Favorite characters, hair, etc?
WsCG
Posts: 391
Hi all,
I'm looking to build up a collection of assets to use exclusively in Carrara. I already have a pretty sizable library for DAZ Studio, but most of it won't work in Carrara.
So, I'd like to create a similar library specifically for C3D.
I've browsed through the shop a lot and, frankly, there's so much that I feel a bit paralyzed by choice. Not a *bad* conundrum, really, but one nonetheless.
I'd like some suggestions for figures/accessories/hair, people have found the easiest to work with, have produced the most favorable results for them, etc.
Could be Victoria 4. Could be Genesis 2, etc. I'm interested in flexibility and availability of props, accessories, hair, clothing, etc.
I'm not aiming for photo-realism, so that's not a concern, though not a "bad thing", either.
Thanks so much!
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Comments
actually most stuff works in Carrara just some not as well and others like Genesis 8 need fixing either manually in a text editor or using a solution from Misty on Renderosity
I like k4
most of this is good
I am still in the early stages on these articles, but here's some help topics I've started for this whole adventure of what you're doing (more in the works as we speak):
Character Setup
Using Genesis in Carrara
And more regarding content:
Daz 3D Content
You might also want to check out Carrara Plugins as many of them are free now
There's a lot more in there, have a look around ;)
In particular, your original question got me to thinking about one that I just wrote, Genesis 1 Rocks!!!
That article gets the gist across, but there are more coming that get deeper into details.
Just took a quick scan through that article and, yeah, there's definitely a lot going on there!
A benefit I have is that what I'm looking for is versatility over realism, and Genesis 1 seems to really fit that bill. There's a lot of characters of different races that I need to create, and the potential o morph Genesis to fit those needs is very encouraging. I'll have to take a dive down that rabbit hole and see what else I can find.
Thanks!
And thanks to everyone for their replies and suggestions so far. Plenty to look into as I go.
@Dartanbeck (or anyone else for that matter :p)
I'm looking at and queueing up some of the products you recommend on the "Genesis Rocks" article, but I have a question about the Gen3 and Gen4 options.
If I understand correctly, they basically allow you to use clothing and such otherwise only available to later generation figures? Looks like you can also alter the characters based on those later generations' features.
Does this overwrite the options available with the base Genesis figure? Or do they complement? Is it a matter of "you're using one or another, but not all at once"? I understand it as "you can mix and match them - probably via sliders", but I want to be 100% sure. The different generations and figures within each is still a bit of a rabbit hole that I haven't explored very far, yet.
Just want to understand how they'd fit into a workflow before I purchase them.
Thanks!
I enjoy doing short animations using Gen4 characters, M4, V4, K4, F4. I have favorite clothes and hair, one in particular is Mature Mark for M4 and K4. It allows showing a link between father and son, the former with a little gray (included in the product).. Here's a two minute example, "Jest "Fore Christmas".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdRdpdaiyKk
Cute vid!
I was sure he was going to faceplant on that boulder at the beginning, though. Looked close.
I like using LoRenzo & LoRetta by Predatron and all the other LoRez figures
Welcome TwoCats.
Personally, when I use Daz figures, I tend to use Genesis 2 Female and Genesis 2 Male. In addition to G2's own shapes, I own the legacy character morphs to use the earlier figures' shapes on the G2F and G2M. I find it easy to use Daz Studio's transfer utility to convert and save earlier content for use with Genesis 2. So, for me, it is easy to use my huge collection of Daz store legacy content for Victoria 4, Michael 4, Genesis, and Genesis 2 on a genesis 2 figure. Even if I wanted my final image to look like Victoria 4 in the Victoria 4 Morphing Fantasy Dress, I would probably use the Genesis 2 female with the V4 shape morph and the V4 MFD converted for use with G2F.
Eventually, you may want to customize even more. When and if you do, here is an example of a walk through for creating a custom dynamic hair style on a hair cap. The result can be used on any figure by parenting the cap to the head.
