mix_mash opened this issue on Feb 09, 2009 · 68 posts
kobaltkween posted Sat, 14 February 2009 at 5:18 PM
i never said unique. i said trust your style.
the Poser economy works on people buying about 10 to 100 times more than they actually use. do i think Stonemason's stuff is bought only by people who work in the same style? i don't even think that's possible. people want to purchase his style. as they do Aery Soul's. their sets have a lot of detail and quality, but i don't think they ever release with more than 3 textures. once again, people like and trust their styule.
if you have confidence in your style, refine it, and market it well, they'll want your style, too. but that isn't the same as talking about what to make.
i'll go back to that Vogue and Bazaar vs. Good Housekeeping basis. you could decide to do a suburban kitchen set. sell different appliances and food and stuff. it would be unique, could be detailed with lots of features, and very impressive overall. but i'd lay down money it wouldn't be as popular as series of very well done and well presented dresses. i'd bet that even with out the market domination, 9mbi's dresses are more popular than the Great House series at DAZ. because pretty girls are used in the bulk of all visual art, and certainly most modern works, where kitchens and living rooms are rare. if you spend time on high quality scenery and props, and they're not of a sort of generic usage, you're going for a niche. you can dominate a niche and do well, but it's a lot harder than just doing mainstream well and in your style.
that said, i think it's probably better to make what you love than what everyone else does, because then you're always pleased. personal fulfillment and happiness aren't the same as success at business.
as for the artist jjroland is talking about, that's basically what i called the bargain bin at Target. Target and Walmart and Costco are very successful stores. Kmart, however, went bankrupt for a while. if you go for that model, you have to be careful, because it's easy to go from being the junk everyone needs all the time to the junk no one needs anymore.
but you need to promote yourself. heavily and well.
examples of people i've seent who've done this recently: gizmee and chexm1x. gizmee's product is a simple pair of stockings. chexm1x is making sets of jewelry and props, and if they followed the rule of complexity, he'd only have one set and it would have a lot more options than each of them do. that said, both are making products for V4, both use them consistently in their galleries, which are of high technical quality and not rendered in Poser, and both publish images very frequently.
they have particular styles, display them all the time, and promote their products as they publish their works.
this conversation is beginning to conflate whether to make a mask or not instead of what to include in a mask product and how to market it.. all i'm suggesting is that your product will look worlds more interesting and appealing if it has 5 great, photoreal designs that you think are strongest, have fine details, and are built to be high-quality and versatile (like implementing the designs as masks that allow material changes), than if you try to make your one mask everything to all people with 50 different designs.