daveso said:

I suppose though, you could get a nice male crotch bulge with dforce pants if you had them attached. 

A simple "bulge" morph often gives better results than trying to use clothes with the geograft.

you can also use the transfer utility or various other transfer tools to transfer morphs from one gender to another - I actually dial in bits of male morphs on fermale characters a lot

If you make the discerning feature/s out of a morph pack that has both male and female counterparts just dial in the same features on each character (eg. https://www.daz3d.com/200-plus-head-and-face-morphs-bundle-for-genesis-8-female-s-and-male-s or the Genesis 8 Head Morphs male/female sets).

MimicMolly and Luciel both have good methods. I do something similar to Molly's method, myself. For figures that share the same base, you could use a common morph for them and then just make adjustments so they don't look identical. For example, if your father character's head is based on Michael 8's head at 50%, have the sons all have the Michael 8 head dialed in at some percentage to give them some features in common, and then add whatever other morphs on top that you like.

Another option would be to use a gender-swapping morph and do essentially as Luciel suggests by building your characters on your preferred base and then dialing in the opposite gender shape to change them from male to female or vice versa. I think there's a way to do it manually within Daz Studio without any extra products. It came up a lot when the Genesis 8 Female came out before the male counterpart.  This thread might have some advice you could use. There are also some things in the store that could help you do it, like this one. There's also a freebie called Transgender Genesis 8 by agentunawares over on DeviantArt, which is basically the same, just without all the extra morph options. If I remember correctly, it's just two morph dials, one for G8M and one for G8F, that give them the overall shape of the opposite gender. Good luck! I hope you figure out a method that works for you. :)

daveso said:

i'm still confused why people not using 8.1. is it becasue of having to upgrade to 4.15? Otherwise, the 8.1 male and female are free. 

I use 4.15, but don't use 8.1 when I can avoid it because the powerpose templates are still broken, and it needs workarounds to do some basic 8 stuff.

Also, the new UV layout is a bit pointless, and vellus hair is only needed in extreme closeups, so there isn't really much point over the normal base other than for women with dangly bits.

But if they fixed all the powerpose/missing morph problems, then it would be more tempting. 

scar_hand said:

I had followed the steps that Frinkky had suggested for creating a morph asset that can reduce the size of a Hercules HD figure that has its "Hercules Body HD" morph set at 100%. When I got to step 4 of the testing phase, I have found that the Hercules HD figure's fingers and toes are not bending correctly. How can I fix this?

Sorry, it looks like you'll have to do an ERC freeze:

1. With g3m completely zero'd (it's probably better to start over with a fresh G3M to be sure), apply your morph to 100%, perform the adjust rigging to shape. 
2. Right-click in the list of morphs under the parameters tab and click 'Edit Mode'
3. Right-click your morph and click 'ERC Freeze'
4. Leave options as default but ensure the only properties in the 'Freeze Properties' section that have a tick next to them begin with the following:

xOrigin & xEnd
yOrigin & yEnd
zOrigin & zEnd

1. Click Accept
2. Set your morph back to 0. Perform the 'Save' steps above.

Edit: I've added an ERC freeze section to my initial instructions above, in the appropriate order.

https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-pbrskin-manager

Ultimate PBRSkin Skin Manager is the best and most efficient tool ever made to adjust, customize, or even completely set up any existing Iray skin based on the new PRBSkin shader (and will work with Generation 4, Genesis, Genesis 2, 3, 8 and 8.1).

Thanks to a clear and synthetic overview and control of all the surface key properties determining the final look of the skin, sorted by categories of effects and organized in four tabs (Tone, Gamma, Gloss/Bump (Details), Additional Effects), you will be able to reach the skin characteristics you have in your mind fast, easily and efficiently. The organization of these key properties has been carefully thought so that everybody, beginners and advanced users, gain a huge amount of time, and get a clear overview of the whole skin shader while they customize the skin of a figure.

For the ones who already know "Ultimate Iray Skin Manager", this is the same principle, but everything was adapted for the new PBRSkin shader.

