What human figure do you tend to use the most and why?

13

Comments

  • MistaraMistara Posts: 38,675
    SileneUK said:

    Ooooh. stringtheory9  I am a sucker for good eye reflections/iris colours etc!  I am also making my own eyebrows now with a PS brush set  I got someplace I can't recall.

    Dart, I don't have trouble with Genesis 2 loading UNLESS it's with the HD skin textures, so I don't use them as I don't need them. I make Normal maps with Crazybump for ruggedness, scars, etc.that I paint onto the textures.  I do need my figures to be flexible for morphs and poses.  Like Vysur I do my own expressions, but sometimes begin with a basic expression morph.

    What is really nice about G3 is all those facial bones which give you more options. Extra joints in the hands and feet, forearms and shins.

    This is a quickie render of my Neanderthals (for kids) I have started recently with Misty's CarrarActors for my teenage brother & sister. Am working with making the cave (from scratch!).  The younger children in the background are old Genesis 1s. I need to work with the Growing Up stuff next for G3. Fingers crossed they will work! If not, I have some as  G2s still.   

    indecision Silene

     

    just noticed the young-uns in the back, cute heart 

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Glad to hear but not happy I'm the only one having G2 M/F load slow... which is most used character. Slowly getting ready to get J&J incorporated... perhaps there will be some great sales on G3 figures in the future... only have a handful now.

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    wgdjohn said:

    Glad to hear but not happy I'm the only one having G2 M/F load slow... which is most used character. Slowly getting ready to get J&J incorporated... perhaps there will be some great sales on G3 figures in the future... only have a handful now.

    Can you give an example of what you are loading, eg figure, clothing included or nude, etc.  And how big the car. file is? indecision S

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    My 190MB (compressed) G2F Rosie base (with hair) takes  f o r e v e r  to load! Then comes Genesis 1, not so bad, but nowhere near the speed of the V4 version.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,326

    Yeah, John... you're not alone in that! Argh!

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,226

    For me it's gen 4 all the way but my needs are different than many others who are using Genesis 1 and 2. My end goal is animation so for this I found gen 4 to be much more forgiving on a slower system. I've since upgraded my system but I've invested a lot of time in getting to know V4 and M4. I just find them more flexible and easier to work with for my needs. One thing that I firmly believe is that they still have a LOT of life left in them! A little custom tweaking goes a long way. For example here's a native V4 render that incorporates some morphs, alpha and normal maps I'm working on.

    Very interesting, and I heartily agree about Gen4.  I'm trying to attach a couple of images showing my recent renders with Gen4, not sure its working, the "Uploading" never stops and it says "no file chosen".  I dunno ...

     

     

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    PhilW said:

    Great lloking eye - Dart will be beside himself with the Iris Glow there!t

    Thanks Phil!  Gen 4 eye have always looked doll like from the side so I spent a few hours on a Google "Eye macro" search studing real eye contruction. It was Darts iris glow obsession that peaked my curiosity on what a normal map applied to the iris inner area would do if it was painted to face outward (on a geometrically flat iris). The glow in the image is the result. 

    Incidentally, to anyone who is interested, I will post all of the shaders, morphs and alpha maps when I finish working on the right eye. 

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411

    Thanks SileneUK!

    That's a cool render...I love those characters and thier outfits! Looking forward to seeing how they painted eye brows come out :-)

     

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    edited May 2017
    Killer!!! yes

    Those are many of the same reasons I've stuck with Generation 4 for so long. I've never really delved into the 'realism' category for skin textures. In fact, I've even reduced the resolutions of my maps in the past. The thing I wanted to stand out is the eyes. Such an entire change of substance from skin to eye surface. 

    Thanks Dart!  I got to tell you though, if could get the same look you get in your renders I wouldn’t be aiming for realism! I wrote a whole fairytale adventure script (and bought pages and pages of medieval products) and then bagged it all when I couldn't get that look you get! 

    Post edited by stringtheory9 on
  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    edited May 2017
    Steve K said:
    Very interesting, and I heartily agree about Gen4.  I'm trying to attach a couple of images showing my recent renders with Gen4, not sure its working, the "Uploading" never stops and it says "no file chosen".  I dunno ...

    Thanks Steve, hope you can get them uploaded. You might just need to quite and relaunch your browser. 

    Post edited by stringtheory9 on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    SileneUK said:
    wgdjohn said:

    Glad to hear but not happy I'm the only one having G2 M/F load slow... which is most used character. Slowly getting ready to get J&J incorporated... perhaps there will be some great sales on G3 figures in the future... only have a handful now.

