joea64 said:

Does anyone know of a chauffeur's uniform for Michael 4 similar to this one:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/chauffeur-uniform-and-driving-poses/39433

https://www.animotions.com/store/product.php?printable=Y&productid=1434&js=n

The only M4 chauffeur uniform I have is the one in the expansion for the Army General Uniform, but it's the wrong look for old/vintage luxury cars such as this freebie one:

http://www.ontarget3d.com/site/Products/1138-1910-limousine-car.aspx

You will have to kit bash but here are the items that could be used to make your uniform:

Pants and boots http://www.sharecg.com/v/42635/View/11/Poser/Mountie-Set-for-M4
Jacket (shrit) http://www.sharecg.com/v/34002/gallery/11/Poser/18th-century-suit
hat http://www.sharecg.com/v/48259/View/11/Poser/Michael-4-World-War-II-Headwear-Pack-I or
http://www.sharecg.com/v/48405/View/11/Poser/Michael-4-World-War-II-Headwear-Pack-V

Does anyone know of a chauffeur's uniform for Michael 4 similar to this one:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/chauffeur-uniform-and-driving-poses/39433

https://www.animotions.com/store/product.php?printable=Y&productid=1434&js=n

The only M4 chauffeur uniform I have is the one in the expansion for the Army General Uniform, but it's the wrong look for old/vintage luxury cars such as this freebie one:

http://www.ontarget3d.com/site/Products/1138-1910-limousine-car.aspx

Those in your picture are both Genesis - Basic Male and Basic Female. Genesis is a single figure which can be shaped into many different characters - man, woman, child, troll, gorilla etc. All of those figures can wear clothes made for Genesis. So if you buy one outfit, it will fit them all. Figures like Michael 5, Victoria 5, Hiro 5, Stephanie 5, Hitomi, the new Teens - those are all morphs for Genesis and wear Genesis clothes. Genesis can also wear clothes made for older figures of generation 3 and 4 (e. g. Michael 4, Victoria 3) via autofit - you only have to buy the respective Genesis shapes, which come with autofit feature for the said shape.

If you only want to buy clothes made for Genesis, go to DAZ store, choose Clothing & Accessoires, then choose Compatible 3D Figures: Genesis.

cridgit said:

You can change categories any way you like without breaking anything, but DO NOT change the Compatibility Bases (pictured in your screenshot above) as that will destroy your metadata dependencies.

That's not quite true. You can add compatibility bases with little problem (I do it all the time). Removing compatibility bases, on the other hand, will screw with your metadata. It can be repaired if your patient enough, though, to go through and fix everything yourself.

To the original issue...

The top level items (Generation 4, etc.) tells DS that anything compatible with Generation 4 is compatible to all sub-items (Michael 4, Victoria 4, Kids 4)

Personally, I manually assign all skins to both the appropriate Gen 4 figure, and to Genesis.

I assign eyes to Generation 4 and Genesis

When I convert clothing or hair to Genesis, I give them the same Scene ID compatibility as the original item, creating a new compatibility base as needed

It's a slow process, and I've been adding the necessary metadata only as I've been working on a given scene.

Thank you; I've already added a structure that works for me separately from Default. I'll add compatibilities for the skins... lots of work.

For the filters / database, I'm talking about this window (see picture).
See how it starts with Alchemy Chasm, then Aldora Hair, then... ? Ideally, I'd like to move Alchemy Chasm under the Architecture root category, and Aldora Hair under the Hair category. I don't know if that's possible without having to redefine all the assets and breaking content, for example compatibility with texture packs I might get later on.

I've defined some assets already, but it's still a bit hit and miss... with some funny results. For example Smart Content thinks I can apply Michael 4's eye materials to his genitalia... not quite what I had in mind. :D

Garstor said:

evilproducer said:

Not to prevent you from parting with money, but have you looked at the Hi res. Carrara shaders for V4/M4 that came with Carrara's native content?

