Understanding the hierarchy of characters and features in the store

openlearner

I'm very new to Daz and have been playing around with it for a couple days. I'm intrigued. I see that the primary way to extend its functionality is through the store, but the options are so overwhelming that I need some help understand the hierarchy of the technology.

For example, there is Genesis, which can be pretty much any kind of character, age, gender, etc. So given that, what are all the named characters exactly, like Charlize, Victoria, Michael, and many others? Are they simply pre-build variations of Genesis or do they contain specific features unique to those models? Then, even these named characters have additional named variations, like "M3D Men 2 for David", or "Sierra for Gia", what exactly is that? Are they new types of characters built on top of other character models that are built on top of a character technology like Genesis?

As you can see, it's a bit overwhelming to understand it all.

Then there are a variety of skin-related products that would seem to be similar but carry different tech names, like skin maps, skin tones, skin textures, etc.

If anyone can help me understand the overall architecture of how the Daz system works, it might be easier for me to digest what is in the store.

JimmyC_2009

There is almost certainly a list somewhere, and I'll see if I can find it, but in the meantime ...

Up to, and including, Generation 3, Victoria 3, Michael 3,Aiko 3 etc, all of the figures were stand-alone figures.

Generation 4 figures are based on V4 for the females, and M4 for the males. In other words, Aiko 4 requires V4 in order to work, A4 is simply a morph of V4. The Girl 4 is also a morph of V4, and She Freak 4 too.

Genesis (Generation 5) as you have pointed out, can be any type of figure, man, woman or child, and a few more things besides. Genesis is a completely different figure to the Gen 4 models. It is rigged differently, and has different body parts, so morphs for Gen4 do not work with Genesis without a lot of work (see the Generation X plugin)

There are 'shapes' for Genesis, which may be confusing you, and all they do is make Genesis 'look like' V4 or V3 or M4 or M3 or D3 etc etc. They do not change the underlying mesh, the base figure is still Genesis. Genesis is also UV Mapped for V4, M4 and K4, so skins for any of these characters will fit onto Genesis.

Genesis 2 Female is, once again, a completely new figure. Any characters like Gia etc, or even V6, are based on Genesis 2, and you need to have that figure in your library before they will work. In other words, ALL characters are generally morphs of a base character.

The important part for you, is to look at the Required Products list, to see what figures the item works with.

openlearner

Thanks, this helps. Now consider characters like Michael 5 or David 5. Are they both Genesis models and if so, they are essentially different "morphs" of the same mesh? And since they are Genesis, that means they can wear any clothes for Genesis, and thus in a sense, all clothing would be wearable by any Genesis model, male or female. Is this right?

If Michael is just a Genesis morph, then technically one could create Michael by using the morph controls, right? Or is there more to it than that?

Lissa_xyz

This thread by Scott is probably the best thread you could read regarding the character hierarchy.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/24257/

openlearner said:

If Michael is just a Genesis morph, then technically one could create Michael by using the morph controls, right? Or is there more to it than that?

I thought that too regarding characters for a long time, "I could probably just recreate that- pass". A lot of characters are custom sculpted in something like Zbrush, or whatever modeler of choice, and cannot be made with pure dial spinning. You could probably get something close, but it may take quite some time of looking at promo art as reference.

JimmyC_2009

Thanks Vaskania, that was the thread I was looking for.

I would have found it myself, eventually - honest :coolsmirk: Bookmarking it now!

Lissa_xyz

Lol, np Jimmy. I actually just read it myself earlier in the day so it was fresh in my brain. :P

Also, it's a lot simpler to purchase a character you like at a good price because the amount of money you pay will probably be a lot cheaper than the blood, sweat, and tears it took to get something that's only a close approximation and without any of the textures. lol

JimmyC_2009

@openlearner

Just to add a bit to what Vaskania has said ...

Now consider characters like Michael 5 or David 5. Are they both Genesis models and if so, they are essentially different "morphs" of the same mesh? And since they are Genesis, that means they can wear any clothes for Genesis, and thus in a sense, all clothing would be wearable by any Genesis model, male or female. Is this right?

All Genesis clothing should fit any Genesis morph (within reason). If you have a piece of clothing made for a small child shape for example, and you fit that to the Freak, there will probably be stretching of the texture, just like in real life. In general though, clothing made for the Base Genesis model, should fit any Genesis morph.

If Michael is just a Genesis morph, then technically one could create Michael by using the morph controls, right? Or is there more to it than that?

If Michael 5 was created only using the available morphs in the Parameters pane, then yes, but that is unlikely. Most characters made for Genesis (or other figures) use a program like ZBrush to sculpt the mesh to it's new shape. You can also use Hexagon, which has some tools for sculpting as well, and when the figure is returned to DS, a morph slider will be created.

There is one Golden Rule when creating morphs, you MUST NOT add or remove vertices to/from the original figure. All that a morph is really, is a list of what vertices have moved, and where they have moved to from their original position. If you take a look at the OBJ file for Victoria 4 for example, you will see that it has 68,498 vertices, and they are all listed in order. That order is also important, and must not be changed.

If you look in your Runtime\Geometries\DAZPeople for a file called blMilWom_v4b.obj, you will see them all listed. Just make sure that you don't change anything in this file.