The rest of the interface has been developed in order to add a maximum of useful additional options and a great comfort of use, this is why you can directly from within the interface decide on which surfaces you work (skin including or excluding Lips and/or Nails, Lips only or Nails only), but you can also change the Viewport Style, the Environment Mode, the camera you use, the orbit node, the zoom, and the angle of the Perspective View, open the pdf documentation, etc, etc.

Don't be afraid to test new sets of parameters because save and load tools are also included directly in the interface. At any time during your skin shader adjustment, you can save in text files full or partial presets of the properties used by Ultimate PBRSkin Manager for your skin shader without leaving the interface. This way, you can load them later on, during the same or another session, on the same or on another figure, of the same or another generation (save/load skin properties without image maps). A specific script is also included in order to transfer the new properties of the figure to the surfaces of its anatomical elements.

Thanks to Ultimate PBRSkin Manager, not only you will find a synthetic and logical organization of the parameters you can change to reach the skin look you want, but also it will help you to make the skin adjustment process more methodical, faster, easier and more comfortable.

This is not a new shader, these are not shader presets. This is just a super efficient tool to adjust and customize PBRSkin based figure of any generation in a clear and efficient way. Considering the fact that there are not tons of PBRSkin figures right now, some of the promos were made using old figures that I converted to PBRSkin, before using Ultimate PBRSkin manager to adjust them. Furthermore, Ultimate PBRSkin manager can easily evolve to adapt to the eventual "new habits" PA will use to create their Genesis 8.1 figures.  Ultimate PBRSkin manager will work on any figure of any generation from Victoria 4 to Genesis 8.1 as long as their Skin+Nails+Lips and eyesockets when they exist shader use PBRSkin. I am developping an eyesocket patch which will be an additional file allowing the eyesocket conversion to PBRSkin, because it seems that some PA will forget to convert their eyesocket surfaces to PBRSkin.

Joined to this post as well as later on in this thread you will find two utility scripts allowing you to see what Skin/lips/nails surfaces are not PBRSkin in a figure, and to apply PBRSkin shader to Eyesocket (skin surface) and Fingernails and Toenails (nails surfaces). They are useful only if the author of the figure forgot to set up these surfaces as PBRSkin surfaces too. You can use them from your content library, or drag and drop them from anywhere on your computer on your selected figure. They will be finally included in PBRSkin Manager, either stand alone as it is the case here, or embedded in the main script.

This thread is here to answer any technical questions you could have. Please use this thread for this project, and not "Ultimate Iray Skin Manager" thread, so that things remain clear for everybody. Now a few images.

NorthOf45 said:

brettnuckles said:

NorthOf45 said:

The biggest source of delay for loading figures is all the morphs that need to be initialized that really slows things down, if you have a lot of them.

 

Thanks for the input! I do have a pretty crazy amount of morph packs, maybe I will uninstall some because I have a bunch I don't use often. Did not know that was a primary source of loading delay so this is very useful! Makes perfect sense. No wonder my figures started to load slower and slower over time -- I was accumulating more morph packs!

I did see someone in another older thread suggest using the "compress contents to save space" option in the Windows folder properties, which they said would make my library take up less space without messing with loading times (much?). Anyone know anything about whether that's accurate?

NTFS compression will benefit the text files and optimize the cluster usage, but will have little or no effect on the bitmaps, as they are already compressed about as much as they can be. Access time won't be much affected, and you might get 10-15% more disc space, but it's not like you will double your capacity. Depends on how much you expect to add to your library. Keep it in perspective. If you've spent a car's worth on content, don't skimp on the tires.

I wouldn't start using compression for complete disks... When the smelly stuff hits the fan, you are way deep in it...

brettnuckles said:

NorthOf45 said:

The biggest source of delay for loading figures is all the morphs that need to be initialized that really slows things down, if you have a lot of them.

 

Thanks for the input! I do have a pretty crazy amount of morph packs, maybe I will uninstall some because I have a bunch I don't use often. Did not know that was a primary source of loading delay so this is very useful! Makes perfect sense. No wonder my figures started to load slower and slower over time -- I was accumulating more morph packs!

