We all have our favorite vendors. Let's share them and give a thumbs up. One of my favorite (but far from only) vendor is: Phoenix 1966 http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/?vendor=402734 I find his (?) Characters individual and charismatic and another vendor is danae http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/?vendor=danae

Also unique in her approach to character creation as well as highly detailed. Your turn ... Boni

I don't drink so I really cannot say what my favorite bender is :-)

Sorry I could not resist I guess the spell checker on the Kindle was happy with bender.

I have more than a few few favorite vendors 3-d-c for his space scenes and Applejack for his futuristic scenes.  3D-Arena, if only for Agatha and Dryjack for all railway stuff, being a Brit the models he produces brings back memories.  That is just to name a few as the list is very long.

I don't drink so I really cannot say what my favorite bender is :-)

Sorry I could not resist I guess the spell checker on the Kindle was happy with bender.

I have more than a few few favorite vendors 3-d-c for his space scenes and Applejack for his futuristic scenes.  3D-Arena, if only for Agatha and Dryjack for all railway stuff, being a Brit the models he produces brings back memories.  That is just to name a few as the list is very long.

Either i am loosing my marbles or you edited the post while I was creating my reply.

Is that what it said ... "Who's your favourite bender, and why?"

lol - that's even better that RorrKonn typos, and believe me, some of his really take some beating!
I'll leave you to look-up what Bender sometimes means in England :-D

Can't really answer the vendor question because I've not bought anything, but I like Hameleon's pose stuff and I liked the original GND by BlackHearted.

My favorite vendors have nothing to do with content, and everything to do with the program and utilities to support it.

Dimension3D, Netherworks, etc. Lets not forget ones that give things away either, Such as Snarly, BagginsBill, etc. 

Poser has vendors that support every area, but my favorite are ones that streamline workflow. 

I am not sure if I remember all my Benders thou. 

Renderosity vendors?

Oskarsson; really unique art style in both promos and his products. When he tries too hard to be conventional, you can tell.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/?vendor=Oskarsson

Dinoraul. Don't ask me how he does it but he really cranks those creatures out, he's got it down to a science. His Homo Habilis figure is still one of my most treasured Poser figures... and it's almost completely tris. His texture painting is also an inspiration. This guy's the real deal.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=65979

There's a few others, Nursoda, Dimension3d, PhilC notable amongst them. There's also a couple/few Japanese dudes that used to sell here that I like... Chocolate and Maya X san (BJD!) come to mind.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. FKDesigns, or Fabiana. Great art style, some of her things are Poser classics.

Favorite benders? ATM Mia Malkova and Remy Lacroix.

LOL, I did edit the post ... gotta love auto correct on a kindle with a semi-blind user! Great for a giggle, these are great responses guys. Keep them coming!

Hmm, I like the fairy prop sets by DM. LukeA for his magical items and there are many other vendors I like.

These days,I mostly buy hair, character skins, vehicles and plants. With vehicles and plants I don't have a specific vendor preference, I buy on price and suitability for my purposes.

3Dream for hair. He never disappoints. The Master Skull Cap is used in almost every one of my scenes.

I have enough pretty people now, and these days un-pretty characters with distinct features, that look like real people, attract me. I also like youthful looking characters with clean, unmade-up faces so that I can use them with ColorCurvature's K4 mixer script, to make kids and teens. In that category: Tempesta3d, Henrika_Amanda, StudioArtVartanian, Mortem Vetus, Fredels, Vyktohria, 3dArena, Syyd Raven.

It really helps if the character is for a less popular figure like Dawn, Dusk, Miki 4, Michelle, Alyson, Ryan, Roxy or Rex.

I should of added a 'why' to my selection of favorite vendors.  In most cases it is value for money or flexibility.  

3-d-c for example almost always adds extra texture sets and poses to the scenes, if not the poses are often available free.  The items are also, not only stand alone, but part of a set that is themed allowing renders to follow a path, such as a series of renders at different locations on a spacecraft.  There are scenes can be presented in a manner to imply and vast city or complex.  All of this at a very reasonable prices.

