Advanced Morph Section

 

• Add Shapekey To Category: Add selected shapekeys to mesh category.
• Remove Shapekey From Category: Remove selected shapekeys from mesh category.
• Rename Category: Rename the selected category. 
• Remove Categories: Remove the selected categories. 
• Convert Standard Morphs To Shapekeys: Convert standard face rig morphs to shapekeys. 
• Convert Custom Morphs To Shapekeys: Convert custom face rig morphs to shapekeys. 
• Transfer Mesh To Shapekey: Transfer selected mesh to active shapekey.
  
• Add Shapekey Drivers: Add drivers to selected shapekeys.
• Remove Shapekey Drivers: Remove drivers from selected shapekeys. 
• Remove All Shapekey Drivers: Remove all shapekey drivers.
• Apply All Shapekeys. Apply all shapekeys to selected meshes. Moved from Morphs panel in version 1.6.2.
  
• Mix Shapekeys: Combine two shapekeys into a single one. Moved from Morphs panel in version 1.6.2.
• Copy Props: Copy object properties from all selected objects to the active object.
• Copy Bone Drivers: Copy bone drivers from the other selected armature to the active armature. 
• Retarget Mesh Drivers: Retarget drivers of selected objects to active object. 
• Update Slider Limits: Change the minimum and maximum values of sliders.
• Import DBZ Morphs: Import DBZ or JSON file(s) (*.dbz, *.json) as morphs.
  
• Update Morph Paths: 

 

Add Shapekey To Category

This tool adds existing shapekey sliders to categories, which are displayed in the Morphs panel. This can be useful if you have many morphs and want to organize them in groups.

Here we have created two new shapekeys for Aiko, and want to show them in the Morphs panel.

Specify the category to which the shapekeys should be added. This can either be an existing category or a new one.

Now the shapekeys can be accessed from the Mesh Shape Keys section of the Morphs panel.

Remove Shapekey From Category

This tool removes shapekeys from the Mesh Shape Keys section. The shapekeys themselves are not deleted.

Select the shapekeys that should be removed.

 

Now only the Pinocchio slider remains in the Mesh Shape Keys section

Rename Category

This and the next button require that the armature is the active object.

 

In the pop-up dialog, select the category to rename, or select All if you want to rename all categories. Then choose the category's new name.

The PearFigure morph now belongs to the Body category.

Remove Categories

This button removes the selected categories and their rig properties and shapekey drivers.

 

• Delete Shapekeys: Also delete the shapekeys driven by rig properties in the removed categories.

We select the Body category for deletion, but uncheck Delete Shapekeys to keep the shapekey.

The PearFigure shapekey remains, but we see that it is no longer driven. Since we removed the last category, the Custom Morphs panel disappear from the DAZ tab.

Convert Standard Morphs To Shapekeys

Facial expressions in the Genesis 3 and Genesis 8 characters are face rig poses. This works quite well in Blender, but may become a problem if you want to export the character to some other application. This button converts standard morphs into shapekeys which may be used elsewhere.

In the morph selector, we enable the Afraid and Angry morphs.

Two new shapekeys appear in the list. 

Note that there is a difference between the converted shapekeys and the original morphs. Driven bones can be both translated and rotated, which makes the vertices move along straight lines and arcs, respectively, but shapekeys always move vertices along straight lines. This may lead to problems at intermediate values, e.g. the eyes may poke through half-way closed lids. The problem is even more articulated for many body morphs. This is discussed in the blog post on Unwinding Actions. If you want to convert morphs to shapekeys in order to export them to other applications, consider baking actions instead.

Convert Custom Morphs To Shapekeys

This button works in the same way as the previous one, except that it converts custom morphs rather than standard morphs.

Since we just removed the last custom morph, we need to load some new ones.

In the morph selector, choose the two first morphs.

The morphs are now converted into shapekeys. We see that the Happy morph looks the same, whether it is a face rig pose or a shapekey.

Transfer Mesh To Shapekey

 

 

Add Shapekey Drivers

This button adds a driver to shapekeys that are not driven, either by rig properties or by bone rotations (JCM's).

The pop-up dialog displays a list of all shapekeys that are not driven.

A new category is created in the Custom Morphs panel, and the PearFigure and Angry shapekeys are driven.

Remove Shapekey Drivers

This button removes drivers from driven shapekeys.

If Category is set to All,  all driven shapekeys are listed, also JCM's, otherwise only shapekeys that belong to the specified category are shown. We select the Angry morph in the Shapes category.

Angry disappears from the Custom Morphs panel, and the corresponding shapekey is no long purple.

Remove Unused Drivers

It can happen that some drivers become corrupt. If we e.g. remove some shapekeys by hand, the corresponding drivers are still there, but the Python expressions has become invalid.

Or if we delete the armature, the mesh shapekeys remain driven by rig properties of the now non-existent rig.

The Remove Unused Drivers cleans things up by deleting all drivers that have become invalid.

Remove All Shapekey Drivers

This button removes all selection drivers. This can be useful if you intend to export the character to some other application, or if you simply want to control the shapekeys from the mesh context.

After pressing Remove All Shapekey Drivers, the values change from purple to black, indicating that they are no longer driven. The corresponding panels in the Daz tab also disappear.

Copy Props

Copy object properties from all selected objects to the active object.

Copy Bone Drivers

Copy bone drivers from the other selected armature to the active armature.

Retarget Mesh Drivers

Retarget drivers of selected objects to active object.

Update Slider Limits

When a shapekey is imported, its range is defined by the properties Property Minima and Property Maxima, which are found in the General section of the Settings panel.  The shapekey ranges can of course be changed by hand, but this becomes unpractical if we want to change the limits of many shapekeys.

To change the range of all shapekeys and associated properties at once, press Update Property Limits.

 In the pop-up dialog, set the desired values of Property Minima and Maxima, and  The shapekey range changes.

Here is the PearFigure morph with the new extreme values.

Create Graft Groups

Grafted items like genitals contain extra information that is necessary to merge them correctly with the body mesh. This tool creates vertex groups that allows us to visualize this information.

Here is an example with the Golden Palace genitals. With the genitals the active mesh and the body also selected, press Create Graft Groups. Three new vertex groups are generated that can be displayed with in weight paint mode.

The body has two vertex groups. The graft group is the boundary, i.e. the string of vertices that will be joined with vertices of the genitals. The mask group consists of the vertices beneath the geograft that will be removed. The geograft has one group; the graft group is the boundary to join with the corresponding vertices on the body.

Import DBZ Morphs

The tool imports morphs from a .dbz file exported from Daz Studio. It applies the morphs to selected meshes with the correct vertex count.

Import Aiko again, but this time with Mesh Fitting set to Unmorphed Shared or Unmorphed Unique. She is now a standard Genesis 8 Female without distinction. With all meshes selected, press Import DBZ Morphs.

In the file selector, choose aiko.dbz which we exported from Daz Studio.

All meshes now has an aiko morph. Here we have set aiko to 1.0 for the body and hair, but not for the top. Since shapekeys are only created for meshes, the armature is off. 

 

Update Morph Paths

At some point something was changed which broke morphing for old files. If the morph slider don't work with an old character, try this tool.