I was just perusing the “benefits” of being a DAZ PC club member. They’ve pretty much eroded. The lame “anniversary sale” that turned out to not be a sale, for one thing. And then I was reading this description from their promo page. (where they no longer list the free intro pack of content you get, as you did when I joined.)

DAZ Productions - 3D Models, 3D Content, and 3D Software
Hundreds of $1.99 Products
Not only do you receive a permanent discount, but you also have access to hundreds of cutting edge products for just $1.99 each. Every week, new products are released that can be yours for just $1.99. These products are created by a select group of DAZ 3D’s top artists. LisaB, LaurieS, and Moyra are the art directors for this exclusive line of products. Masters in their techniques, they have a combined experience of over 15 years in their craft. (Wow! 15 years between the 3 of them? That’s FIVE YEARS APIECE! HOLY CRAP!) Only the best models are accepted by them for release into the Platinum Club. (OK, if you say so) Each item undergoes the same rigorous tests of Quality Assurance that submits all products to. (A) That’s some kind of nonsensical sentence there, and B) That’s not saying much even once you interpret it correctly. “Same rigoruous QA” means zilch when you see the crap they pass.) Only the best receive the DAZ?stamp of approval, and nothing less is accepted into the Platinum Club.

So basically the platinum club celebration this year is… the ability to buy more stuff? They’re not giving members anything, we get no special vouchers, no free products, no package as in former years. The big “gift” is Hey, buy more things and you will get some money back in a few months that you can use to buy more stuff!

Yeah. Ummm. Thanks?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I have seen nothing even approaching the previous years’ anniversary gifts.

Once again I thought I might play around with 3D. I opened D|S - needed a new version. Downloaded, installed.

Checked plugins.

Needed to redo all of my settings, re-save all my preferences.

Wanted to use A4, needed a new version. Downloaded, installed.

Now it’s an hour later and I need to go to bed.

Repeat every 6-8 wks, as needed.

*sigh*

DAZ Productions - 3D Models, 3D Content, and 3D Software

Because that’s what it would have to be for me to download this.

It’s been months and months since there’s been anything there I even kind of wanted to have. Actually it’s been months and months since I’ve done anything vaguely 3D creative, really. Especially anything that would require buying new content. I sorta feel like I HAVE all the content already, you know? Now all the new stuff just looks the same. Plus my aforementioned issues with Studio needing to be completely reinstalled-updated virtually every time I open it, some of my favorite hair not working with it at all anymore (an issue I have to troubleshoot when I have the time/inclination) and a general “meh” about all things mesh…

I don’t know, it’s not the money, it’s the fact that I don’t have any interest anymore and even their major releases haven’t impressed me for the last year. I can’t decide though.

full size at Rendo

A river of tangled string
you are unraveling
and no one else seems to mind.
You keep it to yourself, stay numb and act fine.

- Deb Talan “Unraveling”

I’ve been following lots of links lately to “64 FREE and Beautiful Photoshop Brushes!” or “100 of the BEST FREE Vector sites online!” and I’ve been seeing lots of amazing and inspirational work by really talented artists. But what I’ve also been seeing a lot of in these compiled-resource lists is links to resources which are not licensed for commercial usage. And unfortunately those are not resources I would ever download.

As a sometimes-content-creator/provider myself, I understand the desire to have ones work recognized, and the hesitation to release that work into the wild for anyone (corporations, creepy porno people, etc.) to make free use of. That would suck. But at the same time, as a content USER and a freelance designer, I can’t take a risk in downloading something non-commercial that I might accidentally use in a paid project. (And I think we all know that I am not organized enough to keep separate databases of free-for-commercial-use and not-free-for-commercial-use products. Especially when it comes to something like Photoshop brushes, which are too hard to keep in order anyway.) Nor do I want to be in the position of having the perfect resource at hand but having to explain to the client “Yes, well I can use this image in your ad, but we have to have a link back to contentProviderX’s Deviant Art page.”

