Daz DAZ ~ cost

[coffeeaddicted]

So this isn't really a rant but an observation.
Now since this is a crack board of sorts, i am not sure if people are too concerned about it.

As for me, i do buy from time to time because i like the asset or i can't find it anywhere.

Now, i asked myself the question. If i were really into this and i need to buy all the assets that i am using, how much would that be?

The answer for me was, a lot.

Just the basics will already cost around 200-300 dollars. So that includes your main character or two and the morph parts. Not hair or anything. When on sale it maybe less.
Now if your story will include several characters, because you don't want to see all the time the same faces or figures, it will be much much more.

Now, poses and expressions really drive your to bankruptcy.
Just to have a couple of useful poses will probably cost you around 300-500 dollars. Each hovering around $20 Dollars mostly.
And you can never have enough.

Then morphs. So if you like me and you want to "enhance" your female, it will be an additional 200 dollars probably. If you fine with the base character, you save on this one.

Another big portion will be environments, so there will be 20-100 Dollars assuming that you need at least one but probably need more locations. 200 would be for like 6 sets.

Shaders are also something that really can go in your wallet. So i am using several shaders, mostly for clothing but also for the environment. So there will be probably also around 100 dollars minimum.

For the adult section, there are the sex parts plus the liquid mess. Here you really take a hit financially.

The list goes on and on.... to many too list really.

I conclude that DAZ is a very expensive hobby if you seriously want to get into it and, for you piece of mind, legally.

So i can see why the donating part is a huge driver for developers. Though i am not sure if everyone does. Not everything needs to be known.

It is a fascinating hobby but also an expensive one. I am not sure if i ever will legally have all assets, but the thought of doing some mental realignment made me realize that even with a good job, you really spend a lot of money as a bottom line. You probably could buy a small car from the money spend assuming you really buy everything.

If you can make everything yourself, you will probably save a lot of money but who has the time to do that?

I still not sure which cum assets are better. Some work, some don't or look strange. So i appreciate that i can at least test them. Otherwise i would be really pissed.

So that maybe a stupid post written out of boredom, but these are the figures i came up with. I really tip my hat (if i had one) to anyone who actually buys all the assets.

p.s. i don't have any light assets but rather use spotlights or give a wall emission. Works for me most of the time. The only thing i am using additionally is a light preset that i got from DeviantArt (which was free) to have HDRI for the character.
Mostly i am trying to use what DAZ itself offers for free rather than buy an asset that does it.

 

[GNVE]

You are not wrong Daz is an expensive hobby but there are a lot of things you can do to make it slightly less expensive. (When wanting to buy all assets.)
1. When starting out you might want to buy all the assets. You might not even use most of them. Only buy things you'll know you use.
2. Don't I have that already? Especially when it comes to poses and expressions (the latter I don't really see the point of anyway) there is a lot of overlap between different packs. Model packs are dime a dozen for instance (Packs where the poses are more or less for a girl doing a photoshoot). By being sure the pack actually adds something you might save a little.
3. Older tech get discounted more often and have higher discounts in general. Sure it might not be as good. But from Gen3 onwards it is workable and can save a lot of time.
4. March and Oktober sales have lots of items reduced to 1,99 you can pick up a dozen environments/hairstyles/etc. for the price of one not discounted item.
5. Daz+ can be worth it if you get it at a discount.
6. Don't buy characters but buy morphs + a skin texture pack. You can develop your own characters that way saving massive amounts of money over time.
7. Shaders save money as you can easily use the same wardrobe items over and over with new textures. They also help make your environments feel fresh when using an environment everybody else has used as well.
8 Shop around Daz isn't the only store out there.
9 learn to do it yourself. That of course is the ultimate savings

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Agree on everything you said GNVE.

Wow, didn't know they had such crazy prices. Got to remember that.

Well, i am a sucker for characters. Some looks really fitting to what i want to do.
Now i am using Gen3 for males mostly. Breakpoint are poses sadly. Though i am working on it.

I think for the moment, i am using what's there. aeh... from the links.
I will still buy what i like, but i am careful. I sucked everything i could find from DeviantArt that was free. So yes, whatever you can find that is a freebie is good. It may not as good as their paid counterparts but good enough.

I think i realized that it goes really in your wallet. Like deep if you on a spree. I like some poses, though i haven't bought them. There is even one for stupid faces. Looks funny and mixable.

