################################################################################ # # # SCULPT TOOL - DETAILED GUIDE # # Heiwa Interactive Arts - v1.4 # # # ################################################################################ Blender-style viewport mesh sculpting for DAZ Studio. Ctrl+drag on a figure to push, pull, smooth, drape and puff its mesh in real time, then bake the result into a real, dial-able DAZ morph or a pose-driven JCM (Joint Controlled Morph) - non-destructive, undoable, and it survives a restart. New in V1.4: the brush circle can lie on the surface, one-vertex Grab and Select, the "Keep Clothes Smooth While Sculpting" option, DAZ Studio 6.26 support and a 32-bit build for DAZ Studio 4. See "WHAT'S NEW IN V1.4" below. Works in DAZ Studio 4.5 - 4.x (64-bit and 32-bit) AND DAZ Studio 6.25 and newer (separate builds of one tool - see "How To Install.txt"). Four tabs: Sculpt, JCM, Shortcuts, and Appearance and Extras - this guide covers every button, brush, checkbox and slider on all four, tab by tab. ================================================================================ QUICK START ================================================================================ 1. Select a figure in the Scene pane. 2. Click the "SculptTool" icon in the main toolbar to activate it - or just click a brush button (e.g. "Grab") in the pane, which activates the tool too. 3. Hold Ctrl and drag in the viewport - the mesh deforms under the cursor with whichever brush is active (Grab by default). 4. Open the settings pane: Window > Panes (Tabs) > SculptTool Pick a different brush, adjust Radius/Strength/Falloff, turn on Symmetry, etc. 5. Happy with the shape? Go to the Sculpt tab's "Create Morph" group, type a name (or leave it blank for an auto name), click "Create Morph". Your edit is now a permanent morph in Parameters > Currently Used. 6. Ctrl+Z undoes a stroke, a bake, a mirror - almost everything here is undoable like any other DAZ action. 7. Watch the line at the bottom of the pane: it tells you what just happened and what to do next - which brush you picked and how to use it, what an option you clicked does, where a morph was saved, or why a stroke didn't start. If the line is cut off, hover over it to read all of it. That's the 90% case. The rest of this guide is the full reference. ================================================================================ WHAT'S NEW IN V1.4 (the full list: "SculptTool - Changelog V1.4.txt") ================================================================================ - Circle Follows Surface (Appearance and Extras tab, ON by default): the brush circle lies on the surface under the cursor, so you see the area the brush really covers. - One-vertex Grab and Select: a brush so small that it covers at most one vertex takes exactly that vertex. - Keep Clothes Smooth While Sculpting (Appearance and Extras tab, OFF by default): with Smoothing On, the fitted clothes keep their smoothed look while you drag and smooth again when you let go. - DAZ Studio 6.26 support - one Daz 6 file for Daz 6.25 and 6.26 or newer - and a 32-bit build for 32-bit DAZ Studio 4. - DAZ Studio 4: brush and selection picks stay under the brush circle across the whole viewport, also with the render aspect frame shown. - The Transform gizmo settings are now a row in the Selection section. - A hidden selected item no longer lets the brush hit other meshes under the cursor: nothing happens and the line at the bottom of the pane says what to do. - Keyboard shortcuts act in the viewport under the cursor, and on DAZ Studio 4 they no longer need a click in the viewport first. - Mirror no longer leaves spikes where points have no mirror partner. ================================================================================ *** WHY CAN'T I SCULPT HERE? *** - READ THIS FIRST ================================================================================ Two different things can silently stop a brush stroke from doing anything, and both are easy to forget about. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) A PAINTED SELECTION IS A MASK - even when you can't see it -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Select brush lets you paint a vertex selection (shown as dots). The moment ANY selection exists on a mesh, EVERY other brush (Grab, Inflate, Crease, Smooth, Drape, Puff) is masked to affect ONLY the selected vertices - dragging anywhere else on the mesh will look like it does absolutely nothing. Here is the part that trips people up: "Show Selection" (in the Symmetry / Surface group) ONLY controls whether the yellow dots are DRAWN. Turning it OFF does NOT clear the selection or lift the mask - it just makes the mask invisible. So if you painted a selection, then unchecked Show Selection (or just switched to another brush and forgot), sculpting elsewhere on the figure will quietly do nothing, and there will be no visual clue why. THE FIX: - Click "Clear Selection" (Target group, top of the Sculpt tab) to remove the mask and sculpt the whole mesh again. "Clear All Selection" does the same across every mesh in the scene at once. - Or turn "Show Selection" back ON first, just to SEE where the current mask is before deciding whether to sculpt inside it or clear it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) "HIDE SELECTED" REMOVES FACES FROM SCULPTING ENTIRELY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a different, separate feature from the selection-mask above. "Hide Selected" (Target group) hides the FACES inside your current selection - and hidden geometry is invisible AND completely excluded from picking and sculpting, so brushes can't reach it at all (this is intentional - it's meant to let you work on what's underneath, e.g. hide a jacket to sculpt the body under it). THE FIX: - Click "Unhide All" (right next to Hide Selected) to bring every hidden face back and make it sculptable again. RULE OF THUMB: if a brush stroke does nothing, check TWO things - (a) is there an active painted selection restricting you to a different area (Clear Selection), and (b) is the area you're trying to reach currently hidden (Unhide All)? