It is definitely a labor of love. At first I was trying to go too big and it ended up working to some degree but there were issues with the figure I chose back then. So this time. I stuck with making just a head morph.

I did not do a complete recreation because I didn't like her ears from the first figure, so I decided not to include them. The key thing for me was being able to use all the different textures that Genesis 8/3 provides with all the updated shaders.

This way anything that I can use with Genesis 8 now works with her and it's made things much more appealing. I think the one thing I am going to try and accomplish with this is to redo her original hairstyle as well using some of the newer techniques. I want the final image to be reminiscient but also new. 

In Florida, the Business Regulatory Commission investigates businesses DOING BUSINESS (like Paypal does) in the state. The business can get $25,000 fines for practices deemed unethical, cringeworthy, in violation of decent trade practices, you get the gist. And if you notice, there will be a FEE starting November 7th if you transfer money from Paypal, can't remember if it is from the "wallet" or just transferring money in general.

So if it had been Nov 7th or later, you may have had to pay to get it back into your account. Crap would hit the fan if that was my money they took, cancelled, and then tried to charge me to fix it. THAT indeed qualifies for the business oversight agency in your state. (In addition to a Better Business Bureau complaint.) 

I honestly don't think any of this is Daz's fault. 

Re: Paypal/Daz3d issues:  the good bad & ugly....   
GOOD news is that daz support said they WOULD LET ME PAY via store credit the invoice/order that PAYPAL "reviewed" and subsequently "Reversed" aka cancelled, so I get the cartload/deals I bought (or tried to, anyway).   Yaay, Thanks, Daz!  So if this happens to you, you will be able to still get your goodies/deals despite the Paypal problem; just get a GC for the amount, put to Store Credit and email sales support at Daz3d with the order# and ask them to get it from SC.

The BAD and UGLY news is calling Paypal, waiting, and then speaking to cust srvc person who repeatedly invoked non-specific boogeyman "regulations" to excuse the cancellation.  Rep not only would NOT provide a specific objective reason for the review & cancellation, but when I pressed for a transfer to (or even email from) someone who COULD provide the specific reasons the transaction was cancelled, and what specific regulations were breached the rep literally stated that there was NO ONE at paypal who could tell me anything specific.  "Regulations!'     (can ya vague that up for me?)      Next, I asked the rep to send the refunded money (from the cancelled transaction) back to my bank whence it came instead of leaving it floating in Paypal balance. It's only right, since they took the funds to do the transaction, but since they didn't do their part, why should THEY hold MY MONEY instead of putting it back.   The rep said, um, no.  If you want it back (where they took it from!) you'd have to go into paypal and initiate the transfer back yourself.

After explaining that other shoppers were also suddenly having paypal issues at Daz3d, the rep insisted nothing had changed, that these things occasionally happen, because..."regulations" and basically: get over it!    When I challenged the rep that I'd been shopping at Daz all this millenium very frequently & almost exclusively using paypal for literally years on end, that it seemed incredible that suddenly transactions at Daz3d would be running afoul of "regulations."   I mean, seriously, if it is the same merchant (daz3d) using the same transaction mechanisms & software day in and day out and the same customer, say, me, buying something how can 1 transaction  be out-of-compliance but the others perfectly okay?  This might be understandable say if the transactions were for huge dollar amounts that were out of routine and somehow suspicious but in fact the amount of my cancelled transaction was in the same range as all my other transaction with daz which have been okay.  The rep repeated the non-answer answer, but did finally state that there were other "reviews" and "declines" involving Daz3d; pressed, the rep WOULD NOT SAY HOW MANY or if this was typical or an upswing in such events nor any other sort of details.  The rep did state that "DAZ3d COULD ALWAYS CONTACT PAYPAL if there was a problem."  ( !! IF there was a problem !!)        Finally, I asked the paypal rep a question: If your bank randomly "reviewed" & "reversed" some of your transactions (where there can be consequences, as penalties, late fees etc) such as denying your mortgage transaction one month, or declining your debit card at a store you shop at daily or get gas weekly, and WOULD NOT GIVE ANY DETAILS OR REASONS, would you be okay with that?   The paypal rep instantly answered, "It they said...due to regulations... yes, that'd be fine.         WOW.     So I'm wondering if it's time to start divorce proceedings from Paypal, because that refusal or inability to be accountable, to give legitimate explanation is not okay for me.    I told the rep I don't want to play russian roulette when I am doing any kind of money transaction, that the (now fading) allure of Paypal had been RELIABILITY, and convenience.
  ~Gen

Two versions of the Hair/Beard

There are two versions of the hair/beard.  One is Carrara dynamic hair.  The other was converted to an OBJ woth Philemo's plugi, then made a conforming figure for G2M using Studio's transfer utility.  The obj is better if I want to use the toon filter or th NPR render engine.

