1. I love Steph 2) I hate whiners Paraphrased feedback. - Gazzy

Dan Should DAZ have spent less time and produced something else as the mystery model? Looking from a business perspective, yes. Am I glad they didn't? You betch. I bought Michael 2.0 before I knew anything about the mystery model right after he came out. So maybe that is why I didn't have any expectations. It was an added suprise when I heard about it and my voucher was mailed to me. However, if I had to choose between an outfit for Michael and Stephanie, hands down I would have chosen Ms. Trie. As a gift, you were more than generous giving her. Unfortunately I have seen some of the negative feedback. The only thing I can say is that luckily they aren't the majority. Unfortunately, maybe enough of us haven't spoken up. (We have been to busy playing ;) I for one love Stephanie. I think DAZ has been beyond generous and it drives me crazy to see people complaining about the gift. Unfortunately, we have been seeing that all to often lately. But I think as you can see, now that you have started this thread, most of us are beyond pleased. So my deepest thanks for a wonderful gift. Angela

I'll just join this big happy crowd as well ;) Thank you SO much for Stephanie, she is absolutely fantastic and to think you guys gave her out for free for us Michael2 purchasers... so unbelievable! :)) THANK YOU

Just a few random thoughts..... mostly directed in defense... or maybe not... of the nay sayers. Granted my husband was one of the biggest ones when he first heard the news.... They're emasculating Michael and giving him breats, slapping a $30 price tag on her and calling her a bargain? Okay admittedly, that sounds like a bad idea, especially considering how much most of us have paid for Victoria, the supposedly end all be all of Poser Female Models. It would almost seem that Daz was trying to make up for their own in ability to produce a better Victoria with more range. On paper... or rather in text it looks like a bad deal.... You're giving us another female? We've got scads of them already! We've got Victoria morphs and poses and textures and clothing coming out our ears!!! And now you're making something that tosses all that (save the clothing) out the window and making us buy a whole new product line to fit this new wonder you've created? Hasn't Daz got enough of our money with Vicky 2? Okay, now that I've gotten the attention of everyone who is going to likely flame me into next week ;) I'd like to say that this was an innitial impression. On paper, this all sounded like a /bad/ idea for all the reasons listed above... But being one of the lucky who purchased Michael 2 and who has gotten Stephanie and actually had a chance to play with her, I can actually see a great many of the advantages that were not evident in the 'text' above. I personally agree, Vicky is sadly lacking in several departments and Stephanie seems to be addressing lots of these from what I hear. The unfortunate part is that Vicky could not have been used to upgrade into Stephanie... or at the very least that Daz could not have included a Texture map that would have allowed Vicky's textures to be used on Stephanie. I know a great many people are working on this problem privately, but knowing your audience already has spent a fortune buying fantastic female textures for your ultimate female, producing a new female model with michael's texture map only seemed a bit on the side of shabby for me. I know I will hear back on this but that is my only complaint with Stephanie. Not that she's the mystery model, but that while she was intended to be /MUCH/ more versitile than Victoria in morphs, she is about as useful to Victoria fans as a new rock in the texture department. We either have to go to all the expense of buying your new textures or wait for three weeks for someone to put together a work around... or try to make a cheat ourselves. Personally I feel that DAZ could have gone to a smidge more effort and put together a remap so that she could use the textures we already have as well rather than trying to dig deeper into our pockets with yet another new series of Texture maps that have no real advantage over the current ones except now you can use Michael's facial, chest and pubic hair on a woman..... wow... big improvement ;) Again, I love Stephanie, she's a great model and well worth the price. She looks great /BUT/ I'm eagerly awaiting a good remap for her so that I can use her to the fullest extent of her potential! My only gripe is that DAZ didn't do that in the first place. We have all these ultra high resolution Vicky Maps, use em for heaven's sake, don't make us buy new ones or go through three days work to make a 'cheat' just so we can use your free gift!! It kinda takes the point out of 'free' don'tcha think? Lilfox

heyas; oh, everybody complains about new things when they're new. well, maybe not EVERYbody, but a lot of us! what model is perfect, anyway? (not in the poser universe! :) ) yes, i had a complaint, about the hips, but that's been bugging me since michael 1. and like i said in the 'who wanted a different mystery model' thread, i am very happy with a different millenium woman, since i never bothered with vicky. and i do like her and her masculine muscle morphs and stuff. the only thing i am 'unhappy' about is that she takes victorias clothing, of which i have practically none ;) any model/character/clothing/item you put up as the free mystery model would've gotten the same response, more or less. so relax! :) and thank you for the present!

