Hi Debbie, yes, I am doing very well. Still cobbling away at a Tarot deck - it is never ending :)

And a closeup of the accessories :)

Well here is my little darling all dressed up with her new outfit. The tiara, necklace, earrings, and shell bikini top will come with Mia and fit her perfectly. The mermaid tail used is from Daz3d, called Lost Realms, made by Mada. The background image I've rendered over is also at Daz3d, made by LaurieS, for the cyclorama. The Hair is My Lady hair by Swam and er.... uh.... oh dear. Who made My Lady hair?

Ok, here is a much more final looking render of the same props, once they were textured and rendered in Poser :) I hope you all like them as much as I do :)

I am working right now on a few accessories that are suitable for a mermaid to wear :) Here are my efforts so far. Bear in mind these are very much a work in progress still, and this is not a fancy render, just a preview render in 3ds Max. I hope everyone likes mermaids as much as I do! :P

Thank you Seamyst :) I love your nickname btw, very pretty. It would make a perfect mermaid's name :p

Here Mia is again all dressed up and pretending she is a fishy. She is wearing her second makeup option in this render :) The tail, and environment are all Daz3d and RuntimeDNA stuff made by Mada, Judith, LaurieS and LisaB.

Phantast, Might I just point out if I may, that I do not see anyone laughing in glee? AFAIK in fact, other than Renderotica which is where material of this nature should RIGHTLY go, none of us can even accept this material that is being purged due to LONGTIME standards already in place in our stores. It is in fact, Rosity that is changing it's standards of acceptance, not anyone else at all.

Attached Link: PoserPros

Oh my! I go to bed, and "all is quiet on the western front", and I wake up to this! ;p Natolii, thanks for the big recommendation :) It means the world to me that you would think so highly of us. We do try hard out at PoserPros to earn the respect, comfort, and trust you give us :) Ok folks, I'd like to only say a tiny thing or two on all this :) From the very start, when we decided to open our store, we knew we had to comply with certain standards, or we would not get to use Paypal AT ALL, nor get an affordable credit card processor. We would instead be confined to MUCH more expensive methods of payment options, which would have affected our bottom line, and thus how much we can pay our merchants and staff. We trusted our members and merchants to understand and accept our policies, and comply with them as mature grownups would, since those same policies were there for their direct finanical benefit. We pride ourselves on the best rate of staff and merchant pay out there, and I'd sure like to keep it that way :) I am happy to report that our merchants have all been gems about our standards, just gems, and have never given me a moment's grief or trouble. I could not ask for more of anyone. To remind those who would like to come to PoserPros what our policies are, I will briefly go over them. ========================================================== We have ALWAYS chosen to comply with the strict standards of Paypal and our credit card merchant account, from the start, since we anticipated that one day, if one did not choose to comply, one would be facing a sudden disaster. The ways we have chosen to comply are: *No nudity in ANY thumbnail in PoserPros Store, and the ones that link to any image that has nudity MUST say "NUDITY" in a very noticable format, such as the thumbnail we have already provided to merchants for their use. *No Nudity in any main image on PoserPros Store, and those that are too risque even if not nude, will be asked to provide a new image if necessary. *Nudity in popups is allowed so long as it is of a quite basic clinical nature, not anything too titilating. *No child or young teen nudity, period. No ifs, ands, or buts. This also includes "faeries" who appear to be very young girls. *Content itself cannot be of acts of sex. Poses of people in loving situations such as embraces, kissing, hugging, etc, but NOT engaged in sex, are usually acceptable, but yet still up to our discretion, and if necessary we will ask that changes be made to the product before we accept it. *I have always said that if we ever got any characters who were anatomically correct genitalia wise, I would not point blank turn those down, as my first character, Saluda, was that way herself. However, the caveat here is that IF either Paypal or our credit card merchant account people objected to them in any way, we would definately yank the product fast. *Ways to prevent items of a sexy nature from being yanked are to NOT illustrate the point with explicit renders. At PoserPros, customers will to a certain degree, need to trust the merchant to deliver what he says he is delivering, sight unseen, based on that merchant's reputation for good work. It is a system that works well for us. *As for Richabri's or anyone's bondage props, we have some of the milder sets, and I have let them in. They are no more than cute little leather clothes and toys as it were, not directly pornographic in nature as far as I am concerned, nor indeed, dangerous to the persons using them, if those were real persons and not 3d models. *The means by which I judge how far a prop can go are these: 1) Would it be dangerous to be used in real life, and cause harm to someone? 2) Is it just a cute stage prop or outfit for fun and atmosphere? 3) Is it designed to "penetrate" the body? If so... it does not belong on PoserPros. 4) Lastly, even the props we have let in, MUST comply with our rendering standards, which means the folks "modeling" them must be clothed, etc, and also the scenes must be fairly clinical in nature in the renders. Our site, and our store, could be classified as a VERY mild R rated site. We have been this way since the day we began, and it has been going ok that way, so we will continue, unless we were forced to change by one of our store payment solutions companies, such as Paypal and our Credit Card Company. PoserPros is not for everyone, nor can everyone's products fit into our strict policies. For those who cannot fit in for any reason at all, we would like to personally recommend Diane Thure-Griffith of Renderotica. She is a fine lady, and will treat you very well. I have known Diane for years, and if I ever get one spare moment to my name, one fine day I intend to put a few things of my own in her store. I could not recommend a better woman as far as the way she runs her site. If anyone needs to speak to us on merchanting matters at PoserPros, please write to: storeadmin@poserpros This will bring your mail to all admins, where someone will help you immediately :) Do NOT write to me directly, since many days, and even weeks, I am naught but a ghost in the machine due to health issues. ======================================================= Ok, just one more comment then I will clear on out of everyone's way. Someone said this: {{{{{Love him or hate him, clint has no problem making decisions. he does need to back off a bit sometimes when he takes heat for them and listen instead of just crossing his arms and glaring with sarcasm, but generally he tries his damndest...And gets little credit. Which is wrong. Folks at Poser Pros make a call and it's all sweetness and light. Here they are evil incarnate.}}}}} Clint (and Spike also) are both good men (yeah yeah, I know, Spike's name did not yet come up, just thought I'd mention it to you that he is good too). I walk in the SAME shoes as both of them do... believe it or not ;) We all are faced with the exact same issues, and decisions that we must make on a day to day basis. In fact, with only the rarest of occassions, the choices those two men, and I make, are the exact same when presented with the same set of choices and circumstances. I respect, and admire both. I love Clint very very much, and know that he always does the best he can under trying circumstances. When judging Clint and Spike, and all "admins" here, please remember that they are not the owners of this business nor this site, and must, to a certain degree, do what they are told and what the owners wish them to do. It is not an easy job for them, anymore than the same work could be easy for my own beloved Guarie who even moreso than me, walks miles and miles in their shoes. I mean, can you imagine! Trying to keep me happy!!!!;p Or... trying to keep Tammy and Timmy Choate happy. Just thought I might bring that up. Food for thought, and all that.

