I don't understand how to use pins properly when posing. (solved)

Flortale

EDIT/Solution: Guys, it turns out my G8F was broken.  Ever since I selected the hip and all its children, then did Figure-> Limits -> Limits Off, then once again, Figure-> Limits -> Limits On, it somehow made the IK-off translation all wonky and broken, making posing unbearably difficult.  As soon as I loaded a new fresh G8F, the IK-off translation movement of the hand was smooth and precise once again. To clarify, you press CTRL k to disable IK, then you select G8F's hand, then you activate the translation tool and move the hand around on a single axis, this gives you precise control, but this process was broken on my original G8F character causing weird movements, lag, and it just wouldn't work right most of the time.  The pins work fine and actually do a nice hard pin.

Does this mean I can never turn limits off? Why does turning off the limits of all of the hip's children cause the IK off translation to become all broken?

_______________________

This is driving me crazy.

I pin the rotation and translation of both feet, I pin rotation and translation of the legs, but when I bend the pelvis the legs and feet still move, wtf? What is the point of pinning if the pins don't keep the body part in place?

Another example, I pin the rotation and translation of the hands, then I bend the abdomen forward, but the hands STILL MOVE and ROTATE, despite having their rotation and translation pinned, lol.

Richard Haseltine

The pinnng is "soft" - if the uer-initiated movement requires it then the pin will give way. The alternative, had pins where a movement that the pin would allow is blocked, may be added at a later date. In the case of the legs, there are not many bones between the pelvis and the shins/feet to allow for movement without the pins yielding.

felis

If you're using the pins from the gizmo, they are in my opinion like a lousy rubber band - not really useful.

If you're using the tool setting, they will lock the item in place.

Flortale

In poser, I can make a complex pose within 4 minutes.  Making the same pose in DAZ takes about 30 minutes of incredibly painful trial and error.  Maybe I just haven't figured out a workflow yet.  Here's the crazy part. I looked for tutorials on advanced DAZ posing and guess what? THERE AREN'T ANY, lol.  The only so called advanced posing tutorials are more like beginner tutorials.

Richard Haseltine said:

The pinnng is "soft" - if the uer-initiated movement requires it then the pin will give way. The alternative, had pins where a movement that the pin would allow is blocked, may be added at a later date. In the case of the legs, there are not many bones between the pelvis and the shins/feet to allow for movement without the pins yielding.

I guess we need hard pins asap.  In Poser, when I have the IK turned on for the hands, the posing is extremely easy, fast and efficient.   These soft pins make posing extremely painful.  I can't believe it, but Poser actually beats DAZ at something, probably the only thing, except maybe for animation.

 The alternative, had pins where a movement that the pin would allow is blocked, may be added at a later date. 

They should add this asap.   Posing in the current state is extremely frustrating.  DAZ should copy how Poser handles posing.  In Poser, if you turn on the IK for hands, and move the hands via translationX, Y or Z, it's extremely precise and doesn't move the other body parts, it only moves the arms and shoulder as it should be.  Poser is also about 1000% faster with updating the viewport, meanwhile DAZ lags severely, even on a modern i7 with 32gb and an SSD.

In the case of the legs, there are not many bones between the pelvis and the shins/feet to allow for movement without the pins yielding.

Imagine this, you pin both thigh legs and shins.  Then if you bend the pelvis by 5 degrees, it should rotate the entire upper body by that amount, while ensuring the legs don't move at all.  The pinning idea is great , but only if it's 100% hard and doesn't move.  If the pinned body parts move, it completely defeats the purpose, then you lose precision, which means it becomes extremely difficult to make interactive poses where the hands touch against various surfaces.

I have one last question guys.  Is there anyway to pose Genesis 8 in another software, then import the pose into DAZ?  At this point, I think any other software would beat DAZ in the posing department.  I've never seen Posing this bizarre before. I feel so bad for all the people who've had to deal with this the past 10 years.  I'm hoping I'll figure out a workflow within the next week of trial and error, but it looks like it's just going to be a painful process, this is a huge setback.  Taking 30 minutes to make a high quality pose is just too long. It shouldn't take more than 4-5 minutes tops.

Sevrin

I don't pose in Iray view, since that's for previewing renders and not for setting up assets.  Anyway Iray preview is only affected by your GPU unless your system is below requirements.  I also usually lock everything but the body parts I'm posing.  Starting with a premade pose that sort of gets you close to where you want to go makes it all easy peasy.