qaz posted at 6:11PM Sat, 14 November 2015 - #4238593

As the saying goes, it's not over till the fat lady sings! Lets see what we have in a week or two's time.

Yes.

I think SM are more than aware how important the new figures are to the future of the software because Poser has to pose something and Daz has made it clear that from now on their figures will only work in Daz Studio. SM has to support the new figures now, it doesn't have a choice. Nerd3D has said that they will do that.

Personally I think that there are extremely good artists in the community who could have helped with the figures and who would have ensured that the sneak peak pictures had that WOW factor. Marketing fail. Too late now.

Yes. There are lots of talented artists that could render the figures; however, I think the most important thing is getting vendors on board to show what could be done. Getting a major vendor on board for the preview would have went over much better.

Poser has provided decent tools to enhance the figures though. HD morphing that can be injected easily. Matching centers to morphs to allow extreme morphing. I have already suggested a project group to make improvements to the figures to ensure a common standard. Hopefully we can get that of the ground.

Marketing blurbs and how it actually works is two different things. Have you seen the HD morphs and setup yet? The matching center example had a major problem with the clothing fitting the figure unless the person neglected to transfer the joints to the clothing, which would be another marketing fail. Showing a dwarf with a bikini top falling off her isn't a good example of previewing the tech.

There is years of life in V4 and M4. I was surprised to see the thread at Daz3D on the differences between V4 and and V7 turn into a debate over whether V7 provided any enhancements at all. The point that keeps on being made over again is that there is an enormous library of stuff for V4, but with new Vickys coming out every two years, all the vendors are doing is producing the same stuff over and over again for the new figures. Same Ole Same Ole. Keeps the dollars coming in I guess.

Problem with the "there is still life in V4" and "I have a large library of V4" posts is that you haven't actually compared the differences... you just are justifying why you don't want to switch. Two seconds with raising V4's and V7's arms and you would instantly have your answer on one of the differences. That's actually comparing the figures.

I'm not sure, but If I've read it correctly bones, HD sculpting and matching centers to morphs could be applied to V4 and M4. They are already weight mapped and have a higher poly density equivalent to one sub division over V7. I don't think its a coincidence that the vast majority of celeb morphs are V4 or M4.

It's been noted that lower poly figures are easier to pose, rig, weightmap and animate. Many artists that work with zbrush can do amazing work with low poly figures with subdivision. Working with lower poly figures requires a shift in your workflow, most times people use high poly meshes as a crutch to make things. You make good characters once you learn how to manipulate a low poly cage.

And of course there's the issue of Daz attempting to enforce even more control over where and how you get your future figures.

Very incorrect. They are protecting the content that is sold which many a lot of content companies do already. But considering the DRM being included in the next version of poser, DAZ shouldn't be the one singled out in this conversation.