Quote - I think it has less to do with the technical quality of the sets then it has to do with the overall appeal of the characters themselves.

Not so sure about that, really -- more like 'people buy what fits their needs'. It's similar, not quite the same, but that is a nitpick. Most people do this for enjoyment from what I can tell, not print work. That's definitely going to change the dynamic to some extent. And here, have a whole mess of cat pictures: http://pics.livejournal.com/surreality/gallery/000125za

Honestly, Rich... knowing enough about the work of the people who make characters who have posted in this thread? They don't do the same style and never have, so I don't think that's at issue. Lyrra, for example, I don't think has ever made a character set. I've seen a lot of people who aren't vendors comment on the quality (or lack thereof) of work in the marketplace (this one and others). I don't see people reading into their views in the same way -- and I don't think it's any different for most vendors. I do see vendors taking an interest in the quality of work that is around them, though, and also in the ethics of fellow vendors. After all, when one of us pulls a stupid (innocently or otherwise), it's going to have some measure of impact on the rest of us. How many threads have appeared about "no properly ethnic V4 characters" or "no realistic makeups for V4" or "all V4s are nothing but slapped together resources and nothing original at all" or other similar vast, sweeping arguments that slam all character creators as a group? When this is not true of all character creators, there's definitely going to be an interest taken in the people who are doing any of the above. Sooner or later, people just stop looking around, because they see these comments so often that they'll believe them to be universally true. (And plenty of those comments have come from people who are defending Syltermermaid, it should be noted.) It's also been said in this very thread that there is such a glut of product on the market that people don't want to sort through them to look for themselves. Who is creating the glut, the people who produce a set a month, or the ones who produce a set a day? There are plenty of valid reasons for other vendors to take an interest in a thread like this, or have an opinion about the way someone does things, other than 'I want to be just like [whoever]!' or 'I wish I made that much money!' because... let's face it, even towards the top end of the scale, none of us are exactly lighting our cigarettes with $100 bills. You have a very valid point: people will buy what appeals to them and best suits their needs. Personally? I'm just fine with that. I have absolutely -no- issue that people love her stuff and buy it often; if it's what they like, it is absolutely what they should buy and no one should tell them to do any different. It's their money, right? The beginning and the end of my input on the success of any other vendor is: "Do I buy their stuff?" and the answer is a yes or no, and I vote with my dollars like everybody else. edit: drifterlee? Once I get out from the work pile I'm buried under, I'll be happy to help you put one together for yourself if you'd like. grin It's not as scary as it sounds.

Quote - I'm not sure what your intention was with posting a public dislike for someone or something, but you may be interested in knowing that it only made you look negative, cranky, overly judgemental, and perhaps jealous too.

You know... it may not have been the intention, but I saw this same logic trotted out and aimed at the people who said 'copyright infringement isn't cool' on the image that was very much that. I can't help but find that incredibly disturbing. Taking issue with certain behaviors happens all the time, as does voicing those objections, and I try not to read into it further personally. Personally, I was appalled that people in the gallery comment thread on the image following the removal of the allegedly infringing image that insisted "people are just jealous". Seriously, what on earth... ? How does that logic track at all?! I will be plenty negative here: that behavior was unquestionably disgusting to me; one doesn't excuse one's friends when they do something inappropriate and blame the people who point out what the inappropriate thing is instead. Read the commentary there if you like, though I don't recommend it unless you have a very strong stomach: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1587992&member I may be relating to wholly unconnected things, and if so, my genuine apologies to conniekat -- but this deeply unsettled me when I saw its previous incarnation and the repetition of that pattern is highly alarming.

Would your feelings on that change if a city had a quota on the maximum number of restaurants allowed inside the city? Most marketplaces do have a limit on the number of items they will release per day or week, not per person, but for everyone to fit into.

Heya Richard. grin I looked at www.maxon.net in their online store. It wasn't easy to find the link -- but do yourself a favor and work with the demo -first-. I'll dig around in a bit and see if I can find the competitive upgrade part; I think it was a tiny little link at the bottom of the main order page that went to a different link. It's a lot of money if you decide you don't like it, you know? Bodypaint standalone is going to cost the same amount as the very basic C4D+Bodypaint, weirdly enough, so I'd recommend going that route. More tools for the same price is always good. Support... dunno. It's definitely there and I did have an issue I had to call their tech folks about in the beginning, but they resolved it in -seconds-, and were very friendly about it. There are a lot of tutorials you can buy, but honestly, I had a friend walk me through the basics to help me because after that I couldn't afford -anything- else (and still can't for a while yet).

