Hi all,

In  Poser 5 or above, we already have face room for changing face of a poser figure.
What is the advantage of using FaceShop 3.5?
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=5259

Thanks in advance
:)

spero che qualcuno parli in italiano,nn riesco ad usare i file environment,sono file cr2 e png ma non riesco ad inserirli come sfondi con poser
grazie trilly

Quote - Hi all,

In  Poser 5 or above, we already have face room for changing face of a poser figure.
What is the advantage of using FaceShop 3.5?
http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=5259

Thanks in advance
:)

Nothing ... i have yet to see a good example of what it can do innposer or DS
All i see is photoshoped image of people with funny stripes on the ears and ugly sides of the heads..
 If you use the face room and practice its just as good...

And yes i tryed it ..
but i asked for a refund because, face room is just as good..

But maybe "others " can show you real cool good looking image from within poser ..

Not realy worth  the extra  money IMHO

I see.

Any more comments?
:)

Well, you can use pretty much any figure you want. So your not limited to the very few poser figures. So that kind of blows the poser face room out of the water. Besides not being limited to poser. In fact. you don't even have to open poser to use it.

The texture that is generated need to be run through a paint program to get it cleaned up  a bit and the mirror morph is still lame. but over all, it works well.
 
If you practice with FS you get good at too. It's a tool and it does what it is designed to do.

Isn't there a demo to try and make up your own mind? It's like any software. Some some will hate it, some will gush over it and some like me think of it as another tool that gets you to where you want to go. So if there is a demo,try it and put more tha a couple of minutes into testing it before you decide if it is something you can use.

Quote - Well, you can use pretty much any figure you want. So your not limited to the very few poser figures. So that kind of blows the poser face room out of the water. Besides not being limited to poser. In fact. you don't even have to open poser to use it.

The texture that is generated need to be run through a paint program to get it cleaned up  a bit and the mirror morph is still lame. but over all, it works well.
 
If you practice with FS you get good at too. It's a tool and it does what it is designed to do.

Isn't there a demo to try and make up your own mind? It's like any software. Some some will hate it, some will gush over it and some like me think of it as another tool that gets you to where you want to go. So if there is a demo,try it and put more tha a couple of minutes into testing it before you decide if it is something you can use.

In DIRECT aswer to the previous poster, there's a fully functional 15-day FREE trial at http://www.abalonellc.com/15day-trial-softwa.html

(Note: I am the vendor and I have been threatened with banishement by Rendo moderators and VPs if I directly promote my software. This note, hopefully, is NOT a promotion as it pertains to an information that I am giving in response to a direct question by someone who is not affiliated with me in any shape or form. After all, providing info is the purpose of such forums - one hopes).
Laslo

LOL... guess you pushed your product just a little too much at too many places?

Face Room 1) FaceRoom comes in Poser 5, 6. and 7, so if you own Poser, you already have it. 2) The figures it supports are all preset, so you don't need to set it up. 3) The Figures supported are: Miki 1 and 2, James 1 and 2, Koji 2, Apollo, Jesse 1 and 2. 4) You can not add any more figures into the FaceRoom. 5) The FaceRoom will recreate a texture from Front and Side. 6) Works inside PC and Mac Poser (but Mac Poser 5, and 6 users do not have the ability to use Koji 2, Miki2, Jesse 2, James 2, or Apollo, -- those are PC 6, 7 and Mac 7 only). Face Shop 1) FaceShop has more and does more than the FaceRoom. It's a whole level above the FaceRoom. 2) The preset figures are: V4 and M3. 3) It can import any head to morph and make textures, hell I even imported MillDog! lol. 4) The flip side to being able to import any head is that these heads are not preset for you, you must teach FaceShop where the eyes, brows, lips, etc are. And If you use a shitty reference, and do a shitty job lining up your dots and curves, you will get shitty results. The more practice you get, the better you will become. It also helps to read Tips and Tricks of people who have already figured out how to get better results. (Not to mention, some head Meshs morph better than others and/or have better UV maps) 5) FaceShop will create a texture from any crazy angle you throw at it! You are not limited to Front and Side. 6) Works outside of Poser in PC, Mac, and as a PC Photoshop Plugin. 7) What FaceShop does, unlike any other app, is the ability to work with reference images of any angle. This is a powerful tool. Speaking for myself, I don't use the FaceRoom at all anymore. I use FaceShop. I don't use raw morphs or textures out of FaceShop etiher, I edit my morph results in Blacksmith3D. And if I create my morph in another app (like Zbrush, Hexagon, Carrara, Poser Magnets, etc.), I use the FaceShop generated morph as reference guide to show me where my morph need to be. This is a HUGE time saver to me. I also use the FaceShop generated textures as guide as to where I should place the eyebrows and the hairline, ect on my texture maps. I prefer to create my own textures. In the end FaceShop is tool, and it's proven to be very valuable to me and time saver. So if you're really into creating custom characters, I think you will love it. bB