Since the content I create is for my own pleasure and education, and because I do not aspire to ever become a paid creator of art-related resources, I don’t restrict or limit usage of the resources I create.

For those who do make money from the content they create, I would think that any freebie is released as a teaser, in order to help publicize the paid content. If so, the goal is to maximize downloads and usage of the resource to get as much exposure as possible and to introduce the end-user to your products, which they may want more of. Limiting the usage to non-commercial leads to fewer downloads (from people like me, at least) and less exposure for your work. It also prevents me from ever discovering that you make the best brushes I’ve ever used, or that I can’t live without your vector scrollwork files.

For those who are strictly hobbyists and create resources purely for their own pleasure and that of their peers (and/or the name recognition that goes along with being a premiere freebie creator) I can understand a BIT more the instinct to keep your work non-commercial. You’re a hobbyist, your friends are hobbyists, you don’t want commercial entities coming in and misappropriating something you have a passion for. And you want to KNOW, darnit, when someone uses your product. As a 3D hobbyist myself I do understand that, but would still rather have my products downloaded and used as much as possible, even if I don’t know about it. If it brings more people into my hobby, or it helps someone sell a product, then I think there’s been some positive benefit. To me that’s at the root of the instinct to create and share. To make people happy, to be part of something bigger, to learn and grow as an artist.

I regularly buy content created by both amateurs and professionals, and I would never say that I (or anyone else for that matter) “deserve” free commercial-usage product. That’s not my point. But I would encourage those who release freebies out into the wild to go ahead and release them for commercial use. You’re needlessly limiting your user-base and cutting out a lot of professionals otherwise. And I would encourage those who compile these “BEST FREE VECTOR RESOURCE” lists, which are so popular on Digg and Reddit at the moment, to make clear that you are linking to non-commercial-use licensed wares. If you don’t know the difference yourself then you need to learn it, and if you do know and mix and match commercial and non-commercial freebies you’re just wasting my time.

This is fun. I forgot what that felt like.

(full size at Rendo)

Playing with another cemetery image, this one I even “finished” and posted at Rendo.

Here’s the edited:

and original:

See the full size here.

Oh, goodness bless people who speak English as second language.

:: Muchy Fairy ::
:

I can’t believe how little I use ANY of my 3D apps anymore (or all the nice, spare money I have lying around now that I don’t) but I especially can’t believe how little I use D|S.

I barely opened 2.1 and now 2.2 is here. Which means a ton more downloads, figuring out what’s broken, what the new features are, what plugins I am missing, what old scenes/lights won’t work now, etc. And that’s all before I even think about rendering anything. By the time I’ve got it loaded up and sorted out, it’s time for me to hit the hay.Then the next time (a month later) that I think “Oh, I will render something!” there’s a whole NEW version out.

Not to say I am anti-development, but I just can’t keep up with the changes. For someone who used to eat, breathe and sleep mesh, that’s a weird feeling.

Perfect example of their random price structure. $24.95 “real” price but MADNESS price is $1.75. The real madness is anyone paying $24.95 for a mesh squirrel that doesn’t even morph into any other kind of squirrel, or a chipmunk, or anything. Please.

As MyTodd would say - For $24.95 that squirrel better suck my dick.

3D Sqwerl

Sale Price: $1.75
Save 90% through 3/4/2008
Reg. Price: $ 24.95
Platinum Club Price: $1.75

A cute little fuzzy Squirrel will be hoarding nuts and snacks in your renders soon.

Don’t be afraid to make this little guy the focus of your scene - you’ll find 16 expression and phoneme morphs to fit the bill.

High quality texture maps and nine included poses help make the DAZ Squirrel lifelike and animated.

Also, I think they mean “phenome” but hey, who’s spell-checking?

