Hi, Dave. I'm happy you were able to finally get MD!

I purchased the training package from CGElves last January, when it was really cheap, and watched most of them the week after buying MD8. Got a lot of things going on this time of year, so I haven't delved deeply into it yet, but I do have a few tips for you, based on what I've discovered from trial and error:

1. You have to convert clothing to OBJs to import into MD. However, when tracing the pattern, MD will create a pattern piece for each Face Group, (i.e. Upper Chest, Lower chest, etc.) as well as for each surface. I have had the most success bringing in older clothing and tracing a pattern when I've used the Geometry Editor Tool in Daz Studio first to select all the polys and apply them to a single Face Group. I then rename the group with all the polys "default" and remove the rest and only then do I export to OBJ.. The MD8 trace function then uses the material zones to create the pattern. Pattern tracing doesn't always work, though, and I've had MD stop working while trying to trace the pattern of some items. I usually get an error about importing the "fabric", too, but that doesn't necessariy stop the import from working.
2. You can create your own "Avatars" from Daz figures. I recommend using the base. For example, Genesis 3 Male instead of Michael 7. Export the figure as a Wavefront OBJ from Daz. It doesn't matter if it is Base or High Resolution, but I've used Base out of habit. Import the OBJ as an Avatar, with the Scale settings to Daz Studio (cm) and the option at the bottom of the dialong to put the figure to the floor checked. (Sorry, I'm doing this from memory.) Now select and save as an Avatar. Once saved, you can load the Daz Avatar figure without having to import it every time.
3. Avatar's are loaded in World Center, but MD does not treat your Daz Avatar the same as their own. It will be set back slightly. When you load a Daz clothing object, it will be forward of the Avatar. After fighting with this for I don't know how long, it finally occurred to me to fix it in DS. I was draping an existing shirt to create a morph. My solution was to import the object into DS, translate it to where I needed it be, slightly forward of where it loaded. Hide everything else and export the obj, overwriting it's existing file. Then delete the object, Unhide the figure and the clothing item and use Morph Loader Pro to apply the translated obj to the target clothing as a morph.

I see xmasrose has beat me to the punch, er post, and linked to SY's videos. They will be helpful, but keep in mind, they are using MD4, so the location of some of the tools has changed. The tools are still relatively easy to find, though, imo. So far, the MD8 videos on Youtube are more about informing us of the new features, then teaching how to use them. Hopefully that will change soon.

Blarg. Took ages to decide what I wanted from the PC+ section (just too much to choose from!), but with the 8Bit Retro being a must buy for me anyway (despite my relatively modest age, I've spent a lot of time over the years using BBC Micros), I was pretty much compelled to grab that offer.
As an aside, because I'm not sure how to report this kind of thing (as it's not strictly my own problem), I noticed that Riot Girl for G3F, currently in the 50/60% best seller section, was not listed when I went to check out what else was on Luthbellina's PA page. (And no, I hadn't yet purchased it at that point, but it just doesn't show up on the PA page).
I initially guessed that might be some kind of crude workaround to stop it stacking both a best-seller and featured PA discount, but given that Zeddicus has Z Fighter that is in the best seller section but stills show up via the PA page, I'm guessing it's probably a genuine bug.
 

Actually, what 3Ddreamer said is the way to do it, except you must manually transfer or convert the amount of your gift card to a store credit in your account - it won't happen automatically. If you don't know how to do that, it really is pretty simple. Go into your account, click on the Gift Cards icon, then enter the gift card code that you received by email into the space provided, then click on REDEEM GIFT CARD. The amount should now appear under Store Credit.

It's even simpler than that. You don't actually have to enter the gift card code. The gift card code (I don't know about the icon) in the email is a live link, despite looking like plain text. Click it, and if your broswer is already logged into DAZ, you go right to the redeem screen, where you click redeem. Two clicks, done. Easy button.

 

image revisited

I like this version better than your Challenge entry.

 

Fantastic Christmas present, thank you!

I'm just starting work on a noir animation, so your timing is superb.

It was raining in the city. A cold rain . . .

Excellent, Cbird.  It would have been perfect for the noir Challenge. :)

It renders pretty fast on my machine. (I hate slow renders) If I get a slowly rendering scene I usually delete all the lights - then just add one or two and see if that helps.

