Nelsonsmith: That is Julie with some added morphs--- a mixture of Hannah, Kalea, Karen, Lexi, Rune, Sasha, Sophia, Victoria bodies, all muscle volumes, Tween Julie at 100%, and Julie's materials in SSS (not iray) format.

Kyoto Kid: It ran for around maybe an hour maybe 90mins max.  I don't have a real powerful laptop either.  I like r4 alot.  Have had some issues with it but nothing major. the updates to reality have been pretty good. but i do better with people with it than I do iray, but metals i do better with iray than r4.

Do the sheets ( http://www.daz3d.com/jepe-s-wondersheetz-for-victoria-7 , and actually the same question concerning Equine Dreams, http://www.daz3d.com/equine-dreams ) have to be fit to a character to use them, or can they be used as stand-alone items without any figure?

Is there a Genesis1 version of this product?

They are props, so they don't actually "fit to" anything - they load in a pre-defined location/shape to fit with the relevant figure when it is in one of the provided poses. They then have a series of morphs to adjust the shape. So you can use them on their own, yes. Below is one of the Equine Dreams set.

I don't believe there is a Genesis (1) version.

ETA: The above is a very quick and basic 3Delight render - the sheetz look much better than this with decent lighting!

Do the sheets ( http://www.daz3d.com/jepe-s-wondersheetz-for-victoria-7 , and actually the same question concerning Equine Dreams, http://www.daz3d.com/equine-dreams ) have to be fit to a character to use them, or can they be used as stand-alone items without any figure?

Is there a Genesis1 version of this product?

Quick question, can the Skin Overlays for Genesis 2 Female, Genesis, Victoria 5, Michael 5, Victoria 4, Michael 4 be used on the Growing Up Skins for G3 or will you be doing updates so they can be used?  I haven't loaded them up with a G3 skin, but from what I remember when I had loaded in GIMP for use on a G2 skin, they should work on other skins.  I'm not sure about whether the MR part covers G3, but the for average user they should be compatible, yes?

They presumably wouldn't line up, since the UVs are different.

From what I remember, the overlays for the aging spots and other goodies don't have UVs of their own so they should easily go over a different UV set.  But, like I said, it's been awhile since I've had them loaded up so my memory could be a little faulty which is why I asked.  I'll have to load everything up in GIMP this weekend after I've played with the morphs and see what I can manage to do with the skins.

Any texture has an implicit UV set, unless it's a tiling pattern. In at least some cases the Genesis 3 UVs are offset relative to the earlier sets, it's not just a slightly different relaxation, so even overlays thata voided critical areas like lips and eyes would probably look at least somewhat odd.

Quick question, can the Skin Overlays for Genesis 2 Female, Genesis, Victoria 5, Michael 5, Victoria 4, Michael 4 be used on the Growing Up Skins for G3 or will you be doing updates so they can be used?  I haven't loaded them up with a G3 skin, but from what I remember when I had loaded in GIMP for use on a G2 skin, they should work on other skins.  I'm not sure about whether the MR part covers G3, but the for average user they should be compatible, yes?

They presumably wouldn't line up, since the UVs are different.

From what I remember, the overlays for the aging spots and other goodies don't have UVs of their own so they should easily go over a different UV set.  But, like I said, it's been awhile since I've had them loaded up so my memory could be a little faulty which is why I asked.  I'll have to load everything up in GIMP this weekend after I've played with the morphs and see what I can manage to do with the skins.

Quick question, can the Skin Overlays for Genesis 2 Female, Genesis, Victoria 5, Michael 5, Victoria 4, Michael 4 be used on the Growing Up Skins for G3 or will you be doing updates so they can be used?  I haven't loaded them up with a G3 skin, but from what I remember when I had loaded in GIMP for use on a G2 skin, they should work on other skins.  I'm not sure about whether the MR part covers G3, but the for average user they should be compatible, yes?

They presumably wouldn't line up, since the UVs are different.

Well, I guess I'll be making more old folks this weekend!  Got em locked down and paid for, just need to get them downloaded and installed when I done with my current DS project.  Probably my last new purchase for awhile, but I had been saving for these so I had the money set aside.  Unfortunately, anything new coming down the pike might have me waiting until no longer new to get for a bit.  Sorry, Zev0, but kids are expensive and braces are going to curtail any more purchases from me until I fill up that change jar!  At least, I get to play with these morphs.  