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) STRAND-BASED HAIR CAN'T BE SCULPTED (polygon/mesh hair can) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sculpt Tool works on polygon meshes - figures, clothing, and normal polygon/transmapped hair all sculpt fine. It CANNOT reshape dForce Strand-Based Hair strands, because DAZ Studio does not expose those strand curves to plugins in a way any sculpting tool can edit. If a strand-hair item won't take a stroke, that's why - it isn't a bug and it isn't something a plugin can work around. (Any polygon scalp/cap the hair carries is still sculptable.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) THE SELECTED ITEM IS HIDDEN (eye icon in the Scene pane) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A hidden item can't be sculpted or selected with the tool. When the item selected in the Scene pane is hidden, brushes do nothing and the line at the bottom of the pane says so. Show it again, select another item, or turn on Children (Performance section) to reach its visible fitted clothes. ================================================================================ TAB 1 OF 4: THE "SCULPT" TAB ================================================================================ This is the main tab: brush picking, brush dynamics, symmetry, morph-to-sculpt, selection mode, and the Create Morph bake. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exit to Universal Tool (button at the very top of the tab) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leaves the Sculpt tool and hands the viewport back to DAZ Studio's Universal Tool (move / rotate / scale) - exactly the same as picking the Universal Tool from the toolbar, just one click away without hunting for it. It sits at the very top of the tab so it's always reachable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Target (top of the tab - scene-wide actions, not brush-specific) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reset Selected Morph .... Remove the temporary sculpt (scratch morph) on the currently-selected mesh only. Does not touch any OTHER mesh's in-progress sculpt. Reset All Morphs ........ Remove every in-progress scratch morph this tool is holding, across every mesh in the scene (body, hair, dress, etc. all at once). Undoable. Clear Selection .......... Clear the painted vertex selection on the currently-selected mesh only. (See the mask warning above - this is the fix for "sculpting does nothing".) Clear All Selection ..... Same as Clear Selection, but clears every mesh's selection in the scene at once - for multi-mesh setups (e.g. figure + several conformed items). Hide Selected ............ Hide the faces inside the current selection. Hidden geometry is invisible AND ignored by picking and sculpting (see the warning above). Tip: hover a part and press the Select Linked key (default L) to grab a whole connected piece first, then Hide Selected to tuck it out of the way. Unhide All ............... Bring back everything hidden with Hide Selected. Invert Selection: there's no button for this - it's the fixed shortcut Ctrl+I (not remappable, unlike everything on the Shortcuts tab). It flips the current selection: selected verts become unselected and vice versa. Grow / Shrink Selection: two more fixed shortcuts, next to Ctrl+I. Ctrl + Plus grows the selection by one ring of connected vertices (every vert that shares an edge with a selected one); Ctrl + Minus peels one ring off the border - press again for one more ring (the numpad + and - keys work too). Grow is the way to reach connected vertices the Select brush can't hit because another body part sits in front of them: select what you can, then press Ctrl + Plus until the hidden part is covered. Both are undoable, and both act on every mesh that currently has a selection. Shrink stops at the innermost ring rather than emptying the selection, so Ctrl + Plus can always grow it back to where it was - use Clear Selection when you actually want it gone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brush (the "Core" grid - 8 brushes) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grab ...... Drag vertices with the cursor. The general-purpose brush - push, pull, reshape by dragging directly. Made so small that it covers at most one vertex, it moves exactly that vertex. Inflate ... Push vertices outward along the surface normal. Puffs a region up/out evenly, like blowing up a balloon under the cursor. Crease .... Push vertices inward; sharpens edges. The opposite push to Inflate - good for creases, wrinkles, sharpening a fold. Smooth .... Relax vertices toward their neighbors. Removes noise/bumps and softens whatever the other brushes left behind. Drape ..... Relax cloth while sagging it downward for draped folds. Meant for conformed clothing - settles fabric naturally. Puff ...... Lift and spread hair for fuller volume. Meant for conformed hair - adds body/thickness. Select .... Paint a vertex selection (the dots). This is what creates the "mask" described in the warning section above. Hold the Minus Sculpt modifier while painting to REMOVE from the selection instead of adding to it. A brush that covers at most one vertex selects exactly that vertex. Transform . Move, rotate and scale the painted selection with an interactive on-screen gizmo - like a mini Blender/Max transform gizmo, but only affecting your selected vertices. Every brush shares the Dynamics controls below (Radius, Strength, Falloff Shape, Falloff, Smoothing), plus the Symmetry / Surface options (mirroring, connectivity, the Brush Offset pad, etc.). