Padone said:

The intended workflow is to bake the figure, not to import body morphs. However you can import body morphs using ERCs. But I don't recommend that since it makes the figure complex, in blender it is better to work with simple rigs, especially for animation.

Yes, i think i read about and tried ERCs as well, to no avail unfortunately.
What you mean by baking is that i should import already morphed characters into blender and not morph them inside of blender with custom morphs? That would work but it would be quite limiting as you can not change or mix the figure anymore. The weird thing is that so far, except for the eve morph, importing genesis, mixing custom morphs and then posing has worked pefectly well.

The effect of a displacement map is just like a HD morph, even though i suppose they are functionally different.  You won't be able to see the details for either of a displacement map or HD morph unless you subdivide your low res mesh.

Okay, thank you so much... I've never used a HD morph so far. But it makes sense to me that you need to subdivide your mesh to see the HD morph or the displacement map.

You're right - during my search I have already found some products like Aging Morph and Aging Face details to add some of the things I'd like to add to my characters. But maybe one day in the near future I want to publish my own characters for free and/or sell them and for that I don't want to rely on the morphs and preparations of others (I really want to create unique characters) as well as I want to avoid licencing issue. Additionally for me these Daz characters are just a step to learn / become better in creating 3D characters in software like Blender or Zbrush. This also is a reason for me not just to buy products from Daz store to adjust a little bit my character.

Dissendior said:

 

I already understand how a normal map works. When it comes to displacement maps I am still very confused by your words. First I think to achieve very good details by sculpting I need a high resolution. Okay... and then I bake the displacement map from that onto the low res mesh, right? But I wonder how the displacment map helps here as I have learnt that displacment maps actually change the mesh when applied (where the normal maps just "fake" the changes / details on surfaces). But how can the displacement map then be used on a low res model when the displacements have details which are not possible with the lower resolution?

From your high res mesh, you can bake out both Displacement maps and Normal maps. 

The effect of a displacement map is just like a HD morph, even though i suppose they are functionally different.  You won't be able to see the details for either of a displacement map or HD morph unless you subdivide your low res mesh.

If there is no "error", it won't take 40 mins to load a G9 unless there're...maybe >25 Mils formulas of  G9's morph assets need to be checked and resolved...  Only the log of DS will help... just show us the log.

lilweep said:

You can just sculpt at any resolution you want and bake all the HD resolution details onto the low res model via a Normal or Displacement map. Obviously any big morphology changes should be put into a morph of the low res base mesh, and then only fine detail on the Normal/Displacement map...

I already understand how a normal map works. When it comes to displacement maps I am still very confused by your words. First I think to achieve very good details by sculpting I need a high resolution. Okay... and then I bake the displacement map from that onto the low res mesh, right? But I wonder how the displacment map helps here as I have learnt that displacment maps actually change the mesh when applied (where the normal maps just "fake" the changes / details on surfaces). But how can the displacement map then be used on a low res model when the displacements have details which are not possible with the lower resolution?

For making a color map, I am going to start by saying: I have never seen a good merchant resource for skin. You will have to start with another Daz character or look at using assets like photo sets and scans. One problem stemming from this is you likely wont be able to get a license to distribute these maps for your Daz characters, even if modified, so often would have to be restricted to personal use if going that route.  Will depend on the store/assets being used.  The big 3D scan stores are not going to license you to distribute their maps, probably. 

Thanks for this clarification... I already assumed something like this.

You can just sculpt at any resolution you want and bake all the HD resolution details onto the low res model via a Normal or Displacement map. Obviously any big morphology changes should be put into a morph of the low res base mesh, and then only fine detail on the Normal/Displacement map...

For making a color map, I am going to start by saying: I have never seen a good merchant resource for skin. You will have to start with another Daz character or look at using assets like photo sets and scans. One problem stemming from this is you likely wont be able to get a license to distribute these maps for your Daz characters, even if modified, so often would have to be restricted to personal use if going that route.  Will depend on the store/assets being used.  The big 3D scan stores are not going to license you to distribute their maps, probably. 

Ideally for photo assets and scans, the color maps should have been photographed/scanned with polarized filter so only the subject's color info gets photographed i.e., doesnt have reflections and so forth. Any professional 3D scan store would have assets like that, but for photo reference sets, they will have baked reflections in the photos so cannot be used easily.

There are various ways to project the images to Daz UV, either by shrinkwrapping in something like Blender or R3DSWrap, or using manual projection in something like Substance Painter.Then you can edit the diffuse maps in software like Substance Painter/Blender/Photoshop for tweaking.  