Quick question, can the Skin Overlays for Genesis 2 Female, Genesis, Victoria 5, Michael 5, Victoria 4, Michael 4 be used on the Growing Up Skins for G3 or will you be doing updates so they can be used?  I haven't loaded them up with a G3 skin, but from what I remember when I had loaded in GIMP for use on a G2 skin, they should work on other skins.  I'm not sure about whether the MR part covers G3, but the for average user they should be compatible, yes?

I agree, I would love to see new North African/Arabian clothes, too!

http://www.daz3d.com/moroccan-dreams-for-victoria-4, http://www.daz3d.com/moroccan-dreams-for-michael-4 and their add-ons are old, but quite nice sets for V4 and M4 if you are looking for a bit of authenticy (no Western Fantasy-'Harem' clothes). The draping is - well, these are old models. They work well with AutoFit; if you own 'Wear Them All', it's even better. Fisty made a lovely Ghawazee set: http://www.daz3d.com/ghawazee-coat-for-genesis-2-female-s, but this is no everyday clothing.

EDIT: Today Luthbellina's 'Desert Pathfinder' is in Fast Grab; it contains a nice Arabian headcloth.

I checked the whole catalog for Victoria 4 and haven't found this set....

I get the feeling that this might not be in the DAZ store.

I have some spare time today, so I might look around if the set is for Genesis or higher, but I kinda doubt its here...

I'm working on a new dial spun character - now that I finally have the G3F morphs (I managed to score them for about $1.00 each!!) I feel like I can now make a G3F character more to my liking - a G3 character that is my own rather than the creation of someone else (as much as I love Victoria 7 and Rebeca, I want a character that is my own creation). She's a Work In Progress but I am liking her so far.

I don't know about the chin, as I feel it might be a bit too strong. But part of me likes it as it makes her a little more unique, imo. IDK, I'm a bit torn about it. :)

The gorgeous outfit is a freebie: http://www.sharecg.com/v/46864/gallery/11/Poser/Cosplay-Costume-3-for-V4 from the awesome TerryMcG. 

I like her very much. I think the chin is fine. I think the users of DAZ shy away too much from giving women stronger facial features but the results are often very original looking and still feminine and pretty.

Thank you! :D I really appreciate the feedback, nonesuch00. And I agree about shying way from strong features - it's something I definitely have the habit of, but I'm trying to break it. :) 

I'm working on a new dial spun character - now that I finally have the G3F morphs (I managed to score them for about $1.00 each!!) I feel like I can now make a G3F character more to my liking - a G3 character that is my own rather than the creation of someone else (as much as I love Victoria 7 and Rebeca, I want a character that is my own creation). She's a Work In Progress but I am liking her so far.

I don't know about the chin, as I feel it might be a bit too strong. But part of me likes it as it makes her a little more unique, imo. IDK, I'm a bit torn about it. :)

The gorgeous outfit is a freebie: http://www.sharecg.com/v/46864/gallery/11/Poser/Cosplay-Costume-3-for-V4 from the awesome TerryMcG. 

I like her very much. I think the chin is fine. I think the users of DAZ shy away too much from giving women stronger facial features but the results are often very original looking and still feminine and pretty.

I'm working on a new dial spun character - now that I finally have the G3F morphs (I managed to score them for about $1.00 each!!) I feel like I can now make a G3F character more to my liking - a G3 character that is my own rather than the creation of someone else (as much as I love Victoria 7 and Rebeca, I want a character that is my own creation). She's a Work In Progress but I am liking her so far.

I don't know about the chin, as I feel it might be a bit too strong. But part of me likes it as it makes her a little more unique, imo. IDK, I'm a bit torn about it. :)

The gorgeous outfit is a freebie: http://www.sharecg.com/v/46864/gallery/11/Poser/Cosplay-Costume-3-for-V4 from the awesome TerryMcG. 

Some surfaces do have weird glossy colors due to stuff too complex to model. But the problem I run into is that even setting roughness high, it has a tendency to lighten and wash out color. Or is that a good time to start using top coat?

