While you are here bloodsong... Have you ever found a way - in UV Mapper - to recreate the unwrapped UV mapping that comes with the Zygote Poser models, i.e. the inherant planer type that loads up in UV Mapper. I have been playing around with a few ideas such as selecting portions of the mesh in UV mapper, moving them and rescaling selectivly to try and recreate the effect but it is real slow and tedious. Any ideas? STORM

Ooops bloodsong! Guess we were typing at the same time! STORM

Dmentia I presume you are using the latest version of Steve Cox's UV mapper. Poser objects come with inherant UV mapping. E.g. the poser P4 Female nude has a particular version of planer mapping inherant in it (an unwrapped version that loads up in UV mapper when you load the model object). If you want to change the mapping type (after loading up the obj) select "new UV map" under the EDIT MENU in UV Mapper and choose what you want. However, if you want to apply this new map to the object you must save both the new model and map (under FILE MENU in UV Mapper), if you just save just the map you will get distorted mapping or none at all on the original model, which still reverts to its inherant mapping type and UV co-ordinates. Very Important: Do not overwrite your original model by saving the new model with the same name as the original. Save both the new model and new map under a new name. The above is just an intro to the subject. There are lots of more advanced things that one can do in UV Mapper such as different mapping types on the same object and all on the same map and much more, but I hope what is here answers your question. STORM

Yea, I can't help noticing it as well, it's really great and inspiring. Makes one wonder, if in the depths of the night, the former owners, Metacreations Managment, aren't wondering......?

Momodot it has been a while since I did this but the standard P4 face morphs that I recall being missing from the "head only" figure are the face shape ones, i.e. heart, long, flat etc face. I made a copy of the origional "head only" figure and simply used Morph Manager to transfer them over from the main figures. Yes, I totally agree with you about dial order and naming convention, it is a real bitch if you have to travel up and down a very long list just to get at various morphs scattered all over it. (BTW it is also worth putting the initials or a code for the various morph makers in the dial names e.g. Traveler= Tv- or Trv-(morph name) as this helps in credits and avoids morph duplication). One of the things I am thinking of doing is making copies of the "head figure" for specific parts, e.g. nose morphs and then using Morph Manager to strip out all the others, leaving me with a head figure with only nose morphs and other copies with only mouth etc. morphs. Do you have any idea how many nose morphs there are? STORM

One of the best ways to experiment with lots of Head/Face Morphs and keep the memory cost down is to use the P4 Woman's head in the Additional Figures Library (where the skeletons and stick figures are). Loading these figures with the face/head morphs, or even a number of different versions allows one to create the look one is aiming at, save the final look as an amalgamated morph target and load that saved morph into your regular P4, Eve, or WWG figure. This keeps the memory cost down in the full P4 figure. Loading all the head/face morphs into the full figure one is using for a render is just a huge consumption (and waste) of computer memory. I am trying to create additional morphable body part figures for areas such as the chest and hips, which also have many morphs available for them and use the same technique as with the head figures. Momodot if you are thinking of making pre-loaded morphs available why not just create a head or whatever figure bodypart with them and reduce the file download size. Apart from spawning and amalgamated morph one can always use Morph Manager to transfer the Morphs. STORM

Well I'll be darned! It seems that Chad Smith (and my small contribution to it) won the argument at the Zygote Managment meeting after all. Congratulations Chad! For anyone wanting to know what this is all about see the thread below (copy and paste the link) particularly the last two posts. http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12360&Form.ShowMessage=113796

Thanks to all of you for your help.

Why not meerly act as a middleman, and not impose Royalty or Royalty Free preconditions at all. The whole area is a minefield e.g. what is the exact (100 page closely typed legal description) of Royalty Free (if such a document exists at all or exists perhaps as the published but uncompiled summary of various court findings i.e. in case law), does it cover every possible usage? are there exceptions? I think Renderosity would be better off staying out of that minefield where specialist lawyers make big bucks. If you enter into the process by stipulating licencing terms, you may end up entering into any potential future legal row. Leave it between vendor and purchaser, maybe provide examples to vendors of standard type licence agreements, but my advice is to stay out of the actual agreement and imposing terms on what kind of licence agreement should exist. If buyers do not like a licence agreement they will not buy by the same token you cannot ever be accused of imposing a range of licencing terms on vendors. That way you will not be dragged in if a row starts. This is even more simple. STORM

"As to this one thing, we are selling ROYALTY FREE products here, so though many artists may build into their release contracts provisions for royalties, we will not go down that road. You sold the product to him." Bast I am not sure exactly what you mean by this. And please do pick this up wrong, I am not trying to undermine your work on this issue. However, to the best of my information and legal understanding, if an Artist or manufacturer builds in usage restrictions to their product and their licencing terms, those licencing restrictions take legal precedence over anything you or any other third party vendor may state or intend. I think your term "ROYALTY FREE" needs further explanation and clarification as it may lead to a certain ammount of confusion among both purchasers and contributers. Might I suggest insted that you have a seperate free download of any licence agreement for any product in the store that potential buyers can look at before making a decision to buy. This will remove the Store from potential conflicts and save you a lot of problems in the long term.

