I think if you want to have sort by isntall date work in DS you need to install via Connect - so I was told, anyway, but that was when it was a new feature.

That makes and doesn't at the same time. I will need to try it and see. I know it sorts by Install Date to the original Install Date. But that could just be an accident and not actually the DIM install date.

In any case, for my work flow, Connect won't work. I can't handle G8F taking over a minute to pop into a scene just because it has five million morph dials installed that I have no interest in using.

Connect lets you install what you want just as DIM does (as long as you aren't using Victoria/Michael/Kids 4, or one or two other legacy figures).

I think if you want to have sort by isntall date work in DS you need to install via Connect - so I was told, anyway, but that was when it was a new feature.

That makes and doesn't at the same time. I will need to try it and see. I know it sorts by Install Date to the original Install Date. But that could just be an accident and not actually the DIM install date.

In any case, for my work flow, Connect won't work. I can't handle G8F taking over a minute to pop into a scene just because it has five million morph dials installed that I have no interest in using.

Don't use Adjust Rigging to Shape with compound morphs. If you have custom morphs that need it then apply just one morph, adjust the rigging, link via ERC Freeze for each in turn.

Ok, that is good to know.

One more question, I had my custom morph only imported locally in the scene where I used it to create my new character.

I created the head morph, body morph, full morph, and than used the scene to save/support asset/morph asset.

That introduced my new morphs in the morph tabs. My problem is that the custom morph was only imported locally, so the head morph that is available through support asset does not have the custom morph available to apply, so it just applies the rest of the settings.

Is there a way to apply that shape without having to save my custom morph also as a support asset ? (since I only used it for this new one, I don't want to crowd my morphs with it)

If there isn't, would another viable option be to use my custom morph as the head morph and use ERC Freeze on it to also include the rest of the head morphs?

Don't use Adjust Rigging to Shape with compound morphs. If you have custom morphs that need it then apply just one morph, adjust the rigging, link via ERC Freeze for each in turn.

Save a Shaping preset and that should capture the mrophs, except possibly your custom morph. Then Edit>Figure>Zero>Zero Figure Shape, reset your custom morph (assuming it was zeroed), and ERC Freeze that. Then reapply the saved shape preset , create the cotnroller(s), and ERC Freeze that/them as needed.

It does eliminate the x/y/z origin and end but there is a problem (I think):

I saved a shaping preset without my cutom morph.

I restored shape.

I reset my custom morph. I applied adjust rigging to shape. I applied ERC Freeze to my custom morph.

I applied the saved shape preset (this removes my cutom morph). I reapply my custom morph.

Now if I use ERC Freeze on a new Char_Head morph all is well but, if I apply adjust rigging to shape, the bones move a little. If I do that, the x/y/z origin and end appear again in the ERC Freeze.

I am not sure what to do now.

Also, question about the Adjust rigging to shape, should I select adjust orientation or leave it unselected? I noticed it does something at least in the eyes.

Thanks again for the time you are taking to help me out with this.

Went back on my desktop, loaded G8F, and searched based on your attachment @CharlieJudge (Thank you) and selected 'HD' due to the number of packages I do have. I then searched on the other names: Athletic, Casual, Curvy, and Slim (I couldn't remember the other one) but no find except for other PA's sliders. I even double-checked that the package is installed on this computer.

This only shows the very top of my HD morph packages. 

Everyone who is trying to help myself and others, thank you.

Mary

WOULD it cost more, though? Let's go back to Octiana: you're not just buying the octopus tentacle geograft, but also a human torso/head morph with accompanying textures. Would it have been MORE work to create a set of octopus tentacles that could work with any character skin than it was to make Octiana the way she is? Or would it just be DIFFERENT work? Compare the above mermaid examples with the G8 Aguja/Alascanus mermaid sets. The G8 mermaids are full characters, with separate human and "mermaid" skin textures, not just for the human part, but for the mertail itself and several of the other geografts. That's a lot of extra texturing work that wouldn't have to happen if the geografts had transparency around them rather than skin texture. 

