Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 8
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Novica, these "painted on" or second skins you keep running into are similar to the SexySkinz lace bodysuit for G3F. They are V3 character textures rather than "clothes" per se, and you would need to apply them using whatever tools allow you to use V3 human skins on G3F. Wear Them All will NOT help.
I don't own the Rogue set, but the product includes both textures for the catsuit (they would be the layer with the, erm ventilation) and second skins for V3. You will need to make sure you are applying catsuit textures to the catsuit, not second skin textures. This promo image shows the second skins: https://www.daz3d.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/v/3/v3-rogue-pack-2.jpg
I hadn't really even messed with the catsuit textures (they're just colors and repeats of shaders I already have, can convert to Iray and just Iray Shader-it. But thanks for the clarification) Let me check if I even have anything for V3 to Gen3F, as I'm curious (and this thread is to help other people.) But any of those are being returned, it's too time consuming. Appreciate your patience!
So that would be this Legacy UV product? (For Genesis 3 Special Edition. See folks, I used my list!) I don't have it.
I believe so, yes. You could achieve a similar effect to the Rogue second skins by selecting G3F's limb and torso surfaces, and applying a scaly shader like this: https://www.daz3d.com/bone-and-fantasy-scale-iray-shaders
No, those are cute- I was just trying out the materials to see if they would load. They had the cutouts shown. Anyway, this is all too much of a pain and I won't ever use it, so that Rogue product goes back. The catsuit has nice material zones so even though I own the other suits, for a dollar or so it's a keeper. Thanks!
While I did get a callout out to find the textures, the Rogue materials did apply to the catsuit without a problem once I manually located the textures. Here's a quick and dirty 3Delight render on base G3F.
It didn't do anything but flicker a fast screen (couldn't even read it) and nothing happened. Did you have the catsuit loaded on Gen3F, have the catsuit selected in Scene, and that was it when you clicked the material? EDIT- Where did you find the textures?
Yes, ma'am. I did absolutely nothing special to get them to load (other than clicking locate and finding the texture .JPG files manually). The one shown in the image is Black 01.pz2.
On Anagenesis, I bought it because of the manual script that lets you use it on any item to convert it to iRay. Truthfully, I haven't used it yet, not having time, and it's past time to return. (Good intentions....) However, I figure if I have trouble using it on skins, I'll buy the V3Digitimes products.
Runtime > textures > V3 Rogue
I've decided it isn't worthwhile to mess with this older content. Finding the files, requiring this to do that, I'll never mess with this stuff. I look at an entire day wasted. Back to the only-take-a-minute (or two, or three) to find it.
So, answering a previous question, here's a big group of "returns."
I agree. While some of the old content is ok, I don't find it worth the hassle of gathering it up filing it, retexturing it and fitting it.
Oh hey, the Help Us has changed. I'm contacting several departments to take some action on things, and now you supply your email and there's a CAPCHA (or whatever that's called) box to check off so you're not a robot.
Yeah and the captcha isn't a real captcha. It was weird you just click on it. I'm guessing they got a lot of spam workorders but it seems an unnecessarily complex process now.
I still have a huge amount of items, so you'll be seeing some sporadically. I stocked up on all that back in 2012, when V4/M4 and Genesis were still in full swing as the main thing. There were some 99 cent sales and stacking sales so I got hundreds and hundreds of things. I really didn't need anymore anyway.
If you install products manually - IE download the zip, unzip it - never install directly into your runtime. Install to a dummy folder first. That way you can see EXACTLY where folders are located. Especially if a readme is not helpful about where things are located. You can rename folders too, to make them easier to find (obviously NEVER rename the textures, libraries, geometries folders) So if a folder is called "BobTheVendorDress" you can rename it to "V3 Garden Party Dress" and you can put the MAT folder (the textures for the dress) INSIDE that folder - so you have everythign that is needed to load that product in one folder, and you don't have to scroll, scroll, scroll to find the included props or mat textures.
A LONG time ago I did a tut on how to manually organize your DS content - if you are NOT using Smart Content or categories etc. http://www.sharecg.com/v/29425/browse/3/PDF-Tutorial/Reorganizing-Your-Content-in-DAZ-Studio
If you ONLY manually install and have no use for Smart content, metadata, categories etc, this will help as you can move and rename certain folders so you can find things easier.
