Advice on sharing/packaging poses?
Quixotry
Posts: 912
Hello everyone,
I'm hunting for information about packaging content, specifically poses. The documentation in the DAZ publishing and tutorial sections explain how to work with props, clothes items, and figures, but I don't see anything much about poses. Maybe I'm just confusing the issue?
Over the past year or so I have been falling in love with the posing aspect of DAZ and as a result have spent most of my time in the program building poses around themes or for particular base characters, refining and learning new techniques as I go, and so on. So far it's all been for my own use, but I'd like to share (or if I get to feeling ambitious, sell) these poses as packs.
The trouble is that I haven't been able to find any useful documentation about packaging poses for DAZ3D so they can be shared, sold, or downloaded, and I have no idea where to start or where to look.
Could anyone tell me, step-by-step how to do whatever it is that I would need to do at this point, please? I know beta testing comes before sharing, but doesn't everything need to be together and packaged as a zip file or something similar so that it can be passed on to a tester? (Just to give an idea of how new I am to the basics of sharing anything online: I've never even created a zip file before, so even that is new territory for me. lol).
Help, please? I'll give you cookies… *sets out a platter of virtual cookies*
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Comments
Poses are quite straight forward as they are not reliant on any other files other than the actual Pose files to function correctly when dsitributed.
So you will need to create a blank runtime setup to house the files for installation into DS.
Something Like :
My DAZ 3D Library(Folder)/People(Folder)/Genesis 2 Female(Folder)/Poses(Folder)/MarykbPoses(Folder)/Posefilesforset(PosefileandThumbs)
Substitute Genesis 2 Female with the figure you are creating your poses. You are looking to create a mirror of the content library struture from the top down so it will merge seamlessly with other runtimes and display correctly in DS.
This is the structure that needs to zipped to up to merge with others content libraries for distribution.
• When saving your poses make sure you are not saving the base figure X,Y,Z location as this can be frustrating and will relocate the figure in the scene when applied.
• Also avoid including things like expressions and transformations like fist and grasp for the hands.
Unless they are an integral part of the pose...like a pose for a sword fight doesn't make much sense if the hands aren't holding a sword...so in a case like, you would need to include the hand pose AND either a link to or the item (if you have rights to redistribute/made it yourself) that was used to make the pose. But otherwise, leave them out.
Of course if you don't use the 'preset' fist/grasp then it's safe to include...but I find trying to do something being held, without them is like reinventing the wheel.
Do not include the "My DAZ3D Library" folder in the zip otherwise when people extract it to their "My DAZ3D Library" it will create a nested library. Never include the library folder only the files and sub-folders in the library.
Just a quick note on this, if you choose not to include a top level folder as jestmart above suggests, mac users may have issues installing your products as os x will create a folder based on the zip name when unzipped. So if they attempt to unzip directly to there content library it will add a folder with the name of the zip. Also for mac users there is also a risk of unzipping direct to a folder that may overwrite existing structure with a single misclick. So you will need to include different instructions for windows or mac users if you choose to leave out the top folder. if your instructions accidently lead to an installation overwriting a main data folder, they won't be to thrilled.
I prefer to include a top level folder and add instructions to unzip to desktop and merge into the users content library (renaming the top folder if necessary). Its the most straight forward process for both platforms with least room for error. But feel free to use either method.
hi. razor say
• When saving your poses make sure you are not saving the base figure X,Y,Z location as this can be frustrating and will relocate the figure in the scene when applied.
but when i am making poses sometime i need move those control (especify Y) to fit the figure to the ground. ¿there is another way to do this with out use the base figure XYZ locations?
-i would like find a post with step by step how make pose presets (to sell)
thank for help and patience
Hi Fernando,
You can definitely use the Main Figure X,Y,Z if the pose is made to fit specific content such as an architectural scene.
But for something like a crouch where the hips are much lower in the scene you should adjust the Y axis level from the Hip. This helps with for example the user is creating a scene and loads up a castle and moves a figure to the top of a tower. Then they decide to use your pose to make the figure crouching on the edge of the parapet. What you want is to adjust the hip level based on it's new location in the scene and not return the figure to world centre. So you set the Hip Y location rather than the actual figure Y location to do this. As Hip location is based from the actual figure location.
ok ,thank razor your savin my life (crystal clear)... now i had a lot of poses to fix u_u
one more thing, if i use some pose controls to fist the fingers or move the arms... ¿i had to use bake to transform option if i want pack and sell this pose?
I believe you may sell poses which include something like grasp in place on the hand, but you would need to make sure that what you have included is a part of the base figure Pose controls or if its third party you would need to list the 3rd party packs that the Pose control originates from as a Product requirement (I'm not really sure on the process of removing the specific pieces from your product so your not including the actual 3rd party pose data though). And then save the pose to include the Pose Controls only for the specific regions required. As you don't want to include facial expressions in your pose especially blank ones that replace expressions already put in place by the user again something that will create frustration.
Personally I have made a bunch of my own Partial poses for things like fist, chop, grasp etc That I then take forward to a specific pose and adjust to fit precisely my needs and don't include any Pose controls in my Pose sets 3rd party or base level for things like hand movements.
** On the note of saving a pose so it doesn't relocate to world centre even when zeroed you need to make sure that the data is not included in the Pose file by deticking in the save dialogue. Just thought I would mention if you were about to resave a bunch.
Is there a "tutorial" somewhere on the right way to save poses, especially if you want to package them later for sale or give away? Some of the poses I'm doing need to be rotated or translated (the entire figure) but when looking at bought poses, translations and rotations parameters are zero even when obviously not. So I must be missing a step or two!
