DAZ Character Realism
mohamed.m.m.a.h.b_e284afba46
Posts: 3
in The Commons
One thing that's always bothered me about the characters available in DAZ Studio is their lack of realism.
They're far too symmetrical in my opinion, do you guys agree?
Take Genesis 3 for example, all of the morphs available affect both sides of the face, making them look more like maniquinns than people.
Does any of you know of a method to fix this and stop a certain morph from acting on both sides of the face, etc?
Much appreciated!!!
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Comments
There are lots of morphs that can affect one side or another (like the big bundle morphs), plus d-former can do similar. Plus, lots of skins are not symmetric (moles, etc)
I'll whip up an example.
Whilst it is true that the facial morphs affect both sides of the face, the pose controls that handle the expressions affect the two sides differently. If you look at any character with the blank stare that loads by default it will look unrealistic. Add an asymmetrical expression and it will look a lot better.
I think that most people do have very symmetrical features in real life, but not symmetrical skins, and if these are asymmetrical in a 3D character then it will help make them look more realistic. Also in real life I doubt anyone can hold a perfectly symmetrical expression which gives the impression that their faces are not symmetrical.
Most of the characters I dial in from the basic form are not symmetrical because poeple are not. You can do that with the morph bundles, but you need to go through them. I guess the ready chars are made symmetrical for you to decide what to make of them.
Here are some characters I've done that aren't particularly symmetric:
http://willbear.deviantart.com/art/Old-Yanmei-face-detail-569758931
http://thefarshoals.webcomic.ws/comics/46 (middle panel, Captain Yaegar -- his nose is actually crooked, plus there's the scar)
Also, this, which took about 5 minutes of dial spinning (and http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-male-head-shapes )
That is a really interesting character, Will. Did you do that with Zev0's aginging morphs and overlays? If so, that is good. I've gotten some pretty good results, but you have me beat. I just haven't had as much time to play with them as much as I would like.
Nice to see him in use, Will. He looks pretty good.
THe models have to be made symmetrical or else rigging them and creating content for them becomes a lot more work for no reason. The base is provided as just a base, a starting point.
Knitting: Yanmei started as the Yanmei female skin, with Skin Overlay to add aging effects AND a load of Zev0's aging morphs. The hands also made use of some freebie 'witch hands' thing to get them really knobbly.
With Genesis 3 you can use the face bones to get asymmetry.
As in not a linear progression of work...more like, almost, exponentially more work.
Nice. Do you remember where you got the 'witch hands'? I could use those. I have a long term diner scene that I've been working on. I've been working on some older people to fill a few of the booths. I'm still tweaking them as I'm not happy with them yet. Those hands would be perfect.
I THINK it's actually from Creature Creator (or whatever the Gen2 version is called).
The hands are Witch .5, Aging Hands HD 100% (from Aging pack), and then hands propogating scale -14% (witch hands slider makes the hands a little bigger than normal).
Besides the fact that skin asymmentry would not interfere with the polygon symmetry and as such could be used easily, there is another fact that makes me dislike most of the Gen3 women. The look artificial. Just on the other side of uncanny valley. I have seen V4 characters which looked more lifelike.
And they look somehow threatening. Like haughty avenging angels looking disdainfully down on simple people. Can't tell you, why, but that's the impression I get, despite all smiley pouty lips, and Gen1 and Gen2 were definitely different in this "look".
G3 seems to have more of a facial bone structure than the earlier iterations of Genesis. I rather like that, but I'm completely turned off by the clown makeup. What do they use to put it on, a trowel? I keep wanting them to go away and wash their face and come back when I can see what they look like.
I think congratulations have to go to Raiya for producing what I consider to be the first "real-looking" G3F character to hit the store in Cailin (http://www.daz3d.com/cailin-for-victoria-7). Now thats what I call a tempting character model.
Somebody just creates additional asymetric Head and Body morphs.
Yes, Cailin looks fairly normal. Still not convinced to buy V7.
This made me laugh, but yes so true!
The Genesis 3 series is the first series that has the facial rig to make it somewhat easier to make things asymmetrical. But it's not enough, because you can't do things like make the jaw lopsided, move the whole eye area and things like that. a quick round trip to Hex or Zbrush, via the bridges can do those.
You can also make some minor scaling changes to introduce asymmetry to the limbs and body...and fractions of a percent shouldn't require realigning the skeleton and mesh, although that isn't too difficult to do.
But Masterstroke's idea of some morph packs, for those that don't want to go the DIY route, looks like a niche that someone should be able to fill.
But take a look around...it's not just here, in Dazland that is happening...
I'm convinced that many shop in the paint and hardware departments for makeup applicators, these days.
Well its carnival soon, no?
Sorry just have to say something because its a bit of a peeve of mine, but...
PSA: Women do not wear makeup for the aproval of random people they don't know.
Its one thing to say I wish some of the characters here included some more subtle makeups, its another thing when you start going into "Women in the real world are wearing makeup that doesnt appeal to my tastes and they should stop that"
Sorry for the brief foray into first-world internet feminism, but grrrrr. It just bugs me so much.
Not going to devolve this..but, it's easy to see why it's a trend in 3D, if it's a trend in life, in general. And 'spackle' has been the makeup trend many times throughout history...for both genders. Personal likes/dislikes have nothing to do with it...