Creating a Smart Prop in DAZ Studio
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- Опубліковано 4 лют 2025
- In this episode I'll show you how to turn a regular object into a Smart Prop. This technique is used so that static items like jewellery and other accessories snap into place on a figure and move with it as you pose your character. Smart Props from one generation may not be compatible with another due to changes in the node/rigging setup, but you can manually tweak such items and save them out - I'll show you how.
For Paul.
Here's my article that explains this with screenshots: www.versluis.c...
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Seriously, each time I have a question on Daz, I see that you made a video about it :)
You just can't imagine how grateful I am, you make my dream of creating my own story an eventuality !
Thanks you (from France)
Awww that's nice to hear! Thank you 🤩
Great tutorial. I was familiar with manually parenting the asset each time but never figured out how to convert it to a smart prop ... now I know how. Thanks Jay.
You're very welcome, Jeremy!
I really like that in your tutorials, you are teaching some specific technique, but always you bring up some more (and usually very important) things, that are simply good and efective to know. Also, there is very few really good DAZ tutorials, so thank you for your time you spent teaching us what you know. You are doing it great!
08:18 - "Bob's your uncle, Betty is your aunt"
How did you know?!
Great vid as always! Very helpful. Thank you!
For anyone that is reading this and is making props that made in scale for daz models while using diffoemorphic, when exporting from blender put Transform > Scale "100.00" and when you Import the obj into Daz3D at the scale 100%. That works for me so I don't have to resize or move things into place.
Looks good, Jay! I'm hoping to get DS back in my toolbox very soon. Hope you and Julia are doing well... Things are nuts here, but we're hangin' in there!
Thanks Rod! We’re both doing well, thanks for asking. Let’s catch up soon!
Thank you so much for all those big great and smart videos.
Wow, great tutorial. Fairly simple from the looks of it as well. Thanks.
Another excellent simple to follow guide, thank you!
good vid man. well explained. great stuff.
Thank you so much for this!! such a great tutorial! Is there a way to make the props 'fit' to morphed figures?
The transfer utility can do that. It adds the Genesis rigging into a static object like a shirt and turns it into follower clothing.
Thanks!@@WPguru I will try that out! Cheers!
Excellent video! Thank you.
do you have instructions on how to export or save a file in the runtime format, I am trying to submit my original characters for are on websites
I've explained the principle here for a prop. For a character, you'll typically follow the same steps: ua-cam.com/video/v4mqoKoq_8o/v-deo.html
Firstly, thank you for the previous assistance! I use DAZ as figure modeling with no BG. I do some oil painting and some of my 'models' are native American 'Injuns'. I am presently trying to put together a scene of two in a canoe and I need assistance with 'bounced light' from the water. The time is early afternoon. Sorry for posting here but I'm short on time and desperate!
Hi Larry, I'd probably fake the bounced light and add a plane underneath the water surface, or just above. Turn it into an emissive surface, then hide the emitter. This should make for the effect of the water bouncing off sunlight. Here's how to use mesh lights in principle: ua-cam.com/video/A0VRj2rcwJc/v-deo.html Good luck!
I'd run a Transfer Utility on that prop before saving it just to be sure that, on top of following G8's bones movement, it'll also morph its vertices to adapt chances in G8's geometry.
Yes that’s possible, but it’s often overkill to do that for simple props like earrings, bangles or glasses. While in some instances an object may move more accurately, the disadvantage is that rigged follower objects can’t easily be adjusted as they lock into place. I prefer the Transfer Utility for more complex objects that cover larger parts of the body, it’s personal preference I guess.
this is perfect to do it with some shoes that I have downloaded
New to your channel - thank you so much for these incredibly useful tips for Daz! Liked and subscribed.
Really useful! Thanks a lot!
if i model a thing around the figure's hands, do I have to put it to the center and move it to hand again in daz?
No, it'll load in at the spot in which you've modelled it.
Is there a way to make my "Figure/Prop Assets" show in Smart Content ?
Hi. I followed this tutorial, its great btw. I've parented my primitive/sci-fi food cube i made, that i attached to the genesis 8 hand. However, i need to save the hand and the fingers position holding it aswell. how do i do that? Could you do a tutorial about this?
Kind regards.
You can use a pose preset for that. When saving you can select what parts of the pose you'd like to save, so you could either save the whole figure, or just select the hand and fingers to turn it into a hand pose. Hope this helps!
Extremely helpful, thank you! ✊
Hi, any insights on how to create custom hair and import it in daz3d? Do you use Houdini or some other tool for realistic hair for genesis 8.1
I don't know much about making hair. The creators I've talked to prefer using anything from ZBrush to C4D for non-strand based props. They're usually an arrangement of multiple planes with clever transparency maps. I've also seen great results from DAZ integrated strand based (formerly Garibaldi). Even though it has preview issues sometimes, take a look at the Ayaan hair. It's been made that way and has dForce, all done in DAZ Studio: www.daz3d.com/dforce-ayaan-hair-for-genesis-8-females?cjref=1&cjevent=3f652abacead11eb8393016f0a82b82a
@@WPguru thank you
After doing this, when I select hand or arm + children and then zero the selected items the ring ends up at zero zero zero, wherever that happens to be. Quite often I've noticed, jewellery is fitted to the character like any other piece of clothing, which doesn't relocate when zeroed, how is this done, I'm guessing it has something to do with bones/rigging.
