Hi Everyone, People here have been asking these questions in posts and a few posts have cropped up about the Ponytail so I just want to go into some depth any explain it from start to finish. First, thanks. I've sold over 400 of them and that prompted the expansion pack. Thanks for all the email requests for the expansion pack. I worked as a hairdresser and make-up artist in Boston, New York and Paris for 10 years. I was one of the people that makes those girls on the magazines and runways look effortless. I started making hair for Poser about two years ago. I wanted to create hair that was fluid and stylish. there was alot of straight hair around, but no waves or complex styles or updo's. After many styles you've all seen, I wanted to make a new kind of hair figure for Poser, never seen before, that expoited Posers own code to change into almost anything. Now I don't have to tell you how hard hair is in Poser. All those maps, templates, morphs. And even after all that it has to look good. I always knew the secret was figuring how to use the geom swapping thing, but no one could figure it out. I tried forever about two years ago, but couldn't. Well finally JeffH cracked it and I knew I could finally start on what would become "Victoria's Changing Ponytail". DESIGN The Ponytail is a figure that has 3 Body parts. they are: BASE: The head part of the figure. This is like Vicki's HIP. It is the center of the figure. BANGS: The fringe in the front. PONYTAIL: The back The Bangs and the Ponytail have Geometry Swapping dials like the skeleton that allow you to swap in new pieces. Each piece is loaded with morphs. Now up to 73 morphs in all. Each piece rotates freely like Vicki's eyeballs. This is so you can really customize the look and placement of the elements. All the pieces are mapped to the same template. Everything uses one map. Again this was all about maximum veratility without all the mess with props. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: QUESTION: Why doesn't it fit Vicki when you load it? ANSWER: I actually does. When Daz made Vicki, they made her load already Posed. You know. It is that squatting/floating position. :) This is not her ddefault pose. Vicki's true pose it when all her parts icluding her "body" are set to zero. This is why daz originally put a read-me on the page some people mistook for a bug list. It was just a misunderstanding. That is why they removed it. :) QUESTION: How do I get it to fit then? ANSWER: Just trun of the IK for the legs and zero her. Most people have her saved that way. QUESTION: Then what? ANSWER: Load in the hair. QUESTION: But it won't conform? ANSWER: It was never meant to. Conforming figures are buggy and the ponytail has it's own bodyparts. You just parent the base to Vicki's head like you would parent Vicki's hip to a horse. QUESTION: Why didn't you make it conform? ANSWER: If it conformed to Vicki, it would conform to any other figure. Also, the body parts are different. Th hair has no hip. I din't want to confuse people with invisible bodyparts. QUESTION: Has it been fixed? ANSWER: It was never broken. Daz can confirm this. QUESTION: Why did people think it was? ANSWER 1)It is a new kind of figure and some people were expecting it to act like clothes or a prop. 2) I made some warez enemies. Some Warez people have banded together to trash my products under mmultiple user names. But my products are no longer being Warezed. 3) Some people don't like me. I'm not always tactful. It's the artist in me I guess. 4) People vent when they are frustrated. I do it. We all do it. Being a new kind of figure I expected questions and confusion. QUESTION: What if I buy it and don't like it? ANSWER: No one has returned it yet from what I've been told by DAZ, but you would get a refund of course. QUESTION: What if I have problems? ANSWER: You just email me at Antonk68@aol.com. I have not yet received any questions emailed to me about this product. Only lots of happy people. QUESTION: Are there going to be more expansion packs? ANSWER: One more and that collection is done. The last installment will be at the end of the summer. It will be a collection of posable braids and strands that will conform to the ponytail like clothes do on Vicki. there will be hats, crowns, etc. I'm going to Las Vegas for a month and will finish it when I come back in August. QUESTION: Why don't you answer questions here? ANSWER: Basically some Warez people threatened to pretend to be me, trash my products, etc if I stayed. I gave them breathing room while I figured out who they were. They will not be bothering me anymore. LOL QUESTION: What is up with the Fantasy Suit's boots. ANSWER: You know those Vicki 2.0 feet morphs. Those were my ideas becasue I hated Vicki's wide toes even though she is a masterful work. She wasn't built for shoes. I also wanted the boots to work with everyones flat soled poses so the heel wouldn't thrust through the floor every time she took a step. People actually asked for her to be able to use the walk designer in heels. The part that pokes through is a piece of skin that wouldn't be there if she was perched in heels. It is just a design element. Conforming clothes still need work. Poser as a program is still buggy. Sometimes when you conform clothes you cannot gain access to the feet. It's a Poser thing. Sorry. QUESTION: Is your stuff worth it. ANSWER: Go to the gallery and do a search for ANTON. The images really say more than I can. Each person has different views on "worth it". Poser is mostly just a hobby to most. It depends what you are looking for. QUESTION: That stuff at the Prop'sGuild is nice, but is that what I am buying? ANSWER: All of that is over three years old. I only left it because people asked me to. QUESTION: Why did you leave BBAY? ANSWER: I didn't. I wanted to remake lots of that stuff and needed to take it down. People would be real annoyed if I made new and more detailed version of something they just bought yesterday. QUESTION: Can I get your bbay stuff still? ANSWER: You can get anything of mine from me directly if you email me. QUESTION: Why do you charge so much? ANSWER: I'm not a good one to judge what expensive is. It's different to each person. I have a rough formula I use. I count the number of hours I spend on a product, multiply that number by $30.00/hr and divide by 200. 200 Is a rough estimate on how many pieces will sell. I make a figure in 100 hours. Multiply by $30.00 an hour for my time(cheap) This equals $3000. I divide this by 200 estimated sales. This equals $15.00. Since I only get half of what I sell, this price is doubled to $30.00 The item sells for $30.00

