NEW! Novica & Invited Guest Contributors Tips & Product Reviews Pt 6
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LOL, well today I got offered a 40% off coupon. In a popup on the site. LOL. That is too funny.
It is good, because it is just in time for some nice new sci-fi which doubtless will bore a hole in my wallet. =-)
Daz should give us the ability to hide the PC items, we've said this over and over. They make it hard to use the "Get Daz Originals" offers because they bury the items with the PC stuff that we can not get. Poor tactics, and yes, I think it is deliberate because the input was overwhelming during the beta to be able to show AND hide the PC stuff.
So I'm having trouble finding anything I don't own, but here's a little gem for you folks who can make your own graphics. The blank page for the book makes it easy to put what you want, or do as I did with the newspaper awhile ago and insert a plane over it and bring in your graphics.
http://www.daz3d.com/fantasy-book
This has a boat trailer. I am so-so about the materials, but I think increasing the bump/displacement would be okay. If you need an interior shot of two people sitting in the boat, or a boat in the background, it would work.
http://www.daz3d.com/quicksilver-classic-runabout
If you get both, with the lab as the qualifying item, the boat is 1.46 and the book .98. Not sure if that's what I'm doing, just sharing what shows up in the cart. Anyone have any ideas for DO's feel free to share. I own so many of them that I'm having a hard time finding anything left that I want. These two were in the "Places and Things."
Okay, I'm going for this and going to kit-bash and put a black super-suit type thing under it. That should be cool if it works. If it doesn't, I didn't pay a dime for it. Won't use the boots in all likelihood, will use practical footwear.
http://www.daz3d.com/felicity-for-genesis-2-female-s
Did you read the fine print? Mine says, buy a new item to get it, 40% doesn't work on new items or PC+. At least it works on PA stores.
Looks like I may be better off waiting on flash sales. I've been spoiled by 50-70% off sales. 40% has become kind of meh. (Sorry DAZ, I don't mean to sound ungrateful)
On another thread, Charlie pointed out that they had changed the promotion right in the middle of it- that the popup disappeared and then the verbage had changed. This is all confusing. I bought the Liquid Lab and got $15 off Daz Originals (you should see what I'm rendering, talk about a fun kit bash, but challenging) I'm sadly like you, the 50% doesn't leave much of an initiative for me due to March Madness when I bought most of what I had wishlisted.
Take a peek at this thread, start with this post and work your way back up.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/55994/P15/#815719
Yeah, it is tough, especially when you know other people got 50 percent :-)
I used it once. Got a male hair I've been wanting.
Nidale (DAZ Originals / Countess / Silver)
Felicity for Genesis 2 Female(s) (Daz Originals / Sarsa)
Fantasia For Genesis 2 Female(s) (DAZ Originals / Mada / Sarsa)
Viking Hair for Genesis 1 and 2 Female(s) (DAZ Originals / goldtassel)
Leather Body for Genesis 2 Female(s) (OOT) (another site)
Make Her Mad Expressions for Genesis 2 Female(s) (3DCelebrity)
Aiko Ninja Poses for Aiko 6 (Blondie9999)
Feathered Phoenix for Genesis 2 Female(s) (DAZ Originals / Bobbie25 / Sarsa)
http://www.daz3d.com/nidale
http://www.daz3d.com/felicity-for-genesis-2-female-s
http://www.daz3d.com/fantasia-for-genesis-2-female-s
http://www.daz3d.com/viking-hair-for-genesis-1-and-2-females
http://www.daz3d.com/make-her-mad-expressions-for-genesis-2-female-s
http://www.daz3d.com/aiko-ninja-poses-for-aiko-6
http://www.daz3d.com/feathered-phoenix-for-genesis-2-female-s-20725
Going to feature some Daz Originals for you, since you get $15 free in the promotion. I think Nidale is a must have. If I had to pick 100 things to keep from my thousands, she'd be in there. She's very versatile when it comes to skin tone. Depending on your lighting, she really changes. We've featured her many times in the six threads. She's a Daz Original too!
Okay, funtime. Felicity is the main outfit, and the gloves are layered under Fantasia armbands. So look at the arms, those are double loaded with two different products with Fantasia being on top. Under the body of Felicity, to make it family friendly, is Leather Body for Genesis 2 Females from another site, currently 50% off at $4.99. It's a good bodysuit which enables you to use some of the skimpwear here. (I think it could work as a swimsuit, definitely a gymnast workout outfit.) Materials are blue, green, maroon, black.
