Please include a no-brow option so I can use the fibermesh brows of Victoria 8.

I would have loved a no-brow option to be able to use the fibermesh brows of Victoria 8.

I don't understand how to collapse the UV's. Is it a setting when I'm exporting V4 from Poser, or something when I'm saving from UVMapper?

I have gone into UVMapper and gone Map>Color by Material but this has only changed the way my UV maps are displayed to the left of my model. It does noting to condense Victoria 4 from 62 groups or 28 materials.

I have tried taking V4 into Zbrush and manually grouped the elements together into a single polygroup, matching the layout of the textures - grouping the limbs together, grouping the torso and grouping the face etc. Is this a correct method? Is this what you mean by collapsing the UV's?

I know I can paint the skin in Zbrush, but because I am adding Quixel (and later Substance Painter) to my working pipeline for general texturing, I would like to know if it is also possible to create the skin in these programs also.

Also, I'm not really looking to purchase Blacksmith3D just to paint skin. From what I have seen done with Blacksmith3D, it is aimed at people who are using photographic references to create the skin textures for their characters - I am looking to create the skin textures without using photographic resources.

Happy Four Years Anniversary

nothing since!  

'bout sums it up.

After a lot of hard work, long nights, and even longer days by our development team we are happy to announce that Carrara 8.5 is available for purchase in the DAZ 3D store. We would like to thank all of our loyal Carrara customers for their patience and support with this project.

Carrara 8.5 Pro is priced at $285.00 for a limited time. Carrara 8.5 Standard is priced at $149.95.

Current owners of Carrara will receive a 50% discount on either product for a limited time. Platinum Club members get an additional 40% off, which means it's never been a better time to join the Platinum Club.

Carrara 8.5 Pro
Carrara 8.5 Standard

Included in Carrara 8.5 Pro are the Michael 5 and Victoria 5 Pro Bundles and Carrara Shaders - over $250 worth of Genesis content.
Carrara 8.5 standard ships with the Michael 5 and Victoria 5 Starter Bundles and Carrara Shaders - over $140 worth of Genesis content.

Here's a quick look at some of the new features:

Native DSON Importer means seamless integration of:
- TriAx™ Weight Mapped figures (Genesis, G2F, G2M)
- General Weight Mapped figures
- Legacy Parametric Figures (4th Generation and earlier)
- DSON presets
- Scenes
- Scene Subsets
- Wearable(s) Preset
- Character Preset
- Properties Preset
- Shaping Preset
- Pose Preset
- Hierarchical Material(s) Preset
- Material(s) Preset
- Shader Preset (preset must be for a Carrara shader)
- Camera(s) Preset
- Light(s) Preset
- Support for multiple UV sets (through Hierarchical Material(s) Presets and Material(s) Presets)

Native AutoFit functionality means:
- Conversion of legacy parametric clothing to TriAx™ weigh mapped figures
- Automatic Morph Projection quickly gives you the fit you need for your figure's shape.
- Automatic Weight Map Projection allows AutoFit clothing to bend and pose smoothly with the figure.
- Morphs built into clothing are carried through the AutoFit process.

Improved Sequencer, Keyframing and Animation Tools
- New keyboard shortcuts to:
- Play/Stop animation
- Advance the frame
- Preview a frame
- Key Frame Filters
- Sample – Creates a key at every frame of the animation.
- Smooth – Smooth out wild keys to get an even looking animation
- Reduce – Programatically determine which keys are unecessary and eliminate them.
- Graph Editor Box allows for fine tuning of animations
- Easily adjust timing
- Simple yet powerful manipulation of amplitude
- Scale, and translate key frames along the Graph Editor.
- Marquee selection of key frames for Graph Editor.

Smart Content and CMS Integration
- Carrara can now access the CMS database; PostgreSQL or Valentina.
- New smart content pane allows users to browse smart content by:
- File
- Category
- Product
- File view provides selection based filtering so that the user only sees items compatible with the current instance tray selection.
- Double click and drag and drop loading are both supported in Smart Content Tab.

Parameters Actions
- Zero, Memorize and Restore:
- Figure
- Figure Shape
- Figure Pose
- Selection
- Selection Shape
- Selection Pose
- Selection Tree
- Selection Tree Pose
- Selection Tree Shape
- Provides users with powerful tools to reset a pose, shape or both.
- Memorize and Restore allow user to take a snap shot of the model's current pose and/or shape and restore all or part of it.

