I just made a quick render for anybody wondering what the Meadow Whispers Outfit looks like without the body armour.

The answer is: pretty good! And that's a good thing, since it seems to me that occasions when you want to wear an ankle-length dress, and occasions when you want to wear body armour are probably mutually exclusive - but both are great for kitbashing! Add to that it's 60% off brand new (if you're PC+ and have the Daz Horse 2) and it triggers a remarkably generous sale, and it was a must-buy.

The only shame was that I liked the look of some of those Genesis hairs at 70% off, but couldn't afford them after I'd bought a load of long-wishlisted Sickleyield items at 68% off! Oh well, there'll always be another sale...

PS. Model is Shawna, hair is Annabelle.

PPS. Added a rear view

I think the best investment I've made in the Daz3d store was buying the various clothing clones. They let me use clothing across all generations, although some items like shoes and gloves have issues. I generally work with Genesis 3, but most of their clothes are hand-me-downs from earlier generations.

What are these clones? And how do they work?

Clones allow you to wear clothing and hair on a different generation figure than what it was originally made for. 

This one is one of my favorites: https://www.daz3d.com/wear-them-all-autofitting-clones-and-clothing-smoothers-for-genesis-3-female-s

It's for Genesis 3 Female and allows her to wear clothing and hair that was made for Victoria 4, Michael 4, Genesis 1, and Genesis 2 males. 

These ones are also good:

https://www.daz3d.com/wear-them-all-autofit-clones-expansion-for-genesis-3-male-s-and-genesis-3-female-s

https://www.daz3d.com/wear-them-all-autofitting-clones-and-clothing-smoothers-for-genesis-3-male-s

And these are for Genesis 2, that allows Genesis 2 figures to wear clothing and hair made for Genesis 3:

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-3-female-for-genesis-2-female-s

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-3-male-for-genesis-2-male-s

And this one allows Genesis 2 Female to wear clothing and hair made for Victoria 4:

https://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-for-genesis-2-female

Clones are fantastic because they can expand your favorite character's wardrobe by a LOT. :) 

Looks like the shorts cut off the circulation in her legs, poor dear. I am thinking there is something funky going on in the SS settings, which skin set are you using?

Also have two "HD" characters from other PAs, but no idea if the mesh is HD or maybe just the textures. Guess I have to count the triangles in DS and Carrara. https://www.daz3d.com/fwsa-tempie-hd-for-victoria-6 https://www.daz3d.com/lyfw-adrienne-hd-for-victoria-6

The HD morphs work via morphs and the level of subD, so it could, in theory, be made for anything. But when you get a Daz3d HD addon, it likely include both HD morphs (draws MUCH higher detail onto the actual mesh itself) as well as HD textures.

In Carrara, we might see a little change if we dial up an HD morph, but according to Daz3d, it still isn't compatible. The thing is, for it to really work, we'd also need to increase the subD smoothing level to the necessary level - like from 2 to 3 or 4, for example. But HD textures (like HD Normal Map, for example) will work just fine, if included. But the thing about HD morphs is that they often don't need HD normal maps since the mesh is refined to such a minute detail level - hence its truly magnificent breakthrough - all starting from the first generation Genesis figure technology of using a subD shell.

In Carrara, we can make HD morphs for any mesh. We simply increase the subD level and sculpt or model detail into the new micro levels, making the GoZ for Carrara plugin a real piece of magic for those whom might have Zbrush. Of course, those refinements would have to stay in Carrara unless we're a PA with the granted use of the plugin that allows us to bring these details into Daz Studio to add to an existing figure.

I like her - shes cute.

I need attractive characters under the apparent age of 30 as the player characters and others in my project, and she certainly qualifies, as do her addon characters. This is a treasure trove of DNA bases for me.

Contrary to what some people say, gen 8 is actually low in these characters. (all the Victoria 8 style characters do not qualify)

Another anime character? How many is that now?

I'm not knocking anime, but what does this character add to the G8 gene pool? And that skin texture is... never mind.

This isnt anime - not even close (apart from being cute, which is a staple of anime).

Sakura 8 and her addon characters are more the typical modern anime look, and we don't have enough of them in gen 8.

There are a couple of iray skins here: https://www.daz3d.com/ig-iray-essentials-victoria-6-michael-6

IG had a freebie pack for Aiko, Darius, Gia, Gianni, Girl, Lee, Lilith, Mei Lin, Monique, Olympia, and Stephanie a couple of years ago, but it's not available in the store. Only a few worked, most had missing texture file errors and CS was no help.
But the ones that worked were great! You could click on them in "figures" in smart content and they would load like any figure, but with iray materials already applied.

Found the description:

"The 2015 Christmas Giveaway items are offered as free items from the DAZ PA (Premiere Artist) Community. Each item is offered for 2 days only. These items are not made by, or supported by Daz 3D. They're free, but you're on your own when working with them. Enjoy your freebies, and happy holidays!"

So yeah, some didn't work and no support.

Almost a month?? But then, I've been busy with non-DAZ hobbies. Anyway, there was a Flash Sale of RiverSoftArt products and I finally decided to "bite the bullet" as they say, and got their V4 to G8F Clothing Convertion product they did with Sickleyield. I'm still confused by this product. The thread in the forums is just to long for me to read right now. (My attention span is quite short right now.) I want to know if there's duplicate data files and whether or not I can delete the V4 version and keep this new G8F converstion.

Anyway, this is an old Aery Soul/Aeon Soul freebie, the AS Elven Stapped for V4. The top and panty are applied with Autofit and the results from the converter. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the converter did a much better job at fitting this to the default shape than the autofit. But then, there is this strange gap between the figure's body and the clothing. The same thing happened to another dress I converted. I still have no idea what I'm doing. 

G3F materials used on G8F should render with the same quality as on G3F.

To get the "anatomical elements" (official name for Daz genitals) for G8F you need to purchase the pro bundle for one of the adult "base characters" for G8F, like Victoria 8, Stephanie 8... Any of the adults characters would be fine, once you have them they'll work on the other characters too.

I'm not sure what you mean with "water product", do you mean something to make the skin look wet?

Thank you. Yes that is what I mean, to make the skin look realistically wet with drops etc. Want to make sure it will work on the anatomical elements. 

G3F materials used on G8F should render with the same quality as on G3F.

To get the "anatomical elements" (official name for Daz genitals) for G8F you need to purchase the pro bundle for one of the adult "base characters" for G8F, like Victoria 8, Stephanie 8... Any of the adults characters would be fine, once you have them they'll work on the other characters too.

I'm not sure what you mean with "water product", do you mean something to make the skin look wet?

Hi.

1. I just realized I can use a G3F Skin on a G8F. Does that mean it would render at the same quality as that skin on the original G3F? 

2. What wet body product can/do I need to get from Daz that works on the genitals? I am using genitals from a third party site "New Genitalia for G8F" but the current water product I have doesnt cover that area. I do not see default genitals for G8F in my Library either. What water product from the Daz shop and what Genitals do I need. I have Victoria 8HD but maybe I didnt buy the full package or something?

Thank you :)

As regards using older clothes on Genesis 8 (ie Kids 4 on Genesis 8 baby) there are several ways of doing that.

There are clothing converers that work in DAZ Studio:- https://www.daz3d.com/rssy-clothing-converter-from-genesis-to-genesis-8-female

https://www.daz3d.com/rssy-clothing-converter-from-michael-4-to-genesis-8-male

https://www.daz3d.com/rssy-clothing-converter-from-victoria-4-to-genesis-8-female

Then there is a method of creating clones which gets a bit involved.

 

UB, upon taking another look at your character's face, I am reminded of Gene Tierney, which is the highest compliment there is.  Purposeful?  Is that Victoria's straight mesh improved just with shaders? , some dial spun morphs?  a custom morph?  In any case, another masterful job.

Sorry, I left out a bunch of product details.  Thanks for asking, as I tend to forget this stuff fast.  As it is, I had to go back and look at several items. :)

The head is from the Bianca character, which I understand is a very popular morph for V4.  Did not use the body.  Instead used standard V4 Utopian body morph and some other tweaks.  Skin was Lana.