    Can you give an example of what you are loading, eg figure, clothing included or nude, etc.  And how big the car. file is? indecision S

    It matters not which G2 figure... even a nekked Base figure loads slow hangs at 50% for quite awhile... haven't timed it since I always go do something else until it's finally loaded... this is into even a New Medium Sceen so has no size since not saved yet.  I save both versions with/without clothing to Carrarra My Objects to save a bit of time loading from Smart content in Carrara.  Note that I've not Consolidated Shaders before saving... I really should.  But as Dart says it's probably AntiVirus software that slows it down... I use Avast which checks any file that's either loaded or saved.  Genesis 1 is a bit quicker but still slow... haven't loaded earlier generations since I don't remember when.  Also of note is that even Carrara and most other program will display (Not Reponding) upon their start... for Carrara I just get a white window and no splash screen.  Once Carrara has loaded I can shut it down later... wait or immediatly start it again and it loads very fast... but not load DAZ figures or complicated content.

    The other day I cranked up DS to find out where some content is located... it is very fast while when Smart Content is accessed in Carrara it takes quite awhile before all my figures/characters icons show up.

    Should I upload that white (Not Responding) screen?  You can stare as long as you want. smiley

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,989

    maybe try exempting the folders where your content is from being scanned by Avast and see if there is any difference.

    are you on Windows 8 or 10?

    if so you probably don't need Avast.

  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411
    edited May 2017
    SileneUK said:
    Thanks... a long ways to go, but getting there!.  And agree about the realism skin school of thought. It's perfect for those who want it, but I don't and make my own alternative textures. And it was you that pointed the way to weight painting for effects, too! Crazybump makes me a bit lazy, but gets the job done when I want figures to share a certain look.  angel Silene 

     

    Siline, if you use Crazybump a lot, while not free but worth the price, take a look at SpiritIlluminator. It does what Crazybump does but it also lets you paint and edit your own normal maps using a mix of textures. 

    Post edited by stringtheory9 on
  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Stezza,  Windoze 7 ... I'll try exempting to see what happens.

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    Stezza said:

    maybe try exempting the folders where your content is from being scanned by Avast and see if there is any difference.

    Thanks... Tried as you suggested... exempted entire Studio Library.  G2F, both clothed and Base (only) loaded quite fast.  What is very strange is that after I shut down Carrara, removed the exemption then started Carrara again and both still loaded very quickly.  I've also checked by re-starting system just to be sure that Avast did not know that the exclusion has been removed.  Still loaded both G2s fairly quickly... even the G2 with the corridor loaded somewhat OK.  This is after the Objects folder took awhile each time... it's now nearly as slow as loading Smart Content.

    To experiment further I tried Olympia 6 from Carrara'a Smart Content/Files/Figures/People/Female/Real World.   After double clicking the icon it loaded very slow as G2 base.  Deleted Olympia 6 from scene then tried G2 base from Objects which loaded quite fast again.  My problems like the current Carrara Challenge.... Only come out at night. sad

    Next step is to move the few characters/figures into a subfolder of Objects... off I go.

     

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 7,989

    I have found with my system that having very large files in the Object folder can really slow things up where if you pick one object  to load Carrara is still reading the other very large files in the folder before loading... and then even worse if it's a large file you have selected to load..

     

    so I tend to only keep low size items in the folders frown

    I very very rarely use smart content it's slow as!

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634

    Great that explains it then... got some folder cleaning to do then. smiley

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    edited May 2017
    Stezza said:

    I have found with my system that having very large files in the Object folder can really slow things up where if you pick one object  to load Carrara is still reading the other very large files in the folder before loading... and then even worse if it's a large file you have selected to load..

     

    so I tend to only keep low size items in the folders frown

    I very very rarely use smart content it's slow as!

    wgdjohn  What if you go to the location where your browser files are saved in their folders, eg the Presets>Objects>ProjectName, and just click on the car file and let it open Carrara for you?  IE, don't open Carrara first, go to the directory and open the project file by just double-clicking it.   Also, do your files take a long time to save?

