Custom Character Workshop and Render Thread

Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
edited December 1969 in Art Studio

If you enjoy creating your own characters, this is thread is for you! This is a place to share your WIPs (works in progress) and final renders. Use any figure and any software you wish...if it's a custom character, we'd love to see it! If you post a render, please let us know whether you would like to hear constructive criticism or not.

What is a custom character? I define it as a character that you created yourself, either by sculpting it in a modeling program or through adjusting various morph sliders to make a unique creation that's different from what you started with, and distinct from any character available in the DAZ store or elsewhere.

Links to other related threads:
Genesis Fan Club (for Genesis-related tips, tutorials, and discussion)
Set The Stage With the Spectacular World of Genesis - Render Thread! (for your final Genesis renders)
Genesis Custom-Dialed Character Contest (the contest is closed, but check out the entries...this is the thread that spawned this one)

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Comments

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited August 2013

    Introducing my latest custom character...

    GIA 5

    (a dialed character for Genesis, inspired by Gia 6)

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    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited August 2013

    A few of the custom-dialed characters I did for my contest, with links to formulas and more information:

    Edgar Allan Poe
    "Intermediate Female" - designed as a generic base suitable for testing female skin textures of any UV set or ethnicity
    Genesis Toddler
    Lucy, the Australopithecus
    "David 4 for Genesis" - because there never was a David 4, for Genesis or otherwise

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    toddler4a.jpg
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    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    I'm so glad to see this thread started. Thank you Scott. Here is my fav custom character. I'm sure most users know him by now.

    Thanks for sharing him here :) I've said so elsewhere, but he looks great!
  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited August 2013

    Opps... let me move that under your Reserved posts. Do not want to break your work flow.

    So here it is again...

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    Post edited by Jaderail on
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited December 1969

    Jaderail said:
    Opps... let me move that under your Reserved posts. Do not want to break your work flow.

    So here it is again...

    I'm just glad to see him back as your avatar. Missed him!

  • Tramp GraphicsTramp Graphics Posts: 2,411
    edited December 1969

    Here are a couple of my favorite custom dialed characters.

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    Tommies-Lil-Tonka-final-(small).jpg
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  • mori_mannmori_mann Posts: 1,152
    edited December 1969

    Oh I love creating and seeing different characters. Especially those who have lived in my head for years ;)

    Let me bore you with a few of them. All started out as Lumpy McClaykin, aka Genesis :red:

    Comments welcome, but keep it constructive. I won't change (much) about these, but for future reference.

    Bring_it_9_different_angle_small.jpg
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    Thoughts_3a_lpw_smaller.jpg
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    Memories_2_lpw_final_for_now_small.jpg
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  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    And of course you have all met my one, although I did give her a new Summery outfit in this one. LOL

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  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    LOL, then there's my Genesis interpretation of Chohole's character...

    (I didn't intend her to look as if she's advancing on the kitty with evil thoughts...honest...!)

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  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited August 2013

    A frivolous WIP...inspired by giraffes. Due to the extreme morphs, there are some issues with the mesh, especially in the ears and mouth. But I like it anyway. Used mainly Creature Creator morphs and some other stuff, with Raw Oagre textures.

    Great work everyone...keep them coming! :)

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    giraffoid1b.jpg
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    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • Kismet2012Kismet2012 Posts: 4,252
    edited December 1969

    A frivolous WIP...inspired by giraffes. Due to the extreme morphs, there are some issues with the mesh, especially in the ears and mouth. But I like it anyway. Used mainly Creature Creator morphs and some other stuff, with Raw Oagre textures.

    Great work everyone...keep them coming! :)

    I love the eyelashes.

  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    I’ve wanted to create my own comic since childhood in the 1950’s. I’ve always felt that Poser/DAZ Studio was the way to go, but the stock figures just don’t have the right feel. That’s where Genesis comes in, using Gen-x I have transferred all my Gen3 and Gen4 morphs over to Genesis. This along with the morphs that I purchased for Genesis has given me a large library of morphs to use. This also makes it hard sometimes tell exactly where a morph is from.

    I was a fan of the “Danger Girl” concept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Girl), but not a big fan of its execution. So my take on it is “Kat’s Paw”. This Kathleen (Kat) the main character, I did a test panel using D/S 4.5, Bryce 7, PSP 9, and put all together in Manga Studio 5.

    KatsPawComic.jpg
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    Kats.jpg
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    Abby.jpg
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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    I did a number of test render using the Kat character, a character study, a movement study, and expression study. I think she worked out quite well. In the character study the green rectangle is the height of Mike 4 and the red line is the height of Vicky 4.

