Michael 4
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=Michael+4+base

Are you looking for Michael 4 (3?) or Genesis? ... or even another Figure?

Genesis gives you some pretty cool options with this Facial Hair from Mec4D: http://www.daz3d.com/shop/unshaven-beard-for-genesis
The Beards for Michael are a bit less... offstanding (for lack of a better word, sorry... not a native english speaker)
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/beard-for-michael-4
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/m4-beard-plus
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/actual-face-hair

I'm sure there are plenty other possibilites :)

Come to think of it... there are some free Elfen Eyebrowprops... with a bit tweaking they migh just be useable as a moustache ^^
edit to add the link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=39070

Everything that you buy from the store, or anywhere else, gets installed to the My Library folder, even Posser Format content too.
Always make sure that the last part of the path is the My Library folder, and everything will be put into the right place. Older content like Victoria 4 and Michael 4 are in Poser Format, but they still get installed to the My Library folder. You can find them in the Content Library tab under Poser Formats > My Library > Figures.

Thanks so much Bejaymac for your help! How fantastic to be able to figure things out like that - is it from programming knowledge that you knew how to fix something like this? Anyways I am so grateful for your assistance! I've attached a picture of a work in progress, done in Daz 4 with Michael 4 and Genesis both appearing in the Underground King outfit - THANKS! :-) -Cathy

If you just convert to weight-mapping and use the Transfer utility it will take their position relative to the base Genesis, not to the M4 shape - then when you dial up M5 it will push them out to match the new shape with the same offset. You need to set the source to the Michael 4 Shape and then in the More options section of the Transfer Utility tell DS to reverse the source shape from the item when rigging it.

Hi guys,

Just a quick one I hope.

Am I right in thinking that my M4 textures will work with Genesis and Michael 5? And do they need any kind of tweaking within DS? The reason I ask is because when I use any of the M4 textures I have, they look like they don't fit properly.

Oddly, the V4 textures seem to work fine with V5!

Firstly, the search function on Forum posts does not work correctly. When two or more words are used as a search term, they are not used properly. If you put one word in like 'Organising' or 'Content' you should at least get some results. I opened a bug report on this a few days ago.
There is no PDF manual for DS4P. There is a documents area which is a work in progress, and I'll see if I can find a link for you.
There was a list of 3D Graphics acronyms on the old forum, and I think chohole dug it up again recently or posted a link. I'll see if I can find that too.
Adamr001 has a few tutorials on Content Management, but I think they mostly refer to using the Content Database. There is no real problem with installing anything to DS4P, it ALL goes into the My Library folder. My Library must be the last part of the install path, not any sub-folder below it. This applies to Poser content as well as DAZ Studio content. There is a folder called 'Runtime' inside the My Library folder which is used to hold Poser content.
I have loads of Runtime folders. I have one for Buildings, Transport, Vegetation, Sadie Toon, Victoria 4, Michael 4 etc etc etc. I have them all listed in Edit > Preferences as Poser Formats, and I list the folder that 'holds' the runtime, and NOT the runtime folder itself. In other words, I have a folder called Poser Runtimes inside that I have one called Michael 4, then inside that I have Runtime. I list Michael 4 as the Poser runtime in Preferences, and DS4 picks up the runtime folder from there, and displays it in the Content Library tab as a Poser Formats folder.

See if that helps any, and I will look for these links for you.

EDIT:

Documentation link : http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/getting_started/start

I think I could browse the store for days just drooling at all the cool products. I want to jump in with both feet and order everything, LOL. My first question is this: I see all the different characters such as M4, V4, A4, H4, The Girl 4, etc. I'm using . . . er, scratch that, . . . playing with DS4, just downloaded it and went through the online tutorial for Firey (sp) Genesis. I was so excited that I was able to find everything, figure it all out (what was in the tutorial, anyway) and even made a couple of mistakes that I was able to correct on my own. Oh, happy day! Maybe I can do something with this neat program after all.

Now, my first question, the characters I mentioned above, M4, V4, etc. How do those differ from Genesis? Does Genesis replace those characters? Should I also get more characters? Can those be used in Genesis or are the used in another part of DS4?

I was also looking at some of the morph packages. Do those work in Genesis or just on the M4/V4 characters, etc?

Where, oh where do I start???

I'm sorry for what must seem like such a dumb question, but I do need some direction to get started.

Thanks for any and all input.

Alan

Alexa Sears said:

Items marked with * require registration

Composed and rendered in DS4 Pro, running under Linux/Wine, No postwork

1. Hobobo Rock Texture * - http://www.sharecg.com/v/52639/View/11/Poser/Poser-Cracked-Wall-material-04 (Recolored and scaled,
applied to the morphing ground)
2. Morphing Ground - http://www.porsimo.net/3d/terrains.htm
3. Water Shader - http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=178340 (Day 15)
4. Boulder * - http://www.sharecg.com/v/39996/
5. clipboard * - http://www.sharecg.com/v/33412
6. Moko hair - http://web.archive.org/web/20061108015323/digitalbabes2.com/~yamato/Xinxin.html (4th from the bottom)

7. Skin Texture * - http://www.artraiders.com/download_page.php?file_id=340
8. Shoes - http://mamomamo.candypop.jp/Freestuff/CCP002.html (2nd from the top, 2nd from the right)
9. Pants - http://mamomamo.candypop.jp/Freestuff/CCP012.html (2nd from the top, 2nd from the left)
10. Shirt – http://blueplum.sakura.ne.jp/sazanami/hiro4.htm (bottom)

My entry is based off of a field trip I took to the Fossil beds of the Falls of the Ohio State Park. My Favorite place in the whole of the Ohio Valley. :-)

Here's their website:

http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/

Title: Fossils and Pools and Driftwood, Oh My!

