All V4 characters out there are in the same age area, the same texture sets or look-alikes, the same light setups, and they all look exactly the same.
OK, spin a dial here and there, make some very-very-light external moprhs because you do not want to upset the rigging, but at the end of the day?
You have yet "the next"  V4.

Go to the 30-40 age area, in morphs and textures.
Move on to the 40-50 age area with moprhs and textures.
You are in "virgin" area here. There's almost nothing.

You have the whole market open for you ; There is almost nothing from 30-40 and 40-50.
And then earn your outhouse, your boat, your private jet by building the clothes for those.

And that goes for females and males.

Look at all examples here. All range from 16 to 23 years of age.

Use your imagination, go beyond the 30 barrier with figures, morphs, textures, hair, clothes, props.
It' s all empty, open and up for the taker.

*And for your lmatest cousins render?

Why are they in an empty scene?
Wanna get attention? Put them in a beach ball play setting. Get some "life", some movement in the scene.*

Look at all examples here. All range from 16 to 23 years of age.

Use your imagination, go beyond the 30 barrier with figures, morphs, textures, hair, clothes, props.
It' s all empty, open and up for the taker.

*And for your lmatest cousins render?

Why are they in an empty scene?
Wanna get attention? Put them in a beach ball play setting. Get some "life", some movement in the scene.*

Not all are in that age range, Agatha by 3-DArena certainly looks older than 23 and there are a few others.  That said, I am really nit picking here as you are correct that older V4 characters is barren territory at the moment.  I have Agatha and use the character extensively but I would be interested in other older characters and, as it is not mainstream, I would also be willing to pay more.  

Look at all examples here. All range from 16 to 23 years of age.

Use your imagination, go beyond the 30 barrier with figures, morphs, textures, hair, clothes, props.
It' s all empty, open and up for the taker.

*And for your lmatest cousins render?

Why are they in an empty scene?
Wanna get attention? Put them in a beach ball play setting. Get some "life", some movement in the scene.*

Not all are in that age range, Agatha by 3-DArena certainly looks older than 23 and there are a few others.  That said, I am really nit picking here as you are correct that older V4 characters is barren territory at the moment.  I have Agatha and use the character extensively but I would be interested in other older characters and, as it is not mainstream, I would also be willing to pay more.  

This is barren territory because there aren't enough customers that reside here. Same for asking the OP to make characters for Dawn, Roxie and Miki 4. The OP is looking for input so he can make more money... not way less. I'll chime in that the promos need much more work in the lighting, posing and presentation. I'm also going to point out that you should never say that one program renders better than others then present actual renders that contradict your argument. It's all about learning your tool of choice.

Lastly, the clothing. They leave much to be desired when presenting your product to a customer.  To be totally honest, your characters' clothing selections (and tattoo options) represent more of a trailer park variety than sexy, and come off as pedo-pervy when you have the young girls in daisy dukes and cutoffs, with the camera focus aiming directly into their cleavage and crotch area. Delete those items from your runtime. Put them in age-appropriate clothing and cover them up. That's really what your QA testers are telling you. There is really a fine line between sexy and trashy. Switch up your choices with classic choices and hair styles and show that your characters are more versatile... like they going to the library, class or a elegant party.. not just riding in a Ford F-50 with a six pack on a Saturday night. Take a look at how the girls in Rendo's hot list are being presented versus how you are doing it and and add in a few renders based on that to break up your presentation. If you are showing the body shape, make one or two renders showing it, but don't make her practically undressed for all your promos.

Ok... wheww, many responses, been busy for a while..

Poser installed on my laptop so I can start using IDL lights.  Copying my runtimes, taking quite a long time!

@piersyf: Will not use textures on HDRI environment, as it changes the color of the skin in renders.   Maybe in an "artistic render", but I want to show the customers what she truly looks like.  I'll use IBL lights with an infinite light though, or maybe my light set included, I'll see what looks good.

