Announcement here.

And who the hell are 'Gizmos' anyway?

 As far as I can tell, Gizmoz is an online avatar creator.  I've seen ads for it on facebook and a couple game sites I used to be a member of, but never thought anything of it.  

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And who the hell are 'Gizmos' anyway?

Company Backgrounds

About DAZ 3D™
Founded in 2000, DAZ 3D is renowned for its high-quality, versatile and compatible 3D content. With an active community consisting of over 1 million registered users, a vast library of characters and accessories, and powerful 3D software applications, DAZ 3D is a strong leader in the digital content creation market for both hobbyist and professional users.

DAZ 3D's robust software applications seamlessly support its content library. DAZ 3D software line includes DAZ Studio, a free 3D digital art creation tool, Mimic™, a lip-synching application, Carrara™, an all-in-one 3D solution, and Bryce®, a complete 3D environment and animation package. DAZ 3D's products have been used in many professional productions, television shows and print publications. For more information, visit www.daz3d.com.

About Gizmoz
Founded in 2003, Gizmoz has developed proprietary patented 3D and animation technology to let users express themselves by creating realistic 3D characters made from a single face photo. Gizmoz is the leader in 3D face-mapping technology, face manipulation and automatic face detection with several patents and pending patents in this field. Gizmoz provides a central service to design, manage and transport digital avatars that can be deployed in virtual worlds, online games, PC and console 3D games, social networks, video clips, greeting cards, mobile apps, as well as professional modeling and animation tools. For more information, visit www.gizmoz.com**.**

Seems a bit odd on the face of it but who knows what all is involved. Sounds like they want to go big into online 3D, virtual worlds characters etc., which seems to be a growing market. In a recent thread, I talked about Poser and Daz being two different markets and I think this shows that Daz is really more interested in the more casual, non-3D geek market.

The question is what does it mean for our segment. Daz may use Gizmos tech to create some neat faceroom like functionality for DS. It definitely sounds like they want to get their content into a variety of online areas. I don't necessarily see them coming up with anything that will lure most hardcore Poser users, but if you're into content for gaming, avatars, virtual reality etc. I'd keep a close eye on this. 

I recall previous attempts by both MetaCreations and Curious Labs to push this sort of technology.  But that was before online social experiences like Second Life and World of Warcraft had caught on.

Currently, this is as great news as the dynamic clothing for studio...

Sounds interesting to me.. Seems like we'll get some cool products from daz3d sometime in the future.

So now we can make 3d bobbleheads with the Daz figures that look like us? fun for 5 minutes but not a long term bonus & not something that anyone outside of the facebook usergroup is going to be that much interested in.

At the moment I cannot see the real benefit for DAZ, but then I don't know Gizmo that well. At the moment it looks like some kind of Face Room, but I doubt they needed to buy a company for that - and the benefit is doubtfull as well. From my experiences, Poser's face room is not really one of the killer features.

I'm sure they know what they're doing (!) but I don't get it. If it was DAZ buying Gizmo to get their hands on something nifty I could understand it... but this is a merger, not a buyout.

"...not something that anyone outside of the facebook usergroup is going to be that much interested in."

Well, that does include just a few people :-)

"I recall previous attempts by both MetaCreations and Curious Labs to push this sort of technology. But that was before online social experiences like Second Life and World of Warcraft had caught on."

Exactly. Meta dumped Poser/Canoma etc. to go do Viewpoint online 3D – albeit more for products – but I think they were too early. SL, WoW, Facebook etc. now have millions of devoted users and everyone save me and two other people have broadband. I’ll bet a lot of them would pay for walking, talking characters that really look like them. What player wouldn’t jump at the chance to put themselves into Madden NFL or HALO? There are probably tons of people who look at Hollywood’s raft of 3D animation and would love to make their own but the technology is too challenging. I can forsee people hawking Brangelina 3D actors, despite lawsuits, and ahem, erotic stars will be selling their 3D selves.

It all depends on Daz/Giz making it easy enough for the average person to use. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just considerably better than the current SL level of reality. Some people will twiddle their nodes and sniff at the lack of refinement, but we’re talking mass market here, folks who don’t know IDL from IDF (there’s a pun there) and couldn’t care less. I still think that the technology is maybe 5 years away and the ISPs are complaining about bandwidth as it is, but the venture capitalists are betting a few million that it will fly or at least to establish a beachead so it will be fun to watch. The more advanced Poser becomes, the more it locks itself into the niche market pro to semi-pro 3D. Nothing wrong with that, but there’s really big money out there with the masses – assuming the economy ever improves. Of course, I’ve been saying this for years and it has yet to really take off. As they say, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ ÷)

Just another peice of half finished software to clog them up Im sure, something with an initial push but then like Bryce (until this week) to sit with some functunality to wait the annual update that may or may not fix the issues inherent with it.

If they do something awesome with it, super.. but from what ive seen as far as aquisitions and rebranding I'll pass until its a very proven and adored commoditty (whatever it is)

DAZ wants to go beyond the poser community. They want to expand their market into other 3D ventures, like games and visualization. To accomplish that DAZ needs new technologies. They can either develop it themselves, take over or merge. For this technology they choose the latter. For many of us poser or d/s users there's no point to this...... but in this case that's not the point at all.

I don't think anything of this move. If DAZ wants to merge, fine, they should do so. Gizmo doesn't interest me at all. I really don't want a virtual me or a virtual anyone else I know. I'd rather waste my time and money on other things, I've already got hobbies enough.

gizmo's huh? better not get 'em wet of feed after midnight...