Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 9
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For anyone still looking for the LAMH presets for the HW3D House Cat, Hivewire has created a free product for them. The quickest way to find them, if they aren't still on the front page when you go looking, is to enter LAMH in the search box at Hivewire3d.com.
It will probably say "If you're taking the time to translate this you seriously have WAAAAAY too much time on your hands."
I keep making the same mistake when I stop GenXing for a few days. I load up the morphs and then try to apply the material preset directly after that, forgetting I need to apply the V4 UV first (Caymen's Legacy UVs For Genesis 3 Volume 2: Victoria 4) So I keep clicking and wondering why nothing happens. That's why I have to make lists/steps and go back to them (hence the tutorial I did for GenX and the subsequent post on applying UVs- had I bothered to read THAT one I wouldn't have been so DUH.)
Working on the Rendo stuff again, converting to G3F my V4's, it's MRL Andromeda. I am using Shantal Hair, and have to say I didn't really find a way to widen the thin strands which left a rather stringy left section. I went to WIND and that bunched them up by using either Swirl left or right- but it still leaves a pretty thin strand leading down to it. So it frankly IMO doesn't make sense- you don't have thin strands leading to larger sections of hair that suddenly expand. You can see it in the promos too but in the promos, the hair looks a lot thicker than mine from this angle. (Which makes me wonder if I'm missing something.)
I also don't like the squared ends of some of the strands (look at the ones out in the air on our right. I did apply a smoothing modifier too.) One thing I do like about the hair overall is the various sections, it's nice to have layered hair. And as usual, there are a lot of morphs in the EJ hair.
Quick Genx2 question - Do I have to close Daz Studio after each morph or is there a way to clear Genx2 so I don't have to constantly shut down and restart? The video show him testing each morph but I'm to the point now where I don't really think I need to check each one, its working as it should.
I found in the videos I watched, they all shut it down and reopen, so that's the way I've been doing it. I do the head, (EDIT-then Reset) then I do the body, then close down. But I'm probably going to start doing two or three characters before I shut down and reopen. Don't know if there's a way to "refresh" GenX2 activities like the Shaping pane.
Another little tip- if you're doing a lot of V4 to Genesis 3 Female GenXing, it saves time to put the base V4 and Genesis 3 Female in a scene and save it. I do the morphs (the GenX2), then when I create the material preset for V4, she's right there. And then when I am ready to apply everything to Genesis 3, she's right there.
I really changed up the "how to add materials" and gave more specific tips, such as removing eye reflections, remembering to re-Iray every time you do the makeups and eye colors, etc. I don't use Surface Tool/ Surfaces when I do that, because only the Eye Surface is selected by the tool. Give it another look and see if anything helps you. :) I keep getting sidetracked with thinking "this might help" and spending time on the posts instead of continuing on with what I'm doing, but I hope it helps. I did change it to apply the Iray presets before the application onto the target.
There's a RESET button I think (dont' have it open at the moment to check). Also you can right-click on the list of morphs for transfer and deselect them all then re-check the ones you want. I rarely shut down DS during the process, only at the very end to load a (completely) fresh figure and test that the morphs I've transferred still look good.
Yes, oops, that's what she meant. I use the Reset and reload just the Victoria 4.2 each time. (I edited my reply and put the Reset in there.) I thought she meant after everything was done (transferred) was it necessary to shut down the computer to get the stuff to show up in the Shaping pane (to test the new morphs.) So that's a different question I asked, is there a way to refresh that Shaping pane without closing Studio?
Okay, I did a bit of testing and if you are confident that you have the steps down correctly, you don't really need to restart or load any characters at all. ( I would suggest following the steps exactly until you know you have it. You can hit the reset button to start from the beginning after each morph ( I am doing the body and the head separately, and its weird, when you change the drop down from Actor to Head, the head does not go under genx it goes under head under G3F shaping tab, and the body goes under generationx). I'm trying to decide if I want it that way or if I just want to do them all under actor and change the name between body and head. i.e. anna body and anna head and leave them both under genx so they stay together (alphabetically listed).
Anyway, my point was, unless you want to check each morph you really don't need to close and apply to gen3, unless you are checking that it worked right. You do need to close and open to see the new morphs but I did 6 in a row, closed and opened and they were all there and working correctly. I checked them one after the other on G3 and they all worked just fine. I did all six without ever loading v4 or g3 until I was done and then I just loaded G3 to check each morph.
