Questions about the characters sold in the shop.
I was looking into the characters for G8 for sale in the shop, and I have some questions :
-I understand that in the past, there were standalone characters (like V4). But it seems that now all current generation characters are based on G8 or G3, etc... Is that right?
-Should I assume that clothes and such made for G8 figures will fit *all* G8 characters (since in the past at least, clothes seemed to be made for specific characters and didn't necessarily fit other characters of the same generation)?
-There are significant price differences between characters. For instance, amongst the characters I'm looking at at the moment, "Ai" has a base price (figure alone, without discounts) of $ 19 while "Alexandra" has a base price of $ 45. Are these price differences representative of something (in terms of quality, amount of work required, etc...) or is simply a matter of someone arbitrarily deciding to sell for a higher/lower price? In other word, should I expect a difference between a character sold at a low price and a character sold at a high price?
-Are "pro bundles" something clearly defined, all containing specific elements not included in the basic bundles, or is it just a matter of the "pro bundle" containing more stuff of a random nature? In other words, besides having more stuff in it, are there specific reasons why I would want to buy a "pro bundle"?
-Amongst "DAZ original" figures, like Zelara, Teen Kaylee, Aiko, etc...are there any significant differences besides the obvious (outward appearance of the character)? In other words, is there any reason why I would want to buy this character rather than that other character besides "I like the look of this one better"?
-Can I assume that characters designed by individual artists (rather than "Daz original" characters) will be of high quality, or could I be in for bad surprises sometimes?
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Comments
Cant answer them all, or completely because I havent been using it for that long, but here goes :
1) All characters belong to a generation. Which means it uses the same basic technology, like morphs, bends, uv-maps and other improvements. So all characters you buy belong to that tech generation. Which is why its sometimes hard to swap between generations, allthough you have a lot of converters and utilities to help you move over to the next generation.
2) All G8 (and G3,G2) characters can share the same clothing without any tinkering. I almost never have to do anything to improve it unless I used custom morphs, but most clothing have enough slides to tinker with to solve a problem (like sitting for instance)
3) Usually there is a reason, sometimes a characters gets sculpted in HD in Z-brush and the like, the vendor perhaps used his own custom skin map (instead of merchant resource for example) I assume this takes way more time and it is reflected in the price. In my experience you definitely see this back in your renders. Its also a lot taste, some vendors you'll love, others you skip, different for everyone I think. There are also character bundles (with hair, clothing, props)
4) PRO bundles are the official characters released by DAZ, they come with a ton of extra's, like hairs, clothing and extra characters. The adult PRO bundles also included genetalia (called anatomical elements). Victoria is pretty much the flagship DAZ character for G8F and Michael for G8M. Some vendors specifically create stuff with these characters in mind. Like "poses for victoria 8" or something.
5) The bundles are themed, so all the different bundles are there to fill a request. Like you might buy Olympia if you want a fighter from ancient times for example. Or a teen character like Teen Kaylee. Or more anime / toon you go for the Aiko or Girl pro bundle (and male equivalents)
6) I havent come across really bad characters, especially here on DAZ, they are all of high quality I feel, but every vendor is an artist and has their own style. Some you will like more than others. In most cases the promo images make it very clear what you are getting into.
Actually, with theexception of the Kids 4, all of the fourth generation figures were shapes and maps for Victoria 4 or Michael 4. All the fifth genrations figures are based on Genesis, all of the sixth on Genesis 2 Female or Genesis 3 Male, seventh on Genesis 3 Male or female, and eighth on Genesis 8 Female or Male (the Genesis version number skipped to align with the named figures).
Usually clothes will fit the base and any add-on characters. There may be occasional exceptions, when the clothing is made for a specific add-on with a very different shape, but there are few of them.
The Daz Name 8 characters tend to be pricier, otherwise it's usually down to what is included (fibre-mesh brows or lashes, HD morphs isntead of SD, hair or clothes, multiple base maps, multple shapes, etc. can all push the base price up).
The Pro Bundles for adult, non-toon, geenrally include the anatomical elements - it's the same set in each bundle for a given generation though. Other than that it's just that the Pro Bundle contains items additional to the Starter.
The named characters are usually, in the current generation, shapes and maps - older generations often came with alternative UV mapping to reduce stretching, but few add-ons used those. Essentially it's a matter of whether you like the character (and add-ons, if looking at one of the bundles) though soem will be used more than others for add-on characters (which usually need the shape to look as the designer intended).
Quality shoudl geenrally be high, but certainly style can vary so it's wise to look at the promos, and at other characters from the same artist if you have any through bundles, to decide if you want to buy, Don't forget that you can ask for a refund within 30 days of purchase if you aren't happy for any reason.
Thanks for your answers;
So, generally speaking, even if I use the most obscure G8 character, I should still be able to use with it anything that I could use for, say, V8?
I'm wondering also about utilities intended for G8 that change the appearance of a character. Do they work too with derived characters? If I use a tool that changes the skin appearance of a character, or ages it, or slants its eyes, or makes it more muscular, etc...will it work equally well on Victoria, on a character itself derived from Victoria ("XYZ for Victoria 8"), etc... Or will it only work properly on the G8 basic figure?
In fact, I notice that there are a lot of characters made "for Victoria 8" or "for Michael 8", so this might be a good reason to rather buy first the most common characters, like V8 or M8, maybe?
You should be able to use items made for G8 on any G8 character. If you use G8 clothes on a morphed character the clothes will automatically try to adjust to the new shape, using custom morphs for that shape if they have one or creating such a morph on the fly. Keep in mind though that if your character has a very different shape from the base, automatic adjustment will sometimes end up in weird results and you may need to adjust it yourself manually...
Once again it will work, but for example if you use a "muscular" morph on a character already morphed the effect will probably be a bit different than what you would get using it on the base.
In the same way, if you have a pose for the default base and use it on a modified character you may need to adjust it: eg if you have a pose where G8F has her hands on hips, and use it on a character who has longer arms and wider hips, there's a good chance that the hands won't end up exactly at the right place "as is".
Your best friend when a piece of clothing doesn't quite fit is the push modifier. Adding a push modifier to the clothing and setting it even as low as 0.25 cm will often fix places where the skin shows through without significantly changing the look of the clothing.
What is the "push modifier", where do I find it and how do I use it?
A push modifier moves the mesh in or out - inflating or deflating it. Edit>Figure>Geometry>Add Smoothing Modifier. You can also have it check for colisions with one other item in the scene, set in the Parameters pane Editor tab under Mesh Smoothing.
Thanks. I'll check that next time I'll have something that doesn't fit.