Mousso's characters may seem similar facially at first glance, but a lot of them are quite different. You have to buy them and work with them to see the differences/uniqueness because the lighting, poses, and hairs are often similar. She has given us a very wide variety of faces, and she is more prolific by far than anyone else in the field; so, there has been a bit of redundancy. Look:

Plus, the custom eyebrows she's been adding to her packages are not the same old unusable (for me) slight variations on Redz' SuperNatural Brows that many character vendors have been providing, but are actually unique, believable brows with character. Same for peach fuzz.

Another thing to consider is how difficult it is to make a character with a unique face that won't run into QA snags because of otherwise unimaginable issues. Also, average faces that can skirt the thin line between photorealism and toonish caricature are exceedingly difficult to craft and sell because---like plain or regular people---they have to be photographed from their "good" sides, which are often only a span of 10-15 degrees of a turn. But most people don't want to buy that girl because ugly beautiful is so elusive and subjective.

Saiyaness is the queen of character diversity imo. And although I thought that most of bluejaunte's uber-photorealistic faces were variations on a theme, I discovered that even though some of the characters look like sisters, their face morphs were dramatically different shapes. I use retail characters as starting points and employ E&J Head Morphs, 200 Plus Head Morphs, Rarestone's Head Morphs, DO Head Morphs, Thorne/HandSpanStudio's Morph Kits, and everything else I can get my hands on to make the faces different. But Core characters and trusted vendors are a huge help.

For anyone who was experiencing an issue with Roderick requiring an eyelashes morph from another character, that issue has been fixed, (Jepe announced the update in my Roderick/SBH thread.) I saw the update in DIM this afternoon.

Here are the clay renders, front and back.

 

The full view of both is here.

FYI, I don't do nudes very often, (and I couldn't post it here if I had done a nude of Roderick,) so neither the anatomical elements nor the SBH Preset for them are represented in these clay renders. I deleted both from the scene first thing.

As you can see from the before pics, hair was poking through the cloths almost everywhere. I hid the SBH for the legs, buttocks, and arm pits, and modified the rest.

 

That's really interesting to see! The good thing with SB Hair is that you can simply paint it away in the SB Hair Editor when it pokes through clothing. Duplicating the paint map (right click on the name in Paint Tab) is a good idea though that you can always change back.

I duplicated each SBH object before editing! I'm not very experienced with the editor, and didn't know how to preserve the original. I'll have to try your tip, though. Sounds faster than my backup plan. lol

Duplication is the right way, it can be done indeed in the SB Hair Editor though, all you have to do is to duplicate the paint map and to choose the duplicated map in the distribution tab also. All paint maps are saved with the Hair Preset, even if you have several of them. :)

Btw. a small update to correct the loading error with the character preset with hair (that one lashes morph that had no meaning for the Roderick character) is now life and available in DIM for all those who got Roderick.

Thank you for fixing that issue so fast!

(I couldn't duplicate the problem after uninstalling Jeroyn, but there were quite a few people who reported getting the error message.)

AFE will have it own HD morphs. All HD on G8F must stay on G8F. Note AFE is an enhancement on the face area.

I am creating skin Layer, Skin bump Layer, Lips bump, and skin wrinkle layer. You can dial-in these HD level in to get the look that you want on the AFE mesh. Must turn on Sub D to see.

I am still testing and creating the HD morphs. I can see actual skin moving with wrinkle HD maps. Giving ZBrush level with added skin animation in Daz3d.

Still testing and refining the morphs. HD is big and making life a bit slow. I can only do subs level 3 (AFE sub3 = G8F sub 5) on AFE to speed up the process.

here is a quick test skin morph on AFE. Yes, I need to fix up the puppy skin. 

About the AFE Male. Almost finish. I have to create new facial morphs for him to make it unique. 2-3 weeks. 

Too be honest, there is just too little information.

Agreed... I haven't tested it very thoroughly yet but it looks good, I have to be honest, possibly better than Diffeomorphic's in certain ways. It seems more like a professional plugin designed to be idiot proof, more polished. If the IK works well, it will be the best $15 dollars I have ever spent, and I'm going to go back to the site and buy it again just so that I can give the devs a proper compensation. If it works, $15 would be an insult given the magnitude of the task they conquered.

You mean the IK you apply in Blender after transfer? So you are not transferring animated characters but animating them in Blender? If that's the case I'd love to see some examples of what you achieve. I'm just playing with the new IK in DAZ Studio 4.12 and, although it is promising (and bearing in mind that I'm a complete novice when it comes to animation), I am still getting weird limb movements and contortions. 

Thank you so much, Richard! Just to clarify--(assuming Rarestone's MR morphs allow baking down to an OBJ):

 It is not alright for me to include the shaping preset (created from parameters) with RS' morphs  when I create the OBJ? (I changed only a few values in parameters, so Blender may present an alternative to achieve the same appearance if necessary. My understanding is Blender sculpts can be mixed with licensed morphs then baked. Is this correct?)