 

[osanaiko]

7. Shaders save money as you can easily use the same wardrobe items over and over with new textures. They also help make your environments feel fresh when using an environment everybody else has used as well.

This, 1000x this. If I see that same stock "clothing store with changerooms" one more time, I'm gonna... be sad.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

This, 1000x this. If I see that same stock "clothing store with changerooms" one more time, I'm gonna... be sad.

The clothing stores mostly suck. I tried to almost all out and none really where what i had in mind.
But yes, you can change the fabric of the clothing.
Shaders are great but it's still the same thing. Just appears differently.

For a scene i made, i used the laundry asset that included stockings. But i wanted them to look and match like the ones my character is using. So i needed to make them look like it. I found one shader for nylons so i did that. To just change the color of the asset did not do the trick.

Yes, this works great. I just never found a shader that really made me believe that the walls are really broken or dirty.
I find room assets much harder to manipulate to appear realistic. Even with shaders.

 

[GNVE]

The clothing stores mostly suck. I tried to almost all out and none really where what i had in mind.
But yes, you can change the fabric of the clothing.
Shaders are great but it's still the same thing. Just appears differently.

For a scene i made, i used the laundry asset that included stockings. But i wanted them to look and match like the ones my character is using. So i needed to make them look like it. I found one shader for nylons so i did that. To just change the color of the asset did not do the trick.

Yes, this works great. I just never found a shader that really made me believe that the walls are really broken or dirty.
I find room assets much harder to manipulate to appear realistic. Even with shaders.

Shaders like anything else aren't magic. But I truly believe they freshen up assets.
Here is the aforementioned clothing store with new textures I did in another post as an example. It is to illustrate not to be perfect.

But here are a few scenes I made myself using loads of shaders.

Listed are the ones I could easily pick out/remember there might be others in the images I just don't remember. 1st: clothing on rack, floor & curtains; 2nd: ice cream is a plaster texture with a different base colour; 3rd: copper coloured bar & floor; 4th: girl's top and bedsheets & 5th: the green and pink hair colour, the skirt of the green haired one and probably one of the tops the girls are wearing.

For dirty walls you'd probably want a lie shader/asset btw....

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Shaders like anything else aren't magic. But I truly believe they freshen up assets.
Here is the aforementioned clothing store with new textures I did in another post as an example. It is to illustrate not to be perfect.
View attachment 2507198
But here are a few scenes I made myself using loads of shaders.
View attachment 2507207 View attachment 2507263 View attachment 2507272 View attachment 2507289 View attachment 2507294
Listed are the ones I could easily pick out/remember there might be others in the images I just don't remember. 1st: clothing on rack, floor & curtains; 2nd: ice cream is a plaster texture with a different base colour; 3rd: copper coloured bar & floor; 4th: girl's top and bedsheets & 5th: the green and pink hair colour, the skirt of the green haired one and probably one of the tops the girls are wearing.

For dirty walls you'd probably want a lie shader/asset btw....

True that.

I experiment with Shaders but don't overly use them either.
When i think it fits, i use them.
It's really cumbersome to redo assets in an environment. You seen them a thousand times but they are still the same.
Color can make a difference, though i think walls and floors are probably the one thing that really sticks in the eye.
At the time i was looking for some shader that make walls look torn, rotten but there aren't many shaders and the once i downloaded weren't really what i had in mind. Don't get me wrong, they did what they supposed to do but i had something different in mind.
The next best thing i came up with was to replace the texture file with some free images i found on the internet.

For now i am toying on a story where i use a lot a locations and yes, a clothing store. Though i went with the Fashion Boutique as i think it isn't much used.
And has more room for the changing room which helps for scenes.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

I've never spend more than ~$30

You don't need 950 skins. I spend 5 years with Babina/Ensley/Vic8.1, just iterated from there.

You don't buy "shader" (I wish), you buy textures and it's quite a scam for anyone with a brain.

I just never found a shader that really made me believe that the walls are really broken or dirty.

Any mask or Iray decal should do it...

 

[Domiek]

Daz is really convenient with all the assets being plug and play, but it comes at the cost of not always having the right selection and the monetary cost of that convenience.

A really good and relatively cheap investment is to buy Substance Painter on Steam to take care of all your shading needs. Combined with learning some basics in Blender. You don't need to outright be great at modeling, but learning just enough to modify existing assets to fit your needs. There are so many free and cheap models outside of the Daz store.

