D-form tool

[Aelin]

For the tuto on D-form tool in Daz, I use Daz Studio version 3, but it seems in exists in DS4 too (sorry DS4 is on my other old comp which I use very few now).

To begin, I show you an example with a set of props, the Sweet dream bed which is a freebie.
Then, if I have time today, I'll do another test, this time on a figure - and my first trial for that!

To be back on the bed; it's composed from the Bed, the BedCover, the Pillow. 3 separated props.
Because of that, here I cheat a little: the Bed has a surface named "Bed_mattress", I put opacity 0%. In reality the cover bends under a weight, so does more or less the mattress. But in 3D, the cover will pass inside the mattress when we use d-form tool.

The d-form tool will be used on the BedCover, so select it.
Go to Create => New D-former
(You have the choice to give or not a name to your tool, it's not necessary)
Once it's done, your hierarchy has changed

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[Aelin]

Select D-former_1_Field (or anothername_1_Field if you gave a name). Now you must see lots of points on the object; and if you look in parameters, you see something in Scale.

All I can tell it's the percent of scale change with the object you have selected to work on. I already had more than 30 000% on a terrain.
Yet, all the object is under the D-former_1_Field which isn't what we want. You have to play with the scale firstly to obtain something close of what you want - including disminish only X Y or Z scale if it's necessary.
Then, you can use the X Y and Z Translate if the field is no more visible (it happens it sinks in an object) or if it's not where you desire.
And if you need to, you can use X Y and Z in Rotation.
Yes, it's possible a part of the field is in the void, near the object. Yes, you can scale, translate or rotate even after you played with the other part of the tool: the "arrow" D-Former_1.

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[Aelin]

Look the screen capture below to see what I obtain after some modifications.
Something I learnt and was surprise to find: even if the field is the main part for the scaling, you can play with the scale also with the 2 other parts of the tool. Maybe on short zones (like details) it's better to follow that way, I don't know.

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[Aelin]

If you click on D-Former_1_Base, sometimes like with that bed, you won't see that part of the tool, nor the attached  D-Former_1. In fact, it's not necessary to see them both; as longer as you have the field on the area you want, the rest will work with it.
Yet, if you are uncomfortable at that idea, you can translate the Base to see it. It's a kind of disk, yellow and red. The "arrow" is with the same colors.
For that tuto, I have moved them for the next steps, that you can see their actions.

And we arrive to what I call the "arrow"; it's not really an arrow, but have a point which is the part doing the deformation.
So D-Former_1 can be translated and rotated to change your effect. Below, some examples, with the rotation and translation; the last is with change also on the field part of the tool.
I know, they aren't wonderful examples, but it's just to give you an idea.

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[Aelin]

Another question you might have: can we use several d-form in the same time? The answer is yes.
And yes, the fields can cross themselves on some parts of the tool to do additional effects.
You have only to select the object where apply the d-form tools.

First screen captrue show you them asides.
The others, with more or less mix between zones of d-formers.

You can do as many d-formers as you want, with different sizes. Remember, each of them has to be connected to the object you want to modify so select it.

It's all I'm for the moment, not yet on a character, because I had an unexpected phone call.

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[Aelin]

  I'm afraid d-form isn't the tool to work on ears. At least on M4.

I selected his head, and all his head is included inside the field.
If you move the D-former_1, the face will be pulled and took in the direction you decide. Horrible result garanted

Alas, for ears even with 2 dformers it's not working - when I push one ear toward the head, it enters in the head but like if we are digging.
I had a result with one to disminish the size in Z scale for a part of the ear, but not all the ear. And with a second d-former that doesn't help at all for the moment.

I made a test on the nose too.

So I don't know how to do for no ears at all. Except maybe modelization, but you have to keep each polygon from the character in all cases
I opened a free "no ears" file for M4, it has 'deltas' inside its pz2 code, concerning each changed face.
By a way or another, the ear seems really disminished, then maybe pushed in the "hole", but it's all I can tell.

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[Dreamer]

Very handy, thankyou.

[Agent0013]

The D-Former can be used to make ears go away for the most part, though you may get some distortion in your results. The D-former works better on Genesis figures and DAZ formatted animals and creatures. As there are DAZ formatted versions of Dusk and Dawn, the D-former should work fairly well on those figures. As with any tool that is complex like the D-former, the work one must do to achieve desired results will be a matter of trial and error. Now it can be used for Poser formatted figures like M4 and V4, but saving the results requires better knowledge than I have. I work mainly with Genesis figures and other DAZ formatted figures when using the D-former. I have made a few head and ear morphs using the D-former.


A good video tutorial is one made by Medhue. He makes a morph to enhance a Werewolf head morph for Genesis. I will share it here:

[mtdana]

Thank you  - I use dformers a lot but sometimes you just can't select what you want. DS4 has another way to make selections but it is not as fast.