As a comparitively new user of Poser and Daz products I can be accused of typical newbie reaction to the scale and scope of software and addons available, but please hear me out for the moment.

It intrigues me that creating a 3D figure is so utterly over-technical in the 21st Century, and the processes involved seem to require a mountainous understanding of software, utilities, processes and protocols which would be perhaps almost ludicrous when applied to other comparable functions in other aspects of creativity with computers.

It really does amaze me that one's creative impulse must be so often dissolved in a confused, complex and labour intensive myriad of UV mapping, conversion from this format to that, endless use of obscure addons, consumption of tutorials, manual processing of tedious and extremely long files, and base software (by Daz in particular) that is carved up into smaller units a way that to me suggests a very cynical way of coining profit with very little real value to the end user.

For instance, there is almost no point in purchasing Vicky 3 unless you also purchase all the addons necessary in order to even vaguely make her look believable. But even accepting this fact, very few of the addon characters I have seen (and I assume they all somehow attempt to capture some reality of human form) look anything like a viable human face let alone body.

I assume that Vicky 3 has been designed to accomodate clothes so they "hang" acceptably, because the naked torso has extraordinary characteristics which I have never seen in any real body. For example the bony mass of the exaggerated shoulders, combined with the painfully thin upper arms are quite foreign to real female bodies. It surprises me that no-one seems to have mentioned this fundamental thing before.

Having searched thoroughly for an addon or inspired piece of software that takes the drudgery out of creative modelling I have failed to find a single product which for instance enables you, reasonably easily, to take a custom morphed figure and create a template from which one can design custom clothes. There are of course some payware addons which claim to do this but there are so many caveats to beware of and so many hoops to run through in making such addons work that it becomes a hopeless task unless you really enjoy hacking about with the huge complexity of protocols the 3D world seems to demand.

The point I am making is not one from someone who is afraid of hard work or learning basics, but is predicated on an observation that surely there is an easier way. It seems to me that the lack of outstanding 3d products is partly due to a conventional wisdom which almost wants to perpetuate a culture of technical complexity where a better, clearer path might be of use.

If anyone could recommend an addon which allows the user to bypass the donkey work and get on with creating I would be most grateful. By that I mean the donkey work would be better spent in perfecting the image one desired rather than negotiating the absurd and circuitous processes in just producing one agreeable image!

Leonardis

Message edited on: 06/26/2004 18:44