An Examination At The Increasing Similarity of Recent G9 Characters (CLOSED)

Here are some of the latest Genesis 9 head morphs released between December 2024 and February 2026.

After studying them, a clear pattern emerges: many of these characters appear to rely on an almost identical base morph, with only minor proportional adjustments layered on top.

As you watch the next GIF, concentrate on just one feature during each loop: first the lips, then the nose, then the brow ridge... 
The similarities become more and more obvious the longer you observe them.



Just by analyzing the first two heads in the GIFs, which are Sylvia and Valenia, the similarity is undeniable:

The comparison between Sylvia the Dryad (December 2024) and Valenia the "Dragoness" (November 2025) shows two characters separated by nearly a year of releases, yet structurally they are nearly indistinguishable. Bone structure, orbital shape, philtrum length, jaw taper, lip volume distribution... the underlying architecture is functionally the same.

This is not an isolated case. The same base structure appears to cycle through: Madison Haerin Audrey Brianna Leona
And again through: Cecelia Lyna Wendy Kayla Lauryn, in no particular order in any of both groups.

Despite different themes, skins, makeup, and marketing angles, the cranial proportions, facial planes, and soft tissue distribution repeatedly converge toward the same template. When someone says "yet another white girl", it's not hyperbole, the structural familiarity triggers recognition in the viewer's mind.

Then we have the Male characters:

The male releases show slightly more variation overall, but even there, the same Sylvia-Valenia phenomenon appears (e.g., Lucas, January 2025 > Charlie, March 2025 > Julian May 2025). The structural recycling is less aggressive, but still present.

When examining texture sets, the pattern continues.
In most cases, what is being sold as a new character primarily consists of:

• A new Diffuse map with its SSS (sometimes highly detailed, sometimes noticeably soft and blurry).
• A Normal map that may add subtle detail, or none of significance (most releases are not even getting nipples or navels, relying on the 8K detail map from 2022).
• Roughness maps that are frequently reused from the original Genesis 9 2022 base release. (Some characters do include genuinely custom Roughness maps aligned with their Diffuse textures. But these are not the norm, they are the outliers.)

You can verify this yourself.
Open the texture folder. Switch to "List with details." Check file creation and modification dates. The contents and the timeline tells its own story.

So the release pipeline is consistent: 
Each release rebrands a familiar facial architecture with a new theme, perpetuating a design formula rationalized by the claim that it is what "sells the most."
The marketing changes. The geometry does not.

At a certain point, this can no longer be described as character development. It becomes systematic reuse.
When production volume takes precedence, originality declines. What we are witnessing is not iterative refinement. It is assembly line character design.
And this pattern is not limited to a handful of flagship characters, it reflects a broader production model increasingly visible across daily releases in general.

We are witnessing fast fashion applied to 3D assets.

This is not new.  My first few DAZ purchases (especially the males) were very similar to the base G8M model in it's entirety..  I would stack my new models in the same space as a base G8M.  In many cases, the differences were subtle and visible as slight "bumps" to the base G8M.  Honestly, based on the number of characters for sale, buyers appear happy to buy those subtle changes baked in instead of shopping for and fiddling with morphs.  Personal preference I guess.

You have a point and you are correct in your analysis, all I'm pointing out is the same thing was happening in Genesis 8 too.

There is a narrow range of what most people consider "traditionally attractive"in human faces in western culture.
So it makes sense that this range is going to show up over and over in the Daz Genesis character morphs.
Daz character artists have to work on volume to make it even economically viable.
So it is no surprise that as a matter of efficiency, they tend to fall back onto relatively limited number of preset base shapes.

From my personal perspective as a CC, it is sometimes not easy to model/sculpt a new character that does NOT look like the base figure (G9, G8, etc.).

In addition, the further a face deviates from the base, the less it will work with standard morphs (facial expressions) later on. This means that in this case, you have to work with either JCM or your own facial expressions for this model. Both require more work to create than a model with a similar face.

I found that there was much more real variety with Vicky Four.  I have a few dozen V4 characters that see regular use.  Gee-ate, maybe a dozen?  I don't bother with Gee-damn-nine.

