New Characters and then Nothing

[Pendraia]

On the subject of characters, I think there is often this conflict between what is a figure and what is a character. Both my main V4 and Dawn characters are actually a mix of more than one 'character pack' and as long as the character is not too far away from the base figure there is no need for support. Although this is not the case with Axel, many characters are no more than the result of dial spinning anyway and even those with unique morphs tend to concentrate on the head, so once again the support would be for the base figure, not the character in question.

This post reminded me that in Poser clothing doesn't automatically follow so it is a little bit more difficult to get clothing for characters like Axel who have been rescaled. This is an issue I've noticed with Diva in Poser and also to a lesser extent in DS as autofollow and smoothing will fix a lot of things in DS. That's one of the reasons I'm starting to think she will need a clothing pack from the start that will work with her. It has taken a lot of work to convert her to Poser considering what a noob I am at Poser and some may have this issue with Axel also.

I think you're absolutely right, Hornet. And I think that is the basic, underlying problem that leads to threads like this. I think a lot of people don't understand the difference between a "character" and a "base figure" anymore, because Daz delivers it's Iconics in such a way that if they click on it, it loads the whole figure.

Therefore, many people think that a "character" is a figure all to it's own, when in fact it is not. It is simply a morphed shape that is supporting the underlying base figure.

I think a lot of people have this confusion between "character" and "figure" - I have seen similar threads many, many times, ever since Daz started doing their Iconics the way they currently do.

Very well said, Hornet.

I agree so much with this...they have a base and then they have character types which is just another way of saying Iconics I know which have new uv's and also have characters built off of those. I must admit to thinking of Diva in that way as a base to create children but one of my testers recently said she is a character in her own right.

Miss B, there is a setting that will allow you to choose to load as a morph or a figure. If you want to do you can change this. I still have a dialogue box show up offering this each time I click on duf files like that with a figure already in the scene. However if it's not showing up you might have it set not to show.

 

[AetherDream]

Yes, I think Seliah is right. I think the Iconic characters have made it somewhat more difficult for people, particularly those who are new to 3D to understand the difference between a character and a base figure. I think in some ways the lines have been blurred at times.

 

[Rae134]

Yes, I think Seliah is right. I think the Iconic characters have made it somewhat more difficult for people, particularly those who are new to 3D to understand the difference between a character and a base figure. I think in some ways the lines have been blurred at times.

I think the confusion starts with V5, etc (and male equivalents). V4 is a Base in her own right (same as V1, V2 & V3), while V5/M5 is a morph of the Genesis Base, V6 is morph of Genesis2Female Base, V7 is morph of G3F Base etc.

Like the others have said, Axel and Rodrego are just morphs/textures for the Base Dusk, so all Dusk content will fit them.

I just wished there were more talented content makers out there that will do more male stuff. The boys are always lacking as the girls are more popular (the hussy's )

 

[Pendraia]

So true...

 

[Miss B]

Miss B, there is a setting that will allow you to choose to load as a morph or a figure. If you want to do you can change this. I still have a dialogue box show up offering this each time I click on duf files like that with a figure already in the scene. However if it's not showing up you might have it set not to show.

I'm sure that option appeared in DS 4.5 or higher. I'm still using my original Genesis files in DS 4.0 Pro, which is in DSF format. I don't think there's an option to make that change, so that might be something DAZ developed later with Genesis 2 and DS 4.5. I know I've never gotten a pop dialog asking me which I'd prefer, but I'm certainly going to check into that. I just think it's a DUF issue only.

That said, since discovering that years ago, I know not to do that, and only use the base Genesis figure if I want to create my own character.

 

[Darryl]

As a Poser user I was really confused by the various Genesis characters and their Pro Packs. They're priced like base figures and the existence of a Pro Pack suggested that the contents were specially made for that character.

So wouldn't autofit allow any Dusk outfit to be used on Axel?

 

[Alisa]

So wouldn't autofit allow any Dusk outfit to be used on Axel?

Yes, because Axel IS Dusk, just a morphed version of him

 

[drafter69]

Sorry for the delay.... so if I understand what folks are saying is that every item and character based on Dusk is interchangeable with other figures such as Axel and Rodrigo.....

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Sorry for the delay.... so if I understand what folks are saying is that every item and character based on Dusk is interchangeable with other figures such as Axel and Rodrigo.....