 

[Deleted member 1121028]

With all due respect, you don't send people to SP or Blender, while they have no clue of what they are rendering.
It's a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Well, it took me a year to understand DAZ. It will probably take me 2 years to understand Blender.

I think i'll get it. Yeah, i know. Shader is probably a marketing word someone made up because it's sounds awesome.
But yeah, i assume it's textures with some settings and scripts perhaps. Dunno.

Though there is a lot to be learned and DAZ isn't as simple as 123.
I encounter it everytime i setup a scene. Just the lights to get really nice vibe to the rendered image. It takes time.

What i am not understanding is, how skin works. It's just horrible of me.

I don't know. If i chose a figure i usually go window shopping. Like in real life. Do i like her or him? Mm...
So i am not very strategic there.
I assume Bambina has good skin. Not really cheap. I seen the sales price. I currently use Becky for my story. A story. Whatever.
When it was on sale i bought Alla. I think it's a great figure morph with a beautiful skin. Though i never really use her.
Per item i try to keep it around 10ish. I bought some clothing from Mtheo and i really like the shoes from deviantuna. His shoes are really great with a lot of options.

The real problem i seen is motion. Like breast that should move automatically. I think this doesn't work really and taxes the system.
I am already happy if i can move them and have some squishy moprh or learn to use Dform.

Mostly they are all morphs but whats really good to know is the skin and additional features that come with it.
There are some great morphs on DeviantArt. Some dude made morphs from real people and some fantasy kind.
I tried to make my own but it's really something that takes a shit load of time and maybe it's garbage.
I am not super good in moddeling on a computer. On Blender it works quiet natural actually. Like you work with clay.
I don't know much about Blender really but some basics that helped me to make some items. It isn't hard but the more complex it gets, i am lost.


All in all, i think you can save money by using lot's of free assets available and buy stuff that is on sale. But testing is essential. Not everything is great and looks great but isn't worth it.

The same goes for room assets. I was looking for something bleak. Something that shoes, is this a rats nest? So i tried several rooms out and they were mostly all not really what i was looking for. I am not stuck with Vignette Bedroom. Looks great and not fancy. Good to render.

 

[jamdan]

Daz is one of those "free" things that actually isn't free at all. Unless of course you pirate things or do it yourself.

Just to add to what was posted already, there are lots of things you can do to make it more affordable. Not including pirating everything.

- Learn Substance Painter, you can use this to make your own textures. You can use it to make everything from basic stuff (just use one of the pre-made shaders) or more complex things, like skin or really detailed stuff. Also look on other asset site for shaders/textures.
- Learn basic Blender, or another 3D modeling program, to either edit existing things or make your own.
- A more expensive option, but you can do a lot of morphs pretty quickly in ZBrush when you get the hang of it. I follow a channel that does expressions this way (along with the sliders in Daz), they look way better than stock expressions.

Those things will probably save you the most money. Sure, substance/zbrush cost money (assuming no pirating) but you'll save money in the long run since you can do a lot of things by yourself and aren't limited to the daz stores.

If you want to study Substance/Blender, I recently ran across

You must be registered to see the links

. Probably my favorite channel now. He does modeling in Blender and Substance Painter. But unlike many other channels, he actually explains things and goes slower. Sort of like Ryan King Art, but not as scripted.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Well, i am all in for legal but after checking the prices, i have some reservations.

Zbrush charges $900 for permanent license (for the version you buy) or 40$ monthly.
This isn't a small charge for a hobby.
The issue is, i am not sure if i am full in developer. For now i just doing for fun and maybe, just maybe, there will be one day a game come out of it.
So all these tools really look useful but i think i am bound for the illegal route since the price is so damn high.

I am not even sure if someone will know what you are using. Poses are so complicated and certainly, some are easy to recognize. But in the end, i am not sure if someone really cares.
Assets like rooms are a different issue.

I never tried it but maybe you can do it in Blender. Expressions and poses i mean. How about Poser? Isn't that the software that is meant to be used for DAZ content? At least it isn't as expensive as the others.

 

[Alboe Interactive]

Now, poses and expressions really drive your to bankruptcy.
Just to have a couple of useful poses will probably cost you around 300-500 dollars. Each hovering around $20 Dollars mostly.
And you can never have enough.

Then morphs. So if you like me and you want to "enhance" your female, it will be an additional 200 dollars probably. If you fine with the base character, you save on this one.

