Digital Art Zone

I think I could browse the store for days just drooling at all the cool products.  I want to jump in with both feet and order everything, LOL.  My first question is this:  I see all the different characters such as M4, V4, A4, H4, The Girl 4, etc.  I’m using . . . er, scratch that, . . . playing with DS4, just downloaded it and went through the online tutorial for Firey (sp) Genesis.  I was so excited that I was able to find everything, figure it all out (what was in the tutorial, anyway) and even made a couple of mistakes that I was able to correct on my own.  Oh, happy day!  Maybe I can do something with this neat program after all.

Now, my first question, the characters I mentioned above, M4, V4, etc.  How do those differ from Genesis?  Does Genesis replace those characters?  Should I also get more characters?  Can those be used in Genesis or are the used in another part of DS4?

I was also looking at some of the morph packages.  Do those work in Genesis or just on the M4/V4 characters, etc?

Where, oh where do I start???

I’m sorry for what must seem like such a dumb question, but I do need some direction to get started.

Thanks for any and all input.

Alan

As you have probably already noticed, Genesis comes free with DS4P, but if you want to use it in a serious manner, you would probably need to buy extra morph packages for it.  Genesis can be a child, woman or a man using the supplied morphs..

The Generation 4 figures V4, M4, K4, F4 etc etc can all be used in DS4, as can the earlier Generation 3 figures.  Once again, you would need to buy morph packages to use them fully, and unlike Genesis, clothing items made for one figure generally will not fit another one.

Genesis does not replace Gen4 or Gen3, it is a completely new figure, it is rigged differently to any of the previous figures, and clothing made for Genesis usually fits most characters (within reason.)

Morph packages are specific to a character, in other words Genesis will not work on any other characters, and Morphs++ for V4 or M4 would require the Generation X plugin to work properly on Genesis.

Thanks for the info, JimmyC.  I think I’m catching on. 

So, if I have this right, Genesis is a figure, not a software package with characters.  So if I’m using Genesis I need to make sure any morphs, clothing, etc should be specifically for Genesis, right?  So if I see a package called, say, [blah,blah] for M4 that would be specifically for M4 & nothing else, and I would need to have M4 installed, right? 

Can you recommend a good, inexpensive, starter bundle (or 2 or 3) for Genesis? 

And then there is the whole Plugin thing I haven’t even looked at yet.  Gee, my poor, old, tired, feeble brain will never figure this all out.

Thanks so much for the information.

Alan

Generation 4 clothing can be fitted to Genesis using the Autofit tool that comes with DS4P, so any clothing that you have already, or that you can get fro free from ShareCG should fit to Genesis.

Genesis is a figure which is morphable into many shapes, and you already have it, and it comes with some clothing and morphs too.  Look in DAZ Studio Formats > My Library > People, and select Genesis in the Content Library tab.

There is a load of free clothing for Genesis at Sharecg as well, you should have a look there first.  In the Store here, there is a filter to find just Genesis items, here is a link to the shapes for Genesis : http://www.daz3d.com/shop/people?cat=1138

mphslabrat - 15 August 2012 10:07 AM

Thanks for the info, JimmyC.  I think I’m catching on. 

So, if I have this right, Genesis is a figure, not a software package with characters.  So if I’m using Genesis I need to make sure any morphs, clothing, etc should be specifically for Genesis, right?  So if I see a package called, say, [blah,blah] for M4 that would be specifically for M4 & nothing else, and I would need to have M4 installed, right? 

Can you recommend a good, inexpensive, starter bundle (or 2 or 3) for Genesis? 

And then there is the whole Plugin thing I haven’t even looked at yet.  Gee, my poor, old, tired, feeble brain will never figure this all out.

Thanks so much for the information.

Alan

You should definitely get the Genesis Starter Bundle http://www.daz3d.com/shop/genesis-starter-bundle (or either the Michael 5 Pro Suite or the Victoria 5 Pro Suite, as they contain the Genesis Starter Bundle). All those things are on sale at half their usual price for the next several days. If you buy a character for M4 or V4, you can use the skin texture on Genesis, but not the morphs/shape (unless you have the Generation X plugin—and in my personal opinion, you probably won’t need that unless you already have a lot of M4 and V4 characters you want to use on Genesis). The Genesis Starter Bundle contains the head and body morphs you’ll need to customize your own characters, plus a bunch of other good stuff.

Victoria 5, Michael 5, and any future 5th generation characters are all for use with Genesis.

Here’s a link to the current sale on Genesis products: http://www.daz3d.com/shop/sales-promotions/generation-5-sale

Thanks, Scott-L and JimmyC again.  Lots of good things to follow up on.  I’ll have to check out all of your links & suggestions.  My vacation starts today so I guess I know what I’ll be doing the next several days.

mphslabrat - 15 August 2012 10:07 AM

So, if I have this right, Genesis is a figure, not a software package with characters.

Yes, that’s right. The “software package with characters” is DAZ|Studio itself, and Genesis is only one of the figures you can use in D|S.

Perhaps what might be confusing newcomers with this is that content for D|S comes from DAZ in program installers, which must be run to place the (non-program) files in the proper places so D|S knows where to find them. Although this is going to change shortly as DAZ is in the process of changing from program installers to Zip archives — which almost every other store and freebie creator uses. There will also be an installation manager program to make using the new zips as painless as possible, but this isn’t finished yet.

mphslabrat, you might want to consider joining the Platinum club right away if you plan to buy several things. It gives you 30% off the full price of DAZ original items. The DAZ store contains both items they make or buyout from other artists (DAZ Originals) and items created by other artists (Published Artists or PA items). Platinum club 30% applies only to the DAZ originals. There are also lots and lots of items available for $1.99 to Platinum Club members that cost on the order of $10-$20 for nonmembers. You can read the whole list of costs and benefits http://www.daz3d.com/products/platinum-club

mphslabrat - 15 August 2012 09:21 AM

I think I could browse the store for days just drooling at all the cool products.  I want to jump in with both feet and order everything, LOL.

Hahahahahaha - I know EXACTLY what you mean, and I’m sure DAZ was extremely pleased to read your comment.  I signed up and subscribed as a premium member just to be able to do just that.