Is this Shaping preset something separate that accompanies the character?  Again forgive me any confusion, I am just trying to learn. 

I have read and seen tutorials that suggest you can combine changes (i.e. morph+Blender) to create the (OBJ) head morph while others contradict this (at least in my interpretation).

Thank you for your assistance!

I am having the same problem with Oaklyn. 

G8 Female Centar will not load into my scene.

I uninstalled and reinstalled G8 Female Centaur.

The error popup when I try to load G8 F Centaur into my scene said to check the log which says about a hundered times:

Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Daz Connect Library/data/cloud/1_61909/data/daz 3d/genesis 8 centaur/g8female centaur/g8fcentaur.dsf (1,1): Syntax error - expected '{' or '['

followed by this line about a dozen times:

Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Daz Connect Library/data/cloud/1_61909/data/daz 3d/genesis 8 centaur/female centaur tail/dazcentaurtail.dsf (1,1): Syntax error - expected '{' or '['

then a morph error, then some more of the whole centaur, then some more of the tail

then this line:

WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\sdksource\fileinput\dzassetdaz.cpp(1908): Could not find geometry definition: /data/DAZ%203D/Genesis%208%20Centaur/G8Female%20Centaur/G8FCentaur.dsf#G8FCentaur-1.

followed by "could not find geometry" and "failed to create material" about 50 times

I opened a support ticket

Here are the clay renders, front and back.

 

The full view of both is here.

FYI, I don't do nudes very often, (and I couldn't post it here if I had done a nude of Roderick,) so neither the anatomical elements nor the SBH Preset for them are represented in these clay renders. I deleted both from the scene first thing.

As you can see from the before pics, hair was poking through the cloths almost everywhere. I hid the SBH for the legs, buttocks, and arm pits, and modified the rest.

 

That's really interesting to see! The good thing with SB Hair is that you can simply paint it away in the SB Hair Editor when it pokes through clothing. Duplicating the paint map (right click on the name in Paint Tab) is a good idea though that you can always change back.

I duplicated each SBH object before editing! I'm not very experienced with the editor, and didn't know how to preserve the original. I'll have to try your tip, though. Sounds faster than my backup plan. lol

Duplication is the right way, it can be done indeed in the SB Hair Editor though, all you have to do is to duplicate the paint map and to choose the duplicated map in the distribution tab also. All paint maps are saved with the Hair Preset, even if you have several of them. :)

Btw. a small update to correct the loading error with the character preset with hair (that one lashes morph that had no meaning for the Roderick character) is now life and available in DIM for all those who got Roderick.

On the raestone morphs you would need to open a Sales Support ticket https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-contact-us - as you probably noticed there are no details on what is meant by Merchant resource in this case, and it is not always the same.

The base Genesis 8 female morphs certainly cannot be baked, but you can use a Shaping preset to store their values - along with those for any other morph sets or custom morphs (if you are allowed to bake them).

The Glute and Breast Control set does allow you to bake the morphs down to a single OBJ, though you may well find you then need to adjust the rigging to work. If you do that you need to provide a credit with the product, as mentioned in the user guides:
http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/46009/46009_breast-control-genesis-8-female-mr-agreement-and-usage-guide.pdf
http://docs.daz3d.com/lib/exe/fetch.php/public/read_me/index/46011/46011_glute-control-genesis-8-female-mr-agreement-and-usage-guide.pdf

I'm obsessed with DAZ and have created a character I would love to share. I've been a portrait artist for over thirty years and retouching for a decade, my 2D drawings have been mistaken for photos, but I'm just learning the 3D ropes. Forgive me if my questions seem a bit foolish. I've read so many conflicting scenarios regarding the preparation for sale of a character.

1. The character head I have created uses hundreds of varying percentages of Rarestone's Facial Morphs (MR) and very few alterations of parameters using a Genesis 8 female base figure.

• Is it okay if I bake the character?
• Should the character be saved using an alternate method?
• Am I allowed to use both of these resources separately or together?
• Assuming the character is for sale, does the buyer need to purchase Rarestone's morphs?

2. The character body I have created uses parameters and Zevo's Glute and Breast Control (MR) bundle.

• Is this permissable?
• Does the buyer need to own Zevo's morphs?
• Is it permissable to sculpt a body for selling using parameters only? (I read somewhere that one cannot use parameters/shaping for this (or head shaping) when selling) 

Because I am proficient in Photoshop, the skins I am creating distinguish the character, adding realism. Several of my photographer friends thought she was a model (human) when they saw my (unretouched) renders. I know it is not common for morph dial-only characters to reach the Daz store, but she is quite lovely.  That said, I am exploring Blender to further enhance her and future creations.

Any information regarding the questions above would be greatly appreciated!

(By the way has anyone ever collapsed from Daz addiction? I feel like those kids who play video games for days on end when I'm doing this! )

Thanks!!