Improved Fit to Functionality
- Automatic projection and following of morphs for TriAx™ Figures
- No more relying on built in clothing morphs to fit clothing over a figure. Carrara automatically projects any morphs for a TriAx™ figure onto items conformed to the figure.

Improved Viewport Avatars
- Spotlight, Sunlight, Moonlight, Tube Lights and Shape lights have all received a makeover and can easily be identified in the viewport.

It seems you guys are saying you need many main Content folders? So one content folder for D|S and Poser stuff, then another for stuff that isn't "user facing" whatever that means? Geez, we already have Smart Content, and Content Library, and now we need another place to look for non-D|S stuff? 

And that makes sense to you? 

Hi, ebergerly. Please forgive ay technical misinformation I might present. What follows is my understanding as a hobbyist brand-new to DAZ a few years ago, pieced together in a way that makes sense to me as a back-end-ignorant user. I hope I don't muddle everything. But I totally empathize with you.

I started experimenting with DAZ when it was still using the Poser file structure, although I didn't know that at the time. I'd never tried Poser either, and I still don't use it. I could never find anything either, plus I was collecting all sorts of files that were incompatible with D/S and/or designed for obsolete figures - I didn't know any better and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't find or use most of it. After a long learning curve, here's what I've come up with.

I do only manual installs now, because I've tailored my "My DAZ 3D Library" folder to suit the way I think. The basic D/S file structure is fine as far as it goes: My DAZ 3D Library/Animals  (/Environments) (/People) (/Props) (/Vehicles) etc...

But after that, the vendors creating the content organze their files by vendor. Which makes perfect sense if you're a vendor. But if I just bought a Wonder Woman costume for V4 (for example), why do I have to remember that it was created by some one-off vendor I've never heard of and whose name I'll never remember? When I go looking for it, I want it labeled "Wonder Woman" not "PilotSomebodyOrOther." So now I reorganize everything as I acquire it - after biting the bullet and reorganizing my entire library. I also delete extraneous layers of folders. It goes, for example, "My DAZ 3D Library/People/Victoria 4/Clothing/Wonder Woman PilotSomebodyOrOther cr2" in case I need to know the vendor for some reason. (Under that, I change "Materials/Iray" and "Materials/3DL" just to "/Iray" and "/3DL." I personally hate complex directories.) Also, because I added the "cr2" (or "obj" or "pp2") to the folder name, I know it's there AND I know it won't show up in my content pane just exactly as you describe. But I have Windows Explorer open too, and that allows me to see thumbnails. (You'll have to do something comparable on a Mac.) It's not perfect, but I rarely need to do that anymore since most of what I have now is .duf format, which is the DAZ standard. (".duf," if you're not sure, stands for DAZ Scene Object Notation - or DSON - User Files. Commonly known as, if I'm not mistaken again, "user-facing files." I don't know what that term means; I just know that's what it is.)

Regarding your Object files (.obj), I know what you mean. Many DSON User Files use Object files - but not all of them unless I'm mistaken again. Those are stored in the My DAZ 3D Library/Runtime/data directory. When 3Ddreamer asked you, "But why would you want to see 'OBJ files, texture images, documentation, HDR's, and so on' in your Content Library? Those are backend files, not user facing," (s)he was referring to these components of DSON User Files, not to stand-alone Object files from non-DAZ sources. I know why you want to see them.

And I don't use Smart Content either; I suspect that's another Poser hold-over from before DAZ and Poser parted ways. (I could be corrected on that if I'm wrong...) I had just figured out how to make the Content pane make sense; I wasn't about to learn a whole 'nother system that was just as unreliable in D/S. I had too much else to learn from the ground up.

I know that's not what you wanted to hear, because I suspect you're not ready to give up on Poser and the two file structures are less and less compatible as time goes on, it seems to me. I wonder if someone who uses both platforms could talk more about it? I know only D/S.

I hope that helps you and Sambucus a little bit...

Just an extra "Thank You" to Redz and others who have put together the tutorials on this thread. I got around to transferring some V4 morphs to Genesis using GenX (not even GenX2!) and then used the clones method to transfer these to G8F (I previously did a bunch of native Genesis, G2 and G3 morphs). There are a few that look a bit messed up but most are really good. Here is a V4 character transferred to G8F with Victoria 8-based textures.

