Help me understand Genesis and content packs

Comments

• JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  Genesis is not content but a new tool that’s part of DazStudio for morphing between targets? Called shapes?

  There is a lot of content in your post, but I will make a start.
  
  Genesis is very definitely 'Content', it is a brand new base figure which is unlike the previous generation figures. It has completely different rigging, and even some different body parts. The main point of Genesis is that it can be any figure you like, by using morphs which are designed specially for genesis (like the ones you have listed), or using ZBrush or similar to create your own.
  
  Genesis can be a man, woman, child, gorilla, ogre etc etc. The Iconic Shapes for genesis are just that, 'Shapes'. They make Genesis 'look like' the previous versions, but that is where the similarity ends. Previous morph packages for say V4 or M3 will not load onto Genesis, because at the end of the day, the figure is Genesis and not V4/M4/V3/M3 etc. Older morphs for these figures can be transferred by using the GenX plugin from the store with good success.
  
  What you need to buy is really a matter for you. I think the Evolution morphs ar very good, and would certainly give you a start. The Iconic shapes also add a 'clone' to the Autofit plugin for people who want to use the clothes for Gen4 or even Gen3 figures, but is you don;t need clothing, you may not need this.
  
  With ZBrush, I believe that you can do almost anything to Genesis to achieve character types. I hope that helps a bit at least.

  I should add, that Genesis is UV Mapped to take V4, M4 and Kids4 textures as well.

  Post edited by JimmyC_2009 on December 2012
• larsmidnatt Posts: 4,511

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Feminine Touch for Genesis is not really redundant with the stuff you listed above it. It has 8 unique bodies and heads. They are a great time saver and I prefer a few of the shapes in this pack over the V5 and V5 supermodel shapes.

  There isn't Gen5 content for the younger age ranges yet from daz. . There are Genesis pre-teens over at Rendo.
• fakedoctor Posts: 30

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Since you don't have an interest in hair, clothing, textures, etc. and are only trying to give yourself shapes to work with, I'd say you probably don't need any of the Millenium Kids or Kids 4 stuff. Adjusting the Genesis "child shape slider" mixed with other sliders and individual morphs of body parts will probably let you create a model at whatever apparent age you're looking for.
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  It sounds like to me that you are interested in taking Genesis, the base shape, and morphing it into your own shapes as quickly as possible.

  To that end, Michael 5, Victoria 5, and Stephanie 5, are all just shapes that you add into your shaping mix. For example, you could make Genesis into 50% V5 and 50% S5. That would create an entirely new shape that you might or might not like. That's the benefit of the iconic shapes for Genesis as well from generation 4 and generation 3.

  From what it sounds like you're saying, I think you would find most useful the evolution and muscularity bundles. The ethnicity bundles can be useful for generic ethnicities, but you may want to modify it further to make it unique.

  You may want to take a look at genesis body morph resource kits found here and Die Trying's free 184 morphs that have been converted for Genesis at sharecg.

  I don't know if Millenium kids or the Kids 4 base is compatible at all with Genesis. That's something to look into before you buy it.

  GenX is super handy if you have generation 4 shapes/morphs you like and want to transfer them over into sliders. It can transfer the Gen4 expressions, for example. Very nice. That's what I'm doing, since there are more expression morphs that I like for that generation.
• Khory Posts: 3,854

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Teens - Millennium Kids - Young Teens
  Children - Millennium Kids- Preschoolers
  Kids - The Kids 4 Base
  Toddlers - Kids 4 Toddler

  Considering your parameters I would absolutely skip these. Using already included morphs, basic kid for example, scaling and other current and potential juvenile morphs you should be able to do a wide variety of ages and shapes. You also could look at some of the characters available that have more child like faces. Some of those will include the large eyed fairy type characters. Adding them in small doses should help get a variety of children's faces.
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Also something to take into account if you're getting some content bundles is the PC membership. It costs $30 for the first month, but every daz original (which includes most of the bundles) is 30 percent off right away. So that could be worth it.

  There may be a Daz original sale at the end of the Snowball Savings sale. That's been the pattern, and lately it's been 50% off for everyone, which translates into 65% for PC club members. But there may not be a sale, we don't know for sure. That's just something to take into account.

  And last, Thorne has Barliecorne on sale. If you buy her, you can get 50% off the genesis body and head morphing kits if you buy them at the same time. A great deal, and you probably won't find one better. But that deal ends today at midnight, so you'll have to move fast on it.

  Barliecorne won't be that useful to you on its own unless you end up using GenX. (To use GenX you'll need V4, M4, H4, and A4, but you can get them and the morphs++ plus a bunch of other stuff that comes with a CD on this book. Make sure you get the one I linked to and not the 2nd edition, since the 2nd edition doesn't come with content.)
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  larsmidnatt said:

  Feminine Touch for Genesis is not really redundant with the stuff you listed above it. It has 8 unique bodies and heads. They are a great time saver and I prefer a few of the shapes in this pack over the V5 and V5 supermodel shapes.

  There isn't Gen5 content for the younger age ranges yet from daz. . There are Genesis pre-teens over at Rendo.

  I use FT all the time... it's a great time saver for me. The only thing that bothers me about them is that all the body shapes have nipples embedded... I haven't got around to eliminating those yet...
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  wancow said:

  larsmidnatt said:

  Feminine Touch for Genesis is not really redundant with the stuff you listed above it. It has 8 unique bodies and heads. They are a great time saver and I prefer a few of the shapes in this pack over the V5 and V5 supermodel shapes.

  There isn't Gen5 content for the younger age ranges yet from daz. . There are Genesis pre-teens over at Rendo.

  I use FT all the time... it's a great time saver for me. The only thing that bothers me about them is that all the body shapes have nipples embedded... I haven't got around to eliminating those yet...

  How do you eliminate the nipples? The only thing I know how to do is completely reduce their opacity in the surface tab...It would be nice to eliminate that step if you've got a way.
• larsmidnatt Posts: 4,511

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  I've got a ton of nipple morphs so usually you can just spin some of them into the negative territory and that helps. But it takes a bit of trial and error for depending which nipple morphs you have and what nips your trying to reduce.
• Scott Livingston Posts: 4,331

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  wancow said:

  larsmidnatt said:

  Feminine Touch for Genesis is not really redundant with the stuff you listed above it. It has 8 unique bodies and heads. They are a great time saver and I prefer a few of the shapes in this pack over the V5 and V5 supermodel shapes.

  There isn't Gen5 content for the younger age ranges yet from daz. . There are Genesis pre-teens over at Rendo.

  I use FT all the time... it's a great time saver for me. The only thing that bothers me about them is that all the body shapes have nipples embedded... I haven't got around to eliminating those yet...
  Not 100% sure, but I think I've used the nipple morph in the DieTrying set, dialed in a negative direction, to remove the Feminine Touch nipples when necessary.

  Edit: larsmidnatt beat me to it!

  Post edited by Scott Livingston on December 2012
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Scott-Livingston said:

  wancow said:

  larsmidnatt said:

  Feminine Touch for Genesis is not really redundant with the stuff you listed above it. It has 8 unique bodies and heads. They are a great time saver and I prefer a few of the shapes in this pack over the V5 and V5 supermodel shapes.

  There isn't Gen5 content for the younger age ranges yet from daz. . There are Genesis pre-teens over at Rendo.

  I use FT all the time... it's a great time saver for me. The only thing that bothers me about them is that all the body shapes have nipples embedded... I haven't got around to eliminating those yet...

  
  Not 100% sure, but I think I've used the nipple morph in the DieTrying set, dialed in a negative direction, to remove the Feminine Touch nipples when necessary.

  Edit: larsmidnatt beat me to it!

  Thanks, both of you, for the quick reply! :)
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  I was actually going to do it in Hex... create an anti FTNipple morph
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  wancow said:

  I was actually going to do it in Hex... create an anti FTNipple morph

  That's a good idea. :)
• bahramewe Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Thank you all for your input. It seems you have a very friendly and helpful community here.

  @JimmyC_2009
  I get it now. I finally installed the latest version of DAZ3D and the Genesis starter kit. It's a new base model with improved Parameters and such. If I understand you correctly, I don't think I see a particular reason to get any older content that is not Genesis ready.

