Thank you! I've been under a rock writing the past two weeks. I won NaNo, but still have 9 more chapters to go in my book. Hoping to have it to the editor some time next month. I took a breather this weekend to finally pick up Monique 8 and do some renders, plus some holiday cooking. Then it's off to finishing up the hair tutorial and the book! And then getting ready for Christmas! Wow. Hard to believe there are only a few more weeks left in 2017! 

Monique 8

Finally took the plunge to pick up the gorgeous Monique 8. I thought Monique 7 was incredible. I didn't know how they could improve on her, but they did. Monique 8 is absolutely stunning. I love the Laverne add-on character, and the hairs that come in the Pro pack are very good. The only thing I'm not wild about are the makeups on the main Monique 8. You can't mix and match the eyes and lips. Everything is lumped together in one preset. Laverne's are fine, and I have yet to try Alondra's, but they look like the usual setup- makeup and lips separate. 

Here's Monique 8 teaming up with Giuseppe for Lucas 8 to fight bad guys in kind of a "Miami Vice 2018" thing. I used Extreme LIE Makeup for G3F here on her. She's wearing Miranda Hair and Bad Girls Textures for Supersuit. It was too revealing, so I added Fabiana's Sheer Shaders (Rendo) to her body to give the look of an undersuit. This image looks dark against the light forum background. (Click the pics for much larger images and better viewing.)

Here's FW Laverne HD with AprilYSH's gorgeous Pascale Hair. It's my new favorite. She's standing in The Streets of Tuscany and wearing Dance of the Veils by Jepe. 

Kerya, thank you for starting this thread, and thanks to all who have contributed..  Very worthwhile read.

In Carrara, I prefer to use the older characters.  They are actually less resource-intensive, with a richness in features that is underestimated (IMO).

Here is V3 with no postwork:

...

I did this image to round up votes for the current Carrara Challenge.  V3 behaved very nicely through the whole process. :)

Nice.  Out of curiosity, do you remember which V3 character this was?

Texture is https://www.daz3d.com/dna-shahara-for-victoria-3-for-p4-p5-p6 - just look at the beauty marks.

(ignore the Required products on that page - ugh!)

Hey,

I'm wondering what's the difference between these models, not only Victoria but the new "8" models, how they are different from 7? Do they have a higher polygon count? Are they using the same rig? I am wondering which one to buy now.

Sinr the love cense is still there for Victoria pro bundle maybe Monique page is an error

My first guess was someone forgot to add it but they missed two items while the base one was added correctly. It's possible but less likely they miss two. 440 would also fit to the other "we don't want small indie developer" prices they have now.

Also why do some items even have a license option? Not name products but some examples include: Toon shaders and lights; I did not know you could take these outside daz studio which makes gettting a license for them pointless

Better not complain to much about things which don't work well. Shader packages can come with textures and maybe there will be some who are of use for some developers even if they don't port well. Daz doesn't seem to understand the developer side so its better they let us decide what we can use then them removing to much and hitting usefull items.
For Monique 8 they already don't offer a interactive license for starter or pro bundle. If you want the Monique 8 Pro bundle for a game its now 440 license costs alone. It's already getting worse.

I just seen that. Also seen 50 license fee for hair, WTF? Since the license is still there for Victoria pro bundle maybe Monique page is an error

Edit for typos damn auto correct 

 

Is this just me? 

Yes.

...To list a few.

Thanks.  There was no character.  I just used the stock V3 (listed as Victoria 3 SAE) with a few common head and body morph dial tweaks.

But it didn't really change the look that much.  That's basically what the base model looks like.

Although I personally,am not on the Character bundle hamster wheel
it Would be nice to see GENX 2 Functionality made a permanent part of  studio
with the ability to send shapes backwards in generations( Ivan7 to the G2 Male)

Then you would not have to re-purchase the same "Darious" etc.
bundle very two years.

Except we aren't repurchasing the same character - every generation of Monique, Victoria, etc are pretty different. 

Well, there were a couple of PC+ items I intended to buy that rotated off the sales page before I got them. I was looking forward to getting them in the catchup, but if Daz isn't going to apply the intro discount, I'll just wait. I can pay full PC+ price for them anytime, so there's no hurry.

Kinda sad, though, so many of the PC+ new releases from the sale aren't getting the intro discount. After all, it is the PC+ Anniversary Sale.

Yes I was sad about that too - there were two or three I didn't pick up as Debut as I was waiting in case I needed a trigger in a couple of days time for a discount on other items, but they fell off the Still New list before I knew it. Catchup (even just the current 30% less 10% for members) would have been good.

I'm seeing an intro discount on the PC items I looked at - the Newly PC do seem to be a base $1.99, but I think they were initially (and then got an extra discount in the cart).