Oh Lord! I know just exactly what you mean. I have 12.8 gigabytes waiting for the spirit to move me, and that is JUST what is stored on the hard drive ;) And I mean ZIPPED. That does not cound 3 BIG boxes of old CD's from my downloading frenzy days off Rosity's freestuff when I was a newbie and EVERYTHING looked "well done" ;P

I usally buy into the theme stuff and purchase most of it, if it is well done, though I do NOT usually touch it during the big fad time period it is being used. Later however, when the spirit moves me in that direction, I have it handy for then :)

"Mehndi -- great job on your film noir theme." Oh no, this one you have Paul (Guarie) to thank for :) He and I sometimes switch off in running things back there, and this was all his idea and brainchild :) Heck, when he started it, I did not even know what "film noir" meant, and started making vampire stuff... you know, Bella Lugosi and Lon Chaney is my idea of film noir ;p Then one day I took time to actually look up the definition and a list of the best film noir movies ever made, and oh my god, ALL my favorite movies were on the list... and I never ever ever knew I was a film noir fan all along :) Isn't Guarie a genius? :)

"Example: "noir" almost always involves crime or mystery. You need a detective and a detective's office."

You are falling for the stereotype ;) Careful there.

If you want to see Film Noir at its very best, as quantified as such by professional film critics, go rent Bette Davis' "Dark Journey".

Film Noir is NOT necessarily about gangsters, the prohibition period, dames and dolls and gangster mols... and it was NOT always made in the 20's - 40's.

Two more "film noir" movies that are very critically aclaimed... both "modern", one a "gangster movie", and one a "detective movie" but set in a dark sci-fi future... and both wondrously great works were, "Miller's Crossing" starring Gabrielle Byrne, and then the inimitable "Blade Runner".

In fact, Gabrielle Byrne is one of the best "Film Noir" actors to ever exist, and many many of his movies are "film noir" and yet are current modern affairs, all well worth seeing.

Ok, so where were we? :) Oh yes, no one is criticizing or attacking anyone :) Thank you for that. Some days we cannot help but wonder you know :)

In answer to the marketing of Poser 5 hair thingy, in all honesty, I've never once seen Poser 5 hair that looked half as good as polygon modelled hair, and it takes up alot more system resources to render it, and then there is the marketing consideration that most of us do not actually use Poser 5, so you cut out half your market ;)

Other than that, I would suggest making hair compatible with as many figures as possible, both male and female. You'd be amazed at how many people have stretched and tugged to get my Wysteria hair to fit Michael. Then my Michael hair to fit Vicki. Then my Vicki hair to fit Michael and Posette... and so it goes ;) Just make them fit everyone you can make them fit :)

We still have a whole month to go on the Film Noir thing, so I would ask you all to do what I have advised others to do in the past :)

