Saving Custom Skins

Superdog

I created a character for Genesis using FaceGen which I saved as a character preset. I mainly use Gen2 so I transfered this characters morphs to G2M using GenX2. When I saved the character preset it didn't save a separate skin as far as I'm aware. How do I save this characters Genesis skin so that I can load it onto my G2M copy?

Karibou

Superdog said:

I created a character for Genesis using FaceGen which I saved as a character preset. I mainly use Gen2 so I transfered this characters morphs to G2M using GenX2. When I saved the character preset it didn't save a separate skin as far as I'm aware. How do I save this characters Genesis skin so that I can load it onto my G2M copy?

Which UV set is your Genesis "skin" using? Some Genesis male characters use M4's UVs, while other use M5's. If the character you've adapted from Genesis to G2M uses M4 UVs, you'll need a commercial product to move the "skin" onto your new character.

You for sure would need this:
http://www.daz3d.com/michael-4-for-genesis-2-male

And this is also incredibly useful, though not strictly necessary:
http://www.daz3d.com/m4-skins-batch-converter-to-genesis-2-male-s

If your character uses M5 UVs, it's just a matter of saving the materials for your character as a .duf and applying it to your G2M character.

Superdog

I think my character uses M5 UV's because FaceGen converts the skin for Genesis. But I tried to save the skin as a material preset (.duf) but when I load it onto the G2M morph the face is all wrong. I checked that the morph was converted to G2M correctly and everything seems fine with the morph. I just can't figure out why the face skin is wrong when I load the skin I saved onto the G2M morph.

Tramp Graphics

Superdog said:

I think my character uses M5 UV's because FaceGen converts the skin for Genesis. But I tried to save the skin as a material preset (.duf) but when I load it onto the G2M morph the face is all wrong. I checked that the morph was converted to G2M correctly and everything seems fine with the morph. I just can't figure out why the face skin is wrong when I load the skin I saved onto the G2M morph.

As Karibou said, Genesis mainly uses the M4 skin or V4 skin. The M5 skin is only used on Genesis when the Michael 5 character is applied, whereas with Genesis 2, the M5 UV map is standard. On your Genesis version of the character, go to the Surfaces tab and check the UV settings. It will tell you what UV map is used for your character. It's most likely set for M4 not M5.

Superdog

Wow! You are both so right! When I looked at the UV setting for the skin it was Victoria 4 even though it was a Genesis male figure I created. Anyway, it doesn't matter about the gender of the skin but what I can't figure out is how to convert this skin to a G2M skin. I have both the V4 to G2F and the M4 to G2M batch converter scripts which work really well but the problem is that the skin is in the form of .jpg files in the Runtime/texture folder rather than saved as Poser MATS (.ps2) in the Runtime/libraries/Pose folder that the script needs to do the conversion. When I save the materials they save in the .duf format which the converter can't use. How do I save this characters skin to a format that the script can read and convert?

I also noticed that DAZ Studio can save materials in the "deprecated" .ds format. Would this be compatible with the V4 to G2F converter? And if I do find a way to use these converters should I use the V4 to G2F one or the M4 to G2M one? All these different formats are really confusing me.

I tried saving the materials and even the character as a .dsa preset but when I run this file through the V4 to G2F converter nothing is created. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Superdog

BUMP! Just wondered if anyone knows how to save Genesis custom skins to a format that can be read by the V4 to G2M script? Still trying to figure this out.

Tramp Graphics

Superdog said:

BUMP! Just wondered if anyone knows how to save Genesis custom skins to a format that can be read by the V4 to G2M script? Still trying to figure this out.

To work on V4, the skin texture would need to have been made on a V4 UV map. To work on G2F, it would need to be made on a V5 UV map unless you had the Victoria 4 For Genesis 2 Female] and (optional) V4 Skins Batch Converter to Genesis 2 Female.

Superdog

Tramp Graphics said:

Superdog said:

BUMP! Just wondered if anyone knows how to save Genesis custom skins to a format that can be read by the V4 to G2M script? Still trying to figure this out.