I meant items like these, new introductions (not "Newly PC" but brand new) during the early days of the Anniversary Sale:

October 22nd (7th day of sale): https://www.daz3d.com/princess-of-darkness-2 and https://www.daz3d.com/old-metal-shaders (no discount whatsoever)
November 6th: https://www.daz3d.com/saree-for-genesis-8-female-and-victoria-8 (showing the 30% intro discount but no extra 10% members discount)

Edit: If I put 2 or more in my cart I am getting the 20% discount for a multi-buy,  but they are not exactly "back on sale".

some great renders in this thread.

it's official, Monique is the figure to get me started using G8, LOL. I was relunctant since I really was heavily invested into G3 and happy with what I had. I even bought Victoria 8 and a few hairs and clothing on sale for when i did decide to use her and then along came Monique (and Imani!!!) and my will crumbled. Finally installed DS4.10, installed the G8 figures, my sparse G8 content. Used the Singular Blues script to bring over a few of my custom and Genx morphs to G8 and now I have a good starting point.

I really like what they have done with Monique 8 and especially love the Imani skin. Here is my first render with G8, Monique, Imani and a few other morphs thrown in the mix.

 

Supermodel! and some cocoa butter. Good one, FSMC.

some great renders in this thread.

it's official, Monique is the figure to get me started using G8, LOL. I was relunctant since I really was heavily invested into G3 and happy with what I had. I even bought Victoria 8 and a few hairs and clothing on sale for when i did decide to use her and then along came Monique (and Imani!!!) and my will crumbled. Finally installed DS4.10, installed the G8 figures, my sparse G8 content. Used the Singular Blues script to bring over a few of my custom and Genx morphs to G8 and now I have a good starting point.

I really like what they have done with Monique 8 and especially love the Imani skin. Here is my first render with G8, Monique, Imani and a few other morphs thrown in the mix.

Wow, that skin!  Well done, she looks gorgeous.

And here is a version of Moxie with the Face and lips UVs adjusted to accept genesis 2 female texture maps.  This is with Victoria 6 maps.  Forgot the nostrils and still no eyelashes.  

.

The clothing model needs to be grouped to match the Victoria 4 bones

In the Figure set-up pane Import Victoria 4 from the scene, then in the Groups area right-click and import your OBJ. Drag the OBJ onto the root in the relationships area, then discoard any unneeded bones (and remove the Victroia 4 mesh, right-click menu, from those you keep but which aren't in the clothing mesh - the general adice is to keep one dummy child bone beyond each real bone, so if your arms end at forearm keep the hand but with no geometry). Rename the figure, check the modify selected option, and click Apply (or Modify - I can't recall but it's the button at bottom-right that wa originally labelled Create). That shoudl give the base, with the Victoria 4 joint centres. Now you use the Joint Editor to tweak the plaement of the include/exclude angles and spheres. Remember that in legacy rigging the children move with the bone 100%, and that a bone cannot affect anything beyond its own parent - bending has to be handled solely in the bone's group and the parent's. Also remember that a geometry group may not touch any other group but its children's and its parent's, which is why skirts are so tricky.

https://www.daz3d.com/fw-sushmita-hd-for-victoria-7-and-her-jewelry

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

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

maybe

but just looking at all the characters several could fit the type

https://www.daz3d.com/people-and-wearables-genesis-3-female#index=351

for example even

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

as like any region there is a fair variation of people

some great renders in this thread.

it's official, Monique is the figure to get me started using G8, LOL. I was relunctant since I really was heavily invested into G3 and happy with what I had. I even bought Victoria 8 and a few hairs and clothing on sale for when i did decide to use her and then along came Monique (and Imani!!!) and my will crumbled. Finally installed DS4.10, installed the G8 figures, my sparse G8 content. Used the Singular Blues script to bring over a few of my custom and Genx morphs to G8 and now I have a good starting point.

I really like what they have done with Monique 8 and especially love the Imani skin. Here is my first render with G8, Monique, Imani and a few other morphs thrown in the mix.

Alright. I've gotten pretty good at setting up costumes for the Genesis series using the Transfer Utility. I've found it to be pretty much a piece of cake at this point. That being said, however, I've had numerous requests that I rig my creations so that they're compatible with the Victoria 4. The problem is...I don't know how. Also, I've already learned the hard way that the Transfer Utility doesn't work with Legacy Rigging the same way it does with Genesis-based products.

So if there are any tutorials, programs, and other resources that could help me convert clothing I've previous done for G2F and G3F to work with Victoria 4, I would greatly appreciate it if someone were to point me in their direction.

I know the skin is Victoria 6.  But what is the character morph and the figure?  https://www.daz3d.com/awesome-fantasy-eyes

Thanks!