I did see someone in another older thread suggest using the "compress contents to save space" option in the Windows folder properties, which they said would make my library take up less space without messing with loading times (much?). Anyone know anything about whether that's accurate?

NTFS compression will benefit the text files and optimize the cluster usage, but will have little or no effect on the bitmaps, as they are already compressed about as much as they can be. Access time won't be much affected, and you might get 10-15% more disc space, but it's not like you will double your capacity. Depends on how much you expect to add to your library. Keep it in perspective. If you've spent a car's worth on content, don't skimp on the tires.

NorthOf45 said:

The biggest source of delay for loading figures is all the morphs that need to be initialized that really slows things down, if you have a lot of them.

Thanks for the input! I do have a pretty crazy amount of morph packs, maybe I will uninstall some because I have a bunch I don't use often. Did not know that was a primary source of loading delay so this is very useful! Makes perfect sense. No wonder my figures started to load slower and slower over time -- I was accumulating more morph packs!

I did see someone in another older thread suggest using the "compress contents to save space" option in the Windows folder properties, which they said would make my library take up less space without messing with loading times (much?). Anyone know anything about whether that's accurate?

certaintree38 said:

Yeah, I've decided to return the coffee warmer and look for a different one with an off button. It's a shame though, because otherwise it was perfect. 

I purchased a separate 4-year warranty for the monitor because all the monitors I looked at had reviews with pixels dying and edges bleeding after six months or a year. And since I couldn't figure out what the manufacturer's warranty said, I decided to be safe and get the 3rd party protection. If the Manufacturer's warranty turned out to be good for 2 years or more, I could have returned the 3rd party plan. But I feel better knowing I am covered for 4 years. Haven't had any eye strain with the 4k yet. Maybe having everything scaled up helps? 

Stimulus check is pretty much gone. This is by design, so I don't spend it all on Daz. But it still sucks.  I guess I could have put it into savings, but it was meant to stimulate and I am happy to oblige. 

 

...the older ASUS display I have stil crisp and clear with no dead pixels or edge bleed. though am thinking of getting a second like the one I replaced the LG with and move the older ASUS to the other system as the one currently on it is not an IPS display.

Still waiting on that relief payment deposit.  As I also would like to get a 2 GB SSD to transfer my runtime/library to as well as an adapter which can hold both SSDs in one slot.  Then I'll repurpose the HDD for a storage drive.   Need to also continue researching icreasing the memory on my main system (X58 MB) to 48 GB .That will be a little expensive as I need to purchase three 2 x8 GB kits since only workstation/server ECC memory comes in full 6 stick kits and most are proprietary for specific brands of workstations.  

I had followed the steps that Frinkky had suggested for creating a morph asset that can reduce the size of a Hercules HD figure that has its "Hercules Body HD" morph set at 100%. When I got to step 4 of the testing phase, I have found that the Hercules HD figure's fingers and toes are not bending correctly. How can I fix this?

s_j_gregory said:

TheRetiredSailor said:

jbowler said:

TheRetiredSailor said:

I have experienced similar weirdness, provided I correctly understand the character turning into blocks.  I have created relatively simply objects in Lightwave which were exported as an obj and then imported into Studio. The initial import looks great. If I then save the imported object as a scene subset or as a support asset it loads up the next time as a block with beveled edges. One object I had trouble with was a door with hinges and a door knob. Simple, right. Looking at the original mesh in Lightwave I found a couple of ngons that I had missed so perhaps my problem was in the geometry. The thing is, I had used these objects before without issue. 

Yes, that's it exactly; "wire bounding box" for each bone with the box actually displayed as a texture/smooth shaded cube with bevelled edges.  It makes sense that this would happen if there is something wrong with the geometry.  In my case the geometry wasn't present in the installation, I expect this to result in Basisc Genesis 8 Female geometry, but Akame isn't based on one of the body/head morph packages so maybe I should have anticipated no geometry at all.