To work on V4, the skin texture would need to have been made on a V4 UV map. To work on G2F, it would need to be made on a V5 UV map unless you had the Victoria 4 For Genesis 2 Female] and (optional) V4 Skins Batch Converter to Genesis 2 Female.

Thanks for the reply. I have that script and the custom skin I made in FaceGen uses the V4 UV map. BUT FaceGen created the skin as .jpg files which I loaded onto the Genesis figure. How do I convert those files?

I've tried saving the custom skin as a .ds file but when I try to convert this using the script nothing is produced. Maybe I saved the .ds file wrong? The original .jpg files won't load directly onto G2F because it uses the V5 UV map so I need to convert them using the script. How do I do that?

Havos

Superdog said:

Tramp Graphics said:

Superdog said:

BUMP! Just wondered if anyone knows how to save Genesis custom skins to a format that can be read by the V4 to G2M script? Still trying to figure this out.

To work on V4, the skin texture would need to have been made on a V4 UV map. To work on G2F, it would need to be made on a V5 UV map unless you had the Victoria 4 For Genesis 2 Female] and (optional) V4 Skins Batch Converter to Genesis 2 Female.

Thanks for the reply. I have that script and the custom skin I made in FaceGen uses the V4 UV map. BUT FaceGen created the skin as .jpg files which I loaded onto the Genesis figure. How do I convert those files?

I've tried saving the custom skin as a .ds file but when I try to convert this using the script nothing is produced. Maybe I saved the .ds file wrong? The original .jpg files won't load directly onto G2F because it uses the V5 UV map so I need to convert them using the script. How do I do that?

V4 skins will work on G2M as well, you can copy the G2F uvs for V4 over to G2M (there is a recent thread that deals with this). (This is assuming you have this product (http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-for-genesis-2-female)).

Regarding your request, I would get all the textures (ie the jpgs) loaded onto G2M correctly using the surfaces tab, and then save as a material preset (ie a DUF file) so that the skin can be used easily going forward. Once you have a duf file as a preset you do not need the batch converter which is designed for converting V4 poser style material presets into duf files that can be used on G2M/G2F.

Edit: I should add that the batch script does not change the original texture (jpg) files in any way, and as long as you own the V4 uvs for Genesis 2, there is no reason for you to amend the jpg files.

Tramp Graphics

Havos hit the nail right on the head. I don't have either of those products simply because I don't really use G2 M or G2F. I use still Genesis base pretty exclusively. However, My understanding is that the Victoria 4 to Genesis 3 Female set adds the V4 UV maps to Genesis 2 Female, so check the UV settings in your G2F and G2M and see if there is a V4 UV setting among the choices.

Oso3D

I highly recommend UV Setter: http://www.sharecg.com/v/73633/view/21/DAZ-Studio/UVSetterGen2-Revised

Easily switches uv maps, assuming you own some version of that uv map, as I understand it.

Superdog

Thanks so much for your help. If I understand correctly all I need to do is switch the G2M UV to the V4 UV and then apply the FaceGen .jpgs to the FaceGen Genesis morph I converted to G2M using GenX2? To recap:

1. I created a Genesis morph and skin using FaceGen.
2. I loaded the FaceGen skin .jpgs onto Genesis after applying the FaceGen morph.
3. Everything worked correctly so I saved this Genesis custom character as a preset called Bob.
4. Genesis Bob uses the V4 UV.
5. I converted Bob's morphs to G2M using GenX2.
6. To load the FaceGen skin .jpg's onto G2M Bob I need to change his UV to V4?
7. I already have the V4 UV's for G2F but not for G2M so I need to download the UV's by Slosh?

I've taken it step by step like this in case I've missed something out.