Thanks anton. Wanted to say a huge thank you for the expansion pack, ponytail, poses and maps. I bought all 3 in the last 2 days. I am so impressed. Cant wait for the last pack. :) It is well worth the money spent. All of you stuff is. :) kelly

Psst. $30 an hour equals over $62,000 per year. Which if you explore the current pay rate for graphics designers is above average. That is at 200 X 15. But you charge $30 so the end user is paying a $120K plus salary. Now the only graphics designers paid that kind of money don't bother with this type of stuff. So as you describe it you are creating an object. Charging for you time and effort. Then after arriving at that figure marking up the product 100%. I have to ask what loan shark is nailing you for 50%. Who or what ever that is, give them the slip. I never heard of any type of legitimate distribution arragement the has you doing the work but gets 50% of the gross. Get an agent, you only have to pay them 10% Credit card processing gets another 10% Shipping, well it's a download so there is no shipping. Heck add another 5% miscellanious costs and you end up with 25% insted of 50. Now you can drop the end price 25% and still retain the same income. But maybe from this new price you will sell more units and actually make more money.

Sheesh - I don't know where you live pnevai, but around here $30 an hour isn't a salary any graphic designer I know would take to do more than scut work. The decent designers here are running 65-70$ per hour for contracts, or around 100K a year + benefits for salaried jobs (though they don't take them much). 3D modelers in my locale command just over $100 an hour if they are good. Hell, as a a 3D artist myself (and I am not very good as yet) I run around $65 an hour and as a programmer I run about $130 or so. When I am doing graphic design work I drop to about $65 an hour or so. So... $120K a year for a 3D hair design (even if that is all Anton did... and from his other models you can see he has incredible talent) isn't all that crazy. Oh yeah, your loan shark comment? Renderosity takes 50% too :) Personally, I think Anton's pricing is just fine... because I only care about ONE number. Is THAT prop/item going to save me more time/money than it costs? If the answer is yes, then I don't care if he is making $300 an hour or $5. Rock on Anton!

I have to chime in and second everything that was said above by soulhuntre. To my knowledge, both Renderosity and DAZ do take 50% of the gross sales. I think they also take a couple of percent to cover the actual credit card processing charges, but do not quote me on that. And $30 an hour for the kind of work Anton does is almost giving it away. Anton's work is top quality, innovative, and much of what he produces is not produced by anyone else. The man deserves to make a living. Art is a heartbreaking business. Anton has my undying respect for the success he has made for himself through nothing more than talent and sheer hard work. We, as a community, are lucky to have Anton amongst us, and to be able to take advantage of the wonderful products he makes available. All the best, Anton! Kimberly

$30 bucks an hour is about what you would expect from a job that has: a) The ultimate in flexible hours b) As much vacation as you can take (and still pay the bills) c) Casual dress policy (heck, you can work nude if you want) d) A boss you like (unless you don't like yourself) e) A project and priority list that is not set by an unrealistic idiot (unless you are one yourself) f) No policy against drinking on the job =) Seriously... I think Anton does outstanding work and his prices, while not cheap, are fair, especially considering the quality of his work. Keep up the great work!

