What are your must have character creation tools?
cdpro_2831bbd990
Posts: 1,430
I thought I would post this as a help for people new to Daz Studio or anyone looking at picking up some character creation tools. I don't own everything available. So, I'd be interested in some "must have" items that other people are using. What I'm mainly interested in are the tools that my fellow creators use all the time...kind of like the two screwdrivers and a hammer and tape measure, that are the first things pulled out of the drawer. ;)
Here are mine:
Facegen Artist Pro - After using several different "face from photo" plugins and apps, FG is my go to for good results. It still takes a lot of trial and error. But, it can produce some outstanding head morphs and textures. If you're wanting to create new faces without resorting to a more intensive modeling program, this is the way to go. The initial outlay for FG might seem expensive. But, if you enjoy creating new faces from photos, it will be well worth the cost.
Measure Metrics / Figure Metrics - This is awesome for creating a basic body. This is usually my step one when designing a new character body. I can look up stats on a celebrity that has the overall shape that I'd like, then input those measurements into FM and get the general shape. Then the other shaping morphs come into play.
Breast Control - BC has some really nice breast shaping morphs that represent a good variety of breast types from small to large. The inclusion of nipple and areola morphs make it easy to create both a smooth breasted body and an alternate "nipples applied" version.
Annagenessis 2 (NGS2) skin shaders for Iray - This gets applied to almost every character. It isn't always the best choice for a particular skin. But, I'd say I end up using it on 90% or better of my renders. There are other skin shaders that I like. But, NGS2 is by far the easiest to apply and get good results. There are many others that I have not yet used. So, I look forward to hearing about those.
I do use the basic Daz Head and Body Morphs from time to time for tweaking a render. They are really very good. But, for character creation, I stay away from them in favor of either freely distributable or Merchant Resoource morphs and textures.
I have many other resources and tools in my tool box. But these are off the top of my head, the ones I use on almost every new character.
One more tool that I left out...only because it is usually considered a 2D post tool, is Photoshop. But, I do use it for almost every texture I create, by either cleaning up or modifying photographs and finished textures. If you want to create your own skin textures inside of Photoshop, look at HinkyPunk's Build-a-Babe. It combines a nice basic skin with many layers for changing skintone, eyebrows, makeup...etc. It is easy to use and although designed for Genesis 3 Female, can be set up for use with other skin templates. I use it for both G3F and G2F.
I'm looking forward to hearing what tools that everyone else has in their "must have" kitchen drawer selection. :)
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My must-have tools are 3D6, pencil, paper, and a Player's Handbook. :D :P
Blender
Various morphs and tools from Zev0, OOT hairs are my preference but like SWAM hairs too, and also use Slosh and Goldtassel.
Clothes are varied and harder to recommend; I often end up altering them or running them through VWD - basically whatever suits the project. I favour clothes that have depth.
For personal use I always use the basic Daz Head and Body Morphs in case I create a morph I want to share. This way most will have those and i can share the preset. I tend to stay away from freebies unless I am really impressed with them, that way I don't have to worry about usage and issues down the road. I do have quite a few MRs I use.
The Simtenero randomizer is very useful in creating random characters. You can pick and choose any of the installed morphs you want to use and even work on specific areas one at a time, such as nose, mouth, etc.
Cayman UV products are very helpful and really prolonged the lifespan on my GF2 figures being able to use GF3 IRAY shader textures on them.
Photoshop is a must since I rework and tweak textures constantly. I add makeups, rework eyebrows, change contrast, saturation, add beauty marks, redo private parts, etc. Can't remember the last time I used a texture as is without some kind of change.
Gotta have a modeling app for special morphs and fixes. I use hexagon, carrara and 3DSMax depending on the need
Things I don't use/have yet or really don't see a use for
Measure Metrics / Figure Metrics, While I understand it's purpose I really don't see the need for it with the height slider and even scaling built in.
Annagenessis 2. I have looked at this product often and seen some great and not so great results. I almost pulled the trigger a few times when on sale, but I keep hearing about a new version comining out and not being a fan of constantly upgrading to new versions, keep holding out for the new version to surface.
Facegen Artist Pro is on my to get list. I have gotten good results with the demo and really want to get the fulll version
I basically use FaceGen in combination with the DO body & head morphs plus many other PA morph packages and some freebies too and use the morph dial to mix them.
Sim Tenero Randomizer and the Skin Builder products.
