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.

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.

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? :)

If you have GenX2, and use that to transfer H3 to Genesis 3, and get Kenji, you can dial in whatever combination of them you desire. All the GenX2 converted morphs can be applied with dials at any percentage you like.

If you want to get back into using your old A3 & H3 content and you're willing to make the expenses, you can buy the A3 and H3 Shapes for Genesis which come with Autofit clones to let you use their content on the original Genesis figure. If you have any particular characters of their's you liked, you can create morphs of them for Genesis using Dimension3D's Genesis Generation X2. Just make sure you pick-up the GenX AddOn Gen3 for A3 and H3 with it.

So with the Gen3 for A3 and H3 add on, I'll be able to morph Aiko 3 with Genesis 3 models? (Like Aiko 7)

Yes, you will also need the Genesis 3 Add On for Generation X. Below is a quick render of the A3 shape on G3F, and thanks to this product: http://www.daz3d.com/legacy-uvs-for-genesis-3-special-edition-victoria-3, she is using the original A3 skin.

OMG Thanks! She's everything I wanted lol. Now I'm getting excited. Time to do some budget checking 

Just remember that if you want to use H3 on Genesis 3, you'll have to GenX him to Genesis 3 Female.

Haven't tried it yet, but couldn't you take morphs from Hiro3 to Genesis, to Genesis 2 Male, to Genesis 3 Male, and the texture maps from H3 to Genesis 3 Female to Genesis 3 Male?

-- Walt Sterdan

The H3 shape you can get to any Genesis 1-3 base, but the skins are trickier, as you either use TC2 to convert the texture to M4 or V4 first, or use the new product I mentioned to put it directly on G3F. With the former solution you can put the skin on G3M (assuming you have the M4 to G3F product), but the second solution is G3F only as the geografts it needs to work will not work on G3M.

Okay, thank you for informing me on that about removing the weight map from the hip bone. So is it not possible to only have a hip bone and edit its weight map from scratch? It is a armor piece and it really only needs one bone (a hip i would imagine). It is essentially a loin cloth that i need to adjust the weight map of so it bends better between the legs. Honestly, I didnt think i would want to run transfer utility because i do not want the whole skeleton of a character for a loin cloth. Maybe I am wrong? Is there a way for me to add a single hip bone only and adjust its weight map without it having to stay 100% red? Thank you so much for replying. I appreciate it. 

If you want to get back into using your old A3 & H3 content and you're willing to make the expenses, you can buy the A3 and H3 Shapes for Genesis which come with Autofit clones to let you use their content on the original Genesis figure. If you have any particular characters of their's you liked, you can create morphs of them for Genesis using Dimension3D's Genesis Generation X2. Just make sure you pick-up the GenX AddOn Gen3 for A3 and H3 with it.

So with the Gen3 for A3 and H3 add on, I'll be able to morph Aiko 3 with Genesis 3 models? (Like Aiko 7)

Yes, you will also need the Genesis 3 Add On for Generation X. Below is a quick render of the A3 shape on G3F, and thanks to this product: http://www.daz3d.com/legacy-uvs-for-genesis-3-special-edition-victoria-3, she is using the original A3 skin.

OMG Thanks! She's everything I wanted lol. Now I'm getting excited. Time to do some budget checking 

Just remember that if you want to use H3 on Genesis 3, you'll have to GenX him to Genesis 3 Female.

Haven't tried it yet, but couldn't you take morphs from Hiro3 to Genesis, to Genesis 2 Male, to Genesis 3 Male, and the texture maps from H3 to Genesis 3 Female to Genesis 3 Male?

-- Walt Sterdan

You do NOT remove the Weight Mapping from the Hip bone. If you remove the weight mapping from the hip bone by just erasing it, it has nowhere to go and will wreck your item. Your item is disppearing BECAUSE YOU REMOVED THE WEIGHT MAPPING FROM THE HIP BONE in an incorrect way. 

By painting a weight map on different bones, DAZ Studio will actually transfer the weight from the root bone (which in this case is the hip) to whatever bone you are painting. So let's say you have full red weights on the Hip and nothing on other bones. The moment you start painting something on - for example - the leg bone, you will notice that the Hip Bone no longer has any weight mapping there in the exact amount you just added to the leg.

Anyway - after you use Transfer Utility on an item - it is converted into a figure. You do not have to "convert it to a figure" in order to add bones IF YOU USED TRANSFER UTILITY on it already. Just use the joint editor to add bones and node weight map brush to paint weight maps on the new bones. 

You only use "Convert prop to figure" when you have an item in the scene that won't be processed by Transfer Utility. 

If you want to get back into using your old A3 & H3 content and you're willing to make the expenses, you can buy the A3 and H3 Shapes for Genesis which come with Autofit clones to let you use their content on the original Genesis figure. If you have any particular characters of their's you liked, you can create morphs of them for Genesis using Dimension3D's Genesis Generation X2. Just make sure you pick-up the GenX AddOn Gen3 for A3 and H3 with it.

So with the Gen3 for A3 and H3 add on, I'll be able to morph Aiko 3 with Genesis 3 models? (Like Aiko 7)

Yes, you will also need the Genesis 3 Add On for Generation X. Below is a quick render of the A3 shape on G3F, and thanks to this product: http://www.daz3d.com/legacy-uvs-for-genesis-3-special-edition-victoria-3, she is using the original A3 skin.

OMG Thanks! She's everything I wanted lol. Now I'm getting excited. Time to do some budget checking 

Just remember that if you want to use H3 on Genesis 3, you'll have to GenX him to Genesis 3 Female.

alright, that shouldn't be too hard I don't think