So what I did, in a nutshel was, drag and drop V4.2 into the genx pane. drag and drop any extra morphs needed for the specific character (morphs++, elite, etc), drag and drop the character morphs I am moving up. go through the steps to create the body morph and the head morph. hit reset, do it again, until I am done with however many characters I am moving. Then I restart, load g3f, and run through each morph quickly just to test and make sure I didn't screw anything up.
I did six last night in less than 20 minutes and most of that was figuring out what morphs the v4 character needed.
Edited to add - Once you load the V4.2 character morphs you do not need to drag and drop them over to the box anymore. Once you hit reset, you can hit SOURCE and it will give you the drop down box for the source character and V4.2 will have been added to that list. just click source and choose V4.2 and then you only have to track down the extra morphs like ++ , elite etc. Quick tip on that, create a custom category and put those morphs in that category so you know right where they are and don't have to dig through the Poser Pose list all the time to find them.
I can see why that would be helpful, that's a great idea! I've gotten so fast at finding them the way the default does it, I left mine alone.
Yep, I mentioned that about having to load V4.2 once, and then she became available in GenX2.
Remember when mine didn't want to cooperate moving the morphs over the first time, and that was because the new version of studio bumped me back down from GenX2 to GenX? Hours wasted!
I'd suggest that people load the ++ and elite and I also mentioned muscular- onto V4 the first time you do it- then you don't need to do it again. Your V4 in GenX2 already has all that when you select her as the source. (Then you don't have to create that custom category at all to find all that.) I didn't load the fantasy or aging stuff onto her, as it's apparent when those are needed and I'd just do it then.
This is GenX2'd SV7 Josephine (Rendo, a V4.2) with Voss Hair (I changed the Diffuse to a light red as there really weren't any reddish browns.) She's wearing H & C Baseball Jackets.
A really good expression set is Counteenance Expressions It has upper lip, lower lip, left and right, upper face, etc. For Gen3F (who isn't as fluid as G8F) I think you'll really like this one. This smile even has a bit of asymmetrical going for it, I tweaked every so slightly the right side and not the left.
I couldn't remember everything you said offhand lol. I figured I would throw it all in there and hope for the best. I have all of my V4 skins moved up to Gen2F at the moment, and once I'm done moving the morphs up to G3F I will then work on the skins and then will have to do the morphs up to Gen8 and I will be done lol.
Here's a thought, if my Gen8 is wearing the V4 morphs, will the V4 clothes fit automatically or do I still have to convert them up to G3F?
Okay, how does one delete a morph made with Genx2? I accidentally made two of the same. And it doesn't overwrite it just gives you two lol.
I usually just go into the folder where genx stores the morphs and chuck it out!
Yup. That's the way I do it too.
Okaaaaay...what do you do if the body won't go over? I tested it on the V4 character that I'm GenXing, and the body changes, so the morph IS there in Content Library. But when I drag it over to GenX2, there's that brief flash, but nothing comes over. When I hit transfer, it tells me no morphs selected for transfer (which I already knew because the morphs in that box didn't change.) Is there a way to manually put the files over there?
Okay great thanks!
And I have no idea. Which character is it?
Some bodies and characters don't xfer. In general my method is to only transfer heads unless the shape is really unique. I don't think the transferred bodies look that good and many are easily ones you can dial in using existing Genesis 3 morphs. I really only use gen x for aliens and heads.
It's SV7 Celine, (Renderosity) so just watch out for that one (meaning, don't bother trying the body. It just ain't gonna go!) Also on that one, the iris doesn't quite line up with the whatever it is that creates the round circle. The iris ends before it gets there. Hope I'm making sense.
@serenenight Thanks. I figured as much, the body isn't anything special. I went ahead and worked on the material dufs and didn't waste my time on trying to figure it out.
Well, I am finally caught up with this thread! Can you believe there were over 500 posts since the last I managed to drop in here? Between taking off April for writing and never fully getting caught up and then taking off for vacation last month, I wasn't sure if I'd ever get caught up. You guys have been very busy.