 

I only have 4 cores.  About the only thing that sped it up  (so far) was to delete the surface replicator and the puddle file.  Not much left. :)  So, I just deal with it.  The results make it worthwhile.

UB I uploaded the rain file by itself to the first post - it's the small one!

And it works great!  Again, it took me a while to understand what was going on.  Only now can I begin to appreciate how wonderful this product is.  The morph controls are so useful.  Hopefully, I will be adding a rainy image to the Challenge soon.

Many, many thanks!

the base genesis as a car file is 25mb

adding Aiko5 and NYU for Aiko5 increased the .car saved file to 170mb

and every morph installed adds to the conforming clothes file sizes.

i keep a copy of the base genesis bolder as a folder 'template' i rename folders back and forth, and drop in the morphs i want to add to the character to a copy of the base folder. rename it to make it live before saving to car file.

So- FYI; I have family coming into town at the end of the week, and with the prep we have to do for the holiday next week I doubt I'll be online but a minute or three here and there until nearly the New Year.

To all of those that follow this thread- Merry Christmas, Happly Holidays, Happy New Year!

aaaaaand....  the first stage of the Pitt Morph is done.  I used Jeroyn's skin on him for a tester, with eyes I may end up using once his skin is done.  I've yet to tweak the morphing for the minor detail and poly moving- this was mainly to block out the facial structure for the 'feel' of the look.

examples of my references:

Okay, here's the thing. I recently decided to transfer my library to an external hard drive. And I'm currently in the process of sorting out various issues that go along with such a transfer. However...I'm running into some problems.

Adding the new directories to my Content Library was easy enough. However, I don't know how to reassign Smart Content to work with the library in the external hard drive. Also, there's the issue of scenes I haven't rendered, etc. Will I still be able to render those files after the transfer, or will I have to undergo some arduous process if for some reason I want to revisit my older files or whatever?

Hello,

I recently bought FaceGen and Skinbuilder, used it, and created a morph and a skin for a Genesis8 Figure. Since I wanted to share the final product, I would like to ask two things:

1. How do I save a complete preset to "give away"?
2. Am I allowed to share morphs and skins made with skinbuilder (for free), and facegen?

Thank you in advance!

If possible, please share some images. I always like to see what people come up with using facegen.

Here's what I've done since the early days or Poser and now using DAZ Studio instead for my graphic novels.  I set my scene in DAZ Studio with figures and props, etc.  My figures are unclothed, but with the muscle morphs and height settings I need. To this day I cannot get my head around setting up lights so I "borrowed" the set up I was used to from Poser by exporting a plain pz3 file. A quick import into DS and a save as a scene preset and there are my basic lights. I don't use the lights in DS to dictate my final shading. But having some kind of a light set up makes the figure's muscularity easier to see. It also helps to better deliniate the props in the scene.
 

 Once the scene is set how I want it, I use the snipping tool  ( Windows 10) to grab an image without bothering to render in DAZ Studio. The image is placed into Adobe Illustrator for sketching, final line drawing work , speach bubbles and lettering.  When that is done, I export to Photoshop for coloring and shading. The finished image is saved out of Photoshop as a jpeg and added to the story folder (My stories are one image/page and thus not like a traditonal comic book)
Before making the leap to an all digital workflow I used to print a copy of my final scene and use it to transfer a guide onto illustration board. I would use a thick charcoal pencil to blacken the back of the printed image. Then I'd tape the image onto the illustration board and transfer the outline of my image onto the media. After that it would be pencil drawing, inking with rapidograhs and coloring with colored inks. 

I sort of did this creating my iClone character creator clone for genesis 3

what I did was baked the rotations on my Genesis 3 to match it before applying the morph and running erc then rotated the arms back and exported that obj and repeated the process

the clone itself was made with a mixture of posing, scaling, softselection and vertex moving and shrinkwrap in Carrara and Blender

You can share the morph (morph only, no part of the original figure) made with facegen, but you cannot share any textures from DAZ, PAs or Skinbuilder. Skinbuider is designed to create personal prijects or commercial addons only.

Did you use the same preset in the OBJ import dialogue and the Morph Loader dialogue?

