Description of DAZ Characters
Is there a base description list of the various DAZ characters somewhere? Like, the Niche they fill, I guess?
like:
Victoria: standard Caucasian woman
Michael: standard Caucasian man
Mei Lin: standard Asian Woman
Girl: Toon? woman?
something along those lines?
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I don't know if there is a single list somewhere but it shouldn't be hard to compile one. There aren't all that many base models and they usually state what they are modeling in the description. But I don't know that I've ever seen it all in one big chart.
It would probably be useful to have. But remember, there are also many morph variants, so for example, I have seen African characters based on Mike and Vicky, and so forth.
The Girl is a toonish character, and the Victoria and Michael default skins are Caucasian but you can get characters for them with skins and morphs that are of different races, Asian, Indian, Black, ect so you aren't stuck with one ethnicity if you get one of them. Victoria has the most characters made for her so you have more choices with her (and Michael for the men). I haven't looked through everything on the site, but if you purchase Mei Lin, or Lee, I think there are only Asian characters for them.
There are some non-Asian characters for Lee -- I think Malevolent Lee does.
Note that the definition of "Character" and "Base Figure" seems to have shifted a bit with Genesis 2. Before Genesis, there were separate base figures; Victoria, Stephanie Petite, Aiko for females, Michael, David, Freak, Hiro for males (plus extras for girl and boy figures). Characters were usually created for one or the other base figures. Genesis had many of the same base figures released as body shapes, so you could still have all your bases, but they were all Genesis.
Genesis 2 seems to be set up differently, there are lots of "Base Figures" — the pre-Genesis collection is only a small part of the whole set. It's confusing.
But are say..African characters for Victoria, or are they for Genesis2?
Is there a distinction really?
If they require the V6 morphs or UVset, I would say they're for V6.
Ok, I used the Compatibility Grid http://www.daz3d.com/compatibility-matrix to determine who the official characters are, and grabbed their descriptions from their product pages, if they gave one.
And I'm wondering if Daz even knows who some of these characters are supposed to be.
Victoria and Michael seem to be "generic guy and girl (white)"
They don't describe "The Girl" or the Freak.
How does Olympia who's "curvy" differe from Lillith who's "Full figure" vs Gia who's a "warrior woman"
Stephanie is "petite"...vs Giselle who's..faelike. (and if Stephanie is petite, then they need a better dress from the pro-bundle pic).
David is young and fun loving...so he differs from Michael how?
I guess Gia and Gianni are replacements for She-Freak and Freak with less pejorative name?
Some of us PAs do morphs for the figures that can be used for various ethnicities. My latest is in my signature and does contain a variety.
Kasper for Lee 6 by Raiya is one Caucasian.
The trick with figures is that you can morph them and texture them. I suppose Generation 6 has so many shapes to ease things for total newbies who want results in a blink of an eye, so instead of custom-dialing a Rubenesque beauty, they just buy and load Olympia. For learning purposes, morphing is very important - otherwise we would end up with generic Vickies and Mikes - but I think there is an incentive for beginners. Say you need a Mongolian soap opera star. If you wanted to have many of them, you need diversity, so you buy Ethnicity. But if you have a deadline approaching, buying Mei Lin is a quicker getaround.
Olympia has a slightly pear-shaped figure, Lilith is more hourglass-shaped, and Gia is more muscular
David, at least in Generations 3 and 5 (there was no David 4 and there is no David 6 as of yet) has been thinner and shorter than Michael, and is often considered younger-looking.
Quoted for emphasis. :)
You can (if you own the right add-on products), for example, take Michael 6 and make him look Asian...but it would be easier to get convincing results if you start with Lee. You can take Lilith and turn her into a thin and petite fairy, but it would be easier to start with Giselle (or Josie or Stephanie). You can even take Genesis 2 Female and turn her into a dude.
If you start with a character who is similar to the person you have in mind, you'll probably save yourself some time and effort (and maybe money, though that depends), and you might get a better final result (that depends, too). But ultimately, it's up to you.
Oh, yes, I remember all those "Ain't No Lady" morphs when Gen2F was a baby, so to speak ;). The similar thing was with Vittorio, a male morph for V4, right?
I quoted and bolded for emphasis, I hope you don't mind. This is a curious thing, because usually, less specialised morph sets turn out to be a better investment, though surely, major shapes like Olympia save your time. I wonder if, say, Ethnics for Gen2F (http://www.daz3d.com/ethnics-for-genesis-2-female-s) isn't a better investment if you want to make non-Caucasian women than Mei Lin. It all depends, but I can always recommend morph resource kits by Thorne :).
Yes, if you want to customize characters, before you start buying the Victorias, Michaels, and other DAZ characters, I'd recommend starting with the morphs bundles, and also strongly consider additional morph sets such as the Morph Resource Kits by Thorne and Handspan Studios.
You can find a chart with links to many popular morph sets here.
Those are some good distinctions, Scott. Thanks
There just seems to be some...drift...in what these products are about, I guess, which makes it a bit..overwhelming? maybe underwhelming..especially for newcomers.
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, one of the major changes was forming a product grid. Home user | Pro User x Laptop | Desktop.
The company rebuilt with that idea...a product fits a purpose.
Just looking at the three women..Olympia is presented as a "curvy warrior"...Lilith is curvy, and Gia is a Warrior....so Olympia just straddles between the two? AIko really seems to have lost her anime roots...is she "vaguley asian game-ish now?)
I know Daz's business model is Content is King, so more is more...but it feels like defining the purpose of each character is.... (Mei Lin and Lee...Asian figure base, Josie/Jayden --Teen figure base. Gia/Gianni - Muscular action/athletic star base)..would be a great boon.
I don't think Gia and Gianni are supposed to replace She-Freak and Freak. They're real world muscular people while Freak and She-Freak are more extreme and stylized characters, kinda like comic book The Hulk.
What really throws me if when I look at a morph bundle like, say, the new 10 Faces of Asia.
http://www.daz3d.com/10-faces-of-asia
On the one hand, it says: Compatible Figures: Genesis 2 Female.
Then it says: Required Product: Mei Lin.
But... if it's compatible with Genesis 2 Female generally, why do I need Mei Lin specifically? Can't I just use it to directly morph the Genesis 2 Female that comes bundled with DAZ3D studio?
Mei Lin is not an independent figure, she's a morph for G2F. So the compatible figure is indeed G2F.
However these faces use the Mei Lin morph as part of their "recipe", so she's required. If you use them without Mei Lin you'll get a totally different result.