Enter Feathered Phoenix. It's the necklace, and the jewelry of the Felicity was changed to red to match it. I like that the white gold matches the inside gold of the arm bracers.Also, those wires of bands on the thighs are from that outfit. (Phoenix Thigh Rings) You might keep those in mind for other outfits.
You will have to fiddle with the straps a lot to get Felicity to work with the Leather Body (another site) Here's the settings to save you time.
collar twist -6.77 scale 84.5
shoulder bend -60.90 scale 15.6
change collision to the piece under it (the Leather)
The Fantasia arm band- forearm scale was 118.2
Also, if you don't use the pants from Felicity, the Fantasia shoes are wonderful with this outfit. I couldn't layer them, tried for an hour, with reducing the pants, increasing the shoes, etc. I am posting an image showing the straps before and after the adjustments. The right side with the red line shows the gap, the left shows the strap after it's adjusted.
Then I kept the Leather bodysuit and took away the pants. IMO it looks okay- I've seen a lot of outfits with panties that had quite a bit to the top, this is a one piece underneath and looks okay. I wanted primarily to show you the nice Fantasia shoes.
You will love the Aiko Ninja poses- there is a wide variety there- check it out! If you don't have Make Her Mad or Make Her Smile, you're missing out on some good expressions. This is Mad 028.
So this kitbashed four outfits, three from here. :)
Here's the one without the bodysuit underneath. I forgot to put the shoulder straps back to default settings, so keep in mind those will be a bit straighter and thicker.
Pose: Capsces Poses for Mei Lin
No wonder men products don't sell, (edit- I'm quoting others. I am still not convinced) it's because they don't have ANY closeups of the face of the character. They won't sell when there's no closeups (red flag anyone?)
Speaking of G2M, Does anyone have a render of Gareth? He looks interesting. I can't remember if we've ever posted him on the thread, and I don't have him yet.
http://www.daz3d.com/gareth-hd-for-michael-6
Yeah. I posted one in my thread a page back. He is my favorite character by this pa. The only weirdness is he throws a lot of people errors in my log file. Unsure why.
Aha, don't know how I missed him in your thread. He looks good! Explain what people errors in log file means? Does it give you an error message when you try to load him up or affect your rendering?
I'm not sure the implications of log errors. I did have quite a number with Gareth HD, but now that I've reinstalled DAZ 3d, it seems to not be happening. So. I'm glad. =-)
Yay.. our slender girl is finally in the store.. took her sweet time getting ready, that one. She's very tall, you can dial back the leg length morph if you want her more commonly proportioned.
Had a quick go at remapping the fox eyes - used the Mil Cat as a starting point. What do you think? I fear he might be a little cross-eyed but I can fix that.
Also here's part of the image I entered in PC Inspirations this week (in 3Delight) done in Iray - no special tweaking, just changed all the surfaces to Iray Uber Base - of course I lost the grass plane I had in the original because the AoA Grass Shader doesn't work in Iray. Oh by the way the cool colour of the render is because I used a fairly blue-based HDR image as the light source - the original 3Delight one had an Advanced Ambient and Advanced Distant in almost white.
Porsha?
I think the fox eyes are MUCH better than the default fox eyes. MUCH. :) The iray render is very pretty, your choice to change things paid off. The viewer can almost reach out and touch the lace!
Okay, here I go. A year ago I used GenX2. Now totally forgotten how to use the darned thing, and there are SO many related products to use the Gen 3, Gen 4 that it gets totally confusing. I'm almost tempted to start a separate thread, because the GenX2 thread has so many useless posts and no one can wade through 66 pages of ping ponging all over the place. (Not the vendors fault. People kept dragging in GenX, and the first TWENTY FIVE PAGES were asking about the release date and discussing saving up for MM. (Thank goodness Admin posted the release date on page 25.)
I did put the links in my Reference section (beginning of the thread, two or three posts from the beginning) to the two questions I asked and the answers, and also to video tutorials for GenX. Look under GenX2 and GenX. There is a post that tells you do A, B, C, D and is easy to follow.
But man, all these other products get mind boggling, not to mention expensive if you don't catch a sale. (I do have them all, got them when released or on sale months later.) But I haven't used them and some of them I don't understand (oh, news flash. What else is new.)
Let me start with this one, for newbies who don't know you can convert clothes, materials, accessories from Victoria 4 onto Genesis 2 Female.
