Answered Tips & Tricks -- A friend of mine wants me to turn her into a VAM model...

[Vanredravend]

What are the best ways to make a custom look/Character in VAM.

NOTE: I HAVE made 3d characters IRL, but not in VAM.

This is my workflow for a non-VAM project:

I use FaceGen or DAZ Studio's Face-transfer and insert this onto a model (usually in DAZ, if I use Face gen I find that using makehuman is easier to transfer/fix the 3d information with MODO or Maya)
Then I go over the texture maps and refine when needed, after that I generate the additional texture maps (NORMALS, SPEC, GLOSS, BUMP / AO) in Photoshop, then after fine tuning the UV's put them together and do some fast pace previews before baking if needed.

After that I usually do the vertex weights and rigging and at the end hair and rendering (although rendering will not be needed).

Sans vertex weights and rigging;

Does anyone have any better workflows or direct me to links and *updated tutorials for making a VAM custom appearance/look;
I know that with a custom character there are more steps involved then just making CUAs and there IS an ATOM feature in MAYA but I do not know if this is the right kind.

I have cam across these posts but I am interested to see if there are any extra/alternative workflows that can enhance the quality of the finished work:

Guides - How to use foto2vam

Introduction This tutorial will focus on how to create content to use in foto2vam to allow you to come up with a good result and have a nice base model that will inspire you for original content. It means I won’t cover how to install or convert...

hub.virtamate.com

Question - Facegen

I've been having another go with Facegen so could somebody point me in the right direction how to get the face into VAM? What do I save as, where I drag said file into which exact folder and how to put it on model?

hub.virtamate.com

Guides - Beginner Intro to Creating Custom Textures/Skins

Outline: Rundown of texture types Where to start when creating a new skin The two major challenges - seams and color matching Demo: Using frequency separation in GIMP to color match a new feature: Duplicate layer Gaussian blur the duplicate...

hub.virtamate.com

Just a side note : I most likely will be following hazmhox's guide for this particular project
but I still wanted to see if there are any additional tips and tricks to make this project better.

thanks!

 

[TToby]

Creating a look-alike character in VaM is one of the hardest things, like it is always in art and especially in 3d.
There is nothing else in the world a human eye/brain can recognize from so many different details like a human face. One small detail off and it looks wrong.
Even one level more difficult is to create a look-alike character you really know personally. Two levels more difficult is to create a personally-known-character for someone else only by some photos. IMHO almost not possible. I have stopped to do this for others.
This holds especially true for VR. You will face the look-alike virtually in life-size and will see every little wrong detail.

Enough with the boring warnings and back to the question:
As you are experienced in creating characters in DAZ, I save us some time and skip the details... you already know the most difficult part.
Once you have it in DAZ, all following steps are only time consumpting, but not difficult.

As you may know: VaM uses the DAZ Genesis 2 figure.
That means, you can use the morphs and textures from DAZ out-of-the-box (if they are Genesis 2).
To do this, create your look-alike character in DAZ like usual with using the old Genesis 2 figure. Create the textures and refine the mesh like you have described it above. Then save the DAZ look as full body morph and copy that morph over to VaMfolder/custom/atom/person/morphs/female (or male). VaM will automatically do the rest.
You may want to copy your custom textures, too. Standard location is: VaMfolder/custom/atom/person/textures/.
Then in VaM go and search for your custom morph, dial it in, go to the skin textures tab and apply all your custom textures. Ready.

Unfortunately, morphs/looks will not exactly look the same in VaM. There is some different smoothing and skinning going on. From this point on, refine your look within VaM untill you are happy with it. This can sometimes be the time-consumpting part I have mentioned above. IMHO, it helps a lot if you have installed additional custom morphs. There are some free morph packs around, or use your DAZ Genesis2 ones. Be warned that hoarding thousands of morphs will slow down the VaM startup. Its up to you to decide. With my more than 5000 additional morphs and lots of Var files, starting VaM will take 1-2 minutes.