Hello,

I recently bought FaceGen and Skinbuilder, used it, and created a morph and a skin for a Genesis8 Figure. Since I wanted to share the final product, I would like to ask two things:

1. How do I save a complete preset to "give away"?
2. Am I allowed to share morphs and skins made with skinbuilder (for free), and facegen?

Thank you in advance!

Don't sculpt the main movements, just aply the pose, export to the modeller, add the extra details you want, load as a moprh on the posed figure with Reverse Deformations.

Well the problem is I'm working with sculpts that have a slightly different default A pose than Gen 8's default pose, the difference being straightend legs like Gen 3's and arms angled a bit differently than Gen 8's.
From my limited testing it seamed to be good enough (for my needs at least), pose worked well, limits worked and JCMs and if I spent more time matching the pose to my sculpt for reverse deformations, it might help it a bit better. It reversed the pose derformations good enough as if I exported the model in that pose.
The main things is that it works, the test above was with Gen 3 (before I've moved to 8) and managed to get a full body morph using Gen 3 with the arms in an A pose. So It sould work better with Gen 8 since it's already in a A  pose just wiggled aroudn a bit.
Thanks for the help. 

You'll find something like the images I've attached, useful for remembering what materials go in what slot; even though V4 and her stable-mates doesn't have them, I seem to recall haven't to create zones when transfering maps; it was a while ago so I may also have been mistaken.

I transfer them to default UVs before transfering via Blacksmith to G3/8.

He's great, and I got him immediately. Now I just wonder:

a. Is there a more 'human' head and face available with Xenoman https://www.daz3d.com/xenoman-for-nix-8 , so I can finally have someone to work with Xenogirl https://www.daz3d.com/xenogirl-hd-for-zelara-8 ? Or is it possible to morph Xenoman's face into a more human look? And is it possible to beef him up a bit, he's a bit skinny looking imo.

b. Is there a male Aureska Hol coming?  

Are they just flat? If so you don't actually need to rig, a morph will handle sliding - just make a version of your model with a door slid to its open position and export as - for example - DoorRoom1Open.OBJ, repeat for the other doors. The in DS select your model, Edit>Figure>Moprh Loader pro, click the select Morphs button, and grab all of your morph OBJs. The defaults should be fine to start, so click Accept. If soem does need to do more than slide along a line (I notice you have some cylinders with opening) then that may require rigging.

I tried this today for the first time and it worked but not correctly.

I created an obj of the entire vessel with the cargo door closed.
The I created an obj of the entire vessel with teh cargo door open.
Then I opened the closed door version in DS
Then I selected Edit,, Figure, Morph Loader Pro.
The I selected my open door version of the entire ship.
Then I selected Accept.

DS reported having loaded the desired morph successfully but upon trial of the new morph.
Instead of the cargo door sliding right to left, the entire ship moves forward and backward and the cargo door stayed closed.

Perhaps I misunderstood the instructions?

For fear of seeming to be a smart a$$, which one is supposed to be Carrie?  And who is the other "celebrity"?

Oh, to clarify, the render Werts depicts of his (her?) morph is pretty decent, just a bit older.  But the morph itself, at least when I loaded it did not look as good as Werts' piece.

Sincerely,

Bill

As Odaa mentioned above, Carrie Fisher (on the left of the picture) and Natalie Portman is on the right. I make no representation of how good they are :)

 

Ok, so it turns out I have 3.

Celebritystandin on the left. scott8539 in the middle and Werts on the right. No render just a screen grab of the morphs on an untextured V4.

The scott8539 is a little younger looking but alas is no longer available at ShareCG either :(

I will admit Scott's version is the best of the 3.  It's a shame he pulled all his stuff from ShareCG.  That might have been at the time the site was considering a "hosting fee".  The notion of having to pay in order to share freebies scared away a lot of people and many of them did not return after ShareCG dropped the idea.

Sincerely,

Bill

I agree, the Scott's version is definitely the closer of the three. If anyone has ideas of finding this, I would be very grateful

@MimicMolly Why not dial in the Nix/Zelara body (to get the spine morphs) and dial whatever head morph combinations you please on top?

@MimicMolly Why not dial in the Nix/Zelara body (to get the spine morphs) and dial whatever head morph combinations you please on top?