...this is why I don't buy many character morphs unless it lends a unique quality to the Genesis "gene pool" or makes a good foundation for custom character development. I primarily rely on merchant resource morph content and other tools like Gen-X (which is one of the reasons I stopped at G3), the Growing Up morphs, Zev0's various anatomy "control" content, and Skin Builder Pro (a real money saver as I don't need to purchase a whole slew of characters to get different skins as I can now create them myself, though I wish there was one for male figures).

As I also mentioned in the Daz5 thread, with Genesis or G2 I remember there were separate controls for right and left facial features (in the Actor parameters) with which you could dial in a bit of asymmetry.  Haven't seen the same for G3 or G8 (unless there is some merchant resource utility I don't yet have which opens those parameters).

@donalddade - When you get a chance, can you check in DazToBlender if it's the base mesh, or is subd applied through blender, or through DS, or something else entirely

Different subd algorithms between programs can cause issue with geometry such as bad eyes, gapped teeth, etc... Teeth are probably fastest/easiest to check

If it has exported OBJ, does that reflect DS's settings?  (e.g if you set subd3 vs 1, is that change reflected) , and is rigging intact in blender with JCM's

Thanks

 

 

I got the impression that the plugin transfers the rigging to the Blender Rigify system ...

Besides basic functions such as IK / FK switching and material adjustment, it also has many applied functions such as morph creation for DazStudio and transition to Rigify mode.

I tried to download the manual but there is a requirement to sign up to something called booth.pm and I was somewhat wary of doing so. 

This quote from the Gumroad page was a little concerning too:

However, there are rare cases where special anatomy such as a female breast cannot be supported.

So the female breast is considered "special anatomy"? I'm guessing it means the extra bones as in G8 female pectoral bones. 

There is nothing wrong with long toenails in my opinion. There are also some products out there to adjust their length.

Thanks for feedback so far, I think I'll give Liloo a try for the foot shape morph. ;-)

I think that this is really a matter of personal taste. I find long toenails extremely ugly - as well as the pointy foot shown by Necriseye on page 1, as an example of a 'good' or 'normal' foot (the morphs he/she released at DA are looking much better).

I really enjoy Necriseye's foot morph. I've shortly purchased it. But I agree it's a matter of personal taste. I also think, there's not the one and only perfect foot shape. I love the variety and will therefore get the Liloo foot model as well.

If current gen8 characters (those I have) put their feet on the table it doesn't look real to me.
So I think there's nothing wrong with asking for some variety and more details relating the feet.

Saiyaness, their characters have a lot of variety both in skin and morph

I can agree with the sentiment of the OP. In this case I'm not certain if it violates TOS or not to mention specific vendors. If so then the mods will remove the post. If not then we can discuss openly.

One example could be sited as the ladies by Muosso. The basic look is very attractive, and no doubt appealing. However the facial structures and the eyes...even on those characters with variations in ethnicity, still look like close cousins to one another. Part of it might be the "signature" of the vendor and that easy recognition might help increase sales in some cases. However for me I just find they are all far too similar looking as if they were all taken from the big eyes high cheeked basic morph with minimal variations and the textures all seem to have the same blush on the cheeks.  These are also Daz Originals which makes them super affordable and might also be part of why they can appear so similar. Sometimes I feel that vendors might feel pressured to publish regularly and not to lose too much time on each individual product. Stick to what you know kind of thing, this can apply to both artists and vendors. I'm the last person to offer advice on the proper answer to this quiery.

Jepp, I can confirm that Genesis 8 centaurs are compatible with the former generation.

Sadly her base character isn't working with the recently released character converter.(Even the forced conversion failed.) So I had to transfer her, the old school way.

The maps were also applied manually, the transition between the two body segments is still visible through a mistake I made. But applying the same shader settings for both the shell and the Gen8 centaur body should fix this.

Never got a problem solved this fast before.

Thanks to the sales team. Everything is in order now and I can finally transfer my Makemba model to Genesis 8. :D

All charcters are based on Genesis (1, 2, 3, 8), so are morphs. (I'm ignoring previous to Genesis.)

A huge number of characters are based off merchant resources; that doesn't make them bad. If I like a character, I buy, if I discover that they have the same texture with tweaks, I've been known to return them, but if I like those tweaks I don't usually bother.

My biggest issue is with re-using assets. Adding a mole to a texture isnt a new texture. To qualify as a different character there should be a good deal if change. If not it should be sold as a morph and not a complete character. A few custom characters Ive come across are just dial setting.

Hi - I have exactly the same problem; with the exeption the distortion appears when I use the transfer utility in the opposite direction - when I transfer G3F body shapes to G8F. A similar problem is described here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/310076/how-to-fix-genesis-8-female-armpit-gap - perhaps indeed JCMs (Joint Controlled Morphs) are causing the problem. But I have no idea why they would be activated only after a transfer utility action; and of course - I cannot identify (or dial out...) any JCMs in "currently used" to correct the distorsion.

Any new ideas or solutions?