Hi everyone- I emailed DAZ with an idea for replacement heads for the millenium figures. My though was that it would be a great way to create variety of character at a low cost - since they only need to develope a new head it would cost less for them and us. This is the reply I got: ---- Aharon, What a great idea. I hadn't even thought about it. I forwarded your email onto our production team for evaluation. They make all the creative decisions. So we'll have to wait and see. Thank you for your suggestion. We appreciate it. Thanks, Reba Vest DAZ Productions www.daz3d.com ---- So, if you think it is a good idea, you should email them or post a response here. They create things based on demand, so they need to hear your voice. It would only serve to make Poser even more versitile. Thanks. Aharon

great idea!! along with 47page - how to get a head to stick on to you new headless millenium figure - tutorial!! L.. but seriously. anything that can cut the cost on both sides of the fence has to be a good thing. actually sticking heads on is probably the easy part getting them to stay there is another matterL. also if your idea were to be implemented production times would drop too (hopefully) meaning more variety - faster. it's all good from here. thumbs up and a pat on the back :D Dolphy..

I saw this coming weeks ago, when DAZ released the Millennium Teeth. We now have replacement teeth, replacement eyes, replacement heads (Anton's Halloween Heads), swappable monster parts and wings, etc.

Eventually, DAZ will sell its figures piecemeal, and we'll assemble our dream characters online from a menu of body parts before clicking the Buy button.

Examples of this Frankenstein approach to figure design can be seen in bloodsong's Dragon Factory, Curious Labs' Avatar Lab, and FXRealm's CreatureCreator.

I figure that the figures will already be connected to the appropriate body via a CR2 file (same as Mike 2 P4 and Vicky 2 P4 characters)- Otherwise getting it to move and stay and morph could be a real hassle. Regardless of how they do it, I think it would sell well.

Sounds like a great idea! You've got my vote. Dave :-)

Excellent idea, another vote.

I also think it's a great idea. I'm sure DAZ would figure out a way to make the head swappable with the default head of the figure. I'm sure they'll find a way to make it a one-click procedure for transplanting the heads. This is a very exciting idea. I hope they give it serious consideration. Melanie

Even if their isn't a headless torso, that you add heads to, they could most definately just create a head, and attach it in their in house studio to a torso and then viola... a new character. Although the swappable heads is a great idea.

come on people, you guys are missing something serious here. A new head is nothing more than a morph and can be sold in that fashion. Another idea, well, look at Anton's magical changing armour. Could swap out head files that way no?

i got a good idea how about clothes for mike2 with all the morphs

KattMan's right, the heads would have to be radically different to justify new geometry, rather than a simple morph. Something like a cyclops, three-eyed alien, monster with insect-like compound eyes and pincher-jaws, animal heads, etc.

I don't agree with KattMan and Little Dragon. I would love to have the ability to create new characters by changing heads. And when I say heads I mean everthing from the neck up including hair, eyes, teeth etc. Why would this be of value to me? For so long I have watched the boards for Poser people. Not people with all the morphs and stuff but just a complete person that I can load in and use by just applying the clothing I choose. Some would call this a modified version of dressing up Barbie, but Barbie brings in millions of dollars each year and to a certain extent in a different context that is what I want to do. I'm not interested in the personal artistic creation of faces that morphing allows, I just want different looking people to occupy my Poser world. All the morphs bloat the figures too much. A crowded Poser world runs too slow. I just want the people, not all the possibilities of the characters. It seems many artists have created different characters using texture maps but from a distance all still look the same because most of those texture maps are applied to standard shaped heads. In addition, using texture maps applies another level of bloat to a crowded Poser world. I hope DAZ and some of out tremendous modelers chose to take up this challenge.

Bam, What you are talking about is actually MOR pose files, or even just face files. I think this is what Metacreations had in mind when they created the different characters for posette and dork, though I think they failed on that one. Now I know the morph is still there, but I really doubt anyone would get rid of them. The problem is the fact that if you remove them all you have is a static head and you run into the same problem you are talking about here. Everyone looks the same.