OK, to be honest, my first impression of Stephanie, straight out of the box, so to speak, was "I'm glad she was free because I wouldn't have paid for her" but after playing around with her and seeing what she can do as well as what some people have done by way of textures for her I find her to be a much more versatile model than Vicky. It's something about her face..I find it much easier to portray Stephanie as a teen or adolescent than Vicky...Maybe there's a naturalness about her face, I'm not sure. I do know that since playing with her I've revised my opinion of her greatly.... It was a great deal and I think anyone who didn't take DAZ up on Mike2 at 30% off with a free Stephanie thrown it was dumber than dumb because you can't beat that deal. (I even through in an impulse buy to boot!). I'm having a blast playing with Stephanie it's nice to have something besides vicky to work with. Thank you DAZ for your wonderful gift. Skye

I think Stephanie is much nicer than Vicky, thought so from the beginning and I love working with her. She is much less barbiedoll like. You can see for example our feedback on her at the Ec Guild Forum or the Babelbox on Mecom4D. It is very positive. Thank you Daz for this wonderful model!

OK, my 0.02, for what it's worth. Another Poser female? Pardon me while I yawn. Look, as someone else pointed out, we're maxxed out when it comes to the Holy Church of Vicky. We have more damn stuff for that broad than anyone could find useful in a lifetime, and the best -- the very best Daz can do when it comes to a "mystery model" is ANOTHER female Poser character? We have Poser animals that look like caricatures; we have little for Michael beyond a couple of clothing paks and some RPG stuff created by brokers. Something to address either of those problems would have been, IMVHO, far more useful than yet another means for people to show off their ability to create nekkid broads. But instead, now we have another Poser female. Gee. More T&A for the galleries. Pardon me while I restrain my excitement, folks. And on top of that, discussion already of Vicky 3.0. Damn... I'm just so... excited I can hardly stand it. Sorry, but I think this was a way wrong move on Daz's part. Sure, it motivated people to buy Michael to get the other model free, but how, pray tell, does that increase the worth of Michael, as Daz claimed this would? So people shell out for Mike -- as long as they're getting Steph for free, Mike is something that'll get archived to a CD and forgotten because there's so little to use when it comes to working with him. That's like saying, "Hey, buy this because it's eminently forgettable and besides you get this for free!": you've essentially paid for Steph and gotten Mike for free, when you cut through the nonsense. And under those circumstances, Mike will remain forgotten as much as before. Welcome to the wonderful world of CyberBarbie.

Dan: C'mon, you're telling me that Poser users didn't flood out of the woodwork to purchase Michael when they found out that the mystery model was Stephanie? I'm the kind of guy that finds it difficult to say anything nice about anything without tossing a truckload of criticism into the mix--and yet, reworking the mesh of the original product to give us a great hi-res female model has got to be one of the coolest promotional tie ins that I've ever seen. It appears that you've got a top notch marketing department to go along with a top notch product. Hindsight is never 20/20 when you're dealing with the American consumer. We complain when it's too hot, too cold, and when temperatures are at 72 degrees because we can't wear the sweaters we got on clearance at J Crew.

Animals, animals, animals...YES! More animals at those great DAZ prices with the great DAZ quality! I personally will not be buying anything more for my human characters, because I don't need any more, and I've learned how to morph well enough to get what I want on my own. If DAZ ever wants to sell anything else to me, they ought to start coming up with more animals. Themed sets would be a cool idea, like "Birds of the Amazon", or "Domestic Pets from North America"...you get the idea. OK, sorry for the OT, but VS brought up the animal thing, and I had to add my thoughts on it.....

Dan and all the staff at DAZ, Just wanted to say thanks, not only for Stephanie, but all of the free models of the week. I look forward to seeing what great items will be offered - makes Thursday something to look forward too. My only problem is I'm going to need a second job to support my Poser habit. Thank you! Peggy

Perhaps you should include in your feedback analysis the fact that people satisfied find often less interest to write in forums than those who are not. I'm very satisfied with my DAZ gift, but I don't found interesting for anyone to claim it here. Well, I promise next time I will send a big "thank you" to DAZ :-) Serge

Ahhh...the mindset of the niche American consumer. If I were to extract what the community wanted as the mystery model based on the negative posts, I'd suspect that a pair of high-poly pants (with several hi-res textures) for the Poser dog would have been the obvious compromise. Personally, I think Stephanie was the better choice.