I really had to think about those surfuces you speak of, but the only surfaces that came to mind were... metals.

That could not only depend on your roughness settings alone. Translucency color and - strength as well as the SSS Reflectance Tint has an impact on the overall result. Not to forget the volume distribution function parameters. And/or the use of a not-so-optimal specular map...

For skin I always use Top Coat, for there are two different materials, with different optical properties, directly visible: the outermost stratum corneum tissue layer, and the sebum layer.

 

I think one of things they could improve on the flow of the surface options is to move the Transmitted Color up under the area that makes more sense since the info that Arnold has imparted to us clearly shows that both are relevent to.  Perhaps I'm wrong but don't understand why it's way way down on the list....

The Transmitted Color is a parameter belonging to the Volume Distribution Functions of MDL. So IMO it is located at the best place on the user interface as part of the "Volume" group along it "cousins". And you only need those when Thin Walled is turned to "Off".

 

It would also be great if someone would make a shader preset that had all the correct values for skin, for nails, for the various eye components and inner mouth and teeth.  I'd buy a set like that and not have it geared for any specific figure, it's off putting when it's for say Genesis 3.  Not all of us use these figures. 

Me personally, I really don't like much the way shaders are used in DS: having to select all the appropriate surfaces, apply the preset, select another set of surfaces, apply another preset... and so on.

But one could develop a set of shader presets and make a one-click material preset from those for each of the DAZ figures. Ideally, such a "General Skin Preset" should be added to the "Starter Essentials" package for each figure (in case of M4/V4 to the "Studio CF" package. One really don't needs it if he/she just only uses Poser). For G2F/G2M we already have one (even if it would need an intense overhaul).  

But we would still have a bit of a problem with the specular maps from the older figure lines, which unfortunately come in many different dark and lighter greyscales. The ones for Victoria 6 start to look good at a Glossy Weight of 3.25, the ones for the Genesis 2 Base Female needs even 20.0 to show a convincing effect. Thanks to the bad habit of the "good ole" 3Delight times when everyone tended to cook his/her own soup instead of developing and agreeing to a general method of how things had to be done and stick to that.  

(That are those who now put fancy, ridiculous colors into their Glossy Color parameter... ).

Hmmm, well OK about the Transmitted ....

Hmmm, I think you missed that little part I mentioned... I don't use the DAZ figures (rarely).  I develop content for the Hivewire figures so would need to be a universal shader.  Notice I didn't say Material preset.  A shader COULD be universal.  Just hold down Ctrl, tell it to ignore maps and you have a better (hopefully) look to your overall set up.  For a content creator a few extra clicks to get things in place is better than hours and hours of pulling out my hair waiting on test renders. 

Save

No, a shader (preset) could not be universal in the way you are asking. A shader preset does not retain the information for different materials.  This is why the various content creators around here have provided there visions in different delivery methods: this one does a material preset, that one does multiple shader presets and another gives you a script that applies a material preset and then other scripts to make global changes to that material preset.

Its the nature of the beast. It really has to be a material preset if you want it to contain the different information for the different surfaces, and the only way you would get that to be non-figure specific is if you coded a rather large script that could determine what presets to apply where.

And you could always make your material preset for the figures you use... and save it without maps so you can add the ones you want after (or before).

I have a several base presets that I use based on the different generations, some require a script to copy maps, some don't.  Its relatively easy to do for one's self.

Some surfaces do have weird glossy colors due to stuff too complex to model. But the problem I run into is that even setting roughness high, it has a tendency to lighten and wash out color. Or is that a good time to start using top coat?

I really had to think about those surfuces you speak of, but the only surfaces that came to mind were... metals.

That could not only depend on your roughness settings alone. Translucency color and - strength as well as the SSS Reflectance Tint has an impact on the overall result. Not to forget the volume distribution function parameters. And/or the use of a not-so-optimal specular map...

For skin I always use Top Coat, for there are two different materials, with different optical properties, directly visible: the outermost stratum corneum tissue layer, and the sebum layer.

 

I think one of things they could improve on the flow of the surface options is to move the Transmitted Color up under the area that makes more sense since the info that Arnold has imparted to us clearly shows that both are relevent to.  Perhaps I'm wrong but don't understand why it's way way down on the list....

