Figures that make use of Aiko 4 (mostly by Sarsa+Thorne)
thistledownsname
Posts: 1,336
So, I don't have AIko 4, but I do have the V4 mods set. I just got http://www.daz3d.com/perennial-pookling and it seems to work fine. I'm also considering getting the similar products https://www.daz3d.com/elspeth and https://www.daz3d.com/darla-for-a4.
By not having Aiko 4, what am I missing out on with these? I can get her today for $4, so it's not a big deal, but what difference does having her make to the figures?
Also, how much difference is there between these 3 characters? All I can really tell is skin tone. Is there really a point to having more than one?
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Comments
Aiko is a stylized figure, so, if I recall correctly, some of the bodily proportions like the length of leg, hand and foot sizes and some of the porportions of the torso won't match the promos since they require the Aiko files to implement. The face is less of an issue since the faces are usually custom morphs built in a modeling program. But Aiko does have a different head shape (and size), so that could make a difference, too.
They definitely all have different skins, which is enough to be worth picking something up if the discount is decent. Gen4 skins can be used all the way up to G2F with one of the add-on UV packages. And while they may look pretty much the same, there may well be differences in shape and scale that are less visible from different promos than in a side-by-side comparison. But the main reason to pick something in an apparant series up would be the skin.
I don't use generation 4 much these days, but I have to say, back before I switched to G2/G3, A4 idealistic was my favorite V4 based shape (I don't generally do Anime, so I didn't use the head morph). This is a great pinup style body with perky boobs and a great hour glass figure that doesn't look super crazy (I usually added in some V4 "bulk", I think they caled it, to fatten her up a bit). You can use A4's body shapes without her heads, if you don't do the whole anime thing, which I generally never did. Even with G2, I sometimes use A4's body shape...
As stated by Jodel, most of Thorne's model's tend to have a custom head shape, rather than use any head morphs, but they use the standard body morphs (V4++) to get the body shape. The model may, or may not, use some of the A4 shape to achieve the look.
My advice is to get the A4 shape, if $4 is not that much money for you. Over time it is likely you will pick up some characters, either free or commercial, that do use the A4 head and/or body shape. Even if you are transferring the shape to Genesis 1 or 2 using GenX, you will still need A4 to get the look the same as the promos.
Thanks
I have a few of those characters, but I barely ever use VA4 for anything - there's no way to get those shapes onto a genesis model, is there? It's a bit sad there are so many great V4 characters but they just don't seem that useful to me because of that.
GenX should be able to move them...not sure how well, but at least if you have GenX it would be worth a try.
Aiko 4 shape is quite useful for dialling up new characters, just using a little of it, not the full shape.
A4's base body shape is on the slender side, which you might find useful and which some vendors used to use to their advantage when creating more realistic-styled A4 characters. The bonus to getting A4 is that, should you have need to eventually create an old--school female anime girl, you'll have an excellent head morph to use as a base.
The thing is that while A4 never had the runaway popularity on her own that A3 did, since in gen4 *all* of the secondary characters were built as morphs of V4 and M4, you will find a *lot* of V4 characters which use just a *little* bit of A4 (or the Girl 4) in order to get the same result as the promos. Various vendors did this a lot. Surreality was one. Thorne almost always mixed in a bit of Aiko. And most others mixed morphs as well, at least some of the time. Having that base installed is likely to be well worth the $4.
Oh, that looks handy, thanks -wishlisted-
And for that matter, for the basic gen4 shapes there are products in the store which add the legacy shapes to your morph dials for Genesis figures. You don't need GenX to use those. They won't port the custom morphs which the artist built for the character, but they can go a pretty far way toward duplicating dial-spun characters.