 

A geograft CANNOT have a transparent edge. The edge of a geograft is always a hard line that has to line up with the mesh that it is attacehd to.

As such it cannot blend from base figure to graft smoothly unless textures are made specifically for it.

There is no decent character maker that would accept a hard line edge as a natural organic look.

If you wanted to pop a different skin on the human part of my Octiana, you would get that same ugly cut like you have on the snake you have shown. So if that is the look you like, then go for it. But for a natural blending. That cannot be done with geografts.

The geograft may be a hard line, but I've already given five examples of geografts that extend the mesh beyond the geograft itself to cover up the transition, three of which use transparency, so it's patently false to say that it CAN'T be done.  I agree that the transition on the snake tail is not especially well done, but personally, I would still take that over the straight line I'd get across Octiana's waist if I used a different texture. It's a rather inelegant transition, but it is at least A transition. Look at the centaurs, or the three mermaid examples I posted, and you have much smoother transitions, because they were designed that way. Even if they're not as smooth as the transition on Octiana (and they may or may not be, I haven't looked closely enough at any of them to say), they're still better for the way I work and the kind of art I create. 

One could argue that the use of geoshells atop a grafted area can maybe work out some limited blending, but that would be a significant amount of extra work and would really limit the design possibilities for the character if it had to rely on that.

Thank you for finally admitting that these are choices, even if you didn't mean to. Let me say it again: I understand that you have reasons for designing your characters the way you do, and I'm not saying that those reasons are invalid. You COULD design characters that are more inclusive, but you are certainly within your rights not to. You've got your aesthetic, your workflow, and your customer base, and I'm not demanding that you upend them all for me. I have made my case for wider applicability in creature design, and you are clearly not receptive to my arguments, so that's all there is to it. Saying "[that] would really limit the design possibilities for the character if it had to rely on that] points to a mismatch of priorities: I want products that allow me to use any character I want - in other words, I'm more interested in components than characters - whereas you would rather design entire characters. You design your characters in ways that not only don't facilitate off-label usage but are often outright hostile to it. Are they bad products because of this? No, but they're bad products FOR ME.

Can't you just use the clone tool in Photoshop afterwards to remove seams? Or create your own texture by making a seamless tile with your preferred texture? Or just take the whole texture into Photoshop and paint whatever you like and replace the original textures? 

You say "just" do that as if it's a trivial matter, as if image editing, and texturing in particular, isn't a separate skillset and workflow from working in DS. Also, it would require that I do this for EVERY character skin I want to use for EVERY geograft, when the whole point of this thread is that none of that would be necessary if PAs designed geografts with general character use in mind. This render features three centaurs each with different horse textures and human textures, and while I could have edited those three separate textures - or simply sidestepped the issue by sticking to one texture or covering up the transition with clothing - the way the product was made gave me the freedom not to worry about that. One of them is wearing a shirt that covers the transition, but that was a style choice for that particular character, not out of necessity.

This is a creative artistic hobby or business and it seems like people just want everything out of the box when it's so much more rewarding (and professional if you are doing this as a business) to put your own creative spin on things...

Setting aside how trifling it is to sneer at people for "wanting everything out of the box" on a site that sells pre-made content, editing textures is not the only way to put a creative spin on things. It's not how I express my creativity, and it's not something I'm good at or enjoy doing. It's not about wanting things to work perfectly out of the box, it's about wanting products that put fewer restrictions on exactly how I can use them. 

Again and again, it all comes down to choices. It doesn't matter how much or little work would be required to make geografts that work with any character skin, if creators don't first decide that that is what they want to do. It doesn't matter whether or not the general type of geograft I'm asking for would cost more than a character-based geograft, or how much more; I can't choose to buy one over the other if only one exists. Oso pointed out that he designed Bocular Man to be able to use any skin, and I'd honestly never looked closely enough at that product to notice it. Now that I know that, I'm a lot more likely to buy it, and I'm more likely to buy his products in general because he cared enough to include that detail.

