Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?Who=Destiny

Perhaps, there are too many vendors selling textures. I think, many of us, who are serious about our Poser folk, want to plunk around, and, create our own textures, morphs, characters, etc. Maybe, try some different types of textures. Wow, Michael sure needs some work done, dontcha think? Also, he has very few interesting articles of clothing. Also, hair is a big seller. Once again, may I mention Michael? Pop..pop...pop! )

Well think Poppi said something abut too many vendors and such. And there are those that wanna do their own. I personally have your Melody figure and I like her S I think there is also two schools of thought as far as textures. One is of more smooth and almost airbrushed (like yours) and the other is of the scanned photos and all ... Even though I have been dabbling with the more detailed ones lately in an attempt to prove that Poser can almost come close to some of the Final Fantasy type things I prefer the less photo wannabe ones. Anyway. I like your Misty figure as well but she is kinda like Melody with different morphs etc. And I am trying to spend less and all. Also one thing is the PC only label even though most people can use it on a Mac with MartinC's utilities. Just my two cents and good luck ...

I can only tell you why "I" have not. I have not because I have far too many textures as it is, for vicky and possette AND mike. In my poser folder the biggest glut of files, aside from geometries, is textures. And stating simply, there too many to use. The ones i do use i use for only one character, and i don't repeat use the textures. Now please don't take this wrong, you do solid work and some of your free eariler stuff i enjoy using. But as far as buying textures, I'm afraid i don't need very many and if i cannot find one for a particular idea, I'll make it myself. But ghost and poppi have a very big point, the texture market if you will as far a for the people models, is too saturated, and some, i hate to say, just don't look right. and if a customer buy the wrong thing and gets burned just once, they are likely to never buy from renderosity again, trusting only DAZ. Not that you should get out of the figure texture market, but I would suggest looking about and seeing if there is an area that is not big, but has room to grow and get into that. Set the trend, don't follow it. Good luck and very good work. Alverson

You can try separating yourself from the rest of the pack by releasing more textures of black and mixed race women, which there is an acute shortage present in this forum IMHO.

I think the reason is really that there are too many. nearly every day a new one at the store.the last textures I bought was the hires from daz and the noa from the store here.I bought noa because i like the notplastic look. Think , seperating is the right way!

It would be nice to know if other people making textures sell more than you do but I don't think, it's probably just due to a saturation of the market. For my part, I cannot afford to spend more than 20$ or 25$ a month for poser stuff ( don't misunderstand me, I think the pricing of your stuff is really good, especially when compared to some items that are far from being of the same quality and that are much more expensive )so I only buy stuffs I cannot make by myself or find in the free stuff. But, yep, I clicked on your link and I saw your beautiful Melody, I think it'll be my next month aquisition - the skin ton is a really rare one among the existing texture :))) J-L

You do some solid work... and I really like the yes you make :) I can only tell you what I lookf or in a texture these days... * MAT poses so I can change the look fast and easy * No dependance on an external morph - I liek my V2 file nice and pristine * None plastic, realistic look. That is going to mean a map of at LEAST 3000x3000 * No built in geometry helpers for the texture - use bump maps, not shadows drawn on the map itself Also, I think it is best to SHOW s little of the map int he store. I have become very wary of bying textures fromt he posed images now... ligting and so on play way too important a part. SHOW ME the hands and the feet, out SAMPLE across it in photoshop if you need to... but I want to see what I am buying. This isn't specific to your work... just some thoughts on it all.

I have only bought three textures. The Daz hi res, one from Catherina for Mike and the new Destiny from Syyd. That's it. I don't tend normally to buy a texture unless it REALLY strikes me. The primary reason for this is that there are so many so called "photo real" textures that aren't, so many textures overall, and a quite a nice number of free ones. In the main though, like lalverson above, if I can't find one that fits a particular idea I'll do it myself. One thing I've found is that you can take quite a plain texture and with the right light, some fiddling with other settings (depending on renderer) and some post work turn it into something quite special. I'm not trying to frown on your work, which I'm sure is of good quality, but for myself, textures are right at the bottom of any list I might have for the small amount I have to spend each month. Hair comes out on top, with clothes second. Clothing is answered for me as I have access to the vast quantities Poserworld/Fairywoods produce, so I'm unlikely to buy anything else in that respect. The same applies to characters. I don't personally see the point, what with the amount of morphs built into the new Daz figures and the huge database of morphs that Traveller has made there's almost no need for the things - unless they really are special. Anyway, I've already said too much. In the main though, I think the others here have a bead on it. There's just too many.

I have to agree with all the above... Too many to chose from for Vicky and even Michael and Posette has been covered pretty well... I was the first person to sell a texture for Vicky other than DAZ (Zygote at the time) a year ago... And that was just so I could help the site raise money at the time (one was even donated with no profits for me)... Then it seemed last Fall, a flux of Vicky textures hit the market place... I decided that everything had been covered and no new textures were needed to be made for that model but then I started gettin' e-mail from people who asked me if I could make some more... I eventually did, but even at the time I thought it was too glutted with textures already.... It's good to give people choices but I think other than ethic textures there is plenty now, unless someone could create something out of the ordinary... As for the ethic, it's just as simple as changing colors of the skin in your Poser so even that seems to be fruitless.. I don't want to discourage anyone who wants to make textures for Vicky or any other model, but I think this is the reason the sell of some textures has slowed.. Could pick up with new users so don't lose hope Destiny... =) Your textures are good and I'm sure your sells will pick up soon or later...

