Continuing on, I feel compelled to get each of my new free items into Carrara and get them saved to my browser and rendered into a scene and posted in here.

Wow. This is going to be a huge undertaking! :)

My whole first page in my Product Library is all Christmas Freebies - and they're all excellent!

Just wanted to mention that, though I didn't shoot a render of it, I was very curious about the Fantasy Book. I wanted a book which allows a character to turn a page with the book already open. The description of this one led me to believe that this would be possible.

Better than possible, it has a pose which opens the book. From that position we can chose either of the two facing pages and animate turning it in many ways! There may even be more than those two... I don't remember. All I need is one. Further turning of pages is simple from there. After all... this is CG!

Each of those individual page in the center have three bones - one closest to the spine, one on the outer edge, and the one in between, making it really neat how varied we can animate this whole turning thing. I think I remember there being mention of a page corner fold morph as well.

Very Cool! Yet another Amazing Present from Daz3d!!! Wow am I ever Merry!!!

I saw that there's a newer book model, but it doesn't look like it has all of this awesome functionality - but it does look cool!

TLDR

So I was doing fine keeping track of my content, or so I kept telling myself. Then the Daz 2016 Twelve Days began. Then I opened my scripts folder and discovered the morass that is the default catchall without clear creator/script divisions. Then I tried using some of the morphs I picked up, and that turned into a nightmare. Yes, Virginia, you really CAN have too many morphs. ::rolls eyes:: (Seriously, I'm not sure I'll ever buy another morph pack again--at least not until they switch up future generation figures enough that nothing again works with anything and we have to spend tons more money to stay current... but I digress)

Anyway, now I have a couple of clear objectives for the New Year at least, and I'm pretty sure I need to get organized. Seems like categorizing will help, but I'm not sure because I don't know where to begin. I googled organizing Daz Studio content and found my top link took me to a Daz tutorial on this website somewhere that begins by saying that most of the content you'll have for Daz is Poser content. ::rolls eyes more loudly:: I didn't go on with that tutorial because I'm not even sure if anything in it is even relevant to this decade.

Edit:: Going back, I see that I misunderstood some of what I was reading. Any advice? Where do I learn to begin really organizing all of this stuff in a way I can make sense of?

Okay, I think I fixed the problem. I had to change the Mode to "Create Single Morph". Somehow it changed from that, but I have no idea why.

I do have another question though... I have the GenX2 AddOn Gen3 for V3 and M3. Is that not compatible with G3F?

I've used GenX and GenX2 to use my older V4/M4 and V3 models on the new G1,G2 and G3 models for quite a while. I've converted over 30 figures over the course of time. Today, I got a new V3 model that I've been wanting for a while. I was excited to move it to G1 and G3F to try it out. Unfortunately, it's not working. I get it setup and I click the transfer button, it starts and shows the progress dialogs, but it never pops up the finishing dialog where I can name it and select the icon for it. The progress dialogs finish and nothing happens.

Anyone know how to fix this? I'm using Daz Studio version 4.9.2.7 on Mac OS 10.12.2.

Thank you everyone who contributed to these awesome gifts =)

Merry Western Christmas!

// it's larger than this, just click //

It's custom Anna morph by Mjc - I had to fiddle a bit to make the dress fit her kid shape, but it worked =)

OK, I was worried that I missed something horrendous, tho I will admit after fussing with the dials for a while to get the 'span' to smooth out, Classic on some figures is a bit finicky. My dial fumbling may not be the best combo for MJC Anna, your results look much better. Fisty's textures also help smooth over some spots a lot.

Something else to consider as far as rendering environments go is the Unreal 4 Sequencer Cinematics for doing animation. It has some interesting features such as automatic LOD and texture resolution (based on distance to camera) that make it worth exploring. Even if the goal is to do a more detailed animation render, this environment could be used for visualization and blocking. The cost again is the time it takes to learn the environment, transfer and set up product into the environment and a certain amount of potential duplication of effort, so one's mileage will vary.

With the move towards PBR and other tools to help bridge the gaps between different environments, moving between different tools for different tasks is a moving target that may not make sense now for many but might in the not to distant future.

