Aiko and Hiro has lost their anime
Xade
Posts: 236
I was examining the Aiko and Hiro models after 4 and I noticed that they have slowly lost their anime inspired roots. Observe the three Aiko shapes below. The 2 on the left is genesis with a3 and a4 morphs applied and the right one is akio 6 ( dont have 5) Please note I do not know why akio 6 refused to be a lighter shade in the pwtoon shader I like to use. Everything but the eyelashes are white but she still came out a mile too dark.
Take note of their faces, aiko 6's eyes are a lot smaller and the nose less pointy than her previous versions. The body is still anime inspired but the rest of her has become a little too realistic. I noticed Hiro is the same way in the images I've looked at. (Speaking of Hiro where is Hiro 6?) Anyhow, has anyone else noticed it or am I the only one who really noticed it?
Edit: Had some issues with mod editing but I fixed it. Here is the image I promised. See a lower post for a true compairisonof the aikos
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They are still going to remove that image because 'black bar' style censorship is not allowed either. Ideal is clothed or natural obscurred nudity in the image in some other way, eg the painting 'The Birth of Venus'.
Sakura 8 is fulfilling the 'Anime Eyes' role now. I'm reasonably certain that we'll get a male version of Sakura 8 as well...
As for an 'Anime' version of Aiko 8... who knows...
I keep getting distracted, but finishing my work on the character (right) in the attached .jpg is still on my 'to do 'list' r.e. finishing what I started/wrapping it up for a release...
Aiko and her namesakes
Seems like Sakura 8 is the new true anime character.
Yes, aiko has lost her title of being an anime character.
In generation 6 the anime character is Keiko 6
In generation 8 the anime character is Sakura 8
In generation 6, Hiro is missing. No male counterpart for Keiko 6
In generation 7, Hiro is replaced by Kenji 7 (Final Fantasy style).
In generation 8, Hiro is missing. No male counterpart for Sakura 8.
Aiko is no longer an anime character, she become a FF character (video game character, Japanese style).
Boy, things certainly changed since i've been away from Daz. I would have really complained had I seen this in development. It's so weird how Aiko has lost her roots.A8 looks nothing like A3, not even in the body. Thank you Diomede for the wonderful comparison image. I know from dressing mine that it had to take a while and I greatly appreciate it.
Thank you tj_1ca9500b for showing me Sakura 8 I'll see about getting her once I get up to the 8th generation with my comic. But currently I am sticking with Genesis 1. I noticed with A6 that I could not go below the Genesis clothing.
I read this post earlier and decided to check out if I could make Aiko 8 into more of an anime-style character. The attached image is the result.
It's Aiko 8 50%, Karyssa 8 50%, with a little tweaking from Genesis 8 Female Head Morphs. Uses Aiko 8's materials. The image was rendered on my old PC, so the Iray quality is a little poor, though the shadows are much better than the 3Delight version I tried. Anyway, I think she turned out great, and now plan on using her for a model, especially if I finally upgrade my PC to better render images.
Of course, she's not true anime style, but it's very much in the style for it, I think.
But there isn’t ‘anime style.’
Anime is all over the place.
I mean the eyes themselves aren't like the drawn type, which isn't easy to make for Daz. Has been done, but at some cost.
So true, and Aiko 3 certainly isn't even close to representative of the look of most modern shows... she's pretty much a melding of a look and style that was popular in the mid-90s with the most obvious influence being Sailor Moon, while Hiro seems more inspired by Rumiko Takahashi's design style circa Ranma 1/2 than anything else. I always felt that Hiro 5 would have done a lot better if he'd been revised in a more slender bishonen mold since that was the dominant look by the time H5 arrived on the scene. And seriously, if you want a character desgn that looks like something handdrawn in a 2-D style, exactly what are the advantages of of DAZ releasing the exact same thing again for each new iteration of Genesis?
well, of course imnot against change but I would have thought they would maintain their cartoony look, not become more and more realistic.
At the same time if you look at the characters from Naruto, Aiko 8 matches better than Aiko 3.
I have Sakura, and occasionally add bits to other characters; my beef is that anime and manga are 2D; 3D anime rarely looks anything but weird.
I was late to the anime party (so to speak), and am amused by comments of this isn't anime; as stated, there are lots of variations. A3 is more traditional, but A8 can still pass - as long as any of them are converted to 2D. :)
Even though I'm REALLY "old school", starting with Aiko "1" (it had no numical designation) based upon the geometry and mapping of Michael 1/2 and the first Stephanie Petite, I can't really complain about the generational changes. Weird, I know. But I purchased Aiko (1), Aiko 3 and Aiko 4 more for their stylized body shapes rather than the "large eyes, small mouth" facial features. For Aiko 3 I had to wait for the release of a Thorne/Sarsa product and Beth capsces Kioki morph set to actually "tone down" the so called anime/manga facial proportions. True, A3 came with a "realistic" haed morph, but it didn't really give me the lip shapes I wanted.
So, while I have not purchased them, the latest itertaion of Aiko with her runway model body and arguably more realistic features more closely fit the needs I had over a decade ago.