Support is one thing, and companies may feel the need to distribute that equally or on a pro-rata basis or on membership numbers. However, straight commercial arrangements such as a merchandising operation where you (like any other merchant in the world) sell for a margin profit is another, and between you and the company. Anyway when I wrote the above posts I was in stream of consciousness mode. Take what is best out of it. I believe that despite the very generous help from members of the community you will have to look at sustainable income for the long term, and that probably means some sort of expansion of the Store into some of the things mentioned above. Hey Ed When you and Jack go swimming in the deep make sure you have had your sleep, lots of sharks in that there blue water!!

Well done thip. Two small tips for anyone starting to play with the Grouping Tool for the first time. 1) You do not have to select different camera views, stick with the main camera, move the Grouping tool dialogue panel over to the right, and use the trackball and other controls to move around your selected bodypart and move in and out etc. 2)Near the bottom of the Grouping Tool dialogue panel is a small box which if ticked will hide other body parts while you are working. This is really handy for tricky bits. STORM

NeroPhyte you are a decent person not just for making and sharing your work but also for taking our - hopefully constuctive - criticism without flying off the handle and also for putting yourself to the trouble of re-packing the zip files and uploading them again. Thank You.

I agree Jim, recently one contributer was uploading very large thumbnails to the Free Stuff which caused the page loading to slow down to a crawl. No offence to that person or to NeroPhyte but if one is not interested in hair or their particular contribution to Free Stuff it is unfair. These pages are already under a great deal of pressure because of the growing membership (416 surfers online as I type). By the same token I would like to thank NeroPhyte for (his (her?) huge contribution and many are very grateful for this but it would be easier on all if 40 had been reduced to 10 or so by combination in bigger zips.

Here is something I should have added to my initial post. The 3D cafe sell products on behalf of producers, I am thinking of Marlin Textures, Dosch Textures (a German Compay), plugins for various programs etc., and there are many more companies out there that are desperatly seeking high level exposure for their products. These companies could be targetted and asked if they want to put their goods in your potential CG Store, which you could sell for a commission (for instance there are hundreds of commercial plugin makers (all small companies) for Photoshop, Max, Lightwave etc.) Since there is such a diverse range of needs for Poser (modelling, texturing, plug-in programs and even high-end video and web presentation programs) the sheer potential comprehensiveness of the range of goods in a CG store servicing all these needs would be an attraction for Computer Artists generally, thus increasing your membership and making your Store even more attractive as an outlet for retailers. Most software resellers and distributers make a high percentage out of such transactions. The normal markup in realworld retailing is 100% or more. On the web it may be similar. Being a middleman for such products has major advantages because of its long term potential. What is more, since it is not your main business (or purpose in life) you could offer far more attractive deals to the software companies than the people for whom middleman retailing or distribution is the main business, and also deliver significant reductions to customers at the other end (making your shop more attractive), while at the same time making a profit. It would mean of course that you would have to set up your own operation in terms of Credit Card clearence on payments, and you would probably have to get into the physical business of mailing out CDs (nobody is going to download 650Mbs of textures). However, if you can undercut the competition you are in business and you already have the main "attractor factor" in all of this, your huge and growing membership of 3D graphics artists. Prepare a fact sheet about this place, include the figures for visits, membership and the rest, show how this site has grown exponentially and project your future growth, and then go sell it, blitz all of them, sell and promote the hell out of this place, if one company bites the rest will feel they also have to, just to be competetive (in fact that could be the decisive factor in pulling in the rest). And if they will not cut you in for a percentage of sales as middlemen, be flexible and do as bloodsong suggested and charge a referrel fee or any other way of getting them in. And what have any of these companies to loose? Nothing. They already pay large fees to middlemen to sell and distribute their goods for them. If you look at the posts in the various forums there are plenty of Renderosity members that are thinking of buying plug-ins and high-end modelling programs. If even some of them were to buy their stuff through you, you would more than cover the costs of this site. STORM