The part I didn't understand was that the object looked fine when I imported it. I could texture it, render it, etc. once I saved it the object reloaded as a beveled block. If the geometry was off that much, why did it work before saving it?  (Rhetorical question)

I am anxious not to insult.  How did you save it.  It sounds like it might have just lost the link/path to the geometry in the saving/reloading?

First I saved it as a scene subset. On later tries I tried saving it as a support asset.  Both should have saved the geometry in the proper files and locations. 

TheRetiredSailor said:

jbowler said:

TheRetiredSailor said:

I have experienced similar weirdness, provided I correctly understand the character turning into blocks.  I have created relatively simply objects in Lightwave which were exported as an obj and then imported into Studio. The initial import looks great. If I then save the imported object as a scene subset or as a support asset it loads up the next time as a block with beveled edges. One object I had trouble with was a door with hinges and a door knob. Simple, right. Looking at the original mesh in Lightwave I found a couple of ngons that I had missed so perhaps my problem was in the geometry. The thing is, I had used these objects before without issue. 

Yes, that's it exactly; "wire bounding box" for each bone with the box actually displayed as a texture/smooth shaded cube with bevelled edges.  It makes sense that this would happen if there is something wrong with the geometry.  In my case the geometry wasn't present in the installation, I expect this to result in Basisc Genesis 8 Female geometry, but Akame isn't based on one of the body/head morph packages so maybe I should have anticipated no geometry at all.

The part I didn't understand was that the object looked fine when I imported it. I could texture it, render it, etc. once I saved it the object reloaded as a beveled block. If the geometry was off that much, why did it work before saving it?  (Rhetorical question)

I am anxious not to insult.  How did you save it.  It sounds like it might have just lost the link/path to the geometry in the saving/reloading?

jbowler said:

TheRetiredSailor said:

I have experienced similar weirdness, provided I correctly understand the character turning into blocks.  I have created relatively simply objects in Lightwave which were exported as an obj and then imported into Studio. The initial import looks great. If I then save the imported object as a scene subset or as a support asset it loads up the next time as a block with beveled edges. One object I had trouble with was a door with hinges and a door knob. Simple, right. Looking at the original mesh in Lightwave I found a couple of ngons that I had missed so perhaps my problem was in the geometry. The thing is, I had used these objects before without issue. 

Yes, that's it exactly; "wire bounding box" for each bone with the box actually displayed as a texture/smooth shaded cube with bevelled edges.  It makes sense that this would happen if there is something wrong with the geometry.  In my case the geometry wasn't present in the installation, I expect this to result in Basisc Genesis 8 Female geometry, but Akame isn't based on one of the body/head morph packages so maybe I should have anticipated no geometry at all.

The part I didn't understand was that the object looked fine when I imported it. I could texture it, render it, etc. once I saved it the object reloaded as a beveled block. If the geometry was off that much, why did it work before saving it?  (Rhetorical question)

Just checked (expand all) no buttons or such and the morph was near the waist and not near the collar or anything like that.

I am experimenting with using dForce as a way to create morphs rather than the whole blender option (which has its own foibles).

I exported from DS to DS as a Wavefront Object as I thought that would be the most compatable.

I chose the jumpsuit as it is a dForce item out of the box and I didnt want to add the complication of me fumbling around trying to add dForce myself.

Other people seem to be having some form of sucsess so I always assume I am doing something stupid;)

SimonWM's Hercules HD for Genesis 3 Male has a "Hercules HD" preloaded figure and a "Hercules SD" preloaded figure.

I have attached an image of three figures; each figure has the morph "Hercules Body HD" dialed to 100%. The figures from left to right are Hercules HD, Hercules SD, and Genesis 3 Male.

My favorite figure of these three is Hercules HD, because its muscular details is the most aestheticly defined. So, I would like to be able to set Hercules HD's overall proportions to zero scaled Genesis 3 Male figure, but still have the muscular details that the 100% dialed morph "Hercules Body HD" applies to the Hercules HD figure.   