I know you're just joking, Freakachu, but I'd REALLY like some quality pants for the dog, cat and horse. I think it's OBSCENE the way they are portrayed here, and don't EVEN get me started on the REAL LIFE OBSCENITY of naked animals. I mean, there are cops on NUDE HORSES in the park! I can see their wee-wees a poopy-holes! And people strutting their dogs around like some kind of WHORES. And I swear, they need to just NUKE those horrible dens of animal perversity they call Zoos. I swear, they might as well just have a "Kids get in free" day at the the PORNO THEATER.

To all the staff at DAZ: THANK YOU!!! I had purchased Mike and then Mike2 with no knowlege what so ever that there would be any freebies attached. As for your choice for the Mystery model, again THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! As for the negativity....well, there always has to be some out there but None of it came from me! I think a new Fem charater is Fantastic. Sure, I'd like more hair or a suit of armor for Mike or Vicky, but a Whole New Charater??!! And with the versitality that Steph has brought to us!!! You folk are FANTASTIC and ever so generous!! (as for those who would prefer to 'look a gift horse in the mouth'; just be it known they do NOT speak for the majority) I think another sumed it up: "they always complain when a new figure is realsed but two weeks later they love it...." -> go figure....

Mr. legeume... I do believe you have just opened the door for you to join my company of Inestimable Individuals

fnord

gesundheit

I haven't read all the posts here, but speaking just for myself, I think Stephanie is absolutely fantastic! I think DAZ was unbelievably generous to offer her for free to prior customers, given the amount of time and effort that must go into making such a detailed model. My God, the texture template alone looks like it took a week to get right! Why would ANYONE complain that the Mystery Model was a new character? This character can wear Vicki's clothes just fine, and there're plenty of clothes for Vicki out there. Not to mention the fact that clothing items at DAZ are usually very inexpensive, about $15-25. Thank you, DAZ, for your generosity, and please don't let a few nay-sayers give you the wrong impression about your customers.

I had to wait awhile to get Stephanie (problems with the download) but I am so thrilled to finally get her. I think she's a wonderful gift and I really like working with her. Thank you very much, DAZ!

I, for my part, purchased Michael 2.0 after DAZ announced what the mystery Model really is. I think Stephanie is a fantastic addition, and I'm defenitly more happy with her than with the Millenium Tie. Thank you for that fantastic bargain. Thank you for your generousity. I like Stephanie very much and everybody who don't like her is free to delete her - after all Mike 2.0 is even cheap without her.

I just want to say thanks to DAZ for Stephanie! I think that she is a great gift! I also want to say that I have been very pleased with your company in general. The quality of your models is excellent and your customer service is always very friendly and professional. Keep up the good work! Thanks again! Jay Button

Thanks for Stephanie. I think a lot of what looks like dissatisfaction with Steph is not dissatisfaction with the figure itself, but confusion about what exactly it is inside, which is something one has to understand to use it fully. My skill level is intermediate, and frankly I had, and am still having, a hard time figuring out exactly what can and cannot be done with Steph. The pitch seemed to suggest at first that morphs, texutures, clothing could be moved from michael to steph because the meshes were basically the same. This impression turned out to be false. So she is not really something to mix and match with mike as it first seemed. If there is some way to apply mike armor, sports clothes etc. then I would have appreciated instructions. All in all, I think a few more paragraphs of explanation and instruction in FAQ for example would have avoided a lot of what you see as ingratitude. My efforts at applying mike morphs did not come out worth a darn. So is there some key to knowing when it is worth trying out a mike morph on Steph? Does one have to remove her morphs first or what? Can she be morphed or morph-deleted back to Mike and then morphs applied and tweaked back to a version of Steph? Etc. etc. Again, thanks, but don't mistake confusion for ingratitude. It does not help that the Poser manual and the Mortimer handbook are not very good about explaining the Poser basics that you may assume we all have.

Dan Some people will complain no matter what you do! I think Stephanie is great. She is much more like "the woman next door" than Vicky, and I think this is her greatest asset. Keep up the good work.

