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Based on the promo pictures he needs to go to the gym and work on his pectorals.
I very much like the character, and I like most of what's in the 'big' bundle. It's a lot of money though. I don't want the Michael 4 and 5 bundles, I already own bundles 6 & 7, and any parts of 8 or 8.1 that I like I've already bought - so there's not much to sweeten the deal. I need to think on this.
As for the weapons, they're shown as being included in the King's Guard outfit, which is part of the bundle, as well as being sold separately - which confused me a bit. They look good though. If I were to nitpick I'd say the pistol is wrong, the rolling block pistol was patented in (I think) the 1860s. I still want it though.
But as the promo of M9 using V9's skin shows, then the nipples end up in an odd location. Granted, only an issue if you're doing bare chested renderings but I guess so long as he never hits the beach or the gym etc, you're OK.
Yeah, I saw the part about the weapons just after I poseted this. It's a weird choice, you'd expect them to be presented as breakout items in this case. Those old bundles would have been enough for me to get the Intro bundle, even if they're not terribly exciting. But with no incentive, I'll just wait.
Those skins have a separate "male chest" texture...not sure why they didn't use them there...
I didn't notice the part about the FREE or discounted bundles until after I had already purchased Michael 9. But in the end, it didn't matter. I already had every one of those bundles offered.
One thing I noticed - M9 is the same price as V9, but Michael only comes with one skin texture. Shouldn't he at least come with two to make them equal value? And eyelashes and eyes are not listed under M9 either...
Yes, those skins have separate male chest versions, but is every PA going to take the time to create modified versions of their skins? I doubt it, time is money. For example, Mousso's character does not. (not trying to pick on Mousso, I love her work!)
I was just pointing out to HighElf that moving favorite skins between genders may not work out as they hoped.
I'm disappointed. I hadn't closed the book on g9 as I decided I would wait for Michael 9 to be released before making any final judgements. V9 had a real wow factor that none of the releases afterwards had, and was hoping M9 would have that same "wow" factor that V9 has, but he doesn't. Overall he seems kinda doughy, but he also has a lot of hard, squarish angles on his that seems more like a cartoon than a real person. Also, these prices. LOL, nope! Not even a banner for discounts.
Starting to think they should have just released G9 as a standalone poseable bust for close-ups than a full figure
I like him...will be buying. I'm really hoping they release whatever viking hair it is he's wearing in a couple promos. It's similar to some already out there for older figures, but way more detailed.
Nah it just means, that I will have to look out for PAs that do the extra texture and keep my wallet away from those who don't. As you said, time is money and my money does go to those PAs that spend the time needed for those extras.
Ouch! I was really hoping for a bonus discount for having bought the Victoria mega bundle. Everything I want is in the Michael Intro Bundle and it's still painfully expensive.
So out of the box, M9's skin looks...wrong
It looks like there's no specularity/shine/moisture whatsoever. This is just loading him into a base scene with default tone mapping. HDRI is the Small Studio 05 from Poly Haven (https://polyhaven.com/a/studio_small_05)...which is what I use to set up all of my characters.
*edit* Well, that's weird...I re-loaded the scene and now it's fine.
Yeah, the eyes don't look bad, but the rest is just way dark.
I like him and the hair, but to make him worth it over my stable of generation 8 males, I need a [considerable number of] of morphs that simply are not out yet. Muscle morphs, face morphs, gen morphs, etc.
Since the hair works for 8 also, I might just get that. Or him and the hair, but man is everything pricey.
He looks good and I like Victoria too. Just wish there were more normal everyday clothes for them.
He looks younger with V9 materials and coloring.
Either it's the newest version of Studio or it's the PBR skin. The first is Mike 9 with my usual lighting (burn highlights and crush blacks both at .12, spectral rec2020 faithful 1964). The second is the same settings, but the cm2 factor is set to 2.00 instead of 1.00. I'm using the default hdri with Boss Pro lights. The skin just sucks up light like nobody's business.
I like him more than Vic 9, TBH. Since G9 everything got more expensive, though. Probably I'll only get Michael and the hair.
@AllenArt: I suspect it's the PBR skin. I only have a few of those but I feel they tend to absorb light.
If your PBR skin looks too matte for your liking, go to the details channel in the surface properties and lower the detail intensity.
Compliments to all the artists! I like him - and I like everything in the intro bundle. The higher price overall is painful. I am at least comforted that, unlike much of the time where I tell myself to consider some items in a bundle as "bonuses", and no loss if I don't use them, I would plausibly consider buying each of the items in the bundle on its own.
He looks the best here (same settings as my last post), but I reduced his skin translucency to .65 from .85, but the cm2 factor is still 2.00
I went through a lot of images of shirtless men to figure out what feels off about Michael and one of the things is definitely the shape of his shoulders. You would expect them to be rounder or at least not have such a sharp angle. Especially in comparison to the rest of the arm. I believe there were some complaints about Victoria's shoulders, too.
Another thing is that I have never liked in Genesis folks how the brachioradialis (I think?) is so bumby while the rest of the forearm is lightly defined. It gives a very odd look when you have one of those hands on hip poses or any other pose where you have to twist forearm a lot. It gives the appearance of forearm twisting further than what the muscle can support... especially once you start bulking up the character. Forearm twists are the bane of G8, too, and I was hoping some improvements to it.
At least it looks like the shoulder bends might not stretch the texture or cause a jagged line at the point where shoulder connects to pectorals once you push shoulders forward (and hopefully when you pull them back)... hopefully that also applies to more brutish shapes in the future. Again this is something I struggle with G8 when using Brute shapes. Works ok for more realistic bodies.
Re: Price for the bundle
It's a lot of money, but it's on par with past generation bundles. And unlike past generation bundles, many of the assets will also work on feminine characters!
Dark Assassin for M9? Also for V9 and ... heck, my corgi...
Explorer Sci-Fi outfit? Male, female, nonbinary... all of it.
Captain outfit, Marty Mane? Both!
I mean, I'm honestly thrilled at not having to pine and hope that PAs put out a version of an outfit for the other gender, or wrestle with trying to get autofit not to do V crotches.
So, yes, it's a big chunk of change to buy in. But you get a LOT for it.
I will buy in December, but just the base character & expressions, which, ugh!, cost more together than some of the entire Genesis 3 Pro Bundles and early Genesis 8 bundles cost me, eg Multiman Bundle and a couple of other pro bundles I remember getting for $26 and change (when a DAZ+ coupon for $6 was applied)! I guess those days are gone for sure.
He's a good character, but the work done on Victoria was more complex to accomplish in geometry and materials than those for Michael 9. I am disappointed he didn't get a 2nd set of materials like Victoria 9 did, they could of do a tan line set or either a darker or lighter set but I guess they figured the extra Victoria 9 skin material set was not going to hurt future sales do to it's lack of commonplace occurance. I need to keep my spending reigned in for other toon characters that should be easier to make now with the Genesis 9 base topology. Also some of the myth characters I'd like to buy.
Yes, you are correct. I checked the product description and it only lists one. I was hoping for 2 like was done for Victoria 9.