Let me bring this back around to why I originally made this thread, to hopefully make a better case for inclusivity than I apparently did the first time. My wife is black, and an artist/graphic designer herself. The only reason I rendered my first centaur was because I thought it would be fun to replicate a drawing she made of a black centaur, but centaurs have since become a big proportion of my renders, and that's due in large part to how flexible the Daz centaurs are. I don't render exclusively, or possibly even primarily, white people, so I place high value on products that make it easier to accomplish that. There are plenty of reasons PAs might overwhelmingly create white characters: they might simply find white people more appealing to make; they might feel more comfortable making them, or be better at making them; they might want to avoid stereotyping and/or misrepresenting other ethnicities, or even just avoid accusations that they have. I'm sure it goes without saying that white people also sell better on average, so there's an additional incentive. All of these are legitimate reasons, but the end result is less representation of non-white people, and I'm in favor of more representation. I'm not suggesting, for example, that RawArt release a black version of Octiana, because then we'd just have the same problem in the opposite direction. I'm encouraging creators to consider placing more value on diversity and versatility than many of them currently do. 

From another perspective, consider the market. Creatures are inherently a niche, both from a consumer and creator standpoint, and the realities of the market (and of Daz's store in particular) mean that we generally only get one of any given type of creature per generation. PAs have made add-on textures, characters, accessories, etc. for Daz's centaurs, but nobody has released a competing centaur model for G3 or G8. Why would they? We almost certainly won't see a different half-octopus for G8F, and for all I know, RawArt isn't even planning to release a male counterpart. I doubt anybody's working on a mermaid set to compete with Aguja/Alascanus. We're generally stuck with whatever gets released first. So what does that mean for us as customers? Are we stuck with a product that limits our creative possibilities? Or one that encourages them? I don't feel "stuck" with the G8 centaurs, but I do with some of the other creatures I have. 

Well, it depends on how much effort you're willing to put into it, and what results you expect. The least amount of effort might be to import the obj as if it was a prop, and just parent it to the figure's head. (Then hide anything that pokes through) That would be kind of like having the figure wear it as a Halloween mask. You wouldn't be able to use the posing controls for facial expressions or the like, and you'd possibly have issues in the neck area. 
 

To get facial features to work is a whole different level of effort, because you'd need it rigged and weight mapped. I don't know if the transfer utilities will do that for you or not. 

Peekaboo

With this precious little bundle of joy, her entire world changed! And she honestly couldn't be happier!

Free:

Lea For G8F - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/lea-for-genesis-8-corrected-version/82570

Fairy Poses (Pose 5) - https://fantasiesrealm.com/market/Designers/AngellsGraphics/Fairy-Poses-for-G3F-G8F-Exclusive

Galia Dress - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/galia-dress-g8/83638

Cutie Dress (with Leggings) - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/cutie-dress/83674

Wool Socks for Genesis 8 Female - http://www.digi-dotz.com/index.php/free-poses/daz-clothes/206-socks-for-daz-genesis-8-female?highlight=WyJzb2NrcyJd

Fem Shep Hair G3F - https://www.deviantart.com/talidesade/art/Fem-Shep-Hair-G3F-DOWNLOAD-727271306

Contemporary Room - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/contemporary-room/77686 

Snowy Park HDRI - https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?c=nature&h=snowy_park_01

 

No Count:

Merrymaking Style for Genesis 8 Female - Christmas 2019 Freebie

 

Paid:

Caryn HD for Genesis 8 Female - https://www.daz3d.com/caryn-hd-for-genesis-8-female

Ella for Caryn 8 (materials, brows, morph at %50) - https://www.daz3d.com/ella-for-caryn-8

Baby Props and Poses for Genesis 8 - https://www.daz3d.com/baby-props-n-poses-for-genesis-8

 

I changed some materials and tweaked the pose.  All done within Daz Studio Iray. No post work except for the watermark.