Another big portion will be environments, so there will be 20-100 Dollars assuming that you need at least one but probably need more locations. 200 would be for like 6 sets.

Shaders are also something that really can go in your wallet. So i am using several shaders, mostly for clothing but also for the environment. So there will be probably also around 100 dollars minimum.

For the adult section, there are the sex parts plus the liquid mess. Here you really take a hit financially.

The list goes on and on.... to many too list really.

I conclude that DAZ is a very expensive hobby if you seriously want to get into it and, for you piece of mind, legally.

So i can see why the donating part is a huge driver for developers. Though i am not sure if everyone does. Not everything needs to be known.

It is a fascinating hobby but also an expensive one. I am not sure if i ever will legally have all assets, but the thought of doing some mental realignment made me realize that even with a good job, you really spend a lot of money as a bottom line. You probably could buy a small car from the money spend assuming you really buy everything.

If you can make everything yourself, you will probably save a lot of money but who has the time to do that?

$500 on poses and expressions? No, just no.

There are 2 ways to use Daz. The easy way is to throw money at all roadblocks and get caught in a cycle of spending more and more because you never built up your skills properly (Daz wants all customers to be this way). The other way is to learn to make do with what you got (aka kitbash). Download free assets, watch free tutorials (on YT channels like WP Guru, Parmy Baddhan, and Rauko), and lean towards the more versatile assets. For example, pick hair that comes with a bunch of reshaping morphs for several similar hairstyles and choose a pack of modular interior building pieces (like

You must be registered to see the links

) over a single room.

Having been through the process of buying lots of stuff for Daz before I knew what I was doing, I'll say the most important thing is to understand what are all of the individual pieces that come with an asset. Some examples are characters come with morphs and skins that can be applied on any model of the same generation, common props (like TVs) from rooms/buildings can be reused in other sets, and good clothing assets have a variety of morphs to better fit different body shapes (and sometimes special morphs like undressing).

Put the time in to try out and explore what you bought. This is a perfect example. Skin Builder 8 comes with vein image files but only uses them as a LIE overlay for the skin. By looking through the asset's folders, I could see the entirety of what I paid for and figured out what I had available to kitbash to provide additional functionality. I know "time equals money" but learning new skills and iterating on your methods is a sunk cost everyone has. So why pay someone else to skip over that? You didn't gain the skills, only the end product which you can only use as designed because you are limiting your learning. It's like shooting yourself in the foot with golden bullets.

I still not sure which cum assets are better. Some work, some don't or look strange. So i appreciate that i can at least test them. Otherwise i would be really pissed.

Thankfully, there is a free shader that can help make some of the meh cum assets (like MoneyShotz) look better. Or turn other objects into cum. Or follow the instructions and change the Scattering Measurement Distance to turn it into vaginal fluids instead.

p.s. i don't have any light assets but rather use spotlights or give a wall emission. Works for me most of the time. The only thing i am using additionally is a light preset that i got from DeviantArt (which was free) to have HDRI for the character.
Mostly i am trying to use what DAZ itself offers for free rather than buy an asset that does it.

All light assets are simply modifications of the ones built into Daz. While some may be more convenient, you really don't need them. Often you can quickly make the same thing and then save it for later use. And the built-in lighting fixtures, like ceiling lights, are way more resource intensive than setting up the lighting yourself.

BTW, head over to

You must be registered to see the links

for free HDRIs, some of these go up to 16k but 4k should be fine for most applications.

What i am not understanding is, how skin works. It's just horrible of me.

I don't know. If i chose a figure i usually go window shopping. Like in real life. Do i like her or him? Mm...
So i am not very strategic there.
I assume Bambina has good skin. Not really cheap. I seen the sales price. I currently use Becky for my story. A story. Whatever.
When it was on sale i bought Alla. I think it's a great figure morph with a beautiful skin. Though i never really use her.
Per item i try to keep it around 10ish. I bought some clothing from Mtheo and i really like the shoes from deviantuna. His shoes are really great with a lot of options.

Skin varies wildly between vendors but overall you want as good quality as you can get, to the point that I say the skin is more important than the morph. And, while there is more of a standard for morphs because of how the Genesis models are designed, there are practically none for skins. The quality and versatility are all over the place.