Morphs, morphs, morphs. Mostly from Zev0 and the standard DAZ sets. Aging, vascularity, bending, shaping, Growing Up and, recently, Skin Builder 3. 3feetWolf and Jepe Real Gens, for female and male respectively, when required. Redz Studio hair is my favourite but makes the viewport slow (still worth it though). OOT clothing for realism and versatility.
Blender for minor custom morphs and clothing fitting/drape fixing. Affinity Photo for post work - does most of what I would have used in Photoshop for a fraction of the price.
I wish I could have had more success with VWD but it crashed constantly for me so it was returned.
Not exactly a character tool creation tool but essential for my renders: V3Digitimes Scene Optimizer.
Hexagon, ZBrush, Photoshop, Blacksmith3D.
...for myself, morph vendor resoruce kits, Growing Up, shaping utilities like Zev0's Breast & Glute control, Skin Builder Pro, Slosh's UHT/UHT2 Hair Shaders, DFormers, as well as a lot of time and paitence.
Zev0's shape shift, Xenic's muscle morphs and Powerage's Breast Factory (from Rendo). With this lot, I can create a fantasy amazon warrioress who would send even the most battle-hardened US Marine Corps drill instructor fleeing in gibbering terror.
Cheers,
Alex.
ZBrush and Photoshop.
This is interesting. How do you go about sharing it...by a scene or scene subset file? It had never occurred to me to share a character using the DO Morphs. I always create the character and export to three new obj files for head, body, and all. So, I don't normally use the DO morphs. But, I can see your point. You are essentially sharing dial settings - a much less data intensive file to upload since you are not providing the actual mesh.
I thought so as well for many months. But after using it, I absolutely love it. What Figure Metrics does for me, is to allow me to input actual measurements and get a very close approximation to a target character size. Of course, there is no reason that you can't get your figure by using the standard scaling dials. Figure Metrics just speeds the process. If I want a character that has the same overall measurements as Jennifer Aniston, I can input her measurements and get a morph that is very close. I still would have to use my other shaping morphs to make everything look right. But, FM really gives me a good starting ponit.
NGS2 - It doesn't look good on everything. But, it can really enhance a flat texture, and does a great job of converting older generation materials to Iray.
Same but I'll add on 3DCoat and Ultimate Unwrap3D pro and on occasion I'll use ShaderMap 3 to generate "internal maps" like Normals, Specular, etc....
RAM: will ShaderMap create nice Normal maps from displacement across seams? It's the biggest headache I keep hitting with Substance Painter
It's creates very good Normals but I use the Diffuse map to generate them, they are more exact that way. It's also pretty affordable program compared to CrazyBump!
Here is my Tommy Scruffy face in ShaderMap 3 with the thingy pointed to the Duffuse map. When it's using it's default pointed to the Displacement map I don't get as much detail...
For doing the devil's advocate:
T.Rex of Jurassic Park 1992-1993. A awesome 3D model even today.
ZBrush 1999. did not exist in 1993.
Substance Painter 2014. did not exist in 1993
3D-Coat 2007. did not exist in 1993.
Blacksmith3D 2014. did not exist in 1993.
...
Recommending these kinds of applications as a "must have" for someone new to Daz Studio who is trying to acquire 3D techniques can be frustrating. No doubt all these applications make the job a lot easier and save time, but doesn't emphasize on the real "must have", which is to devote time and acquire skills.
Yeah, but the thread isn't called 'what do new CGi artists absolutely have to have as tools'.
I totally agree. Yet, time to aquire skills is somewhat a given. The "must have" tools that I'm asking about here, are what creators enjoy using and more importantly - why? In other words, what makes the tool great and how does it improve your work flow?
This thread was really intended more as a review of the variety of handy Daz addons and plugins. However, I am interested in the ups and downs of all the recommended tools. I am personally, not ready to start learning ZBrush. Nevertheless, I am still very interested in it and other more robust modeling tools as well as how artists are using them. I do admire the folks that can model all their characters from "scratch" so to speak. Someday, I'd like to learn those methods as well. I have looked at Zbrush and Mudbox. I just haven't had the extra time to devote to learning another major program. But, I'm still ready to hear why someone likes one or the other program.
