Newbie here. Got any suggestions...

thenotoriousjed

I am brand new to 3D art but enjoying it greatly. I have a blog where I write fiction and wanted to add my own pictures to go with the stories and since I can't draw a bit this is great. Also some renders could eventually be used in a book or as a cover if I ever take the time to finish one.

I've joined the Platinum club, downloaded a ton of freebies and spent more than fifty dollars on recent genesis sale. Any suggestions on great content or can you tell me what the difference is in all the figures, you know gen, gen 2, v4, m4, aiko etc... They confuse me especially when I try to shop for new items.

Most of my stories are fantasy or horror related so I have purchased the morphs for genesis, creature creator and a few others. Trying to keep from spending where it's not needed cause I really want everything. Spend smarter you know.

Thanks for any help. Jed

Craig John

Hi Nomar and welcome!! :)

You'll excuse the length of this, I'm in the middle of a little insomnia so babbling may ensue! :P

Daz has made some great figures over the years starting with what was known as 'Millennium figures' (if I remember rightly because they were released around 2000) and the core ones were known as Michael and Victoria (and what's referred to now as Michael 1 (M1) and Victoria 1 (V1)) and you could buy morphs for these figures to change their faces and bodies to look like other males or females and you could buy clothes for these and they'd fit either M1 or V1 (as long as they stated they were for them) so even though you bought a top for 'V1', it'd fit V1 even if you'd applied a character pack for V1 and changed her face.

This continued over the years and they brought out Michael 2, 3 and 4 and the same with Victoria. They also started coming out with other base figures that you'll still need the Michael and Victoria core figures but the body shapes were vastly different in many ways, either being more petite (Stephanie and David), larger (Freaks) or younger (Kids). These still required either Michael or Victoria as the core though so when a product states it's for Stephanie 4 for instance, you'd actually need to own Stephanie 4 AND Victoria 4.

At first, some of these extras were just called 'freaks' or 'kids' but at version 3 of the core Millennium figures (Michael 3 and Victoria 3), most of their number's would also be brought in line to be simpler so Stephanie would be known as Stephanie 3 (S3) even though it wasn't the 3rd version of the Stephanie base figure but because it required the core Victoria 3 to function. I think it may have been the 4th generation of Michael and Victoria that ALL extra base figures conformed to the number standard.

So you can buy a core figure like Victoria 4 (http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-2-base), buy add on morphs (http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-2-morphs) so you can alter her shape yourself or buy pre-made characters (like http://www.daz3d.com/mollie for instance) that requires Victoria 4 and a Morph set for her, in this case, the 'Morphs++'. With this pre-made character, the shape of the body and face can be altered but all pre-made characters for V4 are generally similar in size to each other. If we add in Stephanie 4 (http://www.daz3d.com/stephanie-4-elite-base), the the base body shape is drastically altered so you can buy character packs for Stephanie 4 (S4) like http://www.daz3d.com/rm-willow-for-stephanie-4 but they'd require Stephanie 4 AND Victoria 4 to work.

All pre-made poses for V4 (like http://www.daz3d.com/modern-deco-poses-for-v4-2) will work for all V4 characters whether they're just the core V4, V4 with a pre-made character added (like http://www.daz3d.com/zyanya-v4) or if one of the other base characters (Stephanie 4 or She Freak 4 etc) were added in between.

All clothes that say they're for V4 will fit the core V4 body but the clothing product has to contain specific morphs for them to fit pre-made characters you may have applied to your V4 (and they'd list the morphs they contain on the product page). When you apply pre-made characters to your core Victoria 4, you generally have the choice to apply just the head, just the body or both and if you only apply the head, the V4 clothes will fit your V4 character without problems.

However, V4 clothes will not fit a S4 character; you'd need to buy Stephanie 4 clothes (as Stephanie 4 base character significantly alters the core V4 shape) but when an item says it's a 'Unimesh' pack, it'd fit all of the V4 base add ons like Stephanie 4, SheFreak 4, Akiko 4 and the Girl 4 (like http://www.daz3d.com/happy-camper-v4-unimesh-fits) but you'd still need the original clothes item (like http://www.daz3d.com/happy-camper-for-v4) though.

This brings us to the Genesis figure. Daz brought this core figure to be the basis for both Male and Female characters and this changed the way characters were created. The starter pack for Genesis (which I believe came with Daz Studio), has simple Male and Female shapes but it had a huge advantage over the previous core figures in that any clothes bought for Genesis would work for Male and Females and the clothes would change shape accommodating most characters you'd apply to it.

