I despair. For over a year, if not a lot longer, I have berated RL for many things – one main bugbear being the removal of the once totally easy to use Decal features that could add tattoos or logos to skin or cloth. Read and weep for the old days:

iClone Character Creator provides Decal feature in the Texture tab of Modify panel. You may then use this feature to add tattoo,scars or any special patterns or prints onto the surface of the skin. The advantage is that you are able to scale, rotate or move the decal to any place on the body without the need to edit the original texture image of the body.

Note: ‘…you are able to scale, rotate or move the decal to any place on the body...’

Finally, CC3.3+ arrives and seemed to bring this function back. But no. We get one tattoo, (or scar or whatever), for the scalp and one for the body. These, even if we wanted to use them, can’t be resized or re-positioned, e.g. to the other arm – and if they can be then it is certainly not easy nor intuitive. But wait, we can do whatever we want (I think) if we layout $$$$. What a surprise, from free and easy, to reach for your wallet! And please note that tattoos are almost as common as eyes, ears and arms in today’s world so should be there, editable, from the start, just like it was. And please don’t tell me to create things in an earlier base and convert because that is the point – why are we reduced to going backwards to do something that is meant to be an UPgrade?

And if CC3+ fixes the tattoo problem (if you want to pay) what happened to a logo on a shirt? Again that was so simple but everything seems to have disappeared, unless the upgrade has pushed them in a dark corner,and if so, can someone please enlighten me on how to now go about this once dead-easy task?

Another bugbear is the chaos that is the contents etc. I have more choice of hair and eyes etc in iClone than I do in the more obvious CC. Why? Please, 'create' the cast in one programme – the one with the word in itstitle might be a clue which - and the other deals with sets, props and performance.Simple.

In fact the joys of upgrading meant I had to trace my purchases back in my account and reload 153 items - so far, there might be other things missing-, but before I went there, as a last resort, I had gone through all the Templates (odd name) of CC/2/3 iC5/6/7 Uncle Tom Cobley and all, etc in a fruitless and time-wasting search. Is it not possible to have one folder for shirts, or pants or coats etc that covers ALL versions as well as the two programmes? Though, as stated, they shouldn’t logically be in iC7 in the first place.

Thank god I am a casual RL user because I really would hate to have to cough up for CC4 or iC8, and I wish I had never bothered with CC3 because CC2 worked just fine. Rant over!

Black text on a black background is not really the best way to get your point noticed. 

To correct the text edit your post and select all the post text, click on "A Format" below the text window and then on the "Eraser". This will convert the text to a more readable colour. 





Gerry

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System: Win 10 Pro (21H2), Asus X99-E WS, CPU i7-5930K -3,5 GHz, 32 GB DDR4 2666-16 RAM, NVidia GTX 1080 Ti GPU - 11 GB VRAM(Driver Studio-536.99), Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB SSD, 6 TB HD storage.

@wires OOOPS! Thanks. However, I did read the preview, and confirmed it had been posted and it was fine then (seriously) so I'm going to put it down to RL censorship! :-)

The appearance editor for clothing was always there and has not changed and should still work. So you should be able to add decals to shirts:



The Appearance Editor now has three tabs. You want to select Outfits to access the editor for clothing. Select the outfit you want to change and click Activate Appearance Editor.

The familiar Appearance Editor screen appears and you can then select a decal option and apply a decal, just as in previous versions of CC. Of course, as before, this only works if the clothing has Substance material. 

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@animagic Many thanks! Got so frustrated didn't even think to hit the Outfits button. However, the process of adding ink to skin can not be that different so still fuming on having to fork out money for the once free privilege! 

on having to fork out money for the once free privilege! 

Hi Garry
To use decals you also need an additional package for CC 1 and 2: Essential Skin and Morphs.
Without this package, you couldn't use your own decals on your skin.
Greets Postfrosch



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@Postfrosch Bloody good point, one that was lost in time in my addled brain, I have a feeling I had the Essential clothes and that was on some offer, or bundled with something else. With regards to tattoos/scars, that makes my point even worse: I then have already paid to be able to do this! Not only that they took that ability away for about two years! I will shell out the money because scars and tattoos are pretty much the norm, a fact RL are fully aware of and no doubt I will have to pay again in three years! It's life! :-)

Just to clarify it was never a free feature as Postfrosh explained. In CC1/2 you had to purchase the CC Essentials and in CC3 you require the SkinGen Plugin. It's also important to remember that the SkinGen Plug-in decal features are massively improved over the earlier version, plus you get a large assortment of other advanced tools to work with that weren't available previously. You are not being asked to pay again for the exact same features.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Peter. Have purchased SkinGen. So far the best thing about it is liquid, a mere hint adds an authenticity that was missing. Tattoos are about the same as before but scars do look impressive. I would have been sold on liquid alone! It needs some work as it seems to be rather sweat intensive at the moment and a dedicated (animated?) tears would be phenomenal - I know there is a work around on this already but life would be easier if it came from RL.
So that's me eating humble pie! 
Trouble is, it is all putting a strain on my computer...