Every once in a while, I see something in the the MP I might be interested in, then look at it, and there's nothing there that tells me anything about the product. You can have the best product in the world, but if you don't tell the buying public, we don't know. Simple advice (please everyone, feel free to add to this). 1) Who is this product for? V3? M3? The Dork? 2) What does it include? What props specificly, what clothing? What furniture? Don't make me have to go to the readme.txt file to find out. 3) If it has morphs, what are they? Clothing that says "morphing" should have a list of the morphs. Characters too. 4) You can put 3 pictures up, please use all three. I'd like to see everything with as much detail as possible, from as many angles as I can. Come on, I want to spend my money. Give me a reason why your product is the one to spend it on.

Ditto to the above & I'll add one thing: If your presentation does NOT include the textures that you are presenting the image say so!!!!! I've bought several items only to discover the textures the merchant is supplying are NOT the ones used to make the presentation....GRRRRRRRRRRRRR...Instead I get a lesser quality textures, that's not even remotely close to what has been presented and was NOT indicated in the read-me. And please do your object parts in ENGLISH...I can't read foreign languages.

Good point. Don't do your product images with textures that aren't included in the package please. And no post work in the renders. I want to see what I'm buying. And English is important. Some of the best vendors aren't English speakers, but a majority of the buyers are. The first time I ask for support on a product and I can't get it because the vendor doesn't speak English will guarantee that I'll never buy another product by them.

Been there done that :( Let me add..I've bought some trees..that look great in the presentation...only to find when I load them into Poser..the leaves look boxy & have tidbits around the edges where in ones paint programs they didn't bother to erase/feather the selection & has left black tidbits surrounding the leaves. ARGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I can easily fix these items but why should I have too???? Sorry for the rants...but I never complain about anything, I just quietly try to figure out how to fix. :(

Message edited on: 06/29/2004 18:40

Please, in the name of all that is good and decent, give your textures unique names. Even just throw your initials onto it. "Red.jpg" causes problems; if there's more than one textures with that name, Poser can grab the wrong one. "Red_kd.jpg" is less likely to have that problem. I know it sounds minor, but I am really really sick of having to spend half an hour or more on individual products renaming textures so Poser don't throw a hissy and then repointing the files to the new textures. If I have to do that with one your releases, you're going to have to be REALLY good for me to bother with a second purchase.

As Jim (may I call you Jim? I'm not sure what chunk of your SN to grab. ;) ) said, use all three items. You made this totally rocking thing; show it off. Show it from the back! Let me see that it rocks from all angles. If it's a texture set, show the seamlines. You went to a lot of work matching them, let me see that. Show me how your product is different and better than anything else I could buy.

Also, change your focal length. When I see the default Poser "fish-eye" effect --and I can tell it at a glance-- I think "this person does not know the program very well", and I do not buy. The human eye can be approximated by a focal length of 50 to 60, and closeups often look good with something between 70 and 120. Poser's default is a nonsensical 38, which looks distorted because, well, it is distorted.
(BTW, don't build your morphs using Poser's default focal length. I've done this and regretted it; they look warped under a more natural length.)

My sister reminded me of another of my major pet peeves. "No highlight" versions of all eye textures! I have so many eye textures that are utterly useless to me because they have painted on highlights that don't match my lighting/scene. Sometimes I can take them out, but it's a pain, and often it doesn't work. Highlighted versions are fine, too, but please include the straight version without highlights.

...you can call me anything you like! I usually go by Jim. BTW, thanks for all the freestuff! It's really appreciated! Jim

Oh...One more item...if it's a utility that you are selling ie..magnet set/script or what not PLEASE give a tutorial or PDF on how to use the darn thing....

I keep thinking of things the longer I sit here & ponder as to what annoys me LOL.

Message edited on: 06/29/2004 19:29

I don't think it will happen, but what I would like from Merchants: clothing mechants... 1. show groupings with color coding. Some merchants do this and it really is nice to be able to turn a t-shirt into a tanktop or a short mini t-shirt, but only you can show us that and words aren't as good as visuals. 2. show a no texture image of the clothing. Why? cause you could be a great texture artist and a horrible modeler, and I get stuck with your model and can't do much with it. you might suck at texturing, but your model may be really good. I have done texture fills on some really badly textured clothing items I have bought, but the clothing model is just great. 3. show more than just a frontal shot. prefer many angles of the clothing, JUST the clothing rendered. You may have a great morph and character for a model, but if your selling clothing I want to know about that, use your 3rd preview pic for a look what I can do promo pic.

Okay, I'll add a couple tips.

Hair:

• don't display hair against a black background. Too much gets hidden. If you made some great hair (or better textures for existing hair), show it against white or a bright color so a prospective buyer can see how good it looks.
• Don't just keep showing the same view with a different color texture; show the hair from the front, the sides, the back, the top.
• Does it have morphs? Don't just list them, show me, and give me good angles so I can imagine many ways of utilizing it. The more I can see of it, the more likely I am to want it.

ReadMe's:

• Don't name your ReadMe file "ReadMe" or "readme" or "read_me". Name it "MyProductName_readme" or "MyName-MyProductName"
• Don't install your ReadMe to a special "YourNameReadMes" folder under my Runtime because I'm going to delete it from there and remember that you gave me extra work to do. Put your ReadMe with your product library folder. That's where I'll be able to easily find it when I need it because that's where the item (character, hair, pose, etc.) resides and is easy to reference.

Message edited on: 06/29/2004 23:58

I will throw in a request and a comment. Request: If it's something that moves, please make it moveable. I do more animation than stills. I want stuff that can be animated. Comment: Read Me's. I put all mine in a folder called Documentation on my system. I do it after I install something, and then I simply copy the file into that folder. If your readme is named "readme", it will be overwritten by the next cheap but cool looking freebie I download and I'll not be giving ya credit. There is a major brokerage that Requires them to be in a separate folder within Runtime. I don't like that. But since I know that everyone has different rules, I'll live with it :) My readme's go into a folder that resides alongside the Runtime folder -- like in my own system. I name them all, and they have their own nice neat folder for them :) I simply put all my readme's

Good list. :) A few people already mentioned they like to view the product from all angles, etc. I would like to add that it is also nice if the product is lighted enough in the product images. For example if you sell a clothing item with textures I want to be able to view it properly. I don't like promotional images that are so dark I can hardly see the product. It is simply not possible to make a judgement over the product that way, and therefor I won't buy it.

Sometimes people are better modelers or texturers than they are image artists. If this is the case, don't be shy about offering trades for promo images. I know a lot of very good artists who do this in exchage for product. It doesn't hurt to have gallery preview images either. Show your product in use!

There's another good bit of advice (although it comes from someone who doesn't sell, so keep that in mind.) Have both "artistic" and "technical" beta testers. It's good to have testers who will post gallery pics and help drum up sells, but you also need people who will brutally try to break it -- bend models in unexpected ways, flip characters upside down to see how textures blend at the feet, and so on. I think it'd be good to have both.

Very true! I cannot agree more about the importance of thorough beta testing before a product is even submitted to a store.

Ok I'm not gonna complain but rather thank all of you who have taken the time to list your beefs. I'm getting ready to submit my first market items in the next few days (I hope) and the above list has given me much food for thought :-) I shall do my best not to screw up :-)