What are good starter products/bundles to purchase?

pixelpiglet100

Hi, totally new to Daz and I am finding that whatever came with Daz does not seem to work on the Genesis 8 characters, or is highly limited. All the pre-loaded stuff mainly works with older models (Or at least thats how it appears to me) Can someone point me to some good starter products and bundles to get me started?

The one thing I have found is that for genesis 8 female, in terms of hair, all I have is 1 option called the 'Toulouse Hair' So either some content has not loaded for me or Im doing something wrong. I went through all the starter tutorials (twice) and pretty much scratching my head with how to find pre-loaded content. I cant seem to get to learning any of the advanced stuff cause I just have no (or very little) content to work with.

My thought is that perhaps Genesis 8 has little to no content that comes pre-loaded and one needs to buy a few things to be able to construct some interesting characters. So any help on bundles etc would be great! I am open to purchasing Platinum Club if that can help.

Thanks in advance

riverman63

Yes, you will need to buy Genesis 8 products eventually, especially hair. Just make a list of items you'd like and wait for them to come on sale. Check out the 70% off Flash Sale area daily. There is hair there right now at $5.09 for Genesis 8

https://www.daz3d.com/arwen-hair-for-genesis-8-females

 

Hylas

It sounds like you're using Smart Content. You can disable "Filter by Context" and it will show you older products as well.

Genesis 8 is backwards compatible to a large extent. There are limits to it of course. But especially to get started, try using Genesis, Genesis 2, and Genesis 3 products and see how far you get.

 

You should also consider exploring the freebie-sphere. Here's some useful freebies for beginners:

Basic G8 morphs pack by SickleYield:
https://sharecg.com/v/91888/gallery/21/DAZ-Studio/SY-200-Morphs-for-Genesis-8-Head-and-Body

Some free hair that works well on G8:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/hair-android-for-24988270
https://www.deviantart.com/kayleyss/art/Gwennili-Hair-670556854
https://www.renderhub.com/intheflesh/dante-dmc5-free-stubble-for-genesis-8-male
https://www.deviantart.com/sedartonfokcaj/art/Dante-Hair-for-Genesis-435979176
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/everyday-hair-style-for-genesis-8-male-s-/80194

Free characters and skins (note that most G3 skins can be used on G8):
https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/freestuff/lea-for-genesis-8-corrected-version/82570
https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/freestuff/vyk-ginger-for-g3f/78259
https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/freestuff/chameleon-rose2-for-genesis-8-female/85859
https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/freestuff/fantasy-amazon-bundle-for-g8f---100-free/79046
https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/lk-skin-merchant-resource-for-g8m-freebie-/85293
https://www.renderosity.com/rr/mod/freestuff/alysha-for-genesis-8-female/83613

This is literally just the tip of the iceberg... there's an entire subforum here devoted to free stuff.

 

Yes, sooner or later you will probably spend some money at the store, and it will probably be more than you're comfortable with. That's the nature of DAZ.

But my recommendation is to play around for a while before you start spending too much.

FirstBastion

Pro bundles always go on sale eventually,  keep watching and then pick the one that may appeal to you most, based on what type of art you plan on doing.

https://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=pro+bundle

pixelpiglet100

Thanks for the links Hylas. Much Appreciatred!

One question, how do I install these files onto Daz, there is no instruction on the sharecg site as to what to do after I download it.

 

FSMCDesigns

pixelpiglet100 said:

Thanks for the links Hylas. Much Appreciatred!

One question, how do I install these files onto Daz, there is no instruction on the sharecg site as to what to do after I download it.

 

As for installing, download the zip of any product in your library here at DAZ. now open it up and look at the file structure and path. this way you have an idea of where things should go when you open files from other places.

As for the original question, depends on what you want to do in Daz Studio. the DAZ base morphs in the store for the figure you are using are usually the first things I get when using a new figure.

ShelLuser

pixelpiglet100 said:

Thanks for the links Hylas. Much Appreciatred!

One question, how do I install these files onto Daz, there is no instruction on the sharecg site as to what to do after I download it.

Daz has 2 places for your contents: the program library and the user library (which is where you can store your own stuff). I strongly suggest to do the manual installation in your user library for the time being so that you don't risk disrupting anything (doubt that'll happen but even so...). Another reason why I always do this is because it will help you keep a clear separation between "official stuff" and things you added manually.

Of course, in the end you should find a workflow which best suits you, but I figured I'd mention it. You can find your user library in the "My Daz Library" folder, found in your "documents" folder.

As to your original question....  it heavily depends on what you want to do. I suggest to pick a theme which you enjoy most and then go look in the store if you can find bundles for it. Take for example Anime / Manga... I got myself the Anime/Manga starter bundle which provided me with a good selection of stuff to start experimenting with. That is...  it provided me with models which I could use, but not necessarily props, clothing, hair, etc. You could go hunt for freebies, or.. what I did was looking into a figure I really liked and then focussing on that a bit.

I think it's important to know how Daz works with models, and I'm not necessarily talking about the software: you have base models which are often used as just that to create other models from. For example, a huge personal favorite of mine is Riley (for Stephanie 5), so darn cute!  Anyway... this is not a standalone model: if you look at the store page you'll notice that you need other products in order to use this, body & head morphs for Genesis and in specific the Stephanie 5 model. Riley is based on that: they changed the Stephanie model and then you get Riley.

Now the important part: this also implies that whatever is working for Stephanie 5 will be working for Riley without issues. Further yet: because Stephanie 5 (and thus also Riley) is based on the Genesis model everything which is usable with Genesis will also work for them. So.. hair, clothes, poses, etc.

And this applies to pretty much all models which you can get. However, pay good attention to the comment about backwards compatibility. Also bear in mind that my comment mostly focusses on Genesis whereas the "current focus" is mostly on Genesis 8/8.1 (but IMO you should not count out the oldies!).

So yeah.. pick a theme, find a bundle and make sure it provides what you think you'll need. Optionally focus on some base figures and expand on that.

Hope this could also give you some ideas.