naw just a nick for my photography gallery - didnt want my poser/3d gallery getting flooded by my photos.

let me clarify my above post before someone says im trying to keep newbies from having a chance - which is wrong. the attitude that annoys me most is the 'see if it will sell' attitude that a lot of people seem to harbor, and i think that as a merchant you should know in advance if that item will sell. how does a merchant know, you ask? look at your product. look at whats included in your package. look at other competitive products in the marketplace. look at the price of your product, and other products like it in the marketplace (also note how many products like it are in there).. now ask yourself - am i offering something of value? something competitive? would I buy this? thats how you know. cheers, -gabriel (Blackhearted)

no offense but i think this is silly. if someone is making money off of stealing my images, then rest assured that they posess the skill to take them even with the rightclick/image toolbar disabled. there are many EASY workarounds that no code will ever be able to stop. hell, even disabling javascript works. even people that go to elaborate lengths and use the most efficient method - dividing their images into little cubes - are thwarted by the almighty 'print screen' key. i really dont mind if someone uses my images from either this gallery or my Blackhearted one. if someone likes my art, why shouldnt they be able to save it to a folder on their harddrive? hell, i do it all the time. if i really like something in the gallery i will save it to a rosity gallery folder i store all the truly excellent images that i see here in. all (or most) of my images carry a copyright notice. again, if someone really wants to they can remove it in photoshop. other solutions? digimarc -- the 'professional' watermarking solution that costs a fortune? its useless. they neglect to tell you that the lowest level of noise applied to an image (0.01%) will permanently wipe their watermark off with no noticeable quality degredation in the image. so much for their expensive tracking system and protection measures. and no, i didnt read this somewhere - it took me an entire 2 minutes to figure it out when i was contemplating buying a digimarc key and testing it. so where am i going with this? theres nothing you can do to stop image theft, because the thieves are always one step ahead and there are ways to circumvent every protection measure. these new measures will not discourage thieves, theyll hardly slow them down a few seconds. but as a side effect it will be a huge nuisance and possible deterrant to honest folk that just like to browse the galleries and save images they like from time to time. theyre not going to post them on their websites, try to sell them or make money off them - they just want to store them for later viewing or use as a wallpaper. im actually flattered when people comment and say theyve saved the image/photo. but, on the other hand, i applaud renderosity for trying to take measures to protect the artists... its definitely the right attitude, yet this particular implementation i feel will be counterproductive. cheers, -gabriel (Blackhearted)

"how about a price search system, If I put in a search of 20.00 I would be able to ovoid all the crap. " lol, not really. ive seen some horrible quality items that i wouldnt pay $5 for (hell, i probably wouldnt waste bandwidth downloading them if they were free) at 'hopeful' prices of $20 or more. i think the worst are clothing add-on textures that cost twice as much as the actual clothing pack itself (and sometimes the add-on textures are far lower quality than the original ones that came with the clothing). or poses for $15+. ive been working on a pose pack for months, and they will be released along with hi-res props some are tailored for, but i wouldnt dream of asking more than $6-9 even though i know they are far higher quality than most of the pose packs out there. i feel that new merchants should whet their teeth on freestuff FIRST, then hit the store with a lower priced item around $5-8 to let customers sample their merchandise. just seems to me like some people make an item, then sit there and think 'should i put this in freestuff? naw.. wait - i will put it in the marketplace at $20 and see if it sells'. the whole 'see if it sells' attitude irks the hell out of me. if you submit something to this already flooded marketplace then youd better be damned sure in advance that it will sell. this isnt a testing ground, or a flea market. if as a merchant someone is 'offended' by this post then all i can say is they dont belong in sales. its a competitive market, and people that approach it with a 'lets see if this will sell' attitude are not going to get very far. cheers, -gabriel (Blackhearted)

lol.. actually - about the sharp edges, i didnt mean the bodies/joints. in a lot of 3D renders, the most noticeable thing is not the angular nature of the bodies, but the fact that they render as stark, almost black edges, and have inaccurate shadows underneath so it almost ends up looking like photographs of people who have been shot over a dark background, then cut out quickly with scissors and then arranged to overlap each other :) (hey, i just thought of that right now but it DOES kindof describe the 'poser render' look, huh?). your image is VERY well done fauve - been a long time since a 3D render fooled me, even if for a few seconds. id recommend getting in there with a soft brush set to multiply and painting in small shadows - its the little ones that are important, like shadows under the hands/fingers, etc. even if you render this with shadows enabled, poser's rendering engine is too inaccurate to get shadows perfect - usually you can do a lot better yourself with postwork. for some reason large shadows seem to render fine, but small ones - such as shadows under the edges of fingers resting on skin never render. you should cover her neck with her hair (or do it in postwork with a mite of smudging), since the bend is slightly unnatural. and her leg pose seems a little 'stiff' -- id change it, unless you are replicating some famous angel statue pose or something, in which case theres not much you can do. his pose is wicked and looks totally natural, hers from the neck down is a mite stiff. im impressed with what you did with judy... she doesnt look like an alien at all. how easy is it to use the face room? is it something you can learn in a night or is it like days of toiling with buggy crap? i slaved over judy's head for hours to get my free 'jude' morph in 3dsmax, but you did a better job in the face room with yours so im wondering if i should have tried that instead... cheers, -gabriel

oh and those source pics by levius (i think thats what yer using for the guy, no?) are a WICKED deal. that guy rules

wow thats pretty slick fauve... at first glance it looked like a photo manipulation not a render. i guess the poses have something to do with that too - very natural. the sharp edges gave it away tho. good work.. perhaps one of these days i will actually give poser5's new 'features' a whirl... heh. cheers, -gabriel (blackhearted)