About Victoria 8: I like her and haven't had any issues with her skin and my lighting so far. You would not believe how long it took me to figure out that there were fiber mesh eyebrows, though! I was almost ready to start a thread in the Commons to find out why I couldn't get any eyebrows no matter which makeup preset I applied! Luckily, I figured it out before making a complete fool out of myself. Of course, now, I've admitted to being a fool. :)
@Novica Unless I missed, it both your son and your mother are doing better so I'm happy to see that. It was nice to read that your mother was actually up and walking fairly well. I hope they both keep getting better.
@DestinysGarden Glad to hear your son is doing okay after the heart surgery. I'm so sorry to hear about your grandmother. My condolences. It's very nice that you got to visit with her back in April.
@knittingmommy Welcome back! Hope your writing went well. I haven't done much with Victoria 8, and I think Michael 8 is going to be here really shortly, due to all the G3M sales. Whenever he comes out, I'm looking forward to the same quality of expanded abilities for expressions.
Regarding todays releases-
While I think the Felicity Outfit is a really nice change from a "typical" dress- note the morphs. I'd like to see a few more, because I look at those so far as movement and how to tweak them for different poses and hair on the collar and chest. A sitting one is included, but otherwise, there's no adjustments for the sides, stomach, or chest. I don't think you can control the floppiness/fit of the sides at all, which is what would show movement. I know it can fit all those included figures (and there's a lot, to be fair) but for movement of the character, windy conditions, etc- I don't want to be locked in to the side being that way, and that's it. I'm wondering what could be done in the Scene tab.
Do keep in mind that for any "shorter" morphs, you can go negative and make it longer (usually.) The chest doesn't have any morphs listed either, but I wouldn't worry about that, with all those different shapes.(and also selecting in Scene and scaling.) If anyone gets this and can play with it, I'd be interested to know what you think. I like that it's a really different design and it is wonderful to see that creativity.
Compare the morphs to Stylish Workwear to get an idea.
This one is another of the squared shoulders looks, which I personally don't like but we did look it up and in some fashion circles, have already made a comeback. (Everything eventually does, right?)
Be sure and check for an orange banner from Thorne. It makes buying two things a lot easier, with a reduction in their product cost (you had to buy a specific qualifying item.) If you're one of the folks whose banners don't often show up, check your account because Zev0 has one currently too, ending today.
LOVE the new HDRI with the clouds and lightning. So I'm picking up Thorne's and the HDRI.
Viridian Skye Bundle is in Fast Grab, in case that's in your wishlist. I don't have/need her but for you Genesis 2 folks I thought I'd point her out. Fast Grab has been changing every day or every couple days here lately.
For any of our friends in Mexico and lower Texas, hope you're watching Invest 90L. The 99L is chugging along quite nicely too, but now they're not sure about an Atlantic East Coaster, they've opened it back up for the Gulf too, but it may not even survive that far. Models aren't showing a monster storm, they're still referring to it as Tropical Storm potential. I know there will be a lot more hurricanes this year, and we haven't been hit since 2005 (twelve years!) so I'm getting my massive oak tree trimmed on the 15th (that's as soon as they can do it) because that sucker is right by the house and I want wind to be able to go through it. In the South, you make sure the breezes can go through by the core area which is the middle through upper trunk area. It's rather interesting to see them scope it out, I was there when my neighbor had hers done.
My bamboo is now THIRTY FEET TALL (or more) and higher than the neighbor's trees so those are being cut down to the ground (they'll be back, lol. You literally can't kill this stuff.) I called the Atlanta Zoo to see if they wanted it for their pandas, as I have exactly the kind they need, but they have enough right now. (Remember the Pandacam? Checked that lately?)
I'm still spending (much of my) time playing with G8F base and transferring morphs up from G2F and G3F. I saw that the Belle Dress (PC+) has been transferred up to G8F, but I'm still sticking to my "not-buying-in" promise to myself at the moment, so I thought I'd dig out my G3F version and try SickleYield's tutorial to transfer it to G8F (it seems to work pretty well by the way). But in doing so I rediscovered some of the rather fine texture sets for that dress.
Here's a render of base G8F plus various G2F/G3F face morphs wearing Belle with one of the Beauty for Belle textures - I really like this one, the lace has a lot of depth (click the pic to make it bigger).