Good summation. It's a good additional tool, but not a "make art" button type thing.
In other words, you'll get out of it what yo uput into it.

Thank you for the detailed experience information! I have this item on my wish list and am very excited it is available for Mac. I wish more venders would make their time savers and other apps Mac compatible!

Quote - Face Room 1) FaceRoom comes in Poser 5, 6. and 7, so if you own Poser, you already have it. 2) The figures it supports are all preset, so you don't need to set it up. 3) The Figures supported are: Miki 1 and 2, James 1 and 2, Koji 2, Apollo, Jesse 1 and 2. 4) You can not add any more figures into the FaceRoom. 5) The FaceRoom will recreate a texture from Front and Side. 6) Works inside PC and Mac Poser (but Mac Poser 5, and 6 users do not have the ability to use Koji 2, Miki2, Jesse 2, James 2, or Apollo, -- those are PC 6, 7 and Mac 7 only). Face Shop 1) FaceShop has more and does more than the FaceRoom. It's a whole level above the FaceRoom. 2) The preset figures are: V4 and M3. 3) It can import any head to morph and make textures, hell I even imported MillDog! lol. 4) The flip side to being able to import any head is that these heads are not preset for you, you must teach FaceShop where the eyes, brows, lips, etc are. And If you use a shitty reference, and do a shitty job lining up your dots and curves, you will get shitty results. The more practice you get, the better you will become. It also helps to read Tips and Tricks of people who have already figured out how to get better results. (Not to mention, some head Meshs morph better than others and/or have better UV maps) 5) FaceShop will create a texture from any crazy angle you throw at it! You are not limited to Front and Side. 6) Works outside of Poser in PC, Mac, and as a PC Photoshop Plugin. 7) What FaceShop does, unlike any other app, is the ability to work with reference images of any angle. This is a powerful tool. Speaking for myself, I don't use the FaceRoom at all anymore. I use FaceShop. I don't use raw morphs or textures out of FaceShop etiher, I edit my morph results in Blacksmith3D. And if I create my morph in another app (like Zbrush, Hexagon, Carrara, Poser Magnets, etc.), I use the FaceShop generated morph as reference guide to show me where my morph need to be. This is a HUGE time saver to me. I also use the FaceShop generated textures as guide as to where I should place the eyebrows and the hairline, ect on my texture maps. I prefer to create my own textures. In the end FaceShop is tool, and it's proven to be very valuable to me and time saver. So if you're really into creating custom characters, I think you will love it. bB

Quote - > Quote - Well, you can use pretty much any figure you want. So your not limited to the very few poser figures. So that kind of blows the poser face room out of the water. Besides not being limited to poser. In fact. you don't even have to open poser to use it.

The texture that is generated need to be run through a paint program to get it cleaned up  a bit and the mirror morph is still lame. but over all, it works well.
 
If you practice with FS you get good at too. It's a tool and it does what it is designed to do.

Isn't there a demo to try and make up your own mind? It's like any software. Some some will hate it, some will gush over it and some like me think of it as another tool that gets you to where you want to go. So if there is a demo,try it and put more tha a couple of minutes into testing it before you decide if it is something you can use.

 

In DIRECT aswer to the previous poster, there's a fully functional 15-day FREE trial at http://www.abalonellc.com/15day-trial-softwa.html

(Note: I am the vendor and I have been threatened with banishement by Rendo moderators and VPs if I directly promote my software. This note, hopefully, is NOT a promotion as it pertains to an information that I am giving in response to a direct question by someone who is not affiliated with me in any shape or form. After all, providing info is the purpose of such forums - one hopes).
Laslo

I tried the free demo myself once, more out of curiosity than actual need, and I have to be honest with you, I found the program very very difficult to use.  I used just the default settings for V4 as I recall, and honestly I never did get any results I considered even slightly usable even without textures.  