I can see where there would be a market for something like this but I'm with KattMan and Little Dragon on this. The possibilities for Daz characters to look anyway you want already exists (or can be created) without having to buy a new head when you want something different. For someone who hasn't yet learned, or has no desire to learn, how to do it this would be perfect for but isn't one of the fun things about Poser creating a look on your own?

It's true that you can change the look of michael and vickey in a lot of ways, but you are limited the mesh shape - Once you do enough changing of the mesh - the other basic morphs like Phonemes, open mouth, smile, raise eyebrows... etc. start to conflict with the morphs you've made, creating weird creases and faces you don't want. The advantage here would be variety at a cheep cost with even more possibilities for working faces.

SO these new heads would need a complete set of morphs to work with them also. Actually this isn't a bad idea, and why limit it to just DAZ creating them. Essentially what you would need is the CR2 that referenced mikes OBJ file, then in the section for the head give an alternategeom so that you will have the new head. Taking this idea further, using the same technique for pose files, you can have a new alternate geom added to the figure using this I believe. At that point all the user would have to do is change the "Change Head" Dial. THis is similiar to the way the genitals are done. I'm just unsure if the new dial will show up when you import in this fashion. Biut of course durng that pose import you can have the default set to the value that would load this additional head. The only requirement is that the head has the exact same vertices where it joins the neck as the original head. Of course then you need an entirely new UVmap and texture for this head, but seeing how the mike figure already uses a separate map for this I don't think it is that much of an issue.

KattMan, Yes, I would love to see more face files. Multiple character pose files are what I like to do. "I think this is what Metacreations had in mind when they created the different characters for posette and dork, though I think they failed on that one." I'm not sure what you meant here. What different characters? Are you referring to Vicky, Posette, Stephanie etc. or do you mean the Soccer player, race car driver etc at Zygote/DAZ? I believe that Zygote/DAZ also has(d) other nude characters they created, but as far as I can tell there isn't any clothing for them. "The problem is the fact that if you remove them all you have is a static head and you run into the same problem you are talking about here. Everyone looks the same" I'm not referring to removing the morphs (changes). I want the morphed face to be available, but the ability to change the morph be removed (I think this would save memory when using multiple characters in a scene). bigdog1, ..."but isn't one of the fun things about Poser creating a look on your own?" For some this is true. I think that's what makes Poser so great - people see in it what they want - animation, people, animals, character creation, set design etc. But, I'd like to encourage those people who like making characters to consider making unique individuals (hair, eyes, skin, nose, lips, and even breasts, height etc.) for the Poser world and reduce unnecessary file size. I wouldn't mind buying (not too expensive) a Larry, John, Alex, Susie, Mary, Colleen, etc. based on Posette, Vicki, Stephanie, Dork, Michael. As long as they were complete, head to toe, and I could apply clothing and place them in my Poser world.

Bam, take a look in your people folder, you will see the Poser 4 nude man (Dork) and the Poser 4 nude woman (Posette) in there. Now open your characters folder. There you see different male and female characters all with different names. These characters are all based off of Posette and dork. The characters in this library are what I was refering to the differetn characters for posette and dork. As for your second point. You misunderstand me here. Let's say I make a great aboriginal head for the dork. You place this head on him as a replacement for dorks head. Now you want to close his eyes, or open his mouth. Well you need to have those morphs there. Due to this you are not going to see any change in expression if you remove the morphs. This issue has already been addressed with the fact that others have created morphs for totally new characters already and you can download just that face morph. You need the other morphs or every image made with this character will suffer from the fact that you will be limited to the expression provided. No change in mood or feeling will make an image flat and lose interest. If you really want to see what I am talking about, you will need to know how to make a conforming figure. But anyway, use the original posette model and create a new character using this model but with no morphs. You will get what you want but you will see the problem with the lack of expression in dofferent scenes.

Thanks, I have some more studying to do.