Daz Studio 4.16 | Meet the MetaMixer Toolkit
The latest update for Daz Studio adds compatibility with an exciting new tool called MetaMixer. This tool allows you to create unique faces with a blend of features from previous character releases via a collection of add-ons for MetaMixer. Ready for next-level character customization with Daz? Let’s dive in.
What Is MetaMixer?
MetaMixer is a robust tool that empowers you to effortlessly blend and perfect character features with pinpoint accuracy in real-time, all with an easy-to-use viewport UI.
Craft your unique look with a targeted blend of several areas of the face like the nose, eyes, inner lips, outer brow, and so on. Hundreds of controls cover the entire area of the face and neck, allowing near-endless customization. You’ll also have the option to combine HD details of different characters in the same way.
Simply apply a MetaMixer add-on to slots A, B, and C to begin blending features between compatible characters and HD morphs. The resulting characters can be saved as custom MetaMixer presets. Once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll be creating your own unique characters in minutes.
Here’s a quick look at some of the functionality available to you when using MetaMixer:
Get Started With The MetaMixer Toolkit
The MetaMixer Toolkit comes with everything you need to begin using MetaMixer in Daz Studio, including the base MetaMixer tool and 4 add-ons to get you started. While owning a base character will always be the best way to benefit from full-body features, MetaMixer Add-Ons allow you to use that character’s head shape in MetaMixer whether or not the character is in your library.
This toolkit includes 4 add-ons to get you started:
- Holt 8 Add-On for MetaMixer
- The Brute 8 Add-On for MetaMixer
- Nida 8 Add-On for MetaMixer
- Twosret 8 Add-On for MetaMixer
We’ll be releasing even more MetaMixer add-ons and select HD add-ons with MetaMixer compatibility soon, so keep an eye out!
Free For Daz+ Members
The MetaMixer Toolkit is now available for just $9.95 in the Daz Store, or FREE for Daz+ Members. Download the latest version of Daz Studio and unlock next-level character customization with the MetaMixer Toolkit!
Comments
In Smart Content, it's under Utilities. In your content library, it's under People/Genesis 8 (Male/Female)/Shapes
There are also a lot of videos to help at the bottom of the resource page - https://www.daz3d.com/introducing-metamixer-toolkit.
Hopefully that helps.
So then, as it's been repeatedly questioned in the other, unofficial thread regarding MetaMixer, are there any plans on updating base models to be compatible with MetaMixer for users who have already purchased them, much like the HD add-ons have been? Or will users who have already purchased the base models have to purchase these add-ons to use the morphs already in our library that we've already purchased? Now I know that there is a process involved with making the models themselves compatible, however given it was already done so for owners of the HD add-ons, I don't believe this to be an unreasonable question to ask. Thanks.
I saw there was a big list of 14 DO characters in a MetaMix Mega Bundle that allows for buying to use the head shapes of the DO original characters without buying the full DO products. It says implies indirectly if I have the full DO character products it is always the better way to use MetaMixer; I have 5 of the 14; so if that is the case, then I don't need the corresponding MetaMix head morph product because I have the better way of using the full character in the MetaMixer.
Others in this thread and elsewhere are seemingly claiming that those 5 characters I own the full copies of, excluding the HD addon for them, won't work in the MetaMixer product. Which is correct? The product description claim of the products included in the MetaMixer Mega Bundle or the other forum members?
The HD updates did give the files needed to use those with MetaMixer Toolkit, the base chacater products released todaya re needed to use those with MetaMixer.