OK, so as I spend more time with her I like A4 less and less. I want to like her. I don’t want to be one of those “V2 is the best!” luddite people, who hate change because it’s change. But I don’t like her. I don’t think she’s an improvement and I think working with her is awkward, difficult and overly-complicated. From the surface settings* to the way the morphs are set up - awkward. The fact that you have to inject a whole other set of morphs to get look dials, the fact that she’s just V4 with a different head and giant neck - I don’t get it. The one thing I will say is that the facial expression morphs are fabulous. Really, really impressive - just want she needed. It’s too bad I hate everything else about her, which kind of negates her ability to have cool expressions. (also, what the heck happened to the teeth-adjust morph, so her teeth weren’t hanging down 150% lower than on an actual human?)

Every time I have opened up Studio and loaded her I have worked for maybe half an hour and then just thrown away the results. Even with a Thorneworks character package I don’t like her. That’s some serious non-like.

The fact that DAZ is now charging $1.99 for “upgrade” versions of V4 outfits for A4 - that’s bullcrap. Those 4-FBM sets should be totally free updates to the original outfits. This is leading to a situation where any outfit for A4 is going to be twice as expensive because you’re forced to buy the V4 version and then “upgrade.” (Like the V4 bodysuit, for a very big instance - including that “upgrade” in the A4 pro bundle which is useless if you don’t have the original suit was just… retarded.) What if you don’t *gasp* WANT the V4 version? This looks to be not so much a consumer-oriented decision but some serious laziness on the part of those who developed this hybrid, as well as a heaping helping of money-grubbing greed and wanting to charge people twice for the same content from DAZ. “How can we produce LESS content, and yet make MORE money, plus piss people off really hard?” must be written on the whiteboard in their meeting room.

I purchased the Aiko4 Magnet Fits (which, theoretically, should negate the need for all these “upgrades” in clothing, non?) but they are not impressive. They apply strangely and spawn random magnets and fields in my scene panel that aren’t even attached to anything. I am thinking of returning them.

If A4 was even a real morph of the V4 frame, that would help. We’ve seen extreme morphs of the A3 mesh from all kinds of vendors. (NGMs, anyone?) OK start with V4 as a base, but then turn A4 into a scaled, petite, anime-style figure as she is meant to be, and I might go for it. But her default body is only negligibly different from V4s.

IMHO DAZ would have done better to work with the original A3 mesh and give it a serious upgrade. The body for A3 was decent; it had its oddball anatomical issues (which A4 didn’t solve.) The head was mainly lacking in its ability to show realistic expressions, but that could be overcome with the right morph packages, as vendors like Capsces and Netherworks proved quite effectively.

They went the wrong way here, but then - they always do, don’t they? Given a great figure like Aiko, who was so popular (I imagine that A3 outperformed all of DAZ’s wildest dreams for her) they take the first opportunity they have indulge in their love affair with Victoria and turn Aiko into a substandard clone, then released nothing but hideous stripper-wear and porno-looking crap clothing for her. (but they’re OH SO FAMILY-FRIENDLY! PRAISE JESUS) It doesn’t make sense for consumers, and I don’t even see how it makes sense for them. I will stick with A3 as long as I can, which probably won’t be more than a few years - since vendors will (understandably) stop supporting Gen3 characters. But unless I want to get off my ass and learn ZBrush finally, I guess I have to give up on my dream of ever having A3 with a nose that moves.

* Have you noticed that vendors are just giving up and creating lips for Gen4 characters which have no defined edges at all or overly defined edges with a ridge around them? Now all the new characters are going to have bad-lip-collagen syndrome.

Decided to create an entry for the 3D Universe Render Challenge this month. I love their toon characters, but never seem to render anything toony. Perhaps because toons seem to call for some kind of narrative flow, and my stuff is more mood-based. Dunno. Anyway, this was a good kick in the pants and I really was pleased with the style of the image when I was done. D|S render, of course.

Make with the clicky for the big version.

I’ve updated my skin settings freebie for D|S with settings for A4/V4 and I’ve bundled it up with the older Gen3 shaders.

They will be available at Rendo shortly - but YOU, special reader, can get them right here, right now at my main site - check it!

Studio Skin Settings Bundle

Thanks to Jeni for checking these for me, and please let me know if you have any issues with them, either in unpacking or using them. (My world is not exactly teeming with beta testers for Studio stuff.)