Indeed, there are two ways that content creators can deal with parented accessories: either as smart props, like I've described here, or as rigged follower objects. They both have advantages and disadvantages. Follower props behave like clothing items and have the Genesis rigging built-in, which tries to follow not only the figure's movements but also their shapes. If you ever want to strip that behaviour out and turn follower props into smart props, try Edit - Figure - Rigging - Convert Figure to Prop (it strips the rigging, may not work on complex figures though).
Thanks for the video. What is the difference between this and just saving it as a wearable preset? I thought a smart prop was supposed to be smart... :) Like when you equip a gun and it automatically poses the hand along with it. Do you have a video on how to do that too? :)
Oh and also...Aren't you supposed to parent it to "Left Forearm Twist" instead in your example? If you twist your forearm, your wristband would not twist with it if you parent it to "Left Forearm Bend".
A Smart Prop will load to the same parented position as it was when it was saved, as opposed to a non-smart prop which would just load in the centre of the scene. A Wearable Preset can attach more than one item at a time, such as props, clothing and even poses with a single click. I don't have a video on that, but the principle is the same: prepare your character and clothing as you need it (like in your case, gun in hand and hand posed), then choose File - Save As - Wearable Preset. In the dialogue window you can select what you'd like to be included in the preset, and deselect the stuff you don't want.
And yes, I should probably have parented the bracelet to the Left Forearm Bend. It was more about showing how a Smart Prop works, not about how to accurately fit a bracelet.
Why is your movements so smooth? What PC specs are you running?
I've listed my specs here: versluis.com/rig
Is there a way to convert dforce hair to non-dforce? Either in Daz or by sending to blender or whatever and saving out as a static mesh?
You can just disable the dForce properties on the Surfaces Tab (under Simulation, disable Visible in Simulation).
@@WPguru Thanks! I appreciate your help!
hello friend, one more question. Can you transform hair from genesis 8 to genesis 2 or 3?
Hi Fas, I've never tried it but I'd imagine hair will transform the same way as clothing. You can either manually adjust the head shape, or try one of Valzheimer's products called Wear Them All. These will give you auto-fit clones for G2 and G3 figures, meaning you'll be able to use auto-fit for G8 content. I've not tried them myself, but this is what I would try: www.daz3d.com/valzheimer?cjref=1&cjevent=aad79db9c94911eb8255019a0a82b824
@@WPguru good ok man , Thank you
This is great! Thank you.
how to do it with an sword, i mean how I can make the sword with bones, get zero position on stage every time the smart prop is loaded. but keep an option as smart prop for both hands
Most creators would make two versions of the prop, one for the left and one for the right hand.
@@WPguru is not possible to make an object preset. Like make prop as figure. And add a pose preset. For both hands with one mesh. And not 3
Thank you.
Thank you so much!
Awesome
thank you. I guess i can use this for weapons
Hi Questions ...
(first I have seen videos from you in german - I am german too - but I try to write here in English that everyone understands - but you could answer me in german also)
I have bought some of those builded props in daz-shop (call them here type B),
because I also bought (call them here Type A) ...
(B) type is the prop is under the bone-chain ... if I need to make it invisible or delete it then I have to search it in the bone chain or click on it in the viewport panel...
(A) type is a prop shown under '(eg G8F)' .. where I an set it in/visible or remove it .. but it is also 'rigged'(?) because it moves with the G8F ...
❓How to do it that way ?
My problem .. why I watched this video ... to find a solution ...
I have build house(s) with 5 Floors inclusive roof in an architect software and import it via *.3ds
walls windows >>> one floor has about 1000 OBJ_XY listed under Fbx_Root(1-5)
Tried groupe/Null/node(s)... to get all (=static parts) of a floor in PARENT-BOX like 'Genesis 8 female'
because I want to save each floor as a single prop/figure 'Support asset'
to loads them in different projects to render different scenes in the floors
By puting the OBJ_XY in a groupe .. then I can control them .. at once .. but by saving as an supported asset is save only the groupe !? not the nodes in it !?
❓So how to save multiple props at one scene as one supported asset ?
An other problem is (example givven:) three G8F or more - each - having this 'green jewel' among other decoration on their bodies ...
❓How is it possible to have a .. 'Link' (groupe) .. in the scene panel to control them all at once ? for visibility/parameters-setting/shaping/surface ... ?
I am searching a long time for such a video 'ordering the scene-tab items' but never found one ... 😉 maybe you could do one ❓
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wooo! increible!
👍👍👍👍👍
Thank You!!!
You're welcome!
Awesome......!!!!!!!!
I have a problem saving the prop as a smart prop - the option "enable smart parenting" is grayed out and cannot be "ticked". Obviously I'm missing something (4.21 version)
If Smart Parenting is greyed out, it suggests that your object is not currently parented to a node on the figure. For Smart Parenting to work, you need to slide your prop onto a node on your Genesis figure so it can be parented again to the same node when it gets loaded. For example, on my wristband I picked the forearm, for a necklace you'd pick the neck, and so forth. Once parented, the option should be available.
DAZ studio actually seems much easier than Blender!
GIve it a spin! It's great for UA-cam thumbnails :-)
It depends on what you want to do. Each can do things the other cannot. I would much rather use Blender to create a prop then save it and import it into Daz to be used with a character.
Step one, don’t be running macOS Big Sur.
Step 2: Do not use DAZ Studio on a Mac with an M1 processor. 😂
Another excellent simple to follow guide, thank you!