The "right" Pro-Bundle to begin with? and question about muscle sculpting

Grey_001

Hi everyone,

After playing around a bit with the basic assets provided by the free starter pack "genesis 8 essentials" I quickly realized that the essentials, are (as obvious as it sounds) "essentials" and that several "nice to have" features were not included (HD textures, complete anatomical features, etc...).

With that in mind, I opened the shop and was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of models available.

There is so much stuff that I don't really know which is the most appropriate "complete" starter pack. Aside from the obvious physical differences, I can't really understand yet which pack has what even after reading the descriptions.

From the identical pricetag, I somewhat surmise that the following bundles contain the same stuff, but expensive random personal assumptions and my wallet don't match well...

Sakura: https://www.daz3d.com/sakura-8-pro-bundle
Charlotte: https://www.daz3d.com/charlotte-8-pro-bundle
Stephanie: https://www.daz3d.com/stephanie-8-pro-bundle
Teen Josie: https://www.daz3d.com/teen-josie-8-pro-bundle
Olympia: https://www.daz3d.com/olympia-8-pro-bundle
Victoria: https://www.daz3d.com/victoria-8-pro-bundle
Aiko: https://www.daz3d.com/aiko-8-pro-bundle
Penny: https://www.daz3d.com/penny-8-pro-bundle

My main goal is to have a base model with all the anatomical assets.

Any help to identify a valid starting point is greatly appreciated.

 

 

My second question is about modifying specific aspects of the model.

I have been playing around with both the basic male and female model and I wanted to try to sculpt some muscles (e.g. a 6-pack on the abdomen) or at least emphasize specific muscles (e.g. increasing the biceps), but the only thing I seem to be able to do is to alter the proportions of chunks of the body.

Is it possible to manually modify just small bits and pieces of the model or is that some sort of "morphing" addon that is superimposed over the base model?
(if it's morphing, my following question would be, can I morph it myself or do I need to buy some sort of morphing addon to do that?)

Please keep in mind that I'm still at a very noobish stage so these questions are more as a "yes/no" or "you need to use this or that" type of question sprinkled with some useful links rather than asking for a full walkthrough of how to achieve the result.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can share.

Grey

murgatroyd314

1. Any of those EXCEPT for Sakura or Teen Josie will give you the "anatomical elements" (i.e. genitals). Beyond that, which one to buy is basically a question of your personal taste.

2. You'll need to either buy some morphs (I suggest starting with the Genesis 8 Female Head Morphs and Body Morphs) or learn to make your own in the modeling program of your choice.

Grey_001

Thank you for your reply Murgatroyd.

I am still a bit confused about the bundles.

If they are all the same (expect for Sakura and Teen Josie), does that mean that they have all the same base mesh with different presets?

If spent enough time tweaking the base settings, could I get the same exact result regardless if I use Victoria instead of Aiko or Monique? or does Aiko only allow the user to create Asian character just like Victoria only seems to allow you to create Caucasian characters and Monique only seems to allow you to create African characters ?

If I want to create a scene where two characters from different nationalities are shaking hands, do I need to buy two pro-bundles (e.g. Monique and Aiko) or can I reach the same physical results with a single bundle?

Sorry for the extra questions that popped in my mind in the meantime.

Thanks again.

 

EDIT: I forgot to mention, thanks a lot for the two morph links. They both seem great!
and it's good news that there is always the possibility to learn how to make my own modeling (with the appropriate program of choice) in the future when I gain more skills, experience and confidence.

MimicMolly

Out of those you listed, I only have the Sakura 8 Pro Bundle. (The other two bundles I own, not listed are Monique 8 and Edie 8.) But Sakura 8 herself is the better base character out of all of those because she comes with many adjustment morphs and the others do not. Yes, base. You don't need the Pro or Starter bundle to use her morphs because they're included in the base figure. https://www.daz3d.com/sakura-8

Leana

They are not the same, they all include different items. But all the "character 8" shapes are based on the same mesh (G8F) and will share some assets, like the anatomical elements.

The point of those characters is to give you a starting point when creating a given type of character, that you can use in combination to other shapes or morphs for G8F.

You may be able to create a similar shape using morphs packs or custom morphing in a modelling program, but probably not the exact same as those characters are custom sculpts. And you wouldn't have the skin texture, which is included only with the character.

Another advantage of using the "character 8" morph as part of your own character is that if the shape is very different from the base mesh it usually will include corrective morphs to help with posing. And it can also help to get clothes to fit correctly: many clothes have custom fit morphs for those characters, so it would fit better than if you recreated a similar shape yourself.

 

If you want to have the anatomical elements for G8F then you need to buy one of the adult pro bundles, as this is the only way to get them. Choose the bundle you like best and which includes items you're most likely to use. Once you have them, they'll work with other shapes too.

Then you can look at other add-ons to have different kind of characters, but those will not necessarily be pro bundles. For example if you bought Aiko 8 pro bundle and want to have a dark-skinned character with her in the scene, then you will need a character with a dark skin: it could be Monique 8 - either only the shape, or the starter or pro bundle if the other items in the bundle are useful to you - or another dark-skinned character made for Genesis 8 female. You'll probably also want some hair different from the ones included with Aiko bundle: again, those included in Monique bundle could fit what you want, but any hair made for G8F is an option.

Saldaz

Probundles are quite expensive, around 95$ with the platinum club membership.

There are often sales and new bundle comes out every few weeks with god deals and then you can also get older generation bundles at low prices.

I would wait and see what comes along and pick up pro bundles when the deal is sweat.

Grey_001

Thanks a lot everyone for your feedback and your advices.

In particular, thank you for giving me insights based on the practical example I mentioned in my post (e.g. multiple characters with different nationalities).

Last, but not least, Pro-bundles are indeed a bit pricey (also considering that you need to add some morphs on top of that), so I will follow the suggestion of waiting for some sale to grab the various assets I might be interested in.

In the meantime, the Genesis 8 Essentials make for good practice in terms of getting familiar with the software commands, the settings, etc...

Thanks again everyone for your help!