@Glitterati3D, I make my head morphs through DS3 and Ultra Face Morphs (merchant recourse at runtimeDNA), there are so many morphs you can play with.  I don't have, or don't know how to play with morphs with other 3D programs, though I do have Blacksmith3D's paint pro which includes morphing ability, I'll play around.  As for Dawn, Roxie & Miki4, I highly doubt neither one has any body morphs that would make them look like teens/kids, and there are hardly any clothes/hair support for them.  I highly doubt they even have as much morphs as V4 and all her add-ons (which is why V4 lasted soooooo many years).  Custom body morphs, yes there are some, but then the clothes won't fit them properly, and I highly doubt there are even some custom morphs that make them look like kids either.  V4 is not dead, V4 characters still sale a lot and there are a huge number of customers that still buy V4 characters.  I'm gonna learn G2 female morphing and jump in the boat, as there are a huge number of support climbing for her, not to mention, she has teen morphs as well.  I may do an adult version of one of the three you requested though, just gotta learn how to morphs their faces.. and then, I don't even know if they are DS compatible.  Yes, I'm an ex-DS user, now Poser user, but I didn't forsake DS users, I always try to support both Poser and DS.

@booksbydavid: When I was online with my main computer with my CRT monitor, yes, I did calibrate my monitor, but it's not online anymore.  My laptop monitor is calibrated, so I'm just depending on what things look like from it.  The CRT monitor is turned up as far as it can be, but it just doesn't compare to the LCD monitors.  Running your promo renders through some color editing is a big no-no.  You are required to show what color your characters look like in mono lights and cannot post work, this way your customers know what they're getting.  If you render them in some different colors, or post work the image, your customers will get something different then what they're buying.  Not good.  I render them in mono lights to show what color the character really is, and never post work on the actual renders.

@Miss Nancy, I don't need to use fancy lights or skin surfaces,I don't know about BB's lights, but Snarly's skin surface scripts seems difficult to use & I don't understand it.  What I used as far as skin surface seems very good and doesn't glow in the dark or react strangely to different lights (with permission, I copied mine from another vendor, and with lots of learning, I edited them).  I don't need extra special surface settings, I've already learned a lot from other people.  The lights I used, yes, too bright and contrast so I'm working on that and will be re-doing the promos.
You quoted: "you wouldn't get honest opinions, as rule here: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything. it's more supportive, but leaves users stuck in ruts" True, very true as for people who refuses to learn from critics, but when you ask for one's honest opinion, you just might get negative.  Most people can't handle it, I do know that, but then if they that can't handle it, they can't learn.  It's nice to get some encouragements though, as to what you did right and what is good.  I agree.  But I prepared my self to get nothing but negative so that I can see what I'm doing wrong, so I can correct them.  In fact, I've became a friend of a person who gave a lot of negative feed back, she will be helping me if I need it, she's a tough one!  Thank you much friend!

@Louis Cross:  Older women just don't sell much here and I don't have resources for older women (wrinkle skin resources, etc).  I support the too and wouldn't mind making a couple older women products, but what most people buy are 20 to 30 yr old sexy women.  I pretty much specialize in the other minority group which are young kids and teens.  Strangely though, my Lucy Zepp teens package has sold far more than all my other characters, all my adult characters are gorgeous, but the teens sold most, so I know what I'm going for.  Also consider this, I'm about the only vendor here that sell the young version of V4/S4 (down to age 5), so people that are looking for kids that can wear V4 clothes are gonna find me.

@Male_M3dia: The icons?  Testers? Sitemail me, you have me curious where you're coming from & how you know these info. As for the clothing used in promos, yes I could've used "normal clothes that cover you mostly" but wanted to display her.  I've seen much more showing, skimpy clothes on younger looking characters here in the marketplace, so I don't think I'm in the wrong here.  Also, you quoted "I'm also going to point out that you should never say that one program renders better than others then present actual renders that contradict your argument. It's all about learning your tool of choice."  Where did I say that???  Not in promos for sure *scratches head

Ok folks, need to go to bed & go to work in the morning!  Fun chatting with you this is getting pretty interesting :)

...wolfie

I agree with the posters who mentioned the renders not being on par with the best. I also agree with the poster who said the clothes weren't necessarily doing you any favors—as a whole, they're not pretty clothes. They are in most cases realistic, but I'd look at what DAZ does with Belle and their other teens, clothing-wise. Like most of the adult characters, they're wearing swimsuits or lingerie for the cover tile, but its age-appropriate, with more coverage. The additional renders show contemporary clothes. The ones you have feel dated.