Alexa

Very nice. That looks like an interesting place to visit. You have the required HoboBo freebie & all your links check out (with the exception of #3 which should be counted as "misc") This means you fall one freebie short of the minimum required number. You can find one more & re-submit your entry.

Lord Ganthor said:

So, here I'yam ons vacation...Yester Island...big whoop. Spent a whole week dere an' dinni't find one damn egg. Wotta rip...

1.) Shawn for M4++ Character Morph. Registration Required.

2.) Moustache 19th from Top.

3.) Mitch Hair

4.) Gritty Bar Props Cigar Ony. Registration Required.

5.) The Fedora Registration Required.

6.) Have A Drink for M4 and V4 Registration Required. Beer Bottle (with textures altered for color).

7.) Tree and Limb Registration Required.

8.) Parrot

8.) 12 Poser Bark Materials 22 Registration Required.*

10.) Fallen Tree 04 InfCove4 Textures Registration Requried.*

* Indicates required item(s) for this Challenge. Used for Backdrop and bark texture on tree. InfCove Item not used, backdrop picture only.

Non-countable items: Michael 4. Paid For: Michael 4 Morphs++ and M4 Casual Wear. Enchanted Island is a DAZ Freebie for the week of August 7 thru August 14 (I'd guess). As always, figure and prop set-up in Studio 2.3 and final render in Bryce 5.5. Postwork limited to adding photo border, paper corners and drop shadow (all in Photoshop) and adding signature. Original render available on request.

Da 'Real Man' on a "Real Vacation' (not just spending an afternoon at Coney Island)! As pointed out earlier & in the rules; The DAZ weekly freebie can be counted as a valid freebie. You have the required HoboBo freebie and the minimum required freebies; I'll send you a PM with the link for the entry gift (as soon as it's finished).

dleelaw57 said:

Title: Devil's Rock

When I was very young my parents took me on summer vacation to Devil's Rock.
It was nothing like I had imagined.

A3
A3 free site reg req
Banshee Mask psd format free site reg req
V4UpsideDownhair free site reg req.
A3 Whisper Textures jpg free site reg req
Aiko Tboots item one
Scene
Millennium Dog 3D Model LE free site reg req
2 Tunnel/Cave Cyclorama texture by HoboBo free site reg req
Skull free site reg req. 3ds
Pyre four down, used flame only
morphing terrain free site reg req
Dry Riverbed and Grass free site reg req, used on terrain
Bones Closet free site reg req, femore in dogs mouth

Not counted
A3Whisper outfit was a DAZ freebie

DAZ Studio 3.0
One Distance Light with Raytraced Shadow
One Spot Light
Two Point Lights
Image cropped to size with Photoshop Elements 6.

Boy; what an imagination!!

You have the required HoboBo freebie and the minimum required # of freebies. I'll PM you with the link to the entry gift.

Not a vacation I've taken, but one I'd like to someday manage.

1 - Brenda Hair http://www.morphography.uk.vu/dlbrenda.html

2 - Djinni set for A3 (Braid only, textured with brenda hair) http://www.eldritch.se/poser/Djinni/

4 - Francisca (head morph only) http://www.sharecg.com/v/29483/Poser/Francisca-for-V4.2

5 - Bonnie for V4 http://www.sharecg.com/v/23363/Poser/Bonnie-For-DazV4.1-and-Morphs++

6 - Feet and Hands Fix http://www.sharecg.com/v/51557/View/11/Poser/V4-Hands-and-Feet-Fix-Morphs

7 - M4/V4 Expressions http://www.runtimedna.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49364

8 - Sensible Shoes for V4 http://www.sharecg.com/v/32994/View/11/Poser/Sensible-Shoes-2.0-for-Vicki-4

9 - Chic for Sensible Shoes http://www.sharecg.com/v/33029/View/11/Poser/Chic-for-Sensible-Shoes-by-Headkase

10 - Mamomamo Coat Set (Pants) http://mamomamo.candypop.jp/Freestuff/CCP002.html

11 - Tunic Top http://blueplum.sakura.ne.jp/sazanami/aiko4a.htm

12 - Cap for M4 http://www.most-digital-creations.com/free_poser_poses_textures_morphs_props_27.htm (near bottom)

13 - Glasses http://www.sharecg.com/v/35527/Poser/Glasses-for-V4-Smartprop

14 - Chain Necklace http://dragonspace.com/wordpress/?p=305

15 - Riding Pose (tweaked raised arm and hand) http://www.sharecg.com/v/37352/View/11/Poser/V4-SIT-poses-Riding-Horseback

16 - Hobobo's Desert Cylorama Texture http://www.sharecg.com/v/14226/view/11/Poser/Desert-11-Cyclorama-texture

17 - Sha's Shaders 2 (used on glasses) http://www.sharecg.com/v/48026/View/7/Material-and-Shader/Shas-Shaders-2

18 - Dyald's Light Set2 (Sun) http://www.sharecg.com/v/33904/Poser/Dyalds-EZ-Lights-2

Sharecg & Runtime Links require registration.

Done in Daz3A.
Postwork to add signature.

Paid For:
Camel
Camel Saddle n Bridle
Cyclorama

Title: Egypt

Another interesting place to visit. I'm not counting the necklace since it is barely visible; but you do have enough valid links & the required HoboBo freebie to qualify. I did mention that I would not be counting the Cyclorama as a paid for item for this month.
I'll PM the lnk for the entry gift when it's ready.

A quick one from me.

Almost every summer, we'd make the 9 hour long trip to see my grandparents. My sister and I would fight in the back of the car, or sign songs or annoy my parents. And there was always a point when I would start to daydream about the day when I'd be able to drive down there all by myself.

1. Antonia 1.2
2. Glasses type 2*
3. Dynamic Bodice shirt*
4. ToniPolygon Skin
5. Straight Hair No. 4
6. Jewelry Project - Art Nouveau Barrette
7. Yellow Shopping Bags Five from the bottom
8. Hobobos River #23*
9. Open Road Prop
10. Inane Glory’s Simple Soft Freebie Light Set*
* Requires registeration.

Missing links for: Ford Gran Torino.

OK; last one!! Nice entry. Gong to the grandparents (or other relatives) for a vacation seems to be pretty common practice (I've only visited my grandparents once; since they lived in the Netherlands & I'm in Canada)
You have the required HoboBo freebie & the minimum required number to qualify your entry. Again as soon as it's ready; I'll PM you a link to the entry gift.

@Alexa; LOL @ the sleeping as a vacation.

Hi People,

My name is Guus and I have a problem with Michael 4 I just purchased. I installed the whole package.
After some confusing install and search in the library I found michael and set him on the main stage.
All looks fine. Exept when I want top use the Morph injections in Base for the face. When i put a morph on the face
it just does do anything. I see like it instals it but nothing change visual ??? can someone help me out here please ?

thx ,
Guus

I really don't think that this price was set/kept intentionally - you won't find any other bundle priced like that and that high. I'd say that the typical level should be something like $50.

So I'd guess that they either forgot to lower the price, or they wanted to delete the whole bundle after the Freebie period and forgot to take it off the shop.

Wanna see something weird? Just to prove the "$50" theory:

There is a nice skeleton bundle for $50:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/v4-and-m4-skeletons/

Another nice product is the Internal Organs bundle for $50:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/v4-m4-internal-organs-bundle/

Just a pity that it doesn't include the Brain, which is $23 extra:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/daz-brain/

But - wait! - look at this:
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/anatomy-starter-bundle

Another bundle for just $50, and it includes the full Skeleton Bundle (worth $50) and the full Internal Organs Bundle (worth $50) and the Brain (worth $23)... and even the Muscle Morphs (worth $20 each):
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/victoria-4-2-muscle-morphs-and-maps/
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/michael-4-muscle-morphs-and-maps/

So - in a nutshell - "any bundle" is $50, and "any bundle of some other $50 bundles plus some extras" is $50 as well... :-)

By the way... if you still look for some V3 bargains until DAZ midnight (still 60% off):

There is a very good skin texture for V3 for $10 (which means $3.97 with discount + PC):
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-skin-texture-1

And as a matter of fact, there is another one ($10, as above):
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-skin-texture-2

And another one, and another one, and another one ($10 each, as above)::
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-skin-texture-3
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-skin-texture-4
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-skin-texture-5

And if you like these things, there are some morphs for it as well ($10, as above):
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-morphs

And instead of buying these 6 items for $10 each, you might as well buy the whole lot for just...
http://www.daz3d.com/shop/international-beauties-maps-and-morphs

Right! 6 items (costing 6 x $10) for just (drum roll)... $10! :-)

And now we've reached some of my newest renders, which will get their own individual post.

Warriors Assemble! - This was an entry in the May 2012 Beginner's Contest. Despite not winning, I still consider this to be one of my best as I somehow managed to fit four separate characters in a single render without having to postwork them all together (something my old laptop would have NEVER survived trying to do).

Wanna know what characters I used? No problem!

The Knight: Michael 4
The Archer: Victoria 4
The Mage: Aiko 3 (using Realistic Morph)
The Orc: Genesis

That's three generations of DAZ figures represented in one render.

VII. Rendering

For rendering hair, you might have one or two goals in mind:

1. How do I get hair to render more quickly?
2. How can I make the hair in my renders look more realistic?

Unfortunately, these goals often conflict with one another...things that increase realism tend to increase render time as well. Fortunately, this isn't always the case--read on for details...

7.1 Basic rendering settings

Let's use the DS4 default rendering settings as our starting point before moving on to some more advanced (and powerful) options. If you're totally new to changing render settings, it's definitely something worth learning about. Good tutorials/information can be found here: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=144303 or here: http://rubicondigital.host22.com/index.php/articles/poserdazstudio/4-optimising-render-settings-in-daz-studio

For our purposes, I'll assume you're using 3Delight (quality level 4), not OpenGL (quality level 1, 2, or 3) or an external renderer such as LuxRender. Lowering the quality level to 3 or below will switch the renderer from 3Delight to OpenGL. While this will likely increase render speed, I don't recommend this, even for test renders, as it doesn't give a good sense of what the final 3Delight render would look like.

The most critical setting to note is the Shading Rate. The default level is 1.00, which I would describe as fair quality. Lower is better, so raising the Shading Rate to 2.00 or higher will make things go faster, but it's not my preferred method--I rarely render at anything worse than 1.00, even for test renders. Choosing a lower value for the Shading Rate will increase quality. I usually use 0.20 for high-quality renders.

Lighting can have a huge impact on render speed, particularly when it comes to things like hair that take a good amount of memory to render. If you want to do a quick render, try one or more of the following: turn off some or all of your lights, or turn shadows off for some or all of your lights, or use basic lights rather than UberEnvironment2 or UberArea lights. Or, keep your lighting and shadows the same, but select your hair and (on the Parameters tab) turn "Cast Shadows" off--that will help somewhat, and may not have a big impact on the realism of the resulting render (depending on the situation). You can also make the hair itself invisible (go to the Scene tab, find your hair in the list, and click on the eye icon next to it)...that should speed things up quite a bit, and will let you test how your lights look on everything in the scene other than the hair. I do this for test renders all the time--I hate having to wait hours for a render to finish, with most of that time devoted to rendering the hair, only to decide that the lighting isn't quite right.