(and have we seen examples of this on this thread? Need some help from you pros)
Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female
http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-for-genesis-2-female
Description:
"Generation 6, meet Generation 4! Victoria 4 for the Genesis 2 Female, premiere 3D models, gives you a path to use your existing Victoria 4 accessories and textures on your Genesis 2 Female characters. Use the AutoFit clone to access your favorite outfits, the Victoria 4 UV set to use your favorite textures and the Victoria 4 figure shape to see a familiar face.
note: Due to a limitation in how DAZ Studio handles presets, only material presets which are in DUF format can be directly applied. Any existing material presets must be re-saved in DUF format from the original Victoria 4."
1. First question- (I think we may have covered this a year ago?) See the green words- does this do the same thing as GenX2? Does it convert the shape then?
2.And I'm getting confused over in that other thread between the words shape, morphs, and clones.
3. In that description, is it saying all that is included? AutoFit CLONE (there's that word again) is the same as AutoFit? (Sorry to be so picky) In another product, it mentions this one has the V4 UV Map.
Then let's go to this one, which requires the product above:
V4 Skins Auto Converter for Genesis 2 Female(s)
https://www.daz3d.com/v4-skins-auto-converter-for-genesis-2-female-s
"Now you know that Genesis 2 Female, a premiere 3D model, has all new surface names and even though you bought Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female ... You have to hand change all of the surface settings to use that huge library of Victoria 4 Mat files! Bummer!
But wait!
Now there's a way to do all of the work with only a couple clicks!
This script will read the .DS, .DSA and .PZ2 files and do all of the work for you. No more going cross-eyed and getting carpal tunnel clicking all around your folders and going back and forth checking settings."
Okay, that lost me. What happened to the DUFs? The first product required the files all be converted to those.
4. Does this one do something the first product can't? So I looked up DUFS which in turn answered about DSAs. (that this product DOES.)
"The .dsa are for versions of DS before 4.5, the .duf files are for the newer version. Everything saved from DS 4.5 or later is a .duf file by default (not counting renders and exported files intended for other applications, nor the thumbnails)." (According to Richard, a reliable source.)
5. So the materials for V4 are DSAs? And this product reads them apparently. Does it convert them to DUFS?
If you can number your answers to match the question numbers, that would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I'm going to get severely, significantly LOST.
And forgot this one:
6. Back to the first product which requires saving in DUF. How do we do that, if we have to? (If the second product does it for you, I'll use that. But not everyone has the second one.) (Aka, what exactly are we saving?)
And Happy Mother's Day to all you moms and grandmothers, and foster moms, (especially foster moms, way to go!) and sisters and aunts and anyone else who are pitching in to help raise children other than your own. I'm blessed with a strong family unit, but many folks have fragmented families for various reasons and kudos to people who are able to help raise children to achieve their full potential. :)
For people who have GenX but haven't used it, and didn't buy GenX2, here was a down and dirty explanation on how to use it:
(By Spiderland, found here:) http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/5878/P255/#290760
1) Make sure you have M4/V4 Shapes for Genesis in addition to Gen X (or S4, A3, V3 - whatever is relevant to your character).
NOTE: I looked that up, had to Google it, store search gave me that page of stupid strips. So here ya go:
http://www.daz3d.com/v4-and-m4-shapes-for-genesis
"Now you can add the most popular DAZ 3D male and female shapes ever created onto the Genesis base figure. With this morph pack you will be able to dial up the Genesis base figure to 100% Victoria 4, Michael 4, or mix and blend them with each other or any other figures or combination of figures you may have for the Genesis base. By adding these iconic shapes to your Genesis figure portfolio, you begin to see the power of Genesis."
And the Gen 3 bundle which will show you the other products if you are doing Gen 3 instead of the V4/M4
http://www.daz3d.com/gen-3-iconic-shapes-for-genesis
2) Start DAZ Studio.
3) Go to Window -> Tabs -> Gen X. Click on the top bar and attach it to the opposite side of your Content Library (for me, the CL is on the right side, so I’ll attach Gen X to the left).
4) We’ll do a Michael 4 character. In the Content Manager, go to your Gen 4 stuff (e.g., your Poser library).
a) Go to Figures -> DAZ People and drag Michael 4 to the center of the Gen X window.
b) Go to Pose -> DAZ’s Michael 4 -> Morph Injections and drag INJ Morphs++ M4 to the Gen X window.
c) Repeat step (b) for Elite, Ethnic, or whatever if they’re needed.
d) Go to your desired character (in my case, I’ll use Donovan for M4). Drag the body, then head morphs to the Gen X window (or just the body if you prefer).
