Question a model based on a photo?
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Hi allll,
there are many users doing this more or less successful.
There are several ways to do this.
- For instance, you could simply open up an image panel in the background, load the photo,
and then start to skulpt the look with morphs, create the hairstyl, aso... untill you are happy with the outcome. There are some variations to this methode, like making the image panel transparent and putting it over the figure to have a direct reference, aso.
- There is an old free VaM community tool called something like foto2vam or something like that.
It requires you to install a certain Phyton runtime environment and is command-line based. It is a very stubborn tool and many users had issues to even make it work. You have to copy your face pictures in to a certain folder and the tool will put out a more or less useable head morph. No face texture!
- There are some few DAZ3d tools to create a face after pictures. The IMHO least terrible one is FaceGen.
It is a paid tool with many functions, that is able (with some practice) to create a relatively good 3d head WITH texture. Unfortunately FaceGen is somewhat bad in convering it's internal face formate into a DAZ head morph. The outcome is most of the time somewhat dissapointing, and the exported morph can IMHO only be seen as a first basic starting point for further editing in VaM. BUT it creates a somewhat useable face texture from your pictures! This is what most of the "look-alike" VaM looks are using. Most people will be somewhat happy with the outcome if theyare using it for the first time, but to go a step further, it needs a LOT (!) of refinement and postprocessing in tools like Photoshop.
- There is a free trial version of FaceGen, but it will use a watermark on face texture and morph. For only getting the face texture, you can use this free version, erase the watermark with a tool like Photoshop (you will loose the forehead and parts of the eyebrows) and blend/mix the outcome with an original (or previously made) VaM face texture. But you have to edit the texture anyways...
-A somewhat doable alternative for creating a face texture is to use picture morphing tools. Instead of using FaceGen, you can use a free morphing tool to projecting and morphing the face on your photo onto a VaM face texture. I bet you know those tools from things like morphing a females face into a leopard face, for instance. This even requires more post- and preprocessing in tools like Photoshop, but some creators like this way to keep control over the whole process.
There is (AFAIK) no tool to morph the whole body shape from pictures.
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There are many tools like this to create heads and faces from photos.
But you have to get it into a compatible formate.
The mesh and textures done by FaceBuilder are (or were) very different to the DaZ3d/VaM formate and is AFAIK not compatible.
Whereas, FaceGen or Face Transfer has a button to directly export to Genesis 2 that is used by VaM.
Like I said above, the problem is to transform the created face to a DAZ/VaM morph. This is where all tools I know do a very bad job.
But you have to get it into a compatible formate.
The mesh and textures done by FaceBuilder are (or were) very different to the DaZ3d/VaM formate and is AFAIK not compatible.
Whereas, FaceGen or Face Transfer has a button to directly export to Genesis 2 that is used by VaM.
Like I said above, the problem is to transform the created face to a DAZ/VaM morph. This is where all tools I know do a very bad job.
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IIJlOXOCIIAJl
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This is probably the best way to create a head from a photo. But I don't know if it's possible to export from this Blender program to our VAM game.
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Thanks,
Thanks! However, we are still working on improving and optimizing this appearance (the model itself makes edits)
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IIJlOXOCIIAJl
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To be honest, I don't know if this will help.
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Like I said above, the 3d head meshes that CAN be created with the somewhat limited and oldish FaceGen technology, CAN be relatively impressive, too. If you take the best possible case.
BUT, even those are not 1:1 compatible with DAZ/VaM, too, and needs to be exported with the build-in converter to a DAZ morph.
Within this converting process, the quality unfortunately decreases dramatically for some reasons!
No matter how impressive the generated heads in those tools will look…
In the end, the outcome after converting it to a VaM compatible morph is all that really counts.
BUT, even those are not 1:1 compatible with DAZ/VaM, too, and needs to be exported with the build-in converter to a DAZ morph.
Within this converting process, the quality unfortunately decreases dramatically for some reasons!
No matter how impressive the generated heads in those tools will look…
In the end, the outcome after converting it to a VaM compatible morph is all that really counts.
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IIJlOXOCIIAJl
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Is there any instruction. How can I create a face in Daz3D and transfer it to VAM?