    Stezza, that is my problem, too.  In fact, if I have a specially named folder I create and add to Objects, eg my NeanderthalsG3Models one... it takes a long time for the file icons to populate in the browser (sort of as slow as Smart Content but not quite). I was able to speed that up by making a subfolder inside of the NeanderthalsG3Models called OldModels for ones I don't really use much, but do not want to relocate so as to mess up texture links. I made it manually in the Objects folder, then clicked add folder in the Carrara browser, and updated the main one. Then I only have the current items front and centre, so that folder populates its icons faster. BUT, also I do as I mentioned to John above, I click on the project file directly in its place in the browser folder, or even for those stored on the external drive and let them open Carrara that way.

    So for the most part, I keep finished figures/scenes over on my external hard drive in their project files.  They, and any other figures V4, G1 and G2 all load happily and 'know' to look for the textures in their proper places in the right Runtime or a special textures folder for that figure elsewhere. I make special texture folders as often I tweak a texture in PS and then, wah,lah, it's updated in the file next time I open the car file if its not already open, or I refresh it when in the Shader Room for an open file I am working on. Am sort of OCD on doing it that way... comes from a long time working with linked files in InDesign and Illustrator.

    Smart Content can be helpful to remind me I actually own something! But it is slow....sometimes I am happy to browse the alphabetical listings under Smart Content, but the naming system makes my head hurt! 

    indecision Silene

    Post edited by SileneUK on
  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    edited May 2017
    SileneUK said:
    Thanks... a long ways to go, but getting there!.  And agree about the realism skin school of thought. It's perfect for those who want it, but I don't and make my own alternative textures. And it was you that pointed the way to weight painting for effects, too! Crazybump makes me a bit lazy, but gets the job done when I want figures to share a certain look.  angel Silene 

     

    Siline, if you use Crazybump a lot, while not free but worth the price, take a look at SpiritIlluminator. It does what Crazybump does but it also lets you paint and edit your own normal maps using a mix of textures. 

    Oh I will be looking at that... thank you!  Hee... hee, just found it's called SpriteIlluminator,  the Spirit spelling got me to a rejected Star Wars concept site wink   Cheers! It looks interesting and will give it the free trial. 

    yes Silene

     

    Post edited by SileneUK on
  • stringtheory9stringtheory9 Posts: 411

    Silene, glad you found it!  The dark side made me do that typo. It's one of their evil marketing schemes. 

  • Steve KSteve K Posts: 3,226
    Steve K said:
    Very interesting, and I heartily agree about Gen4.  I'm trying to attach a couple of images showing my recent renders with Gen4, not sure its working, the "Uploading" never stops and it says "no file chosen".  I dunno ...

    Thanks Steve, hope you can get them uploaded. You might just need to quite and relaunch your browser. 

    Still can't get images attached to comments, it gets to 100% uploaded, then just stalls at "Uploading" and "None Selected" ... ?  So I put a couple in my gallery, "M4 Duke" and "Everybody's Watching Something":

    https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/users/2222

  • wgdjohnwgdjohn Posts: 2,634
    edited May 2017
    SileneUK said:
    Stezza said:

    I have found with my system that having very large files in the Object folder can really slow things up where if you pick one object  to load Carrara is still reading the other very large files in the folder before loading... and then even worse if it's a large file you have selected to load.. so I tend to only keep low size items in the folders frown

    I very very rarely use smart content it's slow as!

    wgdjohn  What if you go to the location where your browser files are saved in their folders, eg the Presets>Objects>ProjectName, and just click on the car file and let it open Carrara for you?  IE, don't open Carrara first, go to the directory and open the project file by just double-clicking it.   Also, do your files take a long time to save?

    Silene,  Earlier I cleaned up the folder of the Gensis files I'd saved but did leave only G2 Base.  I did as you asked and they load quicker than some that gave me some problems an also took up as much as 450+ mb... it's no wonder why the folder took so long to load.  I timed the load for just the base G2 which is now at about 1min 10 sec.  I also tried entire .car files with G2 and + simple object from my "G:Projects/Carrara" folder which load about the same some faster... they vary in size but normally run about 35+- mb when saved as .car.  A wait time of 1+- minutes seems like an eternity to me... "computers should wait on us... Not we on them".