Aside from those, I tend to buy the skin shaders that come with Carrara optimized versions.

I have the hi-res shaders installed and the follow Carrara optimized:

M4 Elite: "Rob Carrara"
Michael 4: "Jeremy Elite" (this install seems screwed up)
V4 Elite: "Lana Carrara" and "Marie Carrara"

I was hoping to expand on Carrara optimized shaders based on user's suggestions.

Wasn't sure if you knew about the included shaders, so I figured I'd mention them. Any look you're going for? Different races, or tats as tsarist mentioned?

It's pretty easy to alter the shaders in Carrara. The V4s in the image below use the hi-res shaders to which I've added the wet maps I mentioned in my previous post. The Asian V4 (V4 with A4 morphs) uses an included hi-res shader in the color channel with a multiplier and color to give the skin a darker color. The wet bathing suits use sphere primitives and a surface replicator to get the beaded water look.

evilproducer said:

Not to prevent you from parting with money, but have you looked at the Hi res. Carrara shaders for V4/M4 that came with Carrara's native content?

Aside from those, I tend to buy the skin shaders that come with Carrara optimized versions.

I have the hi-res shaders installed and the follow Carrara optimized:

M4 Elite: "Rob Carrara"
Michael 4: "Jeremy Elite" (this install seems screwed up)
V4 Elite: "Lana Carrara" and "Marie Carrara"

I was hoping to expand on Carrara optimized shaders based on user's suggestions.

My original intent for Daz Studio was for using their base characters (Michael 4, Victoria 4, Freak 4) as artist's manikins. They're great for getting custom poses in unique camera angles which you normally wouldn't see in real life, like those action poses in comic books.

bjebenstreit said:

I'm fed up with drawing stiff stick figures with all the natural grace of ancient Egyptian wall paintings.

I downloaded daz and... How shall I put it? It comes with a steep learning curve, does it not? It may be free to use - but it will cost at least a lot of learning time. And possible the price of add-ons.

Your Daz manikins can also have the natural grace of ancient Egyptian wall paintings too. You'll have to put in the time to learn how to pose them. The little things in a pose make a huge difference. Yes, there is a price for add-ons, but I see it as customizing the software with only contents that I want and need.

bjebenstreit said:

What is keeping me back from investing the time - and possibly money - is that I'm not yet sold on the merit of using this or other programs as a reference tool for traditional art.

You've said you've already spent a long time trying to learn how to draw. Spending more time learning something new would only be a benefit. When you're starting out, I would suggest taking notes on what is found where and how you got something to work. So the next time you want to do it, you won't have to waste time trying to figure it out again.

So, I'm looking here for feedback: are programs like daz or Poser useful for the traditional artist?

Depends. For me as a budding comic book artist it's one the best things ever for getting dynamic poses. For others who don't need extreme poses and camera angles, it may be more of a hassle to learn.

And (hopefully I'm not getting in trouble for asking this) is a free to use program like daz as useful for it as a pricey program like Poser?

For your needs, I would say Daz Studio has so many features included which you may never even use.

Thanks for the reply. I know how to bring the Gen 4 stuff into Carrara, I do it quite often. Thanks for the info and links. I will give the beta a try. I don't suppose anyone knows if they are going to release 8.5 as a free upgrade or if we will have to buy it as a complete new version when it comes out of Beta?

angusm said:

The current 8.1 release of Carrara will support adding and posing Gen 4 (i.e. Michael 4 and Victoria 4) characters directly. The procedure is documented in the draft Carrara manual. Search for "Using DAZ and Poser Content" in the manual.

Genesis figures, such as Michael 5 and Victoria 5, are supported only in Carrara 8.5, which is available as a public beta. The procedure for making your content visible to Carrara is the same as before; however, the Genesis support isn't 100% ready yet (that's why it's a beta), so you may encounter some glitches. Some file types that are used by DAZ Studio 4.5 are also not yet readable in Carrara. This means that when you open up some of your content directories, they may be mysteriously empty.

