G2 G3 Frankenstein-ing

andykarta

I have an odd problem.  My character's face looks a billion times better on g2 than g3 but I can't use the g2 body because of the shoulder and elbow thing and no face bones.  So I'm thinking of doing something unnatural.  She wears a uniform so I only need to see the hands and forearms of the g3 model.  So I'm thinking of swapping heads on the g3 model.  Or I can get that generation x2 plugin.   That would be best but if not, what choice do I have?  I want to make my own face morphs and just bring in the daz morphs that I actually use.  I'm going to rig it in motionbuilder with the g3 skeleton and combine head and forearm UVs in 3D coat.  

 

And just to say it, I don't want to do this because it massively increases the size of my character creation workflow.  I guess I'm wondering, first is this like absolutely stupid to do?  I just can't get the look I want in g3.  Let's say generation X2 doesn't work perfect, what other option do I have?

And second am I missing anything big that I'll need to do?

alan bard newcomer

my WhimsiCat characters use the Sam and Sadie genesis head morphs ... and they don't process through genX .. nor does RiverSofts conversions handle any characters with larger than normal heads and eyes. 
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to get gen8 posing etc all the cat characters are now the original genesis figures with invisible bodies parented on to the necks of gen 8 bodies with invisible heads. 
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Been working pretty well... I have both necks visible and using the same material.

onix

Obviously you can just combine those characters pretty easily  hide head on one hide body on another and then parent head character o the hidden head of another character.

although this will be a bit messy to work with

another possibility is to try to fit G2 character on G3 character like you fit clothes  It will require some adjustments but I think it may work. s you will just get bones and morphs of G3 usable on your G2 character but you will be no longer able to use G2 bones 

andykarta

alan bard newcomer said:

my WhimsiCat characters use the Sam and Sadie genesis head morphs ... and they don't process through genX .. nor does RiverSofts conversions handle any characters with larger than normal heads and eyes. 
--
to get gen8 posing etc all the cat characters are now the original genesis figures with invisible bodies parented on to the necks of gen 8 bodies with invisible heads. 
--
Been working pretty well... I have both necks visible and using the same material.

What an interesting solution.  I wonder if you could create a frankenstein...a catenstein maybe, if you loaded a generic genesis figure and parented your model to it and fitted it like a body suit. Not literally.  Use the transfer utility.  You'd need to get rid of the extra mesh but it doesn't seem totally impossible.  

Not buying plugins makes you better, I think.  Very creative solution.

alan bard newcomer

onix said:

Obviously you can just combine those characters pretty easily  hide head on one hide body on another and then parent head character o the hidden head of another character.

although this will be a bit messy to work with

another possibility is to try to fit G2 character on G3 character like you fit clothes  It will require some adjustments but I think it may work. s you will just get bones and morphs of G3 usable on your G2 character but you will be no longer able to use G2 bones 

the only morphs that failed in genX to go from genesis to gen2 was the head size morph. 'parameter out of range error" 
riversofts character converter has the basically the same problem with characters that have oversize heads like the little twins etc ... 
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I've been amazed at how smoothly it's working