IMHO, the top vendors for characters that are the most bang for the buck are Raiya, BlueJaunte, Mousso, Kayleyss, Jessai (works with DemonicaEvilius and Raziel), and CynderBlue. P3D, Emrys, Lyoness, and Fred Winkler are also good but I feel are a little more variable in quality. I'm more familiar with G8, but I'm pretty sure most of those vendors have G3 characters or characters that are both G3 and G8 (Colm Jackson was on the list but I checked and no G3 models). Also, don't forget Renderosity, there are some really good vendors over there like

You must be registered to see the links

.

If you are looking to upgrade, G8.1 skins can look fantastic (and it's possible to apply them to G8 but the process isn't perfect). And since G8 morphs are compatible you can get "older" morphs for a lower cost and then pair them with the newer skins. Right now G9 doesn't look like it's going to amount to anything to justify the price and G8.1 still looks enough to be viable until G10.

Try randomly combining some head morphs to make a custom face. Like pick 4 character head sliders and increase them to 25%. Keep messing with that until you get something you like. The neat thing about combining morphs is that, since most of the models are usually very attractive, it is pretty easy to make your own attractive character. At the same time you are messing around with morphs, try applying different characters' skin to see how that changes the look of your character.

The same goes for room assets. I was looking for something bleak. Something that shoes, is this a rats nest? So i tried several rooms out and they were mostly all not really what i was looking for. I am not stuck with Vignette Bedroom. Looks great and not fancy. Good to render.

While shaders can make something look dirty, if you want rooms that are damaged or run down then you'll have to change your search terms. Try "grungy (or grunge)", "apocalyptic", "haunted", "abandoned", "rubble", "ruin (or ruins)", etc. Also try searching on render-state.to because the Daz search engine is a pile of garbage that sometimes can't find an asset with the exact same word you searched for in its title. Render State also searches for any mentions of the word in the product description as well.

I am not even sure if someone will know what you are using. Poses are so complicated and certainly, some are easy to recognize. But in the end, i am not sure if someone really cares.
Assets like rooms are a different issue.

Try using the ActivePose tool (Bone icon with the mouse pointer in the top bar) as it gives far more natural results when grabbing a limb and moving it versus the Translate tool. You can also make it better by going into Tool Settings and changing Pin Position to "Pin at Both". Now when you select a bone (like Upper Chest), hit the spacebar to lock it in place. Experiment with grabbing any of the child bones (like arms) with the ActivePose. Eventually, you can teach yourself to rely less on pose packs or get some of the more generic pose packs like the "Build Your Own Pose" packs from

You must be registered to see the links

to give you a base to work from.

For expressions, some expression backs are split between upper and lower, allowing you to better fine-tune them. There is also the PowerPose tool and FACS but that is a bit too manual for my taste. At most I'm going to move an eyebrow or adjust the mouth shape slightly, but good expression packs will carry you far.

I never tried it but maybe you can do it in Blender. Expressions and poses i mean. How about Poser? Isn't that the software that is meant to be used for DAZ content? At least it isn't as expensive as the others.

If Daz is the kiddie pool, Blender is the deep end (and stuff like Maya is the ocean). The skill ceiling is massive by comparison and you will need to think outside to box to get the most use out of Blender.

Poser split off from Daz starting before the release of G3 models. Oh and Poser costs ~$200, so not really a great alternative.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

$500 on poses and expressions? No, just no.
[\quote]

Well, just an estimate. I think if you pick pose packs it can quickly get into money. I just need to look at all the ZED packs. Sheer endless.
I downloaded lot's of free poses from several places. Some are good, other maybe not.
There is, however, two sets i really like (paid) Stupid and What a face. You can nicely mix and match and it looks kind of real.

There are 2 ways to use Daz. The easy way is to throw money at all roadblocks and get caught in a cycle of spending more and more because you never built up your skills properly (Daz wants all customers to be this way). The other way is to learn to make do with what you got (aka kitbash). Download free assets, watch free tutorials (on YT channels like WP Guru, Parmy Baddhan, and Rauko), and lean towards the more versatile assets. For example, pick hair that comes with a bunch of reshaping morphs for several similar hairstyles and choose a pack of modular interior building pieces (like

You must be registered to see the links

) over a single room.

Very true. Though not easy either.
For example. I was looking for a small store. Seems to not exist. FG's Convenience store seems ok but is way to large and doesn't really look what i had in mind.
Of course i could use a cube or build something in Blender to make the basics. This is what i can do.
My aim was to have an asset that tells you, it's European. Most prop assets are just very american.
The same goes for rooms. There aren't a lot i really like or are what i have in my mind. Most look more like for scenes where the inhabitant have money.
So yes, you probably have to make them yourself.