The first post of several for the Walk-through starts here - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1732386/#Comment_1732386
The finished hair style looked like
Okay, here are some clarifications:
Gen 3 Iconic Shapes - adds
Gen 4 Iconic Shapes - adds
* Genesis Generation X2 (GenX2) adds the ability to add any morphs in your Generation 4 collection to Genesis - and, yes: without removing or changing any of the other Genesis morphs you may have. All morphs added to Genesis may be used to tweak Genesis. That said, Generation 3 addons to GenX2 will add that same functionality to your Gen3 collection - you can add any morph from Gen3 (that you have) to Genesis. Genesis 2 addon adds this functionality for Genesis 2 Female AND Male - allowing you to add any morphs you have for Genesis 2 (M or F) to Genesis. The Genesis 3 addon does the same for Genesis 3 M or F to Genesis. It's a simple-to-use workspace that gets added to Daz Studio which doesn't require any figure to be loaded - simply select the Target figure (Genesis 2 and 3 addons can also be used to add morphs to Genesis 2 and 3 respectively) and then the source figure, then pick morphs from the source figure to add to the Target figure. For Generation 3 and 4 figures, we first load the source figure with morphs, then select them to add to the Target. I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you need further clarification on any of this.
Out of the box, Genesis supports all Generation 5 characters (Genesis 1 = Generation 5) and all textures from Generation 4. I haven't tried using Generation 3, 6, 7 or 8 textures on Genesis 1. I don't need to since my Generation 4 and 5 collection is really quite nice!
Example using GenX2
I really like the Genesis 2, 3 and 8 shapes. I have a good collection of Genesis 2 shapes, so I use that.
I added Gia 6 body, Aiko 6 body and Keiko 6 body to Genesis. Gia 6 body 100%, Aiko and Keiko are combined to further the shape.
While I was in Genesis 2 Female, I also added all of the expression morphs and the Poke-Away morphs along with some more morphs that I thought might help with animating facial and body expression.
I have a huge selection of V4 morphs, so I added some of the "Living" style morphs from Shapes++ and a whole slew of expressions, including stuff from Girl 4, Reby 4, Stephanie Petite 4, etc.,
With all of these extra morphs added to Genesis, I had a LOT of dials on the figure, so I used my Genesis Morph Reduction technique before I loade Genesis into Carrara, so that my final save of Rosie 5 would be more optimized to what I need - and not too much more than that. Works Great (for me)!!!
In watching my Introducing Rosie 5 video over again, I think that Gia 6, Aiko 6 and Keiko 6 combined make for a pretty sexy little Genesis figure. The head and face took a bit more tweaking, and is a more advanced topic since I actually manipulated the mesh in Carrara to get that head shape to work with mouth animations. Although it's a more advanced topic (basically too much to type here right now) it was actually easy and fun to do - and was well worth the little added effort.
I'd like to add to Diomede's post above.
First of all, I absolutely love the thread he's linking to - especially starting from the beginning: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/119181/no-one-asked-me-diomede-posts-screenshots-on-whatever/p1
(he even start right off helping us sort out Genesis' shaders!!!)
Second - I, too loved using Genesis 2. The main reason I switched to Genesis 1 was for further compatibility and ease-of-use. I doubt if I'd have done that if it wasn't for GenX2, however, since I like the Genesis 2 shapes so much more.
Here's the thing with Genesis 2 and Carrara. Auto-fit for Genesis 2 was never completed for Carrara. It's not officially supported. What this means to me is that I cannot auto-fit from Genesis to Genesis 2, nor do my Gen3 and Gen4 Iconic morphs for Genesis work with the Genesis 2 Auto-fit in Carrara. Well... they're for Genesis, so why should they, right?
There are work-arounds as we'll discover in Diomede's awesome thread - that thread contains a wealth of awesome info and is worth repeated visits!