Yes. All of Dusk's clothing will fit Rodrigo, Axel, the upcoming Nataani, etc.
All of Dusk's hair will work with these characters.
All of Dusk's expression, posing, and shaping morph dials work with them as well.
Any props that are made for Dusk (such as the cowboy hat and shotgun) will still work as intended on Dusk.

Dusk is the base figure.
Rodrigo, Axel, and, for instance, Nataani who is coming up shortly, are morphs of that same figure. It's the same figure, it's just that we've spun Dusk's dials to give him a different shape, and we've made new textures to give him a different look.

The "characters" are add-on content to use with the base figure (Dusk).

Here is an example of what I mean. This is the base figure (Dusk) with my Nataani character (morphs and texture) wearing the shirt from Dusk's cowboy outfit, and Dusk's skinny jeans both from the store here. (The hair is a Daz hair that I custom scaled and positioned to use on Dusk here.)

I am very sorry for any confusion. Daz does things a little differently than Hivewire. But does this help explain it a little bit better for you?

 

[Miss B]

What Seliah said explains it well.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

I just wished there were more talented content makers out there that will do more male stuff. The boys are always lacking as the girls are more popular (the hussy's )

We are working on it!

 

[Alisa]

I'm glad that the info is helping, drafter.

By the way, are you using DAZ Studio or Poser?

A few small additions to what Seliah said.

In DAZ Studio, Autofit should allow clothing to fit.

In Poser (not because of the characters but because of the way Poser works - there is no autofit ability), the clothing needs to contain the morphs in order to fit. There are a number of ways to get these custom morphs into clothing:

1-The clothing creator can choose to add the morphs to the clothing item

2-Programs like Wardrobe Wizard (this is built into Poser but you need to purchase licenses from PhilC for certain figures like Dusk & Dawn you want to convert clothing to or from) or Crossdresser (where you buy licenses for figure you want to convert clothing to. While these programs will also convert from figure to figure (ie from Dawn to Dusk), they also will allow you to convert from one morphed figure to another.

3-There are third party programs like Morphing Clothes to transfer morphs from the morphed figure to the clothing.

4-If you have Poser Pro 2014+, you can do this with Copy Morphs

 

[Alisa]

As a Poser user I was really confused by the various Genesis characters and their Pro Packs. They're priced like base figures and the existence of a Pro Pack suggested that the contents were specially made for that character.

Oh, and to reply to this..they often are. The textures DO require the base character, because each "base" character like V6, Gia, M6, M7, etc, has different UV mapping. You can see the UV Set used in DAZ Studio in the Surface tab by clicking the figure and going down. Michael 7 is built on and requires the free Genesis 3 base. But if you buy a figure called Steve for Michael 7, and you don't own Michael 7 ALSO (which is not free), the textures will not work.

ALL Dusk characters have the same UV Mapping, like characters for the older figures such as V4 & M4 did

 

[Pendraia]

Just to add to what Alisa and Seliah said...Dusk and Dawn in DS are able to use clones, projection templates and alternate uv's it's just that so far no one has created any characters that have required alternate uv's. Also if you're using Dusk in DS it is possible to create your own clones. I did have the process up on the old forum but haven't gotten around to putting it up on the new one yet. This is especially easy to do between Hivewire characters as they were all made from the same mesh. Also textures will work between characters...

 

[Rae134]

Also textures will work between characters...

I didn't know this, do you just mean Dusk textures can be used on Dawn? or just that Rodrego can be used on Axel?

 

[Pendraia]

Both...textures from Dawn, Dusk and Luna are to a certain extent interchangeable as the uv's are very similar if not the same. I've been using Luna's base set to create Diva's. The only time I noticed any problems was with the eyes I made for dawn on dusk and that would be very easy to fix. Proof of this...Dawn wearing Rodrigo

 

[Pendraia]

And taking this a bit further Dawn wearing Rodrigo with my duskclone dialed in as a morph. Dusk is dialed in at about 70%

 

[Pendraia]

And to take it further again...Dawn with Rodrigo texture and Baby Luna dialed in as a morph.

 

[Alisa]

Oh, that last one is just too darned funny, Pen!

 

[Pendraia]

It is isn't it? I've just thought of something that I must try...