What exactly is needed
The past few day's, I've been viewing alot of content at the store. What exactly is needed for a beginner ?? Requirements can be very confusing/frustrating. I was going to purchase Victoria 4 pro suite, but didn't need all the items in the bundle, then I discover characters I would like to purchase require V4 base/V4.2 morph++. Examples here:
Victoria 4.2 base - $29.95
Victoria 4.2 morph++ $29.95
Total of $59.90
But then I discover (less expensive):
Victoria 4 starter bundle - $49.95, which includes
Victoria 4 Skin Maps (Std Res)
Amarseda Hair
V4 Basicwear
Now if one buy's V4 and M4 base seperately:
Victoria 4 base $29.95
Michael 4 base $29.95
Total of $59.90
But then I discover Anime Manga Starter Bundle (less expensive), which includes
V4.2 base, Michael 4.2 base
Aiko 4 starter bundle
Hiro 4 starter bundle
Total of $35.97
It's like the Daz store is playing games here. Reason I'm very hesitent in ordering any content. A person would figure, V4 and M4 base would be less expensive, then starter bundle. I've seen people make this mistake at the forum, asking if they can exchange what they purchased. If a person purchase evolution body morph, why do they have to purchase V4.2 morph++, doesn't make any sense, evolution body morph, should be universal standard for all bases.
I don't mind making purchases to enjoy Daz free software, but at the same time, I do not wish to spend a ton of money, I don't need to. There should be a sticky, to help beginners choose content on the site. Such as starter bundles required before seperate purchases.
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Comments
Genesis, don't bother with older figures.
Couldn't agree more, but all characters/products I like is for V4 :)
The Evo morphs are the V4 M4 morphs++ for Genesis mostly. But only work on the Genesis figure. No other figure is as adaptable as Genesis. I'm a long time DS user and have most of the Gen4's if not all of them in my content. V4,M4,A4,H4,F4 and more, they are nice figures and only the Base V4 and M4 are needed as the others are morphs of them. I have a large amount of my money tied up in them and items for them. At this time I find myself converting all my older characters I did with the Gen4's to Genesis. I just prefer the way it works. With what you would spend on the older figures you could get Genesis morphs that would let you create some great characters of your own. And they would be users because you created them.
Hi Jade, Genesis is flexible to work with. But the free version of Daz lacks alot of content to completely, build a character as one desires. I've learned alot using Genesis. Most difficulty I'm having is the surface area. Like when I select skinface, entire face changes colors. I have no idea how to apply make up to Genesis.
Herald explained Texture maps, etc..... But what are MAT's ?? Is Make up Mat's ?
I like the way Genesis works too, and like the characters I've created, but they look lifeless, no make - up, skin tone, Genesis hair selection is horrible, Lol !!!! I see lot's of characters, V4 style I could work with. As a beginner, I prefer balance, not frustration.
Just feel with V4.2, I have more options, maybe I'm wrong.
Thanks alway's friend.
If the figure comes with Makeup options you do not Select the Surface of the SkinFace. You do this. Select the full Figure in the Scene tab, If you have selected ANY Surface in the Surface tab select the FULL figure in it also, (just click the Figures name in both and the full figure should select on it's own). Now Go to the Folder with the Makup Option Icons Just Double Click and they will apply. They are made to be easy to use. You only play with the Surfaces Tab to do extra things that the included files does not do.
I hope this helps.
Thanks Jade, well did what you instructed, when I go to Materials tab, Eyes, Face, Nails, Tatto are listed, just figured out face is make up, just confuse me more, instead of make - up it's face, Lol !!!
MAT is short for material. It mostly refers to a preset which applies all of the texture information needed. That means diffuse, specular, displacement; the works. If you want make-up on your character, most of these will be done using material presets and this goes for earlier Gen4 characters as well. All make-up is is a different diffuse texture in most cases, and they usually come with new character sets regardless of which character base you choose.
A few things to consider when making your decision. Firstly, if you're going to purchase content for characters and want the best value for money, the Genesis might be the way to go for a couple of reasons.
1) You automatically start with male, female and child morphs for Genesis, allowing you to build characters of different ages and genders from the start. Victoria 4 is purely an adult female, and while there are 'child morphs' for her, they're injection morphs. This means you can't interpolate between them to get different ages. It's either young or old rather than anywhere in-between.
2) As a result of Genesis being able to become any gender or age, you need to buy fewer clothing items. With V4 only V4 clothing will fit (there is a program called crossdresser, but the results can be hit and miss), same goes for Michael 4 and The Kids 4. That means if you wanted a pair of jeans, for example, it's a pair for K4, a pair for M4 and a pair for V4. Three clothing items compared to one if you're using Genesis.
3) Morphs can be interchanged between characters with Genesis. If you bought M4, for example, you'd need the Morphs++ pack to get the most out of him, and the Morphs++ pack for Victoria, and the Kids and so on. As Genesis is its own figure, the evolution morph packs work regardless of age or sex, so you can mix and match to make an infinite number of unique characters.
4) Character morphs become sliders rather than fixed appearance injection morphs. If I use Kaelyn on K4 I might be able to play around with the morphs++ to make her look a little different, but there's no way I can reduce the amount that the Kaelyn morph affects K4. With Genesis, the slider system means I can use 40% Kaelyn and 60% Ella or something. It's very flexible.