Here is the untextured obj version of the hair/beard

The lights will load parented to the appropriate body parts, but on G3 default pose, so the legs and arms will be misaligned. As the product has a lot of lights, selecting them one by one and moving them to the proper position will be a hellish task; my suggested workaround would be to load an invisible G3 figure with the same pose as the G8 you want the effect o and morph them similarly. Not ideal, but it beats the alternative.

Or just put the G8 into the Tpose to begin with...

Its Raining Men Again

This is a great event.  I hope it inspires some people to dive back in the modeling pool, or the skin and morph character pool, or the hair styling pool.

Here is a link to Its Raining Men - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/286971/it-s-raining-men-annual-contest-starts-now#latest

I recently saw the movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People.  Got me thinking. I applied some of the lessons from the most recent posts to begin a Leprechaun character.  Here is an early concept test with Floyd.  I'll go through some of the details in my other thread and link here.  The FBM  was dial spun but then saved as a single character morph.  The clothing was modeled to fit this FBM, and then "reverse to shape" was used in the transfer utility.  The hair and beard were styled and converted in Carrara, then exported to Studio, and transferred to a conforming obj.  Again, hair designed for leprechaun's FBM and then reversed in transfer utility. Shaders were just some presets in my library.  Sort of looks like a disco leprechaun for the moment.  

EDIT - DForce was used on the sleeves and pant legs, but few wrinkles or folds.  Happens sometimes.

What is everyone up to?

Yep, it's all about morphs. If you said that G3 is cuter *by default* than G8, that's one thing. You add enough morphs  to G8, she can be cuter than any figure before her. Mix a little Girl 8, Littlefox or 3D Universe morphs, the 200 morph set, add muscularity morphs to males, etc. That's how you make any figure look good.

So true. I am always amazed when I hear a user talk about never creating their own characters with morphs, there are so many to choose from, the options are unlimted. I have never used any genesis character or addon character "out of the box", so to speak. First thing I do when a new generation is released is get the base figure and the DAZ face and body morphs so I can start creating my new character.

Depending on style you could try adding a t-shirt under the dress if the straps bother you. And leggings under the skirt are also an option if it's a bit too short for your taste and doesn't have length morphs.

For a very young girl you could use this: https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-nostalgia-dress-for-genesis-8-females

Both dresses look like some my 2 years old niece wears, if you change the fabric for outer dress to something a bit more modern and use it over a tshirt. 

A few G8 and G3 dresses which might work for an older girl (might need to change the textures to something more child like):

https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-all-seasons-outfit-for-genesis-8-females

https://www.daz3d.com/rule-of-cute-outfit-for-genesis-8-and-3-female-s (dress has a length morph)

https://www.daz3d.com/cool-spring-outfit-for-genesis-3-female-s

https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-jumper-uniform-for-genesis-8-females

https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-mabel-outfit-for-genesis-8-females

https://www.daz3d.com/sana-style-for-genesis-3-female-s

https://www.daz3d.com/working-now-for-genesis-3-female-s (there's a "short" morph, it can probably be used as negative to make skirt longer too)

https://www.daz3d.com/uniform-dress-for-genesis-3-female-s

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/dforce-summer-dress-1-for-genesis-8-female/128350/

https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/dforce-nunzia-dress-for-genesis-8-female/126814/

https://www.daz3d.com/layered-camisole-set-for-genesis-3-female-s (technically not a dress but the tshirt/skirt combo would work)

Trying to create a head morph and using photos for references.  I have a face on view as well as profile view.  My question is, is there a way to superimpose the photos so that I can "trace" with my morphing dials?  Right now I have the image to the side of Daz3d, as a reference, and itd be a lot easier if I could just trace.

Yep, it's all about morphs. If you said that G3 is cuter *by default* than G8, that's one thing. You add enough morphs  to G8, she can be cuter than any figure before her. Mix a little Girl 8, Littlefox or 3D Universe morphs, the 200 morph set, add muscularity morphs to males, etc. That's how you make any figure look good.

If you make it on the default shape and forget the shape you made it, then it wont cause problems - it will fit. If, however, you make it on a custom shape, and forget the combination of morphs, or loose the morph, then there is going to be some work and time getting back to where you were.

It can be useful to see the item you're making in the morphed version if it differs widely from the base. You can see how textures react to that morphed shape.

I am looking for a long sleeved outfit that has a "push the outfit down off the shoulder" type morph, something sort of like the pic. I want to show off a tattoo on the back of her shoulder. Hope this makes sense!

And so I have experimented with using specular maps vs no specular maps. and I respectfully agree to disagree;) Sure your method works on many of the newer more complex models, and in theory it should work as you say. However, after trying to get a couple of the old V4 hair models to look good, I claim that there is no way to do it without those specular maps, the hair ends up looking like the glass helmets I mentioned.

Here's a thought, rather than using the specular maps for specular, try using them as bump maps. More so since we got the whole crazy bump thing resolved. If you have pretty detailed bump maps, specular strength maps are often unnecessary (for hair).

Good news & good points

wowie's transfer specular maps script is a very good tool!! You'll have for example the spec. maps in the spec1 strength slot and no maps in the spec2 strength slot, easy to compare:)

It's also easy to mix between both as well.