There's also a bunch of maps you can get out of a HD Zbrush sculpt like cavity maps etc that you can use for tweaking the diffuse map too.

I usually just spin the facial component morphs from G9's morph packages to create different races, as it's much more reliable as you're the one doing the creation.

Besides, aside from Daz's original content, it's rare that someone makes realistic over stylised content as there's a much bigger demand for stylisation than strict realism, which is more than fine as it's best to hone your skills rather than rely too much on pre-made content anyway.

Having said that, I wish DAZ would make original content that included more JCM morphs as they are definitely needed as Daz really is the best at it, having created such incredibly versatile and amazingly realistic content that we base our characters/morphs on after all...

But to be fair, I'm under the impression that Daz is holding back to make room for other PAs which is a good thing as well, as many base their livelihood on it!

I found out eventually what was wrong but I don't know if I can mention it because it's from a paid tutorial. Let's just say Transfer Utility, and leave it there.

Padone said:

If you believe there's a bug you can open a issue at bitbucket, providing exact steps. In general custom figures also have custom jcms that you can load in easy import as "baked correctives". Then if the pose uses body morphs you have to import them too.

https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/issues

I am confused on how to go about this. What i want to do is this:
import G8.1F
import custom body morphs
set body morph to 1
import pose
Importing baked correctives at any time doesn't seem to change anything. I assume it's because it's importing baked correctives for g8.1f?
This is the problem btw:
https://imgur.com/2KdBsOF

I tried the keep Daz rig options when importing the character, then import the duf pose asset files as new actions to the G8 characters, maybe the animations in the duf format are not baked and need to add ik or something else like the morph properties.
Tested using the MHX rig when importing the character, and the issue was the same as using the Daz rig, the joint rotations of the legs are not exactly the same as the action played in Daz studio. Attached the character import and pose asset import settings, the poses are both from the same frame of the animation.
The animation quality is good and it seems the leg movements that are sliding on the floor have the ik enabled, when imported to Blender the legs move differently and not as perfect like the original playing in Daz studio.

Okay, that will be simple as it's just a leg morph... If you only need color effect, just make and put a Opacity map (a mask with some transition as per Leg's texture map) to Leg surface on the geoshell, set a color... and turn off visibility of other shell surfaces (use edit mode, select and set them off, or set Opacity to Zero on surfaces ), like the attached SS ~ The same way can be applied on arms and hands as well.

If you further need other texture effects, roughness, bump, normal, displacement, whatever, just copy or assign the maps from the figure's corresponding surfaces to the shell surfaces or make some unique ones by yourself.

pricegraham94 said:

Thanks for the replies

I do apply the base female body morph before adding morphs, and have tried moving the scale about, but things do still look a bit strange??!.

Yes, one of the issues is with GC Natasha, so I guess it is what it is!!

 

 

 No worry... that is her body shape with no problem.

I'm using this on G9    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/613861/demon-legs-morph-for-genesis-9

And I want to have the lower legs and hooves black, as well as the lower arms and hands, but with some blending and not look like a cut image. Like in this image by the creator of the morph.

Yes, there are DSON cache relate to the figure assets you've ever loaded but the cache will be updated each time when you load the figure. If you delete the geometry dsf file(s) in data folder, there'll be an error message when you load the figure / prop... but the cache will be updated as usual. So just double-check them... or try to clear the cache in F2 if needed.

BTW, what's the purpose that you make such a "backhead spherer" ? for making morph or for simulation or something?

- Yes, you shoud make basic adjustment morphs of hijab on G9 Base
- Before making morphs, you save Figure/Prop asset once. After making necessary morphs, you just need to save Morph assets. Normally you don't have to save Figure/Prop asset from time to time unless you've made modification to the base geometry, UV and parameter settings to the figure.

Anyone ever come across a look-a-like or morph of Madelaine Petsch? Or a figure that's fairly close (sultry petite redhead)

Thanks for the replies

I do apply the base female body morph before adding morphs, and have tried moving the scale about, but things do still look a bit strange??!.

Yes, one of the issues is with GC Natasha, so I guess it is what it is!!

Did you bake joint rotations after bending the G3 bones, before using transfer utility?

How are you applying the morph, from a preset or using a dial?

pricegraham94 said:

No doubt I am being an idiot, but when I apply a full body morphs to my G9 figures they are not doing what they should, it seems.

For example, if I apply "Natasha" full body morph to G9 she has a bloated body and large thighs!

What am I doing wrong??

Would be easier to know if you got a link to the character... if it the "GC Natasha" as metioned above it's pretty much how it looks as the sculptor likes that.