Michael and Victoria were no longer the core characters but were now just base figures like the Stephanie and SheFreaks previously and 'Genesis' was now the core character. The naming convention continued though and Victoria 5 can be applied to the Genesis core just like the Stephanie 5 or SheFreak 5 base models and you needn't own Victoria 5 (http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-5) if you wanted to apply Stephanie 5 (http://www.daz3d.com/stephanie-5) to Genesis.

Pre-made Pose sets for Genesis or for any base figure (like V5, S5, A5 etc) will work for any character you applied to Genesis (but you may need to adjust the result slightly).

Clothes for Genesis will mostly work for any base character (and/or pre-made character) you applied to Genesis.

Daz, (realising that the male and female figure are quite different after all) released Genesis 2 in a Male and Female core character called Genesis 2 Male (G2M) and Genesis 2 Female (G2F). Michael and Victoria are still base characters to the core G2M and G2F (like they were for Genesis) and the naming conventions continue fortunately - Michael 6 (M6) and Victoria 6 (V6) along with old favourites like Stephanie 6 (S6), the Girl 6 (G6) etc but are now joined with even more base characters like Olympia 6 (http://www.daz3d.com/olympia-for-genesis-2-female), Teen Josie 6 (http://www.daz3d.com/teen-josie-6) Gia 6 (http://www.daz3d.com/gia-6) etc.

Pre-made poses for G2F (or any base and/or pre-made character applied to G2F) will work for all G2F characters and the same goes for the G2M and it's pre-made pose product. G2F poses will not always work for G2M and vice versa but they'd be close with some minor tweaking.

Clothes made for G2F, will work for all pre-made characters that use any base character (Victoria 6, Stephanie 6, Olympia 6 etc) applied to the core G2F model and the same goes for G2M clothes.

There are morphs that you can buy for the Genesis or G2M/G2F core models that replicate the shapes of Michael and Victoria 4 which allow you to use old M4 or V4 clothes you own. This is mostly to keep older items in your Runtime useful but if you’re just starting out, I would recommend sticking with the Genesis generation and above and ignore generation 4 items and below.

Any new product from Daz is for either a G2M or G2F item though (or it’s for any figure like a model of a Building for instance).

I went into a little detail and I hope I haven’t confused the issue too much but feel free to ask questions.

What I haven't mentioned this far are clothing texture add ons. These are fairly self explanatory though and http://www.daz3d.com/yee-haw-textures-for-the-sheriff for instance needs http://www.daz3d.com/the-sheriff (which needs a G2F character to wear).

Hair is generation specific as well so Hair for Genesis needs a Genesis character, hair for G2F needs a G2F character to fit it on. A hair product can include several Fits though so look in the ‘Compatible Figures’ section on the product page (to the right of the main product image).

Props are generation specific also but that only refers to Fits (like Hair) that fit a sword to a character’s hand for instance. You can unparent props and position them correctly if you like though and parent them to the correct hand position.

Building, Room, Environment and Vehicle products can be used with any figure. If the product includes a Building and a Pose set for a V4 character for instance, the Building item will load correctly but you’ll not be able to use the pre-set V4 character poses for a G2F character (but it could be worth a try if you already own the product).

Craig John

Oh wow - that is quite lengthy!! :O

The first several paragraphs are just history and gives a background to some of the naming conventions of the figures. I certainly don't recommend buying any of the pre 4th Generation figures. Generation 4 and above is where you want to stay.

Generation 4 models are still strong in other sites like Renderosity, Xurge3D, RuntimeDNA, Forender, YurDigital and Content Paradise. I'm not sure whether the mere mention of those names is against Daz policy so I chose not to include the links (but adding '.com' to the ends of them will get you there). ;)

They also have new 'non-figure specific' items like Buildings, Vehicles etc that they release regularly.

Good luck and may all your renders be quick. :)

thenotoriousjed

Thank you. It was long but a lot of great information that helps me out tremendously. I can shop with at least a little more confidence now that I have an idea of what I am doing.:-)

Craig John

I'm glad it helped - I had the exact same problem when I started here except it was pre-Generation 5 items (Genesis 1) so I had it a little easier.

Let me know if you have any questions about any new purchases you're wanting to get that you're not sure of the compatibility.

...or any other questions at all. :)