Transferring facial features

pfunkyfize

Hello,

Is there a way to transfer for example the head of a genesis 2 female to place it on a V4 model?

I really like the facial structure/shape of a G2F character I have and I want to duplicate the head/features of that G2F model on to a V4 model. Is there a method that is commonly used in this type of scenario?

 

Happy New Year!

SixDs

Well, the short answer is yes. Where there is a will, there is a way, as the saying goes. You have several options, some more difficult and involved than others.

First off, are you wanting to recreate a specific character from G2F on V4. In other words, a G2F character head morph on a V4 body morph? If that is the case, you are probably better going the other way: transferring the V4 body morph to your G2F character. There are products available in the store that will allow you to do this:

http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-generation-x2 and
http://www.daz3d.com/genx2-addon-for-genesis-2

There are no products available that I know of that goe the opposite way (G2F to V4). The latter is doable with a lot of manual work, but would require a fairly lengthy explanation, assuming that you were even interested in putting in the time and effort.

Oh, and a Happy New Year to you, too!

pfunkyfize

Thanks for the reply!

I am wanting to transfer a specific head shape to V4 because there are tools and utilities I need to affect the character but they only work for V4. So I figure if the head of the G2F I am using can be transferred to the body of a V4 then I will  be good to go. It sounds like the difficulty of what I want to do is beyond newb status but I will check out the links and thanks and learn something new. I would be interested in learning at least at the highh level what is involved in doing the G2f -> V4 transfer. Thanks for posting them!

SixDs

Just a few points of clarification. When you refer to "the head of the G2F I am using can be transferred to the body of a V4", that can mean different things. G2F and V4 are entirely different base models: they have different geometries (meshes), different rigging (how the loints are arranged and move) and different UV maps (how the skins are applied to the meshes). So, literally speaking, joining the actual head of one model to the body of another, while hypothetically possible, will cause a number of problems relating to the utility of the resultant figure. So, although it may seem like purely semantics, it is important to be clear that what you want is to use a G2F character head morph and apply that to a V4 body. The latter involves morphing the V4 head mesh to the shape of the original G2F character. I'm assuming that that is what you are trying to achieve, no?

pfunkyfize

Hmmmm,

I guess it is semantics I am struggling with here. From what I understand of a morph, it's some sort of way to have a model change its look by the use of a user interface dial or slider. It could be a solution if it can behave like a G2F model does in its shaping tab. I like how on a G2F you can go to the shaping tab and choose a character's head from a slider. I believe you can do something similar on a V4 if a morph was made for it. Sometimes I see in the store a character that is made for both G2F and V4. There is no need to transfer the head shape to V4 because one is made for it in that particular character. However, for a character that is made purely for G2F, would there be a way to transfer that same head shape slider/morph to V4?

 

Thanks! I hope that doesn't muddy the semantics any further...

jestmart

Look at a model in wire shaded mode.  Where all those line intersect is a vertex, a morph is simply data that moves those vertices so the shape of the mesh changes.  The vertices have a specific count and order for a given model so morphs for a different model cannot be used directly as they will be based on a different count and order.

SixDs

"it's some sort of way to have a model change its look"

Essentially, yes. What is actually happening when a character morph is applied, is that the position and/or size and/or shape of certain polygons in the model's mesh are being altered to create the new character. For example, you might change the polygons in the mesh for the area of the nose to make it larger, or smaller, or have a different shape. Character morphs tend to create unique virtual characters in this way by modifying the model's various body parts to produce the unique shape. This is all done without adding or subtracting any polygons from the mesh, but simply manipulating the model's existing polygons. V4, although an earlier model, actually has many more polygons in its mesh than the newer Genesis, Genesis 2 or Genesis 3 models. That is why the instructions for manipulating the polygons of G2F contained in a morph for that model won't work on V4 - the polygons and mesh are completely different.

An additional point to understand is that what are collectively referred to as "morphs" come in two main categories: Character morphs that change the model's appearance to a representation of a unique virtual human using a single dial to accomplish the change, and morph packages that contain multiple and specific dials to manually alter very specific features or body parts to make customized changes to the model's shape.

pfunkyfize

SixDs said:

"it's some sort of way to have a model change its look"

Essentially, yes. What is actually happening when a character morph is applied, is that the position and/or size and/or shape of certain polygons in the model's mesh are being altered to create the new character. For example, you might change the polygons in the mesh for the area of the nose to make it larger, or smaller, or have a different shape. Character morphs tend to create unique virtual characters in this way by modifying the model's various body parts to produce the unique shape. This is all done without adding or subtracting any polygons from the mesh, but simply manipulating the model's existing polygons. V4, although an earlier model, actually has many more polygons in its mesh than the newer Genesis, Genesis 2 or Genesis 3 models. That is why the instructions for manipulating the polygons of G2F contained in a morph for that model won't work on V4 - the polygons and mesh are completely different.

An additional point to understand is that what are collectively referred to as "morphs" come in two main categories: Character morphs that change the model's appearance to a representation of a unique virtual human using a single dial to accomplish the change, and morph packages that contain multiple and specific dials to manually alter very specific features or body parts to make customized changes to the model's shape.

Thanks everyone, I think I am undertanding it better. So even though V4 has more polygon vertices to affect than the Genesis+ line of models, are there utilities on sale in the store that transfer headshape character morphs successfully from Genesis(+) to V4 if there is no V4 version already made for it? If there is I wouldn't know what it would be called since I didn't really understand the semantics until now.