I'm not certain if I just didn't have the knack for outlining things properly, but I just found the entire thing way, way too "touchy" - even very small variations in your outlining can result in huge changes to the resultant figure, and honestly if the outlining process is that finicky it really should be detailed better ih your tutorials how it should be done properly for good results.

Don't get me wrong, I apprecaite the time you obviously spent on the program and it is an acheivement considering the difficulties of trying to convert a 2 dimensional map ihto a 3 dimensional figure, however on the whole I'd have to say that I won't be purchasing anytime soon because the program itself was just too difficult to use,

Have you considered perhaps a switch that would set certain limits on how far certain thihgs get morphed on the 3d model?  Something the user could turn on and off, so those who are already expert on the program could use it as they always had, but for those of us who aren't so adept and puttihg those lines on exactly the right pixel won't end up with a morph that looks like someone took a baseball bat upside the head?

Just a thought - love the idea behind the program, but as I said the demo convinced me that it wouldn't do me much good if I did purchase it, just never could get the knack of getting those lines exactly right on the bitmap and my end results always turned out terrible.. not only did they not look anything like the pictures of the people I was using, they didn't even look human.

Just my 2 cents worth
Stepdad

Over at the DAZ forums are some great tips and tricks to getting good results. Here are some tips I use that greatly improve results: 1) Be consistent in the number of points you use and their placement. If you use 7 points on the right figure's nose, use 7 points on the left figures nose and place these points in exactly the same places. 2) Right click to skip laying down a morph on some features. Sometimes you not need to change the nose or the brow, etc, so skip it by right-clicking. I use this trick sometimes to bypass first morph and skip ahead to Refine. 3) Pre-plan your points and lay them on your reference on photoshop. Also helps to pre-figure out the shape of the head and ears's placement. You will get a texture map with points drawn on it if you do this, but I only use the map as a guide for creating my own texture map, so this is no problem for me. 4) If your dot placements are bad you will know immediately because FaceShop will not have the head lined-up to match your reference. Click the back button and try again. (This is why it's important to refigure out where the ears are! The ears are usually the difference in the head's rotations and tilt) 5) If possible, do multiple morphs of the same subject with different references. If you make 5, then blend them at 25%. Spawn morph target of new head. 6) The Poser percent import of the FS default M3 head is 13.3075% 7) Tip from the DAZ forums: Instead of outlining the lowerjaw, do the whole head. (Sometimes this works much better) 8) Use a head that closely matches the target reference. 9) Save often! (I often save as a different name as I go along, so I can backtrack if I need to). 10) Use your saved file to go back and Mirror Left, then Mirror Right. Blend the two shapes together 50%, and then blend with the original. Experiment with the percentages. You can also use other helper apps to create a mirror such as PhilC's Poser Tool Box's Morph Mirror function inside Poser. 11) If you import a head, edit the UVmap to include everything you want to morph and texture as the Skin Texture (or edit it to exclude things you don't want to morph and texture.) 12) Take your time laying out your point, dots, and curves. The better job you do setting it up, the better your results. Once FS generates the morph head preview, study it and see where your problem spots are. Save, then go back to your curves and fix the placements to improve the results. (It may take a few tries, but this will help you get better results and teach you what works and what doesn't. The texture map will also show you if you didn't line up something just right). Once you get a good morph and map, then you export it. Okay, that's a few off the top of my head. ^^ bB

Okay some more... 13) If you have a powerful machine, you will have no troubles running FS. For everyone else, do not multitask. Give FS all the system resources you have available, and save often. If FS starts acting goofy, it's because it's running out of memory. Reboot and open your saved file to continue where you left off. 14) If your preview screen is wack (all one cell instead of two), minimize the preview, then reopen it. This usually fixes the problem.