I have seen in different forums and continue to see statements by new and established artists alike that PBR is something that was invented for "game environments" that doesn't really offer anything to anyone using a "real render environment." I have and continue to try to put forth that this argument misses the point. The real benefit of PBR is being able to move between environments with predictable results, and the implications of that is huge.

Thank you everyone who contributed to these awesome gifts =)

Merry Western Christmas!

// it's larger than this, just click //

It's custom Anna morph by Mjc - I had to fiddle a bit to make the dress fit her kid shape, but it worked =)

"Is there an any advantage to rendering in Blender/Cycles rather than Iray? When I tried it using Casual's Teleblender freebie, I found that the materials didn't transfer as I would have hoped. So I tried to figure the Blender noodle system which is frightening to someone not used to playing with shaders, etc. And then I didn't find Cycles any quicker than Iray or Luxrender when it came to actual render times"

Hi I  can detail some differences on the "low end" of hardware performance betwee Iray and Cycles

On one of my  windows laptops where I use DS 4.8
1.3GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core SU4100 CPU along with Intel’s GMA4500MHD graphics, 4GB DDR2 RAM. ..NO nividia graphic card CPU only .
I can get a render like this from blender in about 2 hours.

such a simple portrait would take at least 15 - 18 hours with Iray. in DS
So for me Using Iray for any actual production or client work is not feasible until I upgrade my hardware next year.

Is there an any advantage to rendering in Blender/Cycles rather than Iray? When I tried it using Casual's Teleblender freebie, I found that the materials didn't transfer as I would have hoped. So I tried to figure the Blender noodle system which is frightening to someone not used to playing with shaders, etc. And then I didn't find Cycles any quicker than Iray or Luxrender when it came to actual render times. Admittedly, this was before I had a decent GPU and I later bought a GeForce 970 but the question remains: why would I send to Blender rather than use IRay?

My main complaint with IRay is the VRAM restrictions - the 970 quickly proved inadequate with it's 4GB so I'd be interested to know whether Cycles needs the same or whether I could render larger scenes without the need to replace my nearly new and expensive GPU.

The screenshot chops off the tab label, are you looking in Posing or Parameters? Remember that Posing (also Shaping, Cameras and Lights) are sub-categories — the Parameters tab will always contain everything, but sometimes the morph dials haven't been set up to appear in the proper sub-category tab. It used to be a fairly regular problem in earlier Genesis generations, less so in the current Genesis3.

Thanks for the advice but I have looked into the Posing, Shaping and Parameters tabs and male expressions aren't there. I'll write to daz help support center.

Merry Christmas

Yeah, in cases like that, it's better to use the Transfer Utility. I also vouch for SickleYield's tutorials. She's pretty savvy with that tool. :)

Yep! Basically, GenX2 lets you transfer any character to any figure.

Is there any way to use/transfer subdragon textures on Daz Dragon 3?

Using the Transfer utility ensures the bone centres are in the right place - I'd think you'd at least want hip, pelvis, and abdomen for a loincloth. The joint centres are essential for fitting. You can remove unwanted bones with the Joint Editor, and as Thomas Windar says you can then add new bones and reweight as needed.

A "tweaked" customization of Mila is my "go to" Aiko figure.  Both my Vampirella and the "roommate" to my Melody based catgirl earlier on this page are based upon the Mila morph.

Sincerely,

Bill

It isn't saying they should be on the C: drive, but it is saying they are missing or can't be found. The Data folder should be in the root of your content directory, clearly there is one there or the basic figure wouldn't load but it looks as if the morph files have become separated (or simply weren't copied to the new location).

This has been so much fun but today is our last gift giving day.  Today we have two different posts with items so be sure to grab them all.

The first item of the day comes to you from 3D-GHDesign.  He brings you fun holiday hat with elf ears for your Genesis 3 figures.  Who doesn't love a snuggly, fuzzy and fun hat especially if it has the perfect set of ears?  You may have last year's model but this one is brand new and fresh out of the box.

DOWNLOAD ELF HAT AND EARS HERE

As an added bonus to his customers who bought his Patty Clothes 3D-GHDesign has included an Elf Shoe Morph for his Patty clothes shoes.  This will only work with Patty Clothes for Genesis 3 Female and Star2.0.