Byte Me Okay, just wanted to tell you I bought your textures when they first came out, and I love your work! With regards to ethnic, if you don't know what you're doing or if you are color-impaired, you can really mess up the skin textures which also changes with lighting. It's not just a matter of reducing the brightness; you have to add different shades of brown. Better to have a particular skin texture with the Poser model set to white than to have people messing with the material color shader IMHO.

Thanks rtamesis... I love all the early morphs you did for Vicky too.... =) I'll agree with you that you should know what your doin' in Poser's material colors before you attempt shading... Your comments also got me thinking about the many ethnic groups who have different brow hairs and even pubic hairs in some cases.. A lot of ethnic skins have a different grain to the flesh too, let alone the color of the skin.. hmm.. It's a thought and maybe more texture artists will consider this in the future...

I have to agree with what has been already said. There are simply too many textures for sale these days. New, great textures are released every week and I think most of us already have quite a lot of textures both for Vicky and for Michael (personally, I'm not interested in the P4 folks much) so.. there's not much point in buying new ones. Of course, getting a new texture to play with is always nice, but if one can't afford much, it's easier to settle for the ones you already have. Destiny, I've been testing your textures and I especially love the new pack you're about to release. It's versatile and I love the MAT poses included. I hope myself and a couple of other beta testers have been able to show people what a good texture/character set it truly is. I took a look at your store and I agree with whoever it was who mentioned that your stuff is priced good. To me, $12 seems like a nice price for a character + textures, maybe $15 if there are other goodies included... but for example the digital Marilyn (that's someone else's work though) seemed really expensive to me (no offense), I wouldn't pay $27 for textures, character and a basic hair prop. But that's just me :) Anyway, I wish you all the best, Destiny. I hope you'll get loads of new customers soon :)

Destiny I dont know id this will help or not but your thumbs on my computer dont show alot of detail maybe add some freckles and blimises so on to your maps if they are not there they dont look bad but the skin in the thumbs looks to clean like a standard poser! In reality they may look fine im not sure so maybe do like mentioned above post different thumb and place the word sample over it maybe that will help try including a seperate bump map maybe with subtle veins etc this will give your textures a look that seperates them from the rest ! i hope i havent offended you just some opinions

Dear Destiny, By now you are probably getting a good idea of what to do and what not to do! Definitely give some close-ups on hands and feet and all (as you did with Lareina)--look at what DAZ went through to show us the V2 textures! Extreme close-ups of eyes and lips are good, too (Syyd does these well). Steal (inspirations)from the best! i confess that i, too, want textures that are less perfect and more real, and very detailed, mainly because i can do smooth all by myself in Photoshop. i need standins for real people. Also, i'm an sci-fi/fantasy/game illustrator who doesn't have much use for Victoria's Secret type perfect ladies wearing makeup. Not that there's anything wrong with them, mind you! It's just not my market, as i tend to turn them into cyborgs, wraiths, and berserkers. :^) Ingrid of Hanspan Studios said to me once that she found her specialized fairy and gnome characters hard to sell, too, and all her stuff is pretty unique--but she's a morpher, too. Have you tried morphing? DO look into the ethnic angle. There are beautiful Indian women (Native American and Asian, too!) that need replicating. We need more sloe-eyed beauties! Prepare for Carnival and Mardi Gras early! i might suggest putting some textures away for the time when the demand for them builds back up, and look at some other aspect in which to stand out, that also plays to your strengths--clothing textures, hair textures (we NEED good hair textures!), and Michael textures--boy am i tired of 30-something guys with big noses, five-o'clock shadow and crow's feet! BTW, as a major Renderosity shopping 'ho, i think your prices are a steal. Please don't give up. You are one of the good guys. Nan

As a 'still new' Poser user and horrible texture maker myself I think I agree with all the above. HappyWorld gave me the basics that I can learn and play with but to purchase a new texture I look for something that is totally unique and beyond my abilities to make. Such as detailed BUMPS giving the vains and charature that stands out from the rest or other texturing skills that I just can't make myself. Standard ethnic textures have become rather common now but once in a while one comes along...like some recent baby ethnic textues (can't remember where, not at my own machine right now). How about the Old Folk (wrinkles and greyed skin - not many of those and hard for use texture newbies) and Fantasy characture with real pazaz, different and flamboyant but with purpose.. Hope this helps, your textures are nice but money flow is EXTREMELY strapped for me at the moment ;-(

Destiny, Your work is lovely, but, as others have pointed out, money is tight so folks will probably spend it on textures which are unique and original and beyond their skills... if they buy at all. The reverse problem is if you go too exotic or different, the market is possibly more limited. Those aliens in Star Trek, for example, would only be useful to a very small section of the market. Good luck! Carolly

