The History of DAZ Freak 1 thru 5 as I Remember
SimonWM
Posts: 924
>>In Avengers we knew right from the beginning we can nail New York city, the aliens, the different Avengers but at the end of the day this film was gonna be judged on the Hulk. Jeff White--ILM Visual Effects Supervisor for Avengers<<</p>
The Freak version 5 released today January 29, 2013. I still remember when around October 1995 I saw an add in the back of Computer Graphics World magazine about a company named Zygote advertising their muscleman model going for $255.00. At that time the best I've seen was a model from Crestline Software Publishing by Timothy Wilson named Humanoid for 3D Studio DOS release 2 & 3. The add from this Zygote people of a 3D muscleman with shades caught my eye as I was into bodybuilding and superheroes and wanted to make superhero animation in my pentium 60 Dell computer. I received my return receipt signed by a guy named Daniel Farr, I still have the return receipt and the 3.5 diskette with the files. I proceed to skin weight the character in my brand new 3D Studio Max Character Studio, which was painfully slow with my already aging Pentium 60. Some time later I started using Poser 4 and discovered this company named DAZ in Utah that were selling the exact same muscleman model as Zygote Muscleman to use with Poser at a fraction of the cost I've bought the Zygote Muscleman, to top it all off this one was already skin weighted and ready to be posed and deforming a lot better than what I could accomplish in Max Character Studio. So this DAZ Muscleman may have very well been the very first DAZ Freak. What followed was Michael 2 with his Muscular 4 morph modeled by this guy named Chris Creek showed in pictures with his back towards the camera modeling in Lightwave 3D. This Michael 2 muscular 4 model was a lot better than the previous Zygote muscleman, evidently this guy Chris Creek, that from the pictures I could tell lifted weights and had illustrated an anatomy medical journal, knew what he was doing. Nowadays I regard Michael 2 Muscular 4 as Freak #2.
So I start to become addicted to this DAZ company and download their free model of the week religiously and suddenly find this software Poser together with the DAZ models is a great help with my graphic designs at work and my own work and animations at home. And these guys Robtwhiz and Nerd3D are talking about ERC in the internet and new technologies to improve these 3D figures and now there are a couple of these same guys, Robert and Anton that are producing content for the company remotely and one of them has moved to Utah and is working for DAZ on site, this guy is another weightlifter like Creek a young guy Wisenant that had left the navy and his hometown California and is the same Robtwhiz that was talking about ERC.
Its 2003 and during the superbowl they are showing the Hulk movie trailers and the first glimpse of the ILM creature and some people hate it but I find it supercool, so wouldn't it be great if DAZ released something similar? They have created Michael 3 but somehow this guy doesn't cuts it, I've been weightlifting for awhile and this model looks more like a male model than a superhero, heck me and a bunch of guys in my gym look bigger than him. So suddenly there is this mystery model sculpted by this guy Rob Wisenant who by now is at the forefront of DAZ and when they finally reveal it, is this big Hulk like 3D model with the big hands and feet and the name is the Freak, which I find so perfect! So the Freak 3 was born.
Now some months later after the release of DAZ Freak I find myself with a lot of free time due to a sports accident. So I start using my time on sculpting in 3D Studio Max some 3D clothes for this DAZ Freak. I had been weightlifting real heavy trying to put on mass and now I'm dealing with a big setback but I can still dream I'm this guy, right? I've been looking at these Muscle & Fitness magazines all my life, going to the gym and I've develop a good eye for this type of character so lets use this experience and make a Gymrat. So my first published artist product is born.
So now its 2009 and the economy has collapsed, but this company DAZ is still going on strong, and they have just released Michael 4 and I've got my pre-release copy of Freak 4 as a DAZ vendor and even though his face looks like Ron Perlman from Beauty & the Beast, Rob Wisenant comes up with this set of awesome morphs included with the product that morph the guy into Roy Drage and this morph really looks like Jay Cutler, the reigning Mr. Olimpia. So lets make a Gymrat Xtreme set and make it official, this Freak 4 with the included morphs has to be the best Freak yet!
Now its 2011 and DAZ has this new Genesis figure, which can be anything, a man, a woman, a child, a creature. And yes there is a bodybuilder morph but this is no substitution for a Freak, feels like Michael 3 all over again, I really don't have use for this wimp in my work but I've been a part of DAZ for years now so lets morph this guy. What are guys calling themselves in the gym now? Swole, yes lets call this morph SWOLE! Not the official Freak but at least this guy has shoulders and big lats and some traps and a thicker neck, quads and calves.
Its 2012 and last year DAZ won best technology innovation award for Genesis competing against Autodesk & Pixologic. And now Genesis is Victoria, Michael, Stephanie, Hiro, Aiko, and almost every single model produced by DAZ and there are other people doing their independent morphs like SWOLE and adding to the "gene pool" of the figure. And is there ever going to be a Freak 5? We got a Millennium horse pre-release, and DAZ production couldn't be more active. So we finally receive the Freak 5 and this is a really detailed figure, muscles sculpted in a one piece mesh that can be toned down with a smooth modifier slider, and we have a bunch of third party morphs and can combine with any other morph and scale to our heart's desire. But where are the wonderful variations done by Robert Wisenant to the Freak 4 in the Freak 5? We have a superfreak and yes we can get anything mixing shapes together but this is a perfect opportunity for another SWOLE product, Freak 5 SWOLE.