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That is the most simple part…
If you have a Genesis 2 (!!!) face morph, just allocate the morph file and copy it over to
VaM —> /custom/atom/person/female/morphs/female (or male). It is 1:1 compatible.
Unfortunately the Genesis 2 figure is very old. The actual DAZ stuff is 2-3 generations ahead. It is somewhat possible to convert morphs and even textures from Gen8 to Gen2, but it is somewhat difficult and not easy to explain. There are only some VaM threads about this.
DAZ3d is and was a very popular software for many many years. Much bigger than VaM. There are hundreds of forum threads and tutorials of all kind if you ask Google the right questions.
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Even if you have a Face morph and texture then it is such a work to fit your fav body skin texture to your face texture colours.
It never worked for me and i also have never seen any useful Photoshop or similar guide for that.
My personal exerience here is if i ask creators about how they fit the Facegen Texture with a seamless beauty body texture they do not even answer to help with a Hint
The usual embedded Facegen Body Texture looks mostly bad.
It is always looking identical with washed out colours.
And if you use facegen you sure want the realistic Photo look of your models Face.
It never worked for me and i also have never seen any useful Photoshop or similar guide for that.
My personal exerience here is if i ask creators about how they fit the Facegen Texture with a seamless beauty body texture they do not even answer to help with a Hint
The usual embedded Facegen Body Texture looks mostly bad.
It is always looking identical with washed out colours.
And if you use facegen you sure want the realistic Photo look of your models Face.
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@Lione
You never asked me that question, didn't you?
-In FaceGen you can select any skin texture during the creation process, you have locally on your HDD/SSD. The face and skin (!) will be automatically matched.
If you always save the face in the internal FaceGen formate, too, you can create it with different skin textures, later.
An other way is to match a FaceGen face in Photoshop (or any other tool that uses layers) to a given skin:
-Load the original face texture in a first Photoshop layer.
-Load the FaceGen face texture in a second layer, lying over the first one.
-Erase the seams of the FaceGen texture in a way, that only the pure face remains, and the original face textures seams are shining through. Erase the neck region, the ears region, the forehead region, aso. Literally go around the whole face with the eraser. Use a big (~1000) and soft erase tool, so the edges are blurred into the underlying original face texture.
-Use the very basic color tools on the FaceGen face (ctrl + U) to somewhat match saturation, color and brightness to the underlying original face.
-Merge it, Save it, Ready.
If you are used to it, this is done in maybe 3-5 minutes or less. The trick is to not touch the original skin seams, because matching seams is a pain in the ass.
If you are a somewhat talented Photoshop user, you most probably want to fix some of the FaceGen texture's issues during this process. Erase the ugly lips, for instance, to use the lips of the underlying original texture, ... or mix and match some eyebrows from an other face texture, aso. Depending on your own taste and standards, this can take quite some time.
You can create a high number of new faces by mixing the best parts of some custom faces together in different ways.
I do this all the time with my own FaceGen faces, because I always use some few custom body textures, and I want to match the many faces to the few good skin(s), not the other way around. Therefore, I just load a good custom skin preset of mine, and can simply browse through a high number of compatible FaceGen faces.
Hope this may help a bit.
PS: For doing this, you will surely need to have the skin textures. You can't do this with the internal protected game textures (if you can't get your hands on that textures somehow).
You never asked me that question, didn't you?
-In FaceGen you can select any skin texture during the creation process, you have locally on your HDD/SSD. The face and skin (!) will be automatically matched.
If you always save the face in the internal FaceGen formate, too, you can create it with different skin textures, later.
An other way is to match a FaceGen face in Photoshop (or any other tool that uses layers) to a given skin:
-Load the original face texture in a first Photoshop layer.
-Load the FaceGen face texture in a second layer, lying over the first one.
-Erase the seams of the FaceGen texture in a way, that only the pure face remains, and the original face textures seams are shining through. Erase the neck region, the ears region, the forehead region, aso. Literally go around the whole face with the eraser. Use a big (~1000) and soft erase tool, so the edges are blurred into the underlying original face texture.
-Use the very basic color tools on the FaceGen face (ctrl + U) to somewhat match saturation, color and brightness to the underlying original face.
-Merge it, Save it, Ready.
If you are used to it, this is done in maybe 3-5 minutes or less. The trick is to not touch the original skin seams, because matching seams is a pain in the ass.