That is a fine detailed list of tips! I will use these tips as a extra guide when I buy this item! Getting these kinds of tips on how to use various software from experienced artists are one of the things that have really helped me improve my art. Thank you BastBlack for all of these tips!

thanks for so many tips!
I had a hard time learning what I do now but these tips will help even more. :)

Another tip. Export all your figure heads to a folder. This way you have them ready to import when you want to use them in FS and you won't have to worry about what percent the default head is. No need to add extra work.

Yes, but be sure you select only the head.
Do not export eyes.
Export as a morph target only.

I found this is wayyy easier than searching the Poser Geometries folder each time for the correct head obj.
Plus you won't keep forgetting about the yes (I got tired of doing that...lol).

There are still some questions as to the stability of FS in Vista - I have not successfully been able to complete a project in FS 3.5 since purchasing it back in ?October

The program stops responding when creating the texture map.

We have been waiting for a patch - but as yet that hasn't surfaced - only real advice received was to update the video drivers but all that achieved for me was that Poser now has to run in SreeD instead of Open GL.

To comment on the remarks about high end machines - I would not agree with the statement - as I am having the issue mentioned above with FS 3.5 on an AMD X2 5200+ 64 bit, 4 gb ram, GeForce 8600 GT and Vista Ultimate X64.

I also experience the same issue on an AMD 3200+ 32 bit, 2 gb ram, Radeon X1650 and Vista Ultimate X32.

I will leave it up to the reader to draw  their own conclusions......

Quote -  8) Use a head that closely matches the target reference.

Well, since I'm dong this specifically for poser figures like V3, V4 or M3 I'm not sure how I can "use a head that closely matches the target reference", since the heads I'm using are pretty much predefined.

There were some good tips there, particularly the info about setting up reference points first in photoshop.. but I think you might have missed my original point somewhat - a very tiny variation in those points, even as much as a pixel or two, can lead to a HUGE change in the results.  I was hoping perhaps this is something they can address in future versions, something that would limit the resultant morphs (if selected) so that it stays within certain proscribed limits, so that no matter how bad a job you did outlining the face you wouldn't end up with something that wasn't  even recognizable as a human head.

Also, with all of the saving, comparing, exporting, remorphing, and what not, it sounds to me as if it would be almost easier to export the head as an obj file, load it into my prefered 3d editor using my reference images as backgrounds and building my own custom morph that way.  I love the idea of something more "automatic" but in all honesty this program just doesn't quite fit the bill.  It's a great idea and with some further development might really be a worthwhile addition to my utilties collection, but honestly at this stage like I said it's simply too hard to use and the end results are far to variable with only miniscule changes in your outlining.  

Just my opinion of course, others results might vary, but when I can outline the same picture using pretty much the same reference points and get such varied results from multiple attempts, I personally think that the problem lies with the outlining process, not with the user.  Granted a certain amount of sensitivity is fine here.. but overall I think the program is far too sensitive to such things - and I think you'll find more than a few others that agree with me on this point.

So I'm hopeful the developer will take that into account and fix it in future versions, if so he'll probably be able to pickup a lot of loyal customers, myself included.  If not, well then I guess some folks will still buy it but odds are good that you'll have a fair amount of dissastisfied customers, who were looking for something a bit more "automated" than what this program can really provide.

When you watch the video tutorials it says nothing about all the exporitng, importing, material zone ho-ha -  It just makes it look like you click on the picture a few times, press a button and viola!  So really at this point the program just doesn't work as "advertised" by the tutorial, and this is a big problem IMHO.

So hopefully the developer will address these issues and if so I'll look at investing in a copy.  If not, well, sorry charlie, but no sale.

As always, just my 2 cents worth,
Stepdad

To make the texture in FS, use a 45 degree angle reference photo on the head, then mirror it. For the morph, use a direct front shot but that can be of any quality, since you're not using it as a texture. It's a 2 step process for a new character, but worth the effort.

Hey Stepdad, There is no one step solution in most software. The tips are just that. Things that users have learned and added to thier workflow.

If you follow the tutorial, FS works as advertised. I watched it once but It didn't do anything for me because I was already doing it that way and I had learned a few tricks before I watched it.

I think that lines should be mirrored right off the start so all you have to do is move and adjust the other side. That would cut the workflow in half and you would not have to count how many dots you used in the first side because the more dots you use, the better it works.

The biggest tip is, practice. Very simple solution.

