesis, but you will find that some obvious problems will remain. For example, bending the shoulders will probably deform the sides of the chest. You can edit the bone influences to address the big stuff.

To address remaining poke through, you can edit the morph that you created.

- pose the figure. I bent an arm and got poke through at the elbow and the armpit.
- Click on the hand to start vertex modeling the shirt in the assembly room. The shirt will return to the default shape.
- Click on the animation mode, which is the middle icon in the upper right of the properties tray. The shirt will become dots in the posed position.
- Click on the morph tab. The morph zone you created will be active, and you will have the ability to edit the morph target.
- Use the vertex modeling tool to fix the poke through.
- Validate the morph and save it.

Return to the assembly room. Adjust the morph slider to fix the poke through.

I don't recommend this method all of the time, but it might be useful if you have done some extreme morphs to the figure, such as turning Genesis into the troll.

Diomede

If anyone knows of a way to use the vertex modeler in the posed position function for content that has been converted to a triax figure, please explain how. That would address quite a lot of discontent.

See how I used content and discontent?

Diomede

AAAaarg.

Problems, problems.

Applying a preset pose to the G2 figure seems to break the skeleton attachment to the prop. Manually posing does not.

Aaaargh.

Diomede

diomede64 said:

AAAaarg.

Problems, problems.

Applying a preset pose to the G2 figure seems to break the skeleton attachment to the prop. Manually posing does not.

Aaaargh.

Hmmm - sometimes applying a preset pose breaks the attach skeleton for the prop, and sometimes not. Will have to investigate further to see if I can identify a cause.