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dynamics (shared by every brush) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Radius ..... How big an area the brush affects, in cm. The slider covers roughly 0.5-100 cm (default ~3 cm); you can type a bigger number directly into the box next to it if you need to. Strength ... How strong one dab/drag is, as a percentage: 0-200% (Smooth goes up to 500%). Default 100% (Smooth 250%, Drape 75%, Puff 60%). Each brush remembers its own value. Lower it for a gentler touch per pass. Falloff Shape The overall CURVE of the brush - how strength ramps from the center out to the edge of the radius (like Blender's proportional-editing falloff). Pick one from the dropdown: Smooth ......... soft S-curve; the classic default feel. Sphere ......... wide, rounded, soft shoulder. Root ........... broad and gentle - strong across a wide center, easing off late. Inverse Square . a rounded dome. Sharp .......... narrow, pointed peak; concentrates the effect tightly at the center. Linear ......... a straight cone - an even ramp from center to edge. Constant ....... full strength all the way to the edge (a hard, flat cylinder - no soft falloff). Random ......... a per-vertex noisy falloff for a rough, textured touch. Smooth is the default and reproduces how the tool has always behaved. The Falloff slider below still applies its hardness on top of whichever shape you pick. Falloff .... How soft the brush edge is. 0% = a hard, binary edge (full strength right up to the radius, then nothing); 100% = a fully soft falloff from full strength at the center down to nothing at the edge. Starts soft (close to 100%) by default. Smoothing .. Only affects Inflate and Crease. Relaxes those two brushes as you sculpt so overlapping strokes (or strokes crossing the symmetry line) don't fold or ridge on themselves. 0 = off (pure inflate/crease), 100 = fully smoothed. Defaults to 25%. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Symmetry / Surface (click the arrow to open/close this section) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X / Y / Z ... Mirror every stroke across that axis (left/right, up/down, front/back). All off by default - turn on the one(s) you need (X is the common one for left/right body symmetry). World ....... ON (default): mirrors in 3D across the figure's own center planes. The figure's clothing and hair use the same center, and the mirrored stroke also reaches a separate selected item on the other side. Stays right when the figure is moved or turned. A prop without a figure uses its own origin. OFF: mirrors each mesh onto its own other half (matching vertex pairs). A mesh that isn't symmetric is then sculpted without symmetry (the status line tells you). Front Faces Only .. ON by default. Brushes affect only the front-facing vertices under the cursor, not vertices behind the surface you're looking at. Turn it OFF to reach through to the far side too - selecting then also reaches through the mesh. While it is ON, "Backface" in the Selection section decides whether selecting reaches through. Sculpt Connected ... OFF by default. Makes the SCULPT brushes topology-aware (Grab, Inflate, Crease, Smooth, Drape, Puff): the brush only reaches vertices connected to the spot you started on, so sculpting a dress strap can't drag the body underneath it along with it. For Grab, the connected area is locked in at the start of the stroke, so the effect stays glued to the strap/strand you grabbed even if the drag moves the cursor off it. Show Selection ..... ON by default. Shows/hides the painted selection dots in the viewport. IMPORTANT: this does NOT clear or disable the selection mask - see the warning section at the top of this guide. Mirror L→R / R→L .... Copy the sculpt from one side of the figure onto the other (mirrored across the figure's own centerline) - both sides end up with the sculpt. Works on the live, in-progress sculpt, before you bake a morph/JCM. Ctrl+Z undoes. Points on the copied-to side that have no mirror partner take the average of their neighbours' new shape, so they don't stay behind as spikes. Mirror ZL→R / ZR→L .. Same mirroring, but also ZEROES the source side, so the sculpt effectively MOVES to the other side instead of being copied to both. ("Z" = zero the source.) Ctrl+Z undoes. Brush Offset ....... A small round pad (just below the Mirror buttons). Drag its dot to push the brush's falloff PEAK off-center, so a stroke pulls HARDER toward that side instead of straight along the cursor - great for bending a fold, a strap or a limb to one side. How far the dot sits from the center = how far the peak shifts; dead center = off (no offset). Right-click or double-click the pad to recenter it. It affects the Grab brush and the Transform tool's ROTATE pivot (so you can rotate a selection around an off-center point). It also composes with symmetry: with a mirror axis on, the mirrored side peaks in the MIRRORED direction, so both sides stay symmetric. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Morph To Sculpt (click the arrow to open/close this section) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pull existing morphs - or a whole set of dialed Parameters sliders - INTO the live sculpt as adjustable LAYERS, so you can touch them up with brushes, mirror them, restrength them, and bake them into one new morph. Everything you bring in here stacks in the list as a separate layer you can dial, disable or delete at any time before baking. Morph field ...... Type a morph's name OR its Parameters label (case doesn't matter) - a dropdown lists matches as you type. Strength .......... 