Geez, come on. Look at what you get if you buy the changing hair and the upgrade. Yes, if you take the prices and say, hey, I bought two products and spent a lot of money, then maybe the price might seem steep for some. But I bought them and said, hey, for this little amount of money, I got (not really exagerating) hundreds of possible hair styles. I mean, come on. Now it does short hair, long hair, ponytails. If you average the different styles that you can create down, you are paying almost nothing per style. I loved the hair in the first place. It was perfect for an animation I had to do. When he released the expansion pack, I was floored. And the same with the fantasy suit. So Anton, keep up the great work. I am anxiously awaiting the second expansion pack. I have hardly used any other hair since I bought the first expansion. Keep up the great work.

DAZ takes 50%...Bbay takes what amounts to 55%. It's pretty much the standard everywhere you go on the web. Where have you been pnevai??? Laurie

Go to any of the job sites. Search under graphic arts or media designers. The typical advertised salary. You will see that the average for around the country. The paid salary of a full time graphics designer is right around $40,000 per year. THis is for a person that has 5 years experience in graphic development work. I do not make this up. The information is readily available from a number of sources. Monster, Hot jobs, etc. Salaries have especially dropped in the web graphic development fields since the dot com crash. I am not quoteing Freelance rates as their rates are not consistant enough nor widely available enough to get a reliable statistic. I am quoting staff designer salaries as paid buy companies for full time employment. As the items you produce are not done under special contract for a particular client. The compensation calculations are consistant with a company effort at producing a standard product for resale. Very similar to say viewpoint that makes gereric models for the general geaphics community. Viewpoint retains full time developers to crank these products out. It is the average salary of this type of developer that I reference. The average salary for staff artists for advertising, and media houses across the nation is right at $40,000. This is the reality. But you do not have to believe me, go do the research. Here in the south east. Typically your grapics peofessional with 2 to 5 years experience is paid $30,000.

It is granted that I live in a skewed little bubble. Almost all of my friends / aquintances work for themselves... usually freelancing in technical arts or as designers. So we have the flex hours and so on :) I know that if any of us takes a contract for $30 an hour we feel like we are maybe breaking even for our time. Hell, the last few weeks of learning poser to up my 3D skills was because I would be better served by putting the time into my skills and landing a higher $ contract. None of this is to say we are rolling in $$$... prices here are high (we live in/around NJ & NYC) so the numbers are higher here anyway. My point is simply that when I see a poser item for $65, I only have to ask myself if that prop will result in one paid client hour - or save me an hour or two of my personal time. When I look at the "changing hair" I don't see $65. I see the THOUSANDS of dollars I would have to pay a 3D guy to develop the hair I need. It's a bargain :)

PNevai, The rates we charge for our work are based upon the cost of living for our area, which includes keeping the computers fed and happy. You live an a poor area of the country where you can buy a house for 30K and dry cleaning might run you 50 cents a shirt. Some of us work in areas where the average for a house is almost 500K (SF BAY AREA) and don't ask what the local computer service technicians charge, what a meal costs, or what we pay for gasoline. I was billing $35/hour 10 years ago. Anton's cost structure is extremely reasonable for the quality of his work. (And I will state that everything I have purchased of his has been outstanding.) Also, any traditional 2D art gallery will charge a 50% commission on works sold and a hanging fee besides. The brokerage fee charged by the agents online is within established tradition, even if they don't have to packup and insure the physical pieces anymore. Soulhuntre made perhaps the best point of all, though. Does the piece (model, texture, lightpack, whatever) save you more time/money than it costs? If it would take you 20 hours to create it at $10/hour (I'm assuming that you might not be a perfectionist, but are trying to meet deadline), or you can buy it for $40 and get it delivered within the hour (thus giving you all those billable hours back), what makes sense? Carolly

