Thanks everyone for all the opinions and information, and just for taking the time to help me out. It's very much appreciated.

I should have mentioned from the outset that I also have and know hot to use zBrush, but I detest its zModeler polygonal modeling tools. Detest isn't even a strong enough word, really. I'm really just looking for something for that sort of modeling, and I'll do my sculpting in zBrush.

My idea for a typical work flow is to do my box modeling and base UVing of lower detail or hard surface meshes like environments in , then move the mesh over to zBrush for refining organic forms and detailing things like dents, scratches, etc. After that, I'd do some polypainting in zBrush, texture fiddling in Photoshop, and rigging in DAZ Studio or Poser Pro.

I should have mentioned from the outset that I also have and know hot to use zBrush, but I detest its zModeler polygonal modeling tools. Detest isn't even a strong enough word, really. I'm really just looking for something for that sort of modeling, and I'll do my sculpting in zBrush.

My idea for a typical work flow is to do my box modeling and base UVing of lower detail or hard surface meshes like environments in , then move the mesh over to zBrush for refining organic forms and detailing things like dents, scratches, etc. After that, I'd do some polypainting in zBrush, texture fiddling in Photoshop, and rigging in DAZ Studio or Poser Pro.

staigermanus posted at 10:30PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242117

This stuff is modeled in Hexagon, and rendered in Modo.http://www.thebest3d.com/3dstickers/Catalog-Images/catalog.html you certainly can create well in Hexagon. But Carrara is great for it too. They each are tools with merits. Try either and decide which you like more. $20 is nothing.

Those are very nice. One question though. Why not just model stuff in Modo? Personal preference?

donnena posted at 9:44PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242109

Of course it's buggy!! UV mapping is a horror! You cannot save it. you have to complete it all in one go!!
All of my exported objects develop a new material zone on export.
I'm pretty sure there is a memory leak.... It works better every time I upgrade my machine!!
It ignores the scale you set in the export dialog. Just pretend you don't see the option, Hex doesn't see it either!!!

Mother of God. I was looking at it specifically for the bridge to DAZ Studio, but if it can't get stuff into DS right, there's no point.

I notice nobody in this list is mentioning Carrara. Should I take that as an indication of its modeling abilities?

I notice nobody in this list is mentioning Carrara. Should I take that as an indication of its modeling abilities?

donnena posted at 9:20PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242101

IF you go the Hex route, there are lovely, free tutorials here.... http://www.geekatplay.com/hexagon-tutorials.php But Hex is almost totally unsupported, having many of the features of Abandonware.

Is it buggy at all? If it's not and is fairly stable, it might be just what I need.

wheatpenny posted at 9:17PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242098

If you're a student or educator you can get a 3-year license of Maya (or 3dsMax) for free from Autodesk.

I'd honestly be too scared to go that route. The free licenses say you can't use them commercially, and I be afraid of a pack of rampaging lawyers coming my way.

I'll check into the others though.

LPR001 posted at 6:56PM Tue, 01 December 2015 - #4241867

IMHO check out UE4 and Unity they are big downloads but costs you nothing to get going, many tutorials and support plenty of free content and far less restrictions due to EULA.

Thanks for the info. What I mainly need is a way of auto-rigging mesh to the default Linden Labs avatars for Second Life. I was hoping DAZ Studio could do that because I would also like to get into developing content for it, once I establish some products in Second Life.

So wait, there's no way to make clothing for Genesis, or even V4 with just Carrara? You'd have to rig said clothing in DAZ Studio?

Well, that sucks, but thanks for the info.

kittykat98 posted at 4:54PM Sat, 28 November 2015 - #4241375

I also invite them to make their own content and offer to guide them in content creation. So far, I've had no takers from the bunch of selfish, greedy, immature and generally uneducated punks that constitute the pirate 'communities'.

Perhaps you should make the same offer to people here. It's no surprise that going on pirate bay and offering warez kiddies instruction for something that takes effort didn't grow the content creation community.

In fact, why don't you share here what you would have offered if someone had taken you up on it? I would personally be very interested in seeing it.

