As much as DAZ has focused more on illustration, there's

still tons that neither DS nor Poser does to make

illustration easier.

Daz recently bought the former third party graphMate and KeyMate Plugins and folded them into the free base program.

They also have an all new IK solver for switchable foot/floor contact in the DS 4.12 beta.

In september, they will be releasing a new DSON based plugin that loads FULLY functional Genesis figures into the worlds top Character animation program for Film& TV..Autodesk Maya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9UGtguQoDQ

Even Daz realizes the limited growth potential of the still illustration/portrait /pinup market.

BTW, I honestly agree with most of your last post, except the assertion that "professional Character animators" always model and rig their figures themselves.

This is true for major film VFX and Game companies, however the Small shops and one man operations do use prefabbed animated Characters and will pay .

I do model my own clothing and make my own custom face morphs But I need quality pre rigged figures for use in C4D & lightwave3D Via FBXor Alembic & MDD.

This is why sites like Mixamo exists.

And why commercial plugins like this one exists for C4D.

https://www.rodenburg-verlag.de/shop/cinema-4d-plugins/people-in-motion-r2-0-cinema-4d-r17-winmac/

I have been asked by individual pro freelancers over on the CGsociety.org forums, about my own Iclone/Daz genesis to C4D pipeline I used to create my ,soon to be released, full length animated film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjokKZX1r6I

Again you are quite correct that such users will not be using Daz studio , poser or even iclone for final output renders. (and with good reason)

IMHO ,However it cant hurt to have animation&character export options to lure such users into your commercial market places.

My website

YouTube Channel