Attached Link: http://www.abalonellc.com/watchdemovideo.html

Hi;Tthanks for the tutorial links.
I've bookmarked them for later tonight.
But I do wish they were in html, pdf or text format.
I'm too deaf for anything with sound and most tuts do require hearing ability when in movie format....sigh.

Maybe just seeing them will give me some understanding though as that's mostly how I learn.

Faceshop is great as a shortcut for people who already know how to make textures and morphs.

Quote - no matter which "tool" you use it is going to take time, and patience along with trial n error..
this was done in the face room with the texture it made from a photo of mine

What's the base head on that morph? You know you've done a good job when it isn't immediately recognizable.

I think the point is being able to use figure's who's joints aren't so screwed up. Excluding Apollo of coarse.

The above pic was done with G2 Kelvin. It didn't take much to get the texture to line up right and the morphs came real close to the subject
this was the first time I really tried the face room all the way to completion I usually get frustrated and stop. But this time I was more patient. And the results came out quite good IMHO.

Quote - no matter which "tool" you use it is going to take time, and patience along with trial n error..
this was done in the face room with the texture it made from a photo of mine

This is a cool character you have made stallion! I had no idea what figure you had used to make it. Those are the kinds of character I like the best. Well done! This is the kind of work I am hoping I can do with face shop.

Huh, did we just get a troll?

"Huh, did we just get a troll?"
I just IM'd the Coords and Moderator to check it out.
Not worth any other reaction

LOL. So true.

For anyone who missed it, an unpleasant post about 4 or 5 posts back has been deleted (by the original poster, or a site admin).  It appeared to have been someone's clone account created today just to make a trollish remark.
Well gone.

i was wondering about that

Quote -
But maybe "others " can show you real cool good looking image from within poser ..
 

I agree that artists who show examples of  what Face Shop can produce can hide the ugly parts from view in their compositions. After all you can only show one angle at a time in a still and 99% of Poser users make stills, and should be satisfied with the Face Shop results.  But if you want to produce a avatar that is as good as the one you started with (i.e. James, Vicky etc) so you can use them in movies you need to make a face you can photograph 360. To do that you need to do a lot of post work and I have tried repairing the Face Shop face map with Photoshop alone which is like digging a ditch with a spoon. UV mapper isn’t much better nor Photoshop Extended (the most expensive). The best is a 3D paint program like Blacksmith 3D, or ZBrush. I use Deep Paint 3D which produces the results I am looking easily and quickly. Here are a couple of links so you can see the results. The first link will show the work flow and the second is a brief movie which will  show the avatar from different angles. And no, Bar-code, face room is not just as good because you need two photos and for my work that’s not an option.  I only use Poser to make movies and Face Shop is the only program that will let me make a character from any decent, single photo.
http://www.stevedraun.org/grant/grant.htmhttp://www.stevedraun.org/grantscreen/grant_fs.htm
Steve

Quote - 3) Pre-plan your points and lay them on your reference on photoshop. Also helps to pre-figure out the shape of the head and ears's placement. You will get a texture map with points drawn on it if you do this, but I only use the map as a guide for creating my own texture map, so this is no problem for me.

How do you get a texture map without the points?  Can you substitute the 'unpointed' image somewhere or at some other time?

Quote - 4) If your dot placements are bad you will know immediately because FaceShop will not have the head lined-up to match your reference. Click the back button and try again. (This is why it's important to refigure out where the ears are! The ears are usually the difference in the head's rotations and tilt)

I'm not sure about the ears.  I have an image with both ears clearly visible and the geometry head was basically a left-right mirror of the image.  In this case, the person in the photo doesn't have an exactly symmetrical face left-right (esp. the nose) and the nose may have caused FS a bit of confusion more than the ears.  :)  Unfortunately, facial symmetry is more a rare occurrence than asymmetry.

My own note: It is difficult to get good photos of a face in nice orthogonal and emotionless 'poses' unless you happen to have someone present to sit and let you take photos of them.  Here's where it would be great to have a way to do the ImageModeler approach and take a set of photos and correlate feature points between them.  Now you have a means to extrapolate the 3D surface more adequately despite the odd angles.  Maybe a future feature perhaps?

