LOL...if I create a character, I'm going to need a figure to create it for and I'm going to have to purchase said figure from somewhere and for the most part, that's not going to be here. If I were to make a texture set for a clothing item, I'm going to need the item and the chances of my buying that item here are remote. 

So I purchase the necessary items from that "other" store and get to work. Once completed, I submit said "awesome" new product to Renderosity and it's released into the store, accompanied by announcements in all the appropriate places right here and on Daz.

Now, if that "awesome" new product happens to be released at Daz, I can rant and rave about it to my heart's content over there but if I try to let people here know about it, I can go whistle dixie? ...how silly.

When you see a Renderosity member post a question in The Commons asking what the symbols on products in Renderosity's MP mean, and that post is not removed and the person told to ask the question in the appropriate place, that tells me that the community spirit over there is alive and well and perhaps Renderosity could "take a leaf" :)

Kym

LOL John oh yes, I have about worn out my mouse traversing through the stuff over on RDNA. I posted in the Node Cult forum asking for help and Olivier was very helpful but I think I need a brick upside the head so I thought I would stick my nose in here :)

As Bagginsbill pointed out the search engine over there sucks and I even went through that darned archive area post  by post by post until I was crosseyed but I will take myself over to the link that BB has just mentioned and read and hopefully absorb :)

Well tomorrow is another day and I shall arise hopefully brighteyed and bushy tailed and get to work on BB's suggestions  here :)

Thank you

Kym

Oh this is *interesting and I could use some node help too. Bagginsbill do you have your tutorials in one place or are your pearls of wisdom just scattered around the forums. I have so many of them bookmarked now and they are an invaluable source of learning....thank you for you generosity.

I'm particularly interested in your eye information in relation to reflection/refraction and the ability to create a really nice glossy wet eye which goes into the tear area and I'm so confused LOL.

I'm sure it's because I don't fully understand but can you explain why I can't put a reflection map on the eye surface since that covers the entire eye including the tear and I want that whole area to appear to be damp. I'm sure there's a really good reason I'm not getting the result I want and putting reflection maps on the cornea is not doing it for me  either. I've tried just about every combination of things I can think of and I'm getting nowhere fast LOL.

I've been futzing around with this for I don't know how long now and instead of really getting a handle on it I seem to be confusing myself more and more LOL ...

I would sure appreciate your advice.

Kym

Acadia thank you for your kind words and I don't think I have seen those renders of yours before.  They're beautiful!!!

Kym

Attached Link: My Store

Best ...

Kym

I have to agree with a good deal of what has been said here and in fact, she should be very grateful toanyone who pointed out that she might have been skating on thin ice and ultimately find herself in a far worse situation than she apparently is in currently. I believe that the majority of merchants are well aware of the consequences of publicly disclosing correspondence between themselves and Renderosity and that doing so is not only unprofessional but will see you shown the door in short order.

There are plenty of merchants who do not use merchant resource kits to create their characters and I'm one of them. Every single one of my characters is done from scratch and it took me two years of gut wrenching hair pulling before I would have dared to ask anyone to buy anything I created.

If, as someone has stated, Syltermermaid has 40 characters available in the relatively short time that she has been a merchant, there is no way on god's green earth, she created those characters without relying more than heavily on merchant resources. If you look at the readmes...something you should do before you purchase any product...you will find that she has used the same resources over and over and over again, hence the similarity in her characters. In many cases, even the promo information is the same save for the changing of a name to reflect the current character and worded to imply that there are no resources were used which I find disturbingly misleading. But if that floats your boat and you don't care, then that's fine, but remember you can purchase these resources and do the same thing yourself.

Now let's take it one step further. Let's say for instance that a merchant...any merchant...uses the same eye resource kit for every product. Either they don't know how to alter those eyes or they choose not too for whatever reason and you're willing to pay how many times for the same thing ? You now likely have that entire resource pack and you probably paid ten times what you would have paid had you purchased the resource yourself in the first place! I honestly don't see the logic in that.

There are many talented artists who use merchant resources to create beautiful characters and you would never know. To do that can take just as many painstaking hours and talent as doing it from scratch and those people have my respect. Resource kits are a great way to learn how to do things yourself but they were never intended to be used as an end product.

I think it's sad that the market is so flooded with them now and so many seem to think they're a fast track to being a successful merchant with a fat bank balance without having to actually learn anything when in fact the reverse is true.

Thank you...I'm glad you like them  :) 

Kym

LOL louiseboots...gimme time :)

 I have an older character for V4 in the works and she should be released soon and she's certainly not ugly but my Grizelda for V3 who is far from pretty has been very popular so I"m seriously considering one for V4 :) 

Kym

I actually enjoy doing promo images because it gives me a chance to play around with the character I've created from a customer perspective.

In the last few weeks I have gone from dialup to broadband and I think I've been reborn LOL but I know only too well about reams of images that take forever to load when the merchant has used html. I've never used it mainly because I didn't feel the need and I know I couldn't be bothered waiting for it all to load so I assume there are plenty of others on dialup who feel the same way and I try to make viewing my packages a pleasant experience. 

I've also always taken the WYSIWYG approach when doing promo images. Absolutely no postwork and very basic lighting so that the customer knows when they look at my promo images that what they see is exactly what they get. It's not difficult to "pretty" up a promo image with nice fonts, background colors/images and general presentation. Save all the fancy filters and stuff for gallery images unless you have hours to spend with customers explaining how they can get your character to look like it does in your promo images. Admittedly I come from an advertising background so easy for me to say I guess lol.

Closeups of skin or fabric detail are essential and not just the face. If I were purchasing a character pack, I'd want to see some nice closeups of the body skin along with elbows, knees, hands and feet. These are areas that really take a lot of work particularly without the use of the plethora of merchant resources that are out there.

The devil is in the detail and if a prospective customer can't see the detail you can't expect them to fork out money with fingers crossed in the hope that they will be satisfied with their purchase.

Just my more than two cent's worth :) 

Kym

LOL Jump and I seem to remember him saying something about  being at school and his teachers making him feel "small" ...guess he showed them what small really is  eh ?  :)

...and thanks for the link mrsparky :)

Kym

If it's the guy I think it is I saw his stuff on tv last night. His "models" are small enough to fit in the eye of a needle and he uses "brushes" made from a hair off a fly's back...geeze!

And I nearly go blind searching for seams LOL...Incredible...

Kym

What a bummer!!! :)

Thanks for posting Amy... a very helpful tut...had me up and running in no time flat :)

Kym

...and you know it's time to take a break when you go into the supermarket and ask the nice man in the meat department if he has any "seamless" chicken breasts...dear god! ...yes I did it much to hubbie's embarrassment.  He just  shook his head and said..."She means skinless ... LOL

Kym

Thank you judee.  I'm glad you enjoy them and I know what you mean about that budget LOL...it can get away from you in no time :)

Kym