Character Creation Help?

DarthD

I have searched and not been able to find any tutorials on character creation. The only responses I see to others who have asked about this is 'there is no way to do a tutorial from start to finish on creating a character' and various reasons given or 'no one has the time to create a tutorial like this'.

So, even though I an new to this, I would like to tackle the task of creating an all in one tutorial. I have very little information so far so I thought I would start by asking for help, step by step.

I have photos from 3d.sk available for the skin. I have some experience with Photoshop and I am using Photoshop 7. I don't have an issue with using GIMP either.

Can someone point me to a good tutorial or tell me what I need to do to create a skin for Genesis using these high rez pics? Once I am comfortable with this I will move on the the next step.
Thank you

ReDave

There used to be a much recommended tutorial by RebelMommy. Its link was this one I think: http://www.daz3d.com/i/tutorial/tutorial?id=2123&_m=d
I do not know where DAZ3D put the old tutorials since the new site move, though, or if there is a simple trick to access them. The gist of it is to clone the least distorted part of the reference photos and blur the transitions. Use as many layers as necessary to minimise redoing things due to errors.
You basically need a tutorial for V4 or M4, if you can find any you're good to go.

DarthD

Wish that link still worked.

Kerya

http://poser.smithmicro.com/tutorials/textures.html
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/tutorial/index.php?tutorial_id=2091&page=1
http://keepwaiting.deviantart.com/art/Skin-Texture-Photoshop-Brushes-118364120

creativemodelsbe

go and learn from digitaltutors, i found this great tutorial palace here at the forum. you can google
you not find any help here about character creation trust me.
it is sad. :-/

DarthD

Thanks for the links they should be helpful.
Where can I find the UV template for Genesis?

Richard Haseltine

DarthD said:

Thanks for the links they should be helpful.
Where can I find the UV template for Genesis?

Which? Genesis uses the fourth generation figure mappings (V4, M4 and K4) by default, but most character expansions have their own mappings (for which Snow Sultan has created templates I think).

DarthD

I didn't realize that V5, Stephanie 5 etc.. all had their own UV. I thought they all used the base Genesis UV. If I create a character morph first, is there a way to export the UV map for my new character?

Richard Haseltine

Morphs and UVs are separate issues - changing the mesh doesn't automatically change the UVs, though if the change is radical enough remapping may be desirable to avoid stretching. For the most part people will create their morph, and create a texture using whichever of the common mappings seems to give the best fit.

DarthD

I found the Stephanie 5 template but Victoria 5 is a broken link. So, if I base my character on Stephanie 5, but alter her shape, I should still use the Stephanie 5 UV template?

Once I have the skin texture template complete, what do I do next? How to I combine the texture and the morphs into a complete character?

Richard Haseltine

Makes ure the textures are in a content path - \Runtime\Textures\some folder, ideally in a content directory that holds nothing else.
If you are using a custom morph (not settings for pre-existing morphs) save it as a morph asset (File>Save as>Support Asset>Morph Asset), ideally in the same otherwise-empty content directory as the textures.
Apply the textures and morphs, then save as a Character preset (File>Save as>Character Preset) to the \People\Genesis\Character folder in the content directory.

Now you should have all the files needed to rebuild the character in the one content directory, with nothing else there, so zip them up for archiving, sharing or submission to a store (in the latter two cases make sure you add a readme first).

DarthD

Thanx Richard. Now I need to get to work on this and see what I can come up with.