- Apr 21, 2022
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Let me ask you this: How did you create the character morph? There are many strategies for doing this, assuming you already have a robust Runtime full of various professionally-made morphs:Photorealism I was talking about in terms of lighting and materials. When it comes to shaping, yes I am generally aiming at realism, id love your opinion on future renders that I post in this regard however keep in mind that some distortions do happen due to camera angle, variations in a field of view, and the general pose as well. For example, i think in the jaw case you mentioned, her jaw is slightly nudged forward in the pose which i think there is nothing wrong with that technically people can and do that, whether its a good choice to have her do that is a slightly different question. Thanks for the feedback!
- Simply apply a morph at 100%, either Realistic or Stylized
- Mix and match a head morph with a different vendor's body morph
- Mix several head and/or body morphs in smaller amounts that add up to roughly 100%
- Create your own new character from scratch using various partial face morphs (Jaw shape, Nose shape, Eye size, etc.)
- Create a new morph from scratch by deforming the base character using Z-Brush, Maya, or Blender, and import it into Daz as a new morph
It is my opinion that #4 is the hardest option to get right. You have hundreds of sliders you could tweak, but they were all designed by different artists for different purposes and sometimes they don't play nicely with each other. You could add a Smoothing Modifier in Daz Studio to try and blend together some of the seams, but this will also weaken the overall character shape. This can cause vague cheekbones, nostrils that look a little too big and thin, and other weirdness.
#3 is this:
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#4 is this:
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And as 3D artists, we are all always
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until we can figure out how not to be.Fortunately, there is a general workflow you can use if you insist on doing #4:
- If your idea for the character is stylized in any way, choose a single Stylized Morph and apply that first. And, this next part is important so I'll emphasize it: All the characters in your game must use this same Stylized Morph at the same % strength. This is because stylized art is a contract you're making with the audience's subconscious mind. "In my imaginary story's world, this is what a human face looks like." The human mind can accept, at most, one such lie at a time. It cannot accept you switching back and forth about what the lie is. Yes, there are promotional renders showing Victoria and Aiko attending the same school. This is only to show off the range of the outfit. If Aiko ever comes to Victoria's school in an actual game or render or story, the universe breaks and the audience wants to throw up. ("Into the Spider-Verse" and other "crossover" stories are a rare exception to this rule. They get away with it because audiences already love the characters. Your characters aren't that popular yet, so don't try it.)
- If your character is not stylized, then you must only use Realistic morphs. Any and all Stylized morphs must be at 0% in all characters in your thing. This is equivalent to choosing a Realistic Style, and then enforcing the base mesh as your single Stylized Morph. No style is still a style, and must be enforced as a style within all characters in the project. This is a fundamental principle of art. This is what artists mean when they say the word "Style." It's the specific way in which you, as an artist, are deviating from reality in this one specific work of art.
- Now that you know what all humans in this setting look like, you can start to differentiate what makes this human unique among her peers. Since you're going Realistic, the best strategy is generally to use #3. Blend between no more than two realistic-looking characters, and always check to make sure the result looks natural. They should generally add up to 100%. I.E. 50% and 50%, or 30% and 70%, etc. It's occasionally okay to make it add up to ~125% or so, and going under 100% is always okay. (Common problems when you try 100% + 100% are things like pinched noses, pinched chins, awkward-looking eyes and lips, and crunchy, jagged geometry in general. The reason for this is complicated and technical, but basically some of the points in your model are being pulled in the same direction by both artists, so it goes way too far, while other points, sometimes the point right next to the first point, are being pulled in opposite directions, so it barely moves at all.)
- Now, you can use #4 to tweak small details about the character's face. This should be done to correct flaws or make adjustments to the result from #3. You should never start with #4 or make it your entire workflow, because you end up with jigsaw puzzle faces made of disparate features that don't quite blend together.
- Since you're importing your character into Blender anyway, you can make some small final adjustments via #5. Try to resist the urge to just smooth everything, especially in Sculpt Mode. Instead, install the free Loop Tools plugin. Its "Relax" function is a godsend. It can turn any Edge Loop into a single curved line. Use topology to drive morphology, not the other way around.
(And if you were doing #5 from the start, I don't know what to say. You need practice or better reference or both.)
Good luck! If you'd like me to critique the character morph as it stands, show me an orthographic T-pose or A-pose from the front, so I can see exactly what you've created without Pose or Camera influence.
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