DOWNLOAD PATTY SHOE MORPH HERE

3D-GHDesign's Store

I think I get the *concept*. The UV Map is basically the wireframe model of the character, right - and that determines what planes materials will sit on and strech across - so if you try and put a material, like a skin, from a G2 character on a G3 character - it'll stretch and things won't be in the right place... lips end up too high or low, eyes and eyebrows, other anatomical parts, are in the wrong place and stretched out?
​So, it SEEMS to me like there is some sort of way to map the UV so that the wireframe under the character matches the character you're trying to load materials for... But I don't get that part of it... I see these products and I'm confused between the difference of clones, UV maps, and how that allows you more flexibility with combining materials...
​So for example... if I take Gen X 2 and transfer a G2 character to G3, even with a clone shape, I can't load the G2 character's materials on the G3, even though they LOOK identical (or nearly so) without any mats at all applied... But I *think* there is some way to do that - if I use something to make the G3 morph of the G2 character have the same base UV map as the G2 character...
​Is that right? Am I even in the ballpark? :)

The wireframe model itself (the 3D bit) is the mesh. The UV map is basically some settings that tell the program how to wrap the texture around the mesh.

While the actual mesh (model whatever) looks about the same, the actual layout of the textures (when they're flattened out to images) is completely different between G2 and G3, which is why it's complicated to transfer them and generally requires products designed for it.

I think I get the *concept*. The UV Map is basically the wireframe model of the character, right - and that determines what planes materials will sit on and strech across - so if you try and put a material, like a skin, from a G2 character on a G3 character - it'll stretch and things won't be in the right place... lips end up too high or low, eyes and eyebrows, other anatomical parts, are in the wrong place and stretched out?
​So, it SEEMS to me like there is some sort of way to map the UV so that the wireframe under the character matches the character you're trying to load materials for... But I don't get that part of it... I see these products and I'm confused between the difference of clones, UV maps, and how that allows you more flexibility with combining materials...
​So for example... if I take Gen X 2 and transfer a G2 character to G3, even with a clone shape, I can't load the G2 character's materials on the G3, even though they LOOK identical (or nearly so) without any mats at all applied... But I *think* there is some way to do that - if I use something to make the G3 morph of the G2 character have the same base UV map as the G2 character...
​Is that right? Am I even in the ballpark? :)

Good day, I think this is the part you are missing. With a 3D model (like a person) you have the X, Y, and Z axis to deal with. When a modeler is making a texture map (like skin color) to fit onto that 3D model, they are only working with a 2D image ... because XYZ are already used for coordinates on the 3D image, the letters U, and V are used as the coordinates on the 2D map. The converters simply say how to place the UV/2D textures onto the XYZ/3D model.

I think I get the *concept*. The UV Map is basically the wireframe model of the character, right - and that determines what planes materials will sit on and strech across - so if you try and put a material, like a skin, from a G2 character on a G3 character - it'll stretch and things won't be in the right place... lips end up too high or low, eyes and eyebrows, other anatomical parts, are in the wrong place and stretched out?
​So, it SEEMS to me like there is some sort of way to map the UV so that the wireframe under the character matches the character you're trying to load materials for... But I don't get that part of it... I see these products and I'm confused between the difference of clones, UV maps, and how that allows you more flexibility with combining materials...
​So for example... if I take Gen X 2 and transfer a G2 character to G3, even with a clone shape, I can't load the G2 character's materials on the G3, even though they LOOK identical (or nearly so) without any mats at all applied... But I *think* there is some way to do that - if I use something to make the G3 morph of the G2 character have the same base UV map as the G2 character...
​Is that right? Am I even in the ballpark? :)

Basically - you take the 3d-shape and 'unwrap' it - laying it flat on a 2D surface - that's the UV map.  But then the different parts can be moved around on that surface - so even two identical cubes could have a different uv-map.  The whitespace on a UV map isn't assigned to a surface - so applying the wrong texture gives you white patches on your model as well as things in the wrong place.

G2 and G3 might also have different parts mapped to different maps (Eg. arms and hands in one map, torso in another - or arms, hands and torso on one map, etc).

So to convert a model to use another's UVs (or convert a map to fit another model) needs more than just making the shape right.  It also needs to be positioned correctly on the 2D image.