Outside the US, Japan must be the the next biggest makers of Poser artworks.
I must say that I find most of their work "strange" to my Western sensibilities. Those who follow the PoserClub gallery and other Japanese sites, might like to give their views as to what they're MO is.
Cats and other animals in human situations,  some period works, lots of "jail bait", as it were (school uniform) stuff,  I just can't  begin to comprehend.
Apart from the Anime and Lolicon stuff that I see on Japanese sites, just what do you thing of Japanese Poser artwork?
It is a mystery to me but I find it quite compelling. Something that they're doing that's very different to what the West is doing with Poser. What do you think of the Japanese Poser stuff??

It rocks :D

Quality wise on average, far superior in technical abilities and originality compared to what you find here on 'rosity.

For me I love the freedom of expression and creativity Japanese art displays. The Japanese people have an entirely different thought process as to people in the west. Having spent time in Japan I was fascinated by how old meets new. While there is very traditional aspects of Japanese culture they also love new technology and through this comes great creativity.

What is viewed here as strange is not so there. The west seems to want to attach morality to everything anymore especially art or creativity. I'm not saying all is perfect in Japan just that the way they think about things that people in the west find offensive doesn't register as odd or tabu to them.

I'd love to go into this more but then I'd be writing a book. LOL!

As for the school uniform stuff, a friend of mine who was out there for six months or so told me that its not unusual for students to wear uniform throughout high school, right up to entering college at 18 or 19. So in Japan, school uniform does not automatically equate to underage.

One thing you have to remember is Japan is very much different regarding laws compared to the US.  For example the consenting age in Japan is 12yo.  For the US that is unheard of, but it's how their laws are.  With that said, Japanese art has always been controversial with Lolicon, Shota and the like.  I for one think their art is fantastic but thats just my opinion.  I like the freedom of expression and versatility.   With  their laws the way the are, you can definitely tell that they're more liberal than the US.
Adrian

Quote - As for the school uniform stuff, a friend of mine who was out there for six months or so told me that its not unusual for students to wear uniform throughout high school, right up to entering college at 18 or 19. So in Japan, school uniform does not automatically equate to underage.

Absolutely!  If anyone has spent a lot of time in the company of Asian women they know that they age with grace.  There were many times I had mistaken a mature Asian woman for a young girl age wise.  Even to this day it's still hard for me to tell.

One should also take into account "The Cult of Cute."  Japan is ground zero for the Cult of Cute. It started with Hello Kitty in the 1970s. Anyhoo, Girls in their 20s, or older, will dress like little girls because it is cute. Everyone wants to be cute.  So Poser renders from Japan are like that too. 

In Japan, they will have Big Eyed Aiko in bright colors and cute costume like Lolita, Maid, or Catgirl.
In America it's Naked Woman Warrior with big knockers in leather with Scary Weapon. 

imho, American is too yang. I am loving the Japanese style! I love cute! I love color! I love the Bishies! And the neo-Punk j-Rockers too! Yea Japan! ^^

bB

Quote - One thing you have to remember is Japan is very much different regarding laws compared to the US.  For example the consenting age in Japan is 12yo.  For the US that is unheard of, but it's how their laws are.  With that said, Japanese art has always been controversial with Lolicon, Shota and the like.  I for one think their art is fantastic but thats just my opinion.  I like the freedom of expression and versatility.   With  their laws the way the are, you can definitely tell that they're more liberal than the US.
Adrian

I'll say!  Or Oz for that matter. I wonder if that 12y old consent law was made by a totally male-dominated law-making apparatus and when it's a left-over from?   Would any mother- in a developed society consider her 12 year old mature enough for informed sexual consent?

Mind you-more often  lately  as young as 14 yolds are making such choices which I think is unfortunate enough. By informed sexual consent, of course I also mean emotional and mental readiness for such a step.

But I'm de-railing the convo,  there's a lot that's interesting in Japanese art to be sure.

