Here’s a suggestion for PAs
Damsel
Posts: 384
Could somebody, ANYBODY, create a decent looking Gen 9 male? I do romance covers. Mike 9 is great, but there have been exactly two Gen 9 males I could put on a cover without sending readers running in the opposite direction. There have been ten or more Gen 9 women.
I got so desperate the last cover I did, I used a female texture on him without makeup. And even with a male build and features, he ended up looking androgynous because of the lack of beard stubble.
Please, somebody do a romance hero. Or a superhero. Anything. I'm about to go back to Gen 8.1 because of this, though 9's expressions and eyes are much better.
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I have not upgraded to Genesis 9 yet, but I have to agree with you.
They just came out with a new set today, but I don't know. I don't think these are romance quality.
https://www.daz3d.com/m3d-curious-squad-characters-for-genesis-9
There are so many excellent G8M characters out there that exude heroism.
The women get way more content than the men do. Just kinda how it is around these parts...
Michael 9 is great, but yes. It's only M9 for now. Plus anything one can kitbash.
For what it's worth my hair product can be used to add stubble. I mean, if you prefer texture, that's understandable, but it's an option.
As with early Genesis 3 and early Genesis 8: We simply have to wait. Genesis 8/8.1 Core Figures proved Daz knows how to make compelling male characters, although a Michael 6 or 7 (masculine leading man stereotype) was missing, to my eyes.
Not to dismiss your suggestion, because that would be welcome, but if G9 isn't the right tool for the job, you don't have to use it. G9 is still very new; I'm sure we'll see what you're asking for in due time.
Thanks, all. As to the stubble, I'll look at that.
this was my thoughts on the matter. Obviously we need more G9 males but if G9 isnt fit for purpose yet, you probably shouldnt be using it since 8 and 8.1 are right there...
If I may make a suggestion to users in kind?
... this is not a good way to get PAs on your side. Insinuating that everything already on the market is of poor quality is just likely to make many PAs dismiss your opinion, not motivate them.
You'd get much better results out of something like "G9 has obviously got several female characters already, but I'm really eager for PAs to show us more of what they can do with it as a base for male characters. There's obviously so much potential in the new figure (just look at the new expressions!), and I'd love to put it to more use."
You're a diplomat...lol ;)
Shouldn't be the chance of earning money with their "Art" not be motivation enough? And without any feedback about stuff about those works of art in the shop, how are they supposed to find out why their "Works of Art" don't sell? I wouldn't go so far as to say that there's no quality new products in the shop right now, though... it's just that it's not my Generation.
A more basic point is that "decent looking" is entirely relative. I think Michael 9 looks fantastic, and is my favorite Michael so far. Nikolai's a great morph, and he's not the most conventionally attractive, but I'm sure he does it for some percentage of people. So we've got two male base figures for G9 so far that are both "decent looking" depending on how one defines it, and on one's own tastes.
@Damsel, have you looked at the thread 'Head Games' yet? The lastest post shows that a very attractive male cover figure by @MelissaGT. Looking at the eight pages so far, you can see a wide variety of characters that forum members have created with the basic tools in Genesis 9 and then as DO and PA characters have come along. It is very inspirational.
I'd be bold enough to say that the ratio of really good characters and outfits to just so-so or even throwaway characters and outfits is exactly the same for male and female characters, across all generations. Though just like any shopping center in the real world (and thrift shops after the fact), just a handful of shops or just a tiny corner of others is made up of stuff for men. There are ten times as many really great female characters because there are ten times as many female characters, period. That also means ten times the chaff.
You're more than welcome to step up and be the change. I wish I was that skilled, I'd change my username to itsrainingmen and fill this place with IRM Hubba Hubba Dudes for GxM.
But in addition to what PAs create, there's also what Daz will accept. You could just as easily beg Daz to reject more female characters in favor of male ones, a kind of affirmative action, rather than placing the blame in one place.
Something that can be read as "everything so far looks like [insert vulgar word here]" is not useful feedback. It makes you sound hard to satisfy, and therefore a customer not worth pursuing. The part about "romance heroes please!" or "more beefcake hunks!" is more actionable critique, but as it follows an opening with such a strong negative, many PAs will probably have written the whole opinion off as not worth listening to by the end of the first sentence.
Ultimately, you are asking something of the PAs, and in this case it's something that is probably actually to their financial detriment. You say that you're offering them the chance to earn money, but you're not. There is an opportunity cost here; you're asking them to spend time that could have been used targeting a more lucrative market - so many years of sales history have shown that male assets sell less well than female assets.
So no, for a lot of PAs and a lot of genres, the chance of earning money is absolutely not motivation enough. For many of them, far more of the motivation has to come from their own desire to make those products, so if you want to galvanise them, be enthusiastic about what they could make. Sure, present it as a gap in the market if you can spin it that way, but don't start your suggestion by insulting everyone's work.
Not to mention that what was requested is a sterotypical view of what a romance hero or action hero type of character should look like, at least in my opinion.
You mean...
and
but not
Buy morphs and dial your own. Why would you use a stock figure for a book cover anyway? What is stopping you from using G8?
decent looking is very vague, what some people call beautyful, might look ugly for others.
Nailed it. All that's left to do is buy some extra skin tones for those "savage love" stories. Ain't got to change the face or nothing.
I suspect that, if you're earning a living, or a substantial part of your living, from creating book covers then time & deadlines are critical and speed - so stock characters - will get you to the deadline with an acceptable cover. Generating your own character from stock morph packs takes time. Possibly to the point a deadline is missed. There are a wide variety of users here, all have different needs from the program and content. I suspect each of us is an expert in the way we as individuals use the program, so may focus on what we want a lot. Not everyone will always have the same needs & wants. But, it also happens that unless you ask, there's a chance no-one will think of doing what you want.
You'd be surprised at how quickly you can spin a custom character with a little bit of random input. I threw the DO Genesis 9 Head Shapes into a randomizer set to max 30% and then quickly got to this guy after very minimal manual tweaking -
What took the most time was all the dirt/grime/blood and making that dang tartan sash as realistic as I could. The time spent on the actual character was an afterthought at that point, lol.
I will concede this, though: G9 is tricky because more of the magic happens in the skin texture than it does the morphs. There's a lack of HD details to make up for the fact that, at least at the moment, a lot of the skin is a bit too good. It's hard with what's available to get a good, rugged look, even with the other example a bit above me. The dude's handsome, rugged, dirty, but looks like his wife gave him a spa treatment for his birthday, and he's seen less sun the ocean depths. (edit: I tried to upload my own example, but I haven't been able to attach an image since the icons disappeared. Also rugged shaped, dark tone, and really pretty skin despite the fact that it's supposedly a masculine texture.)
it's a PITA but I have repainted a few skins with Ultimate Unwrap 3D
You can bake them in Blender for free too
PITA as very slow and toe and fingernails separate, importing the clone shape the easy part as no eyes and other parts to worry about
Damn...now I REALLY need to figure out how to put a Linday hair on the Daz Cow. LOLOL
+1
Not needed for memoir covers, but I do write fiction under pseudonym and for my sci-fi series G8 offers a smorgasbord of options.Well, I worked out how to put football boots on a centaur.
Maybe start by fitting it to Horseman.