Her skin is MRL Willow, her hair is Pure Hair Darling (for V4 and Genesis "1" but it's a prop which scales/smooths up quite well) with UHT2 shaders. The jewellery is from Baroness Jewels (which is G2F but autofits pretty well) with Iray Metal and Gemstone shaders (I really like the Pearl shader from that set) and lighting is Painter's Lights.
ETA: Oh and don't go looking for that building in the store - it's a photo of my own added to a transparent-back render in postwork.
Okay, I don't know why some of the prices are what they are, but here's some at 65% off that you don't have to buy anything. It appears (because then I dove into Vyktorhia's store just to research it for you) that Vyktorhia and Hinkypunk's are 65% off. So check these out for $6.46
HPVYK Marcela (Gen3F) HPVYK Ashton HPVYK Lennon
BUT if you do buy two from the Never Seen Genesis Do This Before sale, you get AN EXTRA 20% off so THEY ALL DROP to 81% off and only $3.45!
What I've been doing is waiting a couple days on any sale, to see if there's any overlap (and you have to be quick about that, Zev0's apparently did and they took it out) but also to see where I want to spend my money. This is a good deal if you don't own those (I own Ashton and Lennon, but not Marcela) and I was looking at Easy Shape Master (love the weight morphs and muscular changing options) and Ethnic Beauties for Genesis 8 (NOT Victoria 8. So this will really expand what you can do.) Now imagine if you COMBINE THOSE TWO. Look at what that Easy Shape Master can really do. Should be fun! That section that has the additional 20% more off has some goodies in there. Had to laugh, Shantal Hair (that I just used) is in there, there are several EJ characters and hair. So, I'm just trying to get other folks down the rabbit hole with me, (edit- LOL, guess @MelanieL isn't going to budge) if you haven't bought from that sale yet, it will probably go off after this weekend as it's been up awhile. (just guessing.)
@melanieL Ooooh, exquisite! And love that background and the camera angle, you really captured the height nicely!!!
BTW, Please? Before anyone reposts that image in reference, or her entire post, please...remember to resize those and not just hit "quote." It makes the thread easy to scroll through, and is actually forum ettiquette (not just my preference) to only post necessary statements from a post (not the entire thing) and to reduce images in size. To do the latter, you click on the image, go up to the image icon, make sure the lock is locked (so both height and weight resize and keep the ratio aspect the same) then type in the new height or width. 250-300px shows the image a nice size for height.
To take out statements, simply highlight and delete. Appreciate it very much.
Thanks, @Novica - by the way it looks like they spotted that HinkyPunk/Vykhtoria stacking thing, they are now showing at 40% not 65%. There is still some stacking if you buy those items with a new thing from the "Never Seen Genesis Do This" because HinkyPunk is also a PA in the Olympia sale at 40% off or 60% with any new release, but the best those three dual-vendor items does now is 5.75 (so far as I can see by trying them in my cart)
Edit to fix some crazy typos - I think I've got some sticky keys on my keyboard!
Thanks. The writing is going well. I'm very pleased with my progress so far. I've also learned a few new plotting strategies which is always good.
I'm looking forward to seeing what G8M looks like. I agree about the facial expressions. I'm excited to see how they react and if there is the same ease of getting a great expression as V8 has. So far, I've loved doing my own expressions with Puppeteer. Even if I start with an expression pose fromt the bundle, I've gone into Puppeteer and tweaked the expression and loved the results.
Since it had been that way for ages, they probably read it here. I only posted it because it had been that way for days and I assume everyone does a cursory glance at the stores (I do that first, THEN decide if I want a new item LOL) , and I thought that it may be ending soon. I also had to leave (just getting back on) and couldn't PM people.
I have a question- how do you delete morphs you make when doing D-formers? They're under Pose Control in the Parameter tabs, but darned if I can find it in the studio files to delete them. I'm making a flabby arm morph for you folks (sharing the screenshots) but I'm still fine-tuning it. So help! Right clicking doesn't give the option to delete them. Edit- I remember now- as long as you don't save as a Support Asset and you exit the studio, they won't save.
One thing about the Easy Shape Master- for the elderly, it does emanciate the figures but the most glaring effects are only the face. I will share what I did to the figure so you can really make the body older, sometime soon. I've never saved a shaping preset, what exactly does that do- work only on the figure it is applied to? I did it to Victoria 8.
That is lovely. Thanks for listing the items you used and commenting on them. I have new things in my wishlist as a result.