May I please have the best URLs to see the material you are talking of? Thanks!

One Westerner with a great insight is Peter Payne, a San Diego guy who married a Japanese girl (I've met them) and moved to Japan. They run a mail-order house for lots of things Japanese.

Peter has written volumes on Japan from a Westerner's viewpoint. If you subscribe to his newsletter you will get an email every few days with his observations, followed by a "what's new" at the bottom.

Warning: adult products sold at this site, but they have a completely non-adult entryway also, both accessed by this link:

http://www.jlist.com/

::::: Opera :::::

"I just can't  begin to comprehend"

Those silly Japanese they have no idea that Poser is for NViTwaS

Yes, it rocks, you have no argument with me there.
I have spent time in Japan too, back in the 1980's, and they're very into cute.
My youngest daughter loves anime and we watch it for hours on end - Azumanga Daioh, NieAunder7, Negima, Orphen to name a few.

For a start have a look through the Poserclub galleries. There's something undefinably Japanese going on there. Not sure what it is but I like it.

http://www.poserclub.jp/

Quote - In Japan, they will have Big Eyed Aiko in bright colors and cute costume like Lolita, Maid, or Catgirl.
In America it's Naked Woman Warrior with big knockers in leather with Scary Weapon. 

LOL!!! I want this as my sig.  How true though.

Attached Link: "Cute Inc."

Cute is spreading... Resistance is Futile.  ;)

bB

LOL.  Or maybe the simple version:

USA:  Sex and Violence
JAPAN: Sex and Happy Bunny Love Kitty  blush blush blush    ;p

What people don't get, is that "Cult of Cute" is a rebellion against the establishment.
Think about it. Japanese culture is usually thought of as orderly exquisite understatement in manly natural colors. Cult of Cute is the opposite.

bB

Aaaaa, totemo kawaii, desu yo. ;P

Give me a tough samurai and a cute geisha any day - or a cute samurai and an onna-no-ko in the schoolgirl outfit (even if the time periods clash).

Great technical prowess, obsession with things strange to the Western eye, some kinks I've never seen anywhere else, and generally very polite. But I've never been there..;)

Attached Link: Polin gallery 1

There is a great 'how-to' on joining Poserclub.jp in this forum.  It is not too difficult and once you're signed up, you can get agoin'. :)

Gambatte!

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2632132

Outside the US, Japan must be the the next biggest makers of Poser artworks.

What makes you even think the people in the US are the biggest makers of Poser Artworks at all? It may well be the other way around......

***"What makes you even think the people in the US are the biggest makers of Poser Artworks at all? It may well be the other way around......"

Could very well be the case. Only guessing.
Maybe it's the Russians, there are lots of Russian sites around from what I've seen. And Eastern European.

I see, I was wondering if figures on such things would exsist.

Yes, Russians do use Poser a lot, so do Western Europeans. But I do think the Poser market in Japan is huge, at least that is what I understood from EF.

Japanese content creators make the cutiest stuff in the whole wide world. Enough said. Me loves cute !!! And because of quite a huge difference in culture, they do have very original ideas for clothes or critters, at least original to non-Japanese rest of the world ;) Me loves kawaii stuff !  ^^'

http://www.poserclub.jp/ph_view2.htm?ph_no=2714&phid=1169124313

There must be an AddWarmFuzzy morph in the Japanese version of Poser.

Everything (including the two things you'd expect to find) seems wrapped in cashmere.

:: og ::

Japanese attitudes towards sex, graphic and for real, would cause both wings of the American political spectrum to go into heart arrest.   For those who rail against pornography should be kept away from any anime store nor made aware of lolicon, or Homeland Security will be all over the net.   For those who condemn prostitution should be made dumb to MIzo Shobai,  Love Hotels, Health Services, and definetly Soap Land.

