I went ahead and dove in on the action bundle and split it up through PayPal.  Good stuff since I am a SCI FI geek.  A little render of the captaims coming back from their sucessful missions.  Captaim Michael is explaining his mission to Captain Victoria when he notices something behind her.

It goes back about 1 year (if the product is that old). I attach an example for Victoria 6 - running the cursor over the timeline to the price will show the date that it was that price.

I wanted to buy him, but those droppy eyes bother me a bit. Same goes with other 8.1 male figures such as Hans. Plus the price has gone up quite a bit. :( But other than that, it is a nice figure, just like Victoria 9.

Victoria 8 and Michael 8 with Toon Heroes mixed in.

Used the Toon Skin for both of them.

They found each other :)

 

Weghing in on Michael 9. I think he looks great. Probably the best Michael to date. I'm another one who isn't a fan of the price structure for him though.

I bought Victoria 9 and was able to get her mega bundle for about $76 with discounts and there were 14 items in the bundle. For that price, there were things I think they skimped on with regards to textures.  I can't say I'm a fan of how Daz is splitting things up into separate products that have always been included with figures in years past. Despite that, I was looking forward to MIchael 9. I always buy products for men when I can. I know they say men don't sell as well, so I do my best to buy what I can. However, with all the discounts I can get, Michael 9 would end up costing me $20 more than Victoria did and with only 12 products in his mega bundle vs her 14. Even for me, no matter how much I want him, that isn't something I can justify after already having spent what I have on the few G9 products I have.

So I will wait. I'll make my own male characters and my own skins for those characters until Michael 9 is selling at a more affordable price. While I enjoy creating my own characters, it makes me very sad that I can't justify buying Michael 9 while he's hot off the presses as it were. I was very much looking forward to his launch.

Serene Night said:

Hi:

 

Can anyone test the Toon Hero's head for men for me? It seems that at anything less than 100 percent, the eyes can become wonky when a pose is applied. 

I just tested and I do get some eyes pointed all googly eyes for some of the expressions in Emotions Expressions for Victoria 9 | Daz 3D however when I look at the thumbnail of Victoria 9's expression for the expression applied her eyes are sort of googly eyed in the same way. I think it's just the huge scale of the toon eyes is magnifying the difference between the eyes, not 100% if that's correct behavior though.

Having downloaded the Genesis 9 Starter Essentials, I'm looking at the Genesis 9 Head and Body Morphs and Victoria 9 and Michael 9. The question is: are they worth the expense? Importantly, is Genesis 9 backward compatible with cothing/hair designed for Genesis 8? And what about clothing/hair for the previous generations? Next are poses. I don't suppose that Genesis poses will work on Genesis 9, but what about Genesis 8 poses? And what about character morphs? Can character morphs meant for Genesis 8 be applied to Genesis 9? (I suspect the answer is "No.")

I suppose I'm asking whether there is a good, true, and compelling reason to upgrade to Genesis 9 having spent not a little money on Genesis 8 figures, clothing, and poses (male and female)?

I've used Daz Studio since version 1.0 and have been a Daz/Zygote customer since Victoria 1.0. I used to post art at DeviantArt under the name "mrwakko13us" and Renderosity as mrwakko13. Over the years I've had many hobbies and in the last year I began making videos for music I create on my iPad and posting them on YouTube. I've been wanting to somehow incorporate Daz Studio and I finally have. I've been wanting to share my excitement with people who might understand. I don't think the folks at the music forum I frequent would "get it". Maybe people here won't either, but for me it felt like an accomplishment. Fair warning. My music is loud so if you want to check it out I won't be offended if you watch with the volume off. The dancing figure is Victoria 4 with the Creature Creator morphs using a freebie texture for Victoria 3 I converted using a texture converter that sadly is no longer sold here. The motion capture was from a free set offered here: https://awesomedog.com/ I apologize if this comes across as a shameless plug. I just was incredibly happy to have checked this item off my "things I want to eventually do" list. Thanks for looking.

IceDragonArt said:

Knittingmommy said:

It's been a while since I've been active in the forum. I had some losses in my family which were hard to deal with. It's just been a rough last couple of years. When I have been on the forums, I've mostly just lurked in the background. Sadly, that also meant there wasn't a It's Raining Men contest last year, and there won't be one this year either. I do really hope things get back to normal for me and perhaps, I can resurrect the contest in 2023 if there is still interest in having it. I apologize for just ghosting on that, but I just didn't have the mental capacity to deal with all the issues that always comes up with having the contest. Normally, I don't mind, but I just can't yet.

So Genesis 9 seems to be out. I'm not sure if I'm impressed with it yet or not. I did pick up Victoria 9, not the bundle though. I have to say I'm surprised Victoria 9 only came with one eye color. Even Genesis 9 comes with the the normal base colors like blue, green, brown, etc. Usually Victoria has those same basic options. But no, she only has one eye color. I so hope that isn't a trend for Daz characters in the future.

