It looks like it might be an idea if DAZ released a small user guide for Vickie 2 because these kinds of questions are going to be coming for a while. Heh, a user manual for a model, what a concept. (G)

I'm not aware of any short hair models like that, I have the Dariusz tex maps and they are excellent, I just wish I could afford more of Catherine's textures. The closest you can get that I know of is one of the DAZ hair models, there's a short hair (short gel cut?) on their site. I don't recall ever seeing a decent hair "that" short free anywhere and I do tend to keep an eye out for hair, as you can never have enough hair models. :)

It's not the bump map settings that are too high, the maps provided with Vic2 work quite nicely even at 100%, the problem appears (at least in my experience over the last couple of days) to be because the default setting is with a .jpg file. If you go into the materials box, click on the selector for bumpmap and reload the one that you are using Poser will then recreate it as a .bum and it will work fine. You'll need to reset all the body parts to .bum as the whole map will screw up if you check the "all figure" box. Hope that helps. I agree with Mehndi about using limits to start with, but also, don't forget the rotate and bend the collar as well as the shoulder, you'll get the arm a lot further over before you need to tweak manually with limits off. It's usually a good idea to attempt the pose yourself first, and try to see what parts of your body move, then move the relevant parts on the model - remembering of course that the wrist itself doesn't twist, just the forearm. :)

When I first loaded Vickie1 I sat back and thought "Geez, she looks like the old dragon I used to work for.." and then noticed how long her fingers were... Since then I've fiddled and tweaked and twisted and Vickie1 isn't as ugly as she first appears, it just takes some work to make her look like something - and a good texture map. I personally am very very pleased with Vickie2, it's extremely simple to get her to look reasonable, and with all due respect her proportions aren't that bad in my opinion. The P4 version however is morph light on the body, but that was expected. I do like her though as it means my library of clothes can be used and I can transfer the faces parameters I use on Vickie, to her which means she'll get used a lot for the simple stuff I do while Vic2 will sit back on her lounger waiting for those times when I want something special. I agree that those who make morphs have got their work cut out for them to make morphs for Vickie's baby sister, but to be honest that's not a problem for me. I have warrior's P4/Vic1 conversions and RenapD's conversion too so if I really want to use morphs the options are there. I'm very happy with the whole thing and feel it was money well spent, sorry you aren't so happy with it.

The longest I've had to wait for a response from Daz was a weekend. I bought something on a Friday, there was some sort of a problem and I didn't get any links that worked. 24 hours to download... Monday they sent me an email, checked out the problem, gave me a new link to download and all was done. At other times they've responded within the day and been extremely helpful. Vicky2 went like all my other recent purchases from them, smooth and sweet, even the download speed was good which stunned the heck out of me as I expected the server to be hammered senseless. :)

To be perfectly honest I don't completely understand the fuss over trading with Vickie 2. Vic1 is still freely distributable as a cr2. Most character creators aren't likely to use the morphs in Vic2 for their "sale" work as they (as I understand it) create their own morphs anyway. So, carry on selling, distributing, giving away Vic1 characters - who's morph targets can be used on Vic2 (mostly) and there's no worry about Daz locking down on any and all distribution. I mean, what's the big deal? Daz have made a new character. Just like all the characters in the various stores. They sold her as vickie 2. Guys, gals. Just carry on with what you were doing and what you were intending to do before Vic2 arrived. Create the characters in Vic1, sell them, give them away. Whatever. And those who want or have Vic2 can either transfer the morphs (though after paying that much money I sure as heck wouldn't want to do that), or they can use your characters as you intended. Vickie 2 gives those of us on a massively limited budget the chance to have our own stable of characters without having to pay through the nose for each new variation that pops up in the store.

Well, that's interesting. Thanks. Though it begs the question (looking at certain stores on the net with Vic1 characters) who would pay 30-50 dollars for a pose file?

Lady Mage The Ghastley site has been changed around quite a bit, there's a lot there. The body suit that ghastley is offering is a full body suit, unlike the one I have which is a suit parented onto the p4 figure. The Ghastley url you need is http://209.92.41.204/Poser/dlframe.html There's a search util in the top right of the page, click on P4Male and "Find" and it will appear.

Interesting, I have a HP660 printer, HP4L Laser and HP860 printer attached to my machine via serial switch and I have never had any problems with Poser and my printers. That having run it on Win98SE, Win NT while I was playing with the Maya freebie and now Win2000. I don't have the ProPack so I can't say if that's causing the problem.

I think that depends on the nature of the pay site. If the site is charging entrance to cover bandwidth and site production/maintenance costs then technically they have an argument that the models are still free "technically" provided they can prove that no profit is forthcoming from the site in regard to the production of models. If however it is a pay site in respect to charging for copyrighted models then they are in breach of the law twice fold. First for the copyrighted character, and second for profiting from the trademarked/copyrighted work of others. It does however depend heavily on what you mean by copyrighted characters. If like in Nance's example you mean stuff like Spiderman, then that's already a breach of copyright and an issue that should be dealt with between the model maker and the original copyright holder (Marvel? Stan Lee?) Though I'm not aware of any situations where they've bothered to chase something like that, in the main a lot of companies like that (comics, movies) don't mind too much provided people aren't profiteering on their name, their immediate product or claiming unlawful licence or association. If they did mind then the massive proliferation of Alien, Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon5, Battletech etc models on the net would virtually vanish overnight. If however you mean copyrighted things like Vickie or Posette etc, then they can be sold with impunity provided the object file is NOT sold with them. In the case of these models it is the geometry (.obj) file itself that bears the copyright and sale of that item will result in legal action.

There are two or three free sets of angel wings available, I think they might even be in the free stuff here. Hokusai remapped one set last year and those are available free as well. Fairy wings are also littered all over the net and in the free stuff area. I have several that I downloaded from various places though the urls aren't handy at the moment. You could try the poser links section at 3dmodelworld.com Lannie has detailed some of the files available on sites there.

I'm not sure where I'd stand on the fence with this one. My free stuff does have a non-commercial/no redistribution restriction on them. Why? No reason other than I'd rather be notified if someone wants to use something I do in a commercial enterprise. I have recently added a request that anything used in such an enterprise that a small percentage (agreed between the user and myself) be donated to a children's charity. I'm sorry, maybe I'm being obtuse but I don't see that I'm doing anything wrong by adding that restriction. I don't want a profit from something I've given away for free, but I don't want that free item then used in something that somebody charges for. They make profit from my free item, just strikes me as a tad wrong. If however they're prepared to talk to me about it, I can be an extremely reasonable person. I do add to my restriction that I want to be contacted should any commercial use for anything I do occur. I think it's only fair, and nice for people to tell me that something I've done is good enough for them to want to use. It's encouraging, helps with the gratitude thing and makes it all somehow worthwhile. So, while I do believe that free is free, I will continue adding the restriction to my free stuff provided other people can see the renders/figures/whatever FREE as well, not charged entrance etc... Also, I don't want people adding my few files to some cd collection and profiting from selling that collection. I know it saves others the phone bill, but it also means people are being charged for something that's essentially free - and that isn't fair by a long chalk. I dunno, maybe I'm just twisted somehow.

Thanks Talos, I didn't realise anyone used my props at all That'll teach me not to hang around in the galleries... anyway, as soon as I've finished redesigning my site I'll try to remember to repost the eyes. :)

Attached Link: http://www.shalako.plus.com/Files/figures/NewP4Eyes.zip

Attached Link: http://www.lightwavesgraphics.com/