0-300%. How strongly the NEXT shape you pull in is captured: 100% = the morph's full shape at its current dial value, 50% = half, up to 300% for an exaggerated version. (Also drives the JCM tab's "Add To Sculpt".) Click anywhere on the slider to jump straight there. To Sculpt ......... Captures the morph named in the field (at its current dial value, or 100% if the dial sits at 0, times the Strength above) into the sculpt as a new layer, then sets that morph's own dial back to 0 so the shape can't apply twice. Works even for "controller" dials that drive hidden bone/shape combinations underneath - the tool captures their real mesh effect either way. After this, edit the shape with brushes, mirror it, and bake it with Create Morph or Create JCM. Ctrl+Z removes the layer (the dial stays at 0 - dial it back up yourself if you also want the original morph). Conformed followers (eyes, tear, eyelashes, eyebrows) are automatically primed to move with the captured shape, so a head/face morph brought in this way doesn't leave the eyes or lashes behind. THE LAYER LIST (the box under the Strength slider) Every shape you pull in - via "To Sculpt", the JCM tab's "Add To Sculpt", or a "Live" capture (below) - drops into this list as its own row. Each row has three controls: [x] checkbox .. enable or disable that layer live - untick to preview the sculpt without it, tick to bring it back. Strength slider (-100% to +300%) + % box .. re-scale that one layer at any time; drag it and watch the mesh update. Negative values invert the layer; over 100% exaggerate it. One slider drag = one Ctrl+Z step. "x" delete .... remove that layer from the sculpt. All ENABLED layers are combined - each at its own strength - on top of whatever you've done with the brushes. When you press Create Morph (or Create JCM), the brush sculpt AND every enabled layer are baked together into the single new morph. The stack belongs to one figure; selecting a different figure starts a fresh stack. Live (the green/grey button at the bottom of this group) Captures shapes you dial with DAZ's OWN Parameters/ Shaping sliders straight into the sculpt - great for building on top of a full character preset, or combining several body/face morphs into one. How to use it: 1. Press "Live" - it turns GREEN and reads "Live ON". 2. Dial ANY Parameters-pane sliders you want (body, face, character morphs - the whole figure, incl. eyes, mouth and tongue). 3. Press "Live" again - it turns grey. The shape you just dialed is folded into the sculpt as one new "Live Capture N" layer in the list above, and the sliders you moved snap back to where they were so nothing is applied twice. That capture is now a normal layer: brush on top of it, adjust or delete it in the list, or Create Morph to bake it as your own single morph. One Ctrl+Z removes a whole capture. TIP: if you have a painted vertex selection active when you turn Live off, only the selected area is captured - an easy way to grab, say, just a dialed nose shape. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transform Gizmo (a row in the Selection section, for the Transform brush) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controls for the Transform brush's on-screen move/rotate/scale gizmo, which acts on the painted vertex selection (paint a selection first with the Select brush). They are a row in the Selection section below and show while the Transform brush is active - picking the Transform brush opens that section. Gizmo Axes World or Local. World: the gizmo's arrows/rings line up with the scene X/Y/Z axes. Local: they line up with the selected surface itself - Y points out of the surface, X and Z run along it - so the gizmo sits flat on the patch you painted, whichever way it faces. Handles ... 1 to 8 "soft-lattice" handles spread along the selection (you can also just press number keys 1-8 in the viewport while the gizmo is up). With 2 or more handles, dragging one bends the selection smoothly toward its neighbours - ideal for shaping a band, a limb or a strap. Click a handle dot to give THAT handle the full move/rotate/scale gizmo. (Drag the gizmo's ring to rotate; there's no separate axis dropdown - you pick the rotate axis by clicking the ring you want.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Performance (click the arrow to open/close this section) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The speed toggles, right below Selection. Green = the fast setting. Smoothing and Children are green (Off) by default and after Restore Defaults (Smoothing is switched off for you when you pick the Sculpt tool - see below). Drag defaults to Full (full quality while dragging); SubD is the model's own setting. Fitted clothing and hair keep their shape while you sculpt (fast, no pauses). DAZ itself fits clothing to a morph when the clothing is fitted - for example when the scene is loaded - so it picks up a new morph the next time the scene is opened. Smoothing: On/Off . DAZ's own "Enable Smoothing" setting, scene-wide. OFF (default): picking the Sculpt tool switches it off on EVERY object (DAZ skips its smoothing/collision recompute on every update = much faster sculpting). Anything you load while in the tool is switched off too. Clothing may poke through the body a little while it is off. Click ON: smoothing comes back on the items that had it; items you load after that keep theirs. Click OFF again for speed. Leaving the Sculpt tool puts smoothing back on everything that had it. Saving while in the tool always writes each item's own smoothing - the tool's Off never ends up in a file. The button always shows the truth: On whenever any object has smoothing on (e.g. switched on in Parameters). Renders and exports made while in the tool use the current setting - click On (or leave the tool) first if the clothes need their smoothing there. With Smoothing On, fitted clothes re-smooth live while you drag; "Keep Clothes Smooth While Sculpting" (TAB 4) keeps their smoothed look until you let go instead. Children: On/Off .. OFF by default. When ON, selecting a node also makes every editable child mesh a valid hover/sculpt target - so selecting the body lets you hover, select and sculpt its conformed hair, dress, eyebrows etc. without individually scene-selecting each one. OFF restricts sculpting to exactly what's selected in the Scene pane. SubD: On/Off + level combo .. Viewport SubDivision of the selected model - this is the SAME setting as DAZ's own Parameters pane SubD, just mirrored here for convenience, so it's saved with the scene as usual. ON: displays the model smoothed/subdivided (High Resolution) at the level picked in the dropdown (0-5). OFF: base resolution. Off by default. Note: sculpting always edits the BASE cage regardless of this setting - SubD only smooths how the result is displayed. Drag: Fast/Full .. How the viewport draws WHILE a stroke is dragging. FAST: uses DAZ's own drag mode - the one its posing tools use. With DAZ's default preferences the model is shown without SubDivision while you drag (about twice as fast on heavy, dressed or SubD figures) and full detail returns the moment you let go. What gets simplified follows your DAZ preferences (SubD during manipulation, quick draw). FULL (default): always full quality while dragging. Only the display changes - the sculpt is identical. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selection (click the arrow to open/close this section) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mode ...... How the Select brush picks vertices: Brush - paint under the cursor, within Radius. Box - drag a rectangle; everything inside is selected. Lasso - drag a freehand outline (the default mode). In every mode, hold the Minus Sculpt modifier while dragging to REMOVE from the selection instead of adding to it. Backface ... OFF by default. When ON, selecting (Select brush, Box and Lasso) reaches THROUGH the mesh and picks up back-facing / hidden vertices too, not just the front-visible ones, and the selection dots show through the surface. When OFF, only the front, visible vertices are selected - as long as "Front Faces Only" (Symmetry / Surface section) is ON; with Front Faces Only OFF, selecting reaches through anyway. Gizmo Axes / Handles (Transform brush only) - see "Transform Gizmo" above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Create Morph -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name ....... What the baked morph is called. Leave blank for an automatic name like "Sculpt_20260704_153000". If the name is already used, you're asked first: save as "_2", Replace (only offered when just an old file of that name is left, e.g. after an Undo), or Cancel - an earlier morph is never lost by accident. When one Create Morph bakes several items that aren't fitted clothing/hair (e.g. two figures), each gets its own file. Dir ........ Folder the morph's .dsf asset file is written to. EMPTY (default): the morph is created but stays scene-only - it still works and dials in Parameters, it just isn't saved as a re-usable file on disk. A REAL FOLDER: saves a proper .dsf asset there. Point it at the figure's own Morphs folder under your Content Library (e.g. .../Genesis 9/Base/Morphs//) so DAZ picks it up as a normal slider next time the figure loads. The "..." button next to it opens a folder picker that starts wherever the Dir box currently points (falls back to the nearest folder that actually exists if the typed path doesn't, instead of dumping you at the DAZ install folder). Create Morph ...... Bakes the current live sculpt into a permanent morph. It appears in Parameters > Currently Used as a dial-able slider you can turn back down to 0 (or delete like any morph). Adjust Rig To Shape ... Opens DAZ's own "Adjust Rig to Shape" dialog for the selected figure, so its bone centers/end points (and optionally orientation) can be moved to match the shape you just sculpted or scaled. Select the figure in the Scene pane first. More options that shape what Create Morph does live on the "Appearance and Extras" tab, in the "Create Morph Extras" group (covered in TAB 4 below) rather than here, to keep this group compact: - Which conformed followers get their own same-name morph (Include eyelashes / eyes / brows / tear / mouth), and where each is saved. - The new morph's "Vendor" group name and its slider colour (Morph color A / B). Save Modified Assets (writes your morph files to disk) is on that tab too, in the "Save" group. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Restore Defaults (bottom of the Sculpt tab) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resets this tab's brush dynamics (radius/strength/falloff for every brush, plus smoothing, the falloff shape and the Brush Offset pad), symmetry, front-faces, selection options and the transform gizmo back to factory defaults - and closes the arrow-sections again (Symmetry / Surface, Morph To Sculpt, Selection and Performance). It also sets the Performance buttons to their defaults: Smoothing Off, Children Off (both green) and Drag Full. (Smoothing Off works exactly like clicking the Smoothing button: DAZ's "Enable Smoothing" is switched off on the scene's objects and switched back on when you leave the Sculpt tool.) It deliberately LEAVES ALONE: SubD (the model's own setting, so a reset can't silently un-subdivide your mesh). It also doesn't touch the Appearance tab or the Create Morph Extras options - those have their own separate Restore Defaults button (TAB 4). ================================================================================ TAB 2 OF 4: THE "JCM" TAB ================================================================================ JCM = Joint Controlled Morph: a corrective sculpt that fires automatically when a specific bone bends to a specific angle (the classic use: fixing an elbow or knee crease that a figure's base rig doesn't handle on its own), and fades back to nothing at rest pose. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JCM Library -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- JCM Name ............ What to call the JCM. Leave empty for an automatic name like "pJCMForearmBendXRotate_67". If that name is already used (e.g. a second JCM at the same pose), you're asked first: save as "_2", Replace (only when just an old file is left), or Cancel. Create JCM from current sculpt ... Pose a bone, sculpt the correction with the brushes, then click this: it bakes the sculpt as a REST-POSE corrective (undoing the pose's own deformation first) and links it to whichever bone rotated the most, so it fades in as that joint bends and fades out at rest. Saved into the JCM folder (Dir) below, under the Name above (or the auto name - rename it afterward if you like). Dir .................. Folder JCMs are saved to and this list is read from. Keep every JCM for a project in one folder so you can re-apply the set to other figures later. Load JCM ............. Import a JCM .dsf from anywhere into this folder so it shows up in the list below. Also works, best- effort, for other morph .dsf files as long as the file name