Also for the folder structure have I got this right? It should My DAZ 3D Library>People>Genesis 2 Female (or whatever)>Poses>Character (eg Victoria 6)>Name of Pose set?
do not save translation or rotation values for the body itself. Do all that at the hip. An exception to the rule would be if its specifically interaction with another person or obj where they are touching.
Folder Structure
People > Genesis 2 > Poses > product name - For G2F / G2M couples poses
People > Genesis 2 Female > Poses > product name - For G2F only poses
People > Genesis 2 Male > Poses > product name - For G2M only poses
Do not use abreviated names, use Genesis 2 Female, Victoria 6 ect...
That was a light bulb moment! :) Wasn't making sense to me until I did it but it worked.You guys rock! Thanks.
How does one even do that? I have no idea where to set or unset that? When exporting the pose file, I tried to uncheck translation, but when applying the pose, it still jumps back to the global zero point.
Update: Nevermind... I figured it out! So cool. :)
I've only done one pose set and my memory is pretty bad but I THINK, if I remember correctly, that you'll need to uncheck "General" and "Pose Controls" and just keep the "Hip" part checked when saving a pose.
I am particularly bothered when I reset a pose to zero and the size of the figure is automatically reset to 100%. If I want to undo a POSE, this doesn't mean I want to reset the figure's SIZE, right? The resets of some PAs' poses are avoiding this, but others don't - so there must be a way to cut this unnerving connection. I would be very grateful if this could be taught to the hopeful vendors in spe… Thank you.
Divamakeup is remembering correctly, I believe. That was how I was told to save poses. I used to do it differently when I first started with Daz, but I've been saving with these settings for a long while now, for both personal use and poses I submit to the store. I don't know if this is the only approved way to do it or if it's just one good way of doing it, but give it a try and see if it makes things work the way you want. You could also try unchecking Pose Controls entirely if you don't want your pose to affect any Pose Control dials.
Do not get me started - I so hate this along with poses that sen d the figure back to 000 and it shouldn't be happening; QAV should pick up on it if for some reason beta testers don't. Its not just resetting a pose some poses return the figure to full size as well.
Do not save the top lever translation, rotations or scale. There are some characters that have top level scales applied to them to make them shorter/taller and applying a pose that saves the scale as 100% changes the size of the character.
I just created a set of unique poses for the VenomWhip. as the 2 poses that are included in the VenomWhip product pack cause serious stretching on th legs in DAZ Studio. I saved all of the poses in the .duf file format. When I tested my poses, they all placed the figure where I intended the figure to be for each pose. I have made 10 poses, saved in DAZ Studio Formats/My Library/Presets/Pose/VenomWhip Poses. If I export this path for distribution, will that be enough to distribute the poses for others to enjoy? I made ten poses, and also included a Default Zero Pose. All poses except the Default Zero Pose were manually posed from the zero pose by me, and are not based on any presets made by anybody else. I used my own imagination, as I am want to do. I need to send them to my tester, to ensure they work in DAZ Studio for at least Windows 10. I do not have a Mac computer, so I cannot say whether or not they will work on a Mac computer. I am looking to create the zip file from what I have made, so if I make a file structure that is duplicating the file path of what is showing in DAZ Studio, all I should have to do then is copy the pose files to the last folder in my duplicate, correct? I would then add my readme, Promo images, and then zip it up, right?
All the info flying around in this thread is causing a good bit of confusion, but I am just trying to get to the basics of packaging my pose presets. I am not saving them in Poser formats. I know my pose presets are working well for me, so I see no reason to put them in any other format, even though the figure they are for is a Poser fomatted figure (.cr2).
Yep, that's about it. My only suggestion about location would be as follows:
One thing that is really useful to do is to render the pose in a 91px square <pose name>.duf.png file and overwrite the horrible default one in the pose directory. Then, and users really seem to appreciate it with modern high pixel per inch screens, also render a 256 x 256px or 512x512px <pose Name>.tip.png image and put it in the same directory. This means the default horrible image is replaced with a nice looking one and a nice size render appears when you hover the mouse over the tiny, tiny default library image. With all my freebies I make the tip image 512 pixels in the biggest dimension, and reduce the other dimension to 256 pixels if cropping that close looks OK. So for a standing pose, the .tip.png image could be 256W x 512H, or a reclining pose would be 512W x 256H. It takes extra time, but the number of favourable comments I've had with my freebie poses about the large .tip image is amazing and makes it entirely worth the effort.
Regards,
Richard.
Adding the fact that the "content folder" also houses the exact same folder structure as "My Library," which is pointlessly redundant and why I never use it...
It can also be done with just the second render: Daz Studio should automatically create a 91x91 picture for each render (maybe only if the renders' pictures are saved in a directory known by Daz Studio), which mean having two pictures per pose for the 'price' of one render (not that a 91x91 render will take a long time to be done, even with CPU only):
For renaming the files, it can be done either manually (I count using the renaming function of Mac OS Finder as doing it manually) or with a simple script, renaming filename_png_icon.png to filename.duf.png and the second file to filename.tip.png.
I wrote mine in Bash 5 and I'm using it on my Macbook Pro (no idea how to write on for a script language supported by Windows, sorry). It's nothing fancy, but I can share it if someone wants a look at it (it's around 30 lines long).
And I'll add my thanks to those you already received: it's great to have nicer pictures with your poses
It's useful to be able to see a bigger picture of what the pose is supposed to look like because with only a 91x91 picture, it can be hard to know how to adapt the pose to a different character than the one it was built to. It's especially true with poses for multiple characters, with characters in close proximity to each other.