LP Record and needle came from Retro HiFi.  Various Egyptian outfits and props were from Pharaohs of the Sun for M3 and V4.  The V4 top is from Brazen, and retextured using Yellow Anodized Aluminum.

I have been searching for a Poi / Fire Dancing Stick prop for the last 12 hours.

Also, hoping someone has a Cat / Lion Ears freebie for Victoria 4/Michael 4.

Does anyone know where to locate a free or paid version of these props ?

Excellent modeling, Stezza.

Thanks for another useful tutorial, Bunyip.

UB, upon taking another look at your character's face, I am reminded of Gene Tierney, which is the highest compliment there is.  Purposeful?  Is that Victoria's straight mesh improved just with shaders? , some dial spun morphs?  a custom morph?  In any case, another masterful job.

Thanks, got a few more lined up. Was thinking after that of doing a shader disection of some of the freebie shaders, or shader reviews, or rehashing some of the already existing tutorials but with my methodology breakdown - any preferences/or ideas ?

Excellent modeling, Stezza.

Thanks for another useful tutorial, Bunyip.

UB, upon taking another look at your character's face, I am reminded of Gene Tierney, which is the highest compliment there is.  Purposeful?  Is that Victoria's straight mesh improved just with shaders? , some dial spun morphs?  a custom morph?  In any case, another masterful job.

Do The Sand Dance

 

The retro inspiration is Walk Like an Egyptian.  "Do the sand dance" is a phrase from the second line of the song.

The creation process was convoluted.  It started with some comments I read on skin shaders in the Commons.  People were expressing admiration for their favorite skin shaders.  I started to wonder if I could get more out of standard shaders by using better lighting techniques in Carrara.  After a week or two, I felt like I was getting good results with V4 and standard Lana Elite shaders.  You be the judge, as I took the result and applied it to the Egyptian theme above. 

Since I didn't manipulate shaders very much in the foreground figure (other than the necklace and bikini), I needed to make a background that used more shader manipulation.  I started with 3 primitave cubes to simulate clay blocks.  To get a clay look, I added Nobiax's shader 12, which is a brushed metal panel, doubled the Specular map into the bump channel, and raised the bump to 250.  To get the lines a little wavier, I added a touch of Brushify from GMIC.

All seven ladies in the background are V1, with all the color channel shaders changed to the Nobiax shader.  The idea was to give the illusion of a bias relief, with the figures looking like carved statues in the clay.  I could have sold the illusion more by doing postwork, but it was close enough for my tastes.  The foreground is supposed to be the focus anyway. :)

The background was rendered separately, and reinserted into a backdrop.  The final render with V4 and the record LP at 3000 x 1885 took about two minutes. Pretty zippy.  No postwork.

The weirdest thing about the whole process, is that I had never even heard the song until a few months ago!  (Misty posted a video)  I know that Diomede used it to title one of his renders in Challenge 31, but I didn't understand his reference.  What was I doing in 1987 when this song was #1?  The answer to that will take too long.  Hey, better late than never.  I really like the song, and I got to use several Egyptian hair and clothing products which were accumulating on the computer, and I learned about Egyptian headdresses.  Happy camper.

Victoria never looked so good!  Great job.  I especially like the reliefs on the back wall.  We all have a lost year or two, so I wouldn't sweat not knowing the song.

By single-morph character I meant somethign like Victoria 8, or indeed many characters in the store, where you will have a slider at 100% that does ll the shaping (or which drives other moprhs to do the shaping). In that case you can be fairly sure that the name on the slider is the character used.

Download the script (there's a link above the text box) and drag it into the Viewport with the scene you want to catalogue loaded (you can also use File>Merge, or if you place the script fiel in a content directory you can access it through the Content Library pane).

Yes, every character and shaping set is listed, so that you are able to mix and match to create the look you want.

The script I linked will tell you which product the active morphs are from.

I don't knoww hy you would see a shape on only one figure, unless it was soem kind of custom morph.

No bones at all.  Victoria is made of cartilage like a shark. :) 

I've got the "Victoria 3.0 Head & Body Morphs" pack in my account (as part of the "2007 member's choice bundle one"), but there are no download links..... looks like the products are gone missing....