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Exporting TriAx™ Weight Mapped Clothing to Poser 9 [Pro 2012]

This tutorial requires functionality that is only present in DAZ Studio 4.0.2.66 and newer. Refer to the DAZ Studio 4.x page for information relating to current version numbers.

This page currently only contains modified portions of the Exporting a TriAx™ Weight Mapped Figure to Poser 9 [Pro 2012] tutorial, as it pertains to clothing or other items that are fit to a figure.

Summary

Process Overview

  • Launch DAZ Studio 4.x
  • Load a TriAx Weight Mapped figure into the scene
  • Load clothing into the scene
  • Fit the clothing to the base figure
  • Cause shapes on the base figure to be projected onto the clothing
    • Automatic morph projection to TriAx based clothing/hair/etc when fit to TriAx based figures and a morph is applied
    • Auto-Fit morph projection for legacy clothing/hair/etc upon fit to TriAx based figures
    • Transfer Utility (CCT)
  • Un-fit the clothing from the base figure
  • Delete the base figure
  • Zero the clothing
  • Choose the desired UV set and/or apply a Materials preset for the clothing
  • Export the geometry for the clothing, with the current UV set, in OBJ format
    • Technical Issue: In DS, weight mapped figures only use face groups as a selection mechanism. Weight maps are not limited by these groups at all. In Poser, face groups limit the geometry that a weight map can affect.
      • Potential Solutions: Poser 9 allows multiple otherActor statements to be defined for a given channel, so it may work to insert one of these statements for every face group (actor) that includes a vertex that is weighted by a given map.
  • Export rigging, morph and texturing information for the clothing in CR2/PMD format
  • Load the exported base Figure CR2 in Poser 9 / Poser Pro 2012
  • Select the base figure
    • Technical Issue: This step assumes that the figure utilizes ERC and thereby makes use of the Poser “crosstalk” exploit (which itself assumes a figure will be selected, and that the selected figure is the intended controller, among other things…) to drive channels on conformed figures. In DS4, new auto-follow attributes on each property addresses the issue in a simpler way (than temporarily redirecting ERC linkages to the host while the item is fit - which is what is done with legacy content) by indicating whether a node/property name match should be performed on those properties when the item is fit to another figure.
      • Potential Solutions: Poser 9 implements conformMorphs at the figure level, which causes a name match to be performed on targetGeom channels when an item is conformed. This is problematic as a solution, however, in that it does not provide granular enough control and only has an impact on targetgeom channels. The conformMorphs option should be implemented at the channel level to replicate the auto-follow functionality of DS4.
  • Load the exported Clothing CR2 in Poser 9 / Poser Pro 2012
  • Pose the base figure
  • Temporarily store the state of the base figure; i.e. save a pose
    • Technical Issue: This step is required due to the differences between the applications, in how an item is fit to a figure; more specifically, for weight mapped figures. Poser uses the vector between the origin of the conforming bone to the origin of its first child bone, to align the conforming bone to the host bone (using the vector between the origin of the host bone and the origin of its first child bone as the target). The exceptions to this are with bones specifically named head, lhand and rhand, in addition to the last bone in each chain of the hierarchy, in which case Poser uses the vector between the origin of the conforming bone to its own endpoint. DS is consistent with this behaviour for legacy content, for compatibility reasons. For weight mapped figures however, instead of special casing hard-coded bone names, to allow for greater flexibility in rigging designs and to remove the dependency on having extra bones soley for alignment purposes, DS4 always uses the vector between the origin of the following bone to its own endpoint for the alignment (using the vector between the origin of the host bone and its own endpoint as the target).
      • Potential Solutions: The endpoint values defined in files should be respected, rather than being modified/recalculated. If it is unworkable to change the implementation, due to negative affect on prior version content, perhaps a new option in the file to indicate a requirement to keep endpoint relative position.
  • Apply the pose to the clothing
  • Adjust scale channels on the clothing Body to match the driven value of the corresponding property on the figure Body.
    • Technical Issue: In DS, when an item is fit to a figure, the scale properties on the root node of that item are given a temporary ERC link to the corresponding property on the host. Poser does not behave in the same way.
      • Potential Solutions: Poser 9 implements conformScale at the figure level.

Foundation

Step By Step

Step 1 : Prepare the Figure

Step 2 : Export the Geometry

Step 3 : Export the Rigging, Morphs and Texturing

Step 4 : Load the Figure, in Poser

Wrap-Up