7.2 Uberhair and UberSurface settings

If you don't mind playing with the surface settings, there are some tricks that will help you speed up your renders considerably, without sacrificing quality. In fact, you may find that the quality actually improves! The first of these uses a shader that comes with DS4--UberSurface. Select the hair, go to the Surfaces pane, select all hair surfaces, and change the shader to UberSurface, which you can find in Smart Content under Presets>Shader. Hold down the "Control" button (I think that would be the "Command" button on a Mac) when clicking !UberSurface Base and, when the window pops up, change Map Settings to "Ignore." Otherwise, the hair will turn white--it will lose its texture. Click Accept and go to the Editor tab within the Surfaces pane. There are a number of different settings here, but the ones we're concerned with are at the end of the list. Turn off "Raytrace" and "Occlusion." Optionally, you could turn "Accept Shadows" off too, to speed things up even more.

There is a product in the DAZ 3D store called UberHair, which is an add-on for the UberSurface shader. UberHair makes this process easier by giving you some presets that you can simply double-click (rather than having to hold down the "Control" key and mess around with surface settings every time), plus other things like letting you easily control how shiny you want the hair to be. You can find out more about UberHair here: http://www.omnifreaker.com/index.php?title=UberHair

7.3 Fantom occlusion

This may seem like an "advanced technique," but the Geometry Shell feature in DAZ Studio 4.5 actually makes it fairly easy, especially if you're already comfortable with switching from the default shader to UberSurface as described above. I learned how to do it from this thread, so you may wish to check there for more detailed information.

First, load your hair, select it, select its surfaces on the Surfaces tab, and change the shader to UberSurface following the directions above (again, be sure to hold down "Control" key and change Map Settings to "Ignore"). This time, on the Surfaces tab, turn Occlusion off; Raytrace can either be on or off (I kept it on in the example render below).

Then, from the Create menu, create a new geometry shell. The shell basically duplicates the hair, which can in effect make it appear more detailed through the process described here. Select the shell and convert it to UberSurface also. Then turn Opacity to 30%, turn Fantom and Occlusion ON and Accept Shadows and Raytracing OFF. Next, select the skullcap or base surface only and turn the opacity for that surface down to 0%. Then turn "Cast Shadows" off on the geometry shell (find this on the Parameters tab). Render it and admire the results!

For even more detailed hair, you can add a level of subdivision. Find this setting on the Parameters tab also.

In the images below, I used the default DS render settings (Shading Rate of 1.00), the light preset from Aiden for M5, Stephanie 5, and Taylor Hair. Of course, using a better shading rate will yield better results (see last image). The differences between these four are rather subtle...some of that is probably due to the small image size, but feel free to play with the settings and you may come up with something better. Note that the default render is the one that took the longest! Your renders will likely be faster--my system is rather slow.

VIII. Special topics: hats, elf ears, beards, body hair, and more

8.1 Hats and Hair

Whether your character is a Victorian gentleman, fairy-tale princess, cowboy, jockey, pirate, witch, or just a sophisticated modern socialite, there's a good chance that you're eventually going to want to put something on top of that hair. Unfortunately, in the 3D world, hats and hair don't always get along. If your hair is poking through your hat, there are a few things you can try to get it to behave:

First, you can make the hat larger and/or make the hair smaller. For the hat, this will probably involve scaling it up. For the hair, you can try morphs such as reducing volume morphs, and for prop hair, you can also adjust the scale as needed. You may even need to shrink the hair so drastically that the character's scalp is showing through--that's not a problem, though, as long as the hat sufficiently covers it up.

Smoothing and collision modifiers may help as well, but they're not going to do the job on their own. Try setting the hat to collide with the hair. Maybe try fitting the hat to the hair, instead of the character. If you keep trying different things, you'll eventually find some that work--or at least help. You can find all these controls on the Parameters tab.

Sometimes, though, these sizing, morphing, and smoothing tricks don't yield good results--maybe you'd have to make the hat so large that it looks comically out of place, or maybe the hair you have chosen just isn't that adjustable. You can try switching to a different hairstyle--possibly even one that comes with its own hat, like Beret With Hair or Hat Hair Props, or you can look into a "fix-it" product specifically designed to solve this problem. I know of two such fixers: Sickle Super Hat and Hair Fixer for Genesis and Deformers Plus: Hat Head for 4th Generation figures.

Finally, you can opt to correct the situation in postwork, editing the image to remove the pokethrough. How to do this is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but it might involve layering two images, painting over the affected areas, or other methods.

8.2 Elf Ears, Lash Distortion, and Other Unusual Shapes

Conforming hair will typically adjust to follow any morphs you use on your figure--typically a good thing, but not when it comes to elves and other creatures with odd-shaped ears. You may see ugly distortions in the hair as it attempts to follow or cover the shape of the ears. Fortunately, there's an easy fix for this. I'm going to quote a recent post from Lindsey, who explained this solution very clearly and succinctly:

Lindsey said:

1. Select the hair, go to the Parameters Tab.
2. On the Active Pane Options (white square upper right on the Parameter's tab), select "Show Hidden Properties"
3. You'll see the morph for the elf ears the hair has applied.
4. Just dial to 0 and the hair will return to it's normal shape!

It's worth noting that if you save the scene and then load it later, you may need to repeat this process. Or, simply lock the slider after setting it to zero. More information on this can be found here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/15743/

Sometimes, you'll see hair distortions around a character's eyes, also. You can use the ear-fix method described above to correct this problem, but sometimes it can take some hunting to find the offending morph (in my experience, it's usually related to eyelashes).

8.3 Facial and Body Hair

Options for these used to be limited, but as FiberMesh technology grows more popular, more products have hit the market to allow you to add beards or body hair to your figure. For Genesis body hair, try Unshaven or ManFuzz. You can find beards for 3rd Generation guys in the store here, and for Michael 4 as well (I've found that the Michael 4 Long Beard also works nicely on Genesis). There are now many Genesis beard options, ranging from the close-cropped Short Beard for Genesis to the morphable Unshaven Beard, and from the trimmed Actual Face Hair to the wild-looking beard that comes with Neanderthal for Genesis (this can be shortened, and looks great on modern males, also).

