Is there a way to make smoothing modifiers more detailed / accurate?

Paradigm

I use smoothing modifiers for everything. One of my favorites is to give figures smoothing modifiers so they get that realistc impact look when they touch said objects. This works well with large surfaces (butt, meet chair) but I find the precision isn't enough for small things.

 

Example: Make one figure of any kind collide with another figure that has fingers so that the fingers should cause indentations in the surface. The fingers will either have visible gaps between them and the surface or they'll get swallowed by the surface smoothing itself over it. 

Ascania

Smoothing does not generate more geometry to collide with.

Paradigm

Ascania said:

Smoothing does not generate more geometry to collide with.

Nobody said it did.

 

Toonces

Do you mean like the attached picture?

If so, there are options.

• One is D-Former, but it's fairly time intensive for something like this.
• Another is a sim like dForce. Requires lots of practice tho.
• Another is Shape Reprojector: https://www.daz3d.com/simtenero-shape-reprojector

Then again, perhaps I'm not interpreting your request properly.

 

 

 

3Diva

You mean something like a weight modifier for smoothing modifier? That would be awesome. I don't think that it's possible right now (as far as I know, but admittedly I'm still fairly new to Daz Studio, compared to many people around here, and still have a LOT to learn). I'd love to be able to add a weight modifier to smoothing and give the smoothing only target areas to smooth. That would be really cool!

For now though you can try Toonces suggestion of dForce. You can add a weight modifier to an object or figure with dForce. Then you can paint the weight modifier to only affect the areas that you want the collision to happen. That can be a bit time consuming but might create some neet results. 

Richard Haseltine

Paradigm said:

Ascania said:

Smoothing does not generate more geometry to collide with.

Nobody said it did.

It would be necesary, however, for finger dents in most parts of the Genesis figures as their existing geometry would be too sparse.

Jabba

Could you maybe apply subdivision a couple of times before applying smoothing modifier?

I haven't tried it, just thinking out loud...  I might have done it to a sofa cushion that worked a little, but so long ago now I can't rightly remember, LOL.

Richard Haseltine

Jabba said:

Could you maybe apply subdivision a couple of times before applying smoothing modifier?

I haven't tried it, just thinking out loud...  I might have done it to a sofa cushion that worked a little, but so long ago now I can't rightly remember, LOL.

Smoothing is applied to the base mesh, before SubD. You could turn the posed figure, with SubD, into a static prop and then aply the Smoothing Modifier to that but it would be less flexible (and useless for animation) and might well produce undesirable artefacts.

Syrus_Dante

Divamakeup saied:

I'd love to be able to add a weight modifier to smoothing and give the smoothing only target areas to smooth. That would be really cool!

I know a workaroud for that - a bit complicated but it works:

    You will need a DFormer with a Influence Weightmap to define the area you want the Smoothing Modifier collision to show up.

1. select the figure, create a DFormer, switch to Node Weight Map Brush tool, open Tool Settings press the button Add Map: Weightmap Influence

    You can place and scale the DFormer first before you press the Add Map button - by doing this the current influence field dots on the figure gets converted to Weightmap Influence.

2. use the Node Weight Map Brush tool with paint/smooth brush to modifiy the DFormer influence weightmap as needed

    To actualy see the Weightmap Influence you are painting on in action you can temporary scale or move the DFormer some.

3. Optional: make a geometry selection in the Geometry Editor first, then switch back to the Node Weight Map Brush tool and use the right-click menu Weight Editing>Fill Selected with 100% or 0% to define the DFormer influence weightmap, also Weight Editing>Smooth Selected can help instead of paining with the smooth brush - both is restricted to the current geometry selection by pressing Ctrl+NumpadPlus/Minus you can Grow/Shrink the Geometry Selection before smoothing or filling the weightmap

    Now you need to export an OBJ of the figure with base resolution it can still be morphed and posed. The OBJ will serve you as a morph target.

4. set the figure with the Smoothing Modifier to base resolution hide everything else in the scene and export it morphed and posed and with the Smoothing Modifier collision active (it will still collide with the hidden item)

5. turn off the Smoothing Modifier on the figure in the Parameters pane - keep everything else as it is

6. now select the figure and open Morph Loader Pro - choose to load the exported OBJ - make shure Reverse Deformation is set to Yes (will remove any character shape and pose from the morph target) and right-click the last option Attenuate By to select the DFromer Influence Weights just like in the sceenshot below.

The result should be a new morph on the figure that only containes the Smoothing Modifier collision shape on the area of the Weightmap Influence.

3Diva

Syrus_Dante said:

Divamakeup saied:

I'd love to be able to add a weight modifier to smoothing and give the smoothing only target areas to smooth. That would be really cool!

I know a workaroud for that - a bit complicated but it works:

    You will need a DFormer with a Influence Weightmap to define the area you want the Smoothing Modifier collision to show up.

1. select the figure, create a DFormer, switch to Node Weight Map Brush tool, open Tool Settings press the button Add Map: Weightmap Influence

    You can place and scale the DFormer first before you press the Add Map button - by doing this the current influence field dots on the figure gets converted to Weightmap Influence.

2. use the Node Weight Map Brush tool with paint/smooth brush to modifiy the DFormer influence weightmap as needed

    To actualy see the Weightmap Influence you are painting on in action you can temporary scale or move the DFormer some.

3. Optional: make a geometry selection in the Geometry Editor first, then switch back to the Node Weight Map Brush tool and use the right-click menu Weight Editing>Fill Selected with 100% or 0% to define the DFormer influence weightmap, also Weight Editing>Smooth Selected can help instead of paining with the smooth brush - both is restricted to the current geometry selection by pressing Ctrl+NumpadPlus/Minus you can Grow/Shrink the Geometry Selection before smoothing or filling the weightmap

    Now you need to export an OBJ of the figure with base resolution it can still be morphed and posed. The OBJ will serve you as a morph target.

4. set the figure with the Smoothing Modifier to base resolution hide everything else in the scene and export it morphed and posed and with the Smoothing Modifier collision active (it will still collide with the hidden item)

5. turn off the Smoothing Modifier on the figure in the Parameters pane - keep everything else as it is

6. now select the figure and open Morph Loader Pro - choose to load the exported OBJ - make shure Reverse Deformation is set to Yes (will remove any character shape and pose from the morph target) and right-click the last option Attenuate By to select the DFromer Influence Weights just like in the sceenshot below.

The result should be a new morph on the figure that only containes the Smoothing Modifier collision shape on the area of the Weightmap Influence.

Thank you for the tutorial. That does sound quite complex and complicated. I do hope that the ability to add smoothing to only certain parts of a figure is something that can be added to future versions of Daz Studio. That would be super cool! :)

Thank you again for taking the time to share your method and a tutorial. :)