The other thing you do—which is commonplace in the Renderosity store—is overload the cover tile image with ugly text. It looks like it was done in Word and doesn't look professional. Not everyone is gifted with type layout skills, but I'd find a font that has some teen spirit to it that remains easy to read. Keep the text on the cover tile minimum, and then work to declutter the inner panels. Again, look at what the top vendors are doing. 

Finally, I like the Reese Sisters more than Tina—more versatile, less like an existing product—but on one of the inner panels, you identify their ages as 23, 25 and 29, which is clearly wrong. None of them look that old and the youngest one is a tween at oldest. Since your big selling point is their age (since there are fewer teen figures), you want to make it clear you know what teens look like. Mislabelling them makes it look like you might not have used any references.

The ages on the Reese sisters are 13, 19, & 25. To say that you think I don't know what teens & kids look lIke, rather then saying I made a mistake on the numbers. (Which I didnt, you should look again).. doesn't make me look good at all, in fact you're stating I'm a fool.  I would have thought twice before saying anything like that.  It's all good though.

No more critics please, as I stated before, I'm redoing the promos.

...wolfie 

@booksbydavid: When I was online with my main computer with my CRT monitor, yes, I did calibrate my monitor, but it's not online anymore.  My laptop monitor is calibrated, so I'm just depending on what things look like from it.  The CRT monitor is turned up as far as it can be, but it just doesn't compare to the LCD monitors.  Running your promo renders through some color editing is a big no-no.  You are required to show what color your characters look like in mono lights and cannot post work, this way your customers know what they're getting.  If you render them in some different colors, or post work the image, your customers will get something different then what they're buying.  Not good.  I render them in mono lights to show what color the character really is, and never post work on the actual renders.

**
**

**I understand that for product renders, but I've seen many products that include 'artistic' renders as well. It was 'arisitic' renders I was referring to.
**

Ok, got Poser installed and all my runtimes copied to my laptop, thankfully now I can take my laptop and let things render as needed while I'm working (RL job).  And now I can render full scenes with IDL lights.

@booksbydavid: Ok, I see what you mean.  Doing an IDL render now as I type this doing a comparison, you'll see below.

@Male_M3dia: I forgot to mention last night, a very important issue here.  First of all, as a vendor, I will be as professional as possible, but whether in professional environment or not, one must defend themselves when called a name as horrible as a pedo pervert.  Apparently since you had access to the testing/QA communication or someone that did and told you info, you should know very well that I created Tina as a 21 yr old, thus the "trailer trash" clothes so to speak, and tattoos.  The ONLY reason Renderosity says she looks too young, is for fear of people who can't handle the fact that there are MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of women at average height and shorter (5ft 6in) and have even smaller breast then Tina even way thinner hip/thighs then Tina.  Just look around, google "23 yr old women".  Funny though, I googled that and a bunch of nudity images popped up, but anyways I looked through and found many women who look younger/smaller then Tina.

I realize I shouldn't make her dressed skimpy all through the promos, but I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to be called a pedo.

In fact, I looked around all the popular vendors' characters who were allowed nudity, all faces of course look kiddy and cutie and all that, most bodies don't even show any physical activity strength on their bellies (V4 definition & fitness).  I loaded one of Godin's character, Nandi, who looks younger then Tina, she's less physical fit, smaller hips and thighs, the only thing that would make her look "older" is that her breasts are slightly larger.  Her height was "basketball V4" which is way tall, so I shortened her to average height.  I rendered them side by side to show everyone.  Since Nandi is allowed nudity I rendered her nude to show her breasts size.  (The shoulder fix messed up on Tina, but I'm not worried for now).

Again, I absolutely refuse any accusations as some kind of pedophile!  I should ask administrators to delete your post.  I almost pulled Tina out of my store cause of what you said, that was bad!

Also one more thing, where you said, "That's really what your QA testers are telling you." I don't know if you're another tester or part of the QA team, but you should NEVER share these type of information to the public, and if you're not a tester, who ever shared you any information shouldn't have.  Not one hint, that's between me and the testers/QA.

