Questions about FBX, Bot Genesis and Bot Armor for Genesis 2 Female

Parris

Metamotion, a new DAZ Studio user (but not new to 3D), had a bunch of product specific questions for me, along with one about FBX export (which I'm not sure about). So I thought I should post my reply here incase it is useful to others and also so that someone who has worked with FBX might chime in with suggestions.

First I have to say that I'm a little mystified as to how new users find out that Readme files exist. It seems like they often are under the impression that there is no documentation for products, and that's a shame. While a Readme doesn't always have the information that new users are looking for, it often does and it is the official place for product documentation. Check out this very short thread for two methods to find the readme for a product:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/33721/how-to-find-the-readme-files

Ok next: Metamotion said "My Max guy says UV maps missing on the face upon export (FBX)? Not sure what that's about, I'm not strong on UVs. I did notice that Genesis 2's face texture sort of disappears when I add the HotRod sunshine material, for instance."

Partial Answer: Having not used FBX export, I'm not sure but this could be an issue with either the FBX exporter or Max import of FBX, or it could be related to Geografts and FBX. Hopefully someone else here knows more, but be sure your Max guy knows that standard DAZ Studio figures use multiple UVs (one for the head, one for the torso, and one for the limbs). Additionally, Bot Genesis and Bot Armor are Geografts (which means that when you load them, they sort of replace some of the base figure's geometry with their own), so they have some UVs that match the base figure (the "human" parts in my Promos) and additional UVs for mechanical parts. Lastly, when you apply one of my Material Presets to the base figure, it automatically applies a robot like texture to the face and head. You can then select the face and other surfaces (those that are meant to be human) in the Surface tab and apply your prefered character material presets to that. Step by step instructions can be found in the Readme's for these products.

Metamotion asked: "1. How do I create this hair, this face and these eyes"

Answer: The hair is http://www.daz3d.com/fashion-hair . The face texture is Belle which comes with Victoria 6 . The eyes come from the Chrome4Face material preset in People > Genesis 2 Female > Clothing > Bot Armor > Materials.

Metamotion Asked: "2. How do I create this hair, face and eyes and the ear thingies?"

Answer: Hair is http://www.daz3d.com/ricardi-hairstyle.Face and eyes are from http://www.daz3d.com/v4-elite-texture-lana . Ears thingies are from Bot Genesis. Specifically, make sure you have Genesis selected in the Scene tab, then navigate on the Content Library tab to My Library > People > Genesis > Clothing > Bot Genesis > and choose (double-click) BotGen_All or BotGen_Head.

Metamotion asked: "3. Having trouble figuring out what to load to get the basic female robot shown here (ultimately with human face)."

Answer: The fastest way is to make sure you have Genesis selected in the Scene tab, then navigate on the Content Library tab to My Library > People > Genesis > Clothing > Bot Genesis > and  double-click  BotGen_All. Then, on the Scene tab, click the arrow to expand Genesis, select the Bot_Gen_torso figure and delete it. Next, make sure you have Genesis selected again, then double-click Bot_Torso_b (for human head) in the Content Library tab to load it. Finally, to get human skin texture on just the face and head see the Readme for Step-by-step instructions on how to apply partial mats.

Metamotion asked: "4. How do I create the fishnet (criss-cross) texture shown here?"

Answer: You need either http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-female-bot-armor-bundle , or http://www.daz3d.com/advanced-texture-for-bot-armor and http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-female-bot-armor or http://www.daz3d.com/genesis-2-female-bot-armor-set-2 . Then select Genesis 2 Female in the Scene tab and on the Content Library tab, navigate to My Library > People > Genesis 2 Female > Materials > Bot Armor and double click Hotrod_Sunrise or one of the other material presets. The metalic fishnet look is created by a displacement map on the shader. Please note this was made for 3Delight. Converting to iray is a bit tricky.

That's all for now. I hope this helps!

metamotion

Great answers. Thank you, Parris!