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Hiding Surfaces

Michael_Zuniga727_176202f342Michael_Zuniga727_176202f342 Posts: 3
in New Users

I have imported a simple, two faced object. Think of an L. I converted this object to a Prop. The root bone is called "Floor". I create a sibling bone, called it "Wall". I wieght mapped the object so that the floor controls the floor, and the wall controls the wall. All is fine, and the bones do what I want them to do. Now, in the scene tab, I click on the eye icon on the Floor bone to hide it, but nothing happens in my scene. I click on the eye icon on the Wall bone, and my "floor" polygon disappears. When I hide the "Wall" bone, I want it's associated polygon to disappear, likewise the floor. What am I doing wrong?

Comments

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891

    I am not clear on what you are trying to do, but to hide only a 'surface', you should be using the Surfaces pane, and set the Opacitiy to zero.

    Why are you using bones in a prop? 

  • Michael_Zuniga727_176202f342Michael_Zuniga727_176202f342 Posts: 3

    Think of the "Wall" as a garage door. It can open and close by going up and down. Hence the bones.

    Now, put a figure in front of that door. I want an angle where the camera is "behind" the door, and I want the door to be closed. But if I do that, what I get is a closeup of the closed door. I don't want that. I want the back of the figure. To do that, the door needs to be invisible.

    Load pretty much any architectural figure into DAZ Studio, for example, any of the rooms of Dream House. There, you can select any portion of the room (say a wall), and in the scene you can see that it is a bone. Then, you can hide that bone (hit the eye icon), and when you do, that wall becomes invisible. I want my figure to do that. How do I do it?

    What is the "Surfaces" pane? I see a "Surface Selection" tool, but no way to set any opacity on it. If you mean the Display parameter, then clicking on the Eye icon already changes that, to no effect (or rather, the wrong effect). If you mean Geometry editor, then yes I can hide and show faces there, but that doesn't allow the end user any control. I want the end user to have control, just like they do in the Dream House (or for that matter, pretty much all other architectural) products.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001

    You have to have both a surface and a group of polygons assigned to the bone to work the way you want it to work.  Right now, it appears you have 1 surface that is covering both the wall and the floor.  So while you have polygons assigned to two bones, only one has the surface information.  You need to split the surface into the same split.  Then assign the floor surface to the same group of polygons as you have the floor bone.

    You can do this with the Geometry Editor tool...just select the floor polys and Create Surface from selected...

    This should then make them disappear when you click the eye for the floor bone.

    The Surface tab/pane is what JimmyC is talking about.

  • Michael_Zuniga727_176202f342Michael_Zuniga727_176202f342 Posts: 3

    No, that wasn't it. BTW, I do have two surfaces. But I figured it out by opening the Master Bedroom of Dream Home, and exploring the various settings there.

    The answer was in the Joint Editor tool. When you create a bone, you have to assign a Selection Group. The selection group is on the top right hand portion of the tool settings for Joint Editor. By selecting the Face group used to associate the polygons to the bone in the Selection Group, you get the 1) ability to select that group of polygons with the mouse in your scene (that was going to be my next question, btw), and 2) the ability to show/hide those polygons by showing/hiding the bone.

     

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