What goes with what
Hey all.
Still fairly new to DAZ, and I am working on a fairly ambitious project. Given the scope of what I plan to do, I will not have the time to create all the resources myself (my own clothing, hair, etc), and I feel that would be a waste of time anyway, given how much great stuff there is on the DAZ store. Yes, it will cost, but my time is more valuable than the money at this point, and some amazing work is posted here, so I plan to use that. And for some things it is a no-brainer.
But one issue I am having is that, in the artwork I plan to create, there will be some, for lack of a better term, "continuing" characters -- that is, for a long time to come, I plan to use the same set of characters over and over again. Imagine it like doing a comic book that will last for years. You create a face and body for, say, Batman/Bruce Wayne, and now you have to keep that figure the same. Since many props such as clothing and hair items only fit certain figures, I feel like the decision of which base character/figure/face I use is extremely important. If I use Michael 4 but the Batsuit is only compatible with Michael 6, I will have problems (I am guessing).
Right now, the majority of what I am looking at appears to be compatible with V4 and M4. And this is fine. I like those figures. Some of the stuff is compatible with Genesis. Some is compatible with Genesis 2. As I understand it, V4 and M4 are not based on Genesis (I believe they pre-date them, but correct me if I'm wrong). But there are also V4 and M4 shapes for Genesis.
So the question I have is, what is the best way to make sure that I am getting the most versatility out of the figure I ultimately choose? If I select a figure that is, for example, a V4 figure, and I have the V4 resources and the Genesis resources and the V4 for Genesis adapter (or whatever it's called), will I be able to use both V4 and Genesis clothing with the character? Or is the engine fussier than that?
I guess what I am trying to do is avoid a lot of "trial and error" experimenting with purchased products, since those can start to add up. And again, I don't mind spending the $$ if I can actually use the product... but if I buy clothes for a figure and I can't use them, it's going to be rather annoying. Also, I could end up choosing the wrong figure if I really, really want particular clothing sets and they just do not exist for that figure (again, it would be hard to do Batman without a Batsuit, even if there are tons of other M4 clothing types available).
Thanks for any advice you can give.
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Comments
OK...let's start with a couple of clarifications.
V4/M4, Genesis, Genesis2 are figures...the rest are characters or in the case of Genesis you have shapes, too (they 'characters' that are basically other figures, like V4/M4).
Now, everything that changes that figure into a particular character is a morph.
In the case of Genesis, with the V4/M4 shapes and a product called GenX you can transfer the various characters to Genesis...with reasonably close results.
Also with Genesis there is autofit...that will allow you to fit other, nonGenesis clothing to it. Results may vary with how well it does the translation, but for a lot things it works very well (skirts and long dresses being a notable exception).
In my opinion, Genesis is the most versatile figure, right now...the tools for Genesis2 aren't all out yet, but they will be over time.
Thanks for the response. It clarifies a few things, but let me give you an example of what I am talking about. I am going to use MADE UP products, just so that there won't be any confusion in case I have misinterpreted what a real product will do.
Let us imagine I am going to create a 3D webcomic about Batgirl. I plan to spend a long time on this and produce a multi-issue mini-series with lots of panels and many pages over time. Once I choose a model/face/etc for Batgirl, I am going to have to stick with it -- one would not expect her physical traits to change over time.
Imagine further that, upon searching through this and various other sites, I find a character called "Barbara for Victoria 4." According to the spec sheet, she works with Victoria 4. No mention is made of Genesis, Gen2, or any other figures. But I decide that this "Barbara for Victoria 4" has the perfect look I want, and that with very minimal tweaking, I will have my "Batgirl" character. This character will be what I plan to use for a long time, and should not change in her general appearance.
Now, while browsing for things, I also find a "Batsuit for Genesis Males and Females." Some kind person has gone in and created both a Batman, and Batgirl, costume, with various color options, material/texture options, etc, covering the whole range of batsuits from the 1930s (in the case of Batman) or 1960s (in the case of Batgirl) through today. It has a cape, a bat-symbol, etc. This is perfect for what I want to do.
The question I have is, would that be workable? What steps would I have to take to make the Batgirl suit and the V4 "Barbara" character compatible? V4/M4 shapes and GenX? Then apply the Barbara character to an appropriately tweaked Genesis character and she can wear the suit? That's what it sounds like but I have not done this before. I'm trying to figure out what the best character would be, combined with the best set of clothing.
Yep, that's pretty much the way it works...V4 charcter, through GenX (and all that is needed to make it work) should get you a close enough to the original V4 that will be very usable on Genesis. Then any Genesis clothing will work, out of the box. V4/M4 clothing will need to be converted...usually just with autofit. (there are ways of doing it manually, without GenX, but they are rather complicated and take a lot of fiddling around)
The complete pipeline to take it to Genesis 2 isn't 'there' yet...so that's why, at least for this, Genesis would be the more versatile option.
The skin textures aren't a problem...Genesis (original) already, without any add-ons will use V4 textures.