I'm not familiar enough with other, non-Genesis beard and body hair options to provide much commentary, but some possibilities include Beard for Michael 4,Jepe's Project M4 Beard and Body Hair, 1 Click Face Hair, and 1 Click Chest MAT.

IX. Additional Resources

General information and fitting: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/4702/
Elf Ears: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/4201/
Distortion: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16913/
More on Distortion: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/16764/
Transfer Utility: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=3277033#3277033
Using Older Content on Genesis: https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/entries/21258657-using-4th-generation-content-on-genesis-in-daz-studio-4
Converting Prop Hair to Figure: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/1866/

Fantom Occlusion: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/4949/
Rendering Hair: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/4470/
UberHair: http://www.omnifreaker.com/index.php?title=UberHair
Render Settings: http://rubicondigital.host22.com/index.php/articles/poserdazstudio/4-optimising-render-settings-in-daz-studio
Render Settings: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=144303

(End)

(Version 0.98, last edited 2013/02/23)

I. Types of Hair

Illustration 1.0 (above) - Paul Hair by Neftis3D, Pyrit Hair by SWAM, Anime Hair by Mec4D

1.1 Painted hair

“Painted hair” usually refers to a skin texture in which the scalp is painted to look like hair. Probably the most familiar examples of this are the default textures of Victoria 4 and Michael 4, but plenty of other textures contain options for painted hair as well, usually alongside bald options. Some good examples include Chablis for Genesis/V4 (http://www.daz3d.com/shop/chablis-for-genesis-v4/) and Stefan for M4 and Genesis (http://www.daz3d.com/shop/stefan-for-m4-and-genesis/).

The advantages of painted hair are numerous: it allows for faster renders, it usually has realistic fine detail, and it makes it easy to use hats or other headgear since there’s no separate hair prop or figure to get in the way. They’re also matched to a specific character, since they are part of the skin texture, so you don’t need to worry about finding the right hair prop or figure to go with the character you’re rendering.

However, there is one big disadvantage to painted hair: the shape of the character’s head is the same as if they were bald, meaning that the outline of the head gives the effect away. Some characters (like Stefan, mentioned above) do come with special hair-head morphs that can help to an extent with this issue.

Another, less common meaning of the term “painted hair” is hair that is painted on in postwork, using Photoshop or another program. Basically this means rendering the character without hair, then taking the rendered image and painting hair onto it. This can be a good solution if you have strong 2D art skills, but it’s beyond the scope of this tutorial.

1.2 Conforming Hair Figures and Hair Props

Hair that is a distinct item, rather than painted on, comes in several varieties, which can be distinguished by the file type: .dsf, .duf, and .cr2 are conforming hair figures, .pp2 and .hr2 are hair props. The distinction between .pp2 and .hr2 is that the former can be found in the Props folder under Poser Formats, in the Content Library, while the latter can be found in the Hair folder, also under Poser Formats in the Content Library. Conforming hair figures with a .cr2 extension can be found in the Figures folder.

With some exceptions--short hair just needs to attach to the head and is likely to be a prop, while long hair also needs to respect the rest of the body and is likely to be conforming (so that you don’t have long tresses sinking into the shoulders, for example). Conforming hair is analogous to conforming clothing--at least in theory, it can conform to the body without causing pokethrough or other issues.

In general, conforming hair should be fit to the figure (covered in section 2), while prop hair should be parented to the figure (covered in section 3).

Hair for use with Genesis in DAZ Studio will have the .dsf extension (or .duf for files designed to work in DAZ Studio 4.5). Genesis hair should easily fit to Genesis, but if you want to try using it on another figure, you may need to parent it rather than fitting it.

So how do you tell whether you have a hair prop or hair figure? There are several ways. One is to find the product page or readme documentation for the hair product, and scan it for the file name and type. Another way is to tell based on where you found the hair in the Content Library (if you found it in Smart Content instead, and have Genesis selected, there’s a very good chance that it’s Genesis-type hair). If you found it under “Poser Formats” in the Hair folder (or the Props folder), then it should be a hair prop. If you found it in the Figures folder, it should be a conforming figure. If you found it under “DAZ Studio Formats,” it’s probably Genesis hair. Another method is to click on the Edit menu, choose Preferences, click on the Content Library tab, and check the box for Show File Extensions.

Regardless of whether the hair you are using is a prop or a figure, it probably falls into one of two categories: transparency mapped (transmapped) or fibermesh. More rarely, you may encounter some hair that’s neither; these will likely be highly stylized rather than realistic (Nata Toon Hair is one example). Think of transmapped hair as a series of ribbons attached to a skullcap. The ribbons are textured to look like locks of hair, with transparent stripes and sections for the gaps between hair strands. The last promo image of Pure Hair: Catwalk gives a good illustration of how these ribbons look without the textures and transmaps. Fibermesh hair is more like real hair, with each strand (fiber) represented--although the fibers tend to be somewhat thicker and not as dense as real hair. Fibermesh hair usually has a very high polygon count, so it’s memory-intensive. Transmapped hair can also take a very long time to render, due to the transparency maps. Later in the tutorial, I’ll discuss strategies for rendering hair more efficiently.

Figure 1.0 (above) shows, from left to right, fibermesh hair, transmapped hair, and a geometry-based hair without transmaps. It was rendered in DS4.5 with basic, non-Uber lights. The character is Candace for S5 mixed with Young Teen Julie.

