All models should be if possible mapped with UV mapping coordinates. This may be accomplished with the free utility UVmapper, which may be downloaded from the Utilities area of Free Stuff. Included textures make a model more desirable, so plan to include at least one texture if possible, and a template saved also in UVmapper. Textures should be saved to either compressed tif format, bmp format, or jpg format. Textures saved in jpg format should NOT be saved in a lossy compressed format. Instead configure your painting application to save at the highest possible quality. Even though this increases overall file size, the chances the customer can then customize your texture to suit his needs are increased. Naming Conventions: All textures that are diffuse maps (the actual texture you see with your eyes) should be named something such as Bluebell_tex.tif. All textures that are transparency maps should be named something such as Bluebell_trans.tif. All textures that are bump maps should be named something such as Bluebell_bump.tif. We wish to not leave any guessing at all for our customers. Last Thoughts: Ok, ok, I know we are not all texture artists, and maybe you have the greatest model since 3d geometry was invented but do not have a good texture. Contact Diane or myself. We will turn to our community resources and do our best to hook you up with a texture artist who may be willing to pitch in and give you a hand for some form of trade off. As always, I am here to help as I may Liz Birdsong Hbg@kreative.net

I'm willing to give it a go at helping someone out with texture work. I don't think I've got the mind to learning modeling so I'm learning texture creation instead. I'm going to offer a texture I just made for the Hooded Cloak on the Zygote Costume CD.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?Who=holyforest

I know that .bum files don't support the zip process.

Heya Holyforest, I am the Bast who wrote the post above, as most here know ;) As you probably noticed, that post is quite old, and others are in charge of defining standards in the store now, and most of those standards of mine above are "gone with the wind" so to speak ;) However, other than the compression issue, which I would choose to now modify, my stance on the above remains the same. Nowadays, due to the size of the textures coming in being at times as large as 4000 x 4000, and also due to most products shipping these days with multiple textures instead of one or none (which was the issue then, folks not wanting to include any texture), I would recommend very slight compression for JPG's since this would greatly reduce file size on download. A big problem these days in the store is the size of the downloads coming in grows larger each day, and 25 or 30 meg downloads are nothing unusual now :( To answer your question on bump maps: I personally include the bump map in a jpg format, and name it appropriately, such as head_bump.jpg, then include VERY explicit directions in my readme folder on how to apply this bump map using both Poser Pro Pack, and regular Poser 4/3. Poser 4/3 will convert the jpg to it's own proprietary format for them upon their attempt to convert it. This I think is a better method than shipping the .bum format after Poser converts it, since this is a VERY large file format, and will greatly increase the file size download of the finished product. I have not however had any problems in getting a .bum format to zip up inside a zip file :) It is just very large, and does not compress very well. If you feel your customers may not be able to follow through and do the conversion on their own, and wish to include the .bum format for their use, be sure to also still include the jpg from which your bumpmap is built originally, so that Poser Pro Pack users can apply that to their models, since Pro Pack doesn't support the .bum format. An additional area I would add to this list of helpful criteria is to NOT ship most of the default morphs that come on Vicki, Posette, Michael, etc. By using Morph manager to strip the cr2 of most morphs that are not needed by your character, you radically decrease download size of the cr2. I personally use Morph Manager to flatten out my morphs to one or two per body part that is my "character" I am selling, and on the head area, I leave in place those morphs used for facial expression such as "smile", "open smile", "part lips" etc... and I remove all the old facial shape and body shape sculpting morphs that Daz included. Later, if your customers want these morphs back, they can use Morph Manager to copy them back onto the character themselves. Using this method, I have managed to ship as many as 2 versions of each character, props, clothing, library files, multiple texture maps, etc, for less download file size than I see just one character and set of maps being shipped at here in many cases. As always, I am here to help as I may Liz Birdsong highbrowglyphics@home.com

I think that your method is the best for bumpmaps. DebbieM and me experimented big bugs issues during almost 10 days concerning bumpmaps (textures for the DAZ's dragon model , tested by Debbie). My bum files (converted on my G4) were not compatible, after beeing zipped, with the PC format and in the reverse way. It would be important to communicate this rules for the RR's merchants. Anyway, thank you - I will follow your method.

Well, I would communicate it to the RR merchants Holyforest... and those who wish to learn from me privately, or via my answers to threads may still do so... however the current administration does not like my style, and my brutally clear statement of certain facts, and maybe most in particular they do not like it that I do remember the ancient past ;) I am very politically incorrect ;p

Anyway, I agree, training the newer artists should be the function of the Store Staff, just as it was in the old days. And they should communicate all of this to you all. However, it is now being run by a different team with different objectives, and the trend these days has been to attempt to in various ways "persuade" the old Seniored Dragon artists to do this training/mentoring of the younger/newer artists, instead of those running the store doing this training themselves with their own talents and knowledge. It is not anything under my control.

As always, I am here to help as I may
Liz Birdsong
highbrowglyphics@home.com