Hi there, hope this is the right forum for my question =o 

I'm something of a newbie to DAZ Studio, been using it for about 2 years since v1.5 and now using D|S4Pro, and I'm struggling with finding a decent tutorial on how to create a character package which I can install into my Runtime folder.

I'm interested in doing this primarily for personal use so I don't have a nightmare trying to re-create characters after re-imaging my pc and having to re-install D|S as scene files don't always open correctly or at all in some cases.

Is it even possible to create a character package using D|S or would I need Poser to do this? I truly have no idea and feel kinda stoo-hoo-pid looking at the 'Save As - DSF Character' or 'Save As - Character Preset' in the DAZ Studio interface and neither of those options ever work for me.

So any advice at all would be extremely appreciated pulls hair out surely it cannot be so difficult a task to package a character with the right morphs, skin, hair, etc? Help! Thanks in advance, hope to hear back soon =)

Regards,

Jude

What kind of character, and which figures? Is it just morphs, or morphs and textures, or are you wanting to include hair and clothing too? Are your morphs the purchased morph sets (or freebies), or are they morphs you've made yourself with DForms or in a modelling programme?

File folder set up is relatively easy.  I usually make the set-up on my desktop first then zip it and install it where I want it to go on my external Runtime set-up.

First folder: Runtime

Second folder inside of Runtime: Libraries 

If you have textures, then a second folder inside of Runtime: Textures

Click on Libraries and add the following: Character and Pose.  

*Character is where I place the basic character settings: inj/rem files, basic textures for the entire body, main eye, ect.  Pose I use for additional textures if I have them.

Inside both the Character and Pose folder you will want to add whatever your character's name is or label it for ALL of your personal character settings...Example: Dar's Digital Men

Inside the Character and Pose folder you can either keep all your files there, or add one more for each character you make- Example: Mikhail M4  and inside that, all of the inj/rem files and base textures.  

Same for your Textures.

Example of a set up:

Runtime>Libraries>Character>Dar's Digital Men>Mikhail>Inj/Rem files.

Runtime>Libraries>Textures>Dar's Digital Men>Mikhail>Face, Body, Limb, Torso, ect.

Runtime>Libraries>Pose>Dar's Digital Men>Mikhail>Fantasy Skin textures.

When you zip everything you take the Runtime folder with all of your files and compress it.  Once you unzip, you can simply choose your usual Runtime folder and it should unload everything where you need it to be.

Just remember to make your png files (Pictures to go with your Inj/Rem, and all of your set up materials) the exact same name as your pz2's.  

ANOTHER example: Mikhail_Fant_Eye.pz2 (What I label for his fantasy eye materials)

The png will be saved as Mikhail_Fant_Eye.png.

Hope that helps!  

@RHastletine~ M4 and V4 with their Morphs++ applied, then 'dial' their shapes, I don't know how to use DForms (but would like to learn), I want to save textures/skins and also include hair; for the fantasy characters, smart-propped wings, horns, tails, etc. Any pointers to tutorials and/or further reading (which I really do need) would be of great help, I appreciate your response~

@Darwin~ Thank you so much for taking the time & posting all the info, Nan did say you have a heart of gold =) I really appreciate it. I will give this a try, wish me luck!

D'aw.  :D  Thank you and I hope it does!

Using standard morphs helps since we don't have to worry about how to make the custom morphs into loadable assets. A character preset will store morph and material settings, ready to be applied to a newly loaded base figure - packaging that would be a matter of setting up the RuntimeTextures folder as DM describes, though a Character Preset is a native file so should be saved outside of the Runtime folder. If you want to store a character with hair, or with clothes, for your own use the simplest solution is to save a Scene Subset. The other option is to use a Wearables Preset for the hair or clothes and a character preset for the actual character.

Hi Richard,

Thank you for all the info, I'll save those notes for reference =) I sincerely appreciate your help!