1.3 Other Types of Hair

There are other varieties of hair you’ll hear about, such as procedural hair plugins, dynamic hair, and shader-based hair. True dynamic hair can be found for some programs like Poser and Carrara, but it doesn’t exist for DAZ Studio at this time. It’s similar to dynamic clothing in that it has realistic movement with a sort of gravity to it, and it can even be combed and styled in various ways.

Shader-based hair is basically a fur shader (like the one found in the Supersuit Fantasy Pack or Furify) applied to a figure’s scalp, or to a bodysuit covering the scalp. It can yield results like the mohawk seen in the image at the bottom of this page: http://www.daz3d.com/shop/products/genesis/genesis-michael (although as far as I know it has not been confirmed whether or not that was the method actually used to create the mohawk in that image). This is an unconventional method and not one that this tutorial will cover in any more detail…if you wish to try this, I’d recommend getting the Supersuit, the Supersuit Fantasy Pack, and finding a good tutorial on shaders.

While most if not all hair products will include an .obj file, you may encounter hair that’s in .obj format (without an associated .hr2, .cr2, etc.). Like any .obj file, it can be imported into DAZ Studio. This type of hair would fall into the category of hair props, but it’s rather unusual and will not be discussed in more detail here.

Two new hair plugins for DAZ Studio offer additional options for realistic hair: Look At My Hair (now available in the DAZ shop) and Garibaldi Express (in beta, as of this writing). You can find out more information about these from their official sites, forum threads (LAMH | Garibaldi), and other sources, but the bottom line is either plug-in offers users the ability to create, grow, and shape their own fiber-based hairstyles. I haven’t used either, but I have admired the results I’ve seen from other users. These aren’t truly dynamic (the hair doesn’t behave dynamically in DAZ Studio) but within the plugin it works much like dynamic hair--it can be combed, cut, grown, etc.

II. If the Hair Fits...

When the hair you want to use is compatible with the figure you want to use it on, the procedure is usually very straightforward. There are several ways to fit the hair to your character’s head, and they correspond with the methods for loading clothing or accessories. With your figure selected (the whole figure or just the head), double-click on the appropriate hair icon from Smart Content or the Content Library, or right-click the hair and choose “Load it.” You can also click and drag the hair icon onto your figure (and the figure doesn’t need to be selected in advance for this method to work). Another option is to load the hair separately by double-clicking it without the figure selected, then right-click on the hair once it loads, and choose the option to fit it to the figure (for example, “Fit ‘WildMane Hair’ to...”).

Sometimes this is all you’ll have to do; other times, if the hair loads untextured, or the fit isn’t quite right, or if you want to color or style the hair in a certain way--there will be additional steps. These will depend on the situation, but they are covered in parts IV, V, and VI of the tutorial.

With AutoFit, it's nearly as simple to use conforming hair made for 4th Generation figures on Genesis--especially in DAZ Studio 4.5. With your figure selected, double-click on the hair. A dialog box will pop up asking you to select the figure that the hair was made for (if you don't know, consult the readme or the online product description), and the type of object (hair, in this case). The software will do the hard part, leaving the hair conformed to the figure's head. This should work with all Genesis shapes, but it may not work perfectly with the more extreme ones, so keep that in mind if you want a gorilla with braids or a troll with an updo.

If you're still using DS 4.0, you can still use this method, but be aware than any morph dials that the hair contains will not be usable after you AutoFit the hair to Genesis. This was fixed in DS 4.5. Alternatively, you can use the Transfer Utility to accomplish this, and keep the morphs intact. See here for details on this method: http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=3277033#3277033

III. Parenting 101: Not Just for Moms and Dads

When the hair you want to use is not compatible with the figure you want to use it on, all is not lost! Virtually any hair figure or prop that DAZ Studio can load can be made to work with the figure of your choice; it just takes a little more effort. If you’re using Genesis and a hair that was intended for another figure, you can try to AutoFit the hair to the figure. Results vary, and you may lose the ability to use the hair’s built-in morphs if you do this (unless you’re using DAZ Studio 4.5, that is).

An alternative way to get your hair onto your figures is to parent it rather than “fitting” it. The difference is that if the software is not able to adequately get the hair to fit to the figure’s head, you can do it manually instead--but you’ll have to tell the software to make sure the hair moves with the figure so that it doesn’t suddenly come off if you change the figure’s pose, position, or shape. The way to do this is called parenting.

Here is the basic procedure for manually fitting and parenting hair to a figure. We’ll use Mitsu Hair for Aiko 3, which is available for free as part of the Anime Star Fighter product (http://www.daz3d.com/shop/free-3d-models-and-content/anime-star-fighter), as an example, and for the figure let’s say Genesis, but in practice this same method works with virtually any hair and any figure. Start with Genesis (or your figure of choice) in the default position and pose. You can apply a shape or morph either before or after you parent the hair. If you’re using Mitsu Hair and you own the Aiko 3 shape for Genesis, it may be helpful to apply that shape first. Deselect the figure, and then load the hair. It will probably load either too high or too low, but otherwise it should be in the right position assuming you haven’t moved the figure.

Select the hair and go to the Parameters tab. Zoom in so you can see what’s going on. Adjust the y-position slider until the hair is in the right vertical position. You may need to adjust some other sliders as well--such as scale (or one or more of x-scale, y-scale and z-scale). When it’s looking as close to perfect as you can get it, take a look at any morph fit sliders in the Parameters tab, and/or pose sliders in the Posing tab, to fine-tune the fit. These will depend on the hair that you’re using, but often there are sliders that will let you control how the hair fits specific parts of the head, such as the temples, and perhaps move the hairline. The idea is to align the hair’s skullcap with the figure's head as perfectly as you can--otherwise when you render your scene, you could see something like sideburns that seem to float next to the character’s head, or bangs sprouting from the forehead. If you’re not sure, it may help to do a test render to see how things look. The next section of the tutorial will discuss this procedure in more detail.

