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Help! Writer Needs Aliens!!

DannisWritesDannisWrites Posts: 51
in Product Suggestions

I'm a science fiction writer. Most of my book covers are unfinished because of my basic problem. I can't figure out how to get my custom hands/feet on a model. Any model.

I've tried Dariofish's wonderful HFS products. He doesn't include a two-fingered morph or thumbless morph.

I tried modifying David 8 with the correct body shape for my Zheien race. The HFS version shows what I got with David 8. Here's my Zheien hands/feet model. It should be tapered on both fingers, but that's the last version I did before I got sick. I'm disabled. Every time I get sick, I have to start over with the Blender tutorials. At this rate I will be dead before I get a Zheien model. Dariofish, could you add morphs to HFS for two fingers, thumbless, heelless, and smooth joints? My Zheien has silicone-based bones that bend slightly. He doesn't have elbows, wrists, or finger joints though the four-fingered bone structure is there for posing. I also need a flattening morph for fingers/toes and a rectangular option for soft corners. Zheien don't have fingernails. They have tiny claws in the corners. So I need a fingernail-less morph also.

Or, could someone simply taper my other finger/toe and attach the hands/feet to a David 8? Or show me how so I can do book covers with my Zheien fella? My entire book series is waiting for covers, so I simply have a landscape for all my books with the title. I've been trying to model a Zheien since 2009 without success. I'm so close!! I have tried to do postwork and give my Zheien the right hands, but it just looks cartoonish, like all my drawings/paintings. I started out with Poser and am switching over to DAZ because the Genesis 8 models look great, and because I can use Dreamlight's lighting sets. Things are coming together more and more for me.

All I need is a Zheien so I can get these book covers done. Help!!

 

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Comments

  • DannisWritesDannisWrites Posts: 51

    Here is my 2015 version, which is better but still needs tapered ends on both fingers. Pictures show how far this model is from how it needs to function. Finally found these files after Windows 10 lost 'em again. Thank goodness for backups :D

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    Zheien Right Hand 3 Wrist Side.png
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    Zheien Right Hand 3 Thumb Side - Copy.png
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    Zheien Right Hand 3 colorless - Copy.png
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  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,870

    There's an alien at Renderosity for G3M that has two fingers and a thumb, but I've no idea how it's put together: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/varginha-alien-for-genesis-3-male/115731/

    Also, what on earth is David 8? The last David that Daz did was for original flavor Genesis, David 5.

    The HFS Genesis 8 shapes do have three-fingered morphs, looks like. It might be possible to simply turn off the thumb or finger you don't want with the eyeball in the Scene tab, and then to do some postwork to clean up that gap.

    As far as I can tell, Dariofish doesn't seem to participate in the Daz Forums, so he's not likely to see your message.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 9,885

    From your description, I'm not sure any morph would be sufficient. It seems like what you need is entirely new figures, geografted to the hands and feet.

  • mmitchell_houstonmmitchell_houston Posts: 2,472
    DanniStories said:

    I'm a science fiction writer. Most of my book covers are unfinished because of my basic problem. I can't figure out how to get my custom hands/feet on a model. Any model.

    I've tried Dariofish's wonderful HFS products. He doesn't include a two-fingered morph or thumbless morph.

    I tried modifying David 8 with the correct body shape for my Zheien race. The HFS version shows what I got with David 8. Here's my Zheien hands/feet model. It should be tapered on both fingers, but that's the last version I did before I got sick. I'm disabled. Every time I get sick, I have to start over with the Blender tutorials. At this rate I will be dead before I get a Zheien model. Dariofish, could you add morphs to HFS for two fingers, thumbless, heelless, and smooth joints? My Zheien has silicone-based bones that bend slightly. He doesn't have elbows, wrists, or finger joints though the four-fingered bone structure is there for posing. I also need a flattening morph for fingers/toes and a rectangular option for soft corners. Zheien don't have fingernails. They have tiny claws in the corners. So I need a fingernail-less morph also.

    Or, could someone simply taper my other finger/toe and attach the hands/feet to a David 8? Or show me how so I can do book covers with my Zheien fella? My entire book series is waiting for covers, so I simply have a landscape for all my books with the title. I've been trying to model a Zheien since 2009 without success. I'm so close!! I have tried to do postwork and give my Zheien the right hands, but it just looks cartoonish, like all my drawings/paintings. I started out with Poser and am switching over to DAZ because the Genesis 8 models look great, and because I can use Dreamlight's lighting sets. Things are coming together more and more for me.

