Questions about using FaceGen

Mosk the Scribe

I'm thinking about getting FaceGen and was wondering if anyone has any tips about preparing photos ahead of time before bringing them into FaceGen.

For instance, is it worth bringing into photoshop to even out the lighting or to erase/smooth over any lines from squinting before bringing into FaceGen?

Or if the picture was taken with someone smiling instead of a 'neutral' face, is it worth closing the lips - say in Crazy Talk or maybe photoshop with liquefy filter) - or can FaceGen compensate for the smile without much of a problem?

Any other tips would be much appreciated.

It doesn't much matter for my purposes if the faces are close to exact replicas of the originals, but I do need the people to be recognizable.

Thanks.
(I'd also welcome any comments or tips about FaceShop which I have not been able to produce acceptable results from as yet)

WendyLuvsCatz

yeah, you need a full on and if possible side profile unsmiling face
visible teeth are an issue for textures but can be doctored in my case using Gimp
or you just use a Daz texture and Facegen for the geometry if it looks close enough
try the demo version first, it is fully functionable with the insignia on the forehead texture and mesh
you do not need to open Daz studio either after exporting a morph, they appear straight away in the parameters of the next loaded Genesis in Carrara
they use V4's uv's btw
so for Carrara you are prob better off not loading Genesis male or M5 just using their morphs if you use choose to use the textures
I use Jepe's V4 male texture with them for bump etc if I do but mostly just use the facegen morphs only on Genesis male and M5 and male textures that resemble the person instead of the Facegen ones.
Daz studio has the advantage of choosing different uv's for face to the rest of the body that Carrara has not.

Mosk the Scribe

Thanks for the info Wendy.

For clarity, I'm only looking at the FaceGen Exporter ($99 instead of the FaceGen Modeler which is $299), and it looks like my only option there is to bring it back into DAZ 4 on the Genesis figure. And just for some background, my general workflow is to create animations inside DAZ Studio/Animate2 and save as AniBlocks which I then bring into Carrara 8 Pro (now trying the 8.5 beta) to texture and render out after building the background scene.

Now to your reply -
You mentioned that visible teeth can be an issue - does that mess up the geometry at all (the lips being open in the initial source photo) - because if so, it would seem I'd need to close the photo's mouth Before bringing it into FaceGen, which could obviously lead to distortion problems elsewhere.

As for 'they use V4's uv's' - do you mean Genesis uses V4's Uv's by default inside of Carrara (as opposed to some newly created Genesis UV) or do you mean FaceGen Modeller or Exporter's .fg file assumes a v4 UV?

I just added one of my FaceGen face morphs inside of carrara and then applied the same textures I'd used in DAZ studio - and things are now off - with the lips and nose no longer being properly textured.

Is there a genesis UV?
And can I force Carrara to use that instead of the V4 UV if that's what it uses by default?

Or is there some other way to bring the FaceGen face (provided by FaceGen Exporter) into Carrara and have textures line up right?

Thanks for any help. This part is all new to me.

WendyLuvsCatz

the teeth should not affect geometry, just texture
the default uv's for Genesis ARE V4's
if you use Genesis male, it will not line up.
I only have the $99 exporter with the free facegen
play with the demo a lot first to see if you are happy.


I did not say this, shhh smooth brush in vertex room, colour picker in 3D paint room
(I bought it though anyway!!!!)

Mosk the Scribe

Wendy -

Thanks for walking me through this - 47 more steps and I'll be there (just kidding, I hope)

As per the FaceGen instructions, I simply loaded the default genesis figure in daz, set the Mesh Resolution to 0, then exported a .obj - so I'd never set the Genesis figure to male or female.

After making a face in FaceGen and sending through exporter, it shows up in DAZ under the genesis figure>Actor>Head>Universal>FaceGen as a morph that can be applied - and when I add the textures that FaceGen generated, the lips and everything else match up well on the model (and remain correctly applied regardless of other morphs - male -female ) I add later.

In carrara, the lip texture is notably off (up above the model's lips) and the nose looks a bit off as well, and I can't get it in place with any changes to other Genesis morphs (male, female)

Hopefully I'm just missing some simple step early on.
Do I need to set Genesis to Female 100% Before exporting for FaceGen?

Sorry if I'm being dense and thanks for the help.

WendyLuvsCatz

nothing that complicated just load female genesis instead of the neutral one and zero her morphs

Mosk the Scribe

Ah . . .

Working much better now - thanks for those images.

My basic male and basic female for genesis aren't showing up under my smart content (though the basic child and regular genesis figures are) - but I found it under MyLibrary in regular content and the textures now match up correctly.

As for your other tip - the 3d paint did let me at least color in the lips - and I guess that would provide a viable workaround, since I could then bring it into Photoshop to texture that area and clone stamp over the misplaced lips.

Off to play with FaceGen for a while and see if I can produce the kinds of models/faces I need.

Thanks again for your help.

WendyLuvsCatz

ironic, the basic child uv elludes me in Carrara!
so my RawArt Greboid texture cannot be used on Genesis in Carrara for example, can get the morph via V4 using GenX
otherwise I just use V4 textures on kids. Genesis baby uses them.
not a big issue.

Mosk the Scribe

Hopefully Wendy or someone else can help me out with this -

As Wendy described earlier in this thread, I need to use the Genesis basic female to get the textures to line up properly when using a face morph from FaceGen.

So, is there any way to add a male texture to the Genesis character and have it work inside Carrara when using a facegen face?

Does Carrara use the female/v4 uv mesh by default inside of Carrara?
And if so, is it possible to switch this to the male/m4 UV for a given character?

Also, would the Texture Converter 2 (currently on sale for P off) provide a workaround (assuming one purchased the V4 and M4 addons - plus the generation 3 addons if wanted to add those textures). My hope is that all the textures could be converted to work with the v4 UV (D3, M3, M4) and thus allow for easy use of those without any fiddling. Anyone know if that would work?

Thanks for any help or explanations.
Also - where does one choose which UV to use within DAZ Studio 4.5 and in Carrara 8.5 beta?

Thanks

ReDave

Can't answer the Carrara questions, but in DS select Genesis on the scene tab (or in the viewport as long as you have a bone manipulation tool selected), then go to the Surfaces tab and click on the "Genesis" label (under "All" and "Currently Used"); scroll down to UV Set and select the UV you would like to use.
I don't think you can use the female UV for the face along with male UV for the rest of the body (or rather you can, but you'll get a visible seam).
Texture Converter should work, of course, but Carrara should be able to do it too sooner or later as long as you have the various shapes for Genesis.