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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    For the base female body I used Morphia for V4 (http://www.daz3d.com/morphia) transferred to Genesis using Gen-x. Capsces morphs have nice toon feel to them, I own a lot of them and transferred most to Genesis. I used the female trim pose from Morpia, since I felt that it fit with what I wanted. I increased the length of legs by 25% because feel it give the character a comic book feel to it (I did this on all the characters). This was the base body I then varied the breast size, weigh, height, muscles, etc. to come up with all the other female charadters.

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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Here are some examples where the base figure was used and feature were adjusted to get varying body types.

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    Image1.jpg
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  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    Very cool, Greycat! :-)

  • Tramp GraphicsTramp Graphics Posts: 2,411
    edited December 1969

    Greycat said:
    Here are some examples where the base figure was used and feature were adjusted to get varying body types.
    Definitely some nice characters, but the choices of fonts for some of their names make them impossible to read.
  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Greycat said:
    Here are some examples where the base figure was used and feature were adjusted to get varying body types.
    Definitely some nice characters, but the choices of fonts for some of their names make them impossible to read.

    I agree, some of the artwork I did on the fonts didn’t work out as well I thought they would.

  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Here’s another character I did a little more work on. I really like the way the expressions work on this.

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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    BTW I do have male characters also

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  • MimicMollyMimicMolly Posts: 2,194
    edited August 2013

    My first character is a mostly M5 character I call Martin. He's my favorite for many reasons plus he also looks like the kind of male characters I end up making. I almost always end up using the H3 head shape to soften/toon up the face. I don't like H5 that much and other shapes I have mess up the lacrimals. Here he is standing next to the default Genesis, which I happen to like in this render and would probably render it like that more often now. :)

    My second character is a Reby Sky character. (I dialed Reby to 1.00 then mixed things up.) Around the same time I started making her, I had also just downloaded RAMWolff's morphs and wanted to play around with those. (This was before the recent update.) I was going for a somewhat model body-type with an "average girl" face. Her usual appearance how she looks like in the red dress, the other render of her is just to show off the shape. Critiques appreciated on her.

    Both [morphed] characters shown, particularly Martin's face, also rely on DieTrying's 182 V4 Morphs for Genesis and the Evolution morphs. I tend to use the Creature morphs too to get different ear shapes.

    EDIT: I added one more just because.

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    Post edited by MimicMolly on
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited August 2013

    This is Jenny, my first custom character for Genesis 2 Female...

    Thought this would be an appropriate place to share my feelings about Genesis 2.
    I've been a big Genesis booster, so many people probably assume that I'm not a fan of Genesis 2 Female. Actually that's not true at all. I'm very impressed with the bends, the expressions, the facial detail, and the default V6 textures. The more I use it, and the more I see it used, the more I like the figure. I'm still primarily using Genesis, and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future, but I expect that as time goes on I'll start using the Genesis 2 figures more and more, especially when I want photorealistic human characters. I do prefer the concept of Genesis, but I will say that the execution of Genesis 2 does seem superior overall.

    At the present time, though, I'm just buying stuff for Genesis, because that is still my figure of choice, and I don't currently have the funds to try to buy content for two figures at the same time. The only morphs I have for G2F are RAMWolff's free ones, plus the few that come with the V6 Pro Bundle. So that's what I used to create Jenny. I'm rather pleased with how she turned out, especially for a first effort.

    For the texture, I used the diffuse maps from Sensual Skin V5, and the other maps and settings are from Bree, I believe.

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    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Thought this would be an appropriate place to share my feelings about Genesis 2.
    I've been a big Genesis booster, so many people probably assume that I'm not a fan of Genesis 2 Female. Actually that's not true at all. I'm very impressed with the bends, the expressions, the facial detail, and the default V6 textures. The more I use it, and the more I see it used, the more I like the figure. I'm still primarily using Genesis, and that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future, but I expect that as time goes on I'll start using the Genesis 2 figures more and more, especially when I want photorealistic human characters. I do prefer the concept of Genesis, but I will say that the execution of Genesis 2 does seem superior overall.

    I’ve been around the Poser/DAZ Studio scene for nearly 15 years, starting with the early days of Poser 4 to Gen 5. I have over 150 CDs fill with purchased content a lot of which has never been out the box. I have had to start over a number times when a new generation or new release of D/S has come out, trying to get the old content or stuff I’ve work hard on ported over to the newest version of D/S. I’m tired of this, I promised myself this will be the last time. I’m happy with Genesis, it does the things I need it to do. I will never say never when it come to Genesis2/Gen6, but I’m not interested in starting over again so I think I and DAZ are headed in two difference directions. I’m greatly annoyed that DAZ abandoned Genesis so quickly; I think Genesis still had a lot of potential.

