I'm not sure if this is the right forum to bring this up (and maybe people don't want competition!), but what items do people tend to need most? And what standards do buyers hold for various items? Specifically, since my questions are a bit broad, there are two areas in which I think I can contribute to the marketplace (and help pay for my digital art addiction if not grad school!): 1) Poses -- I've been in the martial arts (freestyle wrestling, karate, taiji) since I was a kid. I have lots of knowledge, DVDs, books (and bruises) on martial poses. I've seen several martial arts pose collections, but I could contribute sets that are more within traditional lines of some arts. In other words, a more complete set of this or that school's poses, as opposed to a collection of various poses from here and there. 2) Textures -- I can photograph very high resolution photos and have studio lights (would need to buy a simple backdrop). If I can make some money, I can also pay some excellent male models. I live in an area where there are tons of fitness obsessed men of all races, ages and sizes. Are women textures needed more since female nude is so much more often used in digital sci-fi stuff? Or would men textures sell well, as there seems to be a lack of them? Last question: how many sales would be a decent amount for an average product over about 6 months? What about above average product? Thanks for any thoughts!! -Doug PS I'll by posting some more of my art later. My non-3d art can be seen at http://www.dougrhess.com/artindex2.htm

Simple answer is 'what would you buy?' I, personally, don't buy pose packs as a general rule. Figure if I need a pose I'll just edit a pre-exisiting one. But judging from the amount of pose packs in the various stores there seems to be a market for them. Give away some freebies to get yourself know in Poserland first ... start building your rep. Extremely hard work to go from photographs to textures. It isn't just a case of taking some photos, then applying them to your 3 character. If you like hard work, and are prepared to put yourself into it, you could become the next Morris or Dalanise of skin textures :) There isn't anywhere near as many GOOD male textures out there, and honestly female textures are a dim a dozen thesedays. I'd pay to get some more varied male textures. Standards .. .tricky question that. For one, it depends on what store you sell at. The only criteria to sell here is that the item works in Poser correctly. To sell at Poser Pros the item should be good quality, presented well and work correctly in Poser. I don't know about other merchant/brokers, but I have my own standards that I work to. And my team of beta testers make sure I stick to it :) I don't think I'd be making as much as I do if my work was below standard. There's nothing worse than buying a product that does not do as proclaimed, or is shoddy work covered up by spiffy promo images. This business is alot about reputation, so be aware that if your work is crap, the word will spread quite quickly. Don't limit yourself to one store. There are bunches of them and some are better than others. It's hard to give an average amount made within a 6 month period. Many factors change this through any given month. But I would say that a new seller makes less his/her first year. When I first began selling I was making pocket change. That was a few years ago. Now I make enough to support myself and my children. Hope that helps :)

I second everything Xena said. Pose packs are everywhere, so someone buys them. Specialty pose packs don't sell as well as general ones, because you have to need the specialty pack for something, while a general one can be used as a basis for other poses. Textures are another story. A good photorealistic texture can bring anywhere from $10 to $30. They aren't easy to make, and often they the creator becomes enamored with what they can do in Photophop and adds too many effects. There's tons of good female textures, and much fewer male textures. I buy every good male texture I can find. One thing a lot of newbies forget is the more versitle your product, the wider the audience. If you do a make texture package, it'll sell better if it has a bearded face texture and a shaved face texture. It'll sell better if it has a clean body texture and a tatted texture. The same holds true for props and figures. The more morphs, the better it sells. Another area to look at may be clothing textures. Good clothing textures sell. They have to be detailed and rich looking though. Finally the best advice is to make some things and post them as freestuff. The first few things you do may not be the best quality. And quality counts when your putting Poser products up for sale. It's the repeat buyers who'll put food on the table. People will see that your work is improving, and be willing to invest in your first for-sale product. I made 5 freebie clothing sets for M2, a couple for Ichiro, and 1 for Koshini before I got brave enough to sell. But all the freebies were a good investment. People buy my stuff now with confidence because they've seen how my work has improved. I'm not a Xena yet, but give me time (grin).

Cool. Sounds like I'll take advantage of my photo editing skills and the excess of men in my n'hood and try textures. I'm in no rush. What utilities do you need besides poser and photoediting software? I have a high end camera and printer (for testing). What guides or patterns are around to start with? Thanks. I'll be cranking out studs for you in no time! :-) (Freebies to helpers!)