As for 3delight standalone, there are sites who hosts the file independently of 3delight.com. But they may not be up to the latest/last version of 12.

Here's a workaround for the Cook Torrance performance problems. Best way to speed it up is to limit max diffuse depth to 1 for the material you're using it. In general though, I recommend not using it unless it's necessary. They are only useful if you have non UV mapped props/objects and don't want to use GGX.

Valuable piece of info, tks!

Since Felton is based on G8m, as opposed to a stand alone, all the morphs associated with G8 should work. Within the stock morphs for G8 (and others) is "head propagating scale". That should do the trick if the Felton "head round" aren't sufficient. 

Primary Puppet Morph:

• No Eyes Variant morph
• Eyes open wide
• Power Jaw
• Eye Height
• Ear Height
• Forehead Size
• Taper Forehead
• Head Round
• Under Bite

This looks fantasic, I had a couple of questions from my previous experience with the no suit product.

Are the seams, stitches and wrinkles in separate images? (so we could have seams without stitches and vis-versa)?
I see that there are Toe caps/socks, fantastic, how are fingernails dealt with? geograft or a glove, morph?
I can't wait to use the cowl options  
I was looking at the prduct images and it looks like there is not way to cover the actual eyes of the figure to help with stocking type masks? 
Would you consider some kind of a slim man-style face graft as an option for costumes that have more of a face shell/zendi suit appearance?
(ok face it, i really want to make spiderman and or an idealized raston warrior robot from DrWho ( https://www.deviantart.com/alexbaxthedarkside/art/Dr-Who-Raston-Warrior-Robot-VS-Cybermen-may2012-299989952 ) and have a nice continuous surface without fussing with head mask, gaps, etc.)

Thank you for your great figures and your consideration.

And so I have experimented with using specular maps vs no specular maps. and I respectfully agree to disagree;) Sure your method works on many of the newer more complex models, and in theory it should work as you say. However, after trying to get a couple of the old V4 hair models to look good, I claim that there is no way to do it without those specular maps, the hair ends up looking like the glass helmets I mentioned.

Here's a thought, rather than using the specular maps for specular, try using them as bump maps. More so since we got the whole crazy bump thing resolved. If you have pretty detailed bump maps, specular strength maps are often unnecessary (for hair).

wowie's transfer specular maps script is a very good tool!! You'll have for example the spec. maps in the spec1 strength slot and no maps in the spec2 strength slot, easy to compare:)

It's also easy to mix between both as well.

As for 3delight standalone, there are sites who hosts the file independently of 3delight.com. But they may not be up to the latest/last version of 12.

Here's a workaround for the Cook Torrance performance problems. Best way to speed it up is to limit max diffuse depth to 1 for the material you're using it. In general though, I recommend not using it unless it's necessary. They are only useful if you have non UV mapped props/objects and don't want to use GGX.

If you click the gear icon on the slider for the converted morph and select Parameter Settings from the menu, is the AutoFollow box checkd? Is the converted morph saved as an asset (so that it is available on a freshly loaded base figure) or is it embedded in the scene file?

The AutoFollow box is checked, and the morph is embedded in the sub-scene file. I don't have it on any other figure.

By the way, the character itself doesn't change after the reload, the shape of the face is the same.

Thank you

Use the Transfer Utility, with the old version as the Source and the new mesh a the Target.

If you click the gear icon on the slider for the converted morph and select Parameter Settings from the menu, is the AutoFollow box checkd? Is the converted morph saved as an asset (so that it is available on a freshly loaded base figure) or is it embedded in the scene file?

Hello there,

I'm having a rather odd problem with eyebrows and eyelashes on a character that I have made.

The character is a G8F made up from various other character morphs, like Alexandra 8 and Charlotte 8, with several HD add-ons. However, I also have converted Olympia 7 (G3F) and am using that morph as well. (using this tutorial)

I am using these two products on the character:
Eyebrows: https://www.daz3d.com/super-natural-brows-merchant-resource-for-genesis-8-and-3-female
Eyelashes: https://www.daz3d.com/lashes-utilities-for-genesis-2-3-and-8

Now onto the problem:
First of all, the eyebrows and eyelashes weren't placed in the right places by default (I'm guessing because of the converted morph), so I had to use the included adjustment morphs to position them correctly. No problem at all, tried different poses and expressions, no problem.
Then, I load the character (saved as a sub-scene) in an interior scene, all is fine.
But, if I save the scene and open it again, suddenly both eyelashes and eyebrows are misplaced again. It's like the adjustment morphs that I did are undo-ed, now the eyebrows are going through the head, and the upper eyelashes are in the middle of the eye.

Any idea what is happening? Is it because of the converted Olympia 7 morph? 

I know I could buy this product https://www.daz3d.com/olympia-7-for-olympia-8 to use instead of the converted morph, but it's a bit pricey for something that I already own, so I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible.

What could possibly cause a morph to be undone?

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks