The Genesis 2 Face

margrave

So I was browsing the Genesis 2 offerings on sale today, and as always something sticks out to me:

The facial expressions are, on the whole, just terrible.

Is it actually possible to get a good expression out of a G2 figure? Or do they all turn out with that same vacant, glass-eyed, Pan Am smile look? Those off-putting promos (and the lack of Iray support) are a large part of why I never bother using G2 in the first place. I know G2 uses morphs for facial expressions, which G3 ditched and replaced with proper face bones. The SKU numbers for G2 only go from 15000 to 22000, so clearly the line didn't last very long. Were lackluster face controls one of the reasons they were phased out, or is there actually a way to give G2 a convincing facial expression (without relying on other products/programs)?

wolf359

Not sure what is no offer during this  sale

but Genesis 2 had literally hundreds of facial morphs available
from the Daz PA's during its run (I know because I likely have them all)

And there were a few really good IRay skin converters
for G2 such as the one from V3digitimes.

Also the simplified bone rig of genesis 2 made it highly compatible with all previous Daz/poser BVH motion data 
as well as other third party motion creation options.

 

margrave

wolf359 said:

Not sure what is no offer during this  sale

but Genesis 2 had literally hundreds of facial morphs available
from the Daz PA's during its run (I know because I likely have them all)

That may be so, but as I said, I'm only interested in what I can do without having to buy other products. Just vanilla G2. If it doesn't come with capable facial controls out of the box, I'm not interested.

And there were a few really good IRay skin converters
for G2 such as the one from V3digitimes.

I could convert the skins to Iray myself if I really need to, I just haven't bothered because of the lackluster facial controls. The 3Delight skins are just one extra hurdle I don't feel like jumping over.

wolf359

Well if the default G8 Starter essentials has everything you need for your renders 
,without buying any third party products, it sounds like have Zero need for the vestigial Genesis 2.

G2 ( like G1) was well a supported Figure generation during its run but Daz/PA's have since moved on.

margrave

wolf359 said:

Well if the default G8 Starter essentials has everything you need for your renders 
,without buying any third party products, it sounds like have Zero need for the vestigial Genesis 2.

G2 ( like G1) was well a supported Figure generation during its run but Daz/PA's have since moved on.

I'm interested in Genesis 2 for a few reasons:

1. Posing is lightning-quick and ultra-responsive
2. G2 geografts won't work on other figures
3. Some nice outfits and characters (like Keiko 6)

Regarding #3, I do have the G2-to-G8 converters, but I haven't done anything with them yet. And I've heard they can be hit-or-miss.

wolf359

My feature  length animated marvel fan film was 99 percent Genesis 2 figures.

I was a clothing content developer for G2 up until I migrated to Different Character eco-system one year ago.

Also genesis 2 was very easy to animate and exported with fidelity as straight( no plugins)
animated FBX characters  to Blender. 

Were I still a DS /Genesis user, I would still be using Genesis 2, as I was supporting the figure myself with new content along with the massive hoard of morphs I have for it.

Masterstroke

margrave said:

[...]

The facial expressions are, on the whole, just terrible.

[...]

True, and even worse, it is true for all DAZ characters and almost all Poser characters.
You won't be happy with it, until you fix that to your gusto.
Load the expressions you need and add your self-modeled JCMs to them. You will have more control if they are keyed.
You can do that in the Property Hirachy pane.