No offense to you, Destiny...I think you do great textures, and I admire your renders, but I prefer my textures to look more realistic. Photo-realism is something I try to strive for in my 'serious' renders, and your textures are too smooth and flawless. And I also don't use Vicky. I tried her, but didn't like her that much. I've treid the textures made from scanned photos, and didn't care much for them, nor am I willing to shell out $25-30 for one of the higher quality scanned textures. As many have already stated, the market's just flooded right now. It could be that not enough people see/know about your textures. They're priced well enough. A lot of people do this for a hobby, and don't(or won't, or can't) spend a lot of money on it. I'm one of those people. At the current moment, I can barely make all my bills, much less buy anything for poser. I use lot's and lot's of free stuff. I just downloaded Azura(newest version of Eve), and she's awesome. She has dual maps like Vicky...and there's no textures for her. Perhaps if you made some maps for the free figures?(only saw one in your store). Well, I've rambled long enough. -Kage

Well....this is discouraging. I was going to sell a texture set because I am so broke I need any extra money I can get. Normally I like to give away stuff I make. But if everyone is broke too and there are too many on the market....why bother? slinks away discouraged I love your textures Destiny, I would buy all of them if I had the money. But as it stands I don't even have 2 dollars. (I am going to go cry now.....)

Here is just an idea. But only you know how much you feel you can put into a package at a good price and not feel like you are losing. Add extras to it. I have bought a few textures, although I can create my own quite well. The reason...the OTHER stuff that came in the pack. Syyd offered clothing with Chelsea, so I snagged her, because in addition to a great texture, I got the clothing and poses, etc. I bought two other textures because sometimes I don't have time to work a pose from scratch, and they included quite a library of poses for cheaper than I could buy a collection of poses at the store. The only other texture I bought was with Saluda, but I didn't get that for the texture, but more the character. So, my suggestion is, add a little more to your packs. I have seen the renders, and they look like great textures. Maybe if you work up a few "extras" you might generate some more sales. Just a suggestion from my perspective. Money for me isn't as much of a problem, it is just that I don't usually purchase something that I can do myself without some incentive. Other than that, I agree with the "uniqueness" comment. Best of luck for you. You do great work, and I am sure you will figure out a way to up those sales. Ang

I need more ethnic textures - especially for Michael. There's more than enough Caucasian Posettes and Vicki's running around. I have a problem with the alien ones (not just yours, but in the store in general): they're nice but too specialized. I'd have to do so much work to customize them to make them different that I might as well create my own. Also, with the female textures: either lay off the makeup or create a way for people to select the makeup colors. One of your textures is nice, but I hate the eyeshadow color. Sounds silly, but I'd rather just use another texture than spend a lot of time getting rid of the color.

Actually, I had thought of that eyeshadow, as well. I seldom gear a graphic around a lady who is painted to go out on the town. Natural is best, that way, if we want to add shadow, it is up to us...The colors and all too.

Since I do have a package near completion, I will be releasing that one, but that will be the last until I can learn to make them more "realistic looking". One thing I did want to mention about this particular set...I also include a plain head texture for each lady, without makeup. It will also come with lights, cameras, material poses, 14 different eye maps and one lady even has her own custom designed outfit :) Again, many thanks...I've learned a lot from this thread :)

Destiny, Looks like you are on the right path. Now I will have to check it out for the outfit. That's a hook. ;) Ang

Good ideas! Thing is, I couldn't answer your original question because I DO buy your textures. Heck, my budget couldn't afford any more, but I HAD to get your Tabitha tex because she's perfect for one of the characters I'm trying to work on. Heh, I'm so busy at work that I've had little time to do anything. I haven't even touched my ship or locomotive models for months. :) I buy textures because that is the one thing I CAN'T do. Greywolf

I think Greywolf, above, just said something very much on target too. The last thing I need in the world is another texture, as I have more of them than I could ever use. But sometimes one comes along that just grabs me. There is something about the face that just connects with my heart, almost. A face that I cannot get out of my mind. A face that I know I could not duplicate by changing the lights, etc. on my own in Poser. Such a face was "Noa". After I saw her, I could think of using no one else. There is an almost Burne-Jones ethereal quality and mystery to that character. But again, she was not just a texture. She was a whole character, with everything included that would enhance her individuality. The other skin that I use constantly is Byte Me Ok's first Victoria texture. I spend tons more than I should in the Marketplace, but what I, and probably everyone else, has finally learned, is just to buy what we really intend to use. :))))) So, no one texture can please anyone. I guess it just has to "click" on some emotional level with each prospective buyer. Best of luck to you, Destiny :)))

I haven't read all the posts here, but my two cents. Most of my work is morph based. Textures are great but can only do so much to change a character's appearance. The Buffy texture by itself makes Posette look like Posette with Sarah Michelle Gellar's choice of Maybelline products. Coupled with a decent morph, the results are dramatic. I think Rtamesis is right; we need more ethnic types and skin colors. Mine is a Mediterranean olive, my wife's a pale UK Anglo. Koreans, Vietnamese (lip colors)...

Attached Link: http://www.revlon.com/cosmetics/newcomplexion/onestep.asp