Anytime commercial interests enter what was once a mainly amateur theater, things get nasty.

"Forgive the cynic in me, but they've risen because of folks like Catharina and Steffy -- and as we've just seen, it's their work that raises the quality bar for everyone else through the Magic of Photoshop." Well, no. While the work of Steffy and Catharina has been a useful driving force in raising the bar I think it is safe to say that their work is not unique or even (in the larger community of 3D work) all that ground breaking. Big fish indeed - but only in the little Poser pond. The work in the Poser community tends to track the work done in the bigger 3D world... not the other way around. No single artist is responsible for this... and it is disingenuous to say that all the excellent work out there is only possible because people are stealing the work. The creation of a photreal texture from digital photgraphy is hardly a unique skill... rare yes, valuable of course, a true talent for sure - but the world of textures will keep spinning without any one, two or three artists.

but the world of textures will keep spinning without any one, two or three artists. You sorta miss the point, Soul. Once those textures were released, they become a source point for a lot of people who... hmm... "borrowed" pieces of them for their own work. That's the cynic in me talking.

But Joey, aren't you just saying that the only ones that truly makes their own textures are the ones you mentioned? And that everybody else is stealing their (hard) work? That's quite an accusation in my ears. I hope that's not what you were meaning to say? One bad apple ect...

Only the cynical part of me, ma'am. Only the cynical part.

Hehe ok. As long as you can convince your cynical part that it MAY not be the truth :o)

Some more ruminations.... One way to step aside from the possibility of being targetted by copyright infringers is to do something unusual or difficult... in such a way that whomever is trying to steal from you will have to work at least as hard! This may be faulty, but I assume that a thief is either lazy or short of time, and neither condition is conducive to craftsmanship. There are a lot of regular textures for V2, goth textures for V2, tattoos all over V2, celtic designs on V2.... Except for the tattoos (many of which come from the sheets given out by parlors or downloaded from the tat sites) all of the textures I've seen have been symmetrical. This not only yields a certain beauty (the human mind loving order and symmetry), but means that the maker only has to do half the work. And, except for a rare artists such as Ecstasy, almost all of the textures are predictable and rather ordinary. Even the goth ones are predictable: white skin, black lips, red eyes... what is so revolutionary about that? A generic texture is easily copied. When I entered the make-over contest at 3dcommune, I wanted to do something different and difficult. The entries have been put into a package whose sales help the site, so I wanted my offering to be something someone didn't already have. Something distinctive. Getting an assymmetrical design to balance takes a lot more work and planning than simply flipping a design. I redrew this one many, many times until I was happy with it. One of the earlier versions had a dark outline, which I had to leave off the final (darned mask left too wide an anti-alias to have a 1-pixel outline), but it finally resembled what I saw in my head. I was pouring over Snowsultan's seam guide, however I still had to test the mask through various poses because of the stretching done by skin... even after I got it to wrap properly around the curves of the face. Plagiarists aren't going to spend testing time. Only a couple of people commented to me about this one... so I suspect that there isn't a market or desire for assymmetry. I've got plans to do the rest of the sequence anyway... because it is different and the only way I'm going to get that look is by doing it myself. Lyrra graciously sent me her lips for Cindy to work with, and there are a couple of other improvements I can make now. The sole way the market will grow is by people trying something different, but it is possible that difference has to come in tiny steps: witness car designs. The futuristic ones are just too different for the consumer to accept, no matter how much they demand newness and variety. But if you do what has already been done, often, how is anybody to tell that it is yours and yours alone? Meanwhile, I'm not too worried that somebody will take this make-up texture and steal bits from it and pass it off as theirs. It'd be too obvious... and plagiarists don't like to actually sweat over making something work. I want to apply it to Natalia, but won't be able to simply move bits around. I'll have to recreate it layer by layer and effect by effect. Then it will require testing through various expressions so that flames don't get lost in the dimples or shoot up into the hair if a brow is raised. A plagiarist would have to work even harder. Making something distinctive in the details as well as the whole may not offer a total safeguard, but it will offer identification... and with as sharp of eyes as this community has, that may be the best protection of all. This will protect your customers, too. Instead of yet another temple built out of primitives or another set of tribal tattoos or another pair of thigh boots with buckles all the way up... why not make something different. And about that symmetry? When I see a pair of jeans with the same wrinkles and folds on both sides, I just roll my eyes and keep going. Real people cross their legs and wear their wallet on one side and favor one knee if they kneel down to pick something up... and the wrinkles in their clothing reveal their habits. When I see a face with the same iris in both eyes, I keep going. Only stuffed animals have identical eyes. Assymmetry is more work, but details count... and in the future market looking real is going to be even more of a premium than looking perfect. Carolly

