>> Is it that time of year, again. The "I quit/leaving," threads are starting to happen.?

Okay, let's get a few things understood, because apparently my English isnt that good.

(1) This isnt a "I'm leaving forever!!!" kind of thread... at least that's not my intention. My intention is that, while I'm sure the direction Poser is headed is wonderful for most, it's just not that for me any more. I still use the program extensively, for hobbyist images and professional work -- right now I'm in the middle of a massive series of :10 and :15 animations for a fitness company, and Poser is my mainstay in that. So I'm not dropping the program, guys -- just reconsidering my place in the Poser community these days. Nothing wrong with that -- we all go through periods of re-evaluation sometimes, right? It was a sad day I left the Navy too, but it was time to move on.

(2) I do a lot of my own modeling, as a matter of fact. For the aforementioned project, they have proprietary machinery, and all of that has be created from scratch. And it's amazing what you can get out of FormZ these days. :)

(3) yes, sex sells -- it even did back in the pre-DAZ P3 and P4 days (Check the most viewed image in the Rosity gallery. :) ). My issue is that DAZ has now run roughshod over the whole Poser community with a figure that becomes more and more polygonally heavy and needlessly complex with each new iteration. Our entire Poserverse revolves around one character mesh, and I find that truly saddening because the result is that most users dont even bother with what comes with the program -- instead, they rush to continue the Vickie mythos, even before theyre sufficiently skilled in the basics of the program itself. And they find themselves floundering with morph channels and injections and hidden dials and everything else that's confounding for even advanced users. But somehow they feel it's necessary to do so, because, frankly, we dont seem to give them much choice.

Now, let me underscore yet again -- this is just my take on the situation. Clearly DAZ and its flagship mesh have a helluva lot of cheerleaders out there, so they must be doing something right. And by doing so, they've allowed for folks like Stefan and Steve at 3DU to bring their wares out into the public eye. But you all have to admit, it's stagnated the program to a horrible degree... at least to me. And I take full responsibllity for that position.

But what all this comes down to -- again, as far as I'm concerned with my future with this program -- is that it's not the same community spirit. It's all merchandizing and making sure almost everything merchandized revolves around the Showgirl. And it just gets tedious and boring and repetitive -- for me and probably just for me. So rather than whine about things I know will never change, I'll go back to making my little images and putting them on my little website for pretty much my own gratification... and if anyone comes across them, bonus points all around.

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider