HD addon and their utility
sidhureader
Posts: 11
in The Commons
Hello
I apologize if this is the wrong forum for this question.
I am looking at picking up the HD addon on for Kala. I am wondering -
1) are the HD add ons worth using?
2) can they be used only with the base Model (i.e., Kala) or will the be usable with the additional characters based on her. I am particularly interested in using the HD add on for Rana.
Thank you.
Sid
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Comments
The HD morphs are mainly good for closeups. If the figure is 6 ft or more away, it's hard to notice most of the time. Also keep in mind that to get the best results, you will have to increase the mesh resolution/subdivision and this can lead to performance issues if you have a less than stellar PC. Some HD aados will have more detail than others, just depends on the figure.
They can be used on other figures, but you might get some funky results when using other textures/morphs if the HD details don't line up with what is on or not on the new textures
in my opinion, they're only worth it for older characters with a lot of wrinkles, or if you want to get shots of their hand or feet.
I recommend getting the Auto Face Enhancer (male and female) to enhance details on anyone (although this has a compatibility issue with non-g8-base characters... see creator's thread).
I activate it on every single character I create since I only focus on HD renders. They can definitely be used for other characters than the ones they are designed for, even certain creatures to great effect. But if just are just starting with the program you can easily skip on all this HD stuff until you are more familiar with the program.
Kala is a great character texture even without the HD morphs, but if you're doing any kind of closeups, the HD morphs will really help bring it out.
They're really good for close-ups. If you're not doing close-ups, they'll just take up precious memory for nothing.
I bought Auto Face Enhancer when it came out. Most of the results are awful. I have yet to see a render that wouldn't be better without it.
The Rana HD character you mentioned in OP is her own HD character morph that uses the base character Kala. The HD morph can still be dialled in to Genesis 8 or other base characters, but she would not look the same as in the promos if you don't have Kala dialled in at the same time. This could make her look better or worse depending on what youre going for.
Some vendors would demonstrate how the character morph looks dialled in on base Genesis 8 (and other characters) in their promo images. This vendor did not do this.
I have had success dialling in different characters and using them as a gene pool (and using the HD across different characters). As others have said in this thread, if you are not using the appropriate texture that aligns with the HD, then the details might look off.
Another thing to note is that some vendors make separate HD head and HD body morphs, but many HD characters and HD add ons are just full body morphs, so for those latter full morphs, you need to apply to both face and body at the same time.
thank you very much! This has been very helpful.
Thyranq, I am still learning DAZ, stopped for a few years and got back into it. I would love to know how you got such great details on the Kala image you posted. That is inspirational stuff.
The HD expansions will show you the differences on the relevant promotional images. If you're rendering images close to the mesh, then they will give you that added realism.
Some of the DA base characters began to actually come with them bundled, which I had hoped was the start of a new trend! Alas, not to be.