Start with the Genesis 2 Starter Essentials, which have a free male and female character. See how they work for you before investing money. I'm not a Poser user, but it is my understanding that Genesis 3 characters like Michael 7 and Victoria 7 do not work in Poser. Or they only partially work with various workarounds.

If you already bought things that don't work, submit a help request for a refund and get something else that does work in Poser.

Very busy fine artist/painter. Working on using Poser 2014 to compile reference scenes for my painting. Not a 3D novice. Used 3Ds Max to model and texture as well as build scenes. Used Poser in the past as well. But I am having a difficulty understanding which people and characters I need to purchase. I’d rather stick with Poser instead of learning a new interface such as DAZ Studio.

Basically I need a versatile male and female character I can render as realistic people of various ethnicities, particularly African-American and Caucasian. I need figures that have a lot of pre-built African-American characters. I need to be able to dress these figures in various period costumes. Since my primary objective is the create oil painting and not be a 3D artist, I’d rather purchase the characters than spend a lot of time in Poser and 3Ds Max building props, clothes, hair, etc.

I’m thinking of buying Victoria 7 and Michael 7.  I’ve heard they are the most versatile. Please advise. Thank you.

Rawn,

Very impressive, as always. Can I use this set to simply give the standard V8 character a more muscular look?  Ideally, what I'd like to have is a figure that combines the head of Victoria 8 with the extreme body morph.  Incidentally, this is for a fantasy warrioress so I have absolutely no interest in realism whatsoever.

Cheers,

Alex.

That is exactly what it is designed for...to be combined with whatever character you like

Thanks for the fast response.  You have now made it to the very top of this week's shopping list.

Cheers,

Alex.

Rawn,

Very impressive, as always. Can I use this set to simply give the standard V8 character a more muscular look?  Ideally, what I'd like to have is a figure that combines the head of Victoria 8 with the extreme body morph.  Incidentally, this is for a fantasy warrioress so I have absolutely no interest in realism whatsoever.

Cheers,

Alex.

That is exactly what it is designed for...to be combined with whatever character you like

Rawn,

Very impressive, as always. Can I use this set to simply give the standard V8 character a more muscular look?  Ideally, what I'd like to have is a figure that combines the head of Victoria 8 with the extreme body morph.  Incidentally, this is for a fantasy warrioress so I have absolutely no interest in realism whatsoever.

Cheers,

Alex.

Please help! I don't know how I did it, but I accidentally overwrote Genesis 8 Base female with a character I was working on. Now EVERY SINGLE ONE of my Genesis 8 characters are showing up as that character. Even Victoria 8. I tried uninstalling Genesis 8 Starter Essentials and Victoria 8 via DIM then Reinstalling it. And it still hasn't fixed the issue. I tried uninstalling G8 Starter Essentials and V8 and LEAVING them uninstalled then starting Daz Studio, and all my saved characters with any G8F dialled in are still messed up.

I don't know how to fix this. Every one of my G8 characters are seriously screwed up (the character I was working on that overwrote G8F was a very extreme morph - so all my saved custom G8F characters look insane right now). Please help!

Ohhhh! So you're complaining about G8's eyelashes in general - not just Benita's? :p You're preaching to the converted about transmapped eyelashes, and I know I'm not the best at making them. Drawing them is quite hard! I agree that the bottom lash line can be hard to get to look right. 

Perhaps one day I'll try fibermesh eyelashes and see how they work, but I'll probably run into the same conforming issues as the current mesh eyelashes. Not to mention blinking, morphs, etc. Yikes. I like making skin, man. 
Maybe someone else will come along and come up with a more elegant solution in the meantime! :) 

Mate, your skins and face morphs are enough for me, tbh. Just keep on giving us that, and she's all right. I tried Lainey HD eyelashes and Great Lashes for Genesis 8 Female(s) on Benita as options. Eyelashes from left to right: Lainey HD (natural), Victoria 8 eyelashes (Benita), Great Lashes for G8F (brown 01). Top to bottom: Lainey HD (natural), Victoria 8 eyelashes (Benita), Great Lashes for G8F (brown 01). 

BTW, thanks for the Hivewire3d Cat LAMH presets.