    Thanks for letting me vent

  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited August 2013

    I don't know that DAZ is "abandoning" Genesis...just in the past couple days, we've seen two new Genesis characters (Megan and Mina), a new Genesis-compatible hair model, and some poses for S5 and M5. And it looks like more Genesis products are on the way. Still, I absolutely agree with this:

    Greycat said:
    I’m happy with Genesis, it does the things I need it to do.

    ...and also agree that Genesis still has (present tense!) a lot of potential. :)

    Post edited by Scott Livingston on
  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    What three of those four new products have in common is that they're made for more than one figure: Mina and Megan are V4-and-Genesis characters, while the CityDove hair is made for Genesis and Genesis 2 Female. I do think that pattern will probably continue. It must be hard for the PAs, when people are actively buying for figures for multiple generations...not to mention third-party figures.

  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    I think you might have missed my point about always having to start over. I have nothing against Genesis2 I just think DAZ could have waited a little longer and done something like Girl5 for Genesis, that’s what I mean by DAZ abandoning Genesis even if the PAs haven’t.

    Anyways, this is Genesis (as all my stuff now is). This is another main character. I’m trying to create as many male characters as I have female characters.

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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Comic book hero A

    Michael4, [ 1 ]
    M4CC Faerie, [ 1 ]
    FingersLengthR, [ -0.5 ]
    FingersLengthL, [ -0.5 ]
    PropagatingHead, [ 0.02 ]
    PropagatingHandR, [ 0.1 ]
    PropagatingHandL, [ 0.1 ]
    LegsLength, [ 0.25 ]
    HandsThick, [ 1 ]
    M4 ShinsThickness, [ 0.5 ]
    M4 ChestLarge, [ 0.55 ]
    M4 ArmSize, [ 0.5 ]
    M4MM RectusAbdominus, [ 0.85 ]
    M4MM Pectoral, [ 0.36 ]
    M4CC HandsGecko, [ 0.14 ]
    M4 F4 FootWidth, [ 0.28 ]

    M4CC - Michael 4 Creature Creator Morphs
    M4MM – Michael 4 Muscle Morphs
    M4 F4 – Michael 4 Freak 4 Morphs
    All other Michael 4 or Genesis Morphs

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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Comic book hero B

    David3, [ 1 ]
    Freak4, [ 0.2 ]
    M4CC Faerie, [ 1 ]
    FitnessDetails, [ 1 ]
    M4 ShinsThickness, [ 0.27 ]
    Navel, [ 1 ]
    M4 Nipples, [ 1 ]
    M4 HipsSize, [ -0.625 ]
    M4 GlutesSize, [ -0.3 ]
    M4 ChestLarge, [ 0.41 ]
    RibcageVolume, [ 0.6 ]
    PectoralsVolume, [ 0.32 ]
    RectusAbdominus, [ 0.2 ]
    M4 HandsThick, [ 1 ]
    M4CC HandsGecko, [ 0.125 ]
    LegsLength, [ 0.25 ]
    FootLengthR, [ -0.5 ]
    FootLengthL, [ -0.5 ]

    M4CC - Michael 4 Creature Creator Morphs
    All other Michael 4 or Genesis Morphs

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  • GreycatGreycat Posts: 334
    edited December 1969

    Comic book hero C

    David5, [ 0.6 ]
    M4CC Faerie, [ 0.85 ]
    Bodybuilder, [ 0.3 ]
    BodyBuilderDetails, [ 0.6 ]
    M4 ThighsThickness, [ -0.45 ]
    M4 ShinsThickness, [ 0.67 ]
    M4 Nipples, [ 1 ]
    M4 HipsSize, [ -0.5 ]
    M4 GlutesSize, [ -0.7 ]
    M4 ChestBuilt, [ 0.8 ]
    M4 ArmSize, [ 0.4 ]
    M4 F4 FootWidth, [ 0.2 ]
    LegsLength, [ 0.25 ]
    FootLengthR, [ -0.25 ]
    FootLengthL, [ -0.25 ]
    RibcageVolume, [ 0.6 ]
    Navel, [ 1 ]
    HandsThick, [ 1 ]

    M4CC - Michael 4 Creature Creator Morphs
    M4 F4 – Michael 4 Freak 4 Morphs
    All other Michael 4 or Genesis Morphs

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  • Scott LivingstonScott Livingston Posts: 4,340
    edited December 1969

    Greycat said:
    I think you might have missed my point about always having to start over.

    No, I understand that and can relate (though I haven't had to do it before; I started with Genesis). That's part of the reason why I haven't bought any morphs yet for G2F. I like your guy characters, especially heroes C and B.
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