Proper way to fit custom shoes?
ALT-3D
Posts: 12
Hi All,
Been working on some G9 shoes and am wondering how to future proof / make them work for multiple character shapes. I originally modeled them around the base G9 Feminine shape and have tested them with the 30+ different character shapes with mostly good results.
Process I'm using (correct way or not, no idea) for importing shoe obj for some background.
- import shoe as .obj
- convert prop to figure with triax weight mapping option selected
- fit shoe to G9 (makes mesh shrink wrap to foot and looks horrible to be expected)
- open morph loader pro, add new morph using the original shoe .obj with reverse transform enabled and set slider to 100% to get the original shoe shape back
The shoes autofit nicely to most character shapes, but characters with toe length adjustments tend to cause the shoe to distort / follow the contour of the toes too much.
Process for the problematic character shapes:
- export out the wonky looking autofit shoe shape and custom character shape as individual obj's
- import both into blender, edit shoe in blender so it looks good on new character, export as "xyz shoe fix" obj
- zero out the original G9 reverse shoe morph from before
- load new "xyz shoe fix" obj as morph with same settings as above, set new morph to 100%, shoe looks good on new character
Is there a more efficient way to do it without making a dozen character specific fit fix morphs? Is is possible to make a "G9 default foot shape" morph that resets the characters feet to the base feminine shape without overriding the rest of the custom characters body shape? I'm waiting for someone to release some morphs for G9 like the Realfeet / Sweetfeet for G8 so I'll have to make a a slew of shoe morphs for those 
(also read about adding rigity maps to stop the shoes from deforming as much, that's beyond me at this point)
I know its hard to reply without screenshots, I'll work on adding some later on.
TLDR: The best process for loading in shoe .obj so it magically works on all G9 characters.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Yup, this is almost the workflow that most of the PAs use to fix FBM / bs on wearables... only difference is that they have the project file of products in external app. (Blender, ZB, Maya, etc.), it'll be easier for them to save some steps of imp/exp...
As for the questions -:
There is no 'more efficient way' if you use full body morph(s) from characters 'cause you cannot just easily reset feet's shape to Base from a holistic FBM. That's why PAs provide FBMs on the wearables for Daz Originals and popular characters...
Besides, even if you use Clear Selected Delta from character's feet, you still have to refine the shins / feet shape and tweak the shoes' rigging, and the worse case frequently happen to the stylized characters. There'll be quite a few steps for fixing all these...
So that's why lots of people would rather use PBMs package to shape character's body shape than directly use FBM from the character's product.. 'cause it's easy to reset and tweak PBMs on the character and wearables.
I have never rigged shoes, but @Squishy has linked in one of their threads to a Deviant Art tutorial. It may or may not be helpful, I leave you to read & decide: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/8402266/#Comment_8402266
Regards,
Richard
Is that necessary?
Can't you just position the obj to base figure and use transfer utility to rig? I think generally that doesnt cause weird distortion like you describe. From memory, G9 has a template in the Transfer Utility which you can use for shoes as itignores the weighting of individual toes.
Obviously can still fix any distortions by loading in correctives with morph loader pro where needed.
Yes, converting to figure then using autofit is not needed, you should use Transfer utility directly after loading the obj.
And for the record G9 doesn't use TriAx rigging.
Oh.
What on earth does it use then? And where could I get more info?
Regards,
Richard
Thanks for the replies, all good info
I tried the transfer utility with a fresh scene, Dev load g9 and the shoe model (Base_test). it worked once (see images) and crashed Daz the second time when i tried to use no projection template. I've never had good luck using transfer utility which is why my go to has been the "convert prop to figure / reverse transform morph method...but I think the poor luck is from user error. Applying a reverse morph to the result of the transfer makes everything happy, but should I need to do that if the transfer worked correclty?
Tried out Generic mapping instead of Triax when doing the prop / figure method, seemed to help the bit of poke through when posing
Any red flags that y'all can see in my transfer settings?
Genesis 1 and 2 used TriAx rigging.
Since Genesis 3 they have used dual quaternions rigging (which uses general weight mapping).
Were the shoes modeled on the default shape or the G9 feminine shape?
These settings are fine if you made them for default shape, but if they were made for feminine shape they're not correct.
They were made around the G9 fem. shape. Should I set the source shape to "current" since the current G9 dev load has the Base Fem. shape applied?
Yes you should, and tick 'Reverse Source Shape from Target'.
Well dont try to use no projection template then, problem solved?
Transfer Utility will sometimes crash if you have wrong thing selected in the Scene tab. From memory, youre supposed to have the Source (e.g., Gen 9) selected in Scene tab.
Accounting for both those should fix distortion result from transfer. Of course, you can always fix distortion with corrective morph, which you were doing anyway with your old process so cant be any worse than that...
Ha right? my thought process: "Cool! its sort of working, let me unclicksome boxes and parameters and see if it breaks". It most definitely did.
Wasn't aware of the need to have source selected in scene tab, good to know. Sounds like Reverse Souce Shape, Footwear Projection Template, and Source Shape to current should get me in the ballpark. I'll give it a go tonight and see what happens
TBH, as for using Transfer Utility, you don't need to select anything in Scene tab... TU 'gets' the items from Source / Target dropdown list rather than from what're selected..
it's to stop it from crashing when using Gen 9. (I dont actually remember if it is the Source or Target that needs to be selected in Scene tab.) Someone posted this fix in the thread about Gen 9 when it was released and people were having crashing with Transfer Utility. Im too lazy to look for that thread.
Edit: this is thread, but turns out to be superstition more than anything https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/7839816/#Comment_7839816
Ha ~~ interesting. Let me try.
Edit: I could not reproduce the issue with using templates + no selection, in both 4.21 General Release and PB ~~ As you said, more likely superstition + individual case(s).
Update: Transfer Utility worked for me last night, with the footwear projection template and without. Still going to have to do some morph work but all is well, thanks for the help!