One of the problems as I see it is the fact that there are only so many things that can get a large sale base. There are lots of goddess Vicky textures in the marketplace partly because that's something that has potentially a very large number of buyers. You could spend 3 months making a detailed model of oh, let's say a steam calliope, put it in the marketplace at a price that reflects the amount of work that went into it, and find that not that many people really want a steam calliope, or at least, not so much that it's worth their while to buy it. It's hard for the marketplace to diversify in those circumstances.

Very true, Phantast. Look at the bestsellers and the what's hot list, and with only a few exceptions, it's all cheesecake. Genital props. Bondage stuff. Corsets. Morphs to make Vicky more shapely. Hair props and skin textures. Sexy poses and clothes. I can't blame vendors for making more of the same, when that's what sells.

i agree with the original post... I know what it is speaking about. I remember a time when BatLab had a freebie section with things that just makes some merchants here to pale in comparison. But batlab had to close this because the way the situatione volved. yes it is hard for freebies provider to spend nothing but TIME in their contribution. Webspace became a jungle... (with agressive popups, restrictiosn and stupid TOS sometimes or blatant hyppocrisy) Yes peopel complain about freebies. When i see a free package that lack something, i fill out the gap if i am able, or if the freebie still appeals me, i try to make my mind despite the lacks... I also see some freebies of very different levels but i dont shun anywone, in fact. Everyone contribute as he can. No matter how underlooked a contributor or freebie, as long as some persons find it useful, noone can deny the right to contribute. I even encourage (despite the sick context here) passive members (aka those withotu galleries or freestuff) to ever TRY out to make the communauty a bit more alive and fun. You cannot match some of the GODS of gallery ? Don't, what you cannot make with technics, just make it with humor, fun, imagination, whatever. Some are talented in something but cannot master every other things. Many professionnals or talented contributors on rosity cannot spare the time anymore to simple or cheerful or genuine work, a gap to be filled i guess... So far, i hope i'll can continue making freebies, no matter how lame they look or sound to most "poser gods" out there... As long as it just take me some of my spare time, i still have some joy making them for myself, and share them so it may please at least a handful person. Whenever i'll have to pay for giving out free things, that it will bring me problems, insults, suing or accusations, i'll stop wasting my spare time. As long as i do not loose anything but spare time, i'll keep on going...

I truly appreciate all the freebies that people have been providing. Admittedly, I've spent more time downloading than using all these freebies. I use Catfish (a freebie CD indexing program) to find items I'm looking for. I'm also slowly trying to index all the content I've got, with thumbnails and comments, to make it easier to find items I want to use. I'm starting to use that content because I'm finally using Poser to create drawings. There are a lot of great freebies out there and more of it is good than bad and a lot of it is incredible. There's the occasional clunker that I'll never use, but there's also a lot of stuff that will prove useful. It's just a matter of time till a particular drawing calls out for it. I wish there were more time to thank each and every individual that takes the time to provide something for free to the community, but I download far more stuff than I'll ever use (I have a horrible packrat mentality--but I also never know what I'm going to render next). There's just not enough time to thank everybody individually. I still need to look up zip files to let a few creators know that I'm using their freebies in my images. In the end, that's why creators are sharing their work--to see others productively using what they made. For everybody that has contributed to the community, I give my thanks. Don't let idiots dissuade you from what you're doing. There are always going to be freeloaders who think they deserve a free ride in life and never appreciate anything they receive. They don't represent the majority of people, but seem to have more time than brains to disparage things they should be grateful for.