...wolfie

Ok, I'm going to go through this rather quickly because I have some more figures to work on.

First of all, you asked for honest opinions and I gave you one. And I stand by everything I said. If you don't want to be referred by certain labels, then your promos need to not reflect that. I'm not taking it back, because that's I'm and others that I've showed are getting from your promos. 

Several pages back you said that your QA testers said your girls look young... going by that comment and your promos... take another look at my 2nd paragraph and do with it what you will. That's my feedback on that.

Next let's go through clothing a bit. I didn't respond earlier because I was submitting my product that coincidentally is a set of young adult and corresponding adults morphs. All custom morphs in zbrush... the teens only use the genesis base, the adults based on V6. The most difficult part of doing promos for younger characters is to display body options without setting off the pedo-meter, especially when the clothing choices for the 3d females are quite revealing.. but it can be done. The attached pic below shows a bit more age appropriate and classier selection of clothing. I opted not to use it in favor of a texture-less render of the body shape using default genesis head like I've done in my other morph packages...

You see the difference between my clothing and yours? The clothing that you are using aren't even fitting right in the correct places. That image isn't doing your figures any favors as another poster said.

Next let's do older vs younger and clothing them differently. Here's another WIP of one of my morphs younger version... put her in some anime clothing and she's a bit more innocent looking...

Now throw the morph back to zbrush... age her up, give her some adult makeup choices, a sexier body and some classy but sexier clothing choices, then you end up with a more versatile set.. which got accepted for testing and should be in the store in a few weeks.t

And with that, back to work.

Ok, I see what you mean by the tester/QA comment.

I know I should've clothed her up a bit more on most promos, I got that, and I'm looking at all my clothes and promos from other vendors.  Still, being called a pedo is quite a bit more offensive than you might think, and with so many people seeing that post, word goes around and suddenly I have this rumored reputation.  Name calling (especially that) I believe is a no-no in forums.  Also, as my image shows in the comparison I still stand that Tina is 21 and is more physically shaped then Nandi, but isn't allowed nudity only cause her breasts are smaller then whatever they allow, so this "pedo" is clearly out of the question.

I'll just shake hands and leave it at that.

Thanks for the render samples, friend!

...wolfie

@jamminwolf: I don't think M_M was actually calling you a perv, just that he thought some of your promos might appeal to such groups based on composition choices.

Nothin wrong with F-150s and a six pack with daisy dukes. That is what most of America is all about on the weekends anyway, regardless of how much city folk want to deny it. ;)

But you might want to mix it up a bit to show variety in different clothing.

hello :))

i think you've got many ideas on how to fix things, so i'll refrain from what has already been said.  one thing though that i've been waiting for someone to mention, and that you referred to back on page one is pricing.

looking in your store and going through ReadMes to obtain rough dates of release, i can understand why there is a slight increase in your pricing, not to mention that you are having to share revenue with partners.  but back on page one you also mentioned packs by Godin & Seven that were released roughly around the same time as Tina.  both those vendors might also be having a bit more success due to having lower price points than you.  even if you fixed your promo images, etc., personally i would not be willing to spend $19USD on your sisters pack, especially since, as stated in your product description, it is roughly the same base texture for each with colouring adjustments.  but also keep in mind that i am one of those purchasers that will quite willingly go in and edit textures myself, like colouring or mixing make-ups, blahblah, so that i get more 'bang' for my buck.  i don't know how many others might do the same, but surely there is more than a handful of us.  now if the there were at least two identifiably different detailed & exciting textures, then $19USD would be easy and justifiable to drop.

best wishes for improved success!! :))

Ok... did a render... a few render actually coming up with ideas and changing hairs. But first...

@AmbientShade: ok I understand it better, still knowingly I attempted to make her a 21 yr old woman, pedo shouldn't have been mentioned.  Perv... if he feels it was too much, yes that's fine, and I got what he meant, but not pedo.  It's ok though, subject dropped and all is forgiven :)

@Giana: Yes, I've been thinking about the price, and since I sold a few already, it would be a headache for Rendo to refund them the difference if I change it, so instead, I'm gonna add another tan line.  The price being higher actually reflected cause of the tan lines (without all the extra textures, these textures are loaded in a node to give her skin the effect), a new idea I came up with.