  @larsmidnatt
  I did like the presets for Feminine Touch, and Manly Men seems to offer a similar solution for the Male gender.

  @asd000
  I monkeyed around with the Basic Child sliders on the Genesis model today. The 100% setting is appropriate for most children, but I think I'll still want to look into getting Toddler and Teen shapes, to minimize my guess work with the sliders.

  @sikeus
  That's right, I just need base shapes I can get into a sculpting program to minimize my workflow. I do think the Evolution and Muscularity bundles would give me much greater control over the base to help minimize sculpting time. And the Ethnicity bundle will allow me to get broad, generic racial features in place before sculpting unique features and detail.

  Thanks for pointing out the Genesis Body Morph Resource Kits. It look like those might give me greater control and reduce sculpting even further. And the Genesis Head Morph Resource Kits seem useful as well.

  As for DieTrying's V4 Morphs for Genesis... does that require Victoria4 as well? Between all the Genesis morph kits, I think I would be pretty well covered on variety, unless there's something you think is unique about this addon?

  As for GenX, I don't care to use old gen4 content, so I'm guessing it doesn't really apply to me.

  @Khory
  I think I agree. As mentioned to asd000, I was able to find the Basic Child slider and it seems to serve the purpose. I wish there was a Todder and Teen shape though.

  @sikeus
  Thanks for the heads up. Unfortunately, I'm not quite ready to buy this month. Just need to see what it's gonna take to get this rolling. Come New Year and with tax returns, I should be in good shape.

  @wancow
  I'll keep that in mind. Nipples may or may not be needed depending on the character I am working on. Easy enough to adjust them in a sculpting program like Mudbox.

  Again... thanks everyone for your input. I think I'll settle on sticking with the Genesis content and avoid too many legacy addons. I recall monkeying around with Poser and DAZ a year or two ago, downloading some free shapes and morphs here and there. I found that most authors paid little head to file structure and pretty soon my library was a complete mess. I could never find what I was looking for, I was buried in folders of clothing and props that I didn't need, and my OCD said screw it!

  So, I think I'll do:
  Genesis Michael Victoria Combo Bundle which comes with the Head, Body, Expressions, and Muscularity
  Ethnicity
  Feminine
  Manly
  Creature Bundle

  That should keep my library to a minimum, focusing mainly on morphing slider controls as opposed to large libraries of content. I'll think on Stephanie5 and Baby and keep my eyes open for some sort of Teenager and Toddler addons for Genesis.

  I welcome any additional input and I'll let you know what I end up doing come January!
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  It's just that on the FT bodies, they're an annoyance when applying clothing... I almost always turn nipples off or at least way down when I have clothing on my figure that'll be deformed by a nipple.
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  bahramewe said:

  Thank you all for your input. It seems you have a very friendly and helpful community here.

  @sikeus
  That's right, I just need base shapes I can get into a sculpting program to minimize my workflow. I do think the Evolution and Muscularity bundles would give me much greater control over the base to help minimize sculpting time. And the Ethnicity bundle will allow me to get broad, generic racial features in place before sculpting unique features and detail.

  Thanks for pointing out the Genesis Body Morph Resource Kits. It look like those might give me greater control and reduce sculpting even further. And the Genesis Head Morph Resource Kits seem useful as well.

  As for DieTrying's V4 Morphs for Genesis... does that require Victoria4 as well? Between all the Genesis morph kits, I think I would be pretty well covered on variety, unless there's something you think is unique about this addon?

  As for GenX, I don't care to use old gen4 content, so I'm guessing it doesn't really apply to me.

  !

  The DieTrying morphs have been converted for Genesis, so you don't need V4, just Genesis. And they're free and quite good. They're like the head and body morphing kits, but with different eye morphs, etc.

  The purpose of GenX is to transfer shapes over to Genesis, which also includes facial expressions, which are morphs. (That was how DieTrying's original morphs for V4 were transferred over to Genesis) So, for example,let's say you see an awesome V4 Character whose shape you'd love to have. Like nifty elf ears, or something like that. Then GenX transfers that over to Genesis for you. Or maybe there's a particularly natural smile you want from M4. So it's all about transferring the shapes you want from previous generations. One that I'm keen to transfer is Aged for V4 and M4. If you ever do old people, then that would probably save you a lot of time.