I own all the SD Characters that are included but only one of them I have the HD version of which is Khesmit. She is the only one that shows up in metamixer for me (and only the HD verison not the SD version). I believe you have to own the HD morphs for the characters you already own to work without purchasing the add ons. I did buy the Torment add own to see if he shows up and he does which makes me believe if you do not own the HD morphs of any of these characters then you have to buy the add on to use them in metamixer. So basically if you don't own the HD morphs for these characters, the only way to get the SD characters to work is to buy the add on
I looked at those videos and they are terrible. The four videos are sped up by roughly 5 to 10 times of the original speed, so there no way to tell what is being selected on the screen unless you stop and conduct a through analysis frame by frame. It's unclear what DAZ is trying to hide in these videos. Step up and produce a clear explaination of what the product is, how we're supposed to use it, what value it will bring us and what we have to purchase in order to use it. The sales text definately sounds interesting, but until I see how I can use it, it will be a pass for me (especially after those DAZ recommended videos).
Thanks.
I have found if you own the SD characters you need to buy the SD MetaMix addons. If you own the HD addon for an SD character you get the HD MetaMix Presets free but you still have to buy the SD MetaMix addon for the SD character. Bottom line: You want the SD MetaMix addons. The HD Metamix addon is free anyway with an HD addon purchase to encourage purchase of HD addon assets I'm sure.
Also the new SD Metamix addon I bought today, Drutherson MetaMix Presets, was not included in Smart Content. Also no HD+ MetaMix Presets are showing up in Smart Content for any HD addons I own (that have HD+ Metamix Presets already, eg Topsy & The Brute).
This is super cool! But why no black male figure? There is Nida in the base and Celani in the Add-On, but no Darius or Leroy. Any chance of adding those as add-ons in the future? Incidentally, you have the wrong popup image on Juan Carlos!
Reported issue : Dasan 8 HD add-on tries to download Celani 8 MetaMixer files with Daz Connect
Play it at 0.25 speed on youtube then, should be easy to see whats going on then.
I have Victoria 8.1 & 8.1 HD, how do I load it into metamixer? I can do that, right?
nope
ROFL what a joke.
WHY do we never seem to get instructions with these things!?? Yeah, watch a video that doesn't seem to explain anything! Really? Is it so much to ask for a simple Start Here Manual that has a simple directory listing made really clear on the product page? Yeah, it's really easy when you know how! Really easy if you spend ten minutes cursing the day you ever heard of Daz Studio, really easy if you've got years of experience with Daz Studio or you're just lucky enough to have the kind of brain that gets this kind of thing instinctively, really easy Googling the forum entry and have someone, some stranger not affiliated with the product at all tell you where to look! Yeah, dead easy! Obvious really, why am I so dumb? Oh, there's a lot of people like me really cheesed off with it!! Wonder why. Way to build a good relationship with your customers Daz Studio!!!!!!
They probably made this tool for them to make more 'NFT' renders to huck
To add insult to injury I've just spent an hour going through these instructions step by step and making notes to make sure I'm getting it but, after countless attempts I got Holt to load in slot B once! Immediately after loading Holt I tried to load Michael 8 in slot A but it didn't work. I got a name of the character come up but no icon and the slider tool only works to the slot with the icon. After that one time of getting Holt to load I couldn't get another figure to load! Does it just not work? I've got a 1 year old Gaming computer with the latest version of Daz Studio loaded. If it doesn't work on the latest version with a good spec computer what hope is there? Seriously, I wouldn't bother with this. You can blend your figures with the sliders that come with the figures anyway! I'll use Blender for everything else. This is a total waste of time!
Select your Genesis figure in the scene and go to the Parameters tab, look for the MetaMixer group (hidden by default) then go to to one of its subgroups (subgroups are Blending, Morphing, Sculpting) and tell me what subgroups it has. You should see a subgroup called Universal then other subgroups with names of characters. What are the character names you see?
If you got the name of the character (Michael 8) showing in the MetaMixer widget, but not his face icon, you probably loaded Michael 8 HD. That only gets you the HD details for Michael 8, not his shape! It took me a long time to realize and understand that. To get Michael 8's shape, you have to purchase the Michael 8 MetaMixer addon. Daz updated HD addons that you already own to be usable in MetaMixer, but they did not update the actual figure shapes for free.