At any rate, I did have fun playing with the new figures. I'll withhold judgment about the new generation until more characters come out and we have access to all the morphs. At the moment,there isn't really all that much I can until even the basic morph sets come out. I really need to work on taking figures out of Daz Studio and morphing characters on my own. That's not something I've been very successful at doing yet. I mostly rely on morph sets and spin dials. Not something I can do until I have dials to spin!

So here's my first renders of Victoria 9.

Closeup of V9:

I haven't been happy, so far, with my test renders of Genesis 9. I'll keep working with her to see what I can do.

I haven't see anything that makes me want to go and buy Genesis 9 anything.  I'm still waiting to be "wowed".  Meanwhile I've got so much other content....  Its good to have you back.  I'm sorry that its been so rough.  I've had a ton of life changes myself, some good, some bad. Here's to a better 2023 all around!

I definitely hope that 2023 is better. The last few years have been rough, to say the least! It's good to be back though.

There might be a better way, but for products purchased from the Daz store, you can go to the product library page in My Account, then click on the product, then click "view product page" and finally click Readme and scroll down to the file list. That will show you the files and where they live.

For items installed from elsewhere, you if you have the ZIP files for them, you could always open them and look at the file paths.

That's the problem. I can surely do it for the product I took here on the DAZ site, but I can't do it anymore for all the rest. And among what I took elsewhere, I have stuff I can't lost. Even personalized stuff I made make on fiverr only for me.
And I haven't the files ZIP or RAR anymore, since I had to save space in my Hard Disk back in the day.
Now I'm getting a new larger SSD, but I wouldn't in any case keep all that trash.
Also because... Jeez, I started with Michael/Victoria 1... we we haven't had time to get used to genesis 8.1 and are already with Genesis 9. With larger and larger files, 4k textures etc... not talking about my personal HDRI, backdrop images, my personal obj models...
All the space I can gain is welcomed.

Oso3D said:

Here's Victoria 9 in the Dark Assassin outfit. Woot.

(Again, SO thrilled for the easy unisex clothing stuff)

Nice render. Clothes will need Zev0's Fit Control for Genesis 9. 

Here's Victoria 9 in the Dark Assassin outfit. Woot.

 

(Again, SO thrilled for the easy unisex clothing stuff)

Bejaymac said:

Log shows you loaded Arianna 8.1 and Victoria 9, but this "/data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 8/Female/Morphs/Elianeck/Lolo/PHMMouthRealism_HD_div2.dsf" is the only morph being loaded that shouldn't be.

Most of the log shows G8F expression correctives failing to load when loading G8.1F, this is normal for the default set up of G8.1F/M as it uses a different system to G8F/M, and blocks access to those files.

G8F expressions correctives failing to load...is that what all them warnings are in my first screen shot in my first post, and as such nothing to worry about?

Log shows you loaded Arianna 8.1 and Victoria 9, but this "/data/DAZ 3D/Genesis 8/Female/Morphs/Elianeck/Lolo/PHMMouthRealism_HD_div2.dsf" is the only morph being loaded that shouldn't be.

Most of the log shows G8F expression correctives failing to load when loading G8.1F, this is normal for the default set up of G8.1F/M as it uses a different system to G8F/M, and blocks access to those files.

nonesuch00 said:

MimicMolly said:

Does M9 only come with 1 skin and the two chests (male and female)?

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.

I guess I could wait for him. His skin was practically perfect for a female character I'm trying to make too, and I don't want to be bothered removing the stubble myself right now. (But I also can't trust the Product Descriptions, because Edie 8's description doesn't mention the ear morphs or the nose morphs, but those are there.)

AlmightyQUEST said:

...Not sure if this was a joke, but he's been released pretty fast after Victoria compared to previous generations?

 

Yeah, I remember when Mike didn't come out until many months after Vicky. I don't remember specifically, but when Vicky 1 first appeared it might have been as much as 6 months before Mike 1 was released ;). I remember it being quite a long while. 

The bundle is pricy, but I really like what's in it. I don't know how I feel about having environments in these figure bundles, which feels like it's raising the prices, but it's good content I would have liked separately anyway.

Sounds like someone else already confirmed this, but I'm not missing anything, Mike doesn't get an alternate skin like Vickie did? How does that work out to the same price? I don't get in on the discussions about DAZ treating the male releases differently, as I think the comparisons are often unfair, but this seems like a pretty equivalent comparison, so what's up with this?

no nose said:

I'm suprised how long it took for a male Gen 9 figure to come out

Not sure if this was a joke, but he's been released pretty fast after Victoria compared to previous generations?

 

MimicMolly said:

Does M9 only come with 1 skin and the two chests (male and female)?

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.

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.

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.