The Transmitted Color is a parameter belonging to the Volume Distribution Functions of MDL. So IMO it is located at the best place on the user interface as part of the "Volume" group along it "cousins". And you only need those when Thin Walled is turned to "Off".

 

It would also be great if someone would make a shader preset that had all the correct values for skin, for nails, for the various eye components and inner mouth and teeth.  I'd buy a set like that and not have it geared for any specific figure, it's off putting when it's for say Genesis 3.  Not all of us use these figures. 

Me personally, I really don't like much the way shaders are used in DS: having to select all the appropriate surfaces, apply the preset, select another set of surfaces, apply another preset... and so on.

But one could develop a set of shader presets and make a one-click material preset from those for each of the DAZ figures. Ideally, such a "General Skin Preset" should be added to the "Starter Essentials" package for each figure (in case of M4/V4 to the "Studio CF" package. One really don't needs it if he/she just only uses Poser). For G2F/G2M we already have one (even if it would need an intense overhaul).  

But we would still have a bit of a problem with the specular maps from the older figure lines, which unfortunately come in many different dark and lighter greyscales. The ones for Victoria 6 start to look good at a Glossy Weight of 3.25, the ones for the Genesis 2 Base Female needs even 20.0 to show a convincing effect. Thanks to the bad habit of the "good ole" 3Delight times when everyone tended to cook his/her own soup instead of developing and agreeing to a general method of how things had to be done and stick to that.  

(That are those who now put fancy, ridiculous colors into their Glossy Color parameter... ).

Hmmm, well OK about the Transmitted ....

Hmmm, I think you missed that little part I mentioned... I don't use the DAZ figures (rarely).  I develop content for the Hivewire figures so would need to be a universal shader.  Notice I didn't say Material preset.  A shader COULD be universal.  Just hold down Ctrl, tell it to ignore maps and you have a better (hopefully) look to your overall set up.  For a content creator a few extra clicks to get things in place is better than hours and hours of pulling out my hair waiting on test renders. 

Save

That's sad that DAZ booted Hiro and David.  I was curious about why Rendorosity and ContentParadise have all these items for a character that I've never heard of (David 3).

I have a feeling that judgement day is coming soon for Genesis 1 as well.  Vicki and Mikey 4 will probably be spared because they are still preferred by many PAs at Rendorosity than Genesis Legacy 5 is.  If this trend is indicative of the continuation potential for these Legacy 4 models, then they probably won't be going anywhere soon.  Sadly, Chibibel and her counterpart BelBel never had much more given to her - barely any clothing packs or anything is out ther for her.  Luckily, Outlaw3D gave us a geographed toon head for Gen 1 & Gen 2 for StudioMayas AnimeDoll.

What makes me so sad over losing a full array of 3D models, is when I design for my comicbooks, I choose from a huge array of different models.  

If I used - say - Aiko 6 for every female character that I designed, then people would totally notice.  Aiko 6 has a very specific look about her no matter how many morphs a person uses, she still looks like Aiko 6.  Same thing goes for all Genesis 2 Females, whose lips are a certain thickness and there is no way to thin those lips out for diversity of features without compromising how the character looks with her mouth closed (dial too thin and you get the whistler lips, where both top and bottom leave a hole in the center when fully closed).  

It's also the same with Genesis 3 Female - Victoria 7, The Girl 7, Aiko 7, etc... no matter which model I might pick of the Legacy 7 females, they all have the same distinct look that sets them apart from Gen 1 & 2.  So, by phasing out the older models there is a shortage of diversity in character design for me even with morphs and Elf ears and the whole nine yards.   

I suspect DAZ is trying to phase out all older models and eventually force people into buying Genesis 3.  If/when that happens then, I will be permanently turning to other sites for my models, like ContentParadise who,outputs very cool and unique characters, like NearMe - who is cuts and very stylized. Or I'll simply embrace many of the other diverse stylized characters coming in from RuntimeDNA by Lady Littlefox (who is one of my personal heroes here with her many unique character/stylized designs like Star & Cookie & Chip and such).