You can load one shape and one HD (and don't have to be the same character) into each MetaMixer slot (A,B,C). And yes the MetaMixer does work, it is just really difficult to figure out at first. The video tutorial is good, but you have to follow it very carefully.
Take a look at this post in another MetaMixer thread. I wrote down some of the things I discovered while learning to use MetaMixer. It may help you.
Question: Is there a quick way to zero out all the MetaMixer morph settings that have been set by MetaMixer, to get back the the basic character shape?
The MetaMixer tool itself is a figure so all the typical figure controls apply. For instance I have set up 2 keymaps: 'F' for "Restore figure pose", and 'G' for "Restore selected item pose". So if I want to reset everything I hit 'F'. If I want to reset a specific controller I select it from the PowerPose template and hit 'G'. Undo and redo also work.
I think you are referring to behavior while using PowerPose. I was thinking of after I save a MetaMixer shaping preset and apply it to a new base character. When I tried RiverSoftArt's Ultimate Zero Figure, it didn't zero out the MetaMixer morphs. Did I do something wrong, or is there a reason that the MetaMixer morphs are not affected by scripts like that? Aren't they just morphs on the base character?
Well I for one am waiting on the next batch of MM Presets / Head Shapes for the 8.1 and other 8 characters I own.
On the Genesis figure itself the MM morphs are considered shaping presets. I suspect the script you're talking about only zeroes pose presets so the MM shaping presets will not be affected. To zero the Genesis figure go to Edit -> Figure -> Restore Figure Shape.
Ok, I gotta ask, because I own a lot of this crap. What is the point? If I take the slider for one figure's head and the slider for the other figure's head, I get a mixture of then both now. What the heck does this doohickey do if it's not that?
As far as I have understood, the face morphs of the figures have been devided into smaller areas => Adds some 60+ additional morphs per each character
So I am/was wondering the same thing. There seems to be quite the focus on the head of characters here so maybe it is only for that. Clearly one could use the parameters tab and dial parts of any number of characters (for the body and head) to blend together infinitely as one alternative. There are also quite a number of available morphs (specific face/body morphs vice FHM/FBM) to customize your look provided with the basic product....On a lark, I played with puppetteer, I think, and put characters in four or five dots and ran about using that to blend. (I think I learned I could even save that setup as a preset for return visits.) Finally, not too sure how many other third-party products there are; but, 3DU produces a Character Mixer product, as an example, that might do some of the same things. As best I can tell these options do not create/require any overhead or require any additional files or overhead. And you may have guessed from all of the caveats that I typically don't use any of these tools; rather, more often than not I start with a preset and modify from that. Anyways. . . . .
MetaMixer would appear to introduce +/- 750 new (universal) morphs for greater facial control to G8F/M to , in my case, an already bloated (morph) load. I think I am understanding that you are blending from (only?) three slots (at a time) and that you need an addon for the characters that you apply to the slots in order for them to work. So it looks to be a lot of overhead for an interface that controls morphs for creating character presets (but really just heads??). And the result is no more 'original' than the options presented in para one.
I could be completely wrong. More tools is always a good thing? This one appears to have learning and technical overhead that might leave it in the box for me.
Hey so, what is the point of this? Is there any difference between this and just using sliders the old-fashioned way? I'll admit, I've not paid much attention to Daz lately, I mean, I use it an awful lot still, just pretty fed up with the company and how greedy and dirty they seem to be lately. Been to the store and bought a few thing this last week because I wanted to try out some new stuff, and I keep seeing this stuff for sale that I already have, wondering why I would pay more money for character heads I already paid for so that I could use them as morph I already have. Hence my disinclination to come here and buy stuff as of the last year or so. Is this an actual thing that has any merit or reason for existing, or just more greed?
MetaMixer lets you blend specific details of faces, whereas morph sliders only give you the entire face, plus whatever specific features the creator decided to make separate sliders, which is usually none. You also don't necessarily need to buy the character twice, because the MetaMixer widgets work whether or not you own the base character.