BEST human skeleton for Daz Studio

udgang99

I'm looking for the best possible human skeleton to Daz Studio...

I already have the M4 and V4 skeletons, but I don't think they are accurate enough and in high enough resolution.

Can anyone help me?

JimmyC_2009

There is this too : http://www.daz3d.com/skeleton

Turbosquid have them at $349 as well.

I already have the M4 and V4 skeletons, but I don’t think they are accurate enough and in high enough resolution.

What accuracy and resolution do you need, and what software are you going to us it in?

EDIT:

There are these as well from Zygote http://www.3dscience.com/3D_Models/Human_Anatomy/Collections/Male_Collection.php if you have a spare $13,000.

I had a look at the textures for M4 and V4, and they are around 4000 x 4000 for most of them. That would seem to be reasonable resolution.

udgang99

Well, I'm looking for a skeleton that has more smooth curves (see image of the pelvis) ... and as I mentioned, it's for DazStudio.

Stezza

I have the P4 skeleton but I use carrara and I just apply smoothing.. doesn't DS have this?

Barubary

I doubt you'll find much better skeletons than the V4 / M4 ones at a reasonable price point.

Which does remind me that, should DAZ ever get around to making muscle morphs for Genesis 2, a new anatomy pack might be nice afterwards.

sriesch

In DAZ Studio, to apply smoothing select the object, then from the menu choose Edit > Object > Geometry > "Convert to Subd". Then the Parameters pane, select the object then if desired you can adjust General > Mesh Resolution > "SubDivision Level" slider more or less.

I have the V3 and M3 versions and don't know if this also happened for the generation 4 versions, but if your model has no material and you downloaded your copy a very long time ago, you might also want to try re-downloading it. It seems either the product was broken then fixed, or an new material was added at some point.

wiz

Sean covered the first part of how to get the skeleton to look good, perfectly. It totally needs sub-d. So does the one With sub-d on and Exact same procedure works for hair, too. About half the hair in the store is not initially set up for sub-d, even products labeled for Genesis 2.

Yes, there are a few $10,000+ skeletons of amazing quality, DAZ, Argosys, etc. We won't go there.

The V4/M4 skeleton is 37,000 polygons. The CGSHAPE TurboSquid skeleton is a bit higher at 54,000 polygons. You'll probably notice an improvement, but it won't be earthshattering. I can't comment on the rigging, or whether or not the texture, bump, or displacement maps are any good. Which brings me to...

If you want to make the DAZ skeleton look good, you have to sit down with PhotoShop for an hour or two and work on the maps, because out of the box, they are utterly horrible. There's only texture and bump maps, no displacement.

The texture maps have annoying "backed in" light from a large front, slightly high source, so any other angle you light them from, there are incorrect shadows in all the joints and all over the skull, especially at the sides. Darken the weird light areas at the orbits and several other places, make it all in all a lot more uniform.

The bump maps are simply B&W conversions of the texture maps. Darken and lighten the striations on the arms, legs, and ribs, and gray everything else out. The skull needs work. Smooth most of it out. Darken the suturs (the "squiggly lines", and feather it out so there will be some curve going into them when you render. Same with the notches and the foremen (the little pits on the orbits and jaw).

Try using the cleaned-up bump maps as displacement maps instead of bump maps. The render engine handles displacement more realistically than bump.

Good luck.

Can you tell us any more about what you're doing?

udgang99

Sean Riesch said:

In DAZ Studio, to apply smoothing select the object, then from the menu choose Edit > Object > Geometry > "Convert to Subd". Then the Parameters pane, select the object then if desired you can adjust General > Mesh Resolution > "SubDivision Level" slider more or less.

HEY! That worked! Well, it made it a whole lot better, anyway! Thanks...

I'll also take it through PS, and see if I can make it better looking there.

It's for a comic I'm making. ;-)

bad4u

*** Post maybe obsolete. Read Edit 2 note ***

For the skeleton textures I'd recommend getting the additional 'Victoria and Michael Skeleton Textures' . I found the original textures quite disappointing. Unfortunately the add-on set has been vaulted from the store, but you still find them in few bundles, some currently on great sale prices. The textures have two additional sets, one is a better quality 'default' one, the other a darker grunge one. I'll add the image from product library that shows both.

You'll find them e.g. in this bundle, they are listed under what's included:
www.daz3d.com/haunt-starter-bundle

They should come with this cheaper bundle too, though it does not list them anymore:
www.daz3d.com/skeleton-dungeon

My product library still lists them as part of this cheap bundle and the promo images on item page show them, too. You maybe could try that one and get a refund if they aren't in there e.g. to get the larger bundle.

Still doesn't make sense DAZ kicked them off the store as separate items. Hope they revise their decision some day.

Edit: I think the promo images of Michael and Victoria 4 Skeleton unfortunately show the add-on textures, though not being in the original product. I remember some confusion and dissappointment about that on forums long ago.

Edit 2: As it is stated below the textures might be now included with the original skeletons, so I removed the links to the bundles. Take care you don't buy twice if you already should have them or get them through recent download for M4/V4 skeletons (didn't verify that myself).

wiz

bad4u said:

For the skeleton textures I'd recommend getting the additional 'Victoria and Michael Skeleton Textures' . I found the original textures quite disappointing. Unfortunately the add-on set has been vaulted from the store, but you still find them in few bundles, some currently on great sale prices.

[chomp]

Still doesn't make sense DAZ kicked them off the store as separate items. Hope they revise their decision some day.

Edit: I think the promo images of Michael and Victoria 4 Skeleton unfortunately show the add-on textures, though not being in the original product. I remember some confusion and dissappointment about that on forums long ago.

This is no longer the case. I got the "Skeleton dungeon" bundle last year or the year before, specifically to get the good maps. But when I wanted to see the default maps and optional maps to answer Sean, I did a fresh download of
IM00008962-01_Victoria4Skeleton.zio
IM00003334-01_VictoriaMichaelSkeletonTextures.zip

The texture maps are identical, all created April 28, 2005. So, the "good" maps now appear to come with the gen 4 skeletons by default (at least V4. I didn't check M4). Which explains why 3334 has disappeared from the store. Heck, it may have been obsolete when i bought it. I never checked what was actually in my original M4/V4 skeletons.

bad4u

If that's the case it makes sense they disappeared from store, still DAZ could have made a note on product page about the update then. I know the better textures didn't come with skeletons before, as I remember being disappointed myself when I did a first test and those were far from what was in the promos, so I got the additional textures later with a bundle. Didn't use the skeletons for long time now, so I can't say if they have been updated later to include them.

I'll update my previous post to reflect that.