Quote - > Quote - 3) Pre-plan your points and lay them on your reference on photoshop. Also helps to pre-figure out the shape of the head and ears's placement. You will get a texture map with points drawn on it if you do this, but I only use the map as a guide for creating my own texture map, so this is no problem for me.

How do you get a texture map without the points?  Can you substitute the 'unpointed' image somewhere or at some other time?

I don't use the texture maps FaceShop makes, I use them only guides in creating a texture maps (such her is where the brow should be, here is where there is blush on the cheeks, etc). It would be nice if you could swap the photo with guides with a final photo, but as far as I know, that's not possible.

Attached Link: http://www.jupiter2consoles.com/LIStrailer.html

But your still stuck with using crapy jointed figures except Apollo. That's the bottom line and the best selling point of FaceShop. Your not limited in figure use. You can even use the poser figures with FS if you really wanted to.

Quote - Well just to show you what can be done using Poser's built in Face Room and Default Figures, The figures in this animation were all created using default Poser figures and Poser's Face Room.

That's really looks good!

Quote - > Quote - 3) Pre-plan your points and lay them on your reference on photoshop. Also helps to pre-figure out the shape of the head and ears's placement. You will get a texture map with points drawn on it if you do this, but I only use the map as a guide for creating my own texture map, so this is no problem for me.

How do you get a texture map without the points?  Can you substitute the 'unpointed' image somewhere or at some other time?

Quote - 4) If your dot placements are bad you will know immediately because FaceShop will not have the head lined-up to match your reference. Click the back button and try again. (This is why it's important to refigure out where the ears are! The ears are usually the difference in the head's rotations and tilt)

I'm not sure about the ears.  I have an image with both ears clearly visible and the geometry head was basically a left-right mirror of the image.  In this case, the person in the photo doesn't have an exactly symmetrical face left-right (esp. the nose) and the nose may have caused FS a bit of confusion more than the ears.  :)  Unfortunately, facial symmetry is more a rare occurrence than asymmetry.

My own note: It is difficult to get good photos of a face in nice orthogonal and emotionless 'poses' unless you happen to have someone present to sit and let you take photos of them.  Here's where it would be great to have a way to do the ImageModeler approach and take a set of photos and correlate feature points between them.  Now you have a means to extrapolate the 3D surface more adequately despite the odd angles.  Maybe a future feature perhaps?

Very intuitive note!
We are working on the next version of FaceShop where the whole business with dots is changing and will have a depper impact. It will also simplify the process a great dela.
Pls. stay tuned.
Laslo

Quote - But your still stuck with using crapy jointed figures except Apollo. That's the bottom line and the best selling point of FaceShop. Your not limited in figure use. You can even use the poser figures with FS if you really wanted to.

I didn't submit that link as a knock against FSP. It was just posted to show that the face room isn't as bad as people have been saying given the skill and effort to make it work as this person has shown.

I understand that. Didn't mean to make you think you had to deffend yourself.

Quote - > Quote - But your still stuck with using crapy jointed figures except Apollo. That's the bottom line and the best selling point of FaceShop. Your not limited in figure use. You can even use the poser figures with FS if you really wanted to.

I didn't submit that link as a knock against FSP. It was just posted to show that the face room isn't as bad as people have been saying given the skill and effort to make it work as this person has shown.

I agree with some points.
However, the limitations in Faceroom are many as pointed out.
Beside the fact that you are limited to Poser figures Faceroom normally it assumes that you have two (2) mugshots, front and side. Following from this, the biggest limitation in Faceroom is that the system assumes total front and total side shots. If you have anything else, say a 3/4 portrait or even worse, a head that tilts slightly up or down, you are completely screwed. Since all dots move mirrored, you can't move one side of the head differently than the other. This is really a major limitation and was one of the reasons for us for developing FaceShop.
In real life you simply don't find too many mugshots - most photos are either slightly turned or rotated from center.
Laslo

Well, I for one am glad to hear a developer who knows the situation and limits and intends to address them in a piece-wise realistic fashion.

As a developer myself, I realize the limitations and compromises that must be taken at times to produce working solutions to complex problems.  We all want that 'Make Art' button that models and textures the figures, rigs them, poses them precisely, lip synchs their morphs to any audio, tosses on the proper attire, and renders a spectacular movie awaiting throngs of paying viewers.  Eh hem, back in the real world, we must atomically strive for every participle of this 'dream' with backbraking endeavor.