If you are a somewhat talented Photoshop user, you most probably want to fix some of the FaceGen texture's issues during this process. Erase the ugly lips, for instance, to use the lips of the underlying original texture, ... or mix and match some eyebrows from an other face texture, aso. Depending on your own taste and standards, this can take quite some time.
You can create a high number of new faces by mixing the best parts of some custom faces together in different ways.
I do this all the time with my own FaceGen faces, because I always use some few custom body textures, and I want to match the many faces to the few good skin(s), not the other way around. Therefore, I just load a good custom skin preset of mine, and can simply browse through a high number of compatible FaceGen faces.
Hope this may help a bit.
PS: For doing this, you will surely need to have the skin textures. You can't do this with the internal protected game textures (if you can't get your hands on that textures somehow).
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Hi TToby,
you helped me so much alltime that i felt it may be a good idea to contact some free creators and pay crators asking about this and non of them answered ever.
I am really thankful you jumped on that and offerd your tips now.
So I will try the first way in loading a normal texture in facegen since the 2nd photoshop is now from reading a riddle to me how to even do that.
I would need a pictured guide with all the controls.
Especially the "ugly Lips " is a pain with Facegen would be a step highly needed to get a great looking face.
Regarding matching skin tone, I thought you can just use a colour picker and do it one click somehow ;D
Its sure my photoshop skills lacking here.
I am used to make "collages" in Photoshop yes but masking and erasing this and that is entire new to me regarding faces.
I am sure a Picture or video guide doing such things would help many people.
Perhaps you can do a VAM Tutorial STreaming Session one day
Greetings
you helped me so much alltime that i felt it may be a good idea to contact some free creators and pay crators asking about this and non of them answered ever.
I am really thankful you jumped on that and offerd your tips now.
So I will try the first way in loading a normal texture in facegen since the 2nd photoshop is now from reading a riddle to me how to even do that.
I would need a pictured guide with all the controls.
Especially the "ugly Lips " is a pain with Facegen would be a step highly needed to get a great looking face.
Regarding matching skin tone, I thought you can just use a colour picker and do it one click somehow ;D
Its sure my photoshop skills lacking here.
I am used to make "collages" in Photoshop yes but masking and erasing this and that is entire new to me regarding faces.
I am sure a Picture or video guide doing such things would help many people.
Perhaps you can do a VAM Tutorial STreaming Session one day
Greetings
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Hi Lione,
I am unfortunately not good in creating pictured or even video tutorials. In addition to that, my English is so bad, that I would need ages to finishing such an permanently available document.
You only need very basic Photoshop knowledge to do this. Creating collages is much more difficult.
No masking and stuff like this.
The big thing about Photoshop and similar tools is and was the function of using layers.
If you load a picture in PS and then add a second picture to it, they both will lay over each other and you can switch back and forth between them. If you erase a part of the upper picture, you can see the first picture shining through.
If you create a collage, you will add various snippets in various layers and arrange them by moving them around.
This is all what is meant by "using layers".
I would suggest you to just give it a try in PS. It is much easier than it sounds.
Just load an original face texture from a skin you want to use. Then add the FaceGen face texture to it like you did with collage snippets. The second face image should now completely hide the first face image. Now use the standard eraser tool with a big size (~1000) and soft edges. Use the eraser along the outer contour of the FaceGen face, to erase the edges, and to only keep the area with eyes, nose and mouth.
Now press ctrl + U (strg + U in German) on your keyboard and use the three sliders to match the color to the underlying original face texture. Ready!
I am unfortunately not good in creating pictured or even video tutorials. In addition to that, my English is so bad, that I would need ages to finishing such an permanently available document.
You only need very basic Photoshop knowledge to do this. Creating collages is much more difficult.
No masking and stuff like this.
The big thing about Photoshop and similar tools is and was the function of using layers.
If you load a picture in PS and then add a second picture to it, they both will lay over each other and you can switch back and forth between them. If you erase a part of the upper picture, you can see the first picture shining through.
If you create a collage, you will add various snippets in various layers and arrange them by moving them around.
This is all what is meant by "using layers".
I would suggest you to just give it a try in PS. It is much easier than it sounds.
