I think you can import the FG Modeller obj as a waredrobe obj item and then carefully position it and use the DS 'fit the Genesis model head area' to the FG Modeller OBJ. You'd then want to export the Genesis model to Blender or something and sculpt it some more to more closely match the FG Modeller obj.
And trust me, its easier that way. I'm sure you might be able to make something work with just the modeler, but it will be a tedious and painful experience, LOL. With Facegen Artist it is one click to export to whatever Genesis 1,2,3,8 model you prefer. Facegen Artist has a free demo at the official facegen website. The demo is limited to export only G1 and G2 heads, and it will brand them with a "FG" on their forehead. But you can see what the app can do without having to invest in the paid version, and again, if you save the faces as .fg files you can load them up in the paid version or any other version of FaceGen. Give it a try.
If you are taking an obj and just applying it to a Daz figure, this will create a whole new mesh obj and not be recognized by Daz as a Genesis model. You would have to rig it. This can be done by using the Transfer Utility for a simple rigging. The figure will now pose, but the head will likely have issues trying to do any expression. To get better rigging you would have to manually rig the face, and that is not an easy task by any measure. There are tutorials for this.
I don't have zbrush but if you make sure when you project the DAZ Genesis figure such that it's shape changes to fit your FaceGen Modeller Head so that the number of polygons in the Genesis shape stays the same then it should work. If you are really good at it then you will get as good or better results as the FaceGen developers have done programmatically with FaceGenArtist Pro. You should know that that those developers likely use sophisticated mathematics to get nearest neighbor vertices & such which might get better results than you 'eyeballing it.'
So the zBrush sculpting Genesis model to fit the the FG Modeler obj should work very similar to the Poser 'paint a morph' onto a Poser model from another Poser model or obj file, if you've done that before.
Sometime back when I was taking a ZB course, we were tasked with taking photos from the side, front, back, whatever we could find, and modify a base head and then use Spotlight and polypaint to recreate the source. I had to modify skin colors to match and fill in what the photos did not give me.
Facegen uses its own head model, so the verts and polys won't match the Genesis head.
The more that I think about it, vertex projection is probably the wrong way to do it. The Facegen and Genesis head models are too different. I think Facegen is marking facial points on the Genesis model, which they have in common with their own head model, and then they run all vertices through an iterative solver or a morphing "black box". That's why Facegen unintentionally warps the eyes and jaw. So, in other words, they're transferring facial feature rules only, like the distance between the eyes, and then solving for those rules.
Facegen uses its own head model, so the verts and polys won't match the Genesis head.
The more that I think about it, vertex projection is probably the wrong way to do it. The Facegen and Genesis head models are too different. I think Facegen is marking facial points on the Genesis model, which they have in common with their own head model, and then they run all vertices through an iterative solver. That's why Facegen unintentionally warps the eyes and jaw. So, in other words, they're transferring facial feature rules only, like the distance between the eyes, and then solving for those rules.
I think you are right with that assessment. That's also why many FG made heads have a lot of similarities. Plus the Genesis head that FG creates is almost never just like the head you see in FG itself. My heads often come out looking fatter than I expect, and that drives me nuts. I'd really like to see FG fix that eye warping issue.
This is a tough one, but not impossible. You will have to use python or another compatible scripting language to do this quickly, but you can do this by hand and slowly if you're not practiced at programming. The idea here is that you will not be exporting your native model, but a base model that has been fitted to your form using a difference morph creator (which calculates the differences and generates body and face morphs accordingly), or using a hand tool to create each morph on the base model to get it to match your native model. Once you've converted them, you can save the model and await the overlay of the face. At this point, if you haven't downloaded the faceset for facegen that matches the base model, you should do so. Install the base set into facegen and open it. Now you can create your new face in facegen, using whatever method you find capitol among its toolset. Now you should be able to export the face to DAZ studio. Technically, the Artist version of facegen has the ability to do this directly, but you can utilize the same tools I describe above to match your native face to the modelled face, and tie it all up into a nice morph set.
Download the base model face set from Facegen that matches your base model in DS. Using this set, you should be able to get a face design from the Facegen app. There are two ways this can work from here on. If you have the Artist version of the Facegen software, you will have the ability to export to a DS compatible format, and it should work as a morph for the base face. If you have the Modeller set, you have access to the capability, but not so directly. You can download the artist version and run a fully functional trial (no watermark) in order to export the face, but you may have to reinstall every time, and you'll have to mess with your registry values to wipe a few things. Not fun. If you have both versions as a package deal, which they have pushed in a few instances, you should be alright, create the face in modeller, open it in artist and export to DS. If neither of these fits you, you'll export something you can import into DS as an object or garment, then you'll either use a script to map the morphs for the base face, or you'll morph it yourself. Technically, the object should contain the same mapping information as the base face, but the sizing measurement standards may be different. If so, you can also reset those for the object in hexagon or other software, then copy them and paste them over the mappings of a copy of the base face, save that from hexagon to ds. This can get slow, but it can work.
Personally, I prefer Reallusion software to facegen. They have an addon that allows you to import and export to different modelling software and they can mold their power to your pipeline. Facegen is more for the still life, and can be very helpful when creating still imagery or concept, but other than that, it just has too many limitations.
The easiest way I can think of right now is to use a combination of Facegen exchange, facegen ripper and importing headhuman into Facegen. that way I can transfer the Facegen properties via exchange and ripper to an npc and then just replace the texture that Facegen modeller photo fit created.
Make human is a nice package, but there are times I could see this package being extremely useful for those of us who are none 3D modellers and need to make a quick CGI head for a scene. $300 is something I could recoup in a single project.
In order for a piece of headgear or face part to know that there's an .EGM associated with the .NIF that orients it and locates it correctly on an actor, it must have the "facegen model availability" flag set. This command runs through all relevant objects and sets the flag appropriately.
FaceGen software is incredible. It has dramatically improved the production of heads for our latest game release[,] Agassi Tennis Generation 2002. The interface is a delight to use. Watching a face being created is a magical experience. The mere slide of a button can change [a] character from evil to nice, from black to white, from girl to boy. Frankly[,] using the software is an entertainment in its own right!
While FaceGen claims it "delivers high-quality characters with just the press of a button," what FaceGen in fact sells is an assurance of its ability to emit predictable sign systems, to produce a certain predictable intelligibility of, specifically, the face. This is a real selling point for a gaming designer tasked with the problem of creating a cast of characters that economically [End Page 185] read as truly evil or merely a little villainous, wildly wanton or chaste and virtuous, or admirably heroic or painfully introverted, thereby contributing an ease of understanding to the game's internal narrative or, as the designers themselves like to characterize it, making the virtual gaming experience more "intuitive." In 2003, a product review column on Gamasutra, a website devoted to the video game development industry, gave FaceGen a four-star rating and described its capabilities this way:
FaceGen Modeler 2.2 is the newest version of the face and head creation from Singular Inversions. It has been designed to allow a user to create custom, unique faces faster than traditional 3D modeling packages typically allow. To customize the pre-made and randomly generated heads, FaceGen comes complete with a simple yet powerful modeling toolkit. It differs from a traditional 3D modeling package in that geometry is not directly manipulated on the vertex/face level but through a series of sliders that control all aspects of your model. For example, if I create the face of a young woman and then want to change the model to reflect an older age, rather than push and pull vertices I use two sliders that control age, one for the geometry and one for the texture. Move them forward, and cheeks lose their fullness, the nose grows, and the skin weathers, all based upon the face's natural aging process. It works remarkably well, and this is how everything in FaceGen functions. There are also sliders that control masculinity and femininity, race, symmetry, and realism.
7fc3f7cf58