Still, it is funny how the "brand" intent has kinda' shifted. Using absurdly theoretical hyperbole, it's like successive models of Corvette are tweaked until the car looks more like a Mustang. the brand recognition is there, but only in the vaguest way resembles the original product.
Sincerely,
Bill
Yes you are all right, I had forgotten that the newer anime has evolved into a more realistic face and a stylized body.
I also forgot that there was a simple Aiko without numbers. I wonder what she looked like back then. I dont think I could find her in the shop. Redfern, could you share a couple front and back images of Akio 1 I can see what the original one looks like?
Honestly, I don't know the real difference between Stephanie and Victoria I was going through my G3 morphs and found very little overall difference. G8 has very few morphs but that it most likely because I havent gotten any for them yet. G3 as a lot of morphs but I had a hard time figuring out how to get her lighter in pwtoon. it took 2 lights, set to each type of light before she would render right. But she still doesnt look right, especially beside g8. Personally, due to the compatiblity of clothes Id rather stick with G1 for now until I figure out how to get the clothes from my extensive 3/4 library up to g8, along with all the morphs I love with the textures I need for my future webcomic. Right now I'm just exploring options and deciding what I want. For now I'm settling with the classic and very versatile Genesis. She can be evertyingI need thanks to the morph packs I bought a long time ago.
Here's a "clay textured" rurn-around of the original Aiko. The only morphs I applied were to "hide" the nipples and navel so that it would appear less "nude" to moderators and thus risking having it pulled.
There's something "sharp" and "angled" about her details, whereas we usually associate smoother contours with females, at least in imagery. Plus, her shoulders are arguably wider than her hips, another element that can "throw off" some people, at least on an instinctive level. She also had highly defined lips, the default shape being a 1930s influenced "cupid's bow" something not usually associted with anime.
Sincerely,
Bill
Wow Redfern, all I can say is wow, has Aiko changed. She's all lanky and exagerated. that face is super weird. It's so interesting to see the history of Aiko. Thank you everyone for sharing and showing me how Aiko has remained true to her anime roots, just simply evolved to keep up with the times. So, what about Hiro? Can someone show the history of Aiko's male counterpart?
There was no official Hiro figure until H3 was released to serve as a counterpart to Aiko 3.
However, the first Aiko did have a "body male" morph that granted the base figure arguably masculine attributes as can be seen here. Basically, it flattened the breasts, broadened the shoulders and chest and slimmed the hips, well, a bit. It also introduced and almost comically square chin.
Very few clothing items were made for Aiko "1" and I can remember only a single one for the male morph and that came from PoserWorld. As such, the figure had limited appeal. Hoping to avoid repeating that mistake, D*Z released Aiko 3 (there never was an Aiko 2) with a series of different wardrobes, some on the same day, others following even days. Like all D*Z male figures, Hiro 3 (really, the first) never got as wide a selection as A3, but at least he did get some so he wouldn't be mimited to "second skin" bodysuit textures..
Sincerely,
Bill
very informative Thank you very much Redfern
Kenji 7 is the only modern character I actually went out and bought, because I liked the look of him so much. (I have lots of other G3 characters but only because I essentially got them free as some sort of bonus to a sale.) I stick solely with Genesis1 (well I still use M4/V4 a little) but thanks to GenX plugin I can take the Kenji 7 shape (and any other characters up through Genesis3) over to my Genesis1 figure.
One thing that has struck me is how little need there is for *any* new character shape, no matter how stylized. I think it's mostly psychological in the vein of 'hey, new shiny something! let's buy!'. In the realm of the purely practical, even excluding that it's easy enough to do a little soft-selection modeling to change/refine a character face or body shape, I can practically get any sort of body/face shape I want just by mixing/matching all the many, many character morphs and individual body morphs I already have. So it might be a very odd-sounding statement to declare 'We have too many anime male figures already!' but in a way it's kind of true.
Anyway, for fun here's all the various generations of Aiko shapes put on Genesis1 (either through add-on shape morphs or the GenX plugin), rendered in Carrara, 'cause that's how I roll. The texture is a V4 one and the same for all, to highlight the differences. From the left, it's A3, A4, A5, A6, A7. Things I found out while doing this include:
- A3 and A4 look a lot alike, just that A4 is taller. Very non-realistic toony anime types.
- I used to think A6 was hideous, but that was only because of the promo pics for her in the Daz store, which I think do a disservice to the actual shape. I realized that A6's shape actually looks kind of nice. Though I still prefer A5, I do like A6 quite a bit, those 2 (and the many character offshoots for them) fit right in the range of 'more realistic but still anime' that I prefer.
- A7's shape looks pretty alien. Weird.
- Too bad there's not a GenX for getting Genesis8 character shapes into Gen1. On the other hand, A8 doesn't look all that anime to me anyway...
Thank you Jonstark. That image is really helpful and makes me want genx all the more. I really to prefer 1 over the others simply because of the clothes adaption system. I quite agree that Aiko 8 is alien looking. I wish they would have kept Hiro updated along side Aiko.