I found DeviantArt a pretty good source for free stuff. Not everything is great, some is dated but it's free.

Having been through the process of buying lots of stuff for Daz before I knew what I was doing, I'll say the most important thing is to understand what are all of the individual pieces that come with an asset. Some examples are characters come with morphs and skins that can be applied on any model of the same generation, common props (like TVs) from rooms/buildings can be reused in other sets, and good clothing assets have a variety of morphs to better fit different body shapes (and sometimes special morphs like undressing).

I bought so far 3 figures. Not a lot really. Though you could spend a lot of money just on figures alone if you wanted to.
Again, there are some free body/head morphs and yes, mixing seems the way to go. I tried once to create a figure. Easier said than done. My Blender knowledge is pretty limited but it's absolutely possible to create a figure in there.

Put the time in to try out and explore what you bought. This is a perfect example. Skin Builder 8 comes with vein image files but only uses them as a LIE overlay for the skin. By looking through the asset's folders, I could see the entirety of what I paid for and figured out what I had available to kitbash to provide additional functionality. I know "time equals money" but learning new skills and iterating on your methods is a sunk cost everyone has. So why pay someone else to skip over that? You didn't gain the skills, only the end product which you can only use as designed because you are limiting your learning. It's like shooting yourself in the foot with golden bullets.

I bookmarked it. I have to study that a little more. Thanks.

Thankfully, there is a free shader that can help make some of the meh cum assets (like MoneyShotz) look better. Or turn other objects into cum. Or follow the instructions and change the Scattering Measurement Distance to turn it into vaginal fluids instead.

I have now some free shaders in my library. Works fine for the most part. So i am not spending money for that really. But i think if you are new or if you are in a hurry, you may buy them.

All light assets are simply modifications of the ones built into Daz. While some may be more convenient, you really don't need them. Often you can quickly make the same thing and then save it for later use. And the built-in lighting fixtures, like ceiling lights, are way more resource intensive than setting up the lighting yourself.

I only rely on point lights, mesh lights from assets and a torus light i made from a tutorial from Gaming Developer channel.
This seems to work best really. No money spend and it's free anyway.

BTW, head over to

You must be registered to see the links

for free HDRIs, some of these go up to 16k but 4k should be fine for most applications.

Have to admit. I rarely use HDRI for outdoors. I do use a free HDRI for indoors which i got from DeviantArt.

Skin varies wildly between vendors but overall you want as good quality as you can get, to the point that I say the skin is more important than the morph. And, while there is more of a standard for morphs because of how the Genesis models are designed, there are practically none for skins. The quality and versatility are all over the place.

IMHO, the top vendors for characters that are the most bang for the buck are Raiya, BlueJaunte, Mousso, Kayleyss, Jessai (works with DemonicaEvilius and Raziel), and CynderBlue. P3D, Emrys, Lyoness, and Fred Winkler are also good but I feel are a little more variable in quality. I'm more familiar with G8, but I'm pretty sure most of those vendors have G3 characters or characters that are both G3 and G8 (Colm Jackson was on the list but I checked and no G3 models). Also, don't forget Renderosity, there are some really good vendors over there like

You must be registered to see the links

.

Currently i am using a figure from Sase. Becky i think. She looks nice. Her skin maybe not the best but it's alright. One thing i am not sure is how to do a tan yourself. At the moment i am using the tan asset that downloadable from here. For the story, this is a must.

If you are looking to upgrade, G8.1 skins can look fantastic (and it's possible to apply them to G8 but the process isn't perfect). And since G8 morphs are compatible you can get "older" morphs for a lower cost and then pair them with the newer skins. Right now G9 doesn't look like it's going to amount to anything to justify the price and G8.1 still looks enough to be viable until G10.

For now i stay with Gen8 and Gen3.
No reason for me to jump up. At least not yet.

Try randomly combining some head morphs to make a custom face. Like pick 4 character head sliders and increase them to 25%. Keep messing with that until you get something you like. The neat thing about combining morphs is that, since most of the models are usually very attractive, it is pretty easy to make your own attractive character. At the same time you are messing around with morphs, try applying different characters' skin to see how that changes the look of your character.