The Japanese are big into form(kata) such as tea ceremony, kabuki, and martial arts kata.  This applies to the sex industry with precise detail on thier websites as to the exact details of the services provided, the age, dimension, blood type, and preferences of each girl and when she is available,  what clothes she will wear at the discretion of the customer, and other amenities of each service.   Google "love-wife" and follow the links.   It leaves the Reeperbahn in Hamburg and the Red Light District in Amsterdam in the dust.

I have seen men reading porno comics on the subway (Chikatetsu) with spread beavers, S&M bondage, and Lolikon while standing up in rush hour traffic.   And rush hour traffic in Japan makes canned sardines look like the great plains.

sssshhhh, the Japanese Poser users also talk about their western counterparts.....

hehehhe heheheh I want to know what they say about the Westerners. ;) bB callgirl: "Lip my stocking?" Bill Murray: "Excuse me, what?" callgirl: "Lip. My. Stocking!" >

"How'd they do that ?"
"We can do it this way."
(implied) "We much prefer our females to look like THIS..."

(but mostly discussion revolves around familiar topics about the software, the operating system, the figures, technical stuff.)

America really invented cute, when you think about it.

When Japan was rebuilding after the war, America built the world's greatest edifice to cute and led the Disneyfication of the world.  

Look at the phenomenon of Shirley Temple and the like.

The cult of cute is alive and well on Renderosity. Even the leather-clad warriors are "cute".

For a quick lesson on the history of the word from the American Heritage Dictionary:

"Word History: Cute is a good example of how a shortened form of a word can take on a life of its own, developing a sense that dissociates it from the longer word from which it was derived. Cute was originally a shortened form of acute in the sense "keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd." In this sense cute is first recorded in a dictionary published in 1731. Probably cute came to be used as a term of approbation for things demonstrating acuteness, and so it went on to develop its own sense of "pretty, fetching," first recorded with reference to "gals" in 1838." 

As they should ... won't someone here or there make a few props or sets from the floating world?

Quote - As for the school uniform stuff, a friend of mine who was out there for six months or so told me that its not unusual for students to wear uniform throughout high school, right up to entering college at 18 or 19. So in Japan, school uniform does not automatically equate to underage.

In England, it is not uncommon (say my contacts there) there seem to be "school days" parties, where 20-somethings dress up in school uniforms (or sometimes sexier versions, at least for the girls) and behave the way they wish they had been able to when they were 16.

Quote - LOL.  Or maybe the simple version:

USA:  Sex and Violence
JAPAN: Sex and Happy Bunny Love Kitty  blush blush blush    ;p

What people don't get, is that "Cult of Cute" is a rebellion against the establishment.
Think about it. Japanese culture is usually thought of as orderly exquisite understatement in manly natural colors. Cult of Cute is the opposite.

bB

According to novelist Novala Takemota ("Kamikaze Girls"), Lolita's are actually quite hard-boiled. I highly recommend this novel, as well as the movie adaptation.

Quote - LOL.  Or maybe the simple version:

USA:  Sex and Violence
JAPAN: Sex and Happy Bunny Love Kitty  blush blush blush    ;p

bB

Yeah, okay.

Urotsukidoji

I love it when simplistic answers can be obliterated with a single word.

Japan has some of the most original & innovative artists, film makers, animators & modellers on the planet, I just wish the Americans wouldn't keep trying to copy them all the time, they never get it right. My very first taste of their vision was back in 1989 with Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo, one of the most incredible films I've ever seen.

I know what urotsuku means, but not certain about your usage there. ;)  Pardon my nihongo, I'm far from fluent.

