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How to Import DAZ Characters in OBJ Format?

Posted By Inkubo 8 Years Ago
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Lord Ashes
Lord Ashes
Posted 8 Years Ago
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OBJ format contains information about the mesh of an object (or character) and materials. However, it does not contain (does not support) information about the bone structure. As such it is not a good format for transferring characters because if you export into OBJ format you would loose all the bone information. Basically you would end up importing a static character into iClone which would not be able to move. It would be sort of like taking a plastic mold of your character and then bringing it into iClone as a static prop.
FBX format, on the other hand, can hold information about the mesh, the material as well as the bone structure and weight paint information (how the mesh bends with respect to the bones). Thus when you export in FBX format you are exporting all the necessary information need to be able to re-create the character as a fully functioning character as opposed to a "mold of a character".

If you really want to export as OBJ, it is possible but will result in more work. Basically you:
1. Export your meshes as OBJ
2. Open a standard iClone character FBX file in Blender (or similar software).
    You can get one from Reallusion website or export one from CC (unlike other export which need Pipeline for exporting FBX files, the nude character export does not require Pipeline).
3. Load in all your OBJ files meshes
4. Attach the OBJ files to the standard character armature
5. Transfer weight maps from the existing meshes to your new ones (or weight paint your meshes yourself)
6. Delete the original body meshes

This process is very similar to how CC Clothing is made for CC characters. I have done it a number of times. I can't guarantee that this will resolve your issue but this is what you would need to do in order to create a functional iClone character using OBJ files.

Edit:

Step 4 is what causes your meshes to get attached to the iClone character bone structure so that when bones are moved in iClone it will causes your OBJ meshes to move.
Step 5 determines how meshes move with respect to each bone (because, obviously, different bones have effects on different parts of the body). If you replacement OBJ meshes are very close to the meshes were on the original character then you can just transfer the weight maps from the original body parts. Blender has a Transfer function for doing this automatically. If the body parts are significantly different then you will either need to transfer the weight maps and then fix them up or you will need to create them from scratch. If you are not familiar with weight mapping, it is not too difficult to learn and there are many YouTube videos that teach the concept (in Blender). I am guessing that for your minotaur you can probably get away with just transferring weight maps from the original body parts because the minotaur still has all the same body parts as a human.





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Inkubo
Inkubo
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I'm considering iClone for animation of DAZ characters, in order to drastically (I hope) speed up render times.
All the YouTube videos and online sources I can find say to use the FBX format to export characters from DAZ for use in iClone. But is that really the only way?
I'm a fan of the DAZ Minotaur 6 HD character, which is constructed from a Genesis 2 human base mesh with "geograft" parts to replace the legs with hooves, add a tail, etc. I have tried exporting this character for use in Blender, and so far it seems the mesh exports perfectly to a Wavefront OBJ format, but other formats aren't very good at all; geografts don't blend with the body mesh. For example, when I import an FBX into Blender, it looks like the character is wearing flesh-colored thigh boots, because the area where the bull-like lower leg meets the thigh has a very visible top rim and seam. None of the geografts line up right, and I worry that this is a misfeature of the FBX exporter rather than a problem with Blender.
I want to learn a bit about iClone before starting my 30-day trial, so at the moment I cannot test whether an FBX format works perfectly with geografts or whether OBJ would work better--or if using OBJ is even an option.
I imagine FBX was chosen in order to include lip-sync animations. Would it be possible to import the character as FBX and then replace the mesh with the better one from the OBJ?
Can any one offer expertise about how or if one can use OBJ format to transfer nonstandard avatars to iClone?

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