Applejack I like because the textures and lighting supplied with the items are wonderful.  I do play with the lighting and even some of the textures but it is so good to see a scene render so well straight from the box, it really makes you want to play. 

DryJack, well the models are so detailed and as much of it is of the Great Western Railway (GWR) so it brings back childhood memories.  Not only that but GWR was born in the town where I live.

I also left Fugazi1968 whose tutorials I find so informative and easy to follow, and I can't mention Fugazi1968 without mentioning Ironman13, not only for the tutorials but also the locations.  Once again the locations are well textured and there are usually matching poses.  The couple poses save me masses of time, even if I am only using them as a starting point. 

Of course there is Snarly and Bagginsbill who I don't really class as vendors as they give so much to the community for free, so closer to being hero status than vendor.

There are many vendors who I know I can trust to produce good work, and a few that I know will attend to every detail and even include unexpected extras. But it's hard to know in advance who's going to be helpful if you need support, so my story highlights one of those heroes of the marketplace. :)

A while ago, I bought items from two different vendors.

The first was well made, and worked as it was supposed to do. However I felt it could have been done more efficiently, so I wrote a polite message to the vendor pointing this out, as well as praising the things that were good and making suggestions for future product along the same lines. I got a friendly reply and we discussed the options. I believe the vendor did incorporate my suggestions in his next product.

The second was also well modelled; but the product description turned out - to be charitable - borderline misleading. I wrote a polite message to the vendor praising the modelling, but also wondering if I'd forgotten to download a file since the product was so far short of expectations. In return I received a rambling, unfocussed rant which revealed that both his Poser and.customer service skills added together still came to zero.

The first vendor was Coflek-Gnorg, and I will be happy to buy from him again.

I assume you would rather I didn't identify the second, and it will be no surprise to hear that I won't be touching their products with a ten foot pole. Not even a properly rigged one. :)

Fugazi1968

I learned almost everything I know about Silo and modeling in Silo for Poser from Fugazi1968's video tutorials.

Is that what it said ... "Who's your favourite bender, and why?"

lol - that's even better that RorrKonn typos, and believe me, some of his really take some beating!
I'll leave you to look-up what Bender sometimes means in England :-D

Can't really answer the vendor question because I've not bought anything, but I like Hameleon's pose stuff and I liked the original GND by BlackHearted.

Where blaming it all on the spell checker ;) I'm not a big shopper ,but I always thought there where a lot of talented CGI Artist here. Stone Masson and Aery Soul to name a few.

RorrKonn Wrote:
"Where blaming it all on the spell checker ;)"

I reckon a whole new industry could be created around you.  Ok, so there are already junkyards for cars etc, selling recycled parts, but I've not seen any electronics junkyards for the piles of Renderiosity spell-checkers you've burnt out ;-)

Blackhearted.  No explanation necessary.

I've collected a vast amount of props and sceneries.
I've learned how to do "kit-bashing" to create any scenery or prop from what I have already.
So my needs are saturated in that aspect.

Most of my characters are sculpted by myself, for myself.
The other "random extras" characters which I need occasionally use a mere portion of some custom "dial-spun" characters, plus my own modifications. Just some dials spun.

The reason why I still buy pre-made characters is: TEXTURES!!!

There are a lot of character vendors out there.
I mostly don't care about the characters, because, as said above, I do make my own.

But there are a few vendors out there who deliver some exceptionally good body textures, and I buy everything from them!

Of course, I do a lot of texture editing too, to fit one of my custom characters, but that's not the question here.
So I'll name just one single vendor here, because she/he? produced the best textures I ever saw for Poser:

• DANAE -

There are other texture artists who produce great maps, but it would be too much biased if I'd post a roster here, so I won't.

SUMMARY:

Whoever creator/vendor can sell me high quality texture maps gets my money.
The times of "painted" texture maps are definitely over.

So "Danae" is my hero, until someone steps up to provide something even better.