Well, I've gotta tell ya pnevai...I don't think Anton's prices are bad at all. I also don't think it's bad at all if he wants to make a damn good living doing what he does so well. Neither of us would do any differently if we were as talented as he. It is, after all, the U.S....the American Dream. I have bought as many of Anton's models as I possibly could...from Bbay and from DAZ. I haven't gotten one yet that I didn't think was worth every penny. I may not have lots of money, but I bought them because I wanted them. There's something my great-grandfather used to say..."Either buy it or leave it in the store". It may be a bit simplistic, but it's true. If you can't afford it, don't buy it; simple as that. But don't begrudge someone just because they want to make a nice living for themselves. Hell...if I could make a living from home, I'd never take off my jammies! And you could bet that I'd at least try to make as much money as I could doing it too ;) Laurie

Thanks for the explanation. :) I got the changing ponytail and the changing fantasy suit, along with V2, for Mother's Day. I didn't have time to play with the suit and the pony to make them work right. (And was feeling more than a little guilty.) I am so glad, that I can use them, now. Thank you Anton. I hate it when I get something "thoughtful", and, don't use it.

I agree with the above. It is all relative and what is exhorbitant to one person can be cheap to another. However as the the research I did for a past project had me dig up salary statistics for the commercial graphic arts industry. I also finally reccomended to RFP several companies for the project. The lowest priced one. Simply stated for example. I need a cat model. I create a request for proposal. I send this RFP to all of the artists here on renderosity. In the rfp is the specifics of what I want and how and when I want it. Then I wait for the bidders to forward their proposals back. The artist who demonstrates that they can provide me with the cat, how I want it when I want it, at the cheapest price, gets the contract. The corporation I work for is no different than any other. Wise business practice is to get what you need for the least cost. This impacts the bottom line. So as the majority of business both large and small adopt the practice of least cost sourcing. You can bill what every you wish for your time, but be prepared to loose the contract to someone who will do it cheaper. The company we eventually went with was located in Sri Lanka. They came in with the lowest bid, for quality work. With the advent of telecommuting. The competition in the field of graphic arts will be fierce. Talent has no boundries especially with high speed internet access. People who think $30 an hour billable for thier work is cheap, will need to reassess when someone from India, Taiwan, Malaysia, China comes in at $10 or even less. These people are no less talented, and in many cases produce superior work.

Ummmm...there is a "However" to this. Before starting to work for myself, I worked "in house" for a large advertising company, in Chicago, where we were living. Starting salary was $26.50, per hour, for in house designers. And, most of the work was just presentations in Powerpoint. That was 4 years ago. Yes, it is different, when there is bidding involved, and, independent contracters, but, we do ourselves a serious disservice by straying too far from the "industry standards" when placing a bid.

I might be wrong, but I think there is enough of a demand for Anton's things that people will buy them, and at the prices that he's been charging. I don't think he needs to worry about that. ;) Laurie

I would like you a lot more if you would make a fix for the robe you sold me, That just happens to not fit the p4 man unless you make parts of him invisible,Or make him incrdibly skinny. Anton if your going to sell stuff you should at least make sure the item is professional and not on a free stuff level of quality, And that the items your selling are trouble free. Im no saying your work is cheap or of a substandard quality, Its your customer service thats the problem. The Robe itself is great, its the conforming problem of the robe that is the problem. A fix would have been nice, posted to your site or mailed to those who purchased the robe with the problems. And the way the product was advertised not telling anyone that the robe fits only a specific figure you morphed was not giving ther buyer enough info to make a good buying decision.. I like your stuff, But im not hot about making another purchase from you until I see fixes for problems people are complaining about including me, Pulling the robe off your site was lame, Yes you offered to give back my money, But that does not improve your product or make the customer who really wanted the robe happy, A good talor would have simply slapped the robe on his sewing machine and fixed the problem. Is the Robe worth the 15 bucks I paied for it, Yes it is worth every Penny, But it does have problems I would really like Anton to fix since He made the robe. So no im not bashing Anton just telling him I think he needs to upgrade his customer service and make his products trouble free. And I thought about buying that poneytail too, Now im worried that I may need to wait for a fix for that too.