I recently saw a 3D Model online, that is NO WHERE NEAR the quality of Vicky, Steph, or Mike - and do you know how much they're selling it for?
$795!!!!!
It is almost insulting, and yet God blesses us through Daz with a CHEAP Mike 2 (40.00!! Plus Stephanie!!!!) and folks complain?!!
It's kind of like the left-wing U.S. hating "Americans" who complain and complain, and bash America, the greatest country on earth, and sympathize with evil communist countries - all the while they enjoy the blessings of being able to live in this great country.
Don't like Stephanie? Then demand a refund of all $0.00 you paid for her. Delete her, and go an buy an 800 dollar model, that is no where near the quality of Stephanie. Go and try to find another company that will give away such a quality model FOR FREE. Look up and down for a model with the versatility, quality and affordability of Mike, Steph, or Vicki, that is compatible with Poser. I guarantee you that you won't find one.
If you like Stephanie, then, as many here have, let Daz know that you appreciate their generosity.

Ben
MessianicArt.com

COUGHS slightly at that last comment Pardon me.... the title of this list is 'feedback' which generally means honest impressions and thoughts freely shared without fear of being bluggened for them. Now while I do appriciate Stephanie and like the model itself, the request for 'FEEDBACK' was just that. I like the model, but I think it was cheep of them to force us to buy new textures just to use her when any of a dozen people who are no where near as good with models are making cheats so that we can use already available female textures rather than having to buy a whole new library just to use Stephanie, with no real advantage to new 'textures' that anyone has commented on. Now I feel this is a legitimate feedback response to this question and if you feel that your point of view is more valid than mine just because you have a .com of your own, you can politely go stuff it. They asked for feedback, and they're getting it, so stop flaming people for being honest and answering the question put to them. If people don't like it, that's fine, it's a free internet and last time I heard, not liking Coke isn't a mortal sin and when given a taste test and asked which a person prefered, it wasn't a sin to say the new Pepsi with Lime tastes like crap.... so what if it was a free drink, they still asked our opinion, and we gave it. Just because someone's opinion doesn't match yours doesn't give you any right to say it isn't valid! THEY ASKED!!!!

"They're emasculating Michael and giving him breats, slapping a $30 price tag on her and calling her a bargain?" 40.00 for both Mike 2 and Stephanie is the BEST BARGAIN online. And How about this "bargain"? http://www.turbosquid.com/HTMLClient/FullPreview/FullPreview.cfm/ID/160323/Action/FullPreview "considering how much most of us have paid for Victoria, the supposedly end all be all of Poser Female Models." Daz has not dropped Vicky in favor of Steph, but have included Stephanie for more range, versatility. "It would almost seem that Daz was trying to make up for their own in ability to produce a better Victoria with more range." Inability? I've seen just the opposite. In fact, I've even heard the words "Vicky 3.0" - and I wonder how one can do better than Vicky? How can they surpass V2? Include more morphs? Sure. But could this mean multiple limbs (that would be cool!). How much farther can one go? If anyone can do it, its Daz. "We've got scads of them already!" We have the p4 Posette, who is nowhere near Vicky's quality, and now we have a new model that can use Mike's textures! Yee-haw. The other model we have is Posette. The more variety, the better! ". . .something that tosses all that (save the clothing) out the window" This is incorrect. They are not dropping Vicky. They are simply "adding" Stephanie. vicky is not obsolete, nor is she going to be left alone by Daz. "Hasn't Daz got enough of our money with Vicky 2?" I haven't spent a dime on the model of Stephanie (I bought textures). She's free. And if you don't want Stephanie, you can stick with Vicky. I guarantee you there are not better female models on the web this cheap. "I can actually see a great many of the advantages that were not evident in the 'text' above." Amen! "I personally agree, Vicky is sadly lacking in several departments and Stephanie seems to be addressing lots of these from what I hear." Even if Vicky is lacking (which I don't see), I guarantee there is not another model that could rival her (aside from Stephanie). "The unfortunate part is that Vicky could not have been used to upgrade into Stephanie" Stephanie isn't an upgrade of Vicky, and in fact, has less morphs than V2 (however, I bet a Stephanie 2 will come along soon) "... or at the very least that Daz could not have included a Texture map that would have allowed Vicky's textures to be used on Stephanie." They are sellign a texture map, and you can find a few free ones in the free stuff section. "producing a new female model with michael's texture map only seemed a bit on the side of shabby for me." What could they have made that would rival Stephanie? "while she was intended to be /MUCH/ more versitile than Victoria in morphs," I also think this is incorrect. I don't remember seeing this stated anywhere. She is simply an additional Millennium figure, and she is not supposed to replace Vicky. "Personally I feel that DAZ could have gone to a smidge more effort and put together a remap so that she could use the textures we already have" You can use the Mike textures, I've done it. The torso will be a little off, but just put a shirt on. Also, I do not see how it could be possible to remap of Stephanie, since she is built of Mike's mesh. I don't think it can be done. "Michael's facial, chest and pubic hair on a woman..... wow... big improvement ;)" This is not the intended use, and is not intended to be an "improvement" - but an innovation. Steph is not supposed to top Vicky. Again, I love Stephanie, she's a great model and well worth the price." "It kinda takes the point out of 'free' don'tcha think?" Not in my opinion. It simply expands the versatility of my library. Ben