TheRetiredSailor said:

I have experienced similar weirdness, provided I correctly understand the character turning into blocks.  I have created relatively simply objects in Lightwave which were exported as an obj and then imported into Studio. The initial import looks great. If I then save the imported object as a scene subset or as a support asset it loads up the next time as a block with beveled edges. One object I had trouble with was a door with hinges and a door knob. Simple, right. Looking at the original mesh in Lightwave I found a couple of ngons that I had missed so perhaps my problem was in the geometry. The thing is, I had used these objects before without issue. 

Yes, that's it exactly; "wire bounding box" for each bone with the box actually displayed as a texture/smooth shaded cube with bevelled edges.  It makes sense that this would happen if there is something wrong with the geometry.  In my case the geometry wasn't present in the installation, I expect this to result in Basisc Genesis 8 Female geometry, but Akame isn't based on one of the body/head morph packages so maybe I should have anticipated no geometry at all...

i dont have hercules, the attaced screenshots is is the michael 7 fbm .dsf file.  m7 has built in scaling.

there is 2 sections. 
one is the morphs deltas. under morph.
its a long list of vertex points.

other is the scaling section labeled formulas.  youll see x,y,z coordinates for the bones 
this is what you want to delete.

double check you're editing the fbm file and not the control file.  the econtrol file usually calls the body and head in one slider.

sometimes you can find vascular details are in the displacement or normal maps.

scar_hand said:

MimicMolly said:

I would've exported the base resolution of the Hercules shape, and then made it as a new morph. That way, I dial in the normal HD one, and the base morph I made at the same percentage, but in the negatives, to cancel it out.

Can you please explain how to do that? I'm not familiar with this procedure.

I think this is what they mean:

Export mesh:

1. Load a blank G3M
2. Apply Hercules
3. Set Resolution level to Base (set subdivision and render subd to 0 as well to be sure...)
4. Go to File > Export 
5. Change format to export to OBJ
6. In the settings, note the export scale (mine is Daz Studio (1 unit = 1cm))

1. Delete G3M and load in another (or zero Hercules morph, set resolution back to High Resolution, Subdivision to 1, Render SubD to 2)

Import morph:

1. With figure selected go to Edit > Figure > Morph Loader Pro
2. Ensure scale is set to same as export above (1 unit = 1 cm)
3. Click Choose Morph Files...
4. Locate OBJ you just exported and click open
5. It will appear in the list below. Expand it.
6. Either leave Property Group as is or create a new location for this morph to appear later
7. Under 'Reverse Deformations' change No to Yes
8. Click Accept

Adjust Rigging:

1. Now go to Edit > Figure > Rigging and click 'Adjust Rigging to Shape'
2. Just click Accept (fingers crossed)
3. Wait for it to process.

ERC Freeze:

1. With g3m completely zero'd, apply your morph to 100%, perform the adjust rigging to shape. 
2. Right-click in the list of morphs under the parameters tab and click 'Edit Mode'
3. Right-click your morph and click 'ERC Freeze'
4. Leave options as default but ensure the only properties in the 'Freeze Properties' section that have a tick next to them begin with the following:

xOrigin & xEnd
yOrigin & yEnd
zOrigin & zEnd

1. Click Accept

Test:

1. When processed, dial up the normal Hercules
2. Find your morph and set it to -100%.
3. You now have the HD minus the Hercules
4. Pose a limb to ensure rigging is ok...

Fix:

1. To correct for any Hercules JCMs, ensure hidden parameters are visible, search for a controller (possibly prefixed by 'ctrl') and set to 0.

Save:

1. Finally, if all tests ok, dial your morph to 0
2. Go to File > Save As > Support Asset > Morph Asset(s)
3. Choose a product name if you want,
4. Locate your morph in the hierarchy below, click the square next to it (yellow tick should appear).
5. Click Accept...

Probably best to save the character as scene subset to avoid having to 'fix' the jcms each time. Technically, you could ERC this part in to your morph but that's beyond the scope of this (plus I haven't got the Hercules character to provide specific instructions).

Edit: Added ERC section.