Best software packages for customizing characters

Sloth

Hello,

I'd like to know which models / morphs would give me the most (or best) options for customizing characters' appearances so as to make them look unique. I realize this is highly subjective, but I'd like to hear your thoughts either way. 

I loved giving characters a unique look in RPG games I've played (which, granted, usually have a rather limited number of options, though you can still get nice results) and would like to be able to do the same thing in DAZ. I'm hesitant to go spending money without any recommendation on which software packages are actually worth it, though.

Richard Haseltine

I'm not sure what you are wanting to do with the customised figures, but since you mention game mods I do need to note that the 3D content isn't licensed for use as game mods (ex ept on your own system) - renders are fine, though.

Are you wanting to make humans or are you wanting to go beyond that? All of the base Daz humans (included with Daz Studio) have morph packs for customisation, and texture expansions, but we don't (yet) have a creature creation pack for the Genesis 3 figures.

Sloth

Don't worry, I'm not referring to game mods - I'm talking about games that by default give you the option of customizing your character (and have enough options to actually make them look unique), like Mass Effect or Dragon Age. :) Playing with the character creator tools in those games to get my character just right is part of what got me interested in trying to do the same thing in Daz. 

I'm a hobbyist writer and I'd like to be able to create some of the characters from my stories, to make some illustrations to go with the stories. They're humans, yes (most of them, anyway).

So you wouldn't say there's a difference in 'bang for buck' between the different base figures and their morphs? Or perhaps certain models that are more interesting because there are more clothes / characters available for them, or something? I'm new to this and don't really know what to base my decision on.

Richard Haseltine

The female figures have more options than the male, I'm not sure whether the Genesis 3 figures are lagging in terms of morph sets or not  -it's beena  diffrent pattern of PAs releasing moprh sets which makes it a little harder to judge, but I think either offers a wide range of options. The base body and head morph packs, plus some of Thorne/Handspan's sets or Slosh's 200+ morph sets and the sets from Zev0 should give plenty of options for humans (and minor variations such as elves). Both figure generations have a pretty wide range of textures available though various character sets.

barbult

First to correct a little error: 200 Plus - Head & Face Morphs for Genesis 3 Female(s) are made by Dogz, not Slosh. I own them; they are very good. I agree with Richard that you will want to start with the basic head and body morph packages. Many of the characters in the store rely on those morph products.

Many people think Genesis (the first of the Genesis line, before versions 2 and 3) is the most flexible. It can be male, female, or child, all built in to the basic model. With addons it can be a gorilla or other creature. It also has lots of morph packages, like Zevo's Growing Up and Aging Morphs to give you the full age range of characters. Genesis 3 doesn't have aging morphs yet, but it does have Growing Up. Genesis is an "older" product now, so you won't see much new stuff in the store for Genesis. Genesis items have gone on sale for something like 80% off several times.

The best advice is to be sure that the morph packs you buy work with the character generation you choose to use. Without other plugins and tools, morphs are not compatible with characters other than the generation and gender they were designed for. However there is no reason to restrict yourself to just one generation of characters; it just means that you may have to buy the same type of morph package again for another generation of character, which can become expensive. I use Genesis, Genesis 2, and Genesis 3, because I've been using Daz Studio for 4 years and have added the new ones when they were released.

Richard Haseltine

I had a nasty feeling after posting that I'd given the wrong PA there, but forgot to check. Thanks for the correction.

Ostadan

As a parenthetical remark, you may find that creating scenes with your characters stimulates new story ideas.  Drop a couple of them into some scenery... hey, there may be a story here!

3Diva

Depending on what figure you're interesting in making changes to, there can be some great morphs found here. You can also find free morphs on sharecg.com and renderosity.com.