The Lainey ones look really good (but it's Raiya, our queen, come on! :p). I can't tell if it's the custom morphs making that bottom lash line look better or her trans-maps. 
Food for thought though! :) I haven't got any characters in proper production at the moment, but I'll try harder on the lashes. :)

Will there be a Victoria 8 HD add-on?

Most likely in another month it will be released; I'm sure they've finally completed it and it's making its way through QA.

Thanks!

Yeah, I the Genesis 8 characters seem to require a bit more thought to lighting and render settings than the previous generations - quite a bit like real life skin. Different lighting and render settings can make a pretty big difference. The first image is Victoria 8's texture with the default lighting and render settings. They all have the same textures and the same skin texture settings, the only thing I changed was the lighting and render settings.

  

 

Those all look great but too bad there is no evironmental context to give the viewer an ideal where she is at and what time of day and what day of the year it is. 

Let me know which one you liked and I'll see if I can recreate it and share the settings. 

The point I tried to get across with the post was to just play around with the render settings and the lighting until you find the settings that suit your tastes and save the settings. :) 

I'd be happy to share my settings with you though, let me know which one you liked and I'll see if I can remember the settings for it and share them with you. 

I like the render 1 up from the bottom the best although they are all good in proper environmental context.

I think I have some lights from Promo Style Catch Lights in the scene, so I can't include those. But here are a couple of scenes that can get you started: http://sta.sh/01fj7x0wi6vl

Just unzip it, open the folder and drop the "Scenes" folder in your "My Library". You should then find them under Scenes >> Skin Enhancing Scene 1 (and Skin Enhancing Scene 2)

The scenes use V8's mats, but you could, of course, use whatever mats you want. You'd just have to make some adjustments to Tone Mapping. Here's what the scenes/settings look like with V8's mats:

 Add some cool light effects, change the Tone Mapping settings, whatever you need to get it to look the way you like. :) One thing I recommend is definitely playing with Tone Mapping >> White Point. That can really help, as well as adjusting "Crush Blacks" and "Gamma". Be careful with "Burn Highlights" as that can make things look really shiney pretty easily. 

Sadly, I don't have O8 yet, so I can't set up any scenes for her. But as her skin tends to look a bit orangy from what I've seen in some of the renders, I recommend adjusting the White Point for her (under Tone Mapping).

Once you get the scene the way you want it you can then save it as a Render Setting (File >> Save As >> Render Settings Preset) so that the settings can be applied to any scene. 

Thanks I will try your setting & suggestions.

Will there be a Victoria 8 HD add-on?

Most likely in another month it will be released; I'm sure they've finally completed it and it's making its way through QA.

Ohhhh! So you're complaining about G8's eyelashes in general - not just Benita's? :p You're preaching to the converted about transmapped eyelashes, and I know I'm not the best at making them. Drawing them is quite hard! I agree that the bottom lash line can be hard to get to look right. 

Perhaps one day I'll try fibermesh eyelashes and see how they work, but I'll probably run into the same conforming issues as the current mesh eyelashes. Not to mention blinking, morphs, etc. Yikes. I like making skin, man. 
Maybe someone else will come along and come up with a more elegant solution in the meantime! :) 

Mate, your skins and face morphs are enough for me, tbh. Just keep on giving us that, and she's all right. I tried Lainey HD eyelashes and Great Lashes for Genesis 8 Female(s) on Benita as options. Eyelashes from left to right: Lainey HD (natural), Victoria 8 eyelashes (Benita), Great Lashes for G8F (brown 01). Top to bottom: Lainey HD (natural), Victoria 8 eyelashes (Benita), Great Lashes for G8F (brown 01). 

BTW, thanks for the Hivewire3d Cat LAMH presets.

Will there be a Victoria 8 HD add-on?

What do you mean by projects? For mdoels or texture sets Chohole is correct, but if you mean finished 2D renders (still images or animations, not textures) then generally you can use the texture images and models as you like (the only, partial, exception I am aware of is the Anne Marie Goddard Digital Clone for Victoria 3).

Not exactly, I was thinking about using a texture for a model of mine to be appearing in a demo reel of a game.

Althought thinking about it; since it is going to be my demo reel I should be making it myself lol. I needed several sci fi screens, my Photoshop skill is severely lacking and I got quite a few packs of sci fi props from this store.

She looks like the FW Rebekah HD morph which comes with the Victoria 8 Bundle.