matches the morph name inside. The list shows every JCM saved in the Dir folder. Select one (or several with Ctrl/Shift click) and use: Activate ......... Turn the selected JCM(s) ON for the figure selected in the Scene pane (loading them onto it first if they aren't already there). Double-clicking a JCM in the list does exactly this too - it's always "Activate", not a toggle; use Deactivate to turn one back off. Deactivate ....... Turn the selected JCM(s) OFF on the figure. They STAY attached to the figure - Activate re-enables them instantly, no reloading needed. Rename ........... Rename the selected JCM (both the file and the internal morph name). Still activatable afterward under its new name. Refresh .......... Re-scan the Dir folder for new/changed files. Remove ........... Removes the selected JCM from THIS LIST and turns it off on every figure in the scene - but the .dsf file itself is NOT deleted from disk. Load JCM + Activate brings it straight back; Ctrl+Z undoes the change to the figure. Add To Sculpt .... Loads the selected JCM's shape into the LIVE sculpt so you can edit it further with brushes, mirror it, reset it, and re-bake it (scaled by the Strength slider in the Sculpt tab's "Morph To Sculpt" group). The JCM itself is switched off first so its shape doesn't apply twice. Ctrl+Z removes the added sculpt. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Presets (bundle several JCMs into one switchable set) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Preset Name .......... What to call the preset created below. Leave empty for an automatic "Preset_" name. Create Preset from selected JCMs .. Bundles the JCMs currently selected in the list above into a double-clickable ON/OFF pair of files (with thumbnails), written to the preset folder under the Preset Name above. Double-clicking the ON file (from DAZ's Content Library) enables that whole set on a matching figure; the OFF file disables it again. Load Presets .......... Import a preset from anywhere into this folder so it appears in the list below (its member JCMs come with it if they sit alongside). Dir ................... Folder presets are saved to and read from. Preset list buttons: Activate / Deactivate .. Turn every JCM in the selected preset on/off on the figure selected in the Scene pane. Apply to Figure ........ Adds this preset's morphs onto the SELECTED figure and turns them on - the way to carry a JCM set over to a different figure that shares the same base mesh. Its ON/OFF files then toggle the set on that figure too. Remove from Figure ...... Removes this preset's morphs from the selected figure (they disappear from Parameters). Undoable with Ctrl+Z. Refresh ................. Re-scan the preset folder. Remove .................. Removes the preset from this list and its morphs off every figure in the scene - files stay on disk; Load Presets brings it back; Ctrl+Z undoes the figure change. ================================================================================ TAB 3 OF 4: THE "SHORTCUTS" TAB ================================================================================ Every gesture and hotkey below is fully customizable and only active while the Sculpt tool itself is the active tool (so they never fight with DAZ's own shortcuts the rest of the time) - except Select Object, which also works with other tools (see below). "Restore Defaults" at the bottom resets every row on this tab back to the factory bindings listed here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mouse Gestures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each gesture is a modifier (or combo) + a mouse button. They're listed here in PRIORITY order, top to bottom - the same order as on the tab: if two gestures happen to share the same key/button, the higher one wins. With the default bindings below they all use different keys, so priority never comes up; it only matters if you re-bind two gestures onto the same combo. Clear selection ...... Shift + Right-click (default). One click wipes the current painted vertex selection - the fast way to lift the "why can't I sculpt here" mask from the top of this guide without reaching for the pane. It needs its EXACT modifiers, so Ctrl + Shift + Right-click does not clear. Sculpt gesture ....... Ctrl + Left-drag (default). The modifier+button combo that starts a sculpt stroke with whatever brush is active. Always needs a modifier (no bare left-click sculpting, to avoid fighting normal DAZ viewport clicks). Minus Sculpt ......... The sculpt modifier + RIGHT-drag (e.g. Ctrl + Right-drag). Fixed - it always follows the Sculpt gesture's modifier, so there is nothing to set. Inverts the current brush for that stroke (Inflate deflates, Crease pushes out, Puff thins, etc). Ctrl + Shift + Left-drag inverts too. Shown as unavailable when the Sculpt gesture itself uses the Right button. Select gesture ....... Alt + Left-drag (default). Swaps to the Select brush for one stroke, then returns to whatever brush you had active - quick selection edits without leaving your current brush. Smooth gesture ....... Shift + Left-drag (default). Forces the Smooth brush for one stroke, no matter which brush is selected - quick relax without switching brushes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brush Hotkeys -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tap the key (no modifier) to instantly switch the active brush: Grab ........ G Select ....... V Smooth ...... S Transform .... T Inflate ..... I Drape ........ 2 Crease ...... C Puff ......... P -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brush Adjust (fixed middle-mouse drags) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hold a modifier, press the MIDDLE mouse button and drag up or down - up increases. The brush stays put (the cursor jumps back when you let go), and the line at the bottom of the pane shows the new value. Ctrl + middle-drag ......... brush Radius Shift + middle-drag ........ brush Strength Alt + middle-drag .......... brush Falloff Alt + Shift + middle-drag .. brush Smoothing A plain middle-drag stays with DAZ's camera. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hold & Pick Shortcuts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hold for Select ....... Unbound by default. While held, temporarily switches to the Select brush; releasing it returns to whatever brush was active before (if you release mid-stroke, the swap-back waits until the stroke ends). Select Linked ......... L (default). Hover a connected part of the mesh and tap this to select the WHOLE connected piece in one go (like Blender's L). Tap another part to add it to the selection; Clear Selection resets. Select Object ......... Alt + Q (default). Hover over any object in the viewport and press this to scene-select it (like Blender's hover-to-activate), so you can sculpt it without first clicking it in the Scene pane. It also works while another Daz tool is active. The hover shortcuts act in the viewport under the cursor. The tool's Alt and Alt + Shift shortcuts also work while a text or number field in the pane has focus (not Ctrl + Alt, not keypad keys). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Selection (fixed keys) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grow Selection ........ Ctrl + + Adds one ring of connected verts around the current selection (numpad + works too). Shrink Selection ...... Ctrl + - Removes the outer ring. Invert Selection ...... Ctrl + I Flips the selection. These three can't be remapped. More in "Grow / Shrink Selection" (TAB 1). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toggle Shortcuts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lets you bind a key (with an optional modifier) to instantly flip any of the 12 settings below, straight from the viewport, without opening the pane. EVERY row is unbound (None) by default - these are entirely opt-in: Backface (select through) Symmetry Y Include Children Front Faces Only Symmetry Z Sculpt Connected Circle Cursor Symmetry World Space Mesh Smoothing Symmetry X Show Selection SubD Pressing a bound key shows what it did on the line at the bottom of the pane (the same tip as clicking the setting itself). (Each of these is explained where it actually lives - mostly the Sculpt tab's Symmetry/Surface group and the Performance section (Smoothing/Children/SubD), plus Show Circle Cursor on the Appearance tab. This section only assigns an optional hotkey to instantly flip them; it doesn't add new settings.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Restore Defaults (bottom of the Shortcuts tab) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resets every gesture, brush hotkey, hold/pick key and toggle shortcut on this tab back to the factory bindings listed above. ================================================================================ TAB 4 OF 4: THE "APPEARANCE AND EXTRAS" TAB ================================================================================ Visual/overlay styling, plus the extra options for what Create Morph bakes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overlays -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Select Opacity ........ 0-100% (default 100%). Opacity of the selection dots. Lower it to see the underlying mesh through the selection mask more clearly. Brush Opacity ......... 0-100% (default 100%). Opacity of the brush hover dots shown while the sculpt/select modifier is held, before you start dragging. Colors ................ Four click-to-pick color swatches: Select ... the selection-dot color. Brush .... the brush-hover-dot color (shown while holding the sculpt modifier, e.g. Ctrl). Hover .... the select-hover-dot color (shown while holding the select modifier, e.g. Alt) - kept visually distinct from Brush so the two previews never look the same. Falloff .. the inner falloff-ring color of the brush cursor (default red, distinct from the outer brush-color ring). Show Circle Cursor ..... ON by default. Shows a brush-size circle cursor that follows the stroke while sculpting. (DAZ Studio 6 uses a system-level cursor for this since its viewport can't draw an overlay ring mid-stroke; DAZ Studio 4 draws a live ring.) Turning it OFF gives a ring-free drag; the accurate ring still shows while just hovering, either way. Circle Follows Surface . ON by default. Tilts the brush circle so it lies on the surface under the cursor - on a cheek or the side of the head you see the area the brush really covers. Over empty space it stays round. OFF: always a flat circle that faces you. Keep Clothes Smooth While Sculpting OFF by default. Only matters while Smoothing is On (Performance section). ON: during a stroke or a Transform gizmo drag on a figure, its fitted clothes keep their smoothed look and smooth again once when you let go (clothes shown with SubDivision just pause). A temporary hidden helper holds the look; it is removed before every save, when you leave the tool and when a scene loads. OFF: the clothes re-smooth live while you drag. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Create Morph Extras (what "Create Morph", back on the Sculpt tab, bakes) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Include eyelashes / Include eyes / Include brows / Include tear / Include mouth Five independent checkboxes, all OFF by default - one per conformed follower. Tick a follower and Create Morph ALSO bakes that follower's sculpt as a morph named EXACTLY like your new morph. DAZ's own auto-follow then drives it from your figure morph's slider, so it moves together with the figure automatically. Leave a follower unticked and its sculpt simply stays live and editable, so you can bake it later. Each ticked follower saves into its matching Dir below; a morph only auto-loads with its follower when it's saved under that follower's OWN Morphs folder. Updating from v1.2 switches all five off once - tick the ones you want again (they're remembered from then on). Lash Dir / Eyes Dir / Brows Dir / Tear Dir / Mouth Dir Five independent save folders, one per follower type - each remembers its own recent-folder list. A follower's morph only auto-loads with that follower when it's saved under THAT follower's own Morphs folder, which is why each type gets its own Dir instead of sharing one. The tool prints the standard Genesis 9 path under each row as a hint, e.g.: Lash Dir -> data\DAZ 3D\Genesis 9\ Genesis 9 Eyelashes\Morphs Eyes Dir -> ...