5) With the Gen X window staged, below the center panel, select “Create a single morph” then “Transfer On: for all non-zero values”
6) Right below that, Michael 4 should be already selected. Click on Transfer. I’ll just use “Donovan” for both the Identifier and Name.
7) Load a Genesis figure into the scene.
8) In the Shaping tab, for Actor -> Male, crank up Michael 4 to 1.0
9) In the Shaping tab, for Actor -> Gen X, crank up Donovan to 1.0
10) In the Shaping tab, for Torso, crank up Navel to 1.0
Also look at this thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/18279/#269510 as it has images.
My understanding (such as it is!):
Your questions on Victoria 4 for Genesis 2 Female
1. It does roughly the same job as converting the original V4 base figure to G2F via GenX2 - I believe the statement was that it was approximate rather than identical. So if you just wanted the basic V4 shape then this product would do that. What it can't do (but GenX2 can do) is convert other V4 characters, or self-made dialled up V4 figures, or individual V4 morphs.
2. I'm not really able to give a great definition of the differences. I think "Shape" means the V4 base (unmorphed) shape, "Morphs" means individual morphs (e.g. Tongue Width, Emaciated, Chin Depth), "Clones" means the data file that allows you to do autofit (the things in the drop-down list asking which figure the item was originally made for).
3. Re autofit, see my answer to 2. Re UV Map, yes this product has the V4 UV Map for G2F.
Your questions on V4 Skin Auto Converter (which I don't have myself)
4. Yes, it takes V4 materials settings and applies them to G2F (the first product is only about SHAPES, not TEXTURES).
5. Yes, normlly .dsa's (or sometimes .ds's) but older products may only have the .pz2 (Poser format) file. The original V4 surfaces were named completely differently from G2F. I believe the product converts them on the fly (i.e. each time you try to use them). There is another produst also by Draagonstorm http://www.daz3d.com/v4-skins-batch-converter-to-genesis-2-female-s which (I think - again I don't have the product) trawls through all the .dsa's and .ds's and .pz2's in one library (e.g. different makeups or eye colour settings) and saves them as .duf files.
The reason I don't have the materials-convertor products myself is that I have the original V4 Base figure and enough time and inclination to do some work myself. For every V4 character I have, I loaded each texture set in turn (including all the makeup, tattoos, eye colours, etc) onto that Base V4 and saved it as Material Preset (that puts it into .duf format). These can then be loaded onto G2F just like any other materials set. I did that same thing for all my M4 textures too. Yes I sometimes have time on my hands!
This kind of answers your last question
6. Save as materials preset then you can keep it forever! (File - Save as - Meterials Preset then pick what you want to call it and where yuou want to put it)
@ Fisty: re Porsha Thanks Fisty. I actually really like this look and will definitely be purchasing her. How render intensive are the hd morphs? I'm still reeling a bit from render times on my last he character
@MelanieL I like your vintage girl and your revised fox. The eyes look great!
Thanks Melanie, I'm fiddling with GenX2 again and going through the stuff you wrote.
BIG problem though- I get all the way through transferring my V4 morphs, but when I go to the shaping tab, there's no V4 to move the slider to 1.0. Nada. So what do I do to get V4 into that tab?
Gotta get some sleep.
The V4-Shape for Genesis1 from the DAZ Store should be in Actor => Female => Real World
With GenX2 V4 should also be in the Shaping Tab in Actor => GenerationX => **People**
About the same as any other of Fred's HD characters, not more not less. (so not fast but not terrible, at least on my machine which is kind of middle of the road)
Right- thanks for the screenshots. It confirmed that things aren't where they should be. I was watching the video (Cypherfox's) so I could see what was supposed to happen. (As I said it's been awhile.)
Under Shaping>Actor>Female>Real World, I have V3 and the Basic Female. No V4.
My character is in the Shaping>Actor>Generation X> Victoria 4. She's there.
I re-checked and re-installed the V4/M4 Shapes for Genesis. Nada. Don't know what to do.
Thanks for taking the time with the screenshots :)
I closed the studio and did another character. Used the same written instructions, and this time V4 was there in Shaping. No idea why it didn't work the first time :) Thanks again for the help.