Just load an original face texture from a skin you want to use. Then add the FaceGen face texture to it like you did with collage snippets. The second face image should now completely hide the first face image. Now use the standard eraser tool with a big size (~1000) and soft edges. Use the eraser along the outer contour of the FaceGen face, to erase the edges, and to only keep the area with eyes, nose and mouth.
Now press ctrl + U (strg + U in German) on your keyboard and use the three sliders to match the color to the underlying original face texture. Ready!
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Jocks3D
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I tried the FaceGen demo last week and was very impressed so I bought the Home version for $70.00 and have already created a few models based on some of my favorite porn stars. The results are much better than I expected, sometimes even with just one front photo! It's definitely worth the $70.00 and if you can afford it I'd suggest making the purchase instead of erasing the watermark in Photoshop. I want to support the developer so maybe he'll keep making improvements.
I've found that the higher res the original photo, the better the results. I just bring it into VaM and use those sculpting tools (which are also very impressive by the way) to tweak the model to my hearts content. Warning, this can be very addicting! I spent an entire afternoon working on one model!
I also have Daz 3D but haven't really used it yet. That might be my next big step into this exciting new hobby!
I've found that the higher res the original photo, the better the results. I just bring it into VaM and use those sculpting tools (which are also very impressive by the way) to tweak the model to my hearts content. Warning, this can be very addicting! I spent an entire afternoon working on one model!
I also have Daz 3D but haven't really used it yet. That might be my next big step into this exciting new hobby!
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hankb
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I'm new to this stuff. From what I can tell, I think it's about how the 3D model is sliced up into 2D shapes. I think Blender supports some different types. I think one is called butterfly? Anyway. If we could determine what the slicing approach is for VAM and figure out how to get Blender to slice in the same way it would be helpful. I have exported a VAM model to an OBJ and opened it up in Blender. I think it's not a complete closed mesh. It seems to be in pieces. That might be a good start? These mesh pieces might translate to the texture shapes that we see in VAM textures. I'm not that familiar with texture painting in VAM, but I will look into it and see if the flattened versions of those mesh pieces look like or match how they look in the VAM textures folder. If so, then we should be able to texture paint those in Blender and export back to VAM and vice versa
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ChittarChattar
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I'm glad I found this topic. So I have created some textures/faces in FaceGen and it all works and looks good. The issue I have is when I apply these to models/Looks in game it no longer looks like the person I want to create. I've seen some posts about sculpting in this topic.
Can somebody tell me where I need to go in VAM to do this so that I can make my characters look more correct?
Thanks in advanced.
Can somebody tell me where I need to go in VAM to do this so that I can make my characters look more correct?
Thanks in advanced.
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That is unfortunately the big issue with FaceGen. The face shapes/morphs it creates have to be translated into VaM/DAZ3d morphs, and that is where FaceGen fails. The FG created morphs in VaM will never look like the original look from FG. At best you can use it as a starting point to do your own refinement in VaM.
To do this, you have all those face and body sliders in VaM for changing the appearance. Every slider is a separate morph. You can get additional morphs by morph-pack downloads or from some downloaded looks.
You will need to add the FaceGen generated texture to the standard female/male, then dial-in the FG generated morph for some percent, and then go nuts by moving all those sliders back-and-forth until you are happy with the outcome. There are no shortcuts, you will need some experience and maybe a certain amount of talent.
You can put some image panels with photos in the background, and you may come to the point where you will need a tool like Photoshop to edit, mix and refine the (face) textures.
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ChittarChattar
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Thanks that's a fairly comprehensive answer and confirms what I suspected (and feared!) that it isnt a simple or easy process....
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FaceGen isnt perfect, but I keep going back to it, because it provides the best starting point, like TToby has been saying. Especially for the textures. Use high res photo references, with good lighting. Gigapixel is great to for doing magnification with little negative effects, also paid tool though. The comment earlier that Keentools Facebuilder isnt compatible, is technically true, but there are ways around that. You can use software like wrap3 to wrap a daz g2 model around an exported OBJ. Wrap3 is a paid product also. You can also do it in blender for free, kind of, using a shrinkwrap modifier. There will be artifacts you have to fix, and neither of these methods gets you a texture. Everything mentioned has a pretty significant learning curve, but it can be fun.
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