    All I need is a Zheien so I can get these book covers done. Help!!

    Did you ever resolve this?

    And, by the way, for the hands, did you ever consider just hiding the digits in question? Yes, that would leave a hole there, but you could either:

    • Clean it up in Photoshop later
    • Make a small, flesh-colored sphere and place it in the holes to plug them up. Yes, you would probably get a seam, but that would be very easy to clean up in Photoshop.

    Or you could hire someone to modify the base figure geometry so that, in effect, you have a custom figure. Probably would cost more than $200 or so.

  • OdaaOdaa Posts: 1,548
    DanniStories said:

    I'm a science fiction writer. Most of my book covers are unfinished because of my basic problem. I can't figure out how to get my custom hands/feet on a model. Any model.

    I've tried Dariofish's wonderful HFS products. He doesn't include a two-fingered morph or thumbless morph.

    I tried modifying David 8 with the correct body shape for my Zheien race. The HFS version shows what I got with David 8. Here's my Zheien hands/feet model. It should be tapered on both fingers, but that's the last version I did before I got sick. I'm disabled. Every time I get sick, I have to start over with the Blender tutorials. At this rate I will be dead before I get a Zheien model. Dariofish, could you add morphs to HFS for two fingers, thumbless, heelless, and smooth joints? My Zheien has silicone-based bones that bend slightly. He doesn't have elbows, wrists, or finger joints though the four-fingered bone structure is there for posing. I also need a flattening morph for fingers/toes and a rectangular option for soft corners. Zheien don't have fingernails. They have tiny claws in the corners. So I need a fingernail-less morph also.

    Or, could someone simply taper my other finger/toe and attach the hands/feet to a David 8? Or show me how so I can do book covers with my Zheien fella? My entire book series is waiting for covers, so I simply have a landscape for all my books with the title. I've been trying to model a Zheien since 2009 without success. I'm so close!! I have tried to do postwork and give my Zheien the right hands, but it just looks cartoonish, like all my drawings/paintings. I started out with Poser and am switching over to DAZ because the Genesis 8 models look great, and because I can use Dreamlight's lighting sets. Things are coming together more and more for me.

    All I need is a Zheien so I can get these book covers done. Help!!

     

    Remember that the amazon thumbnail is the first thing anyone will see of your cover, and the second thing is a mid-sized version of the cover art on the amazon sale page. Full length image of characters, human or alien, doing complicated stuff are not ideal in that format, especially since you need to leave room for the title, your name etc. My advice would be to do a shoulders-up portrait of your Zheien (maybe with a major human character for contrast), with whatever science fictional background image you had in mind, and let the alienness of the face do the work for you. The Michael Whelan-esque Alien Biology Special Edition can wait until the technology or your modeling skills have caught up, or until your books become bestsellers and you can afford to commission the work done.

     

  • DannisWritesDannisWrites Posts: 51

    Thanks all for your comments!

    To vwrangler:  The 3rd finger is the thumb. My workaround is to dial the thumb joints down to almost 0 or 0.  Yep, postwork can take care of that. David 8 is available here - https://www.daz3d.com/david-for-genesis-8-male

    To Gordig: Maybe you're right, morphs won't do this

    To mmitchell_houston, true, I can get in GIMP [poor man's Photoshop] and do postwork.

    However, Odaa has the best idea! True, that twin-fingered hand is not going to show in the thumbnail anyway, and since the characters have different skin colors than we do for the most part, [when they're sick, they look a bit Hispanic or grayish if it's really bad] I can probably get by just not showing the hands or feet.

    Thanks for the suggestion that I contact Dariofish via DeviantArt, but my account is messed up and I have not had any luck getting on there. I can look, even download, but can't log into my account.

    I guess I'll just hope that some PA will do a hands/feet package someday and include a flattening/rectangular morph. In the meantime, I'll just get busy with what I have. Maybe someday I'll get my skills there and if I do, I'll put it out there for all to enjoy :)

    Again, thanks very much for all of your suggestions!

     

     

     

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