Come to PoserPros, where it would be reasonable to think that our merchants might actually notice your threads, and create a thread in our general discussions forum literally asking for what you would like to see in the Film Noir theme. Many merchants, such as myself, ALWAYS run late in getting things completed and made for themes, and are desperately scratching our heads trying to think up something to make :) Suggestions can always help folks to get ideas, and help you to get what you want :)

But complaining in an advertising thread, and sometimes getting all caught up into conspiracy theories cause we have had 2 themes in about a year come close to being the same as ones Daz did at around the same time... only one of those literally on the money (that being our Japanese theme)... (and btw there was NEVER yet a "water" theme, so don't know who you are thinking of there, but it is not PoserPros) ... does no one any good at getting anything they really want, which it appears is male items from this thread :)

And one last little opinion since we are all sharing opinions amongst friends and family ;) The Girly theme Daz did is NOT Film Noir. It is Copa Cabana showgirl nightclub Roger Rabbit's Jessica thingy stuff. Ours is actual real Film Noir, or at least, that is what we intended to develop, and what we are working on presenting :)

Message edited on: 09/07/2004 17:28

Oh! One more thing I forgot to add :) you know me, so scatterbrained! As for my own personal character I recently released, Al'armalah.... it is based on a thread that was going at PoserPros a good while back, where we were challenged to show our old roleplaying characters we had created in Poser :) And so I went hunting the ones I had made long long ago... but sadly could not locate the particular CD that I long ago archived them to :( So I remade them, starting with my World of Darkness Prince Character, who is now called Al'armalah... which means, "The Widow". She was the Prince of Cairo Egypt, but is a Nubian Prince :) Well... Princess ;) (I also made several other of the old roleplay characters too, and sooner or later they will show up... you know me though, sooooo slow to get things packaged and uploaded...) Then on the VERY same night I was uploading her, and attempting to do some snazzy advertising renders... here comes Laurie with her gorgeous things for Africa, as well as the other folks at Daz, so I just loaded up my cart, and tossed all those things into the renders :) I was just so pathetically grateful that they had made beautiful things to add to my renders of Al'armalah :) And since we still had a few days left before launching our Film Noir theme (we sometimes launch late, but NEVER early if at all possible, no matter what others are doing), and we had a few days to fill, I dredged through our existing store products to support African and Egyptian stuff and came up with a tiny mini-fun theme :) Those are totally 100% market driven with no advance notice, and are personally done by me :) I wanted to lend Daz all the support I could because I was just so happy they had come out with just what I needed for my new character just when I needed it :)

It is so nice of some of you to have finally joined Poserworld. I am certain Steve really appreciates that! :) On PoserPros, membership is not required to gain access to purchasing power for our themes, or for our ProClub items, which are many times also theme based :) We feel we offer good value for the dollar there! Unless of course, people would actually prefer we charge a membership fee like so many others have chosen to do??!??!?? I guess, you just can't please all the people all the time ;p Our themes (possibly excepting a few of the "mini-fun themes") ARE planned out weeks, and even months in advance :) But just like with all sites, they are heavily market driven, and we study the exact same market indicators that other sites study. I have in fact initiated several email and phone convcommunications with several of the Daz folks, including Dan Farr, and Bryan Brandenburg on how many times, their and our themes are very coincidentally similar, and how that impacts both our companies if at all. Thus far, it seems the concensus is that it is actually sort of nice when they cooincide and support one another. It helps boost both our sales :) And at these times that we see they are about to coincide, if at all possible we try to lend them even more of our support by making at least a texture set or two for what they are releasing in their works :) I like to think of it as friends helping friends :) As far as themes ever being dead and unsupported on our site, that just does not happen :) If you go check the old themes, ALL of which can still be reached as a sub-menu item of the main themes tab, you will find that they are regularly updated with new products, each time someone submits something that we feel belongs to that theme :) As far as the females getting more support than the males, that is again just a matter of simple economics and market driven development. You cannot ask an artist to spend 10 hours making something for a male when he could earn 10 times as much spending that same ten hours making something for one of the popular female characters :) Also, the same can be said for the specifics produced for our themes by the artists. If they cruise around the net and various stores and see what is ALREADY available, why should they waste time making it all again? Most artists are very pragmatic people and will not attempt to reinvent the wheel unless they are guaranteed to make a ton of money on it. When so many things to support a theme of this nature are already available for free, or for sale, elsewhere, both in community sites, and other sites on the internet, it limits the reasonable choices development that many artists carefully consider when deciding where their best chances of making money lies. You know, our merchants are just the greatest! I am constantly amazed that when Guarie and I say, "hey guys, how about we all work on making stuff for this, that, or the other, for release a couple of months from now..." that they even make us anything at all, you know? :) No one can certainly force them to make something, nor dictate to them what to make :) It is all voluntary :) I am just so pathetically grateful that when Guarie and I suggest something that they do make things at all! :) I would never dream of being critical of what they had taken time out of their already full production schedules and hectic lives to make.