I ended up picking up C4D (BodyPaint) just before the holidays. (Yeah... ouch. So much ouch.) It was surprisingly well-behaved when it comes to V4's many-seamed nightmare templates. There are a few of them that are still a royal pain, but I'm slowly getting the hang of it. You can essentially tell it to paint right across the seams as though they aren't there, which is intensely helpful -- especially since it has a clone stamp tool. I end up laying out what I generally want in photoshop, importing it over to C4D, fussing with seams with the clone stamp, then going back into photoshop for another round of cleanup and blending, and so on until I'm happy with it. It's time consuming, but fussing with it in photoshop alone and trying to match things up was taking me much longer. I had one too many stressful head-bangy moments, too. You can get a competitive upgrade from Bryce if you have it, which knocks $100 off the price, and that is very helpful. I got the most basic package they offered, and it was around $800 after the upgrade discount, plus shipping. I ended up picking it up since I was running into seam issues on the freebie I'd promised to do for Xmas, and there was just no time to do it any other way. As painful as it was to part with that much cash -- and it was nail-bitingly painful, I actually lost sleep -- it was very much worth it. I was able to do some spot fixes on my recently finished gal with it in a fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise, and was able to get most of a skin done that is purely photo-based since. (Still fussing over the limbs... sigh.)

I have to be blunt for a moment here: this -is- a business that should be handled in as professional a fashion as possible. Different sets of rules applying to different people is just not the way to go about that; the rules are there for all of us. I don't see anything any nastier than I usually see directed at the vendors in general around here. It's just that the roles have reversed a tad from the way it normally goes -- the people cheering this vendor on are often the ones dishing it from what I have seen. Another important aspect of professionalism is the ability to take criticism into account. This is minor league stuff compared to anything I ever heard when I was in art school. If that's considered 'nasty', I should be suing my professors for therapy bills instead of being grateful for what they taught me. High on that list? "I am not perfect, I will make mistakes, and the way to improve is to learn from them, not whine about someone telling me I made a mistake." As far as the flattened skins go... it varies. I know I just had to make a large investment in software that will allow me to step away from resource bases entirely, but while the software helps with the seams, it still takes a remarkable amount of time. (3 weeks and counting from custom morphing on head and body in Modo to working on finishing up the textures which are still not complete yet and have a long way left to go.) There are a lot of ways to go about it, and everyone you ask will probably have a slightly different method than the next person. Definitely try the prop sets -- there are some really good applications out there for free to experiment with to find something you like, and others have demos you can try before you buy.

If someone did a fake Vogue cover, I would think they're risking trademark infringement. If someone takes a part of a photo from a magazine and chops it up to use in a posting here without permission or license to do so, they are definitely infringing copyright. There's not really any grey area in there to quibble about or attempt to defend, especially since the image was being used for product promotion. There is a handy post about these issues here: http://www.renderosity.com/news.php?viewStory=6249

Quote - In the comment-thread someone has spoken about images with copyright in the marketplace, but it was not Ute who has used them. He or she was talking about another vendor.

Actually, that isn't correct. The copyright issue I believe Lyrra was speaking about was a gallery posting, not a marketplace product. Someone (quite politely from what I recall) mentioned this to her in a comment, as this kind of thing can get us into serious trouble -- there was none of the 'attacking' I've heard mentioned, just realistic concerns about this issue. It would be no different than if I took the cover of Vogue, scanned it, collaged my character into the scan, and posted it in the gallery -- we are absolutely not allowed to do that. She was probably very wise to remove that image on her own.

Very sad news. I always liked him in films, and it was rather refreshing to see a celeb around who wasn't the 'scandal of the week' type.

Quote - I've also heard a rumour that there have been some revisions to the clearance section and that vendors can now opt out of their products going into clearance. However, if they opt out and their products don't sell within a 3 month period the item is booted from the store.

That's not a rumor. We can opt out of clearance and choose to have items deleted if they don't sell within the clearance period if we choose. Until now, people normally just requested to have clearance items removed from the store when they went into clearance and it was done for them by the admins. The only real change here is that the process is automated from what I can tell, instead of a vendor noticing something with a little red C and asking the MP admins to remove it manually. Realistically, you can argue that people agree to the clearance terms now when they submit an item to be brokered here, but bear in mind that the clearance system is removing many older items that predate the clearance system, so I can easily imagine why their creators may not wish to have them selling for a clearance price without their direct consent. Also, a handful of months ago, it was mentioned that the count of active vendors was around the mid 1400s. Some have come and gone since then. While high, it's still well under 2000 unless something much more dramatic has changed.

My thought is more that it's usually not worth the energy to get upset over someone else's opinion and potentially react in anger than it is "no one should disagree with anyone or say potentially nasty things." I don't think it'd do us any good to respond that way, essentially. Then again... I use a Mac and have never used anything else. grin I'm used to the "your thing sucks eggs, my thing is made of concentrated excellence!" arguments (from both sides of that one, too).

Quote - Sorry, but I just can't get up enough "ZOMG they called us bad namez0rs!" to bother; esp. not when compared with the CG world I see in real life.

I echo this, just dropping 'CG' out of it entirely. It does none of us (and I'm including whoever is/was posting over thereabouts) any good to stomp around like toddlers in the midst of a tantrum -- that tends to be ugly as can be no matter who is doing it. So why get offended by people acting that way? Pfft. Not worth the mental energy. Using my actual creativity is worth more time, IMHO, than slagging off on someone else's (or the perceived lack thereof).

I would guess it was this one: http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=2936 -- maybe with some minor changes.

I looked at the micro nose and giggled, since it's a trend I've noticed, too. I have a fondness for noses with character (except mine, of course). A unique and/or distinctive profile is a -good- thing.