Well this just got interesting in a mad hurry, didn't it?

I recently posted something over at SM, apologizing for my silence. Like I said there, there's literally nothing to tell, mainly because I have been doing nothing but catching up for lost time making comics since the release of PE ONE.

Also, I didn't really see much of a future in PE since PE is a complex figure that Poser can barely support without serious investment and training of vendors on my behalf. Everyone, including me, ran into the JCM wall. I knew this going in, but I had stupid faith that 'if you build it, they will come'. There were options and solutions I proposed to SM, some that could have really worked, but SM did nothing. And considering Poser had the momentum of a aged snail these last few years, I just simply couldn't risk it. Project Evolution was a big fat statement to Smith Micro basically telling them that THIS IS WHAT POSER CAN DO!!!! But it was like Smith Micro either had their hands tied, or didn't give a crap. In that post I said:

"I will admit I was naive about the whole thing. I thought just by making a good figure, things would snowball from there, given how fanatic the Poserverse is. But PE pushes Poser to the limits of what Poser can support, and Poser is barely supporting itself these days, so it basically means that the onus is on me to have to push for her to succeed. I simply don't have time for that at the moment, and I cannot do that alone.

Basically, PE is currently not suitable as a commercial Poser figure, its a specialist figure. To make her accessible to the majority of Poser vendors and users, we need to make tools that support her.

I am obviously grateful for all the support PE has enjoyed over the last few years, but I hope everyone remembers that I did this as an artist (like most of you) taking a detour to try help solve a problem, not start a franchise."

But that was then, this is now. Guys I am excited about this development. Even though I might have messed up my relationship with Rendo during the PE release, which I doubt I can repair, I think this development can finally be the thing that Poser needs. For thwt it is worth, I am very willing to hand over my scripts and perhaps even more just to get Poser working again. Not only will my comic work profit from it, but every Poser artist could.

Rendo has many advantages SM did not. Rendo is packed with fanatic artists and vendors, lots of contacts in the ACTUAL CGI art world, and they have lots of hands-on experience with art in general, and also other related software. Also, since Rendo also dips their fingers in DAZ content, and they are a no-nonsense business, we might finally see some overlap between the two platforms, what people have been craving for years. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but you never know.

Now I'm not going to make any promises just yet, I have lots of other things that I desperately need to do, but if Rendo is for real, I might be able to revamp Project Evolution. If the Rendo developers can address the bending issue with either features that support JCMs or an alternative to JCMs, like a new rigging system, or improved WM-based features, I might be able to re-rig PE.

Even if nobody is interested in PE, this is still a great thing. An organization rooted in art and successful content distribution, can only be good for Poser... and therefore for me too.

Anyway, before this development, I had decided instead of moping about Poser, rather get the most out of it while Poser is still live. I stand my my view that Poser is brimming with unexploited potential, and I feel the longer its ignored, the more it will turn stale and just be forgotten, if its not too late already. Rendo can absolutely turn this mofo around. I know that this is a very subjective opinion, but from my side of the world, in the world of CGI, gaming and god forbid DAZ Studio, Poser was pretty much dead in the water, which is a damn shame. Rendo, you have my full support. I don't want to switch to another platform.

In the meanwhile, I developed a number of scripts and put them all together over the course of the last year or two, into this almost steampunk like interface. I haven't shown it to that many people because I don't want to get people all excited for nothing. I am not ever going to release this myself, I might hand it off to someone else (Rendo developers, email me, I'll send it all). Debugging this thing would be a nightmare and will detract me from making comics, and moreover I feel that any of these features should actually be part of Poser by now, and therefore its not my job to do that. I can see that some might think that this is specifically tailored for me and wouldn't be of use to the average Poser user, but that is not entirely true.

In addition, these scripts are relatively easy to make. They were developed over the course of 2 years but all the hours combined perhaps a month? I'm not even a professional developer, just imagine what a paid developer could achieve, given the right instructions?

Anyway, sorry for the blackout. I was embarrassed that I had such confidence. I had high hopes for PE, I really hoped it would have inspired SM, I couldn't do it without them. Maybe things might finally change now!

"The fool is not the one that does something foolish, but the one that does nothing at all."