Daz/character creator to embergen

Software Support & Suggestions EmberGen
1

Hi people. Im kinda new here so hoping this is the correct place from what I can tell.
Im trying to import an animated character from Daz or caracter creator into embergen but I get some really odd results. The character is tiny and things are all crazy looking.
I export correct scale but they are tiny and when using the scaling tools in the import node they dont come out correct either. the mesh does not change. It almost looks like the joints are scaling or in the wrong positions. Im exporting aniamted FBX. But also testing just a still FBX gives a similar result of bodies broken etc.
Ive uploaded an image below. Ive tried exporting different scales and tried different settings in Embergen but nothing seems to work.
Any more info I need to provide please shout. Also thanks for the read and listen.

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Any help would be appreciated.

2

Anyone? Been trying everything if it is an FBX it comes in broken.

3

I think you need to provide more info, just fbx says nothing, and what figure from daz did you use?
Bones and it´s locations, rest length and deformation can differ a lot.

is it genesis figures, other types of figures matters a lot.

What other software have you checked the fbx within? is it changing in there in such case?

MDD support to scan any animated figures vertices is what Embergen needs, not sure if and when they can have that ready, that would allow these tasks with fbx figures to work more smootly I think.

4

Hey thanks for the reply.
Ok so Im using a standard genisis 8 female. I dont touch it besides exporting it to test.
SO I create genesis 8 female. I select figure and export fbx then into embergen and it comes out tiny and broken… But when I send that exact figure to Blender and then export the FBX from there it seems to work just fine. Scale and animation etc all good.
Thanks.

5

But same with Character creator. Open new figure and export to fbx. In embergen its the same as a daz figure which is tiny and broken.

6

Don´t have time to check this right now, will have to later.

Bones and how software treats it, options to change it´s alignment etc, that is tricky.
For this reason …I would welcome mdd import, just scan your animated figure…and it will all work without having to concern about what character type you have in Daz studio, how the bones are set etc, or other software for that matter.
Would also be great for other dynamics and passing through to embergen.

7

Yeah…this may happen with Daz figures, I have yet to tried the genesis 3 figures.

This is why MDD support would pretty much crush any issues like this, you do not need any bones, just bake mdd, no more complaints of any deforming mesh coming out distorted in unwanted ways, it will just work all the time.

The object format needs to be correct to read the mdd cache loader if Embergen implements it, but it´s so darn nice to have in Lightwave, blender for instance, any bone motion or deformation, just bake it, remove bones and the mdd loader will fix all deformations.

Unfortunately, neither fbx or alembic maintain any mdd reading of deformations, it´s a bit strange though since I managed to use nodal displacement in lightwave on objects, and export to embergen and those deformations work, but using the mdd reador node within nodal displacement …that doesn´t work.

It might be possible with right settings …but I don´t hold my breat on it.
so a proper mdd loader for embergen, that would be nice, obj format is one option I can save to when exporting mdd, so there would be no need to import LWO objects, even though that would be nice.

I also got a particle mdd scanner modifier, to allow to send lightwave particles to blender, would be nice to have that working direcly with mdd loader for embergen as well, when I scan the particles, and save out as mdd particles.

I will try to see if the New lightwave digital x team can implement any velocity field export, so fga files can be exported based on particle simulations in Lightwave as well.

8

Finally, it seems I now got it working with my mdd scan, saving to alembic, maybe even fbx.
A lot of testing that got wrong since I seemed to not have had my tounge right when saving out, making sure the right mesh is saved etc.

So by scanning with the softfx modifier to save the mdd, then nodal displacement in Lightwave and the mdd displacement node to read the mdd file, then saving to Alembic, it finally worked.
Tested on an animated swan with flapping wings, and it came across nicely.

So this means you should be able to get daz figures in, in principle Any figure with whatever bone setup and influence it has, and the deformation will still be intact after mdd scanning.

So depending on, mdd support may not be necessary if you have the proper tools for it.
Now this was tested with Lightwave 2019.1.5
I will do some test later with blender and it´s cache modifiers to ensure it should be doable for Anyone using open source software.

No more worries about how bones were applied or in what software.