Quote - This seems to be questions week for me!

Being a Poser user for many years.(I also have DAZ Studio Pro 4.6 which I still cannot get my head around). Is there any advantage in buying M6 and V6? I have all the DAZ Figures up to V4-M4! I do not seem much mention about these figures for Poser or are they mainly for DAZ Studio? I also have the Genesis collection working OK on the DSON importer.Any suggestions would be helpful. Cheers

Hi, arrow1:

To answer your question:  M4 and V4 were the last DAZ figures to use Poser's rigging system.  Starting with Genesis, DAZ went to using the Triax weight-mapped rigging system, which is completely different.  However, DAZ has also set up a system whereby the Genesis1 and Genesis2 figures can be used in Poser.  I haven't done much with that, so I can't say anything about how well it works.

There is no "advantage" in buying M6/V6 unless you like the figure shapes and want to be able to use them.  They are basically just morphs of the Genesis 2 Male and Genesis 2 Female figures, as are all the other "generation 6" figures.

I've made pose sets for the Generation 6 figures, and have been quite impressed with the way they bend and move.  In my opinion, they're considerably better than the Generation 4 figures were.  I was particularly impressed with the new "Gianni" figure (which is a morph of the Genesis 2 male).  

Bottom line, it just boils down to what figures you like, what you're able/willing to spend, what content you want to be able to use, and a whole bunch of other things that are pretty much up to you.  It's kind of like the old question of, "Which is better, WordPerfect or Word?"  There is no "answer" to that.  Both programs are good.  I've used both extensively.  They both do basically the same thing, but they do it somewhat differently.  WordPerfect does some things better than Word does, but Word does some things better than WordPerfect does.  The same is true of Poser and DAZ Studio.

I, too, had problems "getting my head around" DAZ Studio, but as a content creator, I felt that I had to learn to use DS, even though I started in Poser.  Having used both now for several years, all I can say is that it boils down to personal preference.  There are things I really like about Poser, but there are also things I really like about DS.  There are some things about Poser that I hate, but there are also things about DS that I hate.  Is one program "better" than the other?  No, not really-- it's just like WordPerfect and Word:  they're both good; they both have their good points and their bad points, and which you prefer to use is really just a matter of your personal preference.

Since you say you have been able to get the Genesis figures working okay with the DSON importer, I'd suggest picking either M6 or V6 and trying it out, and then, if you like the results, go ahead and get the other one.  

Sorry to provide such a vague answer, but yours is a question for which there IS no "definitive" answer.  It all comes down to personal opinion, personal taste, and personal preference.  

There is probably no such thing as "best" topology.  How good topology is or isn't depends on what the figure is intended to be able to do and how it is intended to be used.  What might be very good topology for one purpose (i.e., morhing a figure from "slender" to "muscular") might not be ideal for another purpose (such as joint bending).  Much depends, too, on whether or not the figure is intended to be subdivided within the end-user program (as in DAZ Studio).  

So, there's probably no real answer to this question.  

" I can look at the mesh and see where morphs could be and what they might look like even when they aren't there yet... but is that the right way to look at it?"

If morphing is the primary concern, then yes, that is a good way to look at it.  But if the primary concern is something else (whatever that might be), then you'd want to put that "something else" ahead of morphing.

Sorry if this sounds like vague blather, but in creating a model-- especially a human figure such as V4, Alyson, or any other-- there are so many things to take into consideration that choosing a particular topology is more a matter of trying to find a "happy medium" than of trying to find the "perfect" topology.

To go back to the original subject of this thread, which is:  "Dawn's Impact on the Poserverse"---

Impact?  Very little, really.  And who could have expected anything different?  Anybody remember "Dina"... "Renda"... or maybe "Antonia"...?

Dawn seems likely to have just as much "impact" as those figures did-- i.e., very little, if any.

As for Smith Micro-- Look at its home web site.  SM is primarily a software company, and Poser is most likely the smallest and least lucrative of the programs in its repertoire.  Why should SM care all that much about a dying program it bought third-hand, after the original creator (Curious Labs) failed to make a "go" of it?

Don't get me wrong:  I started in Poser, and Poser is still my favorite program-- but if SM doesn't put some serious effort into upgrading Poser and making it compatiable with DAZ Studio, Poser is at risk of going the way of the thousands of other programs that have fallen by the wayside over the last couple of decades.

Quote - @blondie9999

Did someone brake your toys?

Nope.  It's just that I don't believe in telling someone a bunch of misleading B.S. for the sake of being "nice" or whatever.  If something is badly done, I'm NOT going to tell the person, "Oh, that's really great" or "Oh, that's looking really good."  

Likewise, if someone can't carry a tune, I'm not going to tell him how good he sounds and encourage him to pursue a singing career.

The model is crude and badly proportioned.  It isn't even as good as the ancient Poser 1 figures were.  I suggest you go back to "square one" and learn modeling, then study anatomy, then study existing figures such as V4 and M4 to see how they're put together.  

If your goal is to create a commercially viable product, you have a LONG way to go.  And you should be aware that Poser users are used to figures of FAR higher quality than this.

Quote - It all seems too good to be true, so I thought I'd ask the community how they view this practice.

Well, that, right there, is your clue:  if it seems "too good to be true," it probably IS "too good to be true"-- i.e., flim-flam.

Always remember:  there is no free lunch.  Nothing is ever really free.  If someone offers you something for "nothing," there is always a catch.  

Always.  

