Guides Guide and Blender template to convert V4, M4, G2/3/8/8.1/9 textures to G2F/M

[capable-comfort-789]

Thanks again for your guide. I have a question about eyebrows. I have a G8 character that has eyebrows as a separate hair element. I've searched high and low and nobody has instructions or advice for how to apply the eye brows when converting to a G2 texture. Doesn't seem to be a way to bake that info because it is not a texture. I tried to use photoshop, but then I am just guessing where it goes in 2D, warping the shape into an arch, and it never turns out right.
If I could bake (or export from Daz) the eyebrows into the G8 texture, then I could follow your guide for the rest of the steps. Do you have any suggestions?

 

[MrGiggly]

Thanks again for your guide. I have a question about eyebrows. I have a G8 character that has eyebrows as a separate hair element. I've searched high and low and nobody has instructions or advice for how to apply the eye brows when converting to a G2 texture. Doesn't seem to be a way to bake that info because it is not a texture. I tried to use photoshop, but then I am just guessing where it goes in 2D, warping the shape into an arch, and it never turns out right.
If I could bake (or export from Daz) the eyebrows into the G8 texture, then I could follow your guide for the rest of the steps. Do you have any suggestions?

Hi,
Fibremesh brows as you've noticed are a 3d mesh rather than a texture so no, you'll not be able to convert them with this method.

Easiest workaround is to find a suitable set of brow textures from another face and transplant them using photoshop.

 

[capable-comfort-789]

Hi,
Fibremesh brows as you've noticed are a 3d mesh rather than a texture so no, you'll not be able to convert them with this method.

Easiest workaround is to find a suitable set of brow textures from another face and transplant them using photoshop.

Thanks. I'm looking at Unwrap3D to see if it has any way to repaint them onto the facial texture. But realizing I'm out of my league.

 

[MrGiggly]

Thanks. I'm looking at Unwrap3D to see if it has any way to repaint them onto the facial texture. But realizing I'm out of my league.

I don't think Unwrap3d will work. It's designed for working with UV's. Fibremesh brows don't have a UV and I don't think it has an option to project details onto a UV.

Only other way I can think of, is to create a high rez portrait render of your model with the eyebrows in daz, then use that image in something like substance painter where you can 'warp project' the image onto your G2 face texture.

They must be pretty special eyebrows. Most of the time fibremesh brows look crap

 

[capable-comfort-789]

Well, they are just a unique kind of bushy eye brows so I wanted to transplant them perfectly. I took your advise and found another G8 model with similar brows and used the G8 texture as a reference to place the black eyebrows on the real G8 in photoshop before converting it to a G2 with your process. Looks ok I guess. Now on to figuring out why the eye shapes are not quite perfect despite all of the other morphs converting properly.

 

[johnqaz]

Hey, first I want to express my immense appreciation of this blender template. I've used it countless times over the last year / year and half. Thanks to the new G9 support, I was able to backport the G9 8K normal maps to G81F, G8F and G2F lol.. priceless

I do have a new issue though, which I don't think was there in 2.09 which is the last version I used before moving to 2.15. It seems the navels are always off when doing a G2F to G8F conversion. I always expect to have some touch-ups to do here and there, but I've been needing to copy paste the navel region and move it down everytime, and then use the heal tool to hide the seam.

 

[Lifson]

Awesome template and guide. Other than a couple off quirks when trying to convert specular head and torso only, and gloss only face, it really did just work. I need to clean em up a bit, wishing there was a cheap alternative to substance painter!

 

[Kid_A]

After hitting bake and saving all of the images, the textures come out like the ones attached. Is this normal for them to be like that or did I do something wrong for them to display incorrectly?

 

[MrGiggly]

After hitting bake and saving all of the images, the textures come out like the ones attached. Is this normal for them to be like that or did I do something wrong for them to display incorrectly?

You've missed something somewhere. Check Steps 9 onwards.

 

[vvs123]

Very useful guide that helped me a lot. Since my native language is not English, it took me a lot of time to understand, but I thought it was worth it. In addition, blender3.0+ seems to have a different texture baking method, so this file can only be used in 2.79 (it is not impossible to use in 3.0+, but it is necessary to deal with the intersection of models, I tried to deal with a Characters, but still gave up.)

 

[MrGiggly]

Very useful guide that helped me a lot. Since my native language is not English, it took me a lot of time to understand, but I thought it was worth it. In addition, blender3.0+ seems to have a different texture baking method, so this file can only be used in 2.79 (it is not impossible to use in 3.0+, but it is necessary to deal with the intersection of models, I tried to deal with a Characters, but still gave up.)