K, so here's a render.  I have RSP8 IDL_Sphere (from RNDA) loaded, size not changed, ambient white at 0.75000, an infinite light at 20% (with shadows at 1.000 of course), and an infinite specular light at 40%.

I think it came out well, but I'm not sure if the hair will pass.  The shadow min bias is at 0.20000 for both lights (I don't like a "separate" shadow that shows if you have the smb too far).  Here's the image, what do you suggest?

Oh, and the hair is my own color, one of the textures edited for a true blonde instead of yellow and orange.

...wolfie

WTF??? Tried to load an image and I get this "we are unable to load your amazon s3 account, please contact administrator"?????

Ok, I clicked post too soon before the image loaded.  Learned something new lol smacks self

Ok, I clicked post too soon before the image loaded.  Learned something new lol smacks self

Well it is clear you are moving forward and I do like this render but it does appear to lack punch.  Compare it with the render at the top off the page from Male_M3dia.   I am no expert but the lighting seems to be the problem not the figure.

I think the "punch" comes from the main light aiming straight at her from slightly above, with a rim light, and a stronger specular.  He rendered that in DS, so I doubt he used anything like IDL.  IDL in Poser kills the specular strength so we need to load a specular light.  I load the specular light and copy the angle from the "sun" (infinity) I used.  Course then again I can lower the sun's diffuse color in material room and make it brighter in pose room where the specular will show more, instead of loading a specular light only.

This is, yes I agree, an improvement, but it's an example to ask what I can do to make the hair look not so... uhh.. defined.  Looking for a more softer look.

...wolfie

Are you using a 3-point light setup for your promos?

It's probably to best start there, have your rim light shining towards her and off one over her shoulder so she's popping a bit from the background. The 3 point set up will also give you a light into your eyes to show reflection. 

You don't need too elaborate setups for lights in promos. They just need to pop the character from the background and allow you to show texture and morph details in neutral light.

Are you using a 3-point light setup for your promos?

It's probably to best start there, have your rim light shining towards her and off one over her shoulder so she's popping a bit from the background. The 3 point set up will also give you a light into your eyes to show reflection. 

You don't need too elaborate setups for lights in promos. They just need to pop the character from the background and allow you to show texture and morph details in neutral light.

Totally agree, and I used it for the promos that are there now (tho they're too bright and contrast), that's what I'm planning to use with softer shadows and not being too bright.  I'm just wondering if I'm using the wrong settings somewhere for the hair, as it looks too defined.  Or do you think the hair looks fine?  I don't. Still playing around.  Also gonna play with Depth of field lol this may give it a little more punch!

Also angle the model a bit in the render so she isn't straight into the camera. That will help give the image a bit more depth with the lighting.

Edit, I would try a different hair as well. It looks a bit clumped together.

Edit, I would try a different hair as well. It looks a bit clumped together.

Am thinking of doing that, might use "End of Summer" by goldentassle and a variety of others.  Thanks a lot, M_M!

Ok, here we go.  IDL with a 3 point light setup (main, soft, and rim).  If all goes well, gonna use this image and fade/blur the background (depth of field), this will be a simple up close detail of face & texture with eye icons on the right side.

Again, edited the texture to look true blonde, different hair by same vendor, Ali (I really love this vendor's hairs).  Edited the material to be more bumpy and specular (specular maps aren't necessary as the bump does the trick).

What do you guys think?

For me, the big issue is that these are V4 Characters, and I've gone almost completely over to Genesis 2.  As a result, your characters have just kind of faded out for me.  I'll probably get the Reese sisters at some point, but most of my budget is now going to Genesis 2 and other content.

The other issue I have is that Perez doesn't include multiple ages.  I've come to associate your name with multi-age character packs, which you do incredibly well (even before S4 came out ;)), but without that element, Perez is just another V4 Character, which I have way too many of as is.

The final issue I have is fitting clothing to your characters, especially the younger ones.  Most clothing don't include the S4 and Elite morphs, and the morph transfer processes in DS and Poser don't always do the best job of fitting clothing  properly.  Add to that the often mature nature of V4 clothing, and it's hard to find outfits appropriate for the younger characters as well. 