Do a search on imdb for Legend of the Overfiend & you'll see what it's about, can't link to it cause it's a bit naughty ;)

I remember Urotsukidoji... I've seen it first when I was 16... Guy who borrowed me the videotape (yes, it was when people went abroad to buy anime videotapes, now they are just shopping online for DVD's) was already 18 (adult by our laws) and poor thing thought he can make me shocked, LOL. But I do prefer cute side of Japanese anime/manga/Poser stuff.
Totoro, me demands for plushie Totoro - or at least Poser figure of Totoro .

my opinion:

cute is a watered-down version of wholesome. there is nothing 'wrong' with it per se.

it is the urge for 'the good' gone shy.

i include healthy erotic love in this concept of 'the good.'

wholesome, including wholesome healthy sex,  is a real thing. it is a bourgeois value, and I use that word with pride, not derision.

anyone holding wholesome values and stating them without guile or hypocrisy, such as Walt Disney, is accustomed to being laughed at, spit at, mocked. More so now than previously; Disney was sincerely and genuinely loved.

thus, cute

This is a strange thread. I don't think anyone or any culture can lay claim on "inventing" cute. Babies are cute. Perhaps they are cute so mommies and daddies will take care of them since they are helpless on their own. 

Cult of Cute is a subculture gone mainstream.

Just like the original poster on this thread, I was completely baffled by art I was seeing from Japan. So I did my homework.

"Kitten Writing" in Japan in the 1970s started, apparently spontaneously. Just like girls here do ridiculious "bubble" writing with hearts to dot the "i" and such nonsense, the Japanese girls were doing it. It wasn't easy to write. It wasn't easy to read. But it was popular, and gaining popularity. So "Kitten Paper" was invented for girls write their cute scribbles on, and the mascot was Hello Kitty.

Smart Japanese businessmen quickly realized, "Cute Sells." 

bB

Quote - Do a search on imdb for Legend of the Overfiend & you'll see what it's about, can't link to it cause it's a bit naughty ;)

Oh.  *Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji.

*Not my type of thing (Hentai/Anime/Manga).  There are facets that I like, but you can say that 'comic books' in general were never my thing either.  3D anime/manga is more interesting. :)

p.s. 

The Big Eyed look that screams "anime" and "Japan" was actually inspired by America cartoon characters. This was pre-Disney too, by the way. I can't remember exact names and artists, but I can look it up when I get home.

bB

i hope Urotsukidoji is fringe even in Japan, its pretty far out there! and thanks for the help on joining PoserClub

This is very intersting ( and also funny ) thread for me.
I think you see one aspect of japan and japanese poser-verse.
Anyway, everyone see what he want to see.

We are planning Wafoo-Exhibition (The Japanesque Render Chanenge) in early March. You will see another aspect of japanese poser-verse. The theme is all about japan, but mainly historical. You will see Yoroi(armor) or Kimono that is not fake different from selling in US market.

ytetsu -

yes, I signed up for the WAFOO exhibition website too
( ^  ^ )
It is very interesting.

Quote - This is a strange thread. I don't think anyone or any culture can lay claim on "inventing" cute. Babies are cute. Perhaps they are cute so mommies and daddies will take care of them since they are helpless on their own. 

This is true even in baby animals.  Baby animals such as birds and mammals are cute
because even these animals have a "cuteness" sense and that encourages them
to take care of their young.  While babies of many reptiles, fish, insects
tend not to be cute because they are on their own when they hatch, hence there
is no need for them to be cute.  Baby alligators are an exception, because
mother alligators do care for their young.  It has even been found some baby
dinosaurs were cute, because those dinosaurs also cared for their young.
That may be the reason you hear stories about mother dogs taking care
of kittens and bunnies, they are too cute for the dog to resist.

ytetsu and infinity....

can you give a link to that render challenge?

::::: Opera :::::

have to agree about the copying manga/hentai/anime, etc. See, I see enough room in the world for both styles. I used to enjoy western-style stuff, and Japanese stuff ( I still get creeped out by 6-year-old heads on impossibly-endowed women) which has some very good work with more adult-looking people. 

A melange of styles is probably best for any form of art. I have a weird 'law' about an art form; if you can 'define' it, it's on the way out. Mixing and matching is all well and good, but if something gets too formulaic, that's a restriction on creativity, in a way.