5) Most current and future content is Genesis compatible. That doesn't mean that they don't have prerequisites, as some require Victoria, Aiko or Michael 5, but it does mean that should something nice come out you can add it to your runtime and enjoy all of the existing content you've purchased without concern.
Now, to address another issue you seemed to have. Make-up is available for Genesis just as it is for Victoria 4. As I mentioned above, all make-up is just a material applied to the figure. Since Genesis can use Victoria 4's textures, that means it can automatically use any make-up options which Victoria 4 has along with all of the new Genesis only ones.
Below is an example of Aiko 5 (which uses Genesis figure as a base) with makeup.
Hi Herald, thanks for your continued help. Thanx to you/Jade, I'm feeling very comfortable, working my way around Daz software/content. I love working with Genesis character, very user friendly, allowing me to create what I envision. Just unhappy with surface process. Once I understand the surface process, mats, texture etc.... I'll be zipping along :-)
In UV set I choose Victoria 4 for Genesis, SkinFace, her entire face changes colors. Also in Diffuse color, what is FaceB1, FaceM1 and FaceS1 ?
Guess, I just want to be able to click on content, since I purchased V4 starter, noticed she has alot more options, I can just click on, I can use V4 Tone_color on Victoria and Genesis. Genesis didn't come with any face mats. Became tedious clicking on everything in the store, requiring V4.2 base/morph++,. Once I understand materials, morphing, texturing, UV, etc.... I can create characters, opposed to purchasing them. I'm not that advanced yet.
I'm beginning to understand entire process though, as I shared before, I was overwhelmed, confused, etc.... I do ask alot of questions, Lol !!! My engineering instructor used to run me out of the classroom, saying stop interrupting my class, Lol !!!!
Genesis is just a figure, like Victoria. The V4 base figure has a starting texture, and Genesis has three textures for male, female and child. The female skin is called 'Lana' which looks quite nice out of the box. However, to get the most out of them you'll want to purchase additional skin textures, which usually come in the form of character packs, Skin's are incredibly hard to create on your own, make no mistake. The best ones are taken from actual photographic references (as in, they take high-resolution photographs of an real model's body and map the skin to the 3D figure) which, unless you have your own studio, will be difficult to do. Generally textures intended for child figures are painted rather than done by photographs for obvious reasons, but even then it requires a lot of painstaking work to look right.
In short, you'll probably rely on bought textures for the majority if not ALL of your skin requirements.
As for FaceB1 and the like, that represents the textures which make up the figure. B stands for 'Bump' in the majority of cases and refers to the bump map. S often refers to specular and refers to the Specular map (the sheen, if you'll recall). M stands for... okay, I'll admit I don't actually know what it stands for, but it refers to the diffuse color at any rate. Perhaps it stands simply for 'map', who knows. The diffuse, as you'll recall, is the colour of the skin and the general look of an object.
Once you get material presets, it really is a simple case of point and click. I have tons of material presets which I can simply click on from my Smart Content to add them to Genesis. I even have some custom ones which have been tweaked to include subsurface scatter and other cool features, which were saved by myself to add quickly and easily so I don't have to manually change it all every time.
All of this you'll learn in time, but for now just see how far your imagination takes you.
Super awesome info Herald !! exactly what I needed to know. You are awesome friend :-)
The female skin is called 'Lana' which looks quite nice out of the box.
Discovered this recently. I was like who is Lana, in surface section, Lol !!!
I even have some custom ones which have been tweaked to include subsurface scatter and other cool features, which were saved by myself to add quickly and easily so I don't have to manually change it all every time.
I need to learn to do customization in the future.
All of this you'll learn in time, but for now just see how far your imagination takes you.
I surely hope so, I'm so anxious to create something awesome ! I have all these idea's scattered around in my brain, Lol !!!
I am a PC member and have picked up a lot clothing and hair for Gen 4 and Gen 3 figures thinking that is what Auto-Fit is for. Well I should have known better, the conversion is hit or miss, sometimes not working at all. GenX is brilliant but is it worth buying that and all the old Gen bases and morphs just to get a character onto Genesis?
If you already own a stock of older characters, then yes it's certainly worth it. If you're a first-time buyer though, I feel the easiest and cheapest way to get started is with Genesis items due to their flexibility.
Remember that GenX won't help you transfer clothes. It's only for character morphs from the earlier generation figures. The transfer isn't perfect due to there being fewer vertices on Genesis, but it's reasonably accurate. I agree with you on the autofit though. I've heard it uses the old CrossDresser engine to convert clothing, but unfortunately it has a few issues with certain items especially footwear and skirts. I've used CrossDresser in the past to convert a lot of clothing for different characters, so I recognize some of the sticking points I used to have (and still have) and it's not hard to see why the conversion is rarely perfect.
I agree with HOF, If your just starting out Genesis and items and morph sets will serve better than investing in older Figures and figure content. I'm a older DS user and have a NICE collection of older content, at this time I find myself converting (by hand) my stuff to Genesis as I prefer the new figure and what it can do. If I can not get the exact same look or clothing that is all the better in my way of looking at it. My figures are now New and improved.