Attached Link: Digital Artist Magazine Preview Issue

Free introductory issue of the Digital Artist Magazine for the CG hobbyist. This monthly publication will include Poser and Daz|Studio tutorials, product reviews, articles, artist interviews, render contests and it features artwork from readers like you. Plus, there's an exclusive freebie in every issue. I want the content of this periodical to be an outlet for digital artists. There's a lot of fine artists out there that need an a place to show off their great works. And now they will have a place.

Included in this issue;
Forward
A word from the editor-at-large

Creating Compatible Zip Files
Tutorial to help create Daz/Poser compliant zip files for your products.

Modeling Editors
Metasequoia introduction and mini tutorial

Featured Artist
Mark A. Fares (Kage Ryu)

Defining Art -Editorial
Are you an Artist or a Composer?

Cover Art Render Contest
Win $50 by getting your artwork on the next issues cover.

Past Contest Winners
Winners of the 'Rise of the Humans' contest at Free3dcontent.net

Featured Vendor
Chris Schell of Schell's Armor Works.

Best Freebie of 2012
Now's the time to nominate your favorite for 2013.

Content Chaos?
Getting a handle on your content directories.

Contributors Wanted
We need Tutorials and Renders for the next issue.

This Months Freebie
50ft Yacht - by MeshWorks

Digital Artist Magazine
http://www.virtual3d.krown-products.net/index.php

Note: The website containing this publication is still a work in progress. If you receive a page error, it means we are working on the site. Just try the page again after a few minutes. We appreciate your patience while we get the site fully implemented and the best it can be.

girl on cover has nostril glow. is it too late to re-render that with ray-traced shadows?  anyway, thx for freebie. may we enter renders of nudie girls in your contest?

Nice and thanks for sharing going to grab now.  Though I mostly stick to Carrara :)

I just did a quick read through though going to re-read some of the articles. (I enjoyed the magazine)

 

I did get to the end of the magazine and you have a Boycott Daz Inc. a red circle line through graphic and Digital Artist Magazine does NOT support Daz Inc. or their products/vendors.  at the end of the magazine.  Does that mean its not going to be friendly to DazStudio, Carrara, Hex or a vendor who sells through them as well as other places such as stonemason.

that does look a bit odd, especially considering the amount of DAZ related stuff in the magazine, from tutorials that feature DAZ studio to nearly every image featuring DAZ content..I thought we had pretty cool stuff at DAZ, why the boycott?

Quote - I just did a quick read through though going to re-read some of the articles. (I enjoyed the magazine)

 

I did get to the end of the magazine and you have a Boycott Daz Inc. a red circle line through graphic and Digital Artist Magazine does NOT support Daz Inc. or their products/vendors.  at the end of the magazine.  Does that mean its not going to be friendly to DazStudio, Carrara, Hex or a vendor who sells through them as well as other places such as stonemason.

Glad you liked the first issue. We (there are several people helping me) want to have much better content for the next issue in June. And, this will include articles and tutorials for DazStudio, Carrara, Hex and Poser.

As for the Daz boycott, my wording should have been more clear (and I fixed it). Currently, Digital Artist Magazine is boycotting Daz Inc. products. Meaning, we will not be accepting any advertising from them, the corporation. You will not see ads for DazStudio or Genesis until things change on their end.

Several months ago, Daz decided to no longer allow off-site product announcements or promotional material. Because of this change in their policies in not supporting the 3D community, we can not support them.

However, we DO support all digital artists and their works regardless of what program they use. We will not be engaging in Daz bashing or alienating any content creators because of where they sell their products.

I hope that answers your question.

o.k., great!  I'm planning to buy some of stonemason's stuff with my 50 bucks!

Quote - that does look a bit odd, especially considering the amount of DAZ related stuff in the magazine, from tutorials that feature DAZ studio to nearly every image featuring DAZ content..I thought we had pretty cool stuff at DAZ, why the boycott?

Yes, a portion of the works were done in DazStudio 2.33 and 3a. I personally like working in Studio. And over the years, have bought and used many awesome products from the vendors at Daz (including yours). But that has all changed. Since the recent policy changes, I have bought exactly $0 from Daz.

