There's Always Another Sale Thread -- Discussions Only Pt 6

rokkr

daveso said:

rokkr said:

Cybersox said:
That's something I've definitely noticed about the ones that are being sold as DAZ originals, though there is more variety in the non-DO product.  The thing is, by my count he's knocked out over 85 characters for G9 in a few weeks over 3 years, and a full third of them are DAZ PC+ items.  I don't know what an Artist gets paid for a DAZ buyout, but given that DAZ is really the only "customer" customer in those cases, is it a surprise that those items overwhelming lean towards the establiched store predilections?  

It has more to do with the fact that creating a character from scratch takes a lot of time, and with all the sales, coupons, etc., characters end up being sold here for less than three bucks, so, to make the business feasible, you create one from scratch, then you make others that are variations of the latter, so your business is sound. One can expect PAs to always create entirely new characters and, at the same time, purchase them for less than $3 bucks. Like, I'm not saying you have any obligation to buy them: we can always vote with our pockets, and I also refrain from buying a new character when I notice I've bought it three times already (if not more) -- I'm just stating the reality PAs face when they create their products, combined with their real price values.

 

daveso said:
exactly. Its why i stated they need to be spiced up. Even those were getting too much with all the similar tats. Similar faces. Its difficult to create new unique characters though, especially when there's so many already. That's why Feng is decent, but now his old er women are starting to look similar. I think a part of it is if you're working solely with the G9 model ad its existing morphs.  No matter what is done they remain similar. The good different ones are zbrush modeled or whatever. maybe I'm wrong but maybe not 
 

It has nothing to do with ZBrush... There's this myth that, "if ZBrush (or Blender, or Maya) = good; if Daz = bad..." I can make thousands of different characters in Daz, while in ZBrush (or a similar program) you can do the same thing over and over from the same starting point... Moreover, to make something good in "ZBrush" -- here, meaning "sculpting" -- one has to be a good sculptor -- I've seen a lot of deformed characters that were obviously done in some ZBrush-like software, and the "sculptor" was really incompetent. Moreover, there's also this "myth" that it's only good or original when someone doesn't use dials -- while all those programs also have dials or directly input parameters for precision (and, on the other hand, Daz has its own Geometry sculptors, plus there are other plugins for those who don't like the Premier solution).

 

no myth or bad in what I was saying. When you are using the same base with the same morphs, your underlying base is the same, and thus similar looking characters. Sculpting can change up the deal.  How many sisters are there within the stock  G9 chatacters. 

Morphs can do the deal the same way as sculpting (of course, I'm talking about partial morphs that target specific parts and not full body morphs or full head morphs). And, dude... I don't know if by "stock G9 characters" you mean the "core" Daz characters (Victoria & co. -- which, by the way, aren't core for anything since long)... If so, most of them look the same (and since a long time ago...) Like, experiment with rendering them all with the same skin to verify this fact... If I misunderstood what you mean by "stock G9 characters," sorry, but, then, I 'm curious to know what it is.

 

Cybersox

3DSaga said:

"no myth or bad in what I was saying. When you are using the same base with the same morphs, your underlying base is the same, and thus similar looking characters. Sculpting can change up the deal.  How many sisters are there within the stock  G9 chatacters."

I'm not following why this observation would be limited to G9 based characters. I feel the same way about many of the G8 based characters that continue to be produced. I've also seen that some artists are able to create in their unique style, yet still produce interesting characters, whether it's with G9 or G8. 

There are a lot of factors at play and it's definitely not limited to just G9 or the use of z-brush.. though it's worth pointing out that while the first demonstration of z-brush and release the original Victoria figure both came out in 1999, there really wasn't a publicly available version of Z-brush until until 2003, so z-brush's relationship with DAZ really only began during the run of Victoria 3 period, with z-brush not coming into it's full-dominance until Victoria 4.  That said, even during the Victoria 3 days there were artists whose characters consitantly had a certain "look" that always shown through, some more strongly than others.  Ultimately, while the tools certainly influence thiings, I think it's akin to how things are in the world of illustraion, as it mainly comes down to what the individual artists are interested in and find aesthetically pleasing.  I think most people can immediately recognize a lot of artists styles automatically, even if they don't necessarily know who the artists are, and it's easy to spot a character by Frazzetta,  a pinup girl by Gil Elvren or a a superhero by Jack Kirby.. The thing is, they're all realistic versions of human beings and while there are those who kvetch at times that most of Frazetta's barbarians are pretty much indistinguishible from each other, I don't think there are many who would turn down the opportunity to have an original.  If you don't like a particular 3D figure, that's fine... no one is twisting your arm... and if enough people stop buying from a certain vendor because they think the products that are coming out are too similar. it's up to the PA to be aware of that trend and make course corrections as they see fit. 

tsroemi

Oookay, I have to eat my words today, as the new Golden Ticket is really really generous and well worth the price (https://www.daz3d.com/mb-danniella-hd-for-genesis-9-bundle). I love MB's bundles anyways. It's just a pity that many of her newer (not 'new' in the technical sense) bundles don't seem to be getting the featured artist base discount. But I suppose that only some stuff from the stores is generally included there. Still, I'll be getting some that have been on my WL for a while. Nice!