Smart Props for V3 won't work on Genesis 3. They'll always need tweaking as they were set up for V3 originally. Hand poses won't work either - you'll either have to manually adjust Gen3's hand or even use a Gen3 hand pose for one of her swords etc to get close. You'll probably have to move the sword up and over a bit to get to Gen3's hand and then parent it to the hand, so that you can pose her fingers etc for it.
OKAY, what's with the cart's new huge purple PLATINUM CLUB + statement right under your total, telling you what you saved? BIG ENOUGH. (I saved .01)
Oh I do have the anagenesis product you were talking about earlier. I did not return it.
I'm afraid I'm not much of a skin setting tweaker and I didn't find the forum too helpful on how to restore colors back once I added this product to my figure skin settings.
For me I have skins with colors added to the diffuse and simply putting those colors back did not restore the original look. i don't find skin settings on daz figures that intuitive so was not able to correct the problem. I'm sure those with more experience in that area might have an easier time of it but I did not. I buy products to tweak skins specifically because I don't like to. :-)
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I didn't. These are all DIM. I did the manual download from the Product library to see where they were, although I don't understand some of the file paths. For instance, textures in the path. Where do those things show up? one had for example:
runtime/textures/GorodinBody and I never found anything under GorodinBody. I think it was in the Pose section as materials, but not sure.
Poser-style categorization can be confusing. Things wind up in the Figures, Pose, Materials, and Prop section. Inevitably what I do is see which directory dim installs stuff by using the carrot icon next to the installed package in dim and make a product of it with those items.
I have made a second runtime, because my drive was running out of space. I admit finding stuff in the much smaller runtime is a cakewalk. I think in future I might make multiple directories to store different stuff, just to make it easier to find.
One of the things that I miss most is that the blue bars are gone in 4.9. I still have 4.8 on my laptop so when I buy new stuff, even the poser stuff, I can find it immediately and categorize it. Then I follow what's on the lap top on my PC so I can find it in 4.9. Even worse, some of them don't have the actual product name in whatever category they end up in!
That's very understandable, and thank you for venturing out into the minefield for us. :)
Oh man, you are SO much more talented than I am. You'd zip through those files and find them in a heartbeat!
My thing to consider was if I spend so much time on those cheapie, older products, then I can't render the newer stuff / find any problems on all that for you folks. I do know some sales / quite a few wishlist additions result from everyone's renders/ chat on the thread, so I can't get bogged down on this other stuff.
Interesting note- that huge bomb (the mother of all bombs) was made here at Eglin Air Force, and I think tested there too but not sure- and tonight they are dropping test bombs. Forty five minutes away, and I'm listening to bombs going off. It's like dull thud-thuds. I can't image what the folks over around Eglin are hearing!
I love playing with the older stuff. Yeah, it can be a hassle to find, but between DIM and the Product Library I can usually locate it. I've been working with Generation 3 for a few months now and I don't really mind. Heck, half the time the Smart Content on the new stuff is wonky too. And forget it if you buy something from any other store. I need to categorize and organize so I can stop playing hide and seek with the content, but I have so much that it may always be an issue.
I don't use Smart Content, just got out of the habit a long time ago. Some people navigate that with ease and never use Content Library. I'd be so confused if I tried to do both, I wouldn't remember what I am doing.
While it's still in Fast Grab, I'm rendering the Rundown School Classroom for you. It's only at 5% at 9 minutes (larger render size) but I can tell you, it looks good. I don't know when Fast Grab last changed over. For $6.89, even if you took out the classroom stuff, you get some good, aged walls and floor. Give it a look if you have time.
52% at 29 minutes. (the entire set and 1000 x 1200)
71% at 33 minutes. Really speeding up.
83% at 43 minutes. 5325 iterations.
89% at 51 minutes 5928 iterations. I ended it, good enough.
This is @GypsyAngel 's new gal, Eilish (Gen3F) wearing Wall Ranger Outfit and Idris Hair (G3M/F) (Slosh's UHT shaders) I reduced her bust and her hips, she's a curvy gal.
