Looking for varied G2F skins - recommendations?

Abendwind

Pretty much what it says on the tin: I'm looking for more skin options for my G2F characters, as they're all still stuck with the same Bree skin ever since I switched to Genesis 2. Two particular (science-fiction-heavy) characters I want to get right call for:

1) A darker skin tone that suggests a few healthy generations of mixing and matching.
2) A pale tone that suggests there may be more tech than original circulation under the skin, although nothing too far in the uncanny valley either.

As an example, I'm currently considering these two:
http://www.daz3d.com/fwsa-serena-hd
http://www.daz3d.com/fw-morgan-hd

Are there any experiences with these? They seem to come both with and without makeup, so bonus points for versatility. The promos say they require V6 though, but I assume that would be required for the shapes rather than the skins. Of course, any product suggestions on skins only would be appreciated as well, as I'm naively assuming they would be a tad cheaper than full characters. ;-)

Oh, and if you happen to come up with any other good varied/ehtnic skins for G2M that you totally want to recommend, feel free to do so as well. Variety never hurts a good library.

Artini

Be aware that, if the product page list Victoria 6 as a requirement, the skin will probably use V6 UV map,
which is not included with Genesis 2 female.
I only have FWSA Serena HD from your list, but I like her much.

Abendwind

Artini said:

Be aware that, if the product page list Victoria 6 as a requirement, the skin will probably use V6 UV map,
which is not included with Genesis 2 female.

Thanks a lot for pointing this out, I probably would've missed it. To make things worse, it looks like the Victoria 6 bundles are on Fast Grab right now and both of the characters I'm considering still qualify for the 45% off discount today only. I suppose good salespeople know how much we hate making decisions under pressure. ;-)

cunningf

Both of them say they use the V5 UV maps on the What's Included & Features tab.

cecilia.robinson

Anything by Raiya will make you swoon. The same with people by Saiyaness, those two vendors support ethnicity perfectly.

Artini

Below are example renders of FWSA Serena HD made in Daz Studio 4.6 Pro.

Mattymanx

Having different characters means you have more shapes to mix with so you can have more unique characters. So they are worth investing in. However their skins cannot be mixed. There is however Skin Builder Pro to mix your own for skin - http://www.daz3d.com/skin-builder-for-genesis-and-genesis2-female-s

Abendwind

Thanks for the advice, and particularly for the Serena render. I'm surprised how light the skin comes out here. Seeing it in lighting conditions other than the promos is really helpful.

Artini

Great. Below is another Daz Studio render of FWSA Serena HD.

Mattymanx

Depends on your lighting.

Here are two promo images of Serena I did for my pose pack

ModernWizard

Just dropping in this thread to recommend both Zev0 and DraagonStorm's Skin Builder http://www.daz3d.com/skin-builder-basic-for-genesis-and-genesis-2-female-s and Saiyaness' Mahala http://www.daz3d.com/mahala-for-genesis-2-female-s . Skin Builder allows me to create a range of skin tones, from corpse-like white to extremely dark brown.

And Mahala is just lovely. I don't usually spring for custom character morphs and textures, preferring instead to use freebies or to adjust what I've got. However, Mahala caught my eye because she looks significantly different from the base G2F. Her dark brown freckled texture has loads of detail and renders really well. Here she is [Mahala texture + head morph and a bunch of other morphs thrown in] modeling my Orszebet freebie hairstyle for G2F.

--MW

Fisty

FW Keshi actually renders darker than Serena in most lighting conditions... so if you want a darker skin and don't mind the more Indian features on the morph rather than African I would suggest her.

kyoto kid

...shortly after G2F was released, there was a set of basic skins available as well.

Anyone remember these?

Abendwind

Kyoto Kid said:

...shortly after G2F was released, there was a set of basic skins available as well.

Anyone remember these?

Huh, apparently not. ;-) That was probably before I switched to Genesis 2, so chances are I missed them. Anyway, thanks for the recommendations and renders, they're all really helpful. Judging by the different renders in different lighting, I think Serena may actually be what I'm looking for.

I admit though that the issue about UV maps is still kind of confusing me. Not from a technical side, so thanks, but I know how UV maps work. ;-) It's just that more often than not, I fail to see the difference. At time of writing, Gabi for V5 is free, and happens to look close to perfect with my cyborg character. The thing is just... she's a G2F, while Gabi for V5 is obviously for a G1 character. Maybe it's just me, but I fail to see where it doesn't fit.

Fisty

You can use V5 character's skin on Genesis 2 without any issues, it's one of the default UVs the base G2F comes with. The morph won't work right out of the box, of course.. but if you just want the skin you're golden.

(depending on the age of the character you might need to load the skin onto G1 and resave the material file so it will apply to G2, and you might need to manually set the UV map on G2 to V5 after loading it.. but minor things, really.)

Taoz

There's a couple here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/p3d-julia/104595/
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=104861