Rigidity groups

Roygee

Hi all :-)

I'm preparing to rig my first tri-ax figure - I notice there is a setting for rigidity groups. What I want is the spikes on the back and tail to move with the parent bones and be able to move independently - stand up, lie down, but not be deformed. I have already defined all the face groups, with separate groups for the spikes. Would defining them as rigidity groups achieve what I want?

If so, how would I go about transferring them to rigidity - would I need to re-define them, or what?

Also, how do I fix a typo in one of the group names?

Off topic - anyone know how long RC3 will be active before being replaced - I'd like to try it out, but don't want to use up a huge chunk of my monthly broadband allowance, only to have it expire soon.

Any advice will be much appreciated.:-)

kitakoredaz

I think what you are planning is different from "assign rigidity group."
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/rigging/tutorials/rigidity/start
.
when the triax figure change the shape by morph, the poligons of clothing which fit the figure follow the morph shape
(by generated morph from the figure.)

I think "rigidity group" is need for keeping the shape of clothing parts eg button zipper , or metal Broach from Transforming
by generated morph.
.
If your figure (creature) will not fit to other figure, it never follow the morph of another figure.
so you need not to make rigidity group I think.
.
and if you want the morph for your figure , you can make the morph not to change the spike shape.
.
if you want to keep the "spike shape" when rotate the bone of spikes ,
adjust the start points of bone behind the start point of your spikes (close to the body).
.
fill all of the spike poligons with 100 percent weight, (filled red color)
.
select the spike faces where you filled full weight map, and turn it invisible.
.
apply gradiaiton weight map around the spike root surface without spike
so the parts of the spike will not bend.

I hope it is not wrong advice. ^^;

Roygee

Thank you, Kitakoredaz - that looks like sound advice to me - seems logical.

One more question - is there any special file setup that the .obj, .dsa and texture files need to be stored in? I have never been able to find the Genesis .obj file, so assume it is included in the .dsa?

kitakoredaz

I hope those who have more accurate deep knowledge about ds file structure reply you.

I can say only about obj. I do not know well about dsa,, but it is concerned about database and meta-data.
and they are stored in runtime/support/

about dsf figure or prop, every obj (geometry) is included in dsf file.
genesis , products figure, and which you save as figure or prop,
the geometry are included in your daz contents folda(default mylibrary)>data>....> .dsf

if you check data directory, there are many folda for each product.
usually, writer name/ products name/ file name. dsf

it seems not fixed way to store them about figure or prop.
so I make my prodcuts folda in data folda, and stored my figure or prop.
it located when you save figure as figure or prop as dsf.

( you may know defautl location , when you save your figure as figure or prop.)

you will decide two directory. one is for the dsf which just described the map to other data like as short cut., icon
in contents library or smart contents.

one is for the dsf which store the geometry for your figure. it should be saved in data folda.

about texture, many of them are stored poser runtime directory.
but there seems no rule you should save the texture in runtime, I think.

actually if you stored texture for your figure in other directory, it can be roaded when you load your figure.
but I think it is better you make your folda for your texture in runtime /textures/yourname/your figure/ aabb.jpg.

Roygee

Thank you for the detailed reply - it seems that every time a scene is saved to anywhere one the drive, a file is automatically created in data, which references the original.

I'll just have to experiment with where to save the .dsf - to be safe, I'll start by making a folder directly under My Library which will contain the .obj, .dsf and textures - see how that works out.

kitakoredaz

Yes!

1 testing by simple obj save as dsf prop or figure, I think it is best way to grab file location, where should I save my many files.
image, preset dsf, or data.dsf, short cut dsf,, morph, dsf.

2 another way to find and leran file structure, I think check simple products which you get from daz shop.
if check read me( though some products has no read me now ^^;) file, we can check the type of rilses ,and where they should be
installed.

of course there is some exception eg some products wihch get from another shoo, texture is isntalled under the data products folda)
but it seems good way that staring imitate the official products for genesis or ds4 file system.

one thing I want to add, is about morph files. if you make original morps for the saved figure,
figure products name, eg" cool_collections" and the obj geometry file name, coolguy.dsf )
you need to save the morph for coolguy.dsf , under the morphs directory.

data > writername> coolcollecitons">" coolguy" >Morphs directory.

if you save one figure, you would have the name folda in DATA folda, and the figure named folda has
Morphs, UVsets , directory and the figure.dsf.(wihich has geometry data).

so when you check products f(clothing) for genesis, you can find "morphs" directory for the products.

if you wear the clothing to genesis,and change the shape morph for genesis.
you will find many auto injected morphs from genesis. in Morphs folda of the products.

Roygee

Thank you for more valuable information. I see when I save the .dsf it automatically saves in My Documents\Daz 3D\Studio 4\Contents\Figures without giving a choice. Also saves a lot of reference files under Data. That's fine for me, because all I need to know is where to find it again when loading into Carrara. I'll do the texturing there, save as a .car where I want to.

I just don't like files stored on my C:\ drive - that is for applications.