Finally, you’ll want to parent the hair to the figure. There are a couple of ways to do this. You can go to the Scene tab, click on the hair in the list, and drag it to the figure’s head (you’ll have to expand out Genesis by clicking the triangle next to it in the Scene tab, and the triangles next to each node, until you see the listing for the head). Alternatively, you can right-click the hair in the main viewing pane and select Change Parent. A dialog box will pop up--select your figure’s head from the list (again, you may need to expand out the figure by clicking on the triangles), make sure “Parent in Place” is checked, and click Accept. Note that there may be more than one "Head" node in the list...be careful to choose the one that belongs to the correct figure.

Now that your hair is parented, you should be able to move the figure around, or pose it, and the hair will stay on the head! If you change the figure’s shape, the hair should still stay in place, but you may need to adjust the fit again by using those sliders in the Parameters tab, and perhaps the Posing tab. If you go to the Scene tab, you’ll notice that the hair is no longer a separate entry--it now appears nested under the figure’s head in the list.

Another thing you can do with prop hair that you may not be aware of: you can convert it into a figure so that it will conform to Genesis (not sure if this works on other figures). RAMWolff's tutorial on the subject explains how to accomplish this...it's easier than you may think: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/1866/

Example 1: Using Mitsu Hair for Aiko on Genesis

1. Load Genesis
2. With Genesis not selected, load Mitsu Hair for A3 (see Figure 1-1)
3. Select Mitsu Hair, and, on the Parameters tab, slide the “yTrans” dial until the hair seems to be sitting on top of the figure’s head
4. Zoom in and rotate the camera to check to see if the fit is correct, or if it needs work.
5. If necessary, adjust the scaling and translation dials to perfect the fit. In this case, the fit seems fine to me, except for some pokethrough in the Genesis figure’s back that we’ll fix later (see Figure 1-2)
6. Parent the hair to the figure’s head by right-clicking on it, select “Change ‘A3 Mitsu Hair’ Parent...” and choose your figure’s head from the list (see Figure 1-3)
7. Now you can move, pose, and reshape your figure, and the hair will stay where it belongs! Please note that if you change the shape of the figure’s head, you may need to make some changes to the hair to make it fit properly. For example, if you dial up the Victoria 5 shape to 1.00, you’ll see the scalp poking through the hair’s center part. To fix this, I adjusted the yScale and zScale both to 101.5%. That seemed to do the trick (there are probably other ways to fix this, also).
8. Once your figure is shaped and posed the way you want it, and the fit of the hair has been adjusted if necessary, you can make other changes to the hair if desired. For example, if the hair is colliding with the figure’s back, or if you wish it to look windswept, there may be movement morphs or poses you can dial to achieve the right look. This process will be covered later on in the tutorial.

See Figures 1-4 and 1-5 for the parameters dial formula I used, and final rendered image. Products used in the creation of this image include Victoria 5, V5 Elite Skin Texture Valerie, Fiery Genesis (pose, though I made some changes to it), Onyx for Genesis (clothes), Chablis for V4 and Genesis (lighting), and Light Dome Pro (backdrop).

(Version 0.9.2, last edited 2013/01/08)

2/25/2013 Update: the completed tutorial can now be found here: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17656/
The old WIP thread is below.

Pre-introduction: What’s this newbie think he’s doing, writing a tutorial for other newbies?? After all, it wasn’t too long ago that I was asking the same questions that I’m trying to answer here. One answer is that I’ve learned a lot recently from questions that I have asked, and that others have asked, here in the forums--but I have yet to see all this great information compiled in a single place. The other motivating factor is that sometimes teaching can be a great way to learn, and in putting together the tutorial I have expanded my knowledge of the subject even further, though seeking out answers online and through experimenting with these methods myself. Still, I’m sure I’ve made mistakes--maybe some things are just wrong, or I’ve left out important details, or the structure or other aspects could be improved. I’d appreciate any and all feedback and will use it to improve this tutorial as I expand upon it. (Also, if anyone with more experience would like to write or rewrite a section, I’d be happy for the assistance, and I won’t be offended if you politely [or bluntly, for that matter] suggest that I’m in over my head.)

This tutorial is a work in progress, and I’ll be editing these posts as I add to the tutorial, correct mistakes, and make changes in the structure and syntax. For now the tutorial will reside in this post and the three below it, and each time I change a section, I’ll update the last-edited date and version number on a line at the bottom of that post. Once the tutorial is more or less complete, I’ll remove this pre-introduction and post the finished tutorial to a new thread and/or make and distribute a pdf. At that point, I’ll let this WIP thread fade into obscurity.

If you are here looking for help with hair, please keep in mind all of the above and take this advice with a grain of salt, but I hope you do find some useful information here. Feel free to respond and let me know what worked and what didn’t.

Contents

Post 1 of 4 (this post)
Pre-introduction
Contents
Introduction

Post 2 of 4
I. Types of Hair
1.1 Painted hair
1.2 Conforming hair figures and hair props
1.3 Other types of hair
II. If the Hair Fits...
III. Parenting 101: Not Just for Moms and Dads
Example 1: Using Mitsu Hair for Aiko on Genesis

Post 3 of 4
IV. Fits, Morphs, and Poses
V. Dye Jobs, Mat Poses, and Surfaces
5.1 Changing the color in Smart Content
5.2 Changing the color in Content Library (materials or mat poses)
5.3 Changing the diffuse color
VI. Using Morphs and Poses to Find Your Style

Post 4 of 4
VII. Rendering
7.1 Basic rendering settings
7.2 Uberhair
7.3 Fantom occlusion
VIII. Special topics: hats, elf ears, beards, body hair, and more
8.1 Hats and Hair
8.2 Elf ears, lash distortion, and other unusual shapes
8.3 Facial and body hair
IX. Additional Resources

***

List of hair products used for examples in this tutorial:

Mitsu Hair for Aiko (prop/hr2) from the (currently) free Anime Star Fighter bundle: http://www.daz3d.com/shop/anime-star-fighter
Taylor Hair (figure/cr2; dsf): http://www.daz3d.com/shop/taylor-hair
Gia Hair (Genesis/dsf; prop/hr2): http://www.daz3d.com/shop/gia-hair

You don't need to own these same hair products to use the tutorial, though: you can follow the examples using any hair of the same type (keeping in mind that some of the finer details might be different). The principles described in the tutorial should apply to just about any hair.

