Geoshells and LIE

ajcoutinho

I am an amateur and a newbie when it comes to DAZ Studio. I am mostly learing it for personal use, but I would still like to learn some more advanced features, though I'm not even sure what I'm asking help for qualifies as "advanced". I bought this product, but it mentiones building LIE on Geoshells. These terms are fairly foreign to me. I would perfer assistance only on how to use this product, but if it requires a broader understanding of how the mechenics work, that is fine.
Thanks in advance

margrave

An LIE is a texture that's layered over a figure's skin texture. This allows a user to add decals like blood and tattoos without having to manually edit the figure's textures. You can access the Layered Image Editor by going to the surfaces tab and clicking the thumbnails of the texture maps.

A geoshell is a transparent duplicate of a figure's geometry that hovers above the skin. It has its own surface settings, so you can also use it to add decals to a figure without adjusting the figure's surfaces at all.

It's the PAs perogative which one they want to make. This set includes both since Genesis 8 geoshells aren't compatible with 8.1 geoshells unless you do some stupidly complicated workarounds.

ajcoutinho

Okay... I assume the intended use is to apply LIE to the Geoshell layer, and not the base figure.The problem is I don't know which dial to apply the LIE to, there is about 20 dials divided amoung 17 differnt sections of the Geoshell. I also don't know if there are "presets" or if I have to use the "editor". Again, I would like some specialized help, hopefully from someone who has used this product. Thanks in advance.
I've attached what I see when I go to "Surfaces" in the "FGW 8.1 Wound Shell".

margrave

ajcoutinho said:

Okay... I assume the intended use is to apply LIE to the Geoshell layer, and not the base figure.The problem is I don't know which dial to apply the LIE to, there is about 20 dials divided amoung 17 differnt sections of the Geoshell. I also don't know if there are "presets" or if I have to use the "editor". Again, I would like some specialized help, hopefully from someone who has used this product. Thanks in advance.
I've attached what I see when I go to "Surfaces" in the "FGW 8.1 Wound Shell".

I own a lot of FenixPhoenix and Esid scars/wounds products, and none of them required me to select individual surfaces. You just select the geoshell itself and pick which wound preset you want to apply.

That said, FenixPhoenix is on the forum fairly regularly offering advice, so if you edit your thread title to include the product's name there's a good chance they'll see it.

margrave

Actually, here's a thread by somebody with the same question as you that FenixPhoenix responded to:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/6872686/

FenixPhoenix

margrave said:

Actually, here's a thread by somebody with the same question as you that FenixPhoenix responded to:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/6872686/

Thank you for linking the thread, @Margrave!

FenixPhoenix

@ajcoutinho,

The thread Margrave linked has an explanation as well as the attachment of the online read-me. I'm copy-pasting the explanation here and adding the readme file.

Thank you for purchasing our products. The process is that you need to apply the Geoshell or Geoshells werables (depending on if you're also going to apply the blood) first.

This product makes more sense if you apply it from the Content Library Pane rather than the Smart Content Pane since it has been organized in a way to help you apply things in the correct order (though I've tried naming things to follow that order. So you'll find the product in the following path within your content library

DAZ Studio Formats > My DAZ 3D  Library (or Connect) > People > Genesis 8 Male > Materials > FenixPhoenix > Gunshot Wounds.

There you will find several folders with the correct order of how to apply things. You can find the readme with instructions here: http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/read_me/index/80852/start You may need to refresh several times for it to show up.

I've downloaded that as a PDF which I'm attaching here for easier access.

Basically, you should NOT apply any of the materials/LIE presets to the character. Instead, you should apply the SubDivision & Geoshell wearables to the characters. Then you would apply the materials (skin color), LIE Presets to the appropriate Geoshells.

Here's a simple rundown of the process:

1. Apply a subdivision to your character (you can do this once you're ready to render), but remember that the higher the subdivision, the better the wound morph will look.
2. Apply "MGW 01.1 Wound Geoshell Wearable" to your character.
3. Select the Geoshell Wearable (which will be invisible) and apply "MGW 01.1 Wound Geoshell Dark (or Light or Midtone) Skin Iray Material" (choose the skin color that best describes your character). You can go back and apply another skin color afterward, so don't worry too much about this choice.
4. Apply the "MGW 02" wound LIE Presets (as many as you'd like) to the Geoshell.
5. That's it!
6. If you want to apply the Blood, you'll do the same but process but you would need to load the "MGW 01.2 Blood Geoshell Wearable", select that and apply the appropriate presets to that one. The Blood presets also have utilities to apply if you want to make the blood glossier or lower displacement to avoid clothing pokethrough.

BTW, the dials you mention correspond only to the actual morph (geometry) that would apply to the base character. Shaping presets have been included for convenience, but you can select your character and apply the dials directly if you want. Keep in mind that you'll need to increase the subdivision level (maually or using the scripts provided) in order to visualize the changes.

Let me know if you have any more questions or if something wasn't clear! :)

PS: Since I've been seeing enough threads of people confused with this product. I'll see if I can create a proper readme (linked inside the product) and update the product next weekend.

Cenobite

In most cases layered textures are done with the use of programs like Adobe photoshop or other CSS masterworks tools, unless you specifically deal with texture creation the only thing you need to worry about is applying the textures to the genration model, in most cases a layer might cover a specific body part like back or right arm as the body is broken up into segments, in this way you can apply tattoos, wounds, dirt or other textures like symbols or patterns without effecting the base material applied on the figure, skin tone & such, In the case of Geo shells they work differently to layered textures that are applied over a material surface most times they mistone areas of the figure that have been colour matched with scripts so i avoid using geo shells, layered textures work better in daz3d in simple terms but usually only one layer can be applied to the body area in daz3d where in programs like photoshop you can apply many layers to build the texture.

FenixPhoenix

Cenobite said:

In most cases layered textures are done with the use of programs like Adobe photoshop or other CSS masterworks tools, unless you specifically deal with texture creation the only thing you need to worry about is applying the textures to the genration model, in most cases a layer might cover a specific body part like back or right arm as the body is broken up into segments, in this way you can apply tattoos, wounds, dirt or other textures like symbols or patterns without effecting the base material applied on the figure, skin tone & such, In the case of Geo shells they work differently to layered textures that are applied over a material surface most times they mistone areas of the figure that have been colour matched with scripts so i avoid using geo shells, layered textures work better in daz3d in simple terms but usually only one layer can be applied to the body area in daz3d where in programs like photoshop you can apply many layers to build the texture.

The problem with using LIE on a figure is that you have no control of the final look since all figures are built differently via their surface settings. Using LIE on Geoshells, on the other hand, allows more control of the final output regardless of the surface setting of each character. In the case of our product (which is the one the OP is referring to), using Geoshells also allows us to use displacement without creating seams in the model, making the blood look thicker than if we had built it using only LIE.

ajcoutinho

Thank yoy very much. The readme instructions were what I was looking for. I didn't think to look in the content library; most think I've worked with up to this point have been in smart content. All I was able to do was apply the "bump" with the morphs. Again, thank you for helping me out.

FenixPhoenix

ajcoutinho said:

Thank yoy very much. The readme instructions were what I was looking for. I didn't think to look in the content library; most think I've worked with up to this point have been in smart content. All I was able to do was apply the "bump" with the morphs. Again, thank you for helping me out.

Not a problem, ajcoutinho. The current documentation was only accessible from the DAZ website, but I admit it is quite hidden. So I've issued an update to include the documentation from within DAZ studio via a script (which should be accessible in smart content once the update goes live). I'm attaching the female version of the documentation here for anyone who is interested.