Apologies for the delay responding

Yes, Blender 3.0+ doesn't include the 'Blender Render' engine which this method uses.

I have spent more hours than I can remember trying to create a straightforward template for 3.0+ but I have come to the conclusion it's just not worth putting any more time into it.

The results are never as good as 2.79 due to the way projection works in it, and every time a new version of Blender comes along it produces different results with the same template.

 

[Creative3D]

The Blender error says: Circular reference in texture stack
I tried both G3/8F and G8.1F

 

[MrGiggly]

The Blender error says: Circular reference in texture stack
I tried both G3/8F and G8.

Sounds like you've set your blanks up incorrectly and are potentially using one of them as a source image.

 

[RonBurgundy]

i was revisiting this guide to do more conversions and was wondering if we can use any of the SSS textures?
Could it be used instead of the Gloss?

Can you explain what the SS is vs the SSS? on some of them the SS looks mostly like a Diffuse but less detailed.

Also any recommendations on using Normals instead of Bumpmaps? Do it or not?

 

[MrGiggly]

i was revisiting this guide to do more conversions and was wondering if we can use any of the SSS textures?
Could it be used instead of the Gloss?

Can you explain what the SS is vs the SSS? on some of them the SS looks mostly like a Diffuse but less detailed.

Also any recommendations on using Normals instead of Bumpmaps? Do it or not?

Probably just the authors naming convention between SSS and SS
SSS = Subsurface Scattering. Vam doesn't support these.

Normals have more detail than Bumpmaps.
Bumpmaps only contain height. Normals also contain angle information.

 

[404am]

Been trying to get this to work and this keeps happening any ideas?

 

[MrGiggly]

Been trying to get this to work and this keeps happening any ideas?

Which Genesis model are you trying to convert from?
That looks like maybe the wrong source model has been selected in Blender or the uv layout differs from 'base' genesis models

 

[RonBurgundy]

CAN we PLEASE please please add the ability to convert Gens textures?
You have eyes and mouth which are probably the most unnecessary.
The auto version doesn't work well and it just seems pointless to use the PS template IF we have the actual real gens for G3, etc...

the biggest issue seems to be that the anus usually is a completely different color than the original when we generate our own.

 

[MrGiggly]

CAN we PLEASE please please add the ability to convert Gens textures?
You have eyes and mouth which are probably the most unnecessary.
The auto version doesn't work well and it just seems pointless to use the PS template IF we have the actual real gens for G3, etc...

the biggest issue seems to be that the anus usually is a completely different color than the original when we generate our own.

Hi,
Afraid not. Responded on this one back in 2021
(post #19)

You could try the FaceBlend plugin though and see if that covers your requirements.

https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/faceblend.42657/updates

 

[SinFear]

Source G8

Target G2

Can this be fixed somehow?

 

[MrGiggly]

Source G8

Target G2


Can this be fixed somehow?

I'll take a look when I get chance but I suspect there's not a lot that can be done.
It's really due to the less than ideal topology layout of G2 in this area - so when we try to make an exact clone of G8 to look like G2, it struggles to align these areas.

 

[SinFear]

I'll take a look when I get chance but I suspect there's not a lot that can be done.
It's really due to the less than ideal topology layout of G2 in this area - so when we try to make an exact clone of G8 to look like G2, it struggles to align these areas.
View attachment 361757

I solved this problem
but haven't tested it on the whole body

 

[404am]

Which Genesis model are you trying to convert from?
That looks like maybe the wrong source model has been selected in Blender or the uv layout differs from 'base' genesis models

trying to convert from 8.1 female
NVM got it!

 

[mattiaheron]

I wasnt sure if it was just me or what, but ive downloaded every version of 2.79 and this still happens with the g3&8 template for me. The genesis 9 works flawlessly but any g8 textures just wont bake. The lips on the face are smaller too they seem to scale down 5% to the size of the actual g2 lips.
The g9 is perfect, its just the g8 has always done this and I wasn't sure if you had a fix or something?

Theres no error in the log either. This is usually where i go back to wrap4d, but at least g9 will bake for me.


Edit: I FIXED IT! after so long. holy fuck YES. okay so I had to go to the textures of the g2 and disable them then it baked across perfectly.

 

[vvs123]

Hey friend, I found a little problem and don't know how to fix it. As you can see, the right part of the eye bag have some distorted (the left of texture baked by Blender, and the right of texture it's bake in a different way), and it should be symmetrical with the left eye part.