With being a content creator, you of all people, should well know that the decisions Daz Inc. has made over the last year, hurts the 3D community as a whole. Daz Inc. has gone out of their way to stiffle independent vendors, the exact same ones that create products to use and build on their core products. Which in turn, promotes sales in the Daz store. We are not a competetor to Daz, but a supporting partner. A business decision to no longer allow off-site promotions was a poor choice on their part.

The most recent example; This exact same announcement posted here, was deleted in the Daz forums. Citing "because a sample or trial is not a freebie but a form of advertising for a commercial product", which is completely in error.

The free preview issue is indeed a freebie and will remain so. Readers are not required to buy anything to read complete articles or view the artwork. It is in no way a 'sampling' or 'trial' and does not compelled the reader to buy something. Removing the announcement prevents some users from knowing about something that could be of value to them. Just how does that decision help 3D/CG artists?

I have always been a supporter of the 3D community. Daz Inc has made their choices, and I have made mine. In good conscience, I cannot recommend anyone use Daz Inc. products. And with that said, I would be pleased to include a promotion of one of your recent products in the next issue. In fact, we are looking to feature another Content Creator interview. Could it be you?

Edit to fix grammer.

Quote - o.k., great!  I'm planning to buy some of stonemason's stuff with my 50 bucks!

 

LOL... I look forward to seeing your contest entry!

Digital Artist Magazine is PG rated, but watch for an announcement about a new publication which will be a bit more spicy and available soon.

I'm not allowed to post commercials at rosity,dna or any other big site,,but I'd never go to the extent of boycotting them, the community is too small to be doing that.

far as I can see DAZ just did what all the other sites did years ago, and I had noticed many freebie makers were driving people to commercial stores to get the freebie..its all advertising at the end of the day and you cant expect a business to allow competition to take place in their own forums.

afterall, you wouldnt see burger king doing free samples in the mcdonalds restaurant.

 

anyway,don't want to hijack your thread...good luck on future magazine releases..it's good to see them being made :)

Cheers

Quote -
stonemason wote:
I'm not allowed to post commercials at rosity,dna or any other big site,,but I'd never go to the extent of boycotting them, the community is too small to be doing that.

far as I can see DAZ just did what all the other sites did years ago, and I had noticed many freebie makers were driving people to commercial stores to get the freebie..its all advertising at the end of the day and you cant expect a business to allow competition to take place in their own forums.

afterall, you wouldnt see burger king doing free samples in the mcdonalds restaurant.

 

anyway,don't want to hijack your thread...good luck on future magazine releases..it's good to see them being made :)

Cheers

Really?

First, don't worry about hijacking the thread. This conversation is exactly what the publication is all about. Open to all subjects and platforms. And yes, some will be controversial and I am not opposed to that.

The good news is that Digital Artist Magazine will only sell subscriptions and not infringe on any stores sales. In fact, it is designed to boost sales and highlight some incredible products. In that vein you should be able to promote your products you sell at the Daz store. How could that possibly hurt Daz Inc.? However, if they are indeed opposed to their published artists making more money and in turn making them money, that would seem a problem. Would it not? And, why on earth would you put up with that?

Think about that for a minute.

I have been creating 3D models as long as you have (although, you are far better at it). I've seen artists and stores come and go, just as i am sure you have. I for one, appreciate the fact you have an outlet for your excellent products. But, do you seriously think that us small vendors take anything away from the big stores? So that really can't be the reason for such policies.

A better analogy then a fast food restaurant would be Home Depot. That company is in the business of selling products made by other companies. Just like Daz or Renderosity do. Except, at the big home improvement stores, they also promote sub-contractors and small vendors. Need a new roof? Home Depot can't do it, but they are in partnership with someone that uses the products they sell. The customer bought the goods from Home Depot and paid the contractor for their services. Both parties made money and everyone is happy.

So, why is it so different in this community?

Thank you for the opportunity to discuse this issue. I look forward to your reply.