While shaders can make something look dirty, if you want rooms that are damaged or run down then you'll have to change your search terms. Try "grungy (or grunge)", "apocalyptic", "haunted", "abandoned", "rubble", "ruin (or ruins)", etc. Also try searching on render-state.to because the Daz search engine is a pile of garbage that sometimes can't find an asset with the exact same word you searched for in its title. Render State also searches for any mentions of the word in the product description as well.

Try using the ActivePose tool (Bone icon with the mouse pointer in the top bar) as it gives far more natural results when grabbing a limb and moving it versus the Translate tool. You can also make it better by going into Tool Settings and changing Pin Position to "Pin at Both". Now when you select a bone (like Upper Chest), hit the spacebar to lock it in place. Experiment with grabbing any of the child bones (like arms) with the ActivePose. Eventually, you can teach yourself to rely less on pose packs or get some of the more generic pose packs like the "Build Your Own Pose" packs from

You must be registered to see the links

to give you a base to work from.

For expressions, some expression backs are split between upper and lower, allowing you to better fine-tune them. There is also the PowerPose tool and FACS but that is a bit too manual for my taste. At most I'm going to move an eyebrow or adjust the mouth shape slightly, but good expression packs will carry you far.

Got to admit. I never used it. Another thing free in DAZ. Lol
I will try it out and see how far i can go with it.
If i am honest. There aren't many poses and expressions that are really great. Most of the time, i am using just a handful and dial around. The biggest disappointment i think are high heel poses. Apparently women jump with high heels. So i do them myself. Details matter.

If Daz is the kiddie pool, Blender is the deep end (and stuff like Maya is the ocean). The skill ceiling is massive by comparison and you will need to think outside to box to get the most use out of Blender.

I think the best i can hope is to average at best. I will never be really good to swim in the top but that's ok. There is much to be learned with either software.
I had watched a video yesterday that pointed out that you change clothing easily with Hexagon which is free with your DAZ installation. Though DAZ seems to crash a lot lately. There is always the problem how to fit clothing the right way. Most clothing give you a basic fitting but you need to adjust them manually to make them look right for the position. So i will look into Hexagon to see what it can do. Though judging from yesterday, it's surprisingly slow.

Poser split off from Daz starting before the release of G3 models. Oh and Poser costs ~$200, so not really a great alternative.

 

[Alboe Interactive]

Currently i am using a figure from Sase. Becky i think. She looks nice. Her skin maybe not the best but it's alright. One thing i am not sure is how to do a tan yourself. At the moment i am using the tan asset that downloadable from here. For the story, this is a must.

You can do a tan similar to veins. I'll use another example from Skin Builder 8 because it comes with tan line image files but you can use them in a different way than intended. And it should work with the torso maps from G3 as well.

1. Open up the tan image you want, invert the colors*, and save it as a new image (name it the same but add "inverted" to the end).
2. Select the character's Torso surface and find Diffuse Overlay Weight. Stick one of the inverted image files in there and increase the slider to 0.2.
3. Doing this opens up new options. Change the Diffuse Overlay Color to something slightly darker than white by clicking on the color bar and selecting pure white at the bottom right of the grid. I usually leave all zeros and make Val = 230, but you may need to adjust based on the skin.
4. Turn on IRAY Preview and adjust Diffuse Overlay Weight until it looks right. It tends to be a little fainter in the final render so err on the side of more visible than less. Although you should do a test render to verify the final result with the lighting for your sets.
5. If the type of tan covers up to the legs or arms (like some of the tan lines from
   You must be registered to see the links
   ), you'll have to repeat this process for them as well.

*Note, for Daz image maps usually anything white = most, meaning the highest displacement, the most visible in opacity, etc. Going darker decreases those aspects until 0 at full black. So if an image already came with the white area marked where you want, then there is no need to invert.

For now i stay with Gen8 and Gen3.
No reason for me to jump up. At least not yet.

No pressure. I just found there are more resources for G8 and products are still releasing for it whereas almost nothing comes out for G3 anymore. Plus, the dollars spent on G8.1 compatible G8 stuff make the upgrade path cheaper overall.

The biggest disappointment i think are high heel poses. Apparently women jump with high heels. So i do them myself. Details matter.

Some heels come with foot poses: Apply your premade pose, apply the heel pose, and then finish up with any adjustments. I'm sure there are some generic heel poses, but the ones that come with the outfit are the easiest to use.