Genesis 8 did a much better job of diversity.  I think of Old Jeb, Tennesse, George, Floydd,   

For the females, If you have one Mousso character,  you basically have them all.  Blue Jaunte's characters have a bit of uniqueness. 

My two cents are these:

1. The vertex count you work with does not vary.
2. The general topology of the human skeleton hasn't changed in millions of years, so yes, we humans all look alike, with variations within a relatively small spectrum.
3. The vertex count you work with (even with subdivisions) exacerbates point #2.
4. As someone else mentioned, pretty people don't have witch-like noses. Unless you are into witches, but that's another topic.

Sometimes I wonder what makes the bigger difference: Morphs or Textures

I've often chalked this phenomenon up to the individual preferences of the artist in question. Not even picking on any one in particular, but it's not uncommon to scroll an individual store and notice that the characters, while attractive, all look kind of... related. In some cases, you're quite visibly looking at multiple variations of the same chick.

And I don't say this to throw stones. As a "director," I have similar tendencies. While I strive for body type and ethnic variety in my silly, wacky adult comics, my leading ladies will almost always be thicc and extra curvy, often with full and sensual lips. I'm the director; I get to cast them how I like.

Anyway, for vendors it's also worth considering it may just be a matter of workflow efficiency. From a business perspective, if you're trying to iterate multiple products, you logically look for shortcuts and try to reduce friction. There's a risk in overdoing it, but again, that sounds to my ears more like being in a rush than anything shady. 

Interesting thread.  And I agree with just about everything that's been said.  Can't help but think that we're all looking for a solution,  or desperately waiting for DAZ or whoever to come up with something new, something hot, something marketable.  Hence you end up with Genesis 1 to 9.  When you're working with just a handful of base figures and consequently the same rigging and workflow how can we expect something new or unique, when we're all using the same bases.  There a a gazillion morph packs, that we eat up like candy, hoping that we can create something, new or different, when in fact, we're just pushing around a bunch of standardized set of vertices hoping to achieve the impossible.  I think we have to ask ourselves, Do we want to make 'Art" or do we want to make money,  and I think most are in it for the latter.  Just my opinion.  

in the end,  all the morph packs,   meet the standard definition of "derivative" ,  original will not happen,  because it can't.  

What has been said for the missing diversity of head shapes is also true for body shapes.
There are either minimal changes to the Base Feminin Shape or otherwise heavily stylized, toonish body shapes.
In my experience, purchasing characters is quite often disappointing.

Compared to G8 the 'diversity' in characters is woefully lacking!

Interesting so far.

My take on it is that character releases have always been very "samey" from many creators, but if you shop around you can find characters that are more varied.  I don't know if G9 characters are less varied; I don't even have Genesis 9 installed because I see no reason for me to bother.  There is plenty of content for the Genesis 8 figures and I have no desire to buy the same stuff all over again for a different figure.  I have plenty of variety in my Genesis 8 characters and their clothing and accessories, and as time goes on I am buying less and less 3D stuff for them because of this.

Some creators do make variations on the same face over and over, though that face is not like the face that a different creator makes over and over.  With such product lines it may make sense to buy one to get the characteristic "look" that they have if you like it, but once you have one of that creator's products you won't want more from them.  This is what I have done sometimes.  There have always been a few character creators that do better though, so if you shop around you absolutely can get some diversity.  Plus for Genesis 8 using the morph packs can get you a fair number of characters that do look different.  The problem then is finding skin textures that help make them even more diverse.  Two characters that have significantly different face shapes but the same skin texture maps will not look as different as they should.  For this reason I often download Genesis 3 free characters and I don't even install them.  I just unzip and grab the skin textures to add variety to my Genesis 8 creations.  So far I have not found any G3F skins that don't work on G8F.

For figures and clothing I have nearly stopped buying.  There are a few such items on my wishlist but most of what I need in those lines I already have.

What I seek most nowadays is places; interiors, landscape assets, stuff like Stonemason's Urban Sprawl 3 and The Streets of Utopia.  I also customise a lot of the sets I have, sometimes in a modest way and sometimes quite drastically.

I also don't use any of the DAZ Studio products I buy in DAZ Studio.  They all get ported to Blender using Diffeomorphic, so I get the far better rendering and stability that Blender offers.  Blender also allows me to very easily start customising stuff with the modelling and shading tools it has.