So we have our Freak 5 base, its a fifth generation, its Genesis, want something more, dial some changes, take it into Hexagon or Z-Brush and morph some more. Its the newest Genesis muscle-bound kid and he is here to stay!
SimonWM
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Here are some Zygote/DAZ muscle man (Freak 1) pictures and even a link to a page with the models:
http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmps080v/Fall97/software/zygote/catalog/catamen.htm
Michael 2 muscular 4 in DAZ Studio 4.5. with a slight malfunction of the only trunks in my old Poser 4 runtime. The one on the right is a customized version I used for my work.
The official Freak 3 and the guys behind his creation and evolution: our own historic Freaks, DAZ Chris & Rob.
You know what this thread needs? Images of the Freak 1-5 in a side-by-side comparison. Does anyone actually own all of them?
I really enjoyed that. I learned a lot of interesting things. And I loved your video on the Freak 5 SWOLE product page.
Something tells me the 'reserved' posts above are for that. :D
And Simon's list appears to be:
Zygote Muscleman ("Freak 1" in his opinion)
Michael 2's "Muscular 4" morph ("Freak 2" IHO)
The Freak
Freak 4
Freak 5
An interesting history. And the promo video for Freak 5 Swole is so great!
There is a small but confusing typo in second paragraph "What followed was Michael 4 with his Muscular 4" - should be Michael 2, I guess?
And there was a legacy shape Freak 4 for Genesis (http://www.daz3d.com/g4-and-f4-for-genesis) which isn't mentioned.
But otherwise - a good read, thank you :)
There's a Freak 3 shape for Genesis too.
http://www.daz3d.com/gen-3-iconic-shapes-for-genesis
Thank you for catching this. I've fixed it. As for the Genesis Freak 3 & 4, I thought they were included when I wrote: "And now Genesis is Victoria, Michael, Stephanie, Hiro, Aiko, and almost every single model produced by DAZ".
Thank you, everyone for reading an commenting, I'm also glad I'm getting such a good response to my SWOLE animation. And I think most people have a good guess what the reserve space in this thread is for. ;) I still think I have that Computer Graphic World magazine somewhere, now if I could find it so people can see that ancient Zygote Muscle man add in all its glory. lol
I find the history of The Freak rather facinationg, so thank you.
When I started out (towards the end of the time of Generation 3) I didn't think I'd have any use for the Freak, as I don't do big, musclebound guys. It's simply not an aesthetic that appeals to me. But I did get him at one point (I want to think he was part of the old Platinum Club pick your own bonus section when you re-upped).
And then, in what would be the first version of this story that I never seem to be able to satisfactorily get out of my head, the Freak became a significant supporting character on the good guys side. And while I still don't use that body type often, that one character still exists in my head, and will one day be re-created (again). He's important to the story (though I'm not sure how, yet.) and he's just not right without some measure of the Freak in his creation.
Great post, it was fun to read.
One minor thing, Rob was in the Navy, not the army. ;-)
Coldrake
Thank You for this it is very informing of all the freak forms I think this one will be considered the best because he is a base that I can adjust
to my ideal and I do own f3 thru f5 and the clones
I think I do. I know I had the "Muscleman" at one point but I've thinned down my installed library greatly recently. I probably have it in my archived installers library. Same thing for the M2 morph. I do have F3 and even a no-longer available third-party "bulk" morph for him that figured greatly in many of my images during that period. F4 has been my goto guy for recent images. I'm looking forward to using F5 but am currently fighting with Studio4 (*grrr*).
You know, I just recalled that Freak 3 was that guy that I got for full price with my very first $30 PC coupon when I just joined or renewed PC (such coupon doesn't exist anymore)
I remember I thought "Why Freak? He looks as a nice guy"
In 2004 I posted these pictures at Renderosity as a comment on the multiple figures DAZ had adopted vs the previous generation M2 which seemed to be more versatile as a single figure. Still now I realize generation 3 and the injection system was a big step up.
And here's the Freak 4 with his multiple presets:
Here's the Freak3 with the bulk morph that was for the Aeon character Seth, and M3 but works with F3 too. I don't know where I got the morph but I've looked for it a few years ago and couldn't find it. Not a very realistic morph but makes great toonish characters.
Gryphon, the problem with that morph is that it makes the character very imbalanced, in the arms everything starts to come up together and the model looses its structure, the face seems like it doesn't belongs to the body and the pecs are so big they seem to be hanging, not a good morph.
Here's some pictures from Timothy Wilson's Humanoid, human animation designer, this one predates Zygote Muscleman.
Hullk 1
Hulk 2
Hulk 3 (Avengers)
:ahhh:
This was a good read.
Thank you for writing the history of the character and posting the picture of DAZ Chris & Rob in the gym. It puts the creation of Freak 3 in perspective.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pump some iron.
LOL, you go get swole, brother. ;)
Thanks for posting the HUMANOID from Crestline Software Publishing Ad. That included strongman, man, woman and baby 3D models. I spoke with the designer in the early 90's. I asked them if this was modeled in Lightwave and he replied "no, the Modeler is too primitive, I used Imagine". Good old Amiga's... nostalgia.