-Peter-

The times of "painted" texture maps are definitely over

how terribly sad... [to me at least...]

but i realise my pref for not striving towards the more 'photo-realistic' types of renders is most likely one that's in a minority nowadays... 

however, i do want to be able to learn how to create the more 'realistic' types of renders, but that is really just for learning, as knowledge is always useful...

i've been out of Poserdom for quite awhile now, esp. in terms of purchasing things, so many of my favourites seem to have moved on, or i've yet to locate them, or something... and i don't really use much from vendors [though i'm trying to dabble again] 

but,

for scenes: stonemason & jack t., and i always loved RedHouse's stuff back in the day which all seem to have become Daz originals at some point in the past 7-8 years, and for all the aforementioned, i was always drawn to their stuff not only because of the types of scenes, but because of the great quality for the $$$

for props: uh, anyone who can do any interesting headprop has my vote [i've come to believe o'er the years i've a fetish of sorts about such things]

for skin:  i don't really use other people's textures, but since coming back, i've purchased a handful, mostly from Maddelirium.  i'm not sure i'll ever find a way to use them, but i sure do love looking at them in Photoshop.  what attracts me so much is the thought process she seems to have in her approach, where a true character is fully fleshed out as opposed to being given a random 'fantasy make up' option here and there. and i get a sense that she truly puts a part of herself into most of sets she offers up, invests herself, instead of just putting something out there 'just because'.  i'm honestly, at this point, pressed to be able to truly articulate what i mean, and i have put a bit of thought into trying to figure it out too since i'm spending monies i can't really afford to be spending on items that i may or mayn't use at some point.  best i can come up with is that her sense of aesthetics marries the closest to my own moreso than any other vendor i've yet to come across since coming back... and were samil still creating - well, her stuff always had my heart...

for clothing: again, don't really use it, but i always loved AwfulSoul/Aery Soul/Aeon_Soul/AlphaseeD's stuff [glad to see they're making a comeback], as well as ElorOnceDark's -- and Sarsa has always been so very adept at doing fabulous textures for other people's clothing...

and i'd be remiss if i failed to mention Bong by nursoda, as that little guy just gets under my skin and makes my teeth hurt in the very best possible way, and i'm not pulled towards 'cute' typically...

How does danae make textures ?

Giana wrote:
but i realise my pref for not striving towards the more 'photo-realistic' types of renders is most likely one that's in a minority nowadays... 

Perhaps not in the minority. Just less vocal during the forum mud slinging contests since Poser already answers well to pursuits towards f.ex. illustrative work. I personally make illustrations only, but rarely any need arises to voice out that Poser works quite nicely to that end.

indeed it does looking at your gallery, 12rounds...  you've created some very nice work.

i can't say that i use Poser towards any specific ends as most of my junk starts off with something in mind, but i n'er seem to get to where i was wanting to go in the end.  thankfully i'm not an artist otherwise i'd be starving as well as simply frustrated... hah!  and heck, i'm still using P6 and Photoshop5.5 which also seems to be a big no no, but hey, did i mention i'm a poor and frustrated non-artist? ;)

anyway, back to the topic at hand -- and i think i've figured out part of what draws me towards certain skin textures as opposed to others, and it is because even though i can see exactly what was done to create a skin or a make-up, etc., can identify if and what resources were used, know exactly how to get there, still, i myself cannot replicate it if i were to bother to try.  the creator has actually left a subtle, yet indelible, fingerprint upon their work somehow. 

as i said in my earlier post, i like looking at things in Photoshop, or sometimes i make wallpapers for my desktop of face textures.  i've been known to pull several different face textures all at once from various artists into PS [i prefer looking at textures in 2D since that way nothing else is factoring into the equation such as shaders, lighting, morphs, blahblah].  and i've a ton of them collected over the past 14 years or so.  as a whole, there are but only a handful of texture artists where if someone else had opened them up in Photoshop so i was unaware of whose work was what, that i could point at and say 'oh, that's by so and so' because of that indelible fingerprint...

i also forgot to mention Poison... i do so love his wicked little universe of modeled skull objects.