To your questions regarding Custom Unity Assets (CUA):
Yes, you can bring almost every 3d figure or environment to VaM by using the free Unity tools.
No, you will never ever be able to use those CUAs as VaM-character in the current version... only as static object.
To import a look, the only way to go is to morph and change the existing Genesis 2 figure by going the DAZ route.

 

[Vanredravend]

As you may know: VaM uses the DAZ Genesis 2 figure.

THANK YOU SOO MUCH,

That's exactly what I needed to Know,
I've downloaded the foto2vam, and had sooo many issues with the app recognizing my faces, (it kept saying couldn't find face) Then I got facegen working and did a quick FR of the model,
NOW since I have used DAZ I have to do that long procrastinated fresh install and try to get Daz working so I can use the face I just Generated, and I needed to find out which genesis figure to use. THANKS A BILLION!!

 

[TToby]

You are welcome.
Unfortunately the face creation with FaceGen is absolutely great, but the transformation into DAZ/VaM morphs is not.
Don't be too much dissapointed about the result. Nevertheless, I am still a great fan of FaceGen and I think it is still better than the other alternatives. It won't give you a ready-made look, but a good starting point. You most likely have to refine the textures in Photoshop and the head morph in VaM, but you don't have to start from zero. Especially the face textures are extremely useful.
If you have further questions, please ask.

Tipps:
-In FG save the created face as facegen format for later refinement.
-You will only need one good front photo and don't neccessarily need side pictures. Most of my FG creations are from one picture. Though, more is always better.
-Use the mouse left click plus shift key to edit the face in FG directly. Try to move around different face regions like the forehead or the jaw for advanced effects.
-Use the sliders reading sometimg like "caricature" and "asymetric" (I am not at my PC atm). Dial them down as much as possible to still have the important details, but not the extreme shape... You have to edit the shape in VaM anyways and it is more simple to start with a less distorted face.
-You can easily create a genital texture with FG: run the FG to DAZ conversion once, then rename the resulting body texture to not have it deleted, then change the body texture source in FG to the genital texture and run the creation process a second time.
-As someone who is good with texture editing: I have stopped using the generated FG body textures. Instead of this, I always adjust the generated head textures to one of my few standard custom skins.You have to edit the head texture anyways. This has the benefit to later have a large set of different faces for one/some few sets of custom skin textures, instead of hundreds of different sets that only differs in slightly different colors.
-You can relatively easy refine and edit the head texture by using different head textures in different Photoshop layers and then mix and match them.

Ok, I will stopp this now, have fun!

 

[Jiraiya]

I have been tempted to make just the face for VaM for myself and my GF.... But as mentioned in the first post, I am scared how they will end up looking! Not sure if looking at a "wrong" version of my own face in a VaM mirror is better or worse than looking at a stranger.

 

[TToby]

I have been tempted to make just the face for VaM for myself and my GF.... But as mentioned in the first post, I am scared how they will end up looking! Not sure if looking at a "wrong" version of my own face in a VaM mirror is better or worse than looking at a stranger.

It doesn't have to be perfect right from the start. If you only create it for yourself, it is most of the time "enough" to have something that only vaguely reminds you of someone. A little bit like a placeholder for your fantasy.
This will IMHO include a self-portrait, too.
Though, after getting a bit more experienced in VaM character creation, the perfectionists of us might easily go crazy with refining those looks.
For instance: I have some few looks of some special girls, that I permanently refine since I have discovered VaM some years ago. Every time I open up one of those girls, I am a bit more experienced or got an other perspective with some time passed, and I obsessively have to edit it again and again. Hundreds of hours!
Be warned, lol.
It is IMHO much (!) more easy to just create the look of a fictional girl or of a celebrity.

 

[wel549]

i dont see the option for saving a full bodymorph.

 

[marlowInc]

Who can I go to for commissions