I used Dumor's Apocalyptic Plant Indoor 2 for lighting, I increased the Environment Intensity to 1.38, the Film ISO was 266.76, and the Exposure Value 12.04 (again, remember to do ISO first so you don't move the Exposure Value slider. That one does NOT move ISO)
Here's a draft of my guide to using the free Mixamo motion capture animations with DAZ. Hopefully, I can upload this as a .PDF. Arnold C was instrumental in me getting past the first hurdles of using Mixamo, because I just couldn't get the settings right and the directions on Mixamo were incorrect. He was kind enough to explain things and post screenshots. He gave me permission to use that info in my guide, which I then expanded upon and added even more screenshots.
Mixamo animations are great - professional quality motion capture - and are pretty easy to use. My problem is that if I go a few months without using them, it takes me an import or two to get back in the swing of it. But then it goes really quickly. This guide covers everything from exporting your character and uploading it to Mixamo, downloading and importing animations to use in DAZ Studio, how to add the thousands of animations from the mixamo.com website to your assets of your Mixamo account, etc.
It'd be great if someone would run through and test this to make sure I haven't made assumptions, errors, etc. I'll proof it tomorrow after I've slept for a while. ;)
Great tutorial, I read through but haven't tested it yet. One question I have. Have you found that the animations you make aniblocks out using Mixamo, transfer well to other characters? In other word, if I downloaded all the animations, I tend to think it would be best to probably use a Genesis 1 base, in my own experience, those animations transfer best to a wide range of both male and female G1 G2F G2M. This way I wouldn't have to transfer the same animations for multiple characters.
I use Content Library 95% of the time. It's saved me a lot of frustration, because I can never find anything in Smart Content. I use Smart Content for loading characters initially a decent part of the time and grabbing textures for specific items sometimes. The rest of the time, I'm loading all characters, products, and mats from the Content Library. It's much easier to find things under the categories. My brain obviously doesn't work the way Smart Content does; I think if I were trying to use only Smart Content, I'd have given up on DAZ for a third time.
@DSDT
Animations do transfer to the different characters. I felt as if I had to do less correction if I used the same character, but I didn't test it enough to tell if that were a misperception, a misunderstanding/mistake on my part, or only on more extreme morphs. It really would take some benchmark type comparisons which I didn't bother to do, as I was rushing on a deadline.
But a base G2F definitely worked for all G2F morphs, base G2M for all G2M, with the exception that when I hit Darius and a muscular morph, I felt I had to throw in a correction aniblock to move his hands out away from his legs so his fingers wouldn't go through his thighs. A quick fix. But if that happens you can also just upload Darius, adjust the animation, and download it specifically for him if you don't want to do an adjustment aniblock. I also did some G2M to G2F and those seemed to work okay as well.
Basically, everything I tested worked on every character. So if I downloaded a walk, it worked on Genesis, G2M, and G2F. I think I did V4/M4 at the beginning, but deleted them. I might test that more in the future. Depends if life slows down. Since I ended up using on G2M/G2F, with one Genesis figure, I quit testing.
I need to go back and make it clear that while you "grab" all the animations with the script to add them to your assets, that doesn't download them. The benefit of adding the animations to your owned assets is that you actually do own them at that point and you can download them at your leisure. (I was really getting sleepy during that last part and can't recall if I put that correctly; I may have mixed my thoughts together. I'll check it) I only download as I need each specific animation, since right now, packaging the animations in lots doesn't seem to work with DAZ characters because the Mixamo pack download settings are different than those offered when you process a download for a single animation. That said, I haven't tested it for several months to see if they changed that. (It was totally illogical.)
Even though I grabbed all the animations for my basic characters, I'm only using probably 20 basic ones at the most. I'm doing a high volume of rendering because I have a large number of characters doing the same things, walking, idling, reaching for things, kneeling, etc., in different outfits. If that makes sense. I'll be adding a lot more variety, I hope, here in a month or so.
And I'm not sure ever I tried starting with Genesis and applying the animation to G2M/G2F. I went the other way, creating the animation for G2M and applying it to a Genesis figure, because I was using all G2, except the one character.
Hope that makes sense.