\Genesis 9 Eyes\Morphs Brows Dir -> ...\Genesis 9 Eyebrows\Morphs Tear Dir -> ...\Genesis 9 Tear\Morphs Mouth Dir -> ...\Genesis 9 Mouth\Morphs Leaving any of them empty just saves that follower's morph next to the main one instead - nothing breaks, it simply won't auto-load into a brand new scene the way a properly-pathed one will. New morph style: (how your baked morphs look in Parameters) Vendor ............ Optional. A studio/author name. Morphs you Create are grouped under "Morphs/" in the Parameters / Shaping pane, so all your morphs sit together in one tidy branch. It's baked into the .dsf, so the grouping sticks when the figure reloads. Leave it blank to use the default "Morphs/Sculpt" group. (This is the Parameters GROUP only - it does not change where the .dsf file is saved on disk; that's the "Dir" field.) Morph color A / B . Two colour swatches that set the baked morph slider's colour in Parameters (a gradient from A to B) instead of DAZ's default grey, so your custom morphs stand out at a glance. Click a swatch to pick. Set A and B the same for a solid colour. Purely cosmetic - never changes the morph's shape - and only affects morphs created from now on. (Default is a green-to-pink-red gradient.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Save -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Save Modified Assets .. Writes the modified support assets (your created morphs) to disk - the same as DAZ's File > Save As > Support Assets > Save Modified Assets. It opens DAZ's own dialog; pick the assets to write and Accept. Adjusting a figure's rig to a baked shape: (1) Create Morph on the Sculpt tab, (2) Adjust Rig To Shape on the Sculpt tab (opens DAZ's dialog), (3) link the rig to your morph with DAZ's own Parameters > Edit Mode > right-click > ERC Freeze, (4) Save Modified Assets here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Restore Defaults (bottom of the Appearance and Extras tab) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Resets this tab to factory defaults - both opacities back to 100%, all four overlay colors (yellow selection / cyan brush / pink hover / red falloff), the two Morph color swatches (the green/pink gradient), Show Circle Cursor and Circle Follows Surface back ON, Keep Clothes Smooth While Sculpting back OFF, and all five Include options back OFF. It keeps your Vendor name and the Dir folders (those are your own names and paths), and it's entirely separate from the Sculpt tab's own Restore Defaults button. ================================================================================ A NOTE ON UNDO ================================================================================ Almost everything here pushes a normal DAZ undo item: single sculpt strokes, Create Morph, Create JCM, Mirror L->R/R->L/ZL->R/ZR->L, Morph To Sculpt / Add To Sculpt, Hide Selected, JCM Activate/Deactivate and Remove. Ctrl+Z behaves exactly like it does for any other DAZ action - so when in doubt, undo is almost always the safe way back. ================================================================================ FILE MANIFEST (every file in this package, and where it lives) ================================================================================ Daz Studio 4 Plugin\ Plugins\ sculpttool.dll .............. DAZ Studio 4.5 - 4.x plugin (64-bit) Daz Studio 4 Plugin 32-bit\ Plugins\ sculpttool.dll .............. DAZ Studio 4.5 - 4.x plugin (32-bit) Daz Studio 6 Plugin\ Plugins\ dsp_sculpttool.dll .......... DAZ Studio 6 plugin (6.25 and newer) Documentation\ How To Install.txt ............. installation + troubleshooting Quick Start.txt ................ shortest getting-started steps Renderosity License.txt ........ license reference SculptTool - Changelog V1.4.txt everything new since V1.3 (and V1.2) SculptTool - README.txt ........ this detailed guide (you are here) ================================================================================ SUPPORT / CONTACT ================================================================================ Questions, bug reports or feedback are always welcome. Please reach us through Renderosity SiteMail: Renderosity -> Heiwa_Interactive_Arts Open our store / profile page on Renderosity and use the SiteMail link there. Renderosity SiteMail is the support channel for this product. ================================================================================ DISCLAIMER ================================================================================ "DAZ Studio" and "Genesis" are trademarks of Daz Productions, Inc., used here for descriptive interoperability purposes only. This product is an unofficial third-party tool and is not produced, endorsed by, or affiliated with Daz Productions, Inc. ================================================================================ AI TRANSPARENCY NOTE ================================================================================ Sculpt Tool is made by a human developer, Bahaa Suleiman (Heiwa Interactive Arts), with the help of AI tools. AI helped write and review parts of the code and of this documentation. A human designed the tool, decided every change, and tested and approved everything before release. The plugin itself contains no AI features. It does not connect to the internet and sends no data anywhere. ================================================================================ MORE HELP ================================================================================ Installation, package layout and troubleshooting a missing toolbar icon or pane ......................................... see "How To Install.txt" Shortest possible getting-started steps ............... see "Quick Start.txt" Everything new or fixed since V1.3 .... see "SculptTool - Changelog V1.4.txt" Thanks for buying Sculpt Tool. Happy sculpting. Heiwa Interactive Arts