As someone who doesn't have Stephanie (yet), a few disinterested (but not uniterested) observations synthesizing the reaction above and elsewhere: 1. The reason people are finding her more versatile for creating characters is the eyes. Vickie's eyes, particularly the slope of the inner upper eyelid is what tends to make Vicky-based characters always look like Vickie. 2. The big lesson for DAZ here should be to not draw out the tease for too long, which I think is implicit in some of the posts above. And having the remap to take Vickie maps probably would have been wise, in hindsight. 3. To repeat an observation from other threads that somehow hasn't been repeated in this one (but should be repeated since Mr. Farr is reading), remember that there was a great deal of negative feedback about Vickie when she first came out. That the tide has turned positive so quickly on Steph speaks volumes. 4. You can't please everyone all the time.

"honest impressions and thoughts freely shared without fear of being bluggened for them." Wait a minute. Sure, it's for honest impressions, and I just gave mine. Why can you give yours, and yet criticize me for giving mine? That's hypocritical. "I think it was cheep of them to force us to buy new textures" No one is forcing you to buy anything. Daz didn't make purchasing the maps mandatory for the free model. And you can go to the free stuff section easily and get a free map. "just to use her" You don't even need a map to use her. "Now I feel this is a legitimate feedback" I never said it wasn't legitimate. "response to this question and if you feel that your point of view is more valid than mine just because you have a .com of your own, you can politely go stuff it." Well, that certainly is "polite", and yes, I think one of us has a more valid point, because I believe there is a such thing as absolute truth, and relativism is an escape for those who don't like to think, or are too busy trying to be politically correct to avoid any disagreement. I disagree with you. Sorry, for posting my disagreement, and like you said, I felt it legitimate feedback, on the feedback. "They asked for feedback, and they're getting it, so stop flaming people for being honest and answering the question put to them." This is hypocritical. You're telling me not to flame you, while you're flaming me? "the new Pepsi with Lime tastes like crap" THE NEW PEPSI WITH LIME TASTES GREAT, AND DON'T YOU SAY OTHERWISE!!! ;) ".... so what if it was a free drink, they still asked our opinion, and we gave it. Just because someone's opinion doesn't match yours doesn't give you any right to say it isn't valid! THEY ASKED!!!!" First, I do think you are wrong, and I do have a right to say that. You have every right in the world to criticize Daz and Stephanie and whoever else, and I have every right to disagree with you, and you have every right to flame me for posting a hot disagreement, and I have every right to respond, and etc. That's freedom. Constructive criticism is absolutely valid. A thanks for the generosity is appropriate. Criticizing whoever you want is your right, but that doesn't make it right. Just my opinion. Ben MessianicArt.com

