Semi-realistic cats: Experiences with "Zeus" and "Mars"?
Ryselle-Ryssa
Posts: 146
Hi!
Has anyone worked with one of those models? I am searching for a cat that is a bit more cartoonic and expressive then the DAZ housecat for a Sailor Moon related story (for those who don't know: The series has two magical talking cats).
I found the above mentioned, one at Renderosity, one at Renderhub. Does anybody know if they are worth the price, have more possible expressions and how easy it would be to change the fur color?
Best wishes
Ryselle
Comments
do you want to have the cat actually talking in a video?
if so that is not easy with any of them now including the DAZ housecat
not impossible but a lot of fluffing around in notepad and DAZ 43bit
I think the HW3D Housecat has a mimic configuration file but the others due to how dual quaternion works don't have separate head only morphs which the DAZ mimic based lipsync needs
all morphs are under the actor
I can only make them talk in Carrara with Carrara mimic that ignores that
Mars and Zeus ( who is Mars but was sold at DAZ) are very expressive
Wow, I had no idea Zeus is at Renderhub now. Now I'm wondering if the kitten there will work with the DAZ version of Zeus.
I have both Zeus (DAZ version) and Mars, and all their add-ons except that Renderhub kitten. I love them, and think they're definitely worth the money. For changing the color, the easiest way is to buy an add-on pack. Admittedly, I don't know enough about strand based hair to do it myself.
The kitten does work with the DAZ version - quick test render (poses from DAZ Zeus)
Thank you for the detailed answer :D
No, I only make stills ^^ Animation is far beyond my scope ;-)
The goal is "just" to have a cat that can do... well... humanized impressions, but still is a full cat.
Strand based hair? Look at my Hair Strand based hair, hard coded strand based hair or the DAZ-native strand based hair? with the latter I can work :)
Is there a point in owning both or them or has one of them a morph to change the shape a little bit?
I came quiete along with the Sailor Warriors, but whoever knews the anime knews: You need Artemis and Luna (the magic cats) to complete it ;-)
Update: I made some experiments with Zeus (retexturing, posing) and the only thing that I have a slight problem with is the lack of some "human" emotions like surprise and worry, but perhaps I will find a workaround ^^
Cool! Thanks for checking!
I've never shopped at Renderhub before. Are they safe/legit?
The DAZ version of Zeus has dforce. Mars has DAZ SBH. I would assume the 'Hub version of Zeus does, as well. IIRC, she did post a fibermesh hair file for Zeus in the original Zeus thread in the Commons.
The only real reason to get them both is if you want the different morphs. The cats themselves are the same.
Please don't ask questions we are not allowed to answer.
Sorry
Okay.
I buy some stuff there.
The hair for Zeus in the Hub version is SBH, not dForce. Not a deal breaker :)
Mars has moved over there, too, now, I've noticed.
The kitten looks really good if you take a little time with it, maybe a dformer or two ;). Here I added a dformer to make a rounder belly, shortened its legs, made the head bigger.
Here at daz they have a number of toon cats some are fairly old though and originally designed for Poser so it would require some work to get them nice in DS
https://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?mature=true&q=toonanimal+cat
The toonanimal cat has a couple of expression morphs that can be found in the head
The Cat which I don't have the texture on was a freebie for Poser not sure if it's still around but it would make a great evil cat
I've always wanted a toon morph for the Hivewire cat. There is a great one for their horse.
Hivewire cat has lots of morphs for the mouth including snarl, yawn, mouth down, etc
It has an lamh preset and lots of breeds.
There have been other cats over the years I just can't find them as I haven't finished organising my runtime categories...
Stray Environment
https://www.daz3d.com/wonderland
I was looking where to jump next when I looked at the promo images LOL