A couple of notes:

1. Correction: The "Best Freebies of 2012", take from the thread of the same title in the Renderostiy Freebie forum, includes products that were not released in 2012... For instance, the metaball python script was released years ago. (I know, since I tried several times to get it to work with different versions of Poser, over the years. Just checked the Python file dates, themselves: 11/01/03.)

2. On DAZ's policy - I don't know other than what I've read in this thread. But, it doesn't sound as if it's a terribly big deal. However, I'm not sure I'm interpreting things correctly. If the problem is that DAZ will not allow content creators to post promotional material for items they are selling off-site, then that is standard protocol for just about any private forum I can think of, not just those connected to commercial sites. This, to me, is sensible - DAZ shouldn't have to pay to run forum servers that serve as advertising platforms for other sites and product bases. The way to get around that is, of course, to advertise "Free Products", since DAZ supports others who offer free contributions to the community. So, someone like the wonderful Mostdigitalcreations can offer freebies endlessly and benefit by attracting more potential customers. This benefits both someone like DAZ/Renderosity, who benefit from a vendor's own marketing efforts and the forum user who happens to rush off to download yet another freebie that they'll probably never use... but have to collect anyway. :D

If it was me, I'd try to work out whatever misinterpretations gave rise to the current situation so that both you and DAZ could benefit. Give them free advertising in your e-mag with product and feature spotlights and agree to give away one issue every quarter in exchange for the right to post a promotional announcement "Freebie" in their forum, in the appropriate sub-forum. Problem solved. But, then again, they don't have to agree to that... ;)

1. Good luck! I looked over your mag and I liked the layout. I would encourage some better renders, though. Not that they're bad, not at all. Just get those render contests going a bit stronger and attract more artists to them. RDNA has some really nice render threads and you could probably get some good responses, there. (Don't forget, Reality3 for Poser is out and that's going to deserve a headline in your next issue.)

 

PS - A stop over at CGSociety might help get you some interview opportunities that could be interesting to readers. Lots of pros, there. (Though, outside of the much-shunned Poser/DS community. :D But, even hobbyists like to learn about professionals.)

Morkonan

Thank you for your concise reply. You are indeed correct that the meatball freebie is years old. I only added it because I was told there would be an update (which I have yet to see). I will replace it with something current. Thanks for the heads up.

I appreciate your views on Daz, but I don't think you fully understand the impact the company has had on the community. There are many of us content vendors that have been treated very unfairly by the mods. Whether it is them strictly following the new policies or they have it out for us, I don't know. Case in point, Mostdigital also has a store and his freebies page has endless links to his paid content. But if I post a freebie for MeshWorks, it is immediately deleted. Same is true for several other vendors I know personally. And, my freebie links don't even go to my online store.

I have absolutely no animosity to Adam at MDC, he has been a big supporter of my free3dcontent.net website. But he seems to get preferential treatment on the forums at Daz. And good for him. But, as I said, the announcement for the Free Preview Issue was immediately removed.

But the forum issues aside, ever since Gizmo bought into Daz Inc., the business practices have been less then stellar. Gizmo's goals were to change the Daz3D we grew to love for their generosity and conduct, into a greedy, cut-throat anti-community monopoly. The good people that started Daz, with the help of people like Zygote, have all been pushed out and is now run by a board of directors. These folks don't appear to give a crap about this unique 3D community, only the profit.

But I regress. If you want to know more about the real situation, you can view my further rants on the free3dcontent forums.

As to the Magazine; You are correct about the renders featured there. However, I had tried to get some other artists involved, but received very little willingness to contribute. At least for the first issue. Most of what is contained in the Preview Issue are from the kind members of free3dcontent. And, I wanted to thank them for the years of support they have shown my website.

Interviews with the professionals are in the works (are you listening Stonemason?). Although, I will still be focusing on the 3D/CG hobbyist, because they are the one's that make this an outstanding community.

I am looking for people to help me with this venture. If you know of someone, let me know. I can use all the help I can get. :)

Count me in, don't want any payment and I'll even make some free content for you as well. just send me an email or IM.

Quote - Count me in, don't want any payment and I'll even make some free content for you as well. just send me an email or IM.

Thanks! PM sent.

Is it only going to be digital or will they be offering a real world magazine?