AmbientShade posted at 7:41PM Fri, 27 November 2015 - #4241259

That theory places physical resources in higher value than human labor. It doesn't matter if it's a car or a piece of software, it still takes human effort to produce it and that human effort requires compensation of some form in order for it to still be viable for the human to continue producing it. Assuming that people who pirate only do so because they can't afford to buy is the strawman. If I'm offered two products of equal value, one free and the other with a price tag, I'm going to take the free one first even if I can afford the price tag on the other because then I have that money to spend elsewhere on items that do not have a free or cheaper alternative. If I find the same item at target for $10 less than it is at wal-mart then I'm going to buy it at target. It's the same principle. People take things for free in order to save money, not just because they don't have money. The excuses for why the do it come in after. And they're all just excuses. So claiming people who can't afford it are never customers anyway is false. Just because you can't afford it now, doesn't mean you aren't going to save up for when you can afford it if the incentive is there. But if you can get it for free now, the incentive is removed, there's no reason to save up for it. And there are several people who have stopped producing things due to them losing money to piracy, right here in this very community.

I'm not saying that the only reason people pirate is because they can't afford a thing. I am saying that in that narrow instance, it doesn't cause the seller of that thing to lose money. It's still morally wrong imo. It just doesn't hurt the seller, in that narrowly defined instance.

Not trying to derail, just making the point. As for Poser and it's activation, it's about the most lenient activation method found in software at present. Sure it could be more efficient and less of a hassle, but if you're using game engines or zbrush or most other software, you're still using the same activation method. Eventually it will all be subscription and/or web based.

Don't even get me started on how terrible the zbrush activation is. You have to release your license from one machine to move it to another. That's just a complete pain in the butt. You do get two machines it can be activated on, but not concurrently (as far as I know; it wasn't concurrent when I bought mine). So if something happens to your machine and you can't log into their website with it to release your license, you're down to one more activation before they force you to buy it again if you want to keep using it. On top of that, they recently ended the ability to transfer licenses to different owners for individuals.

When all paid software is subscription only or web based, I will finish transitioning to FOSS only software. I agree with you that it's going that way, and quickly. Adobe and Autodesk are both there already.

Xatren posted at 6:13PM Fri, 27 November 2015 - #4241252

AmbientShade posted at 5:52PM Fri, 27 November 2015 - #4241245

"I was never going to buy that Mercedes, because I can't afford one. But hey, here's one with the keys in it, I'll just take this one. They aren't losing any money because I was never going to be a customer to begin with".

Look, I don't support piracy either, but you know this is a strawman. The car in this example is a tangiable good, and ownership of it is like a zero sum game. When one person steals it, the other person loses it, or has one less to sell to someone that could have afforded it. It's not that way with software and content. Simply saying that it doesn't matter whether it's tangible or not doesn't make that so. The only time an intangible product producer loses money to piracy is when the pirate represented actual demand in the economic sense.

Personally, I purchase all of my software and content legally, because I remember the look on my dad's face the one time I stole something when I was a kid. Moral inclinations, however, don't have any bearing on the economic impact of piracy. It either has an effect or it does not, regardless of how we feel about it, and it is the economic impact that determines whether or not there is a victim in the act. For someone to be wronged economically, they have to suffer economic injury or loss of some kind. If the person that pirates a thing could never have bought it anyway (not would never, but could never), there is no sense in which the creator or seller of that thing suffered a loss or injury by that act of piracy. On the other hand, I have the money to purchase commercial copies of things, and therefore it would not be a victimless theft if I pirated something. I represent actual demand, and me opting for a pirated copy instead of a commercial copy represents real loss to the seller or creator.

Now, the providing of the pirated version for others to download is an entirely different story, and not at all what I am talking about here.

EDIT: Back on topic, the DRM in this case doesn't seem that incredibly onerous to me. Other poser users seem to disagree, judging from the backlash over the de-activations in Game Dev, though. That being the case, it seems a boneheaded move (to me) for a company with arguably trailing market share at this point and considerable losses on the books to risk a repeat of that series of events by including what is essentially the same DRM system again.

For my part, I am just going to stick with Pro 2012 (I got a great deal after all ) until such time as the promised infrastructure for dealing with the activation process is in place, and make a decision about upgrading to Pro 11 then.