Patterns, or rather templates, for the male characters Daz sells at the bottom of their product pages. I'd make the texture for either M3 or David (who have templates so close it doesn't matter which one you make it for). They're the biggest sellers and the popular figures right now. Advice: Look at one good texture before you ever start. Something photorealistic to get the idea of how to stretch and fit the textures. Also, avoid any highlights on the skin and eyes. We can add these in Poser, and they can detract from an otherwise good texture. There are some really good tutorials available on how to texture. It takes more patience than I have to do them. When you get around to needing beta testers, keep me in mind. I've got just about every male texture and figure available, and I love to see new ones.

Thanks. I assume what works in P4 works in PP and P5? I have David, so I'll start there.

Oh yes, great place to start. Many people are saying David has been overlooked. Find the SnowSultan template guides (here in free stuff or at the Daz forum). Not sure if there is a David specific, but the M3 one will work just as well I think. P4 uses .bum format for bump maps, Poser Pro Pack uses .bum or .jpg for bump maps. Poser 5 - I'll leave that to someone who owns it to answer :) Pdxjims is right. Go and buy a terrific photorealistic texture (Morris or Dalanise are my personal recommendations) to get a feel for how it's done. Most importantly ... good luck :D

Poser 5 can also use both BUM or JPG, but JPG gives much better results.
I highly suggest creating a bump map as well as a color map for your texture set. Many (all?) photorealistic sets forgoe the bump map on the belief that their texture is so realistic that it doesn't "need" one. While many certainly look nice without, I have yet to see one that isn't improved by adding even just a generic bump map. It helps take it from "nice render" to "wow, is that a photograph?" This is especially evident in Poser 5, which has better materials and rendering engine than its predecessors.

Male figures would be excellent. Some textures I have previously searched for and found very little available in are 1) realistic non-caucasian figures with special attention to hands, feet, and other color variation across the body, and 2) baby-faced characters of any race. A character set with a baby-faced head option that could be used on younger teens as well as one with more visible hair folicles/possibly stubble for older men and a beard option would be highly desirable to me.

As for poses, I rarely buy sets, but when I do it's usually for a accurate, well-research, specialized one. (Most recent purchase was a set of accurate ballet poses.) There's a lot out there, but much of it is same old same old. You might consider, as time allows, doing some accurate martial arts poses on the side; make sure you advertise them as being accurate, not more Hollywood-ish "basically looks like" stuff.

Message edited on: 10/03/2004 11:03

Thanks!

That was really nice of you guys to take time to give thoughts and opinons. Really nice!

BTW, great photos, Chuck!

"BTW, great photos, Chuck!" Why, thank you. BTW, what hi-end camera do you have?

I have the Olympus E-10. It's dated, but still very effective if you now it's quirks. For very close up photos. Like hair on the skin, I use an old Olympus 2020. It's only 2 megs, but has incredible macro clarity. Someday I'll move up to the newer SLRs, but for this project and other stuff the 4.1megs E-10 is perfect.

When it comes to skin tone, is it possible tosimply take one texture and adjust the hue and saturation? I assume that is what is often done for some variety. Is this best done in poser materials control box, or in the texture jpg file? Thanks.

"I have the Olympus E-10. It's dated, but still very effective if you now it's quirks. For very close up photos. Like hair on the skin, I use an old Olympus 2020. It's only 2 megs, but has incredible macro clarity. Someday I'll move up to the newer SLRs, but for this project and other stuff the 4.1megs E-10 is perfect." I have the (even) older (Olympus) C-2500L. Looking at the D-70 (Nikon) and waiting on pricing and reviews on the new Olympus (E-300, I believe) announced at Photokina.

Visit http://www.dpreview.com . I haven't been there in a while but it was very information. Lots of good discussions, too.

Re: skin tone - yes. And both in Poser or in the texture itself are good under different circumstances. A few MAT poses to darken/lighten the base color in Poser can add flexibility to a set. But, it will changes all areas of the skin the same, so if you take a Caucasian texture and use Poser's base color to darken it to African, for instance, the palms will be the same tone as the tops of the hand and give away the trick.

If you have Paint Shop Pro (I don't use Photoshop) you can use the Effects>Enhance Photo>Manual Color Correction (Skintones) to get some good non-caucasian tones.