Ok, here we go.  IDL with a 3 point light setup (main, soft, and rim).  If all goes well, gonna use this image and fade/blur the background (depth of field), this will be a simple up close detail of face & texture with eye icons on the right side.

Again, edited the texture to look true blonde, different hair by same vendor, Ali (I really love this vendor's hairs).  Edited the material to be more bumpy and specular (specular maps aren't necessary as the bump does the trick).

What do you guys think?

Much better, but dump the background!  All it is doing is distracting from the subject - way too busy and that grass sucks.  Use a simple background in post by rendering on a white background in Poser and save the file as a PSD, then drop it on a simple background. This hair is better, but still flat and too deeply shadowed.  Another distraction from the subject at hand. 

Quit doing artistic renders and do PROMO renders.

@nightwolf1982a: yes, I'm gonna learn how to transfer morphs to G2 and jump in the boat, for now I'm re-working Tina's promos.  I agree about the clothes, it's very sad that most clothes don't include Stephanie4 morphs (FBM or PBM), and almost all clothes don't include Stephanie4 partial body morphs (PBM) which I use exclusively on my characters, especially the teens/youngs.  What I use to make them fit is Morphing Clothes by Dimision3D here http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=64629

As for Tina Perez, I have an age progressive "add on" package that i will release (they might have their own "softer" outer skins, but will require Tina Perez adult for the others, such as eyes, bump maps, teeths, etc...), and I will price them as cheap as Renderosity will allow.

@Glitterati3D: The background was someone's suggestion and it's a new idea for me for promos (like Daz3D does), it will be faded as well as blurred out (like depth of field).  In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and do that on this sample to show you.  Not sure what you mean by the hair being flat and too shadowed, can you explain?  Does it need more specular?  Bump?  I like this hair and it allows me to show Tina's full face without any hair in her face or covering too much of her forehead.

a very basic remark here. Does your figure look happy? Does it look "inviting". Does it look like she "wants to meet you". Says ; " Buy me?"

Would you fall in love with someone walking around with that sad expression? Also, there is absolutely no "life" in the texture. No detail, no life, no contrast, no tan nor shadow.

Look to get some "flicker" in the eyes. (Not specular, but that "lifelike flicker" young women can have when they are inviting you to buy. Promo girls "have that" touch of wider inviting eyes. The eyes have no 3D in the mesh nor the texture around the eyes. She looks pale as if she was ill. But even when ill, there must be some "life" in the girl.
And those pouty lips, as if she "has" to kiss, but does not want to kiss.

The only skin texture we see is on the nosebridge, and that's about it.

We see a smoothed head, with a texture deprived of contrast and detail, and a girl that does not like to live. Pale skinned and sad..

Sorry, to be "hard" but that's what I see.

Going off the reservation a little, since everyone is recommending Env Sphere and IDL, I would go more towards a studio setting and try to convey a sense of youth and innocence.That might help you out a bit with the "perv police".
Maybe a gymnast's outfit for the younger characters, or something like that.

You might have a look at LilFlame's Simplicity- IBL light set. It works very well for pin-ups and I'm sure they would work well for your promo's, and I think would give you a head start on some of this stuff.
I'd steer clear of Poser's AO, which Poser's IDL seems to add to a scene automatically. I don't know anything about the technical stuff, but to me, it just doesn't look good to my "brown eyes".

It's one thing to make a really large image look good, but quite another to make a small one look good.

Just a few thoughts, FWIW

PS: I wouldn't worry all that much about the hair. IMO, there are no realistic looking hair characters or props- at least not at the Poser or Daz level of CG.

@Glitterati3D: The background was someone's suggestion and it's a new idea for me for promos (like Daz3D does), it will be faded as well as blurred out (like depth of field).  In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and do that on this sample to show you.  Not sure what you mean by the hair being flat and too shadowed, can you explain?  Does it need more specular?  Bump?  I like this hair and it allows me to show Tina's full face without any hair in her face or covering too much of her forehead.

You're losing site of your single purpose - to show off your character.  There's so much in that image, there's not even a way to determine what it is you're trying to sell. Promo your CHARACTER.  Nothing else.