    Save times:  These do take a bit longer but only around 5+- sec... tested on G2 Ninive with a default Assemble room plane included.   Loaded from a saved project file with a pose applied.  I also tested loading  saving V6 from Content/Products aboout same time as above. G2 Gianini takes a bit longer for both load and save... Then Michael 6 load 1min10sec

    Still in Content/Products... tested Gabi for V5, bare, which both loaded/saved load 50sec.  Strange saved it again and took 1min25sec to save. Closed the scene and loaded again in about 27secs and saved in 50secs.  {{{ puzzeled }}}... done testing for the night... I can see why Dart prefers G1 over G2. Still I'll use the latter as well as G3, thanks to Misty... and I suspect help from Wendy of course. laugh

    So what have I learned??: 

    • Most important stay out of Smart Content/Files/(catagories)... this is where I have to wait for each to show all product upon choosing one... and also the load/save times slower... IMO. Note that I have not timed any from there since the load status bar will freeze... that is when I find something else to do until it is done.
    • I allready knew this one...  Do not use Smart Content without quickly choosing something under it... else it will load your entire library
    • Load Figures/Characters and other Content from Smart Content/Products.
    • For an unknown reason, to me, file save sizes are larger for some Figures, whether bare of clothed, when dragging to Objects... this is a No-No.  Save instead to a .car scene file. [edit] I save these to my Carrara\Projects folder which is where I keep everything which I'm working or have worked on. I keep other folders there for all my other programs for easy back-up purposes.

    Please let me know if anything above is wrong.

     Thanks Stezza and Silene for all the help and suggestions.

    Post edited by wgdjohn on
  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    edited May 2017

    wgdjohn  Oh that's interesting about saving scene+character+props in Scenes. So you save them to a category under Scenes not Objects. If that is so, I will have to try that. Although I tend to save scenes to my external hard drive.

     

    I know it was mentioned before, but do you have Carrara's app and files in your trusted app area in your AV software?  It gets relegated to low or low restricted as it's not a 'popular' application, and it seems to have an unknown digital signature (whatever that is). Also put DS on the trusted list, too if it's not as the content is linked to Carrara (DIM and Native Content, too).

     

    My old Dell was quite slow with W7... this Asus, which I got with W7 because I like it...is like greased lightening. I have had problems with my Nvidia Quatro K2200 video card but tweaked the settings and my screen does not seem to blackout any longer which was annoying. Fingers crossed!

     

    FYI,  I am attaching a montage of screenshots from the Smart Content tab. I know you know about Products, but the Default which appears under the time-hungry icon populating Files for displaying categories is also annoying and you do not have to use that one and put up with seeing all the categories displaying their icons. Even if you just click on the sub-category Hair, you get all of your hair products. I was always forgetting to bypass the main Hair and go right to the type of hair I wanted,so now I use the method described next.

     

    If you go the next level down and you will see Categories is a section on its own. So if I go to the exact same catagory, eg Hair, and click on the hair item, and only maybe one or two appear. I then click on the various types under that, eg Articulate, Face, Body, Long, Short etc and only the icons for the sub categories populate.For me this is more manageable IMHO. Occasionally I do want to see all at once uner Files at the top, but if I do, it's off to put the kettle on for a cuppa whilst waiting for all 2000 items in my library to show up!

     

    indecision Silene

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    Post edited by SileneUK on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,125
    edited May 2017

    RE: smart content

    Recently, I have started to use smart content, but it is still rare. 

     

    I install everything with DIM in part because I can use DIM to find where the content is installed.  In DIM, use the search box function in the installed column to find the product, then right click on its row and you can reveal installed files.  It includes the path.  This is especially valuable in identifying texture maps, which don't always load by default in Carrara. 

     

    However, sometimes I can't remember the name of a product (or maybe even what I have), in which case the "Categories" portion of Smart Content might remind me of what I have.  Memory isses, hate getting old.  angry

     

    Silene - absolutely love the image in your signature line.  yesyes

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    Diomede said:

    <snip>

    Memory isses, hate getting old.  angry

     

    Oh yes, Dio, I share your pain....ugh.  crying S

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,144
    SileneUK said:
    Diomede said:

    <snip>

    Memory isses, hate getting old.  angry

     

    Oh yes, Dio, I share your pain....ugh.  crying S

    Err, what were we talking about?

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    PhilW said:
    SileneUK said:
    Diomede said:

    <snip>

    Memory isses, hate getting old.  angry

     

    Oh yes, Dio, I share your pain....ugh.  crying S

    Err, what were we talking about?

    cheeky Silene

  • PhilWPhilW Posts: 5,144

    I only spell Philip with one L...

  • SileneUKSileneUK Posts: 1,970
    PhilW said:

    I only spell Philip with one L...

    angeldevilyes   S

  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,125

    Forget where you put the second L?  wink

    .

     

    .

    PhilW said:

    I only spell Philip with one L...

     

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