***

Introduction

This tutorial is intended for DAZ Studio 4.5 users who work primarily with Genesis and/or with the 4th Generation figures (Victoria 4.2, Michael 4, etc.). Most of the information also applies to DS4.0. The objects of the tutorial is to familiarize you with basic concepts involved with using hair in DS4, to address common hair-related problems, and to give advice on optimizing the appearance and rendering performance of your 3D hairstyles.

A few weeks before beginning to write this tutorial, I posted a message in the New User forum, asking if anyone knew of a good tutorial or general advice on hair. While I got a great deal of helpful advice, I didn’t find any tutorials, so I decided to write my own, compiling the responses to my question together with other information I’ve learned about hair. In this endeavor I’m greatly indebted to those individuals--including (in no particular order) fixmypcmike, Jaderail, adamr001, Frank0314, DWG, Indigone, Wiseavatar, RAMWolff, Lindsey, kitakoredaz, and others--who have helped me and other forumites with hair-related questions. I’ve provided links to several of these threads in the Additional Resources section at the end of the tutorial.

(Version 0.9, last edited 2013/02/16)

The Genesis, Victoria 5, Michael 5, and all Genesis related characters won't really work in Poser. Now before anyone jumps, there is a way to export their cr2s to Poser 9 or Poser Pro 2012 using the latest version of Daz Studio but I myself haven't tried it lately. I intend to but I haven't done it. :) Last time I tried it, the process was quite flawed but that's been quite some time ago. Hopefully they've improved the system.

What you want/need is Victoria 4, Michael 4, Kids 4, etc. Those work without any issues in Poser. I use Poser Pro 2012 myself (basically its just Poser 9 with some extra features) and the 4 series characters are my go to characters. No fiddling needed to use them and there are lots and lots of addons!

Those aren't your only options though. There are some original outside figures too. Antonia Polygon is a free female figure that's been updated to use Poser's latest features and I just found out tonight that RuntimeDNA released a new figure called Michelle that looks very, very promising. There's also a host of toon figures and lots more. Heck, I've been out of the world for two or three months and there's been so much change. I can't imagine what all has changed for you since 2002!

I understand Autofit for Genesis, rarely appeared to me parameters to autofit selection for Victoria 4 / Michael 4 and was adjusted properly for these figures like Genesis.

I can not make that then appears again.

I've only seen tutorials for autofit to Genesis. For Victoria 4 and Michael 4 is silent.

So how do autofit for Victoria 4 / Michael 4?

Thanks for your reply.

DrowElfMorwen said:

Thank you, I will try to experiment.

There is just one more question, I'm assuming it'll be okay if I load M4 up, his morphs, and the Elite and Enhanced morphs into him, and *then* save him for future use as a pre-loaded figure?

Yes, that will work - but if you add another product that uses ExP you will again need to load a fresh Michael 4 rather than the saved figure to use the new morphs.

If you go to the Content Library tab, DAZ Studio Formats > My Library > People > Genesis > Hair, you will see all of the hair that comes with DS4, and will fit to Genesis.

If you mean searching for hair in the store, then anything with a 4 or a 3 in it is for Generation 4 or Generation 3 figures respectively. The abbreviations are A4 (Aiko 4), V4 (Victoria 4), M4 (Michael 4), and there are others too, but generally where it does not mention Genesis specifically, then it is not designed for Genesis.
Some hair for V4 etc, can be made to fit Genesis by placing it in the viewport on the head of Genesis, adjusting it, and perhaps a little scaling, and then 'parenting' the item in place, so that it moves with the figure. Most hair that you buy will 'Fit To' the figure it was made for with no problems.

I will have a look in the strore for you, and post a link here if I can get the search to work properly.

Lord Ganthor said:

So, here I'yam ons vacation...Yester Island...big whoop. Spent a whole week dere an' dinni't find one damn egg. Wotta rip...

1.) Shawn for M4++ Character Morph. Registration Required.

2.) Moustache 19th from Top.

3.) Mitch Hair

4.) Gritty Bar Props Cigar Ony. Registration Required.

5.) The Fedora Registration Required.

6.) Have A Drink for M4 and V4 Registration Required. Beer Bottle (with textures altered for color).

7.) Tree and Limb Registration Required.

8.) Parrot

8.) 12 Poser Bark Materials 22 Registration Required.*

10.) Fallen Tree 04 InfCove4 Textures Registration Requried.*

* Indicates required item(s) for this Challenge. Used for Backdrop and bark texture on tree. InfCove Item not used, backdrop picture only.

Non-countable items: Michael 4. Paid For: Michael 4 Morphs++ and M4 Casual Wear. Enchanted Island is a DAZ Freebie for the week of August 7 thru August 14 (I'd guess). As always, figure and prop set-up in Studio 2.3 and final render in Bryce 5.5. Postwork limited to adding photo border, paper corners and drop shadow (all in Photoshop) and adding signature. Original render available on request.

Good one LG... you should learn classes about lightning.

And.. wasn't it said that weekly freebies from the month of the contest can be counted freebies?? I thought it was added somewhere...