All Links Check Out Plz Move To Entries Thread

Save a Shaping preset and that should capture the mrophs, except possibly your custom morph. Then Edit>Figure>Zero>Zero Figure Shape, reset your custom morph (assuming it was zeroed), and ERC Freeze that. Then reapply the saved shape preset , create the cotnroller(s), and ERC Freeze that/them as needed.

 

https://www.sharecg.com/v/94366/

Yep, that's it.  Now that I'm at a computer (and sober), here's the origional post I found all of the info in:  https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/332851/daz-4-11-iray-dark-eyes-bug

I also got the bug with a G8M yesterday, and I was going to make a morph for him, as well, but switching that initialization mode to "speed" seemed to fix it with no other noticeable drawbacks as far as I could tell.

He looks good, but a bit too expensive considering one can get Michael 6 free here at the moment and use it in Poser...

I'll disagree on the first part, agree on the second... Genesis 2 just looks better than either L'Homme or La Femme.

Hell, I'd suggest Dawn and Dusk over them.

They actually look good.

someone suggested he is FtM Trans due to his thigh gap and body shape

technically he indeed is 

not that there is anything wrong with that

So he's basically a morph for La Femme. Great. I know Genesis II shared the same base geomotry between the two and genesis was... genesis... but come on, put some effort into it.

So far I'm not really convinced by how he poses in the pics I've seen. Especially the armpits...

I know.

I dislike his build, I can't stand his face. And oh god, the armpits...

What has been seen cannot be unseen.

SLMH seems a bit slow on my machine too. About 10-15 mins for a simulation. Could be worse, but it's good to hear it's a relatively slow one. Anyway, I'm slowly getting to learn how to use SLMH and I rather like many of the results. It's my only Linday product, but probably won't be the last.

yeah, these hairs are kinda heavy on resources, but he end result is worth it IMO

Funny, lots of my image involve bodies laying down or in non standing poses, so i need hair that will drape realistically. I purchased a dforce strand based hair from PhilW to check out the tech to see how it would work and look compared to these types of hairs. It works great, drapes well and takes less reources, so i was hoping Lindey would make some hair using this method. Well she has, but so far i haven't liked the styles and I am waiting for more offerings from her.

(For those interested the shape is Layla 100% elf ears separate dial and about 40% josie; trying to get a willowy/tall skinny elf that doesn't look like a teen - not easy. Tamasis V4 for the textures. I'm not sure why an elf would be wearing a bikini, unless its some weird elven armour, or running through the trees with long flowing hair, which can catch on every twig for miles around.)

Yes, I too like PhilW's hairs - and they do simulate very quickly and usually without any poke-through issues.

The virgin hair style suggests beauty salon (at least to me), so one might think its limited in its useage. Tweaking settings, however, allows the style to remain to various extents.

Heavily tweaked the settings in the first image and made it slightly shorter. Ear interraction not too bad. It would be helpful if morphs better lifted the hair up, although I expect that affect the desired style.

Same tweaks on the dforce hair settings as previous image but longer hair; turned dforce setting to Better not Best, gravity at 1 for the left image and to 2 for the right.

Pretty much default settings for the third image; I adjusted the morphs to match the other hair, and scaled it, which is the easiest (when it works) way of increasing the length; it doesn't work that well here, until the gravity is changed. (An alternative method of making the hair longer is turn on allow negative values on the shorter morph; this affects the hair differently than just scaling.) The gravity was 3.5 (Linday's default if that setting is applied by the user) for the left image, but set to 15 for the right.

Stabilisation Time and Start Bones from Memorised Pose may need adjusting, depeing on circumstances.

I like Linday's dforce (cloth) hair, but was interested to see what they made of strand-based hair, and have both their products; I like them a lot. I pretty much only used strand-based hair now - unless I need a style they can't accommodate.

The virgin hair is great, but can take a while to sim; but changing the gravity and tweaking other settings can give some great variation within the constraints of the style.

Hoping Linday does more strand-based dforce hair - with the emphasis on strand-based.

 

good to know. Do you have any renders showing how it drapes in non standing positions?