4.10.0.118 feedback:

I fit the Summer Sundress to Victoria 5 Supermodel. I applied dForce Dynamic Surface and simulated with default settings. I got a dialog box with hundreds of message scrolling by about collision offset. (Yes, I read about changes in the first post in this thread; it implied to me that it should help prevent explosions, but it did not.) There is no way to cancel this operation. There is no cancel button and the X in the corner did not close it. I just had to wait for it to finally finish.

There are correspondingly hundreds of messages in the log file like this:

After this finished, the simulation started and exploded very quickly anyway.

By the way, collision is misspelled in the log messages.

This is all very interesting, though occasionaly over my head.

I understand all the resistence to this idea, but I would like to see a genesis-like character that only works in Carrara.  Repeat, it will ONLY work in Carrara.

Suicide?  Maybe not.

If the character was spectacular enough, and versatle enough, wouldn't that attract more people to try out Carrara?

Isn't that exactly what Daz is now trying to do with Studio?

A unique new native character in Carrara would fill a void, and help to set Carrara apart from a dependency on other content creators.

It would have to be awesome, though.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Well, first of all I think what you might be reading as "Resistance" is actually not resisting, but rather pointing out strengths and weakness about Carrara - stuff that really needs a clear understanding before getting neck deep in a huge, time/money consuming project.

For example, to create your dream wish, a Genesis-Like figure to ONLY work in Carrara we'd either need to require that the end user owned Fenric's ERC for Carrara plugin, as already mentioned, or would require a different plugin that could be included with the figure, simply because Carrara doesn't contain the tools for creating joint-controlled-morphs or morph-controlled-morphs.

One could do all of the morph connections and rigging in either DS or Poser and use their technology to build it in, then import it into Carrara as if it was a DS or Poser figure, then save it in Carrara and sell that version, but that's kind of defeating the purpose.

MatCreator had a great idea of, instead of making a single figure that can accept morph injections and be changed into a bazillion different things, make a very specific figure - a character. Bill the Pirate, perhaps. Then Jane the Piratess. Then Polly the Parrot. That sort of thing.

Will it sell? Maybe. It would have to be really spectacular. Read 3DAGE's post above. Daz3d has the biggest monopoly on purchaseable figures on the planet. And they're dolls. Dolls with near unlimited posibilities. In truth, they hire top-notch graduates in the field to make that happen - read all of the latest tech notes as they trickle down from those leading the way... like being the first on the planet to offer Iray, for example. They use 3d scanners, hire models for textures, they are endeavoring to constantly push forward with the latest top tech, and their customer base helps them.

They started by offering a higher-end human for Poser users. Victoria, the Millennium Woman. She was amazing! When I got into it, Victoria 3 was free - the base model. Fantastic and hard to beat - maybe not as "the perfect woman figure", but certainly as "The Best morphable 3d Human Female for the masses". Tons of free clothes, hair and textures were already available for her. Michael 3 came out the same way - amazing.

Predatron's figure offerings are fantastic! They included what Daz3d's Generation 4 figures called "Morphforms" before they did - and even more of them. Instead of making "A Better Figure", they sold them as Different (Demon, Troglodytes, Goblins, Angor, etc.,) or Distant (Low Rez) - all of which are highly polished and top-notch, proving that it CAN be DONE!

Carrara-Only can be a hard sell at a publisher. I only say this because the publisher will likely question putting on their front page something brand new developed for software that they no longer wish to develop. That's a hard sell to the company that 'knows' they're not planning major development on the software (I'm not saying that they're not... just using this as an example). Rendo might be different, and go ahead and take it on. But to get it selling, one would have to do ones own marketing - promotion.

So I think where it might seem like a negative outlook, it's actually more beneficial to keeping Carrara "alive" to instead create something that is made for the software on the bleeding edge of technology, and include for free, right with it, the necessary files to 'bring it to life' in Carrara. It gets people wondering why. It's an amazing software, they know that. They've heard it before. And now they have free files for it.

My Animation Kits were made for Poser (animated PZ2), DS (aniBlocks) and Carrara (NLA Clips) and I think some people may have bought Carrara simply because of my love for it. I'm never quiet about that and, back then I was really very vocal about it - even to the powers that be at Daz3d. But many of those wonderful folks are gone now, I think.

Anyway, just food for thought, my friend. 

OH! Are you using Victoria's eyebrows by chance? Lily has custom fibermesh eyebrows and eyelashes that I made for her, and the shaping presets go with those. In the scene tab, they should be labeled CC Lily Eyebrows and CC Lily Eyelashes. If you load the character preset, they will automatically load in. If you use the Content Library to load separately, they're in the Anatomy folder in the base character folder. If you use Smart Content they'll be under Anatomy --> External. Sorry for the confusion!