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Purchase advice needed

PjotterPjotter Posts: 274
in Carrara Discussion

Creating one or two new projects. I prefer creating my own characters, but that is too much work for now. Modeling, weight painting, morphs, etc. And for multiple characters. So I am going to purchase from the Daz shop. A few things are not clear to me:

  1. If I am correct, Genesis 3 is a problem (for now) in Carrara?
  2. A creature build on lets says Genesis, does this always has the Genesis parameters / morphs? Or does the developer has to add this. It is not always mentioned on the sale page if it has those.
  3. Same thing for Mimic Pro and Genesis poses. Is this always included because it is Genesis?
  4. If a creature based on Genesis has short legs or large feet, I assume I need a lot of tweaking of the BVH? Not sure how clever Genesis is.
  5. Can I add for instance Genesis shoes on a creature based on Genesis?

I cannot respond until Sunday.

Comments

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited September 2016

    Some of your questions seem just a bit unclear to me, but I'll try to help. Hopefully others who use Genesis more often can chime in too.

    First of all... Genesis is pretty remarkable. When we buy a shape for it and install it to the default Daz Studio library, yes - those shapes will always be available for Genesis to use - but they don't add system weight to your figure unless you dial it up. So that part is pretty darned magical how it works.

    Shoes on creatures - Not always. We have to almost use our better judgement when it comes to these things. For example, some creatures actually stretch the foot to make the creature's feet - like some hooves and such - so that the ankle can become that opposite-aligned joint. The clever part is that now the artist must create new UV Map that fit that shape correctly - so even though it's been stretched it still looks darned good. But whether shoes will work properly on them... well that's a different story.

    If there's a particular product that you have in mind, and you really need to know for sure, try PMing the artist(?)

    Otherwise, if you buy something that you hope works but it doesn't, you could always go for a store credit to get something else(?)

    The Genesis system is very clever. I've not tried creatures with Genesis 2, but Genesis 1 - I've put clothes on many of the creatures that are still somewhat humanoid - and they worked fine. 

    Okay here... While typing I fired up my favorite 3D software, tossed in Midnight Stories' Lycan for Genesis, and then just looked for an outfit with shoes. Hmmm... Artemis X should be a challenge!

    Now Lycan has some wonderful creature feet - hence my saying that this will be a challenge. So on the left we see his feet without the boots, and on the right he's wearing the whole shabang!

     

    GenesisFit_LycanArtemisX.jpg
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  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326
    edited September 2016

    This is Journeyer Scout on the Infernal Behemoth. I must say, I haven't been finding shoes that fit this big fella. He's freaking HUGE over people or the Gorilla. 

    If you're looking for something specific, let me know. If I have it I'll check it out for you ;)

    GenesisFit_Behemoth.jpg
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    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Oh... I also wanted to mention that those tests above were done super fast. No tweking shaders or mesing with the meshes.

    The only tweaking I did is that the guns didn't come in in the right spot for the holsters. I think the better way to do it would have been to load the harness, then the guns to the holster (just load them onto the harness and they pop into place) and Then fit to Genesis! ;)

    Those shaders, while certainly not optimal Carrara shaders, look preety darned good right out of the box!

    I have wonderful things for Genesis:

    M5, V5, Gorilla, Troll, Infernal Behemoth, Undead Fiend, MS_Lycan, Rock Demon, RawArt's Great Goblin (2 goblin creatures in one!), Satyros (Goat Man), Rae-el the Demon, and then a few characters for V5 and M5. So not much, but with all of those, it's amazing what different creatures I can make. I thought I had more... I'll have to keep my eye out for Genesis creatures going on sale.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    As for BVH, Genesis takes a bit of tweaking if using motions made for V4 and/or M4. V4 and M4 were modeled with their feet pointing down, then they were st to load in with their feet straightened out. But if we zero their pose, their feet point down.

    So motions made for them countered that - and will come in funny on anything but them. 

    I haven't done anything with it lately, but aniMate 2 (the store bought version - not sure if the free one has it - it idn't when I bought it) has some nice tweaking tools for re-working overall joints. We do too, in our Carrara Graph Editor, which is why I haven't been in aniMate 2 for such a long time. The graph editor rocks. I just make a selection around all of the keys in that particular joint rotation, and drag the whole shebang up or down on the graph to correct all of the joint rotations on that axis in one action. Then move on to the next joint.

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738

    Clothing fits are super easy for Genesis (well, for any character) in Carrara.  Just use the modelling in the assembly room to tweak the clothing item, use soft select and symetry and 'pull' the clothing out in the various regions there is poke through from the character, til there is no more pokethrough  :)

  • Jay VersluisJay Versluis Posts: 249

    In regards to Mimic, you'll have to buy a plugin to make it work in Carrara: http://www.daz3d.com/mimic-pro-for-carrara

    Once installed, Mimic requires a DMC file to make a figure's lips move appropriately, but those files come with the Genesis and Genesis 2 Starter Essentials. It'll also work with the V4/M4 and V3/M3 figures as far as I know.

  • PjotterPjotter Posts: 274
    Dartanbeck said:

    As for BVH, Genesis takes a bit of tweaking if using motions made for V4 and/or M4. V4 and M4 were modeled with their feet pointing down, then they were st to load in with their feet straightened out. But if we zero their pose, their feet point down.

    So motions made for them countered that - and will come in funny on anything but them. 

    I haven't done anything with it lately, but aniMate 2 (the store bought version - not sure if the free one has it - it idn't when I bought it) has some nice tweaking tools for re-working overall joints. We do too, in our Carrara Graph Editor, which is why I haven't been in aniMate 2 for such a long time. The graph editor rocks. I just make a selection around all of the keys in that particular joint rotation, and drag the whole shebang up or down on the graph to correct all of the joint rotations on that axis in one action. Then move on to the next joint.

    There is a third option (in Carrara). Have a look at this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGtSLpxgGGc It is almost at the end. Very good. But look at the whole video. He is using another program for editing. Also very good. It is free and the name of the software is in the video. I have downloaded it all and one of these days I am going to give it a try.

  • PjotterPjotter Posts: 274

    Thanks for the answers. It solved some. And have some new questions, but decided to purchase or I keep asking questions. Got it now and trying things out, is a better way.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Yes! Danceform!

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