The hair......I like Ali's stuff too, but certainly not for closeups and not for promo renders.  It looks like 3D hair.  There's a shadow on the top of her head in the back - hair doesn't do that, and certainly not that pitch black shadow that leads your eye to it wondering what the heck in in her hair!  The side in front of her ear look like painted on hair.  Bad choice - but your insistence on IDL is leading to those mistakes as well. Did you at least turn off the light emitter on the hair?

IDL is tough lighting to begin with.  Using it in promos is gonna be a hard sell.

viters, the pouty look is a natural shape in some girls, personally I know a couple of them, and one's my cousin who's name is Tina.  No she isn't smiling right now, I'm just taking advices as per promos.  I'll have her smiling again with "glittery" eyes, just not focusing on that.  Besides, most vendors don't have their characters expressing at all and there's no "life" in their promos.  I like to show that life to prove the morphs can handle a nice smile and wink without deforming, that's why I tell my girls to smile pretty ;)  I'm working to show the texture life more as well, I think the point lights are fading it out a bit.

bevens84, I'm sorry, but your render sample shows her a bit too bright, and actually blurred out.  Yes, the "majority" suggests IDL lights and that's what I'm gonna use.  The "minority" suggests IBL or shadowless lights and that's what I'm not gonna use.  If I want to reach out to the majority of customers with pictures with a "punch", then I need to use IDL lights.  For now I'm also trying to make her bumps look better and give her more "life" with the lights.

Well, I tried. :)

You need to re-do the face morph from scratch.

1. Google: 18 year old beautiful girl and pick a highly attractive girl.

2. Use V4's basic morph settings to achieve the exact look of your reference model.

3. If you have Zbrush, export the face to zbrush and begin MINOR sculpting to match the details in the reference images.

Total time: 2-4 hours tops.

Skin texture is fine IMO.

You need to keep going, keep learning until you catch up with the current level of competition in facial character detail.

YOU ARE ALMOST THERE, DON'T STOP.

Can you show us your original reference image?

You need to re-do the face morph from scratch.

1. Google: 18 year old beautiful girl and pick a highly attractive girl.

2. Use V4's basic morph settings to achieve the exact look of your reference model.

3. If you have Zbrush, export the face to zbrush and begin MINOR sculpting to match the details in the reference images.

Total time: 2-4 hours tops.

Skin texture is fine IMO.

You need to keep going, keep learning until you catch up with the current level of competition in facial character detail.

YOU ARE ALMOST THERE, DON'T STOP.

Thanks for the encouragements, friend!

Zbrush is clearly out of my budget, as far as I remember... I only have Ultra Face Morphs (merchant resource) from RNDA.

the face morph is my cousin's face and she looks almost exactly like her, except a little younger.  My cousin, who's name is also Tina, is actually 40 right now.  The body morph is also almost matching my cousin as well.  With her permission, and some pictures, I made a 3D version of her, but I don't have permission to share the pictures, she said no (was gonna include it in promos).

The next character will be totally different though :)

jamminwolf, do you have PP14?

It's been a while since I used V4/S4, but fitting any clothing to S4 with PP14 is fairly easy.

Load the clothing

Copy the S4 morph from your figure (Figure>Copy Morphs From>Choose from list)

Then, on the properties tab of the clothing, check off Include Morphs, Include Scale

Magnetize the clothing

Result = almost perfect fit.  I used the morph brush under the breast because the S4 morph always causes crushing there.  A tiny bit of smoothing and the fit was good, but I could have smoothed more.  You'll note, this is S4 and a small breasted figure much like yours.

Now, I did this render using IDL, but I would never use it for a promo because of all the IDL artifacts.  Also included is Ali hair, but it's serving a single purpose - for the viewer to NOT notice the hair except to think, yeah, she has hair.

Wow, your image does have a lot of artifacts, and yes, IDL does cause them.  I just might revert back to IBL, just thinking about it.  Tried another hair and it's got quite a few artifacts, and I have Irradiance catch at 50 & Indirect light quality at 32, I believe that's a high quality setting as far as IDL.