My experience has been that Carrara works very well with the Gen 4 figures: it's very easy to add them, pose them and render them. On the Mac, I've found the latest 8.5 betas to be a bit more stable than the official 8.1.1 release. Support for the Genesis figures is a mixed bag: promising and quite far advanced, but not all there yet.

The current 8.1 release of Carrara will support adding and posing Gen 4 (i.e. Michael 4 and Victoria 4) characters directly. The procedure is documented in the draft Carrara manual. Search for "Using DAZ and Poser Content" in the manual.

Genesis figures, such as Michael 5 and Victoria 5, are supported only in Carrara 8.5, which is available as a public beta. The procedure for making your content visible to Carrara is the same as before; however, the Genesis support isn't 100% ready yet (that's why it's a beta), so you may encounter some glitches. Some file types that are used by DAZ Studio 4.5 are also not yet readable in Carrara. This means that when you open up some of your content directories, they may be mysteriously empty.

My experience has been that Carrara works very well with the Gen 4 figures: it's very easy to add them, pose them and render them. On the Mac, I've found the latest 8.5 betas to be a bit more stable than the official 8.1.1 release. Support for the Genesis figures is a mixed bag: promising and quite far advanced, but not all there yet.

Zawarkal said:

Not easy, but I got my list together. Here is my first pull. I will post image when done.

069 Genesis Starter Bundle
101 Michael 4 Morphs++
145 Safari Furniture for Kids4
174 The Living Room Collection

Okay, here goes.

Title: Playtime's Over
Tag: Zawarkal #01
Saying: It's like being at the kids table at Christmas... you can put your elbows on it

used:
Genesis Starter Bundle's Troll, Hampton Hair, and Scoopback Mini Dress
Michael 4 Morphs++ used lots of dial settings
Safari Furniture for Kids4
The Living Room Collection's table, chairs, rug, walls, lamp

Not easy, but I got my list together. Here is my first pull. I will post image when done.

069 Genesis Starter Bundle
101 Michael 4 Morphs++
145 Safari Furniture for Kids4
174 The Living Room Collection

Ah Progress :)

I see now both figures in my content tab named Micael 4.dsb and victoria 4.2.dsb

However an error pops up when I try to load it...i've loaded it to this message. It says it is intended to be run as a result of loading an ExP enabled "Michael 4" based figure from the content tab.

Tremendous help so far thank you!

When you Buy Carrara (standard or Pro) then you'll get the Carrara Native Content installer, plus a bundle of "bonus" files from Daz3D.
You should get some Models and morphs like Victoria and Michael 4, as well as some Carrara (high resolution) shaders for both of those models,. which give you a good example for the shader setting for other figures.
there's also some 3D paint brushes, and example scenes.

The Wizards can be handy for quickly creating scenes from a set of options, but generally , once you're familiar with using carrara, you'll want to start with a new empty scene and just add the components you want to work with.

As far a Importing complete Daz studio or Poser scenes,. yes, it can be done,. but it's just as easy to load figures directly into Carrara, and create your scene, rather than go through an Import process which will convert and open the scene from another application.

The C8.5 beta , can import DUF files from Daz studio 4 or higher, but Daz Studio, and Poser, both have features which Carrara doesn't support,. such as Uber-environment or other DS plugins like dynamic cloth,. or posers dynamic hair and cloth,. which can mean that Carrara will either not load the Poser / Daz Scene file, or it will cause an error when loading it.

It's an easier process, and a better work-flow to build your scenes in the program you want to work in, rather than importing from another program,

as for the "Add runtime",. make sure you're in the "Content" section of the browser,. (See pic)

Hope it helps :)

Michael 4 is an Generations 4 figure, and it is in Poser Format, like all figures before Genesis.
You need to go to the Content Library pane, select Poser Formats > My Library > Figures > DAZ People to find him. There should also be content in the My Library > Pose folder.