Havos

Superdog said:

Thanks so much for your help. If I understand correctly all I need to do is switch the G2M UV to the V4 UV and then apply the FaceGen .jpgs to the FaceGen Genesis morph I converted to G2M using GenX2? To recap:

1. I created a Genesis morph and skin using FaceGen.
2. I loaded the FaceGen skin .jpgs onto Genesis after applying the FaceGen morph.
3. Everything worked correctly so I saved this Genesis custom character as a preset called Bob.
4. Genesis Bob uses the V4 UV.
5. I converted Bob's morphs to G2M using GenX2.
6. To load the FaceGen skin .jpg's onto G2M Bob I need to change his UV to V4?
7. I already have the V4 UV's for G2F but not for G2M so I need to download the UV's by Slosh?

I've taken it step by step like this in case I've missed something out.

That seems the correct steps. You might want to also try to copy the V4 uv's over to G2M as mentioned in this post:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/824648/

This way when you are in the surfaces pane you can explicity select V4 in the list of UV's, and after this the face texture should match the face morph. Your final step would be then to save the whole skin as a material preset.

Superdog

Thanks but now I've got another problem! How do I copy these jpgs to G2M? When I load a G2M figure it loads with Phillip skins. How do I create a blank G2M figure so that I can load the Genesis jpgs?

I'm trying to copy each skin jpg from the Genesis figure one part at a time so I want to get rid all the G2M skin settings to make it easier. The FaceGen skins don't have bump maps or anything else. The problem is that when I copy the skin parts from Genesis this doesn't delete all the rest of the Phillip settings for that part. I've got all these annoying G2M skin setting to clear but I don't know how. I just want to get rid of all G2M settings so that I can load the FaceGen skin jpgs cleanly.

Why isn't it possible to just delete all material settings from a G2 body part? This convoluted process is driving me crazy!

Tramp Graphics

Superdog said:

Thanks but now I've got another problem! How do I copy these jpgs to G2M? When I load a G2M figure it loads with Phillip skins. How do I create a blank G2M figure so that I can load the Genesis jpgs?

I'm trying to copy each skin jpg from the Genesis figure one part at a time so I want to get rid all the G2M skin settings to make it easier. The FaceGen skins don't have bump maps or anything else. The problem is that when I copy the skin parts from Genesis this doesn't delete all the rest of the Phillip settings for that part. I've got all these annoying G2M skin setting to clear but I don't know how. I just want to get rid of all G2M settings so that I can load the FaceGen skin jpgs cleanly.

Why isn't it possible to just delete all material settings from a G2 body part? This convoluted process is driving me crazy!

That's actually very easy. Go to the Surfaces tab and select the main figure, not one of the body part surfaces. Then go to Diffuse settings and click and hold on the diffuse texture box. a drop down menu will open. Scroll up to none, and this will remove all Diffuse textures from all of the figure's surfaces. Do the same for Bump, Opacity, Specular, Displacement, Reflection, etc.

Havos

Superdog said:

Thanks but now I've got another problem! How do I copy these jpgs to G2M? When I load a G2M figure it loads with Phillip skins. How do I create a blank G2M figure so that I can load the Genesis jpgs?

I'm trying to copy each skin jpg from the Genesis figure one part at a time so I want to get rid all the G2M skin settings to make it easier. The FaceGen skins don't have bump maps or anything else. The problem is that when I copy the skin parts from Genesis this doesn't delete all the rest of the Phillip settings for that part. I've got all these annoying G2M skin setting to clear but I don't know how. I just want to get rid of all G2M settings so that I can load the FaceGen skin jpgs cleanly.

Why isn't it possible to just delete all material settings from a G2 body part? This convoluted process is driving me crazy!

Philip, like many other skins use quite complex shaders, and I am not sure what would be the effect of removing the extra textures (bump, specular etc) from it. Since you have none of that with you FaceGen skin, I would recommend you apply a standard dsShader to the G2M model. Here is what you have to do:

1) Load G2M
2) In your content library tab, navigate to People->Genesis->Materials.
3) Double click on Neutral Grey and your G2M model should go grey

This also gives all surfaces a dsDefault shader, which is probably better for what you need to set up your own character.

Superdog

Thanks once again for your help. I'll do as you suggest. I'm going to turn this thread into a PDF so that I can consult it next time I make a custom character.