I had watched a video yesterday that pointed out that you change clothing easily with Hexagon which is free with your DAZ installation. Though DAZ seems to crash a lot lately. There is always the problem how to fit clothing the right way. Most clothing give you a basic fitting but you need to adjust them manually to make them look right for the position. So i will look into Hexagon to see what it can do. Though judging from yesterday, it's surprisingly slow.

There are add-ons to deal with that like

You must be registered to see the links

. You inject morphs into the clothing, adjust until it fits, and then remove the unused morphs. More of a quick fix, but you can avoid dealing with Hexagon and Marvelous Designer until you better understand what you are doing. However, feel free to go down that route, I just like to do as much as possible inside Daz.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

You can do a tan similar to veins. I'll use another example from Skin Builder 8 because it comes with tan line image files but you can use them in a different way than intended. And it should work with the torso maps from G3 as well.

1. Open up the tan image you want, invert the colors*, and save it as a new image (name it the same but add "inverted" to the end).
2. Select the character's Torso surface and find Diffuse Overlay Weight. Stick one of the inverted image files in there and increase the slider to 0.2.
3. Doing this opens up new options. Change the Diffuse Overlay Color to something slightly darker than white by clicking on the color bar and selecting pure white at the bottom right of the grid. I usually leave all zeros and make Val = 230, but you may need to adjust based on the skin.
4. Turn on IRAY Preview and adjust Diffuse Overlay Weight until it looks right. It tends to be a little fainter in the final render so err on the side of more visible than less. Although you should do a test render to verify the final result with the lighting for your sets.
5. If the type of tan covers up to the legs or arms (like some of the tan lines from
   You must be registered to see the links
   ), you'll have to repeat this process for them as well.

*Note, for Daz image maps usually anything white = most, meaning the highest displacement, the most visible in opacity, etc. Going darker decreases those aspects until 0 at full black. So if an image already came with the white area marked where you want, then there is no need to invert.


No pressure. I just found there are more resources for G8 and products are still releasing for it whereas almost nothing comes out for G3 anymore. Plus, the dollars spent on G8.1 compatible G8 stuff make the upgrade path cheaper overall.

Some heels come with foot poses: Apply your premade pose, apply the heel pose, and then finish up with any adjustments. I'm sure there are some generic heel poses, but the ones that come with the outfit are the easiest to use.

There are add-ons to deal with that like

You must be registered to see the links

. You inject morphs into the clothing, adjust until it fits, and then remove the unused morphs. More of a quick fix, but you can avoid dealing with Hexagon and Marvelous Designer until you better understand what you are doing. However, feel free to go down that route, I just like to do as much as possible inside Daz.

Thanks for sharing.

I have to work myself into it. Shouldn't be that hard i assume.

For myself, i don't see any reason to switch the figures because i think my machine may not be able to handle that. Especially if i have several in a scene. I hate to separate figures.

As for cum props, i am using Cum from DBxxx which is great. Preferably version 3 as this can be dforced.
Yeah, there a lot of cum stuff. I think what is going for is the simplicity. Click and done. Though i encounter that they sometimes not aligned. Sad.

With heels i meant more the movements. Yes, the poses that come with the shoes are the way to go but there seems to be no real walking poses where i think that is how she would walk.
Usually small steps not huge ones.
I do it manually.

I like Nikkol heels though they don't have dangle. I have to learn how to rig really.

Fitcontrol helps but i have a hard time to make a skirt span around the ass. I tried Meshgrabber but i think i am too dumb for that. It always looked odd. So that's why i will try Hexagon and hope it will work easy.
I mean the clothing fits otherwise, just the small adjustments around breast and ass.

And yes, there is a lot you or anyone can do within DAZ without resorting to buying items from the store.
Is kind of my aim. But it really requires that anyone, including me, learns how to use DAZ to it's full potential.
I never tried other software for 3D. Mainly i don't like to use cracked copies or because it's expensive.

I don't regret to bought clothing and hair. Sometimes it's just easier and has the look i was aiming for. Why invent the wheel twice.
As for hair, i only bought two hair for females. Side Layered Messy Hair with dForce for Genesis 8 Female(s) and Wild Short Hair for Genesis 8 and 8.1 Female.
The first is the most useful one. Such a great hair.
I wish he made some full curly hair as well. So i use this instead for later.

You must be registered to see the links

.

Here is a scene where i use Vigenttes Messy room. Not customized yet and my personal mixed female with Alla skin.
I think it looks ok.