To me....The very nicest form of customer service is asking me, if I am dissatified...Would I like my money back? I was given that option. But, that was too kind, as, I just had simply not taken the time to read the "read me" files. I am, now, very, very, very happy with the Anton stuff I got for Mother's Day. So, happy, in fact, I had my assistant purchase the new hair pack. I am even happier. Perhaps, you can ask Anton to give you some ideas for "fixes" for your cloak. Other than that, offering a refund is a very nice thing to do. He isn't obligated to do that for any of us. Pop...pop...Poppi

Well, there are a few things here :) It doesn't make a bit of difference that someone in India is charging $10 an hour for their work - what I do is of enough quality, and with enough talent that I get all the work I desire - so untill and unless it starts being a problem for me they are welcome to give it away for free :) When someone puts out the quality product to compete with say, Anton's hair, then I am sure this will become an issue - but yet... nothing of the type has shown up for significantly less. Also... telecommuting and the internet hasn't hurt the high quality, high price firm at all in many ways. The reality is that the Internet has given more people the exposure to what truly high quality work is all about - and they are willing to pay the price. It is easy to say that there is always someone who can do it cheaper, with the same quality - yet this is simply not >always< true as a practical reality. So... is ther global competition? Sure. Are there people out there who charge $10 an hour in bids for work I charge $100 for? You. I see them all the time. Yet... even in that market I keep getting work at my rate. And that tells me that what I am doing is not so easily replaced. If I was stamping out bricks from a mold - then pure price matters. But this type of work... design, programming, 3D building is a talent issue in many cases. I am NOT interchangable with the $10 an hour people... my skillset and my style make me unique. They may go with the other guy - I lose contracts all the time. But if it was a simple as "someone charging $10 an hour" then I would never get any contracts - and that simply isn't true. So... as long as that hair keeps flying off the Daz 'shelves' the theory of the $10 an hour poser developer doesn't seem to be having much impact :)

Hi there, Thanks for all the compliments. Wow, this turned into quite the debate. Creating mesh products for poser is not "Graphic Design". But then again, I used to charge $75 for haircuts. LOL I have no concept of the real world. My email must not be working because I never get any emails from the unhappy people here. I get the ebot things though. I dunno. Sorry if I'm contoversial. Anyway. Please if anyone is ever unhappy please email me. Upset people here always catch me by complete suprise. I really do check my email every day. And the email is always positive. I sometimes don't come here for weeks and can't always tell the serious problems from the Warez kitties stirring up trouble. Take care, Anton Mesh_Magick, I am so sorry you are still so upset. I could have sworn you and I spoke about this already. My email must not be working because I honestly never received any email from you about the robe. Actually, noone has emailed me about the robe. When you render clothing that isn't suppose to be visible in the first place, just double click on the body part and then uncheck "Visible". This makes the body part disappear under clothes. Tight things can poke through like skirts and stockings. The robe is for a skeleton or wizard. The P4 guy is just to big. I thought it looked silly-all puffed out like that. I just thought "skeleton's don't have muscled chests". I didn't realize that I would confuse people. Anyway, I did send you an message offering you a refund. I thought you had said you were happy with the robe. I'm sorry, I must have meant to and thought I did. :) I'm posting this here because I obviously can't get your email. I didn't know there were other products you owned that you felt needed updates. I'm aliitle baffled, but I'm sure you're not crazy or anything. Just email me and we'll see what we can do to make everything better. Take Care, Anton

Hi Anton, thanks a lot for the Ponytail and the expansion pack. I purchased the expansion pack the day it came out. When it popped up at my screen, there was a loud "Yippieeh!" coming out of my mouth ;))) You really did a wonderful job! This hair really rocks!!! I have to use it over and over again for my next pictures. And like many others I can't wait to see the next expansion pack coming up. Again, thanks a lot. Cheers, Phil

I also want to let people know I think I was a little hard on Anton above, Over one product that has problems, Im sure His other products are nice and trouble free. Sorry Anton I guess I had a bad day.