Count me in as a beta-tester in your future prospects. :)

Hi!

At first, English isn´t my native language. So sorry if something in my words could be confusing. Hope you´ll understand.

I purchased FS a few days ago and sorry....I am very dissapointed because working with this tool isn´t as easy as it is promised and I am no beginner in 3D graphics and Poser. Especially regarding the issues I got because of hard errors in the 3D display (Palit Nvidia 7600 GS with latest drivers, WInXP, 2Gb RAM, 2,4 GHZ CPU). No other 3d application has any problems with this combination. Sometimes the preview in the right window shows only black or white flat shape of the head object and you are not able to adjust anything. This happen the most if I try to load a saved project, a in FS premade head object or when I want to refine a previous made morph with a new photo. So you are not able to do anything more. The basic procedure and the first run up to the first result work and it is no way to reply what causes this errors. For me it´s in that state absolutely useless and not worth the 50 bucks I payed, because I can get no satisfying result in the first run and refining is not possible because of the mentioned display issues.

Next is the on one hand nifty way to adjust the 3d head to the perspective in the picture but less ability to get it really fit. After several boring attempts in placing the points as accurate as possible on a face that is shown nearly in front (of course not exact symmetrical), I was not able to adjust the 3d head to the given perspective. Why is it not possible to make small fine adjustments to the 3D head in the right window after the point placing procedure?
Okay maybe I need a little pratice here, but now I it is how already mentioned in a post in this thread it could be faster to load a morph target in my favourite 3d application and do the morphs there on a template or work with the dials in Poser (and this works with a little patience too).
Another issue for me is the exported texture. On the first look it seems really nice but if you open it in Photoshop...hey guys..the postwork which has to be done to get rid of and correct the errors is as much work than creating it for myself from scratch, photo resource and a texture template for the used figure.

So, what can I do....keep it away and waiting for further improvements, trying more and more until I will get nuts or continue working with often useless results and making corrections in the normal way that means as much efforts as doing the whole project from scratch? Sorry, maybe that I am alone with this experience, I am nittpicking but for this price this tool should work without display issues and crashes. B.t.w. I really know the click-one-button-art.making-tool (didn´t expect to get one with FS) isn´t possible but a tool should be a helper during workflow.

Regards

Jochen

Jochen,

Grusse Dich! Ich habe Jahrenlang in Bonn gelebt - nur eine Stunde von Aachen!
In regard to display issues: pls. try to upgrade your nVidea driver - it usually solves the problem. I have nVidea GEforce 8600 GT and have just upgraded the driver - it makes all the difference.
In regard to problems with getting things right:
we are about to release a new version that has some significant improvements - it's a free upgrade to all FS users.
Laslo

Do you have any update features/specs available yet?

Thanks!

Cool a  new update. Will be waiting to hear when.

Quote - Jochen,

Grusse Dich! Ich habe Jahrenlang in Bonn gelebt - nur eine Stunde von Aachen!
In regard to display issues: pls. try to upgrade your nVidea driver - it usually solves the problem. I have nVidea GEforce 8600 GT and have just upgraded the driver - it makes all the difference.
In regard to problems with getting things right:
we are about to release a new version that has some significant improvements - it's a free upgrade to all FS users.
Laslo

Hallo Laslo!

Wir hatten ja schon per Email das Vergnügen :o)))))

I already had the latest NVIDIA-Drivers and the display issuses are still alive and healthy. As I told you that I work with 3D applications that are about some years old and I never had such issues there and b.t.w. no other application (Poser, Lightwave, Studio and so on) makes me such trouble like Faceshop actually does. I updated my graphics card last year to a Nvidia 7600 GS and everything works fine for me up to "Faceshop". From up my purchase I couldn´t use it well and I waiting for your update, hoping to get rid of the stupid errors I have constantly. Otherwise it will be absolutely useless for me. I am just working on a character where I planned to use Faceshop as little aid and now I managed the face morphs  with the traditional "turn the dial method" like I´ve done before, which is for me, by the way, actually easier to create like in Faceshop....;o)

Looking forward to test your new version.

Regards

Jochen