First step-- contact the publisher and inform it that the cover art was stolen from you.  Unless the publisher is real scum, that should be sufficient.

To take any kind of actual legal action-- like filing a lawsuit-- you need to have a registered copyright of your work.  So if you don't already have the copyright registered, do it... just in case.

Um... sorry, but that looks terrible.  You've got all these jaggy and obvious gaps between the neck and the head, and between the torso and the hips, and what's going on with the arms and torso?  They look like... I don't know, weird balloons?

You'd need to put in a lot more work before this would even qualify as a freebie that anyone would want.

Quote - For short: Genesis / DS is just the next step in a consistent DAZ strategie which started off in say year 2000 or so, and introduced the (V3M3S3) UniMesh geometries in the first place. DAZ aims at the games /apps / virtual life markets which are expected to meet the retail markets within a few years from now, thanks to MS kinetix etcetera.

Development of the Unimesh had nothing to do with aiming at the game market.  The purpose was to eliminate the wasted effort of making separate figures completely from scratch.  DAZ pursued that further in the Mil 4 figures by seting up the "secondary" figures as morphs of the main figures, rather than as stand-alone figures.  And with Genesis, DAZ has simply taken that a step further by having all the figures as morphs of Genesis.

Yes, you can override the limits by clicking on the little "gear" icon, going into the parameter settings, and clicking on "respect limits" to change it to "No"-- and then changing the max limit, if needed.

The tattoo artist may not have been deliberately giving bad advice, but may simply be ignorant of copyright matters-- after all, many people are, and many people are under the illusion that anything on the internet is "free to take" unless specifically marked otherwise.  And there are also plenty who feel free to take stuff even if it is marked otherwise. 

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhaa, that's marketing like no other.

Sending out e-mails to people who are already customers (if they weren't, you wouldn't have their bloody e-mail addresses, duh?) is not "marketing"-- it's just notfying existing customers about "whatever."

Real marketing is aimed at reaching people who aren't already customers and convincing them they "need" your product for one reason or another.

OMG, Blondie.  DAZ is marketing.  It is ALL they do.  They create and/or make next to NOTHING and those things they do create have a very bad reputation for documentation and quality.

Anyone who worked on the V4WM project know exactly what kind of "quality" went into V4.

They SELL you.  Their vendors' products.  It IS what they do.

Sorry, but "preaching to the choir" is NOT "marketing."  It's just preaching to the choir-- to those who already "converts."  It doesn't matter if you send out one newsletter a week or a hundred a week, you're still just preaching to the choir.  REAL marketing is aimed at making NEW converts-- at reaching people who have NEVER heard of you or your product before, and convincing them that they "need" it. 

Quote - > Quote - It really all comes down to one question:  Is the figure superior to M4/V4?  If not, then forget it.  It's not going to catch on, it's not going to become popular enough to attract the support of "serious" vendors, and it's just going to languish in the same little backwater limbo into which so many other figures have sunk.

Yanno we ARE talking about POSER users here ;). And it may catch on to Poser users. I don't think any one expects that it would catch on with DS users. And that wasn't even the original question. With the right person modeling and getting the word out and vendors on board that make GOOD stuff, not the crap I've seen come out for other recent figures it has a chance. With POSER. Can't use what are now dead figures forever. And I don't mean Apollo ffs. Much as I loved his things, Anton is too big of liability for any 3D venture. I'm pissed SM is resurrecting an old G2 figure. NEW..that's what ppl want NEW and better than the last iteration. And if Daz doesn't give it to them, they WILL get it somewhere else. Whoever thought a rinky dink operation like Daz would become the standard for Poser figures? I didn't at the time that's for sure.

Laurie

Yes, I know we are talking about POSER.  I started with POSER.  Until very recently, all my products were made for POSER.  Starting in around December of 2005, most of them also had DAZ Studio versions, but they were created and intended to work in POSER, and the DS versions were "secondary."

And M4 and V4 are POSER figures, in that they have POSER-based rigging and are designed to work in POSER.  For several years now, they have been "the" most popular figures among POSER users-- so it's entirely appropriate to say that any figure that aspires to become a "mainstream" POSER figure must be superior to them-- because unless and until such a figure is created, they are going be pretty much "the only game in town."

Quote - Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhaa, that's marketing like no other.

Sending out e-mails to people who are already customers (if they weren't, you wouldn't have their bloody e-mail addresses, duh?) is not "marketing"-- it's just notfying existing customers about "whatever."

Real marketing is aimed at reaching people who aren't already customers and convincing them they "need" your product for one reason or another.

Quote - A figure doesn't have to cost a small fortune for the creator to make a profit from it and be worthwhile to both him/her and their customer base. It just needs to be reasonable for both sides and deliver what the customers want, just like anything else on the market. You're not going to make a fortune selling one or two items, but over time if your items are quality and affordable by the majority, you build that rep and customer base and that's where your success comes from. 

 

~Shane

Do you have any idea how long it takes to develop a figure of the quality of M4 or V4?  It takes about two or three (or more) YEARS of effort by a whole development team.  It's not something that Little Mr. Intermediate-Level Modeler can bang out in two or three months.

DAZ was able to sell its figures for a very low price-- or even give them away free-- ONLY because it was also a brokering store and thus was able to make money off the tons of add-on products made by vendors.  An independent developer (or developers) wouldn't be in that position-- so they'd have to (a) charge a pretty good price for their figure, AND (b) sell a hell of a lot of copies of it in order for the enterprise to be profitable.