Anyway, yeah - so I rely on a huge plethora of characters to choose from - because their personalities are different in my stories and I need to reflect that.  In this way, I feel that their looks should be different as well, to help my fans who read my comics be able to distinguish my protagonist from my antagonist. 

While I appreciate Zev0's pose and animation converters that have saves me tons of time and money shifting a few things from Gen 2 to Gen 3, Genesis 3 will never take over my library 100%, like never - nor become my one of my first choices of character no matter how much this site keeps pushing them.  (And they ARE pushing Gen 3 with a vengeance lately - the new UVs are proof of that today).

I have only Victoria 7 pro because I got her for a $1 with some promotional event, not because I wanted her.  I have SickleYield's Genesis 3 ball joint dolls, and the stylized Captain Awesome, because he was perfect for a project that I was working on.  I have Aiko 7 and Kenji 7 on my wishlist.   Meh... But the other Legacy 7 models are just way too realistic and distinctive for what I use the models for in the end. There are a few other Fae-like Legacy 7's but they are not needed right at this second.  So  yeah....

I would have been excited for the sale if I didn't already own just about 80% of the list, already! XD

Yeah, I understand if you've been on this site for a while then you, like most longer term users, probably have almost everything in these sales.  I'm personally just nearing my official two year anniversary date on DAZ as of November, so I basically joined the 'club' only prior to the release of Genesis 3 female and Iray.  I had hardly began buying up the Legacy 5 & 6 models and all their morph thingys when DAZ first began releasing everything Legacy 7.

I was like, "Whoa, whoa!  Wait a minute, DAZ!"  Then, it's been all about Genesis 3 and Iray - and I don't care much for either except for a few models that are highly stylized, like SickleYield's SF Anime character and her ballpoint dolls (and Kenji 7 looks fantastic, but I just missed his release sale due to being broke that week).

So, yeah - I suppose I can see it from your perspective, but for me - finally purchasing those long awaited wishlist items is a wonderful thing, and I'm pretty thankful for the opportunity to carry it away today.

That's how I felt when I joined. I boarded the DAZ/Poser party back in '08, right around the tail end of Gen 4. At the time I was still just getting my feet wet with Gen 3 and it took me a bit of time to get a hold of all the Pro Bundles. Then Genesis 1 came-out right around the time I thought I had my fun with it all and I was hooked ever since, nabbing each Pro Bundle/Suite on Day 1 up until this Generation when PAs and even DAZ themselves said that characters like David and Hiro (my two favorite males) were getting the boot due to low sale numbers (both of which many of us still blame DAZ's marketing execution with them for). The only Gen 7 characters I have the Pro Bundles for are Victoria, Michael, Gianni, Lee, The Girl, The Guy, and Kenji with Leo and Kimo's Starter Bundles. I'm really being picky with my choices this time around, focusing mostly on males and only on female items that actually reflect my preferences.

I am really enjoying all your animations, Ivy !  

I'm happy you enjoyed them..  I have only made one test animation since i started using daz studio to make animations.

I did a Victoria 6 / Genesis 2 Female(s) SKAmotion High Heel Walk aniBlock Test. But I wanted to do something different than just a girl walking on a blank screen like everyone else does. so this was what I came up with trying to be creative.

Involuntary Obedience Training

Some surfaces do have weird glossy colors due to stuff too complex to model. But the problem I run into is that even setting roughness high, it has a tendency to lighten and wash out color. Or is that a good time to start using top coat?

I really had to think about those surfuces you speak of, but the only surfaces that came to mind were... metals.

That could not only depend on your roughness settings alone. Translucency color and - strength as well as the SSS Reflectance Tint has an impact on the overall result. Not to forget the volume distribution function parameters. And/or the use of a not-so-optimal specular map...

For skin I always use Top Coat, for there are two different materials, with different optical properties, directly visible: the outermost stratum corneum tissue layer, and the sebum layer.

I think one of things they could improve on the flow of the surface options is to move the Transmitted Color up under the area that makes more sense since the info that Arnold has imparted to us clearly shows that both are relevent to.  Perhaps I'm wrong but don't understand why it's way way down on the list....

The Transmitted Color is a parameter belonging to the Volume Distribution Functions of MDL. So IMO it is located at the best place on the user interface as part of the "Volume" group along it "cousins". And you only need those when Thin Walled is turned to "Off".