Hello. I installed Daz Studio 4.5 and Michael 4.
But i can't access Michael 4, it doesn't show up anywhere.
How to use it?

I believe the V4 and M4 shapes for Genesis are just shapping morphs. There is no icon in smart content or the content library to load them, like the V5 and M5 characters have.

Select a Genesis figure. Go to the shaping panel. Under actor you should she the Victoria 4 and Michael 4 shapes listed. You will also see the Victoria 5 and Michael 5 shapes. If you slide the shape dialog up to 1, you will get that shape.

You should be able to create an icon to load the Genesis figure with that shape already applied, but I am too new at this to know how to do that.

A couple of additions and one update

Added & Updated 12-20-2012

Aaron for Genesis Young Teen Justin (1.0) (DSON)
Andrea for Genesis Young Teen Julie (1.0) (DSON)
Catgirl Genesis (1.3) (DSON)
Deborah for Julie (1.0) (DSON)
Faces of Teens (1.0) (DSON)
Foxy and Wolfie for Genesis (1.0) (DSON)
Mall Girl for Genesis (1.0) (DSON)
Paul Hair for Genesis and M4 (1.0) (Genesis, Victoria 4, & Michael 4)
Paxton Hair (1.0) (DSON)
Pink Ink (1.0) (DSON)
Pink Ink Textures (1.0) (DSON)
Pure Hair Catwalk (1.0) (DSON)
Pure Hair Messy for Genesis (1.0) (DSON)
Jesse for Genesis (1.0) (DSON)
Raquel for Genesis (1.0) (DSON)
Raquel Textures (1.0) (DSON)
Real Deal for Real Feel Pullover (1.0) (DSON)
Real Feel Pullover Genesis (1.0) (DSON)
Scorching Black and Red (1.0) (DSON)
Teen Swag (1.0) (DSON)
Teen Swag Textures (1.0) (DSON)
Teenage Poses (1.0) (DSON)
Tre (1.0) (DSON)
Tre Textures (1.0) (DSON)
True Love Poses (1.0) (DSON)
Young Teens 5 Pro Bundle (see separate entries for each product in the bundle)
Young Teens 5 Julie (1.0) (DSON)
Young Teens 5 Justin (1.0) (DSON)
Young Teens 5 Starter Bundle (see separate entries for each product in the bundle)

Oher Notes: Some questions about Hampton Hair and DSON came up in some older posts. DAz has some info about Hampton Hair on the V5 Pro Bundle page that indicates this:

Hampton Hair is a Poser format hair with morphs to fit Genesis and various Genesis shapes, it DOES NOT require any additional files to work with Genesis in Poser

Paul Hair for Genesis and M4 (sku: 15387 Description) that just got added to the list is in Poser format too, if your wondering why it didn't have any DSON files for it.

ndrzeja said:

chohole said:

The internal organs and skeleton were built to work with M4

That's the part I'm interested in. Does it mean it won't work with the V5 ?

Thanks for the quick reply.

The easy answer: The M4 skeleton and M4 internal organs will NOT work with Michael 5.

The advanced answer: The DAZ figures come in generations; Michael 5 is a fifth generation character while Michael 4 is a fourth generation. Now while a lot of stuff designed for M4 will work on M5 through the auto fit (provided you have the V4 and M4 shapes for Genesis installed) I'm not sure this would work on the skeleton and internal organs. You might get some kind of result through careful resizing but it would take time and effort and might not look all that great...

edit: pff should type faster :P

Michael 4 is an older product compared to Michael 5

Michael 4 is a standalone figure, Michael 5 is a variant of Genesis, and needs Genesis to work. Genesis is the default DAZ 3D figure which comes with Daz Studio 4+
Hope that helps a bit
The internal organs and skeleton were built to work with M4