Can someone explain base characters vs pro bundles vs add-on characters?
I'm (obviously) new to Daz. I've been struggling for quite a while to understand the relationship between, as an example, Genesis 8, Gia 8, and Gia 8 Pro Bundle. What exactly do the add-on characters and the pro bundles do for us, and why do some add-ons require those additional products? Do they have more morphing options? Or are they more like presets? Eighty to $135 is a bunch to drop--what do I get for it?
I found links that explain the model nomenclature (from Victoria 1-4 through Genesis). Is there a link or explanation that can help me decipher this, too?
Thanks for your patience. :)
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basically, when you download and install Daz Studio and the Genesis starter essemntials packs you get the basic building blocks.
The figures then build onto these basic figures, The current one is Gia 8, a figure which uses the Genesis 8 Fenale. You can have a basic Gia a starter pack Gia or a pro pack. You only get the anatomical elememts with the pro packs.
1. There often are promotions. Right now the PRO gia 8 bundle is 80 bucks (but other Gia 8 products packs have promotions too).
2. You should keep in mind the Interactive license too. If I am correct you don't need interactive license when you make and sell renders, but if you sell 3D producs - for example 3D game, you will need it
3. As for the anatomical elements (if you need them) you should know there are 3rd party offers too. If you need to buy PRO bundle only for those "elements" it probably will be cheaper to buy them from a 3rd party (and keeping in mind there are different products so you may like one or another more or less then the others).
4. You can check the content of every bundle in its page. for example the page of Gia 8 Pro bundle is this: https://www.daz3d.com/gia-8-pro-bundle ; You can see there what exactly it includes - both as clickable covers as text links.
5. Gia 8 is still Genesis 8 model. So everything which is intended to work for Genesis 8 should work with it too. And vice versa.
Every figure generation has a base and those base figures have been given free for some time now.
You can use just the base figure and only purchase clothing, hair and accessories which work with the base figure. Requirements on products show the base figure as needed to work.
Many people want to change the look of their base figure. Aging, weight, body type, types of facial figures that can include ethnicity. This can be done with products that give you additional morphs to achieve these looks.
Some people prefer the ability to add pre-made morph settings that create a complete figure from head to toe. These are referred to as "characters".
Daz does their own characters in-house starting with the traditional release of a generational Michael and Victoria. There are many others that are added each generation (the latest, at time of this posting, is Gia 8). Premiere (or Published) Artists who broker with Daz can create other characters that built off the base figure, but may also be built on the Daz in-house characters. In the latter instance, you will find that the product requires the particular Daz in-house figure, such as Gia as an example.
In those instances, the figure may work without that additional in-house character but will look different than when it is applied with the in-house figure in the mix.
Think of the color Turquoise. You have probably seen turquoise that is more green and turquoise that is bluer.
See?
This is the way I see it, it's not based on any sort of official docuumentation. This covers the Daz Studio Genesis figures.
First you have the Genesis 1, 2, 3 and 8 figures, male and female except for no 1 (the original Genesis was one figure that can be morphed into male or female shapes). These are the base figures and they are all available for free. They are designed to be morphable. You can buy morph packs for them and custom morphed figures with skin textures. All add on characters are morphs and textures for the base figures. Some characters need other body or head morph packs and some don't.
Next you have what I call the main characters. These are characters which have a number, like Gia 8, and come in pro and starter bundles. These characters only need the base figure.
Next you have other characters. These don't come in bundles. Some of them only need the base figure but some are designed to be used with a main figure. For example Myrina for Gia 8. She is designed to be used together with the Gia 8 morphs. You could use her without Gia 8 but she wouldn't look the same.
You usually get what Daz call "anatomical elements" in pro bundles for adult realistic figures, not for young, cartoon or fantasy figures. Pro bundles are the only way to get anatomical elements from Daz but alternatives are available from other suppliers.
Before Daz Studio, Daz make a range of figures for an application called Poser. You can still buy these and they do work in Daz Studio, I still use them, but if you are just starting with Daz Studio you probably won't want to get involved with them for now.
Thanks for the info. So if I'm understanding: the reason for buying say, Gia 8, would be to get a character that looks like her, without having to try to morph the base Genesis 8. A shortcut, if you will? And the Pro bundle would be to get all the add-ons?
Aside from anatomical elements, do the bundles give you more morphing elements or something? Or is the reason to buy them simply to get the add-ons and the body parts (and the base for other add-ons to use)?