Hadley V4 (Daz Originals)
Jena Hair for Genesis 2 Female(s) and Victoria 4 (SWAM)
Seasons For Genesis (Mada)
Genesis Generation X2 (Dimension3D)
V4 and M4 Shapes for Genesis (Daz Originals)
Rocks N Drops Fantasy Scene Kit (Predatron / Diane)
Corrected V4 UV for Genesis (bringho)
https://www.daz3d.com/hadley-v4
http://www.daz3d.com/jena-hair-for-genesis-2-female-s-and-victoria-4
http://www.daz3d.com/seasons-for-genesis
http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-generation-x2
http://www.daz3d.com/v4-and-m4-shapes-for-genesis
http://www.daz3d.com/rocks-n-drops-fantasy-scene-kit
http://www.daz3d.com/corrected-v4-uv-for-genesis
These two renders are the GenX2 transfer of V4 onto Genesis, WITHOUT the use of the Corrected V4 UV for Genesis.
I will say this as strongly as possible- if you want to keep the eyebrows, nose, and mouth really close to your original V4, don't leave home without using this product. It's like doing a render and not adding lighting.
You will see the eyebrows keep their thickness and not thin out, the nostrils keep more of their shape, etc. It combats the UV stretching. GenX2 is wonderful, don't get me wrong, and you can tweak the nose and lips- but good luck thickening the eyebrow hair. :) The product is SO easy to use too, go into Surfaces and in the UV Set dropdown, select Victoria 4 Corrected. Boom, you're done. You'll see the face move and the magic happens.
Doing one with the Corrected UV now so you can see. Any shown in the future of GenX2, you should assume the fix has been applied.
TIP: For the 91 x 91 thumbnails, I create my own. When you go to the product page, those thumbnails are perfect squares (but they're something like 401 x 401.) I do a screenshot, crop, export at 91 x 91. Takes about a minute.
I'm going to bounce this idea off you. (Lurkers, need your input. If you don't want to post, PM me) Do any of you make your own thumbnails for the GenX / X2 thumbnail? I'm thinking it's kinda silly to have everyone re-invent the wheel, and was thinking of doing an Art Studio thread for GenX / GenX2 with the thumbnails, with an index in the first couple posts. People could post their thumbnails (91 x 91) and then others wouldn't have to do what's already been done. Worth the effort or not? I've got Hadley and Arinae done. (V4) I frankly don't mind assisting with it but if it's only me, there wouldn't be a lot added at once, only small increments. And also if no one else needs them, I don't want to waste my time sharing them.
I don't want to post them on this thread as they will get buried. It's going to be only the 91 x 91 thumbnails. So, do you have any to share? Would you be able to use them if others posted theirs? I'm tackling V4, but if you're doing Genesis to G2F or G2M, we'll split it up into the different Generations / M/F. NOTE THEY HAVE TO BE PNG's. Examples are shown.
EDIT: I turned up smoothing on that hair to over 20, to get out the crinkles.
Okay, my studio hates me. First we play the vanishing 1.0 Victoria 4 slider (only to have it appear when I do the exact same thing with a different character) now I'm not an administrator to be able to create a Character preset. Well phooey on it, I saved to a different file then dragged and dropped into my Genesis characters.
For newbies or those who haven't done a character preset before (or who, for some blasted reason, are told they are not adminstrators) here's what to do (and a tip on the thumbnail that will be shown) This might not be the only way to do it, but it's how I did it.
Get the view you want in the viewport. I did 91 x 91 (be sure you have the "Show Aspect Frame" checkmarked. It's in the upper right corner menu dropdown in your viewport.) Get your character's face centered.
Add a front distant light. Based on your character's skin, adjust the lighting so it looks good without rendering. Hadley was 114.3%, white light. I tried it with default lights and it was way too dark.
Go up to File>Save As> Character preset. Now here's what I don't know / could use some help as mine didn't behave. I made a folder called !!!!CharPreset and saved it into there. I don't know where they NORMALLY go, as I was denied that operation as administrator (which I am. Sheesh.) Anyway, if you make a "holding" folder, then you can simply open up your directories and place it in your Genesis characters. Make a separate folder for your character there first.
Mine was D>Daz>Content>People>Genesis>Characters>HadleyV4 GenX (I made an empty folder ahead of time, titled HadleyV4 GenX so I would know where Hadley came from. Obviously, since it's in Genesis characters, I know she is on Genesis.)
Then how cool to see my gal in People>Genesis>Characters! :) (These small things in life make you feel like you did know SOMETHING.)
Below shows you what it looked like in the viewport and how it turned out. I am doing mine without hair as that tends to bias me (I think of a character as a blonde, etc)
Can anyone who does character presets tell me where it would normally be saved, without having to make a holding folder? I'm stuck doing it that way until it knows I am an administrator, which is dumb, because I am for anything else on this computer and I have been before. Argh, technology.
Mine by default goes to the root, which isn't really that ideal
C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4