For those who create celebrity look a likes...

Cremepuff

Where did you guys start? How did you guys improve? Im thinking of making some celeb look alikes but I'm not sure where I would start. What resources and packs did you guys find the most useful? I know it depends on celebrity and look but in general sense. Thanks! Any and all advice is welcomed.

Chezjuan

While I don't do celebrity look-a-likes particularly, I do customize pretty much all of my charactrers, sometimes using real people as a reference.

You can do a lot with the DAZ Male and Female Morph packs. I'm linking to the Genesis 8 ones, but I know they have them for Genesis 2 and 3 as well.

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-body-morphs

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-female-head-morphs

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-body-morphs

https://www.daz3d.com/genesis-8-male-head-morphs

Sickle Yield also has a free morph pack that provides many additional options:

https://www.deviantart.com/sickleyield/art/SY-200-Free-Morphs-Genesis-8-756465264

I would also recommend Measure Metrics. It allows you to see things like the standard (bust/waist/hips) as well as things like arm length, arm circumference, waist to ground height, etc. It is very useful for getting the body right after you work out the face.

 https://www.daz3d.com/measure-metrics-for-daz-studio

 

SixDs

My first advice would be to pick a figure and stick to it. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't create characters for other figures, but intially you should stick to one and get all the tools necessary for that figure before running around in all directions. For example, if you choose Genesis 8 Female, the suggestions made by Chezjuan are good ones to begin with, for so-called "dial-spun" characters (created with morph sliders within DAZ Studio). Using packaged morphs is a good place to start, with other options being something you might want to explore as you become more proficient*. The measure metrics utility isn't a prerequisite, IMO, although it would certainly be useful to have. It is a little pricey, however, and initially you are probably going to spend far more time and effort on getting acceptable results with the face as opposed to anything else. Additional morph packages available (using G8F as an example) that contain additional morphs that sometimes come in handy include:

https://www.daz3d.com/200-plus-head-and-face-morphs-for-genesis-8-female-s and

https://www.daz3d.com/rarestone-s-face-morphs-collection-for-genesis-8-female

There may be some duplication between packages, but usually there are enough differences to make them worthwhile if you plan on doing a lot of character creation. Most of those types of packages also have male counterparts available (G8M) if that is your preference.

No matter how you approach the task, once you have the tools the next step is to obtain appropriate reference materials to work with. Ideally you need, at a minimum, a good frontal head shot, preferably with a neutral expression, and a similar profile shot. Quarter profile shots are also useful. The photo references can be loaded right into DAZ Studio by creating appropriately-scaled plane primitives and plugging your reference images into the diffuse channels. When doing so, it is important to ensure that the relative dimensions of the images and the dimensions of your planes are identical, to avoid distortion. The planes can then be scaled up or down to match both your figure's face and each other.

You should focus on working with one element at a time - you can return to them to tweak later. For example, you may start with the eyes to get their size, shape and position correct, then move on to the nose, then the mouth/lips, etc. It will be an iterative approach, revisting each to tweak as you progress. You will develop your own methodolgy as time goes on.

All of this is referring entirely to the figure's mesh, of course. The texture that you apply will also have a significant effect on the appearance of your character as well, but that is a whole separate issue.

Of course, there are products available that offer shortcuts, such as these:

https://www.daz3d.com/facegen-artist-pro or

https://www.daz3d.com/headshop-11-win

Those products allow you to create characters based upon photographs and create both textures and head morphs for you, I have seen some credible results from those using them, but they tend to rely very heavily on the photos used and the resulting textures created than on the morphing of the actual mesh. In the later case they seem to focus on getting the relative size and position of the facial features approximately right, then using the resultant textures to complete the illusion. Since the textures created are based upon actual photographs of the individuals, it is not surprising that the results are recogniseable - you are looking at an actual photograph of the individual wrapped around the 3D mesh. So, naturally, yes, they look as much like the individual as the original photograph of the individual did. One big issue with this approach that tends to be tip-toed around, is the copyright of the original photos used to create the textures. This would be especially relevant to celebrities. Most such photos probably are copyrighted by the subject or the photographer, especially the better images.

*Lastly, for more advanced users, there are modelling applications (ZBrush is popular for this purpose) that may be used to create custom morphs for the figure. This is how most of the Published Artists or vendors here at DAZ3D and other sites create their morphed characters for sale (apart from creation of textures).

For my own part, I will often use reference images of celebrities to create dial-spun characters, but usually I am not obsessed with creating perfect reproductions of those persons. Rather, I usually reach the point where I have an interesting character in its own right and am content with that, for my own use. The reference photos can then be discarded.