I also think that using merchant resource morphs and textures along with other tools, is a perfectly acceptable way to create new characters, if what we are looking for is a good end result. Folks like Zev0, Thorne, HinkyPunk, Sickleyield, and many others have given us a lot of great building blocks. I'm sure that for many experienced 3D creators, these are like using Legos compared to knowing how to really build a house from the ground up. Even so, these are really good Legos. and can really give you a headstart to making great characters. :) I kind of think of it like this: I know how cloth is woven, I can even weave cloth from scratch. But, I'm not very good at it. And, it would take me a long time of practice to get good enough at weaving to match what is already available to me in handy bolts of cloth. With so many excellent choices in fabric, I can spend my time sewing together some exciting new outfits, even if I didn't actually spin the yarn or weave the cloth.
I'll try to limit any more silly analogies. ;)
Anyway...so, yes...I'm all about hearing about what tools you like and why you like them.
Thanks. You know, I've never used the "shaping preset" save. I use the character, scene subset, and material saves all the time. But then, I almost always work by exporting a mesh. The shaping preset makes good sense for the type of sharing described. I can see how it might be helpful for going back and forth between machines when tweaking a shape.
Thanks...I haven't checked those out, yet. :)
Ram: bah, doesn't look like it calculates Normals accurately after all. At least I got it on sale
Blacksmith3D, Gimp, Carrara, and Hex.
I also use the MR morphs by Zevo and Handspan Studios. I have several of the MR skins sets (for unique charactes) too.
I just recently started working on my own characters again, with my own morphs. I had forgotten how great a little program Blacksmith3D is. It is designed from the ground up as a Poser/DAZ morph/skin character morph/creation tool, which makes it a great for for creating simple or complex characters (but it can't do dynamic, non-destructive subdivision like zBrush and 3D Coat). What I really like is it's ability to treat morphs like DS or Poser do, so if you plan your project properly, you can create individual mophs for each morph element in your project that can be later used for other projects (i.e. cheek morph, lower lip morph, nose bridge morph, etc.). and all of the morphs can be adjusted from 0-100%, so you can create your own morph library in Blacksmith similar to the morphs sets purchased here. You can also import character files with dial spun morphs, which then become individual adjustable morphs in Blacksmith3D (Just make sure that they are MR morphs if you plan on ditributing the final morph).
Of course Blacksmith3D also has projection painting for creating your own texture maps from photo resources, and paints across seams really well. It's definitely not in the same league as zBrush, Mudbox, or 3D Coat, but it's a fun and easy to use software for a modest price that's well thought out. It also has texture transformer which is a great utility as well.
When I put together a character, I mainly use Measure Metrics, the Daz Studio head/body morphs, SkinBuilder 3, a photo program (PaintShop Pro X9 or GIMP, depending what computer I am on), and Aging Morphs 3. I use Measure Metrics to be able to get quick feedback on how tweaking the morphs affects the overall figure measurements, and to be able to get specific heights without having to either guess or use other ways to determine sizes.
This is a bit off topic. But, do any of you guys remember a program that could take a flat photo of a cityscape and pull 3d shapes to create a usable 3d city model? I actually owned this in the 90's and can't remember what it was called. It came out about the same time as Bryce and Carrara. I haven't seen it since, but can't help but think that would be good for making semi billboard type backdrops for Studio.
Well I have read of such techniques since and FaceGen and HeadShop/OneClick both use varients of such an algorithm.
Here is the latest I've seen of such research & tools:
https://unity3d.com/solutions/photogrammetry
And a link to recent blog post regarding Unity 3D's progress on doing a lot of the things DAZ Studio, Carrara, and Bryce do:
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2017/08/04/unity-debuts-new-artist-tools-and-innovations-at-siggraph-2017/
For me skills are not tools, or at least not quantifiable in the same sense.
Skills utilise tools, but no matter how good the tool, it is always down to the user; it is how they use the skills they have and how they chose to manipulate those tools. Different skills give different results, whereas different tools can achieve the same results with the necessary application of skill.
Skills allow for the creation of tools.
Tools allow one to develop new skills; so whilst they go hand-in-hand, skills come first.
Choosing tools, however, is important. Everyone finds different tools easier to learn, gaining an awareness of the available tools allows one to best determine what to devote finite time to.
... No tool developed to date, allows for time to be circumvented. :)
LOL..
Agreed, though I would also add Substance Painter to my list.
...not silly at all. I used to paint in oils. I bought my paints at an art store rather than compounding the pigments, mixing them with the "vehicle" and such because I wanted to create paintings not spend a lot of time with the chemistry involved. True I did make my own canvas frames and stretched the canvas on them, but mainly as a means to save money. I do not have the expertise to create custom morphs or textures, but vendor resoruce kits offer far more fine control to work with which allows me to develop more peronalised characters.