Newbie question

danann

Hi everyone.

Just started using Daz and it seems to be just what I need but am not sure what exactly I should aquire.

All I really need is is to be able to create poses of a male or female model and then use it as a starting point for drawing by hand. It is important that the models figure can be modified in many ways, like make legs longer or head round/oval, etc..  Maybe there's an obviouse choice for this but I cant really tell. There is no way to try the models/assets in the store before buying them, right? So, yeah.. Just hope someone can point me in the right direction :)

Richard Haseltine

Pick a Genesis vesion and get the Head and Body morph sets  -that should give you a fairly solid starting point, at least.

Hylas

The base program gives you the latest 4 generations of base figures (Genesis, Genesis 2, Genesis 3, Genesis 8) and some very limited possibilities to shape their bodies.
To get more out of it, you want to buy morph sets, which will give you the ability to shape their faces and bodies further.

For example, if you go with Genesis 8, you'd want to start with:

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-head-morphs
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-head-morphs
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-body-morphs
https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-body-morphs

There's plenty more products which give you more possibilities (like this one or this one), but those 4 are the basics.

You don't need any additional products for posing and facial expressions.
However, if you're impatient and/or have difficulties with certain poses/expressions, you can also purchase pre-made poses and expressions (which you then can further adjust.)

You can return any product you purchase within 30 days without giving a reason. The money will be returned in store credits.

There's a lot of sales going on here. So if it's not very urgent, it's worth waiting a little and getting everything at a 50%-80% discount.

 

Roman_K2

I don't know about lengthening the legs although technically any part of the figure may be altered on either the x, y or z axis if that helps. So a combination of a little "stretching" of the lower part of the body, and lowering the camera and tilting it up a little ought to help with an illusion of longer legs. You could even reduce the focal length of the camera lens to "35" say - this setting appears in the Cameras pane.

You also have full control of "lighting" along with the ability to place various lights around the scene and you can rotate them and change the intensity and (when rendered if you choose to do that) the intensity of the shadows and so on. Has to affect your/the drawing in some beneficial or at least interesting way eg. mysterious, partially lit figure in a dark room or, western gunslinger at high noon etc... there's infinite possiblities. You can even put the draped figure in a "classroom" to make the whole thing look like art school.

If you provide a bit more information on which way you want to go for your first test scenes (eg. Elizabethan era, Ancient Rome, Great Apes (or Bigfoot), Science Fiction and Fantasy etc.) other users will suggest their own favorite accessories or what worked for them in the past. There are lots of ideas in the user galleries.

Figured out that you don't like a dress or helmet or sword that you bought? Ask for a store credit or refund. Been there, done that many times. No worries.

Hylas

Roman_K2 said:

I don't know about lengthening the legs ..

The basic body morph packs have a dial for lengthening/shortening the legs (or the torso, arms, neck, etc.)

danann

Thanks for clearing this up, everyone!

Time to get started.