Another reason to go for one of the bundles, whether Starter or Pro, is that it's cheaper than buying the individual items. Major character pro bundles (the ones with the genesis generation number in the name) will sometimes include an extra item such as a pose or expression pack.
There are also introductory offers to watch out for — for the first few days, the bundles have a deeper discount. And some of these discounts can be quite steep; I haven't seen it recently, but in the past I've got a few pro bundles for less than the usual price of the base character.
Just watch out for the sale conditions, sometimes they're so complicated even a rocket scientist might have trouble working them out...
The reason to buy a Pro Bundle is generally to get a set of extras. You get (typically) the named 8 character, two more characters (shapes and textures), two hair styles, four clothing outfits and two sets of poses for a "bargain" price (considerably less than the sum of those items bought individually). It's only a bargain if you like those characters, hair and clothes, of course.
That is right. Gia 8 is a custom made morph and texture. If you wanted to make a character with a shape like her's you could try combining morphs from morph packages, or you could use a modelling application to create a morph. You could create something similar depending on your skill with the tools if you wanted to spend the time. There are tools available here you can use to create new textures or you can use a paint package but I think this would take a lot of skill and work, although I don't know much about this.
A pro bundle usually gives you some clothes, some hair, some poses and some characters based on the main character as well as the anatomical elements. You don't usually get any other morphs apart from the included characters. The bundle is cheaper than buying the items seperatly so if you want the items in the bundle it's worth buying. And if you buy one pro bundle for any Genesis number and gender you get the anatomical elements and can use then on any character for that figure.
What about skin textures? These super-realistic skin textures I see: do those come from the individual character add-ons, or from a special skin texture (or "shader", whatever that is) add-on?
One more question (kinda related). I see some of the bundles come with hair and clothing. I'm running XP (32-bit) so it doesn't have Iray. I bought a hair package that doesn't render very well, and says it's for Iray. Is that something I need to watch out for and avoid: clothes, hair, textures, etc. that require (or prefer) Iray over 3Delight?
So much to learn...
Thanks again!
Characters normally come with skins. Otherwise, they will state they are morphs only. Morph sets can come with skins, but more often do not. My own Crone set came with five different aged skins to assist in ethnicity.
You usually get skin textures included with characters. Sometimes you get morphs without skin textures. There are some skin textures that come without morphs and some Skin Builder packages that can combine textures to get particular skin types.
I don't think there is a shader made specially for skin but there are tutuorials and discussion threads in the forums on how to get good skin effects with the standrard shaders.
There are discussion threads in the forum on how to convert Iray materials to 3Delight and there are scripts to do this automatically but the qualtity of the results can vary. Remeber that Daz have a 30 day money back guarantee. If you buy something and find you can't use it you can return it for a refund.
I did not know that. Thanks!
Strictly speaking, it doesn't even have to be "can't use it". With very few exceptions (usually related to weird sale conditions), it's a no-questions-asked return policy. It could be because you don't like the colour, it turns out not to be what you thought it was from reading the promo page, or because you haven't had your morning coffee yet.
FWIW, this on its own is one of the reasons many people cite for shopping at DAZ. I've had to return stuff a few times, and it's always gone through with minimal fuss.
Each generation of Genesis figure has a free base that comes with the download of Daz Studio. It's called the Starter Essential bundle.
You can buy morph packages to alter these Genesis base models. The official ones are Head morphs and Body morphs for each generation.
You can also buy offical Named characters. These are Daz Originals. They tend to be distinct, well defined characters suited for a specific genre or stereotype in the broad sense. These usually sell as part of a larger bundle, either starter or Pro, also following the theme. Gia8 for example is a character that uses the Genesis8 base. These character sets come with skins, hairs, outfits. They are official characters.
You can also purchase other smaller character packages. Usually a morph (either custom or just simple dial spin) and a skin texture (either unique or a reused merchant resource) So when they sometimes need additional products like head morphs or body morphs, those are simple dial spin characters you could do yourself. And sometimes they build the morph on top of another morph. Example, the base genesis8 has been morphed to Victoria8, and then a product offers a morphed character on top of that Victoria8. The product description would note that the character needs Victoria8. Now without the V8 morph you might still be able to use the character set, but there woud be differences. The other thing to be aware of, some of the skin UV maps require that intermediate character. This was a bigger problem with older generations. Look for the statement "This product uses the "Base" UVs
Always read the description of what is included. Never assume anything about a product. Most PAs have a commercial thread and will answer question prior to purchase.