The final topping on the cake with my choosing Genesis 1 over Genesis 2 (again, this is only me we're talking about here) is that I already had an extensive collection of animation files (aniBlocks and animated Poser PZ2) for Generation 4 figures, which seem to translate onto Genesis better than they do onto Genesis 2, in my opinion. That said, it was also my extensive collection of Generation 4 clothing, hair and other stuff that works well with Genesis 1 that helped me decide.
Okay, after all of that I have to confess that I do still buy stuff for Genesis 2 and now 3 as well. I bought SickleYield's awesome clone kits from those to Genesis 1, so now I'm using Daz Studio to also convert clothing from Genesis 2 and 3 to Genesis 1. In that endeavor, I currently feel that my Generation 3 and 4 clothing still tend to work better than those I've converted from Genesis 2 or 3 - but I'm still trying.
There's also Misty's awesome work on getting Genesis 3 and 8 compatibility in Carrara as well!
I also love the LoRez figures by Predatron! They lack a lot of detail for a main, emotive character for what I'm doing, but I still like to use them along with my main characters - or even sometimes on thier own, even leading a mission!!!
These are all LoRez Masked Superhero figures turned Space Crew except for Predatron Droid, who is also an amazing Carrara-friendly figure!!!
Rosie 4 and Dartanbeck 4 were based on V4 and M4 respectively, and are also very emotive, detailed and very Carrara-friendly - probably the most Carrara-friendly figures I've even used so far!
For creatures and vehicles and such, even environmental props, while I still like to buy some of the new stuff, I often like to leave the default "Newest First" filter on, and start from the back. For the longest time I would only buy things that also come with a Poser version, because that often means that it'll work well in Carrara, but not always.
Certain artists seem to have a knack for making things that tend to work well in Carrara - and you'll get to know your favorites. I just recently bought TheAntFarm's new Sci Fi Hub (DUF-only), and it works beautifully!
Here we have TheAntFarm's B.A.W. vehicle with Daz 3D's Xerr (Dino Raul?) with the new Dartanbeck 5 and the previous Rosie 5 with Etaiji Pass in my (now free) Carrara EnvironKit - Badlands
Yeah, that did happen on the first take or two. So it'll be on the outtake reel ...
P. S. My favorite outtakes ever, especially at 2:55):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtXpQwlIBLY
Hi TwoCats,
For almost all of the same reasons cited by Dart, I'm a Genesis1 user as well. I also use the DAZ Studio 'plugin' to massage my various generational figures into shapes that I can use via Genesis1 in Carrara and elsewhere.
I'll have to go look at my current characters to ID my favorite hairs. I use VWD a lot for dynamics, so that has a lot to do with how I choose the hairs that I like. The mesh affects the simulation, so the way the hair is built matters as much as the look.
I also do a lot of cloth conforming and fitting in the DS 'plugin' as save it to 'duf' files to import into Carrara.
I use a lot of alternate figure UVs for Genesis 1, but haven't pulled those into Carrara yet, so I'm may need Dart's material tutorials soon as well.
I'm pretty happy with the V4/M4 morphs I've GenX2-d onto Genesis1, as well as almost all of the native Genesis1 morph-sets and iconic shapes, so I haven't found the need to down-covert many morphs from the newer figures, although with my preferred anime feel, the hiro6, aiko6, and keiko6 w/ derivatives, I may convert those for some nice blending options. Too many options...
2c,
--ms
I've been having some wonderful success with VWD so far - and I still haven't read the manual since it first came out. I need to force some time to do that - there's a lot in there that I'm utterly clueless about. The new Assistants in V2 make it really easy to get great results!
Well, except that I didn't know what I was doing when I tried hair! LOL I'll read that manual and figure it out!
Almost done, my friends. Sorry for such a delay
heh - I'm hardly one to pressure good folks who are as generous as thou! I look forward to the results tho', but there's certainly no rush!
and your new site is looking grand!
best to you,
--ms
Thanks!
I'm still messing with the new format I'm using for video tutorials/demonstrations and editing it all - not to mention recording it all. The new video should be done very soon, and it pertains to this stuff, but a more aggressive texturing tutorial will come later.
It's live
Support page and scene file download here