 

Not at the moment, but I did some images showing important body interraction with the torso and an arm.

I find that once I've got the look I want for the hair, then the only thing I need to change (as a rule) depending on pose: is gravity, the amoung of stabilisation time, better simulation or best. I tend to prefer better purely because of speed, but sometimes, best it has to be.

I wonder if a projection morph could be made for the head that fixes the problem.  I don't know how to go about creating one, but something like sickleyield's De-Crackifier comes to mind.  ...then again, that would probably also deform clothing items.

Hello ;)

I'm not really explicit in the title but there is my problem.

I made a morph using blender to elongate the hand of a figure.

Before: http://prntscr.com/qnybtv
After: http://prntscr.com/qnycci

But when I try to bend his fingers, there is what I have: http://prntscr.com/qnycvd

 

I hope you've understand my problem, and hope someone can help me ;)
Thank you :D

This was an old problem that seemed to have resurfaced.  One possible fix is to set the render instancing optimization to "speed" instead of memory.  I think that's what it's called.
 

The other was to create a morph that pushed the water moisture away from the eyes a touch.  The geo intersects and causes this, is what I understood.

Duskrider actually created a morph on share CG for free that addresses it on G8F.  I don't have a link, as I'm on a phone, but if you Google "G8F World Center Eye Fix DAZ" you should find it easily enough.  That guys a hero, I struggled with this for days the first time around. 

Thanks Duckbomb. I'm guessing it's this one.

https://www.sharecg.com/v/94366/

Peekaboo

With this precious little bundle of joy, her entire world changed! And she honestly couldn't be happier!

Free:

Lea For G8F - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/lea-for-genesis-8-corrected-version/82570

Fairy Poses (Pose 5) - https://fantasiesrealm.com/market/Designers/AngellsGraphics/Fairy-Poses-for-G3F-G8F-Exclusive

Galia Dress - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/galia-dress-g8/83638

Cutie Dress (with Leggings) - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/cutie-dress/83674

Wool Socks for Genesis 8 Female - http://www.digi-dotz.com/index.php/free-poses/daz-clothes/206-socks-for-daz-genesis-8-female?highlight=WyJzb2NrcyJd

Fem Shep Hair G3F - https://www.deviantart.com/talidesade/art/Fem-Shep-Hair-G3F-DOWNLOAD-727271306

Contemporary Room - https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/contemporary-room/77686 

Snowy Park HDRI - https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?c=nature&h=snowy_park_01

 

No Count:

Merrymaking Style for Genesis 8 Female - Christmas 2019 Freebie

 

Paid:

Caryn HD for Genesis 8 Female - https://www.daz3d.com/caryn-hd-for-genesis-8-female

Ella for Caryn 8 (materials, brows, morph at %50) - https://www.daz3d.com/ella-for-caryn-8

Baby Props and Poses for Genesis 8 - https://www.daz3d.com/baby-props-n-poses-for-genesis-8

 

I changed some materials and tweaked the pose.  All done within Daz Studio Iray. No post work except for the watermark.

I think it would be nice to have more "outie" style belly button morphs, either on character models or in a pack with other naval morphs, for both G8M and G8F. As it stands, there is one I got somewhere, but it doesn't really work when distending the belly significantly like you would see on an obese man or pregnant woman. Also, a horse head morph would be cool. I mean we have a few animal head morphs, cats, dogs, deer, wolves, but nothing like a horse.

This was an old problem that seemed to have resurfaced.  One possible fix is to set the render instancing optimization to "speed" instead of memory.  I think that's what it's called.
 

The other was to create a morph that pushed the water moisture away from the eyes a touch.  The geo intersects and causes this, is what I understood.

Duskrider actually created a morph on share CG for free that addresses it on G8F.  I don't have a link, as I'm on a phone, but if you Google "G8F World Center Eye Fix DAZ" you should find it easily enough.  That guys a hero, I struggled with this for days the first time around. 

You have to save the morph. Go to File -> Save As -> Support Asset -> Morph Asset, and select the morph you created.