Good, now we're back to Opinions, thank you Ben. Feedback is intended to make products 'better'. Now As I said and you have so kindly requoted every one of my comments and have kept up with the lists you might want to take a look at the work April is doing. I'm actually quite interested in seeing her work finished as she is attempting to remap Stephanie to use Victoria's textures. This is the idea of versitlity. As many uses as you can get out of one product. Stephanie is showing every sign of being a good addition to the market, however she is not fully versitile in my opinion because she is not interchangable with her female counterparts. In my opinion that is what made the Milinium girls so veritile.... you didn't have to buy entirely new libraries just to use them, they used Vicky's libraries. This is in essance my gripe with Stephanie. If April can make a remap of the body then Daz could of. And if Daz Could have, they could have released a truly versitile model rather than just a remorphed Michael. A model that could have bridged the gap and allowed all Victoria users to use what they currently have at hand to make even greater pieces of art. Instead they released something that has a completely different map and has no advantages to said map. Victoria had better resolution compared to the Posette, therefore a new map made sense, but the only reason that a new map made sense for Stephanie was so that she could use Michael's textures...which are for men anyway. They could have gone through a little more effort and ended up with a lot more versitile product that alot more people would have immediately appriciated. Again, this is my opinion, equally as vaild as anyone else's and as we were asked for feedback not arguements among ourselves or flame wars, I will end my statement here. Daz, you have done a remarkable job with so much, and I hope to see a great deal in the future. My comments of 'FEEDBACK' were just that. How to make your products better so that more people will like them. I would like it more if you did the above, but as you did not, but someone else is, it makes little difference now. Hopefully the communities true feedback will help you in the future.

"1. The reason people are finding her more versatile for creating characters is the eyes. Vickie's eyes, particularly the slope of the inner upper eyelid is what tends to make Vicky-based characters always look like Vickie." YEAH!!! SUPERB OBSERVATION!!! I too like the "eyedea" that you can work with the eyes in a new way. "The big lesson for DAZ here should be to not draw out the tease for too long, which I think is implicit in some of the posts above." I personally liked the strategy. It created a huge excitement, which indeed, some folks would be let down, but in the end, I think it will be a positive thing. " And having the remap to take Vickie maps probably would have been wise, in hindsight." While I agree, I think this is virtually impossible. The reason is that the mesh is totally different. However, I saw somewhere someone has made a photoshop action that could do this. I don't have photoshop though . . . too expensive! "4. You can't please everyone all the time." Good point! ben Messianicart.com

http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=612174 Not virtually impossible, just slightly difficult. AprilSHY has done it already with Vicky to Posette and Michael to the dork.

"Good, now we're back to Opinions, thank you Ben." No thank you! =-) "Feedback is intended to make products 'better'." "however she is not fully versitile in my opinion because she is not interchangable with her female counterparts. In my opinion that is what made the Milinium girls so veritile" This is true, but at the same time, I think Stephanie is supposed to be an addition, rather than a replacement for Vicky. It is this reason that it is like in an entirely new area for the product versatility. Think also about the Millennium Boys. Some were disappointed they weren't built from Mike. I would like to see some Boys built from Mike, but at the same time, the boys being there creates more versatility too. The more options, the better. "If April can make a remap of the body then Daz could of. And if Daz Could have," Well, Daz does have a texture available at their site, for a reasonable price (14.00 med rez, 25.00 high rez). But, perhaps in the future, Daz will indeed create remaps of current Vicky textures to be usable on Stephanie, and perhaps they may charge a small fee/or give them away for free, to those who purchased previous texture maps for Vicky (in fact, I think that will be a brilliant idea for Daz to do). But this is the thing, because Stephanie is such an innovation, it is an entirely new field to work with. "they could have released a truly versitile model rather than just a remorphed Michael. A model that could have bridged the gap and allowed all Victoria users to use what they currently have at hand to make even greater pieces of art." This is a point at which we disagree. I think you may be looking to Stephanie as a "Vicky 3.0", rather than a new model. Vicky 3.0 is coming, and Daz has already mentioned her. But this is an innovative model, a bonus for those who purchased Mike 2. "therefore a new map made sense," A new map was also necessary, because Posette's geometry is totally different. Also, Vicky can acheive photo realism, while Posette needs alot of darkness to get there. "but the only reason that a new map made sense for Stephanie was so that she could use Michael's textures...which are for men anyway. They could have gone through a little more effort and ended up with a lot more versitile product that alot more people would have immediately appriciated." They do have some female textures for Stephanie at their store. In fact, I believe this is only the first installment of Stephanie, meaning I expect a Stephanie 2 in the future (on the template of the previous Mil Models), which will move into different areas of usability than the path Vicky will take. ben

"Not virtually impossible, just slightly difficult." Yes, it is possible, but you have to take the textures from one map, and apply them to the geometric shape of the other's template. I guess what I'm saying is that changing the template would be impossible. ben

Please put another mark in the appreciative column for me, Dan! I tried emailing you my words of thanks, but the email address for you is set to dan@zygote.com, and was returned!

