General Q about hair compatibility for G8F

Raymand

There are some wonderful hair products built for G3F (or G3m, for that matter), or G2F or earlier figures. Will they work on G8F characters (or G8M, for G3M hair)? If so, are there any special steps or adjustments that need to be done? Or is it better to wait for a G8F version to be released?

 

 Thanks!

BeeMKay

They usually will work with G8F by using AutoFit. Just select G8 and then load the hair, as usual. A menu will pop up for transfer.

However, when you have hair that has bones (like some pony tails), you will lose the bones by auto fit. In that case, it is better to load the hair without the character selected, and move it to place, then parent in place.

The other problem you might run into is that older hair is optimized for 3DL, and often needs some work before it looks good in Iray.

Raymand

Thanks, Bee! In the case where you avoid using autofit to avoid losing bones, is there a problem of the shape of the hair not exactly matching the shape of the figure’s head? Also is it difficult to position it perfectly when you do it manually?

Richard Haseltine

Raymand said:

Thanks, Bee! In the case where you avoid using autofit to avoid losing bones, is there a problem of the shape of the hair not exactly matching the shape of the figure’s head? Also is it difficult to position it perfectly when you do it manually?

In general the match, at least with the base figures, should be pretty good - but you can apply a smoothing modifier to the hair and then set it to collide with the base figure to desl with minor issues.

agent unawares

If you are going from G3F to G8F, the best way is to edit scene identification. Their head and spine structure are exactly the same, so you can just tell DS the old hair is for the new figure like this:

Load the hair but don't fit it to a figure.

In the Scene dropdown, do Edit>Scene Identification...

Change Preferred Base to Genesis 8 Female.

Now you can fit the hair directly to G8F and you will not lose bones or anything. The same works going from G3M to G8M, and also going from the 8s to the 3s.

Unfortunately this does not work with older figure stuff, so you have to do the reparent thing not to lose bones with them.

Raymand

Thanks! Changing the scene identification sounds like a excellent technique. But could I clarify the step where you “fit” the hair? If I had a G8F figure selected and then loaded G8F hair, it would automatically parent it to the head and position it precisely. But if I wanted to use G3F hair I would first deselect the G8F figure so the hair loads into the scene independently, then fix the identification as you described. Next could I drag the hair generally to the G8F head and get it automatically positioned? Or would l need to precisely position the hair myself and manually reparent it to the head?

Also, besides hair, does changing the scene identification work with other G3F items you would like to attach to a G8F character, or is hair a special case?

agent unawares

Raymand said:

Thanks! Changing the scene identification sounds like a excellent technique. But could I clarify the step where you “fit” the hair? If I had a G8F figure selected and then loaded G8F hair, it would automatically parent it to the head and position it precisely. But if I wanted to use G3F hair I would first deselect the G8F figure so the hair loads into the scene independently, then fix the identification as you described.

Yes.

Raymand said:

Next could I drag the hair generally to the G8F head and get it automatically positioned? Or would l need to precisely position the hair myself and manually reparent it to the head?

You only need to fit it like normal, no reparenting needed with this method. EDIT: You fit it by going to the Parameters tab and changing the figure in Fit To.

Raymand said:

Also, besides hair, does changing the scene identification work with other G3F items you would like to attach to a G8F character, or is hair a special case?

Hair and other things that only go on the head and torso are special cases, because the G3 anatomy matches up exactly to the G8 anatomy there, but the limbs do not match like this. Basically, anything that needs limb bones will not not work like this, and things that don't need limb bones are (at least mostly) okay.

You can fit clothing from G3 to G8 in a similar sort of way, but it's a more complicated method involving repositioning the limbs to match and baking the bones in place. Note that this does in every respect I have found give superior results to autofit, so if you find yourself autofitting clothing that turns out wonky, consider this method. https://sickleyield.deviantart.com/journal/Tutorial-Convert-Clothing-G3-to-G8-G8-to-G3-686682065

Raymand

Thanks very much for this very helpful information. I can’t wait to try it out! Also there are a couple G3F hair products I liked, but I wasn’t sure they would work for me. But now I feel better about buying them.