It would also be great if someone would make a shader preset that had all the correct values for skin, for nails, for the various eye components and inner mouth and teeth.  I'd buy a set like that and not have it geared for any specific figure, it's off putting when it's for say Genesis 3.  Not all of us use these figures. 

Me personally, I really don't like much the way shaders are used in DS: having to select all the appropriate surfaces, apply the preset, select another set of surfaces, apply another preset... and so on.

But one could develop a set of shader presets and make a one-click material preset from those for each of the DAZ figures. Ideally, such a "General Skin Preset" should be added to the "Starter Essentials" package for each figure (in case of M4/V4 to the "Studio CF" package. One really don't needs it if he/she just only uses Poser). For G2F/G2M we already have one (even if it would need an intense overhaul).  

But we would still have a bit of a problem with the specular maps from the older figure lines, which unfortunately come in many different dark and lighter greyscales. The ones for Victoria 6 start to look good at a Glossy Weight of 3.25, the ones for the Genesis 2 Base Female needs even 20.0 to show a convincing effect. Thanks to the bad habit of the "good ole" 3Delight times when everyone tended to cook his/her own soup instead of developing and agreeing to a general method of how things had to be done and stick to that.  

(That are those who now put fancy, ridiculous colors into their Glossy Color parameter... ).

- For Poser-style rigged figures, such as Vicky 1-4, Michael 1-4, Aiko 1-4, Star stand alone, etc., Carrara has a lot of great options and functions.  First, as mentioned above, you can load the figure in Carrara, edit the mesh directly, and save the result for future use without ever adding morphs.  Carrara has the magnet tool and the displacement painting brush for loaded figures.  Second, you can load the figure and create and save new dial morphs.  A morph zone must aready exist to add a new morph dial.  Here, I loaded Aiko 3 and note that under the morph tab of the vertex modeler (model level) there are already morph zones by body part.  Third, you can actually make the morphs in another program (such as hexagon) and load them in the appropriate morph channel.  The weightzones figure can be edited in the posed position, which is a great help.  Similarly, a new morph can be added in the posed position as long as a morph zone already exists.

Exactly. That all leads to what I was showing Here, is that we may add our own morph zone which covers the entire mesh - whichever "Poser-Stye" figure or conforming figure for any of those figures! ;)

I needed to have these 'new morph zones' for a very good reason. Rosie's hair, for example, has morphs for wind blowing, flowing forward if she leans forward,  flowing back if she lays on her back, blowing out in all directions, etc., 

She has a shirt (I haven't shown her in it for a long time) that has various morphs I made for wind, dynamic walking, and other things,

Her Kimono has a lot of morphs to make it look a little dynamic in animations

=====================================================

Adding these morphs was a real pain in the tush before I learned the above technique for adding new morph zones. Victoria 4 was odd in that she allows us to add morphs to the whole figure. Everything else, including everything that's made to conform to her, we'd need to select one of the preset morph zones - "Figure", being the whole mesh, is only available to add morphs to on V4.

So by adding a custom morph zone which contains the entire mesh, this actually adds a whole new selectable morph zone to use, which allows selection of any part of the mesh!

You see, if we only model the morph one body part at a time, it's a real pain to get the abdomen part of the morph to work with the chest part of the morph - and even worse, we'd have to set those morphs on both the abdomen and the chest! I used to go through that! I sucks!

With a new 'whole figure' morph zone, we can make a single morph called "Bend Forward" and we can deform the neck, chest, abdomen, and any other part of the figure we need - without worrying about which zone it crosses - because we're morphing the whole thing!

Even better, one single morph dial controls the whole thing! Bam!

Sorry Misty... aside from, perhaps, opening the model file in Notepad and rearranging the order of morphs that way, I don't know of a way to re-order them after they've been made. However, I think that if we make the morphs using the DS <> Hexagon bridge and export as CR2, it may automatically put them all in alphabetical order. Not sure though.

So, once you pushed past the tedium that you told me about earlier this year, you fell into a groove, or vortex. Does this mean that you may consider Genesis 3 UVs for Victoria 4? That would be a big seller for the Poser people, methinks.