Just (re)starting 3d, downloaded Daz3d; what else do I have to buy

Trelligan

   TL;DR: I want to mold my own characters, male and female. What is the minimum I need to buy. Links appreciated, if this has already been answered.

 

   I'm getting really confused with all the dependencies between the products available. I currently want male and female bases that I can mold into characters and pose myself. I can build a few simple props in Hexagon and backgrounds aren't a problem, but the different morphs and things are very confusing.

   If I want to create my own Genesis 8 characters, from teen to adult, will full freedom to modify shape in the body and face, what is the minimum I have to buy. I'm fiddling around with the Daz3d free content, but I think I want more. In addition to pre-baked characters, there seem to be several options for types of morph packages. Do they all play together well? Is there a minimum set that I should start with, and a path to continue on?

   Money is of course a factor (don't want to throw it away), but mostly I don't want to waste time learning things that won't help down the road.

BeeMKay

Do you want to use pre-made morphs for shaping, or create your own shapes by modelling?

If you want to do your own body morphs, you already have what you need (like, Hexagon and the Genesis 8 Starter Essentials). You'd use the Hexagon bridge for import into the programm, and creating the morph. You'd need skins, of course, and you can't do HD morphs of the figure. There's a couple of free tutorials, (like https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3530151/#Comment_3530151) or you can buy one, for example: https://www.daz3d.com/how-to-create-a-new-custom-daz-studio-character

If you want to buy things, you'd start out with the male and female base morphs, like

• https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-body-morphs
• https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-head-morphs
• https://www.daz3d.com/growing-up-for-genesis-8-male-s
• https://www.daz3d.com/aging-morphs-for-genesis-8-male-s
• https://www.daz3d.com/shape-shift-for-genesis-8-male-s
• https://www.daz3d.com/vascularity-hd-for-genesis-8-female-and-male
• https://www.daz3d.com/body-mixer-for-genesis-3-and-8-male
• https://www.daz3d.com/200-plus-head-and-face-morphs-bundle-for-genesis-8-female-s-and-male-s
• highly recommended: https://www.daz3d.com/rarestone-s-face-morphs-collection-for-genesis-8-male
• ditto: https://www.daz3d.com/rarestone-s-face-morphs-collection-for-genesis-8-female

This is not a complete list, of course, as there's male and female ones, specialized ones for ethnecies (which you probably could dial in with the other morph sets). One thing you might want to consider is that morphs are usually time savers (you could dial them in, but it would take a lot of time), and that you start out with a symmetrical base character, so you want to look for morphs that allow right and left different morph settings

What you also can do is buy some of the more extreme shaped characters, like Olie 8 and George, which you then can mix into small doses into your characters. George is recommended, as he brings in bend morphs for obese people, that are sorely needed, and he's a quick way to make any given male character more realistic.

RitaCeleste

If you don't want to throw away money, join the platinum club short-term at  least and see the difference in pricing for items.  If you going to buy all the morphs and things within say a month or three.