Recovering high resolution/"ruined" morph shapes

gmm2

We probably all know that creating a custom character with morphs in DAZ, exporting that shaped figure as an OBJ, then importing that shape through Morph Loader Pro is a pretty standard procedure. The two major caveats (at least with the Genesis 8 figures) are exporting the figure in base resolution and deleting the default eyelashes.

I know the frustration of spending time working on a custom character and accidentally exporting it in high resolution or forgetting to delete the eyelashes, seemingly ruining all that work. I don't know if anyone else has figured this out before me, but there are fortunately two fixes that can be done in Blender. I've only tested this with Genesis 8 Male and Female (not 8.1), but I see no reason it wouldn't be universal.

To fix a high resolution shape:

• Import the OBJ into Blender, making sure to select Keep Vertex Order.
• Add the Decimate modifer to the object. Select Un-Subdivide as the method, and increase Iterations to 2.
• Apply the modifer.
• Export the object as an OBJ, again selecting Keep Vertex Order.

The shape should now be able to be imported through Morph Loader Pro without issue.

To fix the eyelashes:

• Import the OBJ into Blender, making sure to select Keep Vertex Order.
• If the figure was exported with materials, simply go into Edit Mode, select the eyelash materials, and delete those faces.
• If there are no materials, the eyelash geometry wil have to be deleted manually.
• Export the object as an OBJ, again selecting Keep Vertex Order.

The shape should now be able to be imported through Morph Loader Pro without issue.

Didn't see anything about this when I searched the forums, so maybe it can help someone.

Richard Haseltine

This isn't good practice anyway - if you bake all the component morphs into one then you lose any corrective morphs and joint adjustments connected to the component morphs. It is better to create a single slider for the morph and then use ERC Freeze to link the component morphs to that.

gmm2

Richard Haseltine said:

This isn't good practice anyway - if you bake all the component morphs into one then you lose any corrective morphs and joint adjustments connected to the component morphs. It is better to create a single slider for the morph and then use ERC Freeze to link the component morphs to that.

Huh? I think we're talking about the same thing. Adjusting the joints to the dialed-in shape that was loaded through Morph Loader Pro, and then running ERC Freeze, would happen after what I'm talking about. I've done this dozens of times and never had to worry about corrective morphs being an issue, specifically because they're baked in (if they're present at all). The thing I was talking about was how to correct an OBJ so that process can even begin in the first place.

Richard Haseltine

By corrective morphs I meant things like an adjustment so that the eyes close morphs still close the eyes in their modified form, or to avoid a nasty crease when the arms bend - those can't be baked in as they are required only when the shape is applied and some other shape or bend is also applied.

In any event, it isn't a good diea to encourage this practice as the results cannot be shared with others.

gmm2

Richard Haseltine said:

By corrective morphs I meant things like an adjustment so that the eyes close morphs still close the eyes in their modified form, or to avoid a nasty crease when the arms bend - those can't be baked in as they are required only when the shape is applied and some other shape or bend is also applied.

In any event, it isn't a good diea to encourage this practice as the results cannot be shared with others.

 I'm really not understanding why corrective morphs are an issue here. If they're required at all, then they can be remade or made from scratch to suit the new morph. They're not ultimately relevant to the process I described; it will work whether they're there or not.

And certainly the results could be shared. If a morph was, for example, created in different "chunks" (like sculpting the body in multiple areas) and then loaded and applied all at once in DAZ, that new shape created from those multiple morphs could then be exported and reapplied as a single morph. If the mistakes I mentioned in exporting happened, the process I described will fix them.

Even if they couldn't be shared, it would still be useful for personal morphs if those errors occurred.

Richard Haseltine

gmm2 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

By corrective morphs I meant things like an adjustment so that the eyes close morphs still close the eyes in their modified form, or to avoid a nasty crease when the arms bend - those can't be baked in as they are required only when the shape is applied and some other shape or bend is also applied.

In any event, it isn't a good diea to encourage this practice as the results cannot be shared with others.

 I'm really not understanding why corrective morphs are an issue here. If they're required at all, then they can be remade or made from scratch to suit the new morph. They're not ultimately relevant to the process I described; it will work whether they're there or not.

And certainly the results could be shared. If a morph was, for example, created in different "chunks" (like sculpting the body in multiple areas) and then loaded and applied all at once in DAZ, that new shape created from those multiple morphs could then be exported and reapplied as a single morph. If the mistakes I mentioned in exporting happened, the process I described will fix them.

Even if they couldn't be shared, it would still be useful for personal morphs if those errors occurred.

They can't be shared if they are built from other people's or vendors' morphs (depending on the license terms), which seemed to be what you are discussing. If you are building the individual morphs and then combining them then that is another matter.

gmm2

Richard Haseltine said:

gmm2 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

By corrective morphs I meant things like an adjustment so that the eyes close morphs still close the eyes in their modified form, or to avoid a nasty crease when the arms bend - those can't be baked in as they are required only when the shape is applied and some other shape or bend is also applied.

In any event, it isn't a good diea to encourage this practice as the results cannot be shared with others.

 I'm really not understanding why corrective morphs are an issue here. If they're required at all, then they can be remade or made from scratch to suit the new morph. They're not ultimately relevant to the process I described; it will work whether they're there or not.

And certainly the results could be shared. If a morph was, for example, created in different "chunks" (like sculpting the body in multiple areas) and then loaded and applied all at once in DAZ, that new shape created from those multiple morphs could then be exported and reapplied as a single morph. If the mistakes I mentioned in exporting happened, the process I described will fix them.

Even if they couldn't be shared, it would still be useful for personal morphs if those errors occurred.

They can't be shared if they are built from other people's or vendors' morphs (depending on the license terms), which seemed to be what you are discussing. If you are building the individual morphs and then combining them then that is another matter.

I was speaking generally. Of course using morphs without permission to make another one wouldn't be allowed to be sold. I wasn't intending to imply anything to the contrary.

The only thing I was getting at with this thread was that this process works to recover an OBJ file intended to be used as a morph through Morph Loader Pro that was saved in one of two incorrect ways. I thought it was neat that it worked and thought I'd share since I didn't see that anyone else figured it out and maybe it could help someone. I just wanted to be helpful.