  Anyway, if you go that route, you do need the Gen4 base shapes and usually the morphs++ packages as a prerequisite in order to get GenX to transfer the shapes to Genesis. But you can get them (V4, A4, H4, and M4) for a fantastic deal in that book I mentioned.

  And yes, by all means do come back in January and let us know what you're making!
• aprilsunshine7_4526d47d74 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  wancow said:

  It's just that on the FT bodies, they're an annoyance when applying clothing... I almost always turn nipples off or at least way down when I have clothing on my figure that'll be deformed by a nipple.

  That's what I do, too. :)
• bahramewe Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  sikeus said:

  If you ever do old people, then that would probably save you a lot of time.

  The only elderly addons I found were modifications to textures with displacement maps, but nothing that modified the actual geometry with sliders. Things like saggy cheeks, double chins, etc.

  Is there anything like that?
• hermana5 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  sorry to butt in but what is FT body? (i am a newbie)
• Khory Posts: 3,854

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  I think FT is Feminine Touch for Genesis.
• hermana5 Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Thank you Khory, i´m not very good on the abbreviations used yet.
• Khory Posts: 3,854

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  hermana5 I have been doing this about 7 years and regularly don't understand the abbreviation!
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  hermana5 said:

  Thank you Khory, i´m not very good on the abbreviations used yet.

  Sorry, I was being lazy, that's why I abriviated :)

  http://www.daz3d.com/shop/feminine-touch-for-genesis

  Don't get me wrong, I love the body morphs, but the nipple is an annoyance.
• Khory Posts: 3,854

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  I considered resisting..

  but the nipple is an annoyance.

  ...that's what she said.
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Shoot... every time I import the mesh into Hex and activate the displacement brush... Hex crashes... grrrrr...
• bahramewe Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  I keep getting emails that someone responded to my thread only to find out it's a completely different discussion about nipples.

  Maybe if someone started a new Nipple thread, that specific issue might be better addressed by the community.
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  bahramewe said:

  I keep getting emails that someone responded to my thread only to find out it's a completely different discussion about nipples.

  Maybe if someone started a new Nipple thread, that specific issue might be better addressed by the community.

  Specifically, we were discussing one of the issues with the Feminine Touch product, which was in your original post. So our discussion is on topic. I'm sorry it annoyed you.
• bahramewe Posts: 0

  December 2012 edited December 1969

  Hey, I'm new, so if that's normal procedure around here, please accept my apologies. In every other forum I've been on, this would all be off-topic since it's turned into a discussion about how to manage nipples in a very specific addon which has little to do with my original post.

  It would have been a better solution for me to not have said anything and simply turned off email alerts. So, please continue.
• wancow Posts: 2,708

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  It's not an issue, truly. However I thought people should be aware of that particular issue with that particular product. Nipples deform a mesh quite a bit, unnaturally I think. Making it difficult to turn them off is bothersome, and I figured you should be aware of that issue.

  But let me ask you this; what kinds of things do you want to create and/or accomplish with DS?

  Post edited by wancow on December 2012
• Scott Livingston Posts: 4,331

  December 2012 edited December 2012

  bahramewe said:

  sikeus said:

  If you ever do old people, then that would probably save you a lot of time.

  The only elderly addons I found were modifications to textures with displacement maps, but nothing that modified the actual geometry with sliders. Things like saggy cheeks, double chins, etc.

  Is there anything like that?
  There is FaceWeight: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/faceweight-for-genesis/95504
  And the same person who made it has created an Aging for Genesis product, which will hopefully be available soon...see this thread for details: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/11534/

  There's also an Aged morph in the free DieTrying set mentioned previously.

  Oh...one more thing...
  When you buy all this stuff, you may wind up actually spending less if you:
  - Purchase a monthly Platinum Club membership
  - Add the daily Snowball Savings item to your cart as well

  Post edited by Scott Livingston on December 2012