No, I don't have PP12, I only have Poser9, and Morphing Clothes did wonders for me.  Here's an image using Morphing Clothes on quite a few clothes for young girls and a teacher (classroom) I did long time ago in Poser.

I think in both of the above renders (jamminwolfs and bevans), the figure is still blending into the background. Both probably could work if some DOF was applied or the background blurred. For promos, generally you want to make backgrounds neutral so that your product takes the focus. 

As far as Tina's lips: I would try to smooth them a little bit more. I do have a head morph with a similar lip shape; I used zbrush to smooth it out to make it a bit natural. 

Also some tweaking of the facial expression can help sell the promo a bit as well and give your product more personality.

A

Ok, here we go... first @Male_M3dia: I don't have Zbrush, as mentioned before it's out of my budget as far as I remember.

And your suggestion is what I was doing at the time you posted lol... here's an updated sample, this might be my "Eyes" promo (except I'm gonna re-render her with a different eye then the default).  Not sure about the hair though, any suggestion on a V4 hair?

Edit, darn artifacts.  Thinking about going back to IBL lights... sigh!

BYW Male_M3dia, I like your character, she's cute :)

The render is much better. It probably needs a point or spotlight in front of the face to catch the reflection in the eyes. 

And as far as the cost of zbrush: The initial cost may be steep, however I've made it back in terms of sales. For custom morphs and the ease of making characters and fixes with it as vendor, it's worth the investment. This is especially true when you want to make younger characters with just one figure. 

The render is much better. It probably needs a point or spotlight in front of the face to catch the reflection in the eyes. 

And as far as the cost of zbrush: The initial cost may be steep, however I've made it back in terms of sales. For custom morphs and the ease of making characters and fixes with it as vendor, it's worth the investment. This is especially true when you want to make younger characters with just one figure. 

Thanks friend!  I'm getting somewhere here lol. I think I will get Zbrush some time if I can, gonna go look at the prices now.  Hopefully it won't take ages to learn.  I do have Blacksmith's Suit 4, but it's hard on my machine, gonna install it on my laptop and try my hand on the morphs... can't remember where the serial number is... then gotta learn how to import into DS to make the inj/rem file.  Don't know how in Poser.

You can take a look at SyrInj in the daz store. It can create INJ/Rem files from your Obj files so you won't need to go into DS. You will need to edit the file to change one value to 1 so that the injection will inject and automatically activate. It's been a few years so I forget what needed to be set in the file. It's on sale right now so it's a good time to grab it. 

Sweet!  Gonna get that when I get some money (don't have any at the time, in fact that's why I'm not out playing pool with the buddies tonight lol).  Thanks M_M!

jamminwolf- check your sitemail.

jamminwolf- check your sitemail.

Gotcha friend, thanks! :)

Wow! I think you've gotten some great feedback in this thread. I'd just add, whether it's fair or not, this marketplace is cut throat. While if I really like a character, with or without the skin included, $18.99 is not going to stand between me and having it. On the other hand there are similar sets out there which include a lot more bang for the buck. V4 + Genesis or Genesis 2 versions, included hair and poses, lights etc etc the list goes on. This has already been touched on but be as diverse as niche as you possible can be. Caucasian V4 characters are the most flooded category without question. Maybe find a way to branch out to ethnic characters or partner with someone to bring in a partner to add clothing or hair to include. All that, or and this is probably not going to appeal because of all your hard work, but i'll say it anyway. Lower your price to as low as you can possibly stand.

These are my thoughts. Best of luck to you. Your work looks good to me.

they recommend a Wacom intuos pro medium or better for zBrush or any sculpting app.a mouse is all but worthless for sculpting. 
you can muddle threw with a intuos small.

Blender is free.has sculpting tools.
you can get  mudbox for $10.00 a month.
there's 3DCoat. 

V4 has such a ridicules high polycount sculpting tools are advisable for original morphs.
Roxie ,Genesis 1,2  ya don't need sculpting tools for original morphs.

 

V4 has such a ridicules high polycount sculpting tools are advisable for original morphs.
Roxie ,Genesis 1,2  ya don't need sculpting tools for original morphs.

 

With lower poly meshes, actually you do need sculpting tools. Especially if you're wanting to create detail with either normal or displacement maps.