Anyway, thanks for Stephanie as well as all the weekly freebies. And you're to be saluted for taking a "wait and see"/"wait until the dust settles" attitude before drawing any initial knee-jerk conclusions....

Ray

Wow! Thank you all so much for the feedback. It is very much appreciated. No matter what Stephanie ends up meaning for us financially, hearing such great feedback makes her worthwile for us. She was initiated as a thankyou and a goodwill gesture to all of you who keep our business going. If people would not have been happy with Stephanie then we would have missed our goal and one of our main purposes for developing her. This thread has been very encouraging and rewarding. We will do some things like this in the future (although, we can't promise anything on the magnitude of Stephanie in the near future). I don't know that I will be able to address everyone's questions here but I would like to address a few of them at this time. Penguinisto, We'd love to have you and your group stop by our office (it is small but we have a good time here). Lilfox and others, we not only used the Michael texture template because it came with the model, but also because it is particularly suited for this specific mesh. It is more effective (for prevention of streaking, etc.) than Victoria's UV layout would have been. (And even still, we needed to do a few UV tweeks on the mesh to optimize it for Stephanie.) Virtualsite, I appreciate your honesty in your feelings and hope that in the long run we all will see a lot more Michael clothing and accessories available. (As for DAZ, if we learned one thing in particular from the recent threads it is to put more effort into creating products for Michael). PJ-bear. Suggestion well taken. We will look into explaining the compatibilities between Michael and Stephanie better. Thanks again for the fabulous feedback, everyone (both positive and negative). It definately helps us to choose the direction of our development. I also enjoyed the fun images above. Sincerely, Dan Farr President, DAZ Productions

AprilYSH .... sorry April, dislexia is a bitch sometimes.

d'not evne mntioen tit. ;) yeah, Steph to take Vicki skin remapping's done, i gotta get it uploaded... It's not as good as specifically made skin for Stephanie of course, for reasons Dan said above.

SMOOCHES Thank you!!!!!!! Chuckles, yeah but with photoshop, close enough is what counts ;) THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Stephanie is a cool model. She doesn't have a couple of morphs I wish she had, but really.. I can't complain. I didn't buy the Daz textures, I have to admit this, but overall I think Stephanie is very useful and quite feminine, with a lot of interesting possibilities.

Virtualsite, I appreciate your honesty in your feelings and hope that in the long run we all will see a lot more Michael clothing and accessories available. Frankly, Dan, I'm not holding my breath. Look at this thread: huzzahs for Stephanie, warranted or not, but no one is addressing the point you made in your tease: that somehow the Mystery Model was going to enhance the value of Mike. It didn't do that. It created a situation where Mike has become even more disposable in favour of yet another female character. That, IMHO, is misleading the people who thought you were actually doing something with Mike instead of making him yet another after-thought. You want to do something for Mike? Bring the clothing paks in line with the multiple morphs available for Mike 2. Rigtht now, if you use any of the muscular options, you're redcuced to using him as a "barbarian", since the lin cloth will fit, or a "superhero", since you can paint the texture for that. And while you're at it, give us a dress jacket for Mike that actually fits, not some overbuilt piece of nonsense that looks 100% plastic. Is that asking too much?

Virtualsite: I think your perspective is unintentionally reversed. You see another Barbie who'll distract non-professionals like myself from using Michael. My choice not to use Michael much has more to do with my subject preferences, not the other way around. DAZ could have released a Michael with every facial morph I ever wanted and it still wouldn't change what I like to render. Also, I design morphs more than you do (at least, judging from freestuff). About a year ago I begged DAZ here to build the next generation of models off a common mesh as an incentive to morph makers who've grown exhausted with rebuilding morph suites for every new geometry that comes down the pike. While it may seem more commonsense to build a new Mike from Vicky's geometry instead, Dan's pointed out what some of us already suspected: Mike's R&D and geometry is a generation ahead of Vicky's and it's criminal not to exploit it. The investment comes from providing users with a figure that wears all the existing female clothing yet shares a common geometry. Developing clothes for Vicky is developing clothes for Stephanie. Developing morphs for Stephanie is developing morphs for Mike. I know you wanted something more immediately utilitarian for Mike and I agree this isn't it, but it is a step in the right direction. I also agree that it's irresponsible to sell clothing paks that don't conform to the character's full morph set. If I had more disposable cash I'd have that "upgrade" to the Vic clothing pak in a heartbeat. However, DAZ has probably known Curious' plan to incorporate a more sophisticated version of that conformation into Poser5 at least as long as I have (18 months) and I can understand somewhat why they might hold off on implementing a cruder solution.

Hey, I bought Mike 2 because I was much happier with Vicky 2 than the original (and figured Mike2 would be a worth while investment). I was already perfectly satisfied with the new model before your notice regarding the mystery model was made public. I was curious, but not particularly attached to any particular idea. When you did give us a clear indication, I was very amazed (and greatful) Steph does have something that vicky lacks. There will always be value in having very different models, and you have given us a broad range of variability here. For that, I think we all are extremely greatful. VirtualSite, I disagree that this did nothing good for the mike fans. I saw a number of folks who admited that they purchased Mike after the information about the mystery model was released. While some of them will never spend another dime on mike products, some will, and others will contribute items themselves. It might not be as much as you would have hoped, but I'm not sure anything else would have been any better. I think most people who were on the fence regarding the purchase before the release of the Mystey model identity would have not chosen to buy Mike if it had been something fairly mundane (like a clothing pack or hair prop). eric

Eric: I think most people who were on the fence regarding the purchase before the release of the Mystey model identity would have not chosen to buy Mike if it had been something fairly mundane (like a clothing pack or hair prop). ... which misses the point entirely -- why did they buy Mike? Not to use the model or its capabilities, but because they wanted another Barbie for their collection. So Mike sales went up -- big deal. Like no one could have seen that. But does it mean the figure will actually be worked with? Will Daz do anything more to support it? If this thread is any indication, probably not, because the overwhelming voice here is "Oh, gee, wow, STEPHANIE!" Meanwhile, Mike -- and even worse, Mike 2 -- continues as a model barely supported by DAZ. They might as well not even bothered, IMHO, given the "market feedback" here. They could have issued a high-end clothing pak for Vicky, made Stephanie an add-on for that, and I'd happily bet people would have been delerious with excitement. Well, sorry, folks, but I'm not. In my professional rendering work, I use the guys far more than the women, and it's a real pain in the butt when I can't find something as simple as a suit coat that doesn't look like it's three sizes too large. If anything I've gotten real imaginative at using that P4 tuxedo and turning it into a three-piece suit since even the one from Poserworld doesn't quite cut it sometimes. But if I needed something for the dames: hell, I'd have more choices to work with than I'd know where to start. So yes, welcome to CyberBarbie, since that's what DAZ seems most interested in. Duane: You see another Barbie who'll distract non-professionals like myself from using Michael. My choice not to use Michael much has more to do with my subject preferences As I'm sure it is for a lot of non-professionals, but I'm sorry, Duane: that's immaterial. DAZ issues a model and then can't support it by providing the same level of product that they lavish on Barbie? Hell, if they put one-tenth of the effort into Mike, I'd be happy, but they don't. He's a throwaway. They can't even provide something that will allow you to take the basic clothing he does have and make it work for the new morphs -- tell me the marketing strategy behind such a bone-headed move? What was the point of the new morphs if all you can do with them is parade him around naked? And sure that might be amusing for a while, but like too much tit, after a while it just gets a little lame. I know you wanted something more immediately utilitarian for Mike and I agree this isn't it, but it is a step in the right direction Maybe so, but wouldn't it make sense to SUPPORT the models out there with something more than just a female version of the same mesh? Yeah, it's a great idea, but the timing sucks. They haven't done squat for Michael, not in a long time. Even the new hair pieces: you just know the talk about DAZ was "Wow, wouldn't Vicky look cool in a buzz-cut? Oh yeah, and maybe Michael too..." I repeat, why did they bother? He's a throwaway, thanks to the marketing genius at Mattel -- sorry, Daz.

I hope you all enjoy the images.

Dan Farr
President DAZ Productions

DANG!!!!!! Those images are fantastic! ROFL

uhh, was that second one authorised by your marketing department? lol

Okay, Dan, step in the right (albeit way late) direction, but I suggest you guys look at those shoulder areas and the lapel and then look